THE ROAD I CHOOSE TO TRAVEL

A Personal Anthology

Christian Dunn
April 12, 2006
Freshmen English Honors
Harwood Union High School
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Acknowledgements

I thank Ms. Stahl, my Freshmen English Honors teacher who led the class in
the right direction during the creation of my anthology, and answered my
many questions during the time.

I thank Mr. Macleod, who sat next to me every day of class that we discussed
this anthology, for helping me when I was confused by an assignment, which
happened very often.

I thank Ms. Guion and Ms. Kalantari for allowing me to use their works of
poetry in my anthology the day before the entire project was due.

I thank my parents for allowing me to use my computer to type many parts

of this anthology when I should not have been using the computer at the
time because of other reasons.

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This Personal Anthology is dedicated to

Everyone who reads this anthology
With a thirst to find a work which is captivating to them
As these works are for me

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Contents

Preface 7

Ten Brief Quotations 12

Albert Einstein

“No Amount of Experimentation” 12

“You Cannot Simultaneously” 12

Muhammed Ali

‘Silence is Golden” 12

Aristotle

“A Likely Impossibility” 13

Benjamin Franklin

“A Clear Conscience” 13

“Be Civil to All” 13

“An Investment in Knowledge” 13

C.S. Lewis

“Safety and Happiness” 14

Voltaire,

“A Witty Saying Proves Nothing” 14

“There is a Wide Difference” 14

Walt Whitman

“The Habit of Giving” 15

Works by Five Poets 16

Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken 16

Dust of Snow 17

The Lockless Door 17

Shel Silverstein

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Ations 18

Eighteen Flavors 19

The Oak and the Rose 19

Galway Kinnell

Blackberry Eating 20

Daybreak 21

Telephoning in Mexican Sunlight 22

Emily Dickinson

"Hope" is the Thing with Feathers 23

I’m Nobody, Who Are You? 24

Success 24

Langston Hughes

The Dream Keeper 25

As I Grew Older 26

Dream Variations 27

Martha Collins

Lines 28

One Piece of My Own Poetry

Growing Up 29

One Piece of My Own Prose

In Response to I Shall Finish the Game 30

Three Prose Excerpts 31

George Orwell

Excerpt from 1984 31

ScienceDaily.com

What Is Time?

C.S. Lewis 32

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Excerpt from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe 33

Works by Students 34

Janice Guion

Response to The Loosing of the Shadow 34

Hannah Kalantari

Response to The Loosing of the Shadow 35

Analina Aitken

Response to The Dragon of Pendor 36

Biographical Sketches

Janice Guion 37

Hannah Kalantari 38

Analina Aitken 39

Bibliography 40

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Preface

An anthology is a collection of writing, and this is my collection of writing

that I have compiled for my Freshmen English Honors class. As I found works of

prose, poetry and quotation that I enjoyed, was able to relate to or wanted to

read over again, I created this anthology. A phrase of poetic advice that I

followed as I compiled this anthology is from a poem by Robert Frost, The Road

Not Taken, which is on page 16 of this anthology. The poem speaks of choosing

a path, a path that is in the forest in the poem, but could also be a path of

choices in life. The last three lines of the poem convey the wise advice that

comes from The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I have followed this advice to the compilation of my Freshmen English

anthology in the way that I looked for works to place in it. Much of the works in

this anthology are or were inspired by writing that is less traveled by and

through than many of the popularly read works. In the English class that I am in,

instructed by Ms. Stahl, I have read and responded to works of writing which I

would not have traveled by if I were not in the class, and that has made much

of a difference in the writing that I enjoy and add to my anthology. One lesser

traveled by but ingeniously written novel that we read in my English class is

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. The responses to the novel in class

inspired the writing of many good works of poetry by students in the class. My

anthology includes works by other students in the class in response to The

Wizard of Earthsea. A part of a poetic response by Janice Guion to chapter 4 of

The Wizard of Earthsea on page 34 of my anthology, which is entitled The

Loosing of the Shadow, which speaks of the unknown danger and darkness that

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the protagonist of the story, Ged, loosed onto Earthsea during a bitter duel with

his rival, Jasper:

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Unwanted Awakenings
Danger, hiding on unturned pages
An opening into an unknown world

When I read these lines, which are toward the beginning of the entire

poem, these lines set the poem to the beat of a drum, strong, and tough to

combat if the beat of the drums is the beat of the darkness that was released in

the time setting of the poem. Every syllable in these lines has the sound of the

drums that would be played to accompany this poem if it were read in an

ancient story telling ceremony, a quick yet robust beat. Then, when these lines

are read to the beat of a drum, the entire poem and the story it responds to can

be told to the beat of a drum.

