Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 12

Critique - Essay Example The paper is critique based on her book about online writing classes and whether the approach is beneficial to the learners (Kiefer, 2007). Kate Kiefer’s article discusses the various reasons on how it is challenging to teach writing online compared to face to face interaction between the learners and the teacher. She argues that teaching writing in small classes help to manage classes while at the same time provide learners with multiple opportunities and ready feedback targeting their effectiveness in writing. Basing on her experience in teaching languages especially writing, I believe that she has written a strong article with very supportive arguments. However, the article seems to be in support of teaching writing through face to face interactions rather than teaching writing online (Kiefer, 2007). The author argues that teachers who teach writing value shared classroom interactions for a number of reasons. She explains that students are more motivated when they recognize learning community and are more likely to chat and share with colleagues in classroom than when they are alone and learning online. The author asserts that writing cannot take place in a vacuum. She explains that classroom or face to face learning enables students to engage and interact with one another. In addition, students are able to help each other and learn from colleagues on how to improve as writers as well as readers. The depth of conversation about texts and writing further develops the potential of each writer. She argues that writing engagement encourages acquisition of writing skills that can be applied in all classrooms as well as other applications beyond academy (Kiefer, 2007). She states that the preconceptions of the students about their roles in online courses as well as technological chall enges have worked against important interactions in online classes. I agree with the author’s argument

Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples Essay Example for Free

Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples Essay The Native Americans were slaves from the north to the South of the Americas and right across the North American continent. The percentage of Native American slaves was larger than black slaves and they were enslaved far longer than Black slaves. Native Americans were slaves for about 500 years, from the 1400s to the 1900s. Native Americans slaves were for 200 years before African Americans made it to the new world. The slaves of Native American were shipped to several areas around the world, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. [1] Native Americans were slaves even after slavery was removed because they were not citizens and the laws did not apply to them, the first Native American group was under Columbus, about 200,000 natives were harshly enslaved by him. Only 500 survived by the year 1550 and the group were extinct before 1650. [2] When Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in the late 1400s, his goal was to take all it natural resources and take it to Spain, he named it the new resource for Spain. Columbus figured an opportunity to convert the natives to Christianity, to provide another trade point with his mother country, and to learn about a vast extent of the agriculture and animals, as well as interesting cultures that the Old World had ever seen. However, one of the strongest causes of this difference in objectives was Hernando Cortes. Hernando Cortes’s purpose for the occupation of present-day Mexico was the conquest of the native peoples. Through harsh force and dishonesty, he destroyed the native tribes, making the Aztec Empire his own empire. In Bartolome de Las Casas writing about the indigenous peoples, witnessed a massive murder of the original people of Cuba, and became an opponent to the violent conversion of the Native Americans. He is considered the Father of Liberation Theology, arguing with Juan Gines de Sepulveda. De las Casas argued that Native Americans should be treated as other Spanish subjects of the king. He suggested that instead of making the Native Americans slaves, the Spanish should ship Africans to the New World for use as slave labor. [3] Alonso Zuazo said in his writings about the native Americans that the. Indians would serve as slaves for the Europeans in the sugar cane plantation in the coasts of Northern Africa. The main thing he was focused on was when the enslaving of the natives was failing in the sixteenth century; they wanted to replace them with slaves from western Africa. He found out that Africans were better slaves than the Native Americans because they came from agricultural societies and they know about agriculture more than the Native Americans. [4] Native Americans interacted with enslaved Africans in every way possible. Native Americans were enslaved along with Africans, They worked together, lived together in the same houses, produced recipes for food, shared herbal remedies, myths and legends, and in the end they breed together. Because both races were non-Christian, Europeans considered them under the Europeans. They worked to make enemies of the two groups. In some areas, Native Americans began to slowly engage with white culture. Africans were not affected with the conditions and diseases. It was because the Africans were already in contact with the Europeans when they had started trading with one another. Europeans felt they could handle the climate because of their skin color. Many Native Americans started to die because of the diseases. A lot of the Native Americans also started to escape and fight back, and many of them died. They also felt that Africans were cheaper. The Native Americans were less resistant to the diseases that the Europeans brought with them. In North America, the conquerors at first werent thinking of taking take Native Americans as slaves because they lived a harsh life that needed to be at peace with the Natives to continue. There were more Africans available and the Europeans found it more meaningful to buy Africans from Africans than to attempt to capture Indians. [5] Bibliography: Ivison, Duncan, Paul Patton, and Will Sanders. Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. publication place: Cambridge University Press, publication year. http://books. google. com/books? hl=enlr=id=JkqahTHpUmUCoi=fndpg=PA36dq=exploitation+of+indigenous+peoplesots=DojNLSzhZdsig=oW_5zCg8jDjBuKeOQbRVDVO9x9Q#v=onepageq=exploitation%20of%20indigenous%20peoplesf=false (accessed November 23, 2012). Saco, J. A. â€Å"Alonso de Zuazo (1518). † http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu. http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu/active_learning/explorations/spain/spain_zuazo. cfm (accessed November 23, 2012). TAINO-L. â€Å"Bartolome de Las Casas and His Defence of the Indians. † http://www. hartford-hwp. com. http://www. hartford-hwp. com/archives/40/186. html (accessed November 26, 2012). Columbus, Christopher. â€Å"Letter to King Ferdinand of Spain, Describing the Results of the First Voyage. † www. xroads. virginia. edu. http://xroads.virginia. edu/ hyper/hns/garden/columbus. html (accessed November 26, 2012). [1] Duncan Ivison, Paul Patton, and Will Sanders, Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2nd ed. (publication place: Cambridge University Press, publication year), 36-39, http://books. google. com/books? hl=enlr=id=JkqahTHpUmUCoi=fndpg=PA36dq=exploitation+of+indigenous+peoplesots=DojNLSzhZdsig=oW_5zCg8jDjBuKeOQbRVDVO9x9Q#v=onepageq=exploitation%20of%20indigenous%20peoplesf=false (accessed November 23, 2012). [2] TAINO-L, â€Å"Bartolome de Las Casas and His Defence of the Indians,† http://www. hartford-hwp. com, http://www. hartford-hwp. com/archives/40/186. html (accessed November 26, 2012). [3] J. A. Saco, â€Å"Alonso de Zuazo (1518),† http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu, http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu/active_learning/explorations/spain/spain_zuazo. cfm (accessed November 23, 2012). [4] Christopher Columbus, â€Å"Letter to King Ferdinand of Spain, Describing the Results of the First Voyage,† www. xroads. virginia. edu.

THE THREAT OF BIOLOGICAL WARFARE AND POSSIBLE PREVENTATIVE MEASURES :: essays research papers

The Threat of Biological Warfare and Possible Preventative Measures   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The events of September 11,2001, have made the threat of terrorism on our mainland very real. The twin towers were made into rubble that day, along with the lives of the many people touched by the overwhelming loss of life that occurred that day. Now, if that isn’t enough to cope with, in creeps the specter of bio-terrorism. Biological weapons are devices intended to deliberately disseminate disease producing organisms or toxins in food, water, by insect, or as an aerosol. Bacillus anthracis, the organism that causes anthrax, has been bandied about the media and the American public has been saturated by stories of possible cases and fatalities. One agent not often discussed but every bit as horrifying as anthrax is smallpox. Smallpox is an acute, highly contagious virus disease characterized by prolonged fever, vomiting, and pustular eruptions that often leave pitted scars, or pockmarks, when healed as defined by Webster’s New World College Dictionar y. Smallpox, commands respect and the concern of the American public along with that terrorism, of the biological variety, however improbable, is very possible.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Smallpox was once large in scope before vaccinations. At one point or another, everyone was going to contract it. A release of smallpox in aerosol form would scatter readily, and because of its stability in aerosol form would prove very formidable even in a small dose. Even mention of a group of smallpox cases can cause national panic and a possible public outcry for national emergency control measures to be taken. Several   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2 factors cause the concern: smallpox has historically been feared as one of the most serious of all pestilential diseases, it physically disfigures, it bears a thirty percent fatality rate, it can be spread person to person, primarily by droplet nuclei expelled from the oropharynx of the infected person or by aerosol . Items most often thought as harmless, such as clothing or bed linen, could also spread the virus. After an incubation of about ten to twelve days, the patient experiences high fever and pain. Then a rash begins which forms into scabs by the seventh of eighth day. Between twenty-five and thirty percent of all unvaccinated patients die of the disease (1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Smallpox, anthrax and plague head the list of agents that can be used for bio-warfare. None of these agents has so far effectively been deployed as a biological weapon, and thus no real world events exist to provide likely scenarios (1).

