Valentine And Sonet Poems Essay Example for Free

Valentine And Sonet Poems Essay Same theme different historical context: The poem, Valentine, written by Carol Ann Duffy and the Sonnet XLIII, written by Elizabeth Barret Browning are both written by women and are based on the same theme, which is describing love for someone, but they are written with different historical context. Valentine is written in quite a modern way, with some very modern references, for instance by describing love as An Onion instead of a red rose or a satin heart, these are modern references which perhaps would not have been used many years ago. Whereas Sonnet XLIII is a more traditional poem, which appears to have a more romantic theme, no one would ever have thought of comparing love to such a smelly item as an onion many years ago. The Browning poem appears to have some intense descriptions of how someone is loved, for instance, I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach This appears to be showing intense passion and love, trying to relate it to such extremes of where a soul can reach. In Duffys poem, she talks more freely about love and is comparing love to an onion. She says, I give you an onion, its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful; This shows that real love can leave its mark on your lips like how the taste of an onion does. This appears to be a really bizarre thing to compare love to, it is also a really unusual way of thinking, and I think that this shows how views and values of love have changed over the century. Over a century ago, love would have been described in more traditional ways such as quoting feelings in the poem, as Browning does, for instance she writes: I love thee to the level of every days most quiet need, by sun and candlelight The actual wording of Sonnet XLIII shows a more traditional language also by using words such as thee and phrases such as in my old griefs these words and phrases are not normally used in modern language now. STAGE ONE manner of the poem-relationships of poet to the reader The Valentine poem by Duffy appears to be a more informal and relaxed style of relaying the thoughts of love and it appears that the writer is trying to establish a more thoughtful way for the reader to think of love. By quoting something as unusual as an onion, which would not normally be associated with love in any particular way, it makes the reader really perhaps look at an onion in a different light, noticing that it does have an inner beauty, beyond the ugly brown skin, she quotes I give you an onion, it is a moon wrapped in a brown paper, and it promises light.. This is making to reference beauty being more than skin deep. The Sonnet XLIII by Browning is a much more structured poem and is more formal. It is not comparing love to a physical object; it describes the feeling of how much love the writer is feeling and also to what extent. The poet is trying to describe her innermost feelings to the reader and also trying to describe the extent of her love by using emotions, she writes I love thee freely.. and I love the purely.. and also a phrase beginning In my old griefs, these are personal feelings and not based on an object like the Valentine poem. Tone and atmosphere The Valentine poem has a most unusual tone to it. It is quirky in the sense that it uses a most unusual item to be associated with love. It is unique in itself for that same reason and for the way it breaks down the parts of an onion and relates that to how love can feel, it says Here. It will blind you with tears That is showing how strong the sensation of love can be and relating it to the power of an onion being able to make you cry. This poem does not try to be sensational in any way, but in its own right is sensational because it makes you think about something, which is so opposite to love and yet also as powerful as love in its own way. It says Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips forever This poem does not use the clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s often associated with love and this makes the poem quite unique, when you think of a love poem many people would generally think of hearts and roses amongst many other things, but not an onion! It says, Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife This is showing the intensity of love and it can sometimes take over, being quite clingy. Brownings Sonnet on the other hand is a traditional love poem, it describes feelings to the reader, it says I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use The poem appears to have a desperate need to show how deep the writers love is, it seems to try to stretch to many extremes to describe this and even wants the love to get better after death, it says, Smiles, tears of all my life and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. This is a more clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½d love poem, in the sense that it uses the niceties in life to describe love, it says I love thee to the level of every days most quiet need, by sun and candlelight it is also clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½d as it uses general emotions associated with love such as smiles and tears. STAGE 2 poetic devices In Valentine, there was clever use of an onion as an extended metaphor . The onion was compared to love in many ways, it suggested that there was a moon under the brown skin of the onion, this was making the reader thinking maybe of something beautiful lying under ugly clothing. It said that the onion would blind you with tears again this was showing and relating to how powerful an onion secretly could be and that the power of love could be as strong. It said that the fierce kiss of an onion would stay on your lips, possessive and faithful, just like the power of love can be. It also said that the scent of the onion would cling to your fingers and knife, again this shows how powerful love can be and not easy to shake off once there. It said it is the moon wrapped in brown paper, it promises light like the careful undressing of love By this the writer meant that on the outside the onion appears ordinary and quite thick skinned, but as the layers of the outer skins are peeled off, bit by bit the layers get thinner and you begin to see the inner brightness and beauty of the onion, this is trying to show that inside us all there is an inner beauty no matter if the outside is a bit tatty, you sometimes just have to peel back the layers to find it that inner beauty. The imagery that she is using here is quite a romantic type, peaceful and loving. She relates to the onions layers descending in size its platinum hoops shrink to a wedding ring Again I think here she is referring to the silvery skin inside the onion and eventually finding the right layer which is comfortable as a wedding ring this is just finding the right level inside each other that we are comfortable with. In Sonnet XLIII, Browning uses imagination and emotion as her imagery. She refers to the Sun and candlelight instead of saying day and night, quite a romantic way of writing it. She states that she loves freely, purely and with passion, these are all very emotional and deep internal feelings. She states I love thee each time to make each sentence a personal one and directed independently to the reader. Browning makes references to religion by referring to her lost saints, referring to loved ones who have passed away and also she says If God choose, I shall but love thee better after death This refers to the fact that she believes in God and the powers he has and the way he can influence your life and the fact that she believes in an afterlife and that God also can influence what happens there too! I believe that her religion gives her great strength and great beliefs and encouragement and this is shown by how she writes I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight. For the ends of being and ideal grace I love thee to the level of every days most quiet need, by sun and candle-light There are different structures between the two poems, which reveal the different views of the poets themselves. Duffys verse has a very irregular structure for a love poem, it does have some shape and she refers to the normal things associated with love poems, but she tries to show a different side to love by comparing it to something quite absurd. I think this shows that her thoughts on love are that no one should be judged and that love should be how each individual feels it should be. Also the fact that she compares love to an onion shows that she looks at things not just on the surface, but more deeply and sees inner beauty where you would least expect it. Brownings poem on the other hand is a structured poem, which would be typical of a Victorian woman. It shows a serious side to this woman and perhaps reflects the strict idealistic way of Victorian times. It is very thoughtful and deep and emotional which perhaps shows that this woman is a romantic in the true sense that she values the idealistic way that a relationship should be.

