...John Keats to symbolical poet W. B. Yeats, both of them were persistently searching the eternity in the long journey of life. This paper tries to through the analysis of the two poems, Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn and Yeats' Sailing to Byzantium to reveal the truth that the strongest support of the soul not lies in the empty and rapidly decayed body but relies on the eternal artistry which transcends the time and space. Although the former comes from the romantic imagination of an exquisite works of art---an ancient Grecian urn, the latter originates from the Byzantium which is the symbol of art, of eternity, both of them contain the similar life philosophy, that is the immortal life lies in the art of eternal. Key words: Ode on a Grecian Urn ; Sailing to Byzantium; eternal artistry; timeless Introduction Life is limited, yet it is possible to find the eternal life. Is it contradictory? How can life be limited as well as eternal at the same time? Could it be true that life has no ending? Actually, as we all know, no matter who you are, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, smart or mediocre, eventually you will die. However, there is one thing will never die, which is not belong to this dusty world.—that is the eternal artistry. It is true that the art will never die. Only in the combination of the art, our soul can reach the home of eternity. Throughout the ages, numerous people search and search in the long journey of life and through different aspects to prove it—music, painting...
Words: 1729 - Pages: 7
...Yellow analysis and interpretation A short story by Peter Carty In a contrast to nature mankind has always seemed small. Nature with its dark rivers, gigantic mountains, forests filled with danger and endless oceans. Nature can swallow you in one breath if you let it and can through your life make you scared and make you feel not noticeable and hopeless. Suicide is normally caused by problems like these that a person cannot seem to overcome and either way it’s a desperate act. In the novel Yellow written in 1999 by Peter Carty, a man named Jon is sent to Egypt to write an article about scuba diving. An Italian man named Berto is to teach him on a team containing Jon and another student, Brian. Through the considerations and reflections of this protagonist, Jon, the reader gains information about his fears, problems and inner conflicts, which end up causing his suicide. In this analysis of the story I will focus on characterization of the protagonist, Jon, narrative technique, language, the significance of the setting, symbols and at the ending and at last I will elaborate on themes, draw perspectives to other texts and finally make a conclusion. Through the analysis I’ll focus, among other things, on the question: can nature be tamed, owned and transferred into something that is subject to mankind? The story starts out with no introduction, in other words: in medias res. The reader is thrown directly into the story and that emphasizes that nothing is given to the reader...
Words: 3537 - Pages: 15
...it's clear that the speaker is talking about autumn. The speaker briefly describes the season and immediately jumps into personification, suggesting that autumn and the sun are old pals. * "Mists" often accompany chilly weather because the moisture in the air condenses into a vapor when it's cold. * "Mellow fruitfulness" sounds like something people would say at a wine tasting, doesn't it? "Mmm...this season has a mellow fruitfulness, with just a hint of cherry and chocolate." The word "mellow," meaning low-key or subdued, is a good fit for autumn, with its neutral colors and cool, yet not cold, weather. And it's also the season when many fruits and other crops are harvested, making autumn fruit-full. * Autumn is a close friend of the sun, who is "maturing" as the year goes on. "Maturing" could be a polite way of saying "getting old." The sun is no longer in its prime. * A "bosom-friend" is like that friend you told all your secrets to in junior high school. Lines 3-4 Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; * Ah, so now the sun and autumn are "conspiring," eh? Looks like we might have to separate the two of them. What are they whispering about over there? * OK, so not quite as thrilling as we thought. They are planning how to make fruit grow on the vines that curl around the roofs ("eves") of thatched cottages. * The image highlights the weight of the fruit as it "loads" down the vines. *...
Words: 3356 - Pages: 14
...their sensuality, they are ignorant utterly of the world of the spirit. Hence if old age frees a man from sensual passion, he may rejoice in the liberation of the soul; he is admitted into the realm of the spirit; and his rejoicing will increase according as he realizes the magnificence of the soul. But the soul can best learn its own greatness from the great works of art; hence he turns to those great works, but in turning to them, he finds that these are by no means mere effigies, or monuments, but things which have souls also; these live in the noblest element of God’s fire, free from all corruption; hence he prays for death, for release from his mortal body; and since the insouled monuments exhibit the possibility of the soul’s existence in some other matter than flesh, he wishes reincarnation, not now in a mortal body, but in the immortal and changeless embodiment of art. There are thus the following terms, one might say, from which the poem suspends: the condition of the young, who are spiritually passive although sensually active; the condition of the merely old, who are spiritually and physically impotent; the condition of the old, who, although physically impotent, are capable of spiritual activity; the condition of art considered as inanimate—that is, the condition of things which are merely monuments; and finally the condition of art considered as animate—as of such...
