...Allison Honeycutt Ms.Kuhn English 12 20 April 2014 Robert Browning When the Victorian period comes into someone’s mind, they may think the Industrial Revolution. This period was a specific time of change, many people who lived during this period would agree. The Victorian period lasted during Queen Victoria’s reign, which is how the name was established. Queen Victoria started as Queen in 1837 which is when the beginning of the period was. The period ended in 1901, which was the death of the Queen. Other then the Industrial revolution, there were many other events that happened in the 64 years of this era like a depression, “The Hungry Forties”, The Potato Famine, and most important very poor working conditions. One poet that really stood out during all of these tragic events was a man named Robert Browning. Robert Browning wrote many different works, but two works that are common but different are “Prospice” and “My Last Duchess” which both come with common themes but different approaches to those themes. Robert Browning was born on May 7th, 1812 in Camberwell, London to a middleclass family. When Browning was a very young child he decided that he wanted to be a poet. His love for poetry came from his father, also a Robert Browning. His parents were completely supportive with his decision to become a poet. His father specifically educated Browning at home. It is said that the reason of his “wide range of unusual information the mature poet brought to his work” (Poetry...
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...Robert Browning Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell, England. His mother was an accomplished pianist and a devout evangelical Christian. His father, who worked as a bank clerk, was also an artist, scholar, antiquarian, and collector of books and pictures. His rare book collection of more than 6,000 volumes included works in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. Much of Browning's education came from his well-read father. It is believed that he was already proficient at reading and writing by the age of five. A bright and anxious student, Browning learned Latin, Greek, and French by the time he was fourteen. From fourteen to sixteen he was educated at home, attended to by various tutors in music, drawing, dancing, and horsemanship. At the age of twelve he wrote a volume of Byronic verse entitled Incondita, which his parents attempted, unsuccessfully, to have published. In 1825, a cousin gave Browning a collection of Shelley's poetry; Browning was so taken with the book that he asked for the rest of Shelley's works for his thirteenth birthday, and declared himself a vegetarian and an atheist in emulation of the poet. Despite this early passion, he apparently wrote no poems between the ages of thirteen and twenty. In 1828, Browning enrolled at the University of London, but he soon left, anxious to read and learn at his own pace. The random nature of his education later surfaced in his writing, leading to criticism of his poems' obscurities. In 1833...
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...My Last Duchess Robert Browning was in his 50s before he achieved universal popularity but the lean years prior to his recognition allowed the poet to experiment with genre, form and language. As well as poetry, Browning had a great love of theatre and one of his early ambitions was as a playwright but after failing to find success on the stage, he accepted that he lacked the skill to engage audiences for several hours. However, his apprenticeship was not wasted for Browning, honing his skills by endlessly editing scripts, took the dramatic monologue (a new genre of poetry invented by Tennyson) and perfected it. His preoccupation with individual introspection that was a disaster in theatre, once transferred to poetry, added richness and depth. And by employing dramatic techniques learned in the theatre, he created complete poems that could be viewed as vignettes of a larger text. In other words, he was able to successfully write shorter pieces but in a new dramatic fashion. My Last Duchess is not only an example of a dramatic monologue, it is also one of Browning’s most famous and, generally regarded as, his best work. Published in 1842, the poem is the influence of a month-long trip to Italy, a country where he ultimately spent a large part of his life, and can be considered one of his ‘Italian’ poems. The back story is usually considered to be that of the last of the Este line, the fifth Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II, a Renaissance aristocrat who is famous for imprisoning...
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...VICTORIAN POETS by Viktoria Andujar Its very tough to pick two Victorian novelists to write about because they’re all so beautiful. Alas I must though and I picked Elizabeth Browning and Charles Dickens because they were the most impactful Victorian era male and female poets. I will be talking about their lives and their literature. I hope this essay will be much informative of the two. Now Charles Dickens took life in his story way beyond more than just imagining it. He talks about the sounds, smells of what he wrote about. Charles Dickens is one of the most famous poets of this time period. He wrote famous novels called Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield. Dickens full name is Charles John Huffam Dickens and born on...
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...Elizabeth Browning was an author from England who wrote love poems to her husband, Robert Browning who was also a famous writer. She was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. Her works of poetry are widely popular in England as well as in the United States, and she is greatly admired for her successful works in literature and poetry. She was born in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England on March 6, 1806 to Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke. Elizabeth was the eldest of 12 children. There were eight boys and four girls in her family. She was very fortunate to be born into a wealthy family. They owned almost 500 acres of expensive sugar plantations in Jamaica. She was the first in her family to be born in England, as the Barrett family had lived in Jamaica for many years before her father chose to raise the family in England. She was educated at home and engaged...
