SPRING, A Poem By Edna St. Vincent Millay

SPRING, A Poem By Edna St. Vincent Millay SPRINGBy: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) To what purpose, April, do you return again?Beauty is not enough.You can no longer quiet me with the rednessOf little leaves opening stickily. I know what I know.The sun is hot on my neck as I observeThe spikes of the crocus.The smell of the earth is good. It is apparent that there is no death.But what does that signify?Not only under ground are the brains of menEaten by maggots. Life in itselfIs nothing,An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, AprilComes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers. Spring â€Å"Spring† is a powerful free verse poem written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, in 1921 . At first glance, this poem does not seem extremely meaningful. However, the time during which it was written, explains the poems true importance because it is after World War. It contains figurative language, specifically describing post war trauma. The tone and mood enforce the element of war to a greater extent. The atmosphere created by the author is vague, but looking deeply into the metaphorical language, allows you to truly understand the casualties. In the poem â€Å"Spring† written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, war is cruel and indescribable. In quatrain three, line three, Millay writes, â€Å"Not only under ground are the brains of men.† This depicts the battlefield. The author explains that as spring arrives, the reality of the war is forgotten. Citizens continue with their lives, forgetting about the casualties. The nice weather comes, but it should have never cover ed up the war. The author is also upset. She is angry regarding the month of April. Millay is trying to ask what the point of Spring is, after the death of so many. The bright flowers, the warm sun and the nice breeze are useless when there is no one to admire them.On another note, the written part of the poem consists of four quatrains and one couplet. Three lines of each quatrain are end-stopped, while the remaining one is enjambed. In the couplet, one line is enjamed and the other is end-stopped. In the first two quatrains, the author is unsatisfied. Millay could be indecisive about the month of April. However, the remainder of the poem identifies that she is frustrated with society. The last two lines of the fourth quatrain explain this theory. She is identifying life as pointless and useless. Millay may not believe in war and is angered by it. The couplet enforces this prediction even more. The tone of the last line indicates her frustration, anger and irritation. The rhythm is irregular with no specific rhyme scene. However, this free verse poem has a pattern similar to Shakespearean poems; the first eight lines are talking about a subject, which builds up to contradict against the rest of the poem. In this case, for the first eight lines, the poet discusses the climate and nature during April, and then contrasts it to war for the rest of the poem. There are some lines in this poem, which are metaphors and have symbolism. For example, the last two lines of the fourth quatrain. The â€Å"empty cup, † symbolizes the future. It explains our future to be nothing. This is also a metaphor because it compares life to an empty cup. Fighting will lead to nothing. This is the hidden message in this line. The atmosphere of the poem always relates back to war. There is a lot of imagery in the poem. For example, line four of the first quatrain. The reader can imagine the tiny leaves opening slowly, as the day goes by. This makes it a form of imagery. In the th ird line of the third quatrain, the author is referring to a place known as ‘No Mans Land. This is the land between two trenches that all soldiers feared, because of death, due to exploding shells. Cacophonic The entire poem is cacophonic. â€Å"The sun is hot /the spikes of the crocus /eaten by maggots ,† are all unpleasant phrases. These expressions helped create the tone, which is war and casualties. This poem is unique in another sense as well. The author is speaking to the season, which is quite preposterous. The last line of this poem is another unique phrase. The author personifies April. He remarks on April as knowing nothing. It just comes and brings some useless flowers, thinking that all will become well; these shall not be accepted because of the war. The poem was an understatement because truly looking at just the text, line eleven was the only sentence, which talked about the victims. Millay has chosen her words extremely carefully when writing this poem. She vaguely describes the true meaning and theme of this literature. What I mean by this is that, without a biography, it would be difficult to infer the true theme of this poem. War is embedded in the specific langu age and the result is a truly unique poem. The precise symbolism has true meaning when deeply investigated. An illusion has been created by the title of â€Å"Spring† giving this poem an even greater twist. â€Å"Spring† by Edna St. Vincent Millay is about war and the results; an inhospitable environment with casualties and no future.

