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Essay on romanticism in american literature
Romanticism in american literature
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on romanticism in american literature
Romanticism in american literature
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In the poem “The Century Quilt” by Marilyn Nelson Waniek, Waniek is able to craft a complex, contemporary poem using a variety of literary devices. Through enjambment, imagery, and chronological succession, Waniek describes the complexities of her quilt and reflects on it’s beauty and uniqueness. In lines 1-2 of “The Century Quilt” Waniek uses enjambment to start her poem with ambiguity and suspense. In addition, her use of enjambment slows the pace and forces the reader to digest each line as an individual thought, rather than a cohesive statement. In turn, the slowed pace and ambiguity of the opening couplet offers a preview to Wanieks unique style and syntax.
Such dreary diction stirs up emotion of desolation and misery as Hawthorne’s word choice connects and reminds his audience of dark thoughts. By opening his novel with such a grim subject, Hawthorne creates a contemptuous tone as he indirectly scorns the austere Puritans for their unforgiving and harsh manners. With the demonstrated disdain, Hawthorne criticizes puritan society and prepares his audience for further
Twain: In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country” the tone of the narrator’s relationship began on the very first page. The narrator says that he has a “lurking suspicion” that Leonidas W. Smiley is made up and that Wheeler would “bore me to death with some exasperating reminiscence of him as long and as tedious as it should be useless to me” (Twain 1285). The narrator says that Simon Wheeler’s story telling is a “monotonous narrative” with no expressions (Twain 1285). Wheeler tells a Story about a man named Jim Smiley and uses figurative language to portray imagery throughout.
Dillard implements imagery all throughout her essay, which gives the reader a clear picture of the events occurring. For instance, she describes her husband “gesturing inside a circle of darkness” as a result of him gradually travelling farther away from her (Dillard). Ultimately, the use of imagery in this case represents the loneliness the narrator begins to feel. The author also utilizes metaphors to get her message across. Dillard compares “grammar and lexicon” to a “decorated sand bucket and a matching shovel” because without the other, they will not be able to fulfill their purpose (Dillard).
Some poems are lengthy, and some poems can be very short, however when analyzed, they all express a deeper message. For example, when examining the poem, "The Changeling," by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the reader can easily spot the important message which the author is trying to reveal to the reader through the use of poetic devices. When closely reading this poem, the language and the terminology applied by Cofer enhances the readers ability to make connections between the theme of this poem and how it can be applied to real world scenarios. The poetic devices incorporated into the poem, "The Changeling," reflect on how young children interpret gender roles in their own way.
In T.S. Eliot’s work “The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock”, he uses diction to give an underlying meaning and tone to his poem in order to express the downfall of a man. The author uses his diction to give this poem Its tone as if he regrets what he did in life. He also shows great tone changes in this work, giving this poem a dramatic, almost tragic outlook. Many of his word choices also give his work an underlying meaning and adds to his theme and messages. A large part of his poem is also using metaphors to add to this underlying meaning and give more force to this tone he is trying to create.
Mark Twain, an 18th century humorist, was known for his critical and satirical writing. In one of his most famous essays, “ Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses” Twain addresses Coopers inability to realistically develop a “situation” and his failure to effectively back up his stories in order for them to be more plausible. To dramatically convey his unimpressed and sarcastic attitude, he applies biting diction, metaphors and hypophora throughout this work . By continuously using biting diction, Twain develops a mocking tone towards Fenimore Cooper’s incapability to create even the simplest of storylines. In the title of the work a sarcastic tone is evident; the word choice is utilized to reinforce the argument stating how Coopers work is an offense to the world of literature.
Many a time I had seen a couple of boys, strangers, meet by chance, and say simultaneously, “I can lick you,” and go at it on the spot; but I always had imagined until now that that sort of thing belonged to children only, and was a sign and mark of childhood; but here were these big boobies sticking to it and taking pride in it clear up into full age and beyond. (23) The type of action that the people were engaging in was childish, and in the Yankee’s eyes, it had to be only the young doing it. To conclude, in order to get satiric effect, Mark Twain uses three tools of satire; exaggeration, parody, and
Bradstreet uses an AABBCC rhyme scheme which makes the poem seem to be written in a calm and relaxed state. It is also important to notice that she uses end rhyme which makes it seem as if she was trying to have some control over her life, probably because she lost it due to the fire. The style of the text is really simple because Anne Bradstreet uses what is known as “Puritan Plain Style” makes clear and direct statements and meditate on faith and God with simple sentences and words. It usually contains few elaborate figures of speech.
For instance, “That slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling ‘boils’ show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there…that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?” (44-51). Here, the reader is able to comprehend that by contemplating about the negative aspects of the river and how it would result in certain obstacles for a pilot of a steamboat, Twains initial view of the Mississippi River was ultimately diminished. Therefore, the author contemplates whether possessing knowledge about the beauty of an aspect and its true connotation truly belittles it compared to only seeing its beauty without thinking. Likewise, Twain contemplates the position of doctors relating their possible viewpoints towards a patient with his circumstances.
By using improper, and in articulate diction, Twain exposes the stereotype that slaves are not able to be fully competent. When Jim cannot fathom the fact that there are people who speak all sorts of different types of languages he says it in a hard to understand manner. Jim says, "Well, it 's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan ' want to hear no mo ' 'bout it. Dey ain ' no sense in it" (The Adventures Twain 39). In Jims attempt to speak it is very hard to understand.
These techniques revealed Twain’s attitude by showing his overall feeling of how knowledge affects one’s view of nature. In Two Views of the River, Mark Twain uses a combination of imagery, a shift in perspective, and figurative language techniques to reveal his attitude towards the river. Together, they reveal that Twain believes the
Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too.(Twain) This single passage shows the essays topological voice by equating his knowledge of letters of the alphabet to the features of the river he begins to display metaphor. This metaphor allows the reader to understand the level of twains mastery of the river, this is the first perspective we are introduced to.
Within the cabaret—filled with music—not only does the city become a site of trees and rivers, but someone as monotonous as a dancer in a club, becomes as eminent as Cleopatra or Eve. Even more, the rhyme scheme also changes in the quintet. Now, the rhyme scheme is EFDGD, and the rhyming words, “bold and gold”, are continued from the quatrain. There is a slight change, however, similar to the change of the dancing girl into an Eve or Cleopatra. Hughes’ use of punctuation illustrates a change.
An example of an enjambment from the text is, “There is/ no way to know how easy this/ white skin makes my life, this / life…” (Olds 26-29). The enjambments, although simple, give the poem a much more powerful meaning, by showing the harshness of the reality for blacks during this time period. They seem to reflect the thoughts and emotions of the poem and the author. It shows that she feels somewhat guilty, because of what she has in life because of her skin color, as opposed to what the boy has because of his skin color.