Hypothesis
Me and Tazaray both believe that in this experiment when it comes to females and males, that females know more that males. We say and belive this because when it comes to females we think more of working going somewhre far in life and making good grades. We do not say yes for the males because when it comes to boys, you have some of them skipping school, some that are not about a lot of work, and others that think eduaction is not an option for them . We are not saying that every male is like this just some. Also, we both belive that when it comes to females, we just know more than boys.
Purpose
The purpose of this experiment is to see whether people remember more in chunks, colors, or numbers. Also to see if a male remember more than a female. We will test both a male and a female to prove our hypothesis and whether it is right or wrong.
Results
When doing research and the experiment, we see that we both were right. The female does remember more than the male. When we gave both of them the stroop test we see that with the colors and words, that the female can remember more and faster than the male.
Materials
board
contrution paper
glue
scissor
5.stopwatch
6. Stroop Test
7. Both Male And Female
Do People Remember More In Chunks, Colors, Or Numbers And Do Males Remember More Than Females??
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Science project For Biology Information
My froup member is Tazaray Ramsey. Our group name is "Believe and Achieve"
Our question or topic that me and her are both doing is:
1. Do people remember more in chunks, in numbers, words or colors and do males remember more than females?
**Three Artifacts
Internet
Books
Magazines
**Prediction/hypothesis
Me and Tazaray both believe that in this experiment when it comes to females and males, that females know more that males. We say and belive this because when it comes to females we think more of working going somewhre far in life and making good grades. We do not say yes for the males because when it comes to boys, you have some of them skipping school, some that are not about a lot of work, and others that think eduaction is not an option for them . We are not saying that every male is like this just some. Also, we both belive that when it comes to females, we just know more than boys.
**Reasearch And Facts On topic
Psychologists divide memory into three stores: sensory store, short-term store, and long-term store. After entering the sensory store, some information proceeds into the short-term store. From there some information proceeds to the long term store. These stores are refer to as short term memory and long term memory respectively.
Short-term memory has two important characteristics. First, short-term memory can contain at any one time seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information. Second, items remain in short-term memory around twenty seconds.
Long-term memory is stored in our brains forever, according to most psychologists. We use recall to retrieve memories.
Understanding The Human Brain
(1996) Children’s Britannica, Jennifer Cox, Ed., Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 136-141.
Doreen Kimura
The brain is the source of all our behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and experiences. We have known for a long time that different areas of the brain are used for different activities - memory, language, problem-solving, and so on. Doreen Kimura, professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario, explains how the latest studies also show that, although all human brains are very similar, there are small differences in the way the brain is organized between one person and another. These differences may underlie some of our unique talents.
We know that people differ in the way they solve problems. We call this their intellectual, or cognitive, ability. We may differ from our friends not only in overall ability, sometimes referred to as IQ, or "smarts", but also in the pattern of our abilities. One person may be especially good at problems involving words, whereas another may be better at dealing with problems relating to real-world objects. Since the brain is the centre for all such activities, there must be some way in which brains differ slightly from one person to another.
For most of the history of brain research, until about 20 years ago, our information about the human brain was obtained primarily from post-mortem cases. This is information from people who have died, and whose brains are studied after being fixed in solutions to preserve them. But in the past few years, new ways of looking at the brain safely in living persons have become possible, so now we are better able to link the abilities of a particular person with his or her brain structure.
Our problem-solving abilities depend mainly on a part of the brain called the cerebrum. The cerebrum is divided into two parts called the left and right cerebral hemispheres. These hemispheres don't have exactly the same functions, and this difference in the way the two hemispheres work is called functional asymmetry.
Differences between the hemispheres
The left hemisphere is important for all forms of communication. We know this because when it is damaged, perhaps as a result of an accident or a stroke, there can be serious problems in speaking (this is known as aphasia). After left-hemisphere damage there can also be difficulties with other complicated movements of the mouth, or of the hands and arms -- demonstrating a pout, or miming how to salute or to hammer a nail, for example. It seems that the left hemisphere specializes in controlling certain movements, including the movements we use to communicate. In people who are born deaf and who communicate using hand movements (manual sign language), damage to the left hemisphere can badly affect their signing ability.
The right hemisphere, by comparison, doesn't appear to be involved much in communication, although it can help us understand words to some extent. Instead, it specializes in receiving and analysing information from the outside world. Therefore, damage to the right hemisphere may result in our being unable to tell the difference between melodies, or having difficulty in identifying a face or in locating an object accurately in space. Some parts of the right hemisphere are mainly concerned with helping us understand what we hear (auditory), while other parts help us make sense of things that we see. The temporal lobe (in the lower part of the hemisphere) analyses much of the auditory input, while the occipital and parietal lobes (in the rear and upper regions) provide information about where objects are. The frontal lobes in each hemisphere seem to be important in planning our actions.
Seeing the differences
Although we have known for over a hundred years that the two cerebral hemispheres have these different functions, or properties, until recently people thought that they looked the same. Now we know that there are also small differences in the appearance, that is, in the actual anatomy or visible structure of the left and right sides. These differences are called anatomical asymmetries. Let's look, for example, at the temporal lobe. Part of this lobe is hidden in the Sylvian fissure. This part, important for understanding speech, is larger in area on the left side than the same region on the right side. Babies are born with this difference, so we know that it doesn't develop as a result of children learning to speak. There is also a difference in the appearance of the Sylvian fissure on the two sides, with the left side arching up more gradually than the right. Other anatomical asymmetries between the left and right sides have also been observed.
Right left, left right?
We have seen that the two sides of the brain are different, but how much can one person's brain differ from another's? Research shows that all human brains are very much alike, but there are minor differences between one brain and another. The question is whether these are just chance variations which don't mean anything, or whether it can be shown that they are associated with different traits in different people. One characteristic that might be expected to relate to brain asymmetry is hand preference, that is, which hand a person prefers for most everyday activities, including writing. Over 90 per cent of people are right-handed. We know that fine movements of the hands depend on activity in areas of the opposite hemisphere of the brain. Right-hand movements depend critically on the left hemisphere. This led scientists to believe that the left hemisphere was somehow "dominant" in most people, because it controlled the preferred hand and was also essential for speaking.
At first it was taken for granted that left-handers would show an opposite, or mirror-image, pattern to right-handers, that is, their speech would rely mostly on the right hemisphere. But over time it has become clear that this is not quite the case. Although it is true that left-handers more often rely on the right hemisphere than do right-handers, well over half of them are like right-handers in so far as they rely mainly on the left hemisphere for speech. So how do left-handers' brains differ from right-handers? Research is still going on to explore this question. So far it seems that the temporal-lobe and Sylvian-fissure anatomical asymmetries we described above are less marked in left-handers than in right-handers.
Male and female brains
Whether you are a boy or a girl also determines how your brain looks and works. We know from animal research that substances called sex hormones, produced by the sex glands, are needed to develop the differences between males and females. Sex hormones are necessary both for forming the genitals and for the behavioural and brain differences between the sexes. The hypothalamus, which is a tiny structure at the base of the brain, regulates many basic functions, such as eating, sleeping, temperature control, and reproduction. One part of the hypothalamus responsible for sexual behaviour is larger in male brains than in female brains, in human and non-human animals. In rats the enlargement is known to depend on male sex hormones, called androgens.
Sex hormones also affect other parts of the brain. For example, the outer layer of the cerebrum, called the cortex, is thicker on the right hemisphere than on the left in male rats, but not in female rats. Another recent discovery is that male and female brains in some ways work differently. When set the same task, females may use both hemispheres, while male brain activity is restricted to one side. For example, if the task is to define words, men appear to use only their left hemisphere, while women use both. For many other problem-solving activities however, men's and women's brains work in the same way.
The left and right cerebral hemispheres are connected by fibres running crosswise between them called commissures. The largest and most important commissure is called the corpus callosum; another important connection is the anterior commissure. One way the commissures are useful is in exchanging information between the two hemispheres.
These connections between the hemispheres may also be somewhat different in men and women. The area of the anterior commissure seems to be larger in women, and some researchers have found that the back part of the corpus callosum is larger in women. If the larger area of the commissures results in better communication between hemispheres, this could make some difference to the way men's and women's brains work.
Finally, there is probably also a difference between men and women as to which part of the left hemisphere is responsible for speech and hand movements. There are two major areas devoted to speech, one in the frontal lobe, and the other at the back, where the temporal and parietal lobes meet. In women, the frontal region is more important than the area at the back, so problems with speaking are more likely to happen if the front part of the left hemisphere is damaged. In men, the areas contribute more equally, but if anything the back part, especially the parietal region, is more important.
Evolutionary change
Some of the differences between the ways that men's and women's brains work must have evolved over time. We know that the average man and woman have slightly different intellectual strengths. Some of these differences appear to be the result of a division of labour between men and women going back to our hunter-gatherer past. For example, men are better at spatial-navigational skills such as map reading and judging distances and at targeting skills (dart throwing for instance). These skills probably developed through hunting. Women have a better memory for words and objects, and are better at fine motor skills. These abilities probably developed through food gathering near the home and through making clothes and preparing food.
We know from animal research that sex hormones help determine such patterns, because if the brains of young female rats are exposed to androgens right after birth, their spatial abilities as adults are different from normal females', and more like males'. Similarly, in humans, girls exposed to excessive androgens early in life have better spatial skills than other females. Exactly how sex hormones cause changes in the brain to make one person intellectually different from another is not yet understood in detail, but it is a fascinating subject which is the focus of much current research
Women's brain are about 10% smaller than that of men. 1. Men's brain weigh about 1.4Kg and women's weigh 1.25Kg. Women, however, have 10% more brain nerve cells than men.
2. Women use more parts of the brain than men doWhatever they do, there are much more nerve cells' movements in female's brain than that of male's.
3. Women are sensitive to their emotions When women face a sad situation, they feel 8 times more of sad emotion. Women have 2 times more chances of getting depression.
4. Women are better at language usesFemales read and speak faster than men. Based on a test, women remembered more rhyming words than men did during a limited time period. Also women found more synonyms and color related words. It is because women use both right and left part of brain when they read.
