W. H. Auden Essays

  • Comparing Stop All The Clocks And Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House

    1419 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Poetry Foundation defines an Elegy as “often a melancholy melancholy poem that laments its subject’s death but ends in consolation. Two poems that exhibit conventions of an elegy are “Stop all the clocks” by W. H. Auden and “Verses upon the Burning of our House” by Anne Bradstreet. Both authors aim to reveal the grief of their loss through the use of imagery. In Auden’s case, the loss of his lover has put him in a depressive state that he tries to inflict upon his audience. Bradstreet loses

  • W. H. Auden's 'Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus'

    807 Words  | 4 Pages

    crossed W. H. Auden’s mind when he first saw Pieter Brueghel 's "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.” In the painting it depicts a beautiful landscape on the seashore. Everybody is carrying about their business and chores; however, in the lower left hand corner there is a man 's legs coming out of the water. These are the legs of Icarus, who has recently fallen from the sky. William Carlos Williams writes in his poem Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, “The edge of the sea concerned with itself.” W. H.

  • Loss Of Grief Literary Analysis

    1414 Words  | 6 Pages

    Grief is so painful and enduring that different people will deal with it through unique and individual means. In the book, Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland, the movie Three Colors: Blue by Krzysztof Kieslowski, and the poem Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden, people suffer from the loss of their beloved ones and they are overwhelmed with grief. The characters in each of these works use various methods such as self-isolation,

  • Diction In The Unknown Citizen

    855 Words  | 4 Pages

    Away from Omelas and The Unknown Citizen, Ursula Le Guin and W. H. Auden respectively convey an overarching theme: that perfect societies always have major kinks. They convey this theme by carefully choosing their diction, using vivid

  • How Does Richard Cory Show A Lack Of Apathy

    927 Words  | 4 Pages

    the subject in “Musée des Beaux Arts”. When the shipmen and plowman ignore the innocent boy falling from the sky, he continues to drown, much like Richard Cory’s situation. The speaker says “The plowman may have heard the splash, the forsaken cry” (Auden 16), representing the plowman and shipmen to society’s unwillingness to help because the “forsaken cry” was avoided. The ignorance of the “innocent” plowman and shipmen create an outcome of a young boy falling out of the sky—drowning—and Icarus burning

  • Emotional Pain In The Kite Runner

    1078 Words  | 5 Pages

    Make it Stop Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, explores deeply the topics of pain and punishment. He shows how the the pain characters receive affect their lives. Most characters suffer from physical pain, but what really haunts them is their emotional pain. Through his novel, Hosseini demonstrates how people often seek physical punishment in order to escape their emotional pain, but are not able to. Physical punishment is preferable due to the fact that emotional pain is much stronger than physical

  • Summary Of Louise Glück's 'Terminal Resemblance'

    1034 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Louise Glück’s poem “Terminal Resemblance,” the speaker tells about her relationship, or lack thereof, with her father. The speaker explains a relationship with their father, saying it is not existent. They have a conversation that is supposed to be meaningful, considering he is dying, but it seems to have no meaning to her at all. The speaker wishes her father the best and leaves him and her mother at the door, with the same relationship she had with him before. The poem seems to be about how

  • Death In Gothic Literature Essay

    1615 Words  | 7 Pages

    Life, war, death, and love are the main themes that touch the human soul and very often in literature, especially in masterpieces, we find them combined. Such kaleidoscopic pieces of literature, although fictional, empower ourselves to see life with different eyes and they plant in our brains the seeds of new attitudes and perspectives on life itself. In many cultures, mythologies and writings, death, far from being only an aspect or stage of life, is also a very important symbol. Death is illustrated

  • Comparing Short Stories 'Full Circle And Sound Of Thunder'

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    Short Stories To be audacious means to be recklessly brave, this is a flaw because a person that puts pride and bravery over safety can find themselves in life threatening situations. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.” Those who are audacious often times throw themselves into many predicaments thinking they will come out successful, but at times, they fail. When a protagonist in a story has too much audacity, it is a weakness. A common

  • The Theme Of Love In Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

    1941 Words  | 8 Pages

    Introduction Sonnet 130 is considered to be in the group of poems addressing the so called ‘Dark Lady’, who the speaker hates, loves and lusts for simultaneously. In the Sonnet Shakespeare characterizes the Dark Lady’s appearance with metaphors, which are extraordinarily out of character for the Petrarchan traditions. Instead of lauding the unavailable mistress in the highest terms, as the Petrarchan tradition dictates, Sonnet 130 humorously mocks those traditions by ‘placing innovative pressure

