"All The major Romantics...were engaged...in the rediscovery of nature, the assertion of the one-ness of man and the rest of creation" James Reeves. What has interested you about the ways in which Coleridge has asserted this one-ness?

"All The major Romantics...were engaged...in the rediscovery of nature, the assertion of the one-ness of man and the rest of creation" James Reeves What has interested you about the ways in which Coleridge has asserted this one-ness? Throughout Coleridge's works, we can see that he tries to unify nature, through both the workings of his superior secondary imagination and his language. He constantly strives to give a sense of togetherness between all aspects of Nature and himself, even if through the idea that we are united in our diversity. Coleridge also shows us the effects of a lack of this 'one-ness', effectively emphasising its importance. Perhaps the most frequent impression of 'one-ness' in Coleridge's work is given by the assertion of God in Nature. In The Aeolian Harp, Coleridge talks about "the one life within us and abroad/ Which meets all motion and becomes its soul". This 'one life' is God, and Coleridge emphasises how He connects us all through the soul. Coleridge also unifies nature in the following description, "A light in sound, a sound-like power in light, /Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere". This emphasis connects 'light', which is an indication of Divine power, with nature, and also brings in the key to the 'one-ness' of Man and Nature: Joy. We can also see this reflection of God in Nature in Lime-Tree Bower, where Coleridge describes

  • Word count: 2060
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The Cockroach - Kevin Halligan

Through the allegory in "The Cockroach" Kevin Halligan reflects upon the value of life and the many challenges we face. Structure, tone and language techniques draw attention to the amount of detail and lessons that can be observed through an usually overlooked insect. The hyperbole of "a giant cockroach" conveys the closeness with which the persona is observing it, showing the reader the irony in his fascination and interest with this seemingly insignificant pest. The repetition of the insect here and in the title reinforces its importance, suggesting that this is also a device allowing one to reflect upon life. The unusual image of a lone cockroach that the persona empathises with highlights his feeling of loneliness; that they are considered an annoyance draws parallels with his despondency and identity crisis. The cockroach is separated and alone just as he feels from humanity; the real irony is the similarities that are apparent both to the persona and us. Furthermore, the personal pronoun "he" reinforces the connection felt by the persona; his personification of the cockroach allows a clear description while reinforcing this. The sibilance of "seemed quite satisfied" slows the attention upon this moment; the persona recognises a universal issue where humans are quite complacent with simply moving about, their destination unknown. The "path between..the door"

  • Word count: 618
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Theme of Isolation in the Ancyent Marinere

Tutor Marked Assignment Q Alone, alone, all all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea And Christ would take no pity on My soul in Agony Comment on the theme of isolation in "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere" as a whole. To what extent do you think it is a Christian poem? Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the story of the Romantic archetype, the Wanderer, the man with the mark of Cain (who killed his brother), doomed to be a restless wanderer on the earth and was once alienated from God's presence "so lonely 'twas that God himself scarce seemed there to be". Isolation is a state of separation, solitude or loneliness and has been explored in varying degrees throughout this poem; from geographical, social, to spiritual. Why has Coleridge gone to great lengths to perpetuate this theme throughout the "rime", what is the significance of Isolation in conveying his message? In Chapter I, the ship is driven by storms to the South Pole where there were "ne shapes of men ne beasts we ken" and "the ice was all between". The ship and its crew were geographically isolated from the rest of the living world due to the unbeatable force of nature; they saw no living creatures, but were surrounded by Ice; the extreme opposite of warmth, like blue sea, blue skies, green islands, and the colourful sea creatures; which was probably the scene when they were on the equator. Just like

  • Word count: 1898
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What methods does Browning use to tell the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin in verse 7