Another path that is followed less frequently than others is the

examination of the vast array of perspective of places, people and objects.

Things appear differently when they are viewed from a perspective that they

were never looked at through before. I have included in my anthology a

response that I wrote in September of 2005 to a short story by Isak Dinesen,

entitled I Shall Finish The Game. My response is from the perspective of the

young hunter who is hunting, waiting and watching for the deer that is soon to

come into his sight:

From behind the blind, you are hidden. Nothing in the forest will
see or sense your presence if you remain silent. There you wait,
the patient hunter, your eyes darting around looking for your
prey. Silently, gun poised, you wait for the deer to get in the
position of your sight.

This writing is in response to a detailed observation of the perspective in

I Shall Finish The Game. The entire passage is on page 30 of my Freshmen

English anthology. During our class reading and discussion of the story, I wrote

several passages in response to the story from the perspective of different

characters and objects in the story, including from the perspective of the deer,

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the knife used to kill the deer, and the hunter’s perspective. Something cannot

be understood completely if it is not viewed from many points of view, and this

is why being aware of perspective is important.

The difficulty and importance of perspective is found in a quotation by

the Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, which I have included in my anthology

on page 13:

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

That which is possible and true is true, regardless of what is regarded as

likely. However, something that is less difficult to comprehend has the tendency

to be regarded as the possibility, even though the true possibility is often

regarded as unlikely. A change in perspective is very important in order to be

assisted in finding what actually is possible and what is true. For example, if you

were trying to find the exit in a gigantic maze cut in a full grown cornfield, it

may seem impossible from the perspective of someone in the maze, but if they

were to view the maze from the air, from that elevated perspective they would

easily find the pathway to the exit, and see things that in the overall design of

the corn maze that they would not have been able to walking in the maze itself.

Someone seemingly stuck in a maze would start to think of what they think is

likely, that there is no exit, even though the unconvincing yet true fact that

there is, in fact, an exit to the maze. The willingness to accept an unconvincing

but true possibility is usually the path less traveled, as opposed to the easier to

comprehend impossibility.

Another pathway with a destination, which is so much needed in the

world, is the pathway of honesty, justice and kindness, which leads to the

destination of safety and happiness. A quote by C.S. Lewis explains that safety

and happiness for everyone on earth can only be acquired through integrity:

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Safety and happiness can only come from individuals, classes, and nations being
honest and fair and kind to each other.

This quote is a part of my anthology on page 14. An unfortunate quality

of many nations and people is that honesty, fairness and kindness is often the

path less traveled, and peace on earth is something that cannot be earned by

war, but it must be worked for through honesty, justice and kindness between

every person, between the rich and the poor and from nation to nation. I added

this quote to my anthology because it shows the very important, lesser-traveled

path in the direction of peace.

In the later days of summer, when so many forest paths have been

traveled and worn by the many travelers, there is another, sometimes lesser-

traveled experience of blackberry picking. Galway Kinnell captures the tasty

wonder of looking through the prickly plants and finding what may be the

plumpest, ripest blackberry in the forest that I come to enjoy in September so

well in writing in Blackberry Eating:

…certain peculiar words

like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.

This part of the poem by Galway Kinnell, which I added to my anthology

on page 20 is my favorite part of the poem because it allows me to taste the

taste of blackberries with the juicy vocabulary. The word that Kinnell uses in

Blackberry Eating that is my favorite is “splurged”, which allows me to taste a

rush of sweet blackberry juice rushing into my mouth. I was introduced to

Kinnell’s poetry because Blackberry Eating was a poem that was given to my

English class by Ms. Stahl as a five minute write poem to respond to. A poem

that replicates the sweet taste of blackberries is one that I enjoy to read

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repeatedly, and that is why I have added Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell

into my anthology.

