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Victorian and romantic periods in British literature
Victorian and romantic periods in British literature
19th century English novels
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In the poem “The Widow at Windsor” Rudyard Kipling uses the voice of one of the men to explain what it means to be one of Queen Victoria’s soldiers. The soldier explains how powerful the Queen is and how she uses her power over others to gain what she wants. He also talks about the soldiers that do her bidding. Any idealistic notions the soldiers may have had at the thought of being soldiers is countered by the reality of their day-to-day lives. Kipling’s own life experiences lends credence to the doublespeak that this poem brings to light. “The Widow at Windsor” uses a rapidly paced cadence to draw the reader into a conflicted world where soldiering for a powerful woman is a source of pride and disrespect and furthermore, the readers sees this duality of mind as demonstrable in any time period, regardless of the date. “The Widow at Windsor” is quick paced with a rhyming technique that deceives the reader into thinking the topic will be light when in reality the poem is emotionally intense and reveals a difficult lifestyle. Sir George MacMunn refers to Kipling’s style, in his book Rudyard Kipling: Craftsman, as being refreshing yet frequently under scrutiny by the critics of Kipling’s day. Undoubtedly, it is this style that catches the eye of the modern reader. According to Eileen Gillooly, in Poetry for Young People: Rudyard Kipling, the flowing cadence of the poem is a well honed technique that Kipling often uses. She explains that Kipling worked carefully to make every word count and have a strong impact (4-5). Once the reader has been successfully drawn into the poem it becomes clear that the soldier telling the tale is both proud of his Queen and scornful of his role in her life. Pride for Queen and country shines t... ... middle of paper ... ...t although some of the soldiers may have made it home physically they were no longer able to recognize it as home. “The Widow at Windsor” brings history alive while highlighting a pattern of emotions experienced by many generations of soldiers before, and since, its publication in 1892. With Kipling’s unique style even civilian readers become interested in a soldiers experiences. The voice of a soldier, and rhythmic prose, pull the emotionally distant reader closer to the hearts of the soldiers and the plight that faces them. The reader quickly discovers that although the soldiers serve the Queen with a general sense of pride they are also disrespectful of her. To march in her name, the soldiers realize, as Kipling did as a child, that they will have to live their lives as lies. The soldiers are the Queen’s pawns and they are different people because of it.
“The war correspondent is responsible for most of the ideas of battle which the public possesses … I can’t write that it occurred if I know that it did not, even if by painting it that way I can rouse the blood and make the pulse beat faster – and undoubtedly these men here deserve that people’s pulses shall beat for them. But War Correspondents have so habitually exaggerated the heroism of battles that people don’t realise that real actions are heroic.”
To read the Civil War diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl, is to meander through the personal, cultural and political experience of both the author and one's self. Her writing feels like a bullet ricocheted through war, time, death, literary form, femininity, youth, state, freedom and obligation. This investigation attempts to do the same; to touch on the many issues that arise in the mind of the reader when becoming part of the text through the act of reading. This paper will lay no definitive claims to the absolute meaning of the diary, for it has many possible interpretations, for the journey is the ultimate answer. I seek to acknowledge the fluidity of thought when reading, a fluidity which incorporates personal experience with the content of Williamson's journal. I read the journal personally- as a woman, a peer in age to Alice Williamson, a surrogate experiencialist, a writer, an academic and most of all, a modern reader unaccustomed to the personal experience of war. I read the text within a context- as a researcher versed on the period, genre, aesthetics, and to some degree the writer herself. The molding of the personal and contextual create a rich personalized textual meaning .
Autobiographies, diaries, letters, official records, photographs and poems are examples of primary sources from World War One. The two primary sources analyzed in this essay are the poems, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen and “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae. Primary sources are often personal, written from the limited perspective of a single individual. It is very difficult for the author to capture their own personal experience, while incorporating the involvement and effects of other events happening at the same time. Each piece of writing studied describes the author’s perception of the war. Both of the poems intend to show to grave reality of war, which often was not realized until the soldiers reach the frontlines. The poems were both written at battle within two years of each other. However, the stark difference between the two poems is astonishing. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” gives a much different impression than “In Flanders Field” despite the fact that both authors were in the same war and similar circumstances. The first two lines in “In Flanders Fields” “…the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row.” are an image o...