Ideas for Attention Deficit Disorder :: Teaching Public Education

Ideas for Attention Deficit Disorder Ideas for Attention Deficit Children Children whose attention seems to wander or who never seem to "be with" the rest of the class might be helped by the following suggestions. Pause and create suspense by looking around before asking questions. Randomly pick reciters so the children cannot time their attention. Signal that someone is going to have to answer a question about what is being said. Use the child’s name in a question or in the material being covered. Ask a simple question (not even related to the topic at hand) to a child whose attention is beginning to wander. Develop a private running joke between you and the child that can be invoked to re-involve you with the child. Stand close to an inattentive child and touch him or her on the shoulder as you are teaching. Walk around the classroom as the lesson is progressing and tap the place in the child’s book that is currently being read or discussed. Decrease the length of assignments or lessons. Alternate physical and mental activities. Increase the novelty of lessons by using films, tapes, flash cards, or small group work or by having a child call on others. Incorporate the children’s interests into a lesson plan. Structure in some guided daydreaming time. Give simple, concrete instructions, once. Investigate the use of simple mechanical devices that indicate attention versus inattention. Teach children self monitoring strategies. Use a soft voice to give direction. Employ peers or older students or volunteer parents as tutors. Books and Materials For Helping Kids & Teens With ADHD Strategies for Cognitively Impulsive Children Some children have difficulty staying with the task at hand. Their verbalizations seem irrelevant and their performance indicates that they are not thinking reflectively about what they are doing. Some possible ideas to try out in this situation include the following. Provide as much positive attention and recognition as possible. Clarify the social rules and external demands of the classroom. Establish a cue between teacher and child. Spend personal discussion times with these children emphasizing the similarities between the teacher and child. Get in a habit of pausing 10 to 16 seconds before answering. Probe irrelevant responses for possible connections to the question. Have children repeat questions before answering. Choose a student to be the "question keeper." Using a well known story, have the class orally recite it as a chain story.

