Ceremony post

Author- Leslie Marmon Silko (she is half whit, half Laguna)

Setting- The Laguna Pueblo Reservation after world war two

Characters:

·         Tayo

o   Half white half Laguna. He has grown up as an outcast in the reservation because he isn’t fully pueblo. He grew up with his uncle, aunt, cousin, and grandmother. His cousin has just recently passed away in WWII, Tayo, a witness to this death has terrible grief sickness. After he returns, he finds out that his uncle has perished while he was away. The story is about Tayo trying to complete a ceremony to fix what the witches have done.

·         Auntie

o   Tayo’s aunt. She isn’t traditionally Laguna, and follows many whit culture traditions. She doesn’t really like Tayo because he is half white, and she wants that for her own son. After Rocky dies, her relationship with Tayo gets even worse.

·         Josiah

o   Tayo’s uncle. Although he believes in Laguna tradition, he is still open to new ideas and change. Tayo sees him as a father figure.

·         Rocky

o   Tayo’s cousin. He dies in the war and gives Tayo “ghost sickness” He didn’t like the Pueblo culture before he died because he felt like it was holding him back.

·         Grandma

o   Tayo’s grandmother. She follows Pueblo culture strictly, and is the person that suggests that Tayo see a medicine man when he falls ill.

·         Betonie

o   He combines white culture and Pueblo culture in his medicine rituals. (Hes a medicine man, if you didn’t catch that.) He tells Tayo about his role in the ceremony. He isn’t widely liked in the Laguna society, but he helps Tayo to fit in after the ceremony is completed.

·         Emo

o   Fought in WWII, he is a witch, full of evil. He tries to interfere with Tayo’s ceremony by calling in the outside white people to get him and take him away for being crazy.

·         Ts’eh

o   An incarnation of A’moo’ooh. She is holds a strong relationship with Tayo and helps to guide him through his ceremony. She lived with the hunter before meeting Tayo.

·         The hunter

o   An incarnation of the animal spirit. He helps guide Tayo back to the spotted cattle.

·         Harley

o   Tayo’s long time friend. He is killed by Emo when he sides with Tayo and goes against Emo

·         Leroy

o   Another long term friend of Tayo’s. He helps Emo in his evil doing.

·         Pinky

o   Tayo’s friend, also killed by Emo

·         Old Ku’oosh

o   The first medicine man to try and help Tayo. He misdiagnoses him, but ultimately helps lead Tayo to meet Betonie.

Plot

Tayo has just recently returned from WWII. HE is constantly ill, and seeks the help of a medicine man after his grandmother suggests on to him. HE thinks that he is the reason his people are suffering from drought and plague, and he no longer feels any connections with his childhood friends. HE starts to get angered by his friends that want to escape into the white culture. So much so, that he ends up stabbing Emo in the stomach, and unleashing all of his false stories (that’s why he’s always so gosh darn pukey.)

Anyway, he checks out the medicine man business. He first goes to one who performs a ceremony to cure souls that have killed. Because he never killed anyone, the ceremony did not help him. He seeks the help of Betonie, who mixes white culture and Pueblo tradition. Tayo is told that he must return the hybrid cattle that Josiah bought(he’s told this by Night Swan).

Tayo looks for the cattle. He eventually finds them after having sex with Ts’eh. HE also sees the spirit of the mountain Lion that helps to guide him to take the cattle. Tayo is caught by white men, and he is almost punished, but they see the tracks that the mountain lion left, and decide to follow those instead. He runs into a hunter that helps him to find the spotted cattle. Ts’eh and the hunter keep the cattle for Tayo until he returns.

HE stays with Ts’eh for a while until he finds out that Emo has been spreading rumors that he is crazy and unstable. HE learns that white men are coming to take him away to a mental health facility. Tayo flees and runs into Leroy and Harley. He realizes that his friends are working with Emo, so he hides at the witches’ emergence point.

Emo kills Harley, but Tayo can’t react because if he does, the ceremony will not be complete. After he finishes the ceremony, Tayo returns to find that the drought is over, and the Laguna people have stopped being destructive.

Theme

Silko’s Ceremony shows that personal and natural balance can only be achieved by balancing personal traditions and new ideas, and commends people who are open to new traditions and cultures.

