Watching The Stars

During spring break last week, me and my parents had a fire in our backyard in our fire pit like we sometimes do. We were all sitting around watching the fire and it was all quiet and peaceful. I wasn't even thinking about this assignment when I looked up at the sky. It was really clear and the moon was so bright. There were a lot of stars to look at.

I thought back to elementary school when we studied all the constellations and had to memorize certain ones. I could easily pick out Orion's Belt because of the three bright stars in a row. That was the easiest one to see. Once I pointed it out, my dad looked up and started to pick out certain constellations also. I don't think we saw any planets. I'm not even exactly sure what a planet would look like.

Staring up at the dark sky was really relaxing. It kind of made you forget everything else that was going on in the world. It was really quiet and peaceful. Nobody was talking to each other. We were just all sitting around the fire, staring at the stars.

I'm sure the people from pre-scientific times were either really amazed at stars or they probably just didn't care. Some people were probably amazed because no one had ever found out what stars really were yet. So to them they were just a bunch of shiny, bright dots in weird patterns that lit up the night sky. And then I'm sure some people just didn't care what they were. No one had discovered their importance so they were just unimportant dots that showed up in the sky every night. Also, the moon and stars were very useful to these people because in those times, there were no light bulbs or flashlights to see things. Besides maybe a small candle, there was just the night sky. So the stars were very valuable to them.

It is very important that we protect the night sky from light pollution. I think that everyone needs to be able to see the sky and all the stars it really has in it. Some people in big cities like New York or Los Angeles can't even see the night sky at all. They probably have no idea what constellations truly look like unless they leave their city. It is also important to see the night sky because you can really see what universe you're a part of and how big it is. It is especially important for children to see it because you don't want to grow up and not even know what's actually around you. I think the night sky is a very important part of our education and that is why we need to save it.

Valentine and Hate Poem

The two poems I chose to compare are "Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy, and "Hate Poem" written by Julie Sheehan. While reading these poems, I caught on to several similarities between the two. Both are obviously written about love and at the same time very anti-romantic. It is easy to see that the authors passionately dislike a certain thing in each poem. Sheehan goes on and on about how much she hates her ex. And in the first couple of line of Duffy's poem, readers think she feels the same way, but further into it, you realize she doesn't hate her partner, she just hates the holiday of Valentine's Day. "Hate Poem" has a very harsh tone to it, stating, "I hate you. Truly I do. Everything about me hates everything about you." While "Valentine" isn't as harsh but the author still informs readers her true feelings towards Valentine's Day using several euphemisms.

A big similarity between the two is that both authors use inanimate objects throughout their poems. Sheehan uses several objects such as sock lint, a hair shirt, and a closed window. All very degrading objects to be compared to. While Duffy talks about an onion.

Duffy believes that valentines are very cliche and does not think that a red rose or a satin heart can express a form of love. She bluntly informs her partner to not expect any cheesy valentine on Valentine's Day by giving him an onion inside a brown paper bag. Something very out of the ordinary that a person would give a significant other on such a day. Keep in mind that onions have many different layers. The reasoning behind the onion is that she wants him to look beyond the superficial layer of Valentine's Day and see that this onion is her gift of love and that she doesn't need an expensive present in fancy wrapping paper or a holiday to tell her to express her love.

Sheehan, on the other hand, uses her inanimate objects very negatively. She obviously had her feelings badly hurt and wanted to seek revenge because throughout this entire poem she explains how not just her, but all these different things hate her ex. This is extremely humiliating for that person since all these things are unable to have feelings. But according to Sheehan, they still hate him. She states, "The flick of my wrist hates you. The way I hold my pencil hates you." The author knew this would be very degrading for her ex. That was her goal in writing this poem and she definitely accomplished that.