Analyzing a Poet: Oscar Wilde
Poems have a special meaning to the people who read them and the poet themselves even Oscar Wilde, a poet, author and play writer. Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. His parents were Jane and William Wilde and was also the second child of three kids. He was fluent French and German and his parents were successful people. Wilde wrote books, plays, poetry but out of all of them his plays are the most known. I am going to analyze Oscar Wilde because his poems have imagery and metaphors that caught my eye and just how it was written I really loved.
At a young age, Wilde’s mother would read poetry that she wrote to him and would make it a habit to read it to him. Wilde was introduced to poetry at a young age. He was taught at home until nine where he learned how to speak French and German like I said earlier. His little sister Isola died at age nine from meningitis which is inflammation of the brain and also spinal cord membranes and his poem Requiescat was made in her memory. Wilde was accepted into the college Trinity College from 1871 to 1874 with his older brother, Willie. His tutor gave him the interest in Greek literature. After that he attended another college called, Magdalen.
Death is very hard on the people who are dying and those around them, his poem Requiescat is inspired by the sad death of his sister as I spoke about earlier. It is very powerful and meaningful because it talks about her death and how sad and painful it is for others afterwards. First off, in stanza three it says “Lily-like, white as snow, She hardly knew She was a woman, so Sweetly she grew." This stanza is stating that his sister, Isola was pure and innocent. The phrase “white as snow” means pure. Secondly, in stanza four it says “Coffin-board, heavy stone, Lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone, She is at rest." In my opinion, “heavy stone” is her grave and “lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone” means his heart is with her or it can even mean distressed heart because i found out that vex means distress. Lastly, in stanza five it says “Peace, peace, she cannot hear, Lyre or sonnet, All my life's buried here, Heap earth upon it."
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet who lived an unconventional life during the Victorian Era. Oscar Wilde is lauded for his works, trademark wit, and the way he carried himself around. Arguably, his most famous piece of work is The Importance of Being Earnest, which is about two people who make up a person that lives in another part of the country in order to escape burdensome social responsibilities. The Importance of Being Earnest is an example of a satirical piece of literature. Satire is the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. Wilde’s life experiences greatly impacted the views, that he expresses through satirical humor, in his works, particularly The
Oscar Wilde had an extremely influential life that bled through into his writing. Before Wilde began writing, his adolescence in high society would later become an
In Nineteenth Eighty Four by George Orwell, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the three authors describe how all of the protagonists, Winston, Dorian Gray, and Chris McCandless undergo many circumstances in order to illustrate the impression the protagonists do not know themselves until they successfully pass through the obstacles to find their inner self.
Edgar Allan Poe’s life played a major factor in his writing. Edgar Allan Poe was born in1809. Poe’s father, much like him later in life, was an alcoholic and substance abuser. His father abandoned his family when his sister was born, and was never seen again. Poe’s mother died shortly thereafter of tuberculosis. Poe was then sent to live with John and Frances Allan, where he would live out the rest of his childhood,
Despite what many might think, Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest: Oscar Wilde is known for his satire, and The Importance of Being Earnest is no exception to Wilde's usual mode of satirical writing. The effect of satire will change, however, depending upon the audience, and one of the fascinating things about this play is that the people Wilde satirizes are also the people he expects to be watching the play. Why does Wilde satirize the viewers who will be buying the tickets? What kind of reaction might he be aiming to evoke in his audience? Historical research into social issues of the time might be helpful here.
In Oscar Wilde’s play, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, we find many comedic elements strengthening his criticism of Victorian society. With a range of devices providing comedic elements, this comedy of manners is a play varied in its provision of humour. Firstly, Wilde uses satire in the play in order to mock society at the time, with the many ideals and manners of the people of the time challenged, the satirized theme of marriage featuring heavily in Act 1. A great example of such is in Gwendolen’s erroneous insinuation that men with the name of Ernest are more ‘safe’ in terms of marriage.
novels. The poetry of Oscar Wilde, which was influenced by personal history and by the
Looking back on Oscar Wilde 's life, there are many realizations that he struggled finding something that suited him best with his type of work. A man of the 19th century, who is best known for his only novella The Picture of Dorian Gray and his play The Importance of Being Earnest as well as his infamous arrest, imprisonment and being a gay author leading to his downfall. Oscar Wilde who was known as a playwright, author, sometime poet, and also a not very motivated school student, still came to success. He was very talented, intelligent and aesthetically interested and looked at others works as influential. Using this influence he started to write his own works and became a successful and well known author.
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16th, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland to Sir William Wilde, an oto-ophtalmologic surgeon and Jane Wilde, a poet who wrote under the pen name “Speranza.” He was the second of three children and as a child his mother would read her poetry to him and his brother, instilling in him his initial love of poetry. In 1871 Wilde left home with a royal scholarship to read classics at Trinity College, Dublin where he shared a room with his older brother Willie. There he would meet his “first and best teacher” J.P. Mahaffy. In 1874 Wilde won a demyship to Magdalene College, Oxford. While at Oxford he joined
In Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”, the characters each try to pass themselves off as something they’re not in order to gain social status. Wilde’s story bears many similarities to his own life, from the way he wrote his characters to the fact that he himself was passing as something he wasn’t. Wilde lived in the Victorian era, where people would dress in an exotic manner with many obscure fashion statements to appear as though they had money. Wilde was one of the more notable members of this subculture of people, and knew many others like him. His personal experiences led to his writing of “The Importance of Being Earnest”, made evident through his ability to give his characters their distinct personalities.
The human brain is capable of savoring many fascinations in a lifetime. Despite that it may further exploit an interest, it can be easily converted into an obsession—and quiet frequently, distort one's reality. "Helas!" by Oscar Wilde is a poem that measures the narrator's indulgence in many passions, while being struck with uncertainty, and as a consequence, questioning the life he picked. For this reason, he stands irresolute in pursuit of the paths he has chosen in life, because sudden, confusing thoughts have interfered with his ambitions. This will be made evident after examining the impact of society towards his sanity, the poem from a romantic aspect, as well as exploring his internal reflections.
Everyone has been selfish at one point in their life and has found that selfishness leads to regret. However, everyone has their own choice to be selfish or selfless. Oscar Wilde's, The Selfish Giant, used transformations to emphasize how age, seasons, and emotions show how selfishness can change to selflessness by ones struggles.
In the novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde shows the importance of having an equal balance between the id, superego, and ego, which each character within the novel portrays. When one triumphs the other it may be detrimental to oneself, as well to society as a whole. Sigmund Freud developed psychodynamic theories of personality that “view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind” (Myers 514). He focuses on the importance of the equal balance to avoid internal conflict, as well as harm to others around a character.
Wilde brought color to the grey of Victorian England with both his words and appearance. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the U.S and Canada about the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then he went back to London where he worked as a journalist, Wilde was also became one of the best man personalities of his time.
Welcome back to another episode of ‘Poetry Aloud’, today we’ll be exploring the tumultuous period known as the Victorian Era. A time of societal upheaval, poets who were motivated by their negative experiences of humanity used poetry as a vehicle to change the nature of attitudes in Victorian England. Within the pantheon of Victorian poets, Elizabeth Barrett- Browning and Oscar Wilde illustrated this changeable nature of Victorian England through attempting to transform the values contemporary to their time by challenging injustices within their society. As an era of emerging industrialisation and suppressive puritanical values, Browning and Wilde called for societal and legislative change through accentuating the suffering experienced by