He wrote:
When Earths foundations Flee,
Nor sky nor land nor sea
At all is found,
Content you, let them burn:
It is not your concern;
Sleep on, sleep sound. (7-12)
He constantly questioned his faith. In the poem “XXXV,” Housman related that the ultimate punishment was equal for those who disobeyed God, as well as those who obeyed. The question begs, why should anyone obey? This is one of the reasons that Housman abandoned religion. In many of his poems he denies that there ever existed an everlasting soul. In the poem, “The Immortal Part,” Housman suggests that when human beings die, their soul and flesh die and only the bones will stay.
Housman attended Oxford University where he began to flourish as a writer. It was there that he met Moses Jackson, his roommate. Moses was the man who Housman was rumored to have loved. Housman seemed to be predisposed to homosexuality because his mother was a powerful influence in
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his life and his father was the weakest example of manhood. His strong relationship with his mother led him to exhibit more feminine characteristics in his psychological nature. He spent very little time playing with boys at a young age and developed a dislike of girls when he was a child. When he met Jackson he considered him to have had more influence on him than anyone else in his life. Housman wrote, “Oxford did not have much influence on me, except that there I met my greatest friend the man who had more influence in my life than anybody else and the great and real source of the great and real problems of my early manhood.” Housman eventually dropped out of Oxford and Moses went on to get married. Housman was not invited to the wedding, or even told about it until Moses was at his honeymoon. “‘I heard he was married,’ is the cryptic record in his diary. In another entry, beside an exactly recorded time of day, he wrote just two words: ‘Said goodbye.’” Housman felt in his heart that one’s sexuality considered to be abnormal is actually normal and natural. It is only considered abnormal by the laws of man and God. After living together for two years, something happened between Housman and Jackson. Housman disappeared for two weeks and after he returned, moved to a separate room. Housman’s disappearance coincided with England’s passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. This act made homosexuality illegal. Oscar Wilde was prosecuted and imprisoned under this new act. Once realizing his relationship with Moses was one-sided, he began a downward spiral. This despair brought back the pain of his mother’s death and made him turn from his Christian faith even further. Housman believed that the world was flawed. He long ago had given up his religious beliefs. He wrote of his homosexual guilt, using reference to a psalm. In More Poems “XXVIII” he depicts how he “. . . cleansed his heart/ And washed his hands in innocence in vain.” Housman routinely took words and phrases from the Bible and changed them to say something else that he wanted the reader to believe. In “The Carpenter’s Son” Housman portrayed Jesus as more human than divine. Before his crucifixion, he tells his disciples he should have “left ill alone.” The ill refers to homosexual love and he beseeches his disciples to not make the same mistake that he has made. It is believed that this is the second critical turning point in Housman’s life that shaped his lack of faith in God. The first was the death of his beloved mother and the second, his unrequited love of Moses Jackson. After leaving Oxford and working in the Patent Office for ten years, Housman’s beliefs and writing evolved.
He was still disillusioned by the injustices in life which separated him from God, but he was much more nostalgic for the innocence of his childhood. Housman insisted his poetry was not based on his own pain, but mankind. That was completely the opposite of how he wrote. He projected his own pain into the poetry he wrote. It was as if all of his troubles were too insufferable for him to bear, so he projected them into his work and gave them voice. As time wore on, Housman became more cynical and pessimistic about God and all of the religion he was reared to believe in. Pessimism is the root of atheism. Not believing in God results from a feeling of rejection; losing God results in a loss of ego. Housman was both an atheist and a pessimist. By not believing in God, a supreme being, everything else holds no value. Goodness is blurred by the veil of atheism. Pessimism is a hallmark of atheism, even for those who keep their
religion. Housman’s attitude about religion stemmed from the anguish of being brought up with strict parents and strict Christian values. His soul was naturally Christian, but he had experienced tragedy and felt deceived by those who told him to believe in God. He always lamented that God could not exist where there is so much suffering. When Housman finally decided to leave the Church, he found it difficult to let his past go, emotionally. He was sentimental and had an intense emotional pull to his past, but just as intense was an intellectual pull that caused him to break ties with the Church. Housman took his vast knowledge of the Bible and twisted it to offer a sardonic view of religion. “In “Easter Hymn” he urges Christ to “bow hither out of heaven and see and save.” He is asking God, if Christ is really his Son, why He can’t save His people. His fundamental message is that if there is any God at all, He is unfair and unjust. Although Housman was not a practicing Christian, when he was asked at a dinner party about his religious beliefs, he described himself as ah High-Church atheist. He used this term as a tribute to his mother and his childhood education. Even though he was an avowed atheist, he was so familiar with the King James Bible that, for better or worse, it became a part of who he was forever. In A Shropshire Lad, the poem “XXXVIII,” is written in the same meter