Saturday, February 23, 2008

Poetry-But Not My Own

Its like 3 am right now and I had a sudden urge to Google poetry. What's wrong with me?
Anyway, I'm basically useless when it comes to poetry, which I guess makes me better at appreciating it. I've been reading a lot of books lately with some famous poets mentioned in them or with bits of their poems in the beginning. So I decided I would post them here for your reading pleasure :D

The second half of this poem, was in the beginning of The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (pretty good book by the way, but I don't like the ending)

The Rose of Battle
W.B. Yeats

Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
The tall thought-woven sails, that flap unfurled
Above the tide of hours, trouble the air,
And God's bell buoyed to be the water's care;
While hushed from fear, or loud with hope, a band
With blown, spray-dabbled hair gather at hand.
Turn if you may from battles never done,
I call, as they go by me one by one,
Danger no refuge holds, and war no peace,
For him who hears love sing and never cease,
Beside her clean-swept hearth, her quiet shade:
But gather all for whom no love hath made
A woven silence, or but came to cast
A song into the air, and singing passed
To smile on the pale dawn; and gather you
Who have sought more than is in rain or dew,
Or in the sun and moon, or on the earth,
Or sighs amid the wandering, starry mirth,
Or comes in laughter from the sea's sad lips,
And wage God's battles in the long grey ships.
The sad, the lonely, the insatiable,
To these Old Night shall all her mystery tell;
God's bell has claimed them by the little cry
Of their sad hearts, that may not live nor die.

Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring
The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.
Beauty grown sad with its eternity
Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea.
Our long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait,
For God has bid them share an equal fate;
And when at last, defeated in His wars,
They have gone down under the same white stars,
We shall no longer hear the little cry
Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die.






This was in the beginning of Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer


Fire and Ice
By: William Blake
Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.





I think this poem was mentioned in Rebel Angels. I really like Edgar Allen Poe a lot, especially two of his other more famous poems the Raven and The Bells.

A Dream Within A Dream
By: Edgar Allen Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?



And while I haven't found these poems in a novel or anything I just really like them. Here's two poems by Emily Dickinson,


Emily Dickinson:

Surgeons must be very careful. When they take the knife!,
Underneath their fine incisions, stirs the Culprit - Life!






Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, be passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.












Anyone know any other good poems?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Jumper!

I saw the movie Jumper this Sunday! It was awesome! The special affects were dazzling, and teleporting=way cool. I'm not going to tell you how it ends, just that I don't really like the ending. Its far to open, and they make it obvious that there's going to be a sequel.









I really should stop posting so much about the Twilight movie, and more about my own problems or whatever. But I can't seem to. Oh well.

Picture of all the Cullens in the Twilight movie!!




I'm impressed.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentine's Day!


Yep, it's Valentine's Day, or as I like to call it Single's Awareness Day.

I was curious about the history of Valentine's Day so I looked it up. Here's a brief synopsis of how it got started.


Valentine's Day has its origins in the Roman festival Lupercalia, observed on February 15th. Lupercalia celebrated the coming of spring (in the Roman calendar February was observed later in the year than it is today).

Celebration of Lupercalia spread with the Roman Empire. The first Valentine-like cards may have been exchanged in Roman-conquered France.

As Christianity began to take hold in Europe, the Roman church attempted to clean up this pagan day by merging its feast with Saint Valentine's Day (observed February 14). This day honored two legendary Christian martyrs.

The legend of these martyrs may have stemmed from real people or from a single person. One of these martyrs, Valentine, is believed to have been a Roman priest and physician who was killed in the 3rd century during the persecutions of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (the Groth).

From Valentine's Day's association with Lupercalia comes the holiday's association with love and romance. The day's enthusiasts co-opted the Roman god,Cupid, as a patron of Valentine's Day. Cupid is also known as Amor and as Eros in Greek mythology. The ancient Greeks believed Eros was the force of love -- a force they believed was behind all creation.

Cupid is often depicted with wings and carrying a bow and quiver of gold tipped arrows. The son of Aphrodite, Cupid is said to be mischievous and able to inspire love with a shot of one of his arrows.






More book news!!
You can read an excerp from the Host on Stephenie Meyer's website!! You can read it here:

http://stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/thehost_chapter4.pdf


I really can't wait for this book to come out. It'll be interesting to read something from Stephenie Meyer thats not from the Twilight series.
It may not load if you don't have a current form of Adobe Reader.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Has anyone else read the novel a Great and Terrible Beauty by Libbia Bray? My librarian recommended it to me, and I've just recently finished reading it, and its sequel, Rebel Angels. The books are pretty good, and both of them are page-turners with some interesting chacarters.
The third, and I think final book, is called The Far Sweet Thing, and it just came out recently. All three books are in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.


It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls -- and their foray into the spiritual world -- lead to?







THEY'VE CAST SOME OF THE CULLENS IN THE TWILIGHT MOVIE!! Oh, and Victoria too. :)


Peter Facinelli.......Carlisle



You know what's kind of funny? Peter Facinelli is actually a vegetarian in real life.



Ashley Greene.........Alice



Elizabeth Reaser......Esme (She played Molly on Scrubs!)



Nikki Reed.........Rosalie



Rachelle Lefevre....Victoria

Monday, February 11, 2008

Stone Age Inventions and a Cast Update

I'm really not liking my World Cultures class right now. I've got two 2 page essays due this Friday about Stone Age inventions and the argricultural revolution. Yet here I sit typing this post instead of working on them. I'm such a procrastinator.