5. Women have better memory then menNew York University conducted a research on memories of both men and women. They were shown some pictures in a certain order for a second. For the result, women had an average score of 105, which was higher than that of men. The psychologist, Dr. ThomasCrook says that women have better memory at any age than men.
6. Women are weak at 3-D perceptibilityWomen depend on existing buildings or landscapes when they are going somewhere. They take a look at the store across the street and the side hills. Men, however, remember the direction with specific distances; they think about heading to west for a mile and then going northward for 3 miles. This is why men are better at parking in even a tiny place.
Male Brain**
Boys show a much earlier specialization of the right brain. This is why they often have trouble in learning early in life
**Males see better in brighter light
**Males react to extremes of temperature
**Males react more to extremes of temperature They are superior in performing new motor combinations and in fine motor dexterity.
**Adolescent boys are more physical than adolescent girls
**Circling behaviour: when right-handed males walk over to a table to pick up an object, they are more likely to return by turning to their right
-High levels of testosterone in males correlate with five behaviours: aggression, competition, self-assertion, self-confidence and self-reliance
-Boys are better at problem-solving individually. In particular they excel in:• -Target-directed motor skills (archery, football, etc.)• Mentally rotating objects• -- Mathematical reasoning Orienteering
Female Brain**
-The female left hemisphere develops sooner than the male one
-Females learn to speak earlier and learn languages more quickly
-The female ear is better able to pick up nuances of voice, music and other sounds. They retain better hearing longer throughout life
-Better distance vision and depth perception Better peripheral vision
-Female eyesight is superior at night
-Female excel at visual memory, facial clues and contextThey have a better ability at recognizing faces and remember names
-Females react faster and more acutely to pain, yet can withstand pain over a longer duration than males
-Females are more responsive to playmates
-Females have a stronger sense of smell and are much more responsive to aromas, odors and subtle changes in smell
-They are more sensitive to bitter flavours and prefer sweet flavours
-Women are more susceptible to the damaging effects of alcohol than males
-Right-handed females are more likely to return by circling around to their left.
-When female hormonal levels (progesterone and estrogen) are higher, their Maths and spatial skills are lower
Do males remember more than females?**
**Males actually have less cells in the way of memory then females. Thus females are likely to remember more, although males are more likely to be better problem solvers.
Remembrance of numbers past
by Rob Eastaway
addthis_pub = 'plusmathsorg';
Now what was that number again?
In March 2004, Daniel Tammet from Kent set a new European record when he recited from memory to 22,511 decimal places. It took him five hours to complete the task, yet he had barely made it halfway to the world record of 42,195 digits set by Hiroyuki Goto of Japan in 1995.
How do people pull off incredible (if rather pointless) memory feats like this? And is there anything we can learn from them when it comes to more practical needs for memorising numbers � like remembering the code on your padlock, or the PIN for your cashpoint card?
Memory and numbers
Memory is fundamental to the way you think, and you use it in almost every activity. You need memory to learn facts and names, but you also need it to acquire a new physical skill or even to tell a joke. Aptitudes vary enormously from one person to the next, but one person's ability to remember will also vary depending on the task. For example, somebody who has a good memory for numbers might be hopeless when it comes to remembering a joke (I speak from bitter experience here).
Where does the particular aptitude for remembering numbers come from? For reasons that I will explain in a moment, mathematicians are generally better equipped to remember numbers than other people, but it is certainly not essential to be a mathematician to have an exceptional ability in this area.
synaesthesiaFor example, Daniel Tammet puts his remarkable ability to memorise sequences of digits down to the way that he "sees" numbers as colours and images. To him, is not an abstract set of digits, but instead it appears almost as a story or a film projecting in front of him. Tammet has a rare but well-documented syndrome called synaesthesia, in which the stimulation of one of the senses triggers a reaction in other senses too. Synaesthesia manifests itself in different ways, but in some people it means they get multiple sensory reactions when exposed to numbers. A famous Russian "memory man" called Shereshevsky described how, to him, the number 2 always appeared as a dark rectangle. I came across another person who always links the digit 4 with the taste of a tomato. To those on the outside, there appears to be no logic to these associations.
Synaesthetists have a natural advantage when it comes to memory because the brain is more likely to record something in the long term when it ties in with the senses. An event or an object is more memorable when it has sounds, pictures, texture and particularly smell associated with it.
This way for memoriesLike most people, you have probably had the odd experience of smelling, say, an old piece of furniture and being reminded of something that happened to you in the distant past. Smell has a particularly strong connection with memory, perhaps because the part of the brain that deals with smell is close to the hippocampus, which is where it is believed long term memories are formed. If you deliberately surround yourself with a particular smell when trying to memorise something, that smell is likely to help trigger the memory later when you need to recall it.
This link between memory and the senses is the basis of some of the memory techniques that are described in study-aids. One method that is often suggested for remembering numbers is to associate each digit with a rhyming word.
One is bun,Two is shoe,Three is tree,Four is door,
and so on. The idea here is that an abstract number is turned into a tangible object, with all its associated images and sounds. If I wanted to remember the number 24, I could instead remember it as "shoe�door" and picture myself kicking down the front door (this image comes very readily to mind for some reason). The theory is that the memory of the kicking of the door will be retained for much longer than the number 24, so when I try to remember the number in a week's time, I will immediately think of the image and simply convert it back to the number I was trying to think of.
24, obviouslyIt can be a helpful technique for remembering small numbers, but it becomes incredibly cumbersome if you need to remember a number with several digits. 1492 becomes bun-door-wine-shoe. I'm struggling to picture the appropriate bread-throwing incident at Oddbins that would be needed to memorise this sequence. There must be a better way...
The mathematical approach to remembering numbers
Most people who are good at remembering numbers aren't so because of any sensory experience. It is much more likely to be because numbers have meaning for them. Mathematicians have a strong advantage here, because regular exposure to numbers means that the properties of numbers become familiar.
Show a mathematician the number 4832 and the chances are that they will immediately register what sort of number it is (four digits, divisible by two). Sometimes mathematicians can't help playing with the number, too. In this case, you may have found yourself saying 4832, four eights are thirty-two. This sort of play helps to give the number meaning, and to make it memorable.
There have been famous examples of this urge to play with numbers. Alexander Aitken was a professor of mathematics at Edinburgh University whose memory was renowned. He once commented:
If I go for a walk and a motor car passes and it has the registration number 731, I cannot but observe it is 17 times 43. ... When I see a bus conductor with a number on his lapel, I square it ... this isn't deliberate, I just can't help it. ... Sometimes a number has almost no properties at all, like 811, and sometimes a number, like 41, is deeply involved in many theorems that you know.
Now, which one is has the most interesting number?One of the most famous examples of remembering numbers because of their mathematical properties is the story of the mathematician GH Hardy who was visiting his friend Ramanujan in hospital. Hardy had come by taxi, and after greeting Ramanujan, he apologised. "My taxi number was 1729," he said, "I'm afraid it was a bit dull." "On the contrary, 1729 is most interesting," said Ramanujan. "It is the smallest number that is sum of two cubes in two different ways." (For the record, 1729=123+13, or 103+93.)
Often, the patterns and meanings behind numbers will stick in the mind without effort, but if they don't, they can be the basis of a method for deliberately memorising a number. You might use them for remembering a PIN or a phone number, but they can apply to longer numbers too. For example, have a go at remembering this number. Give yourself about ten seconds:
15222936435057.
If you try to learn it by rote, you will probably struggle. Short term retention of a number is normally limited to seven digits. Any more than that, and you are unlikely to remember more than the first few digits. (In the above example, most people remember 15222 easily, but after that get increasingly muddled).
But now put on your mathematical hat. Can you spot a pattern within the digits that will make them much easier to remember? There's probably more than one way to simplify the task here, but there is one particular pattern which, if you spot it, makes the task trivial.
In fact the number can be broken into pairs of digits, 15 22 29 36 43 50 57, each pair being seven larger than the previous pair. Now all you need to remember is the starting number and the rule.
Remembering Pi
Not all numbers have such convenient patterns behind them, but within every number there are always subgroups of digits that have mathematical meaning. That even applies to , whose digits are effectively a random sequence.
Here are the first 100 digits of :
Most people would not be able to remember this as a sequence of single digits, but the task becomes easier if you pick out clumps of interesting numbers.
3.141592653589793238462643383...
For example, the first ten decimal places include the consecutive numbers 14-15, and then 65-35 which add to make 100. Later there is a cluster of even digits, 846-264. These are both simple series with the second two digits transposed (864 has become 846, 246 has become 264). Gradually you can build up a mathematical story that links these patterns together.
This is the sort of approach that professional memorisers use, though they often combine it with other techniques, for example, converting digits into letters which they then turn into words. A common digit-to-letters rule is as follows:
1 becomes the letter T (a single downstroke),2 is n (two downstrokes),3 is M (three downstrokes),4 is R (r is the fourth letter of four!),5 is L (L is the Roman fifty, which is close...),6 is J (J is a bit like a backwards 6),7 is K (K is like two sevens stuck together),8 is F (a cursive f resembles an eight),9 is P (P is a backwards 9),0 is Z (Z is for zero).
planning a jail break
The start of now becomes M-T-R-T-L-P-N-J-L..., and if you insert a few vowel sounds (which don't count as digits) you might come up with, for example, My TuRTLe oPeN JaiL. Picture your turtle opening a jail and, voila, the first nine digits of pi are memorised. Continue this for 42,187 more digits and the world record is yours.
Fortunately, unless you plan to become a memory performer, or decide to pursue some very specialised areas of physics, maths or astronomy, it is very unlikely you are ever going to need to remember to more than three or four digits. In which case there is a memorable sentence that is all you'll ever need when it comes to recalling this important number:
churning out digits of pi"May I have a large container of coffee."
Count the number of letters in each word of that sentence, and you'll see that the digits of are revealed to seven decimal places.
In the end, whatever number you want to remember, whether it is , a historic date or the code of a padlock, the most memorable mnemonics are the ones that you invent for yourself. It really doesn't matter how quirky your approach is. If it works for you, that is all that matters.
