Poem: Rhyming Poem

Winter in the woods.

In the wood of snow-covered willows,
We lay in the snow like a bed full of pillows.
We wish we could stay there all day and all night,
we play in the snow with no need for fright.

Poem: Carpe Diem

Chance to fill a day.

You have one chance to fill a day.
Even though move by it may,
try to fill it with work and play.
There's only one chance to fill a day.

Poem: ABC

All days can be fun,
Because were alive.
Can you enjoy them?
Do you even try?

3 Poems

1. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This was my favorite poem of the three. I particularly liked how the poem managed to have a serious tone yet still rhyme. Though this was the first poem I had read with the this rhythm. The first line in each stanza rhymes with the third and fourth lines, and the second line rhymes with the fifth. I found this very interesting.

I think the poem is talking about life, and how each decision we make or life course we take is like a fork in a road. Each choice can completely change our direction in life.

2. Messy Room by Shel Silverstein

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

This poem is more of a joke than something emotional. It is told by a person who walks into a room, sees what a mess it is, and starts criticizing the owner, only to find its his room.

I think this shows a human tendency to assign blame to others rather than accept ourselves as the source of the problem.

3. Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats

I WHISPERED, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.


This is a love poem. Not about someone but love itself. It tells of a young man who is contemplating whether to find love. It then talks about how complex and "crooked" love is. It ends by saying "One cannot begin it too soon."

I think the poem is saying love should not be planned.

Biology: Blue Desert

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Whitsunday Islands.

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When you see the image above, "desert" is probably the last word that comes to mind. Tropical waters are warm, clear and full of life right?

Wrong. In general tropical waters, near the equator, have less marine life than the colder temperate waters to the north and south. Here is why.

Seasons create differences in temperature throughout the year. These temperature changes cause the deep and surface water to mix. The mixing brings nutrients to the surface allowing phytoplankton to grow. This phytoplankton, being at the bottom of the food chain, feeds the rest of the food chain.With out it most marine life can't survive.

The the problem with the tropics is that with out distinguished seasons the surface water and the deep water don't mix. Without any nutrients left in the surface water, all the nutrients lie bellow 492 feet (150 m) to a depth too dark for phytoplankton to grow, leaving most of the tropical waters with less life then temperate waters.

Coastal upwellings and coral reefs act as oases in the vast blue desert. Coral reefs accumulate and recycle nutrients and in coastal upwellings deep seawater moves up to the surface.

Sources: Oceans: A Visual Guide by Stephen Hutchinson and Lawrence E. Hawkins
Photo: Wikipedia

Social Studies: Camp X

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Monument of Camp X in Ontario, Canada.

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Officially called S 25-1-1 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Project-J by the Canadian military, and Special Training School 103 by the Special Operations Executive, a branch of the British intelligence service MI6.Camp X was a Second World War paramilitary and commando training installation near lake Ontario in Canada.

Camp X trained over five hundred Allied units of which 273 of these graduated and moved on to London for further training. They were trained in special techniques including silent killing, sabotage, partisan support and recruitment methods for resistance movements, demolition, map reading, use of various weapons, and Morse code.

Writer Roald Dahl and supposedly Ian Flemming were trained at there.

Records pertaining to Camp X were either locked away under the Official Secrets Act or destroyed after World War II.

Sources: Wikipedia

Social Studies: Canadian Pacific Railway

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The last spike being driven by Donald Smith, later known as Lord Strathcona.

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Canadian Pacific Railway is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. British Columbia had insisted upon a transport link to the east as a condition for joining the Confederation of Canada.

The Canadian Pacific Railway began its westward expansion from Bonfield, Ontario and on November 7, 1885, the Last Spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia. It was by far the longest railway ever constructed at the time. It had taken 12,000 men, 5,000 horses, and 300 dog-sled teams to build the railway.

Sources: Wikipedia