A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur

Last week I learned the poem, A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur.

The warping night air having brought the boom

Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,

“Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

 I enjoyed learning my poem. I think that I picked a very good poem to memorize because I understood it very well. My poem was about a girl who woke up in the middle of the night because she heard an owl’s voice. Her parents told her that the owl was asking, “who cooks for you?”. I learned the poem by studying each line very carefully. When Mr. Parsons explained to me what my poem was about, it was much easier to memorize. Honestly, I did not think that I could memorize the whole poem, but I did it! All of my hard work paid off. As I was standing in front of the class, I was very nervous about messing up. After I finished reciting it, I felt relieved. Mr. Parson let my classmates and me recite our poems again. The second time I recited my poem I added different sounds such as the sound of an owl. I think I did an amazing job reciting my poem. Mr. Parson gave me a B, but I think I deserved a higher grade.  

What i Learned From the Odyssey

I think that the Odyssey is a very interesting story. The Odyssey made me realize that I should not take anything for granted, and that if I stay determined at something and never give up, I will most likely achieve my goal. The main lesson that I learned from the Odyssey was about love. I learned that if one finds true love, one should stay loyal to him or her because it is a rare thing to find. I also learned that people should fight for what they want, and not do something because everyone around them wants them to do it, but do it because they want to do it. 

The Holiday Season

The holiday season has something for everybody, no matter his or her religion. If you are Christian you would celebrate the birth of Jesus. If you are Jewish, you would celebrate Hannukah for eight nights. Growing up in a Jewish household, I learned to love the celebration of Hannukah.

My favorite holiday, Hannukah, celebrates a Jewish miracle.  After the Maccabees defeated the Greeks in 168 B.C.E, they returned to their temple in Jerusalem. When the Maccabees arrived, they only found enough oil to last one day. They lit the menorah anyway, and to their surprise, the small amount of oil lasted eight full days, which is why Hannukah lasts eight days.  In Hebrew, the word ‘Hannukah’ means ‘dedication’. Hanukkah falls on the twenty-fifth day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Since the Jewish calendar is lunar based, every year the first day of Hanukkah falls on a different day.

My family follows the traditions of Hannukah. Each night of the holiday, we all gather in front of the menorah, light the candles and say a prayer. Then we sit down for a nice, big meal. Our Hannukah meal consists of potato latkes and jelly doughnuts. After we finish eating we play a long game of dreidel, with gelt. Gelt is chocolate that looks like gold coins. The dreidel has four sides, and each side has a symbol. Depending which side your dreidel lands on, depends on how much gelt you will receive. When my family and I finish our exciting game of dreidel, we open presents.

My favorite part of Hannukah is the presents because it makes me feel good to give back to my family.  I love to go shopping, so I always have an amazing gift to give to my parents. This is just one of the many reasons why I love the holiday season.