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Geoffrey Chaucer was a well-known writer of the fourteenth century. He lived and wrote in a time when England was in a transformation. Medievalism still was a dominant influence in the lives of Englishmen, but the renaissance had assumed definite form and the country stood on the threshold of the modern world. This century was filled with social, political, literary, and religious ferment. In these times this man of the people began to write The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales w
Essay on "The Centaur" May Swenson's poem "The Centaur," reveals the endless bounds of a child's fancy. It radiates a feeling of adventure and discovery typical of youth. Such elements as language, imagery, structure, and point of view serve to spotlight the girl's imagination. The language in this poem is characteristic of the innocence of a young girl. In selecting " . . . a fresh horse from [her] stable . . . which was a willow grove" (ll. 6-7), the girl instantly enters her dream
Emily Dickinson spent a large portion of he life in isolation. While others concerned themselves with "normal" daily activities, Emily was content to confine herself to her house, her garden, and her poetry. Due to her uncommon lifestyle, she was considered odd and was never respected as the great poet she is now recognized as. Living life as an outsider, her poems are written from a perspective we are not used to seeing in our popular culture. Even so, her works contain such themes as human
O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done. The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! Heart! Heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bell; Rise up-for you the
A Comparision Between Poe and Fisher Poetry is unique among forms of literature in that it is a portal of expression governed not by rules of prose or grammar, but only by the fluidity of motion involved with preserving and crystallizing chemical and electrical impulses on paper in the form of awesome, omnipotent, language. One of the most common themes expressed in poetry is love--love's joys, love's luminescence, love's treasured, pleasurable pain, loves fulfillment, love's repudiation,
Arthur Brouthers English 102-018 Instructor: S. J. Glassberg 6/17/97 "Society's Mindless Assumptions in "Nikki Rosa" and "Richard Cory" Nikki Giovanni's " Nikki Rosa " and Edwin Arlington Robinson's " Richard Cory " both reveal that monetary wealth does not bring forth happiness . Each poem embodies unexpected conclusions which lead the reader to realize that the true lives of the speaker are misconceived by society's narrow minded use of assumption and face values . Richard Cory, a
Since his first major poem, Howl, Allen Ginsberg has been a center of controversy. His poems talked about homosexuality before it was considered acceptable to discuss, and openly admitted his use of marijuana. He was an advocate of making it legal for adults to have sex with those under 18 years or age. Because of the views that Ginsberg had, his poems all have some common themes. One of the most prevalent themes however, especially in his more recent poetry, is anti-industrialism. In Gi
When I first looked at this piece, it reminded me of Bill Watterson's poems from the front of Calvin & Hobbes anthologies, like "The Yukon Song" from page three of Yukon Ho! ("We'll never have to go to school,/Forced into submission,/By monstrous, crabby teachers who'll/Make us learn addition."). This was primarily because the outward subject of the poem is immediately apparent: a woman complaining about her baby son. It is not hidden behind a shroud of metaphors and images, re
Money: An Introductory Lecture by Howard Nemerov This piece is, on the surface, an analysis of the symbols on an Indian head nickel. However, these analyzations can themselves be analyzed for further meaning which subtly attacks the very foundations of America. The nickel itself is a symbol of American modernization and industrialization, representing greed, power, ambition, and expansion. Nemerov starts with the back. He notices first how oppressed and burdened the bison, whi
Next Day by Randall Jarrell I think, generally, people wish they were somewhere or someone else, no matter where they are or how objectively good their situations are. They're not really complaining; consciously they know things are going relatively well for them, but there is always that nostalgia for more romantic times past, or that nagging what if in the back of the mind. These feelings, which more or less everyone has more or less all of the time, are what Randall Jarrel
Roads "Do not follow where the path may lead... Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Robert Frost Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey, life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, his poem, "The Road Not Taken", has left its readers with many different interpretation
Porpheria's Lover vs. My Last Duchess by Daniel Vila The similarities between Robert Browning's two poems, My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover, are uncanny, as they can be compared in theme, plot, style, language, perspective and various other ways. The two poems make the same statement concerning men and love and men and their relationship with women. In both poems, the male narrator looks like a jelous, overbearing tyrant, and the woman a passive victim of circumstance. Neither poem
Ambiguous: capable of being understood in two or more possible senses or ways Is our destiny set forth in front of us without the possibility of our own intervention? Should we follow traditions rather than making a new path for ourselves? These are but a couple of questions that Robert Frost sets forth for us to answer. Robert Frost's use of ambiguity in the poems "The Road Not Taken," "Design," "Mending Wall," "Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening, " and a few others, gives his poetry a d
