Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The use of symbolism in the novel
importance of symbolism in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The use of symbolism in the novel
Images of Life and Death in Bavarian Gentians
As the last few days of summer fade away, and September's end brings promises of a cold, sad autumn, the feast of Michaelmas has come and gone, and one can not help but be reminded of D. H. Lawrence's "Bavarian Gentians," a poem that commences by reminiscing of the sad days at the end of September, when summer has finally departed along with its intoxicating and life-giving breath. Like the days that separate summer from autumn, Lawrence's poem, one of his last, is a sad and dreamy read. It seduces audiences with its slow dance with blue death. It speaks to students with its melancholic passion. It breathes life into the last days before death.
A death that comes from tuberculosis is never sudden. The disease progresses slowly until it gradually overcomes its victim, who must wait with a tragic patience for that final moment. At the end of The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann speaks parting words to his protagonist that speak for the ravages of TB and its almost inevitable force, "The wicked dance in which you are caught up will last many a sinful year yet, and we would not wager much that you will come out whole." As a longtime sufferer of TB, Lawrence too was caught up in a "wicked dance," one that must have caused him, like the speaker in the poem, to feel like he was guiding himself "...with the blue, forked torch of this flower / down the darker and darker stairs..." until he finally reached his destination, the "sightless realm where darkness is awake upon dark." The poem itself is a complex web, a trance like dream that suggests both a gravitation toward death and a transcendence beyond it. The speaker speaks of "the halls of Dis" and of travelling down where ...
... middle of paper ...
...Chapter 7: Prosperine - Glaucus and Scylla." Oct. 2001. http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull7.html
Ferris, T. "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence." Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm
Lawrence, line 16.
Lawrence lines 17-18.
Lawrence, line 14, line 2.
Lawrence, line 13.
Lawrence, line 11.
This portion of the later version, along with the second stanza, can be found at:
Ferris, T. "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence." Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm.
The complete poem, however, can not be found there.
Ferris, T. "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence." Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm.
Ferris, T. "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence." Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm.
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.
Achilles, never receiving a proper apology from Agamemnon, has no incentive to accept the gifts proffered to him. He makes it plain that he holds his honor and life above anything that Agamemnon could offer, claiming that “Nothing is worth my life, not all the riches They say Troy held before the Greeks came” (Homer’s Iliad 9.415-416). Additionally, he knows that honor can be stolen and replaced, “But a man’s life cannot be won back” (Homer’s Iliad 9.421). Phoenix doesn 't acknowledge these concerns, thinking that Achilles cares only about the prizes he has lost in addition to a more visceral honor than Achilles holds. Achilles believes that his “ honor comes from Zeus, and I will have it among these beaked ships as long as my breath still remains and my knees still move” (Homer’s Iliad 9.624-627) whereas Phoenix thinks of his honor as something tangible and bestowed to him by the Achaeans (Homer’s Iliad 9.619). This discrepancy proves irreparable in convincing Achilles, and highlights yet more flaws in the execution of Phoenix’s plan. For instance, Phoenix relies heavily on the aspects of Meleager’s story pertaining to the Aetolians to show the consequences the Greeks may face if Achilles did not fight (Homer’s Iliad 9. 609-622). Phoenix overestimates the value of this sentiment in his argument. Seeing as Achilles did not have any particular qualms about the Greeks’ faith beforehand, it can be
In Melville's Moby-Dick, or The Whale, Ahab calls himself "madness maddened" and across the oceans he unleashes his madness in an unerring quest to wreak his hate upon the white whale, that agent or principal of the "inscrutable malignancy" lurking behind the phenomenal world. Milder asserts that by making Ahab mad, Melville found the means to present an apocalyptic act of a hero, free of the constraints of realism, that might express the disillusionment of the cultural moment that had witnessed the end of religion, the frustration of the Romantic quest, and the end of the possibility for spiritual meaning in the universe. Thus, Ahab is rendered believable. But by making Ahab mad, he risked rendering him irrelevant. For Ahab to remain important for the reader, he must not be reduced to mere madness. Once he speaks only for the aberrant, one need no longer grapple with him, need not account for Ahab. We dismiss Calibans, Pucks, even Iagos, but we cannot easily dismiss Lear and McBeth and Hamlet or Ahab. The madman and the possessed can be exiled from our affinities as wholly "other," such that one inscribes their behavior in a circle of experience separate from our own, for unless by some event beyond our control we ourselves become monsters or madmen, the madman's reality remains sufficiently and safely different from our own. To attempt to account for Ahab, one must acknowledge his reality as a possible reality and admit the potential for the Ahabian in one's own possible reality.
