Preview

Life of a poet

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1507 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Life of a poet
Summary of Whose canon is it anyway?
“Whose canon is it anyway?” is an article written by Bethan Marshall. In the article, Marshall analyzes a review by Tom Paulin of a book by Anthony Julius about the anti-Semitism and literary works of T. S. Elliot. Despite being a well-known anti-Semite, Elliot and his poetry were studied in schools around the world. Therefore, by questioning his beliefs, we also question our own culture because Elliot’s works are closely related to its foundation. So, Elliot poses the question: Is culture something we can control or deliberately influence? In 1993, the head of the National Curriculum Council, David Pascall, changed the curriculum in an effort to try and answer Elliot’s question. Five years earlier, Brian Cox had tried to implement a similar kind of curriculum as Pascall but did not follow through with it despite feeling the need for a cultural analysis. Edward Said describes culture as being something inevitable that grows on the individual and automatically makes them a little xenophobic. Dr. Nicholas Tate brought up how our culture is based on our interest and the environment in which we are placed in. He believes that someone can be multicultural as it is part of what makes the person core culture. Yet, by trying to alter the culture, we are losing the traditional values that English literature was built on. For example, the works by Elliot that was been studied for decades are the roots for questions about culture, identity and power that are trying to be preserved.

“Whose canon is it anyway?” is an article written by Bethan Marshall. In the article, Marshall analyzes a review by Tom Paulin of a book by Anthony Julius about the anti-Semitism and literary works of T. S. Elliot. Despite being a well-known anti-Semite, Elliot and his poetry were studied in schools around the world. Therefore, by questioning his beliefs, we also question our own culture because Elliot’s works are closely related to its foundation. So,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    By taking a deeper look into "Foul Shouts," a short story written by Rogelio R. Gomez, one will examine the shame and anger Gomez felt growing up. He was one of many, who were continuously faced with obstacles of race and social class, thus making him a prime example of why students should read non-canonical literature. In Gomez’s piece, the difference…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    through the lens of each author with a set of specific historiographical questions as a guide. This…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scottish indapendance

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The phenomenalism of civil society replays (in parodic form) the legitimation of the literary canon.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jan R. Veenstra, in his examination of new historicism, draws upon Greenblatt and his “poetics of culture,” which determines the strong relationship between literary and historical texts and their socio-historical contexts. Greenblatt’s cultural poetics fosters the concept that texts are not merely a documentation of the social and political forces that make up history and society, but they also contribute remarkably to the social processes that refigure individual identity and the socio-political, historical situation (174). Veenstra maintains that Greenblatt’s “economic metaphor” enables texts and their symbolic significance to prevail in society insofar as the texts’ literary devices reflect the social energy circulating in other texts that speak of the same subject matter. He further elaborates that Greenblatt’s ideas on the nature of the text leads to a new method of interpretation, which foregrounds the socio-historical context that informs the text and gives it the tools by which it acquires new meanings. Accordingly, Veenstra asserts that with reference to Greenblatt, poetry and history are “forms of poesies, a creative force that pervades all domains of human activity” (176) which needs to be closely examined. Veenstra, in this regard, defines the text as “a human-made object” that “is radically informed by all the forces that condition and shape our societies and histories” (177).…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Poetry Research

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the past, human nature has deprived humans of reaching their goal of equality. Human nature makes people prejudice and tend to judge people as something that they are not. One example is the inhumane treatment of the Jews, especially during the Holocaust. Between 1939 and 1945, nearly six million Jews were killed (McCarthy). During this period of time and even after, many adults and children wrote books and poetry about the sufferings they witnessed and endured as they forced to undergo horrific conditions. One poem written about this horrendous time period is "Remembrance" by Tawnysha Lynch. This poem was written after an obviously heartbreaking visit to the remains of the deserted Auschwitz. In her poem, Lynch expresses her thoughts as she witnessed the setting where millions of people were killed for being Jewish, homosexual, and even handicapped (Soudakoff).…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poetry Essay

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Emily Dickinson begins her poem with, “This was a poet”. All three poets use their first line to describe who they are and/or…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explain why the conflict was important to the text(s) as a whole, supporting your points with examples of visual and/or language features.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Literary canons are the classifications of books and their influence upon the culture and society of a specific region or country. Literary canons outline the influential literature of a culture, society, country, or secular community. Society looks to literary canons to understand cultural influence and to research the issues that are most important to the people of the country. “A canon need not include all writing that gets over a basic definitional threshold, just that which is considered crucial to preserve , venerate and invest with authority (to invoke the old religious term from which our secular sense of valuing text and of canonicity seems to derive)” (Hunter, J. Paul (1997)).…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Literary Canon Definition

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A literary canon is a classification of literature. It is compromised of literary works that share similar or related characteristics and are considered to be the most important of a specific time frame or place. The process in which a work is canonized is completely subjective. And just as the judgments and opinions of people change over time, so do literary canons. The status a work receives when it is entered into a literary canon is based on its relevance to the time period. Therefore a social change such as the feminist movement can determine what works are added and removed from a literary canon…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    of this analysis is that Kaplan discusses other members of the cannon of Western literature and how Conrad projects British colonial fears and…

    • 2444 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The white middle- and upper middle-class male was predominantly the ‘ruling class’, with women’s only role in society to morally support them. The birth of the literary canon, the centre of high culture in literature, was accomplished by these very men and continues to be dominated, even now, by educated males. To be entered into the canon is a difficult task for women with the justification being that the criteria for entering the canon has already been cemented and adhered to according to the standards of the white middle- and upper middle-class…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Words are powerful tools that inspire and connect people. Words challenge and inspire a poet’s audience by allowing the author to convey different messages to the reader. Utilizing these tools, the poet can take readers to faraway places, lend understanding, and evoke strong emotions. Writers string them together in the hope of communicating new ideas that expose their deepest fears, desires, and truths. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” William Blake utilizes literary devices of irony, diction, and rhythm throughout the poem.…

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his poem 'Autobiography' The poet has used a set form in this verse of eight stanzas and each stanza comprises of a rhyming couplet followed by a haunting refrain, 'come back early or never come. ' which is repeated through out.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Poems of Literature

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The poem “Lonely Hearts” by Wendy Cope is a little too dramatic in my opinion. In the poem, she writes about a man who is seeking for someone to love and that will love him back because he is lonely. In the poem the lines “Executive in search of something new—Perhaps bisexual woman, arty, young, Do you live North London? Is it you?” (7-9) informed me that this guy is so desperate to find somebody that he would settle with pretty much anyone that came along. I believe that no one should rush into something like that, no matter how lonesome you are.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Art of Poetry

    • 989 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When one thinks about poetry the first thing you may think about is the complexity of poetry. Typically I think people are afraid of literary works such as poetry and dismiss poetry because they find it to be too complicated. Many people don't like to read things that actually require them to think about the text and deem them complicated because they don’t want to take the time to see what the author is trying to say. However, if they were to take their time and dissect the poem they would find that poetry isn't as complicated as it seems. They may also see the beauty in poetry and that no matter who you are there is a poem somewhere you can relate to. Poetry is not straightforward and that is one of the things I personally love about it because of its depth, which I find beautiful. Even the most haunting poems I feel are still beautiful because of the way they are written especially with the use of imagery, metaphors, and similes. So to me poetry is an art form just as a paintings, songs, or films are art forms. Its a way to express feelings and emotions that have been evoked by some moment in ones life. Just as a song or film, poetry is complex and could mean something different to each person that reads it.…

    • 989 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays