Wilfred Owen And Stevie Smith On Death - 1889 Words

Chris Shea ENG 477 Professor Heidi Hartwig 04/21/16 Wilfred Owen and Stevie Smith on Death Death, especially that of loved ones: it can be a sensitive topic for anyone. The main connotation for the dead is that although not all circumstances can be revealed, the reasons behind their deaths can eventually be assumed by the living. And while that may be true in the physical sense as the dead cannot physically talk about their own deaths, two major British poets tend to disagree with that belief. In their works, both poets Wilfred Owen and Stevie Smith believe that the dead have more knowledge on the cause of their condition than do the living. One way Wilfred Owen and Stevie Smith present their beliefs on this issue is by presenting the public’s thoughts on said person after their death. And while the public may be sympathetic at times, often they are not in the case of Owen; and in the case of Smith, those who are sympathetic tend to not have a good sense as to what the circumstances were leading up to this person’s death. Overall, the public tends to be ignorant on this topic. Citing the public’s opinions on death is evident in the case of Wilfred Owen’s poetry, in both direct and indirect form. The more indirect approach is in his poem Disabled, although the main character in question is actually alive. However, the same scenario applies as this character is a permanently-disabled (and depressed) veteran; not to mention Owen (a soldier himself) wrote this in the final yearShow MoreRelatedLiterary Group in British Poetry5631 Words   |  23 Pagescentury feminist literature. Matthew Arnold was much influenced by Wordsworth, though his poem Dover Beach is often considered a precursor of the modernist revolution. Hopkins wrote in relative obscurity and his work was not published until after his death. His unusual style (involving what he called sprung rhythm and heavy reliance on rhyme and alliteration) had a considerable influence on many of the poets of the 1940s. [edit]Pre-Raphaelites, arts and crafts, Aestheticism, and the Yellow 1890s

