The SS Deutschland, an iron passenger steamship of the Norddeutscher Lloyd line, was on a maiden voyage to New York from Bremen. On December 4, 1875, the Deutschland was on its way to New York from Bremerhaven, with 123 emigrants. The weather conditions for the steamship was horrible; a blizzard hit the steamship on the Kentish Knock, an area off the coast of Kent and Essex in England. The crew of the Deutschland tried an attempt to go astern but it failed when the stress fractured the Deutschland’s propeller. The vessel began to sink, and the sea began to break over the steamship and the wind rose to gale force; consequently, an order to abandon ship. On December 7, 1875, 135 out of 213 people were saved from the wreck. Among the victims of the wreck were five Franciscan nuns from Salzkotten, Westphalia. The Franciscan nuns had been emigrating to escape the anti-Catholic Falk Laws, legislative bills enacted in the German Kingdom of Prussia during the Kulturkampf conflict with the Catholic Church. The Franciscan nuns’ death inspired Gerard Manley Hopkins to compose his longest Christian theme poem, “The Wreck of the Deutschland,” dedicated to their memory.
In this lyrical poem, dedicated to the Franciscan nuns’ lives, Hopkins expresses his reactions to the wreck of the Deutschland , which sparked powerful emotions in him. Although Hopkins is a devoted Catholic, he encounters critical difficulties in understanding God’s ways and seeks in his poem to resolve them. “The Wreck of the Deutschland” is, therefore, a theodicy (an attempt to reconcile the existence of tragedy and suffering with belief in a God who is both loving and powerful), set out to justify the ways of God to man. In Part the First, Hopkins confesses his innermost t...
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... bleed at a bitterer vein for the/ Comfortless unconfessed of them-/ No not uncomforted: lovely-felicitous Providence/ Finger of a tender of; O of a feathery delicacy, the breast of the/ Maiden could obey so, be a bell to, ring of it, and/ Startle the poor sheep back! is the shipwrack then a harvest, does tempest carry the grain/ for thee” (241-249). In the last stanza of the poem, the tone is the drama of triumph tone rather than a conflicted one: “Dame, at our door/ Drowned, and among our shoals,/ Remember us in the roads, the heave-haven of the Reward:/ Our King back, oh, upon English souls!/ Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east,/ More brightening her, rare-dear Britain, as his reign rolls,/ Pride, rose, prince, hero of us, high-priest, / Our hearts’ charity’s hearth’s fire, our thoughts’ chivalry’s throng’s Lord.”
Why I Left the Church” by Richard Garcia is a poem that explores the ongoing and conflicting relationship between a child’s fantasy and the Church. Although the majority of the text is told in present tense, readers are put through the lenses of a young boy who contemplates the legitimacy of the restricting and constricting nature of worship. It is a narrative that mixes a realist approach of storytelling with a fantasy twist that goes from literal metaphors to figurative metaphors in the description of why the narrator left the church. The poet presents the issue of childhood innocence and preset mindsets created by the Church using strong metaphors and imagery that appeal to all the senses.
Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and the Mythology of “Elysian fields” in lines one through three, she leads the reader to the assumption that this is a calm, graceful poem, perhaps about a dream or love. Within the first quatrain, line four (“I wove a garland for your living head”) serves to emphasise two things: it continues to demonstrate the ethereal diction and carefree tone, but it also leads the reader to the easy assumption that the subject of this poem is the lover of the speaker. Danae is belittled as 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.
Chapter one, ‘Beginnings at Assisi,’ offers a vivid description of the social, political, economic, cultural, demographic description of Assisi and its inhabitants. Here, the author describes the life of Francis and the situations and circumstances prompting his journey to spread the ideal gospel life to the world. This chapter is relevant in determining the circumstances that instigated a need for reforms in the Catholic Church. This chapter is applicable in my life because it offers insight on the fundamental Christian I can rely on in my daily life.
2. Wright, James. "Saint Judas." Approaching Poetry, Perspectives and Responses. Ed. Meg Spilleth. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997. 70.
