... made a slave. He was forced to accept his new way of life while having to cope with the memories of seeing his father brutally tortured at a very young age. He was separated from his land, his family and all that he knew. He was treated as mere chattel when he was forced to carry a 25-pound grinding stone on top of his head at the age of six. His master, Robert Mumford, tried to break his pride constantly by exerting harsh and swift punishments. He possessed no civil rights and in the eyes of the law he was not a “person”. His masters were oft to treat him with inhumane cruelty. Similar to Venture Smith’s life growing up in the slavery system, Douglass w ...

... quotes from the two poems. Robinson stated this idea by writing lines 9, 10, 25, and 26. These lines read as follows: "...Miniver sighed for what was not and dreamed, and rested from his labors...Miniver scorned the gold he sought but sore annoyed was he without it..." Simon expresses the same idea in lines 4, 8, and 9, "He had everything a man could want: power, grace, and style...And I wish I could be Richard Cory..." Robinson and Simon dealt with subjects that were close to their hearts. What they wrote about were their uncontrollable feelings. For Robinson the feeling was described, in lines 5, 6, 7, and 8, as ,"Minniver loved the days of old when sw ...

... words are not only a far cry from the positive images that some associate with the war and dying, but an outcry for human beings to stop spreading the notion that men and women who die in battle also die in honor. Most of the men going off to fight during the World Wars could be classified as men at all. A person would be oblivious to this fact, however, if they relied on Owen's descriptive text alone concerning the way he saw his fellow soldiers in combat while describing his chimera, for they were "knock-kneed, coughing like hags"and "bent double, like old beggars under sacks". These words don't necessarily bring to mind a healthy 17-year old boy, does ...

... is gone. He/she states that he’d/she’d rather to be forgotten when he/she dies. However, the poem has a sarcastic tone to it. In reality, the poet “says” he/she wants to be forgotten, but really he/she wants to be mourned for and remembered.. It’s almost like the poem is guilt ridden. The entire thing talks about forgetting the poet after he/she is dead and to not even speak the poet’s name. This repetiveness of forgetting the poet would really make the audience feel guilty, and make the audience feel obligated to mourn, which is the poet’s true intentions in writing this particular poem. This poem does contain some imagery reinforced by alliteration. The ...

... altered appearance probably was caused by his insanity. He had once been an attractive man and "the character of his face had been at all times remarkable" (667). However, his appearance deteriorated over time. Roderick had changed so much that "[the narrator] doubted to whom [he] spoke" (667). The narrator notes various symptoms of insanity from Roderick's behaviors: "in the manner of my friend I was struck with an incoherence -- an inconsistency...habitual trepidancy, and excessive nervous agitation...His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision...to that...of the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimabl ...

... objects: "here and there / his brown skin hung in strips / like ancient wallpaper, / and its pattern of darker brown / was like wallpaper;" she uses two similes with common objects to create sympathy for the captive. Bishop then goes on to clearly illustrate what she means by "wallpaper": "shapes like full-blown roses / stained and lost through age." She uses another simile here paired with descriptive phrases, and these effectively depict a personal image of the fish. She uses the familiar "wallpaper" comparison because it is something the readers can relate to their own lives. Also the "ancient wallpaper" analogy can refer to the fish's age. Although faded ...

... a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, Untrimmed: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his Shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. In the simplest terms possible, Shakespeare is saying that the woman of whom this poem speaks of is beautiful. But even more than that, the eloquence in which he expresses her beau ...

... off the debris and put me to bed. He won't sleep tonight. His thoughts stay up with the moon trying to exercise the demons in his mind. Too intelligent, too spiritual for his own peace. A shaman, unstuck in time. A stroke of genius and a slap in the face of this world. Always restless, searching for answers. Impulsive and inspired, writing down his thoughts. Funny stories about Elvis and his followers, the Elvi, or dirty poetry. Painting his visions on sheets that hang from the eaves or painting me with psychedelic designs. It doesn't matter which. All of it makes me want him more. Some things I say to him are like sour notes played too often. I'm o ...

... it, cannot,. . .” These lines represent the struggles of most poets and writers we’ve read this past semester, in particular Byron, Shelley and Hardy. Before the lines can be used to generalize a broad range of artists, first the lines must be thoroughly understood. Several themes can be inferred from these relatively simple lines. They seem straightforward enough, yet contain deeper, more specific meaning. First of course, the pessimistic mood of the statement must be identified. For to understand the implications of the quote, the pessimism needs to be understood. Browning is writing from the point of view of del Sarto, a severely depressed painter, yet com ...

... Burns describes his beloved in these words, does he mean that she's "thorny"? O my Luve's like the red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June Probably not! At least, if he's smart. So how is his beloved like a flower? The rose is relatively rare and delicate; it needs to be treated with care. Being "newly sprung" implies that, as a fresh bloom, the rose is young. So what do these traits have to do with his beloved? Maybe she's uncommon ("rare"). Maybe she should be treated with courtesy and gentleness. Maybe she's young, or young to love (innocent), or just new to him. So translating the images takes quite a bit of time and thought to figure out what meanin ...