Ritakio Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 Wow that's scary. Um..haha. I don't know I considered that Snow = cold = winter = death and that it symbolizes this sense of mortality this realization of mortality...I don't remember but I found quite a few instances and then at the end I discussed how the snow melting is like this rapid realization and life melting away...and I discussed how when he says " Snow, you are a country of ghosts" etc...its like an indirect metaphor in which he compared the surrounding snow to a graveyard... thats why I got the idea of mortality.. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGBellamy Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I did the prose piece- "About the end of History"- and halfway through the exam I realised that I'd already read the damn book! I liked it, and commented mainly on symbolism and references old Cricky made to historical events. Not so much about imagery, but that comes under symbolism, right? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 The poem (Snow) was by Iain Crichton Smith, in case anybody is curious. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby04 Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 A1 HL English TZ2! I did the poem too, and afterwards everyone in my class said they had written about life after death with the snow acting as the clouds and "the country of ghosts2 being heaven. I saw it afterwards when they said and started freaking out because I'd written about how the snow is a reflection of the individual and when everything is blank and there is no direction, it comes down to individualism, etc. But I guess as long as you support it with evidence then you can't go too wrong. I can't find the poem anywhere though! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarker Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I wrote about "Snow" as well, didn't even read the prose section until I'd finished my Snow commentary because I'm so bad at prose... I blathered on about how snow symbolized death and happiness and life, and that life and death are interconnected, or something, I don't even know and in hindsight it does feel a bit stupid... but I still think (hope) I did well. Poetry commentary is one of my stronger points in IB. Unlike math, ugh. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritakio Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) I wrote about "Snow" as well, didn't even read the prose section until I'd finished my Snow commentary because I'm so bad at prose... I blathered on about how snow symbolized death and happiness and life, and that life and death are interconnected, or something, I don't even know and in hindsight it does feel a bit stupid... but I still think (hope) I did well. Poetry commentary is one of my stronger points in IB. Unlike math, ugh.You just made me feel better! I wrote about something similar and how the fact that the snow is personified and then it melts (the hills turn to water and the windows crack or something like that) indicates mortality and the end of life and how the snow does also symbolize this revelation of mortality and in the beginning how snow is sort of compared to a graveyard through an underlying metaphor " you are the country of ghosts" as well as the thing with the magician with the handkerchief...another metaphor...the handkerchief is white = snow...and how when a magician pulls away his handkerchief something usually disappears...so i talked about the suddenness of death...I don't know...I usually score 7s and 6s on my papers but this is the first time I feel completely at loss...and the poem is nowhere to be found online!P.S. Math also makes me cringe.Double P.S. I didn't even look at the prose section. Edited May 4, 2011 by Ritakio 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliin Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I really hate that I can't find the poem anywhere! Though it does comfort me that we all wrote about the same sort of things! I said snow was representing death and nature was life overpowering this...feel like I spent to much effort on explaining my interpretation rather than analysing the rhythm and what not. Iain Crichton Smith is from the same weird part of Scotland as my mum though, so hopefully this is a sign that he was the right choice! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tran Nhan Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I wrote about the poem "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July" for poetry TZ1. I found it to be incredibly easy to analyze.Can you tell me how? I read it for 5 times before I decided to do the prose one! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
patatat Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I chose the prose piece entitled "About the End of History". I was reluctant at first, but since I got a 7 on my Paper 1 mock exam doing a prose piece, I had a bias and naturally gravitated towards doing the prose. Big mistake in hindsight... halfway through, I found it really difficult to organize my thoughts into a cohesive argument. The pressure I felt also caused me to explore my argument in a way that I feel was somewhat superficial... but I think it was good enough -- I got something down in the end, which is all I could ask for, I suppose.I decided to link the excerpt to Wide Sargasso Sea (one of my A1 works) in my conclusion. Talked about how the absence of historical awareness in the novel (Antoinette and "Mr. Rochester's" obliviousness towards English and Creole culture, respectively) essentially led to their demise, an aspect that somewhat aligns with the speaker's ("Tom") feelings about the significance of history. Hopefully that bolsters my commentary in some way.P.S. I believe this is my first post on IBSurvival, so hello everyone 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbird Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I wrote about that prose piece from The Sea. I also talked about the violent diction, plus the effect of the first person narration, the long sentences, and similies. I was mad because with 10 minutes left to go I realized I should have talked about metaphors instead of similies, because there are more of them and because they are more vivid. Oh, well. I think I did pretty well. The nice thing is that there are so many components of your final score for English that if you screw up one commentary or presentation, it's not the end of the world. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamicecream Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 What is the difference between TZ1 and TZ2? Obviously they were different works, but what dictates if you got TZ1 or TZ2? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake Glau Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 Susquehanna poem was great and pretty easy after a while in my opinion. Not sure how well IB will like my interpretations of point of view though =/ Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ib_girl Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 Susquehanna poem was great and pretty easy after a while in my opinion. Not sure how well IB will like my interpretations of point of view though =/what was your thesis in general? about half of my IB class did the poetry and I've heard every single person with a different interpretation of it. hahahaha. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
banananana Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I took a really risky leap and concluded that the fishing poem was a critique of poets who don't actually try to experience the things they talk about in their poems... because i thought the irony in the poem was the most prominent element in it, so it seemed like the poet was taking a jab at the other poets who describe things vividly in their poems while actually being inactive loners who don't actually go out to experience life. but haha, i also tossed in a bit about how art, whether its painting or poetry, can portray things so realistically that it's almost like being there physically. IDK!!!!does it really matter if we get the 'correct' interpretation, though? i mean as long as we support it in our analysis, i think it should be fine. otherwise everyone would fail because i don't think anyone had the same interpretation hahahahaha... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake Glau Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) Susquehanna poem was great and pretty easy after a while in my opinion. Not sure how well IB will like my interpretations of point of view though =/what was your thesis in general? about half of my IB class did the poetry and I've heard every single person with a different interpretation of it. hahahaha.My thesis was kind of weird. My essay ended with the conclusion (in general) that the poem was a reflection of the poet (first person?) and then the painting were symbols of his memories and experiences and then the museum was his mind. I kind of got this from the injamnent (spelling?) at the end of the poem that gives an excited tone when he goes to the next painting. It made sense in my head...Oh, the author was in nostalgia.... Edited May 4, 2011 by Drake Glau Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proletariat Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 Our class got TZ1 - "The Sea" and "Fishing on the Susquehanna."It seemed like the majority of our class did the poetry piece. Like ib_girl above, everyone I talked to about the poem had a different interpretation of it.The main criticism with the poem was that it was too straightforward. Our class is used to more traditional, and I would say more denser poems, and from what I've heard, people had difficulties picking out a thesis that could be supported with sufficient textual evidence. I usually get poems fairly quickly, and had to go through this one about 5 times annotating before I was ready; most times 2-3 run-throughs is enough for me.I interpreted the poem as representing how humanity seeks to re-create and capture reality through artificial constructs, as well as how complacent man is to such acts. I also pointed how the entire tone and narrative of the poem (emotionless, anecdotal) is conveying how the poem itself is a re-creation of a memory, so that the poem in its entirety is an example of its own theme. From what I gathered from the prose piece, it seemed to be about familial relationships, and perhaps the distortion powers of memory? I didn't go deeper than a quick skim, but I don't think the prose is nearly as open to various interpretations as the poem evidently is, and the people that wrote on the prose all seemed to centre their thesis around family anyways. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 (edited) I did the prose (About the End of History), but I didn't really understand the last line, which is a bit of a bummer. What did anyone else say about it?Also, how weird was the whole wife stealing child thing? Didn't quite know what to make of that.Analysing the first half was alright, but it went a bit downhill towards the end, and I didn't even get to write a conclusion. Hopefully the first half will pull me through!I did this and had the same problem, lol. beginning was great, and then it drifted into so many odd points - children-stealing and history-ending and so on - that I didn't know what to make of it. Wrote almost 8 sides and I had 30 minutes for the last 1 and a half, still had to write past the moment we were told to put the pen down to finish my conclusion. Grr!Still, I liked the prose a lot. From Waterland by Graham Swift I think by the way if anyone's interested. Edited May 5, 2011 by Summer Glau no text speak =) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jade D Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 I wrote about the poem "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July" for poetry TZ1. I found it to be incredibly easy to analyze.I liked analyzing that poem! It was pretty easy to relate to the dominant impression, and while I personally didn't find too many lit devices, there were some really good ones, and they all related well to the themes. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
genius wannabe Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Did any one do TZ1 English A1 paper? I did the prose one, which is taken from the novel, The Sea by John BanvilleI did this one as well and compared to the ones we practiced with in class there were almost no literary terms. I focussed on character development, Banville's technique and imagery, etc.I am not prose analyzer, so hey what kind of imagery did you use?Well, mainly I just stuck to what I called "intense imagery" or maybe it was violence imagery. This was mainly for the part when the father grabbed his wife and then the son in the water. Banville's word choice like "grasped", etc. Also with the violence in the father, there was repetition, and similes regarding that.What did you talk about?I did talk the same as you did, but I also analyze some settings to show how it affects to the characterization overallYeah, I talked about the setting as well, so sounds like we did mainly the same thing. Did anyone else here write this paper??? If so, what did you discuss?Oh wow I feel like I missed a lot, excuse me while I cry in the corner I talked about shame and the whole foreshadowing of how he was able to see 'through his parents' and how this foreshadowed his later thoughts. Mostly because he spends a lot of the time describing his parents as extremely embarrassing and the sort of condescension towards them shows his evolution as a character (the "I can not speak as I did then" or whatever part). Sigh at least I caught that the dad left. Usually I do poetry, but the Susquehanna poem just confused me, especially the egg part it just threw me off. I hope I did decently on this exam, I think I'm going to fail Paper 2 =( Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kasandude Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 TZ1 poem, snow. I focused a bit more on the writing style than the actual in depth meanings. In my conclusion I compared reality to fiction (the whole blanket of snow as well as "undisguisable house" or whatever it was). But reading the above posts, I kinda get the impression that I missed the overall point of the thing...Let's talk specifics, how did everyone structure their essays and what types of things did they mention? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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