I am going to discuss the poems 'Strong Man' and 'Grandmother's Cactus' both which were written by Tony Curtis.

Coursework Thursday, 07 February 2002 I am going to discuss the poems 'Strong Man' and 'Grandmother's Cactus' both which were written by Tony Curtis. Both the poems are concerned with love and death 'Strong Man is about a loving father who is extremely strong and gets weaker in age and then dies', but as he gets weaker he still has a strong spirit. My grandmother's cactus is about a grandmother that was a real character she had loads of different experiences and had a 'Strong' personality. Some times she made people dislike her because she arguing a lot with family and neighbours but her grandson always loved her. Her grandson who wrote the poem, had bought her a present when he was in 'Primary School', which was a cactus, he had bought this from 'The royal welsh show.' This cactus becomes a very important symbol to the grandson after the grandmother dies the cactus reminds him of his grandmother. In 'Strong Man' the poet isn't one of the man's sons because he mentions "you" and "your" but it is still a very personal poem. In the first verse the poet shows that the man is strong. By showing the man doing lots of things that are extremely hard to do, like punching nails into wood "with a clenched fist." The poet uses the image of the father being like a three. I think this is a good because we think of trees be large,

  • Word count: 1253
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What have you found interesting about the ways Chaucer satirises the code of Courtly Love in the Miller's Prologue and Tale?

What have you found interesting about the ways Chaucer satirises the code of Courtly Love in the Miller's Prologue and Tale? The first thing I find interesting is the fact that Chaucer in fact at all, uses satire in terms of Courtly Love. The previous tale - the Knight's tale - tells of the pain of Courtly Love and how it is taken extremely seriously and so the interest comes when the Miller's Tale, which also contains elements of Courtly Love, is juxtaposed next to this. The Miller's Tale responds to the Knight's by turning Courtly Love into a rude joke for example by portraying any 'romance' in the tale in a sexually graphic way. For example Nicholas seduces Alison by grabbing her by the "queynte". This completely satirises the cold of Courtly Love, as the code of Courtly Love involves only admiring from afar, or awaiting a simple glance. Nicholas is therefore used as Chaucer's main way to satirise Courtly Love, in that he is the complete opposite to what noble following the code of Courtly Love should be. For example, he speaks words of Courtly Love, but his actions do not match what he says. When speaking to Alison, Nicholas says "Lemman, love me al atones, or I wol dyen" yet he is holding "hire harde by the haunchebones". Therefore I find it interesting that Chaucer is using elements of Courtly Love, in that the words Nicholas says to seduce Alison appear to be courtly,

  • Word count: 2200
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Cousin Kate - review

Cousin Kate The poem cousin Kate by Christina Rossetti is about a young girl who falls in love with a great lord (a rich and powerful man), but then he leaves her for her cousin. Eventually she finds out that she is pregnant (cousin Kate) but had to deal with the consequences all by herself. As the great lord does not want to be involved in a baby when not married (this was highly disrespected at this time).It is set sometimes during the 1800's and a young cottage maiden was living a happy life with her friends, but she was taken away by a powerful man. I get the picture that she was happy without him as she says "contented with my cottage mates". I like this as it hints an idea that something may go wrong. Cousin Kate is the cousin she has, who gets chosen over her. She is reluctant to think about not going off with the lord, even though that her cousin is pregnant by him. The girl who is the victim of this poem, seems to think she cares more about the lord. She thinks she loves him, where as "cousin Kate" is with him for just the money. "Your love was writ in sand" I favor this metaphor as it's saying in a way that "cousin Kate's" love can easily be washed away. The victim of this poem as it were seems to have been a innocent and pretty girl, as she says he "lured" her "to his palace home". Almost like a stranger "luring a child into a car" This is why I despise of this

  • Word count: 2152
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast the pre-20th century love poem 'Cousin Kate' by C. Rossetti with the late 20th century poem 'The Seduction' by E. Mcauley.

