Moab

Tonight and most of the week, I will camping in Moab, Utah. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my poetry packet with me on my trip, so I decided to blog about a song I have heard called, Moab. Good reasoning, right?(:

Moab
Conor Oberst
I used up your compassion
So I've come to make a trade
You can hate me but just love me in return And if I know where to find you
I'll stay out of your way
I won't come beg to borrow all the happiness you earned

I'll just slide back down to the bottom While you make your place in the hills

There's nothing that the road cannot heal
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

They say the sun won't burn forever
but that's a science too exact
I can prove it - Watch, we're crossing the state line
See those headlights coming towards us?
That's someone going back
To a town they said they'd never,yeah
They swore it on their lives

But you can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

Some would spend their precious time
trying to decorate their lives
Taking measurements for some new look they want
So from one to ten - ten's exactly what I am
Zero being everything I'm not
Tell me what you like

Is it less than five?
Is it less than five?

There's nothing that the road cannot heal
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
When I make it to Moab
I'll get my canteen filled
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

This song is basically about how getting away or taking a break can replenish someone. In this case, a road trip to Moab, which is known as an outdoor, adventure place.

The first two stanzas are the main reasons why the singer, Conor Oberst, is sad, or needs a change.

The chorus is straightforward, a road trip, or getting away makes people feel a lot better and leave their, in a way, small problems behind ("Washed under the blacktop, gone beneath my wheels").

The rest of the song talks about material things that bring us down in life ("Some would spend their precious time trying to decorate their lives...") and how change, taking a break, etc. can clear your head ("That's someone going back to a town they said they'd never...").

The end is my favorite when Oberst says, "When I make it to Moab, I'll get my canteen filled. There's nothing that the road cannot heal." Oberst uses a metaphor to show that when he makes it to Moab, he will be rejuvenated and replenished, as if he was getting his canteen full again.

I can say that the last couple of weeks in school has really worn me out, and once I got to Moab, I realized how nice a break is. Therefore, I definitely related to this song.(:

A Poison Tree

A Poison Tree
William Blake

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, and my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And soft, deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night
Till it bore and apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

I really liked this poem! It makes the reader visualize a spectacular analogy between an apple tree and a grudge...and, to be honest, I love poems that rhyme, they sound so much more smooth if the rhymes aren't forced!

The second and third stanza is about a man who could not let go of his hatred, or grudge, that he held it in until it grew so deep his enemy could see. This poem, in a way, reminded me of Hamlet's plot to avenge his father. Hamlet thought about his hatred so much, that in the end, it consumed his whole life.

The third stanza explains how the author is so absorbed with his grudge, that he lets his enemy "win" because he put so much emotion and energy into his hatred.

The apple tree analogy shows this wonderfully.

Th rhyme scheme makes the poem flow well and it goes AABB for each stanza. There are four stanzas in the poem.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

Much Madness is Divinest Sense
Emily Dickinson

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye,
Much sense, the starkest madness.
‘Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevail:
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, you’re straightway dangerous
And handled with a chain.

I really like this poem because it brought up the question of being normal and left alone, or being strange and "handled with a chain." It kind of reminded me of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
The poem is pretty straightforward to me, in Dickinson's eyes, to be mad is to be perfect because you are not the same as everyone else. If you agree to be "normal," you are sane and if not, you are unstable and dangerous.

I think it is cool that just about anybody can relate to this poem because everyone is different. Even if you did not have a life as strange as Dickinson's, you still can feel the same.

I noticed in the poem's structure that only "sane" and "chain" rhyme, but nothing else. I wonder if it is just a coincidence or did she mean to do that, because nothing else rhymes? Hmm

Group Poem

Questions about purpose...
What is the meaning of life?
What will I achieve in my lifetime?
Am I important?
Will I be important?
How important will I be?
Why will I be important?
Does it matter if I'm important?
What makes important?
How do I make myself important?