la belle dame sans merci- poetic inspiration or negative female stereotypes?

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI Question: Is 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' a poem about negative female stereotypes or about poetic creation and poetic sensibility? 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' is written in ballad form. Typically the ballad is dramatic, condensed and impersonal: the narrator begins with the climactic episode, tells the story curtly by means of action or in this case by means of dialogue alone. It is told without self reference or the expression of personal attitudes and feelings. Keats does not differ here. Ballads also employ set formulas including stock descriptive phrases like 'blood-red wine' and 'milk-white steed'. There is a refrain in each stanza and incremental repetition. Keats differs slightly in the ballad stanza format making the last line of each stanza shorter than the others. 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' literally means- 'beautiful woman without pity'. It is, on the surface, a simple story describing the ill fate of a knight-at-arms. By the very name of the ballad people can deem is to be about negative female stereotypes. But on the other hand one can see the knight as a poet that finds poetic inspiration- symbolised in the figure of the woman- and then has it leave him abruptly. Feminists see this as another example of negative stereotyping of women in literature- a manifestation of whatever is happening in a society dominating by patriarchan values.

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Analysis of Keats To Autumn

Analysis of Keats' To Autumn To Autumn was a poem composed by John Keats, a famous romantic poet who was regarded as a genius by Shelly. His odes are among the mightiest achievements of English verse. In To Autumn, Keats presents a colorful and vivid picture of the autumn, and gives expression to his own thoughts on life as well. This poem shows some of the main features of Romanticism such as the admiration of nature, the use of imagination, the stress on emotion and on artistic effect. Particularly, it is a good example of Keats' poetic principle of "negative power". But by analyzing both the poem and its background, we may find that although Keats wants to conceal his own feeling, this poem, with both its language and its content, is a true reflection of his thoughts and life experience To Autumn deals with the presence of nature and how autumn itself is more significant than any of the other seasons. What most called my attention was the infinite number of images you can imagine by reading it. It seems that john Keats describes what he imagine and while reading it, I can create the picture in my mind, of what he is seeing. To Autumn has three stanzas. Each of three stanzas shows us different time of a day and different time of autumn. I thought this poem exhibited two kinds of progression of time. First is the time of day. The first stanza is the morning with the

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The two poems that I will compare and contrast are "Dover Beach" and "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer".

Compare and Contrast two poems The two poems that I will compare and contrast are "Dover Beach" and "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer". The poem "Dover Beach" written by Mathew Arnold is concerned with presenting the audience with a sublime view of the poet's world. Arnold takes the audience on a fundamental and emotive jaunt through time; this excursion is to portray his lament of the scientific revolution which has altered his perspective on life. Arnold's rudiments have been tainted as all the knowledge that was once certain to him are now pauperized in a "melancholy, long, withdrawing" rumination. The central theme of the poem is propagated through a magnitude of keywords which are utilized to portray the lament of Arnold's new view on life which is one of "sadness" and "human misery", nevertheless Arnold is unprepared to abandon his poem on such a "retreating" note. The poem concludes with an expressive plea for candour and "love" as "love let us be true to one another", love is portrayed as the one true feeling that is left for Arnold to express as it is an unbounded commodity. The tone of the poem is one of descent and poignancy as Arnold is experiencing mental turmoil as what was once fact to him is now a distant memory on the "northern sea". The tone's aim is to emphasise the deep sorrow and mental turmoil that Arnold is indubitably experiencing. The tone of

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In Martin Heidegger's booklet The Origin of the Work of Art the German philosopher attempts to answer the question of the origin of the work of art which he places on an equal footing with the issue of the essence of art.

