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Literary analysis on The Rape of the lock
Timeless themes in The Rape of the lock
Literary analysis on The Rape of the lock
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Similar Attitudes Toward Machinery, Language, and Substance in Wordsworth, Pope and Dryden William Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is from the Romantic Period of British literature, while Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” and John Dryden’s “Mac Flecknoe” are both from the Neoclassical Period; “The Rape of the Lock” is from the Augustan Age, while “Mac Flecknoe” is from the Restoration (“Literary”). Despite these discrepancies in the time periods that their respective works were produced, however, Wordsworth, Pope, and Dryden express similar attitudes toward machinery, language, and substance. Their works evidence their agreement that machinery is a destructive force of serial production and repetition; good poetic language should exclude such repetition and be original and substantial, and poetic images can be used to create substance out of a lack of substance. First, the texts of Wordsworth, Pope, and Dryden evidence their agreement that machinery is a destructive force of serial production and repetition. In “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” Wordsworth writes, “However exalted a notion we would wish to cherish of the character of a Poet, it is obvious, that, while he describes and imitates passions, his situation is altogether slavish and mechanical, compared with the freedom and power of real and substantial action and suffering” (361). In this statement, Wordsworth expresses his view that an association with anything “mechanical,” or “[o]perated or produced by a mechanism or machine,” is not exalted and is unbecoming to a poet; machinery does not help produce freedom and substance (“Mechanical”). In “The Rape of the Lock,” Pope similarly demonstrates that machinery causes a lack of freedom and ... ... middle of paper ... ...ntic Period, the three works agree on three ideas. They agree that machinery is a destructive force of serial production and repetition; good poetic language should exclude such repetition and be original and substantial, and poetic images can be used to create substance out of a lack of substance. Interestingly, their views are quite relevant to a British literature student who has to use her laptop computer to produce an original, substantial piece of writing from four blank sheets of paper. Works Cited “Literary Periods of British and American Literature.” The Literary Explorer. Renée Goodvin. 15 Nov. 2004 . “Mechanical.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 2000 Fourth ed. Bartleby.com. 15 Nov. 2004 . (The Longman Anthology of British Literature 2nd Edition, Volumes 1c and 2a).
In the first passage, Mackey draws out the nuances of this problem by directing two characters to argue over the meaning of a particular musical piece. He focuses on the style rather than the content of the dispute, suggesting that its value lies in the graceful unfolding of the argument itself. In the subsequent passage, N.’s lecture on “The Creaking of the Word” uses metaphor in such a way as to highlight the explosive possibility of words and music to transmit meaning.
69. Print. Strand, Mark, and Eavan Boland. The Making of a Poem: a Norton Anthology of Poetic
Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. fifth ed. N.p.: W.W. Norton, 2005. 2120-2121. 2 Print.
Williams’ minimalist writing style employed free verse and by maintaining simplicity allowed the wheelbarrow to be the center of attention. He accomplished this task by breaking up the poem, which consisted of one sentence, into eight lines and further divided it into couplets. The beginning line of each couplet was longer than the second line, which only had one word. This formation allowed the reader to focus on specific words before moving to the next line. This is best illustrated in the opening lines, “so much depends/upon,” (Williams 288). Already, Williams has established the importance of the object by conveying to the reader that many things are dependent on the object. It is also significant that none of the words in the poem are capitalized nor did Williams
Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: American Literature Notes. London, ON: University of Western. Fall 2013. Lecture Notes.
During the 18th century, two great companion; William Wordsworth collaborated together to create Lyrical Ballad; one of the greatest works of the Romantic period. The two major poems of Lyrical Ballad are Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight.” Even though these two poems contain different experiences of the two speakers, upon close reading of these poems, the similarities are found in their use of language, the tone, the use of illustrative imagery to fascinate the reader’s visual sense and the message to their loved ones.
Wordsworth, William. “The Thorn.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. 2B. Ed. David Damrosch, et al. New York: Longman, 1999. 319-325.
Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: American Literature Notes. London, ON: University of Western. Fall 2014. Lecture Notes.
1 Modern Poetry. Third Edition. Norton. I am a naysayer. 2003. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Williams, William.
The eighteenth century witnessed a major revolution, in some ways more profound than the Civil War, the Printing Trade. It was a state of anarchy within which struggling writers, who came from the lower strata, were writing in journals, newspapers, magazines etc. Great consumption of these kinds of writings led to the formation of the Grub Street (a London Street inhabited by literary hacks such as writers of small histories, dictionaries and temporary poems. The term Grub Street is often used collectively for poor and needy authors who wrote for meager sums of money.) This popular culture, which in the view of historians is created, produced and consumed by people themselves, acquired an identity which it never had before. Moreover, it was a time of political strife and patriotism gave way to intense party feelings. Almost all writers could be bought; even the best of them, with a few exceptions, were in the pay or service of one party or the other. Literature became the handmaid of politics and of state-craft. It was at this time that writers like Swift and Pope wrote satires against hack writers, the tradition invented by Dryden in his poem ‘MacFlecknoe’ in which he has mocked and ridiculed writers whom he thought as worthless (Shadwell, Ogilvy etc) and exalted worthy writers of natural poetic talent (Fletcher, Ben Jonson etc).
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Introduction." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Introduction. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2014
...o paint a clear picture through the structure of his poem, his specific word choice, and the tone he creates. And each of his poems is unique in the way it makes you feel when you experience it. “A city’s Death By Fire” is a very good example of a Walcott poem that can paint a picture. It has the ability to place you among the debris that was once a town; it makes you feel as though you lost everything in this tragedy. But it also makes you feel as if there is hope of rebuilding and that time can heal. I believe this poem is a destructive force; it is powerful and can evoke strong images and feelings. I also believe this poem is a machine made out of words, each one equally important in making the whole thing work in the way it is meant to. That is what makes poetry so unique; it can be numerous things all at once, and it’s relatable even if it’s foreign.
The New Critics, just like Wimsatt and Beardsley put forward in their essay, also believed in the ‘organicity’ of the text. In the essay, they write, “A poem should not mean but be.” And, since the meaning of the poem or the text is the medium through which it can exist, and words, in turn, is the medium through which the meaning is expressed, the poem or the text b...
Durrant, Geoffrey. Wordsworth and the Great System, A Study of Wordsworth’s Poetic Universe. Cambridge: University Printing House, 1970.
"The Poetry of William Wordsworth." SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 06 February 2010.