Although the poem identifies “myself” as Walt Whitman, the identity of the speaker is also mythic. Instead of trying to say how unique his feelings and thoughts are, Whitman emphasizes his own self. His ordinary self is so comprehensive that he absorbs each American, past, present, and future. This comprehensive awareness makes the speaker of the poem greater than himself, but it is greatness that he emphasizes to us as readers. Whitman's poem is really long it has a lot of symbolism, imagery, descriptions and whatever else you can name.
Walt Whitman writes his poem in independent stanzas that despite flowing flawlessly with the rest of the poem could just as effortlessly tell a story on their own. Whitman also steers away from the overrated, cliché style of rhyming; rather using decorative adjectives and detailed imagery, giving
English 124-Literary Essay October 19, 2011 “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “The Soldier” Although the poems “Dulce et Decorum Est “by Wilfred Owen, and “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, share the elements of writer passion and subjectivity, they differ with regards to tone, theme and literary devices. The lyrical poem, “The Soldier” was written during the period before the World War, and thus presents an unrealistic viewpoint of war. The speaker is simply regurgitating ideas and concepts about war instilled in him by his country England. The phrases, “England bore, shaped, made aware” and “the thoughts by England given” solidify this theory. It is evident that he has not physically engaged in warfare, nor has he observed the explicit nature of the battlefield because his focus remains on England, rather than the war itself.
Allen Ginsber’s affinities in “Howl” with “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg are two poets that have comparable poetic tendencies despite living almost a century apart from one another. Walt Whitman can claim many literary descendants including writers of prose as well as poetry. He is considered a midwife of modern poetry and poets between two wars in 20th century. One of the most known poems in of his book “Leaves of Grass” is Song of myself.
Unknown Darkness To write about things nobody likes to talk about or even mention in real life makes Nathaniel Hawthorne a great poet and a famous one at that. Hawthorne wrote so much about the American Colonies and how they lived their lives, he captured the smallest details of that time. Imagine being a writer in those times trying to find things to write about, in some of his poems you can see what a morbid mind he had, and it’s possibly due to his environment. Some of his Ancestors were direct descendants of Puritan judges. Which might have influenced his all famous “Scarlet Letter” and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, both these poems evoke each readers own personal judgments on human nature.
Friends, Classmates, Fellow literary critics… Today, I am here to stress my knowledge on how the composer’s Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke have effectively conveyed their thoughts and feelings on war using themes, issues and techniques. Siegfried Sassoon chose to convey the theme of the outcomes war has had in those who survived (hence the name survivors) and how the process of war has aged them prematurely and darkened there spirits. The poem ‘survivors’ is a clever and well structured poem, Sassoon incorporates many techniques to emphasise and illuminate his main theme . Siegfried Sassoon uses primarily literal language; he rarely speaks metaphorically or figuratively thus the reason why we don’t see a frequency in metaphors, similes or imagery throughout the poem. He evokes a very bitter outraged mood in the reader, he’s thoughts and feelings produce anger and spite.
Both poems feature a range of strategies and techniques to feature similar and different points, such as how both poems contain certain criticisms towards the ideals and values carried by blind patriotism. ‘Flag’ explores how patriotic symbols can unite masses and nations together and yet, can also influence people to create barriers against one another, eventually forcing them apart. While E.E Cummings was infamous for his views on pacifism, and uses ‘next of course god america i’ as a method to criticise how people encourage patriotism in others, making the poem satirical. In both poems, the poets explore the power of patriotic symbols, such as the uses of flags, the national anthem and the pledge of alliance. In the poem ‘Flag’, John Agard states that the flag is just a piece of cloth fluttering in a breeze but is capable of bringing “a nation to its knees”, which can be seen as a sign of respect or oppression.
However, both poems were different in terms of purpose. Seemingly the imagery of both the poems revolve around similar but yet quite different notions. The imagery used in both poems revolve around the pictured relationships that both Fanthorpe and Harrison try to emphasise. This is expressed clearly in both pieces of work by the poetic features used by both poets, with Fanthorpe stating that 'you haven't both gone shopping' and that 'I believe ends with death', showing use of personal pronouns and varying it. Notably, Harrison also had a few change in pronouns which complimented his rhyme scheme and used repetition of the phase 'let me'.
The protagonist of the novel, Ray Smith, is Kerouac himself, tells the story in the first person. Japhy Ryder who is based on Gary Snyder, he was a poet during the beats movement. Gary Snyder had a big influence on Kerouac’s decision to practice Buddhism. Japhy Ryder represents what it is like to go against social norms in the 1950’s, he focuses on achieving enlightenment. In the book “Dharma Bums” Japhy express “I was being degraded to a more grievous domain of existence and my karma was to be born in America where
What is poetry “If normal sentences are orange squash, poetry is like the syrup before it is diluted.” Poetry has always been considered as a compressed and sophisticated form of literature while critics and readers have long been trying to work out a definition for it. However, there are always poems that do not seem to fit into the numerous conclusions they have drawn and the debate on whether poetry should be defined has therefore arose. Even so, critics have reached consensus on the characteristics of generally recognised poetry and the features of it through reading and analysing poetry of different centuries. In light of the above, this essay will explore the generally accepted features and techniques observable in poetry, the function of poetry and the reason why poetry should not be defined. Firstly, to answer the question, readers must be familiar with the common characteristics of poetry such as line breaks, the wide use of figures of speech and techniques, and the expression of various themes and meanings through limited number of lines.