The literature of the Ancient Greeks and Romans which helped fashion the foundation of European culture has been studied and mimicked for thousands of years. The Greeks were the first major European civilization to create a complex literature and inspired the writing style for genres like history, philosophy and poetry. English writers Alexander Pope, John Dryden and Anna Letitia Barbauld drew from the spirit of the classics to construct their version of the prototypical heroic epic through The Rape of the Lock, Absalom and Achitophel and Washing Day. The neoclassical period gave way to writers like Alexander Pope showing a renewed interest in the classics. The epic had long been considered a serious literary form, applied to address lofty …show more content…
Anna Letta Barbuld provides insight into the physical and mental hardships experienced by women. Romanticism seem to be an opposing response to the neoclassical period as it takes the focus off of the classics and placed value on creativity, emotion, the spiritual and self-expression. However, one can still detect classical components within the poem. Barbuld’s use of parody, understatement, and irony echo’s Pope’s mock- epic; hence the relation to the classics. The language used is liken unto an epic challenge. “Come, Muse, and sing the dreaded washing day/ Too soon; for to that day nor peace belongs/ Nor comfort ere the first grey streak of dawn (8, 12, 13). The mock epic format however produces an uneven iambic pentameter with no rhyming scheme at the end of the lines (as the blank verse was gaining popularity). References to classical themes such as duty and sacrifice for the greater good as well as the coming of age are made. The speaker explicates in her childhood days “…the awe/ This day struck into [her] (58-59). The invocation is ironic nature as the speaker points out that the muses are “turned gossips” (1). Instead of calling on them for inspiration she calls on them to begin the task at hand. The poem also cites the Greek god of darkness Erebus and the use of the ancient word for sky; “welkin.” Through these classical implications Anna Letitia Barbuld elevates the mundane domesticity to a status more associated with the standard of a classic
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.
Armstrong, Isobel. 'A Music of Thine Own': Women's Poetry. in: Joseph Bristow, Victorian Women Poets. Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1995, 32-63.
Most consider the sport of baseball to be America’s pastime. While many in the United States spend countless hours following or playing the sport, it is more than a diversion in the Dominican Republic; it can be the key to overcoming impoverishment. For most citizens of the island, poverty is the only known way of life. In 2015, 32.4% or 3.4 million lived at or below the national poverty line. The per capita income for the country in 2016 was $6,909.13, which is $45,285.76 less than that of the United States. In order to achieve their goal of creating a better life for themselves and their family, baseball provides Dominicans an opportunity for upward mobility. It is common for children in the Dominican Republic to grow up playing baseball, the country’s beloved sport, hoping to make their hobby a full-time job.
Alexander Pope was born May 21, 1688, in London. His father was a cloth merchant living in London, both his parents were Catholic. It was a period of intense anti-Catholic sentiment in England, and at some point Alexander's family was forced to relocate to be in compliance with a statute forbidding Catholics from living within ten miles of London or Westminster. They moved to Binfield Berkshire where Pope's early education was affected by his Catholicism. The Catholic schools were illegal but, they were allowed to survive in some places. Prior to his move to Binfield Pope spent a year at Twofold, where he wrote "a satire on some faults of his master," which led to him being whipped and beaten until he became ill. Then once again he was taken from his family.
Classical Greece has been and will continue to be a source of inspiration for Western Civilization. Democracy, Columns, human like sculpture and the Hippocratic Oath began in Classical Greece. The idea of a democracy originated in Ancient Greece. Columns are used in present time, the idea of columns was an architectural contribution. Amazing human like sculptures emerged from Greece. Lastly, the Hippocratic oath was the medical contribution that is still used today.
Poetry in the early 19th century was a form of therapy that allowed the writer and reader to get in touch with their emotions. In the poem “To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible”, Anna Barbauld discusses the feelings of what it is like for a mother awaiting her unborn child. The poem is written in a third-person narrative style and the author uses many exclamation points, which suggests the urgency and emotion through the punctuation. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB. The language is positive and hopeful, which helps form an inclusive tone of romance. Likewise, the poem is broken into nine quatrains which aids in the depiction of the mother carrying a child for nine months in her womb.
Thus muses Achilles, one of epic poetry's greatest heroes. Epic poetry, one of the earliest forms of literature, began as an oral narration describing a series of mythical or historic events. Eventually, these stories were written down and read aloud to an audience. Although the Epic of Gilgamesh was composed approximately fifteen hundred years prior to the Iliad, the heroes of both epics possess strikingly similar characteristics. Indeed, Gilgamesh and Achilles, as epic heroes, exemplify godlike qualities, great personal power, and fierce pride and loyalty.
