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Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum est" describes the horrors of World War One. With rich imagery, the poet refers to the gory and horrid details of the "great war," such as "the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud," and "watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin." Owen's commentary comes directly from personal experience, as the poet served as a soldier in World War One. Having witnessed the devastation and death he describes in "Dulce Decorum Est," the poet challenges the popular assumptions of war's glory, honor,...
The title of the poem comes from a Latin phrase meaning "It is sweet and right." The phrase was often used in reference to the First World War, to promote morale among soldiers. Owen concludes that the phrase is truly an "old lie."
Written in 1926, William Butler Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" focuses not on war but on aging, death, and immortality. Through colorful, almost mystical imagery, Yeats describes the city of Byzantium through its glorious works of art, paintings that will stand the test of time. Yeats contrasts the immortal beauty of the works of art with the mortal…
Written in 1926, William Butler Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" focuses not on war but on aging, death, and immortality. Through colorful, almost mystical imagery, Yeats describes the city of Byzantium through its glorious works of art, paintings that will stand the test of time. Yeats contrasts the immortal beauty of the works of art with the mortal decay of human flesh: "An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick."
The poem "Dinner Guest: Me" by Langston Hughes describes the racial divide in America, and Hughes writes from an African-American perspective. The poem takes place around a dinner table in which the white hosts entertain a black guest, bombarding him with questions, "the usual questions / That come to white mind / Which seeks demurely / To Probe in polite way / The why and wherewithal / Of darkness U.S.A." In spite of their high-minded intellectual probing, the narrator of the poem cannot help but notice that "Solutions to the Problem, / Of course, wait. In spite of well-meaning discourse on racial equality, the problems associated with racism still exist in America and the gap between white and black remains large.
Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" describes anger and rage associated with mental and physical oppression. While Plath seems to focus on her relationship with her father, her rage extends also to her relationship with her husband, "The vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year, / Seven years." The narrator relates all forms of oppression to the Nazi slaughter of the Jews. The intensity of the poet's emotions culminated in Plath's killing herself at age 30.
Frost and Forche: Two Poems In "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost works the theme of choice into the poem by depicting a traveler -- a walker in the woods -- who is stopped at a fork in the road: one way is the worn path, which indicates that its taker will get where he wants to go; the other way is less worn, greener, and will likely lead the traveler
Poetry of William Butler Yeats [...] theme of Ireland in Yeats poetry and show in several poems how this one theme is developed and changed over time. Poems discussed are "To Ireland in the Coming Times," "Down at the Salley Gardens," "No Second Troy," "When you are Old," "At Galway Races," "Red Hanrahan's Song about Ireland," "The Falling of the Leaves," and "The Two Trees." William Butler Yeats was
" (lines 20-21) the journalist, the activist... must be the observer and not make the news. Lastly the point-of-view of the unnamed dead, "enemy" whose ears were cut off to use an example of cruelty and to elicit fear, "Some of the ears on the floor/caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on / the floor were pressed to the ground." (lines 31-33) Perhaps the ears were
This was achieved by using end rhymes, illustrated through the words, "me/be," "field/concealed," "roam/home," and "given/heaven," among others. The choice of words in the poem also helped develop the over-all mood of the poem. The usage of traditional techniques in poetry such as end rhyming and balanced rhythm mirrored the rustic and provincial landscape of England, giving the reader the impression that the Soldier synonymously associated England, his country, as
Despair in "Hope" by Ariel Dorfman There is not much to hope for in Ariel Dorfman's "Hope." A citizen of Chile when the Pinochet regime led a coup over President Allende, Dorfman experienced what it was like to have friends captured and tortured by the new government. In this poem, Dorfman explores what it must have been like for the family -- in this case the father and mother --
Art "Howl" and "Guernica" Outline The paper demonstrates the ways in which both pieces of art contemplate and express multiple themes, including those of religion, morality, happiness, life-affirmation, and freedom. "Howl" is a poem that is both a mourning and a celebration of life. "Guernica" is an expression of pain and war. Both works of art have many themes and many of the same themes. Ginserb, the 1950s, and "Howl" He composed the poem in the middle