Comparison Of Letters To A Young Poet And Black Swan Green

628 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Define identity in literature

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell introduce a central idea about beauty; Rilke’s being beauty within, and Mitchell’s being beauty is. Rilke develops it through his own narration, yet Mitchell develops it through a character’s experience (Madame Crommelynck). Individual identity is also a central idea pertaining to both Rilke and Mitchell. Rilke explains individual identity to someone else while Mitchell makes it so the main character (Jason) is to struggle with individual identity. The authors both take a similar approach to develop and refine their central ideas, beauty and individual identity, beauty and individual identity. in “Letter One” of Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke develops his idea …show more content…

Mitchell does this by giving us the first time his problem began, in which his problem is stammering. Hangman is the name Jason gives his stammer, that is because he developed his problem over the game, hangman. Jason, being embarrassed by his stammer, sets out to become a poet as poetry is the only time and place for him to be able to speak his mind without the torture of his stammer. Madame Crommelynck teaches Jason about what beauty really is. How being truthful is beautiful, “True poetry is truth”(Mitchell, 155) and that “Hangman” is his best poem since it is the truth of his speech impediment. She says beauty cannot be created, just that beauty is; beauty is in everything. “the master knows his words is just the vehicle in who beauty sits in”(Mitchell, 147) proving her belief in how beauty is unavailable to description. Jason did not only deal with the concept of beauty but also himself in society, individual identity. Jason feels it is gay to be writing poetry which is his reasoning for using a pseudonym. He is conflicted with having to hide under such because he feels the need to “fit in” with his fellow peers. The expectations of his family also come into play because if “your dad works at Greenland Supermarkets and if you go to a comprehensive school” (Mitchell, 154) then much different would have been expected out of

Show More
Related

  • Brave New World Poem And Book Comparison

    304 Words  | 1 Pages

    Aldous Huxley and Robert William Service reveal though their works that people often become deceived, which makes them think falsely of reality. The novel communicates Bernard’s thoughts while on the drug soma on the helicopter ride: He “laughed; after two grammes of soma the joke seemed, for some reason, good” (Huxley 105). Huxley’s use of soma as a motif for artificial happiness in his quote reveals that Bernard only seems pleasant and easy to laugh because of a false source of his emotions that cause his “happiness.” Bernard only laughs at the electrocuted animals, the cruel joke by the pilot, because the soma influences his thoughts, words, and behaviors. His deceit, caused by drugs, results in

    Read More

  • Rosemary Dobson's Poetry To Resonate Across Place

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reading on this topic intertextually allows the concept to be explored in greater depth, reinforcing the concept to readers, whilst appealing to different audiences through the different forms of poetry. Rosemary Dobson’s poems,

    Read More

  • Comparing Poems 'A Barred Owl And The History Teacher'

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poems “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios in which an adult deceives a child/children, which ranges from the sounds of a bird at night, to the history of the world itself. “A Barred Owl” depicts two parents who lie to their daughter about an owl who woke her in the night, while “The History Teacher” involves a man who tries to protect his students by using education as a tool to deceive them. Both poets use diction, imagery, and rhyme to help them convey a certain tone in their poems.

    Read More

  • Comparing Poems Of Mark Doty And Brian Age Seven

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mark Doty is an American poet who uses his platform and his poetry to speak out about society’s castigation of homosexuality. A plethora of Doty’s poems share a theme: a community impacts one’s individuality from a young age.

    Read More

  • Harlem Dancer Poem Analysis

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Rossetti’s poem “In an Artist’s Studio”, she illustrates a man in the art studio surrounded around his canvases. On each of his canvases, he has painted the same woman in different positions, as depicted in, “One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans” (Rossetti 104). This man continuously paints the same women, each time depicting her differently as demonstrated, “A saint, and angel…” (Rossetti 104). Similarly, in McKay’s poem he illustrates for the readers, a dark skinned, half clothed woman dancing. Both of these poems focus on how men view women, and how men idealize women for their beauty, or some other desirable part of them. Both of these poets express that men do not appreciate the wholeness and complexity of both of these women. McKay’s idealized woman is also a woman of colour, which may lead into a discussion of race gender, and sexuality. In Rossetti’s poem, the artist “feeds upon” (Rossetti 104) the object of his affection, “not as she is, but as she fills his dreams” (Rossetti 104). Also, McKay’s narrator idealizes her physical beauty and describes how everyone “devoured” her beauty, even though “her self was not in that strange place” (McKay 18). The main difference is that McKay’s narrator sees his desired woman as having “grown lovelier for passing through a storm” (McKay 18), whereas Rossetti’s artist uses his art to wash away the pain-and by extension, the

    Read More

  • Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke

    2220 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.

