Poetry Analysis Essays (Examples)

Poetry Analysis of "And the Sun Still Dared to Shine"
The Holocaust during orld ar II is one of the best documented and most horrendous periods of human existence. There have been other times in history where as many were senselessly killed in a short amount of time, but never have they been subjected to all of the horrors to which the Jews in the concentration camps were participants. A book of poetry by Peter Sheponik called "And the Sun Still Dared to Shine" was recently gathered to showcase free verse poetry written by survivors of the Holocaust. It is powerful book, filled with many themes that speak even more deeply to the horror and loss experienced during those dark years. This paper will look at three poems -- "In the Country," "Children of the Gas" and "Bread of Life" -- through which the theme of youth and the despair such…

poetry analysis "True Love" Wislawa Szymborska "Acquainted Night" Robert Frost
Wislawa Szymborska's "True Love"

Wislawa Szymborska's poem "True Love" is initially likely to induce feelings related to simplicity and to the overall impression that love is overrated. However, upon second reading and a more in-depth analysis, one is probable to discover that the poet was concerned about putting across a more complex message -- one that relates to the benefits of love and that is meant to criticize individuals who are reluctant to accept that love provides people with a superior state of mind. Szymborska did not actually want to say that love plays a negative role in people's lives, as she actually wanted readers to acknowledge that the world is lost without true love. Furthermore, from her point-of-view, life would have very little excitement if it were not for the idea of love.

The principal question that the poet is interested in…

Poetry Analysis of Thomas Hardy's "The Oxen"
The English poet Thomas Hardy wrote a seemingly simple piece titled "The Oxen" in 1915, as the industrialized slaughter of World War I raged throughout the European continent. Although the light tone and themes of holiday reverence and religious worship which are present throughout "The Oxen" suggest a sense of innocence, the poem actually represents the futile yearnings of a jaded old man in his seventy-fifth year, one who has long since abandoned the faith of his childhood despite a lingering affection for religious teachings. To understand the true meaning of "The Oxen," it is important to begin with an examination of its author's life and circumstances at the time it was written. As a young man, Hardy had aspired to a career as a priest working within the church which was so beloved during his childhood, but his educational experiences as a young…

Poetry analysis of the works of Sylvia Plath and Robert Hayden about paternal love and affection reflects how fathers have become the symbols of brutal and cruel love for their children, stereotyping and marginalizing them in a society where mothers and women are favored as suitable guardians for their children. In Plath's "Daddy" and Hayden's "Those winter days," readers witness two opposing views of this theme -- where the former illustrates through an analogy of the hatred between Germans and Jews, and the latter, by expressing the unreciprocated love that fathers have for their children.
The father in Plath's poem is not dissimilar to Hayden's. In fact, both fathers are portrayed as silent, dominant, hardworking, yet tenacious in their character and attitude. However, what differentiates Plath's father from Hayden's is the expression of feelings that the former expresses, which is a mixture of hatred and awe for her father. Her hatred…

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 close as his home. The poem's traditional mood, in fact, appeals to the reader's tendency to look for balance and clarity; achieving these aspects highlighted the resolute character of the Soldier. Resoluteness was reflected in the fact that he remained proud, hopeful, and loving to his country despite the possibility that he could be killed in combat anytime. In effect, the Soldier in the poem was England's sacrifice, a dedication symbolizing patriotism and nationalism, in the same way that Brooke…

poetry analysis was the notion of Jazz Poetry. This is a form that the author has strong hold of. The author does a good job of connecting the socio-historical context of time the poems were written to the type of poetry in general. That is to say that the author does a good job of realizing that the content of the poetry as well as the form of poetry were products of the times.
The author could have done a better job of strengthening the connection between Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes. It was a good point to bring up how Whitman influenced Hughes, but their connection has the potential to go much deeper than that. Walt Whitman was a homosexual man, which was far more taboo in his lifetime than it is in 21st century America (for the most part). Hughes was an African-American man in a society controlled…

These differing attitudes come into clearer focus in their more autobiographical poems. Baraka's "Leroy" shows his yearning for the black heritage that he sees being passed down to him through his mother and through him to the next generation of African-Americans. The poem is far more intimate than "Fresh Zombies." The title, Baraka's given name, announces the poem as a self-study, and the use of the first person voice makes the reader feel as if he is privy to a private thought. Baraka sees his mother "carrying life from [his] ancestors" (4) and, with it, knowledge -- not just any knowledge, but "the strong nigger feeling" (5). He is not describing the human connection to the human past, but the black connection to the black past, one that has been infected with "bullshit rotten white parts" that need to be expunged (14).

Soyinka, on the other hand, offers in "Civilian and…

hyming in Poetry
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Poetry Analysis of "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Sonnet 73" by William Shakespeare

In poetry, the element of rhyming is an essential tool used by poets in order to provide their audiences further reiteration of the subject or theme discussed in the poem. hyming becomes an effective tool for reiteration of a message because it usually functions as an element of rhythm, thereby giving the poem a distinct flow in accordance to the tone of the poem. Technically defined, rhyming is "the likeness of the terminal sound of words, frequently used in versification either at the end of a line of a verse or within the line" (Microsoft Encarta 2002). Apart from providing a characteristic flow to the poem, rhymes are also effective in providing continuity in thought, making the audiences in line with the poem's message and main idea.

