I know it's sappy but it was first thing that came to mind :-)

My Emily Dearest

To say what I must to say what I may.
She's the air I breathe and the brightness of day.
To look in her eyes when I will call her my wife.
I hope that I keep her till the end of my life.

If we fight and we fuss it's all for the best.
I can't help but think, that it's only a test.
The sweetness of her voice and the strength of her soul.
Carries me through, makes half of me whole.

When my vision is blurry,
she helps me see clearest.
She's the angel in my sky,
My Emily dearest.

Poetry is.....

     When I think of the word "poetry" I think of a person's expression of how they feel at that moment.  I believe poetry comes from deep in the soul.  It can be happy, sad, about love, about death, or about life.  Although, I know some poems do not rhyme, I think of poetry as being rhythmic.  A great deal of songs are written from poetry.  I am a big Avett Brothers fan and most of their songs are written from poems, such as "I and Love and You."

"The Bear and The Deer"

Patrick Lane

Mrs. Watson

English 113--Section 103

Sonnet

May 30, 2011

Friends

There once was a black bear in the forest,
that befriended a dumb gullable deer.
They loved to take food from the scared tourist,
and smuggle all of the guys home brewed beer.

The deer told the bear, "the world is spinning!"
When he took a big swig of the great ale.
The bear had no care, he just kept grinning.
Then he tripped over a brewski filled pail.

The deer laughed and laughed at his drunken friend.
The bear fell and was covered in mud.

He soon found that drinking would be his end,
while the deer burped a bubble from a sud.

The bear now has no friend, nothing at all.
Just bundles of deer meat, ready for Fall.

Bibliography

"The Sonnet is a Versatile Poem of Fourteen Lines."  Literature:  An Introduction to Reading and

     Writing.  Ed.  Edgar V. Roberts. 9th ed.  New York:  Pearson, 2009. 900. Print.

To Divorce or Not to Divorce?

     I was brought up to believe that marriage is a commitment to your significant other for the rest of your life.  In Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog" the matter of staying with the one you are committed to and bound together in holy matrimony is not the case.  I understand there will always be temptation and it seems that married men are more tempting to women than single men are.  In the story Dmitri decides he is going to carry on this affair with Anna despite the fact that he is married.  In my case I personally believe that if you are going to marry someone that you do not need anyone else.  If you are going to cheat on your spouse as in Dmitri and Anna's case then why did you get married in the first place. 
     I think that you are going to want to have multiple partners or dates then you should just stay single.  Why would people go through the lengthy time period of marriage and divorce if they can not control their urges? You marry the one you love but it seems that with our 50%, or whatever it is presently, divorce rate that people are marrying more for the simple fact of saying they are married.  People are getting hitched to show off their friends or for social status.   Some are even getting married for financial security.   All the money in the world will not help an abusive relationship or a troubled marriage.  Go see a marriage therapist or something but stick to your word and vows.  Stay with your spouse, change things to make it better, and have fun with each other.

Thanks a Lot Buddy

    Most of us have borrowed something from a friend and forgot to return it or gave back a substitution.  My story is a bit different from the one in "The Necklace"  by Guy de Maupassant.  I lived in Greenville, NC for about 6 years.  I had 2 roomates that lived with me last year.  Both of my roomates were really good friends of mine.  I probably sound like a broken record because I tell this story a great deal of times, but it does imply with the same theory as "The Necklace."  My roomates and I would go play tennis which we considered a friendly game of competition.  I will just call them "J" and C" for privacy matters. 
     J and C went to play tennis one day when I had to work.   It must have been a "hardcore" match between the two because when I came back C handed me my tennis racket that he had borrowed back in shambles.  The strings were broke and the top right corner was bent.  His reply to me when I asked him what happened was that he ran into the fence trying to get to the ball.  He was a clumsy person so I laughed when I pictured it.  I was not too happy about not being able to play anymore because I did not have a racket now.  C told me that he would repay me with a new racket.  To make a long story short he came in one day with a $20 Walmart tennis racket when mine was about $50 and said, "Here you go man."  I was not too happy and to this day I can look back on it and laugh but it still gets to me a bit. 
    In "The Necklace," Mathilde did the opposite of what my roomate had done and lost a great deal of her life trying to repay Jeanne Forrestier with her diamond necklace to find it was fake.  I do not wish this to happen to C but it would have been nice for him to at least ask me what my "necklace" was valued at before he brought me back a piece of junk.
     Do any of you all have a similar story????

Formal Blog

Patrick Lane

Mrs. Watson

English 113 Section 102

Formal Blog

April 16, 2011

Just a Bit Pessismistic

     From "The Necklace" to "The Cask of Amontillado" it seems that all of the stories we have read have

had a tendency show the worst in all things.  Growing up I was taught to see the good in everyone and

everything despite the circumstances.  Audiences love to see a great ending to a story or a movie and are

even intrigued when the ending is terrible.  After reading our short stories I noticed that there were a great

deal of gloomy conclusions.  For example, in "The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick, Rosa's baby, Magda, is thrown

against an electric fence and dies.  In "The Three Strangers" by Thomas Hardy, the Misfit and his gang,

murder an entire family and even the poor pleading grandmother gets it too.  Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

portrays a whole village of people stoning their neighbors because they are following tradition. 

     All of these stories makes you wonder do we as people really enjoy death and despair?  Maybe it is the

fact that the authors were "messed up" psycholigically.  None of the short stories we read in class had a

"story book" ending.  Hopefully we will read some poems that will give us all an optimistic outlook on life

because after this past section we are going to need it.

