That Time of Year

Old English has always been a challenge for me along with things written by Shakespeare. I looked up some analysis on this poem because it was hard for me to understand. I could see that it was about winter and death, but the analysis let me know that it was about a man's youth dying. I re-read the poem, and it makes more sense because I think I read over the line, "That on the ashes of his youth doth lie." This poem is about how time ages the body. Youth is something that is cherished but it doesn't last forever. I think that colors also help get this point across. The yellow leaves represent the man's bright and happy youth while the black night is ominous and is going to take the man's youth away from him.

Edward

Wow! The first thing I would have to say is that if I wrote this poem, I wouldn't want to claim its insanity either. The whole plot of this poem is completely twisted. I didn't realize what had happened till my small group talked about the poem and somebody joked about the mother being the psycho one. Then, I realized that when the boy told his mother of his father's death, she wasn't sad in the least bit. The mother only cares about where the material items and property will go to since they are not legally her son's. She is so concerned with what everyone will possess since the death of her husband. The son explains to her that she will only get "the curse of hell from me [Edward] shall ye [mother] bear." Edward blames her for raising him the way that she did. She is the reason why his dear father is dead.

The pattern in this poem goes from what least matters to the mother to what is cherished by the mother. The poem starts off talking about animals. Then, it goes from the father to penance to possessions and land to Edward's children and wife to the most important, herself. Also, the same lines are repeated throughout the poem and the structure of every stanza is the same.

Extremes

" It's a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake. It makes things vivid. When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." (pg. 183)

I have never been in an extreme life of death situation, but here I understand what Tim is saying. It takes one extreme present (death) to fully be able to recognize and cherish the other extreme (life). People in the world often ask, "Why do bad things have to happen?" I believe the same rule applies here. Bad things are present so that good things seem more real and aren't taken for granted.

This summer I have traveled all around the country it feels like. I went on Summer Field Studies which went to the Grand Canyon and Colorado and the week after SFS I went on a family vacation to Michigan. Over those three weeks I feel that I can relate to this passage twice.

When hiking in the canyon, it kind of scared me to know that people had died by falling into the canyon. This presence of the possibility of death with one wrong step made me watch where I was walking. I would say that this danger brought me fully awake. Also, when I was in Michigan, my family and I went to a butterfly house. I know that doesn't sound too deadly or dangerous, but I felt like the lives of the butterflies were in my hands. The danger or possibility of stepping on the free flying butterflies made me take my steps with caution. I felt like I had never observed more in my entire life because I was so awakened by the thought of killing a butterfly.

Random Fact I learned : Butterflies only live for 3 to 10 days... So if I did step on one, it's not like they really had a future anyways =/