Philip Larkin and Dannie Abse have very different and contrasting attitudes to relationships. On the whole, Larkin presents the concepts of love and marriage as very superficial and meaningless, whereas Abse appears to be less such nihilistic and more open and positive about such topics. Throughout Wild Oats, Philip Larkin uses various literary techniques, such as imagery, structure and symbolism to convey certain aspects of love and the passing of time. Larkin's poetry often relates to the social and cultural views upon love and marriage in his time. In Wild Oats It explains that a person, over the course of time, comes to realise that his greatest desires of love, are unattainable, and second best things will have to suffice.
A typical Romantic poem often starts with a description of nature, and then slowly moves on to a human emotional problem which is a result of the observation of nature. Another kind of Romantic nature-poem personifies nature, so that it ends up expressing human life and passions. The Romantic poet saw himself as “a genius” and placed himself outside society and the rest of humanity. The poet was able to look under the surface of everyday things into what they called the essence. The poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud deals with the speaker’s state of mind.
In the early seventeenth-century, English poets used metaphysical poetry to enlighten highly intellectual and often abstruse imagery in their works, which further advanced the poetic style of John Donne. Donne’s poetry makes use of complex images, which are remarkably convincing to the reader. Despite the use of extensive techniques and varying images, the greatness of Donne’s poetry is the simplicity in the ideas expressed. John Donne’s poem, “The Triple Fool,” suggests unrequited love and folly through his use of creative imagery, sorrowful diction, and assertive tone. Firstly, Donne's poetry is highly distinctive and individual, adopting a multitude of images.
Poe’s famous poem, “The Raven,” is about a man’s descent into madness. Whereas, Hawthorne had a family and seemed to enjoy his life, he believed that man had the ability to overcome the very worst of itself. Hawthorne’s, “The Scarlet Letter,” is about one woman over-coming and sticking it to the system. Edgar Allen Poe is seen more as an idealist due to his psychological issues relating to his writings. The realist of the two would be Nathaniel Hawthorne, his intentions for writing was to eliminate degradation and to retain morality.
Sterling Brown: Renaissance poet One of the greatest and most influential writer and poet of the Harlem renaissance was Sterling Allen Brown. Brown Was born in on may first 1901 in Washington D.C. to Sterling Nelson and Adelaide Brown. Sterling Attended Harvard University where he did his graduate studies and later worked as a professor of English for forty years. He married Daisy Turnbull in 1927 and had one son. As a poet he many known works his best of which was also his first, Southern Road, published in 1932.
The poem’s theme appears to be about unrequited love and a man wooing his “coy mistress” to sleep with him, but this poem does has a deeper meaning, which is really impressive and therefore is striking. The theme of mortality is highlighted in this poem through word choice and by using imagery which reinforces the idea of death. Words relating to death such as “ ashes” and “grave” are used to emphasise the lack of time that we have and the stark contrast between the slow, idyllic first stanza and the sped up, heavier second stanza shows the difference between the idealistic eternity and the reality that we are all mortal and have to die at some point. Another deeper theme introduced is the idea of “carpe diem” which is shown through the lustier language in the poem, word choice such as “time devour”, and also through the quickened pace of the second stanza. The speaker is not simply asking the “coy mistress” to sleep with him, what he is saying is if there was all the time in the world then life would be ideal but there is not so they have to live for the moment.
Romanticists had some connection with Utopian social thinkers who believed in an ideal ‘fair’ society. Romanticism was partially a reaction to the previous ‘Augustan’ period (St Augustine was one of the stricter Church Fathers and this period of formality in the arts was named after him), the French Revolution, the US revolution and the rise of industry and science and produced the ‘free thinker’ that we meet when we read romantic poetry, both in the poem itself and in the form of the poet. The emphasis on Romanticism was on strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, not just as an emotional one. Romanticism elevated nature, custom, ritual and
Edgar Allen Poe demonstrates in his written works of “Lenore”, “Annabel Lee”, and “To Helen” an element that seemingly attempts to give the reader exceptional emotional sadness. Poe does this by telling the poem in a point of view where a man tells the story of the death or remembrance of a young love or woman. He also puts a sense of gloom in each of his poems. This allows for the reader to create a mental image if the setting, without him having to directly point it out. As well, the gloominess of his poetry could also be due to his longing effect of sadness that he attempts to express.
Drawing connections between the author and poem is not always what the author intends on his reader to do. Since there was no direct answer to who the speaker is the speaker of this poem is anonymous. “Annabel Lee” is a heart-filled, compassionate, and somewhat sorrowful poem in which the speaker describes his loyal undying love to the protagonist Annabel Lee. The poem is heart-filled because the speaker uses many different romantic metaphors to describe his love for her. The poem is sorrowful because the speaker describes his grief of the untimely death of his love Annabel Lee.
This poem explores the dark side of love that can become dangerous and torment you. This kind of love has left the poet sad and lonely. This love is what defines the poet and makes him who he is, but at the same time has destroyed his life because it is all he can think of, even after the woman he loves has passed away. This poem also explores the theme of mortality. The poet has become obsessed with how and why Annabel Lee dies.