Folk Sopgs about Revolution

Irish Rebel song - Michael Collins


This is an Irish revolutionary song composed by Michael Collins, who was an Irish revolutionary leader. The song has a fast militaristic rhythm which indicates a vivacious but serious tone. The first part of the song states the cruelty of wars, in which people die in the pool of blood. Although people aren't willing to join the war, they have to venture their lives by supporting Free States or Republican. The second part describes a heroic man who outfights the foes. Irish feels that they are the prisoners of England and they are eager to embrace freedom. For the sake of next generations and future of Ireland, the Irish soldiers have to fight and win the victory. Britain released the Irish prisoners before Christmas for a brief time. Since the Irish has clever disguise and make great efforts on independence, England decides to sign a truce. Mick Collins, great Irish leader, brings victory for Ireland and eludes the English troops. Unfortunately, he was eventually killed by the English. Irish will pay homage and honor mighty leader Mick Collins forever. However, Irish will find a new military leader in order to bestir more patriots and arouse the determination of independence. Irish doesn't want to rule by England, because it is an independent country with own government. Ireland will born a gallant, courageous hero in future and he will lead to the golden age of Ireland.

Duty or Friendship

I personally think that my friend is more important than my duty. Betraying my friend is worse than betraying my duty, because friendship cracks when friend doesn't believe in me anymore, though my friend might pretend nothing happens. Friendship is fragile as glass, though we can always repair it when the glass crashes, the crack is indelible. However, duty is also significant. Duty is the task that I am responsible to accomplish. I can't just leave duty behind because I am lackadaisical. People believe me so they appoint the tasks to me. Therefore, I'll try my best to maintain both friendship and duty. If I am forced to make a choice between betraying friend or duty, I'll select duty because it represents practicality while I am more sensitive. I will make up my duty after apologizing my mistakes, in which I still have chances to rectify my error. However, there is almost 0 percent to fix the crack between friendship because the betrayal will always leave a lump in friendship and engulf it gradually. Hence, I believe that betraying friendship is worse than betraying duty.

Under Pressure

The qualities that enable people to perform well when facing heart-pounding fear or stress are courage, hatred, and death. When the stakes are high, people will arouse epinephrine which provides strength to overcome the difficulties. Courage gives people the power to confront the fear. Hatred ignites the determination of fighting against the fear, because it has overwhelmed the fear. Death is always the true unknown in people's heart, which is the motivation of courage. When people are afraid of death, they will arouse the courage and stand up for own lives. In Crescendo, when the protagonist Nora is almost trapped and "sacrificed" by Rixon due to the fallen-angel-turn-to-human scheme, she is facing death and thus encourages herself confront the malignant enemy, Rixon. "A honey tongue, a heart of gall" is definitely referring to Rixon. Rixon is an evil guy who betrays his best buddy, Patch, and kills Nora's father while casts the blame on Patch. He wishes that Nora breaks off with Patch entirely, and thus Patch can no longer protects Nora as her guardian angle. Therefore, Rixon has a chance to murder Nora and gets his precious human body, instead of being a homeless fallen-angle. However, the hatred in Nora's heart which arouses by the truth of her father's death doesn't allow Nora to stand still and wait for death. She does EVERYTHING which she finds a beam of hope. Since she is scared of death and doesn't want to die, she endeavors to live and eventually doesn't afraid of death when she faces the bullets. She find herself calm when facing death. Her courage is worth for us to learn from. Anyhow, breaking with Patch is definitely not a good choice because it's he who saves Nora last.

Vengeance

The experiences that lead someone to revenge are overwhelming insults which haunt in people's hearts. The insults usually overheat people in a violent way because they are unbearable. If someone insults another with derogatory comments, he or she might pile up the malice and eventually seek to revenge. The vengeance twists another's mind hardly until another suffocates so much that the determination of vengeance kindles in heart. An obsession with vengeance can lead to tragedy because the malice will explode when people can't load the pressure, in order to seek a solution, they might be insane and extremely obsessed with killing. There was once a poor woman who has hurt violently by her husband for 40 years, in order to make her life better, she decided to kill her husband secretly. She has pondered awhile because it was hard to cut off the relationship. She found out that the only solution was murder. Therefore, although she might regret the decision, her self-conscious supported her to MURDER her husband. Though she was eventually arrested by the police and imprisoned in the jail, she could own her freedom again when she embraced the sunshine outside the jail.

The Grass is always greener on the other side

All of us, at some point in our lives, we have felt that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, which means we have envied other peoples' lives. We believe that having what someone else has will make us happy, until we experience the unexpected negative results of envy. Jot down your feeling about envy. Have you ever seen or felt its negative effects?

Envy is a poisonous vine, snagging and sprawling, which will eventually wrap people hardly to stifle. I'm not a saint; I'm merely an imperfect humankind created by Eve and Adam. I have to admit that I do envy people, but not their lives. I have a healthy body, perfect family, and parents who love me so much that they always accompany and encourage me through difficulties. Compare to skinny African children, I have nothing to complain. However, I once envied my brother. When I learned piano in 4th grade, my brother learned it in 2nd grade and bragged that he would become more skillful than I do eventually. When I was studying hardly, he was always playing his computer games cheerfully. When I was worrying about my grades, he always spent leisure for favorite cartoons. When I transferred to PAS, I worried about my poor vocabularies and reading ability, he didn't have to concern about his staying-same grades because he had two more years than I do. It was unfair for me as an elder sister. I imagined that what will happen if my mom gave birth to my brother first? I hate my jealousy  occupies in my mind and distracts me from homework. I can't really study when I am emotional. Therefore, I ponder for awhile and get a great conclusion. Although I envy my brother, I realize that he envies me, too. He is satisfied to be a younger brother because he can be willful and parents will draw attention on him (that's what I do when I was young) However, he detests people to compare my grades to those of his, especially my father. Once a person asked my brother: "Why does your sister get good grades but you are.....opposite, still stays in ESL?" It was a stupid question. This question definitely hurt my brother's heart and self-confidence. It's so ironic when people are jealous of people in same direction. However, whenever I envy my brother, I learn to comfort myself that I am learning while he's wasting time. I comfort myself that I will practice playing the piano harder so he won't surpass me. I learn to control my jealousy because it will wrap myself in a stuffy frame and stifle me. I learn to satisfy and appreciate things that I own. In conclusion, I realize that envy is a two-way vine. When you feel "the grass is always greener on the other side", you don't appreciate what you own until you lost it. Therefore, don't worry about the grass so much, because you may find  beautiful blossoms smiling on your side.