Poetry Analysis :: essays research papers

â€Å"Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter† by John Crowe Ransom (578)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Crowe Ransom, an American poet, was born in Pulaski, Tennessee on April 30, 1888. He received an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1909, and later became a professor there. Ransom published three volumes of highly much-admired poetry. He was a member of the Fugitives, a group of writers who were suspicious of the social and cultural changes taking place in the South during the early twentieth century. They sought to preserve the traditional idea, which was firmly embedded in classical values and forms. He had an enormous influence on an entire generation of poets and fellow academics they described him as the â€Å"New Criticism.† He believed in the poetic virtues of irony and complexity. John Crowe Ransom died in 1974. What is the situation? It is about a man trying to come to grips with the death of a young girl. He is recollecting how the young girl died. What’s the total impression of the poem? The impression I got when I read this poem was shaken by the dramatic contrast between life and death of a young girl. How does the title relate to the poem? The Bells in the title are referring to the bells in line 17 â€Å"But now go the bells†¦Ã¢â‚¬  , the bells that were sounded at the girls death. What mental pictures does it create? A sunny day when the girl is running about with a flock of geese to the pond. A small girl so active, alive, and having such playful energy. Then, her playfulness is gone and she is still in death. What specific figurative language and poetic devices convey these images? Mood and Rhythm. He uses words such as â€Å"astonishes† and â€Å"vexed† to show his amazement and grief that the young girl has passed away. What’s the general atmosphere of the poem? Grief and astonishment Have I ever felt this way or experienced this emotion? Yes, I have felt this way many times when a close friend or family member has passed away.

Postcolonialism Essays -- Literary Analysis

Postcolonialism is a critical approach in literary studies that deals with the experience of â€Å"exclusion, denigration, and resistance under colonial control† (Waugh 340). It concerns itself with the reaction that is incited due to colonialism, which is the taking over and expansion of colonies by people from another colony. In essence, postcolonialism deals with the ways race, identity, culture, and ethnicity are represented after an area has been colonized. Postcolonialism pays particular attention to the response of the oppressed, which can be both radical and subtle. Claude McKay, a Jamaican-American poet, wrote â€Å"America† during the Harlem Renaissance, and although it was before the postcolonial movement, it exemplifies many postcolonial ideas. â€Å"America† deals heavily with the dual ideas of love and hate. In the first four lines of the poem, the narrator shows his extreme distaste for America. But, while he hates her, he also is forced to depend on her as well. In the first line, the narrator states, â€Å"Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,† which tells the reader that he relies on America for food and sustenance. It also plays on the idea of America being the â€Å"mother role:† feeding a child that depends on her to live. We are thus led to believe that the narrator acknowledges that America is keeping him alive, even though she does so with bitterness. He goes on to write, â€Å"And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, / Stealing my breath of life, I will confess† (Lines 2-3). Here, readers should notice how the narrator feels America is stealing his life and draining his spirit. In a time where America was supposed to be providing freedom and equality to blacks, he is instead having his culture and his background robbed from h... ...lonial writers and critics find ways of answering the colonial oppressor back by exploiting the struggles over meaning which take place within the texts of empire themselves†¦ they ridicule and refute how they themselves have been represented. Moreover, crucially, in doing so they express their own subjectivity, their own perceptions of the world.† In â€Å"America,† McKay has done just this. He openly and honestly writes of his struggles, of the struggles faced by most blacks during this time. He depicts the double consciousness and in-between that he experiences being a hyphenated American. He is also not afraid to stand back, to use America’s strength to give him the power to fight against this hate. Although the poem ends on a more melancholy note, with the future of America looking bleak, McKay shows that, even then, there is still a small hope for the future.

