The poem I have chosen to deal with in this short piece of work is "Thanatopsis", or "meditation on death", by William Cullen Bryant. I liked it since the first time I read it since it was surprising the way in which a meditation ... the barriers between both things seem to fuzzy in this poem. If this poem could be summarised (and I actually doubt it, since I have never liked to summarise texts, because I think summaries in literature are only a subjective reflection on what the person who is commenting the text wants to convey at a particular moment), its theme may be mainly pantheistic, th...

• Word Count: 2404
• Approx Pages: 10

... , and the state of emotional stress and physical strain the mother has gone through so that she feels as if they are eating away at her energy and time. This summaries the sonnet, and the hardships the mother has faced. It also has a tone of regret, as if she wished they would just disappear....

• Word Count: 546
• Approx Pages: 2

... return Alcyone will give to Juno "sacrifise/And hooly youres become I shal/With good wille, body, herte, and al:" (lines 114-116) "in short, to become the goddess's acolyte. Since Juno was, among other things, the goddess of wives and of marriage, she would welcome a pious wife (now ... who translated it into English with the title  Boece). This bemoaning of Fortune's vagaries takes the medieval literary form of a complaint (a "compleynt"), which was usually a short, sometimes musical poem, sung by a lover about his loss of a love, essentially a lyric genre. But Chaucer, while remaining...

• Word Count: 5753
• Approx Pages: 23
• Grade Level: High School

... habits of usage, of the context we expect to find with the word, its usual concomitants, of its known acceptances, and of ironical play. It holds the aesthetic content which is peculiarly the domain of verbal manifestation, and cannot possibly be contained in plastic or in music. ... have become internationally known poets, and Richard Llewellyn's novel How Green Was My Valley (1939) was a worldwide bestseller. MODERN DRAMA TO 1945 Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts, given a single performance in 1891, was famously described as 'an open sewer', because of its theme of hereditary syphilis. Ge...

• Word Count: 10566
• Approx Pages: 42

... bachelor's degree in 1929. His first published poem was thought to be his most famous, " The Negro Speaks a River". His later poems, short plays, essays and short stories were shown to the public through the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and the Opportunity Magazine. Hughes was one of the first black authors, who ... . His first novel, Not Without Laughter, was written in financially support by a wealthy white woman. He continued to publish poem after poem, short play after short play, essays and short stories that became continuously well known and many famous. He was one of the mos...

• Word Count: 1840
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. During this time racial tensions would certainly explode into violence. Even though the play debates the Civil Rights movement in language and tone, it states the major issues of racial inequality and the pursuit for economic freedom that would ... around each other depending on both material things and emotional satisfaction, though this may be declining to contempt. In Act II, Scene I of the play, one can see the extent to which their dreams for happiness of being together began to "dry up." Their lives had become a very repetitious ... to put...

• Word Count: 1645
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... reader. The stanza has a slow rhythm that could be described, like the soldiers, as weary. The second stanza starts instantly with excitement. Owen uses three short sentences consisting of just one or two words, each followed by an exclamation mark. He is describing the panic of the soldiers during a mustard gas attack. ... and actions. The reader learns immediately that the man is disabled because "he sat in a wheeled chair in his ghastly suit of grey, legless, sewn short at the elbow". The man is "waiting for dark" so that he can be put to bed by the nurses. The poor condition of the ...

• Word Count: 2724
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... Brown, an escaped slave, wrote such novels as Clotel (the first published novel by an African American) and The Presidents Daughter (1853) along with a play, travelogue, and a compilation of anti-slavery songs. All of these works by Brown gave his the reputation as the most prolific literary figure of the ... 1937. Brown became an editor, professor and mentor to other well-known African American's before he died of leukemia in 1989. A poet, novelist, play writer, and artist, Jean Toomer was one of many talented African Americans during the 20th century before the Harlem Renaissance. Best ...

• Word Count: 2200
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... appearance. He is also seen as being cunning, manipulative, anti-social, brutal, and threateningly humorous. This dreadful physical appearance of Richard is somewhat similar to Dr Faustus' one in Marlowe's play, as his appearance is devilish and he used dragons in his activities. The unattractive physique used by Shakespeare makes Richard III look like an anti-hero, and as a result, other ... note that Satan and Richard use their own powers while Faustus uses powers given by Lucifer and within the 24 year time line. Part Two - Introduction A sonnet is a form of a short poem that commonl...

