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The Circus Animals' Desertion
"The Circus Animals' Desertion" is a poem by William Butler Yeats published in ''Last Poems'' in 1939. While the original composition date of the poem is unknown, it was probably written between November 1937 and September 1938. In the preface, Yeats suggests that he intended the poem to combine his personal views and impressions with the customs and beliefs of Christian Ireland. The poem was the last work published in Yeats's final collection, with "Politics" following as an envoi.Finneran p.202 In the poem, the poet uses the desertion of circus animals as an analogy to describe his failure to find inspiration for poetic creation as he seeks for new inspiration. Critics have detected aspects of both Modernism and Postmodern literature in the poem.O'Neil pp.255-257Ingersol pp.33-42 The poem The poem is an ottava rima consisting of 3 parts, the first and the last with 8 lines each and the second containing 3 stanzas of 8 lines. The poem's opening lines suggest that the poet is se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postmodern Literature
Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This style of experimental literature emerged strongly in the United States in the 1960s through the writings of authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Philip K. Dick, Kathy Acker, and John Barth. Postmodernists often challenge authorities, which has been seen as a symptom of the fact that this style of literature first emerged in the context of political tendencies in the 1960s. Linda Hutcheon (1988) ''A Poetics of Postmodernism.'' London: Routledge, pp. 202-203. This inspiration is, among other things, seen through how postmodern literature is highly self-reflexive about the political issues it speaks to. Precursors to postmodern literature include Miguel de Cervantes’ ''Don Quixote'' (1605–1615), Laurence Sterne’s '' Tristram Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irish Poems
Irish poetry is poetry written by poets from Ireland. It is mainly written in Irish and English, though some is in Scottish Gaelic and some in Hiberno-Latin. The complex interplay between the two main traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English and Scottish Gaelic, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to categorise. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century, while the first known poems in English from Ireland date to the 14th century. Although there has always been some cross-fertilization between the two language traditions, an English-language poetry that had absorbed themes and models from Irish did not finally emerge until the 19th century. This culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Towards the last quarter of the 20th century, modern Irish poetry tended to a wide range of diversity, from the poets of the Northern school t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oisin
Oisín (, approximately ) is an Irish male given name; meaning "fawn" or "little deer", derived from the Old Irish word ("deer") + ''-ín'' (diminutive suffix). It is sometimes anglicized as Osheen ( ) or spelt without the diacritic (''fada''), as Oisin. Variants in other languages include gd, Oisean (), cy, Osian and English: ''Ossian''. People with the name * Oisín Fagan (born 1973), Irish professional boxer * Oisín Gough (born 1989), Irish hurler *Oisín Kelly (1915–1981), Irish sculptor *Oisín Kelly (born 1997), Irish hurler * Oisín Mac Diarmada (born 1978), Irish fiddler * Oisín McConville (born 1975), Irish Gaelic footballer * Oisín McGann (born 1973), Irish writer and illustrator * Oisín Mullin (born 2000), Irish footballer * Oisin Murphy (born 1995), Irish jockey * Oisín Quinn (born 1969), Irish politician * Oisín Stack, Irish actor See also *List of Irish-language given names This list of Irish-language given names shows Irish language (''Gaeilge'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Countess Cathleen
''The Countess Cathleen'' is a verse drama by William Butler Yeats in blank verse (with some lyrics). It was dedicated to Maud Gonne, the object of his affections for many years. Editions and revisions The play was first published in 1892 in ''The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics'' (the spelling was changed to "Cathleen" in all future editions). Its text underwent many changes until the final version performed in 1911 and published in 1912 ("a complete revision to make it suitable for performance at the Abbey Theatre" and "all but a new play", according to Yeats). The variorum editor, Russell K. Alspach, remarks, "The revision for the second printing, ''Poems'' (1895), was so drastic that intelligible collation was virtually impossible." The tendency of Yeats's changes between 1892 and 1911 has been summarized as a move "decidedly away from an almost farcical realism and tentatively toward the austere, suggestive mode of the dance plays." Synopsis The play is se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Vendler
