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“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” (page 467 lines 9-11). The speaker is grieving for his ‘lost Lenore’ and it is almost as if the raven has been sent as a messenger from the underworld to torment the speaker even more. According to the Depression Health Center. feeling depressed can be a normal reaction to loss, life’s struggles, or an injured self-esteem. Left untreated, depression can lead to problems at home, work, school, drug abuse, and even tragedy. Depression is a mental illness that affects most of the world’s population, but if treated correctly it could be cured. The loss of the speaker’s beloved Lenore made him fall into depression, and sadly he couldn’t get himself any…
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Heda’s little shy bird also carried hope. Diminished into time and space somehow she kept it alive and believed in it. It was present while Heda was in the camps. While she looked for shelter after her escape. While she nearly starved after the war. While Rudolf was executed. And while she leaned out the window of a train saying goodbye to her old life. This force of hope controlled her life. The totalitarianism in Heda’s life had no sorrow. Every event continued to break down on Heda, but still she preserved. The little shy bird did not stop fluttered even at times of sheer anguish. She had to believe that one day everything was going to be ok. Head down, feet moving, the death marches ate at everything she had left. But she knew at least they were all marching together. Hope was apart of the common destiny. As Heda’s life progressed hope came and went. There was times the little bird could not flutter its wings. It became very absent during the time of Rudolf’s execution. On the very day when two men came to Heda’s doorstep, the white snow outside juxtaposed innocence and death so beautifully. It was as if hope lay in the untouched snow even while she was trembling with fear. The bird in her rib cage continued to…
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“Nesting Time”, a poem by Douglas Stewart combines an anecdote of his and his daughters experience in nature, with description of the appearance and behavior of the honey-eater, and his typical philosophical reflection in the relationship of nature and man. The poem is thus personal, objective and universal in its several dimensions. This is a charming poem that appears to comment on Stewart’s personal experience. He is pleasantly surprised by the behavior and appearance of this remarkable bird, which makes him forget the ‘hard world’, focus on its tiny beauty and cause him to reflect on humankind and nature. The opening is impassioned in its generalizing quality: ‘Oh never in this hard world’. It is apparent from this judgment that Stewart, in regarding our human life as a difficult and unconsoling affair, finds profound solace in nature and her creatures. The reader notices the contrast between his heartfelt “Oh” and absolute indictment of ‘never’, and the cluster of adjectives, with internal rhyme, which introduces the bird: ‘absurd/Charming utterly disarming little bird’. His love for it grows from an initial acknowledgment of its silliness and, then, praise of its captivating behavior to, finally, and adoring diminutive in ‘little’. It is Stewart’s descriptive language that brings the scene to visual life. The bird’s actions and purpose are highly visual through the often…
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The tone, William Blake used in the poem “London”, was purely sad and discomforting. The entire poem talks about misery in London. Some quotes like, “marks of weakness, marks of woe” and “in every infants cry of fear”. The tone of the poem “sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, gives us hope and perseverance, but it is sad. The caged bird is constantly looking for ways to fly out, even though it is hurt. The phrases like “till its blood is red on the cruel bars” and “when he beats his bars and he would be free” demonstrate the idea that one day the bird will find a way out.…
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The moth, injured and dying, represents how pathetic life can really be. While the moth is injured it tries to free itself from the binds of its physical injury. Watching the moth struggle, “One, was, indeed, conscious of a queer feeling of pity for him. The possibilities of pleasure seemed that morning so enormous and so various that to have only a moth’s part in life, and a day moth’s at that, appeared a hard fate, and his zest in enjoying his meager opportunities to the full, pathetic.”(Woolf 19) The emotional appeal Woolf uses allows the reader to understand how Woolf sees the moth. The negative connotation of the moth’s life signifies the pathetic view Woolf has about life. Details in the moth’s role in life and the personification of the moth, giving the moth emotions, portray the sorrow the author has towards life. As the moth is stricken with injury it unsuccessfully tries to escape the room through the window, “That was all he could do, in spite of the size of the downs, the width of the sky, the far-off smoke of houses, and the romantic voice, now and then, of a steamer out at sea. What he could do he did… enormous energy of the world had been thrust into his frail and diminutive body. As often as he crossed the pane, I could fancy that a thread of vital light became visible. He was little or nothing but life.”(Woolf 19) The contrast between the sky and the moth emphasize the frailness of the moth and of…
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In “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman is trying to see self as a whole. He wants to find strength and beauty as to make self whole and to be unified with humanity and nature. While people are condemning him, because the expression of a sexual content and a connection that makes use body and soul as well as the shock value. Whitman’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson decides to back him in his writing. Emerson’s letter to Whitman calling Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed" saved Whitman 's self-published first edition from sinking into obscurity. Yet even more important, Emerson 's work as a whole helped to prepare readers for the liberal, post-Christian spirituality that pervades Leaves of Grass. (Insert my source). Whitman wants to bring…