In order to understand fully how rhyming is…

Allen Ginseng was a popular poet of the Beat Generation, a non-conformist free thinker who belonged to a group of people who dared to express his ideals and change mindsets.
The post-orld ar II period was characterized by unreasonable, blind faith in the institutions of America, a faith that accepted everything without questioning. This was because after having been on part of the allies during the war and having won it, lent America many economic benefits on the back of which America increased its might in world. At the outcome of the war, America was in a much stronger position among the allies as they had been spent militarily and economically in winning the war. Therefore, America was at its peak as a superpower after the ar, and its own people had developed unwavering trust in their country and its leaders, being patriotic to the extent of not being able to…

Ozymandias
Biography

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1827) was born in Sussex, England and attended Oxford University. However, he was expelled due to his political activism and spent several years campaigning against political injustices. His first marriage failed and Shelley then met and married Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Frankenstein. Shelley was good friends with fellow poet Lord Byron. Shelley drowned in a boating accident and was buried in Rome.

Analysis of "Ozymandias"

The speaker meets a traveler who tells him about the ruins of a large statue of an Egyptian pharaoh. The legs and head of the statue lie half-buried in the Saharan sands. The face appears imposing and grim. However, the sculptor, aware of the irony that the statue would far outlive the glory of the king, etched onto the stone the words, "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Now all that remains of the king's…

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, is an exercise in self-proclaiming metaphoric style. The intent of the sonnet is to show off the writer's skill at turning words and not the expressed topic of the poem, the ability to use every summer-related metaphor he can to discuss not his love, perhaps, but the subject of his expression. While many interpretations of this sonnet assert that it is a love-poem, that it is a dedication or ode to a specific woman, it can be clearly stated that the poem is not about love, but about the central metaphor itself - as though the subject is simply an exercise. As an exercise in the use of metaphor to describe the objectified woman at the center of the work, Sonnet 18, is perhaps the primary archetypal demonstration of overdone, syrupy, and quite saccharine expressions that are likely to appeal to the "hopeless" romantic.
Sonnet 18, takes place…

Langston Hughes' Poem "Madam's Past History"
The poem "Madam's Past History" is about a black woman asserting herself, remaining strong, and forcing people to show some respect for her, despite how society places her. In the voice of Madam Alberta K., she is showing that she will appear strong to the world, no matter what she has to do. In the end, Madam Alberta K. only has her pride and she defends it fiercely.

The first major point in the poem is that she makes everyone refer to her as Madam. As she states in the first verse, "The Madam stands for business. / I'm smart that way." In these lines, she is showing her reasoning for making everyone call her Madam, which is that it makes her appear strong and business-like. This business-like approach also suggests that she does not want to allow anyone to see any sign of frailty…

Adults naturally seek ways of protecting their children from harm, but overprotectiveness often backfires. Children who do not learn the truth about the world from a trusted adult may grow up ignorant or lacking the psychological resilience to face life’s challenges successfully. Both Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins write about different ways adults overly protect their children. Although their poets use different poetic devices, motifs, and symbols, both of these poems share a common theme showing that children do best when they learn how to confront their fears, not run from them. Although Wilbur and Collins use different poetic devices, the poets both achieve their goal of decrying overprotective adults. Wilbur uses an AABBCCDD rhyme scheme in “A Barred Owl,” which makes the poem read remarkably like a childhood nursery rhyme that perfectly parallels the eerie subject. On the other hand, Collins employs a free verse style, which makes more sense…

oad not Taken, obert Frost uses the setting, mood, and characterization to help illuminate the theme of choice symbolized by the road not taken.
The poem uses various literary devices to describe choice.

The poem is set in the woods, where two roads diverge.

The setting is symbolic.

The roads represent choice.

The poem has a contemplative mood.

Each of the choices is appealing

The traveler knows that choosing one road means choosing not to follow the other road.

The poem has a complex structure with:

Four five-line stanzas;

ABAAB rhyme structure;

Iambic tetrameter; and D. The use of some anapests.

Frost uses an unnamed narrator in the poem

A. Old enough to have made choices

Not an old person because the narrator expects to age

Poetry Analysis: The oad not Taken by obert Frost

In The oad not Taken, obert Frost uses the narrator's voice to describe a man looking back at his life and contemplating his choices. The narrator describes a pivotal decision-point…

Fern Hill (Dylan Thomas)
The "Poetry Explications" handout from UNC states that a poetry explication is a "relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationship of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem."

The speaker in "Fern Hill" dramatically embraces memories from his childhood days at his uncle's farm, when the world was innocent; the second part brings out the speaker's loss of innocence and transition into manhood. This explication will identify and critique Thomas' tone, imagery (including metaphors) and expressive language (as it contributes to the power of the poem). ("Fern Hill" uses 6 verse paragraphs; there are 9 lines in each paragraph.)

"Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs / About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green / the night above the dingle starry / time let me hail and climb / golden in the heydays…

Poetry in an Prosaic World:
Marianne Moore and Rafael Camp's Metapoetic Texts on the Form

Both the first lines of "Poetry" by Marianne Moore and the title of the poem "The Next Poem Could Be Your Last" by Rafael Campo startle the reader from a moment of literary complacency into a new point-of-view about the language. "I too dislike it," says Moore, regarding the subject of poetry. How could a poet dislike her media, the reader is suddenly provoked to ask? The words jolt the reader from the page and force a pause.

