“Follower” is a rather stark contrast to various other poems that speak of, or centred around, relationships. While there seems to be a large number of poems that speak negatively about relationships, such as Letters From Yorkshire by Maura Dooley, or Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy, Follower is positive for the most part in the poem.

First, the relationship between the Son and the Father is positive to begin with. The poem tells us through various lines that the Father is a hardworking farmer in Rural Ireland, the line “My father worked with a horse-plough” tells us this. In the same Stanza as the previous line, it also tells us the Father is well built, and further along, goes to say that he is an expert in his field. The lines “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung, Between the shafts and the furrow” and “An expert.” tell us this. The poem also tells us about the Son, Seamus Heaney, about himself in youth. He talks about himself being clumsy, air headed, and extremely talkative. But it also tells us that he looked up to Father in his youth. The lines “I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake”, “Fell sometimes on the polished sod”, and “I wanted to grow up and plough” tell us this. However, at the end of the poem in the final Stanza, this situation gets flipped entirely. The final lines of the poem are the writer talking about himself when he grew, and his Father ageing into an elderly man. Just like himself in his youth, the Father of Seamus gets his role reversed, and is the one who is “stumbling Behind me, and will not go away.”

From analysing the layout and language used by Seamus in the poem, we can tell that the relationship between his Father, and himself, was positive during his youth. Seamus aspired to be like his Father, to become a farmer and plough fields, and talks about himself as being clumsy, a nuisance, and being very talkative, while his Father didn’t seem to take much mind to it, and even took him for rides while ploughing his fields. However, into the final Stanza of the poem, the relationship seems to falter slightly, as Seamus remarks his father as being the nuisance, and not going away from this due to his old age, ergo, requiring someone to care for him. While the final lines of the poem could be light hearted banter from Seamus, there is nothing conclusive, and strong enough to go on that he is saying this jokingly, or that he is genuinely bothered by his Father not leaving him alone. As of a result, this leaves whether the poem is completely positive about relationships, or whether it’s mixed in between, inconclusive for the most part, being that most of the poem speaks about relationships positively, but this should be taken with a grain of salt.

To summarise the poem’s theme in general: The author speaks about 2 different peroids of time in his life: Growing up in Ireland, and his being an adult. During his youth, he aspired to be like his father: A hardworking farmer. He talks about himself as being clumsy, never quiet, and absent minded, while his Father doesn’t seem to mind his nature. Overall, a positive bond between Father and Son. In the final Stanza of the poem, the author speaks about himself as an adult, and his father as an old man. This time however, the relationship becomes a role reversal: The Father of the author now relies on his Son to help him, due to his fragility in elder hood. The author however, finds his Father to be an irritant as he thought he was to him in his youth. Overall, a slightly diminished relationship between Father and Son.

The Tempest takes place on a remote island inhabited by 4 characters: Prospero, Miranda, Ariel and Caliban. Prospero was banished to the island by his brother, Antonio and the King, Alonso. Prospero has magic powers, and uses a tempest to bring the people who wronged him to his island so he can enact revenge. The King’s Son, Ferdinand falls in love with Prospero’s daughter Miranda, while Alonso and his group are driven insane by Ariel. Meanwhile, Caliban plots to kill Prospero with 2 other characters: Stephano and Trinculo, but their plan fails. Prospero decides to give Mercy to everyone and leave the Island.

I’m pretty goddamn mad about this. Really upset about what happened to make this post become to life. I wanted to have my goal of 1000 words before being published reached, but lo and behold: My word count which was at 668 words, has now gone. I’m so furious about that. So I have to write ALL of this again. Just my luck huh?

Okay, let’s get started: I’ve been reading a book. I’m sure for most of you, that’s a taboo concept: Reading a hardback copy of literature? Can I get a round of applause please? But I’ve said enough of this. I’m reading a book called “The Ables”, by the one they call Jeremy Scott. For those who aren’t living under a rock, Jeremy Scott is the Co-Creator, and Narrator, of the CinemaSins YouTube channel. In spite of what has happened to my progress, I would rather be reviewing his work on that channel, rather than redoing this entire review again. But who said life is easy, huh? I’d say this is enough satisfaction for an intro. Let’s jump right in!

