Another Battle Lost

All day I've been at work
My body droops and sags.
My bare feet are covered in rags.

Oh no! I can not stir.
My feet will not listen to
My head and start to move.

I tell them one thing and
They stay right where they are
Not bothering to care.

This is quite annoying
My hands won't even feign
To be listening to my brain.

My eyelids droop and sag,
I tell them to stop at once,
Instead they don't and...
              I am fast asleep.

The Tone and Diction of James Still's Poem, "Heritage"

I shall not leave these prisoning hills Though they topple their barren heads to level earth And the forests slide uprooted out of the sky. Though the waters of Troublesome, of Trace Fork, Of Sand Lick rise in a single body to glean the valleys, To drown lush pennyroyal, to unravel rail fences; Though the sun-ball breaks the ridges into dust And burns its strength into the blistered rock I cannot leave. I cannot go away. Being of these hills, being one with the fox Stealing into the shadows, one with the new-born foal, The lumbering ox drawing green beech logs to mill, One with the destined feet of man climbing and descending, And one with death rising to bloom again, I cannot go. Being of these hills I cannot pass beyond. Tone:  The tone of a poem is the feel of it.  Tone can be dark and scary or light and happy or anywhere in between.  Diction:  Diction is the poet's word choice.  He could, when writing the poem, use sophisticated words or, he could use words that people use in everyday life.  If he was writing some type of happy, not-to-serious monologue poem, he would probably use words that people use everyday.  On the other hand if he was writing a dark and ominous monologue, he would probably use more urbane words to give the poem more of a scary sound.   The tone of this poem is dark and foreboding.   Mr. Still uses elevated diction which gives the poem more of a dark and sophisticated sound and feel.  If he were to talk like a country bumpkin and talk of the things that he was talking about, it wouldn't have had the same impact that the poem does and it would have sounded strange.

Lisla Brinkwater

I'd walked a mile till I met,

My friend, Miss Ella Jane,

We talked about my private jet,

Then switched to my great bane.

This bane was my great pride to have,

I talked of it with pleasure,

For many were the times I'd had

To sit with Jenny Zephyr.

Jenny's nose looked like a giant pea,

Whereas mine was thin and straight,

Jenny spoke like the BFG

But I spoke simply great.

I said "That Jenny is a pest,

When she's around I feel,

 That maybe I might not be best,

She treads on pride like banana peels."

The Rain

The rain thunders down about me like a waterfall.

It rushes, streaming down the windows,

Cleaning away the dirt and grime.

The trees bow to the ground under the extra weight,

The wind howls around the house, making a sound like ghosts

While it whistles among the trees.

The thunder booms like kettle drums on Mars, 

The lightning makes a jagged picture in the sky.

The house shivers, but stands its ground.

I stay inside under a blanket sipping a warm drink

While I watch the rain clean the earth.

Finally it is finished.

The trees shake off the last of the water as the sun warms their toes.

The sun makes a rainbow in the sky and there is new life.

Ode to Marshmallow

There were no mice when you were home

They fled in fear from your stately frame

They never ever ever came 

Into your feline kingdom.

 Even when we pulled your tail, 

You wouldn't bite or scratch or kick.

You liked the door and there you'd stick

Until twas ope'd then in you'd sail.

But then one day your neck grew red,

There was nary a thing to do,

And the sore just grew and grew

So Mom got gun and..BANG! You're dead.

Trouble

   One day as Wulf was about to go into Harold's castle, a man gave him a letter.  The letter was from Edith and it told him that the man who gave him the letter would take him back to her.  Wulf then hurried to get his horse and followed the man to the house that Edith was in.

   She greeted him and asked him how the king was doing.  He answered that he was doing well and he also told her the latest court news.  

   When he was finished, she told him to tell the king that she was doing well and that she missed him, but she would be fine knowing that he was doing his best for his country.

   When Wulf returned to the palace Osgod told him that the king had been wanting him.  Wulf hurried to the king and he told him about his visit with Edith.  Harold listened and then told him that he would talk with him more about it, but right then he had something that he needed to tell him.  It was that William of Normandy was getting a big army and coming to try and capture England.  Harold wanted Wulf to go and tell his brothers-in-law to get ready to fight, since William would first be going there.

  Wulf went to tell them, but when he told them they wouldn't listen to him and instead carried on hawking and hunting.

  About a fortnight later they heard that William and his men were getting closer, so then the men got together as many men as they could to fight William. 

 

Land

   They sighted land  and became very exited because they hadn't seen land in so long and were longing to put their feet on dry ground again.  They came closer to the island and they realized that it was Pukapuka island.(Middle-upper right hand corner of map) they were able to see the island faintly in the distance, but the wind was blowing them into the wrong current and so they headed in the wrong direction.  

   The next day they sighted more land and discovered from their map that it was the two coral reef islands Angatau and Fangahina.  The island that was most directly in their path was Angatau, so they set the steering oar in the direction of that island and trusted to the current and wind to take them there.

   They got closer and closer and by 6:00 that evening they were able to distinguish separate trees and branches on the island.  They were very excited, but knew that they had to be careful not to dash the raft on the rocky shore.