  • Summary Of Anthem By Ayn Rand

    709 Words  | 3 Pages

    True Purpose Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem, is a glorified story about an individual trapped in a damned society. Prometheus is regulated by tacky and cruel laws and rules, but he is trying to find who he is and what his real reason in life is; not just what his city tells him to be. I believe these rules and laws exist because Ayn Rand wants to show the evils of collectivism. The Council controlling the city wants to create a world where everyone is treated exactly the same, in every way. The true

  • A Rose For Emily Modernism Analysis

    1834 Words  | 8 Pages

    AE 221.04 FINAL PAPER ARINÇ SAYIL 2015502231 Traces of Modernism in A Rose For Emily Through the lines of this work a short story “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner will be analyzed with a thematical approach in term of modernism. It is acknowledged by some authorities that modernist movement had taken place first in France. It ruled the world of literature roughly between 1884-1914. Basically modernism can be defined as philosophical movement which tries to innovate the ideas and rejects

  • Anime And Manga Analysis

    990 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anime and Manga are extremely unique forms of artistic expression which arose from years of cultural collaboration and blending between eastern and western cultures. Their creation is unique because never before in history has it been so easy to share ideas between cultures across the Pacific Ocean. Technological and communication advancements in the past 65 years have allowed for Anime and Manga to flourish as dynamic art forms unlike any other. Anime and Manga’s main theme is challenging current

  • See You Again Analysis

    970 Words  | 4 Pages

    “See you soon” is a common phrase used by people as a form of saying goodbye; some use this phrase to make a goodbye less sad. Saying goodbye to a person is difficult, especially when he or she is a loved one. In the story of Destino by Walt Disney and Salvador Dali, a loved one is lost and the story is told in a way of flashbacks. In the song “See You Again” by Charlie Puth, a loved one is lost, but the story is told as a way to say “thank you for all of the good times” waiting for the day where

  • Julio Noboa Polanco Analysis

    828 Words  | 4 Pages

    Living in a society today makes it hard for many teens and kids our age. We all struggle and stress about this one thing, standing out. This is such a huge thing now because they’re are so much people out there who are doing everything to stand out, We all struggle with this one problem but yet no one really cares talks about it. In this essay I will be talking about the poet Julio Noboa Polanco with his poem “identity”, how different he is to other poets, and lastly how he used his poetic elements

  • Struggling For Goodness In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

    870 Words  | 4 Pages

    Struggling for Goodness Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 best selling dystopian novel, The Road, tells the story of a young boy and his father trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. As they journey to reach the shore, they experience things they never dreamed of. To survive, the father is forced to make choices based on survival rather than kindness or decency. With each day and each violent encounter, the father’s actions become more animalistic and cruel. The Road demonstrates the further people

  • Caravaggio Narcissus Poem Analysis

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is “foolish men” who fail to see that acute insightfulness is a vehicle for precise thinking. Nevertheless, the speaker shuns drawing conclusions about whether the creation of art contributes to, or ease madness, by attributing her speculations to theories others have proposed. In the final lines of the poem, however, she endorses the decision to explore dark corners of the mind and expand the limitations of the self by drawing attention to the affective dimension of the work, the beneficent effect

  • Comparing Matthieu's 'The Alchemy Of Suffering'

    972 Words  | 4 Pages

    The average brain goes through multiple experiences each and every day that impact your emotions in various ways that one cannot control. The most enjoyable and complex emotion would have to be happiness. Happiness is ultimately subjective to the individual themselves based on the experiences they’ve had. According to author Daniel Gilbert who wrote Paradise Glossed explains that actions are also based upon emotions and that it drives the individual to do certain things. On the other hand, Author

  • The Meaning Of War In Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1024 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hamlet Paper- Meaning of War War is a constant presence on our planet. Ever since the fall of man there have been personal disputes, conflicts between tribes and groups of people, and full-blown wars between nations or alliances. Although the United States may be in peacetime and the prospect of war is relatively far off, there are wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and many other countries that have claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers, as well as innocent civilians. When confronted

  • Summary Of Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

    1893 Words  | 8 Pages

    In W.H. Auden’s Funeral Blues (pg. 762), the poem takes place shortly after the speaker’s beloved has passed away and shows how the speaker is forever changed by the beloved’s death and that feels that he will never recover. The speaker talks about how he feels that love doesn’t last forever and how he wants the whole world to experience the grief and sorrow he is feeling. In Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” (pg. 433), the story follows Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his command during