Category: Unit 2: Ghosts & Transformations

When we watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream in class and also on my trip I felt a little confused. The story moved around a lot. It showed different groups of people and sometimes I did not know what was happening. The words they used were also very old. People do not talk like that today. Because of that I had to listen very carefully to understand. Another thing that made it hard for me was that some of the girls looked the same. They had hair and clothes that looked very similar. Sometimes I did not know who was who. When the boys kept changing who they loved it made it even more confusing. I would try to remember which girl was with which boy but it was hard. Even though it was confusing there were parts I liked. I thought the magic in the forest was interesting. The magic made people fall in love with the wrong person. That was funny and a little silly. It made the story feel crazy. My favorite part was the group of workers who tried to put on a play. Their acting was silly and not very good. That is what made it funny. Those scenes made me laugh more than the other parts. The forest was also interesting to me. When the characters were in the city everything felt strict and serious. But when they went into the forest strange things started to happen. It felt like the rules did not matter there. This story is not really my favorite type of story. I like stories that are easier to understand. But it was still kind of cool to watch a play that was written a very long time ago. Even if it was confusing sometimes it still had funny and interesting moments.

While watching the film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I found the story interesting but also a bit confusing at times. There were many characters and relationships, and when the magic love potion was introduced, it became hard to keep track of who loved whom. However, the confusion made the story goofy.

One of the most confusing parts for me was the conflict between Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena. Their feelings kept changing because of the magic potion, which made their arguments and misunderstandings complicated.

Another memorable part was when Bottom is turned into a donkey and Titania falls in love with him. This scene was strange, and it showed how powerful the magic in the forest is. The costumes and setting helped make the fairy world feel magical and different from the normal world. Overall, even though I found parts of the movie confusing, I still enjoyed it because it was creative and entertaining.

The movie adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in a different time than the original comedy written by Shakespeare, when a type of dress that prevented women from riding bikes began to go out of fashion, making it easier for them to ride. I liked that we watched along with reading the book because I feel it made for a much more approachable and modern learning style, but I understand that’s not something to do for every book we read. The video conveyed the story and comedy of the original very effectively, while still adapting it to maybe reach larger audiences. Overall, I think the movie adaptation effectively adapted the comedy of the original, as well as mixing it with more modern technology. I liked the pace at which we watched and read the book, and I found it was easier to consume visually just by text.

I really enjoyed watching midsummer night’s dream. I enjoyed it more because it was based more in the future. The other books that we have read in class were based in the older times. I also liked that it was a movie which meant that we didn’t have to read anything and we could just watch.

I got confused with some of the characters and messed up their names. The girls and they guys all looked the same. After watching it more I understood the characters names more. I could tell which character was which now. I thought the angel guy who sprinkled the dust on the guys eyes. I thought he was pretty cool because he would trick the guys. When the guys were fighting he tricked them and made them look stupid because they would run around in circles doing nothing.

I really liked when they turned that guy into a donkey and made him very hairy. I l liked this because they tricked the queen girl into dating a really ugly guy for a little bit. It made her realize that people are the same no matter what they look like.

After watching the movie of a Midsummer Nights Dream I had many thoughts and feelings about the story. At the beginning I felt confused because there are many characters and a lot of different love stories between all of them, but as it continued I started to understand everything better. Watching the movie made me imagine the forest, the fairies and the magic. Much clearly what reading the book.

one scene that stood out to me was when the fairy king asks Puck to use the magical flower to make Demetrius fall in love with Helen. Oberon wants to help Helena because she really loves Demetrius, but then Puck makes the mistakes d uses the magical flower on Lysander making him fall in love with Helena instead of Hermia. This made me really surprised and confused at first because everything changed so quickly.

another part that I found funny was when Bottom gets his head turned into a donkeys head by puck, the Titania wakes up with the magic flower on her eyes and falls in love with him. This scene made me laugh because it was ridiculous and I didn’t expect it.

In the end, I liked how the problem was fixed. The magic is removed and the couples end up together again, I enjoyed the movie because it mixes comedy, love, and magic, and it helped me understand the story better.

