The Off Season

It starts in the spring. Trees are blooming, the sun is shining.

The perfect time to start tennis.

The game has rules that most don’t know. I learn those rules, so I can compete.

Competing is what makes it so fun.

Warming up is the chance to intimidate.

Intimidate your opponent so they choke.

Once you get in their head, its over before you even start.

The first toss is in the air. You keep your eye on the ball. Nothing can distract you.

The next thing you know, your arm is flying as high as it can go.

You meet the ball in your strings, and your wrist snaps down.

The perfect serve.

The ball goes into your opponent’s body. The underrated shot that no one can stop.

You continue to dominate the first game.

It is the time to switch sides, and see what the other man can do.

The first serve is a fault. You move in closer for the second serve. The ball goes in, you smash it back.

The first rally of the game begins. This is a test of the mind. You work your opponent back and forth, wearing him down.

The ball goes where you want it. Corner to corner until you trick him and hit it on the same side.

He trips trying to switch directions. You make him look like a fool.

You dominate the rest of that match, and the rest of the regular season.

After that is where the real competition begins.

You start at districts. You are challenged at first, then you realize you can win.

Your team cheers you on, wanting you to go your farthest.

You win districts and head for state.

The first match is a struggle, barely pulling off the win.

Second round. It is close the whole time, but now you lose.

Congratulations go to your opponent. You tried your best.

There is always someone better than you,

But that is why you have the off season.

Byron's Club

Byron’s Club is a very colorful blog that immediately grabs your attention.  Authors Athena Proctor, Austin Bell, Baily Copeland, and Alejandra Garcia do a fantastic job at making sure you are properly entertained, while still expanding your knowledge. Their blog is about Lord Byron who is a historical romantic poet. They show great interest in their research, which always helps make a blog livelier. I really enjoyed different pictures they used to help you get a better idea about who Lord Byron really was. Most people don’t know a lot about him, but by reading this blog, anyone can learn loads of information about him, his life, and his poetry. They go into great detail in describing the meanings of the poems, and face it; analyzing poems can be difficult at times. It is even more difficult when the person is from a different time period and their way of speech is different. You really will never get bored reading this blog. In random spots there are some funny posts and pictures, which help give comic relief to such a serious topic. Sometimes reading long paragraphs can get boring and repetitive. On any page you look at you can find some great quotes by Lord Byron. This also helps to shake things up, and if you are looking for some hints to help your life, these quotes are great! When you feel that you have learned all that you can about Byron, they have links to other pages where you can learn more about Byron, or other historical romantic poets. These other sights are good as well, and will lead you to learn wonderful information. This blog is very important to those who know nothing about poetry, or Lord Byron. Most people don’t even know who Byron was, and if that is you, check out this blog! People should know about romantic poetry because it helps you understand things in life that you may not have understood before. So please do your self a favor and check out this blog. You will benefit greatly from it, and you wont regret it.

Reading Response #3

The Revolutionary Vision of William Blake by Thomas J. J. Altizer is an article that focus’s not only on Blake’s theories and ideas, but also his vision of Christ. Blake is a hard man to understand when trying to figure out what his poetry is getting at. “Thereby he is deeply unknown to us all…” (33). This is the whole point of Altizer’s article; to help us understand Blake. His main focus, however, is on Blake’s view of Christ and Satan. Blake finds contradictions in the Bible, which he uses to create much of his poetry and artwork. By doing this, he makes people question what they have once learned. One of Blake’s main ideas was that God is equal to Satan. This goes against everything that the Christian society has been taught. In doing this, he uses the basic idea that God and Satan are opposites of each other. He then goes on to point out that there has to be opposition in all things in order for us to exist. When these two ideas are combined, he can say that because we have to have opposites, and because God and Satan are opposite, they are really the same. With out one or the other we could not exist, which makes the statement possible, that God equals Satan. Blake then can further continue this idea, or theory by saying that if God or Satan dies, then the other must die too. Once this seed has been planted in your mind, you begin to ask questions. Blake did not believe in organized religion for many reasons, which are discussed in this article. Altizer is able to make Blake’s ideas more clear to us, thereby expanding Blake himself. He talks about how Christianity started as an apocalyptic faith, but then completely reversed itself. How could today’s Christian society be correct in their teachings, if they have reversed their whole ideas from the time that Christ was on the earth? Organized religion was what Blake wanted us to stay away from, and with the help of Altizer we are able to understand why and we are able to understand Blake.

 

         

Blake’s poems are very interesting. I don’t say this because of his high level of writing, but I say this because his poems make you think and question. Through out the Bible, there are stories where people had to show great faith. People like Job, or Moses. Blake questions this idea of faith, and religion in general. How can we know if there is a God or not? There has been many times where Blake focused on this greatly, to the point where he said that the idea of God is something that we use to try and find comfort in. Blake makes many good points in his theories, but I disagree with him. This is a subject that I have thought about many times. You may say that I am wrong, but everyone has to make these types of decisions on their own. For me I have decided that there is a God. For thousands of years, people have believed in some sort of God or gods. Like Blake, I also believe that organized religion, most often times is incorrect. This is because as principles of religion were passed down, they were often changed to fit the ideas of man, instead of the ideas of God. Because of this, religion has strayed too far from the truth, so it is important that we try and figure out the truth for our self. I think that’s what Blake’s whole idea on religion was. Don’t just listen to someone and take their word for it. Take the time for yourself to research and figure out what you think is right.  Blake is a great poet, and some may even call him a great philosopher. I completely agree with this, and that’s one of the reasons I chose to study him. Although many do not know it, Blake has become one of the largest influences on Christian society, and poetry today. Thanks to Altizer, even the more simple minds can understand Blake.