Our question or topic that me and her are both doing is:
1. Do people remember more in chunks, in numbers, words or colors and do males remember more than females?
**Three Artifacts
Internet
Books
Magazines
**Prediction/hypothesis
Me and Tazaray both believe that in this experiment when it comes to females and males, that females know more that males. We say and belive this because when it comes to females we think more of working going somewhre far in life and making good grades. We do not say yes for the males because when it comes to boys, you have some of them skipping school, some that are not about a lot of work, and others that think eduaction is not an option for them . We are not saying that every male is like this just some. Also, we both belive that when it comes to females, we just know more than boys.
**Reasearch And Facts On topic
Psychologists divide memory into three stores: sensory store, short-term store, and long-term store. After entering the sensory store, some information proceeds into the short-term store. From there some information proceeds to the long term store. These stores are refer to as short term memory and long term memory respectively.
Short-term memory has two important characteristics. First, short-term memory can contain at any one time seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information. Second, items remain in short-term memory around twenty seconds.
Long-term memory is stored in our brains forever, according to most psychologists. We use recall to retrieve memories.
Understanding The Human Brain
(1996) Children’s Britannica, Jennifer Cox, Ed., Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 136-141.
Doreen Kimura
The brain is the source of all our behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and experiences. We have known for a long time that different areas of the brain are used for different activities - memory, language, problem-solving, and so on. Doreen Kimura, professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario, explains how the latest studies also show that, although all human brains are very similar, there are small differences in the way the brain is organized between one person and another. These differences may underlie some of our unique talents.
We know that people differ in the way they solve problems. We call this their intellectual, or cognitive, ability. We may differ from our friends not only in overall ability, sometimes referred to as IQ, or "smarts", but also in the pattern of our abilities. One person may be especially good at problems involving words, whereas another may be better at dealing with problems relating to real-world objects. Since the brain is the centre for all such activities, there must be some way in which brains differ slightly from one person to another.
For most of the history of brain research, until about 20 years ago, our information about the human brain was obtained primarily from post-mortem cases. This is information from people who have died, and whose brains are studied after being fixed in solutions to preserve them. But in the past few years, new ways of looking at the brain safely in living persons have become possible, so now we are better able to link the abilities of a particular person with his or her brain structure.
Our problem-solving abilities depend mainly on a part of the brain called the cerebrum. The cerebrum is divided into two parts called the left and right cerebral hemispheres. These hemispheres don't have exactly the same functions, and this difference in the way the two hemispheres work is called functional asymmetry.
Differences between the hemispheres
The left hemisphere is important for all forms of communication. We know this because when it is damaged, perhaps as a result of an accident or a stroke, there can be serious problems in speaking (this is known as aphasia). After left-hemisphere damage there can also be difficulties with other complicated movements of the mouth, or of the hands and arms -- demonstrating a pout, or miming how to salute or to hammer a nail, for example. It seems that the left hemisphere specializes in controlling certain movements, including the movements we use to communicate. In people who are born deaf and who communicate using hand movements (manual sign language), damage to the left hemisphere can badly affect their signing ability.
The right hemisphere, by comparison, doesn't appear to be involved much in communication, although it can help us understand words to some extent. Instead, it specializes in receiving and analysing information from the outside world. Therefore, damage to the right hemisphere may result in our being unable to tell the difference between melodies, or having difficulty in identifying a face or in locating an object accurately in space. Some parts of the right hemisphere are mainly concerned with helping us understand what we hear (auditory), while other parts help us make sense of things that we see. The temporal lobe (in the lower part of the hemisphere) analyses much of the auditory input, while the occipital and parietal lobes (in the rear and upper regions) provide information about where objects are. The frontal lobes in each hemisphere seem to be important in planning our actions.
Seeing the differences
Although we have known for over a hundred years that the two cerebral hemispheres have these different functions, or properties, until recently people thought that they looked the same. Now we know that there are also small differences in the appearance, that is, in the actual anatomy or visible structure of the left and right sides. These differences are called anatomical asymmetries. Let's look, for example, at the temporal lobe. Part of this lobe is hidden in the Sylvian fissure. This part, important for understanding speech, is larger in area on the left side than the same region on the right side. Babies are born with this difference, so we know that it doesn't develop as a result of children learning to speak. There is also a difference in the appearance of the Sylvian fissure on the two sides, with the left side arching up more gradually than the right. Other anatomical asymmetries between the left and right sides have also been observed.
Right left, left right?
We have seen that the two sides of the brain are different, but how much can one person's brain differ from another's? Research shows that all human brains are very much alike, but there are minor differences between one brain and another. The question is whether these are just chance variations which don't mean anything, or whether it can be shown that they are associated with different traits in different people. One characteristic that might be expected to relate to brain asymmetry is hand preference, that is, which hand a person prefers for most everyday activities, including writing. Over 90 per cent of people are right-handed. We know that fine movements of the hands depend on activity in areas of the opposite hemisphere of the brain. Right-hand movements depend critically on the left hemisphere. This led scientists to believe that the left hemisphere was somehow "dominant" in most people, because it controlled the preferred hand and was also essential for speaking.
At first it was taken for granted that left-handers would show an opposite, or mirror-image, pattern to right-handers, that is, their speech would rely mostly on the right hemisphere. But over time it has become clear that this is not quite the case. Although it is true that left-handers more often rely on the right hemisphere than do right-handers, well over half of them are like right-handers in so far as they rely mainly on the left hemisphere for speech. So how do left-handers' brains differ from right-handers? Research is still going on to explore this question. So far it seems that the temporal-lobe and Sylvian-fissure anatomical asymmetries we described above are less marked in left-handers than in right-handers.
Male and female brains
Whether you are a boy or a girl also determines how your brain looks and works. We know from animal research that substances called sex hormones, produced by the sex glands, are needed to develop the differences between males and females. Sex hormones are necessary both for forming the genitals and for the behavioural and brain differences between the sexes. The hypothalamus, which is a tiny structure at the base of the brain, regulates many basic functions, such as eating, sleeping, temperature control, and reproduction. One part of the hypothalamus responsible for sexual behaviour is larger in male brains than in female brains, in human and non-human animals. In rats the enlargement is known to depend on male sex hormones, called androgens.
Sex hormones also affect other parts of the brain. For example, the outer layer of the cerebrum, called the cortex, is thicker on the right hemisphere than on the left in male rats, but not in female rats. Another recent discovery is that male and female brains in some ways work differently. When set the same task, females may use both hemispheres, while male brain activity is restricted to one side. For example, if the task is to define words, men appear to use only their left hemisphere, while women use both. For many other problem-solving activities however, men's and women's brains work in the same way.
The left and right cerebral hemispheres are connected by fibres running crosswise between them called commissures. The largest and most important commissure is called the corpus callosum; another important connection is the anterior commissure. One way the commissures are useful is in exchanging information between the two hemispheres.
These connections between the hemispheres may also be somewhat different in men and women. The area of the anterior commissure seems to be larger in women, and some researchers have found that the back part of the corpus callosum is larger in women. If the larger area of the commissures results in better communication between hemispheres, this could make some difference to the way men's and women's brains work.
Finally, there is probably also a difference between men and women as to which part of the left hemisphere is responsible for speech and hand movements. There are two major areas devoted to speech, one in the frontal lobe, and the other at the back, where the temporal and parietal lobes meet. In women, the frontal region is more important than the area at the back, so problems with speaking are more likely to happen if the front part of the left hemisphere is damaged. In men, the areas contribute more equally, but if anything the back part, especially the parietal region, is more important.
Evolutionary change
Some of the differences between the ways that men's and women's brains work must have evolved over time. We know that the average man and woman have slightly different intellectual strengths. Some of these differences appear to be the result of a division of labour between men and women going back to our hunter-gatherer past. For example, men are better at spatial-navigational skills such as map reading and judging distances and at targeting skills (dart throwing for instance). These skills probably developed through hunting. Women have a better memory for words and objects, and are better at fine motor skills. These abilities probably developed through food gathering near the home and through making clothes and preparing food.
We know from animal research that sex hormones help determine such patterns, because if the brains of young female rats are exposed to androgens right after birth, their spatial abilities as adults are different from normal females', and more like males'. Similarly, in humans, girls exposed to excessive androgens early in life have better spatial skills than other females. Exactly how sex hormones cause changes in the brain to make one person intellectually different from another is not yet understood in detail, but it is a fascinating subject which is the focus of much current research
Women's brain are about 10% smaller than that of men. 1. Men's brain weigh about 1.4Kg and women's weigh 1.25Kg. Women, however, have 10% more brain nerve cells than men.
2. Women use more parts of the brain than men doWhatever they do, there are much more nerve cells' movements in female's brain than that of male's.
3. Women are sensitive to their emotions When women face a sad situation, they feel 8 times more of sad emotion. Women have 2 times more chances of getting depression.
4. Women are better at language usesFemales read and speak faster than men. Based on a test, women remembered more rhyming words than men did during a limited time period. Also women found more synonyms and color related words. It is because women use both right and left part of brain when they read.
5. Women have better memory then menNew York University conducted a research on memories of both men and women. They were shown some pictures in a certain order for a second. For the result, women had an average score of 105, which was higher than that of men. The psychologist, Dr. ThomasCrook says that women have better memory at any age than men.
6. Women are weak at 3-D perceptibilityWomen depend on existing buildings or landscapes when they are going somewhere. They take a look at the store across the street and the side hills. Men, however, remember the direction with specific distances; they think about heading to west for a mile and then going northward for 3 miles. This is why men are better at parking in even a tiny place.
Male Brain**
Boys show a much earlier specialization of the right brain. This is why they often have trouble in learning early in life
**Males see better in brighter light
**Males react to extremes of temperature
**Males react more to extremes of temperature They are superior in performing new motor combinations and in fine motor dexterity.
**Adolescent boys are more physical than adolescent girls
**Circling behaviour: when right-handed males walk over to a table to pick up an object, they are more likely to return by turning to their right
-High levels of testosterone in males correlate with five behaviours: aggression, competition, self-assertion, self-confidence and self-reliance
-Boys are better at problem-solving individually. In particular they excel in:• -Target-directed motor skills (archery, football, etc.)• Mentally rotating objects• -- Mathematical reasoning Orienteering
Female Brain**
-The female left hemisphere develops sooner than the male one
-Females learn to speak earlier and learn languages more quickly
-The female ear is better able to pick up nuances of voice, music and other sounds. They retain better hearing longer throughout life
-Better distance vision and depth perception Better peripheral vision
-Female eyesight is superior at night
-Female excel at visual memory, facial clues and contextThey have a better ability at recognizing faces and remember names
-Females react faster and more acutely to pain, yet can withstand pain over a longer duration than males
-Females are more responsive to playmates
-Females have a stronger sense of smell and are much more responsive to aromas, odors and subtle changes in smell
-They are more sensitive to bitter flavours and prefer sweet flavours
-Women are more susceptible to the damaging effects of alcohol than males
-Right-handed females are more likely to return by circling around to their left.
-When female hormonal levels (progesterone and estrogen) are higher, their Maths and spatial skills are lower
Do males remember more than females?**
**Males actually have less cells in the way of memory then females. Thus females are likely to remember more, although males are more likely to be better problem solvers.
Remembrance of numbers past
by Rob Eastaway
addthis_pub = 'plusmathsorg';
Now what was that number again?
In March 2004, Daniel Tammet from Kent set a new European record when he recited from memory to 22,511 decimal places. It took him five hours to complete the task, yet he had barely made it halfway to the world record of 42,195 digits set by Hiroyuki Goto of Japan in 1995.
How do people pull off incredible (if rather pointless) memory feats like this? And is there anything we can learn from them when it comes to more practical needs for memorising numbers � like remembering the code on your padlock, or the PIN for your cashpoint card?
Memory and numbers
Memory is fundamental to the way you think, and you use it in almost every activity. You need memory to learn facts and names, but you also need it to acquire a new physical skill or even to tell a joke. Aptitudes vary enormously from one person to the next, but one person's ability to remember will also vary depending on the task. For example, somebody who has a good memory for numbers might be hopeless when it comes to remembering a joke (I speak from bitter experience here).
Where does the particular aptitude for remembering numbers come from? For reasons that I will explain in a moment, mathematicians are generally better equipped to remember numbers than other people, but it is certainly not essential to be a mathematician to have an exceptional ability in this area.
synaesthesiaFor example, Daniel Tammet puts his remarkable ability to memorise sequences of digits down to the way that he "sees" numbers as colours and images. To him, is not an abstract set of digits, but instead it appears almost as a story or a film projecting in front of him. Tammet has a rare but well-documented syndrome called synaesthesia, in which the stimulation of one of the senses triggers a reaction in other senses too. Synaesthesia manifests itself in different ways, but in some people it means they get multiple sensory reactions when exposed to numbers. A famous Russian "memory man" called Shereshevsky described how, to him, the number 2 always appeared as a dark rectangle. I came across another person who always links the digit 4 with the taste of a tomato. To those on the outside, there appears to be no logic to these associations.
Synaesthetists have a natural advantage when it comes to memory because the brain is more likely to record something in the long term when it ties in with the senses. An event or an object is more memorable when it has sounds, pictures, texture and particularly smell associated with it.
This way for memoriesLike most people, you have probably had the odd experience of smelling, say, an old piece of furniture and being reminded of something that happened to you in the distant past. Smell has a particularly strong connection with memory, perhaps because the part of the brain that deals with smell is close to the hippocampus, which is where it is believed long term memories are formed. If you deliberately surround yourself with a particular smell when trying to memorise something, that smell is likely to help trigger the memory later when you need to recall it.
This link between memory and the senses is the basis of some of the memory techniques that are described in study-aids. One method that is often suggested for remembering numbers is to associate each digit with a rhyming word.
One is bun,Two is shoe,Three is tree,Four is door,
and so on. The idea here is that an abstract number is turned into a tangible object, with all its associated images and sounds. If I wanted to remember the number 24, I could instead remember it as "shoe�door" and picture myself kicking down the front door (this image comes very readily to mind for some reason). The theory is that the memory of the kicking of the door will be retained for much longer than the number 24, so when I try to remember the number in a week's time, I will immediately think of the image and simply convert it back to the number I was trying to think of.
24, obviouslyIt can be a helpful technique for remembering small numbers, but it becomes incredibly cumbersome if you need to remember a number with several digits. 1492 becomes bun-door-wine-shoe. I'm struggling to picture the appropriate bread-throwing incident at Oddbins that would be needed to memorise this sequence. There must be a better way...
The mathematical approach to remembering numbers
Most people who are good at remembering numbers aren't so because of any sensory experience. It is much more likely to be because numbers have meaning for them. Mathematicians have a strong advantage here, because regular exposure to numbers means that the properties of numbers become familiar.
Show a mathematician the number 4832 and the chances are that they will immediately register what sort of number it is (four digits, divisible by two). Sometimes mathematicians can't help playing with the number, too. In this case, you may have found yourself saying 4832, four eights are thirty-two. This sort of play helps to give the number meaning, and to make it memorable.
There have been famous examples of this urge to play with numbers. Alexander Aitken was a professor of mathematics at Edinburgh University whose memory was renowned. He once commented:
If I go for a walk and a motor car passes and it has the registration number 731, I cannot but observe it is 17 times 43. ... When I see a bus conductor with a number on his lapel, I square it ... this isn't deliberate, I just can't help it. ... Sometimes a number has almost no properties at all, like 811, and sometimes a number, like 41, is deeply involved in many theorems that you know.
Now, which one is has the most interesting number?One of the most famous examples of remembering numbers because of their mathematical properties is the story of the mathematician GH Hardy who was visiting his friend Ramanujan in hospital. Hardy had come by taxi, and after greeting Ramanujan, he apologised. "My taxi number was 1729," he said, "I'm afraid it was a bit dull." "On the contrary, 1729 is most interesting," said Ramanujan. "It is the smallest number that is sum of two cubes in two different ways." (For the record, 1729=123+13, or 103+93.)
Often, the patterns and meanings behind numbers will stick in the mind without effort, but if they don't, they can be the basis of a method for deliberately memorising a number. You might use them for remembering a PIN or a phone number, but they can apply to longer numbers too. For example, have a go at remembering this number. Give yourself about ten seconds:
15222936435057.
If you try to learn it by rote, you will probably struggle. Short term retention of a number is normally limited to seven digits. Any more than that, and you are unlikely to remember more than the first few digits. (In the above example, most people remember 15222 easily, but after that get increasingly muddled).
But now put on your mathematical hat. Can you spot a pattern within the digits that will make them much easier to remember? There's probably more than one way to simplify the task here, but there is one particular pattern which, if you spot it, makes the task trivial.
In fact the number can be broken into pairs of digits, 15 22 29 36 43 50 57, each pair being seven larger than the previous pair. Now all you need to remember is the starting number and the rule.
Remembering Pi
Not all numbers have such convenient patterns behind them, but within every number there are always subgroups of digits that have mathematical meaning. That even applies to , whose digits are effectively a random sequence.
Here are the first 100 digits of :
Most people would not be able to remember this as a sequence of single digits, but the task becomes easier if you pick out clumps of interesting numbers.
3.141592653589793238462643383...
For example, the first ten decimal places include the consecutive numbers 14-15, and then 65-35 which add to make 100. Later there is a cluster of even digits, 846-264. These are both simple series with the second two digits transposed (864 has become 846, 246 has become 264). Gradually you can build up a mathematical story that links these patterns together.
This is the sort of approach that professional memorisers use, though they often combine it with other techniques, for example, converting digits into letters which they then turn into words. A common digit-to-letters rule is as follows:
1 becomes the letter T (a single downstroke),2 is n (two downstrokes),3 is M (three downstrokes),4 is R (r is the fourth letter of four!),5 is L (L is the Roman fifty, which is close...),6 is J (J is a bit like a backwards 6),7 is K (K is like two sevens stuck together),8 is F (a cursive f resembles an eight),9 is P (P is a backwards 9),0 is Z (Z is for zero).
planning a jail break
The start of now becomes M-T-R-T-L-P-N-J-L..., and if you insert a few vowel sounds (which don't count as digits) you might come up with, for example, My TuRTLe oPeN JaiL. Picture your turtle opening a jail and, voila, the first nine digits of pi are memorised. Continue this for 42,187 more digits and the world record is yours.
Fortunately, unless you plan to become a memory performer, or decide to pursue some very specialised areas of physics, maths or astronomy, it is very unlikely you are ever going to need to remember to more than three or four digits. In which case there is a memorable sentence that is all you'll ever need when it comes to recalling this important number:
churning out digits of pi"May I have a large container of coffee."
Count the number of letters in each word of that sentence, and you'll see that the digits of are revealed to seven decimal places.
In the end, whatever number you want to remember, whether it is , a historic date or the code of a padlock, the most memorable mnemonics are the ones that you invent for yourself. It really doesn't matter how quirky your approach is. If it works for you, that is all that matters.