In this short reflection paper I will be comparing the movie, “The Brook Ellison Story” and the book, “The Book of Job.” Both of these magnificent stories are highly respected by the public and they both give wonderful example of M.R. DeHann book, The Broken thing: Why we suffer. Some of the things that will be disgusting in this paper is a summary of both of these wonderful stories, how four out of the seven main questions for my search for meaning class best relates to both of these stories, which three out of ten “Key Principles of Catholic Social Teachings” closely relate to the two stories, and how both of these stories answer the question, “Does God Exist?” which is a popular fundamental question that was asked frequently in Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator book, Theology: Brewed in an African Pot.
In the Flannery O’Connor’s great book, “Wise blood”, Hazel motes, the main character of the literature, is a hero struggling against his prophetic vocation, yet turning out to be a Christian martyr at the end of his long and futile ordeals. The development of the literature centers around the protagonist’s struggle to run away from Jesus, who poses Jesus as “something awful,” and his final return to him. Hazel’s movement throughout the literature, therefore, may be seen as a journey: a modern man’s progress from rebellion against God, to penance, and to return to him through the painful recognition of his sinful and fallen nature. The shrill thesis of the literature is stressed by its circular journey pattern of escape from and return to God.
St. Francis was an Italian Catholic and a talented poet. As an Italian, his heart moved naturally to deep affection, love and enjoyment. As a poet, he could see right through the outcome of those answers. One night during a dream, he saw his house turned into a palace. The walls of this palace were hung with glorious armory, banners, shields, and swords – all instruments of war. Suddenly he heard a voice, it explained that this was to be his palace, the gathering place for all his knights. The arms were theirs, the banners, and tokens of their countless conquests. To complete this wonderful dream, a gorgeous bride awaited him. St. Francis awoke charmed. A few days after that, he left Assisi to go to Southern Italy to enlist. He reached Spoleto, wh...
While William Blake’s “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence was written before the French Revolution and Blake’s “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Experience was written after, creating obvious differences in formal structure; these poems are also uniquely intertwined by telling the same story of children arriving to church on Holy Thursday. However, each gives a different perspective that plays off each other as well the idea of innocence and experience. The idea that innocence is simply a veil that we are not only aware of but use to mask the horrors of the world until we gain enough experience to know that it is better to see the world for simply what it is.
Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue of the Divine Providence . Trans. Algar Thorold. 1907. 25 Feb. 2004 .
Being a devout Catholic, O’Connor’s “faith consciously informed her fiction. The difficulty of her work, she explained…is that many of her readers do not understand the redemptive quality of ‘grace,’ and, she added, ‘don’t recognize it when they see it. All my stories are...
The communal values evolve around religious events, having family honor and virginity. Even though the church’s betrayal is versatile, when the bishop arrives, it emphasizes the failure clearer. The people of the town, including the prie...
Lesson 3 Essay The "Song of the Nibelungen" is a historical German epic written by an unknown poet circa 1205. This epic has been used as a tool throughout the ages to inspire many Germans to act on various events. Furthermore, the tension between Germanic warrior culture and courtly culture presents itself through the epic. This tension manifests itself in the themes and characters throughout the epic. Later on, the role the Nibelungelied played in the German nationalistic movement was to give the German people a sense of pride and adornment for the fatherland.
St. Francis of Assisi was considered to be a magnificent man. He had a very appealing way of life that people now know and talk about everyday. When learning many new items and discoveries about St. Francis, I accomplished better knowledge about him. This paper will describe the life of St. Francis in depth talking about his early life, his imprisonment and turning towards God, and his works and teachings.
“Saint Joan” is filled with many religious characters but the only one who truly believes they are doing God's work is Joan. Even though there is no proof that Joan is hearing these voices...
Firstly he uses a sharp contrast in his tone. This is particularly evident in his poem 'September 1913'. He starts by attacking the greedy uncultured people of Ireland, especially the shopkeepers who “add the halfpence to the pence”. He uses adjectives such as “greasy” and “shivering” to help portray his feelings of disgust and vexation. This gives the stanza a reproachful tone. At the end of the stanza he introduces the refrain: