Christmas Memory

Clamorously- adj. loudly, noisily
Impetuously- adj. quickly, abruptly
Incandescent- adj. glowing, bright
Locale- noun. scene
Emanation- noun. Smell, effusion
Furbished- adj. decorated, decked out
Equable- adj. smooth, constant
Entwined- verb. curled, twisted around
Intoxicating- adj. exhilarating
Bliss- noun. euphoria

It was snowing. My toes were numb with the cold. Snowflakes dusted my hair and my eyelashes. The squeals of the other children rang clamorously in my ears as they flew impetuously down the hill on a red sleigh. I walked inside to warm myself by the fire. My ears, nose, and incandescent, young eyes took in the Christmas locale. The wintergreen emanation of a furbished tree, presents hiding underneath; the sight of too much food on the table; the sound of laughter thickening the air; the equable coat of a dog, which belonged to some distant relative, entwined around my small feet. The atmosphere was intoxicating. My earliest recollection of Christmas. Bliss.

Taylor Swift

When choosing the artist of the year for this month’s cover story, the editors here at the Rolling Stone kept in mind the definition of a true artist: a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill. This definition is definitely applicable to the young, beautiful, and talented Taylor Swift. Swift first came to mind because of her inspirational success as a young woman in the music industry. This particular performer has achieved many accolades including numerous awards from big-time companies such as CMT Music and Country Music Association. This track record is impressive no matter who you are, but what makes it even more remarkable is that Swift is a mere eighteen years old.
Taylor Swift performs mostly within the country genre, but she blends a pop type sound, creating a unique style. The grammatical structure of her songs, which includes what is considered to be southern slang, mostly follows that of the country genre; but Swift is by no means a conformist. She defies classifications and generalizations by writing universal songs that everyone can relate to. The performer weaves throughout her lyrics the message that love is a timeless aspect of life, as long as one exists so does the other. In her song Love Story Swift relates herself to Shakespeare’s Juliet, exemplifying how connected humanity is by love. When she sings “You were Romeo; you were throwing pebbles, and my daddy said stay away from Juliet and I was crying on the staircase, begging you, ‘Please don’t go,’” Taylor Swift creates a bond between herself and a girl from 1597, showing how time does not affect the results of love. She later alludes to Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter when she sings “I was a scarlet letter,” signifying the nature of their forbidden love. The young artist also employs a flashback within her song, a common method of literary experts. Swift sings “I close my eyes and the flashback starts,” and continues by depicting the event with detailed descriptions by the use of phrases such as “summer air” which indicate the setting. The diction within Love Story creates for the listener a vivid image of the scene being portrayed.
Taylor Swift’s distinctive musical style may be the product of a combination of the performers who surrounded her in her formative years as an artist. A listener can distinguish elements within Swift’s music from various influential musicians. As a little girl she loved Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton and she attributes her ability to “stretch boundaries” to the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain. Swift’s Grandmother was also in the music business; however she performed opera at the professional level rather than country. Taylor Swift has not only been influenced by others, but she has also been a very inspirational figure herself. She has been a role model to the younger generation, encouraging fans to pursue their dreams by displaying her own success.
The captivating singer is a combination of a dangerous and optimistic artist in that she sings about both sides of love. Swift describes the situation she is in as a “mess” saying “Don’t be afraid; we’ll make it out of this mess,” and adds to the negative portrayal of love in her song with "This love is difficult," and “I got tired of waiting, wondering if you were ever comin’ around. My faith was fading.” However, Swift also sheds light on the more positive side of love by singing “You were everything to me,” and “I love you and that’s all really know.” The young performer has accomplished so much for her young years, proving that talent coupled with ambition is the key to success.

Hypnopedia: Listen to the Silence

It is against human nature to be completely silent all the time, but we take silence for granted. Much more is said in a moment of total silence than in a moment of chaos. Each of us are constantly on the move and we try to cram as much as we can into our schedules to maximize our efficiency. As a business directed society, it seems that we have forgotten that occasional silence yields more than a week's worth of talking does. It is in these moments that we are enlightened and that we can ultimately come to know ourselves.

Dramatic Monologue

Sadie Burke from All the King's Men He would be nowhere without me,
Yet he forgets it too often.
Still, maybe tomorrow he will leave her for me,
Maybe tomorrow he will tell them all to leave forever;
But I know that is too much to hope for.
So I’ll show him my power,
I know how to get the job done.
And who will be laughing when he is lying dead on the floor,
Killed by an angst filled bullet?
I will. I will be laughing because I get the last say.
He cannot possibly love that bland woman,
But he and I, we’re a perfect match, courageous and powerful,
Although I may not have a flawless appearance like the others.
Perhaps this is why he cannot love me,
Because of an awful childhood curse in which I had no hand.
But yes, soon my plan will unfold,
And for just one second before the bullet pierces his flesh,
He will experience my fear,
Although it will stem from a different source.
He will finally know fear.
He will finally be human.

