...Lesson 9 The Raven: Edgar Allan Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.” Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Nameless here for evermore. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door— Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;— This it is and nothing more.” Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, “Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;— Darkness there and nothing more...
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...Jonathon Soto Mon. Wed. 9:10-10:35 English 102 Rough Draft In the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, there are many possible themes the author summits. He covers love, madness, the supernatural, and man vs. the natural world. Next, most importantly Edgar Allan Poe discusses greatly the theme of grief and how it feels to lose someone. The Dark mysterious side of the mind is often present in many of Poe’s works. Also, through the use of tone and theme we as readers are able to depict the true meaning behind these creative poems. “The Raven” has great examples of poetic devices like rhyme scheme, meter, rhythm, and much more. All these different types of elements ensure a better and creative insight on Poe’s astonishing writings. First of all, throughout the poem “The Raven” there are many different poetic devices he uses to try and amplify the theme he wisely describes. In the very beginning Poe shares “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary” (line 1). He used meter to help describe the setting and tone right from the start. This line sets the mood in the poem and provides evidence that it is night time and he’s all alone in his house. Next, Poe constantly points out how the main character is going through a loss of someone he loved. One of the themes in this poem is grief and how this man deals with it. The narrator states “From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore” (line 10). He loses a person by the name of Lenore...
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...see or seem Is but a dream within a dream. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand-- How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep--while I weep! O God! can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream? Analysis My initial glance through this poem I realise that the poet is not really talking about a dream. He compares life metaphorically to a dream within a dream. The structure of this poem is not a standard rhyming pattern which halts the reader in order to absorb what is being said. The poem consists of nine couplets and two triplets. The opening stanza, for example, begins with a triplet, then shifts to couplets and the second stanza shifts from couplets to triplet in the middle then shifts back to the original pattern. The poem expresses the poet’s frustration of the uncertainty and temporariness of life and people. He compares life and dreams because when we dream, it seems so real but when we are awakened by the roar of life we realise that it was just a figment of our thoughts. This poem is extremely emotional as it begins with a sad farewell to an unknown loved one. The atmosphere is inherently disturbed when the author tells this person that his whole life was nothing but just dream. He attempts to tell us that the world we live in is perceptive and other than that it...
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...In his poem Prospice, how does Browning present the idea that death is a necessary part of life? One of Robert Browning’s major themes within his poems is death. Many poems consider the imminent nature of death as a melancholy context to balance the joy of life. Other poems find strength in the acceptance of death, like ‘Prospice,’ and go on to present the idea that death is a necessary part of life. Some poems – like ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria's Lover,’ – simply consider death as an ever-present punishment. In ‘Prospice,’ Browning voices that the end of life is inevitable, and how life is merely a journey; death is the pinnacle of the adventure; “For the journey is done and the summit attained, and the barriers full.” Browning is portraying the popular religious views in the 1800’s, that there is a purpose to life, and once the purpose has been fulfilled in the time of living, you must be acceptant to death. Furthermore, the metaphor of life being a ‘journey’ reveals that it will always end (death), similar to a journey having an end destination. In addition, how death comes once everything you want in life has been achieved “When the snows begin, and the blasts denote.” Here, Browning’s use of pathetic fallacy, attributing his feelings in his literature, was one of the key ways that Browning creates imagery through nature. Although Browning’s work generally represents the urban lifestyle of the times, he also wrote about factors from lucid dreams to the nature...