Babies Having Babies Free Essays

My life as a teenager would soon be coming to an end and my life as mommy would be coming up faster then expected. It all started June 10th 2012, my family and I had just finished eating our dinner celebrating my achievement of getting my GED. I had received cards, gifts, and even some money from my family members for finally receiving this GED after being out of school for my senior year. We will write a custom essay sample on Babies Having Babies or any similar topic only for you Order Now Everybody was so happy for me even my dad, which was not a very common emotion for him to express towards me. Unfortunately their happiness would soon be long gone. For it was the night before this that I had five different tests all of which said the same thing in different ways, I was pregnant. I was not ready for this kind of responsibility. I was not ready physically, emotionally, and financially to take care of even myself yet now I had to find a way to provide all of those things for a child. I was only seventeen, turning eighteen in July; I was still a child myself. To many people I would be viewed as a delinquent because of getting pregnant. On the other hand, others might have seen this coming since my mom also had me at a young age. Many also believe all teens who get pregnant will fail. Although these beliefs and views from others were in my head at the time, I knew I needed to tell my family I was pregnant, find out how far along I was, and make a life changing decision. When I decided to tell my mom and stepdad I was terrified. I was so scared they would shun me and tell me they didn’t want me to live with them and they wouldn’t be supportive. I was also afraid my mother would be disappointed in me for following in her footsteps. To my surprise, their reaction was actually the opposite of that. They didn’t judge me at all. In fact they both hugged me and reassured me that everything would be okay and we would all get through this together, like family should. After telling my mom and stepdad I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders because I knew I had the support I needed. My dad on the other hand was not as supportive. He judged me right away and told me I was just trying to be like the people on the shows Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. He also told me he was disappointed and pretty much shunned me from his life just as he had did to my mom when she was pregnant with me. I was so upset he automatically assumed I was pregnant because of shows on the T. V. However I was even more upset he treated me the same way he treated my mom. My own father, along with many other people, believed I was influenced by people and things around me to become pregnant. Although my dad and other people viewed me as a disgrace and a copy cat, I didn’t let that affect me because I had other things to worry about. One of which was how far along I was. My mom already was way ahead of me for this situation and already called for an appointment with Mayo Clinic to find out how far along I was and to meet my doctor. When we finally went to the exam room, after countless minutes in the waiting room, the nurse revealed to me that I was eight weeks pregnant. After she went through about forty questions asking about my health she began telling me about services that would help me. Such as: social workers, the WIC program, public health nurses, and counseling groups for young mothers. She also had me do a number of tests to see if I was on drugs or under the influence of some sort. My mom was a little skeptical of this because when she was pregnant with my younger sisters, at a far older age than me, the doctors and nurses did not offer her all these programs nor did they make her take as many drug tests. So the fact that I was a teenager who was pregnant the medical professionals needed to offer these sorts of programs and do those tests. They believed out of most pregnant women that teens will need the most help so they do not fail. I was a teenager and was going to become a teenage mother. The thought of that still gives me shivers to this day. Maybe I did need the extra help to lower the chances of failing. Even though these thoughts of failing were present I wanted to look into the other options I had. For the first option adoption, I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to find a family that was more than capable of raising my child and giving it a better life than I could. This option would also give me the opportunity to better my life by going through school without having to worry about a crying baby. However I knew people who have done adoption and they seemed so sad and depressed that their child called some other woman their mom. This made me reconsider the option because I was afraid of just that; seeing my child calling another family theirs. For the second option abortion, I knew that this would be an easy way out. This would be the best way to forget about the whole situation but it was also wrong and a cruel thing to do. If I were to get an abortion I would not only throw myself into the wagon of ‘bad people’ and ‘killers’ but I would get judged by every person who knew of my pregnancy. Since adoption and abortion were both a no go, I only had one option left; to raise the baby myself. This idea frightened me, and I even went back and tried to convince myself that adoption would be a better option. Raising a baby would be stressful and very difficult but the outcome would be worth it. So maybe I could be able to raise a child, I had the support of my family, had a job, and also had enough programs to help me through it all. All of which would lower the chances of me failing. Now all i needed was the little voice in my head to say â€Å"you can do it†. To this day that little voice is screaming those four words louder than ever. Even though others view me as a misfit, disgrace, or a follower to those around me; I know I will do the best I can possibly do to not fail, and to also provide my son with the chance of a good life. By getting the support from at least some of my family members, finding out how far along I was, and choosing the right option to take; I know I can make it through this. I was going to be a teenage mother but I am enrolled in fall courses at RCTC, working food service at Mayo Clinic, and basically growing up for the sake of my child’s future: therefore I could in fact do it, I could raise a child on my own. How to cite Babies Having Babies, Papers