This sense of pausing in between thoughts is reinforced by the rendering of the poem itself, on the printed page spread out before the reader. Even the sight of the poem, therefore, causes a complementary questioning of Moore's assertion. The poem makes use of considerable white space, breaking up continuous lines of thought that in speech would be seamlessly…

Though the reader understands that this is impossible as the beauty of youth cannot last forever, Shakespeare makes a point to remedy this. The speaker in the poem notes that his love's timelessness will be ensured through his actions of writing about her. No matter what happens to either of them through the course of their own lives, the beauty of the woman being written about and love that existed at the moment of the poem's writing will be carried unaltered through the ages to come -- which has proven true for centuries.
Ezra Tompkins' poem, "What is it that Compels," focuses on the themes of love, death, and the fleetingness of human existence. The poem centers upon the speaker after the death of his father and his observance of the way his mother is handling the death of her husband. Tompkins' poem deals with the hardships that come when…

Landscape ith the Fall of Icarus
illiam Carlos illiams was an American poet well-known for his unique writing style and subject matter. A renowned imagist writer, illiams offers a curt description of Pieter Brueghel's painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus." illiams' interpretation of Breughel's painting is quite different from the lush, descriptive writing of .H. Auden who also referred to Breughel's "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" in his poem "Musee des Beaux Arts." In the poem "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," illiams relies on allusion to express his interpretation and perspective of Breughel's painting.

One of the most interesting things about illiams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," is the use of allusion, as it has to be applied at several levels. The primary level at which allusion is applied is from Breughel's perspective. In "The Fall of Icarus," Breughel depicts a peasant plowing his fields, which overlook an…

Antjie Krog's Country Of Grief And Grace
Antjie Krog (2000) uses metaphor and extended metaphor throughout the poem "Country of Grief and Grace" -- itself an exploration of existential crisis in South Africa, ravaged by apartheid and violence. Krog descends into this maelstrom to provide the reader a glimpse, a hope, a ray of light that beams through the sludge of hopelessness, despair and grief. Through her use of metaphor and extended metaphor, Krog constructs an alternate way of looking at the world in which she lives -- a framework that invites the reader to question the borders and boundaries of time and space which keep separate the past and the future, the young and the old, the black and the white. By merging or synthesizing the elements of her country into a cohesive whole, Krog shows that all is one -- and in this revelation is the seed of peace,…

Gende in Poety / Liteatue Lesson
Lesson Duation

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Rational: This is an intoduction to the gende issues which wee so pevalent in the Victoian ea, and a backdop to show why they still exist today and the ham they can inflict.

Syllabus Outcome: This pat of the lesson helps meet outcome 1, o the ability to intepet meanings and themes within texts. By using abstact thinking pocesses, the students will make connections between the texts pesented and show how they ae, o ae not elated. Accoding to the eseach, "A student esponds to and composes inceasingly sophisticated and sustained texts fo undestanding, intepetation, citical analysis and pleasue" (Boad of Studies fo NSW 2003 p 32).

Syllabus Content: This will help meet outcome 4, whee "a student selects and uses languages foms and featues, and stuctues of texts accoding to diffeent puposes, audiences and contexts, and descibes and explains thei effects on meaning" (Boad of…

Frost's Poetry And Landscape
The Rise of Modernist Poetry

Between the years of 1912 and 1914 the entire temper of the American arts changed. America's cultural coming-of-age occurred and writing in the U.S. moved from a period entitled traditional to modernized. It seems as though everywhere, in that Year of 1913, barriers went down and People reached each other who had never been in touch before; there were all sorts of new ways to communicate as well as new communications. The new spirit was abroad and swept us all together. These changes engaged an America of rising intellectual opportunities and intensifying artistic preoccupation.

With the changing of the century, the old styles were considered increasingly obsolete, and the greatest impact was on American arts. The changes went deep, suggesting ending the narrowness that had seemed to limit the free development of American culture for so long. That mood was not to last. American…

poetry of Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg
Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg are both important poets in their own right. Although they both grew up in the same era, their poetry styles have many differences. The paper firstly states their different origin, history and poetic style. Secondly, it analyzes a selected major work - "The Road Not Taken" and "The Road and The End," - of Frost and Sandburg respectively. It is worth noticing that the chosen poetries of both poets contain many elements of similarity. This makes the chosen sample most suitable to distinguish the most minor, as well as the major differences in the poetic styles of the writers. Thus, in the paper, their lives and poetry styles are compared and contrasted using an example of their poetry.

About Robert Frost

As we read of Frost, we grow in awe of him - his thinking, his understanding, his feelings, his…

This poem is also about someone close to the poet who has passed, but instead of juxtaposing presence and absence as Levine did, Amichai instead contrasts terror and joy, youth and death, and violence and peace.
The first opposition is built in the first stanza, where the poet points out the reversal of age and wisdom brought about by Dicky's early death. Before he died, Dicky was "four years older [and]…like a father" (3) to the poet. But Amichai has continued past Dicky into old age, and now he is "[the] father, old and grieving" (6).

