Category: Poetry

The first thing that needs to be emphasized here is that the Mariner is commonly not considered as a vampire. For centuries he has been considered more a figure of prophetic warning or the Wondering Jew. (USTE VAKVI LIKOVI One of the reasons could be his parallel with the Wandering Jew figure (explain the characteristics of the WJ from Bryan Fulmer and compare them to (some) the vampiric pointed out by Twitchell) The reason why the Mariner has escaped the treatment of a vampiric figure is the fact that the mainstream criticism has generally focused on the sin-penance-redemption theme and the specifically Christian symbolism and moral of the tale, which somehow pervade the storyline. If the Mariner is seen as a Christian soul who undergoes horrible penance after a committed sin, and comes out of it changed with some universal knowledge to impart to his listeners, then nothing evil and diabolical can be attributed to him. Why would he then be presented as a vampire? In fact, he has even suffered more than a mere act of bird-killing should ensue, as animal killing happens quite often in the world and does not comply to the Christian idea of sin nor determine a harsh punishment. The reasons for a different perspective was engendered when I noticed, first, some incongruities in the depiction of the Mariner as a redeemed or half-redeemed benevolent soul; second, there are some moments in the narration that cannot be explained with the traditional “sacramental vision” analysis (as in Warren, 1958: 78); and third, the vampiric ties more tightly within the meaning of the poem in general. My reading of the Mariner is of a kind of proto-vampire figure which has been previously discussed by James Twitchell in “The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature” and before that in his paper “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as Vampire Poem”. I am taking these as basic texts and the vampiric characteristics that Twitchell enlists, but continue constructing upon it new meaning and ideas of interpretation with the aim to unravel the reasons why Coleridge’s employed the vampire in a story about a violent act committed on sea travel, and what meaning the vampire imposes on the poem.

To start with the basic ideas that connect the poem to the vampiric, they are: the poem involves blood-drinking, there has been a crime committed (one of the main reasons a person turns into a vampire in legends), the character is unable to die, and there is something diabolical at work. As Twitchell points out: “Beliefs in vampires grew simultaneously with Christianity as a way to explain how the devil enters the body of a sinner.” (pp. 22-3) In addition to this is the association of the vampires’ blood-drinking and communion, where water represents Christ’s blood, and also Christ’s word’s “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at, the last day”. If we consider the reverse situation when someone commits a sin or is excommunicated he will be deprived of eternal life after death. Then the devil took control over his body, according to the essence of Christian vampirism and the body is denied the chance of death. But at the same time vampirisim defies religion in the way that the vampire is granted eternal life, but not through God’s grace, rather than as work of the devil. (Summers, 1928, McNally and Forescu, 1973). The vampire body can be saved by doing penance, states Calmet in his Dissertations on Angels, Demons, Spirits and Vampires, which Coleridge is thought to have read, and that is exactly what the Mariner goes through.

I argue that the vampiric traits of the Mariner are introduced to work as a deus ex machina force to offer a way for the Mariner to pay the penance, enable the character’s immortality and endow him with superhuman characteristics to go from land to lend and tell the story in a strange speech.

Before we go into the vampire’s imposition on the meaning on the poem, it seems inevitable to start with analysis of the vampiric elements in the text.

Coleridge’s Mariner is endowed with vampiric characteristics interspersed throughout the poem. The Wedding-Guest often intrudes into the Mariner’s story, saying that he believes the old man has been taken over by demons: “God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!” (lines 79-80lines) Why would Coleridge have the Wedding- Guest say this? Could there be another meaning except the literal one that he has been possessed by demons, and aren’t vampires’ bodies taken over demons according to superstition? The presence of some kind of diabolic power is clear from the beginning of the narrative when the Mariner stops and holds the Wedding-Guest who unwillingly has to hear his tale. The Wedding-Guest is thus prevented to attend the religious ceremony. The evil force is seen at its work against а religious rite, but there is also prevention of social festivities and normal human life, evident from the depiction of an arrey of people of different ages, friends, male and female. The evil-tainted Mariner isolates the Wedding-Guest from the other two guests and from the merry ceremony. The Mariner is generally considered to be a passive character (Wordsworth). However, this is the second active action of the Mariner after his murder of the Albatross, which is also an act of evilness. The religious connotations of the Wedding-Guest’s marriage ceremony attendance are parallel to the religious associations of the Albatross. It came to the mariners “as if it had been a Christian soul” (lines). However farfetched it may seem, there is a veiled analogue between the act of destruction of the Albatross and what eventually the Mariner will do to the Wedding-Guest. The Mariner is going to isolate him from the community and in addition to becoming a “wiser man”, gaining new knowledge, he also becomes a “sadder man”. Why would the Wedding-Guest become unhappy if he learns a story of sin, penance and redemption and the benevolent God who loves all creatures equally? It seems that he has acquired some terrible knowledge of evil or the demonic, rather than some truth about progressive forces or a benevolent universe. As the narrative presents it, the Mariners starts to tell his story because he says “… this frame of mine was wrenched/ With a woeful agony” (lines 578-79). There is no evidence of a benevolent motive for this action. Beginning the story, this agony leaves his body, and having told it, he feels revived and renewed as the vampire regains energy when feeding of his victim (Twitchell, 1977, p.34).

The Mariner has a similar effect on the other three male characters he meets on his journey home: The Pilot, the Pilot’s Boy, and the Hermit. This episode attributes a different meaning to the tale, making it more than just a story of penance. While the group of three rescuers “cheerily” (line 541) rows towards the sinking ship, the situation changes when the Mariner comes on their boat. The pilot shrieks in terror and falls in a fit, and before the Pilot’s boy goes mad he realizes that something is not what it seems: “‘… I see/ The devil knows how to row’“ (lines 568-69). If the Mariner is merely a tortured soul, why would he look to the young boy as a devil, and how does this link to a person who has killed a bird? The only person that is not completely affected by the Mariner’s presence is the Hermit, but he also suffers a state of isolation. Like the Wedding-Guest who is obliged to hear the old seaman’s tale of confession, he is also stirred by the Mariner. If the Mariner is merely a person who underwent horrific experiences on sea and gained some universal knowledge to spread, then there is no reason why two of the people who rescued him would suffer by only looking him in the eyes or face, if there wasn’t something evil and diabolic that they recognized within him. This could be his power to eliminate the two men who identify the evilness in him, so that the Hermit can shrive him. The Mariner’s need for confession can be explained by the sin that he committed, the killing of the innocent bird. But, the way his body reacts requires a vampiric reading. His body starts to wrench and feels fits of pain, which is a reaction of the folkloric vampire to the sign of the cross. It is also interesting to notice the Hermit’s first reaction to the Mariner as he asks: “What manner of man art thou?” (lines 578), thus questioning his existence as a normal human being. The thing that remains unmentioned is whether the Hermit actually shrives him. The ambiguity of the situation leads to the conclusion that the Mariner does not receive absolution, and contributes to the idea that he remains a vampire. The Mariner goes to his home land as a vampire and continues his eternal journey to different lands to tell his story and suck the energy of his auditors.

The blood-sucking act performed by the Mariner after seeing the ghost ship in the distance is also followed by a similar act of the sailors which resembles blood-drinking, “Gramercy! they for joy did grin, / And all at once their breath drew in./ As they were drinking all” (lines 164-6). This part is certainly one of the most ambiguous and uncanny points in the poem, besides the fact that the poem is actually an example of uncanniness itself. We have a ship in the distance and the Mariner bites his arm to sustain himself in order to speak. And not only do the sailors draw his blood too, but they do it “for joy”. This image calls to mind the vampiric thirst and pleasure from drinking blood. At this point both the Mariner and the crew are literally presented as vampires. The symbolism of these acts is that he vampirizes himself, and by drinking his blood, the sailors also become vampires.

