Journal #31 Job Shadowing

I went to WUIS for job shadowing. I went there at 8:30 like I was told to do,and then someone said the girl I'm suppose to shadow doesn't usually come in until like 9 or 9:30, so I went to the coffee shop in the building with the auditorium and got a coffee which was very tasty and then came back at around 9ish. The girl still wasn't there because she apparently had a meeting, so I shadowed other people for like an hour. Everyone said that it was a really easy job and everything and it did look really easy. There was an intern dude who was pretty cool and I believe he was going to have an interview to actually get hired either that day or the next day. His mom used to work there,though. Everything is automated so technically no one can show up to work and it wouldn't be that big of a deal because there will be a constant stream of classical music. The station that the music comes from isn't even at WUIS, it's in like Michigan or Chicago something weird like that. The girl came by at like 10:30 so I shadowed her around for a bit and then left because there wasn't much more to do or show. The people who work there were all really nice and seemed like cool people. It was kind of boring and there wasn't a lot to do or show, but I mean not everyone can be like Nick Campbell and ride in an airplane that goes into free fall for 4 seconds. There isn't much to say about my experience because there wasn't too much to it. All in all, a career in public radio seems really easy and though it's not really a career I would want to aspire to be in, but I wouldn't mind using it as a backup back up plan if any other careers don't work out for me.

"Chanting the Square Deific"

The whole poem is about the speaker and their soul/self. Whitman uses the square to create this. The square is Father, Son, Satan, and the Holy Spirit and there is a stanza for each of these topics.
The first stanza is about the "Father", otherwise known as God. The poem explains God as strict and unforgiving.

"Relentless I forgive no man—whoever sins dies—I will have
that man's life" (Whitman).

The second stanza speaks of the Son, or Jesus. He looked way better than the Father. He is explained as forgiving and kind. It says he is the "cheer-bringing God." He is affectionate and fresh (Whitman).
The third stanza is set in the perspective of Satan, and one would probably guess, Satan is not described as a cool dude. He is ignorant, crafty, and guile (Whitman). Satan would be on the opposite side of the square as the Father.
Finally, there is the fourth and last stanza. It talks about the Holy Spirit. This would be life. It is described as a light that is lighter than light (Whitman).
All of these things combined would be what Whitman would probably describe as "self". Not everyone is completely good or evil. They are a mixture of all of these things, which is the point that Whitman was trying to convey. Some people during this time may have only read the first stanza and just assumed that Whitman was some arrogant fool. A critical analysis by Charles Oliver would agree that the poem talks about God, Jesus, Satan, and then the Holy Spirit (Oliver).

Whitman, Walt. "Chanting the Square Deific." Whitman Archive. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/247.

Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW082&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 4, 2012).

Journal 29- Self

I try to be the best person I can be as cheesy as it sounds. Rarely do I lie to people because it makes me feel like a bad person and I don't like it when others like to me. I can't trust other people if they lie and they won't trust me if I like. Usually, whenever you lie the person will find out the truth eventually anyway and then they'll be more upset that you lied to them and the outcome is even worse than if you would have told the truth in the first place. Obviously, I am not the best person ever and make the most stupid mistakes, or can say things that are way over the top when I am angry/angsty about something, but I am human just like everybody else so in the grand scheme of things, I would not say I am a horrible person (though I could improve upon myself). It is honestly very hard for me to describe myself because I don't really know how to explain myself. It's weird because I'll think of something that I think my describe me and then I realize that sometimes I am the complete opposite. It just depends on the situation and mood I am in, I guess. So in a way, that can describe me. I don't really see things in black and white; I see things kind of gray. Things aren't all good or all bad and I am not specifically a certain characteristic all of the time. I am not always happen, nor am I always depressed. It varies. I really like music a lot- which I know... Everyone likes music, but it is something that is extremely important to me. I play guitar and other instruments (but guitar mainly; I usually play it everyday) so that would definitely be important to my inner "self" and so I wanted to include that in my blog post- even if it is just a short little paragraph.