The contrasts become more concrete as the poem progresses. The third stanza sets "the departure to terrible battles" (11) against the light, bright imagery of "gardens and windows / and children playing" (12-13). The tension established by this image of soldiers marching through blossoms and children's playgrounds sets the reader up for the more sophisticated…

Also, the use of the French language by the characters in a different type shows how the English regard French and France as exotic, in contrast of course, to Flaubert's own provincial French characters. The culture clash between French and English language and culture is a running theme in the novel.
The use of different fonts also allows for far more text on the page than is typical of most graphic novels. This befits the subject, given that it is a literary satire, and a satire of how art affects life. For example, in one dinner party, Gemma is distracted, ignoring what other characters are saying, and thinking about her lover in a similarly distracted state thinking about Gemma. This is shown by depicting thought balloon within thought balloon ad infinitum.

orks Cited

Simmonds, Posy. Gemma Bovery. Pantheon,…

Her right hand circles his neck and draws him down to her and her left hand rests assuredly on his shoulder, while his left arm wraps around her neck and his right hand nestles into the hollow of her back. They are propped on their left by a window that is draped in blueish-violet cloth, slightly pulled aside by their embrace to reveal a brighter outside world that somehow seems to forbid their love, which is being displayed in the dark of the room: their right side as well as the lower left portion (beneath the window) is hardly discernible for Munch's use of shadow.
In all, Munch's use of dark color in more than two-thirds of the composition evokes an overwhelming sense of forbidden love. Yet the fully-clothed demonstration of love suggests nothing illicit -- only something oddly forbidden by the outside modern world (strangely bright, yet seemingly condemning…

These young men were not immersed in the high modernist traditions of Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot: rather, they were immersed in the experience of war and their own visceral response to the horrors they witnessed.
Thus a multifaceted, rather than strictly comparative approach might be the most illuminating way to study this period of history and literature. Cross-cultural, comparative literary analysis is always imperfect, particularly given the linguistic challenges presented by evaluating German poetry in relation to its British counterparts. Contextualizing the British war poets requires a certain level of understanding how the war was seen by the other side, and by alien eyes. More is likely to be gained than lost by reading the German war poets in translation. Yet reading the German poets in translation allows the reader to appreciate the influence of symbolism and expressionism in their work that was not present even in the harsh…

Mongolian poet Galsan Tschinag, poetry is "an enormous counter-force against the oppressing weight of the material world." Robert Bly expresses a similar sentiment in "A Meditation on a Poem by Goethe." In "A Meditation on a Poem by Goethe," Bly reflects on Georg Groddeck's essay "Charakter and Typus," a psychoanalytic essay that exemplifies a new era of human consciousness, according to Bly. Bly notes that Goethe's poem "anderers Nachtlied II," and Groddeck's analysis of the poem, represent a shift away from what Tschinag calls "the oppressing weight of the material world." Goethe discusses the stillness and silence from a detached point-of-view, as if channeling a universal voice. In "anderers Nachtlied II," Goethe does not write to show the impact of nature on the narrator so much as he is "sending his energy, or it is being pulled out of him by the hills at evening," (Bly 280). Although the…

Irish poetry is unavoidably shaped by its historical, social, and political context. The Troubles have infiltrated poets throughout several generations, permitting unique artistic insight into the conflict. Younger poets writing about The Troubles in Northern Ireland understandably have a different point-of-view than poets from a previous generation. Their personal experiences were different, and the historical events they witnessed or were surrounded by in the media likewise differed from their predecessors. Yet there are also shared themes that provide the inextricable cultural links between all poets of Northern Ireland. Some poets, like Seamus Heaney, rely heavily on literalism and a direct political commentary in addition to poetic tropes like symbols of colonization. Likewise, Derek Mahon does not hold back in terms of diction related to The Troubles. hen examining poets from an earlier generation, who wrote during some of the most violent occasions of The Troubles, allusions and metaphors seem…

American poetry is dependent on Walt Whitman's arguments about democracy and the political role of the poet. This is a very interesting proposition, one I had not considered before, and I was excited to read the essay and analyze the arguments made by the author to substantiate the claims that Whitman's views on democracy and the political role of a poet need to be understood in order to comprehend contemporary American poetry.
While I was initially drawn to the subject because I believed it was going to focus on Whitman's definition of democracy and the political role of the poet, I was unsure about what the paper was going to be about because there did not appear to be a clearly defined thesis. I thought perhaps the author was going to explain how creativity is a political act because the author argued that creativity requires that an individual open up…

This is why wars are fought with bloodletting, why torture takes place, and why neither violence nor war is limited to the physical carnage of the battlefield.
Nordstrom 59)

The early death of Clifton's mother, as a result of having to powerlessly rely on a liar and a letch who could not provide for his family, is the ultimate example of self-inflicted violence, as is Gillman's character resorting to an expression of madness to resist her powerlessness. It was only slightly more "appropriate" for a women to realize madness as it was for her to throw herself from a three story window.

orks Cited

Clifton, Lucille "forgiving my father" in Schilb, John & Clifford, John. Making Literature Matter 3rd Edition. New York: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2005, 314.