Later, when their bodies are possessed by death, they do “not rot nor reek” (256). Just like vampires from folk legends, these walking corpses do not decompose or start to give off an unpleasant smell. It is interesting that the dead bodies are revived to sail the ship only at night, which is a period associated with the actions of vampires in folk tales and legends. The sailor’s bodies are also “inspired” as the 1834 Gloss reports. However, the first printing of the Gloss in the 1817 Sibylline Leaves employs the word “inspirited” (Twitchell, 1977, p.12). The corpses of the sailors are not inspired, but possessed by spirits, which is further affirmed in line 341, where they are referred to as a “ghastly crew”, meaning that their bodies are controlled by ghosts. Although the same version names these revived bodies “a troop of spirits bless’d” (line 350) and the Gloss explains they were gathered by the “guardian saint”; it is common knowledge that Coleridge revised the first version to mask his original intention of writing a vampire tale. The sailor’s ultimate destiny is death, as decided by the dice game, which reaches them when the ship comes back to their native land and sinks. Whereas their vampiric condition on the ship starts from their collective blood–drinking from the Mariner and is intentionally veiled by the author in order not to bring it to the center of the story and create a pure story about vampires, but redirect the general focus of the narrative to the sin, penance and partial redemption theme.

When the Mariner’s life is won by the Life-in–Death figure in the dice game, he says that by the sunset his “life blood seem’d to sip” (line 206) from fear. The verb “sip” always refers to a small quantity of liquid. Is the small amount of blood he is left with the result of the blood-sucking action he performed on himself and was the followed by two hundred sailors? Or on a metaphorical level, explaining the psychological consequences of the strange meeting, he feels that his life energy has been drained. The Night-in-Death figure acts like a psychological vampire who drains his energy.

As he describes the effects of the sailors’ death on him and the sight of the curse in their eyes, realizing the horror he is provoking in the Wedding-Guest, he consoles him “… I could not die”. The phrase can be understood as his inability to die, despite of the action of destructive forces on sea. The verb “could” denotes certain willingness, but the lack of allowance to do or experience something. The sight of two hundred dead sailors initiated in him the wish to die, but unlike them, he wasn’t granted death. Whereas, at this point, he is also trying to keep the Wedding-Guest’s attention since who wouldn’t be scared to talk to someone who has died, and presumably has come back like a vampire? Coleridge has created this double meaning to make it ambiguous for both the Wedding-Guest and the readers to clearly understand what is going on, and thus prolong the suspense and infuse the story with more obscurity.

When the Polar Spirit releases the ship, the Mariner swoons and hears some voices before his “living life” returned. The underlying idea here is that there is another kind of life, so we are left to wonder whether it is life-in-death. When the ship returns to the land he wishes: “O let me be awake, my God! / Or let me sleep away” (lines 271-72). If these are the two human states, life and death, the question is what is he afraid of? And again, we are lead to the assumption that the Mariner has experienced another state, that of the living-dead, a vampire.

It has been stated three times that the Mariner has a “glittering eye,” (line 3, 13 and 225) the look which keeps the Wedding-Guest’s attentions and he cannot but hear his story. The mesmerizing effect of eyes as a vampire characteristic is adeptly employed here, although, it is a trait that can also be attributed to the Wandering Jew. The two figures need not actually be mutually exclusive, as they in a way supplement each other. The power of the eyes has been greatly emphasized as it is mentioned about twenty times within the poem. The Mariner cannot take his eyes away from the dead sailor’s bodies and he can see the curse in their eyes:

“An orphan’s curse would drag to hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! More horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man’s eye!” (lines 259-62)

As Lane Cooper in The Eye in Coleridge suggests, “One person, or personified object, ‘fixes’ another; the ‘fixed’ person or object thereupon remains so for a sharply defined period: “Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, /And yet I could not die” (p. 100). The Mariner is referred to as the “Bright-eyed Mariner”, someone whose “eye is bright”; before seeing the specter ship the Mariner depicts the sailors looking in the distance “How glazed each weary eye”; the Hermit “raised his eyes” when he saw the Mariner in the boat; the Pilot’s boy’s “eyes went to and fro” as he went mad looking at the Mariner. Not only does the Mariner have this effect on the characters in the poem, but he is also depicted as hypnotized by the sailors as he is unable to take his eyes of the dead sailors:

“I closed my lids, and kept them close,

And the balls like pulses beat;

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

Lay dead like a load on my weary eye,” (lines ?)

There is repetitive use of Christian vocabulary as a sign of his efforts to find his conventional orthodox values on the vastness of the unknown and facing supernatural destructive powers. He calls for help: ”Heaven’s Mother send us grace!” (line 179), is thankful to Mary for bringing him sleep “To Mary Queen the praise be given/ She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,” (lines 295-6); attributes his unaware blessing to the works of his saint: “Sure my kind saint took pity on me, / And I bless’d them unaware./” (lines 287-88) Even the action of blessing is a typically religious act, drawn from his traditional value system. But, what creatures does he bless? The water snakes bear recognizable associations with the biblical serpent, which destroyed the ideal world of Adam and Eve, by performing the same action of isolation. It is difficult to believe that it didn’t occur to Coleridge to introduce some other water animals in order to avoid the biblical reference and their connection to evil. I think the author was aware that by introducing the blessing of the snakes, the Mariner actually identifies with them, and by doing so he forsakes the religious set of values which he had earlier followed. Being under the power of the Life-in–Death figure, he recognizes evil forces in himself that oppose his previous world view. He learns of the existence of evil forces and these forces become part of him.

The isolation that the specter ships represents itself, also brings isolation to the Mariner’s ship by separating him from the rest of the crew who is doomed to die. The situation resembles the vampire’s isolated status in society as this mythical creature lives next to humans but is feared, destroyed and not part of a community. The Mariner is able to see the curse in the eyes of the sailors as he has done a hideous deed for which the demonic forces that have possessed them had been unleashed. This is a proof of the existence of unexplained forces and principles governing the unknown. A Christian God would not condemn the Mariner for a simple bird slaughter to such horrific destiny, nor would the crew who did not participate in the act, but merely approved of it as they esteemed that the bird had brought them “mist and snow” (lines) deserve such terrible and sudden death. The traditional earthly mores would not convict two hundred men with death for approving an unaware killing of a bird. This newly acquainted world threatens to shake/diminish the system of values that was part of the Mariner’s world so far.

Once exposed to evil, it becomes integral part of him no matter how much he tries to keep the old traditional values. Evil exists in the world, and it’s frightening and life-suspending; it comes when you least expect, and occurs for no reason or by chance. Human values have been created by people and they only apply in the society and community they live in. Outside of it, the universe has its own rules not man-made, inexplicable, arbitrary and devastating. At the beginning of the journey, the world that the Mariner lives in is gradually challenged till the end of the poem. And, it is not only the Mariner’s religion that is questioned, but family as a basic social unit and community as an indispensable human surrounding do not avoid examination. The narrative moves from community: at the beginning the Mariner and the two hundred men happily embark on a journey, to the breakdown of that small community on the ship and complete isolation in the sublime sea landscape. After the temporary death of the sailors the Mariner exclaims: ”Alone, alone, all, all alone,/ Alone on a wide, wide sea!/” (lines 234-35) The only action the Mariner performs to save the ship is performed depending solely on himself- biting his arm to be able to speak. And when the journey ends, as a sole survivor, again an isolated creature, he formally returns to the community he used to belong- it’s the same lighthouse and church. But he is not the same person; he has changed. Even his return is not a complete return, as he is not essentially a part of the community: he does not take part in the festive ceremony, observes it from a distance, and when he speaks to people it is only to one listener: ”And he stoppeth one of three” (line2). The only company he chooses is himself – lonely contemplation with a prayer/in church. Although he seems to admire: “Old men, and babes, and loving friends, And youths and maidens gay!” (lines 609-10) as representation of community, by depicting people of different age and sex, the Mariner paradoxically represents the power of individualism.

