Discuss the use of imagery in the three metaphysical poems we have :: English Literature

Discuss the use of imagery in the three metaphysical poems we have studied as a class. In the three metaphysical poems The Flea, To His Coy Mistress and A Valediction Forbidding Mourning; all have used unusual objects in their imagery, these objects are not usually associated with the subject matter so they get the poets point across in a bizarre style. All of the poems have similar themes and are all trying to persuade the women in them to co-operate with their needs in one way or another. All the poems deal with love, which is where the metaphysical aspect of the poem is portrayed. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles, in particular Ontology ('being') and Epistemology ('knowing'), and that is concerned with the ultimate nature of reality. Metaphysical poets were a group of early 17th Century English Poets whose wok is characterised by ingenious, highly intricate wordplay and unlikely or paradoxical imagery. They use rhetorical and literary devices, such as paradox, hyperbole and elaborately developed conceits, in such a way as to engage the reader by their sheer outrageousness. In A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, a compass is used as the imagery. The poet is saying that he is at one point of the compass and she, his lover, is at the other and no matter how far he moves away they are still joined together. But when the lovers are together the points of the compass come together and the compass grows erect, this closed compass is an image of his erect penis. This image that the poet uses is to say to her that she need not worry because she is the only woman for him. At the top point of the image of the compass joining the man and woman together there is also a hidden picture of an eagle, "Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate." The 'ayery' in the quote is shaped to be seen as the word aviary which gives the idea of birds. When the illustration of 'gold' is mentioned before this, the two visual representations are combined to create an image of a golden eagle. The golden eagle is seen as a symbolic figure of strength and importance and within this text the poet is saying that the eagle is watching over them and protecting their love. The poem also brings up the subject of "Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares," this is when the world was debating as to whether the earth was the centre of the universe. This caused a huge uproar in society because it shook peoples' beliefs. It is a sexual image and Discuss the use of imagery in the three metaphysical poems we have :: English Literature Discuss the use of imagery in the three metaphysical poems we have studied as a class. In the three metaphysical poems The Flea, To His Coy Mistress and A Valediction Forbidding Mourning; all have used unusual objects in their imagery, these objects are not usually associated with the subject matter so they get the poets point across in a bizarre style. All of the poems have similar themes and are all trying to persuade the women in them to co-operate with their needs in one way or another. All the poems deal with love, which is where the metaphysical aspect of the poem is portrayed. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles, in particular Ontology ('being') and Epistemology ('knowing'), and that is concerned with the ultimate nature of reality. Metaphysical poets were a group of early 17th Century English Poets whose wok is characterised by ingenious, highly intricate wordplay and unlikely or paradoxical imagery. They use rhetorical and literary devices, such as paradox, hyperbole and elaborately developed conceits, in such a way as to engage the reader by their sheer outrageousness. In A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, a compass is used as the imagery. The poet is saying that he is at one point of the compass and she, his lover, is at the other and no matter how far he moves away they are still joined together. But when the lovers are together the points of the compass come together and the compass grows erect, this closed compass is an image of his erect penis. This image that the poet uses is to say to her that she need not worry because she is the only woman for him. At the top point of the image of the compass joining the man and woman together there is also a hidden picture of an eagle, "Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate." The 'ayery' in the quote is shaped to be seen as the word aviary which gives the idea of birds. When the illustration of 'gold' is mentioned before this, the two visual representations are combined to create an image of a golden eagle. The golden eagle is seen as a symbolic figure of strength and importance and within this text the poet is saying that the eagle is watching over them and protecting their love. The poem also brings up the subject of "Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares," this is when the world was debating as to whether the earth was the centre of the universe. This caused a huge uproar in society because it shook peoples' beliefs. It is a sexual image and

