Saturn Devouring One of His Children 1819-1823 by Francisco Goya

My children will overthrow me,

This is some bologna,

What can I do,

Except make them food.

That would be harsh and cruel,

But I make the rules,

They must die,

I'll eat them like I eat pie,

I'll start with their heads,

While they're in their beds,

Next I'll eat the arm,

That will be an alarm,

I wonder how they'll taste,

hopefully not like waste,

I have to get rid of them,

So I guess I'll have to eat them.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters 1798 by Francisco Goya

Unable to focus on my work,

I drift into a sea of restless thoughts.

As I sleep and dream

I am attacked by monsters of my imagination.

These creatures of the night

emerge from the darkness

and haunt me.

I try to awaken

as my fears take over my mind

but I continue to sleep

and think restless thoughts

as these creatures of the night

pursue me.

The Nightmare 1781 by Henry Fuseli

I lay and dream

of terror and it seems

that I will never awaken.

This demon that sits upon me

instills a fear that cannot mean

anything but that I will never be free.

I lay and dream

of death and I scream

in my head as I wish for forgiveness

from the lord as I slowly die 

but nobody knows the reason.

(Click on the picture to see it in its entirety)

Wife if Bath

I don't think that she is a good example because she wasn't really in love. She was only with the men she was with because they had money. That's why she only wanted men that were old and had a lot of money. She waited for them to die and then took the money when they were dead. She is what somebody would call a gold-digger. 

Sonnet 1

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

This sonnet is talking about somebody sharing their beauty with the world and how we want all things to grow strong and be beautiful. He also tells this person that it would  be beneficial to have a child so that they can share their beauty and keep the person in their memory. He  says this person is being selfish by not sharing their beauty with everyone and the person is being self-centered and the person is only hurting themselves because they could be doing so much more with their beauty and all the beauty is being wasted.

Modern Day Pardoner

I think that a modern day pardoner would be someone that is constantly asking for money for unnecesary items. A preacher could be considered a modern day pardoner because all they really want at the end of the day is your money. Not all preachers are like this but in my opinion most of them are. Some really do care about making you closer to God and making you a better person but some just look forward to to the "donations" that are sort of forced upon you.

My Riddle

My owners love me
and everybody wants me
i'm used for trade
and I have many faces
some have more than others
I can be used for anything if you have a lot

Is Grendel a Monster?

Well, my answer to the question "is Grendel a monster?" is that he is definitely  not human. He is a monster but I only think that he is a monster on the outside, but I certainly wouldn't call him civilized. I think that he acts the way he does because he uses his instincts. It is in his nature to eat when he's hungry just like it is his nature to sleep when he's tired, just like everybody else. It's not necessarily his fault he acts the way he does. He is the way he is because he doesn't know any better. I'm pretty sure that nobody ever taught him basic manners and courtesy. He is just like a wild animal, if not tamed then they act on what their instincts tell them, and that is exactly what Grendel is doing. His instincts are telling him that there are very tasty people bothering him and it would not only be easy, but it would also get rid of the noise that is causing him pain and it would fill him up. Why not kill two birds with one stone? We don’t call uncivilized people monsters, so why would we call somebody that is just like one of us a monster?

September 11th

What happened on September 11th of 2001 was a tragedy. Two planes were purposely crashed into the twin towers in New York City killing thousands of people. On the same day, a plane crashed into the pentagon and another, headed to Washington, into a field in Pennsylvania. Nobody survived from any of the plane crashes so how can we really be sure about what happened? We can't. People say that the whole thing was a big conspiracy , others believe what they see and here in the media and from the newspapers. There were rumors that U.S. government officials were involved in the planning of the attack. What or who, are we supposed to believe? I think that we have to use the limited resources that we have, and put the pieces together ourselves. There are two sides to every story, and if two people told me the same story but I didn't know who to believe, then I would have to listen to both of the stories and gather things that I know for a fact are true. Things that were consistent in both stories. 

Nabokov's Good Readers and Good Writers

"Good Readers and Good Writers" by Vladimir Nabokov

I agree and disagree with Nabokov's views and opinions about how to be good readers and good writers. I agree with him when he says that a good reader should have imagination, memory, and sometimes you do need a dictionary. I do not think that you need any sort of artistic sense at all and sometimes memory isn't even needed (but that depends on the book). I also disagree with him when he says that "one cannot read a book: one can only reread it". 

I think to be a good reader you should have imagination. In my opinion that is the only thing that matters (other than actually being able to read). If your reading a book and your constantly coming across words you don't know then I would probably tell you to just book the book down. If it was mandatory literature then I would suggest a dictionary. Some authors like to tell you facts that you will need throughout the book or at the end so you do need some sort of memory when you read otherwise there is really no point in reading. 

When Nabokov said that you needed some artistic sense, I thought to myself, why would you need artistic sense when you've got your imagination. As I said before, imagination is all you need. If you can read and imagine what's going on in the book, then to me, you are a great reader. I also thin that you should be able to relate yourself to the characters. I do it all the time. If anything it helps to relate yourself to the characters. It helps you understand the story or the situation a little better because then you can say to yourself, Hey I've done that before I know exactly how that person feels. As far as him saying that you can only truly read if you reread, I think he was wrong. I think you can totally read once and get it, but I think it's best if you read aloud. It helps a lot if your getting confused or not really paying attention and you don't even have to read the book again because you read and got it the first time.