Which lines in the excerpt blend romantic descriptions of nature with realistic descriptions?
ulysses
by alfred, lord tennyson (excerpt)
it little profits that an idle king,
by this still hearth, among these barren crags,
match'd with an aged wife, i mete and dole
unequal laws unto a savage race,
that hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
i cannot rest from travel: i will drink
life to the lees: all times i have enjoy'd
greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
that loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
thro' scudding drifts the rainy hyades
vext the dim sea: i am become a name;
for always roaming with a hungry heart
much have i seen and known; cities of men
and manners, climates, councils, governments,
myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
and drunk delight of battle with my peers,
far on the ringing plains of windy troy.
i am a part of all that i have met;
yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
for ever and forever when i move.
how dull it is to pause, to make an end,
to rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
as tho' to breathe were life! life piled on life
were all too little, and of one to me
little remains: but every hour is saved
from that eternal silence, something more,
a bringer of new things; and vile it were
for some three suns to store and hoard myself,
and this gray spirit yearning in desire
to follow knowledge like a sinking star,
beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
. . there lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
there gloom the dark, broad seas. my mariners,
souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
that ever with a frolic welcome took
the thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
free hearts, free foreheads—you and i are old;
old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
death closes all: but something ere the end,
some work of noble note, may yet be done,
not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
the lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
the long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
moans round with many voices. come, my friends,
't is not too late to seek a newer world.
push off, and sitting well in order smite
the sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
of all the western stars, until i die.

active voice: my father cut the tree.

passive voice: the tree was cut by my father.

active voice: people buy newspapers every day.

passive voice: newspapers are bought (by people) every day.

active voice: people have been using movies as political propaganda since world war ii.

passive voice: movies have been used as political propaganda since world war ii.

active voice: donna gave me my birthday present.

passive voice: i was given my birthday present (by donna). / my birthday present was given to me (by donna).

active voice: mom will leave the keys on the counter.

passive voice: the keys will be left (by mom) on the counter.

the words in parentheses are the agent of the passive voice and can be omitted when obvious, generic, or simply unnecessary.

98 points!

assignment

analyzing characters

respond to the following questions in one paragraph for each. use specific examples from the text to support your responses.

1. there is a set of twins on the island named sam and eric. however, when describing them, golding regularly refers to them as samneric. how does this way of describing the twins relate to their behavior and the way that readers understand their characters? what examples of their behavior readers see that samneric is really the appropriate way to refer to them?

2. as the boys set out to search for the beast, ralph allows jack to lead the way, and he sinks to the back of the pack, " to have escaped responsibility for a time." what does this moment lead you to infer about ralph and about his feelings about being the group’s leader? what does this moment foreshadow?

3. while part of the party searching for the beast, simon realizes that the notion of the beast that the other boys have does not make sense. a beast sitting atop a mountain with claws, a beast who did not leave tracks, could have easily caught the twins. simon has a different picture of the beast: "there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick." how does this picture relate to the beast that samneric saw? how does it relate to what simon said earlier about the beast being "only us"?

no plagarism

me

wordsworth tends to see nature as 'out there'; a presence which surrounds humans, and contributes to human life, but is different from humans. if you look at a typical wordsworth poem (there was a boy, ye knew him well ye rocks) - wordsworth talks about nature as something that needs to be learned about and understood, nature is different from us.  

if you look at a byron poem (the isles of greece is a good one) - byron looks at nature mainly for what it already means to man. wordsworth will look at a landscape and see the mountains, trees, valleys, and rivers as almost spiritual presences - wordsworth wants to get to know nature.  

byron will look at the same landscape and he will want to know who lives there, what are the villages? are there any farms or mines, is there some history?  

wordsworth looks at nature for what it is; byron is forever asking what it means.  

wordsworth thinks that humans are part of nature; byron thinks that nature is part of being human