James+G's+Favourite+Poems

__My Escape by Sonic Syndicate__

I see the world through eyes of desperation Never knew how long I'd fall But I fell through years and years of darkness Still I cannot seem to hit the ground

I let my guard down and you caught me by surprise Nothing is ever carved in stone

Will I spend my life wondering What could have been If I didn't throw it away Or will I struggle on And find a better path for myself

I've built my life upon decades of experience But what I built for years took days for you to raze In the end I learned that one single snowflake Can set an avalanche in motion

Some questions are dangerous, the truth is not an option This is the illusion I pulled down over your eyes But I left my guard down and you caught me by surprise Nothing is ever carved in stone

Will I spend my life wondering What could have been If I didn't throw it away Or will I struggle on And find a better path for myself

I secure my every step, slowly I advance away from you How can I forgive you when it wasn't your fault

Will I spend my life wondering What could have been If I didn't throw it away Or will I struggle on And find a better path for myself

Will I spend my life wondering What could have been If I didn't throw it away Or will I struggle on And find a better path for myself

Making Meaning:

I think this song is about a guy who doesnt know what he should do. He has been confused for a long time (But I fell through years and years of darkness/Still I cannot seem to hit the ground).

He thinks he should take another path, instead of just thinking about what could have been if he did take it.

The guy in the song has been telling a lie to the second person and that is the 'illusion' mentioned. He didnt want to tell the truth about something.

__Sonnet 18 by Shakespear__

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: //So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,// //So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.//

Making Meaning:

The poem is describing a loved one that is being compared to summer. Even though she may not be perfect (And summer's lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines) she is still loved by him (Shakespear). Her "eternal summer" shall not fade, meaning that she will be the only person with him regardless if death will come to them.

Response to inclass English:

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything

Question Four: My reflection was that everyone goes through almost all of these stages in their lifetime. The stages they go through might be sligthtly different but they all are based around the same thing. They begin and end the same with life and death. Each stage is described quickly as if we are reading through and moving through the poem quickly, as a reference to how life passes so fast and how we shouldnt waste the time we have.