The Imagination And Sexuality : Sexual Relief

Now I intend to turn my attention to concrete examples from Walt Whitman's poetry to provide some evidence of that sexuality played an important role in his poetry, and there are possible readings to find traces for that. Of course, we cannot only rely on selected

As a forerunner to the free-love movement, late eighteenth century poet, engraver, and artist, William Blake (1757-1827), has clear sexual overtones in many of his poems, and he layers his work with sexual double entendres and symbolism. Within the discussion of sexuality in his work Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake seems to take a complicated view of women. His speakers use constructs of contraries, specifically innocence/ experience and male/female. Of the latter sex, he experiments with the passive (dependent, docile, virtuous) and active (independent, evil, a threat to the masculine) female subjects. Blake’s use of personification specifically of nature and botany suggest the use of nature to discuss human society. In Songs

In the poem “Thou Blind Man’s Mark” by Sir Philip Sidney, the speaker is struggling with his desire for someone or something. They are fighting this feeling for control over his thoughts and mind. It is shown that both the speaker and desire are constantly fighting, with neither fully able to take control. This fact is evident through Sidney’s use of violent diction, personification of desire, and oxymorons.

Imagine reading a poem and believing it means one thing, but the underlying message is something completely different. Authors like to use different literary techniques to make a valid point, to make the reader feel a certain emotion, or even to share a distinct memory with their reader. Poetry has helped authors focus their readers on their work by achieving themes that may portrayed in several pieces of their work. In May Swenson’s case, she used a variety of techniques to create different emotions for the reader, while expressing certain periods of her life. May Swenson uses nature in her poetry to personify sexuality and make it into a repetitive theme in her work. Many of Swenson’s critics can agree

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.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: there can be many different perspectives seen in a poem. One individual could read a poem as depressing and another can perceive it as a new beginning. One’s views rests on individual perspectives. For example, Edgar Allen Poe’s writing is dark and controversial. In my essay I will argue that Poe was not in his right mind and he was driven mad with evidence throughout his short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

The subconscious is said to control various aspects of the life of a human to include major and minor decisions alike; whether to follow the path carved out so cautiously by others or to forge a unique path and travel it fiercely with reckless abandon and ambition guided by extreme individuality. What is this perplexing, intangible thing we call the subconscious? And what role does it play in the writing process of a poet? In general, when given the task of defining the subconscious, the initial impulse is to provide an ordinary idea such as, “one’s natural instinct that lies beneath the actively aware mind and its intentional thoughts”; however, what if the subconscious is something more? What if the subconscious is actually the

No matter how fervently a painter may try to depict an image on a canvas, even their best attempt will be considered a cheap imitation of the original idea that resides in their head. Exact imaginations and fancies cannot escape the confines of the human mind into the tangible world. This makes constructs such as the feminine ideal, while immensely appealing, impossible to attain in all its variations as it is, too, a man-made creation. The pursuit of such an ideal is a surefire way to promise disaster as the application of the ideal itself does not exist. Nevertheless, such a pursuit appears constantly in literary texts, colored by unwarranted optimism. Texts such as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” and David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly

In Poe’s writing “manifestations of non-normative desire tend to take place very much under the pressure of constriction […] of conscience” (Stadler 19). In this short story the constriction is placed upon himself through the narrator being oppressed by his own mind and thoughts. Sexuality in a heteronormative society is viewed in the same light as the narrator’s own personal inner turmoil he struggles with. Sexuality outside of the heterosexuality is being displayed through the confinement of the narrator’s mind is seen as a “mental disorder which oppressed him” (Poe 86).

The homosexual themes displayed in Walt Whitman’s works, especially in his most famous collection of poems Leaves of Grass, raise the question of his own sexuality. Many of his poems depicted affection and sexuality in a simple, personal manner, causing nineteenth century Americans to view them as pornographic and obscene. Based on this poetry, Whitman is usually assumed to be homosexual, or at least bisexual. However, this assumption does not account for major influences of his writing such as the shift from transcendentalism to realism and the American Civil War. After considering these factors, it can be concluded that Whitman’s poems were not intended to set apart a few homosexual men, but to bring all men and women together.

on the aid of Hell itself, and to find things familiar in the world of

Leaves of Grass is Walt Whitman’s life legacy and at the same time the most praised and condemned book of poetry. Although fearful of social scorn, there are several poems in Leaves of Grass that are more explicit in showing the homoerotic imagery, whereas there are several subtle – should I say “implicit” – images woven into the fabric of the book. It is not strange, then, that he created many different identities in order to remain safe. What Whitman faced in writing his poetry was the difficulty in describing and resonating manly and homosexual love. He was to find another voice of his, a rhetoric device, and his effort took two forms: simplified, and subverted word play.

The role of the orgasm in heterosexual relationships is significant in having a satisfying malefemale relationship according to society’s expectations. By using the malefemale binary, as well as exploring the social construction of sex, we can see just how significant the role the orgasm plays in heterosexual relationships. First off, we must understand that orgasms are achieved differently for both males and females.

Stevens makes this fact apparent from the beginning of the poem, when he notes not only “human revery” but also “the sexual myth” and the “poem of death” (1). Therefore, these defined formulations are only categories of a greater whole, which remains unmentioned in the poem. In deliberating on Stevens’s poems, we can come to understand this encompassing whole as the imagination, which impels an individual to make “eccentric propositions” about his or her life and fate (4-5, 10).