At one point in this first semester of English 11, we studied poems written by African American slaves and I found a poem that I genuinely enjoy by Phillis Wheatley called Ode to Neptune. The poem is, at first glance, about her master’s wife Susanna’s crossing of the Atlantic to Britain. However, the underlying theme that I detected is apropos to Phillis’s own life experiences. The poem begins with a compelling description of nature’s wrath, Phillis personifies the storm as Aeolus, the Greek king of winds. The speaker commands Aeolus to “be still” and cites him as a “tyrant” as he coerced the wind, which is similar to how the white men had enslaved Phillis. As Susanna crosses the ocean, like the slave ships did, personifications of the
In this passage, the author uses many similes and metaphors to describe Patria and her life. It begins with an allusion to the Bible, “And though the rain fall and the floods come and the winds blow, the good wife’s house will stand,” (Alvarez 148). The rain, floods, and winds mentioned are metaphors for any hardships or challenges in Patria’s life that she has overcome. The metaphor later in the passage, “Patria Mercedes was in those timbers… and in that creaky old door on its hinges,” (Alvarez 148) explains how much Patria has done for her family and worked to keep them safe. The tone is strong and commanding, and creates a mood of intimidation.
She allows the wind to assault, grab, and pry on people on the streets. Exclaiming that the wind was the cause of the newspaper “Fingering its way along the curb, the wind set the bits of paper to dancing high in the air, so that a barrage of paper swirled into the faces of the people on the street,” helping identify it as if it was a real person. As the wind continues to antagonize Lutie Johnson “as the cold fingers of the wind touched the back of her neck, explored the sides of her head. ,” helping her to establishes her bitterness towards the wind. Throughout the poem Petry inaugurates Lutie’s stress and bitterness towards the wind through selection of detail as the wind “violently assaults”, “rushed deep in their throats”, and “caused the metal to make a dark red stain like blood” all concluding to her
The poem, "Ithaca", is based loosely around the great epic the Odyssey by ancient Greek poet Homer. In the Odyssey the character Odysseus trying to make his way home to his kingdom, Ithaca. The character faces many vicious creatures
When isolated from society, loneliness becomes a part of you. In the poems, The Wife’s Lament translated by Ann Stanford and The Seafarer translated by Burton Raffel, are two similar and different poems. The characters in these poems handle their exiles in different ways. The way the two characters reflect from their exile is based off Anglo-Saxon values and beliefs. These poems compare and contrast the exile between men and women.
In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.
“Great captain a fair wind and the honey lights of home are all you seek. But anguish lies ahead; the god who thunders on the land prepares it, not to be shaken from your track, implacable, in rancor for the son whose eye you blinded. … Though you survive alone bereft of all companions, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home, to find your own house filled with trouble: insolent men eating your livestock as they court your lady. Aye, you shall make those men atone in blood! … Then a seaborne death soft as this hand of mist will come
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.
When Bray describes the “rain lashed against the window shutters” sound imagery and sight imagery are provoked. The reader can visualize the rain pounding on the windows and also hear the sound of the rain against the windows. Which not only, commits to the mood of suspense by the violent sounds and image, but also the anxiousness for the welfare of the character. The wind is such a compelling force “not even the most sheltered flame, [is] proof against the howling winds.” The visual imagery of this quote reveals how powerful the winds are.
In the first stanza, the poem consists of alternate rhyme to help the poem have a pleasant pattern and get the reader's attention to expect what will happen next. In the poem, Frances uses “Wretchedness” in line 2, to describe their situation being at a slave auction and show the emotion the slaves are feeling
Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.
Often times we live our lives based on what our environments pour into us. Friends, family, media, books and experiences shape our way of thinking. Friends give opinions on what they think should be, family will tell you right from wrong; or at least what they consider right from wrong, media will paint an elaborate picture and give visuals of how to, when to and what to expect, and books open our minds to fairy tales, realities and possibilities. After indulging in some of the “great books” that include The Odyssey and The Symposium, I can say that these readings, without a doubt, can and will influence and shape the way we understand our lives. This essay will defend the notion that these “great books,” The Symposium; The poems: Ulysses, Ithaka and Penelope are considered to be fundamentally vital to the human condition. These great readings take us on a journey, a journey of love, loyalty, Perseverance, faith, and the goodness of life. The stories point out some of the most vital aspects of life.
“Storm Warnings,” true to its literal subject matter, possesses flowy sweeping syntax created by the strategic use of commas and phrasing to draw parallels between the physical oncoming winds and the gales of life. The author crafts a long run-on sentence that spans the first stanza and carries on into the latter portion of the second to mirror the continuous flowing of windy weather and the forward motion of life. Once the speaker notices the brewing storm, they “walk from window to closed window, watching boughs strain against the sky.” In this portion of the affromented run-on sentence, alliteration, rhythm, and the repetition of words all contribute to the impression of movement. The various “w” sounds at the beginnings of words and the repetition of the word “window” create a sensation of continuously flowing forward, especially when read aloud; the comma adds a small swirling pause to the rhythm, which is then soon after resumed with the word “watching.” Just as the poem rhythmically moves forward with its long phrases connected with frequent commas, so must life carry on with each additional experience, whether it be misfortunes or joys. The elongated syntax allows all these elements to work together within sentences to highlight the similarities between physical storms and emotional struggle and to stress the inevitability of predicaments in life.
Several poems in the anthology explore the intensity of human emotion. Explore this theme, referring to these three poems in detail and by referencing at least three other poems from your wider reading.’
Wordsworth, like many beggars, is found outside of the house of the protagonist, only he comes with a much stranger request. He asks to look at the bees in the grugru trees of the boy’s yard. As odd as it is, B. Wordsworth divulges in the boy that he is “the greatest poet.” He spends the majority of his days admiring with his gaze the wonders of Nature; an assortment of bugs and even morning glories, and cries over them. We learn, from the curiosity of the boy, that the ‘B’ in the poet’s name stands for Black, and that his brother is “White Wordsworth” and they “share on heart.” White Wordsworth is the name given to the famed poet of the Romantic Age, Williams Wordsworth. Seeing that he calls him ‘White’ based on his skin colour, we can carefully deduce that ‘Black’ is not his real name. It is a name taken on by him. In the face of invasion, Black forsakes his Trinidadian identity and embraces a new, more ‘appropriate’ one, based on a traditional English poet. Like his ‘brother,’ we see the strong admiration for Nature in
By imitating writing styles of ancient poets, Ezra Pound exhibited his attitude toward modern civilization, and his famous poem, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, is the stereotype. In this poem, Pound revealed his disagreement with industrial society. The poem is an imitation of other old poetic styles, or epic style; however, it presents ironic meaning. To fully understand Pound's divergence from modern culture, the ways of presenting his position will be firstly explained. Next, the focus is on the contrast between the elitist and popular culture. Finally, to highlight Pound's attitude, I prefer to make comparison with other literary masterpieces, Odyssey, which have similar poetic style,