Navy Chief Petty Officer Medal of Honor Recipients

The Chief Petty Officer is a rank in the U.S. Navy just above the rank of the Petty Officer First Class. They serve both as leaders and technical experts.   Promotion as a Chief Petty Officer requires superior evaluation and time in service. The Navy Medal of Honor is America’s oldest and still continuing award. The Medal of Honor is the supreme award in the United States of America for bravery in wars.   Any member of the Armed Services of the United States who performs exceptionally in his field of warfare during martial operations risking his life to protect the interests of the country is awarded the Medal of Honor. Since everyone in the Armed Services has values of bravery and selflessness, the recommendation for this award is made with the greatest care and consideration. When the Medal was initially awarded during the Civil Wars, it was the only medal for bravery in wars; but during the Spanish American War, it became the highest honor, with many other medals being given for valor in wars. Apart from the respect the Medal entails, the recipients have many other privileges like increased monetary benefits, wearing their uniforms wherever they choose to, and attending Presidential inaugurations. Even the children of the recipients of the Medal of Honor enjoy privileges. If they are qualified and desire to attend the U.S. military academies, they can do so without any restrictions of quotas. So far, more that 3400 Medal of Honor awards have been given. Getting the prestigious Medal would be the proudest moment of any serviceman, and John Finn had  the taste of it when it was placed around his neck in recognition for his valor in the Second World War. Born in Los Angeles, California, on July 23, 1909, he enlisted in the Navy in 1926 and served as a Chief Petty Officer. John Finn was awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor for his conspicuous heroism and gallantry while at the Naval Air Station Kahoehe Bay, Hawaii, during the air raid by Japan, which targeted the facility.   With a machine gun, Chief Finn effectively fired at the enemy planes. Though he received severe wounds, he put up a brave fight and created great havoc to the enemy planes. His action during the attack was indeed amazing. George Brady was yet another proud possessor of the Medal of Honor. He was born on September 7, 1867.   He was a Chief Gunner’s Mate in the U.S. Navy.   George Brady was awarded the Medal of Honor for his exceptional performance in the Spanish American War. George Brady proved a real asset to the U.S. forces. He was on board the torpedo boat Winslow when enemy forces targeted it. The boat was extensively exposed to bombs and suffered great damage. He repaired the steering gear and promptly maintained watertight integrity and thus saved the vessel.   His masterly skills and untiring loyalty to duty was greatly appreciated, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Though every serviceman fights for the country risking his life, such events, which depict individual courage and bravery, are the grounds on which a recommendation for the Medal of Honor is made.   The worth of the Medal of Honor is so  great that senior officers and even the President salutes the Medal, thereby the recipient wearing it. References September 30, 2005, Chief Petty Officer Medal of Honor Recipients [Electronic Version] Retrieved on September 11, 2007, from www.history.navy.mil

The Relationship Between Religion and Morality

Morality (sometimes called â€Å"true morality† or â€Å"high morality†) should be distinguished from those rules which are simply those which are considered necessary for the efficient running of a society. Such rules of a society are enshrined in law, custom and convention; and are supported and enforced by society through the legal system and public opinion. These rules are usually obeyed because of self-interest, a kind of â€Å"social contract† in which, for example, we agree not to steal from anyone else in the society if they agree not to steal from us. In very early societies these social rules were supported by religion, and presented as behaviour which the gods insisted humans obeyed. It is arguable that some (ie numbers 5-9) of the Ten Commandments (13th Century BCE) are just such social rules. However such a system of social rules may break down, particularly in a secular or pluralistic society. For example some people may consider that the society in which they live is unfair, and only benefits certain groups in it; or the legal system may be too inefficient to prevent other people stealing. In such situations individuals may think it is no longer beneficial for them to continue to agree to the social contract, and then there would be no compelling reason why they should continue to obey society's laws. What we consider to be true morality is different from social rules in two important respects: 1. It is based on real concern for others as human beings of equal value to ourselves 2. Our motivation for behaving morally is that such behaviour is â€Å"right† and we feel we â€Å"ought† to do it, even when it is inconvenient to ourselves. Is Morality dependent upon Religion? The evidence to support this view is: * All religions insist upon a moral code as a central part of the religious life. * Even non-religious people when discussing where ethical values came from will refer to religious sources, such as the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20. 2-17), or the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5. 3- 7.27). * When people (eg newspaper reporters) require an expert opinion on moral issues they will ask religious leaders. * People expect higher standards of moral behaviour from religious people (a story of an adulterous vicar is more likely to appear in the newspapers that a similar tale about a bank manager – unless, of course, the latter is a churchwarden!). * Even in our largely secular society, â€Å"high† morality is often referred to as â€Å"having Christian values†. * When people talk of someone being â€Å"a good Christian† they are usually referring to their moral behaviour (ie how they treat others) and not to their doctrinal orthodoxy (ie whether they hold the traditional Christian beliefs). * True morality sprung up within religion. Arguably the first clear and unequivocal expression of true morality was the insistence by the Israelite prophet Amos in the 8th Century BCE that Yahweh (God) required honesty, truth and justice among his people more than religious observances (sacrifices, etc): â€Å"Even though you offer me [Yahweh] your burnt offerings†¦I will not accept them;†¦but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream† (Amos 5.22-4). * No society developed morality without having developed religion first, and all morality was originally proclaimed in the name of religion. It could be asserted, therefore, that morality is a product of religion, and true morality can only derive from religion. * Conscience can be interpreted as the voice of God telling us what is right and wrong. * It can be argued that even when societies lose their interest in practising a religion, they still maintain the moral values which that religion originally instilled into the society. Thus it can be claimed that in Britain today, where about 1 person in 30 is a practising Christian, the moral values which the society proclaims, believes in and tries to live by are Christian moral values (secularised). * It can be claimed that people will not chose to be moral unless encouraged to do so by religion. Is Morality independent from Religion? The evidence to support this view is: * Religions existed for many thousands of years before they developed a real morality. This suggests that morality is not an essential part of religion. * Atheists and agnostics, who do not believe in or follow any religion, can still live truly moral lives, with a selfless compassion for other humans. * Whole societies (eg China and the former Soviet States) can be officially atheistic, and there is no evidence that such countries or governments are necessarily more wicked than ones which claim to be religious states. * The origin of moral values can be explained in terms of Evolutionary Ethics (ie as societies develop and become more complex and sophisticated so social rules become more demanding, evolving into true morality). * Conscience can be explained in other ways (eg Sigmund Freud's concept of the internalisation of parental norms). * Agriculture, families, medicine and learning all developed within a religious context, as did morality. They have now all entered the secular domain, and are considered independent of religion, so the fact that morality developed in a religious context does not mean that it is necessarily dependent upon religion. * Plato posited the â€Å"Euthyphro Dilemma† which raised the question that good must be independent of God, or there would be no way of knowing if God's commands were actually good or not. Can we come to some kind of conclusion? How you evaluate the above evidence, and the conclusion you come to about where the balance of the evidence lies is something you have to do for yourself; but you must do it honestly, thoughtfully and intelligently. You may like to consider the following thoughts: * All people have some kind of beliefs concerning the nature of humanity, what is of real importance and value, and what one should do with ones life. * Religious people will refer to these beliefs as their religion, and associate with groups of like-minded people who share the same religion. Atheists and agnostics will tend to refer to their beliefs as their philosophy of life, and may consider them a more individual matter. * These beliefs (whatever we call them) affect our behaviour, and we legitimately judge a person's philosophy of life by how it affects their moral decisions and actions. * So ones beliefs determine ones morality.