The changes that the Mariner goes through are psychological, moral and social. He experiences an emotional and psychological crisis facing overwhelming demonic powers at sea which leads to deterioration of social relations and the domination of individualism at the end of the poem. In the last part of the poem we see the Mariner in solitary cheer seeing the crowd of people enjoying the festivities with their naïve belief in the benevolence of the world.

The supernatural figure of the vampire in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is used to establish the reality of alienated human existence. The Mariner’s isolation, not only from other human beings, but also from God and the orthodox values he bears with himself, becomes evident when he comes across the otherworldly. With an act of “unawareness” he kills the only living creature that links them to the ordinary world. Cast somewhere beyond the realities of time and space and from human relationship, and enduring spiritual alienation because of his transgression, the Mariner is able to comprehend vast forces of the otherworldly which are not governed with the traditional rules of his previous world. As a result of the blood-shedding acts he performs, he is exposed to a supernatural experience, in which the encounter with the vampire figure Life-in-Death will enervate him and seize him in a transcendent state, beyond physical reality.

The Mariner in his new state of life-in-death is there to impart some knowledge to the Hermit and the Wedding-Guest and the subsequent ten thousand listeners (where is the fact from?). It is, however, knowledge of the revelation of some ubiquitous, malevolent forces which prowl and appear without warning. Our only option is to devote our lives to solitary prayer, hence the Mariner’s advice at the end of the poem:

“’Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk

With a goodly company!—

To walk together to the kirk,

And all together pray,” (lines 604-8)

The difficulty of making meaning of the moral that we have to deal with in order to gain complete understanding of the poem is perhaps rooted in the fact that the poem obscurely challenges the possibility of the existence of universal moral categories. The verse could be considered as the Mariner’s struggle to understand his experience with the moral values that are incorporated in him. His inability to make any sense actually refers to the general non-existence of universal rules outside of human community. It could be that the poem’s idea lies in presenting the main character’s inability to gain compete understanding of its moral sense. Even seen in Christian terms as a sinful soul, the Mariner is evidently deprived of complete insight into the causes of his condition, as are we. The final statement, ‘the dear God who loveth us, / He made and loveth all,’ appears to have no reference to his experience. If it is a loving God why would he make the Mariner suffer eternal punishment for what is only a minor offense? Coleridge unconvincing includes the moral which does not explain the Mariner’s horrific experience. The moral leaves the poem’s idea obscure and without unity mirroring the readers’ inability to make sense of the world applying universal moral concepts.

Another less noticed confusing aspect of The Ancient Mariner is the fact that the fate of the Mariner and two hundred men is determined by the throw of dice. The fate of so many people on the ship is determined by the most arbitrary act like the throw of a dice. This fact robs the poem of any logical, rational or moral interpretation as well.

The lack of moral significance opens the gate for psychological interpretation of the effects of the disturbing powers the Mariner is exposed to. It is the existing arbitrariness that imposes the poem’s reading as a major traumatic disruption in the Mariner’s personality, the reason of which is attesting of the sudden death of his shipmates, according to David S. Miall (The Predicament of The Ancient Mariner, 1984). His reading of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner takes into account Robert Lifton’s Life in Death: Survivors of Hiroshima, arguing that it is the death of the sailors, not the encounter with Life-in-Death which is the traumatic experience for the Mariner. He has undergone ‘what may be called the survivor’s ‘death spell,’” (Lifton as seen in David Mill, p. 646). Lifton has explored the traumatic effects of the Hiroshima atomic bomb on the survivors, which corresponds to Coleridge’s depiction of the Mariner after the experience on sea. Such a devastating encounter with death produces a “psychic closing-off” (p. 646) which occurs at the same time with an unjustified sense of guilt because they have survived, by considering themselves unworthy or merely being lucky. The Mariner’s justification to the Wedding-Guest can be explained in this sense. ‘Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding Guest!’, he says, ‘This body dropt not down.’ The reason for his closing-off is his curse: he remained alive while all the others perished. His self-loathing is clear when he compares his existence with the disgusting sea creatures: ‘A thousand thousand slimy things / Lived on; and so did I.’ (lines ?) His awareness of the rotting sea beneath with the slimy creatures point to himself, his inner state, but as his abilities are locked inside him and he is in a stasis, he is unable to pray. Furthermore, his psychological fixedness as a result from the guilt about the death of his crew is supported with the fixed image of the motionless ship: “As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean’ as if it is a painted picture. The Mariner is entrapped in a psychic state from which no rescue seems to be imminent. Life-in-Death is the proper representation for this stasis.

However, as this poem suggests, the situation is not death, but resembles death. It is a state more horrific than death itself in which life is interrupted with eternal suffering. While the souls of the Mariner’s shipmates move ‘to bliss or woe,’ he is stuck in a liminal condition. The lines describing the Life-in-Death figure: ‘She is far liker Death than he; / Her flesh makes the still air cold’ represent the paradox of living a life in death being as worse than death itself.

As this analysis has so far proved there are two sources for perturbation for the Mariner, his guilt over the death of his shipmates and the inability to experience death. The author has obviously evaded a unified structure of the poem especially with reference to the poem’s moral.

Still, I rise

Maya Angelous “Still, I Rise” poem is about her fight with racism and discrimination throughout her lifetime. The poet uses repetition, metaphors, similes plus other poetic techniques to communicate to the audience regarding how she has defeated racism in her life by demonstrating a strong attitude to others. It is additionally regarding an African-American woman’s response to those who discriminate against her race. This poem is similar to the “Aboriginal Charter of Rights’ which attends the discrimination of indigenous Australians poem by Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

In the poem, “Stil I rise” in the first Stanza, we read ‘you may write me down in history’, you, of course, referring to the white audience. And then further on ‘With your bitter, twisted lies’. She is saying that the white audience wrote and continues to write falsely about the black race. Soon after that, you read: ‘You may tread me in the very dirt. But still, like dust, I’ll rise. This means that people have treated her with disrespect, but she will not tolerate that and she will come back stronger each and every time.

During the following stanza, the first rhetorical question appears ‘Does my sassiness upset you?’ The question relates to how she comes back stronger after souls mistreat her, including how she acts toward them with sassiness. To the ending sequences of the stanza, she says ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells pumping in my living room’. (Simile) Those words have dual meanings, one that like oil wells she is rich, not only physically she herself, but she has a lot of worth. But two, in that referring to the white race saying that they are all rich, and do not have to work for it.‘Did you want to see me broken?’, this is again a rhetorical question meaning that people have hurt Angelou before, furthermore that she thought people wanted to see her broken. ‘Shoulders falling down like teardrops’ this to me is saying that when people hurt her that she can go from being a strong woman to being a weak and an undependable woman in seconds. She is saying that when she gets hurt that not just her physical body gets scarred, it’s her mental health too.

In the fifth stanza, it reads ‘’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines diggin’ in my own backyard’. She is referring to the white race again. Saying that they have the upper hand in everything from housing to educations and that it’s unfair. And next, in the sixth stanza, you can see that anaphora is used. You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness’. This indicates that she will stand up for her rights, no matter what happens to her. In the seventh stanza, another rhetorical question is written: ‘Does my sexiness upset you?’ This means that white people expect black to people to be less pretty and feminine than the white race. And then an example of imagery ‘does it come as a surprise that I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?’ Those words mean that a lot of people fail to recognise that black women can dress up too and be pretty. Another meaning for that is every woman’s femininity is to be valued, no matter what race you are.