    Read More

  • Poetry Comparison Essay

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    The way the points of views in each different poem creates a different theme for each poems using different points diction to convey meaning for each of the two poems. In the poem “Birthday” a humorous tone shows a newborn baby in a first person point of view. As opposed to the poem “The Secret Life of Books” which uses a third person point of view for a more serious tone. The two poems would change dramatically whiteout the different points of views because without the humor of the newborn baby being the narrator the poem might take a different spin on the meaning to create a more serious tone. As opposed to “The Secret Life of Books” where the poem is a big personification which if it was not in a third person point of view it might have a a humorous tome in the background. The two poems have many things that help contrast them with each other another one of these being the theme chosen to give each poem a separate identity, while “Birthday” has some background information in some of the diction it uses to World War II “The Secret Life of Books” has no need for the knowledge of background information just the curiosity of the brain

    Read More

  • Compare & Contrast 6 Poems

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this essay I will compare and contrast a collection of different poems by Carol Anne Duffy, Robert Browning, Ben Johnson and Simon Armitage.

    Read More

  • A Poetry Comparison

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    in the time it takes a match to burn, and thus cannot be very long.

    Read More

  • Essay On Poems

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three sources I have selected are all based on females. They are all of change and transformation. Two of my selections, "The Friday Everything Changed" by Anne Hart, and "Women and World War II " By Dr. Sharon, are about women’s rites of passage. The third choice, "The sun is Burning Gases (Loss of a Good Friend)" by Cathleen McFarland is about a girl growing up.

    Read More

  • Poetry Essay

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Whenever people read poetry it takes into another planet, wonder how? Most authors of poetry have managed to take people into places they never seen before. Their use of imagery can describe both a majestic place or a nightmare on earth, and anything in between. For example, the use of metaphors can connect objects, or places to another, and as a result a metaphor can uncover new and fascinating advantages of the original thing. Another example is alliteration that provides importance, and sometimes supports in memory because it is catchy and perhaps humorous. In the magical world of poetry, all the rules of formal writing go out the window and create a piece of art, something that is entirely unique. Poetry is also very unique because it rarely uses characters; instead it uses literary devices that describe everything in depth. Overall, poetry uses many ways and methods to intrigue its readers to what more and more poetry. With hundreds of spectacular poets we have today it is made possible.

    Read More

  • Poetry Compare And Contrast Essay

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his preface of the Kokinshū poet Ki no Tsurayaki wrote that poetry conveyed the “true heart” of people. And because poetry declares the true heart of people, poetry in the minds of the poets of the past believed that it also moved the hearts of the gods. It can be seen that in the ancient past that poetry had a great importance to the people of the time or at least to the poets of the past. In this paper I will describe two of some of the most important works in Japanese poetry the anthologies of the Man’yōshū and the Kokinshū. Both equally important as said by some scholars of Japanese literature, and both works contributing greatly to the culture of those who live in the land of the rising sun.

    Read More

  • Poetry Essay

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    Contemporary female poets are a very powerful group of female poets that with their poems shows major events and issues in society. Contemporary female poets usually all have an underlying theme of politics, women rights, life events, and sexuality. Contemporary means living or occurring at the same time and some contemporary female poets are, Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks were all writing in the late 1900s. The Women Rights movement and the Civil Rights movement were two events that occurred during the time of the late 1900s. These two movements was heavily incorporated in each Brooks’, Rich’s, and Giovanni’s life and influenced their writings. Each of these women put their personal feelings about political issues in their poems, which makes the theme of their work politics. The theme of these three women work is different aspects of politics, such as women empowerment and women rights, and racial pride. “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich, “Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni, and “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks are the three poems that each represent the theme of politics regarding women rights and empowerment, and racial pride.

    Read More

  • Comparison of the Poems The Tyger and The Lamb

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    second stanza that the voice of the poem is of a child: ‘I a child &

    Read More

  • Comparison of the Poems In a Brixtan Markit and Not My Business

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    In class we have been studying poetry, and the two poems I have chosen to compare are “In a Brixtan Markit” and “Not My Business”.

    Read More

More about Comparison Of Letters To A Young Poet And Black Swan Green

Open Document