Gelfant, Blanche H., and Lawrence Graver, eds. The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Gillman, Charlotte Perkins "The Yellow allpaper"…

Vintage Book Contemporary American Poetry. Those: - Mark Strand's "The Story Our Lives" - Robert Pinsky's "The Hearts," - Frank O'Hara's "Having a Coke ith You," - Galway Kinnel's "After Making Love e Hear Footsteps," - J.
"Having a Coke ith You"

Frank O'Hara's poem "Having a Coke ith You" presents audiences with an intriguing look into the poet's world as he focuses on discussing a topic that appears to be related to love, but that is actually more confusing that one might be inclined to believe. It seems that the poet is partly joking and partly passionate about the topic of love, considering that even though he compares his lover to some of the world's most beautiful concepts, he does not hesitate to introduce humorous lines as being related to the subject that he is discussing.

O'Hara cleverly addresses ideas such as art and life with the purpose of emphasizing their…

Sonnet Analysis
The Quality of Beauty, Love, and Sonnets

Sir Thomas Wyatt's sonnet "How the Lover Perisheth in His Delight as the Fly in the Fire" describes how love, passion, and/or beauty can be all-consuming and self-destructive. The poet uses a long-running metaphor of birds as a substitute or symbol for male lovers generally and the speaker of the poem specifically, while the sun is the female lover and possessor of great beauty -- the source of the fire or passion, in some sense. It is the nature of the birds and their relationship to the sun that concern the speaker at first, however; he comments that some are able to shield their eyes from the sun's light, and that others only come out at night because the sun is simply too much for them to handle, but that many try to play in the sun but ultimately find themselves consumed by…

Unfair
Robert Francis was an American poet whose work is reminiscent of Robert Francis, his mentor. Francis' writing has often compared to other writers such as Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Henry David Thoreau. Although Francis's work has frequently been neglected and is "often excluded from major anthologies of American poetry," those that have read his work have praised him and his writing. In "Fair and Unfair," Francis comments on balance in nature and in society. Like Frost, Francis contends nature has the ability to provide guidance if only man is smart enough to observe it. In "Fair and Unfair," Francis is able to find balance through what is written and how it is written.

The poem is told from a first person, omniscient perspective and the narrator appears to be addressing the general public; it appears as though the narrator seeks to bring attention to how nature has become disregarded as…

This is a journey that requires the utmost steadfastness and the ability of face the truth. In existentialist terms, the world and all experience is essentially absurd and the more one questions the meaning of existence, the more the irrationality and absurdity of existence is revealed. However, this reality must be faced with acceptance and equanimity.
In the case of the protagonist of this short story, he is embedded in ordinary, everyday existence and refuses to acknowledge the absurdity of existence. Ziegler, like most people, is comfortable to hide behind a wall of logic and scientific rationality; the life of non-authentic existence. However, this illusion is destroyed by the alchemist's pellet that that undermines the illusion that the world is rational or structured in an orderly way.

What the author of this story is attempting to say is that the reality of existence must be faced in the existential journey towards…

Security Analysis' has been current for more than 60 years. Graham and Dodd are not only astute observers but also veterans in the field of investing. They have seen investment markets and businesses plunge and raise themselves and have observed investor's behavior under all conditions.
Although their books are classics, Graham and Dodd manage to write in a clear and contemporary style that is just as applicable today as it was then. They provide details and techniques for achieving success as investors as well as the responsibilities of businesses to be transparent about the affair of their businesses for shareholders and potential investors.

The brunt of the book, however, is its timeless advice to students that careful assessment and review of balance sheets is the essence and key to success in investment.

The fact that Buffet writes that he has been following their "road map" for 57 years and that this is…

Mise-en-scene

As Gerald Mast states, "Details develop the film's emotional dynamics" (138), and these details are everywhere in the mise-en-scene. The most important aspect of the mise-en-scene, of course, is the acting. Actors are the most obvious props -- and Oh Dae-su provides ample instances of buffoonery that keeps Oldboy from sinking into the mire of its own violence. Despite all the gore, the film harbors a gentleness and affection, thanks to the acting from Oh Dae-su and Mido. Even the villain provides a handsome face and charming smile -- and an affable voice; even he is hard not to like, as he plays cat and mouse with Oh Dae-su.

The low-key lighting also helps provide the audience with the emotional connection necessary for the kind of mystery the film attempts to be. Scenes are shrouded in darkness -- such as when the heroes find themselves working in the Internet cafe --…

"In eloved, Morrison allows the reader to share the legacy of slavery as the characters Sethe, Paul D, and Denver attempt to make a new life in freedom. However, they cannot put the past, lived in slavery, behind them; they must reveal it to themselves, to each other, and to the reader in 'digestible pieces.'" (Nigro) The traumatic events which were experienced by slaves cannot be wiped clean, and the past will continue to have an effect on the future. Today, the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder -- the psychological consequences of experiencing traumatic events -- would perhaps be identified in Morrison's characters. (Feldspar) Nightmares, flashbacks, irritability, emotional detachment, and other distress are common symptoms, and certainly experienced by Sethe and others in eloved, all of which are a kind of continued mental slavery.
In addition to freedom being a myth because of legal and psychological reasons, there are also…

Carver's "Cathedral"
An Analysis of Theme and Plot in Carver's "Cathedral"