This is a poetry explication of the third stanza of Alexander Pope's "Sound and Sense". Alexander Pope clams in his poem "Sound and Sense" that "The sound must seem an echo to the sense"; he then illustrates this principle in lines 9-12: "When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line, too, labours and the words move slow. Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er the unbending corn and skims along the main." The first couplet describes the sen
Bliss Carman Biography Bliss Carman was a poet who used details of nature impressionistically and symbolically, but not precisely and realistically. Carman helped start a revolt against popular pale and bookish poetry. Much of his own verse- 'Songs from Vagabondia' (1894) and 'Low Tide on Grande Pre' (1893) - glows with vigor of the outdoors. Carman was born April 15, 1861 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He was a younger first cousin of Charles G.D. Roberts and distantly re
Ignorant about Innocence: Hardy's Characters' Revelation Through Experience In "The Last Chrysanthemum," Thomas Hardy asks, "Why should this flower delay so long / To show its tremulous plumes?" He might have well have been posing this question to himself. The British poet wrote most of his greatest verse after the age of sixty. Hardy proves, that through life's journey, a metamorphosis can take place in one's perspective. Through time and experience, innocence is lost, only realized
Through childhood, there were always forces that were beyond our control: gravity hurling us down a slide, the recess bell, or an older brother. In this period of time, we were innocent, unable to know what the effects of these factors were; they caused scars, single file lines, and temper tantrums in the back seat. We were too young to understand what we had gotten ourselves into. Therefore, not having enough experience to know how to make our own choices, we were forced to be swept away
In September of 1958, Anne Sexton enrolled in a graduate level poetry class at Boston University and began her career as a poet. Her professor was the highly-esteemed Robert Lowell, famous among the Boston Brahmin for his literary and intellectual family as well as his own work. In that September, Lowell had yet to publish Life Studies or For the Union Dead, the two publications that would bring him the most notoriety, and Sexton had not even begun to think of her first book, To Bedlam and Par
Subject: English - Dickinson, "Pain has an element of blank..." Although cryptic in language and structure, Dickinson gives her work an instinctually vivid sense of emotion. Her examination of the feeling of pain focuses in on only a few of the subtler nuances of pain that are integral parts of the experience. She draws in on an "Element of Blank" that she introduces in her opening line. In exploring pain, she proposes that this "blankness" is a self-propagating force that is subject to
Analysis of "Sea Fever" by John Masefield John Masefield's poem "Sea Fever" is a work of art that brings beauty to the English language through its use of rhythm, imagery and many complex figures of speech. The meter in "Sea Fever" follows the movement of the tall ship in rough water through its use of iambs and hard hitting spondees. Although written primarily in iambic meter, the meter in "Sea Fever" varies throughout the poem. The imagery in "Sea Fever" suggests an adventur
The way Technology has changed Man: Compare and Contrast of Hopkins and Wordsworth "Where do you want to go today?". We all know this slogan of the most advanced software company in the world, Microsoft. The question we will soon have to answer is were we can't go today. William Wordsworth, a quaint man from the late 18th century and early 19th century, understood the need for change in this world and expressed a pre-mature concern for the future that still applies to this very
Although cryptic in language and structure, Dickinson gives her work an instinctually vivid sense of emotion. Her examination of the feeling of pain focuses in on only a few of the subtler nuances of pain that are integral parts of the experience. She draws in on an "Element of Blank" that she introduces in her opening line. In exploring pain, she proposes that this "blankness" is a self-propagating force that is subject to the dynamic forces of time, history and perception, but only to an
Title: The Road Not Taken - an analysis "Do not follow where the path may lead... Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Robert Frost Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey, life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, his poem, "The Road Not Taken", has left its readers with many
The Poetry of A. E. Housman Housman was born in Burton-On-Trent, England, in 1865, just as the US Civil War was ending. As a young child, he was disturbed by the news of slaughter from the former British colonies, and was affected deeply. This turned him into a brooding, introverted teenager and a misanthropic, pessimistic adult. This outlook on life shows clearly in his poetry. Housman believed that people were generally evil, and that life conspired against mankind. This is evident
John Masefield's poem "Sea Fever" is a work of art that brings beauty to the English language through its use of rhythm, imagery and many complex figures of speech. The meter in "Sea Fever" follows the movement of the tall ship in rough water through its use of iambs and hard hitting spondees. Although written primarily in iambic meter, the meter in "Sea Fever" varies throughout the poem. The imagery in "Sea Fever" suggests an adventurous ocean that appeals to all five senses. Alon
In the poem "Daddy", Sylvia Plath says that there are women who, due to early conditioning, find themselves without the tools to deal with oppressive and controlling men. They are left feeling helpless and hopeless. For some women, the struggle is never resolved, others take most of a lifetime. For a lucky few, they are granted a reprieve. The speaker in this poem is Sylvia Plath. The poem describes her feelings of oppression and her battle to come to grips with the issues of this p
