Nature Poem:
New Found Lands
The time came 1
For the migrant birds to fly to a new land.
All by choice, not by command. 3
Their journey began
With their wings spread wide, and their minds naive.
No thought that this land could ever deceive. 6
As their flight dragged on,
Their dreams of a better life continued to grow.
But the hardships to come, they did not know. 9
They approached their new home
And were quickly surprised.
The things they were seeing were unclear to their eyes. 12
New chirps they heard.
Feathers of colors unknown.
Was this really a place they could call their new home? 15
A new fallen snow
Covered the grass on the ground.
They no longer felt they were safe and sound. 18
As they continued to fly,
They realized their dreams became unreal.
They were left with nothing but sorrow to feel. 21
The food they had gathered
Quickly ran out, as the small ones continued to grow.
How could something esteemed so high, really turn out so low? 24
Their home was destroyed
In a harsh winter storm. The flock seemed to grow weak.
Their unhappy feelings would soon reach their peak. 27
But they continued to soar
Through the judgmental skies northbound.
Not a single problem to could ever bring them down 30
The Most Beautiful:
It was a typical mid-November morning. My car ride to the orange line station was no different than usual. I rode in the car, while I constantly checked the time on my phone to make sure I wouldn’t miss my train. The skies were black, and the air was chilly. I arrived at the train station, and grumpily stood on the platform waiting for my train as I do on a day to day basis. Once I was finally on the train, I took the seat closest to me, and put my headphones in my ear. Nothing was out of the usual. Half of the people riding the train were sleeping, while the rest were nosed in to their books and newspapers, or listening to music.
The atmosphere was nothing special; not at the beginning at least. I took the train for 5 stops, and happened to wake up from my nap at the Roosevelt station. I opened my eyes, looked up, and before I could I could go back to my nap, I took a double take out the window. I stopped for a second. I needed to think. Was I dreaming this? Was this just a scene of my crazy and active imagination? I continued to stare out the window of the train car in awe. A few moments later, I realized that others became aware of the view as well. People seemed to have my same reaction. Many people looked confused, while others just smiled to themselves. The girl sitting in front of me even took out her phone, turned around, and snapped a photo of the wondrous scene outside.
What I was seeing was something unexpected, and beautiful. It was cold outside, and was even gloomy earlier that morning when I left my house. This wasn’t supposed to be happening, right? The skies outside were filled with rays of color of orange, red, pink, and blue. Not a spot was seen that looked like a sky out of an approaching winter day. The sun was rising, and there was streams of clouds spread across the vast, enormous sky. It was breathtaking. Not even on a summer day had I seen a sky so magnificent, so vivid, and so beautiful.
WORD COUNT: 373
Weather Experience:
The snow seemed to glisten in the bright glow of the daylight. The air gave off a simple smell. No one would have ever guessed that just hours before, the city ran hectically, dealing with what seemed like the most outrageous snow storm since ’99. I laughed at the thought. It seemed like so long ago I was sitting on that bus crowded to the brim. In reality, that happened yesterday: February 1st, 2011.
My mom called me that morning to warn me that I should really consider getting home early that evening. Blizzard in Chicago? No way. I continued my day not even fully processing the possibility of such a large scale natural occurrence. I even began to make plans for after school; Billy Goats possibly. How much harm can a little snow do to you anyways? I mean, we lived in Chicago. The city is notorious for unexpected weather, and I wasn’t about to let a few crazy weather predictions stop me from going on with my day as I usually would. Boy, did I have things set out for me.
The clocks around the school read noon, and the windows let me watch the play of the snowfall from the VIP section. It was nothing too unusual for a normal winter day. My classes dragged along, and I still didn’t bother to worry too much about anything. I sat in 8th period Biology figuring out who I was going to ride the train home with that day. Things seemed all too normal, until the loud speakers went off around the school. “All after school activities will be cancelled. We want everyone to safely get home as quickly as possible after their last class,” announced Dr. Kenner seriously. Maybe this wasn’t a joke after all. After 8th period ended, my mom called me again, demanding that I get home immediately after school. That’s when things started to hit me.