Raymond Carver states that by the mid-1960s he had tired of reading and writing "long narrative fiction" ("On riting" 46). Shorter fiction, he found, was more immediate. Flannery O'Connor states a similar idea in The Habit of Being: for her, the novel was a literary medium that could bog down all of one's creative powers. Turning to a short story was a way of escape: "My novel is at an impasse. In fact it has been at one for as long as I can remember. Before Christmas I couldn't stand it any longer so I began a short story. It's like escaping from the penitentiary" (O'Connor 127). This mode of thought may help us to understand why Carver turned to composing shorter works of fiction like "Cathedral," a work that acts as a brief glimpse into how one man's physical blindness…

This 'floating' use of body parts and fluid use of human and mouse anatomical characteristics is another distinct feature of the graphic style of Maus.
Frame 6

In this frame, we discover the source of the father's displeasure with Mala. Mala was putting Artie's coat on a wire hanger. The petty nature of this tantrum indicates the stress under which Artie's father labors. He is angry about small things, despite having recently suffered some permanent tragedies (heart problems and the suicide of his wife) and tragedies in the past. This suggest that the father projects his frustrations and anger about the past into the present and gets angry at relatively minor matters because of his inability to deal with his past experiences. It also is a clue as to why he has heart trouble.

The father's irascible character traits are underlined in the explanatory voice-over by the narrator Artie, who states "they…

mythical analysis of the book, including whether the mythical content of the book is a "good myth" that prepares the reader to deal with real world problems and issues. "Beloved" is a magical, disturbing, and classic work that won a Pulitzer Prize for literature. eading the book is like reading an old myth, because the story itself is larger than life, and the lessons are larger than life, too. The book teaches the reader about slavery, even if they think they know about it already. It shows the lasting affects slavery had on those who served as slaves, and how it changed people's lives, their outlook, and their very souls. It is a haunting book because it stays in the mind long after the reader has finished turning the pages. Thus, the book helps teach something incredibly important to readers by the use of myth and mythical situations.
What is…

He has to object to it to keep from confronting it in himself. The Oklahoman is not so cynical, however, for he immediately grasps hold of Parr's contradiction and cries out, "Yeah, and how about hanging the bastard? That's pretty goddam cold-blooded too" (Capote 306). The Oklahoman objects to the murder, which he views as a product of that coldness which he hears in Parr's words. The Oklahoman may represent a kind of outsider, not yet tainted by the American thirst for blood and sentimentality. To save the killer, he is willing to grant mercy, if only it will help put an end to the coldness.
At this point another man, the Reverend Post, interjects his thoughts. He seems to understand something of mercy, but at the same time he despairs of ever seeing it: "ell,' he said, passing around a snapshot reproduction of Perry Smith's portrait of Jesus, 'any…

Memento Film Analysis
Christopher Nolan's Academy Award nominated film Memento provided a new perspective on film noir and helped to redefine how a narrative was presented in cinema. Memento stars Guy Pierce as Leonard Shelby, Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie, and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy/John Edward Gammell. Through Leonard's psyche, the film's narrative structure, and its mise-en-scene, Nolan is able to demonstrate the perpetual conflict that arises in the film between good and evil, fact and fiction, and instinct and knowledge.

Memento is the story of Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator, who is suffering from anterograde amnesia. In the film, Leonard is trying to find the person that raped and killed his wife, but has trouble retaining any information long enough for him to make any progress in his investigation. However, through a series of techniques designed to jog his memory, including tattoo, Polaroid pictures, and extensive note taking, Leonard is able…

Henry eed is a free-versed and metaphorical poem; because of the word "we," I can say that the speaker in the person uses the first person point-of-view.
"Naming of Parts" talks about an issue termed as "the problem of war" by military historians and philosophers. In simpler language, the problem is determining whether 'war is war' is a continually recurring part of the life of human beings or a totally unexpected occurrence, a deviation from the norm. A partial answer to this question has been provided by eed's poem. In eeds opinion, militarism and war are not natural. For instance, in the first stanza, eed uses a significant choice of the red-flowered Japonica. Like its name suggests, "Japanese quince" or japonica refers to something that is related to Japan- a member of the Axis powers that were allied against the U.S. and England in the Second World War. (Being an…

alt hitman's "Song of Myself" continues to evoke strong emotions because of the paradox inherent in the juxtaposition between egotism on the one hand and selfless idealism on the other. The poem therefore encapsulates what it means to be an American, which is why other American poets -- and indeed poets from around the world -- have responded to "Song of Myself" poignantly. hen hitman penned "Song of Myself," the poet was imbuing verse with powerful social commentary that belies the relatively simple diction, tone, and style used. The poet reacts to the troubles in 19th century America, including but not limited to slavery and racism, urbanization and capitalism. hitman draws attention to the fact that the United States has built itself as an ideal: "the hand of God is the promise of my own." Yet that ideal has been stymied by the struggle for equality, epitomized most noticeably and…

Starbucks
As Starbucks' business has grown, so too have its accounts receivable. The accounts receivable grew 15.54% in 2013, then grew 12.4% in 2014 and 13.95% in 2015. This indicates strong growth year over year for the A/ at Starbucks.

In terms of vertical growth, the accounts receivable has been fairly steady as a percent of the company's total balance sheet, at around 5.8-5.9%. The one exception was in 2013, when it declined to 4.87%, but it went back up to normal levels the following year.