The Ables was released on May 1st, 2015, after Jeremy posted a series of videos which included the revealing of his book, and a few trailers of the context. The Ables itself is written in an account of the main character, Philip Sallinger, and he recalls his story of becoming a superhero. It’s a fictional piece of work, with a Superhero/Superheroine, type of work, but it uses a very strange, and admittedly, a rather creative turn on things. Most people know that the majority of regular-person-turned-superhero-via-deus-ex-machina, have some mental barrier obstructing them, like Superman trying to accept his Kryptonian heritage. But The Ables does the exact opposite; Something I’ve never seen before. It uses medical and physical disabilities to give the group of protagonists in the story a much more interesting way of overcoming their disabilities to use their powers to the maximum. I’ll give my kudos to Jeremy: This is something I (and presumably you), have never seen before. I like that concept, and it kinda gives a message about that too: Anyone can be a hero in their own right and own way, even if they have something they can’t remove or change holding them down. That’s heartwarming to me. A kinda scary because I’m actually feeling something from a book. Might have to get a medical examination after this…

So, next up we have the story: The Ables is set in a world like we live in today, where everything is the same except for one small difference: There is a group of Sub-Humans, called the “Custodians”. These Custodians are basically superhumans: Possessing god like abilites that make them exempt from your typical human. These Custodians work to preserve peace around the world, by doing good and busting criminals with their special powers. The story follows the account of a boy named Philip Sallinger, a Custodian who recently moved to one of the new Custodian Cities: Freepoint. Philip posses the power of telekinesis, like his father; The power to manipulate objects with the mind. Philip however, is completely blind, and as a result is sent to the Special Ed Class of the Freepoint High School so he can learn to become a fully fledged Superhero. There, Philip meets 5 other soon-to-be-friends who are also stuck in the same boat as Philip: Henry Gardner, a crippled psychokinetic. Bentley Crittleton, a Super Genius with Ataxic Cerebral Palsy, impairing his balance and motor functions. James Gregory, a blind like Philip who posses the ability to teleport. Donnie Brooks, a person with Downs Syndrome who’s special Custodian powers are unknown. However, recently in the city of Freepoint, a mysterious man called Mr.Finch has been appearing, and along with his presence, certain important figures in the city of both Freepoint and Godspeed have gone missing, and it’s up to Philip and his group of friends to find out what Mr.Finch is doing, find the kidnapped Custodians, and put an end to Mr.Finch’s scheme.

Paradoxically, I haven’t read the entirety of the book. So what I say here, might not be the whole entire story that The Ables has to offer. But being the some of you know what CinemaSins is, I implore you: Get this book from Amazon. Not just because it’s got the “From the Creators of CinemaSins” logo on the front cover, but because this book is really, really good. Normally, once I have enough information to satisfy my yearning for knowledge on a subject, I would put it down and never return to it ever again. But this book is doing some strange to me: I want to keep reading, even though I’d say my knowledge on the book is sufficient enough to be writing this review. Like I said, I ought to get a medical examination as soon as possible: Being this attached from something as forbidden as this when we have the Internet…Something is very, very wrong. Oh well, I’m gonna continue reading now. 7.8/10.

Everything changes with time, even the most complex of things. True words, even though they came out of my mouth (Unless some ancient philosopher before me coined that quote, then no.), but it truth at it’s core. This is a redo of an old piece of trash I did in Year 9. I tend to go back to things, but more accurately, I always tend to go back to things. The piece I decided to rewrite, was a piece on what I hate the most. Originally, I decided that I hated being in low budget, crappy, plastic chairs as they tense my nerves up. But now, I have something new to write about, and undoubtedly, something INFINITELY better than that trashy Year 9 piece I produced. So here we are with: What I Hate the Most.

I’m a very hateful person. I might not seem like it, but there are a lot of things that can tick me off, and incidentally, I can easily bring myself to hate things too, and so can others. But this is about me, and I don’t see this to be something I need to safeguard with every inch of valour in my body, so I’ll come out with this: I hate being stationary. When I refer to being stationary, I mean being still. Standing still. Very, very still. There are a lot of people who hate this kind of thing too, simply because, standing still is a real getup for muscle tension. But for me, rather than just congregating inside the legs, this type of tension drags across my whole body. Into my shoulders, my chest, my hands, and when this gets put with something who constantly is putting themselves on edge, for no rational or logical reason that I can see (Or that any sane person can see), It riles me up really bad. It’s like what I wrote about before: It’s one heck of an anxiety driver, it eliminates what little/non existant patience I have in almost an instant. It why I’m always walking around, why I shuffle my legs left to right when standing still: I hate anxiety, but unfortunately, I’m practically stuck with it until I step down from the non honourable title of “ProcrasKINGnator”, and actually get stuff about myself done. But lo and behold, that time has not come, and I predict that time shan’t come for a longer time.

