My favourite poet is James Langston Hughes. He is born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. This is one of his poems that I like.
Let America be America again
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
This poem shows that the writer, James Langston Hughes, is very patriotic. He wants to change America into the America that he thinks it should be.
He uses words very well and hence his poems are always with a very deep meaning. Heres another one of his poems.
Dream
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
This poem shows that he has a lot of unfinished dreams and yet he knows it is important to dream as he says in his poem, "For if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly." He wants others to know that we must dream because if we do not dream, life would lose its colour and we would not have any ambition. Hence no power to drive us on.
James Langston Hughes is a poet that wants to tell us something through his poems and that is why I like him.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Figurative Language
For the IT learning first task, I am going to it on the song True by Ryan Cabrera. This is the part of the song I am going to do about:
I'm weak
it's true
cause I'm afraid to know the answer
do you want me too?
cause my heart keeps falling faster
I've waited all my life to cross this line
to the only thing thats true
so I will not hide
its time to try anything to be with you
all my life I've waited
this is true
I know when I go
I'll be on my way to you
the way that's true
There is a hyperbole at the part "cause I'm afraid to know the answer" This is hyperbole to show how weak he is.
There is a personification at the part "cause my heart keeps falling faster" The writer give the heart human characteristic so that it can "fall".
There is a metaphor in the part "I've waited all my life to cross this line, to the only thing thats true" The write compares the other side of the line and
the thing thats true without using the word like or as.
There is another hyperbole in the part "all my life I've waited". It exaggerates the time the writer have waited.
There is another metaphor in the part "I'll be on my way to you the way that's true". The writer is again comparing 'you' to the way thats true without using the words like or as.
This is the song True. Hope you like it :D
I'm weak
it's true
cause I'm afraid to know the answer
do you want me too?
cause my heart keeps falling faster
I've waited all my life to cross this line
to the only thing thats true
so I will not hide
its time to try anything to be with you
all my life I've waited
this is true
I know when I go
I'll be on my way to you
the way that's true
There is a hyperbole at the part "cause I'm afraid to know the answer" This is hyperbole to show how weak he is.
There is a personification at the part "cause my heart keeps falling faster" The writer give the heart human characteristic so that it can "fall".
There is a metaphor in the part "I've waited all my life to cross this line, to the only thing thats true" The write compares the other side of the line and
the thing thats true without using the word like or as.
There is another hyperbole in the part "all my life I've waited". It exaggerates the time the writer have waited.
There is another metaphor in the part "I'll be on my way to you the way that's true". The writer is again comparing 'you' to the way thats true without using the words like or as.
This is the song True. Hope you like it :D
Monday, May 11, 2009
???RANDOM POST???
It was nonsense, nothing was where it was supposed to be and those were supposed to take charge shrunk from the responsibilty, pushing everything to him. He was overwhelmed.
He negotiated once and again,but the decision was like a diamond, impenetratable from the outside. what could he do? There was no 'right' option for him anymore. He must relent...
A few weeks ago, there was the test, the leader and him were up for the challenge. He had prepared well, better than anyone could have expected, even better than the leader. Logically, he would fare better than the leader but the leader could not except the truth, he was told to be cheating...
From then onwards, the sight of the two never met, and now, they had to get this done...together. But nothing was easy, two like poles can never be brought together, it was exactly the current situation.
He negotiated once and again,but the decision was like a diamond, impenetratable from the outside. what could he do? There was no 'right' option for him anymore. He must relent...
A few weeks ago, there was the test, the leader and him were up for the challenge. He had prepared well, better than anyone could have expected, even better than the leader. Logically, he would fare better than the leader but the leader could not except the truth, he was told to be cheating...
From then onwards, the sight of the two never met, and now, they had to get this done...together. But nothing was easy, two like poles can never be brought together, it was exactly the current situation.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Supernatural TV series
Disclaimer: "Supernatural" created by Eric Kripke; clips courtesy of CW
Continue watching the series "Roadkill" via youtube related videos on the post!
This TV series is about a family fighting ghost and demons. This particular series has a twist in the ending.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Life is like this
He had enough of all this nonsense, everyday she would go around ordering people around telling them to help her do simple things such as wearing her clothes, tying her hair it would take ages to complete the list. Sometimes, out of the blue, she would look at what he was doing and complain to the 'king' and 'queen'.
Her favorite phrase is "I don't care" se will say this whenever she knew she was wrong but did not want to admit it. He really had enough...
