Poems Concentrated Edition 10

The Devils Questions

How many times have you looked in the mirror,

And questioned who you have become?

From a boy who couldn’t hold a pair of scissors

To one who could hold a gun?

That is indeed intoxicating,

The flavour of anger and rage

That corrupts absolutely

Regardless of your age.

How many times will I have to look upon

This embodiment of evil and its evil ways?

Which sickens me to death and beyond

Tell me, who will end its days?

“That young man, the friend

Of us and our sage;

His informant, his benefactor

The controller of his wage”

How many times will you have to run?

Is it not simpler to stop?

No, it is too late for that,

Your mind has gone to the devils crop.

“You know it’s repulsive,”

“The deeds of that man.”

And since no one will stop him,

I shall take his hand.

---Rayhaan Mubarak----

I’ve managed to get a poem from Rayhaan again, finally!! This is one of his first poems, and the first one I was shown. And it was from there on that I realised that I could make something out of this and finally started actually making content for this blog on a weekly basis. ~A Legend was born~

Okay, not really. But Rayhaan is a legend right? J

You might want know why I haven’t been able to get something out of Rayhaan for about a month now. Well, blame it on his computer. And his choppy internet. And his broken computer.  All those added up to create a situation where Rayhaan didn’t have internet and didn’t have anything to access it through anyway and nothing through which he could write poems or stories on. But he managed to get a picture of this poem and send it into me so I could feature it. It’s nice to have one of his poems again. But that doesn’t mean he’s back. I just about managed to get this poem from him before he went missing again. But not worry, I have some of my own stories to feature, and there are some poems I’d like to feature after this.

Now, onto the poem. This poem wasn’t written because of some specific emotion, but rather to sample the emotion in poem (as far as I know). It doesn’t have any rhyme, and that’s deliberate.

As for the summary, there was none provided, so I’m going to reminisce back to when we talked about it, and the summary he gave for it. Here’s a natural language summary that, for the first time here, isn’t written like it’s for intellectual study.

This is a written down recollection of Rayhaan giving up on human society, and of himself too. He is admitting into the part of him that he says doesn’t have the most beautiful of human feelings. It’s his almost psychopathic part. He is reminiscing on his younger self too and showing his regret for where it has gone now.

I admit, this wasn’t my best of efforts to get this summary right, but with what I had, I guess I made the best of it! So the boy he talks about here is pretty much himself, though I’m sure it has been exaggerated for dramatic poetic effect (!).

What do you think? Did you enjoy this poem? Have any opinions about it? If so be sure to leave your comment down below! (Yeah, I’m sure you’d be bothered to that. As if anyone ever had.)

And remember, whether you enjoyed this or not, be sure to share and see what your friends think of it!

That can be excused (sort of). What can’t is, why aren’t you following our blog? Just enter your email in the gadget above and no, I’m sure I won’t send you anything other than updates, and that isn’t even something I do (Some computer server handles that, far away from where ever you or I live (unless you live next to it!)), and I’m pretty sure I don’t even see your email address. DON’T FORGET!

Thanks for reading!

Oh, and check out the latest release to our Tech Section!

The previous Editions:

Edition 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated.html

Edition 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated-ed-2.html

Edition 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed3.html

Edition 4: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed4.html

Edition 5: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poetry-concentrated-ed5.html

Edition 6: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed-6.html

Edition 7: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed-7.html

Edition 8: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed8.html

Edition 9: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed9.html

Check out my stories:

Crash, a short story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crash-short-story.html

1:49, a horror story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/0149-pm.html

My Baked in Irony series:

Engrossing, a twisted short tale of irony:

  http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/engrossing.html

Sorry…..

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/sorry.html

Noticed….

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/noticed.html

Tomorrow

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/tomorrow.html

Check out Rayhaan's stories:

Flipside 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-closed-door.html

Flipside 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/flipside-2.html

Flipside 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/flipside-3.html

MirrorMan: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.com/2015/08/mirrorman.html

Tech Section:

What you should know about Apple: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-think-of-apple.html

My LG G2 Review: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/week-2-with-g2.html

More Random but Interesting Articles by me:

About Pens: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/why-does-pen-you-use-for-daily-writing.html

About Speech: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/speech-how-do-we-understand-it.html

Games Reviews:

Deadrising 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/review-deadrising-2.html

Or just check out everything in the order they came out in by clicking this:

www.interestconcentrated.blogspot.com

Week 2 with a G2

So, I'm running into my second week with my new G2.  To summarise, it's been great.  All below you'll see me going on about how great the G2 has been.  I honestly didn't find many drawbacks to it.  So,  let's go through it under small sub headings.

