Gillian Clarke Essay Example for Free

Gillian Clarke Essay Before even reading â€Å"Miracle on St David’s Day†, I knew that something very special was going to happen from the word in the title â€Å"Miracle†. Clarke’s use of this word suggests that an amazing event is going to occur and that the poem is therefore going to be emotional and poignant. Gillian Clarke uses the first verse of the poem to create a pastoral idyll due to the use of personification-â€Å"An afternoon yellow and open mouthed with daffodils†. This conjures a happy and warm image of daffodils with their trumpets open wide, laughing in the sunlight, and it successfully personifies the flowers. Clarke also places people in the description to make it seem even more vivid in our minds-â€Å"the rumps of gardeners between nursery shrubs†. The line, â€Å"country house, guests strolling† pulls together a vivid image of a beautiful, opening scene in the reader’s mind. Clarke also introduces the importance of nature right at the beginning of the poem in this first verse. lAt the start of the second verse, Clarke dramatically dispels the pastoral idyllic that she created in the first verse. â€Å"I am reading poetry to the insane† is a blunt line, completely in contrast to the last verse as it is so insensitive. As readers, we instantly realise the harsh reality of the situation that she is in fact in a mental institution. Clarke’s dispelling of the original image is effective because it catches the reader’s attention immediately as it is a completely unexpected twist. It also makes the poem poignant because it makes the reader’s realise that there is never a perfect place and that there is always suffering around. Clarke goes on in this verse to describe some of the patients around her and the length of their mental disorders-â€Å"An old woman interrupting offers as many buckets of coal as I need. Clarke describes the poignant image of a schizophrenic, beautiful boy absorbed in her poetry making us realise that her poetry may be powerful for these people. After verse two, Clarke introduces verse three by stating â€Å"on a good day, they tell me later† to show how the split between a verse is a like the dramatic split personality of a schizophrenic. In verse three, Clarke goes into more detail about her moving surroundings to build up a vivid idea of the situation in the reader’s mind. She describes ow the sun causes shadows of window bars into the room and how a woman is sitting in these shadows as if she is in a cage. â€Å"In a cage of first March sun a woman sits†. Clarke repeats the word not, â€Å"not listening, not seeing, not feeling† to result in the woman appearing to be trapped inside herself and entirely vacant. Finally in this verse, Clarke writes, â€Å"a big, big mild, man is tenderly led to his chair†. The use of the adverb â€Å"tenderly† makes us understand just how much care and attention these people need. Clarke continues with the poem’s tone of compassion in verse four, by the slow reading caused by several instances of pauses in the line due to commas such as hands on his knees, he rocks . â€Å"I read to the big, dumb, labouring man as he rocks† also brings about the sad sense that although this man seems self-sufficient and big on the exterior he is mild and insecure on the inside and in the mind. Finally Clarke uses an oxymoron, â€Å"I read to their presences, absences† to show how although they are physically in the room, some of their minds aren’t really there at all. In verse five, Clarke’s writing makes everything suddenly change. The slow and thoughtful pace of the poem ends dramatically in a similar way that Clarke destroyed the pastoral idyllic after the first verse. Gillian Clarke’s use of alliteration also strongly suggests that something special is about to happen, â€Å"He is suddenly standing silently, huge and mild but I feel afraid. † Clarke then cleverly uses two similes to portray the moment before the man speaks, â€Å"Like slow movement of spring water or the first bird of the year in the breaking darkness†. These similes are closely linked to new life spring which is convenient because the poem is set on the first day of spring. We also grasp from Clarke’s use of similes that the man is going to do something new. This is a significant and poignant moment in the poem because the man is so well-built and huge yet what he is about to do is something really big and special for everybody in the room and the reader, â€Å"the labourer’s voice recites ‘The Daffodils’† The reaction to this man’s speech is shock and no one is able to speak. The nurses are speechless and prepared for violence from the man but even they freeze. The patients, some of which are seriously mentally ill also suddenly listen, â€Å"the patients seem to listen†. It is effective and poignant, how Gillian Clarke then personifies the daffodils to match the characters and mood of the room. She expresses that even nature outside can react at this incredible moment. The hyperbole that she uses, a thousand, ten thousand is an excerpt from the Wordsworth poem that the man is reciting. Clarke successfully employs this hyperbole to exaggerate the number of daffodils who stop to observe to the man breaking free of speech and his life. I think that the seventh stanza is the most heart-breaking stanza, especially Since the dumbness of misery fell; because that implies that the man was once a happy child and only stopped talking and became miserable when something tore his life apart. This is poignant because it makes us imagine tragic events that could have stopped this man from speaking and that it really shows the power and impact that poetry can have. I think the daffodils are flame is a very effective and clever way of Clarke to finish the poem because it is ending with the daffodils where it first started. The way that nature outside corresponds to the event in the room is truly miraculous. In verse six Clarke personifies the daffodils as â€Å"still as wax† whilst the man is reciting and the daffodils are then â€Å"flame† in the last verse during the man’s applaud (we can see a fiery theme). The poem is so poignant because of the way Clarke creates successful images and personification so that we can feel we are in the room at the time of the miracle. The pathetic fallacy at the end leaves reader’s reflective and astounded by the description in poetry of such an amazing account.

