1)How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?
2)Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.
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There’s a woman crying out tonight
Her world has changed
She asks God why
Her only son has died
And now her daughter cries
She can’t sleep at night
Downtown another day for all the suits and ties
Another war to fight
There’s no regard for life
How do they sleep at night
How can we make things right
Just wanna make this right
We believe(x6)
In this love
We are all the same
Human in all our ways and all our pains
(So let it be)
There’s a love that could fall down like rain
(Let us see)
Let forgiveness wash away the pain
(What we need)
And no one really knows what they are searching for
(We believe)
This world is crying for so much more
We believe(x6)
In this love
We believe(x5)
In this love
So this world is too much for you to take
Just lay it down and follow me
I’ll be everything you need
In every way
We believe(x6)
In this love
In this love
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Similes
1)'There’s a love that could fall down like rain'
The lyricist chose this phrase to express how love could spread so easily and quickly, just like rain on a cloudy day
Personification
1)'Let forgiveness wash away the pain'
Here, the lyricist uses the term 'wash away' to compare forgiveness as perhaps some one who eases (washes away) the pain that she is going through.
2) 'This world is crying for so much more'
The world doesn't cry. So here it is implying that the world is going through much suffering, because of the many natural disasters and wars going on.
Symbolism
1)'There's a woman...'
In this case, the song does not point out to any specific woman, but utilizes the term 'woman' to symbolise victims from natural disasters and pointless wars.
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Why I like this song
I find this song beautiful as it touches me greatly. This song was set in 2005, and was dedicated to the many who suffered in the '04 tsunami crisis. Also, the lyrics gives a message to some that violence does not solve anything, and only brings about "no regard for life". It also tells us that love really makes you the ultimate victor, and a compassionate soul will go far. Also, it gives me the inspiration to carry on and keep believing when I'm down. Last but not least, it sets light to me that through helping others in need, we can also instil belief in that person and make the feel loved. This is anawesome song and one of the best y good charlotte.
Music video embedding was disabled, so watchthe video for yourself.
Thanks.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbD0gIUE3cs
Monday, June 29, 2009
Figurative Language: Favourite Song
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Philosophy: What is Beauty?
Dictionary.com:
1.The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).
2.A beautiful person, esp. a woman.
3.A beautiful thing, as a work of art or a building.
4.Often, beauties. something that is beautiful in nature or in some natural or artificial environment.
5.An individually pleasing or beautiful quality; grace; charm
6.Informal. a particular advantage: One of the beauties of this medicine is the freedom from aftereffects.
7.(usually used ironically) something extraordinary: My sunburn was a real beauty.
8.something excellent of its kind: My old car was a beauty.
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Beauty seems to be a very complicated thing, as you can see from the many definitions. However, I'm sure that many tend to liken beauty as a skin-deep prospect, what you can see on the outside. Also, there is inner-beauty,the sort of "deeper" beauty, it cannot be seen, but ironically is beautiful at the same time. Most of the time, many people will agree inner-beauty strikes more importance in their life, or at least, gives much more of a lasting impression.
This is what I mean:
Skin-deep beauty is what you see on the outside; but however pleasant it is to the eye, what does it tell you about the person? Character traits, personality and many other abstract qualities are hidden behind skin-deep beauty, and only the inner beauty of a person can unveil all those.
I'm sure in your life, you have hardly judged anyone solely by skin-deep beauty. Probably you have, but that might only be an initial opinion of the person or thing, but as you get to know he/she/it more you start to realise whether it was right for skin-deep beauty to have a higher standing over inner beaty when it comes to judging of one's placing in your life.
After all this, I feel it comes down all to a matter of different people's perspective. Hence the idiom "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder." Personally, I feel that this idiom lead me to a thought. Beauty, whether superficial or deep, gives each person an individual speciality because of how they view it. It is an individual's opinion of beauty that proves how different one is from the rest. Basically, our personal take on beuaty illuminates our style and uniqueness.
As for my very own take on beauty, I think it is the representation of what we think is pleasant in life.
Thank You.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
This Guy Can Really Teach Us Something
DUBLIN (May 12) - When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.
His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.Skip over this content
The sociology major's made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India.
They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia quickly caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it, but not quickly enough to keep some journalists from cutting and pasting it first.