Good Year for Revolution free essay sample

The year before, Phillips argues, laid the groundwork for all that followed. The title, 1775: A Good Year for Revolution, may sound like a more modest undertaking, though Its size well over 500 pages indicates otherwise. In some sense, the argument Is simple: 1775, not 1776, was the real hinge of American history, the moment when independence transformed from a possibility to a reality. Indeed, it was only the tremendous sense of momentum that came out of 1775, especially in terms of the string of victories Phillips dubs the Battle of Boston, that allowed thePatriot cause to absorb the many military blows that followed the Declaration, years in which the rage military (Phillips) of 75 largely dissipated, especially in the South. The spirit of 76, by contrast, was a bicentennial marketing device. But the scope of the book Is In fact much wider. Phillips offers a sweeping interpretation of the coming of the Revolution that encompasses familiar topics like politics and economics as well as less familiar ones like the logistics of international gunpowder supply and naval tactics. He also foregrounds the interplay between culture and geography, paying facial attention to the dynamics of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and South Carolina, whose role he sees as pivotal (Connecticut and South Carolina too often overlooked). Theres also a fine chapter on the geopolitics of the Revolution, notably the role of Spain, which temporarily arrested its decline enough to make a decisive contribution to the cause and its own imperial prospects. Every review of this book that I have read has some points that I agree and disagree with.All of the reviews are good in nature and agree the book is historically accurate. They also all agree that Phillips definitely proves his point about the year 1775. But, each picks apart the book in places and make a decisions based on the way the author interprets those parts. One can Interpret 1775 by Phillips In many deferent ways. For example with the review by Gordon wood, he places It In a light of an Ideological revolution. Woods review stated that some of the colonist believed there were no traditional signs of a revolution, such as tyranny, forceful governance, and absolute religious control. Peter Oliver, who wrote the most vitriolic Tory history of the revolution, said that It as the most wanton and unnatural rebellion that ever existed (Wood 2). Wood believed that Phillips handling of the debates between Britain and the Colonist was weak. Wood stated that Phillips treated them as factors to be lumped alongside I OFF the book is a significant achievement (Wood 8) and that Phillips had compiled a convincing case (Wood 8). Another interpretation is the review by James C. Bennett. He believes that the book is a case study for anyone seeking to understand the rapidly approaching end of the failing institutions of our own era: big bureaucratic overspent, labor unions, and crony corporations. (Bennett 1). Bennett reiterates the problems of taxation and representation the colonist had with Britain and also with the British trying to take over the mercantile industry and then compares them to some of the issues America is facing now.In one instance he stated, the Britons paid far more than Americans per capita in taxation, and that before long, independent Americans were paying higher taxes to their own federal government than they ever had paid to the Crown (Bennett 2). The last review I read was by Joseph J. Ellis. Ellis interprets the book in a way that shows it as less off revolution to become America and more of a separation from England so that the colonies could control themselves. This was due to the different beliefs each side held on how each person should live their life according to their religious and political beliefs.Ellis claims the book as a feisty, fearless, edgy book, blissfully bereft of academic Jargon, propelled by the energy of an author with the bit in his teeth (Ellis 2). Near the heart of Phillips analysis of 1775 is a subject that typically gets short shrift in modern stereography of the revolution these days: religion. He picks through the often- complicated sectarian politics of eighteenth century North America, in which ethnicity and geography were also tangled. So it is, for example, that he explains Virginia Anglicans tended to be Whig, while Massachusetts Anglicans tended to be Tories.He affirms, as many previous observers have, that the Congregationalist heirs o f the Puritans dominated New England politics, the cockpit of Patriot fervor. But he locates strands of revolutionary ardor in New Jersey Presbyterian and Pennsylvania Lutheran as well and considers them important. As Phillips notes, such arguments, once the staple of Victorian histories like those of Thomas Abnegating Macaulay and John Lothrop Motley, have long fallen out of favor. Did these men have a better sense of the religiosity of eighteenth century than more recent chroniclers? he asks. Probably.Were they correct in painting a dour, predestination-minded culture as a progressive political force? Probably Modern cultural biases cannot wholly rewrite a prior American reality: that the Calvinist denominations central to those old battles bulked larger in the thirteen colonies of the sass than any major European nation. Phillips is particularly skeptical that secular ideology was as important as its recent champions have asserted. He doesnt deny its prevalence in Revolutionary discourse, but he sees it as one element in a more complex fabric, and one tha t was probably secondary to trading interests. As he distills his view in his chapter on the subject on the birth of American politics: economic motivations, constitutional rhetoric. The core point in any case is that the crucible of the American Revolution was the period between the fall of 1774 and the end of 1775. It was in these months that the rebels did not declare independence, but actually implemented it: they seized control of governments, formulated economic strategy, and actually fought a series of battles that stretched from Canada to the Carolinas.Phillips believes the Declaration of Independence was literally an afterthought. As not always felicitous. Its not clear, for example, why we need two separate chapters, in two separate sections, on the Canadian campaign. Or two separate chapters Britains first efforts to contain the Revolution of the South. Figures like the colorful Lord Denture certainly have a place in this story, but probably not as frequently as he pops up. Overall, the book is a highly readable. Phillips is very persuasive in making the case for 1775 to be the year of Americas independence.