The aim of this paper is to discuss achievement in South Africa

The aim of this paper is to discuss achievement in South Africa since 1976 in terms of youth and revolutionary morality as well as youth and class. During the Soweto Uprising, the youth of South Africa has firmly established itself on the national political scene:‘[I]n 1976, South Africa’s youth took center stage and remained there throughout the unrest and strife of the 1980s and the political transformation of the 1990s. In fact, many observers see 1976 as the political watershed that culminated in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994. A direct line can be drawn between the Soweto uprising of 1976 and these elections’ (Slabbert et. al., 1994, p.9).  Ever since, the youth has played a major role in the public life of the country (Worden, 2000). By being preoccupied with burning political and social problems, the youth in South Africa takes control over their own future.Revolutionary identity, which was developed in 1976 and subsequent decades of struggle against apartheid, is still present in the young generation (Dlamini, 2005). However, youth in South Africa gradually accepts models of behavior typical for other developed nations. The development of youth subcultures is associated with the influence of new technologies and mass media as well as with increasing level of well-being of certain strata of the society (Dolby, 2001).Another reason for this development is that the decades of universal political activism are gone. As politics became routine matter and major social change was brought about by the deeds of young revolutionaries, the attention to politics has been gradually decreasing. At the moment, young people are more interested in solving problems of economic and social nature (Saul, 2005).Thus, other factors prove to be more important in the process of youth identity formation. Speaking about the process of youth identity formation in more detail, it is necessary to note another change that occurred in the recent period. For a long time, identity formation happened across racial lines, since blacks and whites developed subcultures of their own. Yet as the society becomes more just and integrated, there is a need to take into account all other factors influencing identity formation, such as class, gender, and ethnicity:‘The mutual political accommodation of the essentially human characteristics (identities) of the various categories of black South Africans may accordingly prove to be one of the crucial aspects determining the future of the country’ (Zegeye, 2002, ‘The end of black politics?’, para.5).   Proceeding with the discussion of challenges young people encounter, one of the major problems the youth faces nowadays is associated with lack of social power and deep class segmentation of the society:‘South African society is, even after the change brought about by the demise of apartheid in the 1990s, characterized by deep segmentation not only on t he basis of culture, race, historical background, language and religion, but also on the basis of economic and/or class status’ (Zegeye, 2002, para.7).  Many young people with string revolutionary identity and desire to contribute to social good are trapped in the vicious circle of poverty, isolation, and deprivation. It is of paramount importance for the government to unleash the creative potential of these young South Africans.On the practical level, this can be done by offering universal access to different types of education and crating more employment opportunities for the young. With unemployment on the rise, many young people cannot reap the benefits of vertical mobility and stay in the lower class for the rest of their life, despite their ability and willingness to work hard.Another major preoccupation for young people in South Africa is the HIV/AIDS. The spread of this disease produces a powerful impact on the patters of sexual conduct as well as sexual identity of young people (Peltzer, Pengpid & Mashego, 2006). HIV prevalence rate is especially high is young female citizens (Pettifor et. al., 2004). Apart from youth NGOs, church and religious organizations are believed to play a major role in addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS through encouraging healthy sexual behavior patterns in the representatives of 15 to 24 age group which are at the highest risk (Ruden, 2000).Numerous youth organizations address the issue. In fact, it is necessary to mention that during the 1990s youth is South Africa manifested astonishing skills in advocacy and self-organization. As early as in 1992, the National Youth Development Forum as the united platform and the voice for the youth was founded (SAYC, n/d., ‘Historical Background’).Summing up, it is possible to observe that revolutionary identity is still present in the youth, yet activism is directed as solving problems related to social justice, economic empowerment, and public health.ReferencesDla mini, S.N. (2005). Youth and Identity Politics in South Africa, 1990-94. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Dolby, N.E. (2001). Constructing Race: Youth, Identity, and Popular Culture in South Africa. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Peltzer, K., Pengpid, S., & T.B.Mashego. (2006). Youth Sexuality in the Context of HIV/Aids in South Africa. New York: Nova Science Publishers.Saul, J.S. (2005). The Next Liberation Struggle: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy in South Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press.Slabbert, van Zyl F., Malan, C., Olivers, K., & R. Riordan. (1994). Youth in the new South Africa: Towards policy formation. Pretoria: HSRC Publishers.Worden, N. (2000). The Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid, 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Pettifor, A.E., Measham , D.M., Rees, H.V., & N.S. Padian. (November 2004). ‘Sexual Power and HIV Risk: South Africa.’ Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(11), 1996-2004.Ruden, S. ( May 17, 2000). ‘AIDS in South Africa: Why the churches matter.’ Christian Century, 117(16), 566S.

