Two Shining Moments Every March, basketball fans everywhere eagerly await the arrival of the famous "March Madness" tournament. This NCAA Division 1 basketball tournament features 68 teams in a single-elimination competition spanning seven rounds, ultimately culminating in the crowning of a champion. It is not uncommon to find fans filling out their brackets with personal predictions and hopes of which teams will advance to the next round. While the students of Ms. Coletti-Houde's Period 4 AP English Literature and Composition class did not fill their brackets with basketball teams, they did fill them with poems. Ms. Colleti-Houde acted as the NCAA and held her own march madness where the competitors were not different colleges but other poems. …show more content…
The poem's speaker is first introduced when they are taking out the trash, accompanied by their spouse. While "the rolling containers [create] a song of suburban thunder," the couple "point out the stars that make Orion." However, the spouse's remark, "We should really learn some new constellations," jolts the speaker (and the poem) into a broader mindset. This use of symbolism vividly represents life's tendency to narrow our focus on only what is immediate and evident to us, symbolized by Orion - a well-known constellation - versus all of the other forgotten dead stars and constellations. The second half of the poem becomes a bold invitation to "reclaim the rising" star-like aspects of ourselves to "lean.toward / what is larger in us," to survive more" and "love harder" because humans "[are] dead stars too." Almost the entire second half of the poem is written as "What if" questions: "What if we said no to the rising tides?" What if we launched our demands into the sky? (Limón, lines 20,27) The speaker calls upon the readers to seek life's most extraordinary possibilities, suggesting they lie beyond what we have ever …show more content…
On the other hand, Joy Harjo's "Perhaps the World Ends Here" is a beautifully crafted poem that uses the kitchen table as a symbol of the human experience. However, the two poems differ in their tone and message. "Dead Stars" is more introspective and contemplative, urging the readers to explore life for what it offers. Meanwhile, "Perhaps the World Ends Here" is more celebratory and focused on the power of shared humanity and connection. The two poems also differ in their use of imagery and symbolism. While "Dead Stars" paints vivid images of the galaxy and stars to represent human potential, "Perhaps the World Ends Here" centers on the kitchen table to symbolize the cycle of life and shared human moments. If one were to explain why "Perhaps the World Ends Here" won their personal bracket, one would say that it is the way Joy Harjo was able to take something so universal and relatable and turn it into something beautiful. One might argue that getting that nostalgic feeling and flood of childhood memories while reading the poem resonates more than the urging in "Dead
In basketball, the National Championship game is the dream of every kid that plays basketball in college. NC State’s basketball team wasn’t well known in 1983. Jim Valvano was the coach and he knew he had a great group of kids. When they won the ACC tournament against the great Ralph Sampson and Virginia, people thought that the win was just luck and they probably wouldn’t make last when they got into the tournament. Throughout the tournament, NC State kept surviving and advancing. In Johnathan Hock’s documentary “Survive and Advance”, Hock uses stock footage of the games that were played during the tournament, different points of view from the players, and the sequence of the documentary to prove that NC State’s basketball team were the underdogs during the whole tournament; however they were able to win despite their adversity
This tournament, apart from entertaining students and other fans, highlights what stuff different colleges are made of. This comes at a critical time when high school seniors are considering what colleges to attend once they graduate. Thus, it is not surprising that this package of sporting events brings glad tidings to the people as it helps usher-in the beautiful spring season. However, a critical evaluation of the different teams and schools reveal the series of events -both good and not so good- that occur as they prepare for this all-important tournament.
The “fat and …bone” are compared to symbolize the difference between whites and blacks. The second stanza compares black and whites to rivers and the sea; one is fresh and the other salty, but both are bodies of water. The third stanza uses a metaphor to compare living out lives alone while pitching a tent in solitude, all alone in our own little world. It also uses the “sun and shadow” to symbolize whites and blacks. In stanza four grief and joy are contrasted with the use of personification. While joy only favors a few, grief is a common factor shared by all people, making it a common ground one in which anyone can come together. The fifth stanza or the last uses similes to give the message that although it is sometimes painful and unpleasant to share other’s grief it is something that must be done in order for everyone to live in harmony. It also relates grief to a weapon, calling it a “blade shining and unsheathed that must strike me down”. It also compares sorrow to a crown of “bitter aloes wreathed”. The overall poem contains Biblical allusions. It sends the message that everyone should rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Cullen is calling all Americans to do as Jesus did and be a man of the people
The Web. The Web. 8 Mar. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/special_feature_250/270_5-things-you-didnt-know-march-madness.html>. NBC News.
