Abstract As the 21st century begins, poetry remains relevant to the lives of people in the Western world, an antidote to the popular culture of spectacle and instant gratification. Using the example of British poet, Jamie McKendrick, this paper argues that poetry remains relevant because it reflects what is universally felt and experienced by humanity. Poetry is irrelevant to popular culture, but not to the populace. McKendrick's poetry reflects life in a way that more spectacular entertainment cannot do. His poems invite the reader to reflect on great questions and to notice small details and beauties of the world. One of McKendrick's abilities is to express emotions in a way that the readers themselves could perhaps never manage. Poets are truth-speakers, and because their work truly reflects life, it is seldom straightforward. It is rare that a poem is fully appreciated after the first reading. Poetry demands engagement with the reader or listener; it cannot be passively watched like a Hollywood film. The reader must interact with the poem, and in the process, helps create the poem, since the meaning inferred by one reader may be different from that of another reader, and both may be different from the author's intended meaning. The paper concludes that poetry continues to be relevant because it expresses the human experience and does so with an uncommon intimacy and truthfulness.
From the Paper "A poem will last for centuries if it skillfully explores the human experience because the essence of that experience does not change. Sappho and John Donne, for example, will always be relevant because people will always develop romantic infatuations. Alienation, longing, love, grief, the search for meaning, the discovery of the sublime in mundane life: These things will always be relevant. McKendrick can set his poems outside of time, as he does with "The Belen", or set a poem in Dante's Hell, because he writes about being human, not about being human in a particular century. In Ink Stone, he often writes of loss. The struggle of the intellect to understand death and the loneliness felt at the death of someone who understood one's dreams will resonate with readers in the next century as much as in this one because the act of grieving will not change."
Abstract This essay analyses the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Three aspects of the poetry are considered: romanticism, American pragmatism, and the art of Longfellow's writing. This essay examines three of Longfellow's poems - The Slave's Dream, My Lost Youth, and A Psalm of Life - and concludes that Longfellow's poetry demonstrates characteristics of romanticism, but with an American perspective on pragmatism and art.
Abstract This paper tackles the difficult task of assigning a general definition and meaning to the art of poetry. It uses quotes from Aristotle, Plato, Pablo Neruda, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth and Charles Johnson. The claims made by the poetry greats and the author are then supported by examples in classic poetry. It is very articulate, and provides a strong, clear argument. It is both reflective and analytical.
From the Paper "According to Galileo, "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." This task of discovery is certainly not an easy one, and most are either not willing or not able to share such a process with the world. A good poet, however, thrives upon this very challenge. 1971 Nobel Prize Laureate Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto (penname Pablo Neruda) said that the poet's obligation is to "feel the crash of the hard water / and gather it up in a perpetual cup" so that "through [him], freedom and the sea / will make their answer to the shuttered heart" (ll. 16-17, 29-30). The poet must put his ear to the world and experience each of nature's lessons; this knowledge, however, is useless if he cannot convey it to an audience in indelible ink. He must share these axioms in his words, either through personal experiences or general observations. Most modern classifications of quality poetry are derived from two main camps: that of Plato, and that of Aristotle. Plato affirmed that "all good poets... compose their beautiful poems not by art, but because they are inspired and possessed" (1025). He emphasized that it is the driving force that overcomes a poet that distinguishes his work, not his ordinary ability use the craft. Furthermore, Aristotle explains that "the reason why men enjoy seeing [poetry] is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, 'Ah, that is he.'" (1026). Poetry, then, is an articulation of a worldly truth, which may be achieved through a variety of isolated or universal means, and is directly the result of profound passion escaping the author."
Abstract The author looks at literary criticism, its definition, specific function and the contradictions that arrise from its use. The author then looks at how different literarcy critics have attempted to pin Baudelaire's poetry down to something concrete, like knowledge, and in the process destroy the very notions he was portraying. By looking at the dependence of literary criticism on Aristotelian philosophy of art, in analyzing Baudelaire's poetry, the author illustrates how the intended meaning, and therefore, by extension, it's beauty has been destroyed.
