Poems from the ‘Book of matches’

I have decided to use two poems from the book of matches, ‘Those bastards in their mansions’, ‘I’ve made out a will’ and the poem ‘Kid’ to compare and contrast. Simon Armitage wrote ‘Book of matches’ in 1993. It is a selection of poems without titles. Each poem is meant to be read in the time that it takes for a match to burn down. There is a pun in the title, a packet from which we tear out the matches a book, but this is also a book in the normal sense, with words for us to read.

Both of these poems are fourteen lines long, but they are not strictly a sonnet in form. ‘I’ve made out a will’ has irregular rhymes, both full and half rhymes. It is split so that there is a first block of eight lines, then a second block of six lines, which is split into a four and a two. The final section is split so that it ends in a couplet like a Shakespearean sonnet. Some may argue that this poem is not a sonnet because it does not follow a conventional sonnet form, such as a Shakespearean sonnet or a Petrarchan sonnet.

‘Those bastards in their mansions’ has some weird features to its structure. Ten of the first eleven lines end in an unstressed syllable, and there are some rhymes such as “ditches/britches”, “porches and torches”, and there is the part-rhyme in “shackles/ankles”. At the end of the poem, there is short lines and true rhyme on one syllable, “sun” and gun”. This may suggest the power of the shadowy outlaw, who eludes his wealthy foes.

Like ‘Those bastards in their mansions’, in the poem ‘Kid’, every line ends with an unstressed syllable. Every line ends with the ‘-er’ sound. The poem starts off with heavy syllables to emphasise that Robin, the persona of the poem is annoyed. The heavy syllables are almost like Robin is shouting, and they show that he is in a mood. It is almost comical how the poet manages to end every line with ‘-er’. As the poem progresses, the reader wonders how the poet is able to continue with this pattern. The poem is ideally suited to be read aloud, as the ending lines accumulate, the listeners wonder how the reader will keep up.

‘I’ve made out a will’ is about an organ donor with a reservation. The speaker in the poem explains how he has decided to donate his body to the National Health Service. He says how he is going to donate everything apart from his heart. Not only is he going to donate his organs, but he has also ‘made out a will’ so that his wishes are taken out after he has died. He lists all of the parts that he is ‘sure they can use’, but some things would only be useful for research, such as veins and nerves.

In ‘Those bastards in their mansions’, the persona of the poem has a grudge against people. He mentions words such as ‘mansions’, ‘palaces’ and ‘castles’. Here this is probably a large exaggeration, but it could be taken literally as the poem could be set in the past, there is mention of ‘burning torches’ and ‘cuffs and shackles’.

Like in ‘Those bastards in their mansions’, in ‘Kid’, Robin has a grudge against Batman. Simon Armitage imagines that Robin has separated from Batman and that he has succeeded and that Batman has turned into a failure. It says how Batman has ‘nothing in the walk-in larder’. This is the opposite to ‘Those bastards in their mansions’ because in that poem the persona has nothing compared to the people he has a grudge against and is jealous.

At the end of the first eight-line section, the speaker concludes his list with the one exception, ‘but not the heart, they can leave that alone’. And at the end of the poem, he repeats this, ‘but not the pendulum, the ticker/leave that where it stops or hangs’ he does not say why he does not want his heart to be used again, maybe it is because it is the part of him that keeps him alive, and he does not think that it would be right if someone else used this part. To the national health, the heart is the most valuable organ, so we do not know why the reader wants so much to hold onto his heart, he emphasises how much he wants his heart by the amount of times that he says that he does not want it to be used.

This poem has a vivid series of metaphors, which are in lists. The metaphors portray different things. Some of the images have medical overtones, ‘tubes’, ‘stitches’ and ‘wounds’. These are quite graphic words and show us that the reader predicts dying maybe in an accident, and that he could receive surgery. There are words to do with workshops such as glues and chassis. Others respond to food or cookery such as ‘jellies’, ‘syrups’, ‘loaf’ and ‘gallon…of bilberry soup’. There are a lot of different images only for one thing. The skeleton is known as the ‘chassis’, ‘cage’, and ‘cathedral of bone’. Throughout the second part of the poem, there is an extended metaphor. This is one of a clock. Here there is ‘loops and coils and crockets and springs and rods, the twines and cords and strands, the face, the case, the cogs and the hands,’ ‘the face’ and ‘the hands’ are already words for parts of the human body, but other parts of this phrase can be worked in to go along with other parts of the human body. In the last two lines he says how he does not want his heart to be touches, he compares this with ‘the pendulum, the ticker’. These are the parts of the clock that makes everything work, just like the human heart. In this passage, Simon Armitage uses lots of metaphors. This is to emphasise points. For example, he uses not only ‘pendulum’, but also ‘ticker’ to talk about the heart.

