Arthur Rimbaud's Scheduling Content Reshaped Life

343 Words1 Page

From a young age, Smith acquired an extraordinary perspective on life and on rhetoric. Discontent with the traditional Lord’s child prayer, Smith urged her mother to allow her to shape her own personal prayers. This opportunity granted her the freedom to communicate what was in her heart from that moment forward (Smith, 9). With this newfound privilege, Smith describes mouthing long letters to God and offending Him with her “endless vows, visions, and schemes” (Smith, 9). As a child, Smith fell in love with books. Her appreciation of books produced new desires, gave her a fresh passion, and reconstructed her expectation of life (Smith, 10-11). Even as a child her deepest wish in life was to express herself (Smith, 11). Smith describes harvesting …show more content…

Continuing her childhood preoccupation with books, Smith developed an infatuation with Arthur Rimbaud as an adolescent. Rimbaud, she thought, possessed an irreverent intelligence and held the keys to an esoteric language (Smith, 29). This language captivated her, although she did not thoroughly grasp it (Smith, 29). In Rimbaud’s writing, Smith found a chiseled imagery of Heaven that she fastened to (Smith, 30). Besides Rimbaud, another influences shaped Smith’s fate. The novels and authors Smith read affected her attitude and her rhetoric as a poet. Inspired by the unconventional tomboy writer Jo in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Smith crafted her own stories (Smith, 16). During this season she hoped she might write a book one day (Smith, 16). During the following year, a rare trip to the Museum of Art in Philadelphia transformed Smith and altered the trajectory of her life (Smith, 16-17). On this trip, Smith realized human beings could create art, and that artists saw what others did not (Smith, 16-17). From that moment forward, Smith sought to become an artist, even though she did not know if she carried the capabilities of an artist (Smith,

Show More
Related

  • Janie's Self-Discovery

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...re Watching God’.” The Southern Literacy Journal 17.2 (Spring 1985): 54-66. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Feb. 2011.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died and Jilting of Granny Weatherall

    1728 Words  | 4 Pages

    Author’s style is defined as the distinct literary manner that makes his or her expression of content unique from other authors; Katherine Anne Porter and Emily Dickinson have different styles that contribute to a better understanding of the themes of their work. In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” Porter uses the strea...

    Read More

  • Authentically Portrayed Women in Literature

    2173 Words  | 5 Pages

    Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind; Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Upon first glance, these classics of literary legend appear to have nothing in common. However, looking closer, one concept unites these three works of art. At the center of each story stands a woman--an authentically portrayed woman. A woman with strengths, flaws, desires, memories, hopes, and dreams. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara, and Williams’ Blanche DuBois are beautiful, intelligent, sophisticated women: strong yet fragile, brazen yet subtle, carnal yet pure. Surviving literature that depicts women in such a realistic and moving fashion is still very rare today, and each piece of that unique genre must be treasured. But unlike those singular works, there lived one man who built a career of writing novels that explored the complex psyches of women. Somehow, with each novel, this author’s mind and heart act as a telescope gazing into an unforgettable portrait of a lady. Through the central female characters in his novels Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence illuminates dimensions of a woman’s soul not often explored in literature.

    Read More

  • Symbolism Within the Bell Jar Novel

    1662 Words  | 4 Pages

    Smith, Stan. "Criticism by Stan Smith." DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Discovering Collection. Gale. Academy of Holy Angels - NJ. 4 Dec. 2013

    Read More

  • Hollowness in Emily Dickinson’s Poetic Discourse

    3878 Words  | 8 Pages

    Miller, Cristanne. “How ‘Low Feet’ Stagger: Disruptions of Language in Dickinson’s Poetry.” Feminist Critics Read Emily Dickinson. Ed. Suzanne Juhasz. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983. 134-55.

    Read More

  • this is our world

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    From many of Dorothy Allison’s writings “This Is Our Word” made me understand what the true meaning of art really is. Allison uses great strategies in her writing like the usage of her tone, and also the descriptive language she uses to describe art and create imagery. Many people like me can look at a picture and stare at it for a long time and still wouldn’t be able to see what it means or what it’s trying to say. Allison made me understand that art isn’t just a picture with bright colors; she made me realize that everything tends to have a story behind it.