Words: 4320 - Pages: 18
... The Waste Land is a 433-line modernist poem by T. S Eliot published in 1922. It has been called “one of the most important poems of the 20th century.” Despite the poem’s obscurity which it shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its elegiac but intimidating summoning up of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures has made the poem to be a familiar touchstone of modern literature. The poem has been written in five parts. The five parts of The Waste Land are titled “The Burial of the Dead”, “A Game of Chess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water”, and “What the Thunder Said”. The Waste Land is an allusive and complex poem. As such, it is subject to a variety of interpretations, and no two critics agree completely on its meaning. It may be interpreted on three levels: the person, the society, and the human race. The personal interpretation seeks to reveal Eliot's feelings and intentions in writing the poem. At the society level, a critic looks for the meaning of the poem in relation to the society for which it was written. Finally, the human level extends the societal level to include all human societies past, present, and future (Thompson, 1963). The question of literary value is complex. We must distinguish, first of all, between the importance of literature in our lives and the importance of any specific text. Literature defines and creates our world. In poems, plays, novels, and stories we imagine and...
Words: 4388 - Pages: 18
...the past two weeks, our American Literature class has covered the short stories of The Fall of the House of Usher, The Minister’s Black Veil and Rappaccini’s Daughter. These poems/stories were constructed by two well-known authors: Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Each poem and story written by these two men contains an intricately, deep meaning. In fact, criticizers maintain the position that there are several meanings to these works, but this may never be known by anyone except the actual author. The author is the only individual who truly knows the real meaning behind the poem or story. Out of these three stories we read, I enjoyed The Fall of the House of Usher the most as it proved to be most interesting to me. The reason I enjoyed this work the most was due to the fact that I was transacting with the text in this poem, I was able to really understand why Poe utilized certain elements in it in order to help convey the work’s actual meaning. It also helped to raise logical questions about certain other aspects of the story. I did not feel I was able to do this as well with the other two stories as they did not flow as well to me as did The Fall of the House of Usher. Though the plot turned out to be quite unusual, I found it to be very interesting and out of the ordinary, which I seemed to like in this instance. The book ends with an unexpected surprise and by the fall of the house of course. The theme is really dark and mysterious, which made the book kind of scary...
Words: 1106 - Pages: 5
...loves in his life. He lost his mother at almost age three, his foster mother while he was in his teens, his friend's mother, whom he loved like his own mother. Poe also has a problem with alcoholism, he is allergic to alcohol and knows that if he drinks, he will become very sick, and sometimes even put himself in a coma state. The fear of being in a coma springs from the fear of being buried a live; some people at the time are buried a live because they are in comas, but everyone think they are already dead. Both the title and the plot of his 1844 story"The Premature Burial" illustrate this fear of his, alcohol destroys his life and his mind but eventhough he continues to drink. Although these direct ties can alone prove that Poe's life is reflected in his works, more evidence is provided about his life in his stories. He thoroughly incorporates psychology into many of his stories, which he knows a great deal of. He uses personal fears in his stories, along with characteristics of his surroundings. Even though there are many a correlation more than are stated here, the connections provide here suggest that Poe's writing are an outlet and an extension for his life. Poe's mother died of consumption when he was three and Bonaparte's mother died of a pulmonary embolism when she was only two months old. This similarity was to play a role in the enthusiasm Marie Bonaparte put into her analysis of Poe's work. There is also a common theme of beautiful young women dying in Poe's works...
