Is Compost Tea Fact Or Fiction Environmental Sciences Essay

Is Compost Tea Fact Or Fiction Environmental Sciences Essay Horticulturists, scientists, teachers, gardeners, practioners and farmers all rave about compost and the benefits to the soil, like improving soil structure, reducing water use, improving aeration, attracting earth worms and many more. I want to believe the same thing holds true for compost tea, is it the cure all for damping off disease, will it make my tomatoes luminescent(6), will it make my lawn greener, will my plants have less disease and eliminate pest problems, will it make my soil a better place for my plants, the claims for compost tea are numerous, does it really work? Compost tea has been around for thousands of years perhaps as far back as the Roman Empire (6). Somebody noticed that plants grew better around manure or on manured ground. But solid manure was hard to work with. So it went into a container of water to let it steep for awhile and we can be sure that it got stirred. When used as a drench, plant growth improved. In the late 1990s aeration was first introduced into the compost tea.(4) Aeration claims to increase beneficial microbes and accelerate the process by creating optimum levels of oxygen for growth and reproduction of beneficial aerobic microorganisms. So there are now numerous definitions of compost tea. Compost leachate which is the runoff of water from compost or worm bins. The material is a brown colored water that runs out of compost or worm bins when the bins or piles become too wet. The liquid is a product of compost or worm casting that has not completely finished the compost process. Most likely rich in soluble nutrients; but in the early stage of composting it may also contain pathogens(11) Compost extract is what was originally called compost tea. Compost is wrapped in coarse fabric and soaked in water for days. The primary benefit of the extract will be a supply of soluble nutrients, which can be used as a liquid fertilizer(11) Compost tea is an aerated mixture of compost and food sources for microbes; such as kelp, molasses, fish hydrolysates, rock dust and humic acids. The compost-tea brewing technique and aerobic process extracts and grows populations of beneficial microorganisms. (11) Compost tea can be added to soil to improve soil life and impacts plants more quickly than a composted mixture. (7) The reasoning behind compost tea is that once the mixture has completed and is applied as a soil drench it will add microbes to soils which in turn help to break down organic material in the soil and can then be used for food for plants. And the need for synthetic fertilizers becomes less. There are many different recipes for compost tea based on your needs, there are fungal teas which are good for acid loving plants and trees and shrubs, there is some evidence that beneficial fungus will help with some diseases like powdery mildew and downy mildew. And there are bacterial teas which are good for vegetables, annuals, perennials and grasses. What is compost tea? The soil food web defines compost tea as: essentially, is a brewing process that extracts microorganisms from compost followed by microbial growth and multiplication. This includes beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. When compost teas are sprayed onto the leaf surface, these beneficial organisms occupy spatial niches on the leaf surface and gobble up leaf exudates that pathogenic organisms would otherwise feed on to prosper; other microbes directly interfere with pathogenic organisms through antagonism. A more simple definition: Compost tea, in modern terminology, is a compost extract brewed with a microbial food source-molasses, kelp, rock dust, humic-fulvic acids. The compost-tea brewing technique, an aerobic process, extracts and grows populations of beneficial microorganisms (11) based on the ingredients that you use you will either have bacterial tea, fungal tea or a combination Compost Tea has been field tested to be effective in suppression of the following diseases: black spot, mildew (downy), needle cast on pine, vertilcillium wilt, white flies, mealy bugs, rust, aphids, tent caterpillars, mites, leaf curl, red thread (early and late), fungal diseases in ornamental cherries per the website http://www.simplici-tea.com/disease_suppression.htm. However, I have not found any science based information to back this claim. What about the science? A trial at the University of Oregon conducted on black spot on roses showed Roses in locations with shade suffered from powdery mildew. Compost tea did not seem to affect powdery mildew. One private location observed that the roses sprayed with tea at that location seemed healthier overall than those that were not sprayed. They had glossier leaves and more blooms overall. Two of the three test groups in 2007 showed a slight improvement in incidence of disease over plants that were not sprayed. The difference was not statistically greater. The average between 2006 and 2007 still showed control group doing better than the experimental group. (8) In comparing the matched pairs of eight Prunus spp., the compost tea extract was not significantly different from the water application for any of the eight cultivars tested. In fact, for some trees it made the problem worse. (9) An excerpt from a study on aerated compost tea to suppress dampening off disease While further work is needed to directly