The snow outside looked ridiculous, and the weather didn’t fail to disappoint either. I stepped out of the glass, school doors to feel the freezing feeling of the below zero weather. My total judgment of this storm was way off, and I was in for a long ride home. I decided to take the bus, which on a typical day, takes about 30 minutes, as opposed to the blue line which has me on for an hour long train ride. Once again, my judgment was misleading, and my wait for the bus had me standing in the snow for a good hour or so. When the bus finally reached my stop, I stepped on, and shakily put my card into the paying machine. My hands began to melt away, my glasses fogged up, and I felt my hair frizzing up with the warm air of the bus hitting me. I took a seat in the back, and put in my headphones as I normally would. I took a glance in the screen of my phone, and scoffed at my reflection. My hair was dripping melted snow down the sides of my face, and my glasses had dried specks of water on the front.
I was trying to be as patient as possible, but the wait for the bus already had me in a bad enough mood. As I sat there trying to relax, I kept checking the time, noticing that 15 minutes would pass, and we’d barely move an inch. By the time I reached the train station where I got off, the clock said that it was 5:30. Had it seriously been three hours since I left school? I sat down on a bench to wait for my train, and remembered that I needed to call my mom to let her know where I was. I took my phone out of my pocket, and noticed that I had 4 new text messages. Excitingly, all of them were about how the next day had officially been declared a snow day. Maybe that day hadn’t been the worst day of my life after all.
When I finally got home, I was able to tell my entire family about my adventure home from school, and about the snow day. Although that day brought me a lot of trouble, frustration, and plain old coldness, it’s safe to say that it was an experience to never forget.
Reading Responses:
Response to “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
I thought Emerson’s essay was interesting, but I don’t really agree with some of his ideas. The excerpt explained Emerson’s beliefs that humans control nature, and have the sole power to experience its beauty, as he states with the line, “The power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both,” on page 392. Although it’s agreeable that all humans have different views on nature, I think more power comes from nature itself. I’d say that nature has a stronger effect on humans, than humans do on nature. By this, I mean that nature and the environment usually have the power to alter ones emotions easily. For example, rain usually makes a person feel gloomy, while sunshine can uplift a person’s mood. Then again, these types of opinions may also depend on how one feels about nature in the first place. It’s safe to say that Emerson is an avid follower of nature, and it’s shown through his descriptions of nature throughout his essay. For example, on page 390 Emerson writes, “Air is a cordial of incredible virtue…I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.” His connection with nature seems stronger than with most, which probably lead to his transcendental belief system. I on the other hand, don’t collide with nature as much, and don’t feel that I can view nature differently than what it offers me initially.
Response to “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau
Response to “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
Reading Responses:
Response to “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
I thought Emerson’s essay was interesting, but I don’t really agree with some of his ideas. The excerpt explained Emerson’s beliefs that humans control nature, and have the sole power to experience its beauty, as he states with the line, “The power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both,” on page 392. Although it’s agreeable that all humans have different views on nature, I think more power comes from nature itself. I’d say that nature has a stronger effect on humans, than humans do on nature. By this, I mean that nature and the environment usually have the power to alter ones emotions easily. For example, rain usually makes a person feel gloomy, while sunshine can uplift a person’s mood. Then again, these types of opinions may also depend on how one feels about nature in the first place. It’s safe to say that Emerson is an avid follower of nature, and it’s shown through his descriptions of nature throughout his essay. For example, on page 390 Emerson writes, “Air is a cordial of incredible virtue…I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration.” His connection with nature seems stronger than with most, which probably lead to his transcendental belief system. I on the other hand, don’t collide with nature as much, and don’t feel that I can view nature differently than what it offers me initially.
WORD COUNT: 235
Response to “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau’s essay, for me, had to be one of the most interesting things we’ve read so far this year. You may be asking why, and the answer is because the excerpt provides the reader with something applicable to their own life. Thoreau decided to leave everyday society to go live out in the wilderness. His reasons seemed fair. Life, with its day to day luxuries and shortcuts, isn’t really life at all. I think that everybody has gotten so used to technology, and life being made so simple, that we forgot that all these things aren’t really necessary. As Thoreau wrote on page 411, “Men think that it’s essential that the Nation have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a telegraph, and ride thirty miles an hour, whether they do or not; but whether we should live like baboons or like men, is a little uncertain.” This quote had me thinking for a while. Yes, of course, we’ve made our lives easier with technological innovations, but would we really be able to survive without these luxuries? Thoreau uses railroads as an example on page 411. If you really thought about it, we could find a way to get places without railroads, even though it may offer a bit more of a struggle. On the other hand, are we fit to fight that struggle? The movie, “Into the Wild,” offered the same theories. Obviously, all we really need to survive can be found in nature, and we could just live life in simplicity. But it all goes back to whether we’re willing, or even able, to make such sacrifices.
