Pyramid scheme

William Blake’s five-stanza poem “The fly” tries to see humanity in a fly. It narrates the poet’s act of thoughtlessness in brushing away a fly which leads to the contemplation of the act and its implications, which further reveals the essence of life as “thought is life” and the lack of it, death. As the stanzas proceed from observation，contemplation, and conclusion to revelation and liberation, I get an understanding of Blake’s philosophical system. In my essay, I will argue that Blake uses a…

The reason or theories behind Shakespeare focusing on topics of love, friendship and marriage in his sonnets “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s dream. (Goodreads). William Shakespeare’s works, especially his sonnets, namely sonnet 30, sonnet 55 and sonnet 116 included ideas of love, friendship and marriage. Topics of such, are important to Shakespeare because of what went on in…

My Papa’s Waltz The poem, My Papa’s Waltz is one of the best works by Theodore Roethke. When it is looked at first glance, it can be seen as a simple four-stanza body of work, but upon further analysis, we see it has a deeper meaning. Childhood experiences seem to play a significant role in the development of the plot. The dance that is described in the poem shows an interaction between a child and his father that has more nuances than it meets the eye. At first glance, there is a joyous and…

Tichborne's Elegy – Literature analisys Tichborne's Elegy was supposedly written by himself before his execution, due to his involvement in the consipracy to assissinate Elizabeth I (P. Burns, J. Edge, 43) . In his poem he is using metaphors upon metaphors, together with antithesis to construct a poem that shows his frustration and regret. He uses a plain and simple language. In fact, the whole poem is based entirely on one syllable words. However, his use of one syllable words only add to the…

According to Furniss & Bath, ‘literacy criticism in the Twentieth Century has come to regard ambiguity in poetry as one of its most characteristic and valuable features’, as shown in Michael Drayton’s sonnet ‘The Parting’, Lord Byron’s poem ‘When we two parted’ and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s poem ‘Love’s Last Lesson’ (Furniss & Bath, 1996: 207). The symbolism used in these poems portray the ambiguous representation of love/death elegies, love symbolizing hope and death symbolizing loss.…

In the poem, “Fish Fossil,” by Ai Qing, the speaker dramatizes the meaning of life, to live life to the fullest and do not let anything get in your way. In the title, the speaker uses the word “fossil” to symbolize past memories of his life. The entire poem is an allegory where every line portrays a deeper meaning to it rather than the words the speaker uses. The speaker begins the poem by referring to how energetic and successful he felt, “With such agility in your movements”(1). Also, as he…

In “Queries of Unrest” written by Clint Smith, the author thoroughly conveys his message of darkness, death, fear, and power by his strong use of repetition, symbolism, and imagery. Throughout “Queries of Unrest”, Smith uses many literary terms like repetition to get his message of the poem out. For example, he uses “Maybe”, “darkness”, “scared”, and “cry for help” many times in his poem. When he uses these words and phrases he uses them to express doubt and fear about his life and what he’s…

“[R]omanticism means, to most students a unitary shadowy phenomenon which can be extrapolated as forming a middle ground bounded by six poets: Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelly” (Aers et al. 1). This paper deals with a work by the firstly named author: Blake. It is about the poem “The Chimney Sweeper: A little white thing among the snow” from 1794 from his collection of works named Songs of Experience. The poem is a companion poem to the formerly written “The Chimney Sweeper:…

A sonnet is a poem usually consisting of fourteen lines linked by a regular rhythm and one of two mayor rhyme schemes - that of either an Italian or Shakespearean sonnet (Prescott, 2010). Such forms will be analyzed in the works of two of the greatest poets of all time – John Donne and William Shakespeare. They are worthy canonical figures that are still acknowledged and studied today, were influenced by cultural and historical features of the era in which they wrote and included aesthetics…

“She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron "She Walks in Beauty" is a short lyrical famous poem that written in 1814 by Lord Byron. It was published with several poems in 1815 called “Hebrew Melodies”. The poem was written about Byron’s cousin, Anne Wilmot. Which he met her the night before where this poem was inspired by its beauty. Anne was in mourning, wearing a black shimmering dress set with spangles. "She Walks in Beauty" can be seen as a love poem about a beautiful woman but it is not. It is…