Comparing the Forgotten God of Love in Robert Bridges’ Poem EPÙÓ and Anne Stevenson’s Poem Eros
It is often—in books, poems, paintings, and sculptures—that one hears of and sees the goddess of love. But when is it that one hears of the god? In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, and a god who is many times overlooked. In Robert Bridges’ “EPÙÓ” and Anne Stevenson’s “Eros”, the idea that Eros is overlooked is portrayed, but in two separate ways. Techniques such as diction, imagery, and tone are used to help convey the idea.
EPÙÓ, Greek for Eros, is shown to be beautiful in Bridges’ poem: beautiful and adored, yet forgotten. Eros is venerated—called “idol”, and he plagues the heart as a “tyrant.” He is a “flower” of “lovely youth,” and an image of “eternal truth.” Through these strong words, Eros is portrayed to be the god that people all look up to in admiration for his credible honor and ideal beauty. Eros is so striking that only the famous Pheidias, the Greek Sculptor, can compare through his “marmoreal” works. Greek sculptors strove for perfection and this Eros was—perfection. Although giving thought and love to others, he received none back, yet continued his job without complaint. People recognize the youth and beauty of love with the vivid images that Bridges uses. “With thy exuberant flesh so fair,” people are able to see Eros’s outward beauty. At that instantaneous moment, people are enthralled by Eros’ splendor, but once they are satisfied, they forget, and their momentary enchantment disappears. “None who e’er long’d for thy embrace, Hath cared to look upon thy face.” All those who yearned for love, received it, but once having done so, neglected to see and look upon Eros. By using these beautiful words and...
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... for lust, but he would rather take the effects of it—being beaten and hurt—then cave in and support not love, but lust. Eros was made into a dilapidated, worn out god by the people who used him. He is “the archetypes that you create,” and thus shown to be an undesirable and unsightly god due to people’s demands for lust.
In both poems, Eros is misunderstood and forgotten. The proper respects for the one who grants love, and thus happiness is not given. Through the different uses of diction and imagery, different tones were established in the two poems. In Bridges’ “EPÙÓ,” Eros is shown to be the forgotten beauty, and in Stevenson’s “Eros,” Eros is portrayed as the broken, tired, and misunderstood god. Contrasting, yet similar, both poems depicted Eros, the god of love, as a neglected god, often finding himself in situations where improper respects were paid.
Stevenson and Bridges both begin Eros with a question, indicating the speakers’ desires to reach the god of love. But, the speaker in Bridges’s poem uses an apostrophe in his question, “Why hast thou nothing in thy face?” The question creates a distance between the god and the speaker, and reveals the mysterious nature of Eros. Bridges’ Eros is expressionless and inscrutable. In contrast, Stevenson’s speaker asks “for love” and is surprised by who shows up. She asks, “But help me, who arrives?” This question expresses her surprise and disappointment that Eros is ugly...
Literature shows us the changes of our society from time to time. It also gives us an idea about people, culture, politics, gender traditions, as well as an overall view of previous civilizations. As a part of literature, poetry introduces us to different cultures with different perspectives. Ancient Egypt and ancient China may differ in terms of culture, politics, economic stability, tradition, or even in religious belief. However, in poetry, especially in love lyrics both Egyptian and Chinese poems portray common area of describing women, social attitudes toward love, sexuality and the existence of romance or selfishness in relationships. . If we look at the Egyptian poem “My god, my Lotus” and the Chinese poem “Fishhawk”, we will see both poems have similarities in describing relationships. Also, they have the similarity of imagining the lovers and their expression of love toward each other. However, both poems have some significant differences in terms of representing female sexuality, gender disparity and the display of love.
The Greek’s images also possessed two important ideas that brought the soul of the artist and subject to the surface while still capturing the passion and action of the movement and story: noble simplicity and quiet grandeur. Greek images contained faces that were full of expression but were also balanced because they were not overcome by pain or passion because they still had nobility of soul which creates a sense of tranquility even in the midst of rage, fervor, or desire.
Can a simple emotion such as love be regarded as one of the greatest weapons to create or attain power? It’s a renowned fact that human beings are by nature designed to need, crave, and even require love as part of their survival mechanisms. It comes to no surprise that one of the first accounts of antique poetry maintains love and the craving for it as its main theme; thereby, reinforcing the deep importance that it upholds in the lives of many individuals. Sappho’s “Deathless Aphrodite” clearly epitomizes the suffering and bitterness that arises from an unrequited love. In Sappho’s case, which portrays the case of many, she constantly finds herself in loneliness and despair for though she tries repeatedly, she is only let down recurrently as no one reciprocates the love she gives. It is only the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who holds
More common than the theme of Ariadne’s abandonment, however, is what has been called the “strangely sociable” depiction of Ariadne at the moment of desertion, accompanied by one or more winged figures, often with one weeping and a second pointing to the receding ship, as Sheila McNally explains in Sleeping Ariadne. As Jàs Elsner assesses in Roman Eyes, “the privacy and desolation of the moment is staged as a group with the pointing figure making visually explicit Ariadne’s gaze at the ship while the lamenting Eros externalizes her state of mind and tears,” as seen in the first century CE fresco from Pompeii (IX.5.11). The fact that in many of the extant examples the weeping Eros covers his eyes only heightens the scheme’s emphasis on gazes and visual emotion. Clearly, here is a play of desire defeated and desire fulfilled. In each case the lovers are separated by water with the female gazing out at the male in action who sails away from her. As Elsner explains, “gaze (different characters’ gazing, the different potential objects upon which the gaze may be focalized, the self-consciousness of representing the gaze itself being gazed at) is a central weapon in the visual mythographers’ pictorial argument. In the case of Campanian wall paintings of Ariadne, this weapon was used to show women’s dependence on men and their vulnerability and maudlinism.
