The Pathfinder Of The Seas

Initially Mai holds a negative perspective in “Mai closed her eyes and tried to recall her father's stories— but they rang shallow against the dense roaring slabs of water she'd just seen.” The hydrographia personifies the natural elements creating a pathetic fallacy, which reflects Mai’s initially pessimistic attitude as her hope is crushed by the harsh reality of her experiences on the boat. However, this provocative experience catalyses a transformed perception, as upon reaching the shore she thinks: “The boat would land - they would all land.” The epistrophe of “land” and high modality of “would” shows her renewed hopeful perspective, which would not have been possible without physically experiencing the harshness of being on the boat. Thus, the ability for discoveries to be far-reaching and transformative is seen through these provocative and confronting external experiences that transform individual perceptions.

This contrast serves to communicate the scattered nature of our consciousness with the unity, elegance and fluidity of our subconscious. Furthermore, these drawn out sounds serve to also further the imagery of the tide’s “uninterrupted sweep” which is particularly effective in conveying the image of the wave rushing to envelope the shore, the word “uninterrupted” conveying this sense that the wave of inspiration is all smooth and relentless. This imagery is furthered by the 3 line-long segment, uninterrupted by punctuation. Yet, the central point made in these four lines is when the speaker states that “(he) heard” the waves. The description of the sea gives you a mental image, but Longfellow stresses upon the fact that the speaker only hears the tide, as this can be seen reflected in the title of the poem “The Sound of the Sea”. Hearing is an auditory action that allows one to be aware of the presence of the object through the sound, but not visually or physically grasp it. This suggests that inspiration is similar, in the sense that one can be aware of it but cannot consciously grasp, control or dominate it.

In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.

In this poem the poet uses many techniques to engage and hook the audience. Dan Ashlin expresses how the ocean has a life of its own through personification, an example is “it dreams, it mopes, it stretches”. I appreciate how the poet has used verbs in this technique as it positions me to feel like I can relate to human emotions, movements and

After settling the close debate as to where the American’s wished to build their canal and purchasing the area under the 1903 Hay-Herran treaty, the U.S. needed only permission to unearth the ground.  Colombia wasn’t too fond of the idea and thus rejected all of America’s efforts.  Negotiations with the country went quite poorly as well. Arthur Beaupré was chose to communicate with Colombia but negotiations continued to go poorly as, “he was frequently blunt, even dictatorial, in his

Sir Edward Elgar composed the song cycle, Sea Pictures, in 1899. The five songs in this cycle that will be discussed in detail in this paper are: “Sea Slumber Song” by Roden Noel, “In Haven (Capri)” by Caroline Alice Elgar, “Sabbath Morning at Sea” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Where Corals Lie” by Richard Garnett, and “The Swimmer” by Adam Lindsay Gordon. First, the life and early influences of Elgar will be explored, followed by a close look at the text of each poem in the song cycle. A compositional music analysis will be discussed as it pertains to providing a distinct picture of the imagery goals chosen by Elgar for his audience.

The poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a truly imaginative work utilizing the familiar yet timeless themes of good fortune, the power of Mother Nature, and adventurous voyages over the sea. The Mariner relates the bone-chilling tale of his adventure to a guest at a wedding in his native country. Although the guest succumbs to the Mariner’s tale, he is eager to get to the wedding, which is about to start. Coleridge chose this occasion for the poem as a form of irony, by providing a stark contrast between the two atmospheres and situations in his poem. The moods of weddings are usually joyful and jubilant, emphasizing love and the union between

Rather than exploring lighter tones in her stories, she can only express herself through trauma. Let’s now explore what methods Danticat uses to explore such literary cliché’s within ‘Children of the Sea’.

symbolic richness, but at the same time the poem supplies the reader with a wide

Life standed on the sea is very grueling and risky. Only a few are able to face the

The ocean strokes land with calm and reassuring hands, lacing water with sand and lifting seashells in its wake. My heart urges me forward, to walk among the peace, to capture the sweet smell of sea salt. My brain reasons with the rest of my body. Turning sharply from the churning water I force my feet to leave the warm imprint they have grown to love

It’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.

Unlike the wandering narrator, the seafaring narrator focuses his descriptions of the community that is present in nature. The seafarer the utterly rejects the notion that a “sheltering family / could bring consolation for his desolate soul” (25-26). This “sheltering family” (25) that the seafaring narrator alludes to in this line is the exact form of close-knit family that the narrator in “The Wanderer” laments for desperately. While the seafaring narrator offers striking similar descriptions of the landscape being “bound by ice” (9), he does not focus on these descriptions to dwell on the loss of an earthly community. Instead, the narrator in “The Seafarer” finds the landscape that he inhabits wonderfully abundant with natural — even spiritual — elements that are commonly associated with an earthly community. In the barren landscape, the seafaring narrator discovers “the wild swan’s song / sometimes served for music” (19-20) and “the curlew’s cry for the laugher of men” (20-21). These vibrant and vivid descriptions of the natural world that the narrator discovers in the harsh,

Five days we rowed for, all day and all night. The flat water was all that we saw for miles. Solely on the fault of my crew there had been no wind. Spirits were low and every once in awhile a bird would crow, but otherwise the only thing we heard was the paddle hitting the water. The sun drowned into the horizon and met with the water. Pink and orange rays reflected of the sea and the pale white moon began to shimmer, along with the stars. We had rowed for another whole day, and we still had no clue when we would see an island. Patiently we waited to see land. During the summer farmers wait for rain to keep their crops alive. The farmers wait tolerantly trusting the rain with come so the produce does not die. Just that way we waited to see land so we would not die off at sea.

The Old Man and the Sea has man tensions, ambiguities, and ironies that arise within the work which the work uses towards a particular theme. There are several themes that unify into one resolution. The Old Man and the Sea can be interpreted to discover how it functions as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. This would be how the structural purpose of the text could be explored. The first step to this process is to find a confusing, unclear section within the text.