My Freshmen English anthology has been influenced by several lesser-

known paths in the forms of poems, prose and quotation that I would not have

traveled in a different English class, and these new paths have made an

improving difference in my perspective of poetry. I have enjoyed and still enjoy

the short stories, poetry and novels that I have been reading in English class,

and each of the works in my anthology have significance to me that I explain for

each work of writing, from sound, meaning or perhaps something too complex

to describe, but partially comprehensible through language. Much of the writing

in my anthology is not mine, but its importance and effect that it has on me

when I read it is something that is mine to remember. I welcome you, the reader

of my anthology, and I invite you to find significance in these poems in a way

that is uniquely yours.

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Ten Brief Quotations

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can

prove me wrong.

(Albert Einstein)

Discoveries are very fragile. Some things can never be proven, but a

single shred of something that disproves can prove an entire idea wrong. In the

world of science and mathematics, so much work is required to convey your

ideas to others and to show an idea, hypothesis or theory to be correct, but so

little work is required to disprove an idea even if only a tiny amount of

information disproves it.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

(Albert Einstein)

This quote tells us that if you are preparing for a war, you cannot prevent

a war from happening. It is significant because much of the world today feels as

though it is possible to both prepare for war by stockpiling weapons of mass

destruction and prevent war at the same time. According to this quote, both

actions cannot be possible at the same time, and much of the world, preparing

for and trying to prevent war are performing futile actions.

Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.

(Muhammed Ali)

This quote reminds me of my best option when I’m in school or

elsewhere. It is much better to remain silent when you don’t know the answer to

something to keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, if you open your mouth and

say something, if what you say is wrong, you will only put yourself in a position

worse than when you were before you opened your mouth. I have learned this

from times in the past when I have said things that I later regretted for a longer

time afterward than I would have waited without an answer.

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A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

(Aristotle)

It is often more preferable, or at least easier, to accept something that is

likely but impossible rather than a possibility that may seem unconvincing.

However, it is better to think of the possible rather than the impossible, and

look past an unconvincing appearance and look toward the possibilities.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

(Benjamin Franklin)

Having integrity and doing nothing to be guilty of makes life as enjoyable

as Christmas every day. When you are nice, fair, honest and subordinate, the

heavy weight of guilt does not hold onto you like a heavy ball and chain and you

feel much freer than a time filled with guilt.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

(Benjamin Franklin)

It is never my desire to be the enemy of another person, and it is always

my desire to be friendly to everybody. While it can sometimes be hard to avoid

having enemies, I strive to be civil to everyone and to make no enemies. An

enemy in life takes time and energy from what you want to do into defense

against an enemy, but being friendly and civil gives energy and enjoyment. This

quote by Benjamin Franklin also says that you can only be friend to one person,

and this seems true. While you can be a friend with many, and that is a good

thing to be, it is not possible to have two ‘best’ friends.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

(Benjamin Franklin)

There are many things in life that can be invested in. Stocks and bonds

are monetary investments, but there are investments in life that also need to be

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taken. It is important to invest in friendship, integrity, friendliness and physical

shape, but the investment that will give back the most in interest in the long-

term course of a lifetime is the investment in knowledge. An investment in

knowledge can be obtained by getting the most out of education and learning

as much as you can, and then when you are well into your life in later years, the

interest of wisdom will help you through, followed by the interest of friendship

and integrity.

Safety and happiness can only come from individuals, classes, and nations being
honest and fair and kind to each other.

(C.S. Lewis)

There will not be safety from terrorism and violence when there is also

deception, dishonesty, injustice and unkindness to others. No peace treaty can

survive if the nations involved are deceitful to each other. If there is no honesty,

what is to stop nations to turn against a mere document declaring peace?

Honesty, integrity, justice and kindness are so important for these reasons.

A witty saying proves nothing.

(Voltaire)

This is very ironic because it is a witty statement in itself, and yet it

proves nothing because of what it states. If it were true, then it would be an

oxymoron, disproving itself as well as every other witty quote ever quoted. The

presence of irony in a statement makes a statement interesting to me and one

that I enjoy to take a few moments to ponder whenever I read it.

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be

impenetrable.