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...Did you know that there was 574 letters between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning? Different events happen in every person’s life. Since those events change people, they begin to see or do things differently. Elizabeth Browning was an example of this. The major events in Elizabeth’s life began to greatly influence her poetry. One event that influenced Elizabeth’s poetry was illness. For example, Alicia Kim writes, “During these years in London, however, her ill health worsened, forcing her to spend a year with her favorite brother Edward . . .” (Source 1). Then Elizabeth explained in her poem, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach when feeling out of sight” (Source 3). This example showed that her...
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...How does Browning tell the story in the Laboratory Robert Brownings, The Laboratory tells the story of a woman entering the “devil’s smithy” in order to create a poison, in which would kill the woman because she was seeing a man. The Laboratory is told in first person narrative so immediately it makes the poem very imitate with the reader and so we feel like the woman is speaking to the reader about her problems and how she is going to kill the woman. The quote “he is with her” shows how she doesn't like how the man has gone for the woman but also the tone of this is very spiteful when she says this and shows how the woman is arrogant. As the woman speaks she uses imperatives like “grind” and “pound” the use of these violent imperatives show her edging on and how she is reinforcing her pleasure showing how she is enjoying herself with what she is about to do. The quote “I am no it haste” also shows how she is enjoying the pleasure of the poison. The woman can also be viewed as scornful shown in the line "he is sure to remember her dying face", suggesting she wants a seemingly innocent woman to die ugly, simply because she spoke to a man she should not have by the woman. Browning also uses the use of exclamttives to show the characters journey through the poem, “a filigree basket!”, this exclamative shows how the woman is getting more excited about the poison and it shows the delight in which she enjoys. Browning also uses context in his he telling of the story in...
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...How do I love thee? Let me the ways. These meaningful words were spoken by Elizabeth, a prestiged English poet who lived from 1806 to 1861. Barrett fell in love with a peer of her poetry. Another famous poet Robert Browning. Together Barrett and Browning lived a very loving and eventful relationship throughout their lives together. Ultimately this adverse relationship led to the creation of some of the most beautiful poetry of the 19th century.Barrett's poetry changed significantly when she fell in love with Browning. The love letters they provided to one another provided a better personal insight into the writer's love, thoughts, feelings, and experiences than the poetry before they started sending these love letters. For instance, when...
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...In the poem "Sonnet 43" Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses the theme of love to express her feelings about her husband, Robert Browning. Her poem is connected with deeper meanings and metaphors. Elizabeth rhymes and capitalizing things that are important. "Sonnet 43" is a beautiful poem that she wrote for her husband Love was the main point in her poem. Her love for him is timeless. She writes "I love the with the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.". She expresses how her love has before felt lost and then found when being with him. Robert read one of her poems and that's how their love began. He tells her "I LOVE your verses with all my heart..." Elizabeth counts all...
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...of the relationship between the Duke and former Duchess. Browning adopts numerous narrative techniques. Browning uses the form of a dramatic monologue to help the story progress. For instance 'That's my Last Duchess' shows that there is one speculator although there is an implied audience. The effect of this is that it shows that the poem tells a story that consists of much more than the words spoken by the one giving the monologue. To evaluate, the dramatic monologue makes it engaging with the reader. Additionally, Browning uses rhetorical questions as part of form to help tell the story. For example, 'Who'd stoop to blame..' is a clear example of the Duke trying to persuade his audience. The effect is that it reveals more about the Duke's character as the rhetorical question reinforces the impression that the Duke is haughty and self-important. To evaluate, Browning uses rhetorical questions effectively, revealing more about his character. Browning uses a lexical field of jealousy, ownership, artistry and love in order to aid the progression of the story. For instance, 'my Last Duchess painted on the wall' shows that the Duchess is objectified. The effect of this is that it allows the reader to sympathise with the Duchess and forces the reader to think of the Duke in a negative manner. To evaluate, Browning uses lexical fields clearly to allow the audience to make a judgement on the characters. In addition, Browning uses descriptive language to help tell the story. For example...
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...Elizabeth Barrett Browning dramatizes the voices of the young children, who were exploited and troubled during the Victorian Era in the poem The Cry Of The Children (1843). She does this by using a variation of techniques in a narrative lyric ballad genre, a thematic structure and uses imaginary, similes, metaphors, symbolism and descriptive language. The poem is about the way children in the Victorian Era were put in for exploitative labour and Browning’s intention for the poem is to adopt the voice of the nation’s conscience. One of the themes that Browning uses is Freedom and slavery. In this she uses imagery, irony and rhetoric speech making a context point of view. When she talks about freedom and slavery as a theme, she uses irony because as England is a free country and the way that the children were used, she speaks up about it. ‘And the children’s souls, which God is calling sunward’ The quotation uses a lot of symbolism, it is also quite a positive point but also negative. She talks about God and heaven but also uses the line to talk about the death and how the children only want to die and that they will go to heaven. When she uses these kinds of speech it makes the readers almost feel negative. She makes her point of view very straightforward to try to make those who where in the upper class in that era to understand the things that children from the age of the time that they are actually able to do things. Another theme that Browning uses is heaven and...