Honestly MidSummer Nights dream by William Shakespear was okay. It had some pretty weird scence’s then and there but it wasnt too bad. I sadly missed the first class we spent watching it so i didnt get to see it all but from what i saw it was alright.  The “Plot twist” when puck poored the flower into lyslanders eye for helena instead of demitrous was kinda funny and i would say made the story way better and intresting. I was kinda confused because Demitrous knew that helena liked him and hermia like lyslander and he had no chance so i dont know why he kept trying and just went for helena. It kinda shows you that love blinds you and your focusing on something else when the thing your looking for is right infront of you. But then again we will never know if demitrous’s love for helena is real because they never removed the love flower from his eye.. The forest setting kinda made everything better in my opinon. The faries were a little too much but it was a good add on.  I was confused why oberon made his own wife date and “crack” another guy. I wasnt there for anything after that so i was really confused on that. I really found puck funny though he was deffinetly one of my favourites. The faries deffenitly added chaos and humor to the story but i feel like they couldve done something better with them. A cool add on i guess was the flower that made people fall in love. Thats basically the whole story because nothing wouldve ever happened if that flower never existed and helena and hermia and lysander and Demitrous wouldve gone about there day regularly. I was kinda confused on why the dad was so forced with making hermia date Demitrous. She deffinelty stated to him many times she didnt like him and i feel like parents forcing kids and even adults into a marrage is wrong. But overall these are my main thoughts about the movie/play.

To be honest, I was very disappointed by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I expected there to be more action, and to be a little more realistic but instead, the film was a boring love story with very explicit scenes, which made some parts feel uncomfortable, and had unrealistic things like fairies. What’s even worse is that the explicit scenes didn’t even remotely add anything. They were just explicit for the sake of being explicit. The only action it had was just a bunch of people in mud yelling and pushing each other. The characters weren’t all that memorable either. I don’t think I could name a single unique thing about any of them. I still don’t understand why Nick Bottom got a happy ending either. He cheated on his wife, was ABYSMAL at the play, and still saw Titania again and lived happily ever after without any consequences. Egeus also felt like such a wasted character. Imagine if he was hunting Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius in the woods. That would have been so much cooler. Instead, he just said, “You will marry Demetrius or die.” and then at the end the Judge said he isn’t allowed to do that, and he just takes it and doesn’t try to poison anyone or anything. I do have to admit, the film was pretty cool at the beginning, especially the setting, but after that, it kind of just got boring. Overall, it wasn’t the worst movie I’ve watched, but it isn’t something I’d rewatch or recommend to anyone. I’d say it’s 3.5/10. I also must note that I missed part of a lesson, so I didn’t get to watch the middle too much, but even if I did, I don’t think my opinion would be too different. 

This is my personal response to the movie we watched, A midsummer’s night dream. For me, I did not really enjoy the movie. I feel like the characters felt really shallow, and didn’t have a whole lot of emotion. I also feel like the whole concept of a bunch of people going into a forest getting all mixed matched with the people they are supposed to be with and then finally getting corrected at the end was pretty bad to say the least. I think that it was fun to watch a movie in class for once, but the whole concept is pretty weird. I really did not enjoy the part where the rabbit guy and Titania kept like sleeping together. So I would say the emotion I felt was weirdness. I don’t know honestly what I would call it. My favourite character was Puck, I think that he was the funniest. I felt a lot of emotions during this movie. But I did not really like it that much. Overall for the concept I give it like a 4, for the characters I would give it like 5, for the writing I would give it a 4 also. It definitely could have been better. Some things he could have changed could be the concept for one, Maybe instead of a bunch of couples getting mixed matched with each other instead it could be where maybe one of them like falls out of love with one of them and then spends the movie trying to get them back but the way they do it in this movie feels unnatural because they use magic. There are a lot of different ideas I could come up with for this movie to be better but for a story written by Shakespeare this was pretty disappointing.