The Growing Spice Trade

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (trade, 2009), the word â€Å"trade† means a person engaged in an occupation, business, or industry dealings between persons or groups and the business of buying and selling or bartering commodities. Many factors played key roles in the economic development of a region using trade as a major contribution of growing power. There were many commodities that were traded; silk, fruits and vegetables, cotton, and precious stones, to name a few. The spice trade, in particular, was an activity with ancient origins (Upshur et al. , 2002, p. 307). Spice trade was and is a commercial activity which involves the merchandising of spices and herbs. The most important item of trade between the East and West were spices, especially cinnamon from India, cardamom from Aden, cassia, turmeric, and ginger and pepper from Indonesia (Upshur et al. , 2002, p. 324). It bypassed silk and other commodities to be the main import from India to the western world (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). In addition to their use in cooking, spices were put to a variety of purposes, including medicine, magic, mummification, perfume, religion, and sex (Turner, 2004, Oct). For many centuries, Arab merchants controlled the overland trade routes to India until the sea routes were discovered (â€Å"SPICESâ€Å", n. d. ). Overland routes helped the trade initially, but maritime routes led to tremendous growth later. During the high and late medieval periods, Muslim traders dominated maritime spice trading routes, tapping source regions in the Far East and shipping spices from trading emporiums in India westward to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, from which overland routes led to Europe. This trade was transformed by the European Age of Discovery and the route from Europe to the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope was pioneered by European navigators such as Vasco Da Gama in 1497 (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). The high cost of transportation ensured that the most costly goods like silk, spices, precious metals and gems, traveled the longest distances. Most of the cargo carried in ancient trade went from Asia to Europe via overland and maritime (Upshur et al. , 2002, p. 308). Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes which were dependent upon the techniques developed by the maritime trading power, Kingdom of Axum (400’s B. C. E. -1000 C. E. ). The Kingdom had pioneered the Red Sea route before the 1st century (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). Trade between India and the Greco-Roman world kept on increasing and the introduction of Indian culture created a demand from aromatics. These trading outposts later served the Chinese and Arab markets, too (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). Many other merchants and countries engaged in this trade such as the Pre-Islamic Meccans who continued to use the old Incense Route to benefit from the heavy Roman demand for luxury goods. The Indian commercial connection with South East Asia proved vital to the merchants of Arabia and Persia. The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden, and Siraf as entry ports to India and China. Rome briefly played a part during the 5th century (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). One of the major consequences of the spice trade was the discovery of the American continent by European explorers. Trade until the mid 15th century was with the east through the Silk Road with the Byzantine Empire and the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa acting as the middle man. In 1453, however, the Ottomans took Constantinople and so the Byzantine Empire was no more. Now in control of the sole spice trade, the empire was in a favorable position to charge hefty taxes on merchandise bound for the west. The Western Europeans set about to find another sea route around Africa (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). When Christopher Columbus sailed west in 1492, he wasn’t looking for a new world, but for a new route to the old world of the Indies and for gold and spices. He found little of either (Turner, 2004, Oct). After Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan in 1520 took up the quest for Spain. Of the five vessels under his command, only one, the Victoria, returned to Spain, laden with cloves (â€Å"Spice Tradeâ€Å", 2009). With this, Portugal and Spain developed new trade routes that bypassed the old land and water routes in the process opened up a new era of world trade (Upshur et al. , 2002, p. 308). Conclusion What does this say about the growing globalization of trade and cultural exchange? Along the trade routes European people intermarried, passed on valuable technologies and skills, arts and literature, and cultural and religious customs. The sale of spice established large funds to be used to benefit local economies and promoting further trading activities. References SPICES. (n.d.). In (Ed.), Funk & Wagnall’s new World Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 17, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. Spice Trade. (2009). In (Ed.), Wikipedia. Retrieved February 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade Trade. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2009 ed.). Turner, J. (2004, October). Adventures in the spice trade. Geographical, 76(10), 45-50. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from Academic Search Premier database. Upshur, J., Terry, J., Holoka, J., Goff, R., & Cassar, G. (2002). World History before 1600: The Development of Early Civilization (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Free Essays on Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After Written in caustic response to an annoying academic, Nadine Gordimer supplies penetrating social commentary on South African apartheid in her short story, "Once Upon a Time." The author creates an underlying uneasiness and obvious irony while following the traditional style reminiscent of bedtime stories, with modern South African reality filling in for magical kingdoms. Rather than reform the unbalanced societal structure of apartheid, a white family chooses to ignore the issue and simply add security measures to their suburban home. The family’s attempt to live happily ever after during a time of social unrest is the Gordimer’s sarcastic metaphor for the white South Africans and the self-inflicted harm caused by their own lopsided social system. The story begins with an anecdote reeking of symbolism. The author wakes in the middle of the night, unsure whether she's heard the sound of an intruder's footstep. She imagines herself the victim of an invasion (24) just as the wife imagines herself the victim of intruders opening her gates and streaming in (26). Time takes the author’s terror away, and she â€Å"is to be neither threatened nor spared† (24), realizing it is the creaking of her house built on â€Å"undermined ground† (24). The wife does not see that her imagined intruders are not the real threat preventing her from sleeping soundly at night, but instead it is the very apartheid under which her family seeks shelter. The author informs the reader that her neighborhood is built on gold mine shafts, which are collapsing inward deep under the surface of the ground and â€Å"bringing uneasy strain to the balance and counterbalance of brick, cement, wood, and glass that hold it as a structure† (24). White-dominated South Africa arose on the wealth of ... Free Essays on Happily Ever After Free Essays on Happily Ever After Happily Ever After Written in caustic response to an annoying academic, Nadine Gordimer supplies penetrating social commentary on South African apartheid in her short story, "Once Upon a Time." The author creates an underlying uneasiness and obvious irony while following the traditional style reminiscent of bedtime stories, with modern South African reality filling in for magical kingdoms. Rather than reform the unbalanced societal structure of apartheid, a white family chooses to ignore the issue and simply add security measures to their suburban home. The family’s attempt to live happily ever after during a time of social unrest is the Gordimer’s sarcastic metaphor for the white South Africans and the self-inflicted harm caused by their own lopsided social system. The story begins with an anecdote reeking of symbolism. The author wakes in the middle of the night, unsure whether she's heard the sound of an intruder's footstep. She imagines herself the victim of an invasion (24) just as the wife imagines herself the victim of intruders opening her gates and streaming in (26). Time takes the author’s terror away, and she â€Å"is to be neither threatened nor spared† (24), realizing it is the creaking of her house built on â€Å"undermined ground† (24). The wife does not see that her imagined intruders are not the real threat preventing her from sleeping soundly at night, but instead it is the very apartheid under which her family seeks shelter. The author informs the reader that her neighborhood is built on gold mine shafts, which are collapsing inward deep under the surface of the ground and â€Å"bringing uneasy strain to the balance and counterbalance of brick, cement, wood, and glass that hold it as a structure† (24). White-dominated South Africa arose on the wealth of ...

How to Make a Bubble Rainbow - Science Project

How to Make a Bubble Rainbow - Science Project Use household materials to make a bubble rainbow! This is a safe, easy and fun project that explores how bubbles and color work. Bubble Rainbow Materials a sockliquid dishwashing soapplastic bottlefood coloring You probably can use bubble solution for this project, but I got much better bubbles using the dishwashing liquid. I used a Vitamin Water bottle for this project. Any soft drink or water bottle will do. Firm bottles are easier to use than thin, flimsy ones. Make a Homemade Bubble Snake Wand Youre going to make a fat snake of bubbles. Its actually a great project even without the coloring. Heres what you do: Cut the bottom off of the plastic bottle. If this is a project for kids, leave this part to an adult.Slip a sock over the cut end of the bottle. If you like, you can secure it with a rubber band or ponytail holder. Otherwise, a small sock fits just fine or you can hold the sock over the bottle.Squirt dishwashing liquid into a bowl or plate. Mix in a little water to thin it out a bit.Dip the sock end of the bottle into the dishwashing solution.Blow through the mouth of the bottle to make a bubble snake. Cool, right?To make a rainbow, stripe the sock with food coloring. You can make any colors you like. Rainbow colors would be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo violet. For most food coloring kits, this would be red, red yellow, yellow, green, blue, blue red. Apply more coloring for a more intense rainbow or to recharge the sock if you need more solution.Rinse yourself with water when youre done. The food coloring will stain fingers, clothes, etc., so its a messy project, best d one outdoors and wearing old clothes. You can rinse your homemade bubble wand and let it air dry if you wish to use again. Learn About Bubbles How Bubbles WorkMake Colored Bubble PicturesMake Colored Soap BubblesMake Glowing Bubbles

Homework # 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Homework # 5 - Assignment Example From better business confidence to improved exports to more foreign demand to stronger employment sector, Canada is enjoying a healthy phase of growth. However, the overall outlook is rather ambiguous and it is not yet fully known how the drop in oil prices is bound to affect Canada in future. The press release also reveals that an uncertain outlook is the result of lower oil prices. In order to handle the negative impacts of lower oil prices, the Bank expects to make the Canadian economy stronger than ever before. This will be accomplished by increasing real GDP growth. The Bank will also adopt such a monetary policy which will help in minimizing risks caused by the oil price shock and returning the Canadian economy to full capacity. The current target for the overnight rate is 0.75% as per the press release for 21 January 2015. The bank rate is of the Bank of Canada is 1 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/2 per

Finance principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Finance principles - Essay Example The company held a meeting to discuss the launch of its new product and the top management discussed in detail about the cash flow analysis and projections of the liquid detergent. The Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Mc Donald presented a report in a meeting which included the cash flow projections for the new project. He was planning to purchase specialized equipment and production facilities from Donnalley limited. Mr. Gasper, the production manager, inquired the CFO that why wasn’t he purchasing the equipment from Danforth limited. Being the financial analyst, I will analyze the purchase of equipment and facilities from Donnalley as well as Danforth limited if the company was planning to go with the project. If the company will buy specialized equipment from Donnalley limited, then it is expected to have increased net cash flows for the project. For the first four years, company will be able to get increased cash flows of $580000. While for the next three years, company is hopeful to receive higher cash flows of $650000. However, the company will get net cash flows of $550000 for the remaining four years of the project. There will be reducing depreciation on the specialized equipments of the company which are shown in table 1. The Radiant limited will experience loss in sales revenue from the existing product lines during the term of the project. The EBIT and NOPAT are calculated for each year in the table 1. Following are the formulae for the calculations of EBIT, NOPAT and free cash flows. In the fifth year, there was a need to purchase additional production facilities to meet up the growing demand of the detergents. The company will invest $5000000 to continue operations and production of detergents. The terminal cash flows are also calculated to come up with the free cash flows of the last year of the project. Let us suppose that the company can also purchase the plant, equipment and facilities from Danforth limited for launching a new