The Internet Essays -- The Internet

Whether you’re an average teenager wanting to keep in touch with friends after school, or a business person needing a low cost but effective way to keep work related material local and secret, chances are you use E-Mail or Instant Messaging services. For communication purposes in this high tech lifestyle that exists today, these systems are used only with the basic understanding needed to run these devices. You are about to learn how these systems came to be and the in depth understanding needed to make them work.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To start with, you must know that they require a system of computers connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) server. The most commonly used and largest LAN server in the world is the Internet. Since the internet hosts the majority of all IM (Instant Messaging) and E-Mail servers, then you must know the beginnings of it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Internet’s precursor was the ARPANET. The ARPANET was a large wide-area network created by the United States Defense Advanced Research project Agency (ARPA). Established in 1969 ARPANET served as a test-bed for new networking technologies, linking many universities and research centers. The first two nodes that formed the ARPANET were UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute, followed by the University of Utah. Because of his unique expertise in data networking Len Kleinrock would use the technology which by then had come to be known as â€Å"packet switching†. When TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) was adopted by the ARPANET as its connection for the networks, the Internet was born.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first email message was sent by Len Kleinrock in 1973. He used the Resource-Sharing Executive program (RSEXEC) to send a message to a man in London that he forgot his razor in his room and to retrieve it while at the international meeting for government funding projects like the ARPANET from other countries. To do so he first had to run the RSEXEC program in his home in Los Angeles and then had to think of a person on the network at 3 A.M. When he did, he put the â€Å"where so-and-so† command in and connected his computer to the other so the TALK command would be enabled. RSEXEC opened a split screen window, one to write messages and the other to read. As time passed, this process of using a resource sharing program as a message sending... ... out with their own versions as well. Since AOL controls the majority of IM systems, it will not allow the software the capability to communicate with other IM systems. Other companies have taken a different approach rather than wait for an agreed-upon standard. Jabber is one company that has created a client program capable of communicating with various IM systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Instant Messaging works by using a piece software called a CLIENT. The CLIENT is normally a software the is in the server and/or maybe needed in the user to machine for proper use. The client communicates with an ICQ server whenever the user’s online and the client is running. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is currently developing a standard protocol for instant messaging, this protocol is know as the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As time has passed and technologies have improved more and more little things tend to replace the uses of what was once a great and commonly used services. So who is not to say that one day the usage of e-mail services will gradually be wilted away by some unheard of system that may become just as big.

Comparison Essay: in Cold Blood

Comparison Essay: â€Å"In Cold Blood† Film & Book In Cold Blood is a 1967 film directed by Richard Brooks. The film is based on the book by Truman Capote, having the same title as the film. The closeness and accuracy of events between the book and the film are tied closely together. Some of the film was actually shot on location where the fatal Clutter murders took place. While reading the book, the reader learns that Capote uses a form of writing that could be difficult to portray in a film setting.As the storyline in â€Å"In Cold Blood† progresses, Capote shifts scenes to show the Clutter’s in their everyday routine, as well as the killers as they approach their victims. Brooks does an excellent job shifting scenes in the film, but not so much that it becomes confusing to the viewer. Although the book and film are closely related, there are a couple of differences that are quite noticeable and could in fact change a viewer/reader’s opinion of the book and or film.The character descriptions in Capote’s book are much stronger than those of Brooks’. The two sources also have two different endings. The character descriptions by Capote are very strong. Almost the entire first half of the book is dedicated to describing the Clutter family and the two killers. By describing in such depth, Capote allows the reader to form some sort of feeling towards the character. For instance, Herb Clutter was described as a good friend, boss, husband, and father.Capote writes, â€Å"He was, however, the community’s most widely known citizen, prominent both there and in Garden City and his name was everywhere respectfully recognized among Midwestern agriculturists, as it was in certain Washington offices† (6). He not only does this with Mr. Clutter, but he describes every family member in great detail. Nancy Clutter was widely known throughout Holcomb, and was basically the All-American child. As for Mrs. Clutter, her descri ption was rather important.The fact that she was not mentally stable and remained sick most of the time aided in her vulnerability at the time of the murders. The analysis of each character enables the reader to feel for the Clutter family and come to the realization that they were just like any other American family; not criminals, wrong-doers, or anything of the sort. Not only does Capote describe the Clutter family, he takes a lot of time to figure out the criminals behind the murders. Dick Hickcock and Perry Smith are very well analyzed in throughout the novel.Basically their whole life stories and every move they made in order to reach the Clutter’s were documented in Capote’s book. In the film, on the other hand, the viewer sees slightly into the lives of the Clutter family, but the director does not describe each character individually. Without this insight, a viewer who has not read the novel may not feel the same way about the family’s tragedy. Knowing more about them would give the viewer a better understanding of what the family was like, and as to why exactly the killers went through with the awful act.The character descriptions in both the movie and the book are in fact different and cause different reactions to each. Not only are the details different in the film and the book, they actually have different ways of ending. Capote closes his novel with a scene located at a cemetery. This scene differs from the movie in that Brooks ended his work with the hanging of Dick and Perry. This conclusion was probably done for dramatic effect, as are most films. Capote’s ending to the novel was a more emotional approach to concluding the Clutter case.

Alpha Radiation - Definition of Science Terms

Definition: Alpha radiation is ionizing radiation resulting from the decay of radioisotopes where an alpha particle is emitted. This radiation is denoted by the Greek letter ÃŽ ±. Examples: When Uranium-238 decays into Thorium-234, an alpha particle is produced in the form of alpha radiation.