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I first came across “Spring and Fall”—as I did a similar poem, Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Say”—through two teen movies of the 1980’s. The Frost poem was featured in Copola’s adaptation of the popular S.E. Hinton young adult novel, The Outsiders, and Hopkins’ in Vision Quest, a forgettable movie about a young man searching to find himself by taking on the unbeatable state champion in a wrestling match. (Our hero beats him!) In both films, the themes of the pains and triumphs of growing up are presented in familiar formulas, and the poems lend a sense of gravity to that theme. In any case, lots of my friends in high school, who never would have read poetry otherwise, knew these poems and could recognize them, having heard them in a movie. (The same can be said of my generation in terms of another Victorian poem in our reading, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” recited in class memorably by Alfalfa in one of the “Our Gang” comedies.) That said, hearing these poems in contexts outside of an academic setting really made them stick with me, and I’d like to use this paper as an opportunity to examine precisely what lends “Spring and Fall” in particular its haunting power.
Perhaps Hopkins has great force for me on a personal level because he was the first poet I studied in my freshman English seminar, where my instructor, a woman from Wales, read selections of “The Wreck of the Deutchland” out loud. The line “Warm laid grave of a womb-life grey” still lilts in my memory. The effect of this line, the smoothness, derived from the soft consonants “w,” “m,” “b,” “l,” etc., combined with the long vowel sounds in “womb,” “grey,” and “grave,” leave me with the feeling of what it must sound like to be floating—and dying—under water. T...
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...dressed by the poet directly.
Finally, and returning to sound and rhythm issues, “Margaret” has two rhythmic constructions in the poem. Hopkins insists on a particular rhythm in the first line where the name has accents over the first and third syllables, forcing the pronunciation of all three syllables: “Mar-ga-ret.” However, at the end of the poem, Hopkins does not place these stress marks over the name, inviting the same kind of falling away we hear in at the end of the line, with the word “for.” I would argue that the only stresses in the final line are found on the first syllable in Margaret and the word “mourn.” As a person in the world, as a young person, as an addressee of a poem, and even as a sound “Margaret” falls. Intellectually, I can come to terms of the message of this poem, but it’s the sounds and rhythms of Margaret’s fall that truly chill.
Published in 1944, the poem itself is an elegy, addressing the melancholy and sorrow of wartime death, as indicated by the title ‘Beach Burial’. This title gives clear meaning to the sombre nature of the work, and the enigmatic nature of it holds the attention of the audience. The entirety of the poem is strewn with poetic devices, such as personification of dead sailors as “…they sway and wander in the waters far under”, the words inscribed on their crosses being choked, and the “sob and clubbing of the gunfire” (Slessor). Alliteration is used to great effect in lines such as that describing the soldiers being “bur[ied]…in burrows” and simile in the likening of the epitaph of each seaman to the blue of drowned men’s lips and onomatopoeia is shown in the “purple drips” (Slessor). The predominant mood of the work is ephemeral, with various references to the transient nature of humanity. The ethereal adjectives used to describe and characterise objects within the poem allow a more abstract interpretation of what would normally be concrete in meaning. The rhythm of this piece is markedly similar to the prevalent concept of tidal ebb and flow, with lines falling into an ABCB rhyme scheme and concepts
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
The poem is notable for Hayden's characteristically accurate evocation of imagery. Just like his other poems, Hayden’s imagery in this poem is very vivid. The reader is able to imagine or see these images in their inner minds. Thus, the diver “sank through easeful/azure/swiftly descended/free falling, weightless/plunged” he described the diver’s carefree attitude and relaxed attitude as he dove into the sea. Thrilled and enchanted by what he sees in the wrecked ship, he lingers for more than intended. When he was brought to the reality of the danger he was in, he, “...in languid/frenzy strove/began the measured
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia, eds. An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 21. Print.
Amphitrite is the goddess and queen of the sea. Many people believed she was the daughter of Either Nereus and Doris She was one of 100 other children they had together, they were known as the Nereids (the daughters of Nereus) . She was married to the god of the sea Poseidon. He first saw her dancing on the island of Naxos, and he instantly fell in love. When he sued for her hand in marriage she ran to Atlas to keep herself pure to her true love Delphin, the god of the dolphins. Her true love surely found her and told her to marry Poseidon, for bringing her back,Poseidon sent Delphin to be among the stars and gave him a space in heavan. They lived in a golden palace under the sea near Aegea, Happier then ever. (Atsma)
Upon first sight, it appears that John Sloan’s Spring Rain and Edward Hopper’s Summertime only common characteristic is that they are both oil paintings on canvas. Spring Rain, from the school of Impressionistic art, was painted in 1912. Summertime, which possesses a simplified, schematic style, was created over thirty years later, in 1943. Therefore, there are extreme differences in the two artists’ technique and style. However, despite these differences, the two painters’ works embody the same theme: They are both scenes of urban realism characterized by isolation and loneliness.
Many writers use powerful words to portray powerful messages. Whether a writer’s choice of diction is cheerful, bitter, or in Robert Hayden’s case in his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” dismal and painful, it is the diction that formulates the tone of the piece. It is the diction which Hayden so properly places that allows us to read the poem and picture the cold tension of his foster home, and envision the barren home where his poem’s inspiration comes from. Hayden’s tumultuous childhood, along with the unorthodox relationships with his biological parents and foster parents help him to create the strong diction that permeates the dismal tone of “Those Winter Sundays.” Hayden’s ability to both overcome his tribulations and generate enough courage
Ferguson, Margaret W. , Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry. shorter fifth edition. New York, New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2005. print.
We get the idea that the poem starts out in the fall, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (5). The season fall represents the year coming to an end, and e...
In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.
In Issa’s poem the transition from the image of melting snow to that of children falling on the village is abrupt and jarring. In Muldoon’s poem, the transition is smoo...
... In all three poems, change is represented as a transition between seasons with the narrator being enthralled by the present and not wanting time to change what they have. In “Reluctance” the seasons are more than actual seasons as the display a turning point in the narrators where he must decide to embrace change or follow his heart. In “Spring Pools” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” the narrators both emphasize the short-lived beauty of nature because of the change in seasons and want so desperately the delay that change. However, both narrators almost reluctantly come to the conclusion that change can bring more beauty but are worried to lose what they have in the present. Frost’s mastery of poetry, nature, and human behavior are beautifully intertwined in these poems to create powerful messages that will continue to be relevant as mankind struggles to accept change.
“To Autumn” was the final work that was produced by John Keats and it marks the end of his poetic career. This is an appropriate poem for Keats to end on, as he is finally able to escape the fantasy world, that he often turned to in previous odes, in order to make a connection within the real world. While keeping the structure of the poem simple, Keats personifies the seasons, to further express the warm images of autumn and the beauty that can be found in nature. While also learning through the passing of time and allegories to art, that the acceptance of morality does not destruct the appreciation of beauty but rather furthers it.