Gone Forever

Author’s Note: This is a response to the two pomes “Big Yellow Taxi”, by Joni Mitchell and “Field Below”, by Regina Spektor. The purpose is to show the mood and tone of both compared to one another. As well as the author’s purpose. And lastly the mood/tone music to the poem in compared or contrast to the text. Also this piece is my piece that I would like to have graded on the writing rubric.

            The two poems “Big Yellow Taxi”, by Joni Mitchell and “Field Below”, by Regina Spektor both have the same mood of sympathy. Yet the purpose for “Big Yellow Taxi”, in my opinion, is to show that you shouldn’t take things for granted because the next day it might be gone. And the “Field Below” purpose is that she was sad that something was gone and lost.

For the tone in both I believe that it is devastated, sad or irked in a way. A quote from “Big Yellow Taxi” that I find to show sadness would be “Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got, till it's gone” I feel as if she is trying to tell the people that you don’t really seem to know you have something until it is gone from your life and always appreciate it because someday it might not be there anymore. And a quote from “Field Below” that shows sadness would be “I wish I'd see a field below”.  This shows that she wishes she could have something back, yet she can’t because it is gone now.

            I feel as if the song for “Big Yellow Taxi” isn’t what you would think it would be. It was very upbeat and you wouldn’t really imagine the lyrics to be as sad as they are. Yet for “Field Below” the song was what you thought it would be. Very mellow and slow. It shows that you can take a very sympathetic song and make it sound happy, or sad. In my opinion, I feel as if the song for “Big Yellow Taxi” ruined the purpose and tone/mood overall because of how sad the poem is. But for “Field Below” I thought that the song really fitted the poem and was very intelligent because of how well it was tied together.

           

You Left

Author's Note: This is a parody to the poem, Just to Stay. This poem is based off of Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts.

By: Kaitlin and Claudia

I’m so sad you left,

I don’t know how to tell you this.

Why did you leave me?

I am all alone with no one,

You also left our baby,

Why did you?

Did you think you could get away with that?

But now I found a guy,

He is wonderful,

Better than you.

I am happy you left,

Our baby is beautiful,

And I have her all to myself.

This is a piece about Where the Heart is by Billie Letts. This parody resembles the poem “Mother to Sun” by William Carlos Williams. The speaker in this parody is Novalee. She is saying this to Willy Jack because he left her at Wal-Mart, 17 years old and 7 months pregnant. The tone of this parody at first would be sad and depressed, but at the end of it it’s more of a happy and relieved. The mood of this poem is miserable at first but then it gets joyful. It’s kind of that “Haha, in your face” type of parody.

Life for me Ain't Been no Crystal Stair

Author’s Note: This essay is about the poem Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes. The purpose is to explain my thoughts of the differences of figurative language the meaning/purpose or that and the mood and tone of the poem.

“Life for me ain't been no crystal stair” is a metaphor; it is relating the life of the mother to a crystal stair. For her, it is the opposite of an elegant life. I believe that the purpose of relating the life to a crystal stair is because crystal is pure and elegant. When the mother said “Life for me ain't been no crystal stair” the purpose of it was to explain the her son that life for her wasn’t even easy. It was difficult. For example;

"It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare."

This personification is showing the reader in description that the “stair” she has been climbing her life wasn’t exactly ideal perfect. Which gives off the mood for the reader. For me I felt like the mother was trying to encourage her son into never give up in something he believes in or wants. Yet I think the tone Langston Hughes was trying to give off was as well to never give up. The reason why is because Langston was part of the Harlem Recusants. So he might have put his life in it to help others understand that he never gave up and look at how successful you can be after it all.

Being Novalee

Author's Note: I wrote this to show my description of Novalee in her point of view from Where the Heart Is, by Blilie Letts. The purpose of this piece is to show my thoughts in how the character would describe herself to someone.

I am not the average 17 year old. I am Novalee. A 17 year old girl that is pregnant. My belly is full of life. It is as round as a beach ball. My extraordinary brown hair falls past my shoulders, resembling a mud waterfall coming off of my head. I look in the mirror and see a fat teen, all thanks to Willy Jack. My heart is dead; the only thing that is keeping me alive is my baby.