Body Piercing and Tattoos Essays

Body Piercing and Tattoos Essays Body Piercing and Tattoos Paper Body Piercing and Tattoos Paper but many scholars believe that Nubians brought the practice to Egypt much earlier. There was little anthropological attention to tattooing in the early part of the century because of preconceived notions of its insignificance to cultural analysis. (Robert S. Bianchi, 1988, 21-28). Archaeological evidence indicates that the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec cultures performed tattooing and scarification, and that the practice is thousands of years old in Asian cultures. Although tattooing was practiced in pre-Christian Europe, the word tattoo does not appear in English until Captain John Cook imported it after a journey to the Pacific Islands in the eighteenth century. Captain Cook claimed the Tahitians used the word tatua, from ta, meaning to strike or knock, for the marks they made upon their bodies. Captain Cook recorded this word as tattaw. The Polynesian word tapu, from which the word taboo derives, indicates the status of the person while being tattooed. Although no connection has been made between the words tattoo and taboo, it seems highly likely that they are related. While enduring the process of acquiring socially meaningful marks, the tattooee is being formed and shaped into an acceptable member of society. Prior to the completion of the tattoos the person is not only physically vulnerable because of the possibility of contamination during the penetrating process of tattooing but symbolically vulnerable as well. No longer without a tattoo, but without a finished tattoo, the persons body and therefore the self are not yet completed. The person is a liminal entity not yet in society and therefore taboo. (Per Hage, Frank Harary, Bojka Milicic, 1996, 89) Although the origin of tattooing is uncertain, anthropological research confirms that tattooing, as well as other body alterations and mutilations, is significant in the spiritual beliefs of many cultures. Various peoples tattoo or scarify during puberty rituals. In traditional South Pacific Tonga society, only priests could tattoo others and tattoos were symbolic of full tribal status. Eskimo women traditionally tattooed their faces and breasts and believed that acquiring sufficient tattoos guaranteed a happy afterlife. In many African cultures scars indicate social status and desirability as a marriage partner. Scarification patterns often identify the bearer as a member of a specific village. Many of these practices are changing and fading as Western influences enter African cultures. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Cree Indians living on the Great Plains tattooed for luck, for beauty, and to protect their health. Cree men with special powers received tattoos to help them communicate with spirits. A dream conferred the privilege of receiving a tattoo, which would be inscribed during a ceremony conducted by a shaman authorized to tattoo. The tattooing instruments were kept in a special bundle passed on from shaman to shaman. The ability to withstand the painful and tedious process of tattooing, which often lasted two to three days, confirmed the tattooees courage. Blood shed during the process was believed to possess magical power and was absorbed with a special cloth and kept for future use. tattoo. about. com In a Liberian initiation ceremony the novices are resuscitated to a new life, tattooed, and given a new name they seem to have totally forgotten their past existence. (Mircea Eliade, 1958, 31). The ritual recreates the flesh bequeathed to initiates by their parents and experienced during childhood. The physical change marks a symbolic rebirth into a new spiritual, social, and physical reality as well as a real physical change. This magical use of the body reiterates the idea that physical and spiritual existence and their interactions are deeply entwined. The trajectory of piercing from an underground activity to a fashion in mainstream magazines illustrates the American adoption of marginalization as a trendy practice. Piercing various parts of the body, which is a more or less painful procedure depending on the body part, has become more popular and commercialized in the past two decades, and extremely fashionable in the past few years. Although some people self-pierce, most individuals go to a boutique that pierces and sells piercing jewelry. Clients frequently request nipple, navel, and nose piercings, and less commonly obtain eyebrow, lip, cheek, or tongue piercings. Piercings through various