Emily Dickinson

Lesley Williams Dr. A. MacDonald Smythe English 103 27th November, 2007. Enormously popular since the early publication of her poems, Emily Dickinson has enjoyed an ever-increasing critical reputation, and she is now widely regarded as one of America's best poets. It is true that Dickinson's themes are universal, but her particular vantage points tend to be very personal as if she rebuilt her world inside the products of her poetic imagination and this is why some of her knowledge of her life and her cast of mind is essential for illuminating much of her work. In many poems, she preferred to conceal the specific causes and nature of her deepest feelings, especially experiences of suffering, and her subjects flow so much into one another in language and conception that often it is difficult to tell if she is writing about people or God, nature or society, spirit or art. However, in face of the difficulty of many of her poems and the contradictory general impression made by her work and personality, Dickinson's popularity is a great tribute to her genius. Furthermore, my main objective is to provide a detailed biography of this author and a critical analysis of selected poems I have chosen to discuss in this essay. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was born in Amherst, Massachusetts where she spent her whole life, most of it in the large meadow-surrounded house called

  • Word count: 2612
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Compare the ways that vultures are portrayed and used in the poems by Margaret Atwood and Chinua Achebe

Compare the ways that vultures are portrayed and used in the poems by Margaret Atwood and Chinua Achebe Achebe and Atwood appear to be writing about vultures, but are actually commenting on something different. Both poets compare vultures to humanity but Atwood's poem describes vultures in a good ways whereas Achebe describes vultures in a bad way. In Achebe's poem the first section talks about vultures. On the whole it portrays them to be evil and dark but then suggests that humans are no better than vultures. Achebe uses a lot of dark negative words to portray vultures in the first section of the poem, he uses dark words that are, "greyness", "drizzle" and "despondent" to set the scene, this shows that the vultures live in a dark habitat. This first section of the poem uses good imagery to set the scene. The next two lines suggest a stereotypical part of a vultures home, on a dead tree. "Dead" suggests that the vultures have killed the tree as well as other animals. Achebe then describes the vultures themselves and uses mostly negative words, such as "bashed in head", "bone", "corpse" and "trench." Bone and corpse suggests death which represents the vultures to be bad and related with death. Bashed in head shows that vultures are ugly which makes a negative atmosphere and image. But Achebe also uses some positive words like "affectionately", "mate" and "perching."

  • Word count: 1290
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Write an essay in which you identify, describe and evaluate the main ideas in at least three poems by diffrernt authors.

Three poems by three different authors Lord Byron: Don Juan (Canto II) She loved, and was beloved - she adored, And she was worshipp'd; after nature's fashion, Their intense souls, into each other pour'd, If souls could die, had perish'd in that passion,- But by degrees their senses were restored, Again to be o'ercome, again to dash on; And, beating 'gainst his bosom, Haidee's heart Felt as if never more to beat apart. Alas! they were so young, so beautiful, So lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour Was that in which the heart is always full, And, having o'er itself no further power, Prompts deeds eternity can not annul, But pays off moments in an endless shower Of hell -fire - all prepared for people giving Pleasure or pain to one another living. Lots of punctuation has been used in this poem, perhaps to make you stop and think about the situation. The varied type of punctuation excels the effectiveness of this poem making it come across very strongly. The last line of each verse breaks the structure that the poem has set out, Therefore breaking the persistence that the author has used throughout the poem. In relation to this, the structures of the rhymes on the first verse are very similar to those on the second verse. This has helped to make the poem very structured and persistent evidentially making the poem flow along easily. The structure of the

  • Word count: 2333
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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