Allusion

Warren alludes to the Greek figures Cassandra and Telemachus through the characterization of Cass Mastern and Jack Burden within his work by mirroring elements of Greek mythology in the plot. Cassandra and Cass Mastern have a keen ability to foresee future events; however, both are ignored after attempting to use their knowledge to warn others. The author illustrates this point when he refers to Jack’s lack of concern after reading Cass’ journal: “or perhaps he laid aside the journal of Cass Mastern not because he could not understand, but because he was afraid to understand for what might be understood there was a reproach to him.” Eventually, however, Jack comes to understand Mastern’s spider web theory and adopts it as his own. Robert Penn Warren also alludes to the famous figure Telemachus by creating for Jack a plight similar to the Greek character’s. Each must care for his mother in the absence of their respective father’s. Initially, Telemachus resents the man who is able to accomplish the test that would allegedly indicate his true father; he is in disbelief and thinks that he could not possibly be related to the man. Later, he comes to the realization that the man is in fact his father and he begins to establish a relationship with him. Similarly, Jack Burden believes that the Scholarly Attorney is his biological father and hates him for being weak, but he later finds that Judge Irwin is his real father. Burden eventually accepts the idea and the two men for who they are.

Timeless Corruption (Found Poem)

You know what you need, but don't care about others,
Forgetting that we are all sisters and brothers.
Your words always feel rather bracing and tonic,
But you have no sense of foreknowing the ironic.
Your thoughts are unleashed like the stock of a whip,
From the glass of foul power, you savor each sip.
You continue to think that your strength is their will,
But your greedy desires you can never fulfill.
When you sell your soul to the devil, you lose track of time,
Consumed with inheriting the fruit of your crime.
There will come a day when you wish to make right,
But you'll find that your soul is as dark as the night.

Setting in Long Day's Journey Into Night

By extensively weaving symbolic elements into the setting, O’ Neill subtly suggests that perception is not always reality and that past events are always a part of both the present and future. The story takes place within a temporary summer house which is constantly masked by the fog that is brought in from the sea. The lack of a ‘real’ home emphasizes that the family knows neither permanence nor stability while the fog and the sea represent the deep abyss which each character seems to fall deeper into as the story progresses. The element of darkness also looms as a symbol of the complete disconnection that the family suffers from. The author intentionally creates a plot that spans over the period of one day and is based around meals to stress that the events that occur within the play are just a part of everyday life for the Tyrone family. The presence of drugs and watered down whiskey create another escape for the characters who seem to be ghosts which are merely shades of their former selves. The most prominent part of the setting is the past and the idea that the past is the present.
Mary Tyrone constantly yearns for the type of home that she grew up in, not the impermanent summer house that Tyrone has provided her with. The house, which is constantly engulfed by fog, acts as a sanctuary from reality, but feels like a prison to those who dwell in it. This facet of the story is paralleled by the other factors that cut the Tyrone family off from the rest of the world. For Mary, her morphine addiction; James, his obsession with the value of a dollar; Jamie, his frivolous lifestyle; Edmund, his lack of concern for the future (Horwitz). The component of the omnipresent fog and the vastness of the sea combine to form a significant aspect of the play. The fog and the sea are what they all long for, yet what they all fear. Each character is his own enemy and must fight between the desire to succumb to the fog and the desire to resist it.
Darkness is a prevalent part of the setting within the work and adds to the over-all theme. The title Long Day’s Journey Into Night illustrates that the play begins in the light, but as time moves on and more discoveries about the past are made, the darkness slowly takes over the dysfunctional family (Horwitz). Further expanding on the dark setting, O’ Neill incorporates literal darkness within the house. Throughout the work, several references are made to James Tyrone’s ‘knowledge of the value of a dollar.’ This knowledge is evident to the reader when Tyrone insists on turning all of the lights in the house off in order to save money on the electric bill, resulting in a completely dark atmosphere within the house. Before, the darkness within had only been figurative, but now there is a literal darkness that makes the family even gloomier than before. The author uses the literal darkness in juxtaposition to the figurative one in order to exaggerate how pervasive unhappiness can be.
By employing a plot based on a one day span within a household, the reader can better understand that the Tyrones have accepted their troubles as a part of their lives and instead of trying to mend the present, each family member dwells in the past (Horwitz). Although on the outside the Tyrone family may appear to be completely ordinary, O’ Neill draws a defining line between perception and reality. A bystander would never guess that both drugs and alcohol were significant issues within the Tyrone summer house, however, the reader has insight beyond what most would see. There is a definite change from the characters at the beginning of the book to how they behave in the end despite the fact that all of the action takes place in one day. Each character becomes more and more ghost-like and by the end they are merely extensions of who they used to be.
By forming a setting through diction and imagery, O’ Neill creates a masterpiece which portrays how the surrounding environment can worsen the state-of-being of a human. The house that feels like a prison, the surrounding fog which encompasses everything, and the drugs all contribute to the setting of the book. The setting adds to the dreary and somewhat cynical tone of the book and emphasizes the past as part of the present (Horwitz).

Works Cited: Horwitz, Simi. "The new family on stage: broken and transient.(In Focus)." Back Stage 44.50 (Dec 12, 2003): 5(3). Academic One File. Gale. Lee County Library System. 21 Sept. 2008
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An Adage Too Often Sung

Tomorrow is another day,
that is what they always say,
but wishing on a shooting star,
has never brought me very far.
They tell me that too late I’ll see,
the fortune put in front of me.
Youth is wasted on the young,
an adage much too often sung.
We all just want what can’t be ours,
pulling off petals of daisy flowers,
chanting he loves me, he loves me not,
waiting for that dreaded spot,
where the petals run out and the answer is clear,
the answer we seek, the answer we fear.