Words: 1448 - Pages: 6
...Wilfred Owen letter: My own dearest Mother, Immediately after I sent my last letter, more than a fortnight ago, we were rushed up into the Line. Twice in one day we went over the top, gaining both our objectives. Our A Company led the Attack, and of course lost a certain number of men. I had some extraordinary escapes from shells & bullets. Fortunately there was no bayonet work, since the Hun ran before we got up to his trench. You will find mention of our fight in the Communiqué; the place happens to be the very village which Father named in his last letter! Never before has the Battalion encountered such intense shelling as rained on us as we advanced in the open. The Colonel sent round this message the next day: 'I was filled with admiration at the conduct of the Battalion under the heavy shell-fire.... The leadership of officers was excellent, and the conduct of the men beyond praise.' The reward we got for all this was to remain in the Line 12 days. For twelve days I did not wash my face, nor take off my boots, nor sleep a deep sleep. For twelve days we lay in holes, where at any moment a shell might put us out. I think the worst incident was one wet night when we lay up against a railwav embankment. A big shell lit on the top of the bank, just 2 yards from my head. Before I awoke, I was blown in the air right away from the bank! I passed most of the following days in a railway Cutting, in a hole just big enough to lie in, and covered with corrugated iron. My brother...
Words: 3392 - Pages: 14
...Unit A Assignment 1: Poetry The two poems that I have chosen that I feel deserve a detailed analysis are 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost and 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke. Robert Lee Frost was quite simply, one of America's leading 20th century poets. It could be because he wrote poems about rural life, drawing a distinct contrast between its innocence and peacefulness , and the depression and corruption of city life. It could also be because he used traditional verse forms that were understood by one and all. It might even be that people sensed his step forward in the direction of modernizing the interplay of rhythm and meter while writing exactly how people spoke. His poetry has been called traditional, experimental, regional, universal and even pastoral. And on the other hand Robert Chawner Brooke was an English poet know for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War. He was also known for boyish good looks. He was an established and rising poet with a strong academic reputation, important literary friends and potentially career changing political links. The reason why I have chosen 'The Road Not Taken' is because this poem deals with the choices we must make in life and the consequences of those choices. Frost is making an allegorical statement that basically says "there is no need to follow the steps of others". Often in life we are asked repeatedly to choose from a series of decisions that are based on the decisions that others...
Words: 2270 - Pages: 10
...The Secret Life Of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. Book Report, Dorthea Søiland The secret life of bees centres on Lily’s search for clues and connections to her mother, who was killed when Lily was a little girl. We get to follow her journey as she runs away from her abusive father along with her nanny Rosaleen. Lily is longing to be loved, because the lack of it in her past life is destroying her. “People who think dying is the worst thing, don’t know a thing about life” Lily, p2. The novel is an excellent written drama. It explores race, love and the idea of family and home in troubled times. The author of the book, Sue Monk Kidd, is a well-known writer who has written other known books such as “The Mermaid Chair”(2005) and “A Mother-Daughter Story”(2010). She has been on the New York Times bestselling list twice, which one of them were with this very novel. The secret life of bees was published in 2002 by Penguin Books New York. The story takes place in South Carolina in the 1960’s, which we can say is a time were racism was on it’s worst. Time and place has a lot to do with the story, and we get to look into a time were being black wasn’t easy. The main character of the book is fourteen years old Lily. She is a brave and smart girl, whose only wish for a birthday present is to know a little about her mother. Her fear of living a life without being loved is getting her to write poems, which she’s good at. All-tough Lily doesn’t have a mother she has a father, T....
Words: 1924 - Pages: 8
...(Handout) Summary & Annotation: A straightforward analysis of the poem may conclude that Kipling presents a"Euro-centric" view of the world, in which people view society from only a European cultures point of view. This view proposes that white people consequently have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until they can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways. The term "the white man's burden" can be interpreted simply as racist, or taken as a metaphor for a condescending view of non-Western national culture and economic traditions, identified as a sense of European ascendancy which has been called "cultural imperialism". A parallel can also be drawn with the charitable view, common in Kipling's formative years, that the rich have a moral duty and obligation to help the poor "better" themselves whether the poor want the help or not until according to Europeans, "they can take their place in the world socially and economically." The term "white man's burden" is a phrase that became current in the controversy about the United States acquisition of the Philippines after the Spanish-American war of 1898. It was a concept that was the responsibility of white Europeans to bring "proper" European civilization to the nations (mostly brown, black, red or yellow) that did not have it. The underlying thought was that Europeans were correct in their beliefs and it was their duty to bring...