Men On The Moon The Apollo Story Essays - Apollo Program, Apollo 10

Men On The Moon The Apollo Story Essays - Apollo Program, Apollo 10 Men On The Moon The Apollo Story For years, man has looked up at the stars and wondered, what power they possessed or from what great God were they born? The answer to this question has always been a dream to man, but the dream is getting closer to reality. Space travel in the 1960s was become a reality, but man went farther with his expectations. Man now wanted to land and walk on the the only one of Earths natural satellites know as the Moon. The splashdown May 26, 1969, of Apollo 10 cleared the way for the first formal attempt at a manned lunar landing.1 The 363-foot-tall Apollo 11 space vehicle was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, at 9:37 a.m., July 16, 1969. It was the United States' first lunar landing mission. The launch vehicle, AS-506, was the sixth in the Apollo Saturn V series and was the fourth manned Saturn V vehicle. After a 2-hour check-out period, the spacecraft was injected into the translunar phase of the mission.2 July 1996 marks the twenty-seventh anniversary of the epochal lunar landing of Apollo 11 in the summer of 1969. Although President John F. Kennedy had made a public commitment on 25 May 1961 to land an American on the Moon by the end of the decade, up until this time Apollo had been all promise. Now the realization was about to begin. Even though Kennedy's political objectives were essentially achieved with the decision to go to the Moon, Project Apollo took on a life of its own over the years and left an important legacy to both the nation and the proponents of space exploration. Its success was enormously significant, coming at a time when American society was in crisis.3 A unique confluence of political necessity, personal commitment and activism, scientific and technological ability, economic prosperity, and public mood made possible the 1961 decision to carry out an aggressive lunar landing program. It then fell to NASA, other organizations of the federal government, and the aerospace community to accomplish the task set out in a few short paragraphs by the president. By the time that the goal was accomplished in 1969, only a few of the key figures associated with the decision were still in leadership positions in the government. Kennedy fell victim to an assassin's bullet in 1963, and science adviser Jerome B. Wiesner returned to MIT soon afterwards. Lyndon B. Johnson, of course, succeeded Kennedy as president but left office in January 1969 just a few months before the first landing. NASA Administrator James E. Webb resolutely guided NASA through most of the 1960s, but his image was tarnished by, among other things, a 1967 Apollo accident that killed three astronauts. He retired from office in October 1968. Several other early supporters of Apollo in Congress and elsewhere died during the 1960s and never saw the program successfully completed. The first Apollo mission of public significance was the flight of Apollo 8. On 21 December 1968 it took off atop a Saturn V booster from the Kennedy Space Center. Three astronauts were aboardFrank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders- -for a historic mission to orbit the Moon. At first that mission had been planned as a flight to test Apollo hardware in the relatively safe confines of low Earth orbit, but senior engineer George M. Low of the Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Texas, and Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Manager at NASA headquarters, obtained approval to make it a circumlunar flight. The advantages of this could be important, they believed, both in technical and scientific knowledge gained as well as in a public demonstration of what the U.S. could achieve. After Apollo 8 made one and a half Earth orbits its third stage began a burn to put the spacecraft on a lunar trajectory. It orbited the Moon on 24-25 December and then fired the boosters for a return flight; it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 27 December. The public reaction to the Apollo 8 circumlunar mission was enthusiastic. It rekindled the excitement felt in the early 1960s during the first Mercury flights, and set the stage for

Compare and contrast Cousin Kate and The Birthday by Christina Rosseti Essay Example

Compare and contrast Cousin Kate and The Birthday by Christina Rosseti Essay Example Compare and contrast Cousin Kate and The Birthday by Christina Rosseti Paper Compare and contrast Cousin Kate and The Birthday by Christina Rosseti Paper Essay Topic: Christina Rossetti Poems Poetry Song of Solomon Christina Rosseti was an 19th century poet. She was born in London on the 5th December 1830 to Gabriele and Frances Rosseti. In 1848 she became engaged to James Collinson, one of the pre-Raphaelite brethren. The engagement fell through when he became Roman Catholic. From the early 1860s on she was in love with Charles Cayley but refused to marry him because he was not a Christian and Milk-and-water Anglicanism was not to her taste. She was proud of her expertise at the game of chess that she liked to win but felt guilt at taking pleasure in winning. So she gave up chess because she enjoyed it so much. She also pasted paper strips over the antireligous parts of Swinburnes Atalanta in Calydon; objected to nudity in paintings, especially if the artist was a women; and refused to go see Wagners Parsifal, because it celebrated a pagan mythology. My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a watered shoot: My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me. The simile used in the first verse are all derived from beauty as it might be seen to be expressed in nature. The poem is all joyful and uplifting. In view of the poets evangelical christian convictions it seems likely that the love referred to is the agape love referred to in the New Testament rather than sexual or romantic love. And that this was the poets intention. However a powerful repressed erotic component can be easily attributed to this verse. For example, if the term heart is substituted, then comparisons to watered shoots, thickset fruit and rainbow shells have a powerful sexual element. In that fruit is only produced by a plant for reproduction. On the other hand, taken at face value the poem has a lyrical brightness. Possibly in an era when Victorian sexual prudery is widely believed to mask desperate sexual repression dark and lustful motives are found where none actually exist. Raise me a dais of silk and down; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Carve it in doves and pomegrantes, And peacocks with a hundred eyes; Work it in gold and silver grapes In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me. In the second verse the imagery becomes more religious, and perhaps more sinister. The dias described sound like the exotic trappings of royalty as described in the old testament, particularly when associated with the colour purple. Although the furniture described may seem to resemble a throne it could also resemble a Hindu funeral bier. The references to peacocks and pomegranets seems particularly and evocatively Eastern, althuough it is also probably influenced by her reading of the Book of Solomon. Also the reference to the peacocks with a hundred eyes could have a meaning as being a sign of fertility or other sexual reference because the peacocks tail is only their to attract a mate and falls out after the mating season. Although this could also show eastern richness. The association of beauty with fertility thickset fruit, and choice fruits (Solomon 4:13) is imagery typical of this portion of the Old Testament. There is some evidence from accounts the poet had been in love with both Collison and Cayley during her life. Although they were romantically inclined she seemed not to have returned these feelings. The way the poem The Birthday is laid out seemed to send out the message that she is in love with Brett or she enjoys being chased by him. Brett an artist friend of her brother had apparently declared within it the commentators have proposed that this poem that is inspired by her relationship his love notion that it is she not the lover who is in the dominant position here. It seems not unreasonable that her pleasure at being in the dominant position in a romantic series of encounters with a man who desired her should be expressed in poetry, but the true feelings disguised in a religious allegory. In either case she feels guilt for doing so. Because of this she has disguised her feeling in the poem by suggesting she is going to die or has died and that her love is the love of God. Cousin Kate I was a cottage maiden, Hardened by sun and air, Contented with my cottage mates, Not mindful I was fair. Why did a great lord find me out And praise my flaxen hair? Why did a great lord find me out To fill my heart with care? This is a narrative poem that tells of a girl who goes from being a poor maiden to a mother of a lords son. The first thing we learn about the narrator, in the first stanza