Spoon River Anthology Poem

Thesis: Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Love Is Not All” both explore the concept of love and its ability to adequately fulfill one’s life. Bradstreet details her passionate and life fulling marriage while St. Vincent Millay articulates that love is not all conquering. Both poets incorporate different style, tone, and rhetorical devices to form their positions and ultimately lead readers to different conclusions. Although the two poems were published centuries apart and contain contrasting developments, both ultimately include the same central theme of the existence

Since time immemorial, the concept of love and its definition have been highly personal and truly unique phenomena. They have been the source and product of comedy, tragedy and everything in between. Poets have praised and despised it, the media has sold it and mankind has ever longed for and misunderstood it. In her poem, Variations on the Word Love, Margaret Atwood juxtaposes the connotations and denotations of the word “love” in order to comment on the misrepresentation

Ever since the beginning of time, love has played an enormous role among humans. Everyone feels a need to love and to be loved. Some attempt to fill this yearning with activities and possessions that will not satisfy – with activities in which they should not participate and possessions they should not own. In Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” the speaker encounters an emotion some would call love but fits better under the designation of lust for a woman. In contrast, the speaker of Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” urges virgins to marry, to make a lasting commitment in which love plays a

Their whole lives they tried to be involved in his life but they weren’t. Her father is dead, and they are left with the pressure to hold on to their lonely lives. All of Musgraves literary tools were great and gave the poem the sentimental feelings of a broken heart that was chosen for her theme. Imagery, simile’s, metaphors, diction, repetition and conflict were all incorporated perfectly for her father’s poem. Her theme and ideas were quickly ruled out with the different tools.

The Spoon River Anthology, written by Edgar Lee Masters in 1915, was a unique piece of work in both style and structure. There are over two hundred “stories” told by the dead people who once lived in the town of Spoon River. The lives and dreams of these people are written as poems. The poetry itself is an excellent example of early modernist style.

Love can be quite a difficult topic to write about, expressing one’s intimate and innermost emotions requires a great level of dedication and honesty. If done correctly, the outcome is truly stunning. John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and Katherine Philips’s “To Mrs. M.A. at Parting” are two masterpieces of this genre. These poems depict the concept of true love so meticulously that the reader cannot help but envy the relationships presented. Perhaps the reason that these works are so effective is due to the fact that they are incredibly similar to each other. Although some differences are present when it comes to structure and gender concerns, the poems share the same theme of love on a spiritual level and show many parallels in meaning.

The two novels that I chose to discuss in this paper is the novel “Ethan Frome” by Wharton and “So long, See You Tomorrow by Maxwell. The author, Edith Wharton allows the symbols in the book to convey her reoccurring theme in this novel. Throughout history, relationships have evolved and gone through dramatic changes based on the social norms at the time. This is because all three of those characteristics were expected of relationships in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but by now all of them seem to be purely optional. In the past, marriage and romantic relationships were handled with a certain amount of formality. Society today seems to operate in a totally different way. Men and women spend time together without being

Once Jean Farris said, “And they lived happily (aside from a few normal disagreements, misunderstandings, pouts, silent treatments, and unexpected calamities) ever after”(Jean). Many can relate to Farris’s quote as falling in love is sometimes accidental, but staying in love is a choice that is made. A successful relationship may be the product of an almost fairy tale like romance. However, after tying the knot, hard work and commitment are needed from both sides to solidify the relationship in order to achieve the ‘happily ever after’. Throughout human civilization expressing love has generated countless literature and intellectual works in every language and culture known. While many of these works will come to rejoice love, others will address it with resentment and bitterness. In her poem “Cinderella”, Anne Sexton offers us a different version of the traditional Cinderella story. Sexton uses sarcasm and paradox through her poem arguing the sham of happily ever after as portrayed in certain fairy-tales stories and how it always has been represented through media. On the other hand, Lydia Davis’s short story, “Break It Down” narrates the dilemma of a man who is trying to break down the cost of eight days of love that costed him almost $1000 by the end of his affair, in a way, he was trying to question if love is a wise investment or if it is possible to put a price tag on love. Sexton’s “Cinderella” lays out a helpful framework for understanding instances of

