‘To His Coy Mistress’ is a comedic depiction of unrequited love, showing how love can be represented in a light-hearted way whilst communicating the deeper significance of what it means to feel this way about someone. Likewise, ‘Sonnet 43’ presents us with a serious topic, portrayed in a carefree way. ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is set into three stanzas of unequal length, each showing a new stage in the relationship. The beginnings of each stanza are a giveaway as to what we should expect from it. ‘Had we’ tells us that the persona is fantasising about what could happen, and that the images created here have in fact not happened yet.
Compare how language is used to express an opinion of love in sonnet 116 and another poem (Quickdraw) Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 116’ and Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Quickdraw’ both talk about the relationship between two people, however they talk about them in very contrasting ways. Sonnet 116 and Quickdraw are written in different forms. Shakespeare’s poem is written in sonnet form with three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. This regular pattern shows that this is what love should be like and is normal. The use of iambic pentameter also stresses key ideas and words whilst the poem can still flow.
“The War Prayer”, written by Mark Twain, and “Editha”, written by William Dean Howells, are two very different pieces of writing with similar themes and variant styles. Both pieces provoke emotional responses in addition to providing the dark truths of war. The two pieces both are effective in their similar themes, though written in completely different styles. “The War Prayer” and “Editha”, though being very similar pieces, do slightly differ in theme. The message provided by “The War Prayer” is more-so focused on the religious hypocrisy and one-sided view of Christianity in the vast topic of war.
The imagination permits, to be sure, the exploration of things religious precisely because it involves other-worldly events and characters that fit some of the fantastic concepts in religious stories or figures. This is not to say that imaginative literature is fake in any way; it suggests that everyday language is simply insufficient for the exploration of religious paraphernalia, the concept of sacrifice, for instance. Other writers agree that Macdonald’s oeuvre was a keen influence on Lewis’s craft. William Zinsser’s essay, for instance, records that Lewis was “consoled in his loneliness” by frequently reading about the comforts of heaven that he discovered in medieval writings and the fantasy novels of the Victorian era (46). Heaven is not simply a panacea for Lewis, but rather an objective, external reality that corresponds with an inner longing.
Aquinas’ Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas, in Part One of Summa Theologica, examines the employment of figurative language within the Bible. Aquinas deals with the Bible, Christianity’s main source of direction, but I believe that the anthology includes this short section of Aquinas’s religious manual because it poses the question whether divine literature should utilize such language. This is an important question because it can be argued (As Aquinas points out) that figurative language is more easily interpreted in different ways than literal writing and thus has a higher chance of either being interpreted wrongly (not the way the divine author destined it to be) or to not be understood in the first place because of its confusable language (Thomas Aquinas 181). If one allows for inclusion of figurative language within a holy text, does that make different interpretations of the content acceptable? The answer is difficult, but Aquinas argues for the inclusion of figurative language, stating that the similitudes and metaphors do the following: help man understand spiritual things with human’s rhetoric, to challenge the scholarly believer to look for more insight while also attracting the uneducated with simpler ideas, to defend the holy writing from those who do not belief (181-182).
When reading both versions of the story, it is hard to see any clear, obvious differences, but as one reads further into the text, subtle differences in tones can be appreciated. In the 1818 version, Mary Shelley writes in a more sentimental, personal tone, making the letter less about Robert Walton and more about both of the characters' well-being. Walton concludes the letter by stating that he wants to be "Remember[ed] to [his] English Friends", illustrating that he is not only concerned about his and his sister's life, but also in his peers back at home. On the other hand, the latter letter accentuates a more detached, patronizing tone. The addition of the last two paragraphs can be interpreted as Robert Walton showing off his accomplishments rather than being concerned about his sister.
To His Coy Mistress The poem, To His Coy Mistress, by Andrew Marvell brings out some actions that some of us have experienced or even thought about in this concise poem. This poem is very appealing to the male senses and what some make are like. Some women could be thought of when this is read. Andrew Marvell puts it in words that make it seem as if it was very acceptable. In stanza one Mark Taylor stated that “thou” and “you” appear interchangeable: “Thou by the Indian Ganges side/ Shouldst rubies find” and “An hundred years should go to praise/ Thine eye, and on the forehead gaze” but “I would/love you ten years before the flood/ and you should, if you please, refuse,” “And the last age should show your heart,” and “Lady, you deserve this state.” (Taylor, Mark The Explicator.
At this time in history Scandinavia (major setting of the poem) is pagan. Literary scholars have been trying to answer the question of why the poem has Christian elements in it. There have been many answers to this question. I believe that the Christian elements found in Beowulf are the result of the writer having to make the characters in the poem and the generality of the poem acceptable to a pagan/Christian society in which he lived and the fact that oral poems can be modified. The story of Beowulf is pagan.
Again, the author of Jane Eyre challenges the accepted opinion – that which states that a woman is to be protected and must remain innocent – by writing in such a way that it includes “an intimate acquaintance with the worst parts of human nature” (The Christian Remembrancer). As far as class in the Victorian era is concerned, Christianity made up a large part of society. Again, this novel seems to challenge this social norm. One reviewer states that Jane exhibits “no Christian grace” (Rigby), while another notes that the novel “wears a questionable aspect” (The Christian Remembrancer) where Christianity is concerned. Furthermore, there was concern about “how deeply the love for illegitimate romance [was] implanted in our nature” (Rigby).
Consequently, the blunt truth is not always the best thing and may devastate the listener. If you tell someone the blunt truth right away, they may not have time or the experience to understand it completely and may just block it out altogether. Truth is a powerful source that can negatively impact someone when perceived directly. Through Dickinson’s use of a literal writing style, she manages to attract the reader into the poem while emphasizing her theme. Her use of capitalization, punctuation, alliteration, and oxymoron all serve a purpose to support the meaning of the poem.