“A nice warm shower, a cup of tea, and a caring ear may be all you need to warm your heart”. Charles Glassman’s quote was exemplified beautifully in the poem “Common Magic” by Bronwen Wallace. The piece took readers through a series of everyday events, explaining how each seemingly meaningless moment contained it’s own kind of magic. Through the use of oxymoron, imagery and characters, Wallace developed the theme that simple pleasures are fleeting and a fulfilled life involves t`21aking time to appreciate everything. Oxymoron is defined as a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction. In the poem “Common Magic”, Wallace used oxymoron as a means to link extraordinary gratitude with the most mundane occurrences. The title of the poem is an oxymoron itself, yet somehow it sums up the text beautifully and efficiently. Common refers to the everyday
Through oxymoron she showed that magic truly can exist in the most simple of circumstances. With imagery she provided a detailed visual of what that looks like, how it sounds and gave readers an understanding of what magic feels like. Finally, characters told the tale with ambiguity so that each and every member of the audience could relate and draw references to the people in their own lives. The poem perfectly unified beauty with basics, showing that true beauty does not always have to be elaborate. True beauty lies within the simplistic details, the character of those involved, the love that is felt and the goodness of mankind, that alone is magic. The theme that all moments are worthy of gratitude no matter how often they occur or how simple they appear was beautifully exemplified in the poem “Common Magic”. Imagine the peace if everyone allowed themselves to feel gratitude for everything and allowed their hearts to be warmed by the day to
In the memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion narrates her personal struggle of coping the realization of John being dead and will never resurrect to reunite with Joan. Joan exerts many sorrowful expressions as medical information and the vortex effects instill a sense of anticipation that John will soon come back. Consequently, Didion’s hopefulness opaques her true identity as she still associates herself as a married woman, when in reality, she needs to move on from John to reestablish her extroverted personality to the world once again. On the contrary, Didion comes to a consensus that John’s death was inevitable, Joan starts to ponder about her future with the exclusion of John. With Joan grieving
Part II: Explication The title of the poem “Love is Not All” asserts the impression that suggests the unimportant of love to its reader at first. However, the ending of the poem reveals the ironic truth that love is worthwhile. Millay’s intention is not to confuse readers by using a title that forcefully disrespects love. However, she projects the title of the poem to ascertain the grounds for her argument that love is important.
Of all the examples of magical realism, the characteristic which enhances the utmost dramatic effect are the mirror reversals. The primary main character is Edward Bloom, from a litt...
The poem The Bean Eaters (see the included poems) is a fine example of all three of these key elements. First and foremost is the use of ordinary speech. For instance the lines They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair / Dinner is a casual affair. Each of these words are easily understandable. Though plain speech, each word is used more differently and more intensely than in ordinary discourse. Old yellow pair resounds with more meaning than old couple. “Yellow” implies faded or old; “Pair” is more compassionate than “couple”, suggesting more of a connection than just a matchup. Though easily readable, the first line sets a tone of tenderness. Dinner is a casual affair is also a unique statement. Though five plain words, each is used effectively to create an irony which is maintained for the rest of the stanza. “Dinner” and “affair” imply more formal situations, but yet are described as “casual.” This vague irony is further developed in the next two lines, Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, / Tin flatware. Chipware is Brooks’s own term, which originates from flatware. “Dinnerware” implies wealth and elegance, while chipware implies aged dishes used by the poor. Yet, chipware also calls up the dignity of dinnerware. The “plain and creaking wood” or table reinforces a sense of poverty. Consistent with the preceding images, “Tin flatware” implies cheapness because of tin, but also refinement from “flatware.” Each word is used to add or ...
There are many different themes that can be used to make a poem both successful and memorable. Such is that of the universal theme of love. This theme can be developed throughout a poem through an authors use of form and content. “She Walks in Beauty,” by George Gordon, Lord Byron, is a poem that contains an intriguing form with captivating content. Lord Byron, a nineteenth-century poet, writes this poem through the use of similes and metaphors to describe a beautiful woman. His patterns and rhyme scheme enthrall the reader into the poem. Another poem with the theme of love is John Keats' “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” meaning “the beautiful lady without mercy.” Keats, another nineteenth-century writer, uses progression and compelling language throughout this poem to engage the reader. While both of these poems revolve around the theme of love, they are incongruous to each other in many ways.
