EPThttp://www.teamliquid.net/blog/evanthebouncy for detail
I figured it is a good idea to keep posted something I've done every day, so to stay on track of things and bring myself to the judgement of you wonderful blog readers.
Goals for today:
1. Do physics homework
2. Finish a better roughdraft for essay
3. Stop biting nails
4. Play guitar
Goals accomplished:
1, 4.
2... I only finished a better version of introduction for my essay and I'm on the verge of sleep collapse
3... I bit a 1mm worth of nails on my right hand ring finger, which is bad for my guitar playing, I've got to stop!
Otherwise the day went fair, played a net amount of 1.5 hours guitar, finished my physics homework, and read half a chapter on the book assigned by my semenar teacher.
Essay still fairly unorganized, floating ideas everywhere I need to pull down and compact into a readible material, here's the introduction:
Please help me on my introduction because this is my first writing assignment in a long time since college apps, I don't want to blow it.
The essay is on Melville's book battle pieces, an american civil war poem book (which is actually quite good dispite its sound-so-boring subject). I am writing on the prompt:
how does melville react to modernization in his poems, what are some of the changes?
ALthough we could interpret the prompt fairly liberally, so don't stick to it letter to letter.
Essay intro here, please critique:
Rusting Armorial
“Glaring at Jones on the other side, wielding the blade of chilling light
Stood firmly with feet apart, one who is one with his art
A fast juggle of sword, a show of feat, Sheer mastery that brings defeat
Yet promptly with pistol, which Jones has drawn
Brought a quick end to this brawl”
- A quick impromptu poem for Indiana Jones’ gun vs. sword scene
I may be questioned for opening my essay with a somewhat out of place poem, however, as we shall see, the situation this poem describes is in parallel to Melville’s observation of romanticism in his time. The bullet, which cold lead essence contains no emotions or glory, put a quick end to the lofty swordsman, which leads us to wonder if the superfluous sword twirling is worth anything at all. The demise of USS Cumberland at the ram of CSS Virginia told a similar story: The Cumberland, a perfect embodiment of romantic ideals with long elegant hulls, tall casting masts, and suave, arching sails, was punctured a precise wound by the unimpressive CSS Virginia, which despite in its unimpressive small frames and a hue of sludge, had proven to be the more fatal weapon. Although the ship and the swordsman were both victims of the systematic metal machineries of modern times, they both possessed a distinct quality that their mechanical victors had none, the ideals of romanticism. It is not easy to say why, but it is certain that most of us have affinities with the ideals of romanticism: There is something marvelous about the swordsman’s sweeping robes and the majestic frames of old war ships: They both play no part in maiming the enemy, yet they both inexplicably draw us to them. Melville is drawn the same way toward romanticism, and he expresses his sentiments in poems, most pronounced in the ones regarding war ships, the love and longing for the romantic aspects of battle, and laments the inevitable death of such ideals due to the advents of industrialism.
