...Metaphysical Poetry: Much More Than Wit The two main views of metaphysical poetry, as composed by poets A.E. Housman and T.S. Eliot, are vastly different. Eliot’s view of metaphysical poetry is a very positive and respectful one. He admires the uniqueness of the metaphysical poets when he describes them as “reflective poets” as opposed to merely intellectual ones. Eliot says they have the ability to “feel their thought as immediately as the odor of a rose,” compared to the strictly thought-driven traditional poetry of lyrical poets. Housman’s view is significantly more harsh and critical. In reference to metaphysical poetry, he says that “poetry, as a label for this particular commodity, is not appropriate.” According to Housman, similes and metaphors, which are primary factors in metaphysical poetry, are “things inessential to poetry.” He describes the far-fetched paradoxes of metaphysical poets as “wit,” not poetry. Despite Housman’s negative claims regarding metaphysical poetry, there are several works of metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, that have proven to be very effective. In Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 14,” often referred to as “Batter My Heart,” there is a plethora of evidence of the work’s overall effectiveness as a poem in the poet’s use of poetic devices. The poem is written in first person and the speaker is someone who is struggling with sin and is desperately seeking the guidance of God, who is intended to be the recipient of the speaker’s message. ...
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...ASSIGNMENT: “PLATO’S CONCEPTION OF GOD AND HOW IT IMPACTED HIS VIEWS ON LITERATURE” Plato considers God as having perfect goodness; and that the fundamental reality exists in the mind of god who directs other souls to spread righteousness in the world; every soul is responsible for its actions therefore it must do goodness to become like god in order to get an ideal society. Plato refutes literature, especially poetry, on the basis of this conception. He believes that purpose of creating this world is to spread goodness. Hence literature must possess elements of true reality in it to convey to the readers. In this task, I am assigned to give a glimpse on Plato’s conception of God and his process of creating this world with the help of fundamental reality. I will describe his beliefs with the help of examples from some of his works. At the end, I will sum up by describing his preference of dialogue over poetry which depicts his views about literature. Plato belongs to philosophers of Greek era. There were many school of thoughts concerning with the existence of God. Three of them were very popular which were consisted of denial of God’s existence; God’s indifference to the world; and that god can be bribed. Plato refuted these principles and established god as having “absolute reality”. Every action has some driving force behind it which is soul. God creates those souls therefore we cannot deny god’s existence. He establishes that God is not indifferent to the world. He...
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...Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are two of America’s greatest poets. They both wrote about death, life, and God. They also both had a love for nature and included it in their works. They led drastically different lifestyles and their writing styles were very different but the messages they presented through their writing were actually fairly similar. Their Life Dickinson and Whitman had very different upbringings. Dickinson came from a very wealthy family, attended an elite school, and also attended college. She lived a very introverted and reclusive life. She made few attempts to publish her work, choosing instead to share them privately with family and friends. During her lifetime only 7 of her poems were published only because she wrote them to others who had them published. Dickinson's youthful years were not without turmoil. Deaths of friends and relatives, including her young cousin Sophia Holland, prompted questions about death and immortality. Since her house was located near the town cemetery, Dickinson could not have ignored the frequent burials that later provided powerful imagery for her poems. Not having conventional religious views may have also contributed to her isolation. She did have a belief in God but it was different than the views held by her peers. Although Dickinson's friends, sister, father, and eventually brother all joined the church, Emily never did. In her later years, Dickinson increasingly withdrew from public...
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...Job is divided into two sections. One section includes poetic speeches from Job, his friends and God, which make up majority of the text. These speeches compose the core belief of Job. The other section tells the background and the ending of the story in prose while making up only three of the forty-two chapters. Many scholars believe that the prose section came much later than the poetry speeches due to their different writing styles. Not only are the writing styles different, the core beliefs expressed between the poetic speeches and the proses contradict each other. Though it tries to straighten out certain ethical confusions, the addition of the prose section undermines the richness and profoundness of the beautiful philosophical debate that belongs to the original text. By interpreting the original speeches with moral codes, the prose section turns a rich philosophical illustration of mankind’s insignificance and ignorance to the universe into a religious propaganda. The very first sentence of book one sets the tone of the entire book, which the later poetic section disagrees with because it oversimplifies the complexity of the central character. To be more specific, it objectively defines the central character of the entire book. According to the first sentence, “there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil” (1.1). It is crucial to recognize that the moral characteristic of Job...