In literature, there are many works that investigate conversations that tackle questions about love and marriage. Marriage is a bond that should last forever and display two sincere paramours; however, a forced marriage will not display a real connection because love must be from one’s choice and not from the opinions of others. William Shakespeare was an English poet who wrote an influential play that allows readers to engage in these conversations; furthermore, Romeo and Juliet are characters who reflect the perfect bond that most people dream of. Thus, William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet showcases the power of love in two major characters and their potent dialogue; more specifically, Romeo’s acknowledgement of their barrier-free

In Dave Margoshes free verse poem, NOTE TO SELF published on June 30, 2015 in the online literary journal, The Rusty Toque, the speaker is writing down their daily to-do list. Margoshes allows the reader to delve into a piece that combines intimacy with the bluntness of the simple language used. The varied word choice and syntax indicate the character behind the writer of the list. In combination, the use of repetition emphasizes key elements in the relationship with the lover. Finally, the structure is used to contrast specific details revealed with vague ideas presented. Using these devices, Margoshes creates an image of how society has lost their sensitivity and understanding of the sanctity of a relationship by turning it into just another thing-to-do.

Poems are the best to express thoughts to readers, many writers choose to write poems to speak their feelings which plain ordinary texts will not do. Three poems have special ideas about marriage, they are: “Marriage” by William Carlos Williams, “Marriea Love” by Kuan Tao-Sheng, and an untitled one by Apache Song. All three of them have a central idea of marriage; two people are one individual after marriage, one cannot separate from the other one. These poems are short but they carry deep morals about marriage. They have a common characteristics where they all visualize the bonding between the couple into things we feel comfortable about.

The opinions of the narrator regarding love can be easily identified throughout the entirety of 640 by Emily Dickinson, commonly referred to as “I cannot live with You”. However, these viewpoints differ greatly from those of the average person. The single speaker in the poem navigates their way through a complex perspective on love while using the pronoun “I.” Thus, although the speaker takes an opinionated stance on the topic at hand, these views do not necessarily represent the views of Dickinson as the poet. Rather than focusing on the positive attributes of love and relationships, the narrator instead chooses to dwell on the negative and relatively obscure aspects. However, the narrator does not strike down the idea of love entirely; rather, she views the despair of recognizing the gloomy characteristics of a relationship as what keeps people together.

Friends, family, co-workers, have heard these words “True love is hard to find” and even a poem by A.C. Bradley echo the words: “True “Tis; better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Friends will say these words and phrases to their dear friend whom is heart- broken to offer comfort and to express the empathy of what love’s bittersweet intangible imprint has caused. Regrettably, only a fortuitous miniscule number of the world population may boast the discovery of an all-encompassing type of love, upon initial encounter. Because some individuals allow the trials and tribulations of everyday life to distract them from Love’s potential, a staggering minute amount of marriages has endured through the decades. People vainly

The 1915 poetry collection, Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters, offers a portrait of daily life in a fictional Illinois town, Spoon River. As is evident from the poems Spoon River was an economic “boom town” which profited greatly from its proximity to rail roads and a major waterway. Regardless of its prosperity, Spoon River seems to have remained a demographically small town, and the neighbors all knew each other very well, and a clear social hierarchy formed. One of the more interesting aspects of the Spoon River Anthology is that the poems contained therein are a series of grave epitaphs that tell a story about each deceased resident. Often, graveyards themselves can serve as reminders of social hierarchies in the world of the living. Typically, only those decedents who had family members and a community who cared for them would be laid to rest in the community grave; the potter’s field and the crematorium awaited those who passed away without family, in debt, or with a criminal record. Thus, the initial assessment of the deceased within the Spoon River graveyard would be that they were

As the times change, the media created during those times change as well, and either consciously or subconsciously reflect the ideals and attitudes of society. Specifically, writers have deconstructed, examined, and put love poetry back together; writers have provided varying opinions and interpretations regarding the motif of love. In the Elizabethan Era, poets idealized love and ignored all potential hardships. In the Victorian Era, the concept of problematic relationships had gained popularity, but poets maintained the idea of making the best of one’s circumstances and remaining complacent. The poems of the Modern Era became increasingly progressive, highlighting the problematic aspects of romantic relationships. Over the centuries,