... individual. What makes one person's life different from the next? Whitman leaves the apprehension that the distinguishing characteristics are few. Whitman informs the audience that he has lead the same life as they, who lead the same life as their children will and their ancestors did. The poet questions the significance of a person's achievements by asking, "My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre [sic]?" It would be hard for any person to measure their self-accomplishments on the planetary scale which Whitman is speaking of. The second verse of the poem introduces the metaphor of the world being a "simple, compact, well ...
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... of flesh, were ever-present disciplines in Emily's life (Sewall 22). Despite her stubborn denials to be labeled, she was very much of a “New Englander”. Cynthia Griffen Wolff, author of Emily Dickinson, points out that Emily “knew every line of the Bible intimately, quoted from it extensively, and referred to it many more times than she referred to any other work... yet in this regard she was not unusual by Amherst's standards” (72). The most prominent figure of religious virtues in her life was her father, Edward Dickinson. Reading the Bible to his children and speaking in town of religious ethics were daily events in his life. At home, he tried to raise ...
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... the persona interrogating his neighbour as to whether a wall is necessary between them “If I could put a notion in his head”. Frost in this poem uses a simple rural activity, that is the mending of a wall, to conjure a much more universal theme that is isolation. The persona ponders at the fact why man can not live without walls, boundaries, limits and particularly self-limitations. “There where it is/ We do not need a wall”. Isolation of the individual links to our desire for barriers and boundaries as a form of separation from other people. We find in “Mending Wall” the desire of a rural farmer to mend a wall every spring between him and the persona “And set the w ...
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... hearse then with gilt wheels and no top at all. On this the coffin lies by its own weight. No wreaths please- especially no hot house flowers. Some common memento is better, something he prized and is known by: his old clothes-a few books perhaps- God knows what! You realize how we are about these things my townspeople- something will be found-anything even flowers if he had come to that. So much for the hearse. For heaven's sake though see to the driver! Take off the silk hat! In fact that's no place at all for him- up there unceremoniously dragging our friend out to his own dignity! Bring him down-bring him down! Low and inconspicuous! Id not have him ride ...
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... fresh air before trying to talk anything out. He obstructs her attempt to escape and forces her to describe what she is looking at when she continually gazes out the window. She is offended by his lack of understanding of what she is viewing and the conflict unravels. It seems as though they both have been grieving the loss of their child differently. Any feels her grieving is superior to her husband’s. His anger emerges as he feels that she must be sadder than he is. It is obvious at this point that they haven’t cried together and allowed themselves to vent as a couple. It turns out that he dug the grave himself while she watched. She seems bitter that frie ...
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... along very well. In Lord Byron's early years he experienced poverty, the ill-temper of his mother, and the absence of his father. By 1798 he had inherited the title of 6th Baron Byron and the estate of Newstead Abbey. Once hearing this news, he and his mother quickly removed to England. All of Byron's passions developed early. In 1803 he had his first serious and abortive romance with Mary Chaworth. At the age of15 he fell platonically but violently in love with a young distant cousin, Mary Duff (Parker 10). He soon had another affair with a woman named Mary Gray. Soon hereafter he was involved with many liaisons with such women as Lady Caroline Lamb and th ...
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... enough to let them talk about it. His display of faithfulness in the women's unfaithfulness is also a reaction to the Victorian idea that the wife should be there for her husband. It could also be a scary reality in Hecht's mind that times were changing and women wouuld not be at every beaconing call of their husband. Hecht reinforces his Ideas of change by taking Arnold's "...the cliffs of England stand, glimmering and vast" and transforms the Victorian idea of women into "...cliffs of England crumbling away behind them,". This supports the idea that Hecht is aware of the changes that are happening and he is envious of the way things used to be. In short, Hech ...
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... power given to him by God. He also had a divine purpose in life. Moses was on a “mission from god” so to speak to deliver his people from bondage. His mission was similar to those of other typical epics. It was of course a very dangerous and exhausting journey that lasted a very long time. There were many obstacles to overcome as well as internal affairs among the Hebrews. Moses was born a Hebrew but was raised as the prince of Egypt. Just like Odysseus, Moses was a man of nobility. Moses did not know he was a Hebrew until he was a much older man. He was living a lie without even realizing it. “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses w ...
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... also seen all of the human suffering and in it's roar the poet can hear that suffering. When the poet talks about Sophocles and the Aegean he is clearly reinforcing the idea of the sea being the bearer of misery. The reference is to Sophocles tragic plays and the suffering that necessarily accompanied them. This image becomes powerful as the reader realizes that the poet is saying that he can hear the same message on Dover Beach that Sophocles heard so many years ago by the Aegean. He is basically saying that the nature of life doesn't change. There was suffering in the times of the Greeks, suffering in his time, and there will be suffering after he is gone. The ...
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... can control or stop. War, sickness, and poison are just a few. In the sixth stanza he says why should people gloat about death if know man has control over death? Why should you have pride about death? In the final stanza he says that our lives are but a short sleep compared to the eternal live we have after we awaken from that sleep. Once we die the soul is alive and death no longer presides. We are brought into eternal life. Death can no longer take us because it already has. Meditation 17, by John Donne The passage that I chose that best demonstrates the theme is, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of t ...
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