(Voltaire)

When you speak to deceive, you are only tearing yourself down, but

when you are silent, you can be impenetrable to a verbal onslaught. A person

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who always is deceitful and speaks lies in every sentence will rarely be trusted,

and when someone is no longer trusted, they will have wished they have been

silent. Anyone who regrets something that they earlier said will wish they were

silent. If you remain silent and speak only with integrity, you will have no

regrets.

The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.

(Walt Whitman)

Giving can be a difficult task at times, but I feel that it is true that once a

person starts to give, it will become less of a chore or a burden and more of an

enjoyment. I feel such a satisfaction whenever I know that I have given to

something that will help others who need help so much. If I, or anyone, started

to give as a habit, it would become something to look forward to every day, and

this would help those who truly need help.

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Works by Five Poets

Since I am in the state of Vermont as I compile this anthology, I find it only

fitting that works by the great poet and Vermonter, Robert Frost are the first of

the works of poetry I have here. Frost’s poetry has such a pure simplicity and

appreciation for Vermont nature that, when I read it, brings me to a quiet place

in a forest. The quiescence of Frost’s poetry has a calming effect and some of

his works, such as Dust of Snow, is a short poem which reminds me to find a

little something to enjoy in a day on those days that don’t work for me, like a

crow shaking snow down from a tree. Here are three of my favorites of Frost’s

poetry, and the first poem is one that has become very famous for all those

living or who has lived in Vermont.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

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Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

- Robert Frost

The Lockless Door

It went many years,

But at last came a knock,
And I thought of the door
With no lock to lock.

I blew out the light,

I tip-toed the floor,
And raised both hands
In prayer to the door.

But the knock came again.

My window was wide;
I climbed on the sill
And descended outside.

Back over the sill

I bade a 'Come in'
To whatever the knock
At the door may have been.

So at a knock
I emptied my cage
To hide in the world
And alter with age.

- Robert Frost

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I remember back to the year when I was in primary school, and I read and heard

so much of the poet Shel Silverstein. The poetry of Silverstein was abundant at

the school in large books like Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic.

I enjoyed hearing and reading the poetry of Silverstein so much back in my

younger years, and I enjoy it today when I revisit it in the creation of my

personal anthology. Silverstein’s works bring me back far in my memory, in

retrospection of my earlier, younger years of listening to stories and poetry.

Ations

If we meet and I say, “Hi”

That’s a salutation.
If you ask me how I fell,
That’s consideration.
If we stop and talk awhile,
That’s a conversation.
If we understand each other,
That’s communication.
If we argue, scream, and fight,
That’s an altercation.
If later we apologize,
That’s reconciliation.
If we help each other home,
That’s cooperation.
And all these 'ations' added up,
Make civilization.

- Shel Silverstein

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Eighteen Flavors

Eighteen luscious, scrumptious flavors –

Chocolate, lime, and cherry,
Coffee, pumpkin, fudge-banana,
Caramel cream and boysenberry,
Rocky road and toasted almond,
Butterscotch, vanilla dip,
Butter brickle, apple ripple,
Coconut and mocha chip,
Brandy peach and lemon custard,
Each scoop lovely, smooth, and round,
Tallest ice-cream cone in town,
Lying there *sniff* on the ground.

- Shel Silverstein

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I was introduced to the poetry of Galway Kinnell this year and I have

enjoyed reading Kinnell’s works. So much information for the senses flows from

Kinnell’s poetry. The taste of blackberries, found in Blackberry Eating, the sight

of pink sunset in Daybreak, and a squeaky chittering in Telephoning in Mexican

Sunlight are all vivid descriptions for the senses in the poetry. The sensory

exploration in the poetry is something that makes me want to read the poetry

again, continually diving into the “squinch” and “splurge” of blackberry eating.

Blackberry Eating

I love to go out in late September

among fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.

- Galway Kinnell

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Daybreak

On the tidal mud, just before sunset,

dozens of starfishes
were creeping. It was
as though the mud were a sky
and enormous, imperfect stars
moved across it as slowly
as the actual stars cross-heaven.
All at once they stopped,
and, as if they had simply
increased their receptivity
to gravity, they sank down
into the mud, faded down
into it and lay still, and by the time
pink of sunset broke across them
they were as invisible
as the true stars at daybreak.

