Anthony Ryder September 30, 2007
English 2306
“Journey of the Magi.” By T.S. Eliot
Eliot has composed “journey of the Magi” in a free verse style with lines of different length. In my opinion, he attaches an additional meaning in his choosing of the line breaking points. In the first, second and fifth lines of the first stanza, Eliot devotes seven syllables to each line to clarify the weather condition at the time the story is unfolding. For example, the fifth line reads:
“The very dead of winter…”
Eliot brings back to the reader the memory of a deadly weather during a typical worst and coldest winter season. But Eliot goes further in the third and fourth lines and informs the reader that, contrary to common sense, a long journey has already been decided. Despite the presence of the deadliest weather outside, a journey is nonetheless in progress. Lines 3 and 4 read as follow:
“For the Journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp.”
To emphasize on the seriousness and dangers brought by the decision of carrying out such a long trip during such a poor and life threatening atmospherical condition, Eliot increases the number of syllables to eight or ten.
The free verse nature of this poem is confirmed throughout this entire work, including in the fourth stanza where the line’s length ranges from one to 14 syllables. The most shocking is line 23 which contains only one syllable:
“This:…”
Certainly Eliot wanted to stress that the magi, after going through hardships in hostile towns or unfriendly villages in addition to battling the bad weather arrived finally at their ultimate destination. That one syllable written in the typical Imagist style serves to announce to the reader that the following line is about to disclose a huge surprise: the view of a newborn King that Eliot identifies with the word Birth written with a capital B.
Line 25 is the longest with 14 syllables. It reads:
“We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death.”
Eliot certainly wanted to create a sharp contrast between on the one hand the great number of births (-written with small letter b-) the magi and the reader have altogether heard or witnessed during their lifetimes. On the other hand there is this exceptional arrival of the newborn King. Thus, Eliot would opt to devote the longest line to the countless myriads of witnessed births of ordinary people.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Late 19th century and Poetry
The second half of the 19th century, was dominated in America by the recovery from the aftermath of the Civil War. At the same time, a much needed and new economic era began to surface and to grow up at a fast rate. It led to the introduction of the railroad industry and other manufacturing jobs that never existed before. The face of the American society and culture began to change drastically.
The emerging of this machine-driven industrialization began gradually to transform the face of the American society. It thus triggered the development of a new urban life and new revolutionary and social concepts that in turn led to changes in sciences and arts including in literature and poetry. In my view, two of the poets that best contributed to catapult the American poetry of the 19th century towards news horizons of Romanticism were the famous Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Their merits were that they have bravely departed from obeying the traditional rules of the ancient style of Poetry and adventured their work arts and thus the American Romanticism into this new oasis of cultural freedom and beauty. Whitman’s poetry does not abide by the rules neither of the traditional rhyme nor of the blank verse. Whitman poems seem to lack an internal structure when analyzed from a classical standpoint. They seem to lack a rhyme structure and they seem to be a descriptive poetry with a sort of run-on inside their lines or their stanzas.
For example, the excerpt below is extracted from “from song of myself”. It dangerously resembles a priori a simple compilation of lines. However, an extensive review of Walt Whitman reveals that he defines the artistic value of his masterpieces around a simple exposition of his ideas all elegantly staggered by category. The excerpt reads:
“Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, “I give them the same, I
receive them the same.”
Emily Dickinson has brought the American romanticism into a different school of poetry when compared to the works of Whitman and the others. Emily built her work around a structure that she likes: the ballad meter or ballad stanza, in trends of four lines each with a beautifully identified internal cadence of rhyme. Emily pushes the breakage away from the tradition even in her plain choice of themes for her poetry. Most of them oddly gravitate and expand on the concepts of suffering, death, life after death and immortality. For example in poem # 479 that we reviewed last week, Emily uses the ballad meter format (8 6 8 6) to juggle with death and immortality:
“Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality…”
The emerging of this machine-driven industrialization began gradually to transform the face of the American society. It thus triggered the development of a new urban life and new revolutionary and social concepts that in turn led to changes in sciences and arts including in literature and poetry. In my view, two of the poets that best contributed to catapult the American poetry of the 19th century towards news horizons of Romanticism were the famous Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Their merits were that they have bravely departed from obeying the traditional rules of the ancient style of Poetry and adventured their work arts and thus the American Romanticism into this new oasis of cultural freedom and beauty. Whitman’s poetry does not abide by the rules neither of the traditional rhyme nor of the blank verse. Whitman poems seem to lack an internal structure when analyzed from a classical standpoint. They seem to lack a rhyme structure and they seem to be a descriptive poetry with a sort of run-on inside their lines or their stanzas.