It was okay, i don’t really watch a lot of romance stuff so it didn’t generally appeal to me. I did actually enjoy the Shakespeare language in the film and for the last part where there was a play, i liked the funniness of it same with  the part where Lysander and Daquavius (i forgot his name) were fighting, it was funny.

and thats pretty much it for the positives

I honestly didn’t watch 20% of the movie, mostly because i was drawing because i guess Shakespeare began tweaking while writing and decided to traumatize me like i swear to god why cant i see them having a normal conversation without them suddenly jumpscaring me with a kissing scene or worse out of nowhere.

as for my questions i only have 1, how come Hermia didn’t remember how Lysander basically cheated on her when she woke up, were her memories wiped or something, or just a plothole.

Reading he book and watching the movie have been my first time interacting with Shakespeare’s writing. And I thought it was alright, as love story I much preferred Our Town. I found it interesting that they changed the setting to Italy from Athens so it made it a little confusing when they kept saying Athenian men/women. The time change made sense to me because to make it feel a little more modern so it can appeal to audiences. And the movie felt a little slow at then end in the marriage section. After watching a movie I thought “Is it true love if Demetrius was forced to love Helena.” And personally I don’t think it is because, he did not love her before he had the magical flower juice put on him so he is not acting like his true self. It’s kind of like making someone do something they want to. Just because they have to do does not meant they want to. I liked the video and my favorite character is probably Puck although it is a weird name. I would probably never watch this again but I am glad I did. With the language they used I had a harder time making sense of it but I still understood what they were saying.

In a mystical world with fairies in it it make me think about how little miracles can happen to. Is it some external or super natural force perhaps we will never know.

I find the film to be a more entertaining yet accurate adaptation to go along with the book. But I still would not watch it again but I do look forward to reading more shake sphere texts in future classes.

Watching the flim version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in class made me think more about love than I would expect and how weir it can really be. When Mr. MacKnight told us we would be watching this film I thought it was going to be just some confusing Shakespeare language, but after watching it I started think about why the characters act like they do. Everyone in the play changes up their mind and ideas so fast about who they love and it made the storyline feel really confusing. One Part about this that really stood out to e was when Lysander suddenly stops loving Hermia and starts loving Helena because of the potion. Hermia looked so confused and hurt. It made me think about how bad misunderstandings can be when people on the other side don’t actually know what is going on. Helena just thinks everyone is making fun of her and at this point she is just getting used to being rejected and couldn’t believe someone actually liked her. This whole situation just gets so much worse then it really needed to because nobody understands the truth. When Lysander and demetruis both started chasing helena everything became so chaotic and was really hard for me to follow along with.

I also thought that the fairies controlling everything was kind of weird. It was strange how Oberon just decide to mess with everyone’s feeing just to fix his own problems. It just feels like the characters were pushed into everything from magic. Even thought everything gets kind of fixed at the end, it still makes me think if things would have turned out differently without the magic. Overall watching this made me think about how confusing feelings can be and made me realize how messy love can be. People in the story make big decisions on feelings that can change really quickly.

I personally enjoyed watching this movie. I have read “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” before in grade 6, but I’ve never seen the movie based on it. I liked to notice what differences there were between the book and the movie, which there weren’t many. I think that the movie was more entertaining than reading the book.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” made me think about how easy some things can spiral into chaos. An example of this is when Lysander and Hermia plan to run away together and Helena tells Demetrius. Just by Helena telling Demetrius their plans made everything confusing as they went into the forest with the fairies. Yes, everything worked out in the end because of what Helena did, but to get to that everything got chaotic. As Puck and Oberon tried to help Helena, they ruined Hermia’s and Lysander’s relationship, which also disrupted everyone. It has also made me think about how different things were back then. Women barely had any rights, they were described as their father’s property.

I feel that the story was wrapped up very nicely, I also like the ending. The sets that the movie was filmed on were very nice as well. But I wonder if Demetrius remembers what happened before the fairies made him love Helena. Does he remember hating her and not wanting anything to do with her or does he and just not care? Did any of the four main characters have any questions why they were feeling different towards someone than before, or is the an effect of the love potion, make them not care or forget?

