Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost

I found this incredible poem by Robert Frost called Acquainted with the Night. It's not quite as popular as his other poems, but it's brilliant nonetheless. I'm hoping this one really catches on.

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain --and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

This poem was rather dark and brooding (I was somewhat surprised Frost wrote it!), and it leaves you with chills. It's not exactly The End of All Hope, but it's still something of a fall from grace, almost, that happens. Suddenly, you're immersed in the dark corners of life, those things that hide from the sun, the dark energy that flows beneath our feet, like the diligent editors who keep Wikipedia afloat.
The speaker here is just getting to know the night, as the title indicates, acquainted, not a particularly close relationship, i.e., just somebody to know but by no means a friend.
One of my favorite lines from the poem, "I have outwalked the furthest city light" really adds to the dismal nature of things, laying out the groundwork for things to come. It's like entering into where things start getting shaky, leaving your podunk little town for a ghost city, a place detached from everything, so lonely and ominous, yet without danger, simply because fear has packed up and moved north.
All the figures in the poem also seem very far removed and nonchalant about things, from the watchman to the "luminary clock against the sky", which both seem to hold use for a moment, because it seems that either one will bring about some sort of action into the poem.
The interrupted cry could have been anything, really, but it was everything except for a cry to him. Instead of investigating, Frost simply moves on, perhaps to jilt us somehow or to say that he's acquainted - but not friendly - with the night. I suspect it's the latter.
In all, this is a brilliant little poem I can recommend!

Further Reading:
The text of the poem on Portitude
http://www.portitude.org/literature/frost/pt-acquainted_with_the_night.php

Shmoop, for an analysis of the poem
http://www.shmoop.com/acquainted-with-night/


There's good news regarding The Hunger Games! The third and final (as far as we know) book has been unveiled, it's called Mockingjay.
Here's the cover:


http://nmplteenblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/hunger-games-3rd-book-cover-revealed.html

Hamlet

"To be or not to be"- that's known as The Question. This question can be found within the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare between 1599 and 1601. In spite of it being one of the most performed, read, and studied plays in history, Hamlet still has some mysteries surrounding it. For example, why did it take Hamlet so long (up to the end of the play!) to avenge his fathers death? One possibility may lie right before us. The full title of the play is The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. All of Shakespeare's tragedies end in the death of most of the main characters, all at the end of the play. Perhaps to preserve this theme, he did the same thing with Hamlet.
Another mystery around Hamlet is the death of Ophelia, and whether or not it was intentional. Ophelia was in quite a quandary- her father was dead, the man she loved was mad (or so she presumed), and her brother Laertes was gone. I presume that she did, in fact, commit suicide, but, it wasn't entirely of her own accord. She had simply fallen into a dangerous situation, and chose to take no action, thus committing a passive suicide.
Something I did find interesting about the play was the attitude Hamlet's mother and uncle-turned-stepdad had toward Hamlet and how he mourned his father the loss of his father. They told him, in short, 'that's cute, now just get over it'!

Hamlet lamented the haste with which his mother remarried, which was so quick, the cake from his father's funeral was used for the wedding. He also considered this union an unholy one, and took it as a sign of weakness from his mother.
Early on in the story, though, the ghost of his father comes along and captures the attention of the guards outside the castle, who frighten the thing away. They inform Hamlet, who soon goes to see it. Hamlet and the spectre converse. As it turned out, his uncle Claudius usurped the old king and now father asks son to avenge his name. Hamlet, already upset by the marriage, agrees to follow through, and devises a plot to assassinate Claudius that involves feigned insanity and various other strange acts.

My Thoughts
I found Hamlet to be a riveting, interesting story, and also found out that it's the basis for lot's of modern day media.

I was a little confused (and disappointed!) with the ending, since I feel Shakespeare could have carried this much further had Hamlet lived and had become King.
But the end was really the end, and I did find it quite sad, but it carries some strange quality my words can't pin down. Of course it's timeless (a classic and one of the best plays of all time), but it almost seems to be hiding something.
It's almost like your best friend (think of your best friend, please) has been acting crazy, lately. Insane, babbling to himself, pacing, dressing in all black, and talking in riddles. Finally, you receive a letter that gives you some insight into his behaviour, but when your halfway through it, the thing bursts into flame and you're not entirely sure what went wrong.
You then pick up the newspaper and discover your friend was killed, along with several of your acquaintances, in some sort of stabbing/poisoning incident.
That's sort of how Hamlet left me feeling.