From the Paper "From the arguments above, it becomes obvious that criticism is applicable to Baudelaire's poetry as long as it is constrained within the limits of internal and semiprivate analysis. These approaches do not harm the beauty of the works, on the contrary. They are the means for explication of modernity, which is one of the elements of beauty according to Baudelaire - the element of particular. External evidence, in contrast, not only is inappropriate, being tangent to criticism, but also contradicts the second essential element of beauty - the element of absolute."
Abstract This paper on the pastoral convention in poetry describes the historical roots of the convention and its development. It shows that pastoral poetry is more than a mere convention and many works pertaining to the convention are of a high literary merit with social, political and personal thoughts evident in the work that can only be truly appreciated if they are examined in detail beyond the face value. The paper uses examples of poems that may be seemingly relatively simple with the themes of the convention have a deeper meaning that depends on the reader's interpretation.
From the Paper "Pastoral Poetry is a literary work dealing with the lives of shepherds or rural life in general. It typically draws a contrast between the innocence and serenity of simple country life and the misery and corruption of the city, especially court life. The Pastoral imitates rural life, usually the life of an imaginary Golden Age, in which the loves of shepherds and shepherdesses play a prominent part. The term today loosely pertains to poetry that contains a reference to rural life."
Abstract This paper analyzes the poetry of Muriel Ruckeyser, as found in her book "The Book of the Dead", and that of Adrienne Rich, using her work entitled "Twenty-one Love Poems". The paper gives a biographical background on each of the poets, stressing their importance to the contemporary women's movement and to American poetry. Rich's poems are explored for their ideas on the relationships between women, and Ruckeyser's are studied in terms of their comparison to a documentary and in relation to her strong political view.
From the Paper "To many, Poetry is the voice of women. It is the way in which women can express their inner thoughts and feelings, to write the things that they can not say. Poetry is more than words on paper but someone's feelings and life poured into the readers mind. Poets let the readers climb inside their heads and taste what the poet feels, sees, and thinks.
Two major women poets that are in the inner ring of American feminist poets are Muriel Ruckeyser and Adrienne Rich. Though their poetry may be different in content, many of their messages are the same: we need to be heard. Ruckeyser's "The Book of the Dead" describes conditions and feelings of the Gauley Bridge tragedy through actual courtroom testimonies to words from actual citizens of the town. Adrienne Rich's "Twenty-one Love Poems" describes in many ways, her love of her companion as well as their struggles and times together."
Abstract This general overview of Wallace Stevens' work, introducing his individual volumes of poetry, book-by-book, highlights the major points of his poetics without the usual associative amalgam of theme, form, diction, imagery, symbolism and belief that complicates most surveys of his poetry. The paper explains that the volumes appeared as separate collections, but the Stevens criticism and scholarship invariably commingles them as if they were parts of a simultaneously generated whole. This book-by-book overview clarifies the poetic perspective and suggests revisiting his collections with a fresh modular approach.
From the Paper "Wallace Stevens' poetic development began with his apprentice poems published under pseudonyms in the Harvard Advocate at the turn of the century, but it was not until more than twenty years later that his elegant style and ambiguous motifs detonated into the flashy modernism of Harmonium (1923). The first change of style was drastic; he jettisoned the conventional sonnet, absorbed imagism, experimented with semi-open forms and, by liberating his style, he liberated also his sense of the bizarre, comical, and relentlessly aesthetic. Even between the brief lyrics and the deft prosody of the longer poems, Stevens' style invariably shifts to accommodate his tenets about the axis of imagination and reality. This overview looks at those shifts book-by-book."
Abstract This paper examines various forms of poetry, including a selection of age appropriate poems for 5 to 6 year olds. The poems examined range from lyrical to narrative to dramatic. It looks at how poetry can dramatically enliven a writing workshop environment in a classroom, and help young writers, especially the ones that struggle to find their voices.
From the Paper " Poetry began in prehistoric times when people passed down their oral history in poetic language and song. There are three specific types of poetry including lyrical, narrative, and dramatic. Lyric poetry is any poem that is short in length. Narrative poems tell stories, an epic or ballad. Dramatic poetry also tells a story, but in this case one or more of the poem's characters acts out the story. In order to select the right poems to read to kids the reader must choose poems that are age and content appropriate."
