Olivia McCrary Assignment 2

A Sort of Determination

At first, an uncertainty, a hesitant idea
But worth the risk

It wasn't easy
I was lost
But I tried, really

I sacrificed time
Time spent to be the best, to improve my future, typical things

Was it worth it?
Well, I never thought about giving up
I've been too busy

Maybe now, after three years, I'm used to everything
Or maybe I haven't the time to notice
Bent pages, crumpled papers, eraser smudges don't mean anything
There are greater things to fear, I've learned

I've faltered, I've doubted
Checking grades, waiting for scores, like everyone, I suppose
I'm afraid I'm not good enough
Have I wasted all this time?

Every day, I am trying to succeed
Somehow

My poem has a frustrated, but accepting tone. The poem shows my uncertainty from freshman year to present, from an uncertainty of starting high school and being in the Academy, to an uncertainty of what it all means for my future. Though I have a slightly pessimistic, frustrated tone about my high school experience, as the poem illustrates, I nonetheless accept the way things are and keep going ("A Sort of Determination"). Some specific word choices that show my attitude are "hesitant", "sacrificed", and "faltered". These words emphasize my developing unhappiness with my high school career. I decided to use a lot of spacing in my poem (to spread out the text) to reflect my tiring, never-ending struggle over the course of high school, which therefore reflects my frustrated tone. Images such as "crumpled papers" and "eraser smudges", though of little realistic significance, highlight the dark side of my high school journey- sometimes in moments of hopelessness about my potential, I felt as if my life were "smudged" and "crumpled". These simple images of irritating things faced by a student add to the frustrated tone of the poem. My allusion to "checking grades" and "waiting for scores" (AP or ACT) shows that I am still making an effort, despite my discontent. I am still functioning just as any student would. This demonstrates the other half of the tone- I am accepting of reality. 

Meagan Hale Assignment 2

"Forget Not"

Walking through the halls
I pass my friends by
Their smiles warm the stone walls
and bounce off of the metal lockers
With each passing hour I learn something new
If it will be useful I have no clue
At the genesis I was afraid
What if no one likes me?
What if I fail?
But as I stand here in the present
all of my fears seem silly now
As time passes I find myself looking forward
and forgetting to look back
I learned to calculate velocity and analyze Shakespeare
But the most important lesson was easily
"To thine own self be true"
With each passing day the world gets closer and closer
But before I go
I must remember those I am leaving behind
and cherish them always
Because I when I look back on this time
I will hear our laughter echo in my ears
And I am thankful for that

I wrote my poem with a nostalgic tone. The bittersweet sensation of nostalgia is shown through my diction most strongly when I refer to my friend's warm smiles. I chose to use pathos in my examples such as friends and classes because everyone can relate to these things when looking back on high school and I wanted to make my audience feel the faint warmth that nostalgia provides. Relatable topics draw the reader in and they connect their memories to the poem which makes it more meaningful. Many people also have fear and doubt as they enter a new school, especially freshmen. "What if no one likes me?/What if I fail?" are two questions many people ask themselves at one point in their lives and it is not rare for one of those times to be during high school. We all fail and not everyone will like us as we have all learned and that emotional memory of realizing that makes my audience nostalgic for the time in their life when that lesson was learned. I also chose the Shakespeare reference (though we never read Hamlet) to be its own line, separate from the rest in order to remind my audience that when you are looking back on high school, not to forget about the person you became, and not just your friends, parties, and teachers you didn't like. These choices were to contribute to the overall nostalgic tone of my poem.

Emily Chavez Assignment 2

It's not what you see in movies,
it's much more empty.
The expectations are beyond
our reach,
and we exhaust ourselves with trying.
We cover it all up with football games and parties,
but inside there is something missing.
Desires for something bigger and greater,
something we cannot find here.
Is that all? Can you do more?
Please work just a little harder.
Are you alright? You seem exhausted.
You should take some time for yourself.
The halls are filled with juxtapositions,
words that do not match the actions.
We go through the motions and
pretend it is all okay.
Learning is limited, more an idea
than a reality.
Equations and formula memorized but
soon to be forgotten.
There is some good, I might add
in the friends and the experience.
But it's not what you see in movies,
the halls are full and the hearts are empty.

