Sand Dollar (Analogy)

One of my favorite places is the ocean, so I decided to write my analogy on how a sand dollar is similar to high school.



In 1999 on the shore of the North Carolinian coast, when I was just a Kindergartner, I found a beautiful sand dollar. I felt special that day because not a lot of people were as lucky as me to find one. To this day, my sand dollar is hanging on my wall, framed in a pink shadow box.

When a sand dollar is alive, it is called Echinoid. It burrows underneath the sand and is similar to a sea urchin or starfish, it never really breaches the surface, until it dries up and is turned into it's true, desired form, a sand dollar.

When you begin high school, you start to discover your true self and you are "dried up" to become who you really are or want to be. In middle school you are still very insecure and raw, and you are an Echinoid. When you reach high school and become a sand dollar, you drift in the endless sea, eventually landing on the shore.

You are a sand dollar when you attend high school, because high school is the sea, and when you leave high school you end up on the shore.

In high school, you do your school work, meet new friends, and learn things about life you never knew...but you do what you are told, even though it can be boring and routine because you know that eventually, you will graduate and high school is just a small part of your life. Some kids don't understand this. They drop out, or neglect their grades or responsibilities, or have an experience they didn't want to endure. Some kids become jaded, trying to grow up too fast. But most kids in high school has=ve their struggles or heartbreaks. Not as impactful as the others, but they learn their lessons and learn from the past.

Finally, they graduate high school, and are ready for the part of their life that matters the most...the real world.

When you become a sand dollar looking for the shore, it is hard to find your way. For a while you go with the flow of the sea, and float on to wherever the sea takes you, because eventually you will end up on the shore. Some of the sand dollars are taken by rip tides or the roughness of the water in a storm and they break, never able to be fixed, but they make it to the shore, faster than the other sand dollars...but not as whole. Most of the sand dollars almost are crushed by the rip tides or rough, storm water but they make it out unscathed or with cracks.But after floating on through the water, looking for the shore, their cracks are smoothed out and they look almost brand new again. One fortunate thing the rough water did for the sand dollars was push them towards the shore and showed them the right direction.

Finally, the sand dollars reach the shore, waiting for a giddy, young girl to pick them up and frame. Some waiting on the shore are put in a shop to be sold. The broken ones still have a chance and sometimes find a home, but some are stuck on the shore forever. A sand dollar's true desire is to end up in a frame, to be valued and successful.

I want to be found on the shore and framed, just like the sand dollar I hung on my wall. I think the sea has prepared me to finally find the shore and begin my "real life."

In Blackwater Woods (Poetry Blog #5)

This poem stuck out to me because it was very dark. It was interesting to me because throughout it is describing nature but the tone is very worrisome and melancholy.

Usually when I read a poem about nature, it describes it's beauty and profoundness, not the feeling of being minuscule and helpless.

I know it is a funny comparison, but this poem reminded me of one of my aunt's favorite 80's song's "Dust in the Wind." The author implies that nothing really matters because soon you will be gone and go to Heaven or another life(or whatever you believe) so you need to hold onto everything "mortal" on Earth and when you leave Earth you just have "to let it go."

Personally, I think nature is the most beautiful thing in the world, so I thought that it was interesting the author described it the way she did like it didn't really matter in the end.

To be honest, I thought that the author was depressed and having really deep, melancholy thoughts. I agree that "you need to love what is mortal..., etc." but I think to be able to love it, you need to have a more positive outlook on life.

One thing i really enjoyed was how each stanza was split into four lines, it made the poem flow beautifully.

Wallflowers (Poetry Blog #4)

I absolutely loved this poem even though it was so simple and just about words. I loved the personification and comparisons; it was very creative.

I know it is annoying to use large words from the thesaurus that no one really understands, but I thought that since the poem was about using words that a rarely used at all, it was a perfect opportunity to use them throughout my blog. I also know that some of these words are not that rare, but if they are, sorry if it is a little challenging to understand.(:

When I read the title I had no idea the poem was going to be about actual words...I surmised it to be about actual people who were wallflowers, people who did not fit in.

In the first stanza of the poem I apperceived it to describe a rare word used as a comparison to someone who is misanthropic or like a stray dog who does not have a home. It was funny how amorous the stanza was and it made the poem have more fathomage and engrossment.

I think the second stanza helps focus on the main idea of the poem and what is really apropos.

In the third stanza, "hollow-eyed orphans in Dickensian bedrooms..." was something I didn't know, but I looked up information about it and I think that and I came to a asperous conclusion: "hollow-eyed orphans" because Dickens used to write about orphans in his works (i.e. Oliver Twist) and "in Dickensian bedrooms" because it was poverty-stricken and there was lack of love. After that line it says "longing for someone...'you're the one'" just clarifies my conclusion...orphans longing for a home.

The fourth stanza is a juxtaposition of an actual person who is a "wallflower."

The fifth stanza really affixes the previous stanzas into pulchritudinous comparisons. "the Ellis Island of diction" meaning introducing the words to the English language and "all those words without a home...live in my poem," alluding to the previous stanza about Dickens.

I thought this poem was really convivial to blog about.

By the way,

Gegenshein- counterglow: a faint spot of light in the night sky that appears directly opposite the position of the sun

Zoanthropy- a mental disorder in which one believes oneself to be an animal.

(One was undefinable by dictionary.com)

Beggining Again (Poetry Blog #3)

This poem is interested me after we went over in class so I wanted to try and analyze it a little more.

I think the first stanza is the author over-thinking and criticizing himself...almost to the point of having OCD, because as a reader, it was quite overwhelming trying to understand.

The first line, "If I could stop talking...begin to get well," I think that means that if he could stop thinking and interpreting and seeking perfection he could be happy...I think the whole stanza is him trapped in his mind. "preforming brain surgery on himself...no mirror," I think means trying to perfect himself when he doesn't know what "perfect" is and how he is going to "fix" himself.

And the "why?" pertains back to the question, what is perfect?

In the end about the mountain, I think that it means he will not exist forever, but he does exist for that moment in time.

It is hard for me to understand the meaning in the poem it seems like it was just a reflection, not a change like the first two stanzas implied (if I interpreted it right). Although confusing, I really liked it because it seems like it is left to interpretation or just one of those things you never will completely understand...

Still Memory (Poetry Blog #2)

I'm not sure if I have fully mastered this poem...but...I took it literally as a dream.

I think the author describes the dream, then in the last stanza it explains that this was the first dream she ever recorded and after that dream, she would record many more.

At first, for the blog, I was going to try and interpret the dream she had, but then I realized that it was not the point of the poem...I think that the meaning is simple...the first time the author recorded a dream.

I'm sure that she wrote this poem because the dream was impacted her somehow, causing her to record it.

The poem is nine stanzas and in each stanza there is three lines. The poem is not metaphorical because it is a collection of thoughts and memories from the author's dream. The poem is very "list-like," meaning that the poem lists the images she saw, but there is no figurative language.

I liked that the poem seems very complicated, but once you understand the main idea, it is very simple.