Alan Pejkovic 710131-3372 In Martin Heidegger's booklet The Origin of the Work of Art the German philosopher attempts to answer the question of the origin of the work of art which he places on an equal footing with the issue of the essence of art. To Heidegger, these two questions are interwoven. What is very problematic for the reader is the fact that Heidegger begins his investigation with a hermeneutic circle. The phrase 'hermeneutic circle' refers to the circle of interpretation involved when understanding some work of art. According to this reasoning, it is not possible to really understand any part of a work until you understand the whole, but it is not possible either to understand the whole without understanding all of the parts. Heidegger starts by defining what to examine. In other words, we must identify something as a work of art. Only then it will be possible to infer what art is from the investigated work. But, to do that, Heidegger continues in a hermeneutic circle, we must already know which things are works of art and which are not. Further, if we can do this successfully, we must already know what art is. Heidegger's reasoning is complicated and can be seen as a logical problem but his intention is to get the reader to think in different orbits, to try not to get around the circle but to break into it in a way that is not completely clear to me.

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Carefully read the poem 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats. Write an essay of not more that 1500 words in which you analyse the poem and comment on the poetic form and language used and the way they contribute to the meaning and effects of the poem.

Natalia Atkinson Student ID: W7234978 A210:TMA03 01/05/2007 Carefully read the poem 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats. Write an essay of not more that 1500 words in which you analyse the poem and comment on the poetic form and language used and the way they contribute to the meaning and effects of the poem. 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is a delightfully reflective, lyrical poem, which contemplates the beauty of static art with the transience of life. Although initially we revel in the enchanting charm of the urn depicted we understand that art is eternal in its moment of emotion, and what it gains in its infinite life it also looses with the lack of motion of it being fixed. By looking at the intricate poetic language Keat's chooses for this ode we are allowed access to the enchanting images of the urn and also into the introspective mood of Keat's himself. The word 'ode' derives from an ancient Greek word meaning 'song' which sets the mood of the piece. We see the art of the urn and also the lamentations and meditations of the poet as having many perspectives like that in a song which can display a range of emotions. The ode open with a series of personifications of the Grecian urn, it is a 'still unravish'd bride', a 'foster-child of silence' and a 'Sylvan historian'. These paradoxical images suggest it taking many forms, it can speak yet it is silent. This draws

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How does Keats present women in his poetry?

"Towards women I feel a Gordian complication of feelings"- How does Keats present women in his poetry? Within Keats' poetry there are some repeating themes, with some poems being constructed around certain ideas. One such is women, and how Keats feels towards them. His poetry reflects different periods of his live, when he feels a certain way about them. Generally, there is a sense of ambiguity about his feelings towards women, as said in the title, he felt a "Gordian complication"- a knot that could not be undone- of feelings, and usually just as a reader feels they begin to know his opinions, the poem seems to move in a contradictory way. In both 'Lamia' and 'The Eve of St Agnes' Keats draws our attention to the fragility of the moment. In both of these narrative poems, he points out how nothing is forever, whatever feelings we have for another are destined to die, either through our own mortality "There they reposed,|Where use had made it sweet...came a thrill|Of trumpets - Lycius started", or through time "And they are gone - ay, ages long ago". Although it is unknown if Keats ever had sex, his writing shows his high thoughts about it-"Into her dream he melted, as the rose|Blendeth its odour with the violet"- and this is one of his contradictory thoughts. Although he likes the idea of making love and the perfection of the moment, he understands that it does not, indeed

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John Keats uses often uses pain and suffering in his poetry and blends this with sensuous delight and pleasure but pain and suffering are not always paradoxically a source of poetic pleasure in his work.

John Keats uses often uses pain and suffering in his poetry and blends this with sensuous delight and pleasure but pain and suffering are not always paradoxically a source of poetic pleasure in his work. A good example of Keats using pain and suffering, as a form of poetic pleasure is "Ode On Melancholy" (Roe 67). This poem is about pleasure and pain and starts in the first stanza with pain. In this stanza there is a lot of diction to do with depression. The stanza contains many words telling the reader not to turn to narcotics when depressed. These words of depression and pain include "Lethe", "Wolf's bane", " Nightshade" and "Beatle" (Roe 67). "Lethe" is one of the rivers of hell, "Wolf's bane" is a dull yellow plant, "Nightshade" is a plant with poisonous berries and a "Beatle" is an ugly insect. This diction shows the depressed mood of the first stanza and is an argument against a good life and all the pleasurable things in it. This is summed up by the final line of the stanza "And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul", which shows Keats feels a good experience usually brings intense anguish. Stanza two tells the reader four things that should be done when melancholy strikes. Melancholy means "Sadness and gloom" (Makins 339). But before these four solutions to melancholy are given the mood of the stanza is set up with the simile "Like a weeping cloud" (Roe 67). This