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To sympathize, according to Webster’s Dictionary, means “to feel sorry for someone who is in a bad situation.” “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar expresses the pain of the soul’s desire to be freed from bondage through a caged bird. For instance, in lines 18-20 of the poem, Dunbar states, “It is not a carol of joy or glee/ But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core/But a prayer that upward to Heaven he flings—.” In these lines of the poem, Dunbar is portraying a bird in a cage who longs to be free. The repetition of “I know what/why…” throughout the poem emphasizes the connection between the writer and the bird. In my opinion, the writer is not free. He is struggling with internal conflicts as well as the bird. He is craving…
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Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar illustrates through the actions of a “caged bird” what it feels like to be trapped in a society meanwhile other can enjoy freedom. Specifically, Dunbar alludes to the plight of African Americans in the early 20th century. Same as in “We Wear The Mask”, Dunbar opens the door to the minds and lives of African Americans who at first, should be content in a seemingly prosperous and democratic civilization, but are quick to realize that instead it’s all a lie. The caged bird in this poem “beats his wing till its blood is red” which symbolizes the unending fight that blacks in America constantly face.…
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When comparing writers, or musicians, or artists, it's really difficult to say who is better or who is more deserving of recognition. I say this because, in my mind, it is unfair and wrong to make competition between forms of art, its like saying that blue is better then yellow; who's to decide something like that? Good for the Grammy's, but music to me is the same way. There is no reason why my song is better or worse then yours, they are different and beautiful in individual ways. I view writers the same way, including Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. They both have amazing thing to say and concepts to share. They are very unique and have their own style and personality.…
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Sometimes the biggest acts of courage happen in the smallest incidents. Growing up in the upper-class, being a model, and then eloping during the Great Depression is not all it is said to be. Dealing with abuse and divorce, poetry was the best kind of therapy for Anne Sexton. She did attend therapy sessions, and they were recorded so that they could be played back as inspiration for her poems. Sexton was hospitalized, and attempted suicide in her life, so her idea of courage might be different than what others may see it. A baby’s first step, men fighting in war, dealing with abuse, and reaching old age are significant signs of courage. As she expresses her view on the subject, it is made clear that people do not need to be a “superhero” to be courageous.…
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In the poem, “Sympathy”, the author uses a slightly abbreviated version of the first line at the end of each stanza to show repetition and purpose. For example, in the last stanza the author says “I know why the caged bird sings, ah me” and ends with “I know why the caged bird sings” to show that the author not only understands why the bird does what he does but also that the author resonates with the bird emotionally (Lines 15, 21). In this instance, the author is describing the birds cries for freedom, even going as far as to say he sends a prayer for this purpose. The author ends the line saying he knows why the caged bird sings to show he himself has cried for freedom. The repetition of key lines in the poem grabs the reader’s attention and emphasizes the important message the author is trying to convey.…
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There is a moment in everyone’s life where the person realises that they don’t go on forever. Life eventually comes to an end and (until someone can put an end to it) people die. For some, it is a saddening moment where all those who hold that person dearly find that their loved one is at the end of his rope. For others, it is a saving grace to all of humanity. Nonetheless, people die, and it is the looming threat of death that encourages people to live life to the fullest. Make an impact and change the world, that is what people strive to do. Yet, up to a certain point, the human is unaware of death and how it is out for everyone. The moment where someone realises that may take years or decades to occur, but when it hits, it hits hard. In the seconds where the realisation first occurs, one can see what a person’s true character is. It is even easier to tell in the world of literature. In Joyce Carol Oates’ We Were The Mulvaneys, she depicts who Judd Mulvaney is through the use of literary techniques such as point of view and syntax.…
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1. Does the horse think, or is the writer using this to postpone his thoughts…
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The poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota,” by James Wright, expresses the value of a person’s life. The poem is a free-verse of only thirteen lines and it moves with the sparse intensity of a haiku through a subtle but limited accumulation of imagery. Wright using metaphors to creates a reflection of his life and how he feels about it. The poem expresses only in one day, and it thoroughly represent Wright’s entire life. The transition from morning to night represents his life from beginning to end. He reviews his life through pictures, by lying back and observing his surrounding and lives of other around him. Wright begins his life journey with an image of a bronze butterfly, which represented purity and strength, and end with an image of a chicken hawk.…
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Humanity’s ungraspable longing for a sense of permanence such for beauty, aging and love, acquires tones of both contemplation and despair such seen in The Wild Swans At Coole. This reception of despondency is portrayed in the juxtaposition by the “sore heart” of an “aging poet”, with the “brilliant creatures” whose “hearts have not grown old”. In addition to this physical pain, it is the sense of loss that signifies humanity’s desire for something that is lasting. Yeats clearly admires the nature; especially the “autumn beauty”, as he “counts” his “nineteenth” one. The water imagery throughout described as detailed observations of “brimming” and his careful observations of the swans displays his meditation and appreciation through nature, but then echoes his envy towards their beauty and apparent immortality being different to himself. Yeat’s life develops symbolically as a “woodland path”- eventually becoming metaphorically “dry” and miserable. This portrays a sense of reflection as time passes, looking back, showing that Yeats “unwearied still” holds onto his desire to love, despite already knowing it is unaquirable as it has…
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