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...by Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was a famous writer who is well known for his poem, “The Raven.” In this poem, “Edgar Allan Poe tells a horror story within the structure of a poem- He employs language, rhyme scheme, rhythm, symbolism, and punctuation as tools to convey his message. The poem has an overall tone of loneliness, a universal theme.” (2) There are a lot of symbols that helps to understand the sadness, emotions, and the depression that is going on with man in this poem. There is a lost love and the man misses his beloved. He wrote this poem with such darkness and agony. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,” (1) is the first line that automatically starts off depressing and emotional. Knowing the background of Edgar Allan Poe, we can conclude that he was upset and emotionally disturbed. In 1842, Virginia (Edgar Allan Poe’s wife) had become sick with tuberculosis which caused Edgar Allan Poe to into a deep depression. (65) For five years he watched his wife suffer. In the middle of the man’s weary pondering, he is interrupted by a tapping on his “chamber door.” But no one answers when he asks who it could be. In the second stanza, it states that time setting in was in December. “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December.” (7) One can conclude that December can symbolize a feeling of loneliness, sadness, depression, and being cold. In this poem, the character in this story has been feeling weary, as he sits and nods his head...
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...designed to be interpreted in comparison with each other. In the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," William Blake uses symbolism, tone, and rhyme to express the theme that God can create good and bad creatures. The poem "The Lamb" was in Blake's "Songs of Innocence," which was published in 1789.While, "The Tyger," was in his "Songs of Experience," which was published in 1794. Blake's lamb and tiger symbolize two opposite views of God: the creator of good and evil. In "The Lamb," Blake uses the symbol of the lamb to paint a picture of innocence. The lamb is a symbol of Jesus Christ. The poem begins with the question, Little Lamb who made Thee?” the speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins and who provided him with life, food, clothes, his “tender voice”. Then the Lamb answers his own questions: “He is called by thy name, For He calls Himself a Lamb.” one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb. A lamb is a very meek and mild creature, which could be why Blake chose to use this animal to describe God's giving side. He even refers to God as being meek and mild in line fifteen: "He is meek, and he is mild." And then goes on and sends his blessings. In this poem, Blake wants to shows all the good things created by god. In ‘The Tyger’ Blake describes the tiger as being a symbol of evil. This is displayed when Blake says ‘What the anvil? What dread grasp, dare its deadly terrors clasp?”. In this poem the tyger asks who could have made the tyger. More exactly...
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...Tyger-William Blake I chose the poem “The Tyger” by William blake to showcase that this poem shows how different sound devices contribute to the meaning of this poem. In “The Tyger” William Blake essentially questions god and his nature, using the tiger as the grounds for his examination. In the first quatrain, the line "what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" refers to why god would create such a creature both good and evil? This poem has a heavy rhyme scheme and consists of the last words in two consecutive lines rhyming. For Example, William Blake writes “And what shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart, And when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand? And what dread feet?” The meter is regular throughout the poem and every end syllable is stressed which gives it a consistent rhythm. The rhyme pattern and the meter also give the poem a rhythmic beat, which almost sounds like a heart beating This poem also distributes alliteration. Alliteration sates that in a poem there is a repetition of a certain letter. In this case the author writes “Tyger Tyger! Burning bright” and also “In what distant deeps or skies” the caesura used between these words and the alliteration ties them together thus making readers pay more attention to the words written in the poem. Assonance is used in this poem as well to emphasize the greatness of God such as in “twist the sinews”. There are two different sounds in the poem. By using poetic devices he further...
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...1974, is one of both simplicity and mystery. Within this poem written by old English William Blake, there are 13 full questions within this short 24 line work. Though many literary analysts have attempted to forge a meaning from this work, not one theme has a more correct stance than any of the others. One clear symbol within the piece is the Tyger, who represents some form of evil entity, quite possibly Satan himself. One possibility for the theme is that the poet is questioning why God would create such an evil being. This can be exemplified in the first stanza and last stanzas, where the word “could” is changed to “dare”, implying a fear of such haunting creature. The questions themselves can be considered sound devices, as they cause the piece to be written in a fragment-type state, as the only constant in this piece is its meter. The poem has a great flow, with there being approximately two strong syllables per line, for example, in line 13: "What the hammer? What the chain?”, where the two heavy syllables are “hammer” and “chain”. This creates a sense of strength halfway through each line, and at the end of each, and gives it a great sense of metric value. There are very few metric variations within the piece, with the only apparent one being the variation in line 19: “Did he smile his work to see? “. This gives the work a sense of superficiality and lack of depth due to its consistency. At some points in the poem it takes on a hymn-like quality, particularly in the lines...