The company outlines its method of reporting its accounts receivable on page 54 of its 2015 Annual eport. The company notes that its receivables are mainly for product and equipment sales, and for royalties from licensees. The allowance for doubtful accounts is "calculated based on historical experience, customer credit risk and application of the specific identification method." Starbucks estimates that its allowance for doubtful accounts is $10.8…

Upstairs analysis
"to the One Upstairs:" God as Boss

In "To the One Upstairs," Charles Simic personifies God by comparing the deity to a boss at an office or workplace. While Simic's references and analogy may be considered to be somewhat unorthodox, and possibly heretical and blasphemous. There are several aspects of the poem that help to make it unique and discriminate it from other literary works. Some elements that allow "To the One Upstairs" to be engaging and draw the reader in include the poem's theme, the personification of God, and the analogy that Simic is able to draw between a boss and God.

"To the One Upstairs" draws upon Simic's personal background and his beliefs on religion, and God, are reflected in this highly religious poem. Though the poem does not name God as its subject, it is highly religious, a theme that carries through the entire poem. Simic makes…

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.

oth works of art have many themes and many of the same themes.

Ginserb, the 1950s, and "Howl"

He composed the poem in the middle of the 1950s, one of the greatest decades in history for mainstream America.

He is heavily influenced by previous poets and by his own lived experiences.

Howl" shows readers how they can be connected to spirituality, religion, and what is sarcred or holy with, and without the use of the formal church.

Poetry is another form of storytelling that is best when read/performed aloud.

Howling, Expression, and Jazz

A. If we are howling, either out of pain or out of pleasure, we are alive and…

Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry
At some point, all of us must have asked ourselves: Does poetry still have a place in the contemporary democratic society? Other questions arise from here of course: Does poetry play different roles in the different democracies? What is the difference between the role poetry plays in the American society and the role it plays in the European one? And from here on it may start the debate.

In the book, Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry, by Robert Pinsky, we may find some answers to these questions.

Robert Pinsky starts in the first chapter "Culture" considering the "voice of poetry"..."within the culture of American democracy." He remarks that the human society fears the most often since its early ages from the important things: the uniformisation, by globalization, centralization, loss of diversity and the possibility of disappearing from the collective memory. An American poet says…

English literature. Robert Browning. Before providing the details and evidences of the poetry of Browning, the paper would introduce a short biography so that the background information regarding the poet's nature and his attitude towards life can be noted. The characteristics and the personality traits of Browning will be included in the study. Special attention to the various aspects of Robert Browning's poetry would be emphasized and elaborated in the paper.
Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, the son of a well-educated bank clerk. He was taught privately by his father but also studied for two terms at London University. He wrote poetry from an early age and was strongly influenced by the Romantic poets, particularly Shelley, and by historical events. In 1846 he secretly married Elizabeth Barrett, with whom he had started an enthusiastic literary correspondence two years earlier and they eloped to Florence. Browning returned to England…

The work expresses with clear honesty the need to express, reality and pain, in ordworthian values. The expression of the work is poignant and clear, as the washerwoman goes through the process of noticing nature, as a guide for time rather than as something she is able to explore at leisure. The woman and the poet explored leisure, in only those available times when she was not otherwise needed for work. There is a clear sense that even in the poet's golden years her sentiments changed little as she so effectively expressed the condition of her life, through the clear and present reality of necessity, better than many of her time. The romantic poet was given license to express pain, through individual self-expression, and this working class woman was not only not an exception but probably even more committed to the ideals of the period than many of the…

The Lord will lead one to safety always. One can simply believe in something higher to get the meaning of this; it doesn't have to be Jesus. Psalm 127, contrarily is confusing because it states that unless the Lord builds the house, it is built in vain. This seems to be more literal, but I do get the idea. Unless the people building the house are doing it with the love of the Lord in their hearts, or building it for him, then what is the point?
Didactic poetry can be quite comforting as seen in Psalm 23 or it can be much too literal and seen as both confusing and condescending. Psalm 127 isn't very instructive spiritually speaking, unlike Psalm 23.

Updated Proverb: A broken toe can hurt, but a broken heart can kill.

Metaphors: Obscure or Illuminate? Didactic literature with its use of metaphors can sometimes obscure the message, as…

" Communing with nature is the ultimate Dionysian act; the poet's subsequent writing of the communion is the Apollonian gesture that tempers this Dionysian indulgence.
What each of these three poems has in common is the fact that they are based around images of human figures confronting the Dionysian motifs of descent and ascent via nature. Each poem represents a struggle between the Apollonian and Dionysian extremes, a struggle that is very much part of every human being's life. In Hamilton's poem, the poet is quite eager to run away altogether from Apollonian order into the wild chaos of poetry and the sea. It does not take much convincing for her; from the moment the poem opens, she is ready to go. Olds's poem represents a more virulent struggle between the two poles. While the father in the poem has clearly made his choice and has learned to live with it,…

First, his use of rhyme is incredibly heavy, and quickly becomes awkward and intrusive:
Ye sons of men that durst contemn the Threatnings of Gods ord,

How cheer you now? your hearts, I trow, are sthrill'd as with a sword.

(stanza 8)

The internal rhyme in the odd numbered lines of each stanza, especially when coupled with the end rhyme in the even numbered lines (this pattern repeats in the second half of the stanza), gives the poem a condescending feel as though it is an instruction for children, while at the same time hammering itself into the mind of the reader in an obsessive manner. The complete lack of enjambment strengthens this effect, especially when reading the poem out loud.

