assignments for this week - The Poem "If"

[Mitzi100]

Hi everyone,
The first thing to do is to complete the task we began in class on Tuesday. For those of you who didn't come to the lesson , here is the assignment:
In this poem, Rudyard Kipling describes the qualities of his idea of "a Man". We can understand sometimes by the words in the poem and sometimes by inference, the qualities of someone the poet would consider "a Man." Make a chart with 2 columns of 6 behaviors or qualities in each column. The heading of one column should be "A Man" and the other "Not a Man".
Choose one pair from your chart and write a short description of a real-life situation which illustrates the contrast of these two behaviors or qualities. Write this assignment for the log. Please hand it in on Sunday.

The second ( 2 part) task is for the forum. Please post your answer and then comment on at least one other posting. As usual, be careful to check your English (including capital letters!) before you press the "send" button. Here is the task:
This Poem was written in 1910 in England, inspired by a friend of Kipling's, Dr Leander Starr Jameson, going to war(The Boer War) and being considered a hero. It was extremely popular in England at the time and has been popular ever since.

Writing:
part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?

These tasks are due by Saturday night.
All the best,
Mitzi

[Anton I]

Writing:
part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
1) Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
2) Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
3) What did you learn from this unit?

part 1
1) "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to server your turn long after they are gone"
2) "Or watch the things you gave your life to broken"
I think that these lines reflect the connection because they show the state a person needs to show when he's going on a "mission" - mental strength to force your body to obey to you even when he's not in the right condition (the first line) and to know that when you are going on that "mission", you might lose everything that you worked for (line 2).

part 2
1) Yes I do, I think that this poem is unique because it tries to lead the reader to think about what a personality he wants to have.
2) Yes a little because I know that real situation gives me more ambition to know to improve my personality by choosing a person that is actually similar to what the poem described.
3) I learned a few new words (sinew, keep-your-head and more) and the true definition of being a man.

[Eran]

part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?


1) The two lines which I think reflect the connection with the poets friend are:
"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you."
and
"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone"
I think that the first line is connected to war because many times in war there is panic and many soldiers are losing their heads. People who can keep their heads are a precious resource. About the second line I think that there are many situations in war which make people to make a great physical effort and not stop stop it until they complete their mission.

2) I liked the poem very much because its written with a great talent and its very easy to connect to it. Knowing the background about the poem only made me like it more.
Yes, thinking about situations which reflect the qualities mentioned in the poem enhanced my understanding of it. Its like thinking about a demonstration of something and it always was easier to me to understand something through demonstrations. I don't think I learned anything new from this unit except for the phrase "common touch"

I agree with Anton I about his reason for liking the poem. I think that this poem's target is to make people think if they deserve the title "Man".

[Slava]

1) "If you can wait and not be tired by waiting"
At war, you have to know when it is the moment to attack, because if you rush foreward you may loose it all for nothing.
""If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss"
Sometimes you just have to risk it all and hope for the best outcome, but you have to handle any outcome because you chose to risk it all.

2)I like this poem. It is interestly written and the idea behind it is executed well. I like the way Kipling describes his idea of a man. Thinking about real life situations helped me in the understanding of the poem, because it helps in seeing what Kipling meant. I didn't learn anything new in this unit (except maybe the word "sinew").

[jenia buzilo]

part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?

1)The two lines which I think reflect the connection with the poets friend are:
"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you."
The war is very terrible thing. A lot of people die. The author shows how this man can keep his head when many of his freinds lose theirs and some of them blame him.

2)No I don't like this poem because the content of this poem is very boring and isn't interesting for me. And the style of this poem is hard to understand.
Yes, thinking about situations which reflect the qualities mentioned in the poem enhanced my understanding of it. Thinking about these situations deep down our understanding of the main idea of this poem.
I learned some specific words and structures.

[yula k]

part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?


1."If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew"
"To serve your turn long after they are gone"
In this lines I think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war because at war you lose all your feelings because you see your friends die infront of you and you need to go on and dont look back ,and even if you hurt you cant stop you need to force your self keep going .

2.I liked this song because its about what is a man? and there are a lot of opinions and I really liked the author opinion .Thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance my understanding of the lines because now I know the connection that this poem has been writen to and I understand the words better.I learnd from this unit to
compare and contrast at the poem it was between what" a man" and what "not a man" and in the everyday I can use it to compare between people who are a good people for me and who are bad and tring to hurt me.

[JennyI]

part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?


1."If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same."
"And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: "Hold on"."
I think this two lines reflect the connection with the poet's friend going to war. The first line explains that in war there is no winner or a loser, its all the same for our soldiers. The second line reflects the hardship in war, how hard it is for the soldiers not to lose hope and keep going.

2.I like the poem. The lyrics are well written. I can really imagine how a man or a soldier should act.
Thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance my understanding of the lines. There are some lines that are hard to understand by just reading them so, by putting them in a real life situation made me understand them more.
I did not learn from this unit much, except couple of new words.