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As a direct address to an inanimate object "The Fountain" presents three main conflicts concerning the appearance to the observer and the reality in the poem.

As a direct address to an inanimate object "The Fountain" presents three main conflicts concerning the appearance to the observer and the reality in the poem. First, since the speaker addresses an object usually considered voiceless, the reader may abandon his/her normal perception of the fountain and enter the poet's imaginative address. Secondly, the speaker not only addresses the fountain but asserts that it speaks and sings, personifying the object with vocal abilities. These acts imply that, not only can the fountain speak in a musical form, but the fountain also has the ability to present some particular meaning ("what do you say" (1)). Finally, the poet gives the fountain a voice to say that its perpetual motion (rising and falling) is "enough" to maintain its sense of existence. This final personification fully dramatizes the conflict between the fountain's appearance and the poem's statement of reality by giving the object intelligence and voice. The first strophe, four lines of alternating 4- and 3-foot lines, takes the form of a ballad stanza. In this way, the poem begins by suggesting that it will be story that will perhaps teach a certain lesson. The opening trochees and repetition stress the address to the fountain, and the iamb which ends line 1 and the trochee that begins line 2 stress the actions of the fountain itself. The response of the fountain

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Odes of Keats and Shelley

Odes of Keats and Shelley J.A. Cuddon, writing in The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Theory and Literary Terms, defines an ode as "a lyric poem, usually of some length . . . [which] features an elaborate stanza structure, a marked formality and stateliness in tone and style (which makes it ceremonious) and lofty sentiments and thoughts. In short, an ode is rather a grand poem, a full-dress poem" (Cuddon, 650). Because of this, one would expect odes to be very popular in the eighteenth century when poetry was very formal, and so they were. But surprisingly, we find that the ode was a favorite form of a number of Romantics of the nineteenth century, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley among them. Both Keats and Shelley found in the formalism of the ode form a springing-off point for their Romantic thoughts. Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a long poem extolling the perfection of art as opposed to real life, showing that art is timeless as nature can never be because living things are caught up in a cycle of change and death. To present this argument he compares the urn to an 'unravished bride', which belongs to him but yet he can never possess. He establishes a second metaphor as well, this time comparing the urn to a 'sylvan historian', in that it can record in its workmanship the details of a culture long extinct. In this way Keats shows that art exists outside of time,

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Explication: Keats, J. To Autumn.

Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies Poetry and Society Assessment 1 Explication: Keats, J. To Autumn To Autumn is a celebration not of the ordinary autumns, but an idyllic and perfect representation of the season. This essay aims to unravel and clarify some of the ideas and intentions in Keats' ode. I will be closely analysing how Keats develops poetic instruments such form, tone, rhythm, rhyme and imagery. The poem consists of three verses that display a temporal structure. The progression of time from morning, to afternoon and then evening and through the season itself, from the fading delights of summer, to the harvest, to the inevitable harshness of winter is identifiable. Each of the stanzas represents different aspects of the season, indicative of the poet's appreciation of nature's cyclical and transient disposition. The poem commences with an apostrophe to autumn as "[the] season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" (1). This is a conventional opening fitting the form of a poem of this kind, in the sense that it a celebratory poem, specifically addressed to the object of its praise. The alliteration on the "m" signifies the calmness and serenity of autumn. "Fruitfulness" suggests the munificence and generosity of autumn; this also prepares the reader for the references to "fruit", later in the poem. The season is introduced with the idea of time

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