The Human Abstract

THE HUMAN ABSTRACT

Pity would be no more

If we did not make somebody poor, 


And Mercy no more could be


If all were as happy as we.

And mutual fear brings Peace, 


Till the selfish loves increase; 


Then Cruelty knits a snare, 


And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears, 


And waters the ground with tears;

Then Humility takes its root


Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade


Of Mystery over his head, 


And the caterpillar and fly

Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,

Ruddy and sweet to eat, 


And the raven his nest has made

In its thickest shade.

The gods of the earth and sea

Sought through nature to find this tree, 


But their search was all in vain: 


There grows one in the human Brain.

            William Blake

Through out this entire poem, it talks about opposites. There would be no pity if no one were poor. There could be no mercy if everyone was happy. The reason there is pity and mercy is because we make it that way. If we were kind to everyone and if we treated them equally, then there would be no need for these things. It says, “Mutual fear brings Peace, Till the selfish loves increase.” We would be able to have peace if we didn’t let love get in the way. I am not necessarily talking about love for another person, but love for things such as greed and power. These things have been known to destroy the greatest of leaders and lead to war. It talks about cruelty having care. Since when has anyone ever had care while being cruel? All of these things are opposites that we create in order to try to understand them. In Blake’s poetry, he talks about a lot of opposites. We cannot exist with out having opposites in our lives. Or can we? At the end of the poem, it talks about how the gods of the earth and sea look for these things and where they are created. But they aren’t natural creations, the human mind creates these things. Why is it then that we need opposites? Is it to feel comfortable with our selves? Or is it an excuse to do horrible things such as murder and stealing? According to Blake, there needs to be opposition in all things. How can we know good if we do not know evil? This is the real reason for opposites. Our life would just be simple, and useless if we did not know right from wrong. I think that is one of the main points that Blake proves in his poetry. We have pity because we have the poor. We are happy because we have mercy. The gods of the earth and sea can’t find this, because they aren’t human. We create it just as Blake has, and every other person in the history of the earth.

Black and White

Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.

~William Blake

There are many people that we consider good “Christians”. We all know someone who goes to church every Sunday, and we all know the typical Easter/Christmas churchgoers. Blake was always against organized religion in general. This was shown through many of his poems, pieces of art, and many quotes. One of the main reasons for this is his quote above. There are millions of people who read the Bible, but not everyone sees it the same. Some people have different views about different topics. This is why there are so many churches today. People are reading different things, because what they read is taken out of context. I cannot even count how many different versions of the Bible there are, and this is all what Blake was talking about in his poetry. How can all these people have the same God, but believe in different things? Shouldn’t everyone believe in the same thing? This is why Blake did not believe in organized religion. Even people in the same church have disagreements about different principles. It is the same with poetry. One person may read a poem and think they know what it means, and to another person it means something completely different. Blake did such a great job with this in his poetry because it can be taken in many different ways. Most of the time however, Blake was often talking about religion, and the different principles in it. These would often include Christ, his life on earth, and his death. I think that Blake meant to have his poems be confusing for a reason. We all need to work for ourselves to figure out what is right. Many people said that Blake was crazy because of the artwork he did, and the theories he had, but he was actually a genius. I guess what I am trying to say is that Blake’s poetry makes people question. We can only grow by asking questions, and when you are faced with religion, there are so many questions to ask. It makes things become black to some people, and white to others. Blake’s poetry made you understand reality.

Songs of Innocence

Songs of Innocence: Introduction

Piping down the valleys wild.

Piping songs of pleasant glee,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he laughing said to me:

‘Pipe a song about a lamb!’

So I piped with merry cheer.

‘Piper, pipe that song again.’

So I piped: he wept to hear.

‘Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;

Sing they songs of happy cheer!’

So I sung the same again,

While he wept with joy to hear.

‘Piper, sit thee down and write

In a book, that all may read.’

So he vanished from my sight;

And I plucked a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,

And I stained the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear.

William Blake

Blake, like many other poets, wrote often about religion, or God. This was a very popular topic for romantic poets, and this poem is no exception. Blake talks about a piper, piping a song to a child. At first, the child was very sad to hear the story because he wept over it. The next time the story was told though, he wept with joy. The child then wanted everyone to hear this story, so he had the piper write it in a book. This story is about Christ on earth, also known as the New Testament, which is located in the Bible. The child cries at first because the people in the story crucify Christ. The reason he is crying is understandable. Why would a group of people crucify their own God? When it is played a second time though, the tears are of joy because it is through Christ’s death that we have the opportunity to live. Christ voluntarily came to this earth, so that we could have the opportunity to become clean and be saved. When this subject is thought about, it makes many people weep with joy. In the poem, the child wants everyone to hear this story, so they have the opportunity to be saved. Why is it that the child only wants other children to hear it? This can be answered by the title of the book; Songs of Innocence. Children are seen as innocent compared to adults. Adults have lived a longer life, and have made many more mistakes. Often times, it is also very difficult to try and teach adults about something, where as kids are easier. Their minds are more open to change, and learning about new things, where as adults are very closed off. However, children have also been seen as easily deceived. So does this mean that the story is told to children so they can just have something to believe in? Blake was often questioning the idea of organized religion, but not the idea of religion altogether. This is one of the reasons why people often find Blake’s work confusing. But Blake’s main focus for this poem, is to teach the children about God when they are still young, so they can grow up with the idea and pass it on to future generations.