The Fish

           In the sea there are a lots of marine organisms. People who go to fishing they are don’t know exactly what they fishing for those fishers might catch a fish might not.         

           In this poem Elizabeth is showing the reader how the speaker caught a huge fish. . “I caught a tremendous fish” (line1). She described in the five seven lines how did the fish surrendered without fighting “ He hadn’t fought at all.”(line5) The poet compares the fish in the poem to wall- paper, although she repeated it in two lines, so she tired to give us attention to how much the fish is big and old “ like ancient wall-paper” (line11).

           The poet describes the fish’s “homely” body form its skin, color, and its shape: “ shapes like full- blown roses” (line14). She also described inner the fish’s body that has terrible oxygen “ while his gills were breathing in the terrible oxygen” (line24). After that she starts to take us to the past, and how the fish was beautiful: “like medals with their ribbons” “frayed and wavering.”(Line 61-62)

           Finally, the fisher in this poem let the fish go “And I let the fish go”(line 76). The reader in this poem fined a nice irony. The irony is that the fisher didn’t take the fish. She let fish go because she thought she wanted to catch a nice fish for eating, not an ugly, unhealthy, and old fish.

Snake

         Most of the people in this world think of snakes as dangerous animals, even me.  I thought the snake’s dangers and nobody could live with them. I have one friend back in my country. He invited me one day to his house. I reached his room and I saw many snakes’ pictures on the wall.  I asked him, “Why do you put snake pictures on your room?” He said, “I love them and I have a lot of them here in my room”. I said, “What!! Are you kidding me? That is impossible”.  I’m scared and want to leave, but he explains to me why he likes them. He said those snakes are like pets. Some of people in this world have pets in their houses. They take care of them and feet them. He said, “I don’t like cats and dogs. One day, I went from my house and I saw between my feet a small snake. I was scared and didn’t move. I thought he would hurt me, but he didn’t. The small snake take a few minutes wrap between my feet after that he left into a small hole near to my house. Day by day, I see him everyday and decide to touch him. I put my hand on the floor and he wrapped around my hand. I took him inside my room. And now I have 35 kinds of the snakes. I bought some of them from other countries.”       

           The poet wrote the poem to show readers how of some of people respect snakes. The poem “Snake” written by D.H. Lawrence shows us how the speaker who goes to get drink of a water because he is thirsty on a very hot day “On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat/To drink there”(Line 2-3).  He sees the snake drinking the water, too. The speaker waits. The snake is thirsty, too. He enjoys dinking water “ He sipped with his straight mouth.”(Line11) The poet describes how this snake looks to the man “ And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do.” The man remembers what his education tells him about the snakes. His education tells him the snakes must he killed “And voices in me said, if you were a man/You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.”(Line25-26) The man is afraid to kill the snake, but he is also honored by the snake’s presence: “And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid, /But even so, honoured still more/That he should seek my hospitality”(Line37-39). The speaker’s does not appear actions to kill the snake. “And yet those voices:/if you were not afraid, you would kill him.”(Line35-36). The poet shows us how this man is confused about killing the snake. The poet describes the man is situation from 37 lines to 40.

           The snake drank the water and left slowly without hurting the man. He goes to his hole. The man wants to drink but still afraid. He threw something in the water “ I picked up a clumsy log and threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.” (Line 56-66) He unhappy because throwing the log was mean: “ I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!” and became he allowed himself to be influence by his: “accursed human education”(Line65).  The snake is hurt and he just slides down a hole.

            The poet gives to us clear irony in this poem that the man decides to kill the snake but he didn’t do that. In the end of this poem the poet think how the people thought about the snakes. He wants remove what the people think about snakes and shows not all snakes can hurt us. There are a good snakes and bad one. In the last two lines the man questions himself as to why he thought that snakes should be killed, remove that voice from his mind:” And I have something to expiate/A pettiness”(Line 73-74).

Still I Rise

             Long time ago the white people hated the black people in USA. They cannot live together in same place. There was a lot of fighting between them.  The American government tried to solve this problem until Mr. Obama became President of United State. In this time the American government showed all the people in this world there is no racism in United States. There is no difference between the white and black people. During this time there is a few of white people who hate the black people, but not like before. Maya Angelou wrote her poem to show us how she had power and energy.