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...| | | Islam Islam is known as one of the fastest-expanding religions in history. Many methods were used in order to spread this religion at such a rate.. Muslims were very reasonable people. They were tolerant, and offered many alternatives to the other religions of conquered lands. Mohammed once stated that another religion can either believe in Islam, or pay to keep his own religion. He would give the religions protection in exchange for obedience. Mohammed, however, threatens the lives of children or elders related to those who did not obey. This was one of his most powerful methods of obtaining new lands. Another method used by Mohammed was that he offered many reasons to other religions as to why they should convert to Islam. First and foremost, he offered them direction and guidance to heaven, which, alongside Muslims, was an eagerly anticipated place by Christians and Jews. The writer of History of Arabs describes the Muslim people as those who consider each other equals under Allah, and who worship him to the fullest. They would rather be in heaven with him than a child under him on earth. The expansion of Islam was also obviously obtained by means of conquering lands around Arabia. The impression of surrounding lands on the Muslim army is that they were strong, determined, relentless fighters who conquered any land they pleased. They had countless weapons and a drive that could cut through thick steel. Despite these characteristics, however, they would...
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...Bradstreet became a devoted wife and mother. Bradstreet wrote many of her poems while rearing eight children. She was a wife and mother, but she was also the first important poet in the American colonies. Her poems were published in 1650 as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, which is generally considered the first book of original poetry written in colonial America. Through it she asserted the right of women to learning and expression of thought. Although some of Bradstreet's verse is conventional, much of it is direct and shows sensitivity to beauty. Although the young couple could anticipate a comfortable life materially, they chose to leave much of their wealth in England and move to America to serve their God. Anne’s father, Thomas Dudley, and her husband Simon were active in the governmental affairs of Massachusetts Bay Colony; both served several terms as governor of the colony. Anne's household was to be an influential one in the new land. Many of Anne's poems were written at times of hardship or tragedy. Her poetry was a means for her to gain focus on her God and his plan and love for her. Bradstreet's most deeply felt poetry concerns the arduous life of the early settlers, and her work provides an excellent view of the difficulties she and her fellow colonists encountered. She wrote several poems in...
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...Religious Poetry Research Paper Abstract King David was the author of Psalms 23: 1-6, and was revered throughout the bible as a great man that had great leadership qualities, and was admired by God. God himself referred to David as a man after his own heart. Throughout the Bible, there was only one man that held the heart of God; and that man was David. God described David as being a, “man after God’s own heart,” and gave the reason why He felt this way about David. “I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do” (Acts 13: 22, Life Application Study Bible). The poetic words of Psalms 23 was written by King David, illustrating God as our Shepherd who provides, leads, protects, and comforts. Religious Poetry Research Paper Psalms 23 The Lord the Shepherd of His People A Psalm of David. 23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell[a] in the house of the Lord Forever (Psalm 23:1-6, The Maxwell Leadership...
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...Sun Hwa Choi English 3 Thursday Evening Class Professor Humphrey Due May 21, 2015 Essay 4: Development of Heroes (+Hamlet) The Heroes of the Greek and Rome poetries share few common uniqueness. They are heroic in that they all sacrifice, they are all intelligent, they all have their own faith or luck, they are all remembered or also known as Kleos and they all wander and deal with many problems. We have read many of them in this course such as Odysseus, Oedipus, Aeneas, Achilles and Beowulf. Then there is the great Hamlet who is not one of the Greek Heroes but a character from a play by William Shakespeare. Today in this essay, I want to compare some of the Greek poetry characters with the Prince Hamlet. First of all, I want to talk about few similarities between Hamlet and one of the Greek poet characters we have learned from this course. In my opinion, the story of Hamlet itself can be very analogous to the story of the poetry Oedipus. Both of the story have a plague or a outbreak going on from the beginning of the story. In the Oedipus the King, it starts with the Plague of Thebes where then Oedipus start to take actions for his people. This is where he shows his heroic features being a great leader for his city and sacrificing himself to solve the problem. The play Hamlet also starts with an outbreak and there seems to be something strange. The play starts with, "who’s there?" (Act 1 scene 1 line 1) by one of the guards. The fact that the play starts out with a question...
