Adventures at Post Oak High

The poem "Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup" by Amy Gerstler contrasts the sweets of the speaker's youth to the soupy, flavorless aura of fruit cocktail. The interpretation I got from the poem was that the "light syrup" in the title represented the sugary, artificial corn syrup present in so many sweets. A strong supporter of this idea comes from the direct mention of syrup in the poem, in the line "With it's striped triangular 'kernels' made of sugar, wax, and corn syrup..." I do also believe that the title is clever because, to me, it's almost saying that the only way to improve fruit cocktails are to drown them in the sweet corn syrup that the speaker is so nostalgic about. But I still do wonder: why 'light' syrup? Does the speaker believe that this is the acceptable alternative to drowning the fruit cocktail in syrup? I guess that, like most poetry, there are an indefinite amount of answers I can create for myself.

 My personal thought at first when I read the poem was that this "Penny" represented a woman, as Penny is a female name/nickname. But upon further investigation, I suddenly realized that the two lines - "Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love." seemed to be a pretty strong indicator of the penny representing a wish of some sort (which Xander originally suggested), because the language of these lines seemed to be a pretty strong indicator that the penny in question represented a wish, as he discusses throwing the penny (like into a fountain) and hoping for the best. Andrew Gross suggested that the penny might represent an advice-giver, as throughout the poem it sounds as if the speaker is addressing the penny as if it is human. Looking at both his and Xander's views on the poem, I found them to be far more interesting and likely then my original guess. I have combined both of their views to suggest that this penny acts in the poem as some so...

Having not been to the Museum of Natural Science in a long time, I was quite excited for our trip to HMNS for the Out of the Amazon: Life on the River exhibition. And I was pleasantly surprised. To be completely honest, not at first. The exhibit looked quaint, tucked away in the back corner of the  top floor of the museum. But you better think twice if that doesn't look good enough for you. The selection of artifacts available to see on display is, for a lack of a better word, stunning. The museum boasts that they have attained one of the largest collections of Amazonian artifacts in the world, and from seeing the exhibit, I can believe it. Because of the Amazon's sheer size (four times the size of Texas), many of these cultures, being so far away from one another, have developed completely different lifestyles, religions, and taboos. All of their traditions were fascinating to me, from "stinging-ant" ritual ceremonies (more on that later) to their mythologies. I scou...

It feels almost mandatory to insert some sort of greeting or preface on my first blog post, so here it goes. My name is Connor Morley, and I'm a freshman at the Post Oak Montessori High School. My various passions include running, science, and pretty much anything nerdy and/or geeky. This week in ELA (English and Language Arts) we discussed poetry and how it can be variously interpreted. A topic in our key lesson was prose vs. poetry, but more specifically, how prose and poetry can be separated and intertwined.  The basic definition of poetry is language that is generally visual and symbolic, often full of metaphorical and non-literal speech. However, what truly sets poetry apart is its use of rhythm and meter (beat). Prose, on the other hand, is speech that uses traditional English grammatical flow and conventions. Examples of prose include everyday speech, most novels, and informational articles. When prose crosses with poetry, things become a little more muddled. In ...