‘Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise’ It reads in the eighth stanza. This line means that because of how bad her race’s history is, she won’t let it take control of her life. The first metaphor is written ‘I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide’. The metaphor means that she is comparing herself to the freedom, power and strength of the ocean. Angelou is saying that her people won’t be held back because of their antiquity (slavery).

And next, in the ninth stanza, there is another imagery example; ‘leaving behind nights of terror’. The line means that when she stood up for herself and made a change, she is leaving behind memories and nights that she will never forget (in a bad way). ‘I am the dream and the hope of the slave’. She embodies the hopes and dreams of her slave ancestors. She wants to achieve all that they were unable to do. Furthermore finally the last three lines: ‘I rise, I rise, I rise’ those last words show that any dilemma that she encounters, she will eternally overcome it also that nothing can keep her down.

Still, I rise is a poem that deals with a horrific subject like racism plus leaves the reader with a perception of satisfaction and pride. Though falling down and getting back up is a hard task to handle, Angelou shows us that with the right amount of self-assurance we can do anything and we can rise from any situation. The fact that we feel this way is evident to Maya’s skill as a poet. She takes us in and shows us what she has to deal with. She shows the reader that the human spirit can overcome anything. Her refusal to be broken should be an inspiration to everyone.

Aboriginal charter of rights.

In the poem ‘The aboriginal Charter of rights’ Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses many poetic techniques to express her feeling about the unfairness of the treatment to her Culture from the Australian population and Government. The purpose of the poem was to highlight the problems and the suffering of the Australian government and the political system. The author describes the lack of equality and choices for aboriginals because of discrimination.

Every two lines, the author uses the Rhyme Technique. For one example “Ascendence, dependence”. The reason why Noonuccal uses the rhyme technique every two lines is because rhyme is an effective technique. Rhyme draws our attention to the key points and themes of the poem, it certainly drew my eyes to the meaning of the poem. But this line of the poem (Black advance, not white ascendance, Make us equals, not dependants.) is a very important line because it highlights that black beings want a chance at life and that white people get to live their luxurious life while the blacks are in slums not living up to their potential. Some other techniques the author uses include Anaphora, Alliteration, Repetition and Biblical Illusion.

‘Give us the deal you still deny us, Give goodwill not bigot bias; Give ambition, not prevention Give incentive not restriction’ these lines use alliteration and repetition and use powerful words to describe an image in your head that they keep getting rejected for peace between their differences and that they want peace between each other instead of discrimination and unfairness to her and her people. The repetition of the word “Gives” emphasises on the need and right of Aboriginals to be treated equally to the white Australian population.

An Example of Anaphora is ‘Give us, Give us’ (Give us welcome, not aversion, Give us choice, not cold coercion). This implies that the audience has the power to give these rights and freedoms to the aboriginal community. In the words ‘Though Baptized and Blessed and bible’ Alliteration is used. The alliteration In the sequence means for us to draw our attention to Christianity and the Hypocrisy of Christian Society to punish and reject Aboriginal Australians. Furthermore, there is an example of Biblical Allusion that is important. ‘Salvation Sellers’ two lines under the alliteration example, I just discussed. ‘Salvation Sellers’ effectiveness of the poem is the same as alliteration. And then, in the final rows of the poem, there is a rhetorical question. ‘Must we native Old Australians In our own land rank as aliens?’. The rhetorical question is saying that old Australians (aboriginals) are treated like aliens (that they are being treated unjustly and differently from the white Australians). Oodgeroo’s poem takes readers into a world of Sympathy and empathy through her phenomenal writing about her life as an aboriginal Australia.

In conclusion, Oodergoo demonstrates how hard it is to live as an Aboriginal in Australia. She highlights the differences amidst the white Australian Society and the Aboriginal culture leading to diverse opinions and distinctive point of views including misunderstandings.

Yeats saw the end of the Romantic Era of Literature and the dawn of Modernism in his time of living. Different fields of art were also undergoing transformation due to the worldwide phenomena that included the two world wars. The romantic period saw a change in the thought process of that era. Yeats focused more on the individual than the society. It was a time when personal consciousness became the center of art and imagination became a large part of it. Since there was no room for new ideas in the neoclassical era and was limited, romanticism brought new and different elements, such as rustic motives, mythologies and lush landscapes. It also defied order, harmony and ideals in the 18th century, which shaped the neoclassical era. In the pursuit of the individualist view, this period dominated the ideas of appreciating the beauty of nature and the sense of reasoning or the feelings about intelligence. This was accompanied by an examination of human nature that inspired the creation of extraordinary heroic images or the recreation of epic images in some other way. Modernism began after the beginning of the twentieth century and continued until 1965. The twentieth century saw two world wars and created world unrest. Therefore, modernity focuses on decay and human isolation due to war.

Yeats poetry is neither modernist nor romantic, but both. He writes about the peace of the country which takes him away from the mechanical ethics of the modern era. His poems see him retreating from nature to escape the changing world. However, at the same time he uses the paintings and elements that make his work modernist. He uses symbolism, rhetoric, embellishments and myths to create modernist influences in his poetry. It uses mythological images that represent the decaying society and moral values ​​that became prevalent after the wars. His poems No Second Troy, The Second Coming and Leda and Swan represent well their use of myths to emphasize the combined influence of modernity and imagination.

It is also important to understand why Yeats used so many myths in his works. While I was writing, British control over the educational system and church doctrines did not give Irish folklore a place in the curriculum. Therefore, the Irish public could not be educated about its culture. Yeats used his poetry as a tool to help his countrymen rediscover the legacy hidden in their folk tales. I wanted to recreate an Irish heritage. With the help of Lady Gregory, he founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre. He retold stories and epics and used fragments in his stories. The second way was that he included images and themes from epic tales. He also commented that the story was cyclical in nature and in a world that was quickly becoming chaotic, he described how the story was like a mirror when using powerful images and symbols.

His poem No Second Troy is about Irish activist Maud Gonne, who rejected Yeats’ marriage proposals. Despite the rejection, he announced that he was deeply influenced by her powerful personality. He then compares Troy to Helena, who was the reason behind the Trojan War. Although he states that she is like Helen, she revolves around the meaning and significance of the myth associated with Helen. The daughter of Zeus, she was taken back to Troy after marrying in Paris and this caused a war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Yeats used the characterization of Helen’s character to give Maud Gonne a heroine full of courage and enthusiasm. He says that Gonne was able to provoke revolution due to his public personality. He was as great as Helen, who helped both the Greeks and the Trojans, but when he let lose his ‘beauty like a tightened bow’, he could change the whole landscape. He also suggests that she was a great speaker who inspired and created chaos among the people. Comes and goes between frequent Greek legend and contemporary political upheaval.

Besides that, he also compares the Trojan War to the ongoing turmoil. While Helen became the cause of a war because of Paris’ desire to obtain the most beautiful woman, Gonne could become the center of a revolution for her courage and ‘nobleness made simple as a fire.’ Yeats not only uses the Trojan myths, but equates Gonne’s nobility with a fire that is simple but powerful to create a war. His frequent use of words like ‘fire’ and ‘tightened bow’ renders him as someone who is full of passion, tension and ability who, upon getting liberated, may give birth to a war. He remarks that her personality was so powerful that it would not be her fault if she gives rise to a war, just like it was not Helen’s fault that the Trojan War took place.

