Confessional poetry

As Socrates develops his city with the help of his interlocutors, music becomes an important part of the education of the guardians. Poetry is included in the musical education, but Socrates is wary of allowing all forms of poetry into the city. He instead develops several requirements that poetry must meet to be allowed into the city. These stipulations deal with the portrayal of the gods, tragedy, the afterlife, and others. Out of all the categories, Plato’s Socrates considered the gods to be…

Pearl, in the literal meaning, often represents pure and flawless. Created as a character in the book Scarlet letter by Hawthorne, as a Romantic, he sees the darkness side of the Puritans. Pearl’s interactions with different elements in the book resembles deep meanings. In the Scarlet letter, Hawthorne uses Pearl as a symbol to demonstrate the corruptness of Puritan beliefs and to express the Romantic’s perspective through her actions and verbal. Pearl’s relationship is built on Hester’s rough…

Know a man in the early 1900’s known for his poems written with incorrect spelling and punctuation? Then you would be thinking about E. E. Cummings! E. E. Cummings was birthed upon the world as Edward Estlin Cummings in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894. He developed a unique style of writing at an early age, being influenced by both Impressionism and Cubism, and grew up to study at Harvard University. The poet would become a famous writer, but while he was alive, his work was mostly left…

In The Dark Crystal, directed by Jim Henson and written by Henson and David Odell, the protagonist, Jen, directly follows the seventeen steps of “the Hero’s Journey,” initially popularized by Joseph Campbell in 1949 and later adapted by Christopher Vogel, with one slight deviation. Jim Henson intentionally created the story to follow the format laid out by Vogel. The steps of this journey fit neatly into three acts: departure, initiation, and return. This follows Jen all the way from his home in…

Modern metropolis through Eliot’s poems is depicted as a portrait of uncertainty amidst the turmoil of modern life. Set in the squalor of modern metropolis, literature of modernism explores of alienation and decay in society within Prufrock and Preludes. This breakdown of social values allows responder to reflect upon the similarities in society at the start of the 20th century and the 21st century where the daily existence is synonymous with ‘living death’(Ellis:24). Eliot poem set in the…

Also in “The Death of a Moth,” Dillard not only continues to use the symbolism of candles throughout the narrative, she also mentions the number of candles or wicks numerically throughout her writing. When on the mountains, Dillard first only refers to “the candle” (7) when the moth begins burning from its flame. Later on, the author writes that the candle the moth continues to fuel “had two wicks, two flames of identical light, side by side” (8). At the very end, Dillard writes “I have three…

The implications of Yeats’ inner perspective on World War I resonates with an air of prophecy regarding the negative undertones of future humankind on both a local and universal scale. The ramifications of conflict emerge as concepts in poems such as An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, which examines destiny and the meaning of giving our life to a greater cause. Furthermore, The Second Coming highlights Yeats’s opinion on the apocalyptic cycle of nature while The Wild Swans at Coole delves into…

O”Brien, Komunyakka, and Owen were soldiers who each wrote a text describing soldiers at war from their personal point of view. O”Brien described in his text “The things they carried,” the physical, mental, and emotional things soldiers carried. Komunyakka expresses in his text “Facing It” how the soldiers must face death and reality at the same time and in Komunyakkas’ text “We Never Know” he is connecting emotionally with a fallen enemy soldier through a picture of a women. In Owen’s text…

Water is the ultimate contradiction. Its serene at times, while at others it wields devastating power. It is the source of all life, yet it can rip it away with one swift swell. For this reason alone, I find the oceans, lakes, and rivers offer such an array of enjoyment while it commands my respect for its authority. Water not only has the ability to drift from natural states, but it also brings pleasure and pain from its temperature. On a recent vacation I had the pleasure of experiencing…

Ian McEwan’s Atonement explores the highly enthralling themes of war and the subsequent horrors, corruption, and the power of language and story-telling, a theme prevalent internationally or otherwise in every piece of literature. McEwan utilises and vast plethora of techniques and literary conventions in order to allow a deeper insight into these predominant themes. McEwan uses techniques including imagery and pathos to powerfully illustrate his Realist view of war. Within part II and III,…