The Calling

The Calling

By

Gerald Fisher

http://users.ap.net/~chenae/natpoem.html

The fire is dancing tonight and the winds are talking

Dancers from past lives enter the circle

Leading me back and forth through the history of myself

The mind searches as the spirit dances

The drums...dancing to the heartbeat

Memories of long ago insights to the future

I hear the winds whispering my sweat lodge dreams

I see Sungmanitu tanka (the wolf) my guide

He shows me the ancestors, not mine

They are not Lakota, or Tsalagi, or Iroquois

But they are all Nations, one Nation

Speaking with wisdom to share with each other

Yesterdays create todays and promises of tomorrow

The lies will die with the smoke

And the whispers of the winds are clear and loud

And we shall all see the return of the buffalo
AHO

Reflection:

This poem is a poem of hope, faith and belief. Fisher is sharing with his people the belief that their time will come again and they will once again live unfettered by the chains of the present society. What was stolen from them will be returned, their culture will be revived, and they will rise again. At the same time he is warning the white man, warning them that his people will rise again, and will overcome the oppression that has been their lot for centuries. In his words, "we shall all see the return of the buffalo."

Journal:

You stole from us our ancestral lands and forced us to move to unfertile land not suitable to our needs and lifestyle, we obliged. You erased from the land all of the herds of buffalo that for so long had meant our survival. You slaughtered us and called us savages, unbending in your unjustified beliefs and baseless fears. You disregarded our culture and did everything in your power to destroy it. You have stolen our youth, destroyed our tribes, and given us no compensation. You will face justice, for our time is coming. We will once again roam with the buffalo, and you will no longer opress us.

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Essential Question:

What drives the white man to conquer the Native American, what makes him believe that he is superior, better, more deserving of the land that the Native Americans have held for hundreds of years; what drives him to overcome a nation that has done nothing to provoke or harm him?

"Sinners in the hands of an Angry God"

"Sinners in the hands of an Angry God"

by: Jonathan Edwards

http://www.piney.com/JonEdwSinHands.html

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"God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen."

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Reflection: The message in this passage seems to be that we are at the mercy of God, subject to his will and whim, and protected only by his restraint. We are all horrible sinners and do not deserve to be saved from Hell but are by his benevolence. It is a sermon meant to make people feel small and insignificant and afraid, awed by the power God wields and submissive to his total authority. It is suposed to make people accept the fact that the only reason their sinful lives aren't being thrown into the depths of hell is because God is saving them. So they should praise him, lest his benevolence run out.

Journal: His message enveloped me, grabbed hold of me and dug into me so that I could not break away, I was captivated. The fiery words that instilled a fear in me as I have never felt before, and made me realize my place. I am nothing in comparison to God, I am his to do with what he will and I have no right to go against him. He holds me in his hand above the mouth of hell and I do not deserve to be saved. Standing there listening to him speak I resolved to devote myself to His cause, spread His word, preach His message, and forver more honor and praise Him, for he is life.

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Puritan Essential Question:

The Puritan religion is very focused on what God wants, they attribute everything to God and his wishes and their lives revolve around Him; this belief comes through in their writings. According to their beliefs it is God's will whether or not you go to heaven or hell, in Jonathan Edward's Speech, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," he conveys this message rather vehemently, ""God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment." What Jonathan Edward's is saying is that God has made no promises to you, and that you will not go to heaven if you do not gain favor with Him by doing his work and following his laws. In addition to believing that everything that happens is the will of God, they wish to serve God in any way that they can, to become a tool for Him to use as He sees fit. In the poem, Huswifery, Taylor begin's the poem with the line "Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleat," basically asking the lord to make his life one that can be useful to the Lord. The Puritans lives revolve around their religion, and they wish to be suitable for their God, the wish to spread his word and be useful to him; but oftentimes, when people believe that they are doing the work of their God, they become overzealous and sometimes lose sight of what they were originally trying to accomplish, doing no good at all.

"Huswifery"

"Huswifery"
by: Edward Taylor

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Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleat;
Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee.
Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate,
And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee.
My Conversation make to be thy Reele,
And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.

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Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine:
And make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills:
Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine.
Thine Ordinances make my Fulling Mills.
Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours Choice,
All pinkt with Varnish't Flowers of Paradise.
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Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will,
Affections, Judgment, Conscience, Memory;
My Words and Actions, that their shine may fill
My wayes with glory and thee glorify.
Then mine apparell shall display before yee
That I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory.

Reflection: This poem is a prayer by Edward Taylor to his God to make his life like a spinning wheel, in which he is molded into a being worthy of the grace of God, and be allowed to enter into paradise. His message can be compared to the cause of the suicide bombers in the Middle East. They go to camps to be educated in order to complete the task that they believe has been assigned to them by their God. They do this in order to perform the work of their God and be admitted into paradise, just like Edward Taylor.