An analysis of the poetry of William Wordsworth and how he invokes redemption and memory to infuse a sense of self within the context of his experiences: both past and present.
1,125 words (approx. 4.5 pages), 1 source, 2006, $ 44.95
Abstract In this literary study, the poetry of William Wordsworth is examined in relation to his creative evolution and poetic experience through memory. In many ways, Wordsworth uses his poetry to reveal his own emotive reactions to the past, and how his creativity helps to bring forth a new and stronger vision of self in the present.
Abstract This paper examines the interaction between poetry and our everyday lives, with a particular emphasis on poetry and religion. The author illustrates this with the example of two of Mark Blakes' Romantic era poems, "The Little Black Boy" and "The Chimney Sweeper." The full text of both poems is included in the paper. The paper compares these two poems, showing that they allegorically relate the importance of God and religion in our lives.
From the Paper "Shelley also elevated Poetry as a medium that has its own utilitarian functions; particularly those that pertain to vital institutions in society that instigate change. Some of these institutions are in the areas of education, law-making, governance, and even religion. For example, the relationship of religion and poetry, specifically poems during the Romantic period of literature, is reflected in two of Mark Blake's poems: The Little Black Boy and The Chimney Sweeper, taken from the website of Quotations.About (2006)."
Abstract This is a journal entry with various information about poetry writing and other interest. It is written from a Christian point of view with words that seem to paint a picture of what the student is seeing and feeling.
Abstract This essay illustrates how contemporary cultural scenes in America are employed in poetry, particularly as they apply to the writings of Phillis Wheatley and Philip Freneau.
Abstract The paper explains that Percy Bysshe Shelley's ?A Defense of Poetry? works in harmony with "Arcadia", an essay wherein he praises the Romantic poetic practice of preferring imagination and creative inspiration to reason and rational thought. The author points out that Shelley inextricably links rational thought and imagination to acts of creation, a concept crucial to understanding the role of Thomasina Coverly, the adolescent daughter of the manor, as the central character in "Arcadia". The paper stresses that, in "Arcadia", Thomasina represents Shelley's poet as a prophetic voice.
From the Paper "Hannah Jarvis and Valentine Coverly are two modern era characters studying the historical records and gardens of the Croom Estate. Both characters present an indifferent disdain for Romanticism with each passionately defending their preference for the rational thinking Neoclassicists of the Enlightenment. Hannah Jarvis, an emotionally detached historian, is interested in Sidley Park's hermit as a symbolic representation of Romanticism's ?decline from thinking to feeling" (Stoppard 27). However, she undermines her stated rationalist view when she fervently proclaims to Valentine, "it's wanting to know that makes us matter" (Stoppard 75). By claiming, the passion for knowledge matters most and not the attainment of knowledge Hannah's statement explicitly demonstrates her reliance on feeling over reason in what otherwise appears as her wholly analytic thought process. Valentine Coverly, an Oxford mathematics and biology student, dismisses Thomasina's genius declaring, "she was just playing with numbers" (Stoppard 47). A theory he declares unknowable in Thomasina's time, "You can"t open a door until there's a house? (Stoppard 79). By opening that door Septimus become Hannah's lunatic and Thomasina becomes Valentine's poet."
Abstract In this article, the writer discusses an essay by T.S. Eliot that argues whether English is the best language for writing poetry. The writer discusses that language may limit what a poet can or cannot do, but it is the ability of the poet to capitalize on language that accounts for poetic greatness.
From the Paper "T. S. Eliot stated that art as Goethe said is in limitation and a great poet is one who makes the most of the language that is given him. What Eliot further argues is that the truly great poet makes his language a great language. Throughout his essay, Eliot argues first that his own language, English, is the richest for the purposes of writing poetry but affirms that while he believes that English is the most remarkable medium for the ... "
Abstract This paper examines the effect of the Cold War on American society, particularly as it manifests in poetry and song. The paper discusses the Cold War's impact on American culture and TV shows and presents an analysis of the poem "How Krushchev Stole Khristmas," as well as other topical poems.
