MY BEAUTIFUL RED “B”
It was exactly two decades ago
At a dealership near the beach
One beautiful warm spring day
I decided to take my run an hour early.
The morning sky was a beautiful orange and blue
The rays were just beginning to wake up the birds and dogs too.
I had just began to hit my stride and run at an above average pace
When from out of nowhere I collided with the love of my life, it was there in my face.
She was fire-engine red and burlywood tan; there was an instant love attraction
So I ran in and grabbed the first salesman. I told him that this was the car of my dreams,
So he encouraged me to take her for a spin, and corrected me on the color of the coverable
Top, he told me that it was cream.  
I grabbed the keys, started the engine and she purred with such an inviting plea
I could have sworn that I heard her say repeatedly, please drive me.
So I pulled out of the parking space at the dealership near the beach
And like my run once she hit her stride I knew the top speed I must reach.
No one could have prepared me for what was to happen next,
 For from out of nowhere I swerved to avoid running head-on with an ambulance.
Striking the light pole caused her airbag to deploy, her beautiful front end cracked like and egg,
But I was alright and I so called the tow guy.
The Gods and angles were not watching over me that day, as I watched helplessly as the tow
guy takes my beautiful red “B” away.
I returned that day to the dealership near the beach,
And the same salesman was there to greet me. He told me he received a call from the tow
guy, and that he wanted to make sure that I was ok, but that the need my insurance
information because I must pay.
He said that it didn’t happen often that someone crashes a Forty-Five thousand BMW on a test
drive like me, I told him they never heard the words spoken as I have by my beautiful red “B”.

Meta-commentary
I created a parody that displayed the style, voice and setting of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee”. In my parody “My beautiful Red “B”, I attempted to mimic the romanticism of original by using nature to describe the scene for the day, and Poe uses nature to describe the location of the place where Annabel Lee resides.  Poe states, “It was many and many a year ago/ in a kingdom by the sea” (ll. 1-2). “I was a child and she was a child/In this kingdom by the sea” (11.7-8). “A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling/My beautiful Annabel Lee” (11.15-16). Poe uses words like sea, wind and clouds to describe nature. I mimicked that use in nature in my work “My beautiful Red “B” by using like words. I too opened my piece with “I was exactly two decades ago/at a dealership near the beach.” (11.1-2) Beach is a representation of water. “One beautiful spring day” (l.3). “The morning sky was a beautiful orange and blue/the rays were just beginning got wake up the birds and dogs too” (11.5-6).  All of these are a representation of nature which is displayed throughout both pieces. I also tried to capture the theme of love as Poe did in his original piece. In Poe’s piece he displays young and innocent love as youths and beauty, and the grieving of that individual being left behind. He states, “I was a child and she was a child/In this kingdom by the sea/but we loved with a love that was more than love/I and my Annabel Lee” (11.7-10). And so, all the night-tide/I lie down by the side/of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride, in her sepulcher there by the sea/in her tomb by the sounding sea” (ll. 37-40). My love for the car was not as intense and creepy as Poe’s love for Annabel Lee. I do show similarities and affection for my Beautiful Red “B” when I state, “When from out of nowhere I collided with the love of my life/It was there in my face” (ll.8) and my only grief came from crashing the car and I tried conveying that in my work by saying, “The Gods and angels were not watching over me that day/as I watched helplessly as the tow guy take my beautiful Red “B” away” (11.21-22).

Romanticism, imagery and themes are the main ingredients both of these pieces have in common. In both introductions the locations were identified and a bit of nature were displayed to describe the time of year of location which were popular elements in this style of writing. Poe displayed his attraction for a being and I for an object of desire. According to “Definitions from A Handbook to Literature, Sixth Edition, C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon” love of nature; sympathetic interest in the past and unrestrained imagination are characteristic of romanticism. Poe’s imagination when relating to a kingdom by the sea, and mine was by the beach, as well as a mutual love interest which neither could totally escape.


And the next item up for bid please; with its 7” multi-touch display with IPS technology and anti-reflective treatment, and its only 7.5” x 4.7 in size and weighs only 14.6 ounces, that’s only 413 grams Brits and this little electronic device is wireless. It has 8GB internal memory, which is enough for 80 apps, that would be applications, plus 10 movies or 800 songs, yes it even acts as an IPod or 6,000 books. Now this impressive library would make Ben proud. This little wave of the future has other details, but I don’t want to bore you with the minor things. Let’s move forward with the bidding, please. I bid $300. I bid $650. I bid $900, $1100, Alex. And the price of this mini- hand- held library, also known as the Kindle Fire is $199. Yes, you heard me correct, $199. I say all of this to say that In “The Biography of Benjamin Franklin” he is a true believer of Enlightenment and education, and I just think that this here gadget is a way of self-empowerment. 6,000 books peoples! That means no more going to those brick buildings which use to be used for study and keeping our voices down, but are now used for everything from a day care to a public debate area and a who can scream the loudest on your cell phone building. It also means an end to purchasing and caring those heavy text books and being able to download them with the touch of one finger. And you can see those little all-important self-help videos right here on the 7”screen. Genius! Eureka! Hallelujah!


Kindle Fire
    
Meta-Commentary    

I too could not resist a parody of Ben Franklin and Enlightenment.     Franklin was one of, if not the best inventors of all time and he truly believed that education and self-empowerment were keys to a successful life and I really can’t argue with his philosophy. Franklin credited the library for his learning throughout his biography. In chapter eight Franklin states, “The library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour of two each day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement I allow’d myself” (Franklin) This would be a dream for him. He also stated, “ So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” (Franklin) Hooker described this statement best when he stated, “Truth can be arrived at through empirical observation, the use of reason, and systematic doubt.” (Hooker). Again, Franklin carried those enlightenment thoughts throughout his day-to-day life. “Human beings can be improved through education and the development of their rational facilities. (Hooker) And Franklin, “Improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges” (Franklin). Franklin attributes hard work and his thirst for knowledge for his success. I believe that Franklin would have enjoyed have 6000 boxes at his fingertips without having to step inside a building.

In my last parody I am stating that technology of today has given us many options for learning history, writing, research and other events. We are no longer confined to the four walls of a library to research material that is beneficial in our educational development. In the seventeenth century spending time at the library to research or study was considered the smart thing to do. Today our library is where we chose to make it. We can go to park, travel on airplanes, lie on the beach and have most reading material at our fingertip. Hooray for modern technology!