Essays on Medieval Europe

438

Sublimity in Wordsworth and Smith

3 pages / 1492 words

Romantic literature is deeply concerned with manifestations and attainment of the sublime. The notion itself asserts gender upon both subject and object, and pervades any attempt to gain historical knowledge. This fetishization of the sublime, however does not prevent the concept from being subverted consciously...

Poetry Romanticism

439

Naturalism in Tintern Abbey

3 pages / 1233 words

William Wordsworth was a Romatic English poet with a vast body of work, and Naturalism abounds in nearly all of his poetry. Nature is a major theme in Wordsworth’s famous works such as, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “It is a Beauteous Evening,...

Poetry Romanticism

440

Comparison of William Blake and William Wordsworth's Writing Styles

3 pages / 1376 words

Although scholars classify both William Wordsworth and William Blake as “romantic poets”, their writing styles and individual perspectives differ tremendously. Wordsworth, though he is not so blind as to ignore the strife that is prevalent in everyday society, tends to focus on more positive aspects...

Poetry Romanticism William Blake

441

Wordsworth’s References to Nature in Resolution and Independence

2 pages / 896 words

A Romantic poet, Wordsworth often draws from nature to describe his subjects or his narrator’s outlook on the world. In his poem “Resolution and Independence,” which employs twenty septets with an ababcc rhyme scheme, Wordsworth expresses his concerns and anxiety with a topic that can...

Poetry Romanticism

442

The Act of Travel in Wordsworth’s "I Travelled Among Unknown Men"

2 pages / 917 words

Wordsworth’s “I travelled among unknown men” appears at first to be a tribute to a woman he loved and a poem of patriotism. It is initially unclear how Lucy and England are similar beyond being things that are ultimately important to him. Through further interpretations,...

Poetry Romanticism

443

Analysis of "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal"

3 pages / 1160 words

Wordsworth’s “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” is a short and powerful poem that centers around the loss of someone close to the speaker. The poem is composed of two four line stanzas, which both follow a simple ABAB rhyme scheme and are based on...

Poetry Romanticism

444

William Wordsworth’s Expostulation and Reply: a Neoclassical and Romantic Analysis

5 pages / 2229 words

The first volume of William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads (1798) was published, as Wordsworth states in Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802), “…as an experiment.” (482). The introduction to Lyrical Ballads by William Richey and Daniel Robinson suggests that the experiment contested the valued literature of the...

Poetry Romanticism

445

Compassionate Colonialism in Typee: a Peep at Polynesian Life

5 pages / 841 words

Herman Melville’s Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life serves as a fascinating narrative that simultaneously critiques the imperialist mindset prevalent in the 19th century. Through the lens of the protagonist Tommo, Melville offers readers a glimpse into Polynesian life, all while attempting to challenge the...

Book Review Imperialism

446

Analysis of "In Praise of Folly" by Erasmus

3 pages / 1251 words

The Silenus box is a “case carved like an ugly Silenus” that can be “opened to reveal beautiful, precious objects” (Erasmus 43, footnote). This box appears in Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly as a metaphor for the central claim in the novel, which is that...

Literature Review Renaissance

447

Romantic Poets & The Poetic Problem of Representing London

5 pages / 2195 words

Writing on nineteenth-century London poetry, William Sharpe comments that ‘Regardless of shared reference to sublimity, fog, of Babylonian blindness, each poet’s London is different. Each time we read ‘London’ we have to begin again.’ For poets in the late eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries, London...

Poetry Romantic Era Romanticism

448

Analysis of a Passage in The Prelude

5 pages / 2152 words

In the stichic passage from William Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem The Prelude, the speaker, who represents Wordsworth himself, encounters unfamiliar aspects of the natural world. The passage is a bildungsroman in verse, a coming-of-age poem that chronicles the psychological growth of the speaker. In the passage,...

Romantic Era Romanticism

449

The Romanticism of Wordsworth and Shelley: a Poetry of The "Happiest Moments"

3 pages / 1473 words

Wordsworth said that ‘poetry is passion, it is the history or science of feeling’. In conjunction with Shelley’s quote, this is a bold statement to make. Not only does Wordsworth name poetry as the ‘science’ of emotion –creating an authorial sense of logic –but also...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Romanticism

450

Isolation and The Sublime in Rousseau and Wordsworth

5 pages / 2081 words

In their article entitled “Me,” Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royale assert that “Literature, like art more generally, has always been concerned with aspects of what can be called the… ‘not me’ or other,” (Bennett 129-130). Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions and William Wordsworth in his...

Romanticism Rousseau

451

Bisclavret: Marie De France’s Manipulation and Why We Hate The Wife

2 pages / 1129 words

Bisclavret is the only lai of Marie de France’s that deals with a couple falling out of love (Creamer 259). The lycanthropic theme is used by the poet as a test of love and respect for one’s husband, as the baron’s wife doesn’t approve of...

Poetry Renaissance The Lais of Marie de France

452

Comparing Tombs and Lays in "Marie De France Laustic" and "Yonec"

3 pages / 1543 words

In both Yonec and Laustic, Marie de France describes tombs that house the unfulfilled love of her characters. The tombs function to preserve the physical bodies of a love that could not be fulfilled during the characters’ lives. In both lais, the tombs are overwhelmingly...

Poetry Renaissance The Lais of Marie de France

453

Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" as a Revival of "Marie De France's "Lanval"

7 pages / 3409 words

If one was asked to name the epitome of medieval English literature, it is very likely that the answer would be Geoffrey Chaucer. Indeed, this world-wide known poet has played a major role in the development of the English language thanks to his masterpiece The...

Poetry Renaissance The Lais of Marie de France Wife of Bath

454

Empowering Medieval Women: Aspects of Love in "The Lais of Marie De France"

6 pages / 2829 words

During the Medieval time, a woman would generally be forced to depend upon a man for her livelihood. However, in the fictional world of courtly love – a 12th-century philosophical phenomenon, which is believed by some to have been originated as a form of goddess...

Poetry Renaissance The Lais of Marie de France

455

Analysis of "The Lais of Marie De France"

4 pages / 1988 words

In Medieval times, women were usually forced to be dependent on a man for her safety, prosperity, and guidance. Yet, in Marie de France’s fictional tales of courtly love, men are in fact victims to women’s charm. Men are unable to live without their lovers,...

Poetry Renaissance The Lais of Marie de France

456

The Power Within Women: a Reading of "Lanval"

2 pages / 943 words

The story of Lanval is an uncommon one for its time. A helpless, outcast knight meets a beautiful, magical woman. The one term of their love, set down by the unnamed woman, is that Lanval can tell nobody about her. When he breaks that rule...

Poetry Renaissance The Lais of Marie de France