is that she is a maiden so she is unmarried and young. The lines hardened by sun and air suggest she lives out in the country and her family works the land. He lured me to his palace home- Woes me for joy thereof- To lead a shameless, shameful life, His plaything and his love. He wore me like a silken knot, He changed me like a glove; So now I moan, an unclean thing, Who might have been a dove. The way the second stanza starts saying the narrator was lured to the lords palace shows she was tricked into coming close and she feels like his prey. Thus is because a lure is something used when hunting to get the prey close enough to catch. The two lines describing the lord wearing her like a silken knot and changed me like a glove show how the narrator has been dehumanized and used. The narrator sees herself as an unclean thing because she was the Lords lover outside of marriage and this was scorned upon when the poem was written (the Victorian era). The narrator goes on to say she might have been a dove meaning all good and pure. The dove was associated with all things good because according to the holy Bible when john baptized Jesus the Baptist a dove appeared in the sky above them and the voice of god was heard. This also reflects back to Christina Rossettis belief in Christianity. O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate, You grew more fair than I. He saw you at your fathers gate, Chose you and cast me by. He watched your steps along the lane, Your work among the rye: He lifted you from mean estate To sit with him on high. The narrator addresses her cousin as Lady Kate because she is now married to a Lord and has gained the tittle of Lady. The narrator tends to blame the lord for whats happened because she refers to him doing everything like He lured me and He wore me showing how he used her. However the narrator also blames herself for what happened because she went willingly. Because you were so good and pure He bound you with his ring: The neighbours call you good and pure, Call me an outcast thing. Even so I sit and howl in dust, You sit in gold and sing: Now which of us has tenderer heart? You had the stronger wing. Here the narrator compares herself to her cousin Kate. She says Kate is good and pure whereas she referees to herself as an outcast thing. The last sentence, you had the stronger wing shows that the narrator believes Kate had better means than she did to get to a higher social position. Kate goes from being a cottage maiden to a lady. The question Now which of us has tenderer heart? shows that the narrator believes her love was stronger than cousin Kates. The second line of the fifth stanza reinforces this; your love was writ in sand. If something is written in sand then its there for all to see but is soon washed away. So the narrator is partly blaming her cousin here. O cousin Kate, my love was true. Your love was writ in sand: If he had fooled not me but you, If you stood where I stand, Hed not have won me with his love, Nor bought me with his land: I would have spit into his face And not have taken his hand. Here the narrator seems to partly blame her cousin for whats happened and says that if she had been in Kates place she wouldnt have married the Lord She would have spit into his face, and what Kate did wasnt right. She also blames the lord for what happened saying how he fooled her. This seemed to say that the lord led her to believe he loved her and would marry her but was only using her. Yet Ive a gift you have not got, And seem not like to get: For all your cloths and wedding ring Ive little dought you fret. My fair haired son, my shame, my pride, Cling closer, closer yet: Your father would give lands for one To wear his coronet. This is where the story is brought to an end, although the narrator seems to have nothing left we now learn that she is a mother but Kate is not and may never be. For the Victorian times when Christina Rosette was writing people frowned greatly on nudity and sexual references (they even covered the legs of tables so the sight of a naked leg didnt shock women). So she must have suffered great criticism for most of her work including The Birthday and Cousin Kate. These poems are both about love but are hard to compare, as the Birthday is purely about emotion where as the Cousin Kate poem is narrative. Both poems talk about love. The Birthday talks about positive things and Cousin Kate is negative, from the narrators point of view she has lost everything because she loved the lord. Christina Rosetti was very inflexible so why would she write such strong poems with what would seem sexual references when she objected to nudity in paintings? Perhaps the birthday is like the Song of Solomon in that it describes what appear to be sexual things but is actually talking about beauty, the beauty of Gods kingdom.