Favourite poet

My favourite poet is Dylan Thomas. He was a neurotic, sickly child who shied away from school and preferred reading on his own; he read all of D. H. Lawrence's poetry, impressed by Lawrence's descriptions of a vivid natural world. Fascinated by language, he excelled in English and reading, but neglected other subjects and dropped out of school at sixteen. His first book, Eighteen Poems, was published to great acclaim when he was twenty. Thomas did not sympathize with T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden's thematic concerns with social and intellectual issues, and his writing, with its intense lyricism and highly charged emotion, has more in common with the Romantic tradition. Thomas first visited America in January 1950, at the age of thirty-five. His reading tours of the United States, which did much to popularize the poetry reading as new medium for the art, are famous and notorious, for Thomas was the archetypal Romantic poet of the popular American imagination: he was flamboyantly theatrical, a heavy drinker, engaged in roaring disputes in public, and read his work aloud with tremendous depth of feeling. He became a legendary figure, both for his work and the boisterousness of his life. Tragically, he died from alcoholism at the age of 39 after a particularly long drinking bout in New York City in 1953.(poets.org)

Favourite poem and Figurative Language

Messy Room by Shel Silverstein
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

Hyperbole-Oh, dear,
Metaphor-chair is becoming quite mucky and damp
smelly old sock had been stuck to the wall

The poet used these figurative language to emphasize how messy the room is and the things in his room.

I like this peom because the poet is able to make a room sound messy and is capable of making me imagine how messy the room really is. It also partly depicts a side of me because I also have a messy room sometimes.

Book review 4

I have just finished reading a book "Messenger" by Lois Lowry. It is about a boy named Matty, whom an old man took care of, who helps people send messages through Forest in Village. People do not dare to go through Forest themselves as it had killed many people in the past. All the people in Village had a certain skill like Matty but he did not know his skill yet. He wanted his true name to be Messenger. Much later, there was Trade Mart where people would trade their own things for other things. However, after this Trade Mart, everyone started acting strangely and Forest became more wild. All those who were nice in the past became selfish after Trade Mart. They even decided to close the gate in Forest to prevent other people from coming into Village. The old man who took care of Matty when he was in Village wanted Matty to bring his daughter Kira, who helped Matty escape to Village, to Village so that he could live with her. In the end, Matty heals Forest from becoming wild and Kira's comma which she got along the way and manages to bring Kira back home safely.

Book review 3

I have finished reading another book " Animal Farm" by George Orwell. This book talks about how animals go about managing their own farm after getting rid of Jones, the owner of Manor Farm before changing the name to Animal Farm. Old Major spoke to all the animals a few nights before he died about taking back what was rightfully the animal's. The animals decided to get rid of Jones and manage the farm on their own like plough the fields, milk the cows and other stuff. With Snowball as the leader, he made the seven commandments which became six. They are "Four legs good, two legs bad", "No animal shall wear clothes", "No animal shall sleep in a bed", "No animal shall drink alcohol", "No animal shall kill any other animal" and "All animals are equal". However, Napoleon, one of the pigs, did not like Snowball as a leader and disagreed to whatever Snowball suggested and wanted to be leader. He brought up nine puppies so that he could use them to be leader. He used the grown up puppies to chase Snowball away and he became leader from then on. Squealer kept convincing everyone that Snowball was bringing Jones back to the farm. Napoleon decided to steal Snowball's idea of making a windmill to generate electricity. From then on, Napoleon controlled everything and slowly one by one all the commandments were changed like "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets" and "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause". All the animals slowly grew old and died or Napoleon's dogs slaughtered them. One day, the pigs started walking on two legs and they held ad meeting with humans when they were supposed to avoid contact with humans. All the animals found that the pigs were beginning to become more like humans and the pigs at last changed "Animal Farm" back to "Manor Farm" as it was originally.