Motifs

·         Hybridity

·         Good light v. bad light

·         Colors

·         Direction/ color

·         Destruction

·         Nature/animals

·         Unnatural v. natural

·         Stories

·         Balance

·         Tradition/ change

·         Bellies/ vomit/ stories

·         Cyclicality

POV

The point of view changes. IT goes from first person to third. At these times its almost like the reader is in a dream, and helps to emphasize Tayo’s actions.

Imagery

Focused mainly on nature, and the evil that is ravaging it. The color yellow and blue are repeated frequently. Natural yellow light and destructive white light is also compared. Harsh imagery is also used to show Emo and the other witches in a bad light.

Symbols

The spotted cattle: They are a tough hybrid of the Mexican cattle and another type of weathered cattle. This is used to show the greatness of hybridity. They are also spotted, which is pretty cool. The spots are meant to be like the stars in the sky. In the old stories, the sun father must bring the stars back. Thus, Tayo being the sun father, must bring the spotted cattle back.

Beer: A specifically white thing. In the beginning, all of the Indian boys are sitting around and reminiscing about white culture and how they want to be a part of it. They all are drinking beer. Later, when Tayo is in the car with Harley and Leroy, they are both drinking beer. This is seen as negative and therefore shows that alcohol (specifically beer) is one of the evils of white culture.

Quotes

“’death isn’t much’…’sometimes they just don’t make it’” (229) This is showing the traditional Laguna view of death. Once people die, it is very strange that someone cry over them. This also helps to show Ts’eh helping Tayo to be more of a part of the Laguna culture. We see that he struggled with this point in the beginning when he cried about Rocky and Josiah.

“It seems like I already heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different.” (260) This is kind of the point where the reader goes “ahhh” because they realize that this is just another way of telling the old stories. Tayo is the sun father, emo is the gambler, old Grandmother is thought woman, etc.

A rant on my education. By: Rachel Sternik

Over the last couple of weeks we have done some interesting things, some of which have made a lasting impression, others, not so much.

The first thing that I want to touch on was the prezi (is that how you spell it?) that we watched in class. While actually sitting and watching it, it didn’t really affect me, but as I go on, little bits of info keep popping up in my head from it, so I think it made an impact. The vegetable Oedipus messed me up for good though.

The second thing that was interesting was the doc that we had to read about the native American culture. It really helped introduce the writing style of ceremony to me. The actual information from the doc was awesome too, and without it, reading ceremony would be a hardcore struggle.

Then we discussed ceremony after all that shenanigans. Honestly, the discussion was a little rough. Okay, maybe more than a little. I felt like the discussion got away from me, and by the time I figured out what everyone was talking about, they had moved on. I’m curious to see what the next discussion will be like though.

Let’s talk about lenses. Did you know that they are really cool and help you understand a work better when you use multiple different lenses? Because I sure didn’t. I feel like this discussion would have been better, oh, I don’t know, maybe at the beginning of the year? Discussing American Dream and Death of a Salesman would have been so much easier. I feel like we covered way more in one of the days with lenses than we ever did actually discussing the work and trying to pick it apart.

The “lenses” days (that’s what I’ve decided to call them.) were basically me just trying to contain the bits of my blown mind. Seriously, it was great. But it also made me wonder: how far would we have gotten if we had always looked at works under these lenses? Not just in AP. In all of school. How many works of pure genius did I just skip over thinking that they were meaningless? Then I started to get a little angry. I feel like the school really skimped on my education up until this point. Not to mention I’m going off to college, full of people that have been using these techniques for years, and I’m going to walk in and look like an idiot. And what about those who choose not to take AP? Are they just going to live their lives barely scraping the surface of their favorite books? I feel like it’s my duty to educate these poor, poor souls.

I’m sure I forgot other things, but that’s most of what we covered in class.          

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead

Misc. Information

Author: Tom Stoppard

Setting: a little bit of everywhere, the setting isn’t very detailed and leaves the reader a little bit confused.

Characters

Rosencrantz: Like a child in many ways. He tends to stumble upon riches (in the beginning when they are flipping coins) and in the movie, he stumbles upon many different concepts from physics. He is seen as less intelligent than Guildenstern. He is confused for Guildenstern in the play, to the point where it is seen as a motif of the play.

Guildenstern: More of an adult figure. He looks out for Rosencrantz. As a more intelligent character, he tries to use logic to understand his situation, but whenever he gets close to understanding the situation, he forgets.

Player: He seems to be more in control of the play than R and G (I’ve decided that typing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is really repetitive and takes a lot of time, so I’m just going to call them R and G) are, and seems to understand that the play is a loop. He is seen as a more powerful character, and he understands the dynamic of the play better.

Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, and Ophelia: Not very major characters, but because they were big in Hamlet, I thought it would be rude not to include them.

Tragedians: The “actors” in the play that Hamlet hires, they are like the player’s posse. This includes Alfred, who, out of all the tragedians, is the only one who has a real name.

Summary

The play opens on R and G flipping coins. A strange phenomenon has occurred, where the coin is only coming up heads. R has been calling heads the whole time, so his bag of money is fuller than G’s. G tries to explain this by using many “laws” that are incorrect.

They stop flipping coins and think about how they got to the point that they’re at. They remember that a messenger called for them. Other than that, the readers learn that R and G forget things almost as soon as they happen.

After this deep heart to heart, they stumble across the player and the tragedians. It soon becomes vary apparent that the player is trying to sell R and G sex, however R and G are oblivious, so the player tries to drop more obvious hints, it becomes nearly painful for the reader.

After this silly encounter, R and G suddenly appear in Elsinore! (what!?!) they are told that Hamlet has gone crazy, and that (being his two best friends) they should find out what is troubling him, and try to help fix it. This proves to be quite the issue later on when they cannot find him.

Before Hamlet goes off on his crazy killing spree (just kidding, he only kills Polonius), R and G run into the Player and his tragedians, who are angered by the fact that R and G just left them in the woods. He soon gets over it, and R and G explain their situation with Hamlet. He tries to lend some helpful advice.

The player leaves and we learn that Polonius has been killed. It is R and G’s job to find Hamlet and Polonius’ body. Gertrude and Claudius decide that it’s a good idea to send Hamlet to England, and so R and G go with him. However, instead of actually getting on a boat, they magically appear on it in a dark room.

On the boat they talk about many different things, but one reoccurring conversation was the one about G liking boats, and how he would totally live on one if given the chance (however, we know this will never happen.) It’s reflected back in the end with the quote “our first mistake was getting on a boat.” But we’ll get to that later. First lets talk about the other stuff that happens.

R and G practice what they’ll say to the king of England, and accidentally open up the letter tat was given to them by the king. They learn that Hamlet is to be put to death. However, Hamlet was also listening to them practice, and realizes that he is going to his death. He plans against this and writes a different letter, about R and G’s death, and closes it with his royal seal.

R and G come across the player and the tragedians, but before they can fully greet each other, the boat is attacked by pirates!! Hamlet hops a ride with the pirates, and R and G are flustered! What are they to do? They practice their revised lines now, and accidentally open the letter again! This time, instead of mentioning Hamlets death, they read about their own impending doom. The player tries to console R and G, but as the play comes to a close, G starts to understand that the play is just a loop, and they will just be reborn the next time someone opens Hamlet (the book)

Stuff that happens that isn’t necessarily important about the summary, but still means stuff to the book.

·         The repetition of conversations is a common motif in the play, but the information that is repeated isn’t necessary.

·         The ‘Question and Answer’ game

·         R and G practicing their lines when they aren’t in the play of Hamlet

·         Repetition of them forgetting.

Thesis

T-Stopz’ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead contrasts the confusion and language of the stage with the audience, commenting that because life is not a work of art we are not limited by the same laws of fate that characters are and therefore may exercise free will.

Quotes and why they’re important

·         “It is written” although this isn’t a long quote, this is a major moment of epiphany for readers. The idea that R and G were in a play before was obvious, but now we start to realize that everything that they do is written, and they can’t stray from the text. This line was a big help in writing the thesis statement.

·         “well, we’ll know better next time.” This is the last thing that G says before disappearing in the end of the play. Before this point, we as readers understand the loop that R and G are stuck on, but up until now, we were led to believe that they remained ignorant about it. We see here that G understands his fate, this too was a help in writing the thesis.

Major Motifs

o   Confusion

o   Language

o   Chance/ Fate

o   Death

o   Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildanstern are dead, and so is my respect for a certain English professor......