Nonetheless, I felt it was a brilliant play that's relevant today, and proof to the general public Shakespeare was absolutely not a boring old bard. Instead, he's written amazingly complex, intriguing plays and poetry, and managed to maintain his standard.
Perhaps the reason many are 'bored' by Hamlet is because they simply don't understand it. After reading his older variant of English, the words fail to penetrate for quite a few people.
I recommend Shmoop, it has lot's of guides to literature, along with various other subjects, like civics and history.

Further Reading:
The full text of Hamlet available online, free.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hamlet

Zella Kate's review of Hamlet
http://zellakate.blogspot.com/2009/12/hamlet.html

Shmoop on Hamlet
http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/

Friend Under Duress

Friend Under Duress
by Jourdan Cameron

My collapse had come;
The great days had hit heir number -
Alone in the cold, the dark, growing number.
Sitting dumb and without thought,
wringing my hands;
What hath I wrought!
Once glittering fruits now rotted out to black,
Putrid and stinking to knock me off track.
Not always was hope so blurry
but it lay so close beneath my bubble-cloud,
That thing dissolved in quite a hurry.
For my days I flew along free of fear
as my world fell apart
It was all-a-jumble,
A mess that began to crumble,
Unwittingly I began to tumble.
The lovely woods had to burn
their destruction I hadn't wish't to learn.
But,
Through the acrid smoke,
You extended a hand
Salvation,
My new life-rope.
With my dying breath I reached out
I clung
I wouldn't release.
You hadn't known it, as you pulled.
You went on,
I was now extricated.
You gave me my freedom,
I was so elated!
Revived me you did
Took me in like a brother.
Your deeds will remain unforgotten,
As day to week to month to year manage to melt,
Right into one another.
I knew you for but a time brief,
As space had changed, what a thief!
But I still know where you reside,
inside my mind, within my heart,
You eternally reside,
Friend Under Duress,
Comrade in Stress,
Pulling me from the wine-press.
I'm fixed and saved, no longer a mess,
Ship-shape enough to sail out again,
Proud to call you an eternal friend.
In the day our boats once again met,
and completely gone was my sickening threat-
Of my boat I became captain,
To you I called a hearty 'ahoy'!
You forgot me,
For I was but a little boy,
It was many years ago.
You came out of your cabin, you were taller now,
we'd chat awhile as you stood near your bow,
older but otherwise unchanged.
We took a trip back as our ships would drift apart, and we went back in to heed our crew,
and sent one another final adieu,
still to meet again.
So thank you.
The peril is gone,
but you are not,
as across the ocean we travel,
we will soon meet again,
inside a speeding train of thought.

For Trisha


Stay tuned, I'm working on a report on Hamlet.

Whatever Makes the News

by Jourdan Cameron

A short while ago I started hearing about a certain man in a car accident; his wife had rescued him from the wreck with a golf club and he was mostly unharmed. Later I heard that this man had cheated on his wife with various women. This story, while indeed a sad one, is indeed common throughout the world. Yet, I heard this story over, and over, and over through media outlets major and minor for weeks on end. So what was the big deal?
The man's name was, as you likely guessed, was Tiger Woods; known to many as the world's best golfer, known to some as a friend, and to one as simply Daddy.

One night, as I watched the news, there was a short blurb about a woman murdered before her children. They mentioned her name and I heard my mother gasp. I felt the food in my stomach turn to cold, wet sand as she clenched her hand across her mouth to keep from screaming and began to cry. She explained that the victim was an old friend of hers. I felt nauseous, and looked back up at the television. As quickly as the story started, it stopped. The anchors quickly turned to the news of rumors about Tiger Woods marital infidelity, and I simply wanted to vomit, as they spent several minutes on what a few people said they did with the man.
I sat back and began to think; how can something so hideous and horrific as a woman gruesomely slain before her children's eyes be of less importance than a man cheating on his wife? Why does everybody across the nation seem to know about and actually care about what he did, while the information about the poor murdered woman only receives limited, local coverage?
It's a travesty known as Mass Media.
Things of real gravity are drowned out by what's known as sensationalism. The Mass Media could truly be used as a source for good, like making a point of highlighting environmental issues and what you can do to help, or encouraging non-violence in life, etc.
Instead, we're stuck hearing things that won't be of any use too us (or things that don't even concern us, for that matter).

So what do I recommend? Quit taking it. Inform media outlets that you dislike how they give very little importance to the things that are important, and that you'd like them to change.
Encourage people to make their own news (see Wikinomics and for more on the matter) and do so yourself! If there's a local issue you'd like to see covered, don't be afraid to write an article and take it down to your local newspapers, and maybe even publish it on your blog.
Lastly, don't give up.

by Jourdan Cameron

 
I’ve heard much about the critically acclaimed Dune series- people’s reactions ranging from ‘total nerd fodder’ to ‘the best thing since War of the Worlds’. So I thought I’d take a peek inside the Dune universe to see what all the excitement was about. Initially, I had difficulty finding a single book anywhere in the library- I wanted to scream. How could a series of bestselling novels be nowhere within my library? I refused to panic, however, and headed to the nearest computer. As fate would have it, the books did, in fact, exist within my library- I was in the wrong place, however, as it turned out, I totally overlooked the fiction section (which, in my defense, was on the other side of the library). My own issues aside, I’d like to get inside the book. I picked up a copy of Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, which was written quite some while after the original Dune by Frank Herbert. In case you’re wondering, the author of the original books had a son (Brian) who co-wrote several new books with Anderson.