quantify the residual sucrose concentrations in aerated compost tea produced with molasses-based additive to determine the effect on damping-off suppression, there are strong indications that the use of simple sugars as additives should be avoided when producing compost tea for disease suppression. In addition to the potential of residual nutrients increasing Pythium damping-off, the use of simple sugars in producing compost tea has been linked to growth of E. coli in aerated compost tea makers when compost contaminated with E. coli was used. (1) Turf quality ratings initially were very low for the tea drenches, therefore it was decided to apply liquid fertilizer over the tea treated plots to maintain acceptable turf quality. This addition masked any further differences in turf quality. The foliar tea applications suppressed dollar spot 40 to 60 percent when compared to untreated plots in one of three years. It is unlikely that due to the variability of brewing results, little microbial benefit, and the labor required for brewing tea that this technology will see widespread adoption in its current form. (2) However a trial at Harvard University (Prepared by Harvard Facilities Operations Maintenance) which used a combination of compost tea, compost and organic fertilizer, increased the depth of turf roots, decreased water usage, and increased available nitrogen, since they were using a combination of organic methods there is no definite proof that the compost tea was a main contributor. When asked if they had done any studies on compost tea, they said We only use compost tea as a portion of our organic program so unfortunately we have not done any studies on compost tea alone. Dr Linda Chalker-Scott PH.D. WSU states that clearly the science is not strong for aerated tea use on crop plants, much less on lawns, shrubs and trees. (3) After twelve weeks of compost tea treatment, there are evident responses among the microbial community, however, its too early to draw conclusions about the efficacy of the compost tea treatment. (5) The production and application of compost tea is primarily focused on: disease suppression, supplementing plant nutrients, and increasing soil microbiology to improve soil structure, water percolation/retention, rooting depth and consequently improved plant growth. The research conducted worldwide on compost tea is scarce and the results are highly variable. Results vary from suppression of some diseases to no effect in disease suppression at all, or in few cases increased incidence of diseases. Where compost teas are compared with conventional fungicides, in most instances compost teas have been relatively ineffective. Compost tea producers estimate that up to 5,000 farms are using compost tea in New South Wales, Australia these are mainly organic farms. Use of compost teas is based on faith or anecdotal evidence rather than based on replicated scientific research at this stage. Researchers acknowledge that there are significant limitations in our knowledge of compost teas and its u se, and hope that an increased understanding of compost tea microbiology and the survival and interactions of microbes on plants surfaces will enable compost tea production practices and application technology that optimizes disease suppression. (15) Lee Reich PhD in horticulture wrote in Fine Gardening Magazine January 2007 an article titled The Jury is Still Out on Compost Tea where he says Benefits from compost teas are on even shakier ground when the tea is used to improve the soil. Compost has been shown to improve soil tilth, help soil retain nutrients, enhance nutrient availability, increase rooting depth, and suppress root diseases. Compost tea, by extension, is credited with providing these same benefits. Therein lies part of the great appeal of compost tea. Who  wouldnt rather improve an acre of soil with the recommended 15 to 20 gallons of compost tea rather than have to heave around 2 to 5 tons per acre of compost? But compost and compost tea are not the same. They differ quantitatively and qualitatively in microbial makeup, and most dramatically, one is a relatively small volume of liquid and the other is a relatively large, mostly solid mass. Composts bulk comes mainly from carbon compounds, which are the major fo ods for beneficial microorganisms. Compost tea contains relatively little of these carbon foods. The beneficial microorganisms of composts and compost teas are already present in most soils and will multiply rapidly if food supplies permit. If your soil does not have beneficial microorganisms, it probably means the conditions arent hospitable to them. Unless you improve those conditions, any added microorganisms will die.   