So. I'm not really sure that there is going to be much substance to this post. Mostly, what we've been doing is reading and watching the movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Besides Reading R-crantz andG-stern are dead, we have done some essay practice. Actually, quite a bit of essay practice. Mainly Intros. A whole day was dedicated to writing essays and promps. Although it was probably one of the most painful things I will ever do, it did prove useful. I feel like I can now create a somewhat decent intro. It takes a while though. I think more essay practice would be useful, preferably one that didn't give me a panic attack. I think the first day of the essay practice was more beneficial, Because we got the dirty details of what the essay readers are looking for, and what offends them to their core. Both of which I didn't know.
Besides that we did read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. I think I might like this play better than the American Dream (which previously held the #1 spot in my heart.) I think there is some really deep stuff in this play, and it really bothers me that I don't know what most of it means.
 I think this will by far be the most difficult piece to annotate due to the fact that most of it is one liners, and there aren't many big chunks of dialogue.
Another point that irritates me is the movie. I really liked it, I think it did a decent job of recreating the play, but I am really intrigued as to what Stoppard meant by changing the movie. We barely scratched the surface in class, and then moved on. That really bothers me, because I have soooo many more questions about what he meant to say by making the player darker, making Alfred more of a sexual character, and what the heck was up with Guildenstern discovering physics all over the darn place!? I was hoping that the article we annotated would clear up some of the confusion, but it just added on.
That darn article/ lecture. I cant handle it. I was reading through it. I was feeling the vibes, agreeing (mostly) to what he had to offer, and then the last page, he basically ripped my heart out of my rib cage and threw it to the ground. He raised most of my main questions, and I got so excited to hear how he was going to answer them, and then he took the easy way out and said that the play was just Stoppard's way of having fun. To put it plainly, I disagreed. To the fullest extent that one human can. On one hand, I'm glad that we read it, because I have to realize that I'm not going to agree with what people say 100% of the time, but on the other hand, why on earth would we read an article saying that a play has no meaning, in a class that all we do is find the meaning of plays?? just saying.
So far, that's all I can think of, that's basically all we have done (not that the days are wasted, but they kinda run into each other after a while.

Open prompts part two and a lot of tears: part two.

Students were asked to read carefully an excerpt from Lady Windermere’s Fan, a play by Oscar Wilde, produced in 1892. Then, in a well-organized essay they were to analyze how the playwright reveals the values of the characters and the nature of their society. Although the prompt deviated from recent practice in that it came from a play, nevertheless the materials were present for students to delineate character, interpret situation, apply analytical skills to representative nineteenth-century literary language, and link their close-reading skills to a discovery of theme.

**I read a part of the play, I’m not sure it was the part that the test takers were given, none the less I am still using this prompt.**

Using a dull topic such as the one in act one, Wilde shows that each of the characters has different values, and ultimately represents different parts of society.  

Although Lady Windermere is barely of age, she is head strong against complements. She states “I Don’t like complements, and I don’t see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman… when he says… a whole heap of things that he doesn’t mean.”  This is a radical wave of thinking for the time that this play was written. We see in this excerpt that lady Windermere is a more turn of the century character.

Lady Windermere is seen as a new age thinker from the beginning, her hatred of complements, blunt honestly, and upfront confrontation with other characters proves this to be true time and time again. We can see this fully in her speech: “I like you very much… But I shouldn’t like you at all if I thought you were what most other men are.”

On the other hand, Lord Darlington thinks that her hatred of complements is ridiculous, proving him to be a more aged thinker. His use of constant complements and small talk is closer related to the interactions commonly seen in 1892, when the play was written.

The line spoken by Lord Darlington: “ I wish I had known it was your birthday… [the flowers] are made for you.” Hints at a potential relationship between the two characters, this is also seen as a older value due to Lord Darlington’s age.

Through his use of language, Oscar Wilde warns the reader about the dangers of a shallow society, and stresses the need for individualism and true friendship.

Hamlet theme

Misc. Information

Author: William Shakespeare

Setting: Mainly in the castle of Denmark in Elsinore.

Characters

Hamlet: The prince of Denmark, he is the son of the murdered king. He has just come back from school to mourn his father. He was previously in a relationship with Ophelia, but as his madness grows, the relationship slowly ends.

Claudius: In the play, he is the king of Denmark. He killed his brother, and Hamlet’s father, to get the crown. He dies in the end, he is poisoned by Hamlet’s sword.

Gertrude: Hamlets mother. She marries Claudius when old Hamlet dies.

Ghost: The ghost of Hamlets late father.

Ophelia: the daughter of Polonius, and sister of Laertes, In the beginning of the play, she is in a relationship with Hamlet, and many other characters are hoping that they will be married.

Laertes: The son of Polonius, and brother to Ophelia. He is present at the beginning of the play, goes to school, and while at school, his father is killed by Hamlet. He swears for revenge on Hamlet, and his hatred for him grows after Ophelia commits suicide because she might have been carrying his child.

