...The clocks seem to speak for time, but in fact they represent the human marking of time. Time exists as a continuum, but clocks take the concept of time and force a structure on it. In this way, the clocks speak for time far less than they speak for society’s rules and conventions.The formatting of the poem reinforces this notion. The rhyme scheme is an abcb defe pattern that demonstrates the dichotomy between the constant flow of time and the structure forced upon it by society. The unrhymed lines are constantly changing, flowing throughout the piece. The rhymed lines represent the forced structure – the conventions embodied in the clocks. This image of the clocks within the layout of the poem is further enhanced in that the stanzas are consistent throughout the piece, giving it a segmented feel, like minutes counting down. Similarly, the lyrical rhythm of the lines swings back and forth like a pendulum. The structure is flowing and consistent but is unobtrusive, almost to the point of being ignorable. We can read the poem without noticing the formatting, much like we go about our lives ignoring time because society has made it controllable through structure. The poem also makes use of unconventional capitalization. In the speech of the clocks, “Time” and “Justice” are treated as names, personifying the concepts as in the line “And Time will have his fancy” (31). This personification reinforces the idea of the keeping of time as a human convention, placing the two concepts...
Words: 1306 - Pages: 6
...Student: Hassan Mohammad Hilles. Instructor: Prof. Dr. Kawther Mahdi Course Title: Modern English and American Poetry Wystan Hugh Auden Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York, England, in 1907. He moved to Birmingham during childhood and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. As a young man he was influenced by the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Old English verse. At Oxford his precocity as a poet was immediately apparent, and he formed lifelong friendships with two fellow writers, Stephen Spender and Christopher Isherwood. In 1928, his collection Poems was privately printed, but it wasn't until 1930, when another collection titled Poems (though its contents were different) was published, that Auden was established as the leading voice of a new generation. Auden first gained attention in 1930 when his short verse play called ''Paid on Both Sides'' was published in T. S. Eliot's periodical The Criterion. In the same year appeared Auden's Poems, his first commercially published book, in which he carefully avoided Yeatsian romantic self-expression – the poems were short, untitled, slightly cryptic, but free of philosophical abstraction. The collection had a powerful influence on Auden's peers, including Stephen Spender, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Louis MacNeice. Auden soon gained fame as a leftist intellectual. He showed interest in Marx and Freud and he wrote passionately on social problems, among...
Words: 1040 - Pages: 5
...Ulysses Kipling, Rudyard. Kim Lawrence, D. H. Two of: Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, The Rainbow, The Plumed Serpent Lewis, Wyndham. Tarr, manifestos in BLAST 1 Mansfield, Katherine. “Prelude,” “At the Bay,” “The Garden Party,” “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” (in Collected Stories) Orwell, George. 1984 (or Aldous Huxley, Brave New World) Wells, H. G. One of the following: Ann Veronica, Tono-Bungay, The New Machiavelli West, Rebecca. The Return of the Soldier Waugh, Evelyn. One of: Vile Bodies, A Handful of Dust, Brideshead Revisited Woolf, Virginia. Two of: The Voyage Out, Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, Between the Acts (plus the essays “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown” and “Modern Fiction” in Collected Essays) B. POETRY The...
Words: 2557 - Pages: 11
...In Musée des Beaux Arts, W.H. Auden covers the overlooked struggles of life, and how simultaneously, the simplicities of the common day are still occurring. Auden puts into words the thoughts and feeling that people always have but never know how to say. As always, Auden creates another meditation that rings true for all, and will be thought of as accurate throughout eternity. Auden validates the natural suffering of life in the first five lines of Musée des Beaux Arts, and how it can go so easily unnoticed. Auden writes, “About suffering they were never wrong,/ The Old Masters: how well they understood/ Its human position; how it takes place/ While someone else is eating or opening a window or just/ walking dully along;”. Here Auden illustrates...