Screen:

The screen, in my opinion is amazing. It's incredibly sharp,  very vibrant and very quick and responsive. Sure,  the 2k and 4k screens of 2015 will easily best it,  but other than that,  it's almost perfect display.  Notice I said almost.  That's partly because it can be bested in brightness by  AMOLED 1080p displays and partly because of something I noticed while using it.  The display has a slight paper yellow tinge to it.  I don't know if it is just my device,  but it's something I noticed when compared to the Display of The Sony Z3C.  For me,  it's rather an advantage, because it makes reading books much easier and web browsing less hard on the eye. But it's not very nice if you want to see complete white. Sunlight legibility is not a problem on a hot summer day, the screen going up-to the necessary brightness to overcome the effect.

Feeling/Ergonomics:

This was always something problematic about the G2 for me.  The back looks like it doesn't belong. I'll get onto it.
From the front of the phone,  it looks stunning,  with the gorgeous display and shimmering curved glass.  I love how the screen feels so soft to the touch, almost like satin.  But it does of course have it's drawbacks. Firstly,  fingerprints. It's fingerprint hoarder. For me, it couldn't get worse.  I'm always wiping the screen.  Second: It scratches easily.  I kept my phone face down one night,  while charging, and when I picked it up, my gorgeous, gorgeous screen had scratches all over the edges.  Mind you, these were created by the everyday movement of picking the phone of the edge of the table. Just two weeks in too.  It's distressing to say the least. And lastly,  what happens when you drop it. Thankfully,  I haven't dropped mine (yet?), but with the easily scratching curved glass,  I'd hate to think what'll happen.
Nothing is likely to happen to mine,  because I've kitted it up with a Spigen SlimArmor and Tempered Glass screen protector.
Now,  moving onto the back of the phone. This, in my opinion,  is pretty much the only thing I hate about this phone. I can't say I dislike the curvy edges of the sides, because they make gripping the phone much easier.  But what I do hate is the materials texture. You might have expected me to say I hate the plastic because it feels cheap, but no,  it's not that bad. Sure,  it would be better to have metal or glass,  but this isn't as cheap and disgusting as its made out to be. But I hate how the plastic is so slippery, is a fingerprint magnet and how it collects the condensing moisture of your hand and eventually ends up feeling like soap. This is honestly a rather irritating problem.  So, like the screen, after about 20 minutes reading, watching or playing games,  I'm made to wipe the whole phone over before using it again and repeating the cycle. 
But now that I'm using the case,  it's not such a big deal.  The case doesn't pick up fingerprints, isn't slippery and gives a nice chunky (albeit heavier)  feel to the phone.  And I don't much feel inclined to remove it either,  it's not as is it's very good looking from the back. If you want your G2 to feel good,  invest in a nice case,  it's better than way.  My Spigen is very good looking!  It does grace to the amazing stuff inside this monster.

Performance:

The G2 excels in doing all the daily tasks in my opinion. It has never lagged down or crashed on me, and I'm a rather demanding user too. I've done some rather performance demanding games, and it's never broken a sweat. 

When the G2 was released, all the reviewers went on about how the G2 doesn't even know the meaning of lag, and actually, in my usage, I think so too. Sure the newer flagships of today have much better benchmarks than the G2, with the S6E+ scoring 5000+ scores on Geekbench while the G2 only has 2500 to 2800 scores (both multicore), but in real day to day terms, it hardly makes a difference. Go past 2500 and whether you're browsing YouTube or scrolling through the home-pages, you are unlikely to see any lag (unless, of course, you are on year old Samsung).

I mentioned gaming, and I think I need to clarify. I don't have much of a gaming know-how. The most power/graphics hungry games I played were RipTide, Goat Simulator and Asphalt 8 and in my usage the only problem I experienced was something I'll get onto in a minute. Of course, there are people are who've done better, more power hungry games and you might want to check some of those videos on Youtube for further clarification. 

