Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins




I have always loved poems and this semester in my Textual Analysis class we have mostly been talking about poems. Today, I would like to share on of the poems with you. The poem is called Pied Beauty and is written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.


Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford on July the 28th 1844 and died in Dublin on June the 8th 1889. Gerard Manley Hopkins is considered to be one of the best poets of the Victorian era. Sadly, many of his poems were not accepted for publication until after his death. He never received the recognition that he deserved whilst still alive.


The poem that I am writing my essay about is Pied Beauty. Pied Beauty is a curtal sonnet, it was written in 1877 when Gerard was 33 years old, at that time he had failed his final theology exam and therefore could not become a priest, but published 29 years after his death in 1918. It was one of the first poems he had written in a sprung rhythm style he claimed to have discovered. 


In the poem the narrator appreciates all the things God has given the world, mostly that can be found the nature. 



Glory be to God for dappled things –
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                                Praise him.









Sources:


Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985)


Poetry Foundation


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Happy Shoesday #3

Life is being a little bit crazy these days. Well, that is the understatement of the year. The truth is life is being bat shit crazy and that is just how it is. On the bright side, my birthday is in 6 days and I will have been alive for 23 years and I can handle this bat shit craziness. 

I can't believe it is almost December, I as well can't believe that in 2 weeks my exams start! However, today I wanted to make my third (in a row!) Shoesdays. Looking at shoes online keeps me relaxed!

First, how cute are these rain boots from Target? I might have to order me a pair before Roskilde Festival. 







I had as well shoes from Betsey Johnson and Luichiny in Happy Shoesday #1.





The last one is only for people living in the UK (sadly) it is a design from the Stylist Pick webpage that I am madly in love with! You can sign up for the page here.


That is all for today, hopefully me life will start being calm and peaceful again and I will be able to write more.

Lots of love!



Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Happy Shoesday #2

I really liked looking up shoes online so I decided to do it again! Happy second Shoesday! A friend of mine said that I was choosing way too high heels so this time I tried to pick something more user-friendly. 







I wanted to add this one to the mix, mostly because it costs $1,195.00 and it is such a unique design! 


I might try to have Shoesday every Tuesday :)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Happy Shoesday!

Let's talk about shoes! Why? Because I love them! As well partially because I want some more but paying things like school tuition and coffee is more important than shoes. Sad reality I live in.










There is something about shoes that makes me happy. Even if I can't buy any, just looking at them makes me giddy. 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Mandeville - Lakeshore Drive - Louisiana



Big assignments make me really uninspired and I have the tendency not to do anything at all. That is somehow how I was feeling with the road trip pictures. We took so many pictures and I wasn't sure if I would be able to post them all before the new year! Thus, I just didn't want to post anything at all. Until today whist on the train I looked trough the pictures (I just couldn't make me study any more) and I organised the pictures and saw that there are only 4 more posts from the road trip! I can finally focus back on make up and things! I have bought some new things I am desperate to share!




These photos were taken before the longest continuous bridge over water in the world (we of course had to drive that bridge! It costs 3 dollars but it is worth it). The bridge is called Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. It starts in a small village called Mandeville and in that village is a park. The park is by the lake and the bridge so we decided to take a quick brake and stretch our legs and make-out underneath a tree.


The trees were dreamy and I just wanted to lie underneath them forever.


I don't think I've put in a picture of the super cute car that drove us all the way with out any problems! 


 You can see in the distance the bridge going over Lake Pontchartrain.
  

And the other direction nothing but water. Filthy, gross water! 


Now there are two posts left from New Orleans, one from a park we went to and the last one from Galvestone. 

I finally found a new photo-edit program that I can use when I'm not online! 

xxx

Saturday, September 24, 2011

New Roads or Poste-de-Pointe-Coupée, Louisiana

I've got still so many pictures still from the road trip! It was an amazing trip!  I'm back in Geneva and I know I haven't written anything! My school started as soon as I got back and then one of my professor offended me really badly and I just didn't have any will to write.


New Roads is a cute little village somehow in the middle of nowhere. We only found it because we got lost! But the greatest adventures begin that way.










Walking around the village was super nice, it was quite calming and a pleasant way to spend the day just walking around. They have a lot of shops there and restaurants. 