The type of mutation that occurs in Down syndrome is aneuploidy that is the irregular number of chromosomes in a cell. The most common of the three is the trisomy 21 that occurs in about 90% of people with the disorder. In this factor the human is given three copies of the chromosome 21 instead of the common two copies. This occurs due to the complications of the cell division in the process of the egg or sperm. The next case is mosaic which happen when there are inequality of cells with three copies of chromosome 21 and others with the original two copies. Mosaic appears when there is an unexpected cell division after fertilization. The last and the rarest form is translocation and that happens while the chromosome 21 in cell division is broken off and attached to another chromosome. Since the disorder is unexpected there are numerous amounts of risk factors that are possible based on the severity of the person.
Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
In 1866 British doctor John Langdon Down defined and described the characteristic symptoms of Down Syndrome but was unsure of the cause. It wasn't until 1959 that Dr. Lejeunne and his team in Paris showed that people with Down Syndrome have an additional chromosome. We normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes, each made up of genes. The cells of people with Down Syndrome include three chromosome #21 instead of two. The extra 21st chromosome causes an extra dose of proteins. These proteins cause the typical features of Down Syndrome. While the fetus with Down Syndrome is developing, its body cells do not reproduce as fast as usual. That is the main reason why these babies are smaller than average after birth and their brain not as big as those of other newborn children.
Many people believe, from common knowledge, that having a Down syndrome cannot be prevented and that it is genetic. This was proved w...
In the 1930s, who would have perpetrated violent acts against women in the name of sexual gratification yet still hold expectations that women take care of them? By making men in general the placeholder for “you” in the poem, it creates a much stronger and universal statement about the sexual inequality women face. She relates to women who have had “a god for [a] guest” yet it seems ironic because she is criticising the way these women have been treated (10). It could be argued, instead, that it is not that she sees men as gods, but that it is the way they see themselves. Zeus was a god who ruled Olympus and felt entitled to any woman he wanted, immortal or otherwise.
Down syndrome, a genetic disorder, is the most common cause for intellectual disabilities, occurring at an average of one out of every 700 births (CDS, 2006). This disorder is caused by the extra chromosome 21 (also known as Trisomy 21). According to Hassold and Sherman (2002), the probability of giving birth to a child with DS is not linked to any race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or geographic location. Maternal age seems to be the only etiological factor that may cause DS.
Mary Wroth alludes to mythology in her sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” to describe a woman’s confused struggle with love. The speaker of the poem is a woman stuck in a labyrinth, alluding to the original myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The suggestion that love is not perfect and in fact painful was a revolutionary thing for a woman to write about in the Renaissance. Wroth uses the poem’s title and its relation to the myth, symbolism and poem structure to communicate her message about the tortures of love.
Religion is something that keeps us close and grounded in our darkest times. Our tongues speak of exquisite and fine conversations between only the most admirable. Love happens to all. Yet some end up with a gaping hole in their heart while the rest swoon into their lover’s arms. Religion, language, and love shape us into who we are. Dickinson’s contrast between religion and science, Keats’ personification of the English language, and Donne’s metaphor and imagery of love hold an importance on how these impact us. The theme in the poems “‘Faith’ is a fine invention” by Emily Dickinson, “On the Sonnet” by John Keats, and “Love’s Deity” by John Donne weaves in the characterizations of ideas that pertain to our everyday lives.
First, to get back on track, it is important to look at the three separate levels of love, and it would make sense to first look at eros. Eros is a romantic love, the kind of love one would have towards a beautiful object, or person. It is that sexual drive that is most apparent at the early stages of a relationship. This could be considered to be the first definition people would think of when questioned about the meaning of love. In fact in a more layman attempt at understanding eros one can think of the feeling one has during a crush, where a person’s affections are aimed at a single individual.
Down syndrome (DS), also called Trisomy 21, is a condition in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child develops, both mentally and physically. Normally, at the time of conception a baby inherits genetic information from its parents in the form of 46 chromosomes: 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. In most cases of Down syndrome, a child gets an extra chromosome 21 — for a total of 47 chromosomes instead of 46. It is this extra genetic material that causes the physical features and developmental delays associated with DS (kidshealth.org). Trisomy 21 is one of the most common human chromosomal aberrations, occurring in about one out of every eight hundred live births. Major characteristics of DS include: delayed mental