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...aspects of minority rights, woman, the roles of religion in the modern life and objective Egyptian history. Your Name is Rachel Corrie The poem is and autobiographical account of an American girl who left her comfortable life to go to Palestine. She got crushed by an Israeli tank at the tender age of 23 after she stands in front of it in a bid to stop its advance. The poem was originally written in Arabic. The poem uses the first the omniscient narrator to inform the reader on the life of the Subject, Rachel Corrie. One can also say that the poem is a lament. Although most possibly the poet and the subject and they are not related and might not have met, the poet uses language full of melancholy to express her sadness at the death of subject describing in details the dreams of Rachel Corrie and how she will not be able to achieve them now. This is apparent in the first two lines of stanza 6. Like every other girl you dreamed Of your tomorrow, that would never come One can also say the poem is an ode. Although it is not formal, it addresses and celebrates the life of Rachel Corrie. However, the poem does not use meter since it a translated poem and is impossible to maintain feature like meter across language (Alabbas et al). The title of the poet uses the time of the poem “Your name is Rachel Corrie” to bring the subject of the poem from the abstract to the forefront of the reader’s mind....
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...did not approve of that type of lifestyle. Due to the fact that William’s father encouraged artistic expression, William spent his time out of school developing skills in engraving, painting, and drawing. He worked through several apprenticeships before finally delving into the craft of writing. In 1782, William married Catherine Boucher and she served as a disciple to him and his work. William opened his own printing shop and began writing in a new, more explanatory style of children's’ literature, though his poems were for readers of all ages. Blake emphasized his connection to other religious Christian writers in his works and it was reflected in his poems’ content. Since the recognition of artists was limited at the time, Blake tried to keep out of poverty for a number of years until his death in 1827. Like many other artists, Blake only gained recognition posthumously (Richardson). Having some background knowledge of Blake, one can begin to analyze his individual poems. In 1789, William Blake published “The Lamb” from “The Songs of Innocence”, which uses both symbolism and questioning to solve the riddle of the creation of human life. The speaker, a curious child, inquires with a talking lamb, "Little Lamb who made thee/Dost thou know who made thee /Gave thee life & bid thee feed" ("The Lamb" 1-3). The child is asking the lamb who put it on Earth, and who created it with its liveliness and humanism. The child is simply asking the question and it has yet to be answered; the...
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...Transformation is a central concern when studying 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The World's Wife'. How far would you agree with this observation? Transformation is a prominent theme in the 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The World's Wife', with the transforming beast, the changing of man’s ideal of perfection and finally physical transformation occurring throughout both volumes. These 'transformations' are brought about via the chains of a patriarchal society which are imposed upon the female protagonists which causes them to have to leave their assumed role in society and assume a more independent and masculine role. Both authors use revisionism throughout their tales so as to allow both their feministic values to be expressed and to allow the female narrative voice to be heard and thus emphasise the sense of female empowerment and independence which permeates both volumes. As Sarah Gamble writes, both writers use the fairy tale as a vehicle for the perpetuation of female oppression in culture.[1] Transformation is a traditional theme of the fairy-tale with it being a key aspect of Carter's 'Cat tales.' In 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', the love of Beauty is a catalyst for the metamorphosis of Mr Lyon which causes a transformation from his strong bestial qualities with his “unkempt” looks and his “rough, hot, stiff stubble” into the stereotype of the gentleman who walks calmly in the garden with his wife. Her enduring love for Mr Lyon develops him from the “leonine apparition” into...