Overall, I enjoyed watching the movie, and it made me think about how one thing can cause another and the difference between the time it was set in and now.

While we watched the A Midsummer Night’s Dream movie throughout the three classes, I had thoughts about a lot of different things, which led to a lot of different feelings.  The most common thing and my favourite part of the movie was the comedy, as any movie is better when the characters and script have a sense of humour. Some funny moments that I’d like to mention are when Nick Bottom transformed into a donkey, the awkward performance of Pyramus and Thisbe at the end, and overall just the little jokes here and there. Moments like these gave me a feeling of comic relief, which the sometimes vulgar humour adds contrast to the elegant and deep story. I would also like to give credit to the director of photography, Oliver Stapleton, who was in charge and delivered a very pleasant, relaxing, and spectacular visual aesthetic of the movie, which fully immersed me in the movie, making me feel like I was there in the City of Athens. These key points made me feel pretty good throughout the whole film, and my favourite part was when it was set in the magical forest. My favourite character of the film was Puck, as he was funny, clever, and sneaky when Oberon ordered him to retrieve the love flower and apply it to Titania’s eyelids. I personally thought the movie was much older than when it was made, which is 1999. The grainy but clear quality in the movie made me feel and think of the movie as a classic, old-school movie adaptation of literature. The actors also did a splendid job mimicking the dramatic and powerful emotions of the characters written by Shakespeare, making it feel a bit more realistic and not like any other play recital. One thing that was cool to me was seeing the usage of Old English in the movie, which made up almost 80% of the film. Seeing the old versions of words before the modern definition today was neat and different, as all the characters used them so casually. I also noticed that fewer and sometimes more words were used to say a sentence that would take a different amount of words to say today.

I find that the movie A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a decent movie. I enjoyed some parts of the movie but I find that overall it was just alright. There was nothing in the movie that was very exciting in any way. I think that it was just a regular movie. The movie was also very predictable.

An example of this is when Oberon ordered puck to put the love potion on the man from Athens in the woods. And since there was 2 men from Athens in the woods it was pretty obvious that puck was going to put the potion on the wrong man. The movie being predictable made it so that it doesn’t give you any emotions. The emotions that the movie gives you are quite bland. There was no suspense either to make the movie more intriguing. Another thing that the producers could’ve been better on is the scenes of the forest. Every part of the movie that happens in the book are all on the same 2 or 3 stages. The movie could’ve had more diversity if they added more stages. The only part that I found interesting is when the 4 lovers Demetrious, Lysander, Hermia and Helena all woke up in the field. I found this part interesting because we will never really know how they got there so it makes you think a little bit. But other than that part I found the movie very average.

Personally, the video of MND was much more entertaining than the book to me. It made much more sense, made the storyline clearer, and made foreshadowing much more obvious. I think that the video’s representations were also very nice, and also that the video was very well organized in terms of chronology.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream made me think about truth, dreams, and the blur between reality and belief. It reminds me of times when I think something happened, but when I talk to someone about it, it turns out it was only a dream and nothing ever really happened. It also reminded me of the facades other people put on and how manipulation, good or bad, can change someone’s life entirely, put on display by the case of Demetrius and the spell that was never taken off of him. MND contained a lot of emotional moments, comedic relief moments, and many examples of reality as well as dreams. For example, Bottom’s trance would be viewed as a dream later, as he realized that he, in fact, did not wake up in Titania’s bed with her. Yet Oberon, the one who started the long train of lies and spells, has to carry that chaos with him for the rest of his life, as he was the one who caused others more pain then necessary, even though he was only trying to help out.

This book made me think deeply about the actions of others around us and how sometimes we can’t help what we do, whether that be of our own accord, or helpless force. The hard choices we have to make in life, the results that follow, especially when dealing with relationships with other people can be hard or heart-breaking, or could me blissful and light. Our actions as well as the actions of others heavily impact every direction of our life, and our outlook on the events unfolding around us in every moment. Our lives are but the combination of our thoughts and other people’s thoughts and the actions that follow.

