A Tale of Neglected Love In the 1916 poem “No Second Troy,” William Butler Yeats addresses the topics of love and heartbreak through his allusions. The love spoken about is that of Maude Gonne, the Irish women whom Yeats, the speaker, was madly in love with all throughout his life. This poem was written after Yeats had proposed to Gonne multiple times (at least 4) and was continuously turned down by her (Dwyer). The poem has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEF and at first look it seems as if it is a sonnet but there are only twelve lines to the poem. “No Second Troy” is a lot like a Shakespearean sonnet in the way it is structured. It looks as though Yeats just believed that he didn’t need two last lines to make his point in the poem, therefore …show more content…
The last line of the poem “Was there another Troy for her to burn?” (12) relates Maude Gonne, again, to Helen of Troy and how Maude is just as destructive as Helen. The final line is relating back to the second rhetorical question and the men that Maude was involved with. These men have power in several countries and have the power to cause destruction similar to the violence between Troy and Greece in the beginning of the Trojan War. Many men see the beauty of Maude just as those did with Helen and with Maude’s attraction to these men and her intelligence that the speaker sees in her, he believes that her influence can cause trouble. It is almost like a warning yet a personal note that Maude Gonne can cause devastation both to him and to the country because she is so intelligent and beautiful.
The speaker uses the four rhetorical questions to come to terms with his life, as he is getting old in age and realizes that he is lonely and doesn’t have the one thing that he has always wanted.“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” is a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that reminds me of Yeats in “No Second Troy”. As Maude Gonne is Yeats’ influence for many of his poems, it seems that this one is different than the others as he is realizing that he has spent his life letting someone else make him feel inferior and going after someone who he will never have. “No Second Troy” is a story of love
Weaving together allusions to Greek mythology and the American baseball legends, August Wilson in his play Fences tells the story of Troy Maxson, the tragic hero who falls victim to his misconceptions of his world. Tenaciously holding on to his experience of racism and hardship in the 1950s, Troy does not realize the present world around him has changed. As a result, Troy tries to protect his son Cory from following his footsteps, but Cory tries to break free of his father’s authority. However, by creating this metaphorical fence to protect Cory, Troy also prevents Cory from reaching his true potential. Indeed, through metaphors and allusions, August Wilson portrays Troy Maxson as the tragic hero unable to recognize the changing African American culture around him.
The poem’s journey was set in motion by Morgan le Fay the half-sister of King Arthur. . Although her reasoning behind her quest is questionable her characteristic description allows readers to question if the writer wanted us to focus more on the story between the lines rather that the beauty usually associated with medieval women in poems. Morgan le Fay who was never mentioned in the story until the end is describe in comparative criticism to the wife of Bercilak (who by the way is never named) as being too ugly that she was covered from head to toe in black with the exception of her eyes, lips, and mouth and even those where hideous. An ugly hag she is described as while Bercilak’s wife is the definition of beauty when comparing the two and yet it is obvious who had not only controlled Arthur’s court into participating in trial of honor [that could have ended in unknown punishment for Arthur and perhaps his court also had Gawain failed] but also seems to in power of Berilak’s household, with her sitting on the fair of Hautdesert and Bercilak’s wife standing the power structure sift to the hag and her hold on Hautdesert strong.
...troy her “insides,” her spirit. At his continued indifference she lashes out against him and tells him she hates him and everything he is. This striking display of female power illustrates the resistance against sexist oppression that Delia and women throughout the ages engage in.
In the book The Trojan War, by Bernard Evslin, Ulysses and Agamemnon both contribute to the Greek’s victory. Many considered Ulysses to be the real brains behind the Greek forces. Although Agamemnon was the leader of the Greeks, many would say he was not a good one. Even though Agamemnon did some good deeds during the war, many of his actions caused problems, and Ulysses often had to come to his rescue.
In the first line a question is asked: "I have to say poetry and is that nothing and am I saying it?" The second line is simply a paraphrase of the first question. The poet wants to know if writing poetry is worth anything, or if it is "nothing." The poem explores and wanders while developing the entire theme until the opening question is answered by the final couplet. The first two lines are followed by two more corresponding lines. Lines 3-4 state that the author has nothing, but that he has poetry to say and he must say it. To summarize the first quatrain, the author asks what the meaning of poetry is, but before he has answered his initial question, he continues by explaining that, regardless of his condition, or the meaning of poetry, he has something he must say through poetry.
The play “Fences” by August Wilson is set in a time when African Americans are coming out of the clasps of slavery and seeking a new life. There are many new opportunities in the job market as well as in the sports world. In the play the main character and father, Troy, is put into many controversial two-sided situations. He evaluates them from what he thinks is just and only uses his perspective, not heeding anyone else’s advice. In doing so he contributes to the rising action of the story where Troy refuses to let his son, Cory, play football when everyone else thinks it is a good idea. Troy thinks it will lead him on a path to nowhere because of his past experiences but doesn’t acknowledge how times have changed since he was younger.