Furthermore, he suggested that it was in his nature to say the things that created chaos, but in uniformity he became a voice against the elite. He says that she is not related to her age because she has such rare characteristics that she becomes similar to Helen. Maud Gone was, according to him, a radical who emerged from traditional Irish society and was, therefore, a misfit. The poem presents traditional feminine beauty in a very different light where it is powerful and capable of manipulation, combining Yates’s history and contemporary situations.

The Second Coming is also based on the original idea of ​​mythology and its entanglement with reality. From the title itself, it is clear that Yates is talking about the second coming of Christ promised by St. John in the Bible. However, in addition to biblical elements, Yates also describes his views of history. He suggested that history went in cycles, and through this poem he erased his theory about mythology and history.

Yeats’s belief about the nature of the story is very different from the traditional one. There is no place for apocalypse or rise in his philosophy. Twisters represent the rise and fall of civilizations and xplain the position of humanity at each point.

On top of that, he talks about how at any time, the balance of civilization is disturbed and then ‘things fall apart’, leading to a new phase. He wrote it after the end of World War I and suggested that “anarchy is loosed upon the world ‘, there would come a time when equilibrium would be restored. It also describes the loss of civilization that war brought with it and uses graphic images and words such as ‘the faint tide of blood.’ The first verse focuses on the loss of a civilization that turns to the center that has surrendered. But the second verse gives rise to humanity, the hope of the coming of another. Here is brought the Bible story of Christ and other epic paintings. He says that humanity is becoming pagan by Christianity. He writes in such a way that it is clear that he is not talking about the end of the world. It merely states that the world is entering a new phase, complemented by the use of the word ‘second’ in the title.

He uses mythology many times to substantiate his points. It refers to the Sphinx, a creature found in Greek mythology that has the legs of a lion, the wings of a large bird and the face of a woman. Here odd elements denoting death and life are used. ‘Darkness’ refers to an unknown mystery that can cause turmoil in the world and lead to another coming. The next line, ‘blank and pitiless as the sun,’ again suggests death, which he describes in the first verse as the reason for the second coming. In the final line, he confirmed his deliberate use of myths by mentioning Bethlehem, which was the birth of Jesus.

Citing the birthplace of Jesus, he confirmed his reasoning for the second coming. His poem is finished, but the world and the civilization he talks about is moving towards another phase, a new phase that will see creation again. When he wrote this poem, nearly two hundred years had passed since the birth of Jesus, which he also mentions in the twentieth-century stony dream. Yates’ second arrival returns to look at myths and its calculated and well-crafted use of history to create the combined effects of death and birth, decay and regeneration.

Literary genres are essential for both writers and readers when writing. For writers, the use of literary genres provides them with patterns that allow them to structure their writing. On the other hand, literary genres give readers the pleasure of discerning what is being written for them. The five literary genres of poetry, flash fiction, memoir, life legacy, and comedy monologues each provide different norms and techniques for writers to use.

Poetry, for instance, is characterized by rhythmical patterns which include meter, rhyme, alliteration, or a combination of all together. Throughout an individual’s educational journey, there must be a time that they were exposed to writing poems. While some have found it a difficult task to execute, others might have encountered a new passion in life. Poems are usually composed through the feelings and imagination of the poet. I like poetry because I believe it allows individuals to express themselves, while also enabling them to share their view of the world with others. My past literature courses have exposed me to poetry. While in the course, I had the pleasure to write many pieces that allowed me to manifest the feelings and experiences I have had throughout my life. Poetry, unlike other genres, is the one who offers the author the freedom to create without following a set of rules. However, there are characteristics a poem should contain in order for it to be considered one. One of the tools I used the most when writing poems was rhyme. I still remember my first poem called “Her Colors.” It was about New York City and the different climate seasons. The main instrument I used was rhyme. After that, I have fallen in love with writing poems.

Moreover, flash fiction has to be my favorite literary genre. Flash fiction is a short-short story derived from a bigger story. These flash fictions often start in the middle of an action. They also have the characteristic to leave the reader wondering about the ending since they are often unexpected ones. However, I suspect that my preference for flash fiction is because this genre allows me to be creative. When writing flash fiction, I find it refreshing to be able to tell a short story that has only been written based on one’s mind. I, furthermore, find it rewarding to be able to transport myself and be part of the story I am telling.

Nevertheless, when writers use the literary genre of a memoir, they focus on telling an autobiographical sketch of their experiences on a specific circumstance or topic. Memoirs are usually written based on events the authors have witnessed rather than their personal lives or feelings. Personally, I believe memoirs are one of my least favorite genres. One of the reasons is that I would not be able to express myself or my feelings toward the topic in discussion. It is understandable that for others, this kind of genre might be their favorite because they are able to tell a story that perhaps no one else has spoken about. Hence, this genre could be controversial for some, and exciting for others.

Life legacy, moreover, is a way of writing for which individuals would want to be remembered for. To write about one’s life legacy could be one exciting task since they are able to tell about their personality, life experiences, and much more. However, this writing genre could be challenging. Hence this could be the reason why I do not enjoy it as much as poetry or flash fiction. However, if a person is going through a hard time in their life and understands that sharing their experiences could help others, then life legacy should be considered. Thus, the only circumstance I would write a life legacy is if I can write something meaningful to help others.

Lastly, according to John Rineman, Comedy Monologue is the motor that keeps comedy functioning. One must be talented and funny to perform and be successful at it. This genre has to be one of the most difficult ones to execute since the author has to possess the right qualities to exercise it. I believe I would like to perform in this genre. However, I do not have the skills to do so.

Literature genres were made to fit individuals’ talents and ways of expressing themselves. These five genres, poetry, flash fiction, memoir, life legacy, and comedy monologue are crucial for those who love literature and are trying to find their passion, and which one matches best their virtues. Hence, one must find which ones are their favorites or not.

The undertaking of a transition from one phase of life to another can prove difficult and there may be obstacles to overcome along the way. To transcend adversity, an individual will often need to maintain diligence and perseverance to seek new beneficial opportunities and the development of self-belief. This attitude towards self-development can also allow and individual to gain support crucial to successfully make the intended changes. This difficult transitioning process can be explored through Stephen Daldry’s film, Billy Elliot 2000, as it follows a young English boy persevere through social and familial barriers to pursue a positive individual change in his life, and alternately through “Follower” a poem by Seamus Heaney which encompasses a young boy, aspirant to overtake his fathers farming career. The issues that affect Billy’s transitioning into the world of ballet include social conformity and judgement and conflict and love in father-son relationships, whereas the issues affecting the boys’ transition include familial expectations and individual aspirations. These issues can be analysed through a variety of visual and language techniques used. The issue of social conformity and judgement can act as a limitation to an individual when attempting to make a transition. There are conflicts between individuality and what is expected of people. This is reflected in the technique of lighting. For example, the hall which he practices in is dimly lit. This conveys the secrecy that surrounds Billy’s pursuit of ballet and the way differences must be ‘hidden’ in a society that expects conformity. This reflects how social conformity can act as a limitation for change as social rejection excludes individuals who defy its expectations and make transitioning difficult. Another representation of this issue regarding transition is through the technique of out of frame action. For example, members of the town alert Jacky to Billy’s antics in the gym and Jackys mate’s presence is tangible off-screen and is seen standing outside the hall. The effect of this represents the judgemental view of society, whose judgement impacts the status and reputation of individuals. The social pressures of the miners’ strike add greater conflict to Billy’s struggles as well as his fathers and the communities. Therefore, social conformity and judgement can act as a limitation to individuals when attempting to transition.

