An Ode to Jay Gatsby

He lives in a mansion
Across the bay from the green
Never daring to cross the space in between

He walks in the shadows
Behind the mask of his guise
Only visible to T.J.’s wandering eyes

Extravagant parties
That raged all through the year
Hoping by chance that she would appear

He hears her low whisper
“I love you” in thin air
But he turns in the pool and no one is there

He walks down the shore
Trying to repeat the past
Unfortunately Daisy was driving too fast

When he reached out his arms
She turned out the light
To retreat back to her money and clear out of sight




In the beginning of the poem "An Ode to Jay Gatsby" it starts off referring to how Gatsby sits in his mansion night by night just waiting for his love Daisy to find him. but Gatsby can not reach Daisy, so for now he stares "Across the bay from the green" the green being Daisies dock. The main subject of this poem is is directed towards Gatsby's love for daisy and how he waits to see his long lost love wonder over to him and fall in love with him again. The poem goes on to tell about the rest of the book. In the poem when the poet says "unfortunately daisy was driving to fast refers to how he was so enamored with her that he covered for her from when she ran over myrtle with the car. but in the end she left Gatsby for the one she thinks she loves.

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"

The phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" translates too "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." I agree with this poems title. soldiers should feel more content dying fro their country rather than old age or doing drugs. when you die by getting killed by drugs or being a criminal you are disgraced and probably didn't have that many people love you in your life time. But if you die for your country, you die with full honor and courage. There are many disadvantages for dying for your country, for one you lose your life, and two depending on the injury or way of death it could had been painful, scary, and in "World War I" war was dehumanizing and turned men into animals. Paul in the beginning of the the novel was eager to die for his country and thought it was a great cause to join. Later on at the end of the book you find out that Paul's opinion on dying for your country has changed and he now would give the world to have his friends back.

The Beast Inside Everyone

Just as we turn into animals when we go up to the line . . . so we turn into wags and loafers when we are resting. . . . We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they may be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place here. Kemmerich is dead, Haie Westhus is dying . . . Martens has no legs anymore, Meyer is dead, Max is dead, Beyer is dead, Hammerling is dead . . . it is a damnable business, but what has it to do with us now—we live.


           
               Periodically throughout the novel Paul compares himself and soldiers in general to beast and or animals. When he says "just as we turn into animals when we go up to the line" he is basically saying if you do not get aggressive and become the predator, you will become the prey. It is necessary at times to get ride of all human emotion besides anger in life or death situations to survive in warfare as Paul says in the book "turn on beast mode". It is interesting to observe how Paul is such a nice and content person, not the kind of person you would think of being in the army if you were passing by him on the street. If you observed him on the front the while fighting for his life and with him in a neutral territory when in no danger for example at home you would think he was a whole another person. Even though the Germans did not win the war due to Americans joining in on the French side, i think they would of if America did not intrude in on the war.

Who we have lost

               So far they boys have lost a good amount of their friends including, Albert, Kemmerich, Behm, Leer, and Westhus. All that remains of the team is Paul, Kat, Tjaden, Detering, and Muller. The saddest part of this whole chapter is that they will be all but 2 that survive. in the beginning the passage states "We are just the right people for that;- Kat, Albert, Muller, Trajaden, Detering, our whole gang is here." it assures you that the gang cant be separated in the beginning and tells about how "squads have had more casualties than we have". It is so horrible to lose people you have know your whole life in a blink of an eye and to know that you will never see them ever again. The saddest thing is reading at the end of chapter ten that all that is left of the young men is just Muller, Kat, and Paul. i know how they must have felt too... alone and like they were the last men on earth.

John Lennon by Mary Jo Salter

The music was already turning sad,

      those fresh-faced voices singing in a round

            the lie that time could set its needle back

and play from the beginning. Had you lived

      to eighty, as you’d wished, who knows?—you might   

            have broken from the circle of that past

more ours than yours. Never even sure   

      which was the truest color for your hair

            (it changed with each photographer), we claimed

you for ourselves; called you John and named   

      the day you left us (spun out like a reel—

            the last broadcast to prove you’d lived at all)

an end to hope itself. It isn’t true,

      and worse, does you no justice if we call

            your death the death of anything but you.

II

It put you in the headlines once again:

      years after you’d left the band, you joined   

            another—of those whose lives, in breaking, link

all memory with their end. The studio   

      of history can tamper with you now,

            as if there’d always been a single track

chance traveled on, and your discordant voice   

      had led us to the final violence.

            Yet like the times when I, a star-crossed fan,

had catalogued your favorite foods, your views   

      on monarchy and war, and gaily clipped

            your quips and daily antics from the news,

I keep a loving record of your death.   

      All the evidence is in—of what,

            and to what end, it’s hard to figure out,

riddles you might have beat into a song.   

      A younger face of yours, a cover shot,

            peered from all the newsstands as if proof

of some noteworthy thing you’d newly done.

I picked this poem because it is about the life story of maybe the greatest creator of music ever. He was truly great and was an inspiration to millions of little rockers out there. He touched the hearts of millions and made a huge dent in history with his life changing music. If i could bring one person back to life of go back in time to meet someone it would be John Lennon. The saddest day to many people is the day he died, and in fact the reason he died is because one of his fans was so obsessed with him.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul’s trouble with his teacher is the teacher thinking he knows how to win the war and what he is doing. So he is trying to give Paul shitty advice that wont help him in anyway what so ever. I think the hardest part of coming home was confronting Kemmrich’s mom. I would not have the heart to tell my friend’s mom that he is now deceased. And it would really kill me to hear her say to me, “how come he died and you didn’t?” In all of these situations he has no say in anything. Like he cant really defend him self to all these elders and higher powers. In all these situations, with his dad, mother, Kemmrich’s mom, the major, and the teacher, he cannot defend him self or tell them off and that what they are saying is wrong or else he may be punished.

WWI Propaganda

I noticed when browsing this vast selection of propaganda posters that all of them were sending out positive messages about the war. The main mission of the war is for the poster makers to get either as much money as they can from people or to get as many recruits as possible. and it is even interesting to see that on a lot of the posters it says you may join at the age as young as 15 years old.

In this image of a Britain propaganda poster it sends off the message that you will have great living conditions and take away from the fact that the war is ruthless and horrifying. If i was in the position of a young lad back then i would probably join due to my belief that the war will be an easy fun breeze.

In the propaganda poster depicted by Britain also they are sending the message that they want people to join their army to fight the german forces. In the picture the Brits are described as noble men with a sword on a horse, and the germans are described as evil dragons. This would entice civilians to join the cause and fight the Germans.