Kevin Graham conducted an analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Bells”, which focuses on Poe’s manipulation of the English language in the description of the sound of each bell. He started off by stating that “It is widely known that Edgar Allan Poe used his poetry as a vehicle for producing an effect” (Kevin Graham), by this, he indicates that Poe’s use of the English language would physically and emotionally affect the fluent reader. Graham believes that “The Bells” is one of Poe’s best works that presents the use of alliteration and onomatopoeia. The author moves on to discuss where these literary methods are found in words describing silver, golden, and iron bells.
Graham starts with discussing the joyful and lighthearted mood of the stanza
Kenneth Slessor was born at orange, N.S.W., in 1901, and educated in Sydney. He worked as a journalist on the staffs of several Sydney and Melbourne newspapers, becoming eventually editor of the paper Smith's Weekly. During the Second World War he accompanied the troops in Greece, North Africa and New Guinea as official war correspondent. In 1956 he became editor of the periodical Southerly. With the notable exception of `Beach Burial', Slessor wrote very little after 1944, the date of publication of a collection of his poetry entitled One Hundred Poems.
Critique of School Bells by Lewis Lapham I found Lewis Lapham’s article “School Bells” in the August, 2000 edition of Harper’s magazine to be not only convincing, but also easy to relate to and truthful. The contents of the article have far-reaching and thought-provoking implications. Much of his argument rests on the nearly indisputable belief that if we, as a nation, devoutly wished to reform or even revolutionize the educational system in place, we undoubtedly could. Factual proof of this is found throughout the history of the United States. We have made significant scientific and societal advances in the last one hundred years as evidenced by the computer, the automobile, the civil rights movement, the list goes on.
Poe also uses figurative language. Poe word choice just adds to the feeling of how composed and how well put together his writing is. Poe like to pull good objectives and good word choices , to put into detail, “ Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation’ (5). In this quote Poe loves using lots of descriptive words, even if the sentence is short , to describe the pendulum swing for example, one adjective is not enough, Poe uses three, “dull, heavy and monotonous
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark yet comedic approach toward the his theme of his stories. Likewise, Poe’s themes have gathered many fans due to his impression of reasoning in his stories. The author uses thinking and reasoning to portray the theme. Poe’s unique diction comprehends with the theme of the story. Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery, and terror, and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from, surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.
Alice Walker was born in Georgia in 1944. She is well known for being a novelist, poet, and political activist (Meyer, 81). In the short story “The Flower”, Walker takes us on the journey of a young African American girl and her loss of innocence.
Edgar Allan Poe primarily authored stories dealing with Gothic literature; the stories were often quite dreary. Poe possessed a very sorrowful view of the world and he expressed this throughout his literary works. His goal was to leave an impression with every detail that he included in his stories. Although Poe’s stories seem very wretched and lackluster they all convey a certain idea. A trademark of Poe’s is his use of very long complex sentences. For instance, in his work The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tried to ensure that every detail was as relevant as possible by integrating a wide variety of emotion. In the third paragraph, of page two hundred ninety-seven, Poe wrote, “Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around…” This sentence illustrates the descriptiveness and complexity that Edgar Allan Poe’s works consisted of. The tormented cognizance of Poe led him to use a very gloomy diction throughout his writing. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of symbols and the way he conveyed his writing expr...
The. Edgar Poe or The Theme of the Clock? Poem: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Thomson, Gary Richard, and Poe Edgar. The selected writings of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Norton & Company, 2004
Poe utilizes a gradual change in diction as the poem progresses. Initially, he begins the poem with melancholic diction when the narrator is falling asleep: “while I pondered, weak and weary,” “nodded, nearly napping,” and “of someone gently rapping” (1-4). The utilization of alliteration in these lines supply a song-like rhythm, which is soothing to the reader. This usage of diction conveys a mellow tone. Further into the poem, when the increasingly agitated narrator becomes vexed at the raven, he lashes out at the bird. Here, he states, “Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! / Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! / Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door! / Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” (98-101). Here, his uses archaic words and phrases such as “thee,” “Night’s Plutonian shore,” and “thy soul hath”. This usage of unorthodox language creates a theatrical, dramatic, and climactic effect, which leads to an impassioned tone. By presenting both tones, Poe is able to show the contrast between the two. This transformation from a tone that is mellow to one of frustration and anxiety represents the spiraling downward of the narrator’s mental state.
Conclusively, Edgar Allan Poe’s distinctive writing style comes from his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, figurative language. Commas, dashes, semicolons, and exclamation marks appear frequently in his writing. Simultaneously, they affect the organization and length of his sentences. Word choice sets the tone. Literary devices imbue it with life. On comparing “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, this is observed.
In “The Raven”, a man’s wife death causes him to hear a knocking at the door before realizing its coming from the window and he communicates with a raven. I will be comparing both of Poe’s books “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven” focusing on the narrator, setting, and the tone. The main subjects I will be discussing in my paper are the bothered narrators, the senses the narrators’ possess, and the use of a bird in both of the stories.
In "The House of Poe", Richard Wilbur elucidates his criticisms of Poe 's work. He firstly comments on a critic 's purpose, then how Poe 's stories are all allegories. He then addresses the possible opposition to his argument, and then begins his discussion of the common themes in Poe 's writing and provides examples from his stories. This dissertation will analyze Wilbur 's criticism by cross referencing Poe 's work and how it exemplifies Wilbur 's assessment. There is a great deal of evidence to support Wilbur 's theories, but a close examination of each one will determine how legitimate his argument really is.
Along with imagery and symbolism, Poe incorporates many poetic elements to express his feeling. These include assonance, alliteration, and rhyme. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. For example ?For the race and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore.? This repeats the vowel sound of ?a?. Poe also used a lot of alliteration. For example, ?Doubting dreaming dreams no mortal level, dared to dream before?. Notice the repetition of the ?d? sound. One last element used in ?The Raven? is rhyme.
“The Bells,” a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, conveys a cheerful tone through distinct sounds and repetition of words. A deeply onomatopoeic poem, “The Bells” progresses after every stanza. Primarily, the alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia in the poem produce a happy tone; but, towards the end of the poem, the sound devices help establish a gloomier tone. In each stanza, the bells are made of a different metal substance. In the first stanza, the bells are described as silver. In this case, the bells are pleasant, precious, and strong. Moreover, the bells portray the stages in life. The first stanza explains a man’s happy childhood. The golden bells in the second stanza are an example of a man’s love life through marriage. The brazen bells in the third stanza depict the terror of a human’s life through aging, and the iron bells in the fourth stanza show the mourning and death of a human. To fulfill the sense of excitement and happiness throughout the first stanza, Poe uses repeating words and consonants, long vowels, and imitation of sounds. The alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia all contribute to the joyful and merry tone of “The Bells.”
Heaney's use of assonance in the opening lines of Mid-Term Break echoes the ominous noises around him. "Counting bells knelling to a close" The use of the word "knelling" advocates an immediate sense that something is wrong, since a knell is the bell rung at funerals. The repetition of the "ell" sound is almost as if the bells are chiming out. In Early Purges, however, Heaney focuses especially on using alliteration to indicate the atmosphere around him.... ... middle of paper ... ...