This article provided a lot of discussion on the internet when it was first published and now includes a new string of posts on http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-tea/is-compost-tea-just-a-fad/ dated January 13th 2011 since that date there have been fifty eight posts. Most of the posts favor the use of compost tea and the major opinion is no compost tea mix is the same and if it works for you continue to use it. If you have good soil conditions and your plants are healthy there may be no reason for compost tea. But if you have a small amount of compost and need a vast improved soil, when plants are struggling, showing signs of stress or when you want to apply composts benefits to a lawn these might be good reasons to use compost tea (Plesand). With so many claims about compost tea, in 2003, the National Organic Standards Board convened a Compost Tea Task Force to review the relevant scientific data and report their recommendations on compost tea. The Task Force was composed of 13 individuals with knowledge and expertise in organic farming practices, organic certification, EPA pathogen regulations, compost, compost tea production and analysis, plant pathology, food safety and environmental microbiology. The final report can be found at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5057213. They came back with ten steps to be used in making compost tea, found a lot of practioners that use compost tea and also established there was not a lot of science based evidence behind the use the compost tea, and a possibility of contaminating crops. In conclusion there could be benefits from compost tea but there have not been a lot of scientific studies on the use as prevention for diseases and pests or that it increases dramatically the growth of plants. Compost tea has a lot of different variables by the type of compost used; vermicompost, manure compost, leaf and grass clipping compost, and any other possible compost mix. Another variable would be the additives to the tea molasses, kelp, humic acid, granite dust, fish hydrolysates, fungal foods like oatmeal and powdered baby oatmeal. And then there is the time and temperature of mixing with aeration. There appears to be some advantage of using compost tea but a lot more studies need to be done to prove the claims of the some websites and even some famously written books. The question has been asked why not more research on compost tea? Compost teas are highly variable in their microbial and nutrient content from batch to batch. This translates to high variation within data sets and often leads to inconclusive results. Unfortunately, these results are often not published even though they are just as important as positive outcomes. In other words, if a particular treatment doesnt work well under controlled experimental conditions, its unlikely to work consistently anywhere else.(18) With that being said, there is no harm in trying to make your own compost tea and doing your own experimentation. There has been some back and forth discussion on the use of molasses and e coli in compost tea, so if one uses molasses read the scientific data before applying to edible plants. Per Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, PhD While the scientific evidence is certainly lacking for Aerated Compost Tea activity in disease control, there is a serious, documented concern with these types of compost teas, says Dr. William R. Schneider, a research scientist in the Biopesticides Pollution Prevention Division (Office of Pesticide Programs) of the USEPA. He continues it is very difficult to do a microbial pesticide risk assessment on a mixture of unidentified microorganisms that could easily contain human and nontarget organism pathogens. Indeed, this risk is significant in ACTs that have been enhanced with molasses, kelp, and other high-nutrient additives. Such ACTs have been documented throug h scientific research to contain E. coli and Salmonella populations, both of which are human pathogens. The recent deaths due to E. coli-contaminated spinach illustrate how dangerous compost tea applications can be, particularly on food crops. Even though there have not been any reports of problems from compost tea make sure you read all the reports. The use of compost tea as part of an integrated plant health management strategy will require much additional whole systems research by a cohesive team of farmers and experts in composting, plant pathology, phyllosphere biology, molecular microbial ecology, fermentation science, plant physiology, plant breeding, soil science, and horticulture. From the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada posted April 2010 (13) A controversial name in compost tea is Dr Elaine Ingham with Soil Foodweb who has published The Field Guide I for Actively Aerated Compost Tea, Compost Tea Manual 5th ed. and a number of other books, CDs and offers seminars on compost tea. She has done a lot of research on soils, and helps farmers all over improve their soils; but has not published a lot of peer reviewed research on compost tea. In January 2011 the Rodale Institute a non-profit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach named her Chief Scientist; and will be in charge of research at the institute, hopefully now, there will be more research on the benefits of compost tea. So despite all the hype, compost tea is not the silver bullet everyone is looking for.   Unfortunately, nature is not that simplistic.   But its fun to experiment.   (I do lots!) If you do experiment, and come up with a formula that you think works-try replicating it in a scientific way (16) per the Whatcom County Master Composter Recycler Program. How do I make compost tea? The USDA suggests using a sump pump to bubble air into the extract for 24-36 hours (Sac Bee). First you need a brewer you can purchase a brewers which makes 500 gallons for around $11,647.00 to $50.00 for a 5 gallon brewer. And then purchase packaged mixes and just add water. You can also buy brewers and make your own mixture, using your own compost or vermicompost. Another option would be to make your own brewer using a five gallon bucket, an inexpensive aquarium pump, an air stone, some aquarium tubing and a porous bag of some type. There are numerous directions on the internet. Once you have a brewer to make the tea; there are numerous recipes on the internet. One simple recipe is five gallons of chlorine free water, six cups of compost or vermicompost, three tablespoons unsulfured black strap molasses. Cover the container Brew this for twenty four to forty eight hours at 75à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ° let rest ten minutes and then use immediately.