Reader's Blog; Cry, The Beloved Country

pg. 33

"Stand unshood upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed."

- I really liked this quote because I thought that it had a message that could be interpreted differently by different people. Like for me, I think that it's saying that if you destroy holy land, or just even nature itself, then people, or man kind would be destroyed. That's the way I see it.

Reader's Blog; 2NE1's "It Hurts

"You wear the shoes I gave you and walk along the streets with her
As if it were nothing, you kiss her
You spray the cologne I gave you and embrace her
You'll probably repeat those promises you made to me with her"

- As I read these lyrics, I couldn't help but think that they sing what most people think after a break up and when they see their ex with another person; that they'll eventually go through the same pain I'm going through.They see themselves now and look at their ex loving another, unable to grasp the idea that someone else took their spot. This song speaks the truth that most people are thinking, and that's what really attracted my attention to it.

Reader's Blog; BEAST's "Thanks To"

"Yeah, the ones who let the unworthy, six fools stand on stage
The ones who placed the utmost precious microphone into our hands, was you, and so
Today, I'm still rocking' this stage, I'm flying like a g6
It feels just like I'm flying in the sky
Like I've fallen into a happy dream, like a child, flying through the air with our hands clasped you and me together"

-  The reason I really like this song is because it's not just another one of their random singles about love or break ups. This song is about them being thankful for being given this opportunity to sing on stage and be the celebrities they are now. They dedicate this song to the fans, the ones who fell in love with their music so much to keep them motivated to keep going forward in writing more songs. They talk about how they feel like it's a dream, and how they are just over all grateful for having this chance at stardom.

Reader's Blog; EXO's "Into Your World; Angel"

"I'm spinning through days,
Stuck in the days, I hope not to face.
It's like I'm the last one off the stage
And there's no music left to play, so I'm lost!
Like an open wound that's never gonna heal,
You're the only thing in my world that is real... "

-   This particular quote from this song really caught my attention because it has a lot of imagery. In the third and fourth lines, it talks about being lost like a performer on stage with no music, no cue of what to do next. It also has similes when it brings up the open wound idea. To me, this song really does a good job of emphasizing how you can be lost or feel that way when you don't have the one that makes you feel "complete" by your side.

Reader's Blog; B1A4's "Tried To Walk"

"Even though it hurts, I’m relieved
Even this feeling is too burdensome to me
You’re looking at me nervously, like a whining child
Your tears are holding onto my shoulders that have turned away
Saying goodbye is sweet but I’m okay even if it hurts
I take my foot out from your shadow
I take off our ring too

We're growing apart bit by bit, you're disappearing little by little,
Don’t hate me because it’ll hurt too much baby"

- When I read the English version of the song, (because the music video wasn't really telling me anything other than Korean men are extremely good looking.), I got a better understanding of it.Yet another break up song, but this one actually.. makes me feel as if I were the one that they broke up with you know? Basically they're singing about how they should just walk away and move on, that they shouldn't hate them because it will only make it hurt more. Songs like these really stand out to me because normally a break up isn't taken like this when it's made into a song. Usually you have the whole "You're a piece of trash I don't need someone like you in my life" kind of song, but these songs don't say that. They tell their loved ones to go live a better life without the pain they'll eventually cause them.

Reader's Blog; BIGBANG's "Haru Haru"

 

"Don’t look back and leave

Don’t find me again and just live on
Because I have no regrets from loving you, so only take the good memories
I can bear it in some way
I can stand it in some way
You should be happy if you are like this
Day by day it fades away"

- This song really stands out to me, not only because the song and video make me cry due to how much emotion was put into it, but also because of the message the song has in its lyrics. Basically, the song is meant for a break up, but it has a kind of positive meaning. The speaker's telling his ex lover that they deserve better, and that they should go find what would really be beneficial to them, even if it's killing the speaker to say so. They only want what's best for their loved one, and sadly that's not them.The speaker tells them that they should smile and go on about their lives like nothing happened, and that they'll pray for them to find their happily ever after. This really makes me think of how break up songs are here in America, and how different they are (AKA, Taylor Swift's "We're never getting back together" )

Reader's Blog; EXO's "Baby Don't Cry"