Comparatively, individual aspirations can act as a support and limitation for an individual undergoing the process of transitioning. An individual who perpetuates strong aspirations will often maintain a sense of perseverance and diligence to achieve these goals. This can largely be seen through the young boy in Seamus Heaney’s “Follower”. This is reflected through a simile “his shoulders globed like a full sail strung”. This emulates the boys’ goal to perform to the same standard as the high reverence he viewed his father in, thus setting the goal for his process to transition to this level. His ultimate transition can be reflected through two comparative and contradictory quotes “All I ever did was follow” and “But today, it is my father stumbling behind me..” This reflects that the boy, through maturity and commitment, has ultimately achieved his aspirations to overtake his father’s workload and his father’s frail behaviours now replicate that of the boy before his transition. Conflict and love in a father-son relationship can also act as a limitation or benefit when attempting to transition. There is a constant lack of communication and understanding between Jacky and Billy throughout the film. The technique of absence of dialogue is used. For the duration of the scene, neither character speaks. This is representative of the lack of understanding and inability to express emotion/ communication between father and son. This links to transition as Jackie’s lack of understanding of Billy’s talent and passion is a barrier to his change. The technique of close-ups of eye contact is also used in this scene. Frequent close-ups of Billy and Jackie’s eyes alternately locked on each other is a visual metaphor of their battle of wills. The effect of this shows, in the absence of communication, all the determination, passion and defiance Billy must express to the father of his skill and ambitions is conveyed through eye contact. This links to transition as it is Jacky’s turning point in the film, after watching the dance his love for his son ultimately overcomes his opposition and he supports and assists Billy in his endeavours. Hence, the issue of conflict and love in father-son relationships can act as both a limitation and benefit when attempting to transition. The ideas of familial expectations and conflicts are complemented and augmented by Seamus Heaney’s “Follower” as the young boy is ambitious to overtake his father’s legacy and replicate his endeavours. He refers to his father as an ‘expert’, which highlights his high level of admiration for him. This is furthered through adjectives such as “tripping, falling” highlight the personas inability to be like his father and epitomises the need for the boy to undergo a transition to fulfil his necessity to enact these duties. This highlights the effect that familial expectations can precipitate in an individual’s desire to transition and that expectations from family figures can have a limiting effect on this process. This notion can be furthered through the first person omniscient narration of “I wanted to grow up and plough”. This reflects the past vision of the boy, and how he wanted to replicate his father, an idea which has been moulded by expectations and pressures from family and society to continue traditional and orthodox values. Therefore, the idea that transitions have the power to change perspectives and outlooks can be seen through the issues of social conformity and judgement and conflict and love in father-son relationships in the film Billy Elliot and alternately through familial expectations and individual aspirations in “Follower” by Seamus Heaney. These issues can act as both limitations and support mechanisms for transitions into new profound outlooks and experiences. These issues can be analysed through the various film and language techniques incorporated throughout the texts.

Love is said to be one of the most complex emotions for which people tend to have a wide range of explanations​.​ Descriptions of love can be seen as page after page of devotion or merely a sentence of appreciation. William Shakespeare’s poem ‘Sonnet 130: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun’ is a poem about a man’s mistress and how he views her. The poem showcases what is true love in the author’s own interpretations of the three foundations that it similarly contains: comparison, interpretation, and a sense of authenticity.

Words are a wonderful tool to describe a loved one, it gives those who read it a glimpse of what the author is experiencing firsthand. However, in the case of ‘Sonnet 130’, words do not seem to be used in a positive way as the narrator begins to speak. The speaker begins to compare his mistress’ features to those of beings that are generally found appealing by most people. With every line, the speaker emphasizes that the object he is comparing his mistress to is more beautiful than she is. For example, he writes “And in some perfumes there more delight/ Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks” (lines 7-8), which means that the speaker finds the scent of some perfumes more pleasurable rather than the breath of his mistress who he essentially claims to smell quite awful. For the following twelve lines, the speaker almost stresses that his mistress is mundane compared to the beauty of everyday items such as roses, snow, or music. By doing so, it demeans her whole being as a person, but despite this, the speaker’s use of negative words in the comparisons he makes helps showcase the interpretation he is trying to make.

The comparisons in ‘Sonnet 130’ are indicated quickly and evidently, but due to the choice of words, it is not easily understood how it interprets true love. The speaker gives the readers a bit of a surprise nearing the end as he states, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare” (lines 13-14). This indicates that the comparisons he made were not to devalue his mistress or their love. He is making the point that there is not a single person who has eyes that are as beautiful as the sun and that every now and again a person’s breath is not going to have bad breath. With these final two lines, the speaker wants to emphasize that there is no person on the planet who has a perfect partner who has all the ‘good’ qualities he compares his mistress to. The speaker also makes a point that, although they did have all those qualities, they are merely physical attributes. If they are ugly on the inside, no matter how beautiful they are, they are also ugly on the outside. Therefore, such comparisons were made with the importance of making the point that comparisons as such should not be core indicators of how a person should view love. This further analysis that the speaker presented allows readers to understand better why he made the comparisons.

Proving whether or not a person’s love for another is genuine can often get misinterpreted. In Shakespeare’s poem, the speaker is greatly frowned upon due to how he begins his apparent declaration of love for his mistress. Before the final two lines of further analysis, the speaker gives the readers a small indication of a change: “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/ That music hath more a far pleasing sound” (lines 9-10). The speaker is essentially saying that even though the sound of music is much nicer to listen to, he still loves to hear his mistress talk. This can be interpreted as he loving the sound of her voice, but it can also be further interpreted as he loving the words that she speaks, he loves what she speaks about him or to him, or even just how she speaks about life in general. It may be the matter that she does have an unpleasant-sounding voice, but because of the words she speaks, he’d much rather listen to her than to music. Due to the comparison, it may not seem like this is the speaker’s way of showing how authentic his love is, but again after further analysis, it shows otherwise.

Love, no matter how vague or detailed it may be expressed through the written word, will continue to be one of the most complex things to depict. William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 130: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun’ answers the question of what true love is. This poem does so by its key points of comparison, interpretation, and sense of authenticity. The poem always brings confusion to those who read it as initially, it does not seem to relate to love at all, but it has hidden depths to it in which it does reveal a larger interpretation of his words that the comparisons he made were not something to correlate when one is thinking about love.

In many of his poems, W.B. Yeats portrays delusion and civilization. Yeats was once significantly enthused with the aid of the attraction of delusion and civilization and used it in several poems to reveal his complex philosophical understandings. Yeats used to be keen to change regular Greek and Roman mythological figures and civilization with figures from Irish folklore. In the following discussion, I will describe How W.B. Yeats portrayed delusion and civilization in his most important poems.

According to Yeats the nature of civilization adjustments after almost each two thousand years. His factor of view of the upward push and fall of civilizations as a gyratory procedure involves the symbols of wheel and gyre. A gyre spins rapidly around a constant Centre. At first, a civilization is extreme and slender and as it progresses, it broadens and slowly loses its depth and finally disintegrates. Thus when one civilization advances toward disintegration. Its ‘antithetic’ one emerges with a sluggish pace.

Leda and the Swan:

Myth is used in ‘Leda and the Swan’ to express Yeats’s view of history. The legend of the woman Leda being raped by the Greek God Zeus in the guise of a swan is interpreted by using Yeats to illustrate his view of history and myth. The mating of Zeus with Leda gave an upward push to the Greco-Roman civilization with the start of Helen and Clytemnestra. Helen was responsible for the Trojan War and Troy’s destruction as well as Agamemnon’s downfall. Â

Agamemnon was once the King of Argos and as the commander of the Greek army, he went to Troy to get better Helen. Agamemnon was murdered with the aid of his wife Clytemnestra, as he again domestic after the Trojan victory. At the cease of the poem the poet questions whether or not Leda was thoroughly conscious of the magnitude of the pressured mating. In other words, the incident definitely refers to that guys are in simple terms instruments of impersonal forces, or he has a component of the divine brain himself. By this question Yeats indicates to us that Zeus’ civilization was destroyed, Zeus himself destroyed his religion, way of life, and civilization by raping Leda on that day.