The False River used to be part of the Mississippi River gradually turned into a lake.  

I really want to post more picture of the trip but I have as well some new make up that I really want to show so I'll probably gradually post everything and just try to go with the school flow.





Saturday, September 10, 2011

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church (Innis, Louisiana)


One of the things we were looking forward to see on our road trip were things we didn't know about. Almost secret places that we could walk around and discover without a tour guide. 

The St. Stephen's Episcopal Church by Innis Louisiana was one of these things, we saw it when we were driving by the Mississippi and decided to stop to walk around. There were two guys there cutting the grass and one of them let us in the church and told us about it quickly before going back to his job.



The church is the oldest brick edifice in Pointe Coupee Parish. The cemetery has a monument to a Confederate Unknown Soldier. It was erected in 1901. The guy told us that during the American Civil War the soldiers would bring their dead comrades over the Mississippi river and bury them in a mass grave there. 

The cemetery is as well where Dr. Tichenor was buried. Dr. Tichenor is known for his antiseptic formula called Dr. Tichenor's Antiseptic. We didn't see his grave so I couldn't take a picture of it. But all the graves there were well taken care of as the entire church.



On the monument there was a quote from the Bivouac of the Dead, a poem written by Theodore O'Hara. The quote on the monument is:
On Fames eternal camping ground,
their silent tents are spread,
and glory guards, with solemn sound
The bivouac of the dead.

But the in the poem it's:

On Fame’s eternal camping-ground 
Their silent tents are spread
That Glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
I'm not sure if it is something they did on purpose or if they just had a different version of the poem.


Thursday, September 8, 2011

Natchitoches, Louisiana


Since the second day of the road trip started super early in the morning I needed some good rest to be able to continue. We decided it wasn't a smart idea  to try camping again so we drove to Natchitoches. We didn't really know what Natchitoches was so we just stopped at the first hotel we saw. We got there around 3 pm and I was ready to sleep. We took a nap and when it got dark we decided to grab something to eat. We figured out where a Burger King was decided to go for it. We had directions to get there and the plan was just to go the same way back. 


You would think that that would work perfectly fine. Well, for us it didn't. All one semi-wrong turn and we were lost! We didn't have the address of the hotel we were staying at and we didn't have a clue where we were! We turned on the GPS and tried to pinpoint where the hotel was, after some time we figured out how to get back and luckily we got there while the french fries were still warm! 


The day after we woke up early and went to the Bayou Pierre Alligator Park. When we got out of the park it was still some time before lunch and we didn't want to eat lunch on the road. We headed back to Natchitoches and decided to take a look at the old town there. 


The old town there is mostly just one street that's called Front Street and then River Walk. While the Front Street has only shops and restaurants, the River Walk has two historic houses that were moved there.


In a week and one day I'll be heading back to Geneva! It's strange how fast this summer has gone by! 


Saturday, September 3, 2011

Pendleton Bridge and Toledo Bend Lake

The first night on our road trip we camped - it was hell. Well, it was hell for me. We got there right before it started being pitch dark, barely managed to put up the tent, didn't manage to put it up right. The pump for the air mattress didn't work good so the air mattress was just 25% filled with air. Oh, and don't let me forget it was hot hot hot. I was as well scared, I'm used to camp but there are always quite a lot of people around me when I do, that night it looked like we where the only ones there. All night long I was worried that a serial killer (or just a regular killer) would come and kill us. I kept on hearing dog barks and twigs being broken. 

Therefore I barely slept, at 4 40 am I gave up. I was sticky from my sweat and my hair was glued to my skin. I woke up N. and we packed out stuff together and drove away. The only picture I took from there was this one:

I took this picture right before we left, the sun is about to rise and the scene was just gorgeous. 

We didn't want to stop again until Louisiana so we drove and drove. After we crossed the Pendleton Bridge (connects Texas and Louisiana) we decided to make a quick stop and stretch our legs. 






   There was no one else there except for us, it was quiet and peaceful. They had some pick-nick benches around so it's possible to stop there and have a lunch. 

I just have 13 days until I arrive back in Geneva, time has gone so quickly by!

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