My poem was about the unrealistic expectations placed on high school students.  It was free verse, obviously, and I included some dialogue starting in line 12 that makes the connection with the student prominent, and the contradictory things we hear from teachers clear also. This was also mentioned when I used "juxtaposition" and an actual juxtaposition is seen in  the last line. There's no rhyme or reason when it comes to the rhyme scheme. There is reference to the beginning of the poem at the end when talking about the movies. The structure is not as important as the content of the poem, which are just examples of how high schoolers are actually sad and empty.

Corey McMullin Assignment 2

Just One More Year
Just one more year
Stuck in this hell,
Drifting through the crowded halls.
Just one more year
Stuck in this hell,
Cramming for the next hour’s test.
Just one more year
Stuck in this hell,
Writing piss-poor essays the night before.
Just one more year
Stuck in this hell,
Having to raise our hands to pee.
Just one more year.


I went for a bitter tone. The repetition of “Just one more year” and by having it as my title exemplifies my longing for school to end. And by referring to school as “hell” I equated it to the worst place imaginable. The parallelism and repetition was intended to show the repetitive nature of school, as every day is just like the last. Now I would like to take a moment to say that this poem does not accurately display my feelings towards school. While I do agree with this, I will admit that there are many great aspects of school, but they would not have fit in with the rest of my poem.

Silvia Todorova Assignment 2

Four Years

Freshman year

New school

New people

New rules

New beginnings

Second year

Not the “babies” anymore

Making new friends and connection

Adjusting to everything

Lots of homework, test, and after school activities

The hardest year

ACT, AP, G.P.A, and resume

Study groups

After schools trips to Panera 

Franticly scribbling down homework in the mornings 

Year before college

Stress stress stress

Building memories made to last

The best and worse year of our lives 

Collegecollegecollege

Everything is going by a little too fast

The syntax of my poem is very important, it divides it into four parts, one for each year of high school. There aren’t any periods in the poem to show that high school doesn’t stop and there aren't many breaks and there is very little time off through out the four years. The diction in the poem expresses the major things that go on through out that specific year of high school. The beginning is very awkward and structured because that was freshman year was like. Sophomore year was little more flexible but still very ridged and then junior and senior year were a lot more comfortable. The tone of the poem is supposed to show how each year of high school is different and how even though it may seem like its going very slow, by the time you get to senior year it feels like it all went by so fast and you want it to slow down.

Alex Cooper Assignment 2

The Yearly Grind

Tall people.

Walk fast.

Do homework.

Play softball.

Make some new friends.

Go to football games.

Learn to drive.

Earn my spot on the team.

Spend all my time studying for classes.

After school reviews, must become a star.

Pass all my AP tests, “I’m kidding about that!”

Become a stronger player and work through an injury.

College visits begin, and it is time to make the tough choices.

Spend time with friends while we are all still here.

Maneuver classes like a pro- been there, done that.

Be a leader on and off the field, and finish my career on a high.

                Syntax played a large part of the reflective or nostalgic tone I used in my poem. The first stanza that represented freshman year was extremely short and choppy and as the poem went on, as I grew as a student the sentences became more complex, just as I did. Each line in each stanza represents and aspect of my school life: social, home, academic, athletic. The diction in my poem became more complex as the poem progressed, it also became more hopeful though, hopeful for the future. Just as I end my softball career “on a high,” I hope to also end my high school career on a high.

Jesse Konopka Assignment 2

4 years of a man's life
Millions of moments
Millions of seconds
Millions of emotions
But less people than that
Laughter, tears, stress
And the work to keep on growing
In the end, you like it as much as you could
But its never better than the alternative.

The tone I was going for with this poem was one of apathy. That is, neither entirely good nor bad, a lack of strong opinion. This is accomplished from the use of contrasting diction and syntax. Through this contrast one could define the poem as equally happy as it is sad, making it more apathetic by putting the tone in a neutral area.

Amir Abou-Jaoude Assignment 2

Tele-fiction

I remember thinking

As I made sure my pencils were sharpened

That it would be like what it was

Did I take my calculator?