African American Literatury Essay

African-American literature can be defined as writings by people of African descent living in the United States of America. The African-American literary tradition began with the oral culture long before any of the materials in it were written on. Throughout their American history, African-Americans have used the oral culture as a natural part of black expressive culture. They are very powerful voices that give fuller meanings to words on a page. The America South is an important landscape in African-American literature. The South was a primary port of entry for slaving vessels. Most black slaves remained in the Southern states. The South was an important place for the African-American literature because the South was served as the site of hope and change for the black slaves but there were also horrors. The majority of African captives entered the New World from the Southern ports and remained in the Southern states. They relied heavily on the African cultural heritage and belief systems familiar to them. During their 300 years of slavery and servitude, black slaves and their descendants developed a complex relationship with the South. Amiri Baraka concluded that the South is a part of the scene of the crime, a land that is about the site of hope and the scene of the crime. For many African Americans, the South serves as the site of hope and change. The South has given birth to many African-American cultural practices, such as literature. This is the spiritual and ancestral home for African Americans and plays a dominant role in African-American literature. Before the American Civil War, African-American literature primarily focused on the issue of slavery, as indicated by the subgenre of slave narratives The most noted authors were all incited and inspired by the goings on in the south. Frederick Douglass was one of the most important African-American authors from the literary landscape in the South. He chronicled his life from bondage to freedom in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845), which helped the American public to know the truth about the institution of slavery and dismiss the myth that slaves were happy and treated well. He said, the South was not only a notorious site of slavery, it was also a landscape of racial terror and widespread violence. The biggest crime the South ever committed is the institution and perpetuation of slavery. But the Southern landscape is more than just the â€Å"scene of the crime† in African-American literature. It has multiple personalities that demand multiple treatments. Many 20th-century African-American writers, whether born and raised in the South or not, have used the southern landscape in their works to explore the complex relationships African-American communities have with the South. In her poem â€Å"Southern Song,† Margaret Walker (1915 – 1998) sings a praise song to the southern suns and southern land despite the â€Å"mobs† and â€Å"a nightmare full of oil and flame. † Southern Song I want my body bathed again by southern suns, my soul reclaimed again from southern land. I want to rest again in southern fields, in grass and hay and clover bloom; to lay my hand again upon the clay baked by a southern sun, to touch the rain-soaked earth and smell the smell of soil. I want my rest unbroken in the fields of southern earth; freedom to watch the corn wave silver in the sun and mark the splashing of a brook, a pond with ducks and frogs and count the clouds. I want no mobs to wrench me from my southern rest; no forms to take me in the night and burn my shack and make for me a nightmare full of oil and flame. I want my careless song to strike no minor key; no fiend to stand between my body’s soutnern song–the fusion of the South, my body’s song and me. Margaret Walker’s poem characterizes the complex literary representations of the South in a great deal of African-American literature, for the speaker at once basks in the beauty of her homeland (â€Å"I want my body bathed again by southern suns†). Yet at the same time experiences a homecoming complicated by the threat of Southern violence (â€Å"I want no mobs to wrench me from my southern rest†). The theme of the southern home and its layered history is a prevalent one throughout the tradition of African-American literature. In conclusion, 90 percent of African-Americans lived in the South, it is no wonder that this landscape has taken on a great deal of cultural and historical significance. Literature from the South is complex and often absurd, as the region emerges repeatedly as a site of home.

The Study of Modernism and Globalization - 1744 Words

Many authors have tried to understand the world as it is today, through the study of modernity and globalisation. Appadurai, an Indian sociologist, has defined globalisation as â€Å"a new industrial revolution driven by powerful information and communication technologies which has barely begun† (2006:35). Its effects are dramatically different depending on geopolitical situations, peoples and countries. For the wealthiest countries it is a source of an ever increasing profit, whether it is culturally, economically, or financially speaking. On the contrary, for the rest of the world, and interestingly enough the largest part of it, â€Å"it is a source of worry about inclusion, jobs, and deeper marginalisation† (2006:35) and through this feeling of†¦show more content†¦The fact that these points of reference were rattled over a rather short period of time has created doubt where as what constitutes â€Å"us† and â€Å"them† (2006:5). This idea is linked to the notion of anxiety of incompleteness, which, as Appadurai states it, â€Å"has much to do with the strange inner reciprocity of the categories of â€Å"majority† and â€Å"minority† in liberal thought† (2006:8). It is triggered by the imagined obstacles to a nation as a perfect space without the impurity that minorities represent. While acknowledging that this uncertainty and anxiety are not the direct consequences of globalization, Appadurai considers that the absence of defined barriers to the circulation of goods and ideas in our modern era has enabled the rise of such a disturbed vision of a nation by its people. From those theories, Appadurai puts forward the idea of the â€Å"fear of the small numbers†, his main argument after which the book was named. Indeed, the smaller the number, the weaker the minority, and the deeper the anger that is triggered by its capacity of making the majority feel that it is only a majority rather than a national ethnos commonly accepted as such and never disputed (2006:53). The author justifies the fear of the small numbers, that is fear of minorities, by explaining that â€Å"small numbers represent a tiny obstacle between majority and totality or total purity† (2006:53) hence they tend to become the focus of hatred and increasesShow MoreRelatedThe Four Noble Truths Of Buddhism1635 Words   |  7 Pagesfigures, Kaneta Taio and Che-Un Sunim, have worked in Japan and Korea respectively to help relieve the suffering of their people. Moreover, by evaluating the lives of Taio and Che-Un, we are able to identify limitations in the definitions of Buddhist modernism outlined by authors we have studied in class such as David McMahan and Anne Blackburn. 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