...Beauty, Life and Death Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening” is a simple and literal poem that has been interpreted and emphasized in many different ways. Frost tells a simple story that manages to get any reader to think about its scene and how profound this story can actually be. Many different opinions have been expressed as to what the poet was trying to convey in these lines; happiness, life, or maybe even death. The poem was written during the early 20th century, around the 1920s. According to an analysis done on this poem: “...Frost wrote the poem on a hot summer day...” (Gualdoni 2). Quite an interesting piece of information that questions why Frost would use a season opposite to the one he was currently writing through. The poem itself is written in iambic tetrameter so that 4 lines are grouped together in each stanza. There is a visible rhyme scheme and figures of speech that coexist within the piece. The first two lines in a stanza rhyme with each other while the third line stands to temporarily disrupt the balance, only to be followed by a fourth line with a rhyme that will match the previous two. A broad sense of imagery invites the reader to his/her imagination and calmly surrounds them in that cold winter night. In the woods with just his horse, the snow and a frozen lake, is a simple setting the poet used for this piece. The first few lines display a character that is in the middle of nowhere and mentions of an unknown person that the “woods”...
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...In Sam Mendes’ American Beauty, there is a deliberate use of the color red throughout the film. The color is a clear representation of life and death, as the movie’s main theme is about both and how they go hand in hand. In the first scene, the narrator and main character, Lester, played by Kevin Spacey, is pointing out how his wife’s clogs match the handles on her pruning shears as she works on her garden. We see her cut a red rose close up, and then in the next shot is from far away, showing her gardening, and all of the flowers are red roses. Even before this happens in the movie, Lester tells the audience that in a year, he’ll be dead. So we already know this movie is about Lester, his life, and then his death. With the shot pulled...
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...the idea of impending death. Ans.) Thomas Nash's poem, 'A Litany in Time of Plague,' was written during the time when several plagues infested Europe, in the 15th century, resulting in countless amounts of deaths, and thus discusses the idea of impending and inevitable death. 'Litany' is synonymous with the word prayer and so the poem is similar in nature to a prayer or a recital. However, the content of this poem is excessively dark and carries the notion of a helpless time of despair- the only entity left to resort to is the 'Lord' himself. Using powerful imagery and grim realism, Nash conveys the idea of the ultimate reality of life, that death will overshadow anything and anyone, regardless of their status, wealth or beauty as 'Death proves them all but toys.' The poem opens with the word 'Adieu,' providing the idea of death and departing from the very first line. Farwell is said to 'earth's bliss,' all the joys and comforts of life, which helps in setting a gloomy and despairing tone. The punctuation of this stanza, a semi-colon after each line, also aids in keeping a slow rhythm, adding to the gloomy tone and atmosphere. Alternatively, it could also suggest a slow death or a dying person's last words, as they are said in a slow rhythm as well. The poet believes that all the 'lustful joys' of life are fond and foolish, since in front of death they are but mere 'toys.' He confirms his belief that no one and nothing is safe from a personified 'Death,' from whose 'darts' no...
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...poem, like strand (now: beach). Here we have somebody who writes the name of the person he loves on the beach, because he wants the world to know he's in love. It's not clever because when the tide comes, the waves will wash it away. In poetry they use metaphor. An example : “you are like a red rose”, a red rose is a metaphor for beauty. Line 1-2: ‘’One day I wrote her name upon the strand, but came the waves and washed it away.’’ The speaker and his love are at the beach (strand) and the speaker is in a romantic mood, because he writes her name in the sand. The waves wash the name away. Line 3: “Again I wrote it with a second hand,” The speaker writes the name again. Second hand is the same as again. The line needs to be complete and he had already used “again”. Line 4 : “But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.” Tides: the periodic variation in the surface level of oceans. The tides are a metaphor for life and death, often used by poets, because it´s one of the cententies of life. The tide is presented as a predator. His pains (efforts) are the prey of the waves. Death is also a predator, the tides are life and death. Line 5-6: ‘’Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay, a mortel thing so to immortalize.’’ Vain has two meanings here, Vain (man) = you think too highly of yourself. Vain (assay) = useless (try). It´s useless to try and make her live forever, to make her immortal, she’s telling him. That´s impossible. In doing so he´s proving...