glans or skin folds of the genitals are even less common. dmoz. org/Arts/Bodyart/Magazines_and_E-zines Although one can construct histories of self-mutilatory beautification practices, such as leg-shaving, hair-tweezing, and body sculpting, body piercing practices in Western cultures remain virtually undocumented. James Myers, an anthropologist at the University of California remarks on the stigma attached to body piercing and discussion of Western nonmainstream body mutilation, and notes that the general public conceives of people who pierce, scar, brand, and burn themselves as psychological misfits. Myers refutes any connection between these practices of body modification and pathological self-mutilation, and he discusses body modification as a cultural rite of passage. Although Myers attempts to normalize the perception of body modification, his ethnographic research is problematic because it is conducted with a select group of participants, a greater than average proportion of whom are gay and involved in sadomasochistic activities, therefore already marginalized by society. A more representative sample of the general population might show that certain forms of piercing have now become popular in mainstream culture, whereas the more extreme pierces have gained popularity with individuals who engage in what dominant culture defines as deviant. (James Myers, 1992, 90-92) Nose and navel piercings have become more common in the general population. It is probable that until now few individuals pierced ornamentally, and those who did rigorously hid their unusual adornments from sight. Ear piercing, once considered barbaric for women and a badge of homosexuality for men, is now an accepted, common practice for women, and has lost much of its stigma for men also. Punk subculture introduced multiple ear piercings to the public eye, and fashion spreads quickly popularized the look with a large percent of the population. The marginalized groups that contributed to popularizing ear piercing, homosexuals and youth subculture, are also responsible for introducing other body piercings into the public arena. As of 1993 a well-known and burgeoning piercing Los Angeles boutique, the Gauntlet, which originally catered to a large gay population when it opened in 1975, performed 18,000 piercings a year. www. gradeatattoos. com Piercing practices have been pathologized as expressing sexual perversity and affiliation with marginal members of society, and as with tattooing, it is difficult to separate myth from reality. Tattooing has most often been mythologized as a proof of masculine heterosexuality, but the association of tattooing with gay culture has some validity, as tattooist Samuel Steward, also known as Phil Sparrow, notes. In his diary accounts of his years as a tattooist, which he kept for Alfred Kinseys research at the Institute for Sex Research, Steward estimates that fewer than 1 percent of his clients were obvious homosexuals and perhaps a total of 20 percent were gay. Although Steward acknowledges that his customers sometimes exhibited homoerotic motivations, masochistic pleasure, and even fetishistic tendencies toward tattooing their own bodies or others, his experiences as a tattoo artist in Chicago in the 1950s led him to conclude that the homosexuals he knew were reluctant to tattoo because they considered it marring the body unaesthetically. (Samuel M. Steward, 1990, 56) Reference: Brumberg Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House, 1997, 132 James Myers, Nonmainstream Body Modification: Genital Piercing, Branding, Burning, and Cutting, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 21. 3 (1992): 290-92. Michael Atkinson, Tattooing and Civilizing Processes: Body Modification as Self-Control; The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 41, 2004 Mircea Eliade, Birth and Rebirth: The Religious Meanings of Initiation in Human Culture, trans. Williard Trask (New York: Harper, 1958), 31 Per Hage, Frank Harary, Bojka Milicic, Tattooing, Gender and Social Stratification in Micro-Polynesia; Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 2, 1996, pp 89 Robert S. Bianchi. Tattoo in Ancient Egypt, Marks of Civilization (Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1988), 21-28. Samuel M. Steward, Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A Social History of the Tattoo with Gangs, Sailors, and Street-Corner Punks, 1950-1965 (New York: Harrington Park Press, 1990), 79. www. adrenalinetattoos. com tattoo. about. com www. gradeatattoos. com dmoz. org/Arts/Bodyart/Magazines_and_E-zines

