... brief notes about context (specific situation surrounding a setting). How this fits into the scope of the overall text. - Why was this passage chosen? - Make brief notes for characters (who? why are they important?)/plot (entire story/text)/theme (main ideas)/tone/ mood/feeling/atmosphere)/structure (punctuation/ etc.)/diction (use of language)/etc.. Logical organization includes the ... /Assonance/Consonance. - Imagery: Does passage develop due to it? Do images develop due to it? What is the purpose of the images? The effect? - Figurative Language/Literary Devices: Are there metaphors/si...

• Word Count: 757
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... an author's life and experiences can be the key to an otherwise bolted door leading to the deeper comprehension and interpretation of a literary work. Literature has more meaning and depth when we understand circumstances which prompted the writer to write. An author's experiences, along with ... the composition of the piece of literature. This helps the reader understand the intention of the author. However, it takes a superb literary critic not to take biographical criticism to the extreme in the interpretation of the text. Biographical information should only deepen the message that ....

• Word Count: 529
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the story would really deter a commercial reader away from the story. The in-depth character descriptions really pull the reader deeper into the characters and what they represent in the story. The description of what they wear from black silk masks and roquelaires to tight-fitting parti-striped ... and skillfully wicked character. The descriptions of what chracters wear and how they act makes the story more realistic and easier to picture the characters as realistic people. In depth scene descriptions including carnival as well as the Montresor cellar really engulf the reader in these r...

• Word Count: 557
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... down by monks, contains many religious passages. Whereas Grendel isn't told from a religious point of view, but has religious points. Grendel also, laughs at characters in his tale for wanting the everlasting fame. In "Beowulf, heroism and fame are two of the most important thing to the people all through the ... gods, but the Christian scriptural was added by the monks, who recoded the story. In Grendel, religion is present, but it is spoken by the characters in the story. "Beowulf" almost preaches to you to join Christianity. Heroism is also a big difference in the works. In Grendel, Gr...

• Word Count: 768
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Montparnasse Quarter in Paris. With the help of Ezra Pound, the publication of his first poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, earned him tremendous recognition throughout the European literary community. His style was contemporary and more modern then the rustic poetry which characterized the early twentieth century (Sheridan, 342). In 1922, he published The Waste Land, which gradually ... to Greek and Latin figures) and includes a number of German and French phrases. Both contribute to an overall sense of despair, which is consistent throughout the poem. However, some literary c...

• Word Count: 1198
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to hold, causing the house to finally fall. With Poe's writing skills the gloomy atmosphere plays as much a role in the story as the warped characters. Poe's work, although bleak and often dark, flowed with an ingenious style unique to him. The gothic content of his writing failed to surpass the ... popular romantic fiction of the time, so consequently Poe was disliked immensely. The literary construction of Edgar Allan Poe's writing did not match the realities of the 19th century. Poe wrote stories purely for economic reasons, by choice he was ... a poet. Most of his poems are known fo...

• Word Count: 732
• Approx Pages: 3

... to hold, causing the house to finally fall. With Poe's writing skills the gloomy atmosphere plays as much a role in the story as the warped characters. Poe's work, although bleak and often dark, flowed with an ingenious style unique to him. The gothic content of his writing failed to surpass the ... popular romantic fiction of the time, so consequently Poe was disliked immensely. The literary construction of Edgar Allan Poe's writing did not match the realities of the 19th century. Poe wrote stories purely for economic reasons, by choice he was ... a poet. Most of his poems are known fo...

• Word Count: 696
• Approx Pages: 3

... issues? Clearly there is a reason. Since the working class would have had to work very hard for work themes to be taken seriously within the bourgeois literary world, they would need to validate their literary worth and merit. Working class poets have achieved this by showing that they are as competent as writers as anybody else and that work can also be ... to a set of instructions one would use while assembling something, or in other words, what one does when working on an assembly line. The use of onomatopoeia also highlights the characters impatience and resentment with the continua...

• Word Count: 1140
• Approx Pages: 5

... them, never restating the names, just keeping the details in the same order as the names are. The fifth stanza then introduces five more characters but uses four lines instead of one to get through the names. Then in the sixth stanza, instead of describing how each or them had ... this formula is used in that higher culture, when Masters mixes it with his own free verse, he makes the reader have a higher respect for his characters, as they would have for those in traditional poems of that formula. The Greek Anthology, similar not only in title but also in form, is ... serve a higher pu...

• Word Count: 794
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... . This is no different with Edgar Allen Poe and his pessimistic style. Aristotle said that unities in every story were time (usually twenty four hours), place (one or two), and characters (one or two). However, Poe added effect to his stories and poetry. He did all of this by writing his poetry or short story so that it caught the reader ... 's attention quickly. Because, "if any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression "for, if two ... those lines as well. The fact that the ...

• Word Count: 1098
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... particular aspects of society. The hero-comical poem contains the conventional elements of heroic poetry, yet Pope implements humor and exaggeration within this literary work. Pope writes, "What dire offense from amorous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things." Lines one and two of ... occur in the poem. The poet is brilliant in his use of the components involved in heroic poetry. However, Pope employs unconventional characters and objects in place of the predictable figures seen in poetry of heroism. Sylphs are the unlikely supernatural beings presented in the "T...