Words: 5749 - Pages: 23
...body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age; the body of writings on a particular subject: printed matter.” Literature has to do with letters, but some people often think that literature is only one thing, not knowing that it is composed by several elements that we use every day. These important elements include poems, prose, sonnets, drama, plays, short stories and novels. Poetry is created from the soul. It comes from your emotions and it needs every piece of creativity inside you. It has been called the art of “saying the unsayable” because trough this you can express your feelings with no limit, and nobody can tell you that is wrong. If you make a poem and you think it is not good enough, well it is no good. You as the author or the reader, can only judge if it is good or but for you but maybe for some one else it is the opposite as it is for you. A good place to start when looking back at how poetry has evolved during time is the epic poetry. Most of the first poems where from the epic poems, some of them starting when human haven’t started to write their stories. One of the earliest epic poems was the Epic of Gilgamesh, dated back around 2000 B.C. Researchers think that this text supported the idea that poetry helped the storytellers to memorize their stories more easily and to express...
Words: 4267 - Pages: 18
...W.B. Yeats's "The Second Coming" W.B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" was written in 1919, just one year after WWI ended. The beginning of this poem reflects on how evil has taken over the minds of good Christians, and the world has turned into chaos. It is apparent that Yeats believes that a Second Coming is at hand, and he spends the last half of the poem discussing what that Second Coming could look like. Turning and turning in the widening gyre (line 1) Yeats imagines the world in a cyclical sphere known a gyre (shape of a cone). In Yeats' note on the text, he states that "the end of an age, which always receives the revelation of the character of the next age, is represented by the coming of one gyre to its place of greatest expansion and of the other to that of its greatest contraction" (2036). Yeats believes that the two thousand years of Christianity will be coming to an end, and after a violent reversal a new age will take its place. The widening part of the gyre is supposed to connote anarchy, evil, and the loss of innocence. The falcon cannot hear the falconer; (2) The falconer in this analogy is most likely God (or Jesus), and the falcon is the follower (or devotee). Humanity can no longer hear the word of God, because it is drowned out by all of chaos of the widening gyre. A wild falcon can symbolize an unconverted Gentile; someone who has sinful thoughts, and does sinful things. A tame falcon (one who listens to the word of God) is a Christian convert. In the...
Words: 23171 - Pages: 93
...view of human life. The main emphasis in his poems is on failure and frustration in human life. And then there is his preoccupation with death. In a number of poems he emphasizes the sombre and grim aspects of human life and in many poems he speaks of the cert of death. We are all aware of the facts of failure and frustration in human life and we are all aware of the faith of death. But what makes Larkin a pessimist, and a confirmed pessimist at that, is his repeated emphasis, and over-emphasis, on these aspects of human life. On explanation of his repeated reminders to us of the certain of death, he has been regarded as “a graveyard poet”; and the general and brooding atmosphere of melancholy and despondency in his poems justifies the label “pessimist” for him. A number of poems come to our minds in this connection. The poem Ambulances paints a gloomy picture of human life because of the fact that every street is visited by an ambulance at one time or the other. An ambulance is a symbol of disease and death. Dockery and Son contains the following pessimistic line: “Life is first boredom, then fear”. And this poem concludes with the pessimistic view that there is old age, and that the end of old age is death. Aubade is a poem in which Larkin’s fear of death reaches its climax. Larkin himself described it his “in-a-funk-about-death poem.” The Positive Features of His Pessimistic Poems However, Larkin is not a regularly pessimistic poet. Some of his poems have a extremely...
Words: 5367 - Pages: 22
...21 23 32 SECOND DRAFT 4.1.4 Drama 4.1.5 Films 4.1.6 Literary Appreciation 4.1.7 Schools of Literary Criticism 4.2 Catering for Learner Diversity 4.3 Meaningful Homework 4.4 Role of Learners Chapter 5 41 45 52 69 71 72 73 74 Assessment 5.1 Guiding Principles 5.2 Internal Assessment 5.2.1 Formative Assessment 5.2.2 Summative Assessment 5.3 Public Assessment 5.3.1 Standards-referenced Assessment 5.3.2 Modes of Public Assessment 74 74 74 75 77 77 77 Quality Learning and Teaching Resources 104 6.1 Use of Set Texts 6.2 Use of Other Learning and Teaching Resources 104 108 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 109 Supporting Measures 7.1 Learning and Teaching Resource Materials 7.2 Professional Development 109 109 Appendix 1 Examples of Poetry Analysis 110 Appendix 2 Examples of...
Words: 41988 - Pages: 168