Read Wordsworth’s and Shelley’s poems To a Skylark and Hughes’ poem
Skylarks. Discuss the similarities and differences in the poets’ presentation of, and attitude to, the birds.
There are a number of similarities and differences in Wordsworth’s,
Shelley’s and Hughes’ presentation of, and attitude to the birds through form, diction and imagery.
The first line in Wordsworth’s poem is about an ‘Ethereal minstrel!’ and a ‘pilgrim of the sky!’. This tells of a medieval singer who roams with a purpose. Wordsworth uses these to apostrophise the lark. When these lines are combined with others throughout the poem it becomes apparent that the lark is used as a metaphoric visual aid. This is shown with the apparent dichotomy between
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The words ‘flood’ and
‘pour’ in the poem normally are associated with water, thus showing how the lark’s music flows and how much of it there is.
Wordsworth’s poem is therefore presented as an apostrophe to a skylark that is quite rhythmic due to it being largely iambic pentameter. It is also written in a very traditional form with a strict rhythm and rhyme structure that suggests that it is pre 20th century. This is confirmed by the moral, philosophical view of lark, as it is shown to be a metaphor and moral for human life.
As well as sharing the same title (‘To a Skylark’), Percy Bysshe
Shelley’s poem also shares a similar way of presenting the lark.
Composed five years before Wordsworth’s poem, this poem is also written in a very traditional form with much archaic diction. It has a maintained stanza form throughout and is as, if not more, archaic shown by quotations such as, ‘hail to thee’ and ‘thou’. In the second stanza, although there is no reference to a bird, the language used suggests an immense scale similar to that used in Wordsworth’s presentation of the lark’s ‘flood’ of harmony or song. Quotations such as, ’Higher still and higher’ and ‘springest’, show this similarity.
Similar to Wordsworth’s poem, Shelley begins with exclamation with,
‘Hail to thee, blithe spirit!’. Again although much more subtle and
less
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is a story of a teenager named Jason who writes poetry, and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke is the story of an experienced poet who gives advice to a young poet looking for some advice. In both stories, ideas of beauty are introduced and developed, and while the idea of “beauty stems from within” are the same, their developments are very different. While some differences are small, these differences create a different mood in the overall presentation of the central themes. These changes in development style showcase each author's literary prowess, but even with all these changes in style and mood, the central idea of beauty still remains the same in each story.
Poetry has long been an art form that has entertained readers for many years. Edgar Allen Poe, a poet from the 1900’s, is known for his deep dark poems. He wrote many poems that are now considered classics. One of his greatest works, “The Raven”, was written in 1845; just two years before his wife Virginia Clemm died of Tuberculosis. The entirety of “The Raven” is confined in a man 's chamber. It is a December winter and it is midnight. The narrator, the person who resides in the chamber, is reading a book: glooming over the recent death of his wife Lenore when he hears a sound at his door. After finding no one there, he hears a whisper that says “Lenore.” He returns to what he was doing, but a bird flies in. The bird is a black raven, a bird one would typically find menacing. He is inquisitive and begins to ask the bird questions : “What is your name” to which the bird responds “Nevermore.” Near the end of his questioning he asks, “Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore - Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?” This questioned if he ever get to meet Lenore again and the bird replies “Nevermore.” Finally, the man asks the bird if he will ever leave and once again the bird replies “Nevermore.” Throughout the poem, Poe uses literary elements to produce an aura of wackiness and despair.
Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.
In this essay I am going to compare and contrast ‘When we two parted’ a poem of George Gordon, Lord Byron’s written in 1815 and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s ‘Love’s last lesson’ written in c1838, both poets are British and of the romantic period.
Then, in the second half of the octave, he alters it with ACCA rather than a repetition of ABBA. In the closing sestet, he abandons any traditional rhyme scheme for the ending of DEFDFE. Over the course of the poem, the tone changes from quietly appreciative to reverent of nature and the focus switches from admiration of the view and its divinity to an appreciation of that same divinity in a young girl by Wordsworth’s side. Wordsworth shifts from “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,” to “Thy nature is not therefore less divine:” (ll. 1, 11). This shift in tone and focus after the first octave is emphasized by the unpredictable rhyme scheme. The odd rhyme scheme also creates in the reader an understanding that, to Wordsworth, nature is not something that can be contained by any structure or format.
