My Commentary on Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening"

by Raphael

The imagery of the poem paints a very detailed picture. In stanza two, lines three and four, describes the dark surrounding the character is in. The author of the poem had a good play of words. The poem had alliteration in every stanza. For example, in the first stanza, the letter W for whose and woods, H for his and house, lastly T for think and though. The poem also has personification, like in the line “My little horse must think it queer”, the horse is being personified. Personification is attributing human traits to animals or things. These aspects help the poem by giving an image to the reader so he could understand more about the poem.

The stanzas of the poem were well organized and were based on the order of events. This makes the reader visualize the sequence of the happenings. The rhyme structure of the poem is aaba except the last the stanza which has aaaa, gives more fun on reading. The stanzas have a rhyme pattern which makes the poem catchy. The poem has four stanzas composed of quatrains and each line has eight syllables. Each stanza’s length is long enough to show the idea clearly. If it was too short it will be hard to get the idea.

The theme of the poem is about keeping promises. The traveler in the poem had two choices either to stay in the woods and relax or to keep his promises and continue traveling to his destination. The traveler, not thinking for his pleasure, chose to continue his journey and keep his promises. Today, people should honor their word. It is important because if you stood by your way people will trust you more because you are known as a responsible person.

The content of the poem made more of an impact to me than the way it was written. Also the traveler’s decision affected me. I both disagree and agree in several points of the traveler’s decision. I disagree on the idea of him trespassing because even though no one can witness what he was doing, he should respect another person’s land. Basically trespassing is wrong. Then again, I agree with the fact that he kept his promises for the greater good.

I conclude that the whole poem was constructed well. It has a good structure that could hold a powerful content. It is one thing that I recommend for everyone to read.

Raphael continues to train for his swimming meets. He is currently taking lessons in Latin and brushing up with his Filipino as well.

A Wrinkle in Time

by Raphael

The book A Wrinkle in Time is by L’Engle. The main characters are Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin. They are chosen to save Mr. Murry from IT. IT is an evil mind that wants to take over the universe. They got help from Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which. Mr.Murry tried to save Earth from IT, however he got caught and became a prisoner. They traveled through time and space. They started from earth and able to go to Uriel, Happy Medium’s place, Camazotz and to Ixchel. All of the places they have been to are free from IT except Camazotz, which is a dark planet. They were able to get Mr. Murry, however, Charles was hypnotized by IT. So Meg had to go back to Camazotz to rescue Charles. She was able to save Charles by showing her love for him. In the end they were able to go home.

In my opinion the most important theme in the story is family. The characters have a strong bond together. This bond helped them because they did not give up.

Values are actions that help people face challenges. In the story the characters have values that help them fight IT. First, Meg’s value is her faults. It helped her when she fought being hypnotized by IT. Second, Charles Wallace has the value of being tough, as he tried to get information from The Red Eye Man. Next, Calvin is a good friend that he tried to pull Charles out of the trance. After that, Mr. Murry has courage that helped him when he took the risk on tesseracting to Camazotz. Then, Mrs. Murry tried to be strong by not showing her sad emotions to her kids. Last, The three Mrs.s has the knowledge and they gave it o the three kids. I believe that these values can be applied to everyone. If you do you become a better person.

Raphael has recently finished a public-speaking course and will compete in an upcoming swimming meet.

Making a Choice

By Raphael

I read two books by Lois Lowry, “The Giver” and “Gathering Blue.” “The Giver” is about a boy named Jonas, who is living in a utopian community in the future. “Gathering Blue” is about a girl, Kira, who is living at the same time as Jonas but in a different community.

The books, “The Giver” and “Gathering Blue,” are both held at the same time. Jonas and Kira are both living in a type of community, where the council kills a person secretly because of the mistakes the person did. Jonas and Kira both have special roles in their respective communities. They are chosen to do their roles because they have powers. Jonas’ power is to receive and keep memories. He was the chosen one to be the Receiver in his community. The Receiver’s job is to receive and keep all the memories from the Giver. Meanwhile, Kira’s power is to see the future through her magical weaving.

These are the differences between “The Giver” and “Gathering Blue.” Kira’s community is barbaric; they live for money, don’t care for others, and are not well educated. On the other hand, Jonas’ community is civilized; they have fine jobs and are well educated. They are also well fed and appear to be happy all the time. But after Jonas knew that the Council kills people, he wanted to leave the community and try to save a baby who was supposed to be killed. Meanwhile, after Kira knew that the council was trying to kill her father and other people, she, however, decided to stay and tried to change the ways of the council.

I prefer the book “The Giver.” It is more entertaining than “Gathering Blue.” If I were to choose who I would want to follow, I would chose Kira's decision. I would choose it because if I leave the people, they would suffer. And if I help make a difference, the council would probably change.

How about you? Would you choose to stay like Kira or leave like Jonas?

Raphael is 13 years old. He is the oldest among three children. He plans to read more of Jonas and Kira in Lois Lowry's "Messenger," the third book from this trilogy.