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Journal: I wish to be of use to my God, I wish for Him to mold me into a more perfect person so that I may help Him in His work. This is my dream, to be able to gaze upon Him in the kingdom that is heaven, His most sacred place from whence He rules. I strive in my meager life to be more than what I am, to be gracious and caring to those in need and to be magnanimous in all that I do. I wish to glorify His name for He is great.

Bradford - "Of Plymouth Plantation"

Bradford - "Of Plymouth Plantation" http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/english/coke/bradford.htm

"Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for every which way they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all civil parts of the world."
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Reflection:
They came to America in search of a better life, a better future for their children, braving dangerous seas and uncharted territory. They gave up their former lives and all its' comforts for the sake of their dream, and they encountered a bitter, uncivilized country that tried them at every turn. They had no food to eat and no shelter from the biting cold and the storms that assailed them all too often. They could not go back to England, all they could do was press forward, hoping that in time things would get better. Their perseverence impressed me, but their thinking unnerved me. They made no real attempt to understand the Native Americans' way of life and instead waged a needless war. In addition they gave no consideration to the fat thta they Native Americans' had been living in America for years and they considered it their home. The settlement of the Europeans was seen by the indians as an invasion of their territory, so they protected it. The Europeans came in acting like just because they set foot on the land they own it, when the Native Americans' ancestors had been living their for centuries.

Journal:
The boat was miserable, cold, wet and stormy. Seasickness was a common affliction among the passengers and it was in no way pleasant. We finally reached our new home and we are greeted with savage natives and harsh weather. We have no food or shelter and it is wintertime, meaning that we cannot grow food even if we had the seed. We have had to steal food from the natives, which is in no way honorable but we have no other way to survive. It is wilderness, all of it. We have been thrust from civilization into a savage land intent on our destruction. We will make it our home, this unsympathetic place, and bend it into submission. We will conquer.

"The Vanity of All Wordly Things"

"The Vanity of All Worldly Things"

by Anne Bradstreet

As he said vanity, so vain say I,

Oh! Vanity, O vain all under sky;

Where is the man can say, "Lo, I have found

On brittle earth a consolation sound"?

What isn't in honor to be set on high?

No, they like beasts and sons of men shall die,

And whilst they live, how oft doth turn their fate;

He's now a captive that was king of late.

What isn't in wealth great treasures to obtain?

No, that's but labor, anxious care, and pain.

He heaps up riches, and he heaps up sorrow,

It's his today, but who's his heir tomorrow?

What then? Content in pleasures canst thou find?

More vain than all, that's but to grasp the wind.

The sensual senses for a time they pleasure,

Meanwhile the conscience rage, who shall appease?

What isn't in beauty? No that's but a snare,

They're foul enough today, that once were fair.

What is't in flow'ring youth, or manly age?

The first is prone to vice, the last to rage.

Where is it then, in wisdom, learning, arts?

Sure if on earth, it must be in those parts;

Yet these the wisest man of men did find

But vanity, vexation of the mind.

And he that know the most doth still bemoan

He knows not all that here is to be known.

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Reflection: Vanity is an ongoing evil in this world that afflicts everything. The youth of the age are are "prone to vice," while the older generation "to rage." Such is the world we live in today where sin reigns and evil remains. Life is only a reflection of our own desires and values, exposing our true nature as we roll through this world with no regard for anything but ourselves.

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Journal Entry: I am revolted by the sin I see around me. The vanity that everyone and everything exibits in their neverending quest to be the best. It it the source of all evil in this world, the self importance of people and their belief that they deserve more than everyone else; that they are better than everyone else. I do not understand it because in their quest they are never satisfied and thus they never truly achieve happiness because they are not able to accept themselves as they are but always have to be more.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradhyp.htm

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

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If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persevere

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Reflection: This poem is about the love a woman holds for her husband, and how great it is. It is her treasure, and she prizes it more than anything in the whole world. She uses examples of the worlds treasures to demonstrate how much it means to her that they love each other, and how no one can share the same love that they share.

"The Author To Her Book"

"The Author to Her Book"
by: Anne Bradstreet

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradpoems.htm#author

Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true
Who thee abroad, expos'd to publick view;
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge)
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash'd thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i' th' house I find.
In this array, 'mongst vulgars mayst thou roam
In critics hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door. 1678
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Reflection: This poem is about an authors own disgust at her attempt at literature, no matter what others may think of it she still finds fault with it because she is it's creator. No artist is ever satisfied with his work, thus no writer is satisfied with hers. Who knows why, it is there curse to never believe that their work is worthy of the praise given it by the people around them. It is also their gift, to continue to improve in their respective field as they constantly ridicule themselves. I chose this poem because it portrays this peculiar trait of these people in a humorous manner. No doubt she herself suffers from the same affliction and in this poem she makes light of all author’s inferiority to meet their own standards.