Words: 941 - Pages: 4
...Michael Billington Dr. Oguine College English 1202 ZAH Poetry Paper March 2, 2004 Death Reflected in Three Poems Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. Everyone will experience death, whether it is of a loved one or oneself. In W.H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” (1003), he describes such a catastrophic event and the drastic effect that it has on his life. It is interesting how people choose to accept this permanent and expected event, death. Similarly, Emily Dickinson has written many poems about death, such as “The last Night that She lived” (843), which describes a family waiting for a woman or girl to die and the dreary and depressed mood that exists within the household. Mourning is considered a perfectly healthy reaction when someone who is deeply loved and cared about passes on, and this is illustrated in “The Memory of Elena” (1070-71) by Carolyn Forche. She writes about the events following a funeral and also flashes back to the actual moment that a wife has watched her husband die. W.H Auden’s “Funeral Blues,” Carolyn Forche’s “The Memory of Elena,” and Emily Dickinson’s “The last Night that She lived” are all poems which share death as their subject matter, but differ in the fact that they discuss death in a unique style with a variety of literary devices to make them more effective. Upon reading these poems, I could relate to each strongly on a personal level. Each poem expresses a different view of death and the different stages...
Words: 1726 - Pages: 7
...philosophy and style by analyzing his poems profusely is similar to finding a needle in a haystack. The reasoning behind the hardship is attributed to Hardy’s unconventional style of poetry which is influenced by events in his life. Consequently by researching into Hardy’s life, there were connections to his poetic style and its’ inspiration. By making use of eccentric syntax and melancholic tone, Thomas Hardy creates a sense of nostalgia, which is influenced by his personal life and especially the death of his wife, Emma. Thomas Hardy was born in Stinsford, United Kingdom in 1840. He was born in a country where poetry dominated literature and where arguably some of the greatest poets lived including William Shakespeare. Most of his poetry got published in the later part of his life. He also wrote many famous novels to support himself financially. Some of his poetry was inspired by his first wife Emma, to whom he paid little attention to while she was alive. His works include regretful elegies inspired by his late wife. His poems have the effect of longing and nostalgia, solidified by odd syntax and diction. His other works are mostly about uncertainty of fate, time and change, and the relationship between man and nature. Hardy was a Victorian realist and he was also inspired by William Wordsworth poetry style of Romanticism. Hardy was a hardcore idealist and realist as he represented things in life as they really are and not making them out to be paradises as some poets do. He remarried...
Words: 1944 - Pages: 8
...Approaching the Work Anthology How to compare the poems Meerkat Poetry Meerkat Poetry In section B of your AS exam, you will be asked to write one essay about the poems in the Work anthology. You will be given a choice of two questions. You can compare and contrast at least two poems of your choice, in response to a statement: OR You can compare one named poem and one other of your choice, in response to a statement: All the poems that you choose must come from the Work section of the anthology, which you have studied. How will my response be marked? Your response will be marked for three assessment objectives: AO1: 15 marks: AO2 – 5 marks: AO3 - 20 marks: TASK 1: Understanding how to compare Look carefully at the mark scheme for AO3. In addition to what is noted above, it always states: “In order to meet the AO3 requirement, effective comparison and contrast will need to be demonstrated.” Answer the following questions. 1. How are you asked to show similarities between the poems? 2. How are you asked to show differences? 3. What is meant by “literary” – what might you refer to in a literary response? Sample question with its indicative content from the mark scheme: For 5a: Compare all the way through, all your points should lead to exploring a similarity of a difference Compare all the way through, all your points should lead to exploring a similarity of a difference It’s OK to disagree with the statement in the question It’s OK to disagree with the statement in...
Words: 9003 - Pages: 37
...Definitions of Poetry by Poets and Writers… Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ~Leonard Cohen Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. ~Kahlil Gibran Ink runs from the corners of my mouth There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry. ~Mark Strand, "Eating Poetry," Reasons for Moving, 1968 There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either. ~Robert Graves, 1962 interview on BBC-TV, based on a very similar statement he overheard around 1955 Poetry is what gets lost in translation. ~Robert Frost Imaginary gardens with real toads in them. ~Marianne Moore's definition of poetry, "Poetry," Collected Poems, 1951 A poem is never finished, only abandoned. ~Paul Valéry He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. ~George Sand, 1851 Always be a poet, even in prose. ~Charles Baudelaire, "My Heart Laid Bare," Intimate Journals, 1864 Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. ~Eli Khamarov, The Shadow Zone Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. ~Carl Sandburg, Poetry Considered Poetry is a mirror which makes...
