A Limerick I Found, Concerning Hamlet

Did Ophelia ask Hamlet to bed?
Was Gertrude incestuously wed?
Is anything certain?
By the fall of the curtain

Almost everyone's certainly dead.
— A. Cinna, found in The Penguin Book of Limericks

The Remainder of the Poetic Cycle

It may seem somewhat late to post the autumn poem, as it has already snowed, and may seem somewhat early to post the winter poem, as it is not yet December. However, I have decided to conclude this poetic cycle at this time, and move to a differently themed series of posts, perhaps one whose subject matter can be reasonably updated more frequently.

Autumn

But as this year's life drags along its path,
A gloomy darkness transfixes the clouds.
The golden wheat is reaped for toil's reward,
But its grey stalks soon crumple in cold dirt.
The sorrowed oak trees drop their brownish leaves
And willows wilt, casting long umbral shades.
The sable ravens croak forth requiems
As everything with life withers away.
The trees are each laid bare, the aster-plants
Turn grey, a sadness to the weathered eyes.
As pumpkins, deathly fruit, grow in night's grasp
The final show of colour's glory dims
As sorrow's heart strikes its dark twilight beat.

Winter

The elder year is crippled, dying fast-
Cold enters bones and nerves of every thing.
Dead grasses fade into black dusty grime,
And limp and leafless trees stand towering high
As sable beacons of this futile age,
While silver clouds are clustered in the sky.
From these white heavens come down an alban shroud
Of snow, a final resting beauteous touch
That glazes the vast world in stabbing cold's
Cruel knives, and wreathes every dark bough.
The old year smiles as its new heir is born
And breathes its last, is buried in soft snow,
And then departs forever to the heights.

Ode to Summer

I apologize for not posting much over the summer. Here is the next poem in the cycle:

The year grows older, to a blazing peak,
A pinnacle, a stony-mountain-height.
The shining sun beams down across the vale,
Its daylight rays bestowing full comfort.
A glorious warmth envelopes every rock
And tree, burning each touching mortal hand.
Long, endless fields of grain-stalks grow- tall wheat
And barley grass, as purple cicadas
Sing heat-born songs from towering maple-trees.
That blinding fire, that great laborious sweat
Is placed, as the worlds weight, upon the ground.
Throughout the rufous meadows, golden larks
Seal this fierce season with heroic cries.

An Ode to Spring

The newborn year shoots up in youthful growth,
With it, the golden tulip-petals sprout-
Each one a beauteous, lively spectacle.
On every tree-twig leaves bud, blossoms flower-
Fair-featured life comes unto everything.
The water-lilies in the wet mill-pond
Bloom as white lanterns, glowing o'er the night,
Their verdant stalks and leaves the thrones of frogs
That hum vivacious, sanguine melodies.
Ambrosial winds of bright new nectar- scents
Blow lightly through euphoric warming air.
The merry year grows fast, the trees grow tall
And bud out forth their sylvan leafy hair.

A Quote from Aristotle's Poetics

"...Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life."

Watch This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euJ0gBaUGAw&feature=related

The Futility of Money

One never knows when he is about to be robbed. I decided to go down to the local supermarket yesterday as I normally do on Mondays to buy soda. Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola machine there has a record for criminal behavior. Fifty cents may be cheap for a can of soda, but one might never know how much he is actually spending until it is too late. In this particular incident, the machine refused my dollar bill five times before accepting it. It finally gave me my soda, which was obviously two months old, due to the fact that it had a Santa Claus picture on it, and then only gave twenty-five cents as change. My remaining twenty-five somehow remained inside. I put my change back in, hoping that with fifty cents in the machine I could get a second soda, but it would not give me one. It would not give me the fifty cents back either.
Money is indeed a thing that can disappear just as quickly as one earns it. One can survive without money, however, as money is merely a representation of one's labor. Money can buy luxury, but if life denies me luxury, so be it.

Predictions for the Conclusion of The Office

This week's episode of The Office seemed uneventful compared to the previous one. It simply consisted of two gags being drawn out for a long time. The episode becomes serious where it should be funny when Michael begins to regret spying on a family business, and the argument concerning whether Hilary Swank is hot seems silly compared to the raucous slapstick of the duel over Angela.
I do, however, understand, that this episode is merely an ordinary episode in the season, and not one of the major ones. The finale for the show will be worth looking forward to. I predict that Jim will definitely marry Pam, and Angela will most likely become reunited with Dwight. Although she has earned her current state of being rejected by both Dwight and Andy, if the series is to end this season, all conflicts will be resolved. Dwight will most likely take an interest in her again, for whatever reason, because that will be the most fulfilling ending for the major struggle in Season 5. I think that Michael, though, who has had a different girlfriend every season, will remain single, and end the finale giving an awkward remark to the camera.

Remarks Concerning The Mummy III

Last night, I watched The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor for the first time. It was definitely an enjoyable movie to see, but there seems to be a drastic decline in the quality of the Mummy movies. The original The Mummy had an excellent storyline, an element of horror, and was set in Egypt. It had a dark and mysterious feel to it. The Mummy Returns was a good movie as well, although taking more of an action-adventure flavor. This flavor has repeated but has unfortunately become distasteful in the third installment of the series.
The movie begins with probably the most commonplace introduction possible. Telling of a warrior conquering the known world and then becoming cursed is an introductory sequence already used in the series, and using it again simply makes the film seem repetitive. The focus then switches to the retired hero of the previous films, portraying him as finished with his adventures. Unfortunately, necessary character development is lacking. A different actress portrays the heroine of the previous films, disconnecting the series by disallowing the audience to easily picture the recurring characters in their minds. And before this major change in casting can be adjusted to, the focus switches again to the O'Connells' son, who was only a boy in The Mummy Returns. This transition is made with absolutely no character development, showing him immediately opening the Emperor's tomb and fighting a female ninja. He immediately recognizes this enemy the next time he sees her, but they suddenly join forces against the general trying to summon the Emperor. For a story portraying retired heroes and starring a different cast than the prequel, the plot seems rushed to the action, with nothing spectacular. The characters are simply created and then thrust into the plot.
The plot of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is also quite below average. The summoning of yetis to defeat the Chinese commandos is obviously an enormous deus ex machina. The Emperor's general is thrown down two flights of stairs by a yeti and is later crushed by an avalanche, yet miraculously survives without breaking a single bone. The final battle lacks the climatic tension one would expect it to have. The terracotta army intends to become invincible by reaching the Great Wall, but they never even come near it. The army of undead holds them off easily, and most of the Emperor's remaining forces are easily broken into pieces by bullets. Jet Li's character is the only villain in the entire movie who ever seems to pose a real danger. The general's miraculous powers of survival return at the end, when he survives a direct hit to his motorcycle from a bomb, and must be crushed and juiced between two turning wheels to be killed off. Essentially, the plot exists as an excuse to show overdone action sequences.
The third Mummy does not measure up at all to its prequels, and is basically a series of fights that the heroes never come close to losing. There is no horror at all as there was in the first movie, and the final battle does not have the desperate feel of the battles in The Mummy Returns. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is unfortunately somewhat of a B-movie action flick, despite its great potential.