In his essay, "A Defence of Poetry", Percy Bysshe Shelley defines poetry as the capacity of vision that "strips the veil of familiarity from the world, and lays bare the naked and sleeping beauty, which is the spirit of its forms" (par. 42). ... " in order to highlight the function of metaphor in Shelley's notion of poetry. First of all, let us consider what Shelley declares in his essay "A Defence of Poetry": "Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be 'the expression of the imagination'" (par. 2). Shelley's definition o...

• Word Count: 1524
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Not only was it poetry but one of the poems actually was named "Poetry" (Moore 146). ... Once getting into the first section, "Poetry" and "Ars Poetica" began to define what poetry was. ... The poem "Poetry" (Moore 146) began to answer my question what is poetry. ... What is poetry to me? ... Now that I have this new found understanding of poetry I continued reading in order to get the final answer, what can I possibly get out of poetry? ...

• Word Count: 1276
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Johnson's poetry was different from any other writer in the late eighteenth century. He used poetry as a tool for an escape from the reality of life. Johnson would also use poetry as a tool for expression of emotion and praise for accomplishment. ... With all of his undertakings, from politics to writing critiques, Johnson used writing poetry as his release from reality and the hardships in his life. ...

• Word Count: 1734
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

An American writer who made his mark on American Literature in the 20th century is Edgar Lee Masters, an amazing poet, novelist, and biographer who made his reputation in Spoon River Anthology poetry. Rather than using rhymes, Masters preferred his free verse style of writing in his poetry, especially in Spoon River Anthology. ...

• Word Count: 1363
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

This is why Socrates feels that the arts, such as poetry, should be censored; it would help decrease the digression of society's intellect. ... This society will have a limit on the arts and poetry because these are two highly influential elements that have the capability to ignite immorality. ...

• Word Count: 1591
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

He conceived that in early life the main instruments for bringing out what was best in the soul were first, literature, beginning with stories for children & going on to poetry: secondly, music, playing & singing; & thirdly, the plastic arts in general. ... Poetry didn't appeal to him, it had an emotional rather than rational appeal. ...

• Word Count: 2037
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

"Consciousness" by Joanie Mackowski is a free verse poem that appeared in the February 2012 edition of Poetry Magazine. In this poem, Mackowski explains the awareness and response of human beings to their surroundings by presenting the workings of our mind. The poem appears to be like any other free...

• Word Count: 1356
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Throughout Cervantes' Don Quixote, there is a fear for Don Quixote's imagination. He desires to live his life out as a knight, much like those in his chivalric romances. However the society around him wishes for him to stay and conform to living in the reality shared by the majority. At first his i...

• Word Count: 1307
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

That in philosophy one should not meddle with things that one couldn't explain since that would be dangerously close to "poetry", as Carnap puts it, that is something that can give no definitive answers. ...

• Word Count: 1414
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Is it more poetic to die after enjoying the greatest night of your life, or remain living until you're too old and weak to take care of yourself? In Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover," the author takes us inside the mind of a madman who reveals the dark side of human nature, and how death is twis...

• Word Count: 1455
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

A Room of Many Thoughts One of the first things to notice about A Room of One's Own is that it is not a typical lecture. It rambles and flows back and forth, in and out. It is more narrative than Logic. It breaks many of the conventions of a formal address. Why does Virginia Woolf choose to...

• Word Count: 1697
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

I had always thought art was about the personalization of one's perspective of physical reality, a filter through which we can observe the material world in ways may or may not match ours. When I watched a short surrealist film, "Destino," (Dalí, Hench, & Ernst, 2003), however, I realized that there is another side of art, one that is unmaterialistic: it has absolutely nothing to do with replicating the physical world and has most – if not everything – to do with the non-physical. The clear portrayal, the beautiful expression of the inner worlds of feelings and emotions, of t...

• Word Count: 2094
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography

Rene DesCartes (1596-1650), lived a life focused on mathematics, philosophy and science during a period of history that was not particularly accommodating for analytical thought. DesCartes stated that he had no way of being certain that everything he perceived was nothing more than something he created subconsciously in his mind, such as a in dream. This theory fails because dreams are built on knowledge we have of the external world, on bits and pieces of our real experience. One of his many noteworthy accomplishments was that he claimed to have proven the existence of God. His theory states ...

• Word Count: 2303
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate