The poem I have chosen to discuss are, John Clare’s “I am” and “Ode to Autumn.” by John Keats. Both of these poems deal with the sublime and express the concern of self-consciousness that poetry addressed during the romantic period. John Clare’s “I am” is a refection upon ones last minutes of breathing life, or rather a pondering of death. The poem is cleverly constructed through the structured use of complex poetic techniques in the phonics and sense appealing aspects of the poem. Clare writes to manipulate the reader, not to show them his grief and despair from his point of view, but instead, a point of view of which he would like them to see from. I chose this poem because the poem itself, almost becomes self-aware, as though the experiences …show more content…
The Norton Anthology for English literature Volume D, pg 881 Clare was marooned by all those who he held dear during his time in the lunatic asylum. He had nobody who he trusted or knew that truly cared about him to be by his side through his lonely days and this idea reinforces the imagery of Clare being a “Memory lost”. Clare continues to make very certain statements in the first stanza. We can see the first two lines he states that he merely exists, but cannot understand why or what for anymore. The stanza reads on to say “I am the self consumer of my woes – They rise and vanish in oblivious host…..And yet I am”. The resounding “I am” in the stanza reinforces his questioning, although the statements are set in stone. This repetition technique depicts a this torturous question spiralling around Clare’s head, inescapably distressing. This also suggest that Clare can escape, find comfort and make sense of his crisis through his art form and instead of finding his identity, he creates one for this …show more content…
Keats indulges himself in his personified version of autumn. This poem also deals with the theme of death and its inevitability. This was also a common trait of Keats, as for him, these petite and gradual notions of death occurred daily and he recorded them and marvelled their lack of severity. The images that Keats expresses of the cease of your loved ones hold, the engravings on a historical samovar, and the harvesting in August are of course symbols of death, but are also actually deathly occurrences if we really think about it. This introduces the underlying threat under al the fruitful beauty of this
INTRODUCTION – (1 paragraph) STRUCTURE 1. Opening sentences which introduce the poem, its author and its form.Explain why the poem is of a particular form (either a ballad or lyric poem). 2. Thesis statement: A general statement about what the poem communicates about life and life experience. 3. Signpost: briefly outline the more specific reasons for how/why the poem conveys this life experience and / or message. (Introduce the main features which will be explored in more detail in the body of your essay).
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
The similarities between the poems lie in their abilities to utilize imagery as a means to enhance the concept of the fleeting nature that life ultimately has and to also help further elaborate the speaker’s opinion towards their own situation. In Keats’ poem, dark and imaginative images are used to help match with the speaker’s belief that both love and death arise from fate itself. Here, Keats describes the beauty and mystery of love with images of “shadows” and “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” to illustrate his belief that love comes from fate, and that he is sad to miss out on such an opportunity when it comes time for his own death.
Death is something that at some point will come to each of us and has been explored in many forms of literature. “The Raven” and “Incident in a Rose Garden” are two poems that explore common beliefs and misconceptions about death. Though both poems differ in setting, tone, and mood there are surprising similarities in the literary tools they use and in the messages they attempt to convey. The setting and mood establish the tone and feel of a poem. In “The Raven” we are launched into a bleak and dreary winters night where a depressed narrator pines for his dead girlfriend.
The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the
The study of any poem often begins with its imagery. Being the centralized idea behind the power of poetry, imagery isn’t always there to just give a mental picture when reading the poem, but has other purposes. Imagery can speak to the five senses using figurative language as well as help create a specific emotion that the author is trying to infuse within the poem. It helps convey a complete human experience a very minimal amount of words. In this group of poems the author uses imagery to show that humanity is characterized as lost, sorrowful and regretful, but nature is untainted by being free of mistakes and flaws and by taking time to take in its attributes it can help humans have a sense of peace, purity, and joy, as well as a sense of
Clare does a fair job in capturing how it is to be a lonely, melancholic soul, grieving the loss of friendship in love, all while making it clear that the speaker has a vast knowledge of self awareness. The simplistic seeming set up of the stanzas lends to a much deeper understanding of the human condition. “I Am” is written with precise punctuation, purposeful repetition, as well as a distinct rhyme scheme which helps to create the morose but understanding atmosphere that exists in the speaker 's head.
Jeremy Karr Karr 1 Mrs. Overbeck AP Literature & Composition November 29th, 2014 “To Autumn” Explication John Keats’ “To Autumn” uses the beauty, and abundance in the season of autumn in his ode to create a sense of transformation and rebirth. The poem begins with talks of autumn’s abundance and ripeness of fruit along with the beauty of autumn’s ability to begin the process of rebirth for plants, showing autumn’s simplicity and beauty. However, the speaker begins to talk as if autumn is a woman, one that wants to enjoy the harvest she has worked for during her life, finally using the beauties or songs of autumn that come out as the day ends to suggest that the speaker would rather enjoy what autumn has to offer in his final moments.
As one of the most frequently used themes, death has been portrayed and understood differently throughout modern history as well as by poets Christina Rossetti and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in “Remember” and the “Cross of Snow.” It appears in literature as the preeminent dilemma, one that is often met by emotions such as grief, hopefulness, depression, and one that can encompass the entire essence of any writing piece. However, despite Rossetti’s “Remember” and Longfellow’s “Cross of Snow” employing death as a universal similarity, the tones, narratives, and syntaxes of the poems help create two entire different images of what the works are about in the readers’ minds.
As people near the time of their deaths, they begin to reflect upon the history and events of their own lives. Both John Keats’ “When I have Fears” and Henry Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” reflect upon the speakers’ fears and thoughts of death. However, the conclusions between these two poems end quite differently. Although both reflect upon Death’s grasp, Keats’ displays an appreciation and subtle satisfaction with the wonders of life, while Longfellow morbidly mourns his past inactions and fears what events the future may bring.
But, we should first and foremost put this sonnet back in its context. We can easily presume that it is autobiographic, thus that Keats reveals us his own worries. In 1818, he is aware that he has short time left to live due to the fatal illness
The use of the phrase “I am” acts as a reinforcement of his identity, as though he is addressing doubts to his existence, he continuously uses rhetorical questions to ask himself about the world and everything that is happening outside his confinement. Clare speaks as though he has been left behind by those who once knew him as a full and complete person and as a man of fame and fortune. He feels disappointed to be left out and forgotten about, he suspects that something is wrong with him and wants someone to tell him the problem. He has given up on himself and feels despaired: “And yet I am, and live-like vapours tossed.” The
Pope gives readers of Studying English Literature and Language a bit of context for Clare’s poem. Clare was characterized as a ‘peasant poet,’ making his road to fame difficult. Perhaps the most prominent information provided was that Clare admitted to an asylum, not just once, twice during his life of seventy-one years. With this information, it is assumable that John Clare was not mentally healthy. “I am” was actually written during Clare’s second institutionalization in an asylum, Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, that lasted from 1841 until the end of his life in 1866.
At one time or another, every person has experienced the beauty of summer. In this time of the year, nature is full of life, the weather is at its finest, and the paramount joys of life can be experienced to their fullest. Then the fall comes, the trees turn lovely shades of red and yellow, and the wind offers a nice chill breeze for relief. Unfortunately, seasons change and the beauty that people once experienced vanishes. People focusing only on the material and petty aspects of life, rather than the beauty around them, will let life pass them, missing out on the true wonders of the world. In his poem “To Autumn,” John Keats utilizes imagery to express the importance of indulging in the beauties of nature, while alive, because humans are mortal beings bound by the limits of time.