Conflict in PoetryConflict is how the world was made. Some amount of matter and energy colliding with some other bits of matter and energy. From that primal battleground, Life sprung forth. It is the nature of living things to continue colliding with each other. The soupy chaos of Life continues, even today, to grow and change and bloom. Change is (often) violent, and the commencement of that change is not always a mutually agreed upon decision. There are many different forces in the world. Each has its own agenda. Each is pushing to be the dominant decision maker. This holds true among mankind, of course. War is as natural to us as colliding asteroids are to the universe at large. Different groups of people have different wants and needs. These varying concerns intersect in (often) violent events. Considering the scope of war, that it directly involves and indirectly affects hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people at a time, it is not surprising that it is a major topic in all forms of human discourse. Poets, and their insightful, emotive, thought-provoking outputs, are uniquely set up to tackle this fundamental theme. Looking at poetry through the centuries, we can see how mankind, as a whole, has evolved in its approach to large-scale conflict, destruction, and death.
Starting with some of the oldest English-language verses we still have available today, “Beowulf” (n.d./2005), we see the innate tendency toward violence and fighting within humans. Lines 708-709 of the epic poem state, “One man, however, was in fighting mood, / awake and on edge, spoiling for action.” The man in question is, of course, Beowulf, hero of the tale. In this poem, he represents the best of mankind: brave, strong, stalwart, and noble. Describing this darling of the people as “spoiling for action” is not simply a banal description of this moment. It shows an inherent bloodlust, an eagerness to solve a problem with brute force. This is indicative of the time the work was written. During the 8th and 9th centuries, mankind lived in tribal societies. Life was difficult, as one had to spend all available resources just staying alive. Besides the rigors of a rudimentary agricultural lifestyle, there were regular conflicts to defend against. The warriors of one village thought very little wrong in attacking and taking the resources of other villages. Fighting was more than just commonplace, it was necessary for survival. Later in the fight between Beowulf and his foe, the monster Grendel, the anonymous writer used phrases like “stalwart in action” (797), “the glory of winning” (818), “one bloody clash / had fulfilled the dearest wishes” (822-823), and “he was happy with his nightwork / and the courage he had shown” (826-827). All of these descriptors are positive and glorify the act of fighting as something of which to be proud and boastful. Defeating your foes was so much a part of the meaning of life it was synonymous with living itself.
As the Renaissance was winding down in the mid-17th century, English language literature had become formalized by the Church and those high enough in society to obtain an education. Words used were largely the same as they are today. Poets used their work to document historical events, but also to express their emotional or spiritual feelings. Politically motivated poems were written. One of these, John Milton’s “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont” (1673/2005), is a fine example of how humanity’s approach to warfare had evolved from the brutish time of centuries earlier. The poem is essentially a prayer for vengeance, using graphic (for the time) descriptions of the horrors of an attack. Protestant and Catholic forces were engaged in a period of vicious fighting. An attack by a group of Catholics had destroyed a Protestant settlement. Using the poem to both express his outrage and to stir up the ire of his compatriots, Milton wrote, “Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled / Mother with infant down the
2010 HSC “Yeats's poetry continues to engage readers through its poetic treatment of conflict and beauty.' In the light of your critical study, does this statement resonate with your own interpretation of Yeats's poetry?” Yeats’ poetry dwells on a convergence of opposites, engaging with the universal concerns of beauty and conflict and thus resonates with readers regardless of time and background. This is portrayed through the poems The Wild Swans at Coole and The Second Coming. The former retains…
Context of Browning’s Poetry Browning lived and wrote during a time of major societal and intellectual upheaval, and his poems reflect this world. England was becoming increasingly urban, and newspapers daily assaulted the senses with splashy tales of crime and lust in the city. Many people began to lose faith in religion as various new scientific theories rocked society—most notably Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, articulated in his 1859 The Origin of Species, and many questioned the old bases…
Grillparzer, an Austrian writer once stated, “At certain times, men regard poetry merely as a bright flame, but to women it was, and always will be, a warm fire.” In 1968 when World War II was in full effect, one woman’s voice rang out clear. With this development, poetry grew to its truest level in terms of women’s genuine poetry. This time period paved the way for a female African American poet to show the world what poetry had been lacking. Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr., or Nikki Giovanni was…
course. The political and social climate of England during the first half of the 17th century was one of curiosity, uncertainty and dissent. The English Civil wars (1642-1651) constituted nine years of brutal conflict that would have a profound and lasting effect on the nation1. This conflict was not only realised on the battlefield; it was also espoused in the writing of the period. In this essay I shall argue that literature was at the epicentre of the English revolution, showing how it both reflected…
wither it be poetry or art were greatly undermined and written off as if he was not sane. Blake was a big on the idea of to see the world to its fullest extent and to see it as the “infinite” being it is, as he states in his poem The Marriage between Heaven and Hell. Although Blake may have had some unorthodox styles of painting, writing and thinking, he was forging his way into being one of the most well know and widely recognized British poets and artists. Blake uses his poetry to address such…
OF POETRY Lyric Poetry – short; expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker; often written in the first person; often written in language rich in sound; may relate an incident or, more often, draw a scene. E.g., a sonnet. Narrative Poetry – tells a story; has characters, a setting, and a plot. E.g., a ballad, an epic. Dramatic Poetry (dramatic monologue) – a speech of an imaginary character addressing another character (who remains silent) at some decisive moment. Didactic Poetry – to…
Literature is more than just stories. Literature is short stories, novels, poetry and dramas. Literature allows a reader to escape into a different time periods, a place a reader can visit different parts of the world and even into space. Literature can bring out different emotions in a reader like joy, sadness, anger and even empathy towards a character in literature. Within this paper I will discuss the elements of short stories, poetry, and drama and discuss the morals and values that are in some of the…
a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation. DIALOGUE: conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie DICTION: The choice of a particular word as opposed to others. DRAMATIC POETRY: Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama. EUPHEMISM: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant…
interpret, and/or evaluate the meaning of the text. 1. Analyze how exposition, conflict, rising and falling action, climax, resolution, flashbacks, foreshadowing, and subplots function within and advance the plot. 2. Analyze how plot developments produce internal conflicts and psychological dilemmas for characters and explain how plot developments reflect social, cultural, and historical conflicts. 3. Analyze the different roles and functions that characters play…
Ezenwa Orji Professor Tarra Gaines English 1302 March 1st 2013 The effectiveness of Tone In Poetry. The path for work of literature and poetry is set through a tone. It is usually responsible for the way one views and comprehends a poem. Tone makes all works of literature come alive and helps readers determine the intent of piece of poetry, the direction in which the poem might be headed and at the same time enables readers to understand the emotional state of the speaker. For example…