NCCU Critical Reflection on Famous Quotes and Poems Discussion

Famous Quotes

Section I

Chose five quotes from section I and five poems from Section II. Each response is worth ten points for a total of 100 points. Please do the following:

• Provide a brief overview of the author and the experience that influence their life
• Provide a critical reflection of the meaning of the poem in accordance with your interpretation and understanding.
• Provide a critical description of how the quote of the poem is applicable to your live and experiences. Remember, you MUST select five quotes and five poems.

• “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” (Marcus Aurelius)
• The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane Marcus Aurelius)
• Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
• “It not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the most power” (Robert Kiyosaki
• “If you remember why you started, then you will know why you must continue” (Chris Burkmenn)
• “ We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we cannot
• “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do”(Walter Bagebot)
• “ The difference between life and the movies is that movies a script has to make sense, and life doesn’t” –Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• “One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?”
• “Where do want to go?” was the response. “I don’t know”, Alice answered.” Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.” ——-Lewis Carroll.
• Rewrite Your Success Narrative. “ Sometimes success is getting enough sleep. Sometimes its doing what you know is right despite the fact that everyone else is in your life is looking down on it. Sometimes its just getting through the day or the month. Lower your expectations (Brianna Wiest)
• “Ask for help when you need help. If you don’t learn to do this , you will end up exacerbating a million other non-issues and seeking attention for those, because you don’t actually have what you need, which is support in the moments that really matter”. (Brianna Wiest)
• “ Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. “ (A Course In Miracles—The Foundation For Inner Peace)

Famous Poems Section II

On First Looking into Chapmans into Chapman’s Homer.

• “Much have I travelled in the realms of gold and many goodly states and kingdom seen;, Round many western islands have I been Which bards fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one.” ( wide expanse had I been told. That deep-browed Homer rule as his demesne; Yet never did I breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific—and all his men Looked at each other with wild surmise—Silent, upon a peak in Darien.” (Keats 1795-1821)
• Stevie Smith (1902-1971) Not Waving But Drowning.

Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought and not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he was always larking and now he is dead. It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no, no no, it was too cold days (still the dead on lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life and not waving but drowning.

3.Its loveliness increases; it will never
A THING of beauty is a joy forever:
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.	5
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways	10
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils	15
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
’Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms	20
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink. (Keats)

4. Rudyard Kipling More Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

• Sir Edward Dyer, ‘My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is’.
• And you calling me colored?? (Written by a child was nominated by the United Nations as the best poem in 2005

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave …

When I born, I black.
When I grow up, I black.
When I go in sun, I black.
When I scared, I black.
When I sick, I black.
And when I die, I still black.

And you white fellows.
When you born, you pink.
When you grow up, you white.
When you go in sun, you red.
When you cold, you blue.
When you scared, you yellow.
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you grey…

And you calling me colored??

7. Always remember to forget

Always remember to forget
The things that made you sad
But never forget to remember
The things that made you glad

Always remember to forget
The friends that proved untrue
But don’t forget to remember
Those that have stuck by you

Always remember to forget
The troubles that have passed away
But never, never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.

8. Trouble But Not Defeat by Byron Pulsifer

Underneath our feet we find
Those branches and thorns a grind.
Why is so life so mean
It is as if no other scene.

Through life, you know, you will find
We sometimes just close our minds.
Those solutions we so desperately want
All appear like yesterday’s many tyrants.

But, do not trouble or be dismayed
There are good days on the way.
When you look beyond the norm
You’ll find you need not conform.

Be bold, be happy, be confident
You are not meant to lament.
These things so sure today
Can vanish without delay.

So when trouble comes your way
Do not accept defeat and ruin your day
Move forward with a focused view
Stay positive in all you do.

9. Trouble But Not Defeat by Byron Pulsifer

Underneath our feet we find
Those branches and thorns a grind.
Why is so life so mean
It is as if no other scene.

Through life, you know, you will find
We sometimes just close our minds.
Those solutions we so desperately want
All appear like yesterday’s many tyrants.

But, do not trouble or be dismayed
There are good days on the way.
When you look beyond the norm
You’ll find you need not conform.

Be bold, be happy, be confident
You are not meant to lament.
These things so sure today
Can vanish without delay.

So when trouble comes your way
Do not accept defeat and ruin your day
Move forward with a focused view
Stay positive in all you do.