Relationships Between Vietnam Soldiers and Their Families :: Vietnam War Essays

The relationship between the soldiers of the Vietnam War was different from the relationships with people from home. The soldiers felt as if they could not tell the whole truth about the war through their eyes to their loved ones at home. The soldiers that they were with all the time understood the pain and confusion each other felt, yet no one talked about it. War changed how people had relationships with others. War could bring people closer or tear them apart. The relationships between the soldiers and their families grew or forced them to become distant. The soldier did not want to worry his parents at home and knew that they would not understand what he was going through. In the Documentary Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, directed by Bill Couturie, showed these relationships change. One soldier writes to his mother and tells her that for a second, he felt as if he was on vacation because it was so beautiful in Vietnam. One had to think that this man wrote this to his mother only for her to worry less. He did not want to tell her the whole truth on what was really going on inside of him. Would anyone from the outside world understand? "P.S. tell mom not to worry, there is nothing I can't handle." The soldiers could handle the physical horrors that were happening to them, but the mental status of many the soldiers were becoming breakable. How could you tell someone not to worry about you, when you do not even care what was going t o happen to yourself. The soldiers were all prepared to die, but waiting was what was driving them crazy. They did not want to tell their 17-year-old girlfriend at home this because she would never understand. How do you tell someone that you love that you are loosing your mind and do even know who the enemy is anymore? Downplaying the whole war situation to your loved one was the only way to keep yourself sane and not make them worry too much about you. All of the men were scared, yet did not know how to show it. They could not show it to their families in letters because that could do nothing but make your mother worry that you were not going to make it. "We all scared, one can see this emotion in each individual, some hide it with their mouth and others hide it with their actions.