Polonius: The counsellor to the king. He tries to come up with a plan to cure Hamlet’s madness by using Ophelia, and ends up being killed instead.

Horatio: Hamlet’s school friend, he is not noble, he is a common man, but he survives the play, which can’t be said for everyone.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Hamlet’s other school mates. They are in league with the king, and take Hamlet to his (near) death. They are eventually killed.

Fortinbras: the prince of Norway, he ends up sitting on the throne of Denmark as well. He takes revenge on Hamlet (or tries too, he walks in on a room of dead bodies) for what Old Hamlet did to Old Fortinbras.

Summary:

·         Act 1 scene 1

§  Horatio learns that the Ghost of Hamlet has been spotted

§  Horatio sees it for himself, he attempts to talk to it, but the ghost just walks away.

§  We learn as an audience that King Hamlet led a conquest against old Fortinbras

·         Act 1 Scene 2

§  Claudius is introduced. He announces his marriage to the queen, Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother)

§  We learn that Fortinbras is planning an attack on Denmark, so Claudius sends ambassadors to Norway to stop these attacks from happening.

§  Laertes askes Claudius for his permission to go to france (where he attends school) he is given permission and he plans to leave.

§  Hamlet is introduced. He is grieving his father, Claudius and Gertrude tell him to get over his father’s death because its been like a month and its not that big of a deal.

§  Hamlet askes for permission to go back to school, but he is denied, and he has to stay in Elsenor.

§  Hamlet  is upset about his mother’s marriage to his uncle, especially the fact that it happened within a month of Claudius becoming king. (Its considered disrespectful)

§  Hamlet finds out about the ghost and is skeptical. He agrees to go see it.

·         Act 1 Scene 3/4/5

§  Laertes leaves for France. He warns Ophelia not to sleep with Hamlet (foreshadowing!??!?!?)

§  Polonius tells Ophelia that she can no longer see Hamlet.

§  Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus all see the Ghost. However, the ghost only wants to speak to Hamlet.

§  The ghost tells Hamlet that he was poisoned by his brother, and that he wishes to have his death avenged.

§  Hamlet finds his friends spying and makes them swear to secrecy.

·         Act 2 Scene 1

§  Polonius does not trust Laertes in France and sends someone to spy on him (because he might have fathered and illegitimate child there.)

§  Ophelia was visited by Hamlet in her closet (super personal) and he seemed to have gone mad, she sends him away like her father wants her to.

§  Polonius thinks that Hamlet went crazy because she wouldn’t talk to him.

·         Act 2 Scene 2

§  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are told to go spy on Hamlet by Claudius and Gertrude.

§  Polonius tell Claudius about his idea of why Hamlet is crazy, they set Ophelia up to talk to Hamlet, while they spy. Hamlet is suspicious.

§  Hamlet knows that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spying for Claudius.

§  Hamlet decides to prove his uncle’s guilt by staging a play, The Murder of Gonzago.

·         Act 3 Scene 1-To Be or Not To Be

§  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are confused as to why Hamlet is mad. Probably because he knows that they are spying on him. Bros don’t do that to bros.

§  Polonius makes Ophelia find out about Hamlet’s madness and she goes to spy with Claudius.

§  Hamlet sees Ophelia and is nice, but then he guesses that it’s a ruse and continues to be crazy.

§  Hamlet tells her that he never loved her.

§  After Hamlet leaves Claudius does not think that love is the cause of his madness. He decides to send Hamlet to England to be killed.

§  Polonius says not to and wait until Gertrude talks to him.

·         Act 3 Scene 2

§  This is the play scene. Hamlet and Horatio watch for a reaction from Claudius.

§  The Player King is killed by having poison poured in his ear.

§  Claudius gets upset and leaves.

§  Gertrude asks to see Hamlet, saying that Claudius is angry with him.

·         Act 3Scene 3

§  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are ordered to take Hamlet to England.

§  Polonius plans to spy on Hamlet and Gertrude.

§  Claudius starts to pray and Hamlet goes to kill him, but then decides that if he kills him during prayer, Claudius will go straight to hevan, and Hamlet wants Claudius to burn.

·         Act 3 Scene 4

§  Polonius hides behind a tapestry in Gertrude’s room to spy.

§  Hamlet enters, they talk, and Hamlet scares Gertrude she calls for help. Polonius reveals his hiding spot.

§  Hamlet, thinking that Polonius is Claudius, stabs the tapestry.

