Goodbye Peers

In the great white room

There was a telephone

And an essay plan

And a picture of—

The pigeon pooping on a man

and there were many good books, sitting in nooks

and two little twins and a game for wins

and a journal I wrote and always a quote

and a pen and a blog and a book with some fog

and a quite intense lady who was yelling out “hush”

goodbye peers

goodbye years

goodbye pigeon pooping on a man

goodbye light and the essay plan

goodbye books and goodbye nooks

goodbye twins and goodbye wins

goodbye themes and goodbye teams

goodbye journal I wrote and goodbye quote

goodbye pen and goodbye blog

goodbye nobody goodbye fog

and goodbye intense lady yelling out “hush”

goodbye stress, goodbye years

goodbye fellow English peers

Intensity of the AP English Exam

Amy: “It’s only eight in the morning” (92)

McMurphy: “I never saw a scareder-looking bunch in my life” (70)

Amy: “The thing is, I’m not sure I [would] want to take it either”(238)

Algernon: “nobody ever does” (19)

McMurphy: “Then why? Why?...why do they stand for it?” (195)

Algernon: “Oh! There is no use speculating on that subject” (3)

McMurphy: “They’re nuts” (195)

Algernon: “It is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read” (4)

Amy: “So stupid…I [wouldn’t] do stuff like this!” (205)

Algernon: “I call it grotesque” (30)

McMurphy: “I might agree with you” (228)

Algernon: “Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don’t try it” (6)

McMurphy: “Why?” (195)

Algernon: “You should leave that to people [In AP English]. They do it so well in their daily papers”(6).

McMurphy: “All right, all right…” (273).  

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest definitely comes out on top as my favorite book, and honestly how could it not? Not only does it include my favorite character from the year, Randall McMurphy but it also has popped up in my everyday life. For instance, and earlier blog touched on the allusion to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in my favorite show, The West Wing. Not once, but twice they referenced it and I watched the scene three times in a row before I was finally over how epic the moment felt. Then “[I] laughed tell [I was] rolling around the couches and chairs, choking and teary-eyed” (302). My sister, also watching with me sat there with an expression that seemed to say “I don’t seem able to get it strait in my mind…” (196). Unable to appreciate the humor, I took pride in my ability to pick out their allusion to the novel and took pride in the humor, something as Ms. Serensky puts I don’t involve in my blogs too often : “Tina, your blog was funny, they aren’t usually funny”. Thus I can easily say this book enhanced my life outside of school by allowing me to find humor I would have completely missed without the prior knowledge. Also, I am a big time believer in reading books before I watch the movies. To watch a movie and then read the book ruins everything, “it’s as simple as that, as stupidly simple as that” (58). For example, I cannot stand anyone who viewed the Harry Potter movies without first reading the books because the movies cannot compare to the greatness of the books. I have a list of the top 100 movies that I plan to finish before I go to college. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest appears on this list and I know I would not thought twice about watching it without first reading the book. Now that I have spent a huge amount of time with the book and analyzed all the characters it’ll be interesting to see my take on the movie and how they portray all the characters. Finally, I loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because of McMurphy. His ridiculous cocky attitude and fragrant disregard for authority entertained me great through the reading and, other than Reggie fox, very few characters have compared to his colorful personality. The snide comments he made to Nurse Ratched and the rebellion he inspires kept the book light and brought an element of humor to an otherwise depressing book. Without him the tyranny of Nurse Ratched would overtake the book and made everything seem hopeless and depressing.

sesTINA

The best poem I read from the past year, “Sestina” by Ciara Shuttleworth, made it to the top of my list for a few solid reasons. The most obviously and evidently the best reason comes from the title of the poem, which includes my name, sesTINA. I believe the poem especially targeted those with the beautiful name of Tina to tell them to use love well, because it is fleeting. Let us touch on the subject of names for a brief moment.  Many a time people have told me, “[Tina] suits you perfectly. It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. Its produces vibrations” (Wilde 11). I sometimes ask what if I went by another name, such as my middle name Patrice. Those same persons remark “[Patrice]?...No, there is very little music in the name [Patrice], if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations…I have known several [ Patrices], and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain .Besides, [Patrice] is a notorious domesticity for [Patricia]! And I pity any woman who is married to a man called [Patrice]” (Wilde 11). Also, my procrastination of this blog entry leads me to another great word which contains my name, procrasTINAtion. Coincidence… I think not!! There those who question my name, Mary Beth, but I say to the disbelievers “But my name certainly is [Tina]. It has been [Tina] for years” (Wilde 39).  Back to my favorite poem, the sestina tells the tale of a sad romance, over and leaving one of the romantics in depression. I enjoy this poem because the arrangement of the same six words, you, used, to, love, me, well, allows one to fully express their feelings. My first introduction to a sestina style poem captivated me, and led me to appreciate poetry great deal more. The idea that one can use the repetition of words to create an entire story makes me realize the great variety of poems past mere rhyme schemes.