Romeo and Juliet pre letter

Dear Person,
We are soon to be reading romeo and juliet, and i am quite happy we are to do so. I have not yet read a book of Shakespeare's, so i am not entirely sure of what to expect. I know that there will be the old version of english used throughout the book, in fact, all of it is probably old english. Being that i speak and write in such an eccentric way, i may be able to easily understand Shakespeare's language, for i believe that they might be quite similar.

On other note, my mother has been recently nagging me about our "incompetent" ELA classes, for we never have group readings on classics. I have told her that we were to be reading Romeo and Juliet and she was very pleased. She said she read Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade too. Well, at least now she cannot say our ELA system is incompetent because it is up to speed with hers, and she was satisfied with hers.

The weird thing about Shakespeare, is like you are rereading. Because his works are so famous, I pretty much know the whole plot about Romeo and Juliet. I also know what happens, who dies, and how it ends. Why read it then? Because of the literary style and devices used in it, and because the plot and story is so amazing that it must be analyzed more thoroughly. That is also the same reason why you would reread a book, or re-watch a movie. i can't wait to read it, and i'll tell you about it later.

Sincerely,
Jake Lester

Sonnet 27 Shakespeare Response

SONNET 27

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.




This is a sonnet written by shakespeare and to start it off, on line 13, it is not lol, but lo, An exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event. Shakespeare wrote this poem to show the lifestyle he endures, concerning lost or gone love. In my own personal decipher, I will start from the beggining and translate. Tired, I try to go to sleep, to give rest to my body for I travled for long. However i cant rest because i start to think. My mind works when my body can't work anymore. And my brain is eager for a journey to you, but i try to say awake, and lookng into the darkness of my room. Except that my hearts wanting makes your image apear in the night, which in contrast and combination made thedark look beutiful and your old face gorgeuos. Aha! Always I am working physically and mentally, and i never find peace.


The main theme that sonnets usually focus on is love. Shakespeare especially foceses on very complicated relationships about his love, or at least makes it sound very complicated. Specifically I think this one is about a past lover whom Shakespeare can no longer see. It is possible that she has died, which would work with the part where he says "...and her old face new." I chose this sonnet, and really love it because it has such an interesting and involving point, being that the author cannot ever be at rest for his mind and body are always working. I loved how Shakespeare was always using the best of words for what he wanted to say.


For example, he could have easily have said something like "my body and my limbs are so tired" instead of "The dear repose for limbs with travel tired." The difference in quality is painfully visible just from a few words, the main one being repose. I didn't even know what it was and was forced to look it up. It makes me think about the fact that having a wide range of vocabulary might be the key, and main factor to a good sonnet. Even if the sonnet is about your love for Cheese Doodles, I am sure if you spoke the way Shakespeare you could make it sound good. My attempt (first 4 sentences): For have I a deep yearn'ing for my sweet love, That unto thee I use magniloquence. My soul thinks of nothing besides thereof. Cheese Doodles hast i not misrepresent.


I just wrote the first four lines of a sonnet about Cheese Doodles, and no matter how you look at it, The subject of that partial sonnet is awful. However I ornate it with some fancy vocabulary, and it becomes mediocre and slightly amusing. This is taking matters to the extreme however, and with a decent poem, a beautiful piece could be made. I think Shakespeare realized this and chose to sacrifice readability for artistic, creative, and of beauty remembrance for his sonnets.

A Sonnet Of Meaning

Emotions, emotions, what purpose served?

No practical reason of existence.

A perfect person can now be unnerved.

And oh so very hard for resistance.

In crucial moments cause hesitation.

Causing impossible control of thoughts.

Giving way to annoying sensation.

Relief from this weight is what I have sought.

But alas, it is what makes us human.

For without that I ask, what would we be?

Without the ocean, what would be the sand?

A dessert as far as the eye can see.

There would not be moisture, life just as well.

And what would life be then? It would be hell.

3 poems

"What is ____" Poem

Poetry
is
whatever.
The earth,
the sun,
the ground,
the sky,
the sea,
everything,
nothing,
all, none,
me.


"What happens to..." Poem


What happens to a world one believed in?
So real, no more.
Imaginative until frowned upon.
Washed up, no more.
The magic fades, darken do the shades.
Alas, no more.
And  what then? Gone, just as made.
What does happen to a world once believed in
but not anymore?
No more, no more.


Art poem

A rabbi cloaked in a veil of light

as darkness has enveloped the surroundings.

An angel in the horizon taking flight,

a worrisome face as the journey arises.

Praying, praying. Giving all to all.

The torah, a violin, a goat, a man.

Praying,

resting,

solitude.