On TV

Because on TV

Everyone was so bubbly

And they just looked so 

Excited and I wondered where

They got all that energy from

On TV, everybody had a locker

And every locker was decorated

With pictures of mom and dad

And Spot, the dog who almost died last fall

And I thought that in a week

I would have a locker

And I could stuff pictures in it

Just so I wouldn't forget anybody

In the six

Or was it seven?

Hours I was there

It was a stupid idea.

I had been to school before

And six hours wasn't that long

But it seemed like a big transition

And it seemed like I was Captain Kirk

Hurling myself into

Where no man has gone before

Wherever that was.

What I do know was that

Some man had been to my locker

Because it was sticky on the inside

And when you tried to open it--

The handle caught.

So I couldn't stick pictures in it 

And I found that with homework

And speech team and whatever else

I couldn't make it to my locker

And the people here

They weren't bubbly

And now I knew where their energies came from--

Coffee.

But it was better than TV

Because I learned about people

and I learned about myself

I learned that I could give a speech off the cuff

That I liked art history and that

I worked best under pressure.

I learned who I wanted to be

What I wanted to do

And for that

It was worth it.

The tone changes throughout the poem. In the first stanzas, I wanted to capture an excited, idealistic tone. The speaker here is scatterbrained, excited for the first day of high school. This was my rationale for inserting the question "Did I forget my calculator?" into the mass of other thoughts in the first stanza. I wanted to weave ideas throughout the poem, and I thought it was best to introduce them early on. I discussed the energetic behavior of the people on TV as well as the idea of the locker. Throughout the poem, I started lines with conjunctions like "and" and "but" to emphasize the continuous, run-on nature of my thoughts. This first part of the poem serves to set up my expectations for high school. The lines are relatively short and disjointed to capture my excited state of mind. 

The shift in tone occurs with the line it was a stupid idea. The lines are still short and some of them still sound like a run-on sentence, not to capture my excitement, but to capture the hectic quality of day-to-day life. I made a conscious effort to refer back to what I had set up in the first part of the poem--to juxtapose the "TV" version of reality with the "Henry Clay" version of it. The tone here is somewhat disillusioned--things don't measure up to the TV version. Indeed, the reference to "Star Trek" makes this juxtaposition more pointed.  I may have tricked myself into thinking I was going into the unknown earlier, but soon the novelty of high school wears off.

Another shift occurs with the line "but it was better than TV." The tone here is more detached and objective. The lines are longer--they are no longer disjointed and they do not sound like a run-on sentence. They sound like a resume, like a college application, like a summary of what I have done so far in high school. However, throughout the poem, I used causal, everyday language to comment on the ordinary aspects of the high school experience. The shifts in the poem are similar to the shifts in my attitude in high school--first I was excited, then overwhelmed by daily chores. Now, as I near the end of my high school career, I can look back on it with an unbiased eye.

Leah Noble Assignment 2

Master of the Halls

Take an extensive look at the map.
Surely the most direct route
Will get me there faster.
Right. Orange. Down. Left. Library. Left. Green.
Less time in the hall,
Less discomfort.
I feel very uncomfortable.

Study. Study. Study.
Take the longest route possible.
Yellow. Up. Left. Down. Right. Blue. Right.
More time in the hall
Means more time to remember
All the info I crammed last night
For that test about the history of the world.
Somehow I got here too quickly.

Test after test after test.
I have to get to class early
So I can finish that test quickly and
Start studying for next hour's.
Orange. Scratch that. Better take blue. Less crowded.
Confidence. All I need is confidence that I can ace this test.
76.

Who even cares?
I'll do this later. As in the morning of.
My schedule takes my up, down, across, even out.
But I got this.
Don't go green cafeteria side. Bottleneck. Don't go past the library. Too many people. Cut through the foyer. But not before school. And above all else, don't go upstairs orange. Boxed in by stoppers and standers. No escape.

I am one with the halls.