Homework Fro Mouthorie Bolton For MAy 21, 2008
The article that I have just have read recently leaves me shocked. i say this because they have all these stroies and just do not know who to believe. The people who were actually there or have it on videotape can testify to it, but others cannot. As a result police officers now a days think that just because they are in control, that they can do or say what ever. Really, that is not the case, police officers are humans just like us, and we should all get treated equal. Philadelphia is known as "The City Of Brotherly Love", but how can that be so with all the controversy that is going on. In my opinion this is just a bunch of chaos, and at the end of the day, it does not get some people nowhere. But that is how i feel about the whole article.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Autobiography On Janay Dempsey
I Janay Dempsey was born March 26, 1992 to both the parents of Beautine and Joseph Alston. I was born in Philadelphia, P.A., at Temple Hospital on a Thursday. Furthermore, when I was born, I was born as the fourth child. Then a couple of years later my mother gave birth to two more children, making me the middle child of the family. During my ages of eight through eleven, my family and I went through some conflicts, and had to move some places that we did not want to. My father went away for a while, leaving my mother to take care of her seven kids for a while. Afterwards, my father then came back into our life, and then things got better. My first school that I attended for Kindergarten through first grade, was Cayuga Elementary school, which is located in Hunting Park. Then between the middle of first grade, I transitioned and attended Lowell Elementary School which is located in Olney, for grades first through fourth. While I was at Lowell Elementary, I was involved in various activities and received many awards. They were such things as “The 100 Book Challenge”, “Student Of The Month”, “Track”, “Student Of The Week”, and so much more, that I cannot remember. Some struggles and obstacles that I faced at Lowell Elementary in the fourth grade, was managing sometimes to keep my grades up, being confident, and not caring about what other people said. But mostly, I faced something that most people still faced today was peer pressure. But, I managed to get through that and graduated, which made me proud of myself, and making my family proud as well. Moving On, I prepared to go to my new grade and new school, which was Grover Washington Junior Middle school. I stayed there until fifth grade, I enjoyed my friends and the activities at the school. During fifth grade I maintained good grades in such subjects as, Math, Science, English, Gym Class, and History class. During the summertime my mother found a new school for me to Attend which was Khepera Charter School. Also during my summer, I attended Dance class and it was called, “Rhythm &Moves Dance Studios” and was located on Broad Street. I took such classes as Jazz, Hip-Hop, ballet, and African movement. I received a certificate of Merit for my participation at the dance classes that I attended. Now the summer was over and it was time for me to attend Khepera charter school for grades sixth through eighth where I had graduated. I must be honest I started with some rough times in the sixth grade and someone talked to me and gave me a wake- up call, telling me to get my life together. In the sixth grade I fought two boys and got suspended from school and my grades that I was making were not up to par. Both my mother and father were disappointed in me and they knew that I knew, that I could do better. Also, I was sometimes not patient and just wanted things to go my way in the sixth grade. But, I had to realize that everything was not just about me and that the attitude that I had would not get me far. The person that helped me to overcome these conflicts that I was facing was my art teacher Ms. Hall and my counselor. I really do think them for their time and talking to me. Surprisingly, to my belief I graduated and was so proud of myself for making it thus far. During that summertime after graduating sixth grade my mother made me go to church and vacation bible school. Also, I started to decide what I wanted to do with my life and I decided that when I got older, that I wanted to become a nurse. That summer finally ended and I then moved on to the seventh grade. I realized at that point that I would soon be graduating and going to high school. Furthermore, I noticed that seventh grade grades, were what the high schools were looking at for students like myself, to get accepted. So while in seventh grade, I tried my best tom maintain good grades and be involved in a lot of activities. I was part of things such as, “Digging Up The Past”, “Dance Club”, and “ Financial and Successful children“. I also won first place in the Science fair with my partner. Next I was part of and Oratorical contest, but I won third place and still was happy. Next, I attended the high school expo and searched for good high schools that I thought were good for me. I did and to my surprise, the high schools that I picked, I did not get accepted to any. I was very disappointed and felt like giving up on myself. The reason for me not getting accepted to any was because I was sometimes late to school, and the scores that I had on the PSSA. But my mother did not want me to go to any public school so she searched for Charter schools for me to got to. Now I was in the eight grade and I was extremely happy and so proud that I made it real far. While I was in the eighth grade I made sure that I kept myself occupied and tried to do so much community service as possible. I was part of the eighth grade “Yearbook Committee”, “Pizza Sales” and “Holiday sales”. Also For my community service project, I helped around my school cleaning up and servicing young children. I then participated again in the oratorical contest, and I came in second place, receiving an award. Most important I received more awards, “Honor Role”, “Student Of The Month”, “Perfect Attendance”, “Good Leadership” and “Responsible And Trustworthy”. I then graduated the eighth grade. I felt stress-free, happy, joyful, outstanding, overwhelmed, and so much positive emotions that I cannot even describe. All the things that I had been through were for a purpose and reason when I was in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. I cried and I thanked God so much for getting me far. After completion of the eighth grade, during the summer I stated to work. I realized it was time for me to be independent and have financial status. I worked at khepera Charter School as a Junior Intern. My job was to assist young children along with an elder in a classroom. At the end of the week I had to teach all by myself and the kids really enjoyed me. That was the real first job that I had and I was proud at how well I did. The summer was abut to be over and my mother, had to get me in to a high school. She found one which was called New Media Technology Charter high school and I was sort of happy. It was not the school that I really wanted to go to, but I had rather be there then at my neighborhood public school. I was nervous because I was moving into bigger places and I did not know what to expect on my first day of high school. Well, to my theory I was actually wrong. My first day of high school was fun and throughout that first year I transitioned well, from being in middle school to going to high school. Now I am in the ninth grade and sixteen years old. For some reason, I changed what I want to do with my feature. I decided that I want to become either a model or an actress. I know that I still have a lot of time to make decisions so I am not too worried. Now that I am sixteen, in the beginning, I was going through some things and just recently came over them. Some reasons were because of peer pressure and problems that were going on at home with family. But by the grace of God he did not give up on me or let me fall. He still has me here for a special purpose and reason. To close, I am glad where I stand at now with my life. I hope that I saty strong and positive and also hope that I will soon figure out with I want to do with my life.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Homework For Mouthourie Bolton For May 13, 2008
1. The qoute to me means to me that in order for a better change, that it starts with you first. Also you have to go through some real life experiences in order to make a change and do something about it. Furthermore, if you listen and everyone around you is telling you the same thing constantly, soon you will satrt to take it all in and do it.
2. I believe that this is saying that when when we hear all tyopes of music from different genres, we can understand it more. But, if they just hear a person talking then they can not really get the message. Also I believ that we understand most of these artist sometimes because we have gone through some of the things that they have gone through.
3. I believe this quote is saying that in order for you to know you're feature you need to know you're past. You need to do research and take notes. People will tell you some things, but you cannot believ everything that you hear. So you have to just go to you're past and do some research.
4. I believe this qoute is saying to me that we need to voice our opinions and what we believe. Also I think that it is saying that we need to be proud of our history and who we are. Furthermore, I think that we need to acknowledge our history more, our people, and the struggles that we have been through.
6. This qoute means to me that if you do not know how great you are and the speacial things you do, then no one else will. You have to believe in yourself and know that you are great before anyone else can. Do not doubt yourself or underestimate yourself. Do not let anyone tell you something different from what you belive.
7.This quote is saying that you have to know who youare, what you are, and all about yourself first. You have to because people will try to try you some wrong things in life so you need to know you're history and you're backgorund. You need to know what you want out of life, who you want to be and where you want to go.
8.
The quote means to me the truth will be told by people telling their rel life experiences. Fro example take slavery. A lot of people have gone through this. Most people do not believe or understand this, but if someone that has experienced this certain thing, then people will believe
My Best Essay
The problem is alot of people are homeless. For instance everyday people like myself and I, see a lot of people on the streets with no home. In addition, you see homeless people in parks, whre children go to play at. Sometimes I feel as though I wish thre was something I could do to change the conflict. Consequently, I cannot but I can pray though. Yet, the president should be changing the way these homeless people live. In fact, hopefully with this new president, there will be a better change for the homeless. Finally, I hope that these people get healthier and better.
2. I believe that this is saying that when when we hear all tyopes of music from different genres, we can understand it more. But, if they just hear a person talking then they can not really get the message. Also I believ that we understand most of these artist sometimes because we have gone through some of the things that they have gone through.
3. I believe this quote is saying that in order for you to know you're feature you need to know you're past. You need to do research and take notes. People will tell you some things, but you cannot believ everything that you hear. So you have to just go to you're past and do some research.
4. I believe this qoute is saying to me that we need to voice our opinions and what we believe. Also I think that it is saying that we need to be proud of our history and who we are. Furthermore, I think that we need to acknowledge our history more, our people, and the struggles that we have been through.
6. This qoute means to me that if you do not know how great you are and the speacial things you do, then no one else will. You have to believe in yourself and know that you are great before anyone else can. Do not doubt yourself or underestimate yourself. Do not let anyone tell you something different from what you belive.
7.This quote is saying that you have to know who youare, what you are, and all about yourself first. You have to because people will try to try you some wrong things in life so you need to know you're history and you're backgorund. You need to know what you want out of life, who you want to be and where you want to go.
8.
The quote means to me the truth will be told by people telling their rel life experiences. Fro example take slavery. A lot of people have gone through this. Most people do not believe or understand this, but if someone that has experienced this certain thing, then people will believe
My Best Essay
The problem is alot of people are homeless. For instance everyday people like myself and I, see a lot of people on the streets with no home. In addition, you see homeless people in parks, whre children go to play at. Sometimes I feel as though I wish thre was something I could do to change the conflict. Consequently, I cannot but I can pray though. Yet, the president should be changing the way these homeless people live. In fact, hopefully with this new president, there will be a better change for the homeless. Finally, I hope that these people get healthier and better.
Homework for Mouthourie Bolton For May 12, 2008
You were somebody I loved
You were somebody I liked
You were someone Who told me you loved me
And I thought everything would be alright
When you were aroud your friends you tried to play me
When you were around your friends you acted shady
I gave you my heart and you took it
I gave you my world and you took advantage of it
Now you are gone from me and I am gone from you
And sometimes I sist and think and sometimes cry
On how me and you're relationship could have been better anh how you and I have both lied
Its hard to move on but im trying
Its hardto loose feelings because i kepp on crying
Because you were somebody I loved
You were somebody I liked
You were somebody I liked
You were someone Who told me you loved me
And I thought everything would be alright
When you were aroud your friends you tried to play me
When you were around your friends you acted shady
I gave you my heart and you took it
I gave you my world and you took advantage of it
Now you are gone from me and I am gone from you
And sometimes I sist and think and sometimes cry
On how me and you're relationship could have been better anh how you and I have both lied
Its hard to move on but im trying
Its hardto loose feelings because i kepp on crying
Because you were somebody I loved
You were somebody I liked
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Homework For Mouthourie Bolton For May 9, 2008
**Maya Angelou
1.Alone
Lying, thinkingLast nightHow to find my soul a homeWhere water is not thirstyAnd bread loaf is not stoneI came up with one thingAnd I don't believe I'm wrongThat nobody,But nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.There are some millionairesWith money they can't useTheir wives run round like bansheesTheir children sing the bluesThey've got expensive doctorsTo cure their hearts of stone.But nobodyNo, nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.Now if you listen closelyI'll tell you what I knowStorm clouds are gatheringThe wind is gonna blowThe race of man is sufferingAnd I can hear the moan,'Cause nobody,But nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.
