I TRY TO WAKEN AND GREET THE WORLD ONCE AGAIN

In a pine tree,

A few yards away from my window sill,

A brilliant blue jay is springing up and down, up and down,

On a branch.

I laugh, as I see him abandon himself

To entire delight, for he knows as well as I do

That the branch will not break. (James Wright)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SERVICE TO FAMILY MEMBERS

(Rebecca M. Taylor and Vaughn J. Featherstone, “Friend to Friend,” The Friend (Liahona), Aug. 1995, 12). When I was young, my father was often away from home because of a serious alcohol problem. My mother had to work full-time to support us, and I began to do many of the household chores for her. Mother taught me how to scrub floors and how to wash clothes in an old washer. . . . When I was about 11 years old, many of Mother’s relatives came from out of town to have dinner with us one Saturday night. Such visits were rare, so she spent the whole day getting the dinner ready. She prepared a pot roast and all the vegetables to go with it, mashed potatoes and gravy, salads, hot rolls, and dessert. She cooked all day, and soon the dirty dishes started stacking up. After dinner, everyone brought the leftover food to the kitchen, then went into the living room and began to visit. I remember going back to the kitchen, thinking, Mother works all week long, and now she’ll have to do the...
Read more

SPRING COMES LATE

Image
Feeling a little dispirited one day, I took a hike in the Rocky Mountains of southern Alberta . I was not very hopeful about my progress towards perfection, and my weaknesses lay heavy in my heart. It was late spring in the valley. The flowers were out, the trees full of leaves, and warm breezes were blowing. The higher I climbed, the less green I saw. Snow lay in patches on the trail. After a few hours of climbing, I saw very few signs of spring. All around it was still cold, still winter. I sat down on a rock to rest and began to ponder and pray. I noticed a little bush in front of me; it had tiny green buds on it—just the promise of spring. As I stared at it, the little plant seemed to whisper these words, “In the highest mountains, spring comes late.” I wondered what these words meant until I had studied the green buds long enough to realize that our lives can be much like that little bush. We’ll never be content with the valley and the spring that comes early at the foot of th...
Read more

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

The main elements of a stylistic analysis: 1. Divide the passage into sub-texts or sub-scenes by character entrances and exits. 2. Read the sub-scene passage aloud. 3. Underline, highlight, or parse the main clauses. 4. Discuss significant rhetorical figures in the passage. 5. Analyze phonetic, orthographic, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and lexical features of the text. 6. Identify cultural, sociolinguistic, historical, dialectal, and pragmatic contexts for the texts. 7. Evaluate the tone, message, and effect of the passage as a whole.
Read more