Harwood highlights the extreme contrast in ones perception of love, life and death when influenced by either philosophy or poetry. In ‘The Violets’ Harwood explores the inevitable nature of passing time, that this passing gives rise to change and loss. The inevitability of the approach of death in the poem is seen through the figurative language and simile of sunset images ‘the melting west stripped like ice-cream’ symbolic of the inevitable approach. The connecting image of the violets are used throughout the poem ‘frail melancholy flowers’, ‘spring violets’ and ‘gathered flowers’ these images act as a metaphor representative of the stages of life. Each image is representative of high and low phases of life and ‘gathered flowers’ is suggestive of the end of life.
The Great Gatsby Passage Response Essay The romance between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan and the world in which they live play central roles in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Throughout the story the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy and the changing times of their society are in tune with the blooming and the death of a flower. Flowers symbolize the transitory beauty of both Daisy and Gatsby’s love and of the excessive world in which the story takes place. The beginning of Gatsby and Daisy’s romance and the fads of the times that are described are that of a budding flower. Nick describes Gatsby’s memories of the romance and describes “romances that were not musty and laid away in lavender but fresh and breathing”.
However in this poem she cannot find a happier memory and recalls a dream instead, “I dreamed once long ago, that we walked among day-bright flowers.” Her use of positive imagery such as the “day-bright flowers” lightens the mood and achieves the same effect of the memories in The Violets, as she stops thinking of death and causes the reader to forget the unhappy nature of the initial memory and be emotionally moved by the warmth of the following memory where she is “secure in my father’s arms.” In her poems The Violets, Father and Child and At Mornington Gwen Harwood demonstrates through her use of memories, her loss of innocence, the love for her parents and how quickly time moves. Her memories also serve to engage the reader and make us feel her sense of happiness, sorrow and
For the Romantics nature was ‘a stimulus for the poet engage in the most characteristic of human activity, that of thinking’. While part of the tangible world, nature is elevated through the transforming faculties of imagination so that the bird’s song becomes an experience both temporal and transcendent. The ode opens with a sense of
The concept of the artists’ imagination as a separate entity, able to transcend the physical is a rather Romantic one. However Harwood does not limit the idea to only artists or poets in particular; she extends the creative drive to mean individual, spiritual passion. This allows the poem to appeal to a wider audience, as the reader is enticed with the idea of possessing a passionate self. The ‘space between love and sleep” is an intangible time between two definite states of universal human experience. The phrase incites the reader to reflect on such moments in their own life, and to consider “space” with renewed significance.
Natural Moral Law is a theory that is explained by Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. It states that there is a natural order to our world that should be followed. It was originated in the philosophy of Aristotle and then developed by Aquinas. Natural Law is an absolute theory of ethics but it is not rooted in duty but in our human nature and our search for genuine happiness and fulfilment. Aquinas considered that by using our reason to reflect on our human nature we could discover our specific end purpose.
This experience he had might have led to production of his painting in 1846, “The Pic-Nic.” When examining the piece, many human figures as well as the abundance of nature both govern the painting. What could this mean? Thomas Cole believes a harmonious relationship between the living, man and nature exists. I propose to argue that Thomas Cole's "Pic-Nic" of 1846 sentimentalizes the possibility of a harmonious relationship between nature and the culture in search of social identity, the middle class, while also recognizes civilization’s conquest of wilderness in Northern America. To understand Cole’s fundamental intentions we can first anatomize the placement of symbolic elements for their intended meanings.
Romanticism in Rime of the ancient mariner Three elements of writing characteristic of the Romantic Age that are present in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are a view of nature as a place of purity and peace in which God is manifest, an emphasis on dreams and visions, and a focus on emotion and feeling. Romantics viewed nature as a pure and healing element, a place where God could be found. It is significant that when the albatross first appears, the sailors greet it "as if it had been a Christian soul (and) hailed it in God's name" (lines 64-65). Because it is part of nature, the albatross is treated with reverence and respect. When the Mariner kills the albatross, he has placed himself at odds with nature, and nature expresses this disharmony, with "slimy things (that) crawl with legs upon the slimy sea" (lines 122-123), and the water burning "like a witch's oils...green and blue and white" (lines 126-127).
In the first stanza, the poem opens by portraying the warm days of early autumn in their finest, representing a mother’s pregnancy and the birth of a new life. Newly-born autumn and the “maturing” sun are personified as “conspiring… how to load and bless / With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run” (3-4), closely associating young autumn with the aging sunlight while alluding to the Christian belief that the father God, through his son Jesus, blesses those who take the path of the righteous with the “fruits” of joy and peace. It is curious that Keats would use the word “conspire” with such positive intentions on part of autumn and the sun, suggesting a sort of kind-spirited wittiness that is common among the nymphs and mythical creatures of Greek and Roman lore. Keats goes on to write that autumn and the sun “bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees” (5); one would not expect something as short and stumpy as an orchard tree to grow something as rich as apples, providing an implied sense of irony and an appreciation that life “knows no bounds,” as one would put it. Keats expands this idea of growth being a merciful bounty by using the olfactory and gustatory imagery of providing “flowers for the bees” (9) and “fill[ing] all
Top of Form Bottom of Form Home>Literature>Poets and Poetry Poets And Poetry A Poetry Analysis on the Grasshopper and the Cricket by John Keats By: Nancy Browne * Published: December 17, 2012 MORE ARTICLES ABOUT: Poetry analysis: On the Grasshopper and the Cricket, by John Keats John Keats poem, “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket,” expresses his appreciation and admiration for nature in a powerful and observant way. It is intriguing to see how sensitive and aware Keats is when describing the grasshopper and the cricket, and how he shows the importance of these species in the world. The poem is symbolic to two seasons; summer and winter, and to the difference in the mood presented by each season. Starting with the line, “The poetry of earth is never dead,” Keats clearly understands that nature and poetry will continuously revolve. It is interesting to note how Keats reference provides the reader with the authors wise and heartfelt appreciation for, not only the grasshopper and cricket, but for nature and it entails.