I have no family. My mom left me all alone. As my stomach grows just like a beach ball being blown up; once deflated now a sphere. I am all alone with the lonesome store of Wal-Mart at night. Being 17 and pregnant really changes a girl. One day my stomach will go “pop”! And my beautiful baby girl will be brought into this large, graceful land called Earth. I am scared to death though! What if I never find a father for my baby? What if my baby doesn’t make it? I will end up being Sandra Bullock after Jessie James left her, lonely. But I shall be strong, just like the Incredible Hulk.

Something Good Will Happen

Author’s Note: I wrote this essay based on the whole writing and prediction on the reading rubric. The purpose of this new scene is to show my prediction on what is going to happen later on while reading Until the End, by Christopher Pike. I wrote the scene based off of the prom because that is the next main thing that is about to happen.

                Jessica walked up to her and Michael’s locker, well now hers. Wishing she would see him there so they could talk. She needed to talk to him about everything, about Alice. Good thing prom is coming up and we both don’t have a date. At the movies I will try to see if he would want to go with me.

                “Hey, Jessica” Michael said walking over to his old locker.

                “Hi. Michael, I was just about to go look for you!”

                “Oh cool. So I can’t wait to go to that movie with you. I need to ask you something there.”

                Could this be it? Jessica thought to herself. Prom? Is he going to ask me to go with him? Oh I hope so. “Oh okay. Pick you up around 6 o’clock.” She smiled and yet off to her class.

                Bubba came up behind Michael and gave him a scare. “So did you ask her to prom yet?”Bubba asked.

                “No, at the movies I will. Kay?”

                “Okay, but hurry up. I hear there are a lot of guys that want to get with her and you know that too, Michael.”

                “Yeah I know. I just want it to be at the right moment in time you know?”

                “Yeah okay Mike. Well I will see you later. Don’t forget to make it smooth and romantic, girls like that.” Bubba went off and Michael was thinking about how he was going to ask her to prom. He didn’t know how to ask a girl out even! He hasn’t ever really done that. How can the smartest guy in school not know how to do something even the dumbest guys can do?

                Later on at lunch Jessica caught Michael’s attention and waved him and Bubba over to sit by her, so he did. Polly and Sara were sitting at the table as well. At first it was awkward for Jessica to see Michael even though she just talked to him about an hour before. Was it that she might have actually liked him? Or was it because he was the guy that Alice wanted to hook her u with? Well that didn’t matter at the moment. It was about what he wanted to ask her at the movies. Jessica couldn’t get that out of her head. Prom prom prom prom prom prom prom… was all that was streaming through her head when she though Michael.

                “Hi” Michael and Bubba said as they sat down. Starting a conversation Bubba started talking about prom to the girls. Right when he said ‘prom’ Jessica looked at Michael and blushed. Michael knew she would say yes now. But he still needed to figure out how to ask.

                Later on that day Michael moved back into his old locker with Jessica. Jessica saw him putting his books in and was confused.

                “Did they kick you out or what? “ Jessica laughed.

                “No, I just decided I liked having a locker buddy” he looked up and smiled.

                “I do too” blushing and smiling Jessica thought to herself it is so obvious that I like him; mine as well just tattoo it across my face!

                On Saturday Jessica picked up Michael and they went off to the movies. Michael looked at Jessica and started laughing and smiling.

                “What?” she asked.

                “I just can’t believe you want to go see a movie with me” Michael told her.

                “How come?”

                “I don’t know. I just can’t.” Once they got out of the car Michael said “Now for my question.”

                Jessica’s heart was racing.

                “Will you go to prom, with me?”
                This was it! “Yes!” She said with an ear to ear grin on her face. So it was final. Michael and Jessica were going to prom together.

                Only if Alice knew, she would be jumping with joy and excitement. Michael thought to himself. “So which movie are we seeing?” He smiled and they both went into the theater.

                So that was that. We are official now. Locker buddies and prom dates, could this week get any better? Jessica kept thinking.