• Word Count: 1107
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Aristotle's Rules For Tragedy Laid Down In Poetics As They Apply To Blood Relations Aristotle could be considered the first popular literary critic. Unlike Plato, who all but condemned written verse, Aristotle breaks it down and analyses it so as to separate the good from the bad. He studies in great detail ... the changes in dramatic trends due to Stanislavsky among others. The constant switch between the dream state and present reality can be compared to a chorus in that the characters in the dream sequences tell the stories of the events prior to the murders. These dream characters domina...

• Word Count: 568
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... details of the text that are difficult to understand. For example, when reading an allegory, the reader may find it very difficult to detect and interpret the symbolism in the literary work. Because the symbols may have different meanings, the theme of the story may be totally unclear for some readers. In any work of literature, a reader may be unsure of ... how to perceive the characters and certain events of the text. Likewise, the characters" perceptions of each other may also be unclear to the reader. This state of something being unclear is a formal device called ambiguity. Ambigui...

• Word Count: 955
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the narrator, its image, and the diction, this paper argues that this poem expresses romanticism. The tone of a poem is the implied attitude of the narrator towards the subject and characters. In "Strange Fits of Passion have I known" the narrator shows a strong passionate and sympathetic tone relating to the poems romanticism. The first stanza ("STRANGE fits of passion ... never stopped) describes the motions of his horse to get the rider to his destination. In poetry, diction is basically the choice of words used. This is really important in literary work since writers use these words...

• Word Count: 918
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

One of the many intriguing aspects of Shakespeare's Sonnets is the identity of the principal characters within them, of which there are three: The Young Man, the Dark lady, and the Rival Poet. Nowhere in the Sonnets are these people explicitly identified and their anonymity has ... content of the Sonnets that refer to these people however, undoubtedly show that these were indeed real, living people and not imaginary inventions by the author for the sake of literary exercise. "They are love poetry beyond what was considered love poetry by the Petrarchan sonneteers [ ] they are, often, ingenio...

• Word Count: 1195
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... snowy ground. While the word "downy", relating to the feathers of a bird, characterize the snowflakes as light. Using his imagery and figurative language, Frost is able to include certain symbolic characters into the poem. He has essentially utilised two images to illustrate the woods, or his paradise. With the image of snow indicating purity, and the deep darkness portraying a certain type ... that has deep philosophic ideas woven into it. The poem, using the rhyming scheme AABA, CCDC, EEFE and GGGG, is still one Frost's most widely known. With impressive imagery and literary technique...

• Word Count: 616
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Pastoral poetry is defined as poetry professing to portray the innocence of shepherd life, according to a specific literary convention. They range from love lyrics to lengthy dramatic works and elaborate elegies. Christopher Marlowe is considered to be the first great English dramatist before Shakespeare. He wrote the poem " ... allows the poem to flow freely without any interruption. Having no interruption enables, one who reads these poems, to see a visual image and to hear the desperation of both the characters trying desperately to get their point across. When a poem is able to flow freel...

• Word Count: 504
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... human spirit. Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, whole in itself [meaning that it has a beginning, middle, and end], and filled with many types of literary devices. In dealing with the definition of tragedy, there are many vital aspects of literature that come together to produce a well-written tragedy. Some of these aspects include the art ... , then, if it is between persons, may be that only one person recognizes a truth concerning the hero's identity, or it may be necessary that the recognition is seen by all characters involved. In his Poetics, Aristotle st...

• Word Count: 1068
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Aristotle effectively creates the world's first critical book concerning the laws of literature. In French philosopher Jacques Derrida's 20th Century work, he attempts to nullify, or deconstruct, and type of literary structure. Aristotle, a student of Plato, clearly has Plato's arguments in mind when he takes up the question of imitation in his book on poetics. In his discussions of imitation, Aristotle ... , but Tragic holds elements that Epic poetry does not. Aristotle differentiates by claiming that "Epic poetry agrees with Tragedy in so far as it is an imitation in verse of character...

• Word Count: 1134
• Approx Pages: 5

... letters along. Therefore punctuation is a very important in this poem, as it is used to reflect the speed of how the news travels. Diction The poet uses quite a lot of literary terms, in order to make the poem smoother and easier to understand by the reader. The poet also uses vivid imagery to make the poem come more "alive" to the ... reader. "Characters cramped" for example is a personification which shows how the letters were squeezed together in order to fit as much as possible onto a letter. In the second verse the poet writes ... ...

• Word Count: 822
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... man, and destined to be king. He has a flaw "his ambition, which leads to his tragic downfall. Shakespeare took the idea of tragedy one step further by introducing additional characters that rivaled the hero. What was once thought of as a tragedy is now merely a type of tragedy. Modern tragedies, although exhibiting elements of the classic Greek tragedies, have evolved into ... that the catharsis here may be his own in the form of this poem. I think there is no one set definition "there are many ways of describing tragedy. The literary pieces mentioned above are but a few, interpreted t...

• Word Count: 733
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... emotion is examined. The narrator experiences several emotions, a series of feeling terribly sad, then surprise, then satisfaction. Although the poem does not go into great detail about the setting or characters, we are given enough detail to make it interesting, so that we can follow the poem. The narrator is male and is assumed to be as handsome as Porphyria is ... employed as a clerk at the Bank of England. Browning was largely educated at home, and read widely, and started writing verse at a young age. The young Browning took after his literary hero Shelley, who influenced much of h...

• Word Count: 845
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School