The tone of the poem is mostly created by the lines in the middle section of the poem. Lines such as, "have all been complaining they're tarnished and worn," makes it feel as if a person was tired or needing rest. "Have all been complaining," suggests a sense of lack of control a person has over a situation. There are three birds mentioned: eagles, starlings, and gulls. All symbolize people who have power and influence over others. These people are aware of the current state of the dull stars but they still don't do anything to solve or help the situation hence the line, "they say they want new ones we cannot
He begins with a shift, “ There they are, the moon’s young, trying/ Their wings.” (5-6), these lines make a shift because the tone before this line is more quiet and lonely, the tone after this line sounds more exciting. Then, he starts to talk about what he feels when he sees the birds, “There wings” here indicates the birds, and the birds is a metaphor that represents the inspiration in author’s life. “ young” and “trying” here allude to author himself, the author is trying to say that he is still young and he should still carry hope in his own darkness just like the birds. Right after that, he sees the woman, “ Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow of her face,” (7-8) the author uses “ slender” and “lovely” these two words to describe the “woman” which we can tell how excited the author is to see someone else show up in this lonely and dark field. This part might also allude to the author’s love or hope of his life. The author then uses “ and now she steps into the air, now she is gone/ Wholly, into the air.” (8-9) to finish the twist or climax of the poem, then again the tone turns into peaceful but more lonely. In this line, has a repetition of “O” sound, so it is an assonance, and the “O” sounds has a hallow feelings which express that the author is really sentimental when the women is gone. In the line 8-9, there is a repetition of “she”, it
Gregory, Sean. "The Real March Madness?." Time 181.11 (2013): 60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
One of the more confusing parts of the poem for me was the last two lines in the second stanza. Stephen Mitchell has a mystic almost dark tone when he is translating the following:
The theme of the poem is that nature will outlive humans. For example, when the poet explains “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, If mankind perished utterly” she is implying that animals, the weather, plants, and everything a part of nature would not change if humans were gone (lines 9-10). Even though humans have been a part of nature for so long, they do not rely on us in order to thrive. Furthermore, when
The repetition of the... ... middle of paper ... ... ld of art and literature. Since the "marriage", the parent generation, is already dead or dying, therefore every new creation is now also afflicted with disease and condemned to death. Consequently this means the end of hope for a renewal of society, but since the stanza begins with the word "how", this is also a voice of accusation and a demand for change.
Why do we end up like this? This is answered in the next stanza where she says there is too much dust in the stratosphere. The bleak future is going to be a result of our own actions. We humans are continuously destroying nature, unknowingly causing our own death. She warns us of the troubled times ahead through the next stanza....
In the second stanza, the speaker visualizes images within the starry night and a muddy shoreline that symbolize individuals experiencing death-defying events. In line 8, the speaker states “Names printed on the ceiling of the night.” He is referring to the pattern of stars that draw great figures of Greek Gods, like Mars who is related to strength, energ...
The overall themes of this poem are beauty, love, and destiny. The speaker constantly discusses beautiful things and how they can help us. Love can be felt throughout the entire poem. In the first stanza, the speaker verbalizes how he “came with love of the race.” He also expresses love for the beautiful things around him. The theme destiny can be seen in the third stanza when the speaker talks about staying on course. It can also be identified in the last stanza when he describes something inevitable that was about to
Perhaps the most complicated symbol within the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is that of the moon. Each time the moon appears, it appears in a way that is a striking reflection of the love of the bird.The most obvious object Whitman uses to communicate about love is the birds, the "feathered guests from Alabama". While the bird symbols in Lilacs and Cradle may seem very similar, the bird in Lilacs is a symbol of a transcendentalist view of death in the scheme of nature, and the bird in Cradle is a symbol of a much different view of deaththe personal, acute pain of a lover left to mourn. Although the birds love is significant, the boy is also an important theme and the relationship between the two may be key to understanding Whitman's intention. Another object of love is the boy in the poem, which the author's voice allows us to assume is Whitman himself.Another major factor affecting the communication of Whitman's ideas on death is the diction and tone of each poem. In Cradle, death is personal, grieving is acutely painful, and death is presented as an inevitable force oppressing ...
In the second stanza the poet describes the things while he was praying for his daughter. He walks for an hour and notices the "sea-wind scream upon the tower", "under the arches of the bridge", "in the elms above the flooded stream." They probably represent the dreaming of the human beings and they are decisive. They are all about the present things and they block people from thinking about the future events. The last four lines of the second stanza clearly explain this idea: