Prairie Flowers

The pathway is green, but looking out,
The surroundings are littered with black.
Death creeps up among the prairie life,
Slowly stalking the colors so bright.

Delicate pinks and tall proud purples,
Living amid the colorless crunch;
Vibrant yellow petals wave for your attention:
He loves me, he loves me not; He loves me, he loves me, not.

They know well that Fall is coming
Yet they determine to hold on,
Continually reaching for the Sun
As brown and coarse expand and slowly swallow.

Somehow the black amidst the green
Has a beauty of its own.
Knowledge of what has come before
And what is to happen again and again.

They look at you for salvation
But all there is to do
Is remind them that Death makes way for Life,
And Spring will be here soon enough.

Benjamin Franklin's sense of Self and Text/Textuality

There are many examples in Benjamin Franklin’s works that bring sense of Self together with Text/Textuality in striking ways.  One of his essays, ‘The Way to Wealth’ is a perfect example of this idea.  This essay is filled with advice on how Franklin believed people should live.  He talks about money, frugality, debt, credit, and honesty, just to name a few.  The way that he does this, however, is textually striking to me.  For example, Franklin writes rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.  He is telling his readers that it is better to not eat supper than borrow from someone else and then be indebted to them.  Many of these little sayings rhyme, making them sing-songy, almost as though he believed people should memorize them and say them throughout the way.  Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse; / E’er fancy you consult, consult your purse.  These sayings are meant to be rules of Self for his readers, and he makes them easy to remember through his special use of text.

A text that speaks more directly to me, being a fluent sarcasm speaker, is his entire text of ‘Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One’.  While the other essay used Text to bring sense of Self to Franklin’s readers, this essay is more about bringing out his own sense of Self through the way he wrote it.  In this satirical, overly sarcastic essay, Franklin addresses the government of his time about all of the ways they are wrong in handling their colonies and provinces.  My favorite is IV.

However peaceably your colonies have submitted to your government, shown their affection to your interests, and patiently borne their grievances; you are to suppose them always inclined to revolt, and treat them accordingly.  Quarter troops among them, who by their insolence may provoke the rising of mobs, and by their bullets and bayonets suppress them.  By this means, like the husband who uses his wife ill from suspicion, you may in time convert your suspicions into realities.

Franklin could have just said “Guys. You can’t treat these people like criminals when they’re complying, or else you’ll just drive them to do exactly what you don’t want them to do.”  Instead, he uses an indirect, yet completely obvious, paragraph to say the same thing.  This says a lot about Franklin’s Self.  It shows off his cockiness, because he believes he can get away with making fun of the government and its decisions and it shows off his sense of humor.