I think ballad are actually pretty interesting because they tell stories in a way that makes them seem actually interesting and easy to follow along I like how they’re usually simple and rhythmic I like this part because I find it can actually make the story more meaningful because with the rhymes it gets stuck in youre head more. most ballads are usually about love or tragedy or some sort of meanign and allot of the times even if I dont understand like the language they are using I can still make a connection to them. I like how ballads with the rhymes and everything make you feel almost as if youre getting a story read to you in youre head

reading the rhyme of the ancient mariner was pretty interesting because it was still like a ballad and everything but it was also allot difrent to the normal ones . I liked how it told a full story about the mariner and the albatross and the way they used supernatural components to dress real life issues made it very describeatory and real. Some parts were a little confusing, like when all the strange things start happening to the ship and the crew, or when the Mariner sees ghosts. I didn’t always understand exactly what was real or symbolic, but it still defiantly gave a sense of tension and engagement

What I liked the most was how the poem made the Mariner feel real. His guilt and fear after killing the albatross made me think about consequences and how one action can affect others. I also liked how the mariner was telling teh story at the end because I find it makes people think about there actions allot more and in more deep ways too with the story not only being fun to read and cool but also with a deeper meaning

overall I think the story was actually pretty good because it was like interesting and dramatic but also it was a deeper meanign I think the story was good because it talked about how youre bad mistakes can make you get punished but also that you can be forgiven so it make you think like oh yeah there’s still good in the world and everyone can change.

Ballads are engaging forms of poetry because they combine storytelling, rhythm, and emotion in a way that can make them both entertaining and meaningful to read. Unlike many poems that focus mainly on abstract ideas or complex pictures, ballads usually tell clear stories with characters, conflict, story lines. They often use repetition, rhyme, and a steady beat, which gives them a musical quality and makes them easy to follow and remember. Traditional ballads often explore dramatic topics such as love, betrayal, adventure, sacrifice, or survival, making them more interesting. Because ballads were originally meant to be performed aloud or sung, the language tends to be vivid yet simple, allowing the audience to imagine the scenes clearly.

Personally, I enjoy ballads because they feel lively and exciting instead of distant or confusing. The rhythm pulls me through the poem and builds suspense, making me curious about what will happen next. I like how they express strong emotions in a straightforward way, which makes it easier to connect with the characters and understand their experiences.

For me, the Ballads were sort of interesting. I liked all of the little different stories and the images they make you create in your mind. Some of these stories were more interesting than others like Lord Randal for example, the story was kind of repetitive and didn’t really go anywhere. while the ballad of Jesse James actually had a story and was kind of interesting. One big thing about the Ballads that i liked were that they were pretty easy to follow. I also liked the change from reading actual books to poems as it was a nice change of pace for me. I enjoyed reading the Ballads in class over actual books, I cant really explain exactly why but they were just a lot more fun. It was impressive to me that the writers of these poems could tell a story while making everything rhyme and have the right amount of lines. The cremation of  Sam McGee was interesting because of how much longer it was than the over ballads that we read. Overall I kind of liked the Ballads, they were easy to read and follow, and the writing in them was impressive. some were better than others and I liked having multiples different small stories than just one big one. A lot of these Ballads had a different meaning behind them and I enjoyed the rhyming. They were fun to read in class and were a nice change of pace from what we usually read. Because of all this i would say that i enjoyed reading the Ballads.

The ballads were interesting i guess, albeit i would much prefer to read a book instead of a poem but it wasn’t too bad, i don’t exactly know how to respond to them since we read multiple but in general i found the rhyming and stories pretty nice, i don’t  really have a favourite since all of them felt the same to me, but i liked when we tried to make a ballad even if the stress symbols and such confused me a lot, this fisherman ballad thing is probably going to be the longest ballad we are reading so theres that, and i don’t really have much else to say.