The Second Coming:

In the poem, ‘The Second Coming’ Yeats additionally offers the records of civilization and fantasy as well. In the opening of the poem, the poet offers us a photograph of the disintegration which has overtaken the Christian civilization. The poem is most tremendous for the expression of his notion that records consist of cycles and that each civilization has a time span of its own. According to records, the existing cycle of civilization started out roughly with the delivery of Christ.

Yeats believed that the existing cycle of history commenced two thousand years ago, with the beginning of Christ. Prevision to that there was Greco-Roman civilization. It began with the mating of the gods Zeus and Leda. Helen and Clytemnestra have been born as a result of his union. The pagan civilization broke down after the existence of two thousand years. Christ got here and a new civilization was once born. Similarly, the Christian civilization has almost run its course of two thousand years.

However, the poem starts off-evolved most effectively with the photograph of the world after the First World War as it is seen through Yeats. The falconer has misplaced its manipulation over the falcon which does now not hear the falconer’s call. In different words, the humans of the contemporary world have long passed off course, and Christianity as symbolized with the aid of the ‘Falcon’, cannot manipulate the world. Man has gone astray and does now not heed the words of God. The Centre can’t maintain and absolute anarchy has been loosed upon the world.

In the poem, Yeats superbly portrayed his prophetic vision. Christianity has been a falcon that has misplaced its touch with the falconer. He visualizes the reversal of the world’s gyre and the birth of a new violent, bestial anti-civilization in the destruction of the two thousand years Christian cycle.

Sailing to Byzantium:

Through this poem, Yeats portrayed myth and philosophical understanding. In the poem, Byzantium symbolizes some transcendental country, a vicinity out of time and nature, a world of artwork and philosophy. Here the poet rejects the natural world of biological recreation and decides to take refuge in the timeless world of art with a view to pulling away from the method of getting old and decaying. The poem is a transition from sensual art to mental art. The poet feels that a historic man is disgraceful except his soul can enjoy works of art and literature which are immortal merchandise of the human spirit. The weaker a man grows in the body, the larger ought to be his pleasure in the works of art. Appreciation of art and perception of art can be completed solely with the aid of analyzing mind-blowing and immortal works of art, the poet determined to go to Byzantium to commit himself to the learn about its treasures.

Easter 1916:

In ‘Easter 1916’ we can also find the remedy of fantasy and civilization of Yeats.

Here he transforms and modifies historical myths to swimsuit his purpose. Even he creates new myths. This poem offers cutting-edge Irish history. The opening traces of the poem grant us with an have an impact that some legendary figures are coming out of the lifeless previous to take a section in the exercise of the present. The Irish rebel merges into Yeats’s philosophical myth and civilization.

The poem is a reaction to the Irish insurgence in 1916. In this poem, Yeats presents an account of some of the insurgents who had been in my view considered to him. Yeats tells that all these buddies have been the individuals of this equal comic world and performed their personal roles here. But now they have resigned from their roles, considering they are deceased. Their heroic sacrifice changed them utterly. But what is faster or later born out of this eternal transformation is a variety of horrible beauty, due to the fact this elegance can solely grant us the photograph of a range of graves. These people’s hearts had been united by using having one reason alone. But now they are all lying in their graves. They are all deceased and past recalled. But still, to prevent life’s natural direction they have taken refuge completely inner the hearts of each and every Irishman like a stone. As time passes, huge adjustments take vicinity in nature, on the other hand nevertheless, no adjustments appear around this stone. In the midst of all living activity, it stays like a great burden. The insurgence that they made proved an utter failure alternatively nevertheless these martyrs owe us admiration for their self-sacrifice, on the grounds that their intention was noble.

To conclude, we may say that W.B. Yeats beautifully portrayed delusion and civilization or imagination and prescience of life. Out of the historical fantasy he created poems that expose the historic and philosophical issues of the past, present, and future. Yeats’ treatment of fable and philosophy, history, and civilization is sincerely praiseworthy.

In this poem, Yeats talks about the Irish war of Independence. Basically, this poem is created around the idea of Irish nationalism and revolution. In 1916 Irish had a great war against Great Britain. But in this war, they were not able to get their freedom and they lost a lot of their heroes.

But this movement, the sacrifice of their martyrs gives the strength and the consciousness of nationalism. All Irish hearts have only one purpose. They want the freedom of their country. The death of the Irish or the sacrifice of their men could not bring independence. It is true but it raises the consciousness, the sensation for the Irish. That is the big success of the revolution. Yeats is talking about this revolution in his poem and he writes the mane of the martyred those sacrificed in this war.

Yeats portrays that the martyred those die for Irish Independence. But their death gives strength for the Irish to raise a new movement and the Irish will raise again for their freedom and ‘ A terrible beauty is born’ everything will be changed and changed utterly. Because they have the essence. All the young stars are united and raise a new movement again. This time Irish were not able to get freedom but the Irish got the essence by the death of their martyrs and they changed utterly. The whole of Ireland is changed. This is the achievement of these sacrifices. The Irish got a consciousness of the sensation of nationalism and soon they will raise again for their freedom.

However, the Irish revolution is similar to our Language Movement of 1952. Because through this language movement, we got our independence. In 1952, on February 21, for the first-ever history, we sacrificed our blood for language. We lost our heroes: Barkat, Jabbar, Rafiq, Salam, and Shafiur. But because of their sacrifice, because of their death we Bangali got our essence. This had fully changed us. We were changed utterly by this influence and that’s why the 1969s Mass Uprising happened. And then the 1970s National Election and then finally in 1971, after Nine months of bloody battle, by the Liberation War we got our ultimate Independence, we got our freedom against West Pakistan.

Poem Mood Analysis Essay

Peacefulness comes in many ways, based on how humans interpret and feel it. A person can be deeply depressed and crying over something, but is still considered peaceful, or can be very joyful and pleased on the inside and still feel peaceful. There are two poems that have contradicted interpretations of the mood peacefulness, “The Morning Walk” by Mary Oliver and “There is No Word for Goodbye” written by Mary Tall Mountain. “The Morning Walk” describes how reposeful, uplifting, and lighthearted a walk in the woods is with all the inspirational and significant movements of the animals and humans splashing in the water and flying across the sky and the sweet, beautiful sounds they make with the chirping and singing. “There is No Word for Goodbye” shows how grieved and sorrowful a person is feeling as their aunt, who is about to have a soundless, calm, goodbye to the physical land of Earth. He or she wants to bid one last, goodbye to her, but the aunt expresses how she will never leave them and will see them again somewhere. Even though both poems make you feel peaceful, “The Morning Walk” makes you feel peaceful and cheerful, while “There is No Word for Goodbye” makes you feel melancholy and peaceful.