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...Li-Young Lee: The 2014 Caesar and Patricia Tabet Poetry Reading Li-Young Lee. What a man. After watching his lecture/ poem reading at the 2014 Caesar and Patricia Tabet Poetry Reading at the University of Dominican, I understood the beauty through poetry is something that is felt and should come naturally. His main focus about love and the beauty of love showed through his rhythmic pauses and passive tone. It was amazing to hear his point of view through everything. Especially his thoughts on the world around him and the meaning of words. “It was a human voice sacralized.” There is a deeper meaning to poem that anyone could ever understand. His love poems, not love towards a certain individual but became a work dedicated to God. Like how he said: “I don’t believe in God, I’ve experience God”, poetry is all about experiencing the emotions and not just believing in the words that you write. Each word has a very distinct purpose that contributes to the growth and depth of the poem. An audience member pointed out that there is a sense of quietude behind Li-Young’s poems and he agreed and explained that because language is too full, it’s best to be more quiet and let the present words ring and vibrate into the reader’s mind. I enjoyed that he said language reflects a sense of emptiness as it is like a void. Because all human speech is done by the outward of breathe, when we speak, it is ultimately using each dying breath to create words. A poem is a musical score for the human life...
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... Robert Frost’s influences that made him the honored American poet of the 20th century Robert Frost was the most widely admired and highly honored American poet of the 20th century. His occurrences throughout his life inspired his poetry, most of which were inspired by his own life story. For that reason many of Frost’s poems have the same or similar topics to what Frost was dealing with in his life. Robert Frost’s main influences for his poetry came from his experiences in life. He used his relationships, nature, and the religion that surrounded him to create the poems that have made him the recognized poet that he is today. Robert Frost had many important relationships throughout his life that affected many of his choices as well as his poetry. In several of his relationships he suffered devastating losses including the death of his father, his mother, his sister, two of his children, and his wife. The loss of each of these important relationships influenced his career and affected poetry in a different way. Robert Frost’s relationship with his father, William Frost Jr., impacted Frost’s life which in result affected his poetry. Frost’s father was a journalist and a teacher that moved his family out to San Francisco to earn his fortune as a journalist (Poirier and Richardson). His dreams of becoming wealthy didn’t come true and he began gambling and drinking excessively. During this time Robert endured the...
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...This article was downloaded by: [148.85.1.113] On: 16 March 2015, At: 06:02 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riij20 Contemporary Bhakti Recastings Laetitia Zecchini a a CNRS, France Published online: 03 Jun 2013. Click for updates To cite this article: Laetitia Zecchini (2014) Contemporary Bhakti Recastings, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 16:2, 257-276, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2013.798128 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2013.798128 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be...
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...Amanda Lynch Reading Poetry April 30, 2014 The Glorious Journey: A Reflection on the Poetry of Hafiz “A poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your beautiful parched, holy mouth.” With such a philosophy as this, it is unsurprising that the poetry of the legendary Sufi mystic Hafiz has survived and even remained influential for nearly 700 years. Born somewhere around the year 1320, in Shiraz, Persia, Hafiz was born into an Islamic family. After memorizing the Koran when he was a teenager, he began to practice mysticism and to write poetry in his early 20s. It is estimated that he wrote somewhere around 5,000 poems, each of them divinely inspired, before he died in 1389. Of these five thousand poems, only 500-700 have survived, and there is some doubt as to whether or not all the poems ascribed to him are authentic. The majority of his work is thought to have been destroyed by the religious and political authorities of the time who were threatened by the ideologies of Hafiz. Regardless of this, his poetry remained hugely influential, with his Divan, or collected works, becoming a classic part of Sufi literature. People who find themselves in need of guidance will often use his poetry as an oracle, a practice that began shortly after his death and continues to be used today. They will use randomly selected couplets or poems to find wisdom and make important decisions. It is perhaps fitting that Hafiz’s greatest impact would be on Sufism,...