Handling Minecraft or Clash Of Clans is almost nothing for the G2, as is for most normal phones, with the G2 munching through Minecraft explosions and ordinary graphics easily. 

Overall the G2 exceeds my expectations for performance, and in daily usage you'd notice almost no 

difference between this and a 2015 flagship. 

Stuff like browser benchmarks don't really make any difference to the end user, so I'm not going onto those. If you do however, you might want to check out GSMArena's or PhoneArena's reviews. 

Now onto the one problem I've experienced performance-wise on the G2. Now, really, it's probably not something to do with the phone. Rather it's to do with Developers not optimising their games and apps properly. 

The G2 heats up quickly. 

I don't really know why, but when I'm about 10 minutes into Minecraft, for example, this heat becomes evident near the top of the phone, under the camera. Before I put on my Spigen case, I found it almost impossible to go past 15 minutes of gaming. The top end gets really hot, which makes my hands get sweaty, which makes it impossible, combined with the slippery back, to get a grip on the phone. 

Now, I can't say it only happens on the G2. It's same on the Xperia Z3C when I use it. That gets hot after just 1 hour or two of browsing the web or watching Youtube!

And of course, it's same with a lot of modern phones too. These things get hot! I guess it's something to live with.

With the case, like I said, it's far less apparent, and the case also offers good grip on the phone. But when it does get too hot, I always remove the app from the RAM and power-off and restart to get it cooled quickly (though I recommend you just leave it to cool out, rather than restarting).

Battery:

This, by far, is the best thing about the G2 compared to most 2015 flagships. 

It's just purely amazing! On my G2, running LG OS Android 5.0.2, I nearly always get 4.5 to 5 hours screen on time! And it only reduces to 4.5 and under if I use some power-hungry game (Minecraft) or app. 

I always keep WIFI on through the day and I've noticed it hardly does anything to the battery life. Sometimes I prefer to keep AirPlane mode on, and the results vary but don't make much of a difference, 15 minutes more of SOC at maximum on AP mode over normal cellular.

And with the results shown by my friends over at the LG G2 owners community, some have managed to get even better results with different usage patterns and several custom ROMs.

I use Greenify on my G2 (which I may add is rooted), and to tell the truth, I don't really think it's made much of a difference. 

And with Android Marshmallow said to arrive (one day....), I think the G2 can become a very very efficient phone! 

Quick tip: Charge your phone on AirPlane mode, it's almost as quick as Qualcomm Quickcharging on mine; 1 percent per ~1.5 minutes.

UI:

This is a quick run through of something I've noticed LG is getting a lot of flak from; it's UI. In my opinion, I don't at all think it's horrible and cluttered! I mean have they even used Touchwiz on the S6? LG interface is so much more pure than that. As for cluttered, the only thing that is cluttered is the native homescreen. But who in reality, unless you're a 80 year old grandmother (no offence intended), actually uses the native homescreen? I mean the only native homescreen I've ever found to be good is HTC Sense, Google Now Launcher on the Nexus and Sony UI. Use Nova Launcher for gods sake! LG's UI is one of the most out-of-the-box customisable UIs. No other OEM UI allows you to decide where your home, recent apps, and back button goes! The Settings App looks really nice, the notification bar, though not as stock android as I'd like is much, much better than Samsung's Touchwiz, and the addition of Knock Code is really sweet! (Knock Code is amazing! If you don't know what it is search it. You'll really want it after you see how easy it is)

Camera:

This is probably the least used feature of my G2. I hardly ever use the camera. The only photos on my phone are ones I took just see how good the camera quality is. And it's good. Yes, I've seen better, and the OIS isn't as useful as I'd like, but my father (who is well-versed in the art of anything camera) actually prefers the G2 in some cases over his Sony Z3C (the Z3C always oversharpening while the G2 is relatively soft) , while I'm of the opposite opinion. On thing I can say is,  other than in conditions of extremely good lighting,  you will always see the infamous traces of grainy 'sound'.  I find that a letdown, considering most of the photos I've taken are rather grainy. But the camera is always colour accurate,  as far as I've seen

So when it comes to this, I'm afraid I can't really give a verdict on what I think of the camera. It's rather nice, and it's pretty good if all you want to do is point and shoot. (The Manual mode doesn't offer much.) 

