Eulogy
This eulogy is a project for my English 10 class. I don't know how good it is, but the text is below, and if you have sound, you should hear an audio version of it. The background music in the audio version is two pieces played on the violin by, who else, me. The pieces are Ashokan Farewell and The Theme From Romeo and Juliet.
The link will not work for some reason, so until i get it to work, i guess you will have to be content with the text version.
We are gathered here today to mourn the tragic and untimely passing of Marcus Oliver. Born under the comet Kahoutec, Marcus led a life of destiny. Weighing 10 pounds 11 ounces, Marcus was a large baby and was brought into the world via a caesarian section. He was named after his uncle Johnny and his best friend Mark Jackson, whose lives were tragically cut short in a car wreck while still in their prime, just like our own Marcus. As a child, Marcus was a shy and introverted child whose main focus was school and academics. Often sickly, Marcus spent much of his young life in hospitals. He had frequent ear infections and had tubes put in his ears. He was highly allergic to everything, from peanuts to tomatoes. He had to have allergy shots twice every week, which fueled his fear later on in life of needles. After he had his adenoids at age six, his allergies slowly cleared up until, before his life was cut short he was only severely allergic to poison ivy. He loved to read and spent much of his time engaged in reading. Reading and math came easily to Marcus, and he did not have to make much of an effort to make good grades. He also enjoyed Read-Up a program at his school that awarded points for reading books and taking tests on them. In second grade he began playing violin. He also took karate after school, and made it to The Junior Olympics in North Carolina, where he took a bronze medal. He also joined the boy scouts in fifth grade. As he went into fifth grade, he joined the band, playing alto saxophone. He developed a taste for music and listened to all kinds of it, ranging from hard rock like Rage against the machine to jazz to classical music. He also began to enjoy math. very few people knew the real Marcus. Outwardly, he was a strange person with a warped sense of humor. He enjoyed British comedies, especially Monty Python and Are You Being Served? and he constantly read such cartoons as Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes. He leaves no last will and testament, but he did leave a paper with several song quotes he stated he would like to have read at his funeral. The first is from a Pink Floyd song called Hey You. "But it was only a fantasy. The wall was too high, as you can see. No matter how he tried, he could not break free, and the worms ate into his brain". The second quote is from a song by Rage Against the Machine called Guerrilla Radio. "It has to start somewhere, It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?". Another quote is from Tarkus by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. "Clear the battlefield and let me see
All the profit from our victory.
You talk of freedom, starving children poor.
Are you deaf when you hear the season's call?". Finally, he leaves his last words in the form of The Pink Floyd song GoodBye Blue Sky. "Did you see the frightened ones? Did you hear the falling bombs? Friends are all long gone, but the pain lingers on....goodbye, blue sky, goodbye...goodbye". As evidenced by his choice of quotes, Marcus was an special person. He is survived by mother, a sister, and a father. He will be greatly missed. In death he will live on in the memories of those who knew him well.
AUDIO VERSION