For example, the excerpt below is extracted from “from song of myself”. It dangerously resembles a priori a simple compilation of lines. However, an extensive review of Walt Whitman reveals that he defines the artistic value of his masterpieces around a simple exposition of his ideas all elegantly staggered by category. The excerpt reads:
“Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, “I give them the same, I
receive them the same.”
Emily Dickinson has brought the American romanticism into a different school of poetry when compared to the works of Whitman and the others. Emily built her work around a structure that she likes: the ballad meter or ballad stanza, in trends of four lines each with a beautifully identified internal cadence of rhyme. Emily pushes the breakage away from the tradition even in her plain choice of themes for her poetry. Most of them oddly gravitate and expand on the concepts of suffering, death, life after death and immortality. For example in poem # 479 that we reviewed last week, Emily uses the ballad meter format (8 6 8 6) to juggle with death and immortality:
“Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality…”
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Emily Dickinson and the Romanticism Era
Emily Dickinson has been recognized as one of the greatest American poet of the 19th century. She tackled various themes in her poetical writings ranging from suffering to immortality. The typical usage of metaphor and her version of romanticism are original to her and her themes are centered on concepts that may look a priori odd to some readers. Her uncensored freedom of self expression allows her to embrace and expand on controversial topics. Her poetry depicts personas that had broken from the tradition of the main stream British romanticism as exemplified by Lord Byron or William Blake.
The proof of her liberated mind compared to her contemporaries pops up in some of her poems where the persona displays openly their libidinal tendencies. Two examples could be brought to justify this assumption: (my life had stood – a loaded gun # 764) and (wild nights – wild nights # 269).
While British romanticists contributed in the propagation of the Christian faith, Emily Dickinson engaged the personas of some of her poems in provocative and rebellious directions that openly reject the God of the Bible. The antiGod rhetoric could be detected through the speakers of (the bible is an antique volume # 1577) and of (Much madness is divinest sense# 620).
Furthermore, she dwells more than the other romanticist, on the notion of death and life after death as if her speakers wanted to teach the readers of being less aggressive and more contemplative about death. She wrote several poems that championed death and immortality. Among them, we could mention the following: (I felt a funeral, in my brain # 340); (because I could not stop for death # 479) and (I heard a fly buzz – when I die #591).
Emily Dickinson for the most part, wrote her poems in her own style although she was an author who lived during the Romanticism period.
The proof of her liberated mind compared to her contemporaries pops up in some of her poems where the persona displays openly their libidinal tendencies. Two examples could be brought to justify this assumption: (my life had stood – a loaded gun # 764) and (wild nights – wild nights # 269).
While British romanticists contributed in the propagation of the Christian faith, Emily Dickinson engaged the personas of some of her poems in provocative and rebellious directions that openly reject the God of the Bible. The antiGod rhetoric could be detected through the speakers of (the bible is an antique volume # 1577) and of (Much madness is divinest sense# 620).
Furthermore, she dwells more than the other romanticist, on the notion of death and life after death as if her speakers wanted to teach the readers of being less aggressive and more contemplative about death. She wrote several poems that championed death and immortality. Among them, we could mention the following: (I felt a funeral, in my brain # 340); (because I could not stop for death # 479) and (I heard a fly buzz – when I die #591).
Emily Dickinson for the most part, wrote her poems in her own style although she was an author who lived during the Romanticism period.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos
Anthony Ryder
Introduction to Poetry
“Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos.” By Lord Byron.
Lord Byron, the author of this poetry lived from 1788 to 1824. He was reportedly born with a club foot. He grew up in a poor family in Aberdeen, UK. His first collection of poetry, “Hours of Idleness” was published in 1807. He was sexually hyperactive and contracted Sexually transmitted diseases. He was interested in the old Armenian culture and visited in 1816 St. Lazarus Island in Venice for that purpose. He published numerous works. His publications were reliable and they mostly reflect that he was a Romantic poet although at times, he wrote satiric papers. His masterpiece is believed to be “Don Juan” published in 1833. Several of his poems have made their way into musical inspirations for various symphonies. His audience was more general than specific because he was depicting his main character as an idealized and flawed main individual, which was talented, sexually virile and self destructive. He was inspired also by the Greek mythology and the Greek culture. For example he advocated for the return of the marbles of Parthenon to Greece. At the last stage of his life he suffered seizures that worsened until his death in 1824.