In my poem, I intended to create a tone that shifts from being apprehensive and worried to being confident and secure. I did this by choosing words such as "discomfort" and "quickly" in the beginning to convey a sense of apprehension and lack of confidence at school, specifically in the halls. At the end, however, I chose words and phrases like "confidence", "ace", and "one with the halls" to create a feeling of security and sureness as I carry myself throughout the school. At the beginning, I use generally shorter, less complex sentences to also convey the idea that the first 2 years of high school were tense and uncomfortable. Towards the end of the poem, I chose to use some longer sentences to demonstrate the change from the start of high school to the end where I am more confident in myself and less worried. 

Anne Russell Assignment 2

A blur

From anxious first days
To excited last days,
New faces became best friends
Best friends faded to old faces
Love interests came and went
Becoming somebody You used to know
We suffered through some teachers
And cherished others
We cried going into some classes
And cried coming out of Mr. Pope's
Laughing every time he said "I'm kidding about that!"
We all outgrew our awkward freshman year phase
Feeling a little more sure of ourselves sophomore year
We somehow survived junior year
After God knows how many AP tests
And long days and longer weeks
That passed much faster in hindsight
Full of late nights to study for tests
And fun weekends that never lasted long enough
And here we are, seniors
Somehow at the top of the food chain
Forced to think about college and the real world
And what we are truly passionate about
We all grew together
While at the same time we all grew apart
Pursuing our own unique paths
That will separate before we know it
I thought we were freshman just yesterday
Tell me, how Did it all go by so
Fast?

I intended for my poem to have a reminiscent tone as I looked back on my collection of memories from my high school years. I also wanted to convey as I reminisced how quickly it all went by, which I mainly achieved through my use of syntax. I made my entire poem one long run-on sentence to illustrate that school dragged on while we were in the middle of it, but looking back on it, it went by so quickly, just as reading my poem in one swing can leave you out of breath. My main allusion was to Mr. Pope's class because he really impacted my high school experience and I knew that his reference would be understood by my audience, mainly Mr. Spalding and my peers. Because of everyone's familiarity with him, this creates a reminiscent tone because many of us look back fondly on our memories of him, which is exactly what I'm trying to recreate with my poem as a whole. My imagery and diction worked hand in hand as I tried to bring back images of the "anxious" freshmen and awkward first day. And for more diction choices, I tried to use more descriptive verbs like "suffered"  and "cherished" to relive the very real emotions that high school brings out in all of us. The title, "A blur," reflects the effect of my syntax, wanting to convey how quickly it went by. All of my diction, imagery, syntax, and allusions play into the memories that I recall to create the reminiscent tone that I was going for.

Jamie Smith Assignment 2

The Noise

The first day

Noise

All around me

But I stay in 

Silence.

The whole year

passes by me

But I’m still lost.

The second first day

Same as the first

But now

I am used to my own 

Personal 

Quiet.

The third year

I realize,

It can be better than this.

And some sound

Comes from the silence.

Finally

I feel at home.

I join in among the noise

So much better than the first day.

The tone I created changed from beginning to end. At the beginning the tone was of discomfort and awkwardness, but by the end the tone is more comfortable and stable. In the first three stanzas, I create a tone of discomfort using choppy syntax. I have line breaks frequently, and in the third stanza I break after every word to draw out the awkwardness. I also use diction such as, “noise,” “lost,” and “quiet” to convey the awkwardness. Eventually, the poem transitions to a tone of comfort. The sentences are more connected and line breaks aren’t as frequent. I use a comma to make the parts flow together, opposing the choppiness of the beginning. I also use diction such as “sound,” “home,” and “join” to convey the change in tone towards a more comfortable feeling. The last line is a full sentence, and ends in the same words as the beginning. The same words along with the contrast in syntax show how everything has changed despite the consistent setting.

Rena Childers Assignment 2

Four Years in the Life of Rena

My feet hit the hallway floor

Fear of eyes on me

Look down, never ahead

Brisk pace until you reach “safety”

My feet hit the party floor

Hands, awkward and gangly

Laughs too loud, but still sincere

Night after night, forgetting the weight

My feet hit the library

Endless work, paper after paper

Movies galore, with the ones I adore

One last round of love in all its forms

My feet hover

Caught in a state of confusion

Fear, sadness, but joy, and hope as well

All will be okay.