2.Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret liesI'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion sizeBut when I start to tell them They think I'm telling lies. I say It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips The stride of my steps The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
I walk into a room Just as cool as you please And to a man The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees Then they swarm around me A hive of honey bees. I say It's the fire in my eyes And the flash of my teeth The swing of my waist And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
Men themselves have wondered What they see in me They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say It's in the arch of my back The sun of my smile The ride of my breasts The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say It's in the click of my heels The bend of my hair The palm of my hand The need for my care. 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
3.Still I Rise
You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just like hopes springing high,Still I'll rise.Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries.Does my haughtiness offend you?Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own back yard.You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise.Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that's wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise.
**Nikki Giovanni
1.Balances
in life one is alwaysbalancinglike we juggle our mothersagainst our fathersor one teacher against another(only to balance our grade average)3 grains of saltto one ounce truthour sweet black essenceor the funky honkies down the streetand lately I've begun wondering if you re trying to tell me somethingwe used to talk all nightand do things alone togetherand i've begun(as a reaction to a feeling)to balancethe pleasure of lonelinessagainst the pain of loving you
2.Mothers
the last time i was home to see my mother we kissed exchanged pleasantries and unpleasantries pulled a warm comforting silence around us and read separated books i remember the first time i consciously saw her we were living in a three room apartment on burns avenue mommy always sat in the dark i don't know how i knew that but she did that night i stumbled into the kitchen maybe because i've always been a night person or perhaps because i had wet the bedshe was sitting on a chair the room was bathed in moonlight diffused through tiny window panes she may have been smoking but maybe nother hair was three-quarters her height which made me a strong believer in the samson myth and very black i'm sure i just hung there by the door i remember thinking: what a beautiful lady she was very deliberately waiting perhaps for my father to come home from his night job or maybe for a dreamthat had promised to come bycome here! she said i'll teach you a poem: i see the moon the moon sees me god bless the moon and god bless me i taught that to my son who recited it for her just to say we must to bear the pleasures as we have borne the pains
3. A Greater Love Of God And Country
There is no reason to ask WHY? since to ask "WHY" is to enter some dark and crazy spot where one presumes there is REASON and A REASON that willmake sense which is not to say there is a craziness: I don't believethis is crazy but rather mean.... hateful.... ugly-though not ignorant because there is knowledge here and there is a purpose here but there is knowledge here and there is a purpose here but there is NO REASON People who will burn a cross will burn a churchThe building my be rebuilt but the creak of a stair... the smell of the polish in the pews the old kitchen where Sunday dinners were reheatedthe icebox where the iced tea was kept... the too narrow steps leading to the damp and dusky basement... the leaky window that could not always keep the cold at bay... the knowing that this building was built by these hands to worship this God who has Delivered us..................... No..... that cannot be rebuilt The people who have burned crosses will burn a church Something will be lost and the world just a bit sadder for the loss of the building.... But the people who sift through ashes know that fire is a friend and that fire can be a foe But the people who use fire are lowdown.....And the people who know that some people are lowdown will watchthe fires..... will forgive the trespasses..... and will go right on thanking their God for His powerful..... magnificent Deliverance
**Gwendolyn Brooks
1.The Bean Eaters
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.Dinner is a casual affair.Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, Tin flatware.Two who are Mostly Good.Two who have lived their day,But keep on putting on their clothesAnd putting things away.And remembering . . .Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,As they lean over the beans in their rented back room thatis full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
2.To Be In Love
To be in love Is to touch with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well. You look at things Through his eyes. A cardinal is red. A sky is blue. Suddenly you know he knows too. He is not there but You know you are tasting together The winter, or a light spring weather. His hand to take your hand is overmuch. Too much to bear. You cannot look in his eyes Because your pulse must not say What must not be said. When he Shuts a door- Is not there_ Your arms are water. And you are free With a ghastly freedom. You are the beautiful half Of a golden hurt. You remember and covet his mouth To touch, to whisper on. Oh when to declare Is certain Death! Oh when to apprize Is to mesmerize, To see fall down, the Column of Gold, Into the commonest ash.
3.The Crazy Woman
I shall not sing a May song. A May song should be gay. I'll wait until November And sing a song of gray. I'll wait until November That is the time for me. I'll go out in the frosty dark And sing most terribly. And all the little people Will stare at me and say, "That is the Crazy Woman Who would not sing in May." Anonymous submission.
**Langston Hughes
1.I, Too
I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am America.
2.Dream Variations
To fling my arms wideIn some place of the sun,To whirl and to danceTill the white day is done.Then rest at cool eveningBeneath a tall treeWhile night comes on gently,Dark like me-That is my dream!To fling my arms wideIn the face of the sun,Dance! Whirl! Whirl!Till the quick day is done.Rest at pale evening...A tall, slim tree...Night coming tenderlyBlack like me.
3.Justice
That Justice is a blind goddessIs a thing to which we black are wise:Her bandage hides two festering soresThat once perhaps were eyes.
**Paul laurence Dunbar
1.A Choice
They please me not-- these solemn songs That hint of sermons covered up. 'T is true the world should heed its wrongs, But in a poem let me sup, Not simples brewed to cure or ease Humanity's confessed disease, But the spirit-wine of a singing line, Or a dew-drop in a honey cup!
2.Life's Tradgedy
It may be misery not to sing at all, And to go silent through the brimming day; It may be misery never to be loved, But deeper griefs than these beset the way.To sing the perfect song, And by a half-tone lost the key, There the potent sorrow, there the grief, The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy.To have come near to the perfect love, Not the hot passion of untempered youth, But that which lies aside its vanity, And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.This, this indeed is to be accursed, For if we mortals love, or if we sing, We count our joys not by what we have, But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
3.Morning
The mist has left the greening plain, The dew-drops shine like fairy rain, The coquette rose awakes again Her lovely self adorning.The Wind is hiding in the trees, A sighing, soothing, laughing tease, Until the rose says "Kiss me, please," 'Tis morning, 'tis morning.With staff in hand and careless-free, The wanderer fares right jauntily, For towns and houses are, thinks he, For scorning, for scorning. My soul is swift upon the wing, And in its deeps a song I bring; Come, Love, and we together sing, "'Tis morning, 'tis morning."
**Rita Dove
1.Exit
Just when hope withers, the visa is granted. The door opens to a street like in the movies, clean of people, of cats; except it is your street you are leaving. A visa has been granted, "provisionally"-a fretful word. The windows you have closed behind you are turning pink, doing what they do every dawn. Here it's gray. The door to the taxicab waits. This suitcase, the saddest object in the world. Well, the world's open. And now through the windshield the sky begins to blush as you did when your mother told you what it took to be a woman in this life.
2.Golden Oldie
I made it home early, only to get stalled in the driveway-swaying at the wheel like a blind pianist caught in a tune meant for more than two hands playing. The words were easy, crooned by a young girl dying to feel alive, to discover a pain majestic enough to live by. I turned the air conditioning off, leaned back to float on a film of sweat, and listened to her sentiment: Baby, where did our love go?-a lament I greedily took in without a clue who my lover might be, or where to start looking.
3.Wiring Home
Lest the wolves loose their whistles and shopkeepers inquire, keep moving, though your knees flush red as two chapped apples, keep moving, head up, past the beggar's cold cup, past the kiosk's trumpet tales of odyssey and heartbreak- until, turning a corner, you stand, staring: ambushed by a window of canaries bright as a thousand golden narcissi.
**Sterling Brown
1.Old Lem
I talked to old Lemand old Lem said:"They weigh the cottonThey store the cornWe only good enoughTo work the rows;They run the commissaryThey keep the booksWe gotta be gratefulFor being cheated;Whippersnapper clerksCall us out of our nameWe got to say misterTo spindling boysThey make our figgersTurn somersetsWe buck in the middleSay, "Thankyuh, sah."They don't come by onesThey don't come by twosBut they come by tens."They got the judgesThey go the lawyers They got the jury-rollsThey got the lawThey don't come by onesThey got the sheriffsThey got the deputiesThey don't come by twosThey got the shotgunsThey got the ropeWe git the justiceIn the endAnd they come by tens."Their fists stay closedTheir eyes look straightOur hands stay openOur eyes must fallThey don't come by onesThey got the manhood They got the courageThey don't come by twosWe got to slink aroundHangtailed hounds.They burn us when we dogsThey burn us when we menThey come by tens . . ."I had a buddySix foot of manMuscled up perfectGame to the heartThey don't come by onesOutworked and outfoughtAny man or two menThey don't come by twosHe spoke out of turnAt the commissaryThey gave him a dayTo git out the countyHe didn't take it.He said 'Come and get me.'They came and got himAnd they came by tens.He stayed in the county--He lays there dead.They don't come by onesThey don't come by twosBut they come by tens."
2.Riverbank Blues
A man git his feet set in a sticky mudbank,A man git dis yellow water in his blood,No need for hopin', no need for doin',Muddy streams keep him fixed for good.Little Muddy, Big Muddy, Moreau and Osage,Little Mary's, Big Mary's, Cedar Creek,Flood deir muddy water roundabout a man's roots,Keep him soaked and stranded and git him weak.Lazy sun shinin' on a little cabin,Lazy moon glistenin' over river trees;Ole river whisperin', lappin' 'gainst de long roots:"Plenty of rest and peace in these . . ."Big mules, black loam, apple and peach trees,But seems lak de river washes us downPast de rich farms, away from de fat lands,Dumps us in some ornery riverbank town.Went down to the river, sot me down an' listened,Heard de water talkin' quiet, quiet lak an' slow:"Ain' no need fo' hurry, take yo' time, take yo'time . . ." Heard it sayin'--"Baby, hyeahs de way life go . . ."Dat is what it tole me as I watched it slowly rollin',But somp'n way inside me rared up an' say,"Better be movin' . . . better be travelin' . . . Riverbank'llgit you ef you stay . . ."Towns are sinkin' deeper, deeper in de riverbank,Takin' on de ways of deir sulky Ole Man--Takin' on his creepy ways, takin' on his evil ways,"Bes' git way, a long way . . . whiles you can."Man got hissea too lak de Mississippi Ain't got so long for a whole lot longer way,Man better move some, better not git rooted Muddy water fool you, ef you stay .. ."