Throughout this poem the poet describes the human body merely as lots of parts, he shows no emotion towards anything apart from the heart. This could be because the speaker sees the heart as being the most important part of a mechanism, like a pendulum in a clock. It also maybe that he values the heart as a symbol of all things that make life worth living, a heart is the symbol of love, affection, energy, desire, and much more. Or, perhaps he feels that he is inside his heart, and it is like a soul, and if he gives up his heart then he is giving up his immortality.

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Pillow Book by Sei Shonagan

After reading this brief section of “The Pillow Book,” I believe that the things, events or situations she considers not good or proper are those that differ from the unique cultural value and concept of Miyabi. Miyabi is a refined courtly taste and a perfection of form and color. Many of the things, events and situations described directly differs from this concept and in ancient Japanese societies, this concept was very much valued and important.

This is especially shown in the 5th example of hateful things in which Sei Shonagon describes “the sight of men in their cups who shout, poke fingers in their mouths, stroke their beards, and pass on the wine to their neighbors with cries…” This example shows how Sei Shonagon has seen well-bred people behaving like this and violating the concept of Miyabi which has caused it to be distasteful. In my opinion, the concept of Miyabi and the reasoning of her evaluation is based on social aspects as Miyabi was formed upon a concept of how to behave socially. . A Man who has nothing in particular to recommend him discusses all sorts of subjects at random as though he knew everything. I agree with this example because I have met a lot of these types of people throughout my life and I find them absolutely annoying. They are perfect examples of what I believe to be jack of all trades and master of none. It especially annoys me when they talk about a topic in which I study or have done a lot of research on and they end up telling a lot of false facts which I know to not be true. . One is in the middle of a story when someone butts in and tries to show that he is the only clever person in the room. Such a person is hateful, and so, indeed, is anyone, child or adult, who tries to push himself forward. This example really resonated with me because throughout attending a lot of networking events, I have realized that these people are despicable. When a person is in the middle of saying something, I find it really rude to cut in and interrupt them.

However, this seems to always happen at networking events where all the students are trying to gain favoritism from the employer by interrupting and attempting to show that he is the cleverest person in the room. c. Ladies-in-waiting who want to know everything that is going on. Once again, this example really “pushes my buttons”. I find this to be especially true in high school settings where everyone wants to know everything. It seems that every person, especially girls in high school need to know the daily gossip and find it a personal objective to spread that gossip to as many people as they possibly can.

I really do not like these types of people, especially when it is none of their business or when you do not even know them. d. A newcomer pushes ahead of the other members in a group; with a knowing look, this person starts laying down the law and forcing advice upon everything – most hateful. This occurs in group settings and especially in team projects. One person will always assume that they are the smartest and try to take a management role to delegate work to everybody. However, I think that the reason you’re working in a group is to see the opinions of others and also to see how others think.

When one person tries to take over and stops everyone from giving opinions, this destroys the main point of working in a group. From reading this list, I think that she would consider anything that conforms to the concept of Miyabi would be good or praise worthy. In a western civilization, she would probably consider gentlemen behavior to be good or praiseworthy. Sei Shonagon sets herself up as an arbiter of good taste and most of hateful things are pronouncements of what she considers elegant or inelegant behavior in male courtiers.

Therefore, I believe that a man who acts as a gentleman will receive praise from her. There is definitely a bias in Shonagon’s evaluation of people. Firstly, it is evident that she does not really like old people. This is evident in her 4th example of how she talks about “an elderly person warms the palms of his hands over a brazier and stretches out the wrinkles. No Young man would dream of behaving in such a fashion; old people can really be quite shameless”. This shows that she is quite straightforward and almost arrogant in writing about her view of elders.

In addition, there is a gender bias as she seems to evaluate her male courtiers and makes explicit pronouncements as to what she deems to be elegant and inelegant behavior. Through reading her list of hateful things, I realized that Shonagon thinks that a man has to do everything perfectly and in accordance with Miyabi. An example would be the 8th hateful thing; “A gentlemen has visited one secretly. Though he is wearing a tall, lacquered hat, he nevertheless wants no one to see him. He is so flurried, in fact, that on leaving, he bangs into something with his hat.

Most hateful! ” To me, it seems that the male courtier was just clumsy and made a mistake of banging his hat on something but to Shonagon, it seems that this is the most inelegant behavior a male courtier could do. She wrote about how hateful it was and therefore, I think that there is definitely a gender bias in her evaluation of people. The only time she actually talks about hateful things that women does is in her example of “ladies in waiting who want to know everything that is going on. ” Her list of hateful things is mostly comprised of the male courtiers.