Her favorite phrase is "I don't care" se will say this whenever she knew she was wrong but did not want to admit it. He really had enough...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Hello!!!
Hello everyone,
Welcome to my blog, please read the posts and comment.
Then if you like it please follow my blog. There are
also some links to my my friends blogs so you can visit
them if you want.
Thank you for visiting!
Welcome to my blog, please read the posts and comment.
Then if you like it please follow my blog. There are
also some links to my my friends blogs so you can visit
them if you want.
Thank you for visiting!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Project Work
Project...Project..Project!! No matter how hard he tried, he could not find a way out of this maze, full of deadly traps and cages, enough to kill. Project was the name of the game. He called it problematic project. It is just too overwhelming.He thought about his mates, they were a bunch of useless monkeys waiting to be fed.
How could he do all this alone? Focus is the key. He could not lose focus.
Although sometimes he wanted to give up and just end it all, he keep the focus...well at least until now. Currently, he was in a state of dilemma. He was
subjected to stress, stress that were thought to help you learn better. They
gave him too much.
Then he started to lose it, it was all beginning to seem like a dream. Ah...How
good it will be if it was just a dream. He began to walk up the never ending link
from life to death... He jumped and thought of the consequences, but the flight
never gave him enough time to think. Suddenly, he got it! What he needed was
time! He just needed time!
Bam!! it was all too late
How could he do all this alone? Focus is the key. He could not lose focus.
Although sometimes he wanted to give up and just end it all, he keep the focus...well at least until now. Currently, he was in a state of dilemma. He was
subjected to stress, stress that were thought to help you learn better. They
gave him too much.
Then he started to lose it, it was all beginning to seem like a dream. Ah...How
good it will be if it was just a dream. He began to walk up the never ending link
from life to death... He jumped and thought of the consequences, but the flight
never gave him enough time to think. Suddenly, he got it! What he needed was
time! He just needed time!
Bam!! it was all too late
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Disable=Unable?
Miss Oh is a sufferer of cerebral palsy, she cannot control her movements so flexibly. When people see her they often think that she has some kind of "infectious" disease and they keep a distance from her.
Her childhood was not easy at all, she was the youngest of the five children. Her mother was bed-ridden and had chronic skin disease. His eldest brother was a gambler and lost all her parent's savings away. Then her father got colon cancer and almost killed himself and the diagnosis. He died 8 months later.
Her friend, Ms Lui, motivated and encouraged her to climb Mt Kinabalu but she too succumbed to the colon cancer. After climbing Mt Kinabalu, she started to write about the book called, Scaling Walls, she met into some problems during the printing and publishig period. Miss Oh and her friends put together ten thousand to start up a company.
She hopes that by doing these, she will be invited to schools to be a speaker. She had donated some of the money earned by the selling of the books to the needy. She wants to tell everyone that the disabled can be successful and the disabled must not lose hope they must keep fighting to achieve their dreams.
Her childhood was not easy at all, she was the youngest of the five children. Her mother was bed-ridden and had chronic skin disease. His eldest brother was a gambler and lost all her parent's savings away. Then her father got colon cancer and almost killed himself and the diagnosis. He died 8 months later.
Her friend, Ms Lui, motivated and encouraged her to climb Mt Kinabalu but she too succumbed to the colon cancer. After climbing Mt Kinabalu, she started to write about the book called, Scaling Walls, she met into some problems during the printing and publishig period. Miss Oh and her friends put together ten thousand to start up a company.
She hopes that by doing these, she will be invited to schools to be a speaker. She had donated some of the money earned by the selling of the books to the needy. She wants to tell everyone that the disabled can be successful and the disabled must not lose hope they must keep fighting to achieve their dreams.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Test
Ah! Finally the tests are over. Since I am just a Secondary 1, it is good that I review the difficulty of the subjects so that I can get a better understanding of my results.
First I will review English, well, it is not that hard as it is in primary school but there are more areas to study like summary and things like that. This subject has also got more interesting as more aspects of literature as come in as well.
For Math, it is still quite easy and does not include all those difficult algebra which I do in Math Olympiad. It is also quite tedious as there are a lot of work do nowadays.
For Science, the syllabus now is quite easy now as we are just at the introduction part, I think it will get more difficult when Biology, Chemistry and Physics come in.
For Chinese, it is very difficult as we are in a chinese school and I got a B4 for it. This is my lowest score currently but I think I will get used to it after a while.
For History and Geography, it is quite OK since it is just introduced to us, I think it will get harder once term 2 starts.