that many Church of England hymns are written in. There are not only Biblical metaphors in this poem, but the fifth and sixth lines have a perfect balance with the first two lines like in the Old Testament. Even some of the titles Housman used for his poetry have biblical meaning. “The Carpenter’s Son” describes the crucifixion. “Easter Hymn” both accepts and rejects the resurrection. He contrasts a human Jesus with a divine redeemer. If Jesus is mortal, Housman insinuates that Jesus should fix the problems He unintentionally made. If Jesus is divine, He should fulfill His promises. It would not take a biblical scholar to see the biblical parallels which are made evident in much of Housman’s Complete Poems. The twentieth century proved to be a time of unrest with mixed opinions about the importance of man and God. Housman identified with the conflict of “. . . the flesh and spirit. The groping of man to understand himself and God, without God, had become a malady.” Alfred was bold and confident enough to have faith in his intelligence. He believed he could overcome the religious faith he had at one time. He was disappointed to learn his Christian values were too deeply embedded to ignore. The war between the two festered inside of him, making him feel guilt and bitterness. Some have called Housman a Christian, but of course his own words have proven otherwise. His bitterness at the death of his mother and an unrequited love caused him anger towards Christianity. He wrote a letter to his sister, Katherine, six months before his death. In it, Housman wrote, “I abandoned Christianity at thirteen, but went on believing in God till I was twenty-one, and towards the end of that time, I did a good deal of praying for certain persons and myself.” He also discussed religion with his brother, Laurence, before his death. He made the distinction of calling himself an atheist, not an agnostic. Housman fit in with society because he conformed to their ideas. He chose not to reveal too much about himself. It was not until he was much older that he confided to those close to him that he was, indeed, an atheist. Although his sense of religion was very much damaged by the tragedy of his childhood, he never forgot his mother’s lessons. Housman felt that seeking both virtue and knowledge was a recipe for disaster. He acknowledged that he was never happy when he pursued the truth because the veil of ignorance revealed a harshness he was unprepared to see. In adulthood, Housman was prone to nostalgia for the happier days of his childhood. He longed for that time when life was simple. Although his Christian roots were severed, the lessons he learned from the language of the Bible remained. His poetry was teeming with Christian references interspersed with atheistic notions. A.E. Housman was a creative enigma. He was brought up with strict Christian values and a profound familiarity with the Bible. Yet as an adult, Housman vigorously rejected those Christian teachings through his poetry. His atheistic tendencies found in many of his poems reveal all of the hurt and disappointment Housman suffered from traumatic events in his childhood and as an adult. He used his poetry to not only question his own religious foundation, but to mock Christianity as a whole. With the exception of his early childhood, A.E. Housman spent his life in turmoil, as evidenced by the body of his literary work.
The climax of the story is when Miles is shot by the Bonewoman. The reader comes to realize that Miles’ choice to live life on the safe side was a mistake:
Hutch, the main character of The Big Field, has played baseball all of his life. He has always played shortstop, the same position that his father dreamed of playing as a professional. “Hutch, had always thought of himself as the captain of any infield he’d ever been a part of” (Lupica 1). Hutch finds himself being demoted to second base because there is another player, Darryl, on his new team that is expected to go pro and also plays shortstop. Hutch struggles because he does not want to play second base and his father does not support him because he does not want baseball to break Hutch’s dreams like it did his own. Hutch is betrayed by his father and Darryl when he finds them practicing together. Hutch has to learn to adjust and eventually becomes friends with Darryl, the up and coming shortstop. He understands that if he wants to win, then he needs to work together with Darryl. His father also comes around and finally gives Hutch his approval. Students should read this book in a high school English classroom because it demonstrates how relationships can be difficult, but teamwork can help to solve many issues.
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
The story "Editha" by William Dean Howells and the poem "Reconciliation" by Walt Whitman are part of a true "national literature." They are both told in a way that only we as Americans could ever understand. They speak of war in all of its glory, and they speak of all of the pain left behind.
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
The cowboy hero, The Virginian, as portrayed in Owen Wister’s novel was the first of his kind and today is known as the stereotypical mythic cowboy figure which our view of the western frontier are based from. The Virginian was the first full length western novel apart from the short dime novels which marked the final stage in the evolution of the cowboy hero to a national icon. The Virginian was published in 1902 and at that time was wildly popular because of the settlement of the west. The story of the cowboy who had the skill and courage to take control of the untamed frontier enthralled people. The cowboy hero had a few distinguished qualities, he was a self-appointed vigilante, he had a very strict moral code, he had exceptional perception skills and he had the ability to adapt. Owen Wister’s The Virginian was the first to portray these qualities and really created a deeper cowboy character.
