Alfred Edward Housman has been described as “a great classical scholar, a distinguished poet, and a vintage academic character” by Richard Graves (p. xiv). This description, given by the author of one of the most comprehensive biographies of Housman, is fitting. Like many of the poets of his era, he took ideas of the Romantic period and combined them with ideas from the Classics. Most of his poems are dark, reflecting the tragedies of his youth. His style is most clearly marked by an obsession with death that pervades even his comic poems, themes taken from the ancient Greeks and Romans, the eloquence of the Romantics melded with the simplicity of the English countryside, and a sharp, critical cynicism.
On March 26th, 1859, in the Worcestershire town of Fockbury, a baby boy was born in the house of Edward and Sarah Housman, and subsequently christened Alfred Edward Housman. The family that received him was quite an intellectual and literate one. His great-grandfather and grandfather were both clergymen, and his other grandfather was a scholar and poet. His father was a solicitor, and his mother, in her youth, had been known to write satirical plays. With such a background, it is not surprising that Housman was given a fine education as he grew up. He moved to Bromsgrove while still an infant and went to school there at the age of ten. All went happily for the Housman family until Mrs. Housman was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite her family's fervent prayers, her condition worsened. As she sickened, Alfred became increasingly distraught and had to be sent away to Woodchester to stay with his mother's family. To Alfred's great sorrow, his mother died on his twelfth birthday (Graves, pp 1-15).
Alfred had greatly...
... middle of paper ...
...e their diversity of subjects. In ”The Carpenter's Son,” we can see some of the stoicism of the Classical writers showing through. In “1887,” we can see Housman's skill at the use of irony, as well as his cynicism and atheism. Above all, these poems show Housman's command of the English language and the simple beauty of his verse, which have made his poems beloved of generations of readers.
Works Cited
"A. E. Housman." The Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
"A. E. Housman." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
Graves, Richard Perceval. A.E. Housman, the Scholar-poet. New York: Scribner, 1980. Print.
Gow, A. S. F. A. E. Housman. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936. Print
Sullivan, Richard. "A. E. Housman (1859-1936): A Life in Brief." The Victorian Web: An Overview. N.p., 8 June 2007. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
... Works Cited Everett, Nicholas. From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamilton.
Cruickshank, John. “Camus, Albert.” Britannica Biography Collection 1 – 3. MAS Ultra-School Edition. EBSCO. Lakeshore High School Lib., Stevensville, MI. 12 Oct. 2004.
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
His life was a very tragic which was displayed through many of his works. Some of his poetry for example, could be construed as horrid accounts of death. "The Rave...
In Bromley, Herbert George Wells was born. Wells started Morley’s school in Bromley when he was seven, when he was 14 he became apprenticed to a draper. In 1883, Wells rebelled against their fate. Herbert arrived at up park when he was 14. Some events that propelled Wells in a new direction are in his autobiography called “starts in life”. When Herbert George Wells was young his mother taught him how to read, Mostly using big sheet capital letters. Wells Aunt Mary and sister ran a boardinghouse and Wells went to live with them. Wells stumbled upon a lot of knowledge. Wells childhood was very low class. Wells education began when he attended the commercial academy for young gentlemen. Wells moved to Wookey, Somerset in 1880 to help a relative when he was 14 (Abrams 13+; Hall 310+; “Herbert George Wells-Biography”; Kunitz 1492; O’neal 1630; “Wells, H. G.” 122).
Ellmann, Richard and Robert O’Clair. Modern Poems. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1989.
Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting poems and morbid stories will be read by countless generations of people from many different countries, a fact which would have undoubtedly provided some source of comfort for this troubled, talented yet tormented man. His dark past continued to torture him until his own death. These torturous feelings were shown in many of his works. A tragic past, consisting of a lack of true parents and the death of his wife, made Edgar Allan Poe the famous writer he is today, but it also led to his demise and unpopularity.
More than death itself, Harwood’s poetry shows how many people fail to accept death. Their belief in immortality and fear of the end is also potrayed in Nightfall. Although when the subject of the poem is death, the words describe life, as if reluctant to face up to reality. The images are of suburbs, lights, birds and trees. Even with so many experiences, many of us will forever be ignorant seems to be the truth ringing perpetually though Harwood’s verses.
Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence.
The constant process of life and death, driven by an indestructible progression of time, explains the attitude of carpe diem expressed in three poems focused on human love being a fickle matter. Within the poems “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick, and “Youth’s the Season Made for Joys” by John Gay, the concept of how a shy attitude towards the inevitable end of all life is exposed as an inherently useless view. Nevertheless, though their primary themes and ideas of this constant procession of time are obviously expressed, the manner in which they do this, through figurative language and imagery, is the main point in which each of these three poems can be contrasted and examined
“Edgar Allan Poe's affinity with classical values has not been properly noted by critics and other readers who have interpreted the romantic and Gothic elements in his fiction and poetry as proof of Poe's predilection for the subjective, macabre, and fantastic, as well as the transcendental. A careful examination of Poe's use of seemingly romantic materials, however, reveals that he measured the romantic stance detrimentally against the objectivity and rationality of the classical. Poe drew allusion and structure from his reading of classical literature to inform his own works with a classical worldview he sought in both life and art” (Unrue 1).
The political, ideological, and economic climate of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was ideal for allowing the Romantic Revolution to take hold and flourish. It began primarily in England and France, but soon spread to much of Europe and to the United States. This essay will focus on the Romantic’s relationship with the natural world, their distaste for the Industrial Revolution, and how the Romantic poets valued imagination and emotional connections. The Romantics had a lasting impact on European and American society, political ideals, and the regard we hold for ideals and values such as nature and childhood. The Romantic’s ideas ran counter to much of the thinking of the intellectual community and to the values of industry and government of the time. By changing and challenging the minds of the masses to think differently they created a revolution in literature.
One of the most interesting aspects of Victorian era literature reflects the conflict between religion and the fast gathering movement aptly dubbed the enlightenment. Primarily known for its prude, repressed, social and family structure beneath the surface of the Victorian illusion many conflicting, perhaps even radical, ideas were simmering and fast reaching a boiling point within in the public circle. In fact writers such as Thomas Hardy and Gerald Manly Hopkins reflect this very struggle between the cold front of former human understanding and the rising warm front know only as the enlightenment. As a result we as readers are treated to a spectacular display of fireworks within both authors poetry as the two ideas: poetics of soul and savior, and the poetics of naturalism struggle and brutality, meet and mix in the authors minds creating a lightning storm for us to enjoy.
Clarke, R. (n.d.). The Poetry of Thomas Hardy. rlwclarke. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from http://www.rlwclarke.net/Courses/LITS2002/2008-2009/12AHardy'sPoetry.pdf
Longman. The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. B. Damrosch, D. (ed.). NY, LA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 2000.