REPLECTIONS
I find that we should not be selfish and not care about others if one wants to become a leader. We should think of others before thinking of one's wellbeing. Another thing is that we should not go to great lengths and do drastic measures if we have a grudge on someone.

Book Review 2

I have just finished reading 'Number the stars' by Lois Lowry. This book is more of a war type of book and depicts the friendship The Johansen family gives to the Rosens family, helping them hide from the Nazi's and escaping from Denmark to Sweden. It starts off when Denmark was overun by the Nazi's. TheRosens family stayed with the Johansens family in the same house, so Annemarie, Ellen and Kristie go home together everyday after school.

They lived peacefully until one day the Nazi's wanted to get rid of all the jews, which meant Ellen's family, the Rosens. Annemarie's parents decided to hide Ellen in their house while Peter, Lise boyfriend when she was still in Earth, decided to hide Ellen's parents. On that night, the Nazi's came into the Johansen's house and inspected everywhere making sure they were not hiding any jew in their house.

The next day after the Nazi's left, Annemarie's mother decided to bring her, Kristie and Ellen to her brother's place by train. Along the way on the train, Nazi's checked the train. At the house, they ate and slept. The next day at night, they had a pretend wake. Many people came. At night, the Nazi's came and asked them why many people were gathered at such a late time of the night. They told them they had a wake and asked if he knew their customs. He said he knew and said openning the coffin was part of the custom but they did not open it. Annemarie's mother said she died of an infectious disease and may still spread. Hence the officer told them to open it once he left.

When they left, Peter open the coffin and inside was towels for them to keep warm while trying to escape. Ellen and her parents had reunited. They led all of them to Annemarie's mother's brother's boat to be sent away to Sweden.

A few years later, the war ended. However the Rosens had not returned. Annemarie had to live by herself.


MY REFLECTION
I learned that we should not take our friendship for granted. We may not be able to be with that person for a long time and may be forgotten. We should learn to treasure the friendship we have now and not waste it. I would recommend this book to others to read.

Book review

I have just finished reading a book called 'Alpha Force-UNTOUCHABLE' by Chris Ryan. This book is about a drug group Alpha Force is trying to take out. It begins when Paulo, a member of Alpha Force, accepts a girl named Tiff to stay with the group for some time. The problem starts when Tiff goes somewhere secret and desolate where people take drugs there. While the group was looking for Tiff, a men gives Li, another member, a drink. Alex who is Li's boyfriend snatches the drink away and drinks it and puts his hand around Li's waist to chase the man away.

When the group found Tiff and took her home, Alex decided to go for a jog at night. Suddenly, he sees something in a bothy. He decides to hide in a corner and wait for something to happen. The people inside the bothy throw some things out of the bothy and Alex sees them, thinking they are human lips, heats and livers. He goes home hallucinating, thinking about a disaster that happened years ago.

The next day, he and Hex go for another jog so that Alex could show Hex the location while Li, Paulo and Amber bring Tiff for a hike. On the hike, a couple asked them for directions while their dog ran into a bush. They heard a bite and a wail. They found that the dog was bitten by a poisonous snake, and adder. The dog's face was beginning to inflate and swell and was suffocating. They brought the dog to the nearest vet which was in a castle as soon as possible. They managed to bring the dog in time to the vet. The vet needed a cardboard box to carry the dog and told a gamekeeper in the castle to look for a box. The game keeper handed the vet a box which was labelled 'Ketamine'. The vet asked him where he got the box but the gamekeeper did not know. The vet said it was a drug. The vet took some of the box and left the rest. Alex and Hex arrived back in time to see the vet drive the god away. Alex picked up th carboard which still had the word 'Ketamine' on it. He found another gamekeeper's reaction suspicious when he demanded Alex to return him the box and gave him another one. Alex decided to bring home the cardboard. The group later found out that Alex had drunk ketamine that was dissolved at the place Tiff was at. This brings the group to dangers mattering of life and death such as nearly being burnt alive and one of the members gets shot by a gun. I would recommend this book to those who are keen on adventure.