Words: 2669 - Pages: 11
...poetic diction, selection of words and thematic inclination took time to reach the heart of the readers. The poetry of Jibanananda has become the defining essence of modernism in twentieth century Bengali poetry. He is considered one of the precursors who introduced modernist poetry to Bengali Literature, at a period when it was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore's Romantic poetry. Towards the later half of the twentieth century the poetry of Jibanananda has become the defining essence of modernism in twentieth century Bengali poetry Surrealism was one of his tools that he used to navigate in the Bengali literature with courage. He has shown his majestic mastery in lot of poems like Banalata Sen, Eight years ago one day, chil, poems of Rupashi Bangla and others. Jibanananda Das's poetry is occasionally result of profound feeling painted in imagery of a type not readily and easily comprehendable. At times the connection between the sequential lines is not apparent and clear. Jibanananda Das also deviated from the traditional circular structure of poetry (introduction-middle-end) and the pattern of logical sequence of words, lines and stanzas. As a result, the thematic undertone is often concealed under a rhythmic narrative that needs a careful reading between the lines. For instance , his lyric Poem , Banalata Sen is the most representative of the essence of his poetry and exemplifies his use of imagery. The weary traveller is an interactive motif in his poetry.The poem itself...
Words: 1180 - Pages: 5
...http://www.historytoday.com/jerome-de-groot/signposts-historical-fiction These were some of the questions raised at a recent conference at the Institute of Historical Research at which History Today Editor, Paul Lay, hosted a discussion between Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, and the Tudor historian David Loades. Historians often describe themselves as detectives, seeking out a kind of truth among the conflicting evidence of the past. There is, furthermore, a large and growing subgenre of historical crime fiction. From C.J. Sansom to Philip Pullman, from Orhan Pamuk to Walter Mosley, from Ellis Peters to Boris Akunin, novelists have been keen to use the past as a backdrop for their stories of detection and mystery. The most famous historical detective might be Brother William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco’s peerless The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa, 1980). Recently we have seen a flowering of historical crime fiction as the subgenre attains maturity and becomes increasingly popular and innovative. Jason Goodwin, Philip Kerr and Susan Hill were all shortlisted for the prestigious Crime Writers Association Dagger this year (recent historical winners include Arianna Franklin, Jake Arnott and Craig Russell). Clearly the combination of thriller, crime and historical detail is compelling. Anne Perry’s new Inspector Pitt novel, Betrayal at Lisson Grove (out in paperback from Headline this year) is a pacy, twisting thriller. It is 1895 and Pitt is up against a conspiracy...
Words: 5212 - Pages: 21
...Ethics - Linda Pastan In ethics class so many years ago our teacher asked this question every fall: if there were a fire in a museum which would you save, a Rembrandt painting or an old woman who hadn't many years left anyhow? Restless on hard chairs caring little for pictures or old age we'd opt one year for life, the next for art and always half-heartedly. Sometimes the woman borrowed my grandmother's face leaving her usual kitchen to wander some drafty, half imagined museum. One year, feeling clever, I replied why not let the woman decide herself? Linda, the teacher would report, eschews the burdens of responsibility. This fall in a real museum I stand before a real Rembrandt, old woman, or nearly so, myself. The colors within this frame are darker than autumn, darker even than winter--the browns of earth, though earth's most radiant elements burn through the canvas. I know now that woman and painting and season are almost one and all beyond saving by children. A New Poet Finding a new poet is like finding a new wildflower out in the woods. You don't see its name in the flower books, and nobody you tell believes in its odd color or the way its leaves grow in splayed rows down the whole length of the page. In fact the very page smells of spilled red wine and the mustiness of the sea on a foggy day - the odor of truth and of lying. And the words are so familiar, so strangely new, words you almost wrote yourself, if only in...