Journal #27 Emily Dickinson & Amazing Grace

"Amazing Grace" along with many other well-known folk songs like "Yellow Road of Texas" can go very well with Emily Dickinson's poems. This is because Dickinson was probably singing along with the songs while writing her poems or the songs were stuck in her head. Music wasn't played on the radio 24/7 like it is now, so many people only knew a few songs. It was hard to get music back in the day and it was usually people who had more money who were able to get the music. The Gilligan's Island theme song can also be sung long with quite a few Dickinson poems (obviously they didn't have TV back then, but this is just another example of a song that sounds very similar). The way certain meters and syllables work can give poems a certain type of rhythm and feel which is how people often read poems and can also think of songs that would work really well with them.
I know that if I am writing a poem or song or something, it can often sound like a song that I really like at the moment because a lot of the time it is the song that inspires me to write and it will be stuck in my head, so it will be in the same key, have similar rhythms, and melodies. As a matter of fact, I am writing this journal while I am listening to music so the sentence structure is probably very similar to the song I am listening to (especially since it is the only band I have been listening to for the past couple weeks. I am a wee bit obsessed with the Front Bottoms). And maybe you're reading this while listening to music and so you're reading this in a certain meter or with a certain tempo. It is just kind of how our brains work. Sometimes it's on purpose, and other times it just kind of happens.

Whitman's Writing Style

Whitman had many careers in both journalism and teaching, but he was either fired or quit all of those jobs (though no one really knows which ones he quit or which ones he got fired from). He usually didn't agree with his bosses/coworkers on certain subjects like politics (Oliver).
Leaves of Grass was a collection of poetry that Whitman put out after his journalism and teaching careers. There were many different versions of this collection and Whitman spent plenty of years of his life editing, adding, and taking out poetry for all of these different versions. Now, these poems are considered philosophical, meaningful, and showing optimism for America/the American spirit (Oliver). However, whenever the collection first came out, it was not doing so hot. Many people disliked how his poetry flowed-using free verse- and some also thought it was too sexual. Generally, people liked (and still do like) rhyming and predictable rhythm, which is not what Whitman did. Emerson, however was loving this. It was different (Oliver). Picking just a random poem, it probably uses free-verse. An example would be "A Noiseless, Patient, Spider". There is not a line in the poem that rhymes with another (Whitman). Do not fret, though, for Whitman still did use rhyming. A poem of his that somewhat features rhyming is "Patroling Barnegat". This poem ends everything with "ing" (Whitman). It doesn't do much else besides that and wouldn't be completely considered rhyming, but it is definitely close!
Whitman seemed to be influenced by Emerson and took a few of his ideas. One of those ideas would be American poetry; they both wanted there to be distinctive and good American poetry (Oliver). He also thought about American and the dreams he had for it and for years after many people use Whitman as an influence for politics and human rights. Many people still do today, as a matter of fact (Oliver).
Emerson even tried to have a discussion with Whitman about his poetry being extremely sexual (Oliver). It seems that Emerson loved the fact that the poetry was free-verse but was not loving the explicitness of some of the poems. Emerson could didn't get his point across to Whitman, though, but they did go out to dinner at the American Hotel after (Oliver). Emerson didn't bring up to Whitman, though, about what seemed to be homosexuality that were featured in some of Whitman's poems. These poems were under the the cluster of poems called "Calamus" in Leaves of Grass (Oliver). This topic would obviously be very controversial for the 1800's, too.
From this Bloom's article, it seems that Whitman was a very opinionated man and brought new things that have not been seen in America before- or at least weren't popularized until he came along. He just put himself out there and did what he wanted because he wanted to and that was what he liked. For the most part, it seems like he did his goal in putting American poetry out there and doing things differently.

Oliver, Charles M. "Whitman, Walt." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW001&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 21, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "A Noiseless, Patient Spider - by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. .

Whitman, Walt. "Patroling Barnegat, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. .

Emily Dickinson's Writing Style