Two Poets and Two Cultures :: Culture Poetry Literature Essays

Two Poets and Two Cultures Two poets from two different sides of the planet whose cultures are just as far apart exchange letters that are themed on single words. The first trick, the word, is based on a memorized arbitrary pairing between a sound and a meaning. [S. Pinker pg.2] A word is a simple concept when thought about at first. A word is an arbitrary sound used to represent some random thing. Memorize what each arbitrary sound and the random thing it stands for and that should be all there is to fill your mental lexical database. Words are the building blocks to sentences, but before you're ready to build a sentence there are few rules you must memorize. Then the movie "Letters not about love" should have been simple. State a word then state its meaning. For example, 'Dog' four-legged mammal that barks (incessantly if it lives next to me) and chases cats. End of statement, well except there is so much more. These poets and poets in general act like scavengers in a dark corner of a basement rummaging around in the clutter and finding treasure buried there. The treasure they are finding is some stray meaning for a thought. Bakhtin's statement "Language does not move through uncluttered space." is a true representation of this. Each time someone utters something it must move past your lexical database of meanings. This stray representation can add a dimension to a word like the strokes of paint from a paintbrush. Poets use this clutter like clay to mold an image of something in our minds; some of the things they overturn in this basement of clutter will mean nothing to some and everything to others. When Arkadii Dragomoshchenko wrote of his Grandmother and how he felt free of fear about her tight lips, her dark eyes, all of the different ways he described her, were words that really filled in the picture of who his grandmother was. Some of these 'words' weren't so far out of the ordinary but free of fear, there is some clutter overturned here. I immediately get the feeling of safety when I think free of free. My feelings of being free of fear came from somewhere else, I remember as a child, late at night I would have scary thoughts before falling asleep, then I could hear my father walking around downstairs, this filled me with a feeling of safety, free of fear, the scary thoughts wouldn't be so scary anymore.

