Thursday, January 30, 2020

Home of Mercy Essay Example for Free

Home of Mercy Essay Home of Mercy Home of Mercy is a sonnet written by Gwen Harwood during modern era Australia. It depicts the lifestyle of a select few group of â€Å"ruined girls†, who have been impregnated and exiled to live with the nuns throughout the course of their pregnancy, in hope of exoneration. It deals with the confronting issue of the loss youthful innocence; is a wrong decision made in your teenage years really enough to have the rest of your social life destroyed? Gwen Harwood’s poem raises the problem of teenage pregnancy. Pregnancy in juveniles was something that shamed an entire family. With very few options, the young women were forced to live with the Catholic nuns in hope that god will show mercy upon them. The text was clearly written with a clear understanding of the feelings of the exiled women and the obvious suppression undergone by these girls. To some extent, â€Å"Home of Mercy† loses some of its power in a modern context because of teenage pregnancies becoming more and more accepted. I think Gwen Harwood wrote her poem to not only outline the problem of unplanned pregnancy, but for the â€Å"onlooker† to have a different perception on this topic. Most people would look at them as â€Å"the ruined girls†, but I think Harwood is trying to make the reader feel compassion and sympathy for these underappreciated girls. She implies that they live very harsh lives, and touches on the notion that they aren’t mature physically (or mentally) when she refers to them as having â€Å"ripening bodies. In my opinion, Gwen is blatantly telling the reader that they should see both sides of this argument and not to jump to conclusions about them. The mood of â€Å"Home of Mercy† is one of its fundamental tools in persuasion. It contains a very strong emotion of suppression and domination, with a strong influence of a lifeless and depressing overtone. A main emotion is the strict and forceful routine enforced by the Catholic Church. The opening sentence â€Å"By two and two † already suggests that they are standing in regimented lines. The next line â€Å"at the neat margin of the convent grass† re-instates the sharp, tense lines symbolically representing their sharp, tense lives. The girls are shown as being ultimately dominated; â€Å"They kneel†, â€Å"their intolerable weekday rigour. †, â€Å"they will launder†. They have no say: â€Å"an old nun who silences their talking†, and are forced to do exactly what the nuns tell them or face life-long solitude. â€Å"Home of Mercy† is structured like a conventional Petrarchan sonnet (abba rhyming scheme), with a few minor flaws in the flow (line 1 and 4 have 11 syllables, and line 6 has 12). A strange aspect of the poem is the use of language. The poem is about a group of girls being treated like the scum of the Earth, yet there aren’t many violent or hateful words at all. Most of the meaning is put through symbolic references and metaphors. The most hateful words are sin and brutish, which are only used toward the end of the poem for effect. Visual imagery is also strong in Harwood’s poem. The opening line â€Å"By two and two† already gives the reader the impression that the girls are under strict control. angels will wrestle them with brutish vigour† is metaphorically saying that even the sacred angels won’t be by their side; that everyone is against them. â€Å"Home of Mercy† has iambic pentameter, with 10 syllables per line in most. A good example of Gwen using sounds to give effect to the poem is â€Å"They smooth with roughened hands†, the soft sounds of â€Å"smooth† in contrast of the harsh sounds of â€Å" roughened† have almost an onomatopoeic effect. Also, the line â€Å"faces of mischievous children in distress† contains sibilance of the â€Å"s† sound. â€Å"Home of Mercy†

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Crop Rotation and Soil Sustainability Essay -- Agriculture Farming Pap

Crop Rotation and Soil Sustainability Agriculture is responsible for providing food for an ever-growing population, and as it becomes clear that yields cannot continue to rise without limit, sustainability of agricultural practices becomes an increasingly important question. The soil is a precious resource in which all of agriculture has its base, and careful management of this complex system is essential. Crop rotation is one of the most important management practices in a sustainable agriculture system, both as a means of conserving soil and of maintaining its fertility. "A well-thought-out crop rotation is worth seventy-five percent of everything else that might be done, including fertilization, tillage, and pest control" according to The New Organic Grower (Coleman, 1989, p. 50). Crop rotation is by no means confined exclusively to organic farming, although much of what is considered in planning a rotation sequence encompasses the concerns of the organic farmer. The difference is primarily one of sustainability. "The organic farmer is essentially turning part of his potential income into renewal of the soil (by adding organic matter) in order to assure sustainability of future crop production. The conventional system maximizes present income and is not as concerned about viewing soil as a long-term investment" (Poincelot, 1986, p.23). A varied sequence of crops provides benefits that a monoculture cannot. A monoculture is an unnatural system; the relationship between soil, plants, and climate is designed to be balanced by diversity. A carefully planned rotation that considers as many aspects of this relationship as possible is a significant step toward establishing sustainability. Although not all the effects of rotatio... ...ress, 245 p. Lal, R., A.A. Mahboubi, N.R. Falsey, 1994, Long-Term Tillage and Rotation Effects on Properties of a Central Ohio Soil: Soil Science Society of America Journal, 58: 517-522. Loomis, R.S. and D.J. Connor, 1992, Crop Ecology: Productivity and Management in Agricultural Systems: New York, Cambridge University Press, 538 p. Meek, B.D., D.L. Carter, D.T.Westermann, R.E. Peckenpaugh, 1994, Root-Zone Mineral Nitrogen Changes as Affected by Crop Sequence and Tillage: Soil Science Society of America Journal, 58: 1464-1469. Meek, B.D., D.L. Carter, D.T. Westermann, J.L. Wright, R.E. Peckenpaugh, 1995, Nitrate Leaching Under Furrow Irrigation as Affected by Crop Sequence and Tillage: Soil Science Society of America Journal, 59: 204-210. Poincelot, Raymond C., 1986, Toward a More Sustainable Agriculture: Westport CT, AVI Publishing Co. Inc., 241 p.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Broken Home?