Words: 2793 - Pages: 12
.... ] Breaking the Book Known as Q Readers, in fact, never confront abstract, idealized texts detached from any materiality. ey hold in their hands or perceive objects and forms whose structures and modalities govern their reading or hearing, and consequently the possible comprehension of the text read or heard. —Roger Chartier O let my books be then the eloquence . . . —“23” Shake-speares Sonnets I COLEMAN HUTCHISON is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at Northwestern University. He is completing a dissertation entitled “Revision, Reunion, and the American Civil War Text.” N THE FIRST SENTENCE OF HER ART OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS, Helen Vendler tells a little white lie: “I have reprinted both the 1609 quarto Sonnets and a modernized version of my own” (xiii). e crux of this declaration is “reprinted.” Vendler does indeed print a version of the 1609 quarto—or “Q,” as it is referred to bibliographically; one could even say that she “reprints” the type of the quarto. Vendler does not, however, “reprint” the 1609 quarto Sonnets. Like nearly every modern editor before her, Vendler presents the poems as discrete units on a page, eliding and ignoring the page breaks that so o en—and, I will argue, so meaningfully—interrupt the poems. In “reprinting” these poems, Vendler uses a de cut-and-paste method to rearrange, re-member, and reconstitute the type of the 1609 quarto into uninterrupted material units, into what we would visually recognize as “sonnets.” e...
Words: 11505 - Pages: 47
...Carel Bou Maroun Friday, September 25, 2015 Reading Response #1 The Unknown Citizen – W.H. Auden (Pages 106-107) The satiric poem “The Unknown Citizen” caught my attention because W.H. Auden denounces our modern society. First of all, the title of the poem reminds us of Unknown Soldiers’ monuments that exist in many countries. Soldiers are usually remembered for their brave actions but their names are often forgotten and fade away. So, Auden ironically suggests that the “unknown” citizen also deserves a monument because he conforms to government’s rules, and only his actions will persist in archives “This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State”. Auden is satiric against modern governments who only want citizens to obey their norms. Secondly, the unknown citizen is only given a number “To JS/07M378”. The institutions see citizens as numbers in modern society; no citizen has a name in the eye of governments. Moreover, the unknown citizen has no longer his own personality. He lost it by being a slave to the government’s criteria. He sacrifices his own personality by conforming to the government and its norms “For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.” Thirdly, by saying “When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went”, Auden suggests that the unknown citizen has no opinion. His ideas are those that conform to accepted ideas. He doesn’t stand for himself and doesn’t say what he thinks. He goes along with the flow and isn’t different...
Words: 445 - Pages: 2
...After reading The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden I was a little confused about the context of the poem. After rereading it a few times I began to think it was about establishing the American Dream after the War because of the description the speaker gave of the citizen. The speaker says “ But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.”, I knew that this was an allusion to Ford Motors which had been a huge factory job, which had been what most men did. Later when the speaker says, “And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, a phonograph, radio, a car and a frigidaire.”, it really helped back up my theory because he was working hard to acquire the nicest things which was huge after the war due to having to scrape and save everything. Overall, I enjoyed the poem. The slight satire caught my interest and enticed me the entire poem. Part Two: After our discussion After our class discussion I found out my theory was completely off. The poem was actually satirical about the “Big Brother” and the mold society tries to push everyone into. We discussed how the speaker capitalizes “the Bureau of Statistics” and how that was the first hint of the satire. The speaker used this to show how the government keeps track of everything. As the poem went on, more fake government organizations came up to show how simple and ordinary the citizen was. The last line “Was he happy? Was he free? The questions is absurd; had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.”, emphasized that...
Words: 348 - Pages: 2
...http://poetry.rapgenius.com/W-h-auden-refugee-blues-annotated#note-2273427 Text Analysis As the title suggest, this is a poem about political refuges and is in the form of a blues song. Its subject is the Jews who in 1939 had to flee from Germany to the U.S. and other European country, because of Nazi persecution. Auden uses the blues tradition, which developed among the black people of the United States and has its origins in slave songs. Though composed under improvisation, the blues has a rigid pattern concerning the use of repetitions and a simple rhyme scheme. The poem is divided into tercet whose first two lines rhyme while the third present a repetition. Through the whole song there is a refrain as the author always repeat the words “My dear”. Almost every stanza starts with a verb and this device helps to convey in the text the idea of improvisation and common speech. The structure of the text is carried on through the use of contrasting images: the mansions and the holes, expressing the gap between normal rich people and Jews, the Jews' condition, hanging between legal death and biological death, the treatment of the Jews, who can't partecipate anymore to social life. The language used is common, colloquial, informal, while the tone is sad, resigned and melanchonic. .The hypotetical speaker, a German Jew, is concerned about Jews' conditions, reguarding in particular homeless people, burocracy, social differences and emargination. There's an analogy of the...
Words: 1437 - Pages: 6