The sun has been an endless source of inspiration, both physical and spiritual, throughout the ages. For its light, warmth, and the essential role it has played in the maintenance of the fragile balance of life on earth, the sun has been honored and celebrated in most of the world's religions. While the regeneration of light is constant, the relative length of time between the rising and setting of the sun is affected by the changing of the seasons. Hippocrates postulated centuries ago that these changing patterns of light and dark might cause mood changes (9). Seasonal downward mood changes of late fall and winter have been the subject of many sorrowful turn-of-the-century poems of lost love and empty souls. For some, however, “the relationship between darkness and despair is more than metaphoric (6).
No poet does a better job of stressing the abruptness of death as Frost in his poem, “Out, out –”. Death is the one of the more central themes among most works of art and normally befalls on the speaker’s loved one. In this case, “Out, out –” is about an innocent boy who accidentally severs his hand with a buzz saw; the entire scene and the family’s reactions described by an observer. Throughout the poem, Frost finds creative ways to intensify the boy’s death and readers may wonder why he focuses on such a heavy and distressing issue. Every verse builds up upon one another, sometimes enjambed together with a variety of figurative language, until the boy succumbs to his injury. By combining an irregular form of iambic pentameter with dark symbolism, Frost captures the inevitability of death and its cruel, unpredictable appearances.
Achilles’ behavior starts out with arete, or someone’s great qualities. Achilles is a highly gifted warrior who is a combination of strength, skill, courage, and determination. Achilles earned his prize of honor, Briseis, for being a great warrior and leader. Achilles explains, “my prize of honor, which I earned and which the Greeks gave to me”(129). Many people know Achilles for these qualities and look up to him for that reason. Later after Patroclus’ death, Achilles goes through the behavior cycle for the second time, starting with arete, summoning his anger and courage, and gets back on the battlefield. Achilles explains his reason for going back to war by saying, “I now ...
... to fight this war and cause suffering. But this is Homer’s final trick. Homer takes the reader, and Achilles and makes them equal. Achilles gets to realize the love and justice that the reader gets to understand, but also the helplessness of the reader. Achilles is as helpless to alleviate the suffering as the reader is. He realizes that he has no choice and accepts his fate. This is the other way justice and love are revealed in the Iliad, the reader is shown to be the same as the hero, not in his strength but in his helplessness. Both the reader and Achilles are forced to see the love and justice Weil writes about and are rendered helpless, Achilles’ fate sealed by the Gods and ours by Homer. Through the bitterness of the tone, the impartiality of his descriptions of war, and Achilles’ journey Homer “bathes [the Iliad] in the light of love and justice”(pg 25).
In all aspects, Washington Irving’s, “The Devil and Tom Walker” is a classic example of American Romanticism. It incorporates all of the defining characteristics of Romanticism in literary works, and makes them stand out. Irving uses nature’s influence, Tom Walker’s miserly outlook, and the weight of supernatural strength, to shape his story, resulting in the story’s exemplar position as the best illustration of American
Irving, Washington. “Rip Van Winkle.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999.
Wyman, Sarah. “Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle: A Dangerous Critique Of A New Nation.” Anq 23.4 (2010): 216-222. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
...n American Literature. By Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 387-452. Print.
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.
Irving, Washington. The Norton Anthology American Literature. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2013. Print.
The first requirement of Aristotle's tragic hero is that they are more admirable than the average character. Achilles meets this requirement because of his ability on the battlefield. In The Iliad, the background to the story is the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. This background is not only the basis for the story overall, but is also the basis for Achilles' own story. This begins when Achilles refuses to join the battle because he is insulted by Agamemnon. This decision results in the action that drives the remainder of the story. Later in the story when Achilles becomes angered and goes to the other extreme, launching into battle and killing ferociously. The significance of this is that it places battle as central to both Achilles' story and to what is important in the setting of the story. Importantly, the aspect that makes Achilles greater than most is his ability o...
morning to get to the parking lot early, only to find her space taken, she then exclaims,"This is exacly why I rushed, just so I can hunt for a empty space." We understand that she is not happy, and that her meaning is not literal. A form of verbal irony is sarcasm, this is when the statement made is ironic, but it is bitter, coarse, and vulgar. An example of this is, a Beth says to Sally (who is covered in mud), "Oh Sally, you look so nice today!" The comment from Beth is made out of spite, simply to be rude and unkind. Sally understands that Beth's real meaning is not what was said. The second form of irony is situational, this form is often confused with cosmic, the difference between the two is minimal. Situational irony is contradiction between what is expected to happen and happens.