(Remillard) The compos t tea should smell good (earthy) and have a brownish tea color. If the tea smells bad it has gone anaerobic it could contain ammonia and dangerous bacteria and should not be used. Once the tea is made it can be diluted one to three, one to two or used full strength. It can be used as a soil drench on a wet soil any time of the day. It can be used as a foliar spray in the early morning or evening. If you are using a foliar spray it would be a good idea to filter the tea first so you do not clog your sprayer. When making compost tea make sure you start with good smelling compost or vermicompost the better the compost the better the tea. Another easy recipe for compost tea Home-size compost tea recipe comes from W.F. Brinton at Woods End Laboratories Inc., Maine. 1) Use well-aged compost, at least 4 months old. 2) Put in a large pail or barrel outdoors between 59à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ° and 68à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ °C. 3) Add water, 1 part compost to 5 to 8 parts water (i.e. 1 cup of compost to 5 cups of water). 4) Stir daily for five days. The strong smell should slowly dissipate. 5) On the fifth day, pour through a sieve or a cheese cloth. 6) Spray on plants in periods of disease outbreak, or drench the soil at the base of the plant. 7) Do not spray edible plant parts to be harvested in the following 2 to 3 weeks. CalRecycle (a CA.gov website) on their website says But why go to all the trouble of brewing and spraying this tea instead of just working the compost into the soil? Two reasons: To inoculate microbial life into the soil to feed the foliage of plants, and to add soluble nutrients to the foliage or soil in order to feed your plants. Compost tea is a readily available form of compost that will impact the plant more quickly than compost mixed into the soil. I am not sure how they came up with this information as no scientific evidence has been found that all this is true. When it comes to state Master Gardener programs there is also a lot of different opinions. The state of Pennsylvania tells you how to make compost tea at http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/tea/tea1. Arizona state university extension tells you how to make compost tea at http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/composttea.html. However, Washington state master gardeners cannot recommend compost tea. Because Washington State University Master Gardeners are volunteer educators who rely on science-based information, they cannot recommend a practice or product that lacks a legitimate scientific basis. Furthermore, it is illegal to sell unregistered substances for use as pesticides. There are no compost tea products registered as pesticides within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Neither WSU Master Gardener volunteers nor Web sites may encourage the use of compost tea as a pesticide. (9) Then Oregon State University extension tells you how to make compost tea on their website and their Master Gardeners sell compost tea as a fund raiser . In California per Pam Geisel Statewide University of California Master Gardener Coordinator We dont recommend compost tea because we do not have science based information on it at this time.   Also, compost tea is so variable in terms of content that making a generalized recommendation would be impossible as to the quality and the plant response. Organic Gardening senior editor says he is convinced that There is the potential for a health hazard from its use (compost tea) that being the possible presence of E. coli.   And hes concerned that some Cooperative Extension Service websites happily provide the recipe for making compost tea at home with no warning about the health risks if its applied to food crops. Finally, I think the Extension Horticulture Agent, in Anchorage Alaska, Julie Riley sums it up best, Compost tea is like a religion-you have to have faithà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I know there are Anchorage Master Gardeners who feel they get good results with compost tea. Ive always said to gardeners if you are happy with your results, keep doing what you are doing' Bibliography and Citations (1) Scheuerell Steven J. and. Mahaffee Walter F First author: Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University; and second author: U.S. Department of Agriculture- Agriculture Research Service-Horticulture Crops Research Laboratory, Corvallis, OR 97330. Compost Tea as a Container Medium Drench for Suppressing Seedling Damping-Off Caused by Pythium ultimum Accepted for publication 14 June 2004. Web March 2011. (2) Rossi Frank, Cornell University, Cornell University, 134a Plant Science Bldg., Ithaca, NY 14853 Effects of Compost Tea on Turfgrass Performance, Disease Incidence, and Soil Microbial Populations. Nov. 8, 2007 Web March 2011. (3) Chalker-Scott, PhD. Linda, Extension Horticulturist and Associate Professor, Puyallup Research and Extension Center, Washington State University www.MasterGardenerOnline.com à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ MASTERGARDENER winter 2007 pages 8-10, Web March 2011 (4) Moore, Robert C; History of Compost Tea thesoilguy.com N.p, n.d web March 2011 (5) Stevenson, Emily; Yale School of Forestry, Alexander Felson and Mark Bradford Environmental Studies Advisors, Closing the Loop: Alternative Land Management at Yale, Hixon Fellowship 2010, web April 2011 (6) Remillard Marc, Compost Tea Making, Ascension Press, April 2010 (7) Author unknown, What Is Compost Tea, and Why Use It? CA.Gov CalRecycle, California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, March 24, 2005, web April 2011 (8)Wise, Cindy, Compost Specialist Compost Tea Trial 2007, OSU/Lane County Extension Service Compost Specialist tea trial, December 2007, web April 2011 (9) Chalker-Scott, Linda Ph.D., Extension Horticulturist and Associate Professor, Puyallup Research and Extension Center, Washington State University The Myth of Compost Tea Revisited: Aerobically-brewed compost tea suppresses disease, April 2001, Web May 2011 (10) Lanther, Mario, Compost Tea and Its impact On Plant Diseases, BC Organic Grower, Volume10, Number 2, spring 2007, Web April 2011 (11) Diver, Steve, NCAT Agriculture Specialist Notes on Compost Teas The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service ATTRA 2002 Web March 2011 Ingham, Dr Elaine, Rollins, Carole Ann ed., Sustainable Studies Inc. and Natural Technologies, The Field Guide 1 for Actively Aerated compost Tea (AACT) April 2001-June 2003 Second Edition, Second Printing March 2007 Pleasant, Barbara and Martin, Deborah; The Complete Composting Guide, Storey Publishing, LLC February 13, 2008 Arrington, Debbie, Now theres distinction between compost tea, extract', Sacramento Bee, Saturday, February 26, 2011, page D5. Geisel, Pam, Personal interview May 10, 2011 (12) Harvard Facilities Operations Maintenance, Harvard Yard Soils Restoration Project, 2009 President and Fellows of Harvard College, February 2009, Web March 2011 (13) Scheuerell S. and Mahaffee W., Compost tea: Principles and prospects for plant disease control Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada, April 2010, Web March 2011 (14) Aerated Compost Tea Oregon State University Extension Service Douglas County, November 14, 2009, Web April 2011 Chalker-Scott, Dr. Linda PhD Associate Professor and Extension Urban Horticulturist WSU Puyallup Research and Extension, Compost Tea: Examining the science behind the claims N.d., Web April 2011 (15) Overview of Compost Tea Use in New South Wales. Recycled Organics Unit (2006). Recycled Organics Unit, internet publication: 2007 second edition, Web March 2011 (16) To Tea or Not to Tea Whatcom County Master Composter Recycler Program, Bellingham, WA, N.d. Web May 2011 (17) Harris, Susan, Still confused about compost tea, I turn to Rodale Garden Rant, Uprooting the Gardening World, February 25, 2010, Web May 2011. (18) Reeves, Walter, The Georgia Gardener, Compost Tea Does it Work? N.d, web May 2011 Martin, Deborah L. and Gershuny, Grace, Ed., The Rodale Book of Composting, Rodale Press, 1992

The Witch by Edilberto K. Tiempo

The Witch By Edilberto K. Tiempo When I was twelve years old, I used to go to Libas, about nine kilometers from the town, to visit my favorite uncle, Tio Sabelo, the head teacher of the barrio school there. I like going to Libas because of the many things to eat at my uncle’s house: cane sugar syrup, candied meat of young coconut, corn and rice cakes, ripe jackfruit, guavas from trees growing wild on a hill not far from Tio Sabelo’s house. It was through these visits that I heard many strange stories about Minggay Awok. Awok is the word for witch in southern Leyte.Minggay was known as a witch even beyond Libas, in five outlying sitios, and considering that not uncommonly a man’s nearest neighbor was two or three hills away, her notoriety was wide. Minggay lived in a small, low hut as the back of the creek separating the barrios of Libas and Sinit-an. It squatted like a soaked hen on a steep incline and below it, six or seven meters away, two trails forked, one go ing to Libas and the other to Mahangin, a mountain sitio. The hut leaned dangerously to the side where the creek water ate away large chunks of earth during the rainy season.It had two small openings, a small door through which Minggay probably had to stoop to pass, and a window about two feet square facing the creek. The window was screened by a frayed jute sacking which fluttered eerily even in the daytime. What she had in the hut nobody seemed to know definitely. One daring fellow who boasted of having gone inside it when Minggay was out in her clearing on a hill nearby said he had seen dirty stoppered bottles hanging from the bamboo slats of the cogon thatch.Some of the bottles contained scorpions, centipedes, beetles, bumble bees, and other insects; others were filled with ash-colored powder and dark liquids. These bottles contained the paraphernalia of her witchcraft. Two or three small bottles she always had with her hanging on her waistband with a bunch of iron keys, whether she went to her clearing or to the creek to catch shrimps or gather fresh-water shells, or even when she slept.It was said that those who had done her wrong never escaped her