Essay question: compare and contrast the pre-20th century love poem 'Cousin Kate' by C. Rossetti with the late 20th century poem 'The Seduction' by E. Mcauley. As part of my year 10 coursework for English I have been asked to read love poems and look at the similarities and the differences between the two poems, Cousin Kate and The Seduction. One of the writers of the poems Christina Rossetti was very famous for her poems and the role as an early feminist she was born on 5th December 1830 and died on 29th December 1894 at the age of 64. Her poems were famous for the way she spoke about unrequited love to earthly love she was a devout (seriously religious) member of the Church of England who never married. Her feminist desires caused her a life long struggle by constantly attempting to reconcile her own often-conflicting ideals towards religion, ambition and the Victorian womanhood. Rossettis view to being a nun of art. Has also influenced the way in which her poetry has been made. Because Rossetti never married, the central themes of her poetry were considered to be renunciation and sexual frustration and the hope for a better life after death. My first impressions of the poems were that I realized that they are not stereotypical love poems they have pessimistic and optimistic endings. Pessimistic ending was 'The Seduction' as there was no hope but in 'Cousin Kate' there was

  • Word count: 1851
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast the ways in which these three poets write about "love".

Jenny Luckham 10x1 November 2002 Pre 20th Century and 20th Century Poetry Compare and contrast the ways in which these three poets write about "love". These three poets wire about the topic of love in many ways. This may be because they may me expressing a different kind of love or maybe they view it in a different way. However, here I intend to compare the ways in which these three poets do this. The topics of these three poems are very different. "One flesh" by Elizabeth Jennings is about a loveless relationship, a relationship that once contained a spark that no longer exists, dead love if you will. This point is illustrated very clearly in the final line of the poem. "Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold". It is written in the first person which gives it a personal touch, like it is actually happening to this person. This is also shown in the final stanza. "These two are my father and mother". Also, this poem is written in iambic pentameter so it gives it a definite rhythm. This is useful for this type of poem where the poet is trying to express sorrow because it gives a sense of flow. She also uses the technique of contrast throughout this poem. For example, in the second stanza words such as "passion" and "cool" are used side by side. "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell is a very unusual poem. At first it appears that he is writing about a

  • Word count: 748
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Ability of Love.

ENGL-3000 M/W 5:30 The Ability of Love "Lord, what fools these mortals be"(act 3 scene 2 line 116) this is what basically sums up the nature of human behavior. We do many things different, and the reasoning behind many things we do is sometimes non-existent, yet we continue to act the way we do; we're slaves to our emotions. In the Shakespeare play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" love had multiple effects on the main characters Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena, as it seems to do in real life. In my opinion the greatest effect of love is foolishness. A prominent man can be moved to appear a fool and perform ridiculous acts in the name of love. This has held true since the beginning of man. The ancient Greeks even developed myths in accordance with this verity. The mythological character, Cupid, was developed and created as an ambassador of love. He had the control to make a woman fawn and a man woo. He was also drawn blind, as an infant with arrows, and with wings. What does this tell us about love in ancient Greece that could apply to love today? Love is blind, for starters. If you love someone there will be things about that person which may be plain to everyone else but have never even occurred to you. Love is fleeting and foolish, hence the child with wings. All these things can be encompassed within the situation between Helena and Demetrius. Helena is

  • Word count: 856
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"The comedies of William Shakespeare are frivolous and have little literary value" Do you agree? Refer to "Twelfth Night" and one other Shakespearean comedy to support your stand.

"The comedies of William Shakespeare are frivolous and have little literary value." Do you agree? Refer to "Twelfth Night" and one other Shakespearean comedy to support your stand. The comedies of William Shakespeare, although written centuries ago, are not at all frivolous and have great literary value as they serve not as not only effective but also realistic straightforward portrayals of the universals themes of romantic love and lust, as seen in the realistic comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" and the romantic comedy "Twelfth Night", which still apply in today's society. "Frivolous" is defined as "Of little value, trivial", "comedy" as "The genre of dramatic literature dealing with the comic or with the serious light or satirical manner" and "Literary Value" as "The relative worth or importance for (a piece of) Literature." (Agnes, 373) This is proven in the "Taming of the Shrew", in an approach to get Shakespeare's message across that how true love, "the deep, tender, unchanging feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person" (Lothian, 130) is often misunderstood when compared to courtly love, "an idealised and often illicit form of love", which is often mistaken for the former. He achieves this by comparing it with how true love grows through understanding between two people and how people change once the "courting" is over. Shakespeare uses the examples of how

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Whitman's Masculinity and Femininity in Song of Myself.