First I will review English, well, it is not that hard as it is in primary school but there are more areas to study like summary and things like that. This subject has also got more interesting as more aspects of literature as come in as well.
For Math, it is still quite easy and does not include all those difficult algebra which I do in Math Olympiad. It is also quite tedious as there are a lot of work do nowadays.
For Science, the syllabus now is quite easy now as we are just at the introduction part, I think it will get more difficult when Biology, Chemistry and Physics come in.
For Chinese, it is very difficult as we are in a chinese school and I got a B4 for it. This is my lowest score currently but I think I will get used to it after a while.
For History and Geography, it is quite OK since it is just introduced to us, I think it will get harder once term 2 starts.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Handphones
Hello everyone, I am sorry for not posting for so long. Well, I was kind of busy with preparing for my tests. Ok,so I know that most of you here have a phone don't you. Today, I am going to tell the disadvantages and advantages of the brands of hand phones.
Ok, I will start with the most popular brands, Sony Ericson, first the points are:
1.Most of its phone can multi-task and minimize applications.
2.The Walkman 3.0 software and the features are excellent.
Now, it's time for Nokia:
1.It has a lot of capabilities but the quality of these features are not very good.
2.The value of the phone can usually stay there for a very long time.
Let us now review Samsung's phones:
1.It has a lot of touch screen phones at quite an affordable price
It is Motorola's turn:
1.It is very cheap and has the same capabilities.
2.The flip phones are quite good.
Thats the end, I hope it has helped you.
Ok, I will start with the most popular brands, Sony Ericson, first the points are:
1.Most of its phone can multi-task and minimize applications.
2.The Walkman 3.0 software and the features are excellent.
Now, it's time for Nokia:
1.It has a lot of capabilities but the quality of these features are not very good.
2.The value of the phone can usually stay there for a very long time.
Let us now review Samsung's phones:
1.It has a lot of touch screen phones at quite an affordable price
It is Motorola's turn:
1.It is very cheap and has the same capabilities.
2.The flip phones are quite good.
Thats the end, I hope it has helped you.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Obama is pressurized
As you all should know, we are having a recession currently and Obama is the new president of America, hence he is given the huge responsibility to save the world from total bankruptcy while have other problems such as wars.
The current recession is one of the worst, the last time we were in this kind of sticky situation we ended it off with a war. Obama's 800 billion stimulus plan is targeting at creating more jobs which in turn will generate a more confident mood according to one article in today's Straits Times.I think he is doing the right thing as this will get more investors to invest and get the market up and going again. If U.S cannot recover, the European Union will not grow after the sharp decline.
Obama has also a need to deal with the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has to review the policies given to meet their demands and not have a war in the middle of the recession. North Korea and Iran has also posed a nuclear threat on the United States as this weapons are of mass destruction. There also two emerging powers in Asia, India and China. Their economics has been growing rapidly recently.
Obama has to make wise decisions in order for America to retain its role in the global affairs.He is capable of ending the recession.Since the article is about Obama I think that this a character-driven story.
(Information from 23Febuary 2009 Straits Times Navigating the global crisis post)
The current recession is one of the worst, the last time we were in this kind of sticky situation we ended it off with a war. Obama's 800 billion stimulus plan is targeting at creating more jobs which in turn will generate a more confident mood according to one article in today's Straits Times.I think he is doing the right thing as this will get more investors to invest and get the market up and going again. If U.S cannot recover, the European Union will not grow after the sharp decline.
Obama has also a need to deal with the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has to review the policies given to meet their demands and not have a war in the middle of the recession. North Korea and Iran has also posed a nuclear threat on the United States as this weapons are of mass destruction. There also two emerging powers in Asia, India and China. Their economics has been growing rapidly recently.
Obama has to make wise decisions in order for America to retain its role in the global affairs.He is capable of ending the recession.Since the article is about Obama I think that this a character-driven story.
(Information from 23Febuary 2009 Straits Times Navigating the global crisis post)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Use of profanities
Why do people use profanities? These words are not really that nice and it will be hurtful when directed at others so should we ask ourselves WHAT DO WE GAIN BY SAYING PROFANITIES ? You can sit there and think for a day and no answers will pop up, you want to know why? The reason is you won't gain anything!
