Narrative Poem Research

The narrative poem I pick for this blog entry is called "The Statue" by  Henry Abbey. This poem is very confusing for me. Even though this isn't a very long poem (it only has about 7 stanzas), I don't think I understand what this poem is talking about. I think this poem is pretty much talking about a statue in Greece, and people feel and how this may change their life. There are some rhymes in this poem, such as near and appear, stand and land, and also haste and taste. The style in this poem is graceful and kind of divine. It creates a pretty good imagery. I can imagine a person carving statue, and thinking about the divine name that he can recieve from his statue. Also, we can know the size and appearance of the statue, from the descriptions about the proportion and the facial expression.

Here is the poem:

All bold, great actions that are seen too near,
Look rash and foolish to unthinking eyes;
But at a distance they at once appear
In their true grandeur: so let us be wise,
And not too soon our neighbor's deed malign,
Lest what seems crude should prove to be divine.

In Athens, when all learning center'd there,
Men reared a column of surpassing height
In honor of Minerva, wise and fair;
And on the top, which dwindled to the sight,
A statue of the goddess was to stand,
That wisdom might be known to all the land.

And he who, with the beauty in his heart,
Seeking in faultless work immortal youth,
Would mold this statue with the finest art,
Making the wintry marble glow with truth,
Should gain the prize: two sculptors sought the fame--
The prize they craved was an enduring name.

Alcamenes soon carved his little best;
But Phidias, beneath a dazzling thought
That like a bright sun in a cloudless west
Lighted his wide, great soul, with pure love wrought
A statue, and its changeless face of stone
With calm, far-sighted wisdom towered and shone.

Then to be judged the labors were unveiled;
But, at the marble thought, that by degrees
Of hardship Phidias cut, the people railed.
"The lines are coarse, the form too large," said these;
"And he who sends this rough result of haste
Sends scorn, and offers insult to our taste."

Alcamenes' praised work was lifted high
Upon the column, ready for the prize;
But it appeared too small against the sky,
And lacked proportion to uplooking eyes;
So it was quickly lowered and put aside,
And the scorned thought was mounted to be tried.

Surprise swept o'er the faces of the crowd,
And changed them as a sudden breeze may change
A field of fickle grass, and long and loud
The mingled shouts to see a sight so strange.
The statue stood completed in its place,
Each coarse line melted to a line of grace.

Metaphor for Life

Life is playing big two. The person gets different characteristics and luck, cause they all get different cards. People who have more Ace or 2 will be just like the people who are born smart or born in higher social classes. Some people who are not born smart or wealthy are like the people who get only mostly 5, 6, or 7. However, just because you have more 2 and Ace doesn't mean you will win the game. You need to have the right combinations. There are choices between making pairs, sequence, or single card, ex. This is just like the real life. You make different choices, and the choices you make are the real thing that decide your life. For example: a person with 3 Ace and two king can't beat a person with four 3 and a 4. 

The Seven Stages

For me, the first stage of a person's life will be birth. Birth is the most important, because without birth, you won't have your life. The second stage will be a stage of little kids, probably elementry level. During this period, the children are still veru dependent on their parents. The third stage will be the teenage stage, which will be the stage when the person's body and thoughts start changing dramatically from child to adults. The fourth stage is called the adult age, when is the time when teenager completely transform into adults, and has the ability to work or his or her own child. The fifth stage is called the middle ages. That is when people reach the ages about 40 or 50. In this period, their children usually reach teenage period. The people in this period are usually smart enough to know about this whole society. The sixth stage is called the Old Times. In this period, people get old, and their body start to function disorderly, and they usually retire from their job. The final stage is called Death shall come. The old people know that they are going to die, and are willing to accept their fate. They lie on their bed, and wait for death to come to them.

Disrespect

Yes, I do believe that I've been disrespected many times in my life time by many people, such as teachers, classmates, and some other people. Mabye those people did not think that it was disrespectful or they just simply didn't notice, I did feel severely disrespected many times before. Many of my classmates used ball to hit me during PE classes, and teased me for some of my actions. Some female students said that I am very dirty and stinky (even though I take shower every single days, and my clothes are well washed). Some teachers humuliated by saying something that I really felt insulted. Some people just simply ignored what I just said, and carried on his own topic. I may be too sensitive, and the people may be just joking around, but some of the deeds I felt extremelly insulting. For example: Hitting people's testicles using volleyball and not giving any apology or saying that I never took any shower. I felt very sad and hateful when they did all these deeds or said or these words, I wanted to punch them or insult back. Well, I felt ok now, since these are the past events already. I think people enjoy teasing me or making fun of me, because I don't know how to strikes back except for using fists or legs. That is why I fought a lot when I was elementry school. Since I can't use voilence anymore cause I grow up, I just simply stay silent when I feel disrespected. People should always think twice before they do something, cause that deed may demage other person's life.

A Blessing in literal meaning

The narrator and his drive on the highway to Rochester, Minnesota. It is almost dark, and and they see two ponies coming towards them friendly. The narrator and his companion then decide to stop the car, and just kind of play with the ponies. They steped over the barbed wire into the pasture, where the ponies eat their grasses alone. The ponies are very happy that they shake intensively, and they bow to the humans. The ponies start to eat the grass which just grow during spring time. Then the slenderer pony walk towards the narrator, and kind of nuzzle his left hand. That pony is black and white. Her hair falls on her forehead, and the narrator kind of take care the horse's ear, and he feel that her skin is delicate as a woman's wrist. He sudden realize that he will break or explode if he step out.

Turning Point

The choice I made that changed my life was when I decided to try my best to speak english. When I was sixth grade, I wasn't a hard-working student. In fact, I was a very lazy, stupid, and a person with many bad habits (still a lot but less). I didn't spend a lot of time on my homework, and every time when there was a final or test, I was just being careless and reckless. Also, I merely spoke any english when I came to school. My english was absolutely terrible at that time. I think I was like that because of Perry and Eddy. At that time, they were the only people that treated me nice, and I didn't really have other friends. At that time, we were still pretty childish, so I think we didn't understand the importance of speaking english, so we just continous to speak Chinese. Later on, I realized that not only I had a slow progress on English, Eddy and Perry didn't really treat me as a friend. At last, I decided that I would study very hard, and pissed all the other students who made me felt sad and depressed. Well, that was probably one of the reason that I paid more attention to school work than most of the students in our grade. My grades turn out to be much better compare to when I was sixth grade, and I actually made more friends by improving my english. If I didn't decide to study very hard, I would probably still be a loner with not much knowledge in my brain.

Selfless Sacrifice

I had to make a lot of choices like that in my time, but I never remember the details. I don't really remember of making really hard choice in my life. (I should have faced a lot of those before, but not actually remembered them). I think the choices you pick between for yourself or someone you cared about shows what kind of person are you. That is what the writer of "The lady of the tiger" wanted to express, he wanted us to question us to answer the question ourselves to show kind of person you are. If you pick the things good for the other person, it shows that you care about the other's feeling, and is willing to sacrafices. If you pick the thing that is good for you, it shows that you are a selfish person that you think for yourself first. Even it sounds bad and mean when you pick the thing that is good rather than helping the other person, sometimes it is necessary. Most of the successful peope in the real world are selfish. Because they are selfish, they make tons of money, and the ones who have sympathy on others may easy to get tricked. The world we live in isn't fairy tale. Sometimes we just need to think for ourselves first, that's how you survive. You probably can become selfless when you are like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.