Arts Are Prettier : Representations Of Visual Arts

James Fenton and Carol Ann Duffy are both contemporary poets. Their poems ‘In Paris with You’ and ‘Quickdraw’ both include the themes of the pain of love. This essay compares how the two poets present the pain of love in their poems, exploring things such as imagery, vocabulary and form and structure.

Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Pablo Neruda’s “My ugly love” are popularly known to describe beauty in a way hardly anyone would write: through the truth. It’s a common fact that modern lovers and poets speak or write of their beloved with what they and the audience would like to hear, with kind and breathtaking words and verses. Yet, Shakespeare and Neruda, honest men as they both were, chose to write about what love truly is, it matters most what’s on the inside rather than the outside. The theme of true beauty and love are found through Shakespeare and Neruda’s uses of imagery, structure, and tone.

11. A poet can work its magic on the reader by “choice of images, music of the language, idea content, and cleverness of wordplay” (Foster 17).

Li-Young Lee is a poet who has written numerous amounts of work. He is a writer of Chinese heritage, but he does not classify himself as an Asian American poet. According to an article titled, “Li-Young Lee,” Li-Young Lee refuses to classify himself as an Asian American writer because he strives to be a “global poet.” This statement demonstrates that Li-Young Lee uses poetry as a means of addressing universal concerns. He writes about experiences or lessons that are personal to him; however, these are experiences and lessons that people all around the world can relate to. Li-Young Lee specifically writes about his childhood memories and family. A particular poem that reflects his personal life and poetic writing is, “The Gift.” In “The Gift,” the use of vivid imagery, free verse, and a distinct tone portrays Li-Young Lee’s poetic style.

The similarities between the poems lie in their abilities to utilize imagery as a means to enhance the concept of the fleeting nature that life ultimately has and to also help further elaborate the speaker’s opinion towards their own situation. In Keats’ poem, dark and imaginative images are used to help match with the speaker’s belief that both love and death arise from fate itself. Here, Keats describes the beauty and mystery of love with images of “shadows” and “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” to illustrate his belief that love comes from fate, and that he is sad to miss out on such an opportunity when it comes time for his own death.

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

Every thought that a human being has is flooded with emotion. An emotion is a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. You can’t simply think without pulling your emotions into your thought process. There are four basic emotions with hundreds of sub emotions that come off of them. Humans are hardwired to feel every single one of those emotions. They are coursing through our brain every moment. Poetry is little lines of pure emotion. When a reader reads and understands these lines, it is like peering into the author's soul.

A well-written poem would help one to engage into the work with their senses. One should be able to ask themselves what the poem caused them to think, hear, see, feel, taste, and to determine what he or she learned from the poet’s words. Many people believe that because poetry is an enigmatic art, and that there is no way for sure to know the

In the poems ‘Let Me Describe for You Her Eyes’ by Glenn Colquhoun, and ‘Sonnet XVIII’ by William Shakespeare, both writers’ describe their experiences and ideas of love in two very contrasting ways, which can reflect on the world around us, and helped me learn about the how different relationships can affect people, and the world around them. Though their ideas may differ, both writers used similar techniques, such as the use of an extended metaphor. Similarly, both writers tone and structure supported their own ideas of what was like for them in the relationship of which they are writing, and helps the readers, as well as myself, to understand the message which their poems portray. Both, have very contrasting ideas when it comes to love,

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

Poetry is the manner one would express very complex feelings or emotions. Many poets who connect with their audiences are able to describe, in writing, the emotion of a certain situation. These poems become autobiographical in the sense that the poem is drawn from the poets own situation and observations. Often, in classical poetry, a poet is able to capture the emotion of the situation so that the reader can make a connection. One of the greatest exponents of this was Edgar Allan Poe. He was able to captivate an audience and almost hypnotise them with his use of language and rhythm. However, his tragic life affected the themes behind his poems, which have been described as early gothic literature. His ‘weapon of choice,’ was the theme of

John Ashbery uses his poem, “And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name," (Ashbery, 1) to discuss the colorful elements that could possibly go into what he’s termed a “poem-painting” (Ut Pictura Poesis, 11). The ingredients comprise of blossoms, the names of boys we used to know and their toys, and of course, a sprinkle of a few very profound thoughts. Ashbery uses language to paint his perspective on something like a spoken canvas with the use of structure, irrational language, stream of consciousness, literary devices, and connotation. This poem contests its readers to cast out any presumptions about the inflexible and technical framework of poetry and brings its readers peaks of clarity through ambiguity.

Throughout this poetry unit, we analyzed numerous pieces of literature. Through looking at different mediums, we examined how the inventive use of language in poetry boosts communication and empowers self-expression. This gave me a whole new insight on several notions within our unit.

Lastly, the Romantic Era blended human emotions with nature. The interfacing of emotion and nature was emblematic of Romantic poetry, whether it engrossed the idea of bequeathing human emotions to an innate article like a river or connecting the scenery to the temperament of the writer. (James, 491) This kind of beauty that is

The twenty-four old romantic poet John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” written in the spring of 1819 was one of his last of six odes. That he ever wrote for he died of tuberculosis a year later. Although, his time as a poet was short he was an essential part of The Romantic period (1789-1832). His groundbreaking poetry created a paradigm shift in the way poetry was composed and comprehended. Indeed, the Romantic period provided a shift from reason to belief in the senses and intuition. “Keats’s poem is able to address some of the most common assumptions and valorizations in the study of Romantic poetry, such as the opposition between “organic culture” and the alienation of modernity”. (O’Rourke, 53) The irony of Keats’s Urn is he likens