The purpose of this canon is to teach society about the evolution of literature and civilization over the years. However, as society grows and evolves, the Western Canon, too, should be re-examined to include more modern texts, such as rap. Rap is today’s modern poetry. It is defined as “the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts”. It can be clearly seen that rap meets this definition.
It is an adventurous piece, using intertextualisation to recreate a traditional literary ambience and in this way to effect parody and make a comment about romanticism and love. Immediately, from the first sentence, the two sources of literary inspiration are juxtaposed by the writer. ‘La infanta mora’ is our protagonist – ‘mora’ being the adjective ‘Moorish’, descriptive of the period of Iberian Moorish occupation. Its use as an adjective in this way has a specific meaning; this is a Moorish princess, of Arab descent. The expression, however, also has a rather archaic but more idiomatic meaning.
ROSEMARY DOBSON “Confidence is what we get when we take fear, face it and replace it.” This quote by Tim Fargo defines discovery as continuously having the sense of mind to be intrigued by curiosity and anticipation. Good afternoon fellow classmates and staff members. Rosemary Dobson, one of Australia’s award winning poets who have recently passed away in 2012, explored and demonstrated her love of art and antiquity in her poetry through an economical and very visual style of writing. Dobson is also known to write very much like an imagist poet. Henceforth, through Dobson’s poetic vision, readers discover new insights and experience through curiosity and maturation.
This movement was characterized away from realism and lead to abstractions which changed the tone, perspective and voice. Modern work was often impersonal, fragmented, sophisticated, knowledgeable, disconnected and cynical which required people to be well educated to read these types of complex pieces of work. The most popular themes during modernism were: gender and sexuality, isolation and alienation, and human psychology. Some significant American and British poets during modernism were T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Hart Crane, William Butler Yeats, Louis MacNeice, Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore. There writers used fragmentation, stream-of-consciousness, juxtaposition, and interior monologue to develop a unique style.
Margret Atwood, Ken Kesey and Sylvia Plath each explore the convolute relationship between power and resistance. Historically, it is unequivocal that power triggers resistance, as Atwood stated ‘Once something becomes forbidden, it also becomes potentially transgressive’ . Of the many parallels between the two texts and Plath’s collection of poetry, the time in which they were all written proves to be one of the most influential similarities intrinsically linking the three. The end of the 20th century, in which these texts were written, brought about a period prevalent with developing freedoms, innovative concepts and constant power struggles throughout the world. Atwood, Kesey and Plath reflect the balances and imbalances of power in contemporary history, each producing works which became symbols of rebellion against conformity.
English Poetry Essay Choose a poem which appealed to you because it was striking – show which techniques the poet has used to capture your interest and engage your feelings “To His Coy Mistress” is a piece of metaphysical poetry written by Andrew Marvell. This poem, like most metaphysical poetry, makes use of original images and has a very profound meaning behind it. “To His Coy Mistress” is particularly striking because of the deeper themes that it deals with, such as mortality and the idea of “carpe diem”, as well as the unique imagery used throughout and the interesting structure and progression of the poem. The use of the image “vegetable love” is very effective in capturing the reader’s interest. “Vegetable” is not usually the
The lyrics challenged the traditions of poetry with their sensuous nature. Critics hailed the book, and Cullen's success helped to promote the work of his fellow African-American writers. Cullen also contributed to the Harlem Renaissance a sense of poetry as a tradition. That is, although his topics were often controversial, he wrote many of his poems in the form of the Shakespearean sonnet, and critics often discuss the influence of English Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth and William Blake on his
A point that stands out in the poem ‘Pretty’ is the connection Makkai made with the famous song by Doris Day called Que Sera Sera. Makkai incorporated the lyrics from the song into her poem where the context of both relate; “Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?” The inclusion of these has an effect on the poem; the readers feel more involved when they figure out the connection using the background information they have, making it more engaging - leaving them eager to read on. Repetition is also one of the main literary devices Makkai used in her poem. The word “pretty” and the phrase “Will I be pretty?” are repeated many times throughout the poem; “You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing.
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.
Villanelles originate from a French type of poetry and became popular in English as a late-19th-century and early-20th-century import (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008)1. Can a writer utilize such a structurally demanding form, and still convey the emotions he/she wishes to convey? Is it bold, or is it a choice based on this form being a strengthening factor for the poems theme? Many factors should be considered when trying to answer such questions. In addition to being a very passionate writer, Dylan Thomas was also an organized writer, but even so – being able to write a poem with such passion and