Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Poem analysis
Introduction to poetry poem analysis
Introduction to poetry poem analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Allison Reinhardt Mr. Maxwell AP English 2 May 2017 Love, Language, and Myth Aiming to replace muddy abstractions of the earlier century, imagism was created to replace the excessive use of flowery language of earlier poetry. Imagism offered a breath of modernism in a rapidly changing world (“A Brief”). It is this new way of thinking that poet Hilda Doolittle presents in her poems. According to the Poetry Foundation, the publishers of Poetry magazine, Hilda Doolittle was one of the first poets to push the ideals of feminism in the new age and consistently used her life and work as the basis of her poetry. Utilizing the elements of literary modernism she challenged Victorian norms and certainties. Hilda Doolittle, most well known by her …show more content…
challenges readers by reversing stereotypical gender roles through imagery and irony. Traditional qualities associated with a gender are highly characterized within a society, but H.D. acknowledges these gender traits sometimes don’t hold true. Through imagery Doolittle paints a picture with beautiful reds, golds, and purples. This color imagery of “the deep purple...flecked with richer gold” (5;14) highlights the absurdity of a “red swan” and the irony of the poem. Swans are traditionally white, but this is a “red swan” with “red wings” (3). Furthering the ironic nature of “Leda” is that white symbolizes purity, yet this swan who is Zeus, has raped numerous women. The line “Ah kingly kiss” gives even more prominence to the rape Zeus committed. Because the swan is a feminine entity, the idea it commits rape furthers the irony. There is also liminality in the poem starting with an estuary, “where the slow river/meets the tide” (1-2). The river and ocean waters blending signify this liminality and the rape of Leda is a mingling of the divine and the earthly resulting in the creation of Helen, an object of many of H.D.’s poems. The liminality asserts that gender roles are not always as characterized as society makes them out to be. There is a mixing between gender traits and categorizing a sex to a specific set of traits is not …show more content…
“Helen” asserts that society has a tendency to focus on the negative aspects of an individual and ignore that individual’s positive attributes. In “Helen” Greece focuses on how Helen was the cause of the Trojan War thus ignoring all of Helen’s beautiful attributes. Helen, an object of interest to H.D., is given a unique perspective in this poem where identity plays a crucial role. The title of the poem acknowledges that this will be about or concerning Helen of Troy. On a deeper level H.D. is also making a connection between herself and Helen by shortening the name of Helen. Hilda Doolittle shortened her name to simply H.D. and instead of the title being “Helen of Troy” H.D. shortens it to “Helen.” It gives the allusion of a more personal and intimate connection between them. It may also be symbolic of the way the Greeks were not open minded towards Helen of Troy and how individuals in the late 19th and 20th century were biased towards bisexuals and individuals who struggled with sexuality as H.D.
To begin, the poem presents gender and their associated stereotype with items usually linked to one gender. As the poem opens Redel addresses her sons “scarlet nails” that are decked with “rings’ and “jewels.” As nail polish and jewelry are typically feminine items, one can sense the challenge in Redel’s tone as she describes her son wearing them. Additionally, Redel presents the items “a truck with a remote that revs” and “Hot wheels” to introduce items that generally young boys own. These toys are described since society would prefer her son to play with such toys rather than to “love the glitter.” Thus, gender stereotypes are presented in mundane items that typically the opposite sex does not experiment with. This interaction is looked down upon by others, but Redel is
The transformation that takes place in the way in which the girl thinks about gender roles is not described directly as an issue of what is appropriate for men and women. Instead, the description is much more subtle, and almost a natural change that occurs in every person (Rasporich 130). It is this subtleness in the language causes the readers to not only feel sorry for the young girl, but to also think about their own views of gender
The Iliad is a story of strong characters, brave heroism, raw human emotion and physical and emotional strife. From war prizes to goddesses, women play a large role in that story. From the opening of the seemingly male-oriented epic, women are at the center of the plot movement and motivation. The war between Greece and Troy originally starts over a woman, Helen. The wife of Menelaus and the promised prize to Paris for being the judge of a beauty contest for the goddesses, Helen is the nexus of the war. Being the source of the entire war gives her a very powerful role in the Iliad. Even though the story is not about the war it based around the war and at times the two are very intertwined. Not all women in the Iliad have power though, many are treated like objects and property. The balance between male and female roles in this poem is a fascinating point of interest.
This juxtaposition is what leads the reader to understand the true meaning of the poem. For example, “Danae” is a “vessel” for “Jove” (lines 56). Danae is belittled to an object and claimed by Jove while Jove remains “golden” and godly. In lines seven and eight, “Jove the Bull” “bore away” at “Europa”. “Bore”, meaning to make a hole in something, emphasises the violent sexual imagery perpetrated in this poem. Jove disguises himself as a bull in order to take Europa away to Crete so he can rape her. Not only that, but she becomes pregnant afterwards and “bore” a child. Europa was physically “away” from her home because Jove had stolen her, but Jove “bore away” at her physically as well as emotionally. Finally, in line 8, the “Swan’s featherless bride” refers to Leda, who was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. Not only is she not mentioned by name but she is owned by the “Swan” as demonstrated by the possessive noun. While the other women had minor historical context, Leda is reduced to three words. Not only that but Jove 's violence against the women increase with every name, Leda being alluded to last drives home the pain he
In Greek mythology, Leda, a Spartan queen, was so beautiful that Zeus, ruler of the gods, decided he must have her. Since immortals usually did not present themselves to humankind in their divine forms, Zeus changed himself into a great swan and in that shape ravished the helpless girl (Carey 58-59). Both William Butler Yeats and Mona Van Duyn base their poems "Leda and the Swan" and "Leda," respectively, on this story of a "mystic marriage." Yeats' focus on the sexual act itself, along with his allusions to Leda's progeny, manifest a grave and terrifying tone. While he raises Leda to a status similar to that of Mary, mother of Jesus, Van Duyn portrays Leda as a universal mother. By making both figures, Leda and Zeus, ordinary, she gives a "surprising twist" (Greiner 337) to the original myth, emphasized by her witty tone. In addition, whereas Yeats suggests that Leda has gained something from her encounter with Zeus, Van Duyn asserts that she has gained nothing, portraying women in general as primarily objects of men's satisfaction.
