Introduction to Literature : I Died for Beauty and We Real Cool - Essay Example

? Introduction to Literature ENG125 13 September An Introduction to Elements of Literature Every work of literature must be carefully analyzed and in order to do so it should be read over and over again. This becomes all the more important especially in the case of poems. The rhyme scheme, what type of a poem is it? Is it a Ballad? Is it a Sonnet? How the poem has been written? Is it written in iambic pentameters or does it include the use of blank verse? These are the most important aspects that must be analyzed. The theme and the message conveyed by the poet are also of significance. This paper will comprehensively throw light upon two poems written by elite poets, it will aim at analyzing the main themes and what the poets have tried to convey in their poems. The poems We Real Cool and I died for beauty will be analyzed, both have a melancholy tone and both show the current state of our society. We Real Cool is a tragic story of young children who have started enjoying committing crimes on the contrary I died for beauty is a poem which represents how we isolate a few people from our society and how it impacts them. It leaves them completely alone making life a burden and a worthless journey. I Died for Beauty I died for beauty was written by Emily Dickenson; she was an American poet who was born in the year 1830. She preferred a very reclusive life, she was also an introvert. She wrote nearly eighteen hundred poems in her lifespan but to her dismay only a few of these poems were published and read by the readers. I died for beauty was very well appreciated by the readers; it expansively presents the relationship between beauty and truth. The poet is convinced that there aren’t too many differences between beauty and truth. The poet dies for beauty in the poem and to her surprise she finds another man next to her tomb who died for truth. This poem employs a rhyme scheme of ABCD; it is a typical poem by Emily Dickenson. The rhythmic use of the dash has been used and this has been used to interrupt the flow of the poem. If we look closely, this poem has iambic tetrameter in it. The first and the third line of the poem are regular. The presence of iambic trimester can also be explored by focusing on the second and the fourth lines. This poem is quite similar to a very famous poem written by Keats called “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Both the poems stress upon the relationship between truth and beauty. “Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty”. The manner in which Dickenson presents the poem is completely her own. “Until the Moss had reached our lips”, this line is very thought provoking and signifies physicality of death. “It would be nice to have a like-minded friend”, this line is also very conspicuous and draws the immediate attention of the readers. It means the poet is very optimistic about the afterlife. The poem is based on the theme of companionship; this should also bring our attention towards the fact that Emily Dickenson lived a major part of her life in seclusion. This yearning for companionship comes from seclusion and she was also an introvert. These factors clearly show that she did not make many friends in her lifetime and this is exactly why she has incorporated the theme of companionship in her poem. The lines “Covering her Lips” and “Covering her name” goes to show moss creeping up her corpse and it signifies the inability of the poet to speak. The poet conveys a very good message that death wipes out almost everything that a human being learns. Learning here signifies ideals, feelings and other important aspects. Emily Dickenson experienced witnessing several deaths of close ones in her lifetime, thus most of her poems reflect this grueling experience. Chidiock Tichborne was a great English poet and a conspirator; on September 20 he was executed along with two other people. They were executed for treason, their death aroused sympathy in the hearts of the other people and the gruesome way used to execute them would no longer be used on other people. The following part of the paper will mainly examine two poems written by Chidiock Tichborne namely “My Prime of Youth is but a Frost of Cares and Brooks” and “We Real Cool”. The emotional impact of dying at a young age is quite conspicuous in the works of Chidiock Tichborne. “Little is known about Chidiock Tichborne. He is believed to have been born in Southampton around 1558, into a family that fervently supported the Roman Catholic Church. In 1586, Tichborne joined a conspiracy to murder Queen Elizabeth I and restore Catholicism in England.” (Poems of the Fantastic and Macabre) When it was found that Tichborne and other have revolted, they were imprisoned at the Tower of London and he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death for his crime. This poem was written just a night before his execution and his emotions can clearly be understood from this poem. He also wrote several letters to his wife Agnes before being executed. The poet is devastated and it is very clear from the poem that the poet has given up all hope, some lines in the poem are very striking, “All my good is but vain hope of gain” this line is sums up the whole poem. There is dejection and the poet makes this very clear and it is very understandable, he was going to be executed and had nothing but dejection on his mind. “And now my life is done” also goes to show hopelessness, a person who is going to be executed shows no hope of survival and this poem reflects on the same. The tone of the poem is melancholic and it shows nothing but grief. Several words used in the poem show that the poet is utterly disappointed, words like Die, run and done indicate the frame of mind of the poet. The poet has followed a good rhyme scheme and has succeeded in catching the attention of the readers. The poem also goes to show impact of dying too young, had the same poem been written by an older person it would not have had the same melancholic tone. No one would want to die at such an early age and this is why the poet had adopted a very melancholic tone in his poem. “We real cool” is also a poem that focuses upon the youth and it is a very easy to ready poem. The poem carries a great message for the young African Americans and it was written in an endeavor to admonish the youth in the late 1960s. The poem focuses upon the cause and effect of the activities of youth and how they need to be admonished. Dropping out of school has been portrayed as a huge problem in the poem, young children often go astray when they decide to drop out of high school and the same has been shown in this poem. The poet would never have got into trouble had he just stayed at school and completed his education with dedication and sincerity. “We Real Cool" definitely has a powerful message behind it. Gwendolyn Brooks illustrates the essence of troubled teenagers who will eventually suffer the ill-fated possibility that life renders a human being if they continue the lifestyle of the streets — death.” (Helium) The poem is also related to the civil rights moment that began in the US, the poem also draws attention towards the lack of job opportunities and the lack of access to proper education in the country. The insecurity of the African boys is also evident from this poem; they involve themselves in illegal activities and are unsure of their role in the society. This goes to show purposelessness in their lives. The rebellious nature of the youth is appreciated by their peers and this appreciation gives them courage to move on with the illegal activities. They “Sing Sin” goes to show how they boast and revel in their illegal activities, they are extolled by their peers and this makes the situation even worse for the African American Youth. Their whole race is down looked because of their illegal activities but they never stop their illegal activities. The poem can be read like a song and the poet has made it a point to use black diction in the poem to make it sound authentic. “Gwendolyn Brooks is commenting on the futility that Black Americans felt at this time. As a whole, society thought of Black people as intellectually inferior and a waste of space. There is a sense of hopelessness in this poem; these boys are searching for a place to belong, in a society that does not seem to want them. Kids naturally feel a need to rebel against authority, but these boys have taken that to the extreme. These boys are content with the fact they will not live a long life, and they seem proud of it.” (Brooks) The two poems clearly indicate that the youth suffer mainly because of their activities, Tichbourne was executed because of conspiring against the Queen and the latter poem goes to show how ill directed the youth really was. There are several similarities in the two poems, both focus on youth and both show how the youth laments and suffer because of their deeds. References Brooks, Gwendolyn. "We Real Cool." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson. New York: Norton, 2005. 999-1000. Helium (2011). Analysis of We Real Cool. Retrieved from: http://www.helium.com/items/818599-poetry-analysis-we-real-cool-by-gwendolyn-brooks Poems of the Fantastic and Macabre (2010). My Prime of Youth is but a Frost of Cares. Retrieved from: http://www.poemsofthefantastic.com/poets/TICHBORNE.html Read More