- Galway Kinnell

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Telephoning in Mexican Sunlight

Talking with my beloved in New York

I stood at the outdoor public telephone
in Mexican sunlight, in my purple shirt.
Someone had called it a man/woman
shirt. The phrase irked me. But then
I remembered that Rainer Maria
Rilke, who until he was seven wore
dresses and had long yellow hair,
wrote that the girl he almost was
"made her bed in his ear" and "slept him the world."
I thought, OK this shirt will clothe the other in me.
As we fell into long-distance love talk
a squeaky chittering started up all around,
and every few seconds came a sudden loud
buzzing. I half expected to find
the insulation on the telephone line
laid open under the pressure of our talk
leaking low-frequency noises.
But a few yards away a dozen hummingbirds,
gorgets going drab or blazing
according as the sun struck them,
stood on their tail rudders in a circle
around my head, transfixed
by the flower-likeness of the shirt.
And perhaps also by a flush rising into my face,
for a word -- one with a thick sound,
as if a porous vowel had sat soaking up
saliva while waiting to get spoken,
possibly the name of some flower
that hummingbirds love, perhaps
"honeysuckle" or "hollyhock"
or "phlox" -- just then shocked me
with its suddenness, and this time
apparently did burst the insulation,
letting the word sound in the open
where all could hear, for these tiny, irascible,
nectar-addicted puritans jumped back
all at once, as if the air gasped.

- Galway Kinnell

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Emily Dickinson’s poetry does a good job of trying to explain some

unexplainable things in life, like the existence of hope and the feeling of

watching success from a spectator’s perspective. Hope is something that is

never lost, a bird that sings its tune, sometimes very quietly, but always sung.

Dickinson’s poetry conclusively captures and in short time tries to explain some

intangible things like hope and success, and an almost bizarre interpretation of

that feeling of “nobody”. I was introduced to Dickinson’s poetry in my Freshmen

English Honors class in the year of 2005 and I have enjoyed her poetry since

that time.

"Hope" is the Thing with Feathers

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson

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I'm Nobody? Who Are You?

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

- Emily Dickinson

Success

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host

Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,

On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear

- Emily Dickinson

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The works of Langston Hughes show the importance of dreams, and

being a dreamer. Dreams should be protected from the roughness of the world:

protected from criticism, abuse, and doubt so their value and the hope they

allow can stay with the dreamers. Hughes shows us that are dreams should be

protected in something soft, like a blue cloud cloth, and that they can remind us

of things later on in life so vividly that the dream becomes bright like the sun

before they are almost completely faded by forgetfulness. Hughes’s works on

dreams reminded me of this importance, and that I should not abandon dreams

even if in many years they become nearly forgotten. Here are some works that

speak of dreams.

The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams,

You dreamers,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

- Langston Hughes

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As I Grew Older

It was a long time ago.

I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun--
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky--
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!

- Langston Hughes

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Dream Variations

To fling my arms wide

In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me--
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide

In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

- Langston Hughes

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Lines are important for mathematical people like me, and Lines by

Martha Collins is a poem that feels so good to read because it reaffirms the

many places where lines are found. The world is full of lines, and lines are found

beyond the realm of a geometry class. Lines shows how lines, connecters from

point “x” to point “y”, can be a line of vision, a line of communication, a line of

fire, or, of course, a line between two points. Lines, in a line of communication,

are a pathway of conversation, a line of direct eye contact between two. Of

course, for me, lines will always have the most significance to me as a

connector between two points, perhaps “x” and “y”.

Lines

Draw a line. Write a line. There.

Stay in line, hold the line, a glance
between the lines is fine but don't
turn corners, cross, cut in, go over
or out, between two points of no
return's a line of flight, between
two points of view's a line of vision.
But a line of thought is rarely
straight, an open line's no party
line, however fine your point.
A line of fire communicates, but drop
your weapons and drop your line,
consider the shortest distance from x
to y, let x be me, let y be you.