By the way, what do you guys think is the most important invention of the stone age? Would it be tools, language, or the ability to control fire?



In Twilight related news...

We already know that Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson have been cast as Edward and Bella. Here's all the other parts that we know so far:


Justin Chon.......Eric



Anna Kendrick.....Jessica


Cam Gigandet......James




Michael Welch.....Mike




Michael Welch is pretty cute!! :D




For some strange reason, I am oddly excited for Valentine's Day, which is in 2 days.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Release Date of Breaking Dawn!

OMIGODOMIGOD!!! Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer is coming out August 2!!!! Only 177 more days to go :D

I wasn't expecting it to be out so early. I thought it was going to be coming out in like, September. It's great that Stephenie worked so hard to get this out in August. Espicially since Breaking Dawn is going to be around 800 pages.

I'm really hoping the Borders near me will be having a release party for Breaking Dawn.


In May, Stephenie will also be posting a part of Breaking Dawn and the cover on her website.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

New Cover for the New Maximum Ride

Most of you have probably already seen this cover but I'll post it here anyway. This is the new cover for Maximum Ride: Final Warning.





I'm so glad they changed it from the other, weirder looking cover. This one looks a ot better.
Final warning is still coming out March 17 this year.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

People Who Ban Books Suck

Anyone here ever read a book called Looking for Alaska by John Green? My friend Joey and I did. It's a brillant,well written and touching novel. And yes, at the end it made me cry a little.

So why do some people want to ban it?

11th graders in Depew, NY are going to be reading Looking for Alaska. Since the book has what some consider "controversal" issues in it they sent out a form and let the parents decide whether they want their children to read it or not. Fine, right? But then a small group of parents who DON'T even have children in 11 grade decide that the book is "pornography" and they don't think ANYONE should read it. What is up with that?

Book censors aren't trying to protect their own children, they're just telling everyone else what they should or shouldn't be allowed to do and think. These aren't people who want others to make better choices. They want to prevent people from doing anything they disagree with. And that's STUPID.
Often the banners do not even read the novels fully. Not to mention the fact that there's stuff on TV (not to mention some of the classic novels we have to read for school) everyday thats so much worse then anything you'd ever find in this book.
Books were meant to be read. You shouldn't try to get a book banned just because you don't like it.

John Green himself on the matter:







Go to www.nerdfighters.com to help or send an email to sparksflyup@gmail.com

Monday, February 04, 2008

Interview with Kristen Stewart

Yay! More Twilight movie news! Kristen Stewart, cast as the role of Bella, did an interview with MTV where she mentioned Twilight.


Here's the interview:


“Harry Potter” did it for wizards, “Lord of the Rings” won big for hobbits, and “Narnia” brought it home for the talking woodland creatures. But can a soon-to-shoot movie similarly turn the creaky film cliché of vampires into the next multimillion-dollar fantasy flick franchise?

“The movie is called ‘Twilight,’ ” 17-year-old “Into the Wild” actress Kristen Stewart beamed when we recently spoke to her. “[’Lords of Dogtown’ filmmaker] Catherine Hardwicke is directing it in Washington. It’s based on a book that’s pretty popular [among] young adult, high school kids.”

Although Stewart and co-star Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory!) will soon film only the first movie, they’re already talking about turning the vampire storyline into a series that really sucks. And since the latest book sold over 150,000 copies in its first day alone, Bella and Edward fans everywhere are already counting down the months until the film’s release.

“People really love these books,” said Stewart. “Right now it’s a trilogy, and a fourth book is coming out, so hopefully we’ll get to shoot all four.”

For those who haven’t yet been bitten, “Twilight” will feature Stewart as Bella Swan, a teenage girl whose life gets turned upside-down after she meets and falls in love with a vampire. Additional names will be cast in the next few weeks, but according to the actress, 21-year-old Pattinson is already sinking his teeth into the role of Edward.

“He’s so good and he’s so soulful and he’s just not a liar — you can feel pain from him,” Stewart cooed. “The cool thing about the story is that it’s a seemingly wonderful fantasy — let’s fall in love with vampires and live forever — but it’s so much harder than that. Imagine living forever. Living one life is hard enough.”

But don’t get fooled into thinking this is going to be “The Notebook” for the undead. “The main character is like, superhuman,” Stewart said of the action scenes in the script. “He’s a vampire, but with really [heightened powers]; he can run faster than a car can drive, and he’s super strong. He throws me over his back [in one scene], right before he’s going to tell me that he’s a vampire, and then he runs over the treetops. And we’re going to be in real treetops; we’re not just going to CGI it. We actually get to go up there, and that’s what I’m stoked on.”

“It’s a pretty triumphant love story,” Stewart concluded, looking forward to stepping in front of the cameras. “It’s gonna take a while, and it [deserves to be] at least a series of three.”



It's great that Kristen is so excited about her role in the movie! But...what's with the whole running over the treetops thing? That definitely wasn't in the book, although I have to admit it has the potential to look pretty cool in the movie. I just hope they don't take out the Port Angelas scene where Bella first really talks to Edward after finding out he's a vampire from the movie, it was one of my favorites in the novel.

Robert Pattinson is also preparing for the movie. According to Stephenie Meyer, Robert's now undergoing physical training to beef up for the role of Edward. For the next two months he'll be working to get an Edward-esque body, especially for the meadow scene.