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Selections from Annie John

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Josh Hamilton Book

Justin Michael CabanEnglish 10 Mrs. MeyerBook Report For my 1st quarter book report I read “Beyond Belief” which is written by Josh Hamilton. Hamilton is a Major league baseball player who now plays for the Texas Rangers and was named MVP two short season’s ago. Josh is a premier center fielder and the captain of his team, for the average person you may think Mr. Hamiliton lives the ordinary life of a sports star , the pretty women , fancy cars , huge house’s and the six figure pay checks.

Even though this may be true, living an everyday lifestyle was extremely difficult for Josh throughout his whole life , you would think someone who is so well respected and idolized by many fans throughout the world would try to live up to his expectations, but that was not the case for Josh , he was addicted to cocaine and struggled with many other addictions such as alcoholism and having anger issues with his loved ones. Josh wrote this book to express his feelings and give readers a point of view on how thing’s may not also be the same as it seems.

So next time you judge someone just by their appearance, financial situation or even idolizing someone just by the way they perform a certain thing, you might want to think that over. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers who made last year’s all-star team and hit a record 28 home runs in one round of the Home Run Derby has a lot more than All Star memories to be thankful for. He is alive, reunited with his family and back in baseball, which only a few years ago seemed impossible since he was in the middle of dealing with a cocaine addiction.

Josh was drafted in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays , as a young kid , Josh stunned all different kinds of people with his skill for the game of baseball , reaching nearly 80 mph on a pitching gun at age 12 meant he was destined to play in the MLB at one point or another. When Josh was drafted in 1999 he as well as others expected him to be an automatic first round pick , which he was but instead of going right to work with his new team , Josh was sidelined, not by his coach , but by his devastating addiction to cocaine. The MLB has a very strict drug policy and there players are constantly found =. are serve a suspension of 50 games.

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Quick Books Essay

Information Technology (IT) is a foundation for conducting business today. It plays a critical role in increasing productivity of firms and entire nation. It is proven that firms who invested in IT have experienced continued growth in productivity and efficiency. Many companies’ survival and even existence without use of IT is unimaginable. IT has become […]

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Book Will Always Exist

Book will always exist We are living in a century of technical progress. More and more new gadgets appear in our everyday lives. If I had been told ten years ago that I would be able to check e-mails, listen to the music and read electronic books with the use of only mobile phone, I […]

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Book Dummary on Amelia Earhart

Discussion on Amelia Earhart: The Sky’s No Limit by Lori Van Pelt. Sentence Summary In Amelia Earhart: The Sky’s No Limit by Lori Van Pelt, Amelia, a women aviator, has always enjoyed new and risky things, but will her soon to be biggest accomplishment that sets milestones for women be her last? Paragraph Summary Amelia Earhart: The Sky’s No Limit a biography talks about one of the most famous aviator women in history. As a young girl her grandparents could have recalled her as a daring girl with big dreams, and without a doubt she grew into women were those dreams became a reality.

Always fascinated with airplanes she obtained her own pilot wings and participated in flights and shows across the country. She won the world over with her humbleness along with George Putnam. He was set out to make Amelia the most famous Aviator in history. To make that dream a reality she would have to fly solo across the entire world. On her journey to pave the road for future women aviators she vanished among the islands in the Pacific coming to end of her round-the-world flight.

Her aircraft was never found, but her memory lives on for being one of the most Famous Women Aviators in History. Page Summary Amelia Earhart, a tomboy in Kansas, growing up was very daring and risky. She enjoyed trying new things and that even resulted to her building a roller coaster in her grandparent’s backyard. In her twenties she fell in love with flight while attending an acrobatic show and her first flight in an airplane encouraged her love among the clouds as well. She knew what she wanted to do and nothing was going to stop her.

At age 24 she earned her pilot wings and in 1928 she attended some flight shows, including the Friendship Flight, where she won the crowd over with her charm and unassuming nature. Amelia was even compared to such pilots as the distinguished Charles Lindbergh, calling her Lady Lindy. She did not only win over the hearts of millions she also won over the heart of George Putnam. In 1931 Earhart married Putnam, who managed her career and insured her she would be the most famous aviator in the History. She soon received the Distinguished Flying Cross after lying solo across the Atlantic, and set out her mission to encourage the women throughout the world to explore careers – typically careers that were traditionally held by men. On her biggest and most daring venture, a flight across the entire world, Earhart was lost at sea near the Pacific Island, nearly finishing her quest. President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged the greatest search of its time for the fliers and the craft, but it was never found. Amelia Earhart journey may never have finished, but she set milestones for women across the globe.

She was indeed the most famous women aviator of all time. Gender Stuff. Amelia Earhart trampled the gender norm in her generation. A typical American woman stayed home, cooking, cleaning, and took care of the husband and kids. She broke through cultural barriers becoming a female pilot. She was a member of the National Women’s Party, and a big supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. This era had other contributions to help women become more independent and successful. In 1920, women were giving the right to vote and Amelia jumped on this women empowering train.

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