The battle of the Somme was one of the most tragic battles fought during World War I. The amount of life lost on both sides was tremendous and historians everywhere agree that this battle was one of the bloodiest battles fought. With casualties upwards of a million, it is not surprising that the Somme is often referred to as the ‘bloodbath’. Historian Martin Gilbert explores the severity of the battle in his book; The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War. In his book he attempts to pay tribute to the soldiers who fought and fell in the battle. To do this he uses excerpts from diary entries, letters and poetry written by the soldiers on the front lines to give the reader a first-hand account of what the soldiers were thinking and feeling while fighting. Gilbert is able to effectively portray the horror of the Somme and reduce the anonymity of the fallen by sharing stories from the soldier’s personal writings, however his book would have been more effective if he had a clear well-structured argument.
Queen Elizabeth’s ability to emotionally connect with her troops by starting off her speech with “My loving people,” conveys her sense endearment, pride, and acceptance for her people. This pride and acceptance allows the soldiers to feel open and united with their queen. Unity is also inspired with her repetition of the pronouns “we” and “my.” These
...us today, but Kipling seemed to marvel at the very thought that these people would not jump up in thanks to their "civilizing" conquerors. Rather than bring together to different people this work just created a larger divide between the two. It doesn’t seem though that Kipling intended the poem to be viewed as support of the imperialist endeavor; in fact, reading carefully the way he phrases the lines would reveal that Kipling was offering warnings to anyone who decided that such ideas needed to be carried out. He warns against laziness and debauched behavior as it can quickly derail noble goals and intentions. He also cautions the need of patience, and tries to make it clear that this kind of work (raising a people to a more civil culture) is difficult and can be quite burdensome – as he writes it is the “toil of serf and sweeper,” not the “tawdry rule of kings.”
Ultimately, we have two poems which can be compared on the grounds of their subject, but are poles apart regarding their message. The structure of these poems is not what would be typically expected from a war poem, but are structured on the basis of these typical structures in order to create some sense of familiarity. Brooke’s poem expands on this familiarity while Owen attempts to deliberately sabotage it. In regards to content, Brooke shows throughout his perception of the nobility of dying for one’s country, whilst Owen uses all of his poetic techniques to show the opposite.
James Hanley provides an uncommon perspective of comradeship that contrasts the usual romantic representations by other World War 1 writers. Elston is from Manchester, England, a poor industrial city and O’Garra is from the impoverished town of Dublin, Ireland (48). Both men enlist in the service to escape their poverty and squalid environments. O’Garro is physically repulsive and the more aggressive of the two but loathes Elston who contrasts him in disposition and phys...
The story “Royal Beatings” is a beautiful representation of a young girl’s view of the world around her. Munro uses vivid details to create a story and characters that feel real. She draws the reader in and allows the reader to understand Rose through her poignant words about her life. Then, in the end, enables the reader to make the connections that Rose perhaps misses. “Royal Beatings” is not about any particular moment in Rose’s life or any certain action related to the reader. The story is, in fact, not about plot at all. It is instead about creating characters with a sense of verisimilitude and humanity while revealing “all their helplessness and rage and rancor.”
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "My Last Duchess." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 432-433. Print.
Queen Elizabeth masterfully used imagery in her speech to boost the soldier’s morale and gain loyalty and respect as a woman leader. In the beginning of the speech, Queen Elizabeth said, “Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects”. The queen’s intent was to paint her as a trusting and respectful leader an...
In a quote by Winifred Holtby it states, “The crown of life is neither happiness nor annihilation; it is understanding.” This statement holds true when the Queen of England, Elizabeth I, stood before her troops July, 1588; her valiant discourse ringing throughout Tilbury. By reminding her soldiers of her power as the Queen and her credence towards the war, Queen Elizabeth is also reminding the rest of the world of her influence. Through strong diction and syntax, Queen Elizabeth I argues: as Queen among the people - and in the eyes of their God - she will fight with her subjects, her kingdom, and her soldiers; which will result in their victory.
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.
It's a pretty bleak picture he paints, cloaked in finery and delight but at the core full of stoic acceptance of misery, hardship and death. While there is a good deal of this that Kipling probably believed, even a casual examination of his own life suggests that this book is more of a bare-bones explication of the fundamental issues than a fully fleshed out portrait of how an artist ought to live.