Diary: Why is it thus that they are never acceptable. They are all inferior in some way, and were I to fix them who knows what would happen to the rest. Short, long, childish, silly, serious; none of them work. I hate them all. The people around me all praise them, using words such as fantastic and brilliant. They do not see what I see, I do not understand them. How can they praise such mediocrity, it sickens me. How can my work compare to that of Geoffrey Chaucer or the creator of Beowulf whose name has yet to be revealed. What is my work next to their brilliance? It is nothing.

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Equiano

Equiano Slave Narrator

"I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced any thing of this kind before, and although not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet, nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water; and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut, for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating."

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Reflection: I was amazed at the brutality of the sailors and the living conditions of the Africans below decks. The way they were punished for not eating, which to me seemed a bit backwards. The floggings for prisoners who attempted to commit suicide seemed to be stupid, as it most likely inclined them to try harder to do so.

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Journal Entry: I am a sailor on board a slave trader bound for the Americas, it is my first time on such a boat and I must say I am apalled at the atrocities committed on this ship. It is true that the Africans are inferior and must be exposed to a level of physical violence and emotional degradation in order to make them submissive, but what these men are doing is torture; floggings for not eating, floggings for merely looking off the side of the boat and it is immediately interpreted by the sailors as a contemplation of suicide. The living conditions in which they are forced to survive are atrocious and are not fit for living beings. I must say this is the first and last time I will ever participate in such a journey as this one, my conscience cannot abide by it and I must take my leave from this ship and its miserable cargo.

"The Crisis"

Selection from “The Crisis, No. 1”
by Thomas Paine

Reflection: In the last paragraph of this selection, Paine compares the King of England to a thief, breaking into their land and stealing and ravaging their property. This is a metaphor meant to put into the minds of the people that the English King has no right to do this and is not fit to rule them and they must revolt and break free from the rule of such a tyrant. They must stand up and fight for their liberty because if they don’t free themselves from England then they will forever be at the mercy of England and its monarchy.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

(The War Inevitable)
Patrick Henry

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I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlement assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.
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Reflection:

He uses a metaphor for the troops the British had been bringing over and their purpose that they are there to “bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging,” implying that the British wish to force them into submission and have been planning a way to tie them down so that they no longer have any possible means to revolt. That they will just continue to exploit the American people, never allowing them to make their own decisions or choose their own leaders, or even be considered in the decisions being made about them and their country. If ever they are to obtain true freedom, the freedom that they came here seeking than they must revolt against the British monarchy, fight for their liberty, and earn their independence. Henry employs logos, ethos and pathos to sway his audience to agree with him, appealing to all of the different aspects of their mind. He uses logos by appealing to their logical side, citing instances in which they have been wronged by the British and making inferences that only make sense once thought about. He uses Ethos to establish himself as a credible person to be pushing this issue, pointing out to his audience that he has been present at some of these instances, he has been there so who better knows the true situation? He also uses pathos to appeal to the people's emotional side by himself getting emotional and showing the people how much he cares about this issue, moving them to his cause.

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Journal Entry:

If ever we are to be free from the oppressive tyranny of England than it will be by our own hands and our own convictions. We must fight for our freedom, for our home, for the land that gave so many of us hope. We cannot let that hope die, we must make this land that which we dreamed it to be, a land of opportunity, a land of promise, a free land. So let us fight, people of America, fight for the land you have worked so hard for, it is now or never. A decision must be made, do we fight for our home, for our freedom, or do we submit to England, the country that for so long has ignored and exploited us?

American Dream Interviews

Marty Sugerik: Mr. Sugerik’s view of the American Dream was primarily the ability and necessity to get a good education to be able to do what you want, to be educated enough to be wanted for your skills. Because if you have an education you have the ability to switch professions at will depending on what you want to do at that period in time and still be able to pay the bills and make a life for yourself doing something you love and are interested in, something that never gets dull for you.

Carol Roycroft (my grandmother): My grandmother’s view of the American Dream had three different facets: 1. Family and Friends – when you have a wonderful family and good friends that you love and trust and make you feel good about your life. 2. When your life has purpose, when you feel like you have accomplished something in your life and are satisfied with it, you feel like you have made a difference in the world around you. 3. When you have a strong faith, i.e. Christianity and have something that you believe in unconditionally and are devoted to.

Ed Pickett: My father’s view of the American Dream is the choice to be able to do what you want. To be able to choose your life and let it be based on personal merit rather than your initial social standing, allowing people to climb out of their initial circumstances if they put forth the effort and conviction to do it. That is what sets America apart from the other countries of the world, our ability to choose our life without it being dictated to us by someone else but rather have the opportunity to rise to greater heights in our lifetime.