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...The Necklace vs. The Story of an Hour Pamela Richard ENG 125 Lesa Hadley May 11, 2012 The Necklace vs. The Story of an Hour A short story, “The Necklace” (“La parure”) written by Guy de Maupassant in 1884 and a poem, ‘The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 are literary works that are very comparable yet are different. The two women, Madame Mathilde Loisel and Louise Mallard, portrayed in these literary works are protagonists who have trouble because of conflicting expectations imposed on them by society. Both Mathilde Loisel and Louise Mallard want something more than what their lifestyle offers them. During the time when the authors wrote these pieces, the social behaviors showed gender suppression/oppression. This essay will compare and contrast elements of content, form, and style between two different literary works. Both authors chose the theme of gender roles in marriage. During the time when the authors wrote theses pieces, the social behaviors showed gender suppression/oppression. The nineteenth century was impacted by the industrial revolution which caused a gap in gender roles, especially in the upper and middle classes (Radek, 2001). Men and women were thought to have completely different natures. Men were considered to be powerful, brave, rational and independent. Women were considered weak, timid, emotional, and dependent. Those differences separated their functions in society. "Men were thought to have natures suited to the public...
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...Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) [pic] The American Romanticism I. What is Romanticism Originated in the second half of the 18th century, romanticism was a key movement in the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism. Romanticism focuses on Nature; a place free from society's judgement and restrictions. Romanticism blossomed after the age of Rationalism, a time that focused on handwork and scientific reasoning. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe. II.Features of American romanticism Edgar Allen Poe(1809 - 1849) the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure. a Bohemian（吉普赛人）, depraved（堕落） and demonic（恶魔的）, a villain（恶棍） with no virtue at all. Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. But Eliot proclaimed him a critic of the first rank. He enjoyed respect and welcome greatly in Europe. He is the father of psychoanalytic criticism. In deed, Poe places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal existence. What interests him most is the deep abyss of the unconsciousand subconscious mental activity of the people, His theories for the short story and poetry are remarkable...
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...to them rather than reading it for themselves. It is written in the tradition of the street or broadside ballads, printed stories in verse that were sold cheaply and passed around for pleasure, often dealing with popular scandals and murder stories. In a time before the popular press and television chat shows, these ballads satisfied a need for entertaining stories, a tradition that has deep roots in oral traditions of storytelling and wandering minstrels.At the beginning of this poem, there is a description of a gentleman out hunting, which is an upper class activity, as they are the only people who could afford to take part in such an expensive activity, also by the fact he is described as a 'Gentleman' suggests he belongs to the upper class or 'Gentry'. The 'Gentleman gets separated from his group and spots the 'Beggar Woman'. He then propositions her for sex. She obliges and they wander off into the nearby wood. She is described as 'game', because really to the man that is all she is. The poem tells a traditional tale of a poor but attractive beggar woman, accosted by a local squire who intends to use her for his own sexual pleasure and then abandon her to her fate - something which the beggar woman has clearly experienced before, judging by the child strapped to her back. Appearing to go along with his wishes, she leads him to 'an unfrequented place' where she deftly turns...
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...wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? Stanza 2 Summary Was it created in hell (distant deeps) or in heaven (skies)? If the creator had wings, how could he get so close to the fire in which the tiger was created? How could he work with so blazing a fire? [pic] 3 And what shoulder and what art Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand and what dread feet? Stanza 3 Summary What strength (shoulder) and craftsmanship (art) could make the tiger's heart? What being could then stand before it (feet) and shape it further (hand)? [pic] 4 What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? Stanza 4 Summary What kind of tool (hammer) did he use to fashion the tiger in the forge fire? What about the chain connected to the pedal which the maker used to pump the bellows? What of the heat in the furnace and the anvil on which the maker hammered out his creation? How did the maker muster the courage to grasp the tiger? [pic] 5 When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee? Stanza 5 Summary When the stars cast their light on the new being and the clouds cried, was the maker pleased with his creation? [pic] 6 Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful...
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