What methods does Browning use to tell the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin in verse 7? Pied piper of Hamlin was written by Robert Browning in 1849. Browning wrote this poem in third person narrative. The rhyming scheme that Browning uses at the beginning is quiet confusing and unbalanced, however he changes it later on in the poem in to his dramatic style. Browning aims this poem for younger readers as he has wrote this poem in fairy tale style by using lots of imagery and descriptive adjectives also the sub heading says "a child story". Browning wrote this poem in an irrelevant structure as some stanzas are long and some are short. At the beginning of this poem Browning has written in playful tone and showing the bravery of the Pied piper however later on the poem changes its mood as the Pied piper takes his revenge on the people of Hamelin by taking all their children into the cave. The poem Pied piper of Hamelin is about a decisive mayor who tells a strange man to use his magic to clear up the poisonous rats from this town and in return will give him 5000 gliders when the pied piper only asks him for 1000 gliders. As soon as the pied piper finishes his job by blowing his pipe and removing the rats from the town, he returns to the mayor and requests his 1000 gliders. The mayor laughs at him and repeats "a thousand gliders!" he mocks the pied piper and tells him to go away.

  • Word count: 1363
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The poem Chimney Sweep is William Blakes response to the condition of the children who swept the dark, polluted chimneys for a living.

The poem Chimney Sweep is William Blake's response to the condition of the children who swept the dark, polluted chimneys for a living. He expounds on the horrible conditions these children face and he writes that the only solace the children will get is through death, "...he open'd the coffins and set them all free." The child who is telling the story narrates that before he finished his tender years, he had to leave the house to clean chimneys. Blake's second line says "Could scarcely cry "weep, weep, weep, and weep," is actually supposed to say sweep, sweep, sweep and sweep. However, his choice of diction, which is clever a play on words say, "weep" because these children were crying because they were still babies and the work was too hard and it entwines misery with the work they are doing. The inability of the child to pronounce the word sweep evokes pity in the reader as it shows the injustice of putting such young children in such a dangerous line of work. Blake sets the heartbreaking mood of the poem with concrete images such "thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack, were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black" sets a perturbed forecast of what awaits them. The image of blackness is darkness that is enveloping the children literally and metaphorically because the soot makes them black and the pollution will eventually kill them all. He also employs sarcasm

  • Word count: 1054
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Marxist Criticism of Goblin Market

A Marxist Criticism of Rosetti's Goblin Market Oliver Latham 'Goblin Market', an early work considered to be one of Rosetti's masterpieces, was supposedly intended simply as a fairy story. Despite assertions that Rosetti meant nothing profound by the tale, its rich, complex, and suggestive language has caused the poem to be practically ignored as children's literature and instead regarded variously as an erotic exploration of sexual fantasy, a feminist glorification of 'sisterhood', or a Christian allegory about temptation and redemption, among other readings. Marxism, however, is a 'materialist philosophy': that is it tries to explain things 'without assuming the exisistence of a world or of forces beyond the natural world around us...' and, more importantly 'the society we live in.' Marxist literary criticism maintains that writer's social class, and its prevaling 'ideology' (outlook, values, assumptions etc.) have a major bearing on what is written. Writers, Marxism proposes, are not simply autonomous 'inspired' individuals, whose creative genius enables them to bring forth great works of literature, but rather they are constantly and subconsciously formed by their social and economic contexts.1 In Goblin Market, for instance, Rosetti takes a rather conservative stance on the issue of female sexual exploration which reflects her

  • Word count: 1715
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Personal response to Praise Song For My Mother by the poet Grace Nichols.

Praise Song For My Mother By: Fatima Al-Mousawi In "songs of ourselves", one experiences an overwhelming feeling of nostalgic emotions and scenes that could relate to them in the particular section that focuses on childhood. This particular section revolves around many and various topics that bring the reader to relate to the life and process of aging, and remember their childhood from poems open to interpretation and contain so many meaning behind a mere phrase or word. From the poems studied so far, the most striking and the most relatable poem on a personal note would probably be "Praise Song For My Mother" by the poet Grace Nichols. In Nichols' poem - a famous and a well-known one to many avid readers of poetry - one can feel the depth and strength of the poet's emotion in praising her mother and describing her role and stance in the Nichols' life. Anyone who considers their mother a leading and significant role in their life would completely understand the feel and tone of this poem, in addition to its simplicity in which one could see in the first stanza: "You were Water to me Deep and bold and fathoming" The structure and simplicity of the poem itself gives no need to much description; in a way it feels almost very maternal in itself. The gentle and flowing structure represents the gentleness of a mother herself and the gentleness of waves on the seashore -