3.Southern Road
Swing dat hammer--hunh--Steady, bo';Swing dat hammer--hunh--Steady, bo';Ain't no rush, bebby,Long ways to go.Burner tore his--hunh--Black heart away;Burner tore his--hunh--Black heart away;Got me life, bebby,An' a day.Gal's on Fifth Street--hunh--Son done gone;Gal's on Fifth Street--hunh--Son done gone;Wife's in de ward, bebby,Babe's not bo'n.My ole man died--hunh--Cussin' me;My ole man died--hunh--Cussin' me;Ole lady rocks, bebby,Huh misery.Doubleshackled--hunh--Guard behin';Doubleshackled--hunh--Guard behin';Ball an' chain, bebby,On my min'.White man tells me--hunh--Damn yo' soul;White man tells me--hunh--Damn yo' soul;Got no need, bebby,To be tole.Chain gang nevah--hunh--Let me go;Chain gang nevah--hunh--Let me go;Po' los' boy, bebby,Evahmo' . . .
**Lucille Clifton
1.Good Times
my daddy has paid the rentand the insurance man is goneand the lights is back onand my uncle brud has hitfor one dollar straightand they is good timesgood timesgood timesmy mama has made breadand grampaw has comeand everybody is drunkand dancing in the kitchenand singing in the kitchenof these is good timesgood timesgood timesoh children think about thegood times
2.Listen Children
listen children keep this in the place you have for keeping always keep it all ways we have never hated black listen we have been ashamed hopeless tired mad but always all ways we loved us we have always loved each other children all ways pass it on
3.Memory
ask me to tell how it feelsremembering your mother's faceturned to water under the white wordsof the man at the shoe store. ask me,though she tells it better than i do,not because of her charmbut because it never happenedshe says,no bully salesman swaggering,no rage, no shame, none of itever happened.i only remember buying youyour first grown up shoesshe smiles. ask mehow it feels.
**Sonia Sanchez
1. Personal Letter
nothing will keep us young you know not young men or women who spin their youth on cool playing sounds.we are what we are what we never think we are.no more wild geographies of the flesh. echoes. that we move in tune to slower smells.it is a hard thingto admit that sometimes after midnight i am tiredof it all.
2.Poem # 3
I gather upeach soundyou left behind and stretch them on our bed. each niteI breathe youand become high.
**Phillis Wheatley
1.A Rebus
I.A bird delicious to the taste,On which an army once did feast,Sent by an hand unseen;A creature of the horned race,Which Britain's royal standards grace;A gem of vivid green;II.A town of gaiety and sport,Where beaux and beauteous nymphs resort,And gallantry doth reign;A Dardan hero fam'd of oldFor youth and beauty, as we're told,And by a monarch slain;III.A peer of popular applause,Who doth our violated laws,And grievances proclaim.Th' initials show a vanquish'd town,That adds fresh glory and renownTo old Britannia's fame.
2.On Imagination
THY various works, imperial queen, we see,How bright their forms! how deck'd with pompby thee!Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,And all attest how potent is thine hand.From Helicon's refulgent heights attend,Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes,Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,And soft captivity involves the mind.Imagination! who can sing thy force?Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?Soaring through air to find the bright abode,Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,And leave the rolling universe behind:From star to star the mental optics rove,Measure the skies, and range the realms above.There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyesThe fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,And with her flow'ry riches deck the plain;Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,And all the forest may with leaves be crown'd:Show'rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.Such is thy pow'r, nor are thine orders vain,O thou the leader of the mental train:In full perfection all thy works are wrought,And thine the sceptre o'er the realms of thought.Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler thou;At thy command joy rushes on the heart,And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.Fancy might now her silken pinions tryTo rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high:From Tithon's bed now might Aurora rise,Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies,While a pure stream of light o'erflows the skies.The monarch of the day I might behold,And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;Winter austere forbids me to aspire,And northern tempests damp the rising fire;They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea,Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.
3.On Virtue
O Thou bright jewel in my aim I striveTo comprehend thee. Thine own words declareWisdom is higher than a fool can reach.I cease to wonder, and no more attemptThine height t' explore, or fathom thy profound.But, O my soul, sink not into despair,Virtue is near thee, and with gentle handWould now embrace thee, hovers o'er thine head.Fain would the heav'n-born soul with her converse,Then seek, then court her for her promis'd bliss.Auspicious queen, thine heav'nly pinions spread,And lead celestial Chastity along;Lo! now her sacred retinue descends,Array'd in glory from the orbs above.Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful years!O leave me not to the false joys of time!But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee,To give me an higher appellation still,Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay,O thou, enthron'd with Cherubs in the realms of day.
1.Alone
Lying, thinkingLast nightHow to find my soul a homeWhere water is not thirstyAnd bread loaf is not stoneI came up with one thingAnd I don't believe I'm wrongThat nobody,But nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.There are some millionairesWith money they can't useTheir wives run round like bansheesTheir children sing the bluesThey've got expensive doctorsTo cure their hearts of stone.But nobodyNo, nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.Now if you listen closelyI'll tell you what I knowStorm clouds are gatheringThe wind is gonna blowThe race of man is sufferingAnd I can hear the moan,'Cause nobody,But nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.
2.Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret liesI'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion sizeBut when I start to tell them They think I'm telling lies. I say It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips The stride of my steps The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
I walk into a room Just as cool as you please And to a man The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees Then they swarm around me A hive of honey bees. I say It's the fire in my eyes And the flash of my teeth The swing of my waist And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
Men themselves have wondered What they see in me They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say It's in the arch of my back The sun of my smile The ride of my breasts The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say It's in the click of my heels The bend of my hair The palm of my hand The need for my care. 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me.
3.Still I Rise
You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just like hopes springing high,Still I'll rise.Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries.Does my haughtiness offend you?Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own back yard.You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise.Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that's wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise.
**Nikki Giovanni
1.Balances
in life one is alwaysbalancinglike we juggle our mothersagainst our fathersor one teacher against another(only to balance our grade average)3 grains of saltto one ounce truthour sweet black essenceor the funky honkies down the streetand lately I've begun wondering if you re trying to tell me somethingwe used to talk all nightand do things alone togetherand i've begun(as a reaction to a feeling)to balancethe pleasure of lonelinessagainst the pain of loving you
2.Mothers
the last time i was home to see my mother we kissed exchanged pleasantries and unpleasantries pulled a warm comforting silence around us and read separated books i remember the first time i consciously saw her we were living in a three room apartment on burns avenue mommy always sat in the dark i don't know how i knew that but she did that night i stumbled into the kitchen maybe because i've always been a night person or perhaps because i had wet the bedshe was sitting on a chair the room was bathed in moonlight diffused through tiny window panes she may have been smoking but maybe nother hair was three-quarters her height which made me a strong believer in the samson myth and very black i'm sure i just hung there by the door i remember thinking: what a beautiful lady she was very deliberately waiting perhaps for my father to come home from his night job or maybe for a dreamthat had promised to come bycome here! she said i'll teach you a poem: i see the moon the moon sees me god bless the moon and god bless me i taught that to my son who recited it for her just to say we must to bear the pleasures as we have borne the pains
3. A Greater Love Of God And Country
There is no reason to ask WHY? since to ask "WHY" is to enter some dark and crazy spot where one presumes there is REASON and A REASON that willmake sense which is not to say there is a craziness: I don't believethis is crazy but rather mean.... hateful.... ugly-though not ignorant because there is knowledge here and there is a purpose here but there is knowledge here and there is a purpose here but there is NO REASON People who will burn a cross will burn a churchThe building my be rebuilt but the creak of a stair... the smell of the polish in the pews the old kitchen where Sunday dinners were reheatedthe icebox where the iced tea was kept... the too narrow steps leading to the damp and dusky basement... the leaky window that could not always keep the cold at bay... the knowing that this building was built by these hands to worship this God who has Delivered us..................... No..... that cannot be rebuilt The people who have burned crosses will burn a church Something will be lost and the world just a bit sadder for the loss of the building.... But the people who sift through ashes know that fire is a friend and that fire can be a foe But the people who use fire are lowdown.....And the people who know that some people are lowdown will watchthe fires..... will forgive the trespasses..... and will go right on thanking their God for His powerful..... magnificent Deliverance
**Gwendolyn Brooks
1.The Bean Eaters
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.Dinner is a casual affair.Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, Tin flatware.Two who are Mostly Good.Two who have lived their day,But keep on putting on their clothesAnd putting things away.And remembering . . .Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,As they lean over the beans in their rented back room thatis full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
2.To Be In Love
To be in love Is to touch with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well. You look at things Through his eyes. A cardinal is red. A sky is blue. Suddenly you know he knows too. He is not there but You know you are tasting together The winter, or a light spring weather. His hand to take your hand is overmuch. Too much to bear. You cannot look in his eyes Because your pulse must not say What must not be said. When he Shuts a door- Is not there_ Your arms are water. And you are free With a ghastly freedom. You are the beautiful half Of a golden hurt. You remember and covet his mouth To touch, to whisper on. Oh when to declare Is certain Death! Oh when to apprize Is to mesmerize, To see fall down, the Column of Gold, Into the commonest ash.
3.The Crazy Woman
I shall not sing a May song. A May song should be gay. I'll wait until November And sing a song of gray. I'll wait until November That is the time for me. I'll go out in the frosty dark And sing most terribly. And all the little people Will stare at me and say, "That is the Crazy Woman Who would not sing in May." Anonymous submission.
**Langston Hughes
1.I, Too
I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am America.
2.Dream Variations
To fling my arms wideIn some place of the sun,To whirl and to danceTill the white day is done.Then rest at cool eveningBeneath a tall treeWhile night comes on gently,Dark like me-That is my dream!To fling my arms wideIn the face of the sun,Dance! Whirl! Whirl!Till the quick day is done.Rest at pale evening...A tall, slim tree...Night coming tenderlyBlack like me.