- Martha Collins

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One Piece of My Own Poetry

Things change with time, and a time of such immense change is the

transition from childhood to later years, when things you thought in the past are

not the way things are. Wishes that you may have made as a 5, 6 or 7 year old,

you may not want them anymore because you see things differently, and yet

they may be coming true at a time you don’t want them to. Of course, as a

teenager or an adult, you can’t have a tantrum when things aren’t going your

way, rather the only thing you can do is deal with it in silence, and you feel like

nobody else can know.

Growing Up

I’m sorry if you don’t like this –

But there is no other way.
You are getting older,
Your childhood wishes are coming true,
And yet you don’t want them.
You don’t like it,
But you can’t have a tantrum.
You are on your own.
Your life is in your hands.

- Christian Dunn

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One Piece of My Own Prose Writing

The pressure and silence of a hunt is evident in this writing, and the
reader can connect with the waiting and watching of a hunt, and the intense
emotions involved. Perspective is very important in this passage, the location of
the hunter, hidden from the deer, and the possibility to feel the perspective of
the deer in the sight of the hunter. The sweaty palms the hunter feels from
holding the gun remind me of times when my palms become very sweaty when
I nervously await a presentation, grade or some other unknown outcome until,
slowly, the final outcome is within sight as you slowly begin what you were
nervously awaiting.

In Response to I Shall Finish The Game

From behind the blind, you are hidden. Nothing in the forest will see
or sense your presence if you remain silent. There you wait, the patient
hunter, your eyes darting around looking for your prey. Silently, gun poised,
you wait for the deer to get in the position of your sight. Your palms become
sweaty, and your eyes lock onto the neck of the deer. Nothing to alert it of
your presence, slowly, you pull back on the trigger.

(Christian Dunn, 2005)

In response to I Shall Finish The Game by Isak Dinesen

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Three Prose Excerpts

It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody,
in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were
also very much the same everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or
thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one
another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet
almost exactly the same people who had never learned to think but were
storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would
one day overturn the world.

(George Orwell, 1984)

Everyone in the world is different, and yet everybody is so close to being

the same. The book 1984 struck me as a world that everything that would make

a person free is taken away, a terrible place. The restricted, dictatorship similar

world of 1984 is what would exist if a nation became so restricted with laws and

regulations that virtually every action became regulated by laws, and everyone

was monitored by a “big brother” like government.

In the world of today, there are already concerns of “big brother” like

developments. Although George Orwell’s vision of the year 1984 did not take

place in 1984 or anytime in the beginning of the 21st century, the possibility still

can’t be ruled out for the future. A world ruled by a “big brother” would be a

world like that described in this excerpt, one where everyone is held apart by

walls of hatred and lies. Concerns of “big brother” arise in the world of the

internet, “cyberspace”, where more and more actions are being monitored by

governments. Various governments have spied upon phone conversations and

data transfers. When more laws and more invasion of personal privacy come

into existence, a nation is closer to a life with a “big brother” monitor and rights

more restricted than those in a communist nation.

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What Is Time?

The concept of time is self-evident. An hour consists of a certain number of minutes, a day
of hours and a year of days. But we rarely think about the fundamental nature of time.
Time is passing non-stop, and we follow it with clocks and calendars. Yet we cannot study it
with a microscope or experiment with it. And it still keeps passing. We just cannot say what
exactly happens when time passes.

Time is represented through change, such as the circular motion of the moon around the
earth. The passing of time is indeed closely connected to the concept of space.

According to the general theory of relativity, space, or the universe, emerged in the Big
Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. Before that, all matter was packed into an extremely tiny
dot. That dot also contained the matter that later came to be the sun, the earth and the
moon – the heavenly bodies that tell us about the passing of time.

Before the Big Bang, there was no space or time.

“In the theory of relativity, the concept of time begins with the Big Bang the same way as
parallels of latitude begin at the North Pole. You cannot go further north than the North
Pole,” says Kari Enqvist, Professor of Cosmology.

One of the most peculiar qualities of time is the fact that it is measured by motion and it
also becomes evident through motion.

According to the general theory of relativity, the development of space may result in the
collapse of the universe. All matter would shrink into a tiny dot again, which would end the
concept of time as we know it.

“Latest observations, however, do not support the idea of collapse, rather inter-galactic
distances grow at a rapid pace,” Enqvist says.

(Science Daily)

This excerpt from ScienceDaily is an excerpt that appeals to me because

the concept of time is such a mystery. The short excerpt here does a good job of

summarizing what many physicists have come to believe about time and it is

comprehensible by anyone who is curious about the subject. Time and space

are virtually infinitely complex and far extends its complete comprehension by

humans. We can have vast evidence support a human comprehensible view of

time and space, but we can not prove its truth through any method on earth.

The vast expanses of the concept of time can be attempted to be explained in

this short excerpt.

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Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house
that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few
doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would;
but soon they came to a very long room full of pictures, and there they found a suit of
armor; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then
came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door
that led out on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and
were lined with books -- most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a
church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one
big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the
room at all except a dead bluebottle on the window-sill.
"Nothing there!" said Peter, and they all trooped out again -- all except Lucy. She stayed
behind because she thought it would be worthwhile trying the door of the wardrobe, even
though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily,
and two mothballs dropped out.

Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up -- mostly long fur coats. There
was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She immediately stepped into
the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the
door open, of course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into any
wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging
up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched
out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step
further in -- then two or three steps -- always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of
her fingers. But she could not feel it.

(C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe)

The beginning of adventure starts with curiosity, and in the Narnia

stories, Lucy shows much curiosity. As she felt and moved her way back inside

the wardrobe, she realized that there was no end, and another world to explore

inside the wardrobe. Many things in life can be like the discovery of Narnia in

Lewis’ Narnia chronicles. Through curiosity and pushing forward (or backward,

in the case of a wardrobe), a completely new and undiscovered world of

discoveries can be found.

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Works by Students

When a poem is read and it can be read with the imaginative sound of

the rhythmic beating of a drum, it has a sound of intensity and power. This is a

poem that I enjoy to read to a roaring, fast beat of the drums, a beat for every

syllable. A mystery exists in the “black hole of blinding brightness” in the poem,

the place from which the shadow came. How a bright black hole’s existence

could be possible makes me wonder about what a bright black hole would look

like. The sound and imagery in this poem is the sensory images that make this

poem enjoyable to read and the reason that I added it to my anthology.

Response to Chapter 4 - The Loosing of the Shadow

Jealousy, hatred, rivalry

Unwanted Awakenings
Danger, hiding on unturned pages
An opening into an unknown world
A world where darkness casts the shadow
Black hole of blinding brightness
Mysterious shadow released into the world
Is this the end?
An island, safe…
For now.

- Janice Guion

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How a very large message fits so well into so few words in this poem is

something important in a poem. Poems are best when words that are needed

are removed and all that remains is the imagery that is conveyed by the poem.

This poem is very good at telling the story of how and why Ged summoned the

shadow in very few words. When a story is told in few words, it is often easier to

understand when there are many words.

Response to Chapter 4 - The Loosing of the Shadow

Ged
Spurred by Jealousy
Scorned by Jasper
Warned by Vetch
Night
Ged Summoned
A shadow.

- Hannah Kalantari

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The story of how the Dragon of Pendor was forced to forever leave the

villagers of Roke in peace is told with such a rhythm and pleasant sound that it

sounds as if it has been told for centuries in ceremony. A rhyme scheme in the

poem makes each line support the next line in a poetic story which flows with

such a pleasant rhythm. The choice of words used to create the rhyme scheme

works well with the story, and there every line in the poem fits so well that each

line in the poem belongs where it is. The sound of the poem, led by a well suited

rhyme scheme provides enjoyment for me when I reread this poem.

Response to Chapter 5 – The Dragon of Pendor

He stood upon the harbor sand

A monstrous beast rose upon his command
A dragon with scales as black as night
Whose spikes and talons made quite a sight
“You must be here in search of my hoard”, said he with a roar.
“Tis not true, I ask you only to stay here forever more”
“Very Well,” said the brute with a sigh,
for young Ged knew his name, ‘twas an eye for an eye.’
So dragon and wizard then parted ways
And in Pendor the great monster lays.

- Analina Aitken

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Biographical Sketches

Hannah Kalantari was born in Berlin, Vermont on October 6th of 1990. She is

currently a first year student at Harwood Union High School and a student of Ms. Stahl’s

Freshmen English Honors course. The poem Ms. Kalantari wrote, entitled Response to The

Loosing of the Shadow was written in response to The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K.

