Metaphors and similes!

Fifth of July

My family is an expired firecracker
set off by the blowtorch of divorce. We lay
scattered in many directions.
My father is the wick, badly burnt
but still glowing softly.
My mother is the blackened paper fluttering down,
blowing this way and that, unsure where to land.
My sister is the fallen, colorful parachute,
lying in a tangled knot, unable to see the beauty she
holds.
My brother is the fresh, untouched powder that
was protected from the flame. And I,
I am the singed, outside papers, curled away
from everything, silently cursing
the blowtorch.

By: John

Metaphors are a comparison between two unlike things without the use of like or as.

Metaphors are important to writing because metaphors can be used to compare two things to each other and they make something more descriptive. They help in making imagery and getting a message across.

The tone of this poem is sad and lonely.

The mood of the poem is depressing.

The meaning of this poem is to describe how this person feels when their parents were going through a divorce and how it just made his life a weird situation he was now lonely without his parents together.

A Love Poem 

Your love is like a blanket
that keeps me toasty warm.
Your love is like a shield
that protects me from all harm.
Your love is like a chocolate bar,
velvet-smooth and sweet
Or like some comfy house slippers
that hug my tired feet

You hold me like an easy chair
when I’m too weak to stand
Imbue me with your steadfast faith
by just holding my hand
Your eyes express devotion,
profound and true and deep
Your heartbeat’s like a lullabye
that beckons me to sleep

You permeate my memories
Romance from days long past
You underwrite my future
with a love that’s made to last
I need you more than words can say
My heart is sure and true
I’m yours until the end of time
Like, baby, I love you

 Similes are a comparison between two unlike things using like or as.

Similes are important because they also help out in imagery and they help in expressing the authors view on things.

The tone of the poem is love and togetherness.

The mood of the poem is happy and dependability.
The meaning of this poem is that this person is describing how the love of another person makes them feel and how dependent they are of that person, as in life with out them would be empty and lonely.

Did the effort make a difference?

People have lived through many events of injustice and there have been a few brave people who have had the courage to stand against the injustice and make a difference, the difference in which we live today. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. at the last speech he would ever give stated, “... I may not be there with you but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promise land.” What he meant with these words is that even though he might not be there when the change has occurred he knows and has faith that it will occur. He had a feeling he would no longer be present to witness his work pay off. All of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. work has succeeded but not completely.

Dr Martin Luther king Jr. believed that everyone was equal and he died trying to fight for what he believed was right. If he walked into our school tomorrow he would say that he could not be any more proud of the fact that schools and life is now a inter racial society. If he saw what we do with our civil rights he would be disappointed. He would be disappointed because he would see that people in our school take their civil rights for granted and do not take advantage of the opportunities they have. He would just look at the generation of today and be ashamed to see that all his work was wasted but he would be happy to see people now accepting each other not by the color of their skin but the content of their person.

Martin would be proud of me. He would see that I am actually taking advantage of the privileges I have today. He would see that unlike everyone else in the school there are people that do not take things for granted and appreciate the fact that people gave their lives up just so we could live in a better society. He would be happy to see a community in which people no longer categorize as white and colored people. He would be disappointed to see people making their selves look like idiots by wearing there pant under the regular standard. To see people being racist and hating one another. To see people in gangs and to see people killing each other.

Even tough the world is not perfect martin would be proud to see that his efforts actually made a difference. He would see that people do not discriminate each other like before. Black and whites now marry each other and have a big happy family. All the people that have fought for the rights we have today would be proud to see that they actually made a difference. They made the world a better place.

                                                                                                             

Hyperboles a tool of literature.

Hyperbole- is a exaggeration in which a statement is stretched and not to be taken literally 

Hyperboles are an important part of writing because they emphasis the meaning or the literature and it also helps in developing the feeling of the literature

 Television by Roald Dahl

The most important thing we've learned,

So far as children are concerned,

Is never, NEVER, NEVER let

Them near your television set --

Or better still, just don't install

The idiotic thing at all.

In almost every house we've been,

We've watched them gaping at the screen.

They loll and slop and lounge about,

And stare until their eyes pop out.

(Last week in someone's place we saw

A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)

They sit and stare and stare and sit

Until they're hypnotised by it,

Until they're absolutely drunk

With all that shocking ghastly junk.

Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,

They don't climb out the window sill,

They never fight or kick or punch,

They leave you free to cook the lunch

And wash the dishes in the sink --

But did you ever stop to think,

To wonder just exactly what

This does to your beloved tot?

IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!

IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!

IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!

IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND

HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND

A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!

HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!

HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!

HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!

'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,

'But if we take the set away,

What shall we do to entertain

Our darling children? Please explain!'

We'll answer this by asking you,

'What used the darling ones to do?

'How used they keep themselves contented

Before this monster was invented?'

Have you forgotten? Don't you know?

We'll say it very loud and slow:

THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,

AND READ and READ, and then proceed

To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!

One half their lives was reading books!

The nursery shelves held books galore!

Books cluttered up the nursery floor!

And in the bedroom, by the bed,

More books were waiting to be read!

Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales

Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales

And treasure isles, and distant shores

Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,

And pirates wearing purple pants,

And sailing ships and elephants,

And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,

Stirring away at something hot.

(It smells so good, what can it be?

Good gracious, it's Penelope.)

The younger ones had Beatrix Potter

With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,

And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,

And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-

Just How The Camel Got His Hump,

And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,

And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,

There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-

Oh, books, what books they used to know,

Those children living long ago!

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in its place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Then fill the shelves with lots of books,

Ignoring all the dirty looks,

The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,

And children hitting you with sticks-

Fear not, because we promise you

That, in about a week or two

Of having nothing else to do,

They'll now begin to feel the need

Of having something to read.

And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!

You watch the slowly growing joy

That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen

They'll wonder what they'd ever seen

In that ridiculous machine,

That nauseating, foul, unclean,

Repulsive television screen!

And later, each and every kid

Will love you more for what you did.

The tone of this poem is hatred or dislike towards televisions and the impact it has had on the children.

The mood of the story is aggravated and disappointed.

The meaning of this poem is that the imagination and the creativity of the children of today are being lost to the TV and that minds are being wasted due to the creation of the TV.

Jacinta Ramayah, Malaysia

THE OLYMPIC RUNNER (7 Oct 2009)

The sun beat down so hard it burnt his back,
His feet ate the dust as he ran the endless track,
The wind gave him wings and the miles flew by,
He was gunning for gold, for victory he’d die.

Critics had a field day when he entered the arena,
They could have knocked him down with a feather,
“Sideways you can’t see him through a 50-cent coin,
Bones on a cold carcass make up his manly loin.”

“His feet so long he will surely fall flat on his face,
Legs stretch down like two bamboo poles in place,
From the land of famine he gets not his daily bread,
If he wins, we’ll eat our hats,” in mockery they said.

As he touched the finish line, the crowd went wild,
Cheers heard across the land by every man and child,
His heartbeats so erratic they were beating out of time
If he could take a shot at his critics it’d be no crime.

Sweat streamed down, pooled like rivulets on the floor,
A warrior back from the battlefield, battered and sore,
Standing tall as a Brobdingnagian, the anthem sung
The joy so sweet, he could taste it on his tongue.

He was so tired he felt he could sleep for a year
The cynics struck dumb, had no cause to jeer,
‘A man in a million’ were the headlines that day
“Not a mere man but a giant in spirit,” they say.

                                                                       

The tone of this poem is determined and optimistic.

The mood of the poem is willful and improbable (all odds are against the runner)

The meaning of this poem is that even when no one is with you or has hope in you, you can still accomplish anything if you just have faith in yourself.