• Word Count: 4910
• Approx Pages: 20
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... hasten this process. This aspect of change is evident in several poems by Gwen Harwood, the film "The Matrix-, Peter Goldworthy's novel "Maestro- and the short story "Sky High- by Hannah Robert. In the poem the "glass jar- the young boy's innocence is usurped when he is introduced to the complexity ... is abruptly initiated into the world of death and responsibility. The section makes use of vivid and desciptive language to display the destruction of the bird. The short and abrupt sentences " my first shot struck- and the use of plosive letters such as b' and d' in the words "bundle-, d...

• Word Count: 1123
• Approx Pages: 4

... unnamed is believed to have purloins items of no use, it states that he had steals 'a guitar and thought' he 'might learn to play' this suggests to the reader that the unnamed does not have an objective when he is stealing. This links to how the persona enters the house ... to save or kill the living objects, furthermore, this shows God like qualities in the persona, which connects to how the persona wants 'to play God'. Additionally, in the poem the reader assumes that the persona has a bad history as he mentions in the first stanza that he 'has ... structure to pre...

• Word Count: 1128
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... event of the rape but of the damage it causes to the victim and and the people around them. There can also be a gender reading to this play the fathers pride and maybe social standing has been challenged, this, I think the poet is trying to say, and be it very sarcastically, that the ... up into 6 stanzas, which have a rhyming pattern of abab cdcd Language The language that is used in the "The Raped Girl's Father" is simple short words Imagery The image that is created in the readers mind by the girl's recollection of the event leading up to and her rape is described using vivid ... fee...

• Word Count: 925
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... join the army. The poem was part of the recruitment drive via newspapers. Pope uses striking lines comparing war to sport it is a new way to "play for England" the poem is very jingoistic with a regular beat and an alternative rhyming pattern. It is extremely enthusiastic and it has a positive feel. The ... is that there is nothing cheerful about his situation. It is also a simile, which creates even more sadness. The young boy sits in the park watching children play - reminding him of his youth, that wasn't that long ago. This makes him sound a lot older but really it has only been a few...

• Word Count: 1300
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... that you are open to attacks. On the first line it says Our brains ache' the Our' is significant, it is almost as if the poet is involved in the play and it is a good technique to get the audience involved. In the same quote, the passage gives us the idea that the soldiers were suffering mentally, as well as physically ... is little colour, it is gloomy, grey and almost gothic. He shivers' and makes it cold and chilling. Images of legless sewn short of the elbow' gives us the image he suffered painfully and sewn short could be compared with sold short' which means he has been cheated ou...

• Word Count: 3174
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

... join the army. The poem was part of the recruitment drive via newspapers. Pope uses striking lines comparing war to sport it is a new way to "play for England" the poem is very jingoistic with a regular beat and an alternative rhyming pattern. It is extremely enthusiastic and it has a positive feel. The ... is that there is nothing cheerful about his situation. It is also a simile, which creates even more sadness. The young boy sits in the park watching children play - reminding him of his youth, that wasn't that long ago. This makes him sound a lot older but really it has only been a few...

• Word Count: 1280
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Break" and, as I have said before, this title does not make you think right away that it is about the death of a young boy or girl. The characters in the play are mainly just a boy who has lost a brother or sister, but his father does show a valid point in the poem. The rest of the characters are not that significant. In ... shows how the boy was sleeping. In the last line of the poem it is on its own like a stanza, but it is a short but powerful line: "A four foot box, a foot for every year." (line 22) This line is short but it tells you the age of the boy in a powerful way. It is a ve...

• Word Count: 1950
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... , a little as in doggerel. The plain truth of the statement takes on a cheerful sing-song quality, an effect increased in the next line by reversing the stress and omitting the short in Mixed ready. The tone now becomes quite jaunty, but right' hovers on a pun for rite, as the poet mixes a brew worthy of the Weird Sisters, Shakespeare's most evil images ... elegant gaiety is kept up, however, through symmetry of sound, as o's and I's, alliterated syllables, and apparent compounds are balanced in each half of the verse. Again we are brought up short with dead wings, and if kites are fun, ...