Here are some pictures I took so you can decide if it's good for you:

In case you wanted, here's some from the front facing camera, something which I rarely, if ever use:

Conclusion:

I love the G2.  It's truly and honestly one of the best around for the price! Oh wait.  The price!  I didn't get onto that did I?  Well,  if you don't know already,  the G2 comes at an amazing price! In the UK,  it's only £115 on eBay! That is a shocking price in my opinion.  Compared to the other newer phones around today,  it's just too much value for money! The seemingly only advantage the newer phones have is that their processors are 64 bit,  while  the Snapdragon 800 on the G2 is 'only' 32 bit.  But honestly that's a just a tiny tiny letdown compared to what the G2 offers to the Motorola Moto X! This even performances better in gaming,in the camera department and display!  So,  what's the verdict?  In my daily usage,  the G2 has never let me down,  and has always been consistent in its performance,  battery life, and doing the daily jobs I require it to do. If your out looking for a phone to bug,  but don't have the biggest of budgets,  and still want great performance, look no further than this! 

Note:

I know I should have added call quality and call handling, but how many people actually care about it?  It's just an after thought isn't it?  Well, if you wanted to know,  the G2 handles it all perfectly well,  with the call quality being rather good too! It always keeps the call connected (I've never experienced drop offs)  and the phone always stays connected to the network. 

Here's some pictures of my G2 (with and without case), for you look at:

How did you like my review? Anything I haven't covered? Anything I didn't cover well enough? Did you like it? Or not? Please do leave a comment below! Any feedback is appreciated! I'd also really appreciate it if you could +1 this and share this! It only takes a click of a button! It helps! :-) To be notified of every new post first, don't forget to follow my blog, by just submitting your email in the gadget above this post!
So, what's next? Well, during the time I was reviewing this, I got a new addition to the family! The Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact! I've only had it for two days now, but I am absolutely loving it! It's a really amazing tablet! (The photos of the G2 were taken from it)
And that's what's next! Look forward to a review of the Z3TC from my point of view in the following weeks (~two weeks~)! 
In the meantime, why don't check out the other stuff on this blog? There are lots of stories and poems on this that I'm sure you'll enjoy! Given below are all the links you should be checking out!
Thanks for Reading! 

FunFact:
Pretty much half of this article was written on the phone itself, while the other later half I wrote on the Z3TC. Only this last part and the addition of the photos were done on the computer!

Read More:

The Poems Concentrated Series:

Edition 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated.html

Edition 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated-ed-2.html

Edition 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed3.html

Edition 4: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed4.html

Edition 5: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poetry-concentrated-ed5.html

Edition 6: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed-6.html

Edition 7: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed-7.html

Edition 8: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed8.html

Edition 9: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed9.html

Edition 10: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-edition-10.html

Check out my stories:

Crash, a short story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crash-short-story.html

1:49, a horror story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/0149-pm.html

My Baked in Irony series:

Engrossing, a twisted short tale of irony:

  http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/engrossing.html

Sorry…..

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/sorry.html

Noticed….

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/noticed.html

Tomorrow

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/tomorrow.html

Check out Rayhaan's stories:

Flipside 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-closed-door.html

Flipside 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/flipside-2.html

Flipside 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/flipside-3.html

MirrorMan: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.com/2015/08/mirrorman.html

Stories not by Interest Concentrated, but still amazing and worth reading:

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-open-window-by-saki.html

Tech Section:

What you should know about Apple: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-think-of-apple.html

My LG G2 Review: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/week-2-with-g2.html

More Random but Interesting Articles by me:

About Pens: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/why-does-pen-you-use-for-daily-writing.html

About Speech: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/speech-how-do-we-understand-it.html

Games Reviews:

Deadrising 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/review-deadrising-2.html

Or just check out everything in the order they came out in by clicking this:

www.interestconcentrated.blogspot.com

The Open Window by Saki

For this week's story, I've picked up something by a professional author, Hector Hugh Munro or Saki as he is better known. First of all, I want to make it clear, this is NOT one of my own stories. Now I said it, let's get on with the story. I found it on my Quora feed, and I found it impressive. Plus I didn't have time to create my own story, so I thought I'd feature this. It's a rather impressive short story! If you don't know who Saki is here's a short intro from Wikipedia: Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story, and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse.