The said, The Butlerian Jihad was written to serve as a prequel of sorts to the rest of the Dune series. What’s interesting is that, out of all the possible books, I chose that one at random and it turned out to be the first in a series of several books by Herbert and Anderson.

So what did I think of The Butlerian Jihad? For starters, it was brilliant. Through a properly winding plot, memorable characters, a pinch of irony and a heaping cupful of action, this book is most definitely one I’d recommend to just about anybody, regardless of their general opinion regarding science fiction, because it goes far deeper than that, touching on sociopolitical issues, prejudice of various sorts, the environment, and, as if to make Shakespeare proud, goes rather deeply into the dilemmas that the characters face, in their loyalties, misgivings, and naturally, relationships.

Going back into the sci-fi portion, this is, naturally, an epic book (Dune! This made sci-fi HISTORY! What kind of sci-fi fan doesn’t know that?!) and I particularly appreciate how they incorporated a bit of science fact (although I can’t quite say how lest I spoil the ending) along the lines of ecology.

In all, I can certainly recommend this one, regardless of if you like science fiction or not.

Join the Club!

It’s a very exclusive group- not many make it there, but the rewards are great, of epic proportions, in fact. So what’s it called?

Ben Sherwood likes to call it The Survivors Club, which just so happens to be the title of his excellent book. TSC is about real stories of real people in difficult- and potentially deadly situations, and how they survived them. Along the way, Mr. Sherwood not teach you how to stay alive. He will, however, enlighten you on the right attitude to maintain in order to get through a dangerous situation and live to tell the tale.


The first story is that of a girl who had impaled her heart with a knitting needle- and hadn’t even noticed! This book has many other interesting stories- all of them true. What’s really striking, though, is that the focus of the book isn’t quite on techniques good for survival (although in the book some are demonstrated) but it pays more attention to your outlook, and makes you examine yourself in ways you don’t really think about. For example, do you fit within the group of people that, in an emergency, will become statuesque, simply paralyzed, not necessarily with fear so much as with shock over the situation? A great number of people do. Or, even worse, you become panicked and hysterical, screaming and blubbering and not really making any attempt to alleviate the situation. But then, there’s that elite few who will stop, look around, and figure out just what they can do to help, aiding others and making themselves of use. This book will not show you exactly how to join that few. That’s for you to do. But, it will set you off on the right trail- the one that leads to a surviving attitude. But, it’s up to you, the reader, to follow it.

In all, I can recommend this book, it makes some very interesting connections that hook the seemingly mundane and everyday to out-of-this-world survival ‘secrets’ that Sherwood has simply thrown out into the open. What have your initials to do with your lifespan? How about things you look forward to, or your handedness? This books lays it all out.
http://thesurvivorsclub.org

Catching Fire

Spoiler Warning: Please do not proceed if you haven't read the book and don't want to know how it ends! See here for the review of The Hunger Games.

Many say that sequels disappoint and in most cases, they're right.
This, however, is not one of those cases.
Catching Fire, the riveting sequel to The Hunger Games, has retained all the character, emotion, and heart-stopping thrill of the original- and then some. In this brilliant book, Katniss has returned home to District 12. But things haven't returned to normal. In fact, a storm seems to be brewing over Panem, and another inside her heart.
Gale has gone to work in the mines, and seems to be upset over something. Katniss' family and friends are now being threatened by President Snow (her berry stunt may cause an uprising- something that have far reaching consequences) and to top it all off, she has to marry Peeta and convince Snow- and all of Panem that the handful of berries was the act of a pair of desperate lovers, not an act of rebellion.
All in all ,this book was simply incredible. From start to finish Suzanne Collins has managed to somehow glue your hands to the book because you will find yourself incapable of putting it down.
Again, she has maintained perfect balance in the storyline, and makes progress in all the right places. She has also put surprises right where they belong- where you don't expect them- and has been able to keep you from being bombarded.
In all, the book deserves 5 stars!

See also:
http://mockingjay.net
Participate in discussions about the series, an up-to-date blog, and have fun in general related to The Hunger Games.

http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/
The Official Website of the author, Suzanne Collins