In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight written by the Pearl Poet, Sir Gawain is proven to be a true knight. The Pearl Poet proves Sir Gawain’s true knightmenship in many different ways. Sir Gawain succeeds in earning the title “true knight” by passing the Green Knight’s test and proving the valor of King Arthur’s knights, but he makes mistakes in the process because he is human, like everyone else.…
Humankind’s threat to the earth and the natural world has been a common theme of writing since the industrial revolution and underpins The Crest. Kinsella’s forboding poem presents a powerful analogy with man’s pastoral development and it’s intrusion into the natural world.…
The travelers in Robert Gray’s poems Flame and Dangling Wire, and Arrivals and Departures undergo negative experiences that, although constitute as new knowledge, result in them viewing the world as a more destructive place. Exposure to death and destruction are commonalities in the poems, which in turn disillusion the journeyers. Flames and Dangling Wire creates dark imagery of a desolate, defective future that has been destroyed by the pollution of man. Men are compared to “scavengers/ as in hell the devils/ might pick about through souls” and are presenting people as incomplete figures of humanity. This simile provides insight into the idea that man’s eternal existence is futile because the world, which in the past was civil, has become a place of mockery where “the horse-laughs”. Similarly, the journeyer in Arrivals and Departures is confronted with death, leading him to question what is morally right. The sound of “the engines’ then almost subliminal thump would stop” suggests that the continuous heartbeat of…
Into the mind state of those influenced by Nazi warfare. What begins as a seemingly…
Throughout the poem, animal imagery is used to show the atmosphere and the mood. For example “Where shadows prowled the alleys.” The word prowled makes us think of a predatory animal and shows the atmosphere to be quite sinister and dark.…
In this excerpt from The Crossing, by Cormac McCarthy, the subject has killed a wolf and is presently brooding over his feelings regarding the fallen creature. His thoughts are displayed in a rather convoluted manner, many of which offset one another, and can cause confusion for the reader. Fortunately, through the usage of diction, syntax, and imagery, McCarthy helps to convey the impact that the experience of the situation has on the main character.…
Additionally, the moon is described as an “orange disk” (Roberts 19) whose rays lit the ravine “strangely”(Robert 19). The mention of the darkness and the strange moonlight create a distinct first impression of what is to come. For example, the child’s strife, the battle of man versus beast, and the “rapidly decaying” bodies of the panther cubs. The tone may be foreboding in terms of these events. Perhaps the darkness and the moonlight may connect yet again to Darwin (his connection between animal and human) in the sense that there is a sense of mourning for the cubs (and even the adult panthers). The reader may emotionally connect with the weeping child, but there is no denying that Robert’s provides for the reader a sense of mourning for the panthers and the decaying cubs. As discussed, man is simply a more cunning animal and so, there is a darkness and a mourning for the animal as well as the…
A vast range of literary techniques is employed in the text, all of which contribute to exploring the negative outcome of journeys. Imagery is a predominant throughout the entire text, appealing to the auditory, olfactory, tactile and visual senses. This is highly effective in depicting the wild beauty and the horror of nature. Quotes such as “…the clouds brewing above and the dirt swirling around his feet” and “skyline rushing down to drown his brittle form” conjure up images of the uncontrollable force of nature and the insignificance of humans in comparison. Fudge also encompasses more harsh imagery to further reinforce the harshness of life. This is evident in the quotes, “…spluttered mucus and blood” and “…covered in crusted blood, jaws ripped from his skull”. All these descriptions are then directly linked to nature’s ferocity. Fudge has characterised “The Land” as nature’s representation in the text. He emphasises and reinforces The Land by encompassing heavy use of personification. “the Land was speaking”, “the Land throbbing” and “the Land had suffocated his family” all use personification. The repeated use of ‘the’ before the subject, ‘Land’, combined with the effect of personification, emphasises and reinforces the authority and dominance of nature.…
While reading this poem I had to reread several lines over and over again simply because I liked them so much. A few lines that stood out to me were, “The skeleton of a calf's been wrapped around a pipe”, “A yolk slides down the drain”, and “You drive into the Wyoming part of you where it's obvious there have been some sacrifices” – all of these lines throughout this poem are vivid and give off a sense of loss. A dead baby animal represents something nipped in the bud, a yolk sliding down a drain is a fast and hopeless loss that can’t be recovered (without being messy anyway), and seeing sacrifices on a drive represents the loss of something important during the course of life. All of the images throughout this poem pulled on my heartstrings and were pieced together into a relatable format with pictures of food, animals, and rustic imagery, i.e. a plastic jug of milk, an egg yolk, flamingos, white dogs, horses, Wyoming, missile silos, tornados, bottoms of lakes, etc. And my favorite part of this poem that really caught me off guard, sealed the deal, and made me want to write this response, was the way the poem ended. The lines, “Everyone who ever knew you gently roams the town at the bottom of a lake - They flash to the surface,…