WORD COUNT: 269
Response to “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
I think that “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is a very powerful poem because it found a historical way to describe African American culture and heritage. The repetition in the poem includes the line, “I’ve known rivers.” On a literal level, the poem discusses different rivers in the African region, as well as rivers in the South of the Unites States. When you put the pieces of the puzzle together, the rivers are used by Hughes to create a recollection of African American history throughout the slavery ages. I think in lines 10 to 11 of the poem reading, “I’ve known rivers: ancient, dusky rivers,” the author is trying to emphasize how far back history dates, and how simple pieces of the environment can have a more symbolic meaning than what we initially think of. It brings history back into our minds. The Euphrates, the Congo, and the Nile were not just rivers surrounding Africa, but were historical rivers in the fact that they were used to transport slaves during the slave trading era. The poem ends with the line, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.” I think the analogy is saying that such experiences throughout history will remain in a person’s culture, whether it is part of their everyday life, or not. History will always come back to you.
WORD COUNT: 222
Response to “The Grass” by Carl Sandburg
Although this poem was really short, I think it was able to say a lot in just those few lines. I really enjoyed the idea of the poem, and the message it was trying to give to the reader. So many terrible things have happened throughout history, and we all manage to forget about them. It seems as though we only really consider the disgusting actions that our ancestors have taken for those few days when these topics are discussed in our history classes. Even then, we aren’t able to fully experience what happened. In the lines 7 through 9, Sandberg wrote, “Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now?” The grass is used as something to almost cover up the past. The repetition throughout the poem is “I am grass, let me work. I am grass, I cover all.” Unfortunately, I think that as years pass by, these serious events in history begin to fade from our minds, and even begin to become unimportant. The grass is said to cover up the world’s mistakes from the past, as showed in the first line of the poem that says, “Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work.” Not only are events being forgotten, but there are so many casualties that have occurred that aren’t even acknowledged because of the fading memories of history.
WORD COUNT: 239
Response to “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant
Alright, this poem was really hard to understand at first, but the message I got out of it in the end was pretty amazing. The entire poem is about death. Yes, death. Out of all the works we’ve read throughout this nature unit, I think this one is one of my favorites. (Despite the fact that it was crazy difficult.) I completely agree with Bryant’s ideas on death. He made death seem like isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but possibly an honorable event. Some people may think that death is one of the scariest things out there, but if you think of it in the mindset of Bryant, you come to realize that death is a part of life, and can’t be as bad as you may think. Thanatopsis stresses the idea that you are leaving the world and becoming one with nature, as shown in lines 26 through 29 that say, “Thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements, to be a brother of the insensible rock and to the sluggish clod.” If you think of nature in a magnificent sense, you’d feel happy to become unified with it, wouldn’t you? You’d be leaving your present life to mix with the life that is nature. Bryant emphasizes that being lonely shouldn’t be a fear of death either, because you are leaving to join honorable figures that have also died as shown in lines 34 through 37 with, “Thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world- with kings, the powerful of the Earth-the wise, the good.” I’m sure everybody has their own “Thanatopsis” but I think Bryant’s thoughts are fairly relatable.
Alright, this poem was really hard to understand at first, but the message I got out of it in the end was pretty amazing. The entire poem is about death. Yes, death. Out of all the works we’ve read throughout this nature unit, I think this one is one of my favorites. (Despite the fact that it was crazy difficult.) I completely agree with Bryant’s ideas on death. He made death seem like isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but possibly an honorable event. Some people may think that death is one of the scariest things out there, but if you think of it in the mindset of Bryant, you come to realize that death is a part of life, and can’t be as bad as you may think. Thanatopsis stresses the idea that you are leaving the world and becoming one with nature, as shown in lines 26 through 29 that say, “Thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements, to be a brother of the insensible rock and to the sluggish clod.” If you think of nature in a magnificent sense, you’d feel happy to become unified with it, wouldn’t you? You’d be leaving your present life to mix with the life that is nature. Bryant emphasizes that being lonely shouldn’t be a fear of death either, because you are leaving to join honorable figures that have also died as shown in lines 34 through 37 with, “Thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world- with kings, the powerful of the Earth-the wise, the good.” I’m sure everybody has their own “Thanatopsis” but I think Bryant’s thoughts are fairly relatable.
