Comparing the way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about
the theme of nature and the season of summer.
Through out my essay, in which is to follow, I will be comparing the
way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about the theme of
nature and the season of summer. The two poems that I am to study are
Work And Play written by Ted Hughes and Summer Images written by John
Claire in the 1800's.
In both the poems the poets are talking directly to us (the reader).
Although both poems are about summer and nature they are coming at us
from very different points of view.
In Work and Play Ted Hughes Talks directly to us about how nature in
terms of the swallow deals with summer 'the swallow of summer she
toils all the summer' and how nature in terms of human beings deal
with summer 'But the holiday people were laid out like wounded flat as
in ovens roasting and basting'. He makes the comparison between the
beauty of the swallow and ugliness of the humans throughout the poem.
When thinking of summer one can't help but get a rosy picture in ones
mind, the beach, the sun, and the fun!! But Hughes paints a more
realistic picture for us. He shows us the down side and instantly
wipes away the mental picture and shows us its not all fun.
Through out the poem he also points out how we are destroying our
surroundings giving it a very green, environmental feel to it. He
pacifically concentrates on cars, petrol and pollution 'Serpent of
cars that crawl through the dust' 'in hailing petroleum'. As you can
clearly tell Ted Hughes is constantly contrasting the humans (nature
at its worst) with the swallow (nature at its best).
John Clair's poem comes across from a different angle. He concentrates
on everything that is right with nature; through out his poem we get a
very romanticised view of summer, and in every stanza he describes
nature to its full beauty 'much beauty intervenes', 'turn up the
silver lining to the sun'. Every word that John Clair uses in his poem
he manages to romanticise in some way, for example 'the jetty snail
creeps from the mossy thorn' John Claire softeners the word thorn by
adding a soft word in front of it, in this case the word was mossy.
In the time that Claire was writing this poems was seeing nature
through rose coloured glasses, but he was also summing up what people
of his time thought of nature.
In "Langston Hughes and the "Other" Whitman", George Hutchinson summarizes the similarities between Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. Although Walt Whitman wrote during the American Antebellum Era and Hughes wrote during the Harlem Renaissance, both used their works to advocate for African Americans. Hughes greatly admired Whitman and felt that he had been ignored and underappreciated as a writer. Hughes’ admiration and respect for Whitman allowed him to develop his own unique style of writing and encouraged him to be a voice for those living in Harlem. Analyzing Whitman’s poetry enabled Hughes to find ways to incorporate aspects of Jazz and Blues into his poetry. Whitman and Hughes both integrated their opinions into their poetry and used
“Trees of the Arctic Circle” and “Heat” depict nature as having its faults such as the trees being a disappointment in Purdy’s case and the weather being too intensely hot in Lampman’s case but by the end of each poem find clarity is almost essential not only physically but internally. The two works give nature characteristic views as well as personification that differ from 20th century modernist works to impressionist ideals upon nature. Both poems bring out realizations in ones self within coming to terms with shifting out of the negative to a positive and demonstrating that nature is always capable bring out
The writings of the two authors, Langston Hughes and John Steinbeck address examples of how literature reflects society. Furthermore, the main idea is how the stated essential question related to modern day writers and how it reflected upon tragic events such as the great depression & racism toward Africans. For example in “Cora Unashamed” by Langston Hughes. He mentions how Africans had to go through hardships and were looked down upon, relating back to how literature was shaped. In the story, there is an African girl named Cora lived in an amoral time period where poverty was commonly encountered countless hardships. Near the end, Cora becomes pregnant and is looked down upon due to the fact she was uneducated and black when it is quoted
Frederick Douglass and Langston Hughes were both talented African-Americans authors in their time, both were known for their impressive influence works. Douglass's is known to use storytelling to bring the themes and his readers in focus in his writing. Douglass is more of a narrative writer who likes to bring a humor in his writing to make it interest for his readers, like Douglass, Hughes is said to be a more skillful and enduring storyteller than he is being a poet. So both Douglass and Hughes are both good at using storytelling in their writing. Langston Hughes is also said to be a genius writer that captures and utilize the realities of the beauty and the relative importance of African-American heritage while Douglass on the other hand
In the essay I hope to explain why I picked each poem and to suggest
The poem, “Field of Autumn”, by Laurie Lee exposes the languorous passage of time along with the unavoidability of closure, more precisely; death, by describing a shift of seasons. In six stanzas, with four sentences each, the author also contrasts two different branches of time; past and future. Death and slowness are the main motifs of this literary work, and are efficiently portrayed through the overall assonance of the letter “o”, which helps the reader understand the tranquility of the poem by creating an equally calmed atmosphere. This poem is to be analyzed by stanzas, one per paragraph, with the exception of the third and fourth stanzas, which will be analyzed as one for a better understanding of Lee’s poem.
