The Meaning of Velvet Shoes Poem

Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk
And you in wool,
White as white cow's milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes;
Wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

- Elinor Wylie 1885 - 1928

The poem is about a perfect world. The white and the snow are being used as a metaphor for the innocence and purity of this world. Snow is a metaphor for the world, and white is symbolizing the perfection and innocence of the world. The snow being used to symbolize the world is also the use of metonymy, because snow is part of the universe.

Let us walk in the white snow : let us walk in this pure, innocent world of ours

In a soundless space; : the poet is saying that the world is free of imperfections such as pollution, both noise and waste.

With footsteps quiet and slow, : this is saying that they will walk through the world very carefully.. as to not destroy even a small part of the perfection.

At a tranquil pace, : again a reference to not disturbing the land, they are going very slowly so that they do not cause any damage.

Under veils of white lace. : the lace is being used as a metaphor for the protection the world is providing, again the reference to the purity with the word 'white', they are saying that the lace, or shelter as the poet is describing, keeps all of the bad things that could possibly effect their lives away, as long as they are careful and do not offset the balance.

I shall go shod in silk, And you in wool,: these two lines are important because the poet has used two natural fibers (wool, silk - and nature is generally considered to be pure) silk is very soft.. which is indicating that there are no harsh things in this perfect world, this eutopia of sorts.

White as white cow's milk,: stressing the purity of the world with the repetition of white. The world so far has been made out to act almost as a mother to the people in the poem, and milk can sometimes imply nurturing.

More beautiful, Than the breat of a gull.: these two lines are used to say that the world is so beautiful, so perfect, that it is above even the white soft breast of a gull. This is once again, a use of metonymy. Animals are part of nature, part of the world and the poet is using the gull as a comparison for the beauty of the world. (also as a simile, comparing worlds beauty to gulls breast)

We shall walk through the still town, In a windless peace;: The word town is a metaphor for life. The windless peace is the poets way of saying that they will walk through this life, on their perfect world, free of disturbances and impurities.

We shall step upon white down,: poet uses metonymy here, "down" (soft goose feathers) is used to symbolize the world (the environment - nature, the perfection of the ground they are walking on). The reference to the purity of white once more. (down is normally white, so saying white down just emphasizes the line all the more).

Upon silver fleece, : more reference to nature (fleece is from sheep).

Upon softer than these. : back to the perfection of the world. It is so perfect that even the earth they walk upon is soft and delicate, as is fleece, down etc.. Also references to protection again, everything is so perfect no harm can come to them.

We shall walk in velvet shoes; : the poet uses walk to show that the people are in no hurry, and to show noce more that they are taking great care not to damage the world. Another reference to a very soft and also luxurious material with the use of velvet. The poet uses the word shoes because they are used as protection for our feet. Genearlly when people walk with shoes they destroy parts of the earth, however small, in this case the poet is saying that they are walking with such care, with these velvet shoes, and not disturbing any part of their eutopia.

Wherever we go, Silence will fall like dews: saying that wherever they go, the entire land is the same, perfect. The dew is another reference to nature, it's being used as a metaphor for perfection and purity. The silence is again the world free of imperfections. (a simile is used by the poet also: silence will fall like dews)

On white silence below.: just another reference to the purity of the world (white).. and saying that the perfection (which is symbolized with dew in the line above) will act as protection sheltering the people.

We shall walk in the snow.: yet another reference to the slow, unhurried pace and lifestyle of the people in this world and how they are taking special care not to damage their eutopia. This last line is basically just saying, We shall walk through our perfect world.

The basic message the poet is trying to get across is that if the people take care of their world it will protect, shelter and nurture them. That's only if they do not go around destroying it. The poem has a very quiet mood and creates a soft, gentle image in the readers min

Themes of Tha Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code

 Dan Brown

Themes

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The False Conflict between Faith and Knowledge 

Dan Brown refuses to accept the idea that faith in God is rooted in ignorance of the truth. The ignorance that the Church has sometimes advocated is embodied in the character of Bishop Aringarosa, who does not think the Church should be involved in scientific investigation. According to The Da Vinci Code, the Church has also enforced ignorance about the existence of the descendents of Jesus. Although at one point in the novel Langdon says that perhaps the secrets of the Grail should be preserved in order to allow people to keep their faith, he also thinks that people who truly believe in God will be able to accept the idea that the Bible is full of metaphors, not literal transcripts of the truth. People's faith, in other words, can withstand the truth.  