In Lee Ann Fisher Baron’s “Junk Science,” she claims that the “food industry with the help of federal regulators” sometimes use “[a science that] bypasses [the] system of peer review. Presented directly to the public by…‘experts’ or ‘activists,’ often with little or no supporting evidence, this ‘junk science’ undermines the ability…[for] everyday consumers to make rational decisions” (921). Yet Americans still have a lot of faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to a 2013 Pew Research study, 65% of Americans are “very favorable” or “mostly favorable” of the FDA. When it comes to what people put in their bodies, the FDA has a moral obligation to be truthful and transparent. The bottom line of the FDA’s myriad of responsibilities is to help protect the health of Americans. Deciding what to eat is a critical part of living healthily, and consumers must be able to trust that this massive government agency is informing them properly of the contents of food. While the FDA does an excellent job in many areas, it has flaws in other areas. One of its flaws is allowing the food industry to print food labels that are deceptive, unclear, or simply not true (known as misbranding). This is quite the hot topic because a Google search for “Should I trust food labels” returns well over 20 million results, many of which are blog posts from online writers begging their readers not to trust food labels. HowStuffWorks, a division of Discovery Communications, published an online article whose author claims that “[the food industry] will put what they want on labels. They know the game….” While the food industry is partially at blame for misbranding, the FDA is allowing it to happen. If a mother tells her children that it is oka...
The poem “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant reveals a very unusual aspect of nature. While most people think of nature as beauty and full of life, Bryant takes a more interesting approach to nature. He exposes a correlation between nature, life, death, and re-birth. Using nature as a foothold, Bryant exercises methods such as tone, setting, and imagery in a very intriguing way while writing “Thanatopsis.”
William Cullen Bryant wrote a poem regarding the passing of people from this world into the afterlife which he called “Thanatopsis”. The word Thanatopsis is actually a Greek word meaning ‘meditation on or contemplation of death’. It is the opinion of some readers that this poem expresses a traditional religious view of afterlife in heaven where as others who read it see it as a process that only involves our rejoining with nature. Bryant made references to heaven, nature and spirits which contribute to the discussion on both sides of the argument. Poetry, just like every other form of art, is subject to interpretation. After taking a closer look at Thanatopsis it will be easier to see just why these people cannot seem to agree. Bryant made
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
Our soul has already had to have these concepts before birth. Which brings him to believe the soul is capable of existing without the body, and so it is immortal.
the poem he refers to death with other words, such as “slumber.” There are examples
In Pouliuli, a novel written by Albert Wendt, Faleasa Osovae awakens to find the life he’s been living all along is a mere façade. Pouliuli invites readers into the Samoan community of Malaelua, which is turned topsy-turvy when Faleasa misleads his aiga and community by acting maniacal. Albert Wendt ties a famous Malaelua saga about a mythological hero named Pili to Faleasa Osovae’s life. In the myth as well as in Faleasa’s story, they both had the same goal, which was to live the rest of their life “free”. To accomplish this goal, they both had to accomplish three tasks. Pilis’ tasks were to eat a mountain of fish which the giant’s had caught that day, to race the giants down a river, and make himself disappear. Faleasas’ tasks were to destroy Filemoni, Make Moaula the new leader, and remove Sau and Vaelupa as council leader. Of course they couldn’t have done these tasks alone so both of them enlisted help from friends. Pili enlisted the help of Tausamitele, Lelemalosi, and Pouliuli. Faleasa enlisted the help of his long time friend Laaumatua and his son Moaula. Finally to get the freedom they so wished for they had to complete one last task. In Pili’s case it was to divide his kingdom among his children while Faleasa had to remove Malaga as congress of the village. In the end, they both end up with nothing. Both ending up in the darkness of Pouliuli.
The man "was without imagination" and only understood the facts. He was a newcomer without much experience and thought that he could conquer mother nature. In fact, he thought that any real man could overcome the odds. To him everything was just facts. For example, the temperature was seventy five below zero, which didn't mean anything to him except a number. He did not think of his "frailty as a creature of temperature." He laughed at the "old-timer at Sulphur Creek" when he warned him not to travel alone when it was so cold. The old man was experienced in life he was very wise, but the newcomer just called him "womanish". Even at the end of the story when the man knew he was going to die, he still was thinking that "freezing was not so bad as people thought" and "when he got back to the states he could tell folks what real cold was." This shows that the man wasn't taking his situation very seriously. He wanted to die with dignity instead of thinking of family or people who cared about him, he foolishly thought about how stupid he looked "running like a chicken with it's head off." He was stupid and responsible for his own death because he did not l...
George Herbert throughout his poem “The Collar” puts his thoughts, feelings and complaints on paper on freedom restrictions. He resolves to break free from the binds fastening him to the life he fights to be free from. In various ways, countless things hold down and confine us from doing certain things daily. All the way through history people fought for the rights that tied them down for what they believed in. Herbert explains in his poem that one requires some restrictions even if we cannot understand the motive behind it.