The first poem I think you should consider in adding to your list of poems is “For the Fire”, this poem was about the time I went in to the forest to get some lumber, and during my time there I noticed some of natures creations around me, like the kookaburra and wind that swerved in and out of the trees etc.
In this essay I will compare and contrast a collection of different poems by Carol Anne Duffy, Robert Browning, Ben Johnson and Simon Armitage.
The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and
In the early 20th century, many writers such as T.S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot) and Langston Hughes wrote what scholars of today consider, modern poetry. Writers in that time period had their own ideas of what modern poetry should be and many of them claimed that they wrote modern work. According to T.S. Eliot’s essay, “From Tradition”, modern poetry must consist of a “tradition[al] matter of much wider significance . . . if [one] want[s] it [he] must obtain it by great labour . . . no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists’ (550). In another term, tradition only comes within the artist or the art itself; therefore, it should be universally monumental to the past. And, Langston Hughes argues that African-Americans should embrace and appreciate their own artistic virtues; he wishes to break away from the Euro-centric tradition and in hopes of creating a new blueprint for the African-American-Negro.
As England’s Poet Laureate, and recipient of both the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and T.S. Eliot’s prize for poetry, Ted Hughes was an acclaimed poet. The shadow of Hughes late wife, Sylvia Plath, kept Hughes stagnant in his career, in which he was known as “Her Husband” (Middlebrook). Hughes most recent collection of poems, Birthday Letters, took him over twenty-five years to write, and contains poems which recount the marriage of the couple. Hughes wrote the poems as a loving gesture towards Sylvia, but the poems were misinterpreted as “an attempt to adjust the public record in the wake of her confession and the mass of commentary which has grown up around them” (Spurr 3). Hughes incorporated into his poetry the ideals of postmodernism, his somber life and relationships, simplistic formatting, imagery, and allusions. Hughes influenced the world through his animal images and multifarious tones.
The three poems, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, and “Raleigh was Right”, all develop a shared central idea. Although the speakers of these poems may have different thoughts on the subjects, all of these poems focus on the ideas of love, peace, and nature.
“We pluck and marvel for sheer joy. And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs…” (14-16). This emphasis on nature reflects the respect and connection to the natural world the culture was trying to convey in their poetry. The colorful and illustrative descriptions of the physical world are indicative of the mindset and focus of these poems. Namely the fact that they were concerned with the world around us and the reality we experience as opposed to that of abstract concept of god or the supernatural as seen in other historical texts. This focus on nature is important because it sets the context in which the major theme of loss and separation originate from. In this poem the poet chooses to emphasize the passing of time in the choice of comparing the two seasons. Spring, in which life begins a new, and fall, in which the leaves begin to fall off and die. The poem reads “And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs- Those are the ones I hate to lose. For me, it is the autumn hills” (15-18). This juxtaposition of these two
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia, eds. An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 21. Print.
In this essay I will be arguing how Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou similar writing styles affected their community and brought to light a positive way of thinking. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, and novelist from Missouri. Hughes played an influential role in the Harlem Renaissance era. Hughes was known for being conscious and it echoed in his work. He used music as well as imagery to tell the world the struggles that African-Americans endure in their era. Hughes poems told stories that were relatable and reflected his community. Maya Angelou was an American poet, actress, civil rights activist, along with many other things. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked alongside with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and