I enjoyed reading some of the ballads in class and at home. I didn’t find most of them very interesting, but I did enjoy quite a few and the old English used in some of them (specifically Lord Randal) sounded funny (II 3-4, p.3). Barbara Allen was weird to me because William died just because he loved Barbara Allen, and for some reason, she felt guilty for not loving him back to save him (II 3, 20, p.5). Mary Hamilton was sad, but it stood out to me because she was harmed by the king, a person in power, and wasn’t able to do anything about it. This felt similar to the information being released about people in power like Donald Trump doing very similar things, but people not being able to do anything because of the power they hold. Jesse James was unique because it was made by a friend mourning the loss of a friend. Billy Gashade had knowledge about what kind of a person Jesse James was, and talked about how much he helped Robert Ford, just to be killed by him (II 9-12, p.7). I also really enjoyed The Cremation of Sam McGee since the story was interesting, and I actually wanted to know what ended up happening. It’s nice that it was made in Victoria, even though it wasn’t relevant to the story at all, and I remember reading it in a previous grade as well. I liked how the ballads were formatted as well because they were easy to read and didn’t feel very long.

After reading the ballads in class, I can say I enjoyed them. They were fun stories to read and it did not take much time to read them. With Lord Randal it’s repetitiveness made it easy to remember. What I thought was interesting is the fact that eels are a fancier food back then, I wonder what it tastes like? Most likely fish. And the older words threw me off beat while reading this. Barbra Allen I think is fine doesn’t make to much sense to me. Mary Hamilton though is a good story about peoples views on not wanting child and abortion. And with how people on the top abuse their power by using the weak.

My favorite has to be Sam McGee. It had a good twist on the ballad format by having 7 beats on each line instead on 4 then 3. It was said that it was meant to be humorous but I don’t get what is funny about cremating a guy. I also imagine carrying around a frozen corpse is not a fun experience for sure. My Second favorite is definitely Jesse James with his Robin Hood style morals. And I’m a sucker for a good western betrayal story.

The Ballads we read made me realize of simple yet complicated poetry can be. it can be those simple ones that a kid would make in second grade. but it can be so much more and tell larger stories like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is many many times longer than any of the stories we just read for this English class. It really makes me think on how many different mediums you can use to tell one story, how would it change between mediums? Drastically? or not at all?

I really liked reading the ballads in class. I enjoyed it because I felt it made English class a little bit more fun then it usually is. Lots of the ballads were sort of like tongue twisters. (I. 15-16, p. 3) “My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon, For I’m wearied wi’ hunting, and fain wad lie doun.” These two lines in the ballad Lord Randal, felt like a tongue twister. The words like wi, fain, and wad made me confused. I wasn’t sure what words they even were. But Mr. Macknight corrected me and told me the words. I enjoyed reading these more than a book because I’m not a fan of really reading books. I would rather listen to a audiobook or just read short form stories sort of like these ballads. I didn’t feel like the ballads had much meaning to them. The stories did not make sense to me. I also did enjoy how some of the ballads had a song to it. A song would play when we listened to it so we could get a more immersive reading experience. I really think we should read more type of books/ballads like this because I personally do not enjoy reading full books and I would like reading these instead because I don’t lose interest as fast because they are a different story each time after around 1 page. My favorite ballad was Barbara Allen. It told a sad story about how someone’s was lying on their death bed. It told a story and made me feel attached to the person because I got to know stuff about them. I really liked this one and I liked others. I think we should keep on reading ballads for the rest of the year because books are sort of boring in my opinion

If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t really enjoy reading the ballads in class or on my own. I understand why they’re important to read in our English class, and I can see the meaning behind them, but that didn’t mean I connected with them. A lot of the language felt awkward and repetitive, and sometimes I found myself more focused on figuring out what was happening than on actually listening to the ballad.

In Lord Randal, the repeated line, “O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal, my son?”, goes on throughout almost the entire poem. I know the repetition is supposed to build tension, but for me, it started to feel weirdly written and predictable. The poem feels very flat in tone, even though something tragic is happening. Instead of feeling shocked, I felt kind of disconnected. I felt the same while reading Barbra Allen. When the speaker calls her “cruel Barbara Allen”, it clearly shows blame and regret, but I didn’t feel deeply moved by it. The conflict between pride and love is clear, and I understand the message about waiting too long to forgive someone. Still, the storytelling felt distant to me. It didn’t fully pull me in emotionally. Even in The Highwayman, which features strong imagery, such as “The wind was a torrent of darkness”, I appreciated the dramatic description more than I enjoyed the reading experience. The sacrifice at the end is intense and meaningful, but because everything is told in this steady, ballad style, I didn’t feel as moved as I expected. Overall, these ballads made me think more than they made me feel or pay attention. I understand the themes of love, pride, jealousy, and sacrifice, and I respect how powerful they are. But personally, I struggled to connect with them. For me, reading them felt more like analysis than experience, which made it harder to truly enjoy.

Reading the ballads in this unit made me think about how simple poetry can be, and what really stayed with me was not just what happened in the poems, but how they made me feel while reading them. In “Lord Randal”, the consistent rhythm and repetition hooked me onto the story pretty quickly, but at the same time it made me think that everything was serious, like each line was building up suspense for something inevitable. For example, when I read the repeated line, “‘O yes, I am poisoned; mother, mak my bed soon,” (l. 23, p. 3), I felt bad for his mom but it was already too late to save him, so the only thing she could do is make his bed. It also made me think about how people sometimes know something bad is coming but can’t do anything about it. The repeating sounds like any other line on the surface, but underneath it feels hopeless. That made me think about moments in real life when someone hides how serious a situation is, even when the truth is right there. The feeling that followed for me was sadness, because it seems like the speaker already understands their fate. In “Lord Randal”, when the mother keeps asking, “O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal, my son?” (l. 1, p. 3), it made me think about the relationship between parents and children. At first, the question sounds normal. But as it repeats, it starts to feel more like she’s worried and suspicious rather than thoughtful. I imagined how a parent might sense something is wrong before the child admits it. That idea made me feel pretty tense while reading, especially as the answers slowly reveal the truth. The slow uncovering of what happened (ll. 20-24), made me feel unsettled, almost like I was watching a bad ending unfold in front of me.These ballads also made me think about how people deal with guilt and consequences, and how they take their feelings out in the form of poetry. The characters seem calm when they speak, even when the situation is dire. That calm tone made everything feel more serious to me. Instead of dramatic outbursts, there is a quiet understanding. Overall, these poems made me feel sad, but also encouraged. They made me think about fate, family, and the weight of choices, and even though the writing itself is simple, the emotions behind it aren’t.

We read 10 ballads in the handout, of which my favourite was The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, and my second favourite was The Ballad of John and Yoko by John Lennon. I enjoyed these two for varying reasons, The Highwayman had nice rhymes, and The Ballad of John and Yoko is by John Lennon is one of my idols, so its kind of a given. Both ballads also told clear stories, which made them easy and enjoyable to follow. I liked how The Highwayman created strong images and a dramatic mood through its also dramatic language. Overall, reading these ballads helped me appreciate how rhythm can work amazingly in poetry.

I stood there by the quiet shore as daylight slipped away,

The sky was soft and kind of pink at the end of the day.

I thought about the words I kept but never said out loud,

And let them drift off with the waves beneath the evening cloud.

The Ballads handout was extremely interesting and raised many questions for me. I found myself wanting to delve into the minds of the authors, and discover why they selected specific words and actions in their Ballads . Each ballads has its own story. I have noticed that many of the ballads share some relations, for example they usually include love, death, and misogyny. Numerous Ballads that we read share that a man dies and it is in some way the fault of a women. I wonder how the emotions of the author impacted their writing were they bored, relaxed, angry? I believe that the emotions of the author heavily impacted the work they created, and the descriptive words that they use. The inflection that is used while reading Ballads changes how we view the story immensely, if we are excited while reading we will read louder, and faster desperately seeking the next piece of information, and missing smaller, details. I found that reading Ballads with more inflection and slower pace allows myself to absorb more info. The stories include in the handout were very interesting and extremely funny at times. I felt a sense of kinship with the authors and believe I gained insight into the characters they have fabricated.