ENG2003-1248 Prof Rosen Essay# 2
TORNADOS BY THYLIAS MOSS
Glossary: Words and Definition
Jitterbug- a jazz variation of the two steps in which couples swing, balance and twirl in standardized patterns and often with vigorous acrobatics
Philharmonic- symphony orchestra
Wrath- strong vengeful anger or indignation
Bouffant- having a full and round shape
Roulette- something involved a high degree of chance and unpredictability
Annotations
“Tornadoes”
Tornadoes are nature’s most violent storms spawned from powerful thunderstorms; tornadoes can cause fatalities and devastate a neighborhood in second. A tornado appears rotating, funnel shaped cloud that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling winds. Tornadoes they may strike quickly with little or no warning. They may appear nearly transparent until dust and debris are picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel. The averages tornado moves southwest to northeast but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction. (1) Tornadoes come from the energy released in the thunderstorm. As powerful as they are tornadoes account for only a tiny fraction of the energy in a thunderstorm. What makes them dangerous is their energy is concentrated in a small area perhaps only a hundred years across. (2)
“Tornado Alley”
Tornado alley is a nickname in the popular media from swath of relatively high tornado occurrences in the central U.S. it occur almost anywhere in the U.S. including west of the Rockies Mountain and the east of the Appalachians Mountain. (3) But science of this kind is challenging, for tornadoes resist analysis, and creative computer models can take researchers only so far. The tornado has become the black hole of meteorology. (4) Tornadoes in this region typically happen in late spring and occasionally the early fall. The Gulf Coast area has a separate tornado maximum nicknamed “Dixie Alley” with a relatively high frequency of tornadoes occurring in the late fall (October through December). (5)
Explication
The poem that I would be explication is Tornados by Thylias Moss the way this poem is that it has a rhythm. The poem makes a connection between herself and the tornado. She has different ways she makes reference of herself and the tornado what they do. She makes it in a positive ways because the way it moves like a jitterbug. Also philharmonic it’s like orchestra like the sound like music and tornado. The rhythm is the motion that tornado does when it on land. The tornado does not stay still it move around and destroy whatever it in their way.
“Trust is, I envy them/not because they dance; I out jitterbug them/as I’m shuttled though and though legs/strong as looms, weaving time.” (lines 1-4) That part of the poem is about her envy the tornado but she doesn’t want to say what is she really envy. But she makes the description about the tornado in the way it dances. Jitterbug is a jazz move that has different ways that tornado and a person would move. The rhythm of the motions. She also made the comparison with the looms you have the needle moving to weaving a sweater. But the only thing is that a looms stay in one place because the people have it in their hand or if a machine it stay in place. Tornado moves all over the place they can go to the left or right or go any direction.
They/do black more justice than I, frenzy/of conductor of philharmonic and electricity hair/on end, result of the charge when horns and stringers release the pent up Beethoven and Mozart. Ions played//instead of notes. (lines 4-9) She is talking about the tornado doing more justice because they are very dangers and they would destroy anything that right next to them. Also that tornado has a rhythm that it’s like playing in an orchestra. She makes a reference to Beethoven and Mozart because of their musical rhythm because they music is an uncontrolled wild excitement. The ways their music sound their hair are electricity.
The movement/is not wrath, not hormone swarm because/ I saw my first forming above the church a surrogate/steeple. (lines 9-12) The morning of my first baptism and/salvation already tangible, funnel for the spirit/coming into me without losing a drop, my black/guardian angel come to rescue me before all the words//get out, I looked over Jordan and what did I see coming for/to carry me home.(lines 12-17) this part of the poem is mainly is about she is being in church and she happy to be there and all of that she feel the spirit and getting baptism. And suddenly her friend came to help her because of the tornado was coming to the community. When a tornado come to the community nobody is save. That tornado would come and destroy everything in sight.
Regarez, it all comes back, even the first/grade French, when the tornado stirs up the past, bewitched spoon/lost in its own spin, like a roulette wheel that won’t/ be steered, like the world. (Lines 17- 20) The poem is representing in this lines are that she remember in first grade that tornado came by and just steered everything up and she compare it to a roulette like a gamble you don’t know what going to happen and what direction the tornado is going. That day was an unpredictability day for storm.
They drove me underground, /tornado watches and warnings, atomic bomb drills. Adult/storms so I had to leave the room. (Lines 20-22) After that situation everybody wanted to be more prepare for the next one and don’t want to be off guard for the next time it happens again. Her teacher and her parents are probably drilling their children to survive from this danger storm. It mainly happen in west of the Rockies Mountain and the east of the Appalachians Mountain.
Truth is//the tornado is a nappy curl, tightly wound,/spinning wildly when I try to tamper with its nature, shunning/ the hot comb and pressing oil even though if absolutely straight/I’d have the longest hair in the world. (Lines 22-26) In this one she compare this lines to herself because the way the tornado looks and her hair but if she straight out her hair it would be long because when your hair is curly it curl up and its looks shorter. But when you straight out your hair it looks flat and when the storm is over you don’t see the tornado curl or it destroy the community. She talks about her having curly hair likes the tornado. She compare her hair to the way the tornado looks wild and curly and out of control.
Bouffant tornadic/crown taking the royal path on a trip to town, stroll down/Tornado Alley where it intersects Memory Lane. Smoky spirit-/clouds, shadows searching for what cast them. (Lines 26-29) Where she grew up, she probably had a lot of tornado watch. Where ever she goes she knows that where the tornado happen the most common place where it happens a lot. When she past be to that place where the tornado happen she just remember the way the sky looked and what was happen and it’s a very powerful storm. You can’t control it go on its own. You just have to be prepared and be alert. She also wonders how it happens and why do it happen. Sciences know what happen but can’t stop it because it created from earth natural calling.
I wanted to add a video to my essay that represents this essay its call twister movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKSIdx11DnE. It’s a clip what happen when the tornado is coming and they are warning people and trying to save of the tornado.
Work Cities
Glossary: www.merrian-webster.com
(1) FEMA: www.ready.gov/tornadoes
(2) http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/faq/faq_tor.php
(3) Edwards, Roger (2009-12-31). “What is Tornado Alley?”. The Online Tornado FAQ. Storm Prediction Center.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/index.html#alley1. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
(4) Priit J. Vesilind: Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/chasing-tornadoes/#page=3
(5) U.S. Tornado Climatology: National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina Updated 7 March 2012 http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/tornadoes.html
Meyer, Michael. “Tornados by Thylinas Moss.” Poetry: An Introduction. 6th ed. Boston MA: Bedford/St Martins, 2010. 239. Print
