Upon the Way Imagination Interact With Historical Elements in Those Poems

¶ … patterns in literary forms allows the opportunity for reading skills to grow. The subtle interplay between imagination and historical events, captured literally, provides the basis for fine art. The purpose of this essay is to examine certain patterns of human striving of, love, war and power in selected works of poetry. Margert Atwood's "Siren Song," the ballad "The Three Ravens," Wilford Owen's " Dulce Et Decorum Est," and Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" will be used in this essay to highlight certain aspects of imagination and the impact and influence of relative environmental factors that contribute to literature and the general framework of artistic expression.

Owen's war poem " Dulce Et Decorum Est" is a vibrant description of a snapshot of a soldier's life during World War I. Attacked by chemical munitions, the characters of this poem are exposed to death in the most violent and unpleasant manner: "obscene as cancer, bitter is because of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues." This is an attempt to indoctrinate the reader of this poem into a direct experience of warfare. Owen does not hide details in this work.

What can be interpreted in this poem is something of a different matter. It's hard to discern whether or not this poem celebrates or curses the life of a soldier. To die for one's country may be sweet depending on the particular path that soldier has taken in his life. A soldier's death in war as a potential to be interpreted as a complete waste as well. Owen does not seem to pick a side in this particular debate other than the fact that it is a vibrant and relative experience. War, for all this negativity and violence, produces excellent art in this case. History and imagination land in a pattern to produce a beautiful and touching poem that celebrates the human experience in Owen's work.

Atwood's "Siren Song" describes warfare from a different perspective. The mystery behind humans sacrificing themselves as they are "to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see the beach's skulls" inspires the reader to look at warfare from a more objective standpoint than Owen's work. Atwood personifies a bird watching warfare from a distance in this poem and it casts a unique light upon the experience. Here, imagination is used in a different fashion. Assuming an enlightened viewpoint, not human, adds depth to this poem in a particular way that stimulates the imagination by transcending the human mind.

The bird reveals a secret at the end of this poem that sums up the artistic experience. As Atwood wrote" only you, only you can, you are unique," it appears she supports a relative approach to life. Relativity supports empathy and whether or not someone has lived a fulfilling life by jumping overboard in an act of war, remains up to the individual who interprets this experience in their own individual way. There is no right or wrong in assuming that each person has a unique interpretation of all experience. No one angle of interpretation is better than the other, but when put together in a large macrocosmic scale, it is important to highlight and contrast the differences in order to validate truths.

Walt Whitman, the transcendentalist poet of the 19th century, in his "Song of Myself" celebrates life in a relative way as opposed to the two previous examples where death and war are examined to highlight the human experience. Whitman is clearly happy with his life experiences and this poem appears as a celebration of this blessing. Whitman is very personal in this work and his unflinching adoration for the human side of life is clearly expressed in this work. True bliss exudes from this poem. The rapturous state Whitman appears to have fallen in while writing this poem is clearly laid out in his love for questioning the exterior beauty of all things. He challenges the reader to use her imagination to touch, feel, smell and visualize his experience through his words. This poem transcends time as there is no historical context that challenges many of his observations. Perhaps transcending the idea of history and literal translation is the goal of true artistic expression.