Regret: A Hopeless Quality Tenets of Tenneyson in Tithonus "Tithonus" was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poem's setting is the ancient story of Tithonus. Tithonus fell in love with Eos, goddess of the dawn, and asked her for immortality. Unfortunately for Tithonus he did not ask for eternal youth, only eternal life. He, therefore, grows old but never dies while Eos not only never dies but also never grows old. What makes Tithonus's situation worse is that "the gods thems
"The Statue", by John Berryman, portrays the human race to be ignorant and uncaring. The poet bares a cynical attitude toward mankind. According to the definition of modern poetry, "The Statue", by John Berryman, is a modern poem. Modern poets were inspired by Walt Whitman, who changed the form of poetry by choosing freestyle, and "abandon[ing] the standard line lengths, rhymes, and standard forms of traditional poetry" (Jonvanovich 738). Capitalization, punctuation, phrasing, and se
Romanticism officially began in 1798, when William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge anonymously published Lyrical Ballads. This work marked the official beginning of a literary period which had already begun many years before 1798. A work is defined to be of a certain period by its characteristics, therefore to be considered a Romantic work, the work must contain aspects which are termed "Romantic." A few typical "Romantic" aspects are: love of the past; sympathy to the child's
Through his poetry, Whitman's "Song of Myself" makes the soul sensual and makes divine the flesh. In Whitman's time, the dichotomy between the soul and the body had been clearly defined by centuries of Western philosophy and theology. Today, the goodness of the soul and the badness of the flesh still remain a significant notion in contemporary thought. Even Whitman's literary predecessor, Emerson, chose to distinctly differentiate the soul from all nature. Whitman, however, chooses to reev
"Tithonus" was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poem's setting is the ancient story of Tithonus. Tithonus fell in love with Eos, goddess of the dawn, and asked her for immortality. Unfortunately for Tithonus he did not ask for eternal youth, only eternal life. He, therefore, grows old but never dies while Eos not only never dies but also never grows old. What makes Tithonus's situation worse is that "the gods themselves cannot recall their gifts" (49). This dramatic monologue
The Intrepid Traveler By Travis Scott You might be wondering what intrepid traveler means. Anyone who is familiar with the Intrepid Traveler knows that the Intrepid Traveler is a shadow, if you will, that floats around from galaxy to galaxy watching us. You might ask if he is god or not. Well he's not, he has no religion and doesn't make things and he isn't perfect. You know those times when you feel like someone is watching you, guiding you, or just helping you out you might know the
The two men in Wordsworth's "The Discharged Soldier" represent two very distinct kinds of solitude. The narrator is walking alone enjoying the night. Suddenly, he comes across another man who is alone, but not in the same way that he is. Both the narrator and the stranger lack attendants, dogs and staffs, but the stranger is still more isolated. The stranger is not simply alone but desolate. After observing the ghastly form of the stranger for some time, the narrator approaches. From their conve
Rhythm, Meter & Action in Pope's The Rape of the Lock  Liana R. Prieto (February 1998) Pope uses paces and rhythm to emphasize the climax of the poem. Caesuras and variations in the pattern serve to quicken or slow down the action and elicit an emotional reaction from the reader. The Rape of the Lock is a strongly structured poem with five foot iambic base feet, medial caesuras, and couplets with end-rhyme. Substitute feet, which contain variations in the iambic meter, and
"A Lecture Upon the Shadow": The faults of a metaphor Liana R. Prieto (March 1998)  "A Lecture upon the Shadow" seems to be a poem signaling the inevitable decline of love, but it is not. John Donne metaphorically equates the rising and setting of the sun with a love affair. The metaphor says that love grows, reaches a peak, and then quickly declines, as does the sun in its daily course. The metaphor applies if the poem were meant to be a subtle way for the narrator to inform hi
THE ARK OF MERCY for Gretchen (written for actress Gretchen Wyler to celebrate the 12th Anniversary of the Ark Trust, a California based Animal Rights organization.) In the sacredness of life, meaning embraces the language of deeds. But you speak a jargon of cruelty and death and your language is rabbit with acid-blinded eyes, bull tormented for trivial manhood, wolf ski-dooed into helplessness, remnants of cow or cow's child, a calf pieces of chicken, and pig, and fish, an
Thomas Hardy's crude war Many war poems do not glamorize war. They show an honest look at the battlefield showing the irony, crudeness, and cruelty of war. Thomas Hardy communicates these ideas in his poems, "Channel Firing," Drummer Hodge," and "The Man he Killed." In all of these, he shows how war is crude, not glamorous. In "The Man he Killed," Hardy shows the reader the irony of war. In this poem, the reader is shown irony of situation, where there is a discrepancy between actual
John Keats was an amazing poet during England's Romantic Movement. He produced extraordinary work in his short 25 year life span. "...Had he lived it is possible that he would have taken his place among the 'big three' of English Literature - Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton" ("Before You Read" par.1). Keats achieved such a remarkable accolade despite a less than desirable childhood. Born on October 31, 1795, he was raised in Moorsfields, London where he was the eldest of four children.