In the film Troy, directed by Petersen, the audience grasps that there is a fair alignment in the making of the storyline to the more ancient poem of The Iliad by Homer. It is with the gods that the Trojan War is believed to have started through the craft of Hera and from the help of Aphrodite and her traits of love and desire. It is in The Iliad that we understand the importance of the Gods on the Trojan War and how they manipulate the terms of war, we often see the Gods turn a battle from the lust and desire of a man to the hatred of a lost love one on the behalf of Patroclus and his dearest companion Achilles. It is a common theme of the three storylines, The Iliad, Troy and Ransom that the woman takes control and with her lustful ways to influence the terms of decision making by men in particular to give them what they are perceived to want. The viewer see this repeatedly during the film and books and seize to imagine that women are the most influential beings in the making of the Ancient Greek storylines, just as when Paris quotes to Helen in the film Troy, “Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed,” meaning that the man does not care of his own life, his love that he has towards his woman is more important than anything else in his life.
In the Homer's epic poem the Odyssey, there are many themes that serve to make a comment about the meanings of the story. The theme of women in the poem serves to make these comments but also establishes a point of view on women in the reader. From this point of view, a perspective is developed into the "best" and "worst" in women. Achievement of this is through the characterization of many women with single notable evil qualities. Similar to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Eve like the many women in the Odyssey brings about pain and suffering for mankind. Contrary to the depicting of women as roots of evil, the reader sees the other traits of women that are most desirable. The roles of these women are achieved by their portrayal throughout the poem. This in return has a significant affect on how the poem and the message that is conveyed.
perspective on the concept, arguing that gender is a cultural performance. Her careful reading of
In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.
The soldiers of Greece force these newly widowed wives to be their concubines or slaves, treating the women as if they are a symbol of victory. A soldier riding to Helen’s pen where she is imprisoned can be heard saying “we need her for the victory parade!” These barbaric soldiers have drawn lots to decide which Trojan woman that they will take as their own. This is yet another vile cost of war, treating women as slaves and parading them in show of their victorious efforts in battle. This practice belittles the Trojan women, viewing them as objects for the Greeks to do with as they please. The Trojan women have lost their freedom, such freedom that their husbands and sons gave their lives to
The novel “Black Ships Before Troy,” by Rosemary Sutcliff is a retelling of the Iliad by Homer, a poem about an epic war. It all started with a god named Thetis, who did not invite Eris to her wedding. Because of this, she dropped a golden apple with the words “To the fairest.” Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite fought for the apple, until Paris chose Aphrodite, with the promise of a fair wife. Paris had heard about Helen, who was supposed to be the most beautiful maiden in the world.
Diction plays a crucial role in portraying the author’s push for social change. Mecewen’s Trojan Women shows this in the scene between Helen and Menelaus’ dialogue when he has the intentions to kill her. Macewen’s choice of words for Helen when she says “What was I do to? There I was- (a child of heaven, half-divine)- abused, dishonoured, and all because of my impossible beauty,” (Macewen 86) shows her as docile and innocent in front of Menelaus when she is really outsmarting him to avoid her death. Here, social change is urged by allowing Helen to use her brains to avoid the fate that her husband wants for her. In this case, the story has been used to pressure social change in the aspect that Helen’s fate no longer rests in the hands of her husband but in her own since she is able to avoid death through the us...
Eliot’s overall disinterest in either of the discussed forms of over-concern with gender in regards to literature— because she didn’t consider a woman’s feminine virtue to be relevant criteria in determining the quality of a piece of literature, nor did she find the general advancement of any women’s writing to be a necessary aspect of advancing the overall status of the female gender— serves as yet another example of how this Victorian writer fits Ezell’s description of Romantic literary critics. During the Romantic era, a writer’s gender was not emphasized nearly as much as it was in the Victorian era. Regardless of the actual gender of the writer who wrote the piece of literature in question, if a writer achieved either a masculine or androgynous
Poetry is a very artistic and creative way for poets to freely express themselves, whether it be love, hate, sadness, joy, and even to express themselves sexually. William Butler Yeats uses Greek mythology in "Leda and the Swan" to describe the sexual nature of the poem. Yeats uses many poetic elements and techniques to describe the sexuality of the poem. He uses elements such as language and the structure of the poem itself to portray to his readers a very vivid picture of the sensual elements of this poem. Through structure and language Yeats is able to paint a powerful sexual image to his readers without directly giving it meaning of the poem. This image Yeats is portraying is important because it helps readers to look beyond the surface and get the deeper more erotic meaning of "Leda and the Swan."
What is a king to a god? Even if that god has committed unspeakable acts? Leda and the Swan is a poem that causes a lot controversy; some people feel that Zeus raped Leda where as others feel that she was seduced. William Butler Yeats officially published this poem in 1928. He was known as one of the world’s greatest authors of his time.