On with the story!

The Open Window by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)

"My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me."
     Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing.
     "I know how it will be," his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; "you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice."
     Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction came into the nice division.
     "Do you know many of the people round here?" asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufficient silent communion.
     "Hardly a soul," said Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here."
      "Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady.
     "Only her name and address," admitted the caller. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state. An undefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation.
     "Her great tragedy happened just three years ago," said the child; "that would be since your sister's time."
     "Her tragedy?" asked Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place.
      "You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn.
     "It is quite warm for the time of the year," said Framton; "but has that window got anything to do with the tragedy?"
     "Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting. They never came back. In crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shooting ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. Their bodies were never recovered. That was the dreadful part of it." Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human. "Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing 'Bertie, why do you bound?' as he always did to tease her, because she said it got on her nerves. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window - "
     She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance.
     "I hope you don't mind the open window," said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; "my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn't it?"
     She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary.
     "The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise," announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one's ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. "On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement," he continued.
     "No?" said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention - but not to what Framton was saying.
     "Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!"
     Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child was staring out through the open window with a dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.
     In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?"
     Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall door, the gravel drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision.
     "Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window, "fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"
     "A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of goodbye or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost."
     "I expect it was the spaniel," said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve."
     Romance at short notice was her speciality.

Now, wasn't that an impressive story? I think it goes pretty well with our Saturday short story theme, being so ironic and twisted. Which is why chose it, of course. And after-all Saki is regarded as one of the best short story writer ever. I wish he was alive to write for this blog :-D
For next week, I think I can put up one of my own stories. But if  not, expect another amzing story by a more established author.
And remember, if you enjoyed this story, please be sure to share this. Oh, and don't forget to follow the blog! It's the first thing above this post, and all you need to do is submit your email and then you'll always get the latest first! 

Thanks for reading!

You might enjoy our series of Poems Concentrated:
Edition 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated.html
Edition 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated-ed-2.html
Edition 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed3.html
Edition 4: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed4.html
Edition 5: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poetry-concentrated-ed5.html
Edition 6: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed-6.html
Edition 7: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed-7.html
Edition 8: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed8.html
Edition 9: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed9.html

Check out my stories:
Crash, a short story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crash-short-story.html
1:49, a horror story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/0149-pm.html
My Baked in Irony series:
Engrossing, a twisted short tale of irony:  http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/engrossing.html
Sorry…..
http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/sorry.html
Noticed….
http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/noticed.html

Check out Rayhaan's stories:
Flipside 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-closed-door.html
Flipside 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/flipside-2.html
Flipside 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/flipside-3.html
MirrorMan: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.com/2015/08/mirrorman.html

Games Reviews by Dinera:
http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/review-deadrising-2.html

Or just check out everything in the order they came out in by clicking this:
www.interestconcentrated.blogspot.com

Poems Concentrated Ed:9

Mother, any distance greater than a single span

requires a second pair of hands.

You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,

the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.

You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording

length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving

up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling

years between us. Anchor. Kite.

I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb

the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something

has to give;

two floors below your fingertips still pinch

the last one-hundredth of an inch...I reach

towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky

to fall or fly.

----Simon Armitage----

For this week’s edition of Poems Concentrated, I’ve been taking inspiration from the GCSE literature curriculum.  You can find really nice poems that have, I believe, been shadowed from people’s eyes by levelling it out as school work. Not good. You might also notice that this edition is a bit more technical, going deeper in analysis. Don’t worry, it won’t always be like this, just one in few.

The reason why I chose this one among the many available, is because this one quite frankly surprised me with amount of information hidden between the words. Sure, it was meant to have this, being school work, but I wasn’t expecting it, after all it is GCSE stuff.  I’ll also be giving my own summary/analysis, considering that the official website has pretty much the same information and also to just to recycle my own work.

So, the poem looks to the point doesn’t it? I mean, here’s a boy measuring distances in his (new) house with his mother. Here and there, you can sense a bit of sadness, regret and gratitude too. But read on to see more!