Both poems show resemblance in their moods because they show peacefulness using their vivid imagery details of the animals’ actions and how soothing words can make a person feel. In the first poem, “The Morning Walk,” the author writes, “Goldfinches shine as they float through the air. A person, sometimes, will hum a little Mahler. Or put arms around an old oak tree. Or take out a lovely pencil and notebook to find a few touching, kissing words.” This quote demonstrates that all the movements of the snakes and the sweet chirping of the birds show how calm and quiet the woods are that they make anyone feel at ease, relaxed, and inspired by the beauty, which shows how the

Peacefulness comes in many ways, based on how humans interpret and feel it. A person can be deeply depressed and crying over something, but is still considered peaceful, or can be very joyful and pleased on the inside and still feel peaceful. There are two poems that have contradicted interpretations of the mood peacefulness, “The Morning Walk” by Mary Oliver and “There is No Word for Goodbye” written by Mary Tall Mountain. “The Morning Walk” describes how reposeful, uplifting, and lighthearted a walk in the woods is with all the inspirational and significant movements of the animals and humans splashing in the water and flying across the sky and the sweet, beautiful sounds they make with the chirping and singing. “There is No Word for Goodbye” shows how grieved and sorrowful a person is feeling as their aunt, who is about to have a soundless, calm, goodbye to the physical land of Earth. He or she wants to bid one last, goodbye to her, but the aunt expresses how she will never leave them and will see them again somewhere. Even though both poems make you feel peaceful, “The Morning Walk” makes you feel peaceful and cheerful, while “There is No Word for Goodbye” makes you feel melancholy and peaceful.

Both poems show resemblance in their moods because they show peacefulness using their vivid imagery details of the animals’ actions and how soothing words can make a person feel. In the first poem, “The Morning Walk,” the author writes, “Goldfinches shine as they float through the air. A person, sometimes, will hum a little Mahler. Or put arms around an old oak tree. Or take out a lovely pencil and notebook to find a few touching, kissing words.” This quote demonstrates that all the movements of the snakes and the sweet chirping of the birds show how calm and quiet the woods are and that they make anyone feel at ease, relaxed, and inspired by the beauty, which shows how the peacefulness affects how any person feels in the woods. In the second poem, “There is No Word for Goodbye,” Mary Tall Mountain shows a strong resemblance to peacefulness, “A shade of feeling rippled the wind-tanned skin. Ah, nothing, she said, watching the river flash…She looked at me closely. We just say, Talia. That means, See you. She touched my light as a bluebell.” This shows that “There is No Word for Goodbye” has a peaceful mood attached to it because the words that the aunt says to her niece/nephew are so simple; they are so calm and soothing that they can easily put anyone at ease. These kinds of tuning and relaxing words soothe the sadness that he or she was feeling watching their aunt died. In summary, it can be analyzed that both poems, “The Morning Walk“ and “There is No Word for Goodbye,” have a peacefulness stringed into their mood using their humble and detailed imagery and sensory feelings. from the text.

As similar as the poems sound to a peaceful mood, they have total opposite and contradicting explanations and interpretations of the meaning of peacefulness, one with cheerful and one with mournfulness and melancholy emotion. In “The Morning Walk,” Mary Oliver writes, “The pewee whistles instead. The snake turns in circles, the beaver slaps his tail on the surface of the pond. The deer in the pinewoods stamps his hoof.” This shows how the interaction of animals adds excitement to the poem, from the chirping and the whistling of the animals to their splashes in the pond and the stampeding on leaves. It brings in the pep in the step to the walk and that jumpy excitement in a relaxing, peaceful walk. In other words, the excitement of the animals moving and the birds whistling adds to the peaceful mood of the tone with a little cheerfulness and enthusiasm, which makes the reader enjoy the walk through the poem. “There is No Word for Goodbye,” has a melancholy tone when it says, “Sokoya, I said, looking through the net of wrinkles into wise black pools of her eyes. What do you say in Athabaskan when you leave each other? What is the word for goodbye?… You forget when you leave us, You’re so small then. We don’t use that word. We always think you’re coming back, but if you don’t, we’ll see you someplace else. You understand. There is no word for goodbye.” The other poem shows how the grieving words that come out of a person that is dying, create that mournfulness and sad feeling. This mixes into the peaceful part of the poem because it shows how when a person is close to dying, they say such strong, powerful, and sorrowful words, which have a meaning so In brief, it means that the peacefulness mixes in with the and the melancholy touch to create the significant mood of the poem. From this, we see how each poem has its own meaning of peacefulness here, one has a cheerful twist and understanding to it, and the other well flips the mood of that poem and becomes a gloomy, melancholy, and grieving tone to it.

Readers can see how the poems both show a tranquil and calm mood, “The Morning Walk” shows it with joyful and gleeful emotion, but “There is No Word for Goodbye” has a gloomy and depressing touch to it. These poems both show a serene mood because “The Morning Walk” represents how soothing the sweet whistling of birds is and how relaxing it is to see the soft, subtle movements that the animals in the woods do. “There is No Word for Goodbye” has a pleasant and calm mood when it shows how pacifying the words are of the person who is close to dying, and how it eases anyone to rest even when they are in the worst position. As it shows a similar mood, they also are very different when one shows happiness and the other shows sadness. “The Morning Walk” has a light-hearted mood because it shows the upbeat and excitement of the animals moving around creates, with the twisting of snakes and loud, vibrant splashes they make. In “There is No Word for Goodbye,” shows how the powerful words of a person dying sink down in your heart, creating a mournful, grieving feeling. Readers can evaluate the different moods that they feel when they do different tasks or activities. Whether they are on a nice, peaceful walk in the park, or they are at a funeral mourning their family member’s death, they will feel peaceful, but closer and related to the activity. So, do you want to feel cheerful and joyful, or feel sad and depressed, it’s your choice to walk in the park, or attend a funeral.

Throughout ‘Gretel in Darkness’, Louise Gluck employs the medium of poetry to describe the intense emotional turmoil that a survivor of traumatic experiences can go through, weaving the audience through the flashbacks of a distressing experience and interjecting the all too real alienation that one can feel when recovering. The author’s expert word choice and rhetorical questioning invites the audience to explore trauma through themes of memory and isolation.

The imagery of the witch’s house and the forest is recalled and retold by Gretel throughout the poem, serving the audience as a window into her processing the event. Gluck ensures that the vivid and confronting aspect of a flashback is conveyed artfully, creating lines that provide a contrast of surreal beauty, “I hear the witch’s cry / break in the moonlight through a sheet of sugar” (line 3-4), and grotesque body horror, “Her tongue shrivels into gas…” (line 6). Both quotes explore the memory Gretel seeks to forget, as seen when she asks, “Why do I not forget?” (line 10). Gretel is experiencing within these lines a flashback of her traumatic experience. This is seen in many trauma victims, where the brain uses flashbacks to process the memory after the incident, due to the distressing nature of the experience disrupting memory association (Bisby 987). Although Gretel is “far from… / memory of women” (line 8-9), she must relive her experience in order to heal and move past it, a process that Gluck eloquently recreates in her poem.

As the reader delves into Gretel’s perspective and longing for connection, it is clear that the emotional distance between her and her family, “Nights I turn to you… / but you are not there. “ (line 19-20), incites pain and self doubt. She wonders, “Am I alone?” (line 21). With the second rhetorical question, the audience can clearly discern that Gretel not only struggles with reliving her trauma, but also with her diminished self-confidence attributed to her perceived lack of a support network. In using Gretel’s perspective as the conveyor of information, it is not certain that her family is, in fact, distant or isolating. The reader notes her “father bars the door, bars harm” (line 11), indicating care and love for his children. Her brother is seen as distant too, although he was a victim of the same event that affects Gretel in this poem, and holds trauma of his own. As PTSD is more likely to develop in girls as opposed to boys (Digitale par. 5), symptoms such as “flashbacks, withdrawal from people…problems sleeping and concentrating” (Preidt par. 8) have affected Gretel more than her brother. Gretel’s inclination towards feeling alienated and alone is encouraged by the lack of awareness to her emotional needs. The resulting consequences see a father and a brother unable to understand the needs of their suffering relative. These subtle, yet impactful, details come together to express the complexity of family, and finding support when one’s self worth is diminished.

Through the vivid imagery created by the poet’s word choice, as well as the pointed rhetorical questions, the poem transforms into a visceral, emotional text exploring trauma and the internal struggles of a person in the process of recovery.