  • Word count: 558
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Wagan Watsons poetry is often read as a representation of race and racial tensions, however, his texts are richer than this. Discuss the way in which you could read the poem/s for other representations. Possibilities include: childhood/matur

Wagan Watson's poetry is often read as a representation of race and racial tensions, however, his texts are richer than this. Discuss the way in which you could read the poem/s for other representations. Possibilities include: childhood/maturation, teenagers, Australia, Identity, Nature and Suburbia. Samuel Wagan Watson's poetry can be described as extremely complex through both the way in which he expresses his ideas and the representations and symbols he creates from this writing. Through this, particularly in the writing of his anthology, Smoke Encrypted Whispers, Wagan Watson conveys ideas such as that of race and racial tensions, maturation, teenager-hood, Australia and Australian identity, and nature and its importance - however, one idea that standAs out is his strong, negative opinion of the city and its opportunities exhausting country towns and destroying the small societies created there. Two of his poems published in Smoke Encrypted Whispers, 'Night Racing' and 'Cold Storage' can be read to reflect these ideals and challenge the new-found importance of the city. Therefore, Wagan Watson's 'Cold Storage' can be read in conjunction with his poem 'Night Racing,' along with other poems in his anthology, to demonstrate specific ideas about the city's takeover of the country and more traditional lifestyles, such as the idea that the city and its industries, which act as

  • Word count: 1584
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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An Expression of Love

An Expression of Love Spanning just twelve lines and two stanzas, Eavan Boland's poem "Ceres Looks at the Morning" offers a rich amount of analogies to Greek mythology. She vividly shows her ideas and her life by linking them to myths such as the myth of Ceres and Persephone. In "Ceres Looks at the Morning," Eavan Boland also expresses her experiences as a mother by superimposing herself onto a reminiscing Ceres. Plotted on the time-line of life, dawn represents new life, twilight represents senility, and darkness represents death. The lines "Already / my body is a twilight: Solid. Cold" symbolizes how the ordeal of Persephone and Hades had worn out Ceres. It also represents Boland's view of herself as worn out and exhausted from taking care of a daughter. In lines 8-12, the poet speaker compares her daughter to a beautiful morning. Just as the morning rose from the darkness, so had Boland's daughter come from the darkness of Boland's womb. As morning ultimately become day, her daughter will anticipate adulthood. Boland utilizes several things from Greek mythology. Nyx, the goddess of darkness, plays an important, though mostly oblivious role in several myths. In the myth of Ceres and Persephone, Ceres, while looking for her daughter, carried torches during the day as she did during night, which showed that for her, day is as dark as night. In line 2, Nyx plays a similar

  • Word count: 466
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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love song of j. alfred prufrock

"The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on." -Carl Sandburg In the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot has created a persona who can see the possibilities of life but is unable to give such ideas a spirit. The poem revolves around how he feels inadequate, how his hesitancy results in inaction which he then tries to rationalize. On one level the poem is a very personal one, about a sad and tormented man with his 'love song' for all to hear; wanting someone to see and understand his plight. On another level it is a criticism of modern society where meaningless social rituals prevail, and where individuals are repressed and alienated, and no longer in contact with a meaningful existence. Prufrock wasn't as much a persona of the poet but an "observation." The poem begins with an invitation by Prufrock to join him in his travels through a city that is growing increasingly modern, while Prufrock himself is afraid, or unable, to change with it. His description of the way he sees his environment can elucidate much about the character himself. He describes "cheap hotels," restaurants with sawdust on the floor, and frightening streets "that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent". The fog creeps up on the street as if it were a cat. The yellow lamplight obscures more than it illuminates. If he is

  • Word count: 1427
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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