"Baby don’t cry, tonight
When the dark night lit up
Baby don’t cry, tonight
Just treat it as if nothing happened
You will never be like foam
Don’t you know that
So baby don’t cry, cry
My love will protect you and never let go"

- This song always somehow manages to make me cry whenever I hear it. When I finally learned what EXO was saying in their lyrics, I couldn't help but be overcome with all these emotions. First of all,  this song is about the original Little Mermaid story, you know, the one where the mermaid and the prince didn't have a happily ever after. The mermaid was told by the sea witch to kill the prince in order to remain human forever, or else she'd turn into foam by sundown. The mermaid went, but was unable to kill the man she loved, so she turned into foam and died. In this song, EXO sings it from the perspective of the prince, telling the mermaid that he'll protect her by dying, so she wont turn into foam and die herself. It's the unfortunate tale of star crossed lovers who are unable to be with one another. 

Reader's Blog; Yongguk's "I Remember"

"Even when I close my eyes, the light that used to shine on us is still there 

Our precious times, I'll cherish them deeply 

Even when the pain comes in many times 

Those days we promised of forever 

I will never forget those moments until the end 

I Remember"

- The music video for this song is very intense, because it takes you kind of like on a flashback, where you see the couple fighting but helplessly in love with each other,  and suddenly the girl gets kidnapped. Her lover then goes and tried to get her back, only to get shot multiple times by the police as he shoots the criminals. What's weird is that she falls in his arms, but it's not him; it's his spirit. What I think the meaning of the video and what this excerpt from the lyrics is is that even though he dies, his spirit still lives on in that memory, destined to repeat it until he gets it right. Reliving the great moments before that tragedy, the moments when he was truly happy with his loved one. His ghost still remembers every detail of what happened to them. It's kind of like another version of Romeo and Juliet. 

Reader's Blog; BEAST's "Fiction"

   "I still can’t forget you

I still can’t trust everything

Even today I can’t send you away like this

I will rewrite it again, our story will not end

I will bury fact that reality is seeping into my skin for now

I rewrite it once again, the start beginning with you and I smiling happily

In case you will leave me, the background is a small room without an exit"

- This song is by another one of my favorite band, BEAST. This song is called 'Fiction', and when you listen to it, the only thing  you can really understand is the singers singing "Fiction" over and over. But when you really read the English lyrics you actually get the meaning. The song is a break up song, but what I like about it is that they sing about writing down the story of what used to be, so that their happiness will live on forever even if their relationship doesn't. 

Reader's Blog; EXO's "MAMA"

         "The mask of anonymity hides the jealous eye filled 

with murderous intent

Though they see the end, they’re still hungry

Now are you satisfied?

Why won’t we look each other in the eye anymore?

Why won’t we communicate? Why won’t we love?

We shed tears at the painful reality once again

Please say that we could change things if we wanted, mama mama"

- These are some lyrics from my favorite band, EXO. They're from their single, MAMA, and besides the fact that it's an incredible song and has amazing choreography set to it, the lyrics also hold real strong meaning behind it. Through out the song, they talk about how this world that we live in has changed. It's more about the individual rather than the whole, and how no one really really see's how this attitude of solitude really hurts you in the end.

Reader's Blog: Love

                    " Ricky was 'L' but he's home with the flu, Lizzie, our 'O', had some homework to do, Mitchell 'E' prob'ly got lost on the way So I'm all of the love that could make it today."

-  Yes this poem is from Where the Sidewalk ends. I was reading it to my brother so I figured why not ( even though I'm writing it at school ). I really do love all of the poems from that book, even if it's for little kids. I like that Silverstein divides love into "people", it kind of gives me the impression that even if you don't have all of love that you think you need, to have the feeling of complete love (in other words to spell out "love"), you still have enough to get you through the day. I may just be thinking too far into it, but that's what I think it means. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Reader's Blog; Hymn

                   "When the hours flew brightly by, And not a cloud obscured the sky, My soul, lest it should truant be, Thy grace did guide to thine and thee; Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast Darkly my Present and my Past, Let my Future radiant shine With sweet hopes of thee and thine!" 

-The message that I interpreted when I read this poem was that the bells were ringing because it was a funeral, mostly because Poe's poems are mostly about death. But then I got thinking  that maybe it can just be about church bells ringing to indicate that mass had ended or is about to start, and the speaker could be a sinner that is going (or went) to repent about their sins and now feels forgiven by God. That's what it seems to me.

Reader's Blog; Israfel

                   "In Heaven a spirit doth dwell "Whose heart-strings are a lute"; None sing so wildly well As the angel Israfel, And the giddy stars (so legends tell), Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell Of his voice, all mute."

- What caught my attention while reading this poem was the incredible amount of imagery you got thanks to all the details that Poe put into the stanzas. You can really picture the angel, Israfel, singing as the rest of the world suddenly quiets down. Kind of like a Kodak moment sort of scene. 

Reader's Blog; To My Mother

Pg.  959


            "Because I feel that, in the heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of 'Mother', Therefore by that dear name I long have called you, You who are more than mother to me, And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,"

-I like how in this poem, Poe talks about his aunt, and how she was more to him than just an aunt. Since she raised him, she became practically his mother. He also tells of how she'll always be his mother and that he wont love her any less even if Death gets them in the way.

Reader's Blog: To Helen

Pg.949-950

                  "Was it not Fate that, on this July midnight- Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow) , That bade me pause before that garden-gate, to breathe the incense of those slumbering roses? No footsteps stirred; the hatred world all slept, Save only thee and me."
- I really like this quote because it makes me think of that stereotypical version of "love at first sight" kind of thing, where the two people are oblivious to anything and everything except each other. It's a new twist on it, but it basically portrays the same idea. It's always said to be fate that has allowed them to be there on the same time, and that nothing else matters but them.

Reader's Blog; Annabel Lee

Pg. 958

      "The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me- Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by the night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee."

-Honestly, this has got to be my favorite poem by Poe. I love the way that it's short and simple, and how it rhymes and uses repetition and how he brings it all together to tell the story of two young love birds who lost in the game of love. Wow that was a long sentence. Anyways, this quote stood out to me because it shows how Poe brings forth the idea that their love was so beautiful, that even spirits are jealous of them, and eventually that jealousy is what kills Annabel in the end. Sad story,bro. :---(

Reader's Blog; Bridal Ballad

Pg. 976

           "And thus the words were spoken, And thus the plighted vow,  And, thought my faith be broken, And, though my heart be broken, Behold the golden keys That proves me happy now!"

- Ok can we just admire the little picture I found? It made me laugh that that really is Poe. Reading who knows what but he's reading! Anyways, this quote. I chose to write about it this time because I like this poem a lot. I like how the bride (the speaker of this poem) is torn between being happy and pretending she's happy. In this excerpt, she speaks about how she's not happy, how she's broken and doesn't believe in what I assume is happiness, yet she feels like she should be happy because she's married. Kind of gets me wondering when we feel like this as well in our daily lives.

Reader's Blog; The Tell-Tale Heart

Pg. 304


       "A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers- of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts."

-Just the fact that Poe writes things like this makes my kinda scared as to what went throughout his mind.But when I was reading this, it kind of got me thinking if this is how actual serial killers think.Do they feel what they're doing is right? Do they actually think this all perfectly and strategically? This story, as well as practically everything Poe writes, makes me think all of these things. Well done, Poe. Well done.

Reader's Blog; Eldorado

Pg. 970

         " Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search for Eldorado. 
But he grew old- This knight so bold - And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado."

- What I got from this is that this knight was looking around for Eldorado. You know, like the city made out of gold and stuff. Gold everywhere. Then on his journey there, he was unable to find it and ended up dying as he searched for it. Sadly, he never got to find Eldorado.

Reader's Blog; Lenore

Pg. 946

     " 'Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hater her for her pride, and when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her- that she died! How shall the ritual, then, be read? - the requiem how be sung By you- by yours, the evil eye,- by yours, the slanderous tongue That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?"

- As I read this (and annotated), what came in to my mind was that he was absolutely outraged that these people were at Lenore's funeral. He's basically telling them off by saying how can they be there when they truly never cared for her and they shouldn't taint her sacred funeral with their corrupted presence.