In Just Spring

I liked the feel of the poem In Just Spring... It reminded me of being younger on the first warm day of the spring season. I couldn't wait to get home from school, get on my bike and go! I don't really relate to hopscotch or dancing around in the fresh air but I remember coming home those nights very exhausted and very happy. Days like that were the best time to play yourself to death and go home muddy, hungry, and excited!

My mood changed pretty dramatically when I switched my reading from In Just Spring to Because I Could Not Stop For Death. The line "Because I could not stop for death- He kindly stopped for me". It made me think about how death can " kindly" stop for someone and also if someone does not stop for death they can't stop the inevitable. I know there are more humane ways to die than others but if someone is not stopping for death then they are not gonna take to kindly to it.

Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo!

If I had to choose which one of the Cinderella stories I liked the most I would have to say that I really enjoyed the Chinese version of the story. I liked the story cause I felt like it had a lot more of the Chinese culture than the Disney version had American culture or the Grimm version had German culture. It was a story about magic and fantasy but the magic did not come from a fairy godmother or a dead mother but a fish from the natural world. I liked that the story showed how the fish and the natural world was still important. The Chinese calendar revolves around animals and their importance to humans and the story showed this. The thing I didn't really like about the Chinese version is the ending. It was not a fairytale in the end of the story. She did not become a royal princess and live happily ever after but it did teach a good lesson about greed.

What Stuck

When skimming through the Retellings anthology I ran accross a few titles that stuck. The first one was a commentary on The Importance of Perspective. I read through this cause sometimes I feel like the importance of perspective is kind of overlooked by most anthologies and text books. Perspective is key in reading the stories in this book cause they are all written by different authors with different purposes.

I also read through the story called The Fall River Axe Murders. What caught my attention was the children's poem in the beggining.
Lizzie Borden with an axe
gave her father 40 whacks
when she saw what she has done
she gave her mother 41
I could not believe that would ever be considered a childrens poem. I was kinda put off by it and someone brought it to my attention that majority of childrens stories and poems were a lot more violent and disturbing back in the day. It is a pretty good indicator of how literature has changed throughout time.

I really enjoyed reading the poem by AE Housman, To An Athlete Dying Young. As an athlete I agreed with the way the author portrayed the peaks and valleys of a career and outside factors of injury and exhaustion.

The poem called Women in the love and friendships section of the book was about a women dissapointed by a man time and time again. The poem ended so horribly and pointlessly that I could not help but wonder why it would even be published?

When skimming through the Retellings I came accross very familiar stories such as Oedipus, Hamlet, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I didn't spend any time reading or skimming those stories. I feel as though you get forced to read all the same stories in every single literature or english class I have been in since high school. I feel as though I have pushed myself to the limit with attempting to understand any more deeper meaning in this writing after so many years of reading the same stories.