In comparison to this, Bradstreet's sometimes stilted rhyme comes out very favorably. In one of her most well-known poems, "To My Dear and Loving Husband," even her twelve straight lines of rhyming couplets…

Idyllic, Idolizing, Late Victorian Tears
The poem by the Victorian poet laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson entitled "Tears, idle tears," has the unfortunate status of having its become such a common phrase in modern parlance, that the reader finds him or herself bracing his or her ear for more and more cliches as the poem progresses. In other words, one hears that tears are idle so often, one can easily forget, not only that Tennyson said, "I know not what they mean," but that the poem attempts to express the seriousness of futility of grief, or outward displays of affection by calling tears idle, in that they do no real work in the world. The use of 'idle' in multiple variances of meaning, from impractical and lazy, to idyllic, to idolizing is in fact quite profound and sophisticated, yielding a poem with a compact linguistic and stylistic structure.

It is also important to…

Dante and Beatrice
An Analysis of the Relationship of Beatrice to Dante

Dante describes his meeting with Beatrice at an early age and in La Vita Nuova (The New Life) discusses and poeticizes the love he instantly held for her. Beatrice becomes for Dante a gate to the divine love that he examines in La Comedia, today referred to as The Divine Comedy. This paper will analyze the relationship between Dante and Beatrice and show how her role in his life is like that of a muse -- an agent of God, drawing the poet closer and closer not to herself but to the Divine.

The Vita Nuova

In the Vita Nuova, of course, Dante is drawn solely to Beatrice without anticipating the higher love that Beatrice reflects in her own person. It is this reflection in her that attracts Dante, although he does not place it as a reflection of the divine love…

Clifton Poetry Response
This author begins their analysis with a bare-bones description of poet Lucille Clifton's life and authorial perspective. Specifically the author notes the lack of capitalization or punctuation in the poems of Lucille Clifton. However, this aspect is only marginally noted and no analysis is provided as to why Clifton made these choices. It would help this author in their analysis if they put forth a kind of thesis explaining why this is notable and what the purpose within the poem is of this technique.

In discussing the poem "The Lost Baby Poem," this author explains that they believe the meaning of this poem is that someone has lost a baby. They state that one line refers to physically dropping a child while the next they interpret to mean that they baby has died at birth or was perhaps aborted. These are two different interpretations of the same text and…

So it isn't just about sex, it's about love and appreciation.
Readers know the poet is watching because Donna's stomach is white. That is different from an Asian's skin color, and the imagery here appeals to the senses because the two cultures are lying "naked, face-up, face-down" and maybe, just maybe, he can teach her some Chinese ("Ni, wo") while the two are about to engage in physical romance.

Irony is part of the stanza in which the poet reminds his readers that while the teacher seems smart enough to bring a non-ripened persimmon to class (which the poet doesn't try to eat because he knows it isn't sweet enough), the poet knows a thing or two about persimmons. Indeed, his mom gave him really good advice by saying that persimmons have the sun inside them, "...something golden, glowing, warm as my face." He may have been punished for mispronouncing "persimmon"…

loss are common concepts in poetry that have been explored by men and women alike, across time and across cultural boundaries. Two such poets are Louise Labe, a French, Renaissance poet and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a New Spanish nun and Baroque poet. In Sonnet 23 by Labe and Sonnet 165 by Cruz, issues of love, loss, and impermanence are explored through imagery and tone.
In Sonnet 23, Labe attempts to understand why her lover no longer finds her attractive or no longer wants to have a relationship with her. Labe asks, "What good is it to me if long ago you/eloquently praised my golden hair, compared to my eyes and beauty to the flare/of two suns where, you say, love bent the bow, sending the darts that needled you with grief?" In the sonnet, the narrator claims that she was once compared to the sun, which is…

Note in the above two lines the way that the coming "doom" is emphasized by word order and the placement of active verbs at the end of each line. Use is also made telling adjectives such as "lowering sky" to emphasize the apparent awesomeness of the coming washing day.
The following lines express an obviously ironic comparison between the mundane images of washing day and tragic events in history.

Saints have been calm while stretched upon the rack,

And Guatimozin smil'd on burning coals;

ut never yet did housewife notable

Greet with a smile a rainy washing-day.

Lines 29 -32)

The reference to the death of the Mexican Emperor Guatimozin makes the concerns and work of the maids and housewives seem extremely trivial and are a good example of the way that the mock-heroic expresses a point-of-view through satire.

The poem continues in this fashion to present a view of the subject from different class perspectives. For…

The horn, like Saturn,

Is suspended in its ring of steering wheel;

And below is the black tongue of the gas pedal,

The bulge of the brake, the stalk

Of the stick shift,

Lines 17-21)

The simile, "like Saturn" succeeds in expanding on the image of the car in adding a sense of its larger symbolic meaning. The other images also tend to provide the car with natural attributes - such as a tongue.

In the final lines of the poem, there is a suggestion of Apollonian individualism. The protagonist overcomes the fear of the car and drives. This can be seen as an assertion of individuality over the Dionysian mystery or, on the other hand, acceptance and entrance into that mystery. The last lines of the poem tend to favor the latter interpretation.

The world's open gate, eternity

Hits me like a heart attack.

There is a sense of Dionysian ecstasy in these lines. The poet suggests the larger…