I set this poem up as a chronological progression through my high school years. The first stanza deals with the uncomfortable nature of freshman year. I used the word “safety” as a metaphor for my classes with people I had come to know, in juxtaposition with the hallway where I knew nearly no one. This opposition helped me to establish a tone that seems at first to be anxious. The next stanza illustrates sophomore year and my transition into a more social person. The word “weight” references the difficulties I experienced as a part of this transition. The third stanza talks about junior year and the endless workload I experienced. Despite this though, the phrase “love in all its forms” deals with my strong friendships and relationship with my boyfriend. Both things I cherished and still cherish deeply. The rhyme in the third line is meant to mirror the newfound light-heartedness I came across my third year in high school. Finally, the last part discusses senior year and all the mixed emotions that come along with it. The adjectives used to describe it shows the contrast and contradictions we as seniors face. Each stanza begins with the same phrase in order to explain a theme of my life every year. The last on is still up in the air because I cannot look at senior year with the mindset of someone who has already concluded it. Each segment is around the same length, which represents the equal time spent in every grade. The tone by the end of the poem is simply matter of fact. Many occurrences in high school are fantastic, but just as many are trying and difficult. It is an insight I have come across over this past year, and one that influenced this poem. The final line includes a period, signifying the completion of both the poem and my time in high school.

Eliza Jane Schaeffer Assignment 2

The Horrible Place that I Love

Massive, labyrinthine,

Alien, too close

For comfort.

“Who stepped

On my heel?”

Walk fast.

I don’t know

What to say.

I am a

Pack mule

Slaving away.

Cornell notes,

Preview questions,

Busy work.

Collecting horror stories

Of junior year.

“It was the

Best of times,

It was the worst.”

I found my

People and my

Passion.

But the workload

Was torturous.

Last year my

Superpower of choice

Was invisibility.

But now I’d

Like to be

Peter Pan.

And stay here

a little longer.

My poem is full of contradictions. My syntax was very short and choppy to demonstrate that high school has gone by extremely quickly. However, the poem overall was very long because high school also seems like it has been forever. The words I use throughout the entire poem (torturous, horror, slaving, alien, massive, labyrinthine) all have very negative connotations, but when I get to the end, I say I'd like to stay forever. So, although it was a negative experience, it was also a profoundly positive one. The allusion to Peter Pan in the third to last line further illustrates that point. Neverland was a utopia of sorts, where children could be children forever. Peter Pan never aged. The word "labyrinthine" is also an allusion because it conjures images of massive mazes (which is a good way to describe Henry Clay). The image of a "pack mule slaving away" demonstrates how hard I worked during sophomore year when I had all of that World History and Psychology homework. 

Amelia Rogers Assignment 2

Four Years

New face, new faces

Introductions, find your place

But we’re practically babies

And this is no Musical.

New beginning, new words,

New lack of words

Work like unbelievable

This is new too

One year

Better?

Or something like better

Sometimes we still get lost

And not in the hallways

Keep working, it’s just the history

Of the entire world

Two years

If there was tired, this was it

If there was exhausted, this was it

If there was difficult, this was it

Worked myself sick

And deeper thoughts surround us

Like no longer New, but still new

And what does it mean to be us?

Then it’s over.

I forgot I had a life.

Three years

Old face, old silence

Or new speaking?

New babies like we were

And they call us “adults.”

This is no Musical,

But we can pretend.

Let’s soak it up before it’s gone
Four years

The tone of this poem is nostalgic, reminiscing, but also hopeful for the future. I repeatedly used the word “new” in the beginning of the poem, and then brought it back a couple of times to convey the tone of remembrance. Diction is unique to each stanza. In the first, “introductions” and “beginning” are important choices. In the third, “exhausted” and “deeper” convey the tone. I wanted the structure of each stanza to represent the feel of the year. The first stanza has lots of commas and no periods to represent the flow and rush of so many new things as a freshman. The second stanza is shorter with hardly any punctuation but longer sentences, to convey the feeling of settling in as a sophomore. The third stanza has long sentences that all run together, showing the intensity of junior year, and then the two short sentences at the end to convey how quickly it passed. Then the final stanza matches the first in format, but has a balance of syntax, showing the easier feel of senior year. I ended each stanza with the number of years to mark the time, adding to the nostalgic tone. I also alluded to the movie High School Musical to show initially wishing for a more idealistic situation, and then trying to make the best of it in the end. This conveys the tone of nostalgic, but also hopeful. 