Nurse’s Song by William Blake Essay

Compare and contrast the two versions of â€Å"Nurse’s Song†, showing how Blake illustrates the concepts of Innocence and Experience The Blakean concept of â€Å"Innocence† is focused on purity, vulnerability, trust and harmony – often illuminated through the use of children. For â€Å"Experience† the crux is on remorse, regrets and the general loss of innocence. In the two versions of â€Å"Nurse’s Song† children are used to bring out both the innocent and experienced side of the nurse. In the â€Å"Innocence† version of the poem, a repeated word pattern is used. It is reminiscent of children’s chants and nursery rhymes because of the buoyant, song-like rhythm. â€Å"Come, come leave off play†, â€Å"No, no let us play†, â€Å"Well, well go and play†. This emphasises the childlike, infantile tone of the poem bringing out the innocent, simplistic nature. It also shines a juvenile light on the nurse, which to a reader in an experienced state of mind, gives off a forced, unrealistic innocence. The use of sound in the â€Å"Innocence† version of â€Å"Nurse’s Song† is very apparent. It relates to the sounds made by the children, heard by the nurse; â€Å"laughing is heard on the hill,† this paints a pleasant picture, an unmistakeably happy image for the reader. It puts the rest of the poem into an idyllic, dreamlike context, giving a slightly surreal edge to the verses that follow. The final line â€Å"And all the hills ecchoed†, could be seen as a use of pathetic fallacy in that the children are laughing and shouting, and the hills ‘echo’ them – everything in this idealistic world is content and perfect, a utopia of purity, trust and openness. â€Å"The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d†, this list is presented in a puerile fashion, further illustrating the concept of innocence in the nurse herself. By using â€Å"&† instead of a comma, it makes the reader feel as if the nurse has a childlike perspective on the scene, as her narration uses basic, one-dimensional lexis giving an unsophisticated and uncomplicated view of the world. The harmonious relationship between the children and the nurse makes her seem straightforward and pure, and also inexperienced in her trust in the children. When the children refuse her request to go home to bed, she simply allows them to carry on in their own way â€Å"Well, well, go & play till the light fades away† showing her faith in the reliability of the children and simultaneously giving her an air of naivety, and reinforcing her innocence in that she is clearly open to receiving the pleasures of life. It also shows how unworldly she is, how she is blissfully unaware of the dangers around and simply concerned that the children should be in bed when the day turns to night. In the â€Å"Experience† version of â€Å"Nurse’s Song† the reader feels a distinctly bitter tone given off by the nurse. An underlying message of a bad childhood, or a disturbing youth is given off when she says â€Å"The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, / My face turns green and pale†. To some this could imply a feeling of jealousy in the nurse, green being an indication of envy – showing the nurse envying the children’s innocence and happiness. However, I think it is simply a device to show how their purity and their inexperience are nauseating to the nurse; how it reminds her of her childhood, and how she has lost that youth and vulnerability and is sickened by her current self. In the second stanza of the â€Å"Experience† version, the first two lines are the same, although they seem somewhat more ominous because of the context. â€Å"Then come home my children, the sun is gone down / And the dews of night arise;† Also there are no speech marks around these phrases, unlike the â€Å"Innocence† version. It means that it is not direct speech from the nurse to the children, but rather an insight into the thoughts of the nurse – disguised and dark – leaving the reader with a nervous energy given off by the eerie mannerisms of the nurse. A contrast between the two poems is in the second line of the first stanza. In â€Å"Innocence† it says â€Å"and laughing is heard on the hill,† but in â€Å"Experience† it says â€Å"and whisp’rings are in the dale.† The obvious difference is between the â€Å"laughing† and the â€Å"whisp’rings†. Laughter is a sound of happiness and gaiety, but whispering has an air of secrecy, deceit and isolation. This is an obvious contrast in the levels of communication between the two states, the honest and open laughter in â€Å"Innocence† almost an antithesis to the guarded, furtive whispering. Another difference between the two is that in â€Å"Innocence† the laughter is taking place â€Å"on the hill† – an exposed place, safe and high above everything, easily seen and obvious to all. But in â€Å"Experience† the whispering is taking place â€Å"in the dale.† This is a hidden place, dark and difficult to see for the nurse – secretive. This subtle difference changes the tone completely between the two poems. â€Å"Your spring & your day are wasted in play, / And your winter and night in disguise.† These final two lines of the poem, I feel, are the most bitter and disparaging of all. Some may say that the seasons of â€Å"spring† and â€Å"winter† are metaphorical, for the â€Å"winter of your life† – the darker days, the older, more experienced times; the â€Å"spring† representing youth, purity and innocence. As though the nurse is saying that when you have the capacity to embrace the gift of â€Å"innocence†, your naivety and inexperience stop you from truly realising what you have and it is then â€Å"wasted in play†; frittered away in the menial enjoyment of life. But once that innocence is lost, you enter the winter of your life, â€Å"in disguise† – hiding from those that remind you of your innocence, and those that can see your experience. However another interpretation could be that literally in the daytime, during the spring and winter and at night you are always wasting your time; so no matter what you do time is passing by and you are gradually moving from a state of innocence to experience. That time is squandered in useless, unhelpful ways. The nurse’s bitterness is expressed in her realisation of this desecration of such a precious thing. It seems premeditated and as though she has reminisced over her youthful times and understood her mistakes; as if she has discovered how she’s capitulated to the ideals of â€Å"experience† and is unable to return to her candid, childlike self. I feel that overall, the message given by the â€Å"Experience† poem is one of bitterness, remorse and resentment. The darker tone of the poem gives it a deeper meaning – to embrace every second or to become a character like the nurse in this version: cheated in life and cynical about others. However, the playful, childlike â€Å"Innocence† version is far less evocative and conceives a simpler idea, to laugh and play â€Å"till the light fades away and the dew of night arise†.

Power Structure During The Era Of Slavery Essay - 2305 Words

Karan Singh Chetri Dr. Subarno Chatterjee M.A. English (Final) Power Structure During the Era of Slavery Roaring fear of the state of slavery during the late eighteenth century was not that it displaced only millions of poor African people from their homeland to the united states, but also founded the business of black body as a commodity which was inhuman and was politically, culturally, and socially all together well upholded for the next coming hundred years. This paper shall first examine the condition of African people as mere commodity and later investigate both social and political consequences of the sexual objectification that was neglected during the slavery era by the means of analyzation of slave‟s narration by Harriet Jacob. Furthermore the existence of mulatto class gave long lasting effects to slavery. The white slave owners violated everything and executed their own perceived rights of treating the black body as a commodity, abused the slaves and by this means producing mixed race known as the mulatto children. All factors like political, social, economic and al so religious helped in maintaining consideration of treating the black body as a commodity. As a result of being treated as a commodity, black bodies were given disciplined subjects; indebted forever to the desire of white men. At the same time the wives of the white planters were to be socially remain silent publically, quietly facing their husbands abuse and betrayal,Show MoreRelatedThe Changing Concept of Race in the South Essay580 Words   |  3 PagesThe Changing Concept of Race in the South Throughout the years, the concept of race has changed in the South. Slavery and the concept of â€Å"white supremacy† have largely contributed to the viewpoints of race in the southern states, as well as the rest of the country. 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