Art and Solitude

Solitude

by Marc Chagall

A rabbi cloaked in a veil of light

as darkness has enveloped the surroundings.

An angel in the horizon taking flight,

a worrisome face as the journey arises.

Praying, praying. Giving all to all.

The torah, a violin, a goat, a man.

Praying,

resting,

solitude.                              -by jake lester

Marc Chagall was born on july 7th 1887. He was born in Russia, and was the eldest of 9 children [http://www.biography.com/people/marc-chagall-9243488]. He studied art from a very young age and when he was 23 (in 1910) he moved to france. When in France, He started painting the pieces that made him famous, such as Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers (1912), I and the Village (1911),Hommage Apollinaire (1911–12), Calvary (1912), The Fiddler(1912), and Paris Through the Window (1913) [http://www.biography.com/people/marc-chagall-9243488]. He often incorporated his religion and home village in his art pieces. In 1914, he had his first personal art gallery (a gallery entirely dedicated to his art) In 1915 he married Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a wealthy Vitebsk merchant. She was also in many of his pieces. In 1916 they had a daughter and named he Ida. When world war 2 broke out, Marc and his family went to seek refugee in New York (for MOMA invited them). Bella (Marc's wife) died 4 years after arriving dying in a hospital. He continued making art pieces of his home and his first wife, painting sets, and other related things till the day he died, which was on March 28, 1985.

I chose this piece because it just looked so sad, yet it also reminded me of hope. I was interested on why it may have done that to me, so i looked at it closer. I noticed that in the piece there is a rabbi sitting on the ground in maybe the nighttime. The rabbi looks as if he has an expression of concern on his face, similar in my opinion to the angels. Maybe the rabbi is praying for the angel, who has a tough journey ahead. If you look closely enough at the man's face (and you must include the mouth in the picture), you can see that he is hoping, and possibly praying.

 Also, there is not only black in the background. Nice shades of blue are starting to sprout, most likely giving to a new day. A new day, a sunrise very much symbolizes hope. When looking at the center of the painting, and looking at the buildings covered in darkness, you notice how sad it looks. However, directly to its right are some buildings covered in brightness, making it look a lot more joyous and less sorrowful. I believe that this means that there is hope for a "brighter tomorrow" by definition of how the sun is rising.

Concluding this, Marc Chagall incorporates almost all that is dear to him. He puts his village in the background, puts the torah in it (the red scroll that the rabbi is holding) (Definition: A scroll containing the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures) [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Torah], which is a major part of his faith, Judaism. He also places a goat in it, which has a very deep significance to Marc because almost all of his works have a goat in it. These three things might be his definition of hope, or of what reminds him of it.

Would be hilarious if it wasn't so dreadful

Wow, I stop at page 260 in Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The characters are about to watch an air show and nothing important looks like it is going to happen. I write a blog about how my suspicions of ice-nine are true and i take a break from the book. When I come back to page 261 one of the planes have crashed, "Papa's" dead crystalized body has fallen into the sea, and pretty much an apocalypse happens. The whole sea freezes, all the locals have committed suicide because of their playful "Priest," and tornadoes are raging 24/7. The person the main character loves commits suicide 1 week after the tornados start, and meets the mysterious Bokonon. This book has 287 pages and the first 260 pages are an introduction to an exciting story. This book only takes place within a certain amount of months and then it just ends in twenty pages.

Just twenty minutes before writing this i was talking to someone about  how there were some good books with non conclusive endings. I can't believe how true that was. This blog post will be short, because there is just too much for me to summarize within a single post. anyone who wants to question humanity, or why they exist, or about God and religion just read this book. I don't even know what to tell myself in my mind about this book. I give the book a 8/5. in comparison i give the first book of the hunger game series a 4.5/5.

Cats Cradle Suspicions Comfirmed

                                            READ PREVIOUS BLOG BEFORE READING THIS

To start this off, I knew it. Ice-nine has made its appearance, and none too shabby either. In Cats Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, Ice-nine has successfully killed two human beings, on pages 235-239. "Papa" was the president/dictator of san Lorenzo, a poor, sad, third world country, and he was dying. He was about to die of cancer, when he decided to commit suicide. He committed suicide by putting a chip of ice-nine in his mouth. This froze all the moisture in his body, causing almost everything in his body crystalize with ice-nine. Then, the doctor who was treating him went to wash off his hands, which had ice-nine crystals on them. The doctor was bewildered when the water he was washing his hands with froze and he touched it with the tip of his tounge. He died the same way "Papa" did.

The main character witnesses the doctor die, and you hear hints of what the three children did with their crystals. the book is nearly over, and on ice-nine matters, nothing else has happened besides 3 countries having control of it. San Lorenzo, USA, and soviet russia.