Whitman's Masculinity and Femininity in Song of Myself All Whitman's poems, not merely the "Children of Adam" poems and the "Calamus" poems, are love poems of blatant sexuality and amativeness, which was frightening to some of those who read and liked him and was a real bugbear to those who charged him with writing filthi without bothering to read them. However, sex, this rejuvenation or rebirth or new life is taken by Whitman as a proof of the affirmative and ascending nature of God's world and of humanity itself. Sex is not something debasing or something to be whispered about behind the hand, but deserving the highest celebration. In Song of Myself, masculinity and femininity, the two components of sex, are chanted by Whitman; and what's further, Whitman brings together these two seemingly polar opposites and synthesizes them to form a new wholeness at a higher level where he unlocks his own inner reality and truth. As a start, it is essential to list some of the apparently opposite concepts that are such an integral part of all the poetry of Whitman. "Group 1: arrogant, activity, day, sun, life, body and adhesiveness; group 2: docility, passivity, night, moon, death, soul and amativeness." ii All of the words in group 1 relate to masculinity and those in group 2 to femininity. Strangely, the words in the two groups are not opposite at all in Whitman's poetry, as they

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast ‘Cousin Kate’ and ‘The Birthday’ by Christina Rosseti.

Assignment 3 - Poetry Compare and contrast 'Cousin Kate' and 'The Birthday' by Christina Rosseti. Your response should explore the meaning of each poem, the similarities and differences between the poems and the impact they have on you. CHRISTINA ROSSETI Christina Rosseti was an 19th century poet. She was born in London on the 5th December 1830 to Gabriele and Frances Rosseti. In 1848 she became engaged to James Collinson, one of the pre-Raphaelite brethren. The engagement fell through when he became Roman Catholic. From the early 1860's on she was in love with Charles Cayley but refused to marry him because he was not a Christian and Milk-and-water Anglicanism was not to her taste. She was proud of her expertise at the game of chess that she liked to win but felt guilt at taking pleasure in winning. So she gave up chess because she enjoyed it so much. She also pasted paper strips over the antireligous parts of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon; objected to nudity in paintings, especially if the artist was a women; and refused to go see Wagner's Parsifal, because it celebrated a pagan mythology. A BIRTHDAY My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a watered shoot: My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Married state

'A Married State' is written by a poet named Katherine Philips, the poem is based around the negativity of a life since a man and women ever join in holy matrimony. Whereas, The 'Song of a Worker's Wife' is by a poet named Alice Grey Jones; the poem is based around life's involvement on a growing family. The two poems that are based on the thoughts of marriage and a women's role within it, they take sharply opposite views. 'A Married State' is set in a negative tone; the reader is drawn into the intense atmosphere on lines 1-2, 'A married state affords but little ease: The best of husbands are so hard to please.' It describes the hard life of a strained married hood 'little ease' elaborates more on the husband's and wife's relationship showing the very little freedom in their relationship, for the wife to break through into pleasure would be a struggle even with 'the best of husbands'. Whereas, 'Song of a Worker's Wife' is set in a positive tone in the comparison to marriage in lines 1-5 'My hands are none to white'... 'But my hands are not complaining'. It describes a wives believes that all her labor is beneficial to the ones she loves, her family, reaching out the audiences sympathy for motherhood, the author also uses adjectives to create this effect. There are 4 stanzas in the poem; each stanza is in chronological order in family ageing. For this reason the language of

  • Word count: 1133
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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