Works Cited

Hardy, Thomas.  "The Three Strangers."  Roberts, Edgar V.  Literature:  An Introduction to Reading and

     Writing,  9th Ed.  New York:  Longman, 2009.  287-300.

Jackson, Shirley.  "The Lottery."  Roberts, Edgar V.  Literature:  An Inroduction to Reading and Writing,

     9th Ed.  NewYork:  Longman, 2009.  141-145.

Maupassant, Guy de.  "The Necklace."  Roberts, Edgar V.  Literature:  An Introduction to Reading and

     Writing, 9th Ed.   New York:  Longman, 2009. 5-12.

Ozick, Cynthia.  "The Shawl."  Roberts, Edgar V.  Literature:  An Introduction to Reading and Writing,

     9th Ed.  New York:  Longman, 2009.  266-268.

Poe, Edgar Alan.  "The Cask of Amontillado."  Roberts Edgar V.  Literature:  An Introduction to Reading

     and Writing, 9th Ed.  New York:  Longman, 2009.  519-523.



Too Many Plays Inside of a Play

     In English class we chose to read A Midsummer Night's Dream as our short story.  I personally chose "Death of a Salesman" but it was a majority vote by the class.  William Shakespeare gave a great adaptation of love and drama while throwing in a bit of comedy in this play.  Unfortunately I am not much of a fan of the fact that he chose to put multiple plays inside of the primary one.  I understand the fact that he was trying to add to the comedy with the play; however, the audience could get a bit confused which to follow more closely.  Shakespeare did tie the 2 in well in the end during the wedding, but you have to choose which you would like to follow more.  During the first of the play you are following the dialogue between the hierarchies of Queen's and King's then Shakespeare chooses to switch to a whole different aspect of people and a totally different plot.
     I would have rather read a play about the love story and even with the fairies then been bounced around from play to play.  Do not get me wrong, Bottom and his cohorts were hilarious together and much easier to familiarize with than the wealthy characters.  On another point it should have not taken the lovers to be persuaded with magic to see which of them should truly be together. 

                                                                     Works Cited

Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

CHARGE!

     CHARGE!   One of the best lines of the movie, Arsenic and Old Lace, by director Frank Capra was yelled numerous times by Theodore Brewster.  Theodore Mortimer's younger brother, played by John Alexander, had me laughing out loud trying not to disrupt the class.  Theodore believed himself to be President Teddy Roosevelt and was a big help to the Aunt's by burying their victims in the basement.  He believed he was digging the Panama Canal.  One of my favorite of the many quotes in the movie is when Aunt Abby said:  "Oh, do you remember, Martha, once a long time ago, we thought if he'd be George Washington, it might be a change for him, and we suggested it."  Aunt Martha then replied, "And do you know what happened? He just stayed under his bed for days and wouldn't be anybody."  Poor Theodore did not realize he was doing anything wrong yet Mortimer insisted he needed to be put in Happydale Sanitarium.  He seemed to be the only one actually having any fun during the mass histeria happening elsewhere.  Frank Crapa could have based a whole movie around his character. 
     I thought it was hilarious when Mr. Witherspoon (Edward Everett Horton), the head of Happydale Sanitarium told Mortimer he was reluctant to accept Theodore because they already had a few Teddy Roosevelt's and it may cause trouble there.  I can picture it now, multiple "President's" fighting over who gives the commands.  Arsenic and Old Lace is the only black and white movie I have ever watched all the way through to the end and I now have a new respect for these type of movies.

                                                                       Works Cited
Screenplay  Arsenic and Old Lace.  Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein. released on DVD 2000.  Warner Bros.

Wanted: Actors/Actresses Who Can Sing

Patrick Lane

Mrs. Watson

English 113--Section 101

Narrative Essay

February 23, 2011

Wanted:  Actors/Actresses Who Can Sing

      Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Tim Burton, screenplay by Stephen 

 Sondheim, is a dark comedy musical set in London, England.  The movie stars Johnny Depp as Todd 

 (Benjamin Barker) and Helena Bonham Carter as Ms. Lovett.  Todd is and insane barber set on revenge 

 after his wife and daughter are taken away early in the movie by the evil Judge Turpin.  Once Sweeney Todd 

 sets his mind to it he is back into action and slicing and dicing his victims into meat pie's for Ms. Lovett's 

restaurant.  This is a wonderful adaptation of revenge with a comedic twist; however, the groaning of the

ballads by the characters was hideous.
     Early in the movie the singing was confusing.  It is understandable that he had a huge place in his heart for
his wife and daughter but the movie would have been much more capable with just spoken voice.  Johnny
Depp is an amazing actor and when asked about his singing ability in a post movie interview he gave a reply,
"I do not know if I can, but I will try."  The fact that he is unaware of any singing ability he has is obvious.
For instance when he is singing the phrase "We all deserve to die," he tries to hit a high note which makes an
awful bellow which compares to that of an injured dog.
     Stephen Sondheim unfortunately adds in the simple British accent of Carter (Ms. Lovett) throughout the
movie.  For example, when Lovett is singing about Judge Turpin taking advantage of Lucy, Todd's lost wife,
there is a solemness in her voice.  Here, the audience would be incapable of understanding the basic point of
her song because of her accent along with the darkness of the comedy, excluding her terrible singing
voice. 
     We are not all great actors or singers, but to have such a wonderful movie considerably ruined by
rudimentary musical numbers is out of the question.  Stephen Sondheim and Tim Burton could have chosen
actors or actresses with a much better singing voice than they did for Sweeney Todd:  The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street.  

Works Cited

Sweeney Todd:  The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  Screenplay Stephen Sondheim.  Dir. Tim Burton. 

     2007. Dreamworks, 2008.  DVD