“Describe Yourself in Three Words or Less” is a poem written by African-American poet, Rita Dove. Dove wrote this most likely with the intentions of trying to describe herself in three words or less, however, she was unable to do so. But what she was able to do in the poem was describe herself in three stanzas instead. Looking at the structural elements of the poem one can see that it contains three stanzas. These three stanzas are in octave, heptastich, and heptastich form.…
The Assyrian and the Persian empire were two empires that were very successful in their own right. Both empires differed in how they were governed and how they treated the citizens of their empires. However, regardless of the major differences, there were still a few similarities between the two of them. This paper will compare and contrast the administrative structure of both empires, along with the leader’s attitudes toward their citizens. The Assyrian Empire as a whole was a rather successful empire.…
The use of rhythm through iambic pentameter plays an important part in understanding Marc Antony’s funeral oration in Julius Caesar. Much of the speech is representative of Antony’s thought process and the rhythmic variations allow the audience to connect with his train of thought. Determining the meaning of these rhythmic variations can be done by examining the iambic pentameter. For instance in Speaking Shakespeare, Patsy Rodenburg discusses the importance of counting syllables in each line to discover if the iambic pentameter is regular or irregular with any line exceeding ten syllables being irregular (86). The irregularity of certain lines can indicate an important break from the monotony or “heartbeat” of the character, because Rodenburg…
In the midst of oppressive rulers, many times throughout history the people of a civilization seek outside help in order to overthrow their exploiters. Repressive leaders weaken morale of its citizens, and make the people unsettled to trust its own leaders. The impact that religion has in the government’s ability to govern and show the people that it’s leaders are in fact of divine right is also profound. In Babylon, King Nabonidus was a very unpopular and unjust leader and was creating unrest in his city, but also didn’t worship Marduk, the Lord of Babylon. The King Cyrus will emerge to liberate the city of Babylon.…
The art of poetry is a vast discipline in which the creations of the poets take on a multitude of different forms. Not only are there a large number of poetic structures that an author can choose from, there are also many parts within those structures that can be modified to lead to an even more diverse array of final products. The author has a great many choice when it comes to choosing the structure of their poem, they can vary the number of lines per stanza, the length of each line, and the number of syllables per line. Other variations the poet can make include content changes such as choosing to use rhyming words, repeated sounds like alliteration, and figurative devices such as personification. Even in poetry forms with strict guidelines,…
Antonio’s family always believed it was his destiny to become a wise pastor. They wished that he would become a man of learning, and Antonio wanted to live up to their expectation and be pure, but not everything follows up to what he expected from God. In Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses parallelism, active voice, varieties of sentences, and rhythm of speech to illustrate the significant moment which is the foreshadowing of Antonio’s destiny. Anaya uses parallelism to show more meaning to what is being said. The mother says, “Ana especially bless my Antonio, that all my go well for him and that he may be a man of great learning”(Anaya 55).…
“Crusades Through Arab Eyes” by Amin Maalouf The great Crusade started in the second half of the 11th Century after Pope Urban II appealed to followers to reconquer the Holy Land from Muslims. Most Turks had converted to Islam, which was a concern for Alexios who was the Byzantine emperor of the Middle East region. The first war was to retake the Holy Land from Muslims, but it was realized that the Crusaders (or the Franj as referred by Muslims) had other intentions of conquering the territory of the Muslims. The book “Crusades Through Arab Eyes” tries to portray a different vantage point from an Arab-Muslim perspective.…
The Real King of Kings Percy Bysshe Shelley was a great English romantic writer. Shelley was born to a normal household, in this time period, he was the oldest of seven and seemed to be very different from his peers. Growing up Shelly was bullied horribly, this caused him to retreat to his imagination and is most likely the reason he is such a great writer. As years go by Shelly entered University College, Oxford, but after a few months, a dean demanded that Shelley visit his office. Shelley and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg had co-authored a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism.…
The poem appears like an ocean shore; the lines of the poem, emulating the back and forth motion of waves, are long, then shorten, lengthen, then shorten again, this in keeping with the mythical kingdom theme. The predominant rhythm that the poem uses is the anapest, a type of meter consisting of three syllables, with one stressed syllable occurring after two unstressed syllables (Poe's Annabel Lee). For example in the first line, the first syllable of “many” and the word “year” receive stress after two unaccented syllables, as shown here: Itwasma / nyandma / nyayear / a / go (Shmoop Editorial Team). The anapest rhythm adds excitement and a climactic aspect as it builds in momentum just as the overall structure of the poem does; they meet, they fall in love, she dies, he grieves, he accepts.…
The Bible and the 500 Years of Conquest, written by Elsa Tamez, articulates the varying treatments of the Bible in the past centuries. The five treatments include use of the Bible for conquest, rejection of the Bible, the "popular" reading of the bible and Indigenous hermeneutics. In this first treatment, the Biblical narrative from Exodus is used to justify the conquest and genocide of non-Christians throughout history. Stating that just as the Israelites took the land of Canaan, so should the conquerors take other land, said to be theirs by the Pope. The second treatment is rejection, tells the response of the Indigenous people of South America.…
In “A Far Cry from Africa” in the beginning, it starts off similar to Maya’s poem in sort of in a heroic couplet pattern, but instead of switching up to free verse it goes into an iambic pentameter kind of pattern. The mood begins to shift from positive to…
“Echo,” a poem by Christina Rossetti, reveals the universal longing for a loved one departed and the nature of one’s thoughts as they echo without a person on the other end to respond. The speaker in the poem, perhaps a woman, appears to have lost her lover to some kind of death. She wishes to be reunited with her lover, either in dreams, or in her own death. The speaker utilizes sestet stanza units, specific meter with metrical variations, and repetition to enact the experience of longing.…
Caroline Fairbank AP Lit pd 3a November 16, 2016 Poetry Explication Robert Frost’s lyric poem “Reluctance” explores the inner conflict related to aging and death. Now home, it seems as though his journey through life is at its end. However, he refuses to simply accept his fate and expresses reluctance to go. Frost uses an extended metaphor, specific diction and parallelism to convey the speaker’s unwillingness to accept the continuity of life.…
In attempts to enlarge the meaning of life, literary rhetoric of the Renaissance allowed for development of one’s personal understanding of the universe through metaphorical devices. By associating the subject or theme to the universe effectively enhances it to a greater scale, drawing focus to a poet 's underlying message. In John Donne’s sonnet “The Good-Morrow,” the speaker relates love to a microcosm of the universe. The poem is an expression of love through physical and spiritual metaphors and images depicting an infallible love. Through Donne’s delivery of paradoxical images and reflective metaphors, he builds an entirely unique image of love.…
William Wordsworth’s poem: ’ Composed on the Westminster Bridge’ is a sonnet that describes London in the morning as the city is still asleep. The poem’s title: “composed on the Westminster Bridge” tells the reader that the Author is standing on the Westminster Bridge, in London and is describing the sights of the City that he can see from the Bridge. Wordsworth is fascinated by the city’s beauty.…