The Romantic Period centered on creative imagination, nature, mythology, symbolism, feelings and intuition, freedom from laws, impulsiveness, simplistic language, personal experiences, democracy, and liberty, significant in various art forms including poetry. The development of the self and self-awareness became a major theme as the Romantic Period was seen as an unpredictable release of artistic energy, new found confidence, and creative power found in the writings of the Romantic poets Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley, who made a substantial impact on the world of poetry. Two of the Romantic poets, William Blake, and Percy Bysshe Shelley rebelled against convention and authority in search of personal, political and artistic freedom. Blake and Shelley attempted to liberate the subjugated people through the contrary state of human existence prevalent throughout their writings, including Blake’s “The Chimney Sweepers,” from “Songs of Innocence”, “London,” from “Songs of Experience” and Shelley’s A Song: “Men of England.”
Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.
In the final stanza, Roethke again addresses Jane in the terms of non human endearment as "my skittery pigeon" (19), but his final expression of loss comes in terms of a unique human relationship: "neither father nor lover." Roethke succeeds in capturing an individual person, his feelings for her, and his sense of loss at her death. This poem, one of the best of the few poems in which Roethke tried to capture an individual, according to Ross-Bryant, owes its success to Jane's association with nature and the final statement of the poet's love (74-75.)
Romanticism 1. Profound love of nature: “To a Waterfowl” by William Cullen Bryant At the mere age of twenty-one, Bryant masterfully captured the profound beauty of the elegant waterfowl in this poem. Full of ethereal mystery and an incredible appreciation for nature, this poem is considered one of Bryant’s greatest. Beginning with a description of the speaker’s location, the poem sets the mood for the following stanzas. Bryant states, “Whither, midst falling dew / While glow the heavens with the last steps of day / Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue /
Throughout “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” William Wordsworth shows his relationship with nature through his choice of diction, fantastic descriptions, and shifting mood of his poem. There are also many words and phrases that Wordsworth included into his poem that shows how he feels about nature. These phrases are well written, extremely descriptive, and show how Wordsworth is influenced by the wild: “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, “When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils", “Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay: ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance”, “The waves beside them danced; but they out-did the sparkling waves in glee”, “I gazed—and gazed—but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought”, and “For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye [...] and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.” Another phrase, which indicates that the flowers were so beautiful that no true poet could be sad in their presence, also builds upon Wordsworth’s relationship with nature. These particular lines in “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” show how Wordsworth’s mood shifts from somber and lonely to joyous and content. The lines also show how the gorgeousness of nature sticks with
Poetry is a platform used to express emotions, ideas, and style. Poets take inspiration from their background and past experiences to eloquently formulate their thoughts. Langston Hughes was no exception. Famous for his contribution to the embracement of African American culture in America during the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes began forming his thoughts into poetry early in his life. From growing up in segregated American and his involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes accounts the celebration of African American culture as well as the fears and struggles, including his own, faced by black people in America, as well as social criticisms through poems of sophisticated yet relatable simplicity.
The composition of the poem is very loose with only two stanzas and a lot of verse lines, some of which only consists of one word. The verse lines with only one word suggest that the reader also has to interpret the way the poem is read; not only the message and theme. Bluebird also has an unusual graphical look that confine, just like Bukowski’s
William Blake, John Keats and William Wordsworth all believe in the "depth" of the world and the possibilities of the human heart. However, each poet looks towards different periods in time to capture meaning in life. Blake looks towards the future for his inspiration, Keats towards the present and Wordsworth towards the past. Regardless of where each poet looks for their inspiration they are all looking for the same thing; timeless innocence. Each poet sought to transcend time by creating works that dealt with life, death, hope and imagination and to discover some kind of deep truth or meaning in existence. Life and death is an issue that we will all have to deal with at some point in our life
A new chapter in the history of English poetry opened with the publication of “Lyrical Ballads” which were the results of Wordsworth and Coleridge friendship after the revolution. They included two different kinds of poetry in these ballets. Wordsworth talked about the subjects that were chosen from ordinary life and he
Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.