3 Cases of Poorly Constructed Short Lists

3 Cases of Poorly Constructed Short Lists 3 Cases of Poorly Constructed Short Lists 3 Cases of Poorly Constructed Short Lists By Mark Nichol In each of the following sentences, the writer is under the misapprehension that the statement includes a list of three words and/or phrases; in fact, each sentence includes a compound list item and a simple list item (or at least is better rendered so that it does), for a total of two items. Discussion of each example explains the problem, and a revision after each sentence resolves the problem. 1. These projects provide the needed insight as to where these measures work, don’t work, and why. One solution for this sentence is to express the elements completely: â€Å"These projects provide the needed insight as to where these measures work, where they don’t work, and why they don’t work.† However, a simpler, more concise solution is to combine work and â€Å"don’t work† into one element: â€Å"These projects provide the needed insight as to where these measures work or don’t work and why.† 2. Many lament a system that is unfair, discriminatory, and one where the American Dream is out of reach. Sentences such as this, as with the first revision in the previous example, can often be repaired by supporting the middle element of the list with phrasing parallel to that of the first and last elements, but the final element is problematic, too, so the simplest approach is to pair unfair and discriminatory: â€Å"Many lament a system that is unfair and discriminatory, and one where the American Dream is out of reach.† (Those words may seem redundant, but in context they are distinct.) 3. The convergence of increased regulation, the need for modernization and innovation, combined with an exponential increase in cyber risk, creates a major challenge for insurance companies.   The complication in this sentence is that â€Å"combined with an exponential increase in cyber risk† is treated as a list item rather than a related but distinct parenthetical. In addition, the second item, with its â€Å"a and b† structure, is already complex. But the simple first item and the complex second item can easily be bridged with a conjunction rather than a comma to become syntactically valid: â€Å"The convergence of increased regulation and the need for modernization and innovation, combined with an exponential increase in cyber risk, creates a major challenge for insurance companies.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Is She a "Lady" or a "Woman"?Expanded and ExtendedThe 7 Types of Possessive Case

The Smoking Ban in Corpus Christi,TX or issues for the Smoking Ban

The Smoking Ban in Corpus Christi,TX or issues for the Smoking Ban A smoking ban has been passed in Corpus Christi, TX which will begin February 1, 2005. This ban will affect all restaurants that have been allowing smoking in their environment. Many people are against this ban, but because of health risks, the lack of courteousness, and environmental problems, the smoking ban should be enforced.Since the discovery that second hand smoke can be dangerous to others, many people have a problem with being in smoking environments. Second hand smoke can cause serious health problems for people exposed to it, and avoiding it in restaurants is hard to do. Secondhand smoke is serious business and should be a concern for anyone who breathes it in. It is a shame that people can not even go to their favorite places to eat because of this issue. Families with young children are usually most likely concerned about second hand smoke. People should be able to go to any restaurant without having to worry about being exposed to second hand smoke.King Eddie's Restaura nt, 1954Having smoking sections in restaurants is telling people that sit in the non smoking sections that they are free of the second hand smoke, which is not true. Smoke travels throughout the restaurants just as the smell of the restaurants food does. The smoke gets into the vents and is then blown throughout the restaurant. Most people just do not realize it because the smell of their food might overpower the smell of the smoke. It does not mean that the harmful particles and molecules are not in the air because they are, and everyone in these restaurants is breathing in second hand smoke whether they realize it or not. No one should be forced to breathe in air tainted with cigarette smoke. The smoking ban should be enforced so non smokers...

Chartered Portfolio Manager and Investment Management- Discussion post Essay

Chartered Portfolio Manager and Investment Management- Discussion post 5 - Essay Example Another important statement is the cash flow of Intel Corporation, which is $2561 in 2014, $ 5674 in 2013 and $ 8478 in 2012 all in millions, it help shows the financial capability of the corporation (Hail, 2011). Many financial activities in terms of cash flows depicts how vigorous business activities of a particular farm is. The presented cash flow of Intel Corporation is a replica of a sound business operation because its cash flow shows how easy an investor, donor or financial institution can recover its money from Intel Corporation within the shortest time possible. Intel Corporation also have a recommendable stockholders’ equity of $ 55 865 in million (Item 6). This statement is important because it shows the stock and capital in excess that belongs to the corporation but it can sell it to the stock market to increase working capital (Mentz, 2009). The stockholders’ equity, balance sheet and cash flow statements are strong communications that Intel Corporation is financially sound and stable. It is therefore, recommendable for any funding because it’s worth can justify the repayment of any form of financial support it receives. Hail, L. (2011). Discussion of Consequences and Institutional Determinants of Unregulated Corporate Financial Statements: Evidence from Embedded Value Reporting. Journal Of Accounting Research, 49(2), 573-594.