Furthermore, they made me to focus more on one aspect of the poem than the others. I was significantly drawn to the aspect of old age and its prevalent connotations. This is due to the manner in which the author applied the literary elements all through. I cannot deny the great relevance of the above elements on my experience. William Carlos Williams makes great use of several elements in the presentation of the poem.
However this soon breaks up as we see the form of the poem reflect its meaning. Edward Thomas uses the breaking up of the rhyme scheme to symbolize his own damaged state of mind and sense of dissatisfaction. Edward Thomas makes contrasts between the simplistic beauty of nature and the impossible difficulty of expressing this beauty in words. “Sublime vacancy” symbolises the immense emptiness he feels but also suggests that he is so overwhelmed by the beauty of the morning that he struggles to describe it as sometimes you have to be there to appreciate the actual moment of beauty or else it’s gone forever. The simplicity of the “sky and meadow and forest” and the purity of the “untouched due” in comparison to himself leaves Edward Thomas “scorning” and feeling insignificant as he can’t match his emotions to the glory of the scenery.
Besides insight into collective societal culture, literary history has provided future writers with models of poetic device, style and content influencing literary works and building upon past literary ideas. Literary history is a vehicle to understanding the past and plays a major role in its influence on literature up to and including the present day. Knowledge of historical literature gives us insight into the traditions and societal conventions of the time in which the piece was written. One outstanding example comes from Anglo-Saxon times. Beowulf is a literary work which enables a reader to glimpse not only the societal customs but into the savage and seemingly uncontrollable environment of the first century.
i William O’Neil Dr. James Nutter ENGL 102—Honors 24 February 2015 Romanticism Unshackled: a Study of the Modern Prometheus Thesis: Frankenstein should bear the title of Romantic literature because the novel embodies trademark Romantic ideas, situations, and characteristics throughout the text. I. In an attempt to categorize any novel as Romantic, however, one must first attempt to identify what, exactly, makes a work Romantic. a. A group of poets, including the likes of William Blake, Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron and—Mary’s husband—Percy Shelley, who are commonly credited as being the ground-breaking authors of the Romantic movement b. Lyrical Ballads moved poetry away from the times of the mythical and fantastical,
This poem, like most of his poems, revolves around a common object or event. But these objects and events are not only what they appear to be, they also have a deeper meaning, they are metaphors for larger issues and themes. By obscuring his theme and working so covertly in metaphor, the reader is forced to come to their own conclusions about the work. This is exactly what Frost is trying to accomplish, through metaphor he strives to make the reader think about his poem, what it means and what he is trying to say. Robert Frost the most famous American poet of the last century was born in San Francisco in 1874.
~The most compelling and seductive poem types enjoyed are those that use a lot of rhyming and symbolism in which people can then relate to them in personalized way. “My Papa’s Waltz” was written in first person narrative and contained plenty of rhythm and symbolism. The poem was created around a story about a boy and his father, “My Papa’s Waltz” was read in the rhythmic form of a poem. ~Identifying the persona was easy because the author used “I” for first person narrative which allowed the reader to relate to what Roethke, the author, was intending for experience emotionally. As compared to a short story, Roethke used the introduction of the poem to set the tone and setting for the story to follow.
Compare the ways controlling characters are used in Les Grands Seigneurs and My Last Duchess Dorothy Molloy and Robert Browning, the poets of Les Grands Seigneurs and My Last Duchess respectively, both create a significant and controlling character in their poems; using similar techniques and themes to illustrate the power and dominance to portray a specific message. Firstly, both Malloy and Browning frequently embed the personal pronoun ‘my’ into their controlling characters narrative. For example, the controlling character in Les Grands Seigneurs quotes ‘men were my buttresses’ in the opening line, whilst similarly, in the opening line of My Last Duchess, ‘that’s my last duchess painted on the wall’. This use of ‘my’ enables both characters to develop a sense of possession over their loved ones to the readers immediately; thus allowing their retelling of love to their audiences to be easier. This sense of control is only further strengthened by another technique used by both poets, the regular inclusion of caesuras.
Mid Term Essay The two literary icons I chose to do the comparison and contrast portion of this Essay on are; Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321) and Geoffrey Chaucer (1342 – 1400) who compositions were similar in theme, but significantly different in style. In analyzing Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the common theme I found in each of these epic poems is the author’s firm grasp of human nature and their ability to humanize the character(s) in each of their works. In each of these classics, Dante and Chaucer masterfully animated not only the central character but their supporting characters as well. Their ability to taking the reader on a journey that is both believable and relatable is the main reason both of these epic poems continue to be held in such high regard. In addition, both Dante and Chaucer wrote their works in the vernacular or the commonly spoken language of the times.
This negativity is empathised because it appears so early in the poem “we stood by a pond that winter day”. This sets a bitter tone for the first stanza which intensifies as the emotive language becomes more blatant. In the first stanza Hardy uses the word “chidden”, whereas “curst” is used for the same purpose in the final stanza which is an obvious shift between mild and harsh language. This perhaps shows Hardy losing his temper because of his emotional connection with the theme of the poem; death. Following the apparent break up of a relationship the persona remembers a moment spent with their partner.
Themes are arguably the essence of literature, giving words purpose or intention or atmosphere and feeling. Amongst the most used themes in all of literature would have to be that of time. Time is a man-made concept, created to indicate moments in the natural progression of existence. Thematically, time can encompass many other feelings and concepts such as regret, contemplation, nostalgia and sadness, which can be evoked through longing for a 'moment' in time. Each poem I have chosen reflects aspects of contemplation, sadness or regret.