It is interesting how poets from different writing periods can have similar views. Walt Whitman was a Transcendentalist, and Rainer Rilke wrote at the beginning of the Modernist period, yet both have very similar ideas about a poet's dedication to "things." Whitman believed that a poet's thoughts were "hymns of praise" (1855 preface to Leaves of Grass) to things, and Rilke believed that a poet had to "win the confidence" (Letters to a Young Poet) of things. Both poets also felt that we have to reach a certain level before we truly experience life. Of course, both poets had differe...

• Word Count: 2891
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

It's hard to think about that day. Who knew it would be the last day I would spend with her. It still feels like a fresh nightmare that just happened last night. But it didn't. It happened over two years ago and I was still struggling with this new reality. I didn't like it. I hated it. How could th...

• Word Count: 2579
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The Right to Die: The Legalization of Euthanasia Christiaan Barnard, a South African cardiac surgeon, once said, "I have never seen any nobility in a patient's thrashing around all night in a sweat-soaked bed, trying to escape from the pain that torments him day and night" (Walker 18). Should a...

• Word Count: 2895
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School