The effects of broken homes on children are traumatic. Broken homes can cause children to question their self-worth, to experience unnecessary grief, guilt and/or confusion. Young children especially, have difficulty understanding the rationalities of their parents' decisions to divorce. All they know is that their parents used to live together and now they don't, used to â€Å"love† each other and now they don't. Children often take responsibility for parents' decisions to divorce.They conclude that they were the cause of the quarrels and ensuing divorce. They question whether or not their parents love them or are mad at them. It is so important for children to have a stable home life. In a broken home it is difficult for children to find a sense of security because experience shows them that what seemed stable and good fell to pieces and left them feeling empty, yet full of questions.Growing up in a broken home may also cause children to have difficulty in future relationshi ps and cause them to struggle with the issue of trust. People who grew up in broken homes and get married are also more likely to end up divorced because their parents didn't provide a healthy model of marriage. They saw parents end disputes with divorce rather than working through them together. They may run from commitment or avoid relationships all together.They may also develop a emotion of fear toward marriage because they do not want to relive the grief they experienced as a child, nor do they want to have children and risk putting them through the same hurtful circumstances. broken home | | a house containing a family that is set apart due to tensions and certain problems. ex: a kid's parents constantly fight and he/she feels lonely, depressed, angry. that is a product of a broken home, who may usually get away from the problems by doing bad things (drugs,drink,etc†¦ ). |

Monday, January 6, 2020

Racism and the Narrative of the life of Frederick...

Examining Prevalent Attitudes on Racism and the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave When we look at the issue of racism from a politically correct, nineties perspective, evidence of the oppression of black people may be obscured by the ways in which our society deals with the inequalities that still exist. There are no apparent laws that prohibit or limit opportunities for blacks in our society today, yet there is a sense that all things are not fair and equal. How can we acknowledge or just simply note how past ideologies are still perpetuated in our society today? We can examine conditions of the present day in consideration of events in the past, and draw correlations between old and modern modes of†¦show more content†¦Douglass had the unusual privilege of receiving the beginnings of an education from the wife of one of his masters, Mrs. Auld. Her lessons were cut short when she was discovered by her husband who, forbade her. . . telling her it was unsafe to teach a slave to read . . . because he would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. From this experience, Douglass learned that education was his pathway from slavery to freedom. In essence, the act of keeping the black man ignorant was the white mans power to enslave the black man(Douglass 1776). Africans were brought to America for one purpose; to serve as the work force that would complete the labor needed to develop the land for American profits. Slaves did not receive monetary compensation for their labor. In fact, slaves received in minimum the amount of food, clothes and shelter necessary to survive. Therefore, slaves were completely dependent upon their masters. If a slave did happen to escape from his plantation, he was subjected to survival in the wild, with the constant fear of being captured by bounty hunters. While working for Mr. Gardner in his shipyard, Douglass witnessed the attitudes of whites who refused to work with the freemen blacks. The white carpenters thought that if free colored carpenters were encouraged, they would take the trade into their own hands, and poor white men would be thrown out ofShow MoreRelatedNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay1102 Words   |  5 PagesDate Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Writing in the favor of black people has always remained controversial from the very beginning. Critics regard such writing as â€Å"a highly conventionalized genre† indicating that â€Å"its status as literature was long disputed but the literary merits of its most famous example such as Frederick Douglass s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass†¦are widely recognized today.† (Ryan:537) Despite of such severe resistance, writers like Douglass have pennedRead MoreNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Analysis1198 Words   |  5 PagesCovey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free.† (Douglass 43). The event that transpired in this quote is of most significant because without it Frederick Douglass wouldn’t have had the motivation to be free. N arrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass outlines the horrors of slavery. The primary reasonRead MoreLife Of Frederick Douglas And Benito Cerano Essay1576 Words   |  7 Pages(Lyndon B. Johnson). Frederick Douglas and Herman Melville lived in the same time for almost the same length of time. Herman Melville lived from August, 1819 – September 28, 1891, while Frederick Douglass lived from February, 1818 – February 20, 1895. Yet these two narratives couldn’t have been more different. While taking a look at the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas and Benito Cerano we can see these two insights of their world. I will be delving into how these two narratives show the condoningRead MoreIncidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Essay1513 Words   |  7 Pagesdegradation.’ Her book ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’ is one of the most important fugitive slave narratives. She wrote during the same time as Frederick Douglass, although she was hesitant to publish her story. 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Because of his enthusiasm to work towards achieving change for himself and for society, he has received tribute of admiration from variousRead MoreThe Connection Between The Bondage Of Mind And Of The Body 921 Words   |  4 Pagesbody’ as found in the southern ideology justifying slavery; The notion of slavery seems foreign to the majority of people today, but for our ancestors and Frederick Douglass it was a very real part of life. The concept of slavery is one that people today find unfathomable, particularly in the justification of slavery and why people owned slaves. The institution of slavery is as old as civilization itself existing in various forms throughout the world, history and remarkably, continues to exist inRead MoreGender Specific Slavery During The Period Of The Civil War1198 Words   |  5 Pagespersonal property as opposed to an actual human being, some slaves managed to rebel and write down their account of white slave owners’ dehumanization of black slaves. 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His born given name, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, seemed to be a fairytale name to an unusual life because his father was a white planation owner who was most likely Douglass s first slave master, named Captain Anthony. Possibly it was Harriet Bailey who gave her son Frederick such a distinguished name wishing that his life would be s uperior than hers. His mother couldn’t imagine that her son s life would continue