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...April Fabro English 200B Professor Taufer 29 May 2012 An Explication of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 12 When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summer's green all girded up in sheaves Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, Then of thy beauty do I question make, That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow; And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 12 is written in an iambic pentameter in the Shakespearean format. It is a contemplation of one’s progression of life and the absolute emergence of ones death, with an ultimate purpose to convey the answer of an individual receiving eternal life. The sonnet is a short narration of definitive mortality that focuses on the passing of time through metaphoric images of nature and through the description of ones youth evolving into the dreaded phase of old age. It is a brief description of the passing of time here on earth. It showcases the passing of time in three quatrains: the end of youth, the end of the harvest season, and the end of ones life. The poem emphasized the importance of...
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...Madison Richman Professor Tomlinson UW 1020 4 November 2015 Voiceover in American Beauty “My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This... is my life. I'm forty-two years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead”- Lester Burnham narrates through voiceover in the opening of American Beauty. Although voiceovers tend to be cliche, American Beauty, Sam Mendes’ satirical film centered upon American suburbia, utilizes this tool to strengthen its message. Lester, the protagonist, hooks the audience through the use of voiceovers on three separate occasions in the film- the opening sequence, the beginning of his last day of life, and the final scene. Film critics often argue the “show, don’t tell” method of movie making, but Lester’s narrations are very brief and serve a meaningful purpose. An anonymous author from Script Magazine writes in the article, “How to Show, Don’t Tell”: “A lot of dialogue can be avoided because actions define characters. What we watch characters do tells us so much about who they are and what they want.” While this is true in some cases, the author’s comments do not apply to American Beauty at all. “Showing” Lester’s actions would not create the same mood of suspense as “telling” Lester’s thoughts do. Thus, the voiceovers implemented in American Beauty work in an ironic way because “telling” actually creates mystery among the viewers. During Lester’s initial voiceover, the camera is filming from above with a bird’s eye...
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...“The sun is hot on my neck as I observe the spikes of the crocus. The smell of the earth is good.” The spring season has arrived, the warmer weather has come and the leaves/spikes of plants are flourishing for all to see. Millay sees and smells this all of this with her senses, but she cannot let go of the truth, that with life comes death. “It is apparent that there is no death. But what does that signify?” Edna wishes that those who appreciate the beauty of nature can also realize the existence of death. When she states “But what does that signify?” It makes the reader think about the fact that just because everything is blooming and flourishing now, does not mean that it will stay that way permanently. Spring, the season of life, summer is the time where plants start to go further into their cycle, fall is when the trees bare their leaves and plants wilt, and winter is the gloomy time of the year where plants are dead. This sequence of events can be seen as the cycle of life. Plants and people are born and eventually the time of death comes. The truth is hidden within the appearance of rebirth during the spring...
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...Moreover, in Kawabata’s novels, he explores sensuality and death. In Thousand Cranes, Kawabata presents themes that are twisted yet perverse. The story involves incest, eroticism, and unrequited love. Charged sexual energy, guilt, and dread warp the characters into caricatures of the optimistic adolescents that they were at the beginning of the novel. Throughout the novel, Kawabata capitalizes on dramatic sexuality and death (). In “The Izu Dancer,” the main character, a young man who is eerily similar to Kawabata, idealizes a fledgling dancer that he encounters, neglecting to acknowledge the grotesqueness that peeks from behind her flirtatious mask (). The story ends on a bitter note; the main character parts from the dancer, echoing...
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... This idea is evident in William Butler Yeats’s poem, “The Tower”. The power of women’s sexuality is shown through the association of light and women’s beauty and the effect of light can have on the sight of people, while the sublime functions to note the overbearing dread caused by women. Yeats describes a “peasant girl” whose beauty is well-known in the area and has inspired men to go looking for her; these men have “declared it right” to have “sight” of the woman, where the rhyme functions to link right with sight. The word “right” carries an implication of morality and justice; therefore, through the rhyme scheme, having...
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...his play Shakespeare reveals that love is a complex emotion hovered over an evil cloud of death, is confusing when loved at first sight and is the partner of death.The theme of love in this play is illustrated through the use of cacophony, imagery and metaphor, rhyming couplet and first person. These techniques reveal to the audience how Romeo and Juliet’s love was doomed from the start. The first scene in which love is explored is in the prologue. The quote “death marked love” is portrayed through the technique of cacophony.The effect of cacophony puts a harsh and discrete sound pattern in the reader’s mind and in this case the letters are d, th, m, and rk. The imagery or metaphor stained shows that their love will end in grief and ultimately death. introducing this quote from the beginning expresses that their love was doomed from the start and wasn’t meant to be. The adjective ‘marked’ shows us...
