Hawaii is a paradise they say,
The island surrounded by miles of golden sand.
Beach goers skin turns brown from the sun's rays,
This is as close as you will get to Neverland.
Hawaii is a mixing pot they say,
You can smell the scent of laulau in the breeze,
Along with the scent of ramen on a tray,
Oh how I'd like to sway in this wind like the trees.
Hawaii, also known for it's beauty,
The sea reflecting the rays of the sun.
That scent of the deep forests is very fruity,
If you love the beauty of nature it's fun.
Hawaii is a paradise they say,
If you visit you'd surely like to stay.
Analysis
For our sonnet, Kai and I decided to write on a topic that we both found interesting and enjoy. After wracking our brains, we landed on the topic of where we live and what was interesting or unique about it. For me, even before I lived here, Hawaii is and was a special place to me because when I was a small child, my family and I always used to make annual trips to Hawaii from the mainland. In addition to that, most my entire family lives here in the islands. So every time we came over for a visit, we got to go around and make visits to the entire family. I had many enjoyable experiences here, and so Kai and I wanted to accentuate that in our sonnet with lines like "Hawaii is a paradise they say, if you visit you'd surely like to stay." That showed how even people who are not even from here would want to stay just for the atmosphere and the experience. Apart form that I think that Kai and I collaborated very well as a group to come up with something that we could both agree on and make into a sonnet.
Beyond that, we had to put in a sort of secret meaning behind the text of what just appears to be a boring old poem about Hawaii. But if you look closely at the second line of the first stanza, you can see that we could be referring to the golden sands of Hawaii as a type of wealth that we have because of our privileges as residents of Hawaii and how it seems like the paradise of everyone's dreams. Also when you get to the second stanza, it says, "Hawaii is a mixing pot." We are not only referring to the immense amount of culinary diversity as is inferred from the text, but also the cultural diversity since there are so many different races and cultural groups around in Hawaii. The fourth line of the second stanza writes, " Oh how I'd like to sway in this wind like the trees." Which is also our way of saying that we are part of this mixing pot of cultures that we call the population of the Hawaiian Islands. In the third verse and the couplet of our sonnet, the message goes back to the top where we wanted to re-enforce the message that if anyone ever visited, that they'd want to definitely stay with lines like " If you love nature's beauty the deal's done." This tells that you'd be so overwhelmed by the beauty of the islands that you'd have a deal for a house closed before you left. Both Kai and myself felt strongly that the sights and scenes of our islands are so captivating that we just had to touch on all the topics that we thought made Hawaii special. We both enjoyed writing about our homes and learning about what it means for each of us to live in Hawaii. I'd be willing to do another writing assignment like this because I liked writing about it and I'm sure that Kai did as well.