**I agree with Anton I reasons to love the poem. I too think that this poem, in present life, gives examples to who desirves the title of "a man".

[Dima]

Writing:
Part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


Part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
1) Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
2) Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
3) What did you learn from this unit?

Part 1:
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you”
I think in these two lines the poet shows a connection to his friend. Because his friend going to war and at war people losing their head. And the poet writes than is Man (his friend) can keep his head without losing it.

Part 2:
1) I like the poem because I like the way that the poet describe the meaning of “Be a Man”. And the style of writing is very understandable because the poet writes what a Man should do and what he shouldn’t.
2) Thinking about a real-life situation and hw it reflects the lines helps me to understand the poem better because I see the connection between the poem and the real-life.
3) From this unit I learned some new words.

[Julia Klepfish]

Part 1:
"And so hold on when there is nothing in you *
Except the will which says to them: "Hold on";"
* "Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,"
I think those lines have some connection with the poet's friend. I think those lines mean that even if you lose in a war and your soldiers die, you must keep going and be focused. You can't give up and look back because there is always hope.


Part 2:
I liked this poem because I liked the way Kipling thinks a man should be I also liked the contrast that he mentioned about a man. Knowing that the poem was inspired by his friend, who went to a war, makes me appreciate the poem even more. Thinking about a real-life situation enhanced my understanding because I could relate this poem to my life. It helped me to understand the poem better. I learned some new words from this poem.

* I agree with Eran, I also think that this poem written with a great talent and knowing the background made me like it more.

[Anton ch]

Writing:
part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?


Part 1:

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;"
"If you can wait and not be tired by waiting"

These two lines describe the most popular thing which would be during the war soldiers may lose their heads and that is dangerous for their lives. Moreover, they may start blaming each other about anything instead of concentrate on the war.
In my opinion, these lines reflect the connection because the poet warns his friend to be reticent and calm. He goes to the war where everything can happened.

Part 2:

I liked this poem very much because it reviles the qualities of a real man. The poet does it perfectly. Thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities made the lines easier to understand and helped me understanding the main idea of the poem. From this unit I learned a few new words and how wise and clever the poet maybe.

I agree with Anton I about his reason for liking the poem. In addition I agree with Eran about the fact that the target of the poem is to make people think if they deserve the title "a Man".

[emanuel.Y]

part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?

1)The two lines which I chose are:
"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you."
I think that this lines are connected to war because in the war you have a lot of pressure on you and around you,and if the soldiers are losing their heads you have to keep your head and still stable.

2)I liked the poem very much because it was writen with a important meaning.
Thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance my understanding of the lines because it is now I know the connection why the poem was writting and understanding better the meaning of this poem.
I learned from this unit some new words.

[liorap]

part1)"If you can meet with triumph or disaster....."I chose this line because in any war, the finish is triumph or damage like a disaster.
"......and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss..." The secound line was chose because when we go to a war we always need to take a risks and to deal with tem.In my opinion this two lines reflect the connection.

part2)I like thr poem because I think that the writer wrote true things that happen in our lifes and he gave a right way who a man can deal with them.
Thinking about a real-life situation enhance my understanding. When I have a situation in my mind I can see all the important details more clearly.
I think that I didn't learn from this poem because it didn't refer to me.

[Yana S]

part 1 - Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.


part 2 - Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?

part 1 : The lines I chose are " If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone."
I've chosen these two lines because I think that these are the words the poet said to his friend , when he was gone to the war. I think that it is very importent to stay strong and firm at the war, even when the conditions are very difficult. And you need to keep going fearlessly, because this is the only way to overcome all the dificulties.

part 2 :I liked the poem, because it is an emotional and well written poem.
It's talking about a very importent subject - the war, and I think that the poet have succeeded to find the right words to discribe his support to his friend.
Of course that thinking about a real-life situation helped understending better the poem,because I could relate these lines to a real person and a real situation and see it more clearly.
I learned some new words, and an interesting way in which someone can describe a man's qualities.

[Ilia Altmark]

1. Look at the poem again, and choose the lines which you think reflect this connection with the poet's friend going to war. Copy two of the lines, and explain why you think they reflect the connection.

2. Answer these questions in a paragraph:
Do you like this poem? Why or why not?
Does thinking about a real-life situation which reflects the qualities mentioned enhance your understanding of the lines? Why or why not?
What did you learn from this unit?

1. “Hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: ‘hold on’”. Because a “real men” is someone who considered being a tough guy who has a specific way of life which he is living through without retreating.

2. I didn’t like this poem because it’s too sharp and not really transferring any specific idea only a wide number of things that are related to be the qualities of a “real man”. Thinking about a real-life situations enhance my understanding of the lines by imagining different moments of life especially moments from a war because during a war there’s never going to be anything in you.
I didn’t learned much from this poem but I’ve seen some of the things from another point of view, things where there is only one way to go.

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