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...Three impressive civilizations, from different time periods, have managed to influence each others cultures through the literature works of poetry; from Ancient Egyptian song: “I Am Your Best Girl”, to the glorious Greek love poems of the beautiful Sappho, and the monotheistic Hebrews Song: “I Am the Rose of Sharon.” Over the course of thousands of years, each of these great civilizations had countless views on poetry; all represented inspiration to their own citizens to become successful in life’s endeavors. All forms of literature, art, scripts and artifacts had a wide effect on these societies. By comparing these key examples of poetry, matters of passion for personal integrity, search for eternal love, admiration for greater quality of life and powerful affection towards dear ones, can give us a better understanding towards the emotional and dignifying experiences each culture portrayed. In the first Love Song: “I Am Your Best Girl,” there are many contrasts between the authors theme of powerful affection towards a beloved and the authors self-definition of ones own society. To start, the author sets a personal tone of desire and devotion to ones beloved. She shows ones worth in the first few lines of a simile “I belong to you like an acre of land which I have planted,” here the poet doesn’t mind becoming a part of mans property, she is deeply devoted to him. Nevertheless, it can also bring meaning into a hard days work of maintaining the land and applying that to her...
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...Greek Gods and Goddesses - A • Achelois - One of the moon goddesses. • Achelous - The patron god of the Achelous river. • Aeolus - (a.k.a. Aeolos, Aiolos, Aiolus, Eolus) God of air and the winds. • Aether - (a.k.a. Aither, Akmon, Ether) God of light and the atmosphere. • Alastor - God of family feuds. • Alcyone - One of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. • Alectrona - Early Greek goddess of the sun. • Amphitrite - (a.k.a. Salacia) The wife of Poseidon and a Nereid. • Antheia - Goddess of gardens, flowers, swamps, and marshes. • Aphaea - (a.k.a. Aphaia) A Greek goddess who was worshipped exclusively at a single sanctuary on the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. • Aphrodite - (a.k.a. Anadyomene, Turan, Venus) Goddess of love and beauty. • Apollo - (a.k.a. Apollon, Apulu, Phoebus) God of the sun, music, healing, and herding. • Ares - (a.k.a. Enyalius, Mars, Aries) God of chaotic war. • Aristaeus - (a.k.a. Aristaios) Patron god of animal husbandry, bee-keeping, and fruit trees. • Artemis - (a.k.a. Agrotora, Amarynthia, Cynthia, Kourotrophos, Locheia, Orthia, Phoebe, Potnia Theron) Goddess of the moon, hunting, and nursing. • Asclepius - (a.k.a. Aesculapius, Asklepios) God of health and medicine. • Astraea - The Star Maiden - a goddess of justice, included in Virgo and Libra mythologies. • Até - Goddess of mischief. • Athena - (a.k.a. Asana, Athene, Minerva, Menerva) Goddess of wisdom, poetry, art,...
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...English language, John Milton carries in his poetry and prose a complex and highly learned tone. In this tone can be distinguished several patterns and motifs carried through in many of Milton's works. His view of the world focused a great deal on women, religion, and the fate decreed by God, all with a strong backdrop in the antiquity and learning passed on from generations before. Because this antiquity underlies nearly all of the poems by Milton, examining it first will be perhaps most useful in understanding a large part of his world-view. In nearly all of his poetry, there are numerous intertextual references to Greek and Roman legends, as well as many pieces of then-obsolete astronomy. There are so many of these references in his works that pointing out all or even a great part of them in any given poem would be tedious and virtually unprofitable, except to express the degree to which he makes use of allusion to add depth to his poetry. Instead, minor clips from particular poems will be at first chosen as representative of his larger style. Examples of this intertextuality can be seen even in early works of his such as "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." In the poem, when Christ is born, all of the pagan gods trudge from reality to their new home in hell. This provides an opportunity for Milton to exhibit his knowledge, as he lists the Genius; Greek oracles; nymphs; Greek, Canaanite, Phoenician, and Egyptian gods (minor and major) as they each make their...
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