Most people use it just because they hear their friends use it then other people will become influenced too and it soon becomes an vicious cycle. Soon the whole world will begin spouting bad words out of their mouths. We must act right now! My friends , like daniel,shawn ,Michael...,helped me to break my bad habit so here I am telling you the same thing... DO NOT SPEAK PROFANITIES
Most people use it just because they hear their friends use it then other people will become influenced too and it soon becomes an vicious cycle. Soon the whole world will begin spouting bad words out of their mouths. We must act right now! My friends , like daniel,shawn ,Michael...,helped me to break my bad habit so here I am telling you the same thing... DO NOT SPEAK PROFANITIES
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Bomb!
Today was quite tiring as the Chinese new year is just over. I went back home by bus and remembered something that happened a few months ago. All of these critical events may seem dramatic and unreal but me and my friend,Daniel nicknamed da niu(This is his blog link), really experienced it in real life...
It was after PSLE. Da Niu and I were making our way back home by bus. We were standing up as there was no seats for us. Then something caught our eyes, there was a bag lying at one corner of the bus. At first we thought nothing of it then after noticing that no one was taking care of it, we started to get worried.I remembered watching a video at the MRT station about what you should do when you are in this kind of situation. First, we must ask people if the bag is his or hers so me and Da Niu asked people around the bag but to no avail. In the process, we got embarrassed a lot.Then the next step was to tell the bus driver and well we did. Now comes the turning point.....
What happened?
(a)There was a bomb...
(b)Someone forgotten to take his or her bag
(c)It was a false alarm.
The answer is (c).Please read on the know exactly what happened...
Da Niu and I told the driver what we saw so he walked towards the bag.Suddenly, an Indian woman shouted"Eh!EH!" We were very shocked.It was someone's bag after all!
It was after PSLE. Da Niu and I were making our way back home by bus. We were standing up as there was no seats for us. Then something caught our eyes, there was a bag lying at one corner of the bus. At first we thought nothing of it then after noticing that no one was taking care of it, we started to get worried.I remembered watching a video at the MRT station about what you should do when you are in this kind of situation. First, we must ask people if the bag is his or hers so me and Da Niu asked people around the bag but to no avail. In the process, we got embarrassed a lot.Then the next step was to tell the bus driver and well we did. Now comes the turning point.....
What happened?
(a)There was a bomb...
(b)Someone forgotten to take his or her bag
(c)It was a false alarm.
The answer is (c).Please read on the know exactly what happened...
Da Niu and I told the driver what we saw so he walked towards the bag.Suddenly, an Indian woman shouted"Eh!EH!" We were very shocked.It was someone's bag after all!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Freedom+"Discoveries"?
Today, I went back to my old school, it was quite nice there. Why? Now that we have graduated, you don't have to follow much rules anymore. Give you an example: I was at my old school's canteen, suddenly my phone rang. I knew handphones were not allowed there but I still took it out. People started looking at me, but once they saw the Hwa Chong collar pin, they turned away.It was quite scary. In the end my friend, Daniel and I ended up at a pond full of guppies and tadpoles. Then I started flinging leaves into the pond, it was quite dumb of me but after a while, we noticed that guppies seemed to crowd around the leaves.Then I saw them "eating" the leaves! I had no idea what and why they were doing that.
HYPOTHESIS 1:Guppies "eat" leaves
Then I got bored and I started flicking ants. I flicked a little black ant and thought I was going to see it drown. Then to my amazment, it "swimmed" back to shore!
HYPOTHESIS 2:Ants can "swim" in water.
Can some science geek tell me what is happening here? I really don't get it .Thanks for reading.Leave your comments.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Bad Day
Today was really a very tiring day.Well, at first everything was going as usual at first but things began to go out of hand when I remembered that I had malay class which was clashing with my table tennis trials.As malay classes were compulsory, I went for it first.Our teacher confirmed our scores.Guess how much I have got...not 10.....not 0.....you give up? I tell you, I scored a negative 8 (-8) .That was only the beginning.After class, I rushed with all my might, carring my heavy beg with a dictionary inside. When I was only metres away, the unexpected happened, my bag gave way and it just split opened......My worksheets were flying everywhere.After a few hours of table tennis, I decided to go get my handphone which was in repair.It was a few bus stops away from my house.I carried my bag with my hands, which now feels that it weighs many times heavier to the bus.I sat down and thought that everything was over, how dumb I was. As I prepared to see a bus stop just beside the handphone shop,I realised that there was no stops there. I had to walk about 1 km just to reach the shop!Oh well! Now it is really over, I am sitting on my chair posting on my blog, just the life I want.
Listen to a sad song
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