§  Hamlet is then starts yelling at Gertrude for marrying Claudius, when the Ghost appears and he is the only one to see. Gertrude thinks he is mad.

§  The Ghost reminds Hamlet to avenge his death.

·         Act 4

§  Gertrude tells Claudius that Polonius is dead. Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Hamlet, and the body.

§  Hamlet does not say where he put the body.

§  Claudius orders Hamlet to leave immediately for England. Claudius tells the audience he plans to have Hamlet killed in England.

§  Hamlet sees Fortinbras and his army.

·         Act 5 Scene 1

§  Two clowns (gravediggers) dig up Yorick’s bones to make room for Ophelia.

·         Scene 2

§  Hamlet has his “fall of the sparrow” speech.

§  He then duels with Laertes, is mortally wounded, kills Claudius, then relinquishes his control to Fortinbras.

Theme: In Hamlet, Shakespeare warns that when you don’t know who you are, you are unable to effectively exercise moral judgment.

Hamlet and Review. thats what's up.

Okay, so seeing how we have basically been reviewing for the final, this isn’t going to be awfully long.

The first thing that we’ve done since being back was to finish our discussion of Hamlet. I think our hour did a mighty fine job at it, we came up with a decent theme statement, although it was a tad short, I think that it covered all of the bases.

I think our discussion was a little lagging; we struggled on topics that thinking back, weren’t all that difficult to grasp. I think our final four motifs really could have been grouped as two major motifs, and had the other two be parts of the main ones. We got to that eventually, but it took a while. I blame the break.

Although we were a little slow, we did get to have a good discussion, I think that everything that was discussed is important to the story, and it will help when it comes time to make the theme post.

The other thing we did was review. I think that it was a good idea to have a group page, but we had too much time to complete it. I think if we had made the collaborative document a two day project, and then given us the rest of the time to study by ourselves that it would have had a bigger impact. I know that personally, I don’t learn very well if I cant physically touch what I’m trying to learn (like flash cards) so, in the end, it was a tad bit of a waste for me.

Also I think that in the end, people were so desperate to add something, they were just copying and pasting random things into the document, so even going back and trying to make a personalized study guide gets a little tough because of all of the clutter. Not to mention I can’t imagine having every thing that’s on our study guide on the test.

open prompt part 2 and a lot of tears.

Students were asked to read carefully a poem, Robert Penn Warren’s “Evening Hawk,” and then to write a well-organized essay in which they identified the speaker’s attitude toward the hawk and the natural world. In this essay, they were expected to analyze how the poet uses language to convey mood and meaning. The intent of this question was to test students’ ability to read closely, paying attention to the resources of language used to convey the attitude of the speaker. To respond to the question successfully, students needed to have a firm grasp of the devices and techniques employed by poets and then to arrive at an analytical and defensible reading of the poem. Because this poem is allusive, rich, and challenging, most students were able to respond to it on some level, and the able students had many opportunities to demonstrate their skills.

In Robert Penn Warren’s “Evening Hawk” Warren criticizes the superiority that humanity has felt over all other creatures and the thought of human immortality. Warren uses diction, language, and imagery to convey the idea that nature is the ultimate judge over all things, humans included.

            The Diction that Warren uses creates a feeling of darkness and isolation, showing the fall of human superiority. “His wing/ Scythes down another day” shows the hawk closing up another day; this quote shows that humanity has no control over the earth, though we may try. It shows that in the end, nature will always be found superior over fragile humanity.

            Warren uses imagery to convey the idea of human failure. “He is climbing the last light who knows neither time nor error” shows that the dark hawk that controls nature, has never received anything from humanity but errors. “The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error.” Also helps to show the fragility of humanity and the failures that we have caused. In the final stanza, Warren comments that human history is simply a “drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar” by comparing humanity to a failed invention, the speaker shows his doubts in humanity.

             Finally, the language that Warren uses helps to deliver this point even further. The hawk is shown to be the ultimate master of all. “His wisdom is ancient, too, and immense.” Shows that the Hawk is an all knowing creature, and in his presence, humanity is just a small plant. The hawk is shown as “steel edged” and dark, but with one swoop of the hawk we see the “crashless fall of stalks of time.” The hawk has crushed the stalks of humanity easily.

            Diction, language, and imagery help to convey the speaker’s attitude towards nature and humanity’s attempt to conquer it. The poem suggests a future of judgment upon humanity, and conveys the idea that humans are not as in control as they may think.