The Subjectivity of History  

The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether history books necessarily tell the only truth. The novel is full of reinterpretations of commonly told stories, such as those of Jesus' life, the pentacle, and the Da Vinci fresco The Last Supper. Brown provides his own explanation of how the Bible was compiled and of the missing gospels. Langdon even interprets the Disney movie The Little Mermaid, recasting it as an attempt by Disney to show the divine femininity that has been lost. All of these retellings are presented as at least partly true.  

The Intelligence of Women 

Characters in The Da Vinci Code ignore the power of women at their peril. Throughout the novel, Sophie is underestimated. She is able to sneak into the Louvre and give Langdon a secret message, saving him from arrest, because Fache does not believe her to be capable of doing her job. Fache specifically calls Sophie a “female cryptologist” when he is expressing his doubts about Sophie and Langdon's ability to evade Interpol. When interpreting one of the clues hidden in the rose box, Langdon and Teabing leave Sophie out, completely patronizing her. When she is finally allowed to see the clue, she immediately understands how to interpret it. Sophie saves Langdon from arrest countless times.  

Other women are similarly underestimated. Sister Sandrine, in the Church of Saint-Suplice, is a sentry for the Brotherhood, but Silas, indoctrinated in the hypermasculine ways of Opus Dei, does not consider her a threat. And Marie Chauvel, Sophie's grandmother, manages to live without incident near Rosslyn Chapel for years, preserving her bloodline through Sophie's brother.  

Syopsis of Miss Potter

MISS POTTER
Synopsis

Beatrix Potter was a literary phenomenon of the early 20th Century. At a time when most young women of her class aimed only to make a good marriage, Beatrix became an iconic figure, swimming quietly, but with great fortitude, against the tide.

She created a series of books and characters that are as beloved today as they were a hundred years ago, and since their publication they have never been out of print. She was also a distinguished painter and – had she been a man – her botanical drawings would have been snapped up by the Royal Horticultural Society at Kew Gardens.

In addition, by the time she died in 1943, Beatrix Potter had purchased vast swathes of the Lake District that she left to the then fledgling British conservation trust, the National Trust. That so much of this glorious countryside that inspired her, remains as it was in Beatrix Potter’s day for others to enjoy, is her bequest to the nation.
This is her story…
MISS POTTER is produced by Phoenix Pictures and David Kirschner Productions and distributed in the US by The Weinstein Company and in the UK by Momentum Pictures with Summit Entertainment handling international sales and distribution. Produced by Mike Medavoy, David Kirschner, Corey Sienega, Arnold Messer, David Thwaites. Executive produced by Renée Zellweger, Nigel Wooll, Louis Phillips and Steve Christian. Directed by Chris Noonan with an original screenplay by Richard Maltby Jr. Andrew Dunn is the director of photography and the production designer is Martin Childs. Anthony Powell is the costume designer and the editor is Robin Sales.

Review of Habibi and Ainun

This year-end is gonna filled with a lot of films, especially local films. There are at least five local films currently showing or queueing in our cinemas. After last week’s "5 cm" “Habibie & Ainun” is absorbing a lot of viewers to come to the cinemas. Predictably becomes another local box-office, “Habibie & Ainun” played a more serious segment of this holiday time as it was adapted from an autobiography written by Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. Yes, he was Indonesia’s ex-president (he’s our third president, working from mid 1998 to 1999) and he was also the man behind the project of our very first national airplane. But, “Habibie & Ainun” didn’t put it as the main topic. It talked more about the relationship of Habibie and his wife, Hasri Ainun Habibie, since they first met.

This romance was, of course, based on true story. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (played by Reza Rahardian), also called as Rudi or Habibie, was an Indonesian genius, master of engineering, and working in Germany, and Hasri Ainun (played by Bunga Citra Lestari) was a young pediatrician. After their first met in high school, they were reunited in Bandung, 1962. They loved each other and soon they married. Habibie brought Ainun to Germany. They lived happily there and were given two sons. Suddenly, when Ainun suffered from ovarian cancer, Habibie was getting a call from the Indonesian government to devote his knowledge to develop his own country. Then they went back to Indonesia, as Habibie’s career was expanding to the governmental sector. Many challenges happened to their marriage, but their love survived through years.

A tear-jerker. Oh yes, “Habibie & Ainun” is, potentially, gonna be full of tears. The purity of their love, the way they face problems that challenged their love... so heart-touching. Although, to be honest, the development of the main conflicts was not really showed, the story focused greatly to how the couple dealt with those challenges. That’s why I thought it’s okay if we weren’t given clear information about Habibie’s background and career, because the film took it as source of conflicts and brought it back to the backbone: the romance between the two (remember, we didn’t see a biopic of just Habibie). And those tear-jerking scenes weren’t something "fake"-ly created to make viewers cry; they were naturally arranged by the incredible chemistry between the two leading roles. The leading roles, oh, were great. Reza Rahardian, especially, was outstanding in portraying Habibie. His acting greatly resembled the way real Habibie behaves. The way he talked sometimes brought laugh to the viewers, but it really how our third president talks. I know Reza did a very good approach (and a very hard trial) to act, but it’s an easier job as he portrayed real living person. More burdens, I think, were on Bunga Citra Lestari’s shoulder as she portrayed our deceased ex first lady. She could only know how the real Ainun behaves from third persons. I think it’s not that her acting was a little bit worse compared to Reza, but it’s more because the character of Habibie was so unique—with all his words, way of walking, way of laughing, and other behaviors—compared to Ainun whose character couldn’t explicitly be shown by her physical behavior. I saw that Bunga was trying so hard to be Ainun with her expression, but finally, it’s covered by the more powerful acting by Reza.]

However, the great acting was not fully supported by the technicians. The make up department was terrible. See, we have lots of actors and actresses portraying real persons; this year we have Nirwan Dewanto portraying Monsignor Soegijapranata in “Soegija”, or previously we have Nicholas Saputra portraying Soe Hok Gie in “Gie”. Here, we have Reza Rahardian portraying B.J. Habibie. Reza Rahardian was not physically similar to real Habibie (yet he did a very good job with his acting), and that’s why he needs special make up to make him looks similar to Habibie. Well, I don’t expect a make up team who make, let’s say, Meryl Streep looks similar to Margareth Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” or Anthony Hopkins looks similar to Alfred Hitchcock in “Hitchcock”, but what if we ask to make Habibie and Ainun look older? I mean, although the story spanned in more than 50 years, it didn’t seem to age. This is the main flaw of “Habibie & Ainun”. Habibie, Ainun, and the places didn’t seemed growing older. Bunga’s skin was still smooth when she portrayed the old, dying Ainun. Ainun’s house and neighborhood, nearly at the end of the film, looks just similar to how it was back at the 1960s. Nearly no change. The placement of ads was still our local films’ biggest problems—and it’s one of the problems of “Habibie & Ainun”—but the make-up was really annoying. Thank you for a good detail of properties, the footages of some real events, and some cameos (the real Habibie narrated and appeared at the latest minutes); they deserved appreciation.

Finally, I see that our local films are now shifting from quantity advancement to quality development. “Habibie & Ainun” showed that our local cinema industry has all resources: great young actors and actresses, good and rotating filmmakers, and a bunch of great stories from ourselves. Maybe some parts need repairment, but it won’t make me say that “Habibie & Ainun” was bad. Reza Rahardian and Bunga Citra Lestari, of course, will be notable for their great acting. “Habibie & Ainun” closed 2012 nicely, heart-warmingly.