Shelf life

The fact that the text title is “A Temporary Matter’’ is curious at some levels. First of all, in spite of the fact that the main action of the story goes around some life-changing and shocking events such as the death of a child or the slow end of a once happy marriage, the narrative is mostly centered on the little things in life. Dinner plans, work, and a dissertation are elements that are used to reveal the pain of a monotonous relationship that is fading away. It can be seen through the…

John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” and Anne Finch’s “To Death” personify the abstraction of death through their manipulation of apostrophe and figurative language. Their vivid descriptions extend beyond a mere conversation with death, revealing their inner thoughts toward the inevitable demise of every human. Though examining the same theme, Donne and Finch develop vastly different tones. Donne’s tone of defiance juxtaposes Finch’s tone of resignation, cultivating these through the use of…

metaphor for his mistress’ final resting place, her cemetery. He then proceeds to compare their bodies of making love to each other as “roll our strength into one ball” (42, 43) as well as the finite time of our days on earth as the “iron gates of life” (44). Unlike Shakespeare, the effect created by these various metaphors neither sets up the comparisons nor creates space for readers to imagine. Instead, it simply paints a livelier picture of the scenes portrayed in the poem. Marvell uses…

even like poems by Edgar Allen Poe. However, my all time favorite writer is Maya Angelou. Out of all her poems I would have to say that I love “Phenomenal Woman” more. “Phenomenal Woman” is a poem that expresses and honors the achievement of women in life. It also tells women no matter what your size may be you are beautiful inside and out. Many times it states that women need to have confidence in themselves and be who they truly are. In “Phenomenal Woman”, there is a great deal of different…

the final line. The remaining four stanzas focus on describing the setting. Williams speaks of “a farmer… ploughing his field,” and of how “the whole pageantry of the year was tingling awake.” He shows how life was continuing and thriving. In fact, spring is often used as symbol for rebirth and life. Yet, this was supposedly the time of year when Icarus fell. Williams likely made this choice to juxtapose the two extremes. Furthermore,…

In this chapter I will be discussing how Bobby Sands’ Prison Poems presents fear and trauma through alienation and surveillance, in reference to his trilogy ‘The Crime of Castlereagh’, ‘Diplock Court’ and ‘The Torture Mill – H-Block’. The period of 1914-1991 has been referred to as: The Age Of Extremes’ (Hobsbawn, 1994) as it was inclusive of wars, peace, advancements, destruction, failures and fears, therefore, it is fitting to apply this notion to The Troubles of Northern Ireland as it appears…

I can’t say I’m a very religious person. So when I read the blurb of the novel and saw that it was told from the perspective of the deceased, murdered, and dismembered Susie Salmon, viewing life from heaven, I didn’t go into it with high hopes. But there’s something both magical and perplexing about if there really is a heaven and what it is like. I soon realised that heaven in this book is not meant to be treated as a religious element of the plot, but merely a literary device. Sebold’s depicts…

Neo-Expressionist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, explores ideas of inequality and peace in his 1983 painting, La Colomba. This, oil and print on canvas, features a figure in the center with an over-sized oblong head with a distorted black torso. The background of the composition consists of a collage of photocopied drawings and images. The left side is painted over with a sky blue and right side displays scribbled olive branches overlaying the upper half. The left of the figure a splatter of red…

The Power of People to Control their Day Albert Einstein once expressed, "All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual." Hazel Hall demonstrates the power held within people to prevent advancement in their role and importance in his poem “Heavy Threads.” Opportunities give people the power to choose between being productive and useful or lethargic and futile. Personification displays the potential of daily events to bring meaning to…

The things about challenges are overcoming them, and telling your friends and family about what you faced, in my case the challenge I faced changed the way I think about beautiful things, and about my life. How can something so beautiful be so treacherous? I was so happy enjoying my day, but within seconds…pure joy turned into fear. It was a beautiful day spent at schliterbahn, but hours being in the same placed bored me. I asked my brother for permission to go to the island, since it meant just…