    Read More

  • Engaging God's World Chapter Summary

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plantinga’s (2002) book Engaging God’s World consists of five parts: “Longing and Hope,” “Creation,” “The Fall,” “Redemption,” and “Vocation in the Kingdom of God.” Throughout the work, Plantinga references public speakers and activists, lyricists, philosophers, saints, and authors to help his audience connect to his perspective.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Poetry Is Not A Luxury, By Audre Lorde

    1786 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is a way to crucially engage oneself in setting the stage for new interventions and connections. She also emphasized that she personally viewed poetry as the embodiment of one’s personal experiences, and she challenged what the white, European males have imbued in society, as she declared, “I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean — in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.”

    Read More

  • Flannery O'Connor's Short Fiction

    3167 Words  | 7 Pages

    In this analysis, we will be looking at just how Flannery O'Connor accomplished this seemingly impossible task, non-didactic Christian fiction, by examining elements of faith, elements of style, and thematic elements in her writing. While secondary sources are included for perspective, I have focused primarily upon Miss O'Connor's own essays and speeches in my examination of the writer's motivations, attitudes, and technique, most of which are contained in the posthumous collection Mystery and Manners. Unlike some more cryptic writers, O'Connor was happy to discuss the conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of her stories, and this candor is a godsend for the researcher that seeks to know what "makes the writer tick."

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson and Her Poetry

    3199 Words  | 7 Pages

    Emily Dickinson is one of the great visionary poets of nineteenth century America. In her lifetime, she composed more poems than most modern Americans will even read in their lifetimes. Dickinson is still praised today, and she continues to be taught in schools, read for pleasure, and studied for research and criticism. Since she stayed inside her house for most of her life, and many of her poems were not discovered until after her death, Dickinson was uninvolved in the publication process of her poetry. This means that every Dickinson poem in print today is just a guess—an assumption of what the author wanted on the page. As a result, Dickinson maintains an aura of mystery as a writer. However, this mystery is often overshadowed by a more prevalent notion of Dickinson as an eccentric recluse or a madwoman. Of course, it is difficult to give one label to Dickinson and expect that label to summarize her entire life. Certainly she was a complex woman who could not accurately be described with one sentence or phrase. Her poems are unique and quite interestingly composed—just looking at them on the page is pleasurable—and it may very well prove useful to examine the author when reading her poems. Understanding Dickinson may lead to a better interpretation of the poems, a better appreciation of her life’s work. What is not useful, however, is reading her poems while looking back at the one sentence summary of Dickinson’s life.

    Read More

  • Bernice Bobs Her Hair Analysis

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a female university student, I feel deeply related to Marjorie since her personality is quietly similar to mine. Analogously, I could feel Bernice’s “vague pain” (Fitzgerald, 3) and realize her sensitivity as the things have happened to me when I was younger. In order to comprehend author’s main idea, I did numerous researches about the jazz age. Thus it can be seen, reader’s background is also crucial when responding to this literary texts. The writer’s main target audiences are women, who have different desires and needs than men. The meaning of the text often competes when we have a better understanding of our self-identities. We interpret the text based on our own psyches, experiences, and judgments. Literature, are like music, without interaction with its audiences, no profound meaning would be

    Read More

  • Comparing Women´s Images in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening

    3073 Words  | 7 Pages

    There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson Themes

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    On December 10, 1830, a cold winter day, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was brought into the world. Emily lived on Maine street in a lovely brick home, which they called the “Homestead.” Emily had an older brother named Austin. She also had a younger sister, who was born three years after her, her name was Livina. The first school that Emily attended was a school right down the road from her house. This was the first education that she received. This was the school that her father wanted her to attend. This is also where Emily’s writing career began (Borus: 9-14).

    Read More

  • The Portrayal of Women in American Literature

    2124 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    2504 Words  | 6 Pages

    James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man presents an account of the formative years of aspiring author Stephen Dedalus. "The very title of the novel suggests that Joyce's focus throughout will be those aspects of the young man's life that are key to his artistic development" (Drew 276). Each event in Stephen's life -- from the opening story of the moocow to his experiences with religion and the university -- contributes to his growth as an artist. Central to the experiences of Stephen's life are, of course, the people with whom he interacts, and of primary importance among these people are women, who, as his story progresses, prove to be a driving force behind Stephen's art.

    Read More

More about Arthur Rimbaud's Scheduling Content Reshaped Life

Open Document