We don’t know if the speaker is male or female. But, the language of the speaker is very direct and sometimes we are getting facts that are horrible. This attitude of the speaker about Helen gives you the understanding and feel for what they think about her and why. The poem speaks about the hatred of a beautiful woman. Throughout the poem, Helen's beauty makes her into a victim of desire. She is talked about by her appearance and beauty. It can be inferred that the speaker is speaking for woman who are subject to objectification. She is reaching out to innocent women and stating that it is wrong to place blame upon their appearance, something that women have no control over. The In To Helen the speaker we know is a male. He is in love with Helen he’s also educated on classical allusions, in each stanza he has some references to Greek mythology, and the classical references parallel to danger or love gone wrong. He mentions her beauty, face, hair, and uses similes to compare her to a
...trates the life of Helen who according to the authors, describes the vicissitudes of a woman whose beauty sparked the Trojan War, or the exploits of a hero. Eleanor Antin shows both sides of the ambiguous character of Helen, revealing the complexity of a figure who, after three thousand years of fame, remains curiously silent, despite being the most beautiful and disastrous objectification of anxiety and male desire.
Many key words jut out, giving us clues to which Yeats is describing. The most significant is “Love” on the tenth line. “Love” is capitalized representing William Yeats himself. Yeats or “Love” fled because he knew it was the best for her. When one loves another unconditionally sacrifices must be made; in this case ending the relationship was the solution. Two other key words are located in the sixth line, “false” and “true”. These words are used to exemplify the love she received from her past relationships. Some men truly loved her while others were artificial with their...
The similar rhyme schemes of the two sonnets allow for clear organization of the speaker’s ideas and support these ideas through comparison and connection. Both poems use or essentially use a Shakespearean rhyme scheme to provide rhythm for their sonnets, while adding extra emphasis to the topics presented throughout them. Owen uses the rhyme scheme in a way to stress his description of the enraged scene of the battlefield, and to further the dehumanization of the soldiers at war. The simile used to compare the soldiers to “cattle”, is connected to the fast “rattle” of the rifles, furthering the image of the inhumane way the soldiers we killed (1,3). Owen alters the Shakespearean rhyme scheme in the eleventh line making a switch to create two lines in a row that rhyme, rather than alternating. This allows for a smooth transition in his description of the ritual that marks a soldier’s death. To draw attention to the tears “in their eyes”, which could be in the eyes of the dead soldier or of their brothers at war, they are connected to the “glimmer of good-byes”, to represent the quick mourning for the soldiers (10-11). The connection here is furthered with the use of enjambment at the end of the tenth line; with no grammatical separation, the thought smoothly transitions from one line to the other. On the other hand, Keats uses the exact Shakespearean rhyme
Over the thousands of years that the epic story the Iliad has survived, there has no doubt been some form of alteration to Homer’s original. Last May, Wolfgang Petersen directed a movie based on the Iliad. This movie, Troy, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer’s original, as are almost all stories that are made into movies, unfortunately. With its timeless storyline, amazing scenery, gorgeous actors/actresses and most of all, its reported two hundred million dollar budget, it is easy to see why Troy was hyped up to be a box office hit. However, the film critics were harsh on this movie, as they had every right to be, and it ended up being a total flop. Compared to Homer’s Iliad, Troy is rather disappointing. But, to be fair, one must keep in mind the limitations of a movie compared to those of a book, and the fact that the title is Troy, not the Iliad. It really is not as bad as expected. Troy is Homer’s Iliad gone to Hollywood. There probably are just as many similarities as differences from the original. The three major upsetting differences in Troy compared to the Iliad are the absence of the Gods, the weak character and plot development, and the addition, exclusion, and reversal of key points.
Challenging gender roles has been an arduous task. As Virginia Woolf notes, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” The structure of history, particularly that of war, has placed women as useless in comparison to men and as having no purpose beyond pleasing their partner. Euripides, for example, places women in the aftermath of the Trojan War as helpless in the face of the victors. Moreover, Macawen’s adaptation of the tragedy Trojan Women and Evans’ Trojan Barbie both discuss the docile attitude of women after a period of war. Aristotle signals diction and plot, two of the six parts of tragedy, which interprets events through the language and the actions that take place. Through the use of diction and plot, both Macewen and Trojan Women and Trojan Barbie, both Macawen and Evans challenge gender roles through the character of Helen, shows she will do whatever it takes to survive an atmosphere of male dictated war.
With its beautiful actors, breathtaking scenery and costumes, the movie Troy is a movie for Hollywood that is sure to be a box office hit. Troy, based on the Iliad, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer's classic and one cannot help noticing the major differences between the book and the movie.
The second stanza of John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” begins with the line, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter.” With this line Keats is saying that while spoken word is important and beautiful, a picture is worth 1000 words. The first four lines of the stanza set the stage for the story of the Urn to be told, and there is a clear separation between the first four lines of the stanza and the last six. Keats makes this separation obvious with his rhyming scheme. The first four lines of the stanza go ABAB with B being an implied rhyme, and the last six lines go CDECED. Each line of the second stanza has ten syllables except the
This poem is a beautiful recollection of love and how difficult it is to attain in our world. Yeats does not seem angry that he lost Maud, however he does feel God’s curse on men. He seems unsure if true love actually exists and thinks that he got as close as he ever will at finding it. Maud was unable to give Yeats the love he yearned in return, which is why Yeats felt the need to express himself through this poem. Perhaps this poem was the beginning of a healing process for Yeats. He was unable to express himself to Maud so he had to express himself through his poetry. His poetry, in turn was as difficult to write as his love for Maud was to accomplish. Yeats is just exhausted at this point and it is seen at the end of his poem.