             Angelou is a black woman.  She wrote the poem “Still I Rise.” She started her poem writing about the past and how she still rises even though she lived in that hard time when there was lot racism between the white and black people. She had more a patience when the white people didn’t like her: “You may trod me in the very dirt.” She said she didn’t care about them. She was proud because she is a black woman:  “‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells.” She also shows us in this line that she was like rich people.

            Angelou repeated wrote the line, “I rise,” in the poem. She said she’s like the heavens. She gives us the perfect image of the sunrise and the moon rise too. That means she will be rise every day “Just like moons and like suns.” She used questions mark in her poem a couple of times to show the reader that she challenged the people who hate her. She used emotional senses that made the reader think about her, and how she was strong, not weak, even though she experienced racism.

           Angelou wanted to show us her body. She wanted to say I have a sexy body even though I’m black. She asked the people who hate her why they are upset because she has a sexy body: “Does my sexiness upset you?” She said she was like any white women. She wanted to show the reader her body has value. “That I dance like I’ve got diamonds/At the meeting of my thighs?”         

            In the end of the poem Angelou wanted to leave a message for all black people. She is a black woman. She still rises even though she is black. She repeated words “I rise” to show the reader with those troubles in her life she still “rises”.  She had dream that the all black people will live in this world like white people: “I am the dream and the hope of the slave/I rise /I rise/ I rise.”

To Help the Monkey Cross the River

                In this world all organisms must find something to eat, and without food they cannot survive. Some of the animals cannot live without eating the other animals. In this poem a poet shows us how two kinds of animals want to eat the other animal: the monkey who is the prey in this poem and the snake and the crocodile who are the predators. The poet gives the reader an ironic side of how the person protects the prey without killing the predators.

                The poet starts this poem with the man thinking about what he has to do to help the monkey cross the river. The man sits on the platform with his rifle and that platform was high in a tree. There was a river between the person on the platform and the monkey who needs help “How does this assist him?” (Line 6). The monkey wants to cross that river by swimming, but he has two small hands that make him swim very slowly. The man saw two predators who want to eat the monkey, and this monkey does not know that it is going to be prey for them and “predators move faster with the current than against it” (line 8-9).

                The crocodile and the snake are the predators in this poem. The crocodile wants to eat the monkey from upriver, and the snake from downriver. They are racing to reach the monkey. During that time, the man who is on the platform is thinking of how he is going to protect the monkey from the crocodile and snake. He was thinking of the best way to help that monkey. He was thinking, and he was using many kinds of math calculations “the math, algebra, angles, rate-of-monkey” (line 13). He was thinking how fast are the speeds of the snake and crocodile, and how long will they take to reach to the monkey. He thought to kill the snake and crocodile, but he did not do that because he asks himself how those animals can live without eating other animals. The predators are just trying to survive: “They’re just doing their jobs” (line 23). He guessed the best way to protect that monkey is to just shoot near it one, two, and three times into the river to make the monkey swim faster; thus the snake and crocodile won’t catch it. I think he was so comfortable because he did that to protect the monkey without killing the snake and crocodile. In the last three lines the poet shows us how monkeys are like the humans. He describes how monkey’s hands are like a child’s hand. Also monkeys are smart and can smile like people: “but the monkey, the monkey has little hands like a child’s, and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile” (Line 24-26). The man on the platform looks to this monkey like a child, and he feels a very good emotion towards that monkey. He thought, I have to help this monkey because he is almost human. I think that will be another reason for the man to help the monkey.

                One day in my life, I had a similar story like “To Help the Monkey Cross the River." I went to sea at night with my friends, and there were four of us. We were wearing diving clothes. Each one of us had a spear gun and an underwater diving light. We went into the sea one by one. The moon light reflected from the sky like sugar shines. Suddenly, I saw a sea snake. It had three different colors: black, brown, and green, with blue eyes, and a big mouth with two canines. In the other side I saw one small fish. Its yellow color shined like gold. I knew that most kinds of fish cannot see in the night because they are sleeping. I was thinking how I could protect this small fish from that sea snake. The sea snake started moving to the small fish to eat him. I was thinking the best way to help this fish was to kill the sea snake and to let the fish live, but I didn’t do that because this sea snake was doing his job to survive. I just shoot near the sea snake to run away from the fish.

                I like this poem because there are some similarities with my experience. I like the irony in both stories. The irony that the man in the poem and I both shared was that we didn’t kill the predators. We let them survive because they were doing their jobs. Sometimes we decide to do something, but we don't do it. That’s the irony after the man and I thought about killing the predators, but we didn’t kill them.