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Impact of the Renaissance in Modern Europe
Renaissance impact european society
Renaissance impact european society
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Nothing is everlasting. Love, power, and even hatred are transient. The feelings of people, as people die, they disappear. However, in “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelly and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, art is everlasting. Even through the loss of one’s reputation and wife (whether it was by chance or purposefully) the work of art outlived. No matter how mighty or how strong a thing or a person is, when it comes to this world, it isn't important because it is condemned to vanish. All the tyrants who ever existed or will exist will disappear. "Look on my works, ye mighty and despair" it is ironical because he thought his power would last forever; but all that is left of him is the wreck of the statue. At the same time the title of the poem, "Ozymandias", and “antique land" are similar to “Neptune” in “My Last Duchess”'. While 'Ozymandias' is a sculpture of a cruel and proud king, “Neptune” in ‘My Last Duchess' represents cruel and proud duke of Ferrara at the time of Renaissance in Italy. The poem is like the reflection of the life and the people of the Renaissance. At the ...
Thus when he states: “’for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it--no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments’”, he has achieved his desired expectation of whether or not he would in fact return to his own foolish follies or not. Yet both of the works reveal the fact of malleability and ignorance that youth brings upon the characters and their evidential throes of death due to malice and endless sorrow caused by their encounter with the
Each literary work portrays something different, leaving a unique impression on all who read that piece of writing. Some poems or stories make one feel happy, while others are more solemn. This has very much to do with what the author is talking about in his or her writing, leaving a bit of their heart and soul in the work. F. Scott Fitzgerald, when writing The Great Gatsby, wrote about the real world, yet he didn’t paint a rosy picture for the reader. The same can be said about T.S. Eliot, whose poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” presents his interpretation of hell. Both pieces of writing have many similarities, but the most similar of them all is the tone of each one.
Poets Louise Gluck and Percy Bysshe Shelley use symbols and poetic techniques to convey themes of human experience such as death and haunting memories. In the poem, “Gretel in darkness,” Louise Gluck draws out a childhood fairytale and suffuses it with two fundamental human experiences - guilt and fear. In “Ozymandias”, Percy Bysshe Shelley discusses the idea that time and nature stops for no one. The poems reinforce the main themes by a variety of techniques.
The death of the female beloved is the only way deemed possible by the insecure, possessive male to seize her undivided attention. This beloved woman represents the "reflector and guarantor of male identity. Hence, the male anxiety about the woman's independence for her liberty puts his masculine self-estimation at risk" (Maxwell 29). The jealous and controlling males in Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" possess a fervent desire to fix and monopolize their unconstrained female beloveds. Due to a fear of death, both speakers attempt to achieve control and deny object loss; by turning their lovers (once subjects) into objects, they ultimately attain the role of masterful subject.
‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Shelley and ‘My Last Duchess’ have many links and similar themes such as power, time and art. ‘Ozymandias’ shows the insignificance of human life after passing time whilst ‘My Last Duchess’ speaks of his deceased wife in a form of a speech.
John Clare’s “An Invite to Eternity” is a poem that at first glance seems happy and inviting but once examined, is actually quite depressing and aloof. Although it appears to be a direct address to an anonymous “maiden,” in reality the poem is much more complex. Clare offers his “sweet maid” a less than appealing future life, presenting her with an “eternity” filled with harsh landscapes and loneliness. Most readers’ first impression when they think of eternity is almost dream-like or heavenly. However, Clare’s vision of eternity is dark and mysterious and uninviting. These different versions of expectations, as well as the use of antique word forms such as “thou” and “wilt”, seems to suggest a conscious misuse of traditional and old-fashioned love poetry and portrays the “maiden” as being nothing more than a figment in Clare’s imagination. Further, this is not the first time Clare has written about such a hellish place. His poem “I am” resembles the “eternity” he is speaking of in “An Invite to Eternity.” “I am” was a reflection of a period in his life where he was isolated in a mental institution. In this context, the strange and ominous world that Clare presents as “eternity” takes on a new meaning as a representation of his social death while in the asylum. Supporting this idea, “An Invite to Eternity”
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. Although it often seems absent, people constantly strive for this ever-present force as a means of acceptance. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her book of poems Sonnets from the Portuguese. In her poems, she writes about love based on her relationship with her husband – a relationship shared by a pure, passionate love. Browning centers her life and happiness around her husband and her love for him. This life and pure happiness is dependent on their love, and she expresses this outpouring and reliance of her love through her poetry. She uses imaginative literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love in one’s life. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” and “Sonnet 29.”
When people finally see the flaws, they wake up and the dream ends.” Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a haunting poem that tells the story of a seemingly perfect wife who dies, and is immortalized in a picture by her kind and loving husband. This seems to be the perfect family for a tragic accident. Upon further investigation and dissection of the poem, we discover the imperfections and this perfect “dream family” is shown for what it really is, a relationship without trust. The deceased wife appeared to be completely perfect and caring.
This poem describes a story told you by a passing traveler of a ruined statue of a king, Ozymandias, seemingly in a desolate desert. On the statue in is inscribed, “‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’/Nothing beside remain” (“Ozymandias” 10-12). Upon examination of the surrounding land, we realize that the once vast kingdom around the statue has been taken back by the desert, leaving the ironic message on the statue. This poem shows Shelley’s ideas of how all is temporary, especially mankind and our achievements. Showing romantic values, Shelley believed nature is much greater than man and no matter how big your kingdom, mather nature will always take back what was always
It is nature that destroys humankind when the sun disappears and the volcano erupts in “Darkness” and in “Ozymandias,” it is the sand and wind that causes the statue to fall. In Byron’s poem, humans lose the fight for their lives, and in Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias’s statue is powerless because it is lifeless, emphasizing the importance of the themes of life and death to the shared topic of destruction. Although they explore destruction using different language, they share the use of ideas about the destruction of civilization, and the fall of humankind because of nature, life and
William Shakespeare once said, “All that live must die, passing through nature to eternity.” A character joined by Death and Immortality in a poem written by Emily Dickinson passes through her nature right before our very eyes. The narrator reflects on the time of her death as a fond memory still as clear as the day it happened. In this shattering yet calming poem entitle Because I could not stop for Death, Dickinson uses personification, imagery, metaphors, and anaphora to express opposing themes of mortality and immortality in everyone’s lives.
[III] Immortality: “through Art, and through Art only, that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence”
Primarily in Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey the mortality of creativeness and imagination is expressed by Wordsworth. This is a poem about the beauty of an old cathedral called Tintern Abbey. He hasn’t been there in five years and he brought his sister along. Even though imagination isn’t immortal, there is a way to reclaim it, “That time is past, / and all its aching joys are ...
Immortality is something that all men strive for and none achieve, however there is one force in this world that will remain forever, Time. Ozymandias was the self proclaimed king of kings and truly believed his name would be remembered forever and his kingdom would last for ages to come. The irony behind this is that i had never heard of him until I had to read this “garbage” in english class. This poem makes me realise my mortality and understand that no matter what i do, i'm going to die, which is a humbling thought as well. While it may sound crazy, this poem almost makes me want to die eventually, cause without death there can't be life, which means immortality doesn't make somebody live forever, they simply exist forever. It also made me realise the reason we die, it’s so we can understand what life is all
In the poem "How do I Love Thee", Elizabeth Barret Browning expresses her everlasting nature of love and its power to overcome all, including death. In the introduction of the poem Line 1 starts off and captures the reader’s attention. It asks the simple question, "How do I Love Thee?" Throughout the rest of the poem repetition occurs. Repetition of how she would love thee is a constant reminder in her poem. However, the reader will quickly realize it is not the quantity of love, but its quality of love; this is what gives the poem its power. For example she says, “I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” She is expressing how and what she would love with, and after death her love only grows stronger. Metaphors that the poet use spreads throughout the poem expressing the poets love for her significant other.