Monkey See and Hear

Long, dangly legs and arms,

I knew he was a charm,

A smile or a frown,

But he is not feeling down,

With dark, blank, empty eyes,

Does he want to cry?

No, I want to cry.

He is soft, quiet, observant,

A friend, companion, not a servant,

He listens, sits, and hangs around,

His brown cushioned tummy round,

He is there for me,

A smile he brings to please.

This poem describes my miniature toy monkey that my boyfriend gave me. I am really interested in everything about monkeys because I believe that they are just happy animals that make me happy, too. This poem is about sadness, yet it is also about happiness. He brings me happiness because he looks funny with his crazy, long arms and legs, but reminds me of the people that I cannot be with.  Every time I look into his dark eyes I think of my family at home, my boyfriend who I constantly miss, and how different life would be if I were to live in a foreign country.

Personification is the poetic device that I use in the poem. I personify my monkey as a friend or companion that I see every day. He sits by my lamp in my dorm everyday and just watches me do homework or surf the internet. Sometimes I take a break and look at him and just think of the times that I spent with the ones that I love. I personify him as a person when I use the words “listens”, “sits”, and phrases such as “hangs around”. This creates an image of a person who is a friend who is also like a confidant, which I believe my monkey is. Every time I look into his black eyes, it makes me analyze my feelings about the things or people in my life. From there I feel so emotional to the point of crying. Also, he is more than just a toy, but companion that I often pour my thoughts and feelings to. He is there when I’m lonely, far away from friends and family.  There is repetition of “He is” because this monkey friend of mine exists.

Oh sweet nigthingale!

Moonlight- the light of the moon; the moon’s radiance (Oxford English Dictionary)

In the conversational poem “The Nightingale” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he stresses how people should not relate nightingales to melancholic things, but to joyous things. Also in the poem, he uses the word moonlight in an unfamiliar way. He uses moonlight in a positive and beautiful meaning; yet, the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the word moonlight is creatures in the forest coming out to eat. I imagine animals roaming through the woods and casting eerie shadows. Personally, I think the moonlight is something mysterious with dark and ominous connotations. On the other hand, Coleridge uses the word moonlight and other words associated with it, such as moon, in a different meaning to create a sense of beauty, harmony, and romance.

Readers often relate the word moon or moonlight to something dark and evil. However, Coleridge uses it in a beautiful context. He changes the connotation of the word moonlight by associating it with the joyful nightingales. The image of birds responding, singing, and gazing to the moon makes the overall poem peaceful and calm. He combines the chirpy nightingales with the moonlight, therefore making the whole entire poem sweet and tranquil. Coleridge, therefore, relates the nightingales, symbolizing harmony and bliss, with the moonlight. He brings beauty and mystery to the poem by having nightingales sing to the moonlight.

In addition, the word moon, which relates to the word moonlight, is used several times in the poem. Its effect is that it creates a soothing sound like ooohh because of its o’s in the word. This makes the poem flow and smooth to read and to easily imagine nightingale warbling in the happy night. The nightingales are awake and sing merrily in the night, which the moonlight sooths the atmosphere by creating a harmonious tone to the poem. Furthermore, the word moonlight creates an image of rays of light shimmering on water or providing color to land, which generates a sentimental and romantic feeling to the air. The moonlight seems to make the dark night less scary. It fits perfectly in the poem because the moonlight provides a spotlight for the nightingale to sing. Moreover, it would be spooky to have birds singing in the dark, so having the nightingales sing in the moonlight creates a beautiful picture. In a certain way, Coleridge’s poem radiates, just like the moon, a kind of inspiration and peace to the reader.

Moi!

My name is Bao Yang. I am a freshman majoring in Textile and Clothing and French. I am from the boring town of Modesto, which is like an hour and a half from Davis. The title “Daydreamer” reflects who I am as a person. I tend to daze and come up with random things to talk about whenever I am bored or just have nothing to do. I daydream about certain things from problems in this messed up world to things like living on an island far away from society. Mostly, I daydream about what if situations and I just imagine myself living in a whole new different world. As for the URL name, I came up with a couple of titles for it but they were all unavailable. Anyhow, I decided to create a title related to literature and I could only think of Shakespeare at that moment. I wanted something catchy and that rhymes. For the design of the blog, I chose the simple layout because I thought that it would be convenient for the reader and I to simply read the blog without any distractions. Although, the design and color of the blog will change later because I am still in the process of figuring out how blogspot works. My vision for my blog is something mysterious and colors that are a bit gloomy because I believe that it would create a studious mood. As for my goals for the class, I am quite eager to read the books for English 3 because there is something that I will always learn from reading masterpieces from extraordinary writers. There are powerful messages from writers that I find by thinking deeply and analyzing their works. Therefore, I am looking forward to reading the texts and find some kind of treasure or revelation that would have an influence on me.