W. H. Davies

Charles Darwin introduced the theory survival of the fittest to illustrate the basic fact that the strongest lives and the weakest dies. Survival of the fittest, or rather survival of the apathetic is most relevant in Breughel’s painting “Landscape of the Fall of Icarus”, the poem based on the painting that goes by the same name written by William Carlos Williams, and W.H. Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts”. These three artists’ paintings are all connected by one central Greek myth, Icarus and Daedalus

Getting older is a simple and unavoidable fact. Ageing can be done gracefully leaving little desire unmet, with a copious amount of memories to relish in and warm tea to be sipped. On the other hand, growing older can also leave some people with sadness over missed opportunities of love and fulfillment. Two poems display these scenarios beautifully, by capturing the emotion of joyfulness and sorrow over the history of their lives past. Dorothy Parker’s poem ‘Afternoon’ and William Butler Yeats poem

Throughout history, authors have responded to historical events like the war through different genres of literature from novels to poems. In this paper; I will look at how Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, September 1st, 1939 by Wystan Hugh Auden and The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson respond to various historical events. A comparison between these texts will show the many similarities and differences in how they respond to the theme of war. In addition to this, I will examine

W.H. Auden personifies death in this poem in phrases like “ Death’s low answer drifts across.” or “ Death’s enticing echo mocks.”. Auden giving death human attributes transforms Death’s presence it something inevitable, a tangible thing that is always waiting around the corner. He also makes use of metaphors for example, “ The earth is an oyster with nothing inside.” This comparison between means that living a life on earth is as disappointing as finding an empty oyster shell expecting a pearl yet

Both of these poems show us the path of death. In “The Unknown Citizen” and “Departmental”, they both have a organisms that have passed away. One of these poems ,”The Unknown Citizen” it the summery of a man life and everything he did to give back to the state and the economy. The other is about a group of ants taking care of the dead of another species. In both poems they have strong conformists and conforming society's, which show us how conformity can be an excellent and terrible way to operate

is determined by that person’s actions and decisions, not by how everyone else sees them. Someone’s identity is often mistaken and made into how a society wants it to be. Both “Richard Cory,” by Edwin Arlington Robinson and “The Unknown Citizen,” by W. H. Auden, deal with identity through irony, point of view, and characterization, but they do so in different ways. Both poems have a similar ironic outcome, which plays a huge role in comparison. In “The Unknown Citizen,” the man who had “everything

Literary Devices Used in W. H. Auden’s “[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]” Whenever there is a loss of a loved one, people tend to react differently based off of the importance of that special someone. W. H. Auden writes the poem “[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]” to show how he was effected when he lost someone that meant a great deal to him. The poem has the intent of displaying all of the actions of a typical funeral, while also showing the speaker’s inner thoughts throughout

Alek Haugen Advanced Placement English 12 Dr. Werner 05 March 2012 The Unknown Citizen By W. H. Auden Several conflicts are dramatized in The Unknown Citizen, the most prominent being: conformity of the middle class, government manipulation, and the loss of individualism to the standards of an average citizen. The speaker of this poem is non-traditional as the poem is, in fact, an inscription on a “marble monument erected by the State.” The inscription is dedicated to a “JS/07 M 378”—presumably

The two poems “Waiting for Icarus” and “Musée des Beaux Arts” are narrative poems. “Musée des Beaux Arts” is a poem written by W. H. Auden and published in 1938. “Waiting for Icarus” is a poem written by Muriel Rukeyser and published in 1973. The poem “Musée des Beaux Arts” is about how no one truly cares when a tragedy is taking place, unless said tragedy concerns them directly. The poem “Waiting for Icarus” tells the story about a woman who is reminiscing being abandoned by her lover while waiting

Auden is a poet from the XXth century. As such, he has suffered the wars that have stricken the period. The ekphrasis, which is a literary description of a work of art, is used by Auden in his poems “The Shield of Achilles” and “Musée des Beaux Arts”. As part of his great concerns were the political and psychological conflicts that existed then. In the aforementioned poems, Auden uses the ekphrasis to denounce people’s indifference to human misery. First of all, Auden uses the ekphrasis in “The Shield