vengeance, in the form of festering carbuncles, chronic fevers that caused withering of the skin, or a certain disease of the nose that eventually ate the nose out. Using an incantation known only to her, Minggay would take out one insect from a bottle, soak it in colored liquid or roll it in powder, and with a curse let it go to the body of her victim; the insect might be removed and the disease cured only rarely through intricate rituals of an expensive tambalan. Thus Minggay was feared in Libas and the surrounding barrios.There had been attempts to murder her, but in some mysterious way she always came out unscathed. A man set fire to her hut one night, thinking to burn her with it. The hut quickly burned down, but Minggay was unharmed. On another occasion a man openly declared that he had killed her, showi ng the blood-stained bolo with which he had stabbed her; a week later she was seen hobbling to her clearing. This man believed Minggay was the cause of the rash that his only child had been carrying for over a year. One day, so the story went, meeting his wife, Minggay asked to hold her child. She didn’t want to offend Minggay.As the witch gave the child back she said, â€Å"He has a very smooth skin. † A few days later the boy had skin eruptions all over his body that never left him. Minggay’s only companions were a lean, barren sow and a few chickens, all of them charcoal black. The sow and the chickens were allowed to wander in the fields, and even if the sow dug up sweet potatoes and the chickens pecked rice or corn grain drying in the sun, they were not driven away by the neighbors because they were afraid to arouse Minggay’s wrath. Besides the sow and the chickens, Minggay was known to have a wakwak and a sigbin.Those who claimed to have seen the si gbin described it as a queer animal resembling a kangaroo: the forelegs were shorter than the hind ones: its fanlike ears made a flapping sound when it walked. The wakwak was a nocturnal bird, as big and black as a crow. It gave out raucous cries when a person in the neighborhood had just died. The bird was supposed to be Minggay’s messenger, and the sigbin caried her to the grave; then the witch dug up the corpse and feasted on it. The times when I passed by the hut and saw her lean sow and her black chickens, I wondered if they transformed themselves into fantastic creatures at night.Even in the daytime I dreaded the possibility of meeting her; she might accost me on the trail near her hut, say something about my face or any part of it, and then I might live the rest of my life with a harelip, a sunken nose, or crossed eyes. But I never saw Minggay in her house or near the premises. There were times when I thought she was only a legend, a name to frighten children from doin g mischief. But then I almost always saw her sow digging banana roots or wallowing near the trail and the black chickens scratching for worms or pecking grains in her yard, and the witch became very real indeed.Once I was told to go to Libas with a bottle of medicine for Tio Sabelo’s sick wife. I started from the town at half past five and by the time I saw the balete tree across the creek from Minggay’s hut, I could hardly see the trail before me. The balete was called Minggay’s tree, for she was known to sit on one of the numerous twisting vines that formed its grotesque trunk to wait for a belated passer-by. The balete was a towering monstrous shadow; a firefly that flitted among the vines was an evil eye plucked out searching for its socket.I wanted to run back, but the medicine had to get to Tio Sabelo’s wife that night. I wanted to push through the thick underbrush to the dry part of the creek to avoid the balete, but I was afraid of snakes. I had d iscarded the idea of a coconut frond torch because the light would catch the attention of the witch, and when she saw it was only a little boy†¦ Steeling myself I tried to whistle as I passed in the shadow of the balete, its overhanging vines like hairy arms ready to hoist and strangle me among the branches. Emerging into the stony bed of the creek, I saw Minggay’s hut.The screen in the window waved in the faint light of the room and I thought I saw the witch peering behind it. As I started going up the trail by the hut, each moving clump and shadow was a crouching old woman. I had heard stories of Minggay’s attempts to waylay travelers in the dark and suck their blood. Closing my eyes twenty yards from the hut of the witch, I ran up the hill. A few meters past the hut I stumbled on a low stump. I got up at once and ran again. When I reached Tio Sabelo’s house I was very tired and badly shaken.Somehow after the terror of the balete and the hut of the witch had lessened, although I always had the goose flesh whenever I passed by them after dusk. One moonlight night going home to town I heard a splashing of the water below Minggay’s house. I thought the sound was made by the witch, for she was seen to bathe on moonlit nights in the creek, her loose hair falling on her face. It was not Minggay I saw. It was a huge animal. I was about to run thinking it was the sigbin of the witch, but when I looked at it again, I saw that it was a carabao wallowing in the creek.One morning I thought of bringing home shrimps to my mother, and so I went to a creek a hundred yards from Tio Sabelo’s house. I had with me my cousin’s pana, made of a long steel rod pointed at one end and cleft at the other and shot through the hollow of a bamboo joint the size of a finger by means of a rubber band attached to one end of the joint. After wading for two hours in the creek which meandered around bamboo groves and banban and ipil clumps with on ly three small shrimps strung on a coconut midrib dangling from my belt, I came upon an old woman taking a bath in the shade of a catmon tree.A brown tapis was wound around her to three fingers width above her thin chest. The bank of her left was a foot-wide ledge of unbroken boulder on which she had set a wooden basin half full of wet but still unwashed clothes. In front of her was a submerged stone pile topped by a platter size rock; on it were a heap of shredded coconut meat, a small discolored tin basin, a few lemon rinds, and bits of pounded gogo bark. The woman was soaking her sparse gray hair with the gogo suds. She must have seen me coming because she did not look surprised.Seeing the three small shrimps hanging at my side she said, â€Å"You have a poor catch. † She looked kind. She was probably as old as my grandmother; smaller, for this old woman was two or three inches below five feet. Her eyes looked surprisingly young, but her mouth, just a thin line above the l ittle chin, seemed to have tasted many bitter years. â€Å"Why don’t you bait them out of their hiding? Take some of this. † She gave me a handful of shredded coconut meat whose milk she had squeezed out and with the gogo suds used on her hair.She exuded a sweet wood fragrance of gogo bark and the rind of lemons. â€Å"Beyond the first bend,† she said pointing, â€Å"the water is still. Scatter the shreds there. That’s where I get my shrimps. You will see some traps. If you find shrimps in them they are yours. † I mumbled my thanks and waded to the bend she had indicated. That part of the creek was like a small lake. One bank was lined by huge boulders showing long, deep fissures where the roots of gnarled dapdap trees had penetrated. The other bank was sandy, with bamboo and catmon trees leaning over, their roots sticking out in the water.There was good shade and the air had a twilight chilliness. The water was shallow except on the rocky side, wh ich was deep and murky. I scattered the coconut shreds around, and not long after they had settled down shrimps crawled from boles under the bamboo and catmon roots and from crevices of the boulders. It did not take me an hour to catch a midribful, some hairy with age, some heavy with eggs, moulters, dark magus, leaf-green shrimps, speckled. I saw three traps of woven bamboo strips, round-bellied and about two feet long, two hidden behind a catmon root.I did not disturb them because I had enough shrimps for myself. â€Å"No, no, iti. Your mother will need them. You don’t have enough. Besides I have freshwater crabs at home. † She looked up at me with her strange young eyes and asked, â€Å"Do you still have a mother? † I told her I had, and a grandmother, too. â€Å"You are not from Libas, I think. This is the first time I have seen you. † I said I was from the town and my uncle was the head teacher of the Libas barrio school. â€Å"You remind me of my s on when he was your age. He had bright eyes like you, and his voice was soft like yours.I think you are a good boy. † â€Å"Where is your son now? † â€Å"I have not heard from him since he left. He went away when he was seventeen. He left in anger, because I didn’t want him to marry so young. I don’t know where he went, where he is. † She spread the length of a kimona on the water for a last rinsing. The flesh hanging from her skinny arms was loose and flabby. â€Å"If he’s still living,† she went on, â€Å"he’d be as old as your father maybe. Many times I feel in my bones he is alive, and will come back before I die. † â€Å"Your husband is still living? † He died a long time ago, when my boy was eleven. † She twisted the kimona like a rope to wring out the water. â€Å"I’m glad he died early. He was very cruel. † I looked at her, at the thin mouth, wondering about her husband’s cruelty , disturbed by the manner she spoke about it. â€Å"Do you have other children? † â€Å"I wish I had. Then I wouldn’t be living alone. † A woman her age, I thought, should be a grandmother and live among many children. â€Å"Where do you live? † She did not speak, but her strange young eyes were probing and looked grotesque in the old woman’s face. Not far from here–the house on the high bank, across the balete. † She must have seen the fright that suddenly leaped into my face, for I thought she smiled at me queerly. â€Å"I’m going now,† I said. I felt her following me with her eyes; indeed they seemed to bore a hot hole between my shoulder blades. I did not look back. Don’t run, I told myself. But at the first bend of the creek, when I knew she couldn’t see me, I ran. After a while I stopped, feeling a little foolish. Such a helpless-looking little old woman couldn’t be Minggay, couldn’t be t he witch.I remembered her kind voice and the woodfragrance. She could be my own grandmother. As I walked the string of shrimps kept brushing against the side of my leg. I detached it from my belt and looked at the shrimps. Except for the three small ones, all of them belonged to the old woman. Her coconut shreds had coaxed them as by magic out of their hiding. The protruding eyes of the biggest, which was still alive, seemed to glare at me—and then they became the eyes of the witch. Angrily, I hurled the shrimps back into the creek.