There are multiple ways of perceiving the poem and the tensions between man and technology it presents. One viewpoint, as expressed by Judith Kitchen in her book “Writing the World: Understanding William Stafford“, suggests that the poem by Stafford, “Traveling Through the Dark” demonstrates “the encroachment of mechanized society on the wilderness” (Kitchen). For Kitchen, this poem deceptively simple and straightforward title of the poem by William Stafford, “Travelling Through the Dark” and its conversational style belie an incredibly deep sense of pain and guilt that the narrator suffers through. By examining the way the poem uses language to express these emotions, particularly by looking at the way certain objects take on a life (the car, for instance, which itself “aims” and swerves” as though it is the embodiment of man and technology) Kitchen expresses how the poem by Stafford “Traveling Through the Dark” hides a complex message about man and nature behind deceptively simple phrasing, syntax, and tone. She points out ways in which some very simple word choices in the poem by William Stafford, “Traveling Through the Dark” take on monumental importance, stating, for example, that when the poet refers to the “group” witnessing this event, “The group appears to be the man, the deer, the unborn fawn, and by extension, all of nature” (Kitchen). In short, Judith Kitchen assists the casual reader of this poem…
City of beasts is a text about a young boy named Alex who is forced into an adventure with his Grandmother into the Amazon rainforest. Stopping by woods on a snowy evening is a poem about an unidentified persona riding through dark woods on a snowy evening. I think that the main inner journey expressed in both of the poems is an inner journey through the temptations of what we want, and the responsibility of what we must.…
Imagine a world where the skies are grey and the ground is torn to pieces. Where there is no civilization present, nor another human being to be seen. Where the feeling of hunger influences you to consider the idea of human flesh filling your insides and persuading you to do so. A world infested with murder, crime, and despair—which have now become necessary for survival. Imagine the air thick with black clouds towering over your very essence and having to muddle through 10 feet of snow and a strong gust of wind. A world where all faith should be gone, but amiss all bad things, it continues to linger through the eyes of the youth. Being able to see the light when your surroundings are pitch black signifies that humanity has not been lost completely. Although, the man knows in his heart that death is inevitable and dangerously close, he continues to live for the sake of the boy whom he believes carries the final hope for humanity. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author conveys that although there can be despair and bloodshed in the world, love overcomes all with a little faith. The man views the boy as a symbol for hope and provides the man with a purpose in life, to protect the boy above all.…
Slavery began in America when the first African slaves were brought to Virginia in the 16th century. Slavery assisted in the formation, growth, and development of the United States both the north and the south. It had a huge impact on the growth of an emerging nation, increasing economic growth, urbanization, and industrialization of the United States. During the first half of the 19th century, criticism and defenses of slavery evolved, but many slave owners disagreed that slaves should be freed and given the same rights of white men. The disagreements about whether slaves should be considered equal to white men created more conflict between the North and South in the 19th century, causing the Civil war to be an irrepressible conflict.…
In “Thoughts of Capital Punishment” and “Traveling Through the Dark” they illustrate different imagery. In Mckuen’s poem the imagery described is cartoon like: “And then found guilty, after too fair a trial should be caged in a cage with a hyena’s smile or maybe an elephant with an elephant gun should shoot out his eyes when verdict is done.” This stanza illustrates silliness and rather immature from the poet. If we try to imagine the poem, we wouldn’t be able to imagine the situation because of his lack of imagery: “for her husband who lies with his guts spilling out cause he didn’t know what automobiles are about.” Although this part may illustrate some imagery, we would not be able to imagine the killing of “Mrs. Badgers husband”. While in Stafford’s poem he shows real life imagery: “My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting, alive, still, never to be born.” Stafford is showing genuine emotion and real tenderness towards the deer and we can have a visual of deer and its unborn fetus.…
Hank Shaw’s “On Killing” is an article showing the readers that there is more than meets the eye on the sport of hunting. His style, use of first-person, and emotion really capture the reader’s attention and makes it easy to build a convincing connection through text. This relationship allows the reader to learn more about him as an individual versus just an author. Shaw’s title and opening line insinuates the piece might be about death and killings of some sort. A sad topic, yet he finds a way to turn this around into something beautiful and worth reading.…