Now, considering that I am giving my own summary, I’ll add it in the middle and emphasize it from there on:

The poem is about a young man, who is now moving house to start living an adult life. The poem tries to describe the mixed feelings that occur on both sides as a child grows up. It explores the complex relationship between the mother and son, their feelings and their lives, while apparently describing decorating/ planning-out the new house.

Okay, that’s a bit scarce. Well, that is a compression of all the information you can find in the poem, mind you.

Now, to elaborate on the whole mother-child relationship, and look at it from this point; the poem represents the stages of growing up. In the beginning, he describes how he requires his mother’s help, ‘…second pair of hands’ and liken that to a young child requiring help from a parent. Then he says ‘You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors, the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors’, this can be seen as the way a parent help a child identify their surroundings. Go deeper there, and you can see the word windows, doors, acres of walls, prairies of floors. These words all have/ can be seen to have a metaphorical meaning. Windows, can be seen as a boundary between inside and outside a house, where a mother has to educate a child on how to stay safe in the wide world. Doors, I regard to mean, doors to opportunities. Acres of walls could refer to the many boundaries a person meets in their lives, and acres of floors could refer to the largeness of the world, the immenseness.

The second stanza represents the teenage/ young adult years, where the child ventures out, but always need the mother ‘at the end of the tape’ to come back to. The years go on, their lives drift apart, and the link fades, but some part of it will still remain. The words Anchor/ kite, of course, refer to this, the mother being the anchor, holding down, the permanent figure; the child the drifter, the kite, who is still always connected to the anchor by the string that holds it down, no matter how he tries to fly away.

The last stanza of course the next stage of life where the mother doesn’t get to play such a large part. The poet ‘spacewalks’ (anchor/kite relationship comes into mind, where he is a spaceman but always connected to the ship by a cord) through the rest of pre-adulthood, and then ‘something has to give’; his mother who still nevertheless holds onto a tiny part of the cord, ‘a hundredth of an inch’. Then finally, the gateway to the rest of life, ‘the hatch that opens to an endless sky’. And from there on it is up to him to ‘fly or fall’ in life.

The poem is seemingly a vent to all these feeling the child had.

Maybe I went a bit too far with the analysis, but hey, I can’t let good information that I spent time on finding just lay about in my brain. Plus I guess I found a bit more stuff in this investigation to add to my original one. I’ve probably never given so much information that I found myself on this blog, and I think I’m supposed to feel proud or something, but no, I feel like I like the old ‘poem, ‘fun’, ‘summary’ and ‘bye!’ version of Poems Concentrated better. But I just want to try and do some analysis myself, because after all, I do run this series on great poems. Normally, I do hate digging about in words for information, but it’s something that must be done, and it’s better to know that some other people can also benefit from it, or at least enjoy the read while I do it.

That brings me on to the end of this edition. I’m going to go over a 1000 words, and I always try to keep beneath 1000. And let me take this moment to thank everyone who has been reading and sharing my blog, even though this is probably the 10^th time or so I’m doing it. I’ve passed 3650 views and this only the second post after I said I just passed 3k views. Thanks readers! :-D

That’s the end. Hope you enjoyed this week’s Edition, and if so, please do share it, and follow the blog! I’ve rearranged the format, and it’s the first thing about this post! It says ‘Follow my blog! You’ll love it!’.  I’m sorry about the horrible format I’d been running before, but now its all clear now!

Thanks for reading! :-D

The previous Editions:

Edition 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated.html

Edition 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated-ed-2.html

Edition 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed3.html

Edition 4: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed4.html

Edition 5: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poetry-concentrated-ed5.html

Edition 6: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed-6.html

Edition 7: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed-7.html

Edition 8: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed8.html

Check out my stories:

Crash, a short story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crash-short-story.html

1:49, a horror story: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/0149-pm.html

My Baked in Irony series:

Engrossing, a twisted short tale of irony:  http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/engrossing.html

Sorry…..

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/sorry.html

Noticed….

http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/noticed.html

Check out Rayhaan's stories:

Flipside 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-closed-door.html

Flipside 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/flipside-2.html

Flipside 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/flipside-3.html

MirrorMan: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.com/2015/08/mirrorman.html

Or just check out everything in the order they came out in by clicking this:

www.interestconcentrated.blogspot.com