Keats's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' deals with the perplexing and indefinable relationship between life and art. Paradoxically it is the life of the urn that we would normally associate with stillness, melancholy and bereavement that is shown to be representative of life. Indeed the decorative scenes on the side of the urn identify a world that is enriched through a myriad of senses, such as sight, sound and touch. Yet throughout this ode Keats has illustrated a number of ambiguities, '
When Faced With the Raven Of all works of poetry, few are as well known as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." It's narrative nature and a gothic, gloomy ambient appeal to the human's appetite for entertainment, and this makes "The Raven" very popular among all kinds of readers. This, along with a romantic, tragic theme helped "The Raven" to become Poe's best poem. Yet there is more to this masterpiece then just an intriguing story. "The Raven" explores the coherence of a man who
The metric system is really cool, We use it all day long at school, Forget America's inches and feet, They're way too boring and put us to sleep. Let's take the meter for example, The basic unit of length in metric measure, It's really simple and very neat, It makes any math a simple feat. Measuring volume is truly easy, You don't have to use American gallons to please me, You can break out the liters that all else abuse, Since congress in 1866 said metric was okay to use. In m
An Old Man
In William Shakespeare's play King Lear, three of Lear's extended speeches relate
to the play as a whole and are significant in revealing his character. In Lear's extended
speech beginning with "Peace Kent," (I, i, 123) Lear rages over Cordelia's lack of servility
towards him. Later, Lear denounces both of his evil daughters, Goneril and Regan, in an
extended speech beginning with "O reason not the need." (II, iv, 263) Finally, in act 4,
scene 6, Lear
Mike Patterson Mr. White English10 December 12, 1998 Journal 2 Western Wind, When Will Thou Blow Westron wind, when with thou blow The small rain down can rain? Christ, that my love were in my arms, And I in my bed again. - Anonymous The poem Western Winds, When Will Thou Blow is about the longing for love and companionship. It might be told from a traveler or from a sailor's song because of its reference to the Western winds, which bring the spring rains. The speaker of the p
In "Mental Cases" Owen spends time in a hospital for shell-shocked veterans. He describes how bad the veterans looked, as if they came from hell. It also seems as if the veterans are between life and hell, that they are "purgatorial shadows". All the images seem to be close to death, "Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked", "Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets", "their heads wear this hilarious, hideous, awful falseness of set-smiling corpses". He says the veterans looke
Best known for his poems and short fiction. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most famous American poets. He deserves most credit for short suspenseful mysteries and he perfected the area of horror stories. He wrote many famous poems like "The Raven" and "The Bells". Poe was a genius and very meticulous in his stories every clue had to fit and that's why he didn't make a lot of short stories but a small collection of great short stories. He was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Both of his par
Bowen 1 Musical and Religious Influences on Sidney Lanier's Poetry Arguably, a writer's works reflects many influences. After all, a writer is a product of his background, his times, and his geographical location, among other factors. Sidney Lanier was no exception. Like all other writers, he inevitably drew from his own experiences to create his works. An outstanding Southern poet, he wrote poetry widely recognized for its musical quality and religious feeling. Sidn
Indians Of Early America Long before Columbus discovered America their were a lot of people living here. Their tribes lived in many different regions. Each region had a different environment that helped explain the cultures of the tribes that lived in each region. I am going to describe these cultures and show how they had differences and similarities. The first region is Eastern Woodlands. The people in the Eastern Woodlands got their food in many ways. They got it by hunting, farmi
Nogales We arrive in the border town around 7:00 PM. Crowded narrow streets and car fumes mix to create an almost erie merge of two cultures. Allready I can see changes taking place; this city is breathing with life, almost too fast to catch with the human eye. At the border control, problems arise. It turns out that my brother and I don't have a letter of permision from our father, (who lives in Hawaii) allowing us to get across the border. The man at the desk shows us the rule in writing.
Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey on June 3, 1926. His father, Louis Ginsberg, was a published poet and a high school teacher. His mother, Naomi, was a radical Communist, paranoid, psychotic, and died in a mental institution in 1956. Ginsberg also had a brother who became a lawyer in Paterson, New Jersey. Ginsberg's childhood was very complicated. Ginsberg's mother only trusted him and thought that the rest of the family and the world was plotting ag
Why Me? I'm walking all by myself, I don't know which way to go, I look around and realize that it's raining cats and dogs. I look around and find a bar, some people are drunk as skunks, right now I feel under the weather, but I guess I have to fight tooth and nail, I'm walking all by myself. Sometimes I think I'm not wanted, I don't know what I did wrong, I feel like I opened a can of worms and it will never close, I have to get off my high horse, but it's not as easy as p