u/Technical-Mine-7423

My mommy says I need to buy the Triple T skin for 9 million v bucks or my worth as a human will be null and void

For context, I smoked a cigarette at a party and quickly became addicted to them, going through a pack over a week and slowly beginning to rely on them during any time of stress. I decided this isn't good for me, it's not a good coping mechanism, it's self destructive; since then, I've been more irritable and I find myself lashing out easily at everyone I care about, constantly having my mind on getting my hands on more, on top of cravings. How do I cope with this? I've promised my partner and other people I'll stop, and I want to keep that promise, but god is it hard.

Been getting really into doom recently (candlemass, electric wizard, pentagram are my favorites so far), and I'm looking for some recommendations; any subgenre is good with me ;3

In George Moses Horton's poem "On Summer", Horton portrays a warm, idyllic summer evening in the small rural town of Esteville in a time long before America had been industrialized. Horton builds this calm and beautiful setting through his characterization of animals around the town, vivid and uplifting diction, and personification of the natural world itself.

Throughout the poem, Horton repeatedly characterizes animals of all kinds throughout the setting, who all work together to paint an idyllic picture of Esteville throughout the poem. The speaker comments first on insects that starts their "drum" and the "light" of fire-flies as the day transitions to evening. This detailing by the speaker of such small elements of the environment, literal insects, shows not just his comprehensive understanding of what a regular evening in Esteville is like, but also portrays an evening in Esteville as a place of rhythmic drumming and warm light, building that peaceful portrayal of the setting. Next, the speaker details the life of a bee with "sweet exertions", who stores honeycomb in her hive "with delight"; this word choice in describing the bee reflects Esteville's happy and tender nature in the mind of the speaker, and shows how even the smallest creatures in the town are at peace during this pristine summer evening. This warm and idealizing word choice can be seen again when the speaker calls the reader to the "fertile borders, near the stream," asking them to gaze with "delight", going as far to claim that the growing melons along the river are "paradise to human sight". This word choice makes the speaker's love for Esteville apparent, believing something as small as melons growing by a stream to be paradise; this again helps to build Horton's vision of this evening in Esteville as a warm and beautiful experience. But it is not just through the characterization of animals and Horton's diction that he seeks to idealize Esteville, but also through his personification of elements of Esteville's natural world.

Later in the poem, Horton personifies a number of elements of Esteville's natural world in pursuit of sharing his idyllic vision of the town with the reader. Horton states that Esteville's apple orchards have "plenty smiles on every tree"; this personification of the orchards idealizes another part of Esteville in the speaker's mind, portraying this section of the town as full of joy and happiness just waiting to be spread to the people of the town. He also calls the reader to view the "smiling fields" that yield "a large supply of golden grain"; this idealization of both the wheat fields and the grain they produce shows the speaker's ecstatic love and care for all of Esteville, including the fields that feed and bring comfort to its inhabitants, in his mind. The speaker, through these lines, shows respect for the fields of Esteville due to their large production and, in his view, happy and joyful nature; thus, his idealization of Esteville once more shines through, showing again his vision of the town as warm, welcoming, and full of happiness in every corner.

However, it could be argued that though the speaker is undeniably shown to have a deep love for Esteville, he does acknowledge that not all enjoy peace and happiness at all times, which could be interpreted as a clash between idealization and realism in the mind of the speaker. For example, he speaks on the "heat" and how it forces a humble farmer to hasten his work, or how a horse "droops his head"; cattle "retreat" to the protection of shade, while an angry ox drinks from a trough "devoid of gauge". All together, Horton's various examples of creatures within Esteville suffering from the heat could be used to argue that the speaker is divided on the town he holds so much love for, casting away his idealistic, romanticized view of the town for but a moment to see things there for how they truly are; hard, hot, and stressful. However, this momentary shift away from the otherwise romanticized view of Esteville does not necessarily mean that the speaker holds a disdain for this town; on the contrary, when viewed within the context of his praises of the town throughout the poem, it is far more likely that the speaker is nostalgic for these summer days, viewing the struggle of finding shade and water as a key part of experiencing life in Esteville for all that it was worth. Thus, despite the speaker's portrayal of the afternoon heat, he still holds his idealized, idyllic vision of life in Esteville throughout the poem.

Ultimately, "On Summer" represents the speaker's idealized and nostalgic view of his rural hometown during the summer, as the speaker characterizes the creatures of the summer nights, personifies various components of Esteville itself, and uses deliberately optimistic and soothing diction to contribute to an image of a beautiful rural town in early America during a peaceful summer's evening.