One of the themes in Poe's "The Raven" that highlights the gothic genre is alienation and loneliness. This is a result of the speaker's loss of Lenore. The beginning of the poem establishes the speakers isolation and vulnerability and his mental state of mind. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Alliteration of w in “while,” “weak,” and “weary” produces the effect of unsteadiness. The sound of the "w's" used supports the sense of the reader's lack of energy.
Brad Mleynek Mr. Gunderson English 3 HL, Period 4 28 May 2010 Acquainted with Oneself “Isolation is a self-defeating dream.” In other words, Carlos Salinas de Cortari states that the dream of isolation does nothing but defeat the soul of a person. In the case of the persona in Robert Frost’s poem, “Acquainted with the Night,” isolation leads to depression and defeats a possible dream of peace and satisfaction. The persona tells a story about how he has explored a city to its limits. A consideration of suicide is brought upon the reader, by the poem, and the theme of isolation and regret is developed through Frost’s use of tone, symbolism, and diction. Many readers interpret this poem as depressing; displaying a man that is regretting something he has done in the past, which creates a melancholy tone.
In the chapter entitled ‘Christmas Eve’ he is in utter darkness as it is late at night. Him being in darkness reduces his visibility of the outside world and therefore makes him isolated. The houses and
I think that this is very effective, because he strongly conveys feelings of death, depression and He uses a lot of deathly imagery to describe the scenery, which makes me think of a very sombre, sad and gloomy scene. The sun is described as the ‘weakening eye of day’. This reminds me of the weakening eyes of someone dying. In the Victorian age, when this poem was written, they believed that the world would end by the sun going out, and maybe Hardy felt so much regret that he wanted the world to end. ‘Frost was spectre-gray’ describes a ghostly grey- a spectre is an apparition.
Deonte’ Thomas Nimi Finnigan Introduction to Poetry 2305 28 February 2012 In a Dark Time Reflection The poem “A dark Time” By Theodore Roethke was written in 1964. The poem is filled with darkness and vivid imagery portraying the madness that one can come in contact with during a life time. The author describes to us the passage he takes to finding himself in a time of “pure despair” (Roethke line9). Theodore Roethke takes us on a journey through the characters life using nature and darkness possibly depicting the overcoming of depression as he finds himself. Throughout the poem Roethke uses Nature to illustrate an overall image of darkness.
The poet here uses alliteration in line 1 and 2 to highlight the words “study, sits, stiffly” which brings out the father’s character and uses the same technique in line 3 “that thirteen times” by repeating the letter “t” to create a chatty and colloquial style that continues throughout the poem. The study where the father works is seen as his refuge but this seems to alienate the protagonist. The poet again personifies the phone as being an instrument that brings distressing “sobbing” news that draws the surgeon from his home repeatedly. The poet has successfully used alliteration in line 5 in the usage of sobbing and sleep to highlight the dangers and emotional challenges of being a surgeon. The “sobbing” could also refer to the poet’s youth as he spent time sobbing without his father who was away at work.
The next item of melancholy that Poe uses are in the lines, “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;” The speaker is now to a very frightened state, not knowing what keeps knocking on his door. This puts the reader into a questioning unease state. Through the alliteration Poe is putting the reader wondering what exactly is going on and want to continue reading the poem through melancholy understand what exactly could be knocking on the door. When
An Interpretation of “Because I Could not stop for Death” Emily Dickinson is considered as one of the best and most original American poets of the 19th Century. It is said that Dickinson suffered from depression and led a life of extreme seclusion (Cornelius). Dickinson’s penchant for death and unusual style intrigue scholars to this day (Cornelius). Regarded as one Dickinson’s most famous poems, “Because I could not stop for Death”, comes from a published series of poems which have to do with death (Cornelius). This poem treats the grave as inconsequential, death as not having mastery and immortality and eternity as the victors; Dickinson’s speaker conveys the journey of life as a cycle characterized by childhood, maturity, and death.
This is shown in all his novels, plays, movies and criticism. According to one of his contemporaries’ critic, Wallace Fowlie: “It is impossible to speak of any single one without reference to the others” (Fowlie, 1954:87). However, as a critic W.Fowlie observed that poetry to Cocteau was an “immemorial rite” (Guenther, 2004:23). Cocteau, himself has called poetry as `the secular mystery` and he compared the poets to alchemists and astrologers who have their fetishes and miraculous `tricks`. (Levitt,1993:368) The ` ultimate mystery` of his poets was achieved by his poem `self-sufficiency` (Fowlie,1954:85).
Title: Looking at the Worst: Wallace Stevens´s the Rock Author: Helen Hennessy Vendler Summary In her article, Helen Vendler concentrates on Wallace Stevens´s late work, especially on two of his poetry collections: The Rock and Collected Poems. She also, to complete the view on Stevens, mentions some late, uncollected poems as well as two poems preceding The Rock. She assumes that there are three major premises in Stevens´s late work. First: Death is a biological horror. Second: Morality confers a compensatory value of life.