Helen Hennessy Vendler (born April 30, 1933) is an American literary critic and is Porter University Professor Emerita at Harvard University. Life and career Helen Hennessy Vendler was born on April 30, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts, to George Hennessy and Helen Hennessy. She was the second of three children. Her parents encouraged her to read poems as a child. Vendler's father taught Spanish, French, and italian at a high school, while her mother had taught in a primary school before marriage. Vendler attended Emmanuel College over the Boston Girls' Latin School and Radcliffe College because her parents would not let her enroll in "secular education". She received an A. B. from Emmanuel. Vendler was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, attending the Université catholique de Louvain from 1954 to 1955, for mathematics. But while traveling to the university, she decided that she would rather study English than math and the Fulbright commission allowed her to switch her focus to lit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. There are many different forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains. Other forms are more complex, such as the Spenserian stanza. Fixed verse poems, such as sestinas, can be defined by the number and form of their stanzas. The stanza has also been known by terms such as ''batch'', ''fit'', and ''stave''. The term ''stanza'' has a similar meaning to ''strophe'', though ''strophe'' sometimes refers to an irregular set of lines, as opposed to regular, rhymed stanzas. Even though the term "stanza" is taken from Italian, in the Italian language the word "strofa" is more commonly used. In music, groups of lines are typically referred to as '' verses''. The stanza in poetry is analogous with the paragraph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottava Rima
Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters. Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the ABABABCC rhyme scheme. The form is similar to the older Sicilian octave, but evolved separately and is unrelated. The Sicilian octave is derived from the medieval strambotto and was a crucial step in the development of the sonnet, whereas the ottava rima is related to the canzone, a stanza form. History Italian Boccaccio used ''ottava rima'' for a number of minor poems and, most significantly, for two of his major works, the ''Teseide'' (1340) and the ''Filostrato'' (c. 1335). These two poems defined the form as the main one to be used for epic poetry in Italian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modernist Literature
Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented with literary form and expression, as exemplified by Ezra Pound's maxim to "Make it new." This literary movement was driven by a conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and express the new sensibilities of their time. The horrors of the First World War saw the prevailing assumptions about society reassessed, and much modernist writing engages with the technological advances and societal changes of modernity moving into the 20th century. Origins and precursors In the 1880s, increased attention was given to the idea that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of contemporary techniques. The theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), and Ernst Mach (183 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, a prosaic ostensible meaning. A poem is a literary composition, written by a poet, using this principle. Poetry has a long and varied history, evolving differentially across the globe. It dates back at least to prehistoric times with hunting poetry in Africa and to panegyric and elegiac court poetry of the empires of the Nile, Niger, and Volta River valleys. Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa occurs among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BCE. The earliest surviving Western Asian epic poetry, the '' Epic of Gilgamesh'', was written in Sumerian. Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese ''Shijing'', as well as religious hymns (the Sanskr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Envoi
Envoi or envoy in poetry is used to describe: * A short stanza at the end of a poem such as a ballad, used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem. * A dedicatory poem about sending the book out to readers, a postscript."envoy, n.1". OED Online. September 2019. Oxford University Press. https://www-oed-com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/view/Entry/63102?redirectedFrom=envoi (accessed October 31, 2019). * Any poem of farewell, including a farewell to life. The word ''envoy'' or ''l'envoy'' comes from the Old French, where it means ' hesending forth'. Originally it was a stanza at the end of a longer poem, which included a dedication to a patron or individual, similar to a tornada. More recent examples are dedicatory poems as part of a collection, or an individual poem about farewell or moving on. Envoi is both a type of poem, and is often used as a title. Form The envoi is relatively fluid in form. In ballades and chant royal, env ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Politics (poem)
Photograph of William Butler Yeats taken February 7, 1933. "Politics" is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats written on May 24, 1938. It was composed during the time of the Spanish Civil War as well as during the pre-war period of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in Germany. The poem hints at the political situations of "Rome" (Italy), "Russia" (the Soviet Union), and Spain, but ultimately discusses topics more relevant to private human interaction rather than public, or political situations.Robinson, Peter. ''Poetry, Poets, Readers''. Oxford University Press (2002), p. 72-74 The poem never mentions Germany or Hitler, despite the fact that the "war and war's alarms" surrounding the poem's creation arose from fears of Germany's aggression rather than Italy's, Russia's, or Spain's.Maddox, Brenda. ''Yeats's Ghosts: The Secret Life of W.B. Yeats'' HarperCollins (2000) Many versions of the text exist: the original typescript of May 1938, the first typescript with hand-written correct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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