Poetic elements:
The diction is mixed casual and elevated. The emotional distance is captured intensely the following way in the last stanza:
He lost his labour, I my jest;
For he was drowned, and I’ve ague.
The use of resemblance in rhymes adds beauty to this poem and is compatible with the tone of this poem. The lines appear to be a combination of end-stopped and enjambed lines. They are broken into short statements for clarity. This poetry is written in closed form because several patterns could be detected in the poetry.
Introduction to Poetry
“Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos.” By Lord Byron.
Lord Byron, the author of this poetry lived from 1788 to 1824. He was reportedly born with a club foot. He grew up in a poor family in Aberdeen, UK. His first collection of poetry, “Hours of Idleness” was published in 1807. He was sexually hyperactive and contracted Sexually transmitted diseases. He was interested in the old Armenian culture and visited in 1816 St. Lazarus Island in Venice for that purpose. He published numerous works. His publications were reliable and they mostly reflect that he was a Romantic poet although at times, he wrote satiric papers. His masterpiece is believed to be “Don Juan” published in 1833. Several of his poems have made their way into musical inspirations for various symphonies. His audience was more general than specific because he was depicting his main character as an idealized and flawed main individual, which was talented, sexually virile and self destructive. He was inspired also by the Greek mythology and the Greek culture. For example he advocated for the return of the marbles of Parthenon to Greece. At the last stage of his life he suffered seizures that worsened until his death in 1824.
Poetic elements:
The diction is mixed casual and elevated. The emotional distance is captured intensely the following way in the last stanza:
He lost his labour, I my jest;
For he was drowned, and I’ve ague.
The use of resemblance in rhymes adds beauty to this poem and is compatible with the tone of this poem. The lines appear to be a combination of end-stopped and enjambed lines. They are broken into short statements for clarity. This poetry is written in closed form because several patterns could be detected in the poetry.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
The Importance of the Natural World
The Importance of the Natural World.
This essay address the interpretations of the concept of nature as presented by the three romantics’ poets Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Nature is essentially portrayed here as an example of God’s providential design. In the songs of innocence, Blake explains that children are naturally born with their packages of innocence, which guide them during the explorations of their childhood experiences. For example, the first stanza of “Holy Thursday I”, reads:
Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children, walking two and two, in red and blue and green,
Grey-headed beadles walk’d before, with wands as white snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames’ waters flow.
Blake stresses the importance of this childhood innocence as God given because as the children grow older and navigate through the adulthood life experience (what he calls songs of experience), they have already lost their initial natural innocence. The dramatic loss of the human’s natural design is equally captured and described by the other romantic poets. For example , in the sonnet “London”, William Wordsworth describes how the childhood pure innocence is lost over the ages and replaced by the adult’s flawy aggressivity, and criminal behavior.
In “London” we read:
“…Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! Raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.”
The importance of the nature is clearly felt during the adulthood, after the loss of innocence and its replacement by bitter acts.
This essay address the interpretations of the concept of nature as presented by the three romantics’ poets Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Nature is essentially portrayed here as an example of God’s providential design. In the songs of innocence, Blake explains that children are naturally born with their packages of innocence, which guide them during the explorations of their childhood experiences. For example, the first stanza of “Holy Thursday I”, reads:
Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children, walking two and two, in red and blue and green,
Grey-headed beadles walk’d before, with wands as white snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames’ waters flow.
Blake stresses the importance of this childhood innocence as God given because as the children grow older and navigate through the adulthood life experience (what he calls songs of experience), they have already lost their initial natural innocence. The dramatic loss of the human’s natural design is equally captured and described by the other romantic poets. For example , in the sonnet “London”, William Wordsworth describes how the childhood pure innocence is lost over the ages and replaced by the adult’s flawy aggressivity, and criminal behavior.
In “London” we read:
“…Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! Raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.”
The importance of the nature is clearly felt during the adulthood, after the loss of innocence and its replacement by bitter acts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)