I would recommend The Widow Waltz to the eighteen and up age group. It is really encouraging to show how strong you can be in a tragic situation. This book talks about stuggles, love, decision making, and overcoming fears. I like how Georgia is fully determined and is trying to move on with her life for sake of her children and grandchild. She shows that life is to precious to be upset. I would rate this book a B+.
...Maybe is an extraordinary novel. For middle-aged men and women, the setting of the story would bring back memories of their childhoods and cause feelings of nostalgia, showing that life passes almost too quickly. Honestly, any reader between the ages of 16 to 80 would be able to read this book. The vocabulary is easy, the diction is accurate and the book structure, for the most part, keeps the book flowing smoothly. The characters have a timeless quality to them, causing anybody to be able to relate to at least one or two of them, and each aspect of the book is so realistic that I could have been convinced that the story was based on real life events. This book was beautifully written and so if it was not out of print and unbelievably hard to get a hold of, I would recommend it to anyone in need of a captivating book to read.
My first choice was a ballet piece named La Sylphide. La Sylphide is a story about a young Scottish man named James who is soon to be wed. He falls asleep and has an intricate dream about a beautiful sylphide, which is a spirit. In his dream they dance and he soon falls in love with the sylphide. When he awakes, he soon forgets about the sylphide and focuses on his fiancée.
Theodore Roethke's poem “My Papa's Waltz” is a unique American poem which is written in iambic trimeter. The poem captures the sometimes intense relationship between father and son. Roethke's own father, a German immigrant, died when he was still a teenager. His father was a major inspiration in his life and images from his childhood appear throughout his poetry. A biographer, Matt Forster comments that “His poems are often explorations of his own psyche, using imagery from his childhood to describe his interior life (Forster 2005).” He became one of the best known American poets by the end of his lifetime in 1963. In the famous poem “My Papa's Waltz” the author uses musicality and deep psychologically-rooted themes to create a poem that is unforgettable and alive with action. The poem is composed in iambic trimeter which parallels the 1, 2, 3 tempo of a waltz. This feature helps in creating the illusion of musicality and dancing as is suggested in the poem's title. Thematically the poem comments on the oedipal complex, the intimate relationship between father and son, loss, memory and music.
In 1908, the year this poem was written, child abuse was recognized internationally and the “Children Act of 1908” was put in place to attempt to minimize the occurrences. The narrator, a young boy in “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke uses harsh and intense wording that describes the daily rituals of abuse within the household from the father that he characterizes as a dance. A large counter argument against this poem says that the narrator is speaking out of admiration rather than fear; that the narrator and his drunken father are merrily playing around by dancing together around their house.
I enjoyed the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. It was filled with adventure and I liked how both conflicts were resolved at the end. I chose this book because Mrs. Donius recommended it to me. She said she loved it and it was one of her favorites. I would recommend this book to a wide range of readers. Anyone from the age of thirteen and older could enjoy this novel.
This poem has a kept form. Even at a glance, it has a set form. It consists of four quatrains, each line being an iambic tritameter. The poem is about a young boy waltzing with his father. One can assume that the speaker is a young boy, or perhaps the poet reminiscing his youth. The father dances around in a haphazard manner, knocking over pans in the kitchen. Upon first glance, the tone is humorous. The picture one immediately forms is rather comical with the boy clinging on for dear life as his chuckling father spins him round and round, making a mess in the kitchen while the mother looks on discontentedly. However, the line, "whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy" suggests the father's drunkedness and "at every step you missed my right ear scraped buckle" suggests the dance was not an altogether joyful one. Lines such as "hung on like death", and "beat time on my head" are might even lead the reader to think the father is abusive of the boy.
It was another long week, and I was looking forward to the usual summer rituals of mowing lawns and hammering a few nails into any place they seemed to fit. I usually closed the auto parts store at 5:30 and stayed doing paperwork for another hour or so, but not on Fridays. Fridays were the finish line of a usually marathon week of complaining customers and dissatisfied employees. At 5:31, the place would be empty, dark, and eager for an echo.
The Sadie Hawkins Dance, the dance where the girls ask the boys to the dance. Although it is a good way for couples to switch the roles of “asking”, the opinions of the people getting asked hasn’t been revealed yet.
Theodore Roethke’s short poem “My Papa’s Waltz” can be interpreted as a brief representation of alcohol abuse by the father. The poem is short and brief and does not go into full depth as to what creates the idea of how the father could be represented as an alcoholic. However, the poem’s diction, style, and imagery helps create a sense of unspoken words that the poet is trying to portray. Diction, style, and imagery in poetry help enhance the poet’s narration of his poem. These literary devices also help create a sense of understanding for the reader so they are able to interpret the poem from different perspectives.
At the end of the 19th century, ballet was the most prominent form of dance. However, to Isadora Duncan, "ballet was the old order that needed to be overthrown, an embodied symbol of all that was wrong with oversymbolized 19th century living" (Daly 26). Duncan believed that the over-technical, over-standardization of ballet was not what dance should be about. Her vision of dance was one of emotions, ideas, social betterment, and the complete involvement of the body, mind, and soul (26). With these ideas in mind, she began to create a new form of dance; what she referred to as the "new dance" (23), and what is now known as modern dance. In creating this new dance, she was inspired by composers such as Beethoven, Nietzsche, and Wagner, writers like Walt Whitman, scientists Darwin and Haeckel, her Irish grandmother, and ancient Greek culture, as well as the spirit of America and its people (Duncan 48, 54). It was a combination of these influences that helped her to create the most expressive, soulful dance known today.
Little Women by Louisa Alcott would definitely appeal to women of all types and ages. Little Women appeals to a broad audience, its full of the values and beliefs, and it paints a very real picture of most American’s lives at the time.
In the late nineteen forties, Theodore Roethke emerged with a poem that has been the source of much debate. "My Papa's Waltz," is an account of a relationship between son and father. Alas, many readers who are exposed to this piece fail to note the love present in the connection of the characters. In an attempt to illuminate the author's true intention several factors must be examined. After several examinations of Roethke's poem as well as learning of his childhood it is evident that this poem does not suggest an abusive environment, but is an appreciative account of the love and playfulness between the characters. Therefore, a successful interpretation of this poem will look beyond the four stanzas and study not only the history of the writing, but the life of the poet.
In the "Widower's Tango", the relationship between Pablo Neruda and Josie fell apart due to jealousy, distrust, anger, mental abuse, the threat of death, Neruda's infatuation. Pablo Neruda was deeply in love with a woman named Josie, who reciprocated his affection, and they became lovers. Despite their feelings for one another, the bond between them was broken. Josie was too in love with Neruda. She was clingy and worried that Neruda would leave her; however, her fears would be founded, for Neruda only saw her as a passing fancy.
I would recommend reading the wizard of Oz. The story is great for all ages. The message told in the story is a good reminder for us also. We constantly need to be reminded that we pick the qualities we possess. When I do not feel I have been kind I think of all the things I do during the day to remind myself even if it is holding the door for someone.
The classic tale of Cinderella is well known for the fight of overcoming great obstacles despite great odds. However, there are always a few ill-hearted people who go out of their way to cease any competition that they might face, as seen with Cinderella’s step-sisters. Samuel Jackson says is his distinguished quote, “The hunger of imagination…lures us to…the phantoms of hope,” to help develop a more defined view of a fairytale. The story of Cinderella fully embodies the ideals of a true fairytale by encompassing magic, hope, and struggle between good and evil throughout the duration of the plot.