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...scarcely any responsibility at all for their action within virtually every social collective, the peer group exerts tremendous pressure son behavior and sets moral norms those who did not shoot risked isolation, rejection and ostracism-a very uncomfortable prospect within the framework of a tight-knit unit stationed abroad among a hostile population, so that the individual had virtually nowhere else to turn for support and social contact non shooters tried to diffuse the criticism of their comrades and pleaded NOT that they were “too good” but rather that they were “too weak” to kill less men stepped away from this action than did at Jozefow and ended up killing more jews in half the time with a third of the manpower 87: Browning says “ at lomazy following orders reinforced the natural tendency to conform to the behavior of one’s comrades . this was much easier to bear than the situation at Jozefow. this is where the change began to happen for the men of the 101st. Men who slipped away at Jozefow could not do the same at Lomazy and through this baptism by fire they grew more accustomed to the sights, sounds, and smells of these massacres. death camp in trebelinka: turning point killing starts to come easier for the 101st even if that meant drinking copious amounts of alcohol before hand by showing the men enough horror and...
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...World War II, the Police Battalion 101 helped cleanse out Poland as part of the Final Solution. The Final Solution was Nazi Germany’s plan to execute all European Jews during the World War II. Most of the Battalion 101 were made up of working class or lower middle class from Hamburg area, with majority of them falling in the age between 37 to 42, which “would not seem to have been a very promising group from which to recruit mass murderers on behalf of the Nazi vision of a racial utopia free of Jews” (Browning, pg.48). As ordinary as the men of the Battalion 101 were, the question remains how most men in the Battalion became killers and what caused this behavior. Browning cities several theories to how such ordinary men could commit such atrocities, such as “wartime brutalization, racism, segmentation, and routinization of the task, special selection of the perpetrators, careerism, obedience to orders, deference to authority, ideological indoctrination, and conformity” (Browning, pg.159). Out of these theories, conformity is the most important reason how the ordinary men in the Police Battalion 101 became killers. The Reserve Police Battalion 101 was a group of ordinary men from Hamburg, with most men not having any experience in any kind of military service. Their main responsibilities were the ghetto clearing of Poland and the deportation of Jews. Their first mass execution took place at Jozefow. This event was the first time the Battalion 101 committed a mass murder...
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...Discuss Browning’s Presentation of Failure in ‘Pictor Ignotus’. Robert Browning’s ‘Pictor Ignotus’, which is Latin for ‘unknown painter’, is a poem detailing the thoughts of an early renaissance painter. The speaker is an old, traditional artist who is struggling to compete with the younger painters of the day and who seeks to explain his perceived lack of success. Browning explores the effects of fame, criticism and, crucially, failure on the anonymous artist whose thoughts are scrutinised as he discusses his life and work. Browning conveys to the reader the underlying bitterness of the unknown painter and his anger at the sense of failure which he feels. The dissatisfaction of the artist is made clear throughout the poem through his own speech. In describing how he chose his ‘portion’ in life, he also expresses the pain it now causes him as his ‘heart sinks’ whilst he paints repetitive religious works, an occupation forced by his failure to become a commercial success in the competitive art world of renaissance Italy. His bitterness s further emphasised through his aggressive manner of speech described by Browning’s use of sibilance. The use of sibilance, ‘saddens while it soothes’, gives the words of the painter a malicious edge as they are spat out venomously showing his frustration at his failure. The speaker’s asperity is also illustrated by his scornful remarks about his contemporaries. He belittles the success of another, younger artist whom he sarcastically alludes...
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...1) What qualities are most needed to become a successful change agent? To become a successful change agent requires a critical trait – power, a transformative idea can come from below, however, change can only be made by a person with some sort of authority (expert, legitimate, reward, coercive, etc.). Change is compelled by managers who have a platform to advocate for a new direction and the ability to hire, promote, and reward those who embrace it. To become a successful change agent also requires essential transformational leadership qualities, these qualities are: The ability to have a clear vision, set clear goals and direction for yourself and those involved in the change effort. A successful change agent sees a future no one else does, and that vision would not let him rest until it is achieved. A successful change agent leads change because he believes his organization must get ahead of an approaching calamity in order to survive and win. He has the ability to set difficult but attainable goals for himself and his co-workers but used his optimism, enthusiasm and self-confidence to build positive expectations in others. He let people know how changes or innovations would help them succeed and incorporated this into their visions for future success. The ability to be persistent and courageous to bet his careers. A successful change agents is willing to take bold action—and accept the consequences. This requires commitment and he knows that leading change can...
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