Julia Wilson Assignment 2

Schedule. Map. Halls.
I don't know where I'm going.

Football. Homecoming.
I think I'm going to like it here.

Finals.
I didn't expect this.

Making new friends.
High school isn't hard.

World History.
Nevermind.

Learning how to drive.
I'll never be able to do it.

License.
I'm free.

Parties. Parties. Parties.
I never want to leave.

ACT.
Think about my future?

Prom.
I can't wait for next year.

Senior pictures. Parking spots. Student sections. College apps. Absences. Football. Basketball. Soccer. Lacrosse. Late night drives. Prom. College. College. College. College.

Can everything just slow down?


My poem progresses from a mindset as a freshman to a mindset as a senior. The first line of each stanza states something particular about that year and the second line is the speaker's reaction to it. The section about senior year is very short syntax repeated over and over to give it a fast-paced feel. This reflects the craziness that is senior year and how fast everything seems to go by. The repetition of the the word college emphasizes the fact that this is a major focus senior year.

Jesse Konopka Assignment 1

 One allusion in the poem "Inventing my Parents" by Ludvigson is when the speaker's father recites "Canonization" by Donne in lines 26 and 27 where the speaker's father says " "For God's sake hold your tongue and let me love." This seems a very innocent quote that suits the tone of the poem very well. However, the poem "Canonization" which it alludes to is a little more extreme than this quotes leads you to believe. The full poem of "Canonization" is about a man who feels so strongly about his love he would do anything for his loved one, even if the woman he loves doesn't hold him back, and believes that nothing on Earth is more important than his love for this woman. This love seems obsessive and "canonized" compared to what is in the poem "Inventing my Parents" and may suggest there is more than meets the eye to this poem. In the poem the speaker's mother is discussing her beliefs with the speaker's father, and while the mother seems to take authority with her beliefs, the father seems to accept everything she says no matter the fact that he believes otherwise. This links back to the themes expressed in "Canonization" because the father is valuing their love more than their beliefs, but in more of an uplifting way than an obsessive one.

Weiran Liu Assignment 2

Round-the-Clock 
Wake up, get ready, only minutes to spare.
Pack up, head out, everything is there.

Roll out, get dressed, only moments to waste.
Homework, study, all in a haste.

Stumble, collect, for time I lust
Assignments, papers, work, sports and clubs
Crawling back, diminished to dust.

Exhaustion bears on my back
Like Atlas, a second I cannot slack.
A lightning break relieves my soul,
Filled with friends and company who make me whole.

Moments so cherished, moments so sweet
The cycle continues until  its complete.

     The tone intended in this poem is a rushed, but tired one. The structure within the sentences is short and choppy in order to convey a sense of hurry. Furthermore, diction such as "minutes," "spare," "moments," "haste," "lightning break," and "seconds" all portray a lack of time to reinforce this idea. The tired aspect stems from imagery used to describe the state of my well-being at the end of the day. "Diminished to dust," connects myself to an object that simply floats and hangs in the air, thus showing the lack of energy I am left with. Alluding to Atlas, I was able to link his never-ending burden of him carrying the world and the weight of that task to my nonstop workload and its implications on me. In combination, the above mentioned devices create a tone of a speaker who is exhausted, but is in a hurry, constantly moving and doing.

Assignment 2

1. Write a free verse poem about your high school experience that demonstrates a specific tone. This tone should be developed through your diction, syntax, imagery, and allusions. Remember to keep your poem school appropriate. Your poem should have a title.

2. Write a well-developed paragraph that analyzes how your diction, syntax, imagery, and allusions create your tone. Be sure to actually specify what tone you intended, as well as how you achieved it.

Remember to format your title as follows: First name Last name Assignment 2

Due by 11:59 pm 9/6