Seamus Heaney Clearances Poems

The â€Å"Clearances† collection is an insight into Seamus Heaney and his mother’s relationship, it deals with his mother who is deceased , sonnet 3 is set in the past, it deals with distant past and the author’s link to his mother’s family history which he is not directly part of. The sonnet is relatively staright forward, In the first eight lines we are given a simile describing the potatoes peeled: †¦ let fall one by one Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:Next is a metaphor describing the peeled potatoes sitting in a bucket of clean water: Cold comforts set between us, things to share / Gleaming in a bucket of clean water In â€Å"When all the others were away at Mass† Heaney moves from the distant past of the first two quatrains, through a telling break in lines, the into a place nearer the present in the final quatrain. But this present reality is too much to bear, and he retreats again to the past in the final couplet.In this way memory serves as a shield to protect him from his mother's death. Onomatopoeia is used with little pleasant splashes. There is a pivotal shift found at the beginning of the ninth line, where the scene changes in the writer's memory, to fast forward to his dying mother's bedside. A metaphor (and idiom) is used with: â€Å"Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying,† indicating that the priest is working energetically administering the late rites.In line thirteen, beautiful imagery is used in remembering how they peeled the potatoes together â€Å"†¦ our fluent dipping knives. † Also, in this last section (known as the â€Å"sestet†), we hear end rhyme used twice, where it has not been used before, perhaps providing an auditory focus for the listener to tie the â€Å"before† memory with the â€Å"last† memory: â€Å"dying†¦ crying,† and â€Å"knives†¦ lives. † The pace of the first sonnet is maddening, while the r hythms of the third sonnet are warm, inviting and endearing.The poem possesses a power that portrays the haze of his memory whilst presenting darker imagery of his mother’s death. Despite this the true reveal of the close bond shared by both mother and son is seen most apparent in sonnet 3, whereby Heaney describes the activities shared between them on times where it was just ther two of them alone. In sonnet 3, he mentions himself and his mother preparing Sunday Dinner ‘I was all hers as we peeled potatoes’. ‘They broke the silence, let fall one by one’.The close bond between them is easily spotted here as peeling potatoes is seen as a feminine image, yet Heany is eager to help and share quality time with his mother, emphasising the importane she has in his life. The fact there is silence also indicates their loving relationship, as neither feel the need to speak and are bothe just enjoying each others company. ‘From each other’s work w ould bring us to our senses’, this yet again shows the unifying element between the both of them, almost as if part of one another, showing how alike they are.The change in the mood in the second stanza emphasises Heaney’s great pain at the loss of his mother. Yet, despite this they are still as united as they were in the first stanza , ‘her breath is mine’ once again highlighting the love shared between the two of them. The final line is a confirmation of the bond between Heaney and his mother as he feels the closest he has ever felt at a time when he should feel distanced by her death, ‘never closer the whole rest of our lives’

Summary and Analysis of Ulysses - 1278 Words

Outline Thesis/ introduction The them. language mood Life to be lived to the dregs i. iambic pentameter/ metrics Writers on Ulysses Background of Ulysses Conclusion Ulysses (Alfred Lord Tennyson) Thesis: Ulysses seems to contain two messages in one: on the one hand, it dramatizes the persona of the self-reliant, independent human (aka Emerson and Nietzsche and fashioned after the god Ulysses of Homers ancient Greek poem), on the other hand, it seems to be a gloomy prospect of death and the need to accept ones mortality. Yet even death itself is dominated by the powerful image of the self-reliant man. Optimism and confidence shines through, as Helstrom (1972) points out, right to the very end when the author exclaims: Something ere the end.. may yet be done (p.96). Old though he may be and sighting the end, the resilient sailor still hopes to catch immortality by memories of his life succeeding his death. Ulysses, as shown by metric, theme, subject, and all poetic stools is a poem that celebrates life rather than one that mourns its end. The theme of the poem resounds with life, independence, and vitality. Ulysses proclaims that man must live his life to the full, take chances, stride forward, and be an individual and the man himself tells his saga of overcoming oen obstacle after the other. The gulf, the sunset, the sea, the western starts all echo this restlessness and energy, and terms such as untravelled world and sailing beyond the sunset as wellShow MoreRelatedWhere Do We Go from Here Anaysis920 Words   |  4 PagesSummary The critical essay â€Å"Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?† written by Marin Luther King Jr., is an inquisitive piece who preaches the idea of a peaceful society, Martin also highlights the major issues happening and changing the world at the time. 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