• Word Count: 834
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... ; (Republic, X, p52), that is, causing a harmful effect upon the individual, which thus corrupts the state if practiced on a wide scale (the political state being the prime concern of Plato). In short, such imitation deludes the senses and does not appeal to reason; this claim is based on Plato's categories of the soul. His conceptualization of both the political state and the ... were removed the plot would be irreparably damaged; it must be complete and entire, and of reasonable size. We could say that the "matter" of a poem or dramatic play consists of the events and characters portra...

• Word Count: 5585
• Approx Pages: 22
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . We have to take what is offered from them. Thus, much of the time we have to read the drama and re-create in our imaginations something of what the play on the stage would have been like. Since this requires considerable initiation, we must learn from both our theater experiences and the analysis of the six elements of drama. The ... six elements that a drama consists of are listed below with a short definition, in reference to a drama, following: Plot-the ongoing business of the characters, what they strive for, what they expect to see happen. The sequence of actions or events. Charac...

• Word Count: 1066
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... , his speaker portrays the father as a dedicated solider, strict in his ways and proud to serve his country. The speaker paints a picture of long awaited homecomings, which seem to be short lived as she explains, "His home comings were the verses we composed over the years making up the siren's song that kept him coming back" (lines 14-16). Cofer used ... to your shirt" (line 13-16). The speaker remembered his father arriving home dirty and tired and with little time to play with him. As bedtime grew near, he would cling to his shirt wishing there were more time to play with papa. "My Pa...

• Word Count: 796
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... peak of mankind" (l2-3). Everything appears to be a failure for this generation. That is until the last line "(Read from bottom to top now)" (25) comes into play. The poem is now flipped and the perception changes. The speaker has a positive tune as he states that "Working hard (is) how we handle our problems" (19-18 ... this poem. The fact that someone already understands the negative attention his generation gets is intriguing. Seeing through all of the negatives and turning it into something positive is nothing short of optimism. It does not take much to realize that our generation h...

• Word Count: 779
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... past 'were of a different kind.' Their attitudes and values were fundamentally different from those of the merchants. Yeats speaks of those heroes whose names 'stilled' the 'childish play' of the middle-class people he now rebukes. These heroes had 'little time' to pray or save because they selflessly devoted their lives to the pursuit of a noble dream ... Innisfree, and so vivid his image of this oasis of peace and beauty that he can hear the sound of the lake water deep within his 'heart's core.' The short six-lined poem 'Swift's Epitaph' is based on a lo...

• Word Count: 2730
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... first stanza how, if given infinite time, he could spend centuries admiring each part of her body; even if she did not comply. In the second stanza he remembers how short life is and the dangers of waiting too long to obtain something. He says that "her long preserved virginity, and her quaint honor will turn to dust" and ... a type of sound effect known as pun, in line 41 (Let us roll all our strength and all) and 42 (Our sweetness up into one ball) with an intention to play on words. Examples of repetition is in line 7(Of Humber would complain. I would) and the use of "shall" from lin...

• Word Count: 1363
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... them, the reader cannot be certain whether these 'evil beings' are humans or monsters. This is just to show the dark nature of the KKK. The protagonist of the play (The African American woman), goes on to say, "My lover told me: Shush, we have too many stories to carry on our backs like houses, we have struggled too ... my baby's legs, see her turn into a woman like me". In truth, for most minorities and women around the world, this will never happen; their lives will be cut short due to hatred and violence, unless something is done about this. That is the sad truth, and this is Jo...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and his insecurities are emphasized by the progressive use of enjambment as the structure of the poem becomes more disjointed, with the rhyming couplets becoming more inconsistent. The long and short lines may represent the ebb and flow of the river. The River God's relationship with humanity is one of power and rhyming couplets are used to demonstrate his malevolent nature ... snatched away by him and used as playthings for his pleasure. This is highlighted in the incongruous juxtaposition of the words 'drowning', (to take life) and 'clowning,' (to play with and enjoy life) w...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School