An Ideal Type of Security Investment in Malaysia Essay

First of all, we as group have chosen Unit Trust as the best choice in conjunction to the topic of ideal type of security investments according to our understanding and beliefs. According to an article that we have researched, the Federation of Malaysian Unit Trust Managers (FMUTM) defines that unit trust is a form of collective investment which allows investors with similar investment objectives to pool their funds to be invested in a portfolio of securities of other assets. A professional fund manager will then invest the pooled funds in a portfolio. It includes assets classes such as cash, bonds and deposits, shares, property, and commodities. The ownership of the funds is divided into units of entitlement; hence, unit holders do not purchase the securities in the portfolio directly. Consequently, when the funds of the mentioned asset classes’ increases or decreases, then the value of each issued unit increases or decreases accordingly. Besides that, the return on investment (ROI) of unit holders is usually in the form of income distribution and capital appreciation which is derived from the pool of assets supporting the unit trust fund. Unit trust also allows investors to have easy access to a wide range of investments exposures which are not normally available to them. There are a number of other substantial benefits of investing in unit trust. Amongst them are that unit trust are very affordable. Investors are eligible to start with an investment amount as low as RM1000. In addition, rather than concentrating an investment portfolio of one or two investments or share, a portfolio of market securities can be held. Meaning, there is a wider spread of the investments which is also know diversification; hence the investment returns will be less volatile. Through unit trust investment, individual investors have better chances to spread their money to wider asset classes in the same time gaining their particular investment exposure requirements. On top of that, unit trusts have good liquidity which further enhances chances of profits of an investor. Other than that, as mentioned a little earlier on, the people managing unit trusts are approved professionals whom are trained to ensure that decision-making is structured and according to sound investment principles. In the long term, the expertise of a knowledgeable and experienced fund manager usually generates above average investment returns for unit trust investors. Subsequently, with unit trust, the economics of the transaction are more favorable because fund managers invest in larger amounts. Hence, it means that fund managers are able to get access to wholesale fees and products which are impossible for the individual investors to obtain; in return, this action reduces the cost and charges and further enhances the profit for the investment of the investors. Moving on, with the introduction of unit trusts in Malaysia came also the regulations from various regulators, especially the Securities Commission. The entire range of variables relating to the unit trust industry is governed by various legislations in order to protect the interest of the public investors and also a safe investment mechanism to prevent any frauds.

