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Baudelaire spleen analysis
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Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen is a collection of poems with all sorts of different themes and content, Baudelaire had consistently used a form which enhances the poem’s content, though had he used a more traditional form at the time, these poems may have not be as powerful and gotten popular. An example of Baudelaire’s form that went away from traditional forms of poetry, is seen through the poem, “The Firing Range and the Graveyard,” a free-form poem that seems to have no structure and seemly similar to a short story, for the poem is rather clever with the form. The nature of this writing seems simple to some, but to indulge and dig deeper into the poem, one may see more than they wanted to; a journey of a character who goes to a graveyard hears voices, but the poem is more than a first time reader would ever think of. Digging into the poem, one can realize the symbolism of things and interpret what their ideals come from this poem, for this poem’s seemingly straightforward way of writing, brings a whole lot more than just a man going to the firing range and a graveyard. The poem is enhanced through a certain word choice, the way the poem is structured and themed, using 4 stanzas, and the narrative way of writing.
Though Baudelaire’s poem is of a free form nature, the poem does have a simple structure as in, there being 4 stanzas all having a different action and narration for the character. The first stanza, being the setup, starts off with the character seeing the tavern which inevitably brings the character in, due to a sign, and through the character talking of how he feels the owner might have enjoyed previous poets and might have been fond of ancient Egyptian artifacts, leading to the second stanza. The second s...
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...all now as, “The Firing Range and the Graveyard,” a poem, who’s word choice made the poem so much better.
Free form broke the walls of structure and created something new, through no form, we get a form that doesn’t rely on old traditional methods and can create poetry just as worthy. As form changes, our choice in words also changes, words create a deeper meaning, if used correctly, but with deeper meaning, people create something new; a new interpretation, creates a new idea of thinking. Through the great word choice of Baudelaire, the free form style Baudelaire uses, and the viewpoint, that complements the style, we get one of the poems in Paris Spleen, “The Firing Range and the Graveyard.”
Works Cited
Baudelaire, Charles. "The Firing Range and the Graveyard." Paris Spleen. By Charles Baudelaire. Trans. Louise Varese. New
York: New Directions, 1970.
Baca expresses that “I wrote to sublimate my rage, from a madness of having been damaged too much, from a silence of killing rage” (57). Baca explains that he wrote to avenge the betrayals of others and to purge the bitterness of injustice around the world. He expresses himself in rage that “I wrote with a deep groan of doom in my blood, bewildered and dumbstruck; from an indestructible love of life, to affirm breath and laughter and the abiding innocence of things” (Baca 57). Writing bridged Baca’s life of a prisoner and free man. He wrote about the emotional bloodbath of prison and of his incisive recognition for poetry. The power to express himself was a new welcoming that rushed his blood and filled his
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
Every year, more than two million new works of literature are issued in the world. This number is, of course, no surprise, as literature has been, for many centuries, an extremely efficient way of communicating and telling stories. It is quite a challenge, however, to write an interesting, beautiful, and powerful piece of literature, yet analyzing it can be even harder. One piece of literature that, I believe, demonstrates these qualities is Magus Magnus’s poem, “An Old Soldier Cleans His Rifle for the Last Time.” The poem’s movement, for instance, is an important aspect to this work.
Dubus, Andre. "Killings." Meyer, Michael. In The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 107 - 120.
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The idea of graves serving memory is introduced in Part I of the collection within the poem
Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence.
In Baca's poem, it is evident from the very beginning that he's setting a tone of utter
..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most celebrated classical authors, known for his unique dealings within the horror genre. Poe was a master at utilizing literary devices such as point of view and setting to enhance the mood and plot of his stories leading to his widespread appeal that remains intact to this day. His mastery of aforementioned devices is evident in two of his shorter works “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
The first literary device that can be found throughout the poem is couplet, which is when two lines in a stanza rhyme successfully. For instance, lines 1-2 state, “At midnight, in the month of June / I stand beneath the mystic moon.” This is evidence that couplet is being used as both June and moon rhyme, which can suggest that these details are important, thus leading the reader to become aware of the speaker’s thoughts and actions. Another example of this device can be found in lines 16-17, “All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies / (Her casement open to the skies).” These lines not only successfully rhyme, but they also describe a woman who
Conclusively, Edgar Allan Poe’s distinctive writing style comes from his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, figurative language. Commas, dashes, semicolons, and exclamation marks appear frequently in his writing. Simultaneously, they affect the organization and length of his sentences. Word choice sets the tone. Literary devices imbue it with life. On comparing “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, this is observed.
The speaker is trying to elaborate the spark coming from the gun and the flare resulting after the bullet is shot (Lines, 9-10). Then the fourth stanza is opened which is underpinned with the end result of a gunshot and what a gun can do. The use of alliteration in the fourth stanza is interweaved by the words such as ‘Day done’, ‘My Master’s, as well as ‘Duck’s Deep’ that in turn are presented with repeated sounds. A certain transition in the language and structure can be read by the use of ‘Night’ and ‘Day’ (Line, 13). In addition to this, the placement of the gun during night is referred by “I guard my Master’s Head-/ ‘Tis better than the Eider Duck’s/ Deep Pillow- to have shared-” (Line, 14-16). Conversely, the alternate meaning suggests that the husband of that woman is the Master (Line,
First of alll, the poem is divided into nine stanzas, where each one has four lines. In addition to that, one can spot a few enjambements for instance (l.9-10). This stylistic device has the function to support the flow of the poem. Furthermore, it is crucial to take a look at the choice of words, when analysing the language.