LeGuin. The idea of the poem was to capture the main ideas of the chapter such as

“shadow” and “darkness” using as few words as possible, inspired by Ms. Stahl’s editing and

revision of responses to the chapter.

Ms. Kalantari enjoys horseback riding, and her favorite pet is her foal whose name

is Piccolo. She also greatly enjoys playing the piano and has been playing the piano for

several years. In warmer weather, Ms. Kalantari likes to cool off with a swim, and in all

weather, she enjoys reading a variety of books. Her favorite type of poem that she has wrote

is a “Five W Poem”, which is a poem which is five or six lines and each line describes the

setting using each of the “five Ws”: who, what, where, when and why and an optional sixth

line can describe ‘how’.

The bacon potato casserole that Ms. Kalantari’s mother cooks is her favorite food,

while asparagus and raw zucchini are foods that she does not like. She dislikes the chore of

cleaning her family’s chicken house because it is a very messy job.

Ms. Kalantari currently lives in North Fayston, Vermont.

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Janice Guion lives in Waitsfield, Vermont with her mom, dad, and two younger

siblings, Tracy and Stephen. She currently attends Harwood Union High School as a 9th

grader. The poem that she wrote that is in this anthology was inspired and based on

Chapter 4 of The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin. Her favorite food is eggo waffles

with raspberries.

Ms. Guion’s favorite book is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. She enjoys to play

her PlayStation 2, reading, and mountain biking. Her cousin, Katie, who is a freshman at

the University of Vermont is a role model for Ms. Guion. Ms. Guion’s favorite poet is Shel

Silverstein because she says that his poems are so funny and she has been reading them

since third grade.

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Analina Aitken lives in scenic Waterbury Center, Vermont and attends Harwood

Union High school as a 9th grade student. Ms. Aitken is also a student of Ms. Stahl's

Freshmen English Honors course at Harwood. She enjoys poetry and reading a lot. She

wrote the poem that is in this anthology in response to Chapter 5 of The Wizard of

Earthsea. Ms. Aitken wants to become an acclaimed writer after high school and college.

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Bibliography

Aitken, Analina. Response to Chapter 5 – The Wizard of Earthsea. 2005.

Ali, Hana, and Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali - Life Lessons. New York: Pocket
Books, 2000.

Bartlett, John. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Little, Brown Publishing.

Callow, Philip. From Noon to Starry Night : A Life of Walt Whitman. Ivan R. Dee,
Publisher, 1996.

Collins, Martha. Some Things Words Can Do. Riverdale-on-Hudson, NY: Sheep
Meadows Press. 1998.

Dickinson, Emily. Poetry for Young People.

Dunn, Christian. Growing Up. Five Minute Write. 2005.

Dunn, Christian. Response to I Shall Finish the Game. Ms. Stahl’s Class. 2005.

Einstein, Albert, and Freeman Dyson. The Expanded Quotable Einstein.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Einstein, Albert, and Jerry Mayer. Bite-Size Einstein. New York: St. Martin's Press,
1996.

Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin - Wit and Wisdom. White Plains: Peter
Pauper Press, 1998.

Frost, Robert and Edward Connery Lathem. The Poetry of Robert Frost : The
Collected Poems. Henry Holt and Co, 1969.

Guion, Janice. Response to Chapter 4 of The Wizard of Earthsea. 2006.

Hughes, Langston. Langston Hughes Reads. Caedmon Publishing.

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Kalantari, Hannah. Response to Chapter 4 – The Wizard of Earthsea. 2005.

Kinnell, Galway. Selected Poems.

Lewis, C.S. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. New York: HaperCollins
Childrens Books, 1995. Original, ©1950, C.S. Lewis.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

Morgan, Edmund S. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Little, Brown, 2002.

Orwell, George. 1984.

ScienceDaily.com. What is Time?. Online available at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050415115227.htm,
4/15/2005.

Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic. Harpercollins Childrens Books. 1981.

Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. Harpercollins Childrens Books. 1976.

Title Image, Sunset High School. Online Available:

http://sunset.episd.org/IMAGES/trail.jpg.

Voltaire, and Ben Ray Redman. The Portable Voltaire. New York: Penguin (Non
Classics), 1977.

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