A Rosebud

Last but not least:

 

“A Rosebud”

-Robert Burns

 

This one felt like a beautiful simile to the gentle tug between youth and age. It starts out with him admiring a rosebud early in the morning when the sun is just rising and the red of the light catches the dew on the bud. Then it shifts inside its bush where a bird is waking up among the dew. She watches her babies who are also waking up and making noise to wake the rest of the neighborhood. After that, Burns describes the care and gentleness of the mother bird and the youth of the morning rosebud. He says the rosebud will go on to watch over the mother until the evening, symbolizing that youth will watch and learn from their elders until their elders’ ends.

~E

Address to the Toothache

And here's review #2:

 

“Address to the Toothache”

-Robert Burns

 

I couldn’t understand all of the Scottish slang in this one, but the use of context clues helped me understand the humor. A toothache isn’t the worst thing that could happen, but he purposefully exaggerates all of these different kinds of ailments, still placing a toothache above them. He makes himself out to be a pitiful victim drooling over himself and getting laughed at. Then to finish it off, he damns his toothache to the darkest pit of hell. That’s a little over the top if you ask me but definitely amusing.

 

~E

 

Remorse

Back from my trip to college! So here are these overdue reviews:

 

“Remorse”

-Robert Burns

Okay, let’s be honest. I chose this poem and the other two because they were a few that I could actually make sense of the words since there was limited Scottish dialect.

For this piece, I heard him talking about how there are many bad things that hurt us emotionally, the worst of which being that which we bring on ourselves. It’s bad when people usually just blame others for problems, but it’s even worse when we blame ourselves and become consumed by remorse. Then we realize how many other people we’ve blamed and gotten involved in our messes and the remorse merely multiplies itself. The most envious kind of person is he who can control his remorse and make amends to set himself to peace.

I feel this ending thought is the true embodiment of what to be envious of. People may think to be envious of someone who can feel no remorse, but that would only be jealousy of a monster. Burns circumvents this by describing who people really should be envious of.

 

~E

Saggitarius

You give me a suit. I give you no shirt. 
You give me a house. I give you no attendance. 
You give me work. I give you the bird. 
You give me a girl. I give you a broken heart. 

I want to be free. 
So let me be me.

(K)

~E

Scorpio

If I had my way, you'd never be able to see what's outside, not just inside, me. 
Some people don't need glasses to have perfect vision, though. 
I hate these people. 
I need them, though. 
They can dodge my push, reign in my pull. 
And I need that. 
I love them. 

(W)

~E

Libra

Glue, glue, glue. 
Stick, stick, stick. 
This world is quickly going to shit. 

Stick, stick, stick. 
Glue, glue, glue. 
I've chosen a side and so must you. 

I've kept us together the best that I could
But this fire is eating all of the wood. 

My hands are reaching to catch the fall
But this fire is going to consume us all. 

(C)

~E

Virgo

To feel is a tragedy as one might feel. 
A mind unclouded is a frightful thing. 
No regard, no empathy. 
No fear. 
People reject what they do not understand. What they fear. 
To connect logically, no fear would mean acceptance of all. 
And that would become a tragedy to fear. 

(A)

~E