So lets put it this way: I must keep moving or I get anxious. Regardless of whether I’m sitting in a rubbish plastic chair, standing in line for assembly, walking across Waterloo Bridge, pacing back and forth in my room mercilessly formulating predictions of what could happen, and has happened, I still have to keep moving. Can’t stop, won’t stop; Wait for no man, woman, something in between or toaster, I must keep my legs moving at all possible intervals. That…Is very painful. It’s like an automated response that requires manual control on my part. Hell, even while I’m writing this in the library, I can STILL feel my legs tensing up and driving absolutely god damn INSANE.

Okay, ending this here: I need to take a walk. Holy god, my legs ache like all hell…

“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?” -William Shakespeare

Revenge. Something quite illusive, the way I see it. It’s something that comes many a time in one’s life, but incidentally, it is not like the revenge that you may see. Revenge, is akin to luck. Something Fortuna might have blessed us with. Who knows? You might have experienced revenge many times in your life. But has you truly had everything fall into place so perfectly? To have true revenge? I doubt you have. It is something that comes around once in a lifetime, and even then, you’ll probably miss it. Let me tell you my tale, and my encounter with this illusive quality.

I once a daughter, you know. Sadly, she isn’t around anymore. She was taken from me. Murdered in cold blood, if you are so inclined to know. A man by the name of Corman did this heinous act. A typical run of the mill thug. He gave her a “Columbian Necktie”. Horrible, utterly sick to see what people like him could do out of rage. But he’s dead now. I killed him. Funny enough, in the same why he took my daughter from me, even with the same weapon no less.

The grieving was painful, but somehow I managed to pull myself through. And after I was done with my initial “down” period, I turned my attention to the more concerning matter. I feel obligated to make sure that this demented monster never took another person like he did my daughter. And so I waited, and waited, and waited. Time didn’t matter to me, I just wanted to make sure this man was not left alive. With that goal in my mind, I did just as I promised myself I would, and I managed to get a hold on him.

Turns out the poor sod was a Columbian Mobster operating in Miami. Fortunately enough, my work allowed me to travel internationally, so I took the opportunity and boarded the first flight there. I never really thought I would be caught in such a business as what I carried out, but I guess a lot of things can change in the swing of a knife.

I knew I was going to need help I were to track this guy down, but I had no contacts inside Miami, nor could I turn to outside help. I had to get things done the old fashion way. I ended up executing mobsters that Corman was linked to. A couple of thugs at a Mechanics was the first hit I made. I do believe I can speak for myself when I say, I really left that place looking like a war zone.  Fortunately enough, I did managed to get him to turn his head onto what happened, but not enough to make him come looking for me.

So then I went to hit up a motel that the mobsters owned. If you were to go there and see what happened when I entered, you’d be shocked that I didn’t have any Military Grade crap to help me. Torched cars, dead mobsters littered everywhere, rooms shot up, A gas station blown to smithereens…It was utter hell. So after shifting through attack after attack, job after job, I finally caught Corman’s attention enough to make him come looking for me personally.

It was game time, do or die, fight or flight. And goddamn did I run with the former. So, I end up getting a call from this Corman guy, and he tells me to make my way to this massive building just bought out my his gang. And thats what I did. To be frank, I have no idea how in the hell I survived 4 floors of armed men and dogs, but I just did. So when I reached the top, I find this Corman guy. This confrontation wasn’t anything you’d see in movies. No monologues about evil plans, or “World-Of-Cardboard” speeches, just pure silence and the loading of a gun.

Didn’t even flinch as I pointed my 40.Call S&W at him, just stood there, staring me down. And so I shot him. Several times. Poor guy fell of the roof, ended up shattering almost every bone in below his waste. And that was it. I stood there, I don’t know how long. Just standing. Once I finally broke out of my daze, I have no idea what I did, or where I went. Everything just seemed like a blur. I somehow ended up on a plane back home, In one piece. Safe n’ sound. That’s all there is to say about that. Although, there is but one more thing I could say.

Have you ever had an experience with this illusive quality known as “Revenge”?

I’m sure we’ve all hear what Poverty is haven’t we? If you haven’t, you have been living under a god damn rock at the bottom of the Ocean. Or, you don’t watch the news like I do. As of such, I don’t feel that it’s necessary to give a brief reminder on what Poverty is. It’s fresh in our minds away. However, what I’am here to talk about, are the current issues regarding Poverty, and it’s status in general. Whether it be it’s spread, of how far it is to being eliminated, I’ll give you my taste on it.

So, for starters: How far are we to eliminating Poverty? Well, as it stands, were are actually somewhat close to ending it. Which is all nice and happy ain’t it? So that’s something not too depressing. Except for the fact that the estimates are 4 years away from now. 4 years is a long time to wait, and frankly we are running out of resources, can running into more mundane or serious issues. Things like terrorist acts, Colony Collapse Disorder, North Korea etc. I could go on about these, but this isn’t about them. Don’t get me twisted, Poverty is horrible. I’ve never experienced it, or seen it, but I know for a fact that I hate it. And so does everyone body else (Except for the people who have Alexithymia, they really don’t know how they feel about it…). We want this thing to end, and right now. But really if you think about, permanently eliminating poverty seems like an endgame goal. It has suppressed us for so long, but as it stands, we have troubling concerns to deal with if we want to even get to those 6 years, like the aforementioned Colony Collapse Disorder. I’m not a person who has their priorities straight (Took me 2 weeks to get around to this, and in hindsight, I don’t think it’ll be all that good.), but at the very least, I can tell what should be dealt with later, and what should be dealt with now (In some aspects). So really for my opinion, deal with things that slow down your goal. Like Colony Collapse Disorder, and then throw all of your man power into dealing with what your original issue was. We don’t need any more delays, Gabe Newell has driven that point home with HL3 (Although I heard it exists in Steam somewhere. Confirmed?).

Okay, next topic: Why has it taken so long to deal with Poverty? Although this more of a personal question that a general question, the time frame and advancements we’ve made make this seem like a no brain answer. 1920’s America almost got close to closing Poverty’s book, but like some form of fast growing cancer, it crawled right out of the sink and proceeded to scare anyone who walked into the bathroom. If you ask me, I’d say the reason is procrastination. We have the resources, the technology (Not the Billion Dollar Man), but yet we still can’t finish this b*stard off. Why? I think I can suggest a reasonable answer: Were putting things we could be using to end Poverty, into fuelling our more mundane needs, like the development of more advanced Nuclear Weapons. 1 Tsar Bomba is enough, stay with that. We don’t need any Thermobaric Nuclear Warhead Mk2’s ravishing our landscape; It’s dead enough! Stop beating it like a dead horse. On the contrary however, we could instead be looking at a situation in which we don’t have the funds nessesary to put into ending Poverty. If that’s the case, we why did promise we would end it? Simple: If we were sane, we wouldn’t until we have definitive answers and definitive numbers. All this has lead to, is a mad display of sheer arrogance. Now, would someone care to tell me why Misanthropy exists? I think it’s very clear why.

“Give or take 10%”. I had the original idea to do 1000 words, but eh. Don’t want to delay this by another week, do I?

More Scrooge at…4 in the morning. Oh Jesus Christ, let’s just get this over with already.

In Chapter 2, following Jacob Marley’s intervention with Scrooge on Christmas Eve, we are introduced to the 2nd of the 4 ghosts in a Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Past. This vibrant spectre of the holidays is clad in pure white, with glowing beams of candlelight emitting from it’s head. Out of the 4 ghosts, this one is one that plays a very crucial point in Scrooge’s interactions with the other ghosts: I invokes so many things within him about his past and views. But what about me? Self discovery is the game.

The first feeling I get from The Ghost of Christmas Past, is it’s build-up: From the start of Chapter 2, to the confrontation, the ghost is built up to heck; Scrooge knows this, he prepares himself for it’s arrival, counting to witching hour, mentally preparing himself for it’s arrival by setting up a field of view around his room from his bed: It gives us a sense of wonder, when and how will this ghost show up? Is it going to just *Poof* in the room? Creep into the view of Scrooge slowly like a mantis? You don’t know until you read. We want to know what this spectre is, and what dramatic entrance will it make. If we can expect something like Marley’s return, or something different is completely unknown. It’s investment, and relation to the reader: As Scrooge, he wants to deal with these spirits as soon as possible, but yet he fears it’s appearance. Will I see something akin to Marley, a green ghoulish phantom fettered in chains? Or something different? It invokes a sense of wonder, and thought into the reader, and into me.

Following on from my first point, once we do get our first image of The Ghost of Christmas Past, our sense of wonder gets replaced by a sense of confusion, and simple “Wait, that’s it?”, if you may. The appearance of The Ghost of Christmas Past is very peculiar: After seeing the appearance of the late Marley: Fettered by chains, groaning and ghoulish, with an eerie glow of green followed by the storm of ghosts akin to his appearance, there should be little reason to wonder why The Ghost of Christmas Past should share appearance with them, but yet it doesn’t. Rather than being dressed than it was in life, it is simply something akin to a small child mixed with a candle: Pure white cloths, adorned in holly and jolly green with a burning like hair aura of warmth. We are treated to this, not what we saw from Marley or what the ghost storm was earlier. It’s a huge contrast: From chain bounded green glowing mist men, to a candle glowing child…It’s a very odd transition, wouldn’t you agree? Or, perhaps the terminology I’m using is odd. Either way, the transition of design confuses me.

For my last point, after Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past have their first interaction, we are then whisked away to a different environment: Why? How about we just slow down here for a second, we just met a character that is very important to the plot and development of Scrooge’s character, and there are barely any words to be said? That strikes me as kinda contrived and forced; I want to know more about this candle ghost! Not about all these smells of the country side Scrooge has forgotten for so many years. That stuff doesn’t interest me, sure, while character development is very important (So we don’t enter the “CreepyPasta Character Development” borderlines, although most of them are bland and perfect, go insane and become killers with knives), but still; Every detail ain’t necessary, I want to know who this ghost was before he/she/it died, and became a ghost: Maybe it was a candle maker, or a pyromaniac, or someone who died in a fire. THAT would be interesting to hear about, like Marley’s story of being a ghost, or the ghosts that Scrooge recognize during the ghost storm. Wine and Rock Cake ain’t working for me Dickens. Slow down with the plot is what I’m picking up from this.

Ending this in 5 in the morning. Yaaaaay, I’m going to bed.

No Jim Carey here lads, just Dickens and a book. We aren’t looking at Scrooge like the movies botched him like they botched something as simple as a doorknocker either, they messed up Scrooge entirely! From hi description to his appearance, let’s break this down.

Firstly, I’ll be looking at Scrooge’s appearance. The first way Dickens describes Scrooge, is by saying he is “tight-fisted, clenching, grasping, covetous old sinner!”. If you notice, all of these are synonyms (Expect for the sinner part), clenching, grasping, they’re all the same. If Dickens didn’t drive the point that Scrooge is a very grumpy old man, then he tries to do so again with 2 more synonyms. He then follows up by saying “The cold within him frost out his old features”, insinuating that Scrooge is very cold, and unforgiving inside. So cold you could say, that it has even reached out to his physical features, almost making him seem like a frostbitten corpse on Mount Everest. Then then builds upon this point, by telling us which features of Scrooge are riddled with this frost; His nose, cheeks, brow, eyes, gait, voice and his chin. All of these give us the effect that Scrooge is a person whom has not felt warmth for a very long time, or that he is some sort of corpse resurrected by Krampus to bring down the Christmas Spirit (Kudos to those whom know what Krampus is, and not the movie). This overall gives us a highly negative impression of Scrooge: He is cold, his attitude is cold, everything he has is cold. Maybe he’d be friends with the Crooked Man, if he actually could make friends that is.

Next, will talk about Scrooge attitude. Dickens uses the term “covetous old sinner” to describe Scrooge’s character. Being that Dickens was brought up as a Christian, and A Christmas Carol was brought up during Victorian Times, which had the Catholic Faith being the most dominant, calling Scrooge a covetous old sinner really fits into what would most used to describe bad people at that time; Furthermore, being called a sinner implies Scrooge is an evil, and not a very nice person, furthering our already negative impression of him that we built from his bitter appearance. Dickens then talks about Scrooge’s attitude towards warmth and the cold, according to Dickens, Scrooge dislikes the warmth, and really does not care about him feeling it, or other feeling it. This a similar to his attitude towards the cold, albeit to a more positive degree; Scrooge takes an icy temperature where ever he goes, while this may be figurative, it really pushes the point that Scrooge is a cold and unforgiving person. He won’t give you warmth, and he won’t even give you coldness either! That fact that always likes it cold, means that he likes to keep things consistent. For an example, his money. Like the cold, Scrooge keeps it very close, and even if it was to save your life, he still wouldn’t give you anything. Once again, Scrooge is implied to be very harsh, secretive, miser-like, and very unforgiving.

And there you have it: Might I say that was one hell of a description, but what the heck. I’d be easier describing myself without beating myself up over it, but that’s other story I’ll keep from you for the next 36 months.