On Seeing Larry Rivers

He took his imagery from both the everyday rituals of African American rural life in the south and urban life in the north, melding those American experiences with his personal experiences and with the themes of classical literature, religion, myth, music and daily human ritual” (Ruth Fine).

Steven Herrick’s verse novel “By the River” is very successful in conveying the significant ideas about human nature. He uses key themes such as grief, environmental influence and coming of age to explore these ideas. To convey the themes Herrick uses multiple techniques such as imagery, repetition, personification and positive and negative influence throughout his text.

In the work of African descended writers’, water is used as a common symbol. In Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak!, Jacques Roumain’s Masters of the Dew, and Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, tears, rivers, the sea and other forms of water are used to symbolize change. More specifically, it symbolizes the change between life and death; freedom and confinement. The three writers use water as an ironic symbol, representing life, liberty, and their contradictions.

Emmanuel Leutze’s painting Washington Crossing the Delaware shares some similarities with David Shulman’s poem “Washington Crossing the Delaware”; however, the dissimilarities are more abundant. These works of art and literature portray the scene of that remembered Christmas day when Washington and his army set out to conquer to Hessian people. Although they have similarities, there are some differences in these works that are nothing less than noticeable. Join me in observing the similarities and dissimilarities in these pieces.

Ted hughes uses literary techniques in the most vivid way, to illustrate what his idea of a water lily painting looked like. In all of his works, the goal is to describe a task or a thing, but make the reader understand it by using nature as the key. The task in this poem is presented by the title “How To Paint A Water Lily”. The reason he wrote this poem, was to describe nature by decorating the spirit of the environment around the lily. The two literary techniques that will be discussed in this paper are imagery and alliteration.

Analyzing different mediums can enhance an individual’s overall appreciation and understanding of a particular idea or story. While analysis of a painting can reveal the mood of the artwork, an analysis of a poem can reveal the author’s tone. Much more then that, analysis provides an opportunity to explore each work in an attempt to understand human nature through each author’s perspective. While exploring the painting “Ulysses and the Sirens” by J.W. Waterhouse and the poem “The siren song” by Margaret Atwood, a universal truth presents itself. While the painting focuses on the thematic idea of Odysseus being stubborn while his men care for his safety to get home, the poem holds a different view. In contrast, the thematic statement from the poem discusses the idea that the Siren hates singing and being in a bird suit, but is asking for help but it’s still tempting to hear the song. Although differing in point of view, both the painting and the poem explore an aspect of human nature that are relevant to society today. There are two different authors for the painting and the poem. However, the two are different when compared to each

In the poem “To Paint a Water Lily” by Ted Hughes, the speaker conveys his attitude toward nature as perplexing, complex, and deceiving. He also expresses his opinion of the artist and the difficulties brought on by him trying to paint and recreate not only the picture of a water lily and its natural scene, but also capture the intense environment that is both peaceful and full of constant activity. The author achieves this through literary techniques such as: imagery and juxtaposition.

Leutze’s painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, conveys that the people of America can overlook their differences and hardship when being unified by hope. He uses pathos in the color contrast in his painting to inspire feelings of hope in the unity of America. Dark color seems to loom, almost pushing upon the ships in the painting. Nevertheless, light surrounds the ships, seeming to flow from the American flag on the first ship. The American flag is a symbol of hope for the men on these ships, each of them being drastically different. The men gathered on these ships are all drastically different . George Washington himself is there, a highly respected general among common folk and even an African American man. Each of these men different in race, rank, and opinion are unified under a flag that represents each different person as a single people for the hope that they can earn their freedom. Despite the pressing darkness the flag shines a light of hope as a symbol of unity for the people of America. The pathos used in

`In Robert Gray’s poems, he uses language to capture human experiences. In two of his poems; old house and late ferry, gray has effectively captured human experiences by his varies poetic languages and through insight and feeling. Throughout both texts late ferry and old house, gray’s main message in the poems, with his critical analysis, is the destruction of nature by mankind.

The iconic imagery of George Washington is present in various aspects of everyday life to the average American citizen; his portraits are displayed in government buildings, museums, a mountainside, and even loose pocket change. In a sense, his image has become a pseudo-allegorical figure representing the stability and power of the United States. Although the humble Washington has been documented as discontent with the act of sitting for artists, he patiently allowed hundreds of painters and sculptures to capture his likeness throughout his lifetime. None more frequent than the prominent renaissance-man and close friend, Charles Willson Peale and his family of artistic prodigies. Therefore, on account of his father’s status and success, Rembrandt

Emanuel Leutze’s painting depicts George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, crossing the Delaware River with his men on Christmas night, 1776 in order to surprise attack the Hessians at Trenton. Leutze’s portrait reflects some of the ideals represented by Thomas Jefferson, as well enlightenment thinkers John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau and perfectly demonstrates the role the American Revolution played in the shift from the medieval period into the early modern period.

The words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink” (121-22) might well be applied to John Grisham’s A Painted House (despite the fact there was ample drinking water) because of the prominence of water in the novel. From the water pump in the Chandler’s yard (Grisham 20) to the demand of Hank Spruill to Luke Chandler for a drink of cold water (46-47) to the constant drone of the farmers about “rain, rain, rain,” (323), this monograph is filled with water. The most conspicuous water, however, is the St. Francis River and its tributary, Siler’s Creek. Since time immemorial, “water [has been recognized] as the preeminent symbol associated with creation, fertility, rebirth, renewal, [and] good harvests” (Stowkowski 25). Grisham, however, stretches the symbolic meaning of the waters to include things far beyond these that have been traditionally associated with them. Like many other aspects of the South, these bodies of water are two-faced, having both attractive and unattractive visages; they symbolize both positive and negative aspects (Osthaus 750).

Hughes story, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, veers away from the conventions of Du Bois’s essay as rather than focusing on the value of black art as a key in social movements, it involves black artists who would rather neglect their blackness and rather took on the culture of whites. The speaker claims he enjoys being white more than being an African American, and Hughes describes this as “the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America-this urge within the race towards whiteness…”. Much like Du Bois, Hughes writes about the “beauty” of Negro art, and aims to uplift the appeal of negro language and culture as he examines African American artists who stayed true to their roots and culture whose works are amongst those that are still heavily praised even decades later.

Through out time, art has been used as a form of documentation in the United States; It has captured different eras throughout history. The Art form of painting has been used to capture moments of triumph, and distress. Paintings of early settlement in the Americas and portraits of American people now hang in museums across the nation to commemorate the history of the United States. With a face to face encounter, Rembrandt Peale engulfs the viewer with a rich pallet of color, allows the audience to capture a moment in time through an intimate viewing experience, and gives tribute to the nation’s first president through his piece, “George Washington.”

Auden is a poet from the XXth century. As such, he has suffered the wars that have stricken the period. The ekphrasis, which is a literary description of a work of art, is used by Auden in his poems “The Shield of Achilles” and “Musée des Beaux Arts”. As part of his great concerns were the political and psychological conflicts that existed then. In the aforementioned poems, Auden uses the ekphrasis to denounce people’s indifference to human misery.