Wednesday, May 25, 2011

My Inspired Poem :)

I did my job and now i'm gone
And i'll never see another dawn
I did my job for liberty
Gave it all so you could be free

Don't be sad; what's done is done
And it's your job to replace me, son
So take up arms and join the fight
Go out there and do what's right

Fight to protect your family and friends
Without you, boy, they'd meet their ends
So go out there and take your knives
And give them all long, happy, lives

***inspired by John McCrae's "In Flander's Fields"***

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

My Lovely Poem :)

What happens to an unrequited love?

Does it fade over time
Like a book left in the hot sun?
Or does it wither
Like a rose with no water
And then slowly fall apart?
Does it shatter and splinter like a a crystal glass being dropped
Or like a window pane in a long forgotton house?

Maybe it just floats away
Like a boat left untethered

Or does its power amplify a thousand times?

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Character Analysis: Ismene

     Sophocle's tragic play, Antigone, was set in ancient Greece, where women were thought to be below men. They were expected to obey those above them in status and not express any personal opinions. They were taught not to argue with what they were told. Although Ismene seems to be just a stereotypical woman at the beginning of the play, toward the end her strengths begin to show and she really begins to stand out as her own person.
     At the start, Ismene's weaknesses are really the only noticable thing about her personality. She comes across as weak and timid because she refuses to help Antigone bury their brother against the orders of Creon. She is "witless of the way" to "break [her] country's law." She is portrayed as a prissy little girl with no backbone and no desire to stand up for herself and what she knows is right. That thought is backed up when she says, "not to attempt the impossible is best."
     However, in all actuality, her flaws are not as bad as they seem. While she is standing there talking to Antigone, her strong-willed, not-afraid-of-anything sister, the audience cannot help but to compare the two. Because Ismene is being compared  to Antigone, where Antigone seems strong, Ismene appears frail and weak. In the reader's mind, Ismene is the exact opposite of Antigone and is the one that falls short when the two sisters are looked at side by side.
     As fearful as she is at first though, she later makes up for it and shows everybody that she is not afraid "to make [herself] companion of [Antigone's] fate. The audience sees a whole new side of Ismene that they never would have guessed existed when she stands boldly up to Creon and offers to die alongside her sister. At that point her strengths shine through the weaknesses and her loyalty and courage become apparent. It took a little while for her to realize it but she would do anything for her family, even if it means death. She comes through for her Antigone and offers her her blood as "an offering to the dead."
     Ismene is often thought of as a minor character in the play; a scaredy-cat who is inferior to her sister because she refused when Antigone, the protagonist of the play, asked for her help. This highlighted her weaknesses and made her seem stereotypical. However, when her sister got arrested and sentence to death, she broke away from the mold and her strengths came forward. The size of her role in the play does not matter as much as the amazing change in character that occurs throughout the course of the story.