Stated in the first metaphor of the poem, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love? Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice skaters” (lines 1-3) captures an image of two lovers gliding over one another like an abstract artistic painting in a simile. The cold atmosphere indicates the disdain detachment between the lovers during the experience. In modern society, many believe in the “no strings attached” method as part of a liberation for one’s self. Yet, Olds creates a paradox in the imagery by describing the people “red as steak, wine, wet as the children at birth whose mothers are going to five them away” (lines 6-8). In literal concept, the images display a child birth after an eventful sexual experience. When a child enters the world, it comes responsibility many young adults don’t care to handle, thus creating a narcissistic for the younger generation. Nevertheless, the syntax, form, and tone are broken down as Olds further answers her frustrations to society. A tonal shift reverted any ambiguities about these faceless sexual beings by describing them as “the ones who will not accept a false Messiah, love the priest instead of the God” (lines 15-16). Without the great
Over time the world and society have both changed tremendously and one thing that has changed with that is the idea of Witchcraft. Witchcraft has never been prosperous but has been around ever since society has had any written records of time. Different societies and areas all experienced Witchcraft and were driven by the same motives like naivety and fear. Society has a very different view on witchcraft from 35,000 BC compared to present present day because things change over time. Witchcraft has never really been socially acceptable in most countries but the view and ideas about Witchcraft has definitely changed over time. Witches, depending on the country and time period, were characterized with specific traits and appearance
Everyone in the world has one thing in common. Every single person wants love. Ted Hughes’s beautiful poem “A Moon-Lily” uses an extended metaphor to compare a moon-lily to love. At the poem’s beginning, the speaker describes the “moon-lily” as “marvelously white” (1). The speaker uses the color white as a symbol of purity, wholeness, and completeness. A person feels whole and complete when they are in love. The speaker is implying that the flower is love and that the love is pure. The persona uses this image of love to describe the type of love one person tries to give to another. In this poem the person giving the love is the woman and the person refusing their love is the man. In Hughes’s “A Moon-Lily” the speaker compares a moon-lily to
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
Many witches do not believe in spirits, and most if not all reject belief in a literal Devil or demons. Naturally, therefore, they reject the idea that sorcery and divination are accomplished by the agency of evil spirits. Many offer naturalistic explanations for the working of magic and divination and other "psychic technologies." On the whole, the occult community today has expanded its definition of "the natural" to incorporate elements that were earlier considered supernatural, placing them in the category of the super- or paranormal instead. Yet, they are still involved in the "old ways" -- that is, the occult.
From the 1500s-1800s the people of Europe went through a phase of paranoia and violence. Thousands of people were accused of being witches, and numerous mass persecutions were held in parts of Europe. This period is also known as the Burning Times, and leading the way with the highest number of trials and executions was Germany. In total, roughly 100,000 people were accused of witchcraft in all of Europe during the Burning Times, and nearly 50,000 of these were in Germany (Sommerville). Furthermore, of the 50,000 accused in Germany, the estimated death toll was about 26,000. Moreover, the majority (about 80 percent) of those arrested and executed were female because the specially appointed witch commissioners “could not easily imagine men as
["What I have written is not a work of beauty, created that someone may spend an hour pleasantly; not a symphony to lift up the spirit, to release it from the dreariness of reality. It is a story of a life, written in desperation, in unhappiness. I write of the earth on which we all, by some strange circumstance, happen to be living. I write of the joys and sorrows of the lowly. Of loneliness. Of pain. And of love." Smedley 7).]
William Shakespeare was a British writer who wrote the play Romeo and Juliet. In this play, two star crossed lovers meet the fate of death.. Throughout this piece of literature, Shakespeare uses many literary devices, including oxymoron. An oxymoron is defined as two words that sound the same but mean two different things. Authors use literary devices in their works of literature for many reasons, including to say two different things in the story. Shakespeare uses the literary device of oxymoron for the purpose of the story to show two different meaning of the word that is being used.
Children should and need to be exposed to magic in class rooms and schools while growing up. Some children might not be able to afford books or have a rough time at home and can’t read for entertainment. If children don’t receive this expose in books they will only get it in form of movies, TV shows, and learn form what others say and do. An article said, “Teachers are receiving complaints that teaching the Harry Potter book in classrooms exposes children to ‘witchcraft and Satanism’” (2015, Loughrey) Magic in the book Harry Potter has nothing to do with either of those. Before people read the books for themselves they automatically claim false information. If an adult reads Harry Potter and thinks that is the messages of the book they are
What does magic, death and early modern Europe all have in common? Witches. In pop culture today witches are seen as ugly, sometimes green women with pointed hats. In early modern Europe witches were seen very differently and deadly. Witchcraft trials were rampant throughout Europe from the 14th to the 16th century’s. Peak witch hunting mania hit mostly between 1580 to 1630. Some estimated 50,000 people persecuted as witches were hanged, burned and tortured to death. The reason has mystified historians and enthusiasts for years. Many theories as to what caused this mania has been speculated. Methods for trials and convicting them in each theory are similar and different in each case. Three main theories have stood out amongst others; the disaster theory, mental illness and the devil himself.