WORD COUNT: 277
Atlantic Essay Reaction/Response:
Nature is something that should be experienced and enjoyed to the fullest. It provides us with life’s basic necessities, and is our own personal therapist with its ability to alter anybody’s mood. But what happens when there are restrictions put on nature? What happens when society decides to limit the amount of nature available to you? You then can no longer experience its wondrous beauty, and unique scents. Robert Frost’s “The Sound of Trees,” Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking,” and “The American Forests,” by John Muir show us first hand these things happening. From the moment I watched “Into the Wild,” I began to think about how ironic it was that there’s limits put on nature and how not everyone is able to experience. In Thoreau’s essay, “Walking,” he states, “It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker. You must be born into the family of the Walkers.” I guess this means that you must be born rich, and able to own and purchase land in order to be able to walk on it. This is ironic in the sense that what was naturally put on Earth is privately owned sometimes. To add on to this, nature is taken for granted sometimes as well. In “The American Forests,” by John Muir, he states, “Clearing has surely now gone far enough; soon timber will be scarce, and not a grove will be left to rest in or pray in.” His initial description of forests is admirable, but the fact that big corporations think it’s alright to cut down trees is going against nature. Not only is land being bought, and sold, and owned as if some materialistic thing, it’s being mistreated, despite the fact that its life’s basic structure to survive. In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Sound of Trees” he wrote, “I wonder about the trees. Why do we wish to bear forever the noise of these more than another noise so close to our dwelling place? We suffer them by the day till we lose all measure of pace.” I feel like this goes back to the idea of taking advantage of nature. We want it so much, yet we take advantage of it day by day. All the readings go back to the bigger idea of how nature should be treated in our lives, and what it provides for us. My personal opinion is that nature should be open for everyone to experience. It doesn’t make sense to me how people can just own land, and that chunk of nature is now off limits to everyone else. I mean, they didn’t create the environment. Also, if people are so land thirsty, then why do people insist on destroying it sometimes? You can’t put a price on nature, or call it your property.
WORD COUNT: 465
WORD COUNT: 393
Creation Story:
A Dry Punishment
8 million years ago in the wondrous sea world of Mongolia, a powerful and highly idolized earth dweller became the ruler of the land. They called him king. He was something between half elephant, and half human. As admirable as he was, he was worshiped all around by the other creatures of the aquatic wonderland. He held supreme power over his peasant critters, and even held the word of reason within any conflict.
One day, a sea horse came to the sea king complaining about how he believed he worked extremely hard, and he believed he deserved more space to himself. He asked the sea king to grant him more water to use for himself, and relax. The ruler of the sea world considered this request, but decided to leave all his creatures with a fair and equal amount of land. The sea horse became outraged, and decided to ask the sea king again. When the sea horse came to the king again, he was even more upset to be rejected yet again. When he walked out of the sea king’s abode, he began to throw a tantrum. “I want more land! I am more worthy of this than anybody else!” he yelled. His fellow sea mates heard his cries, and became infuriated with knowing that their so called friend believed he was better than all of them. They too began to throw fits and frenzies.
When the king heard this, he stormed out his door, and demanded everybody calm down. When the frenzy continued, he began to think of a quick remedy to stop the fighting. He decided the only way out of this would be to get rid of the source of the problem: the water. He slowly began to suck up all the water through his nose. He continued until every last ounce of water was gone. The land was left dusty and dry. With the new environment, all of the creatures were forced to evolve into animals that could survive in this new land. The sea horse emerged into a beautiful zebra.
When the land was finally back to normal, and the fighting had come to a halt, the land continued to flourish, but instead of a magnificent land of a million oceans, the animals lived in harmony in the new, and much needed Gobi Desert.
WORD COUNT: 393