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...between, and implements of Narcissus’s transformation from life to death. 2. Body Paragraph #1 Metaphor a. Example: The group of dancing women embodies the idea of contentment. Significance: Despite the fact that the women are most likely the rejected lovers of Narcissus, they are dancing with joy because they have each other. The loss of Narcissus’s beauty has little effect on their overall happiness, since companionship is more valuable than beauty. b. Example: Narcissus’s loneliness is comparable to the remaining chess piece. Significance: Narcissus’s divine, greatly sought after beauty, ironically, has made him dissatisfied with life. As a result of his self-love and selective attitude towards possible suitors, he has ostracized himself from all others, which causes him extreme emotional pain. c. Example: The hidden statue is a metaphor to Narcissus’s inevitable fate. Significance: Just as the statue is difficult to see behind the mountain tops, Narcissus is unable to see his destiny, which is to die. Although it is difficult to detect, the constant presence of his pre-determined future is undeniable. 3. Body Paragraph #2 Juxtaposition d. Example: The figure of the living man contrasts sharply with the stone hand. Significance: This is the most explicit reference of the stark difference between the world in which Narcissus is alive and the realm after his death. Obviously, the living man, colored in warm reds and yellows, depicts...
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...This poem brings to light the conflict between beauty, goodness, and love against the selfishness of the world. The speaker talks to the subject of the poem, trying to convince him almost that he should share his beauty with the world, but it is obvious that there is some resistance to this idea. Another related conflict that is presented is propagation, whose alternative is greatly discouraged by the speaker. The speaker explains this idea that people who are beautiful ‘owe’ it the world to make offspring, who are assumed to beautiful too. Another subtler theme is death vs. life. This is presented through the idea that when someone has a child they are becoming immortal via the lives of their children. This sonnet employs the use of iambic...
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...And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells This displays how the fall is a time of nurture and growth and the ripeness of the flora in the fall that could relate to human life as one grows and matures. He uses this personification to better emphasis the beauty in this stage of autumn. It emphasis the growth of the flora that take place during autumn. It makes in imagery of this stanza more prominent and adds to the beauty one would envision in their head. Imagery in also very prominent in the poem and in the first stanza. In the first stanza every line has some sort of imagery in it. For example the first three verses are Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun Conspiring with him how to load and bless These first three verses display the imagery of the poem and the beautiful sight the author see in the fall. This imagery is placed in the poem to share this with the reader and so they can appreciate fall and to an extent life as life should be appreciated since it does come to an end as does autumn. This imagery is to emphasis the beauty of autumn and to an extent life. Finally in the first stanza there is an example of assonance. In the forth verse he says” With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;” The...
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...Li is said to be manipulating Emperor Wu. This may or may not be true as Ban was not present for the private conversation between Lady Li and her sister. However, Lady Li’s manipulating Emperor Wu is just. Emperor Wu loves Lady Li’s beauty and just her beauty. With this kind of love the Emperor harbours for her, she is able to use it against him to get what she wants: protection for her brothers and son. Along her manipulation, Lady Li is granted even more; this is all done through her beauty. In this essay, I will discuss that Lady Li’s beauty was key to manipulating Emperor Wu; in addition, I will also discuss that Lady Li’s manipulation...
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...何梓涵 12010007 To Professor Hou Yiling English Literature The Transient Sublime and Mortality in “Ode to a Nightingale” Composed during the most creative period in Keats’s brief poetic career, “Ode to a Nightingale” has long been regarded as one of the most refined works of his poetry. Previous criticism has comprehensively explored its themes of nature, beauty and mortality, as well as its demonstration of Keats’s notion of Negative Capability. But based on my research, few critical reviews have touched upon the point which I find clearly suggest itself in this poem: that the poet’s experience here depicted is not merely an escape into the realm of ideal beauty, but also an intoxication with the Romantic sublime. Between the sublime and his anticipated death, Keats builds an analogical connection from which he gains insights into both. Hence it is my endeavour in this paper to illustrate that in “Ode to a Nightingale”, Keats describes the entire process of his journey into and back from the sublime, after which he has to face again the transience of the sublime and the mortality of human life. Traditionally, most critics agree on the poem’s theme being the conflict between reality and the Romantic ideal of uniting with nature, among many other contrasts that are present throughout the poem. The most representative interpretation comes from Richard Fogle, who defines the principal stress of the poem as a struggle between ideal and actual, containing more particular antitheses...
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