3.Justice
That Justice is a blind goddessIs a thing to which we black are wise:Her bandage hides two festering soresThat once perhaps were eyes.
**Paul laurence Dunbar
1.A Choice
They please me not-- these solemn songs That hint of sermons covered up. 'T is true the world should heed its wrongs, But in a poem let me sup, Not simples brewed to cure or ease Humanity's confessed disease, But the spirit-wine of a singing line, Or a dew-drop in a honey cup!
2.Life's Tradgedy
It may be misery not to sing at all, And to go silent through the brimming day; It may be misery never to be loved, But deeper griefs than these beset the way.To sing the perfect song, And by a half-tone lost the key, There the potent sorrow, there the grief, The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy.To have come near to the perfect love, Not the hot passion of untempered youth, But that which lies aside its vanity, And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.This, this indeed is to be accursed, For if we mortals love, or if we sing, We count our joys not by what we have, But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
3.Morning
The mist has left the greening plain, The dew-drops shine like fairy rain, The coquette rose awakes again Her lovely self adorning.The Wind is hiding in the trees, A sighing, soothing, laughing tease, Until the rose says "Kiss me, please," 'Tis morning, 'tis morning.With staff in hand and careless-free, The wanderer fares right jauntily, For towns and houses are, thinks he, For scorning, for scorning. My soul is swift upon the wing, And in its deeps a song I bring; Come, Love, and we together sing, "'Tis morning, 'tis morning."
**Rita Dove
1.Exit
Just when hope withers, the visa is granted. The door opens to a street like in the movies, clean of people, of cats; except it is your street you are leaving. A visa has been granted, "provisionally"-a fretful word. The windows you have closed behind you are turning pink, doing what they do every dawn. Here it's gray. The door to the taxicab waits. This suitcase, the saddest object in the world. Well, the world's open. And now through the windshield the sky begins to blush as you did when your mother told you what it took to be a woman in this life.
2.Golden Oldie
I made it home early, only to get stalled in the driveway-swaying at the wheel like a blind pianist caught in a tune meant for more than two hands playing. The words were easy, crooned by a young girl dying to feel alive, to discover a pain majestic enough to live by. I turned the air conditioning off, leaned back to float on a film of sweat, and listened to her sentiment: Baby, where did our love go?-a lament I greedily took in without a clue who my lover might be, or where to start looking.
3.Wiring Home
Lest the wolves loose their whistles and shopkeepers inquire, keep moving, though your knees flush red as two chapped apples, keep moving, head up, past the beggar's cold cup, past the kiosk's trumpet tales of odyssey and heartbreak- until, turning a corner, you stand, staring: ambushed by a window of canaries bright as a thousand golden narcissi.
**Sterling Brown
1.Old Lem
I talked to old Lemand old Lem said:"They weigh the cottonThey store the cornWe only good enoughTo work the rows;They run the commissaryThey keep the booksWe gotta be gratefulFor being cheated;Whippersnapper clerksCall us out of our nameWe got to say misterTo spindling boysThey make our figgersTurn somersetsWe buck in the middleSay, "Thankyuh, sah."They don't come by onesThey don't come by twosBut they come by tens."They got the judgesThey go the lawyers They got the jury-rollsThey got the lawThey don't come by onesThey got the sheriffsThey got the deputiesThey don't come by twosThey got the shotgunsThey got the ropeWe git the justiceIn the endAnd they come by tens."Their fists stay closedTheir eyes look straightOur hands stay openOur eyes must fallThey don't come by onesThey got the manhood They got the courageThey don't come by twosWe got to slink aroundHangtailed hounds.They burn us when we dogsThey burn us when we menThey come by tens . . ."I had a buddySix foot of manMuscled up perfectGame to the heartThey don't come by onesOutworked and outfoughtAny man or two menThey don't come by twosHe spoke out of turnAt the commissaryThey gave him a dayTo git out the countyHe didn't take it.He said 'Come and get me.'They came and got himAnd they came by tens.He stayed in the county--He lays there dead.They don't come by onesThey don't come by twosBut they come by tens."
2.Riverbank Blues
A man git his feet set in a sticky mudbank,A man git dis yellow water in his blood,No need for hopin', no need for doin',Muddy streams keep him fixed for good.Little Muddy, Big Muddy, Moreau and Osage,Little Mary's, Big Mary's, Cedar Creek,Flood deir muddy water roundabout a man's roots,Keep him soaked and stranded and git him weak.Lazy sun shinin' on a little cabin,Lazy moon glistenin' over river trees;Ole river whisperin', lappin' 'gainst de long roots:"Plenty of rest and peace in these . . ."Big mules, black loam, apple and peach trees,But seems lak de river washes us downPast de rich farms, away from de fat lands,Dumps us in some ornery riverbank town.Went down to the river, sot me down an' listened,Heard de water talkin' quiet, quiet lak an' slow:"Ain' no need fo' hurry, take yo' time, take yo'time . . ." Heard it sayin'--"Baby, hyeahs de way life go . . ."Dat is what it tole me as I watched it slowly rollin',But somp'n way inside me rared up an' say,"Better be movin' . . . better be travelin' . . . Riverbank'llgit you ef you stay . . ."Towns are sinkin' deeper, deeper in de riverbank,Takin' on de ways of deir sulky Ole Man--Takin' on his creepy ways, takin' on his evil ways,"Bes' git way, a long way . . . whiles you can."Man got hissea too lak de Mississippi Ain't got so long for a whole lot longer way,Man better move some, better not git rooted Muddy water fool you, ef you stay .. ."
3.Southern Road
Swing dat hammer--hunh--Steady, bo';Swing dat hammer--hunh--Steady, bo';Ain't no rush, bebby,Long ways to go.Burner tore his--hunh--Black heart away;Burner tore his--hunh--Black heart away;Got me life, bebby,An' a day.Gal's on Fifth Street--hunh--Son done gone;Gal's on Fifth Street--hunh--Son done gone;Wife's in de ward, bebby,Babe's not bo'n.My ole man died--hunh--Cussin' me;My ole man died--hunh--Cussin' me;Ole lady rocks, bebby,Huh misery.Doubleshackled--hunh--Guard behin';Doubleshackled--hunh--Guard behin';Ball an' chain, bebby,On my min'.White man tells me--hunh--Damn yo' soul;White man tells me--hunh--Damn yo' soul;Got no need, bebby,To be tole.Chain gang nevah--hunh--Let me go;Chain gang nevah--hunh--Let me go;Po' los' boy, bebby,Evahmo' . . .
**Lucille Clifton
1.Good Times
my daddy has paid the rentand the insurance man is goneand the lights is back onand my uncle brud has hitfor one dollar straightand they is good timesgood timesgood timesmy mama has made breadand grampaw has comeand everybody is drunkand dancing in the kitchenand singing in the kitchenof these is good timesgood timesgood timesoh children think about thegood times
2.Listen Children
listen children keep this in the place you have for keeping always keep it all ways we have never hated black listen we have been ashamed hopeless tired mad but always all ways we loved us we have always loved each other children all ways pass it on
3.Memory
ask me to tell how it feelsremembering your mother's faceturned to water under the white wordsof the man at the shoe store. ask me,though she tells it better than i do,not because of her charmbut because it never happenedshe says,no bully salesman swaggering,no rage, no shame, none of itever happened.i only remember buying youyour first grown up shoesshe smiles. ask mehow it feels.
**Sonia Sanchez
1. Personal Letter
nothing will keep us young you know not young men or women who spin their youth on cool playing sounds.we are what we are what we never think we are.no more wild geographies of the flesh. echoes. that we move in tune to slower smells.it is a hard thingto admit that sometimes after midnight i am tiredof it all.
2.Poem # 3
I gather upeach soundyou left behind and stretch them on our bed. each niteI breathe youand become high.
**Phillis Wheatley
1.A Rebus
I.A bird delicious to the taste,On which an army once did feast,Sent by an hand unseen;A creature of the horned race,Which Britain's royal standards grace;A gem of vivid green;II.A town of gaiety and sport,Where beaux and beauteous nymphs resort,And gallantry doth reign;A Dardan hero fam'd of oldFor youth and beauty, as we're told,And by a monarch slain;III.A peer of popular applause,Who doth our violated laws,And grievances proclaim.Th' initials show a vanquish'd town,That adds fresh glory and renownTo old Britannia's fame.
2.On Imagination
THY various works, imperial queen, we see,How bright their forms! how deck'd with pompby thee!Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,And all attest how potent is thine hand.From Helicon's refulgent heights attend,Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes,Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,And soft captivity involves the mind.Imagination! who can sing thy force?Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?Soaring through air to find the bright abode,Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,And leave the rolling universe behind:From star to star the mental optics rove,Measure the skies, and range the realms above.There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyesThe fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,And with her flow'ry riches deck the plain;Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,And all the forest may with leaves be crown'd:Show'rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.Such is thy pow'r, nor are thine orders vain,O thou the leader of the mental train:In full perfection all thy works are wrought,And thine the sceptre o'er the realms of thought.Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler thou;At thy command joy rushes on the heart,And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.Fancy might now her silken pinions tryTo rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high:From Tithon's bed now might Aurora rise,Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies,While a pure stream of light o'erflows the skies.The monarch of the day I might behold,And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;Winter austere forbids me to aspire,And northern tempests damp the rising fire;They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea,Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.
3.On Virtue
O Thou bright jewel in my aim I striveTo comprehend thee. Thine own words declareWisdom is higher than a fool can reach.I cease to wonder, and no more attemptThine height t' explore, or fathom thy profound.But, O my soul, sink not into despair,Virtue is near thee, and with gentle handWould now embrace thee, hovers o'er thine head.Fain would the heav'n-born soul with her converse,Then seek, then court her for her promis'd bliss.Auspicious queen, thine heav'nly pinions spread,And lead celestial Chastity along;Lo! now her sacred retinue descends,Array'd in glory from the orbs above.Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful years!O leave me not to the false joys of time!But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee,To give me an higher appellation still,Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay,O thou, enthron'd with Cherubs in the realms of day.
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