A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets in an e-mail and the corrections began.
"I was really shocked at the results from the experiment," Fitzgerald, 22, said Monday in an interview a week after one newspaper at fault, The Guardian of Britain, became the first to admit its obituarist lifted material straight from Wikipedia.
"I am 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up," he said. "It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact."
Share your thoughts.
English,Such a Funny Language
I came across these quotes one day and I found them quite amusing.
- "It's a strange language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water".
- "If the English language made any sense, 'lackadaisical' would have something to do with a shotage of flowers".
- If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
- If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
- Its funny how ‘A Slim Chance’ and ‘A Fat Chance’ are the same.
- We are a strange lot to have noses that run and feet that smell.
- If people from Poland are called “Poles,” why aren’t people from Holland called “Holes?
After looking at all of these, it really makes me think about English. Why do have so many different terms that mean the same thing? Why do we set so many rules for the English Language, like the 'Subject-Verb Agreement' and the 'Direct/Indirect Speech' when the English language itself is so versatile, with new rules and changes being implemented frequently? It is wonderful yet queer. It is almost like brackish water in that vast sea of different languages. It is just so funny. Comment.
My Father's Most Memorable Read
As this task of 'interviewing your father or mother on their most memorable read' was assigned to all the Secondary 1s,I have decided to chalk up a few questions and have interviewed my father on his ever-so important book.
The Interview:
1.What is the most memorable book you have read?
Dad: Amongst my the decades of readings, the one by Harper Lee named “Kill a Mockingbird" has left a indelible impression on me. The themes and quotations have stayed relevant to me as I aged and I am glad I got this opportunity to share with you.
2. A summary of the story
Dad: The story setting is at the sleepy town of Maycomb located in Alabama against the backdrop of the Great Depression ( which for your understanding is liken the global economic recession we are having now with spreadwide jobless mire). The main character Scout Finch who lives with her brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus narrates the story herself in reflection of what she saw and experienced at that time and augmenting the narration with thoughts and personal experiences which blossom from the start of the book on naivety to youthful maturity. Her father being a prominent had provided a reasonably well-off life for them in comparison to the rest of society. Their out of school activities centered on trying to enact the character and chided at Boo Radley who lives in spooky house and has lived there for years without venturing out. Atticus , in observing their antics, time and again urged his children to see life from the another’s perspective before making judgements. Which true to his words, Boo Radley various acts of kindness climaxing with his act of saving Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell reversed the kids’ view of him entirely.To the anger of Maycomb’s racist community , Attitus agreed to defend a black man named Tom Robinson accused of raping a white woman ( daughter of Bob Ewell). Undeterred by racist backlash and threats to his family , Atticus determination for the search of the truth led to his battle against a white jury. Unfortunately , before he would bring the acquisition of Tom Robinson, Tom tormented by the injustice escaped from prison and was shot. Atticus was very disturded by this turn of events. In laying out the facts of the case, Atticus brought shame to Bob and his daughter with the community casting doubt about them, Bob resorted to revenge his humiliation by attacking Jem and Scout which ended in futile as he was stabbed by Boo who did it in saving the children. The story ends with a important realization by Scout as she begin to understand Boo and began to embraces her father’s advice to practice sympathy and understanding and display that her experiences with hatred and prejudices wil not erase her faith in human goodness.
3. How did you come to know of this book?
Dad: This was the one of the literature books I used in secondary one.
4.Why is it so inspirational to you/why is it worth reading?
Dad: I was and remained inspired by the following quotation which has shaped my teenage years Quote: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
I found the book compassionate and deep moving and the intricate way of how the author took us the roots of human behavior – from innocence , love and kindness to the other end of the parameter of cruelty , hatred and pathos.
5.Lessons to be Learnt
Dad: The various themes of this book eg coexistence of good and evil , the belief in goodness of mankind , the presence of social inequity and most of all the resistance to pre-judge a person have not only integrated well into my moral ethics, and also embedded into the principles that I pass to my children.
So that concludes the interview on my father's most memorable read. Thank you, and I hope after this you are all encouraged to try out "To Kill a Mockingbird".
Thursday, May 14, 2009
If only Happiness came as big as this...
=Happiness