...owned painters or prominent scientists who have spent their entire lives trying to create or become something their nation could take pride in. However, Publius Virgil had a special challenge since he was trying to unite a nation of conquered people, such as the Greeks, who already took great pride in their own epics and culture. Thus, to accomplish this task Virgil had to distinguish his hero Aeneas from the Greek’s literary hero Odysseus by contrasting their individual views on the meaning of life. This allowed Virgil to highlight why Aeneas and in turn Rome could be considered more admirable since he believes both serve an eternal purpose. However Virgil was probably unaware of the fact that it would be his epic and not the empire of Rome that would stand the test of time becoming not just a source of pride for a nation but the entire literary world as a whole.
The average American is separated from the Greek epic. Although the lowest man is as capable of tragic struggle and feeling as any Greek hero, he is not capable of comprehending the scale and scope of the epic in his own life. We have no way of grasping the gargantuan undertaking of an epic. The epic poem is nonexistent in modern literature, and the number who read epic poems is decreasing rapidly as well. We may read excerpts or quotes about famous works, and from those remarks be able to afford remarks of our own, but this is a form of Cliffs Notes to cultural fluency. The fact that these facile and passing acquaintances serve as the bulk of our culture's understanding reveals the imperfect nature of what we assume we know. We feel qualified to claim a connection with the Greeks, through no proper understanding of our own, but rather through an opinion about an interpretation of a translation.
The Greeks were both smart and creative people. Their religion consisted of extramundane beings who had powers that they used to explain unnatural events, such as storms. They worshiped powerful gods whom they put upon a pedestal. Many of the gods were described as powerful, attractive, athletic, just, and above all, the gods had a great amount of intelligence. So it makes sense that the Greeks would want to integrate that intelligence with their mythology and folklore. The Odyssey, written by Homer, is a substantial example of that. The protagonist of the story, Odysseus, was acute, imposing, and dominant, which was exactly what the Greeks believed was the perfect character.
The Greeks in the third B.C. introduced the Romans to Hellenic culture achievements. The Romans acquired from Greece knowledge of scientific thought, philosophy, medicine and geography. The Romans adopted the humanistic outlook of the Greeks and they came to value social aptitude and articulate and beautiful style and poetry.
To conclude, it can be said that Sophocles and Euripides both were great playwrights and important characters of Ancient Greek Civilization. In addition, they contributed western literature by innovating drama and theatre.
Homer is credited for writing epics that generate source materials for the modern world. The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer are captivating stories with fascinating heroic characters. The Homer stories share with classical mythology typical recurrent motifs. The two Homer epic poems focus on the Trojan War, and its result. The epic poems contain the Greek mythology featuring the Greek gods, goddesses, mythological creatures, and the Greek heroes, and heroines. In addition, the principal motifs typical of classical mythological hero stories are; the dominance of fate, evil fighting against the gods, and death. In both the classic mythology, and he modern fiction hero stories, the heroes always have a helper in their expedition, but ultimately, they have to stand alone, face the darkness, and conquer it in order to become victorious.
The traditional style of an epic is conveyed in its tone and structure. Epic poems are structured in such a way that they include heroic rhyming schemes, heroic similes, and lengthy, formal speeches. The heroic-couplet, which rhymes the pairs in the form of iambic pentameters, is what makes up the heroic-rhyming scheme. This form of couplet produces a kind of melodious appreciation of the text. It was immensely popular amongst the different epics written throughout history to employ a serious tone to the poem through rhyming. However, it was utilized by Alexander Pope, in The Rape of the Lock, to create a lighthearted mock-epic, which pokes fun at the 18th century society in which he lived. The “trivial” is made apparent in the opening couplet of the poem: “What dire offence from am’rous causes springs, / What mighty contests rise from trivial things” (Canto I, 1-2). The first line i...
Greeks had used writing since c. 1400 BC, but it was not until the late 8th century BC that their literature was first written down. Greek literature began in Ionia with the brilliant epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These mature products of a long tradition of oral poetry brought together a vast body of divine and heroic myths and sagas that served as a foundation for much subsequent Greek literature. The epic view of humankind had a lasting influence on Greek thought; indeed, it has been said that later Greek literature is but a series of footnotes to Homer.