Poem vs. Music

Author’s Note: This piece of writing is to compare the music of “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Field Below” to the poem and analyzing both of them and showing how they are similar and different.
We have read two poems and listened to the music of them. These two poems were called “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell and “Field Below” by Regina Spektor. “Big Yellow Taxi” was about this girl that lives in New York and things start to be taken away from her, such as trees, her father, putting up parking lots taking down all the free land. She was telling us the reader, that you don’t know what you have until it’s taken away from you. The poem called “Field Below” this is also about people taking away what she has she isn’t able to see fields while she is looking out her window she didn’t miss it until it was gone. Both of the tones of these poems are depressed and the mood for both of them is sympathetic.
The music was very different than I thought it was going to be. The mood and tone for the “Field Below” poem was the same but the mood and tone for the “Big Yellow Taxi” wasn’t. The song made it seem like she was happy and made me feel happy just by how the music was so upbeat compared to the poem. I think she should have made the music more slow and sad because that’s what her lyrics were telling us. I didn’t like the way the music was played because it didn’t make sense. I thought the singer of “Field Below” did a good job expressing the tone because her music reflected her lyrics.

Change can be Good

Author’s note: This piece of writing is a letter to another character from the book Speak and how they have changed through her freshman year of high school.
Dear Rachel,
I have really changed since the last time that I saw you. I used to be so quiet and I just wasn’t fun to be around. The night that we went to the party was our last good time together. Well yours not mine because of Andy. I didn’t stick up for myself like I should have. Getting all those looks when I was walking down the halls, I just couldn’t deal with it. Wanting to hurt myself skip school miss out on my life, I should have just told you guys the truth. This has been a rough year for me but now I know how to take control of bad situations, tell the truth, and don’t judge people by what people tell you.
Andy had raped me, that will never change but when he tried to do it again I took control and he knew it. He doesn’t dare touch me or any other girl in this school again. I will always tell the truth now because it really can help you along your journeys. If I would’ve just told you guys about what had happened to me, I wouldn’t have had a hard time this year. Also, telling the truth can really help you in a situation, I used to lie to my parents all the time but after all that I had been through; I’ll never do it again.
You were one of the people that had judged me before I have even told you what happened. You took other people’s word over me, your best friend. I know now that judging people by what other people tell me isn’t right I am never going to do it again and neither should you. I would really like to be friends again. It has been a tough year but I have changed and I think we could be great friends again, just think about it.
Sincerely,
Melinda

How Free were Free Blacks in the North?

Author’s Note: This piece of writing is from my social studies class and explaining why free blacks weren’t really free in the North.
Imagine being controlled by someone every move that you make. Where and what you do every second of the day. Getting punished if you don’t do what you’re supposed to or you try to learn how to read or write. This is what slaves had to go through. Once they were all claimed to be free from people, they weren’t really free. What does this question make you think about, how free were free black slaves in the North?
First off, do you know anyone with different color skin than you ? Think about what their ancestors had to go through even when slavery had ended and they were free from being owned. They were able to do what they wanted, but they really weren’t in the community. They didn’t dare socialize with the white people because that was against the law. The best job they could get was being a laborer, that was nothing compared to the white people they barely got any money. They weren’t allowed to go to the hotels with their families, theaters, restaurants and what is the worst part yet they made separate schools for the children so they wouldn’t socialize with each other. Imagine what those poor kids thought, was there something wrong with me, why can’t we just be together and learn together. Collages never accepted black people’s applications. They weren’t allowed to vote, marry whites, and sit on juries. They had no opinions out of the black churches and other black people in the community. Just look at how good we have now compared to people then. (3) (2)(4)
Secondly, compared to the South the North blacks that were free had more freedom. The South slaves weren’t even allowed to travel freely compared to what the North slaves could do. It was easier to create schools because they had more freedom in the north they didn’t even have enough free slaves in the south. They also had an advantage on speaking what they wanted to say. This was because the North had more black churches and in the churches you good speak your mind without people judging you. To those people they felt that they actually meant something to the world because they were able to say what they wanted to. South slaves didn’t have enough people also to create churches and speak their minds at the time that the north slaves did. (1)
Finally, to me free means a bunch of things that didn’t happen to the slaves in the north or south. Free means to me being able to say what you want in front of everyone black or whites and they shouldn’t judge you. Being able to actually have a chance to get into collage not being judged by color, but by your grades in high school and you helping in your community. Kid being able to be friends with who they want and get to play and see them at school, they shouldn’t learn to judge people by the way that they look. Marrying the person that you fall in love with, not looking at their color. Going to the movies or a restaurant with your friends, any place. All these things makes you really free, unlike what had happened to them then, each person needs to be respected for who they are and what their features are, that’s just being human. (all)
As you can see free blacks in the North were not really free at all. They had the part free from another person but their whole community treated them like slaves. Telling them where they could go and where they couldn’t go. They shouldn’t have boundaries and really that is keeping them from living their life. All they wanted to do was be like the rest of the people that live around them, they should’ve at least gotten that.

Clueless

Author's Note: A parody that me and Julia wrote about the poem "This is Just to Say".

I have bullied you
Intentionally
The worst was
In the locker room

It probably
Made you feel
Horrible
About yourself

Forgive me
I can’t help but laugh
When I saw the look on your face
So clueless



My book that I read was Carrie, The person who is writing this poem is Sue. This girl is a bully at her school and the person that she is writing this too is Carrie the girl that she bullies. In the beginning the author’s tone is feeling sorry but when you read it all together the author is sarcastic and doesn’t really mean what she is saying. The mood that they reader is feeling is sorry for this girl like the person writing doesn’t take bullying seriously.

Mother to Son

In the poem “Mother to Son” there are two different types of figurative language. The first one is a metaphor. This metaphor is “life ain’t been no crystal stair, they use this to show that in the mother’s point of view her life hasn’t been easy. She wasn’t one of the rich children that had their life handed to them. She had to work to get where she is now, and she wants her son to know that. The next figurative language is an anaphora. This is because she says that metaphor twice. She says that line again to make her main point that life hasn’t been easy and handed to her like other people. The mood of this poem makes us feel sympathetic, this is because the mother explains to her son that she has had to work to get where she is now in life and she is explaining to him also that he will have to work his butt off too. The mother’s tone of voice is hopeful. She is hoping that her son will take this and move forward and take the advice that she had given to him.

Carrie an Outcast

Author’s Note: This piece of writing is describing the main character Carrie from the book “Carrie”.
Carrie White is a seventeen year old girl that went to high school. She was an outcast at her school. She was so used to everybody making fun of her and being mean to her she thinks the same things about herself, she tells herself that nobody want to look at me because it stings their eyes . She has dull brown hair that falls just past her shoulders with a little curl. She has pimples on her back, face and shoulders. She is a heavier girl, well heavier than everybody at her school. She lives in a house that looks like an old run down shack with no life in it anymore with her mother.
Carrie’s mother is insane as kids running around without getting fed or can’t go outside. She makes Carrie go into a small, dark closet that stunk like rotten eggs with stains all over the floor and pray, because she thinks that she is a devil spawn. She abuses her and she brings her confidence down and she doesn’t even like herself because of her mother. Her mother has more power over her than the kings of Great Britain did back in the day. Carrie is really scared to death of her mother; she can’t stand to be around her. Carrie misses her father very much; he died when she was young. Her teachers don’t help the situation when they call her out at school and give attention to her. Carrie’s strong on the outside like superman but deep down she is like a little kitten wanting a home. She is just a girl that doesn’t have a great house hold and no friends. She deals with all her problems alone, but she has gotten used to it. Carrie really needs someone to hold and take care of her better than what she has now.

Carrie

Carrie White is a seventeen year old girl that went to high school. She was an outcast at her school. She was so used to everybody making fun of her and being me to her she thinks the same things about herself, she tells herself that nobody want to look at me because I’m so ugly. She has dull brown hair that falls just past her shoulders. She has pimples on her back, face and shoulders. She is a heavier girl, well heavier than everybody at her school.
Carrie’s mother is very crazy, she makes Carrie go into a closet and pray, because she thinks that she is a devil spawn. She abuses her and she brings her confidence down and she doesn’t even like herself because of her mother. Carrie misses her father very much; he died when she was young. Her teachers don’t help the situation when they call her out at school and give attention to her. She is just a girl that doesn’t have a great house hold and no friends. She really shouldn’t feel the way she should about herself right now.