Growth vs. Proficiency and Why This Matters

More and more attention is being paid to an essential question that educators have debated for years: How should education systems measure student performance? Some believe that these systems should focus on measuring student  academic  proficiency, while others believe they should emphasize academic  growth.   From the Offices of the U.S. Department of Education to the conference rooms of local school boards, the debate concerning these two models of measurement is offering new ways to look at  academic performance.   One way to illustrate the concepts of this debate is to imagine two ladders with five rungs each side by side. These ladders  represent the amount of academic growth a student has made over the course of a school year. Each rung marks a range of scores that can be translated into ratings from below remedial to exceeding goal. Imagine that the fourth rung on each ladder has a label that reads proficiency and there is a student on each ladder. On the first ladder, Student A is pictured on the fourth rung. On the second ladder, Student B is also pictured on the fourth rung. This means that at the end of the school year, both students have a score that rates them as proficient, but how do we know which student has demonstrated academic growth?  To get to the answer, a quick review of high school and  middle school grading systems is in order. Standard Based Grading vs. Traditional Grading The introduction of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in 2009 for English Language Arts (ELA) and Math  influenced  different models of measuring student academic achievement in grades K through 12. The CCSS were designed in order to offer  clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life. According to the CCSS: The standards clearly demonstrate what students are expected to learn at each grade level, so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning. Measuring student academic performance by standards such as the ones outlined in the CCSS is different than the more traditional grading methods  used in most middle and high schools. Traditional grading  is easily converted to credits or  Carnegie Units, and whether results are  recorded as points or letter grade, traditional grading is easy to see on a bell curve.  These  methods have been around for over a century, and the methods include: One grade/entry  given per assessment  Assessments based on a percentage systemAssessments measure a mixture of skillsAssessments may factor in behavior (late penalties, incomplete work)Final grade is an average of all assessments Standards-based grading, however, is skill based,  and  teachers report  on how well students demonstrate understanding of content or a specific skill using specific criteria aligned to a scale:   In the United States, most standards-based approaches to educating students use state learning standards to determine academic expectations and define proficiency  in a given course, subject area, or grade level. In standards-based grading, teachers use scales and systems that may replace letter grades with brief descriptive statements, such as: does not meet the standard, partially meets the standard, meets the standard, and exceeds the standard; or remedial, approaching proficiency, proficient, and  goal. In placing student performance on a scale, teachers report on:   Learning goals and performance standards  based on a predetermined rubricOne entry per learning goalAchievement only with no penalties or extra credit given Many elementary schools have embraced standards-based grading, but there is increasing interest in having standards-based grading at the middle and high school levels. Reaching a level of proficiency  in a given course or academic subject could be a requirement before a student earns course  credit or is promoted for graduation.   Pros and Cons of Proficiency Models A proficiency-based model uses standards-based grading in order to report  on how well students have met a standard.  If  a student fails to meet an expected learning standard, a teacher knows how to target additional instruction or practice time. In this way, a proficiency-based model is geared for differentiated instruction for each student. A 2015 report  explains some of the benefits for educators in using a proficiency model: Proficiency targets encourage teachers to think about a minimum expectation for student performance.Proficiency targets do not require pre-assessments or any other baseline data.Proficiency targets reflect a focus on narrowing achievement gaps.Proficiency targets are likely more familiar to teachers.Proficiency targets, in many cases, simplify the scoring process when student learning measures are incorporated into evaluation. In the proficiency model, an example of a proficiency target is All students will score at least 75 or the standard of proficiency on the end-of-course assessment. The same report also listed several drawbacks to proficiency-based learning including: Proficiency targets  may neglect the highest and lowest performing students.  Expecting all students to achieve proficiency within one academic year may not be developmentally appropriate.Proficiency targets may not meet national and state policy requirements.Proficiency targets  may not accurately reflect teachers’ impact on student learning.   It is the last statement about proficiency learning that has caused the most controversy for national, state, and local school boards. The have been objections raised by teachers across the country based on concerns about the validity of using proficiency targets as indicators of individual teacher performance. Comparison to the Growth  Model A quick return to the illustration of the two students on two ladders, both on the rung of proficiency, can be seen as an example of the proficiency-based model. The illustration provides a snapshot of student achievement using standards-based grading, and captures each  students status,  or the academic performance of each student, at a single point in time. But information about a students status still does not answer the question, Which student has demonstrated academic growth? Status is not growth, and to determine how much academic  progress a student has made, a growth model approach may be needed. A growth model is defined as: A collection of definitions, calculations, or rules that summarizes student performance over two or more time points and supports interpretations about students, their classrooms, their educators, or their  schools. The two or more time points could be marked by pre- and post-assessments at the beginning and end of lessons, units, or end of year coursework. Pre-assessments can help teachers develop growth targets for the school year. Other benefits of using a growth model approach include: Recognizing teachers’ efforts with all students.Recognizing that teachers’ impact on student learning may look different from student to student.  Guiding critical discussions around closing achievement gaps.  Addressing each individual student rather than the class as a  wholeHelping teachers better identify the needs of students at the extreme ends of an academic spectrum, to better support students with poor performance and  increase academic growth for higher achieving students. An example for a  growth model target or goal is All students will increase their pre-assessment scores by 20 points on the post-assessment. Just like proficiency-based learning, the growth model has several drawbacks, several of which again raise concerns about using a growth model in teacher evaluations: Setting rigorous yet realistic targets can be challenging.Poor pre- and post-test designs can undermine target value.Targets may present additional challenges for ensuring comparability across teachers.If growth targets are not rigorous and long-term planning does not occur, the lowest performing students may not achieve proficiency.  Scoring is often more complex. A final visit to the illustration of the two students on the ladders could yield a different interpretation when  the model of measurement is based on the  growth model. If the status of each student of the ladder at the end of the school year is proficient,  academic progress could be tracked  using data on where each student began at the start of the school year. If there were pre-assessment data that showed that Student A began the year  already proficient and on the fourth rung, then Student A had no academic growth over the school year. Moreover, if Student As proficiency rating were already at a cut-score for proficiency, then Student As academic performance, with little growth, might dip in the future, perhaps to the third rung or approaching proficiency. In comparison, if  there were  pre-assessment data showing that Student B began the school year at the second rung, at a remedial rating, then the growth model would demonstrate  substantial academic growth. The growth model would show that Student B climbed two rungs in reaching proficiency.   Which Model Demonstrates Academic Success? Ultimately, both the proficiency model and the growth model have value in developing education policy for use in the  classroom. Targeting and measuring students on their levels of proficiency in content knowledge and skills helps prepare them to enter college or the workforce. There is value in having all students meet a  common level of proficiency. However, if the proficiency model is the only one used, then teachers may not recognize the needs of their highest performing students in making academic growth. Similarly, teachers may not be recognized for the extraordinary growth their lowest performing student may make.  In the debate between a proficiency model and a growth model, the best solution is finding the balance in using both to measure student performance. Resources and Further Reading Castellano, Katherine E, and Andrew D Ho. A Practitioner’s Guide to Growth Models. Technical Issues in Large-Scale Assessment, Accountability Systems Reporting, State Collaboratives on Assessment and Student Standards, and Council of Chief State School Officers, 2013.Lachlan-Hachà ©, Lisa, and Marina Castro. Proficiency or Growth? An Exploration of Two Approaches for Writing Student Learning Targets. Performance Management Advantage Evaluation Professional Growth at American Institutes for Research, 2015.The Glossary of Education Reform. Great Schools Partnership, 2014.