The Four Seasons Essay Example

The Four Seasons Essay Look at the structure of each poem as well as its use of language, and show how the poems not only describe the seasons but also convey its mood. As you write indicate your response to the words and ideas in the poems, and at the end say which poem you prefer, giving your reasons. I am going to tell you about three different poems I have chosen which I feel best portray the seasons. I have chosen Spring by G. M Hopkins, To Autumn by John Keats and Skating from The Prelude by William Wordsworth. The poem Spring by G. M Hopkins is a very happy and joyful poem and full of life. In the very first line, Hopkins refers to Spring as the most attractive season of them all, telling us: Nothing is so beautiful as Spring (Line 1). He carries on creating a buoyant and cheerful atmosphere by using words and phrases such as the alliterative phrases long and lovely and lush (Line 2) and With richness, the racing lambs too have fair their fling (Line 8). In the first stanza, Hopkins uses imagery with phrases such as weeds in wheels (Line 2) and The glassy pear tree leaves and blooms (Line 6), which gives the reader pictures of Springtime. The image of The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush (Line 7), gives the impression of being wrapped in a mixture of happy feelings and the promise of summer to come. The poem is very continuous and uses many enjambments so that the poem can be kept at a fast flowing speed for the reader. We will write a custom essay sample on The Four Seasons specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Four Seasons specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Four Seasons specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer For example Through the echoing timbre does so rinse and wring / The ear, it strikes like lighting to hear him sing (Line 4 / 5). When Hopkins starts his second verse he writes this alliterative question What is all this juice and all this joy? (Line 9). This can be interpreted as the juice being all the new life of both animals and plants, thrushs eggs (Line 3) and racing lambs (Line 8), and the joy is in being able to see all these events happen and being part of the experience. Hopkins uses the Garden of Eden to talk about the newness and innocence of this season. He writes In Eden garden Have, get, before it cloy, / Before it cloud, Christ, lord and sour with sinning / Innocent Minds and Mayday in girl and boy (Line 11 / 12 / 13), suggesting that Spring has a purity that the later seasons lack. He supports the use of springs innocence by using the maids child towards the end of the play Most, O maids child, thy choice and worthy the winning. The Autumn Poem by John Keats is a very famous poem, written in 1819, two years before he died. The poem is written in three stanzas and he has written the poem so that at the beginning it is describing the start of autumn, progressing through the poem until autumn is turning into winter. Keats begins the poem with alliterative phrases like mists of mellow fruitfulness (Line 1), using soft consonants and extended vowels to give an atmosphere of relaxation and calmness. He uses the metaphor Close blossom-friend of the maturing sun (Line 2), to produce an image of fruitfulness and fertility. The phrase Conspiring with him how to load and bless (Line 3) makes it seem like Autumn and the Sun are human and almost God-like. He talks about all the fruit being as ripe as they are ever going to be, all the way to the core (Line 6) while the trees bend with apples (Line 5). He talks about the animals and especially the bees and says And still more, later flowers for the bees, / until they think warm days will never cease (Line 9 / 10). Keats is saying that the bees are not aware that winter is coming so they stay out still looking for more flowers. In the second stanza he talks about the main part of autumn, describing autumn as if it was a person, starting the stanza with Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? (Line 12). He gives the reader many images of autumn being a restful time, slowing down as winter approaches, using phrases such as sitting careless on a granary floor (Line 14) and on a half reapd furrow sound asleep (Line 16). He uses many restful alliterative words such as winnowing wind (Line 15) and the phrase Thou watchest the last oozing hours by hours (Line 22) also feels like life is slowing down. Even though he talks about this time being easy and lazy it is a very difficult and busy time for farmers, however this is not stated in the poem. Keats writes what is idealistic for him. He has again used lots of long vowels to create heaviness and slowness in the poem with phrases such as Drowsed with the fume of poppies (Line 17) to suggest sleepiness. In the final stanza he talks about the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, talking about regret, where are the songs of Spring? (Line 23). Keats also gives the reader images of the autumn evenings, soft-dying day (Line 25) and also rosy hue (Line 26) which means the setting sun, which is in contrast to the mature sun of the first stanza. Keats describes images of death using words and phrases such as mourn (Line 27), sinking (Line 29) and also the light wind lives or dies (Line 29) because it is the end of the summer. He uses many musical terms throughout the last stanza, such as wailful choir (Line 27), full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn (Line 30), hedge crickets sing (Line 31) and now with treble soft / The red-breast whistles (Line 31 / 32). They are all however very soft sounds, unlike Hopkins Spring which was all bustling and noisy. Keats describes a robin in the poem which suggests images of the forthcoming winter, and he talks about full-grown lambs, which suggests that the cycle of the year from when they were born in spring to their full grown state in autumn is complete. In general, throughout the poem he uses few full stops making very extended sentences. This keeps the poem very lethargic, lazy and restful. The pace is kept very slow and he does this by using many caesurae.

Free Essays on Greek Theater

The first evidence of dramatic literature dates from Greece in the 6th century BC, and the first extant piece of critical writing on the origin of theater is Aristotle's Poetics (about 330 BC). Aristotle claimed that Greek tragedy developed from dithyrambs-choral hymns in honor of the god Dionysus-which not only praised the god but often told a story. According to legend, Thespis, a choral leader of the 6th century BC, created drama when he assumed the part of the leading character in a dithyrambic story: He spoke and the chorus responded. From this it was but a small step to the addition of other actors and characters and the evolution of drama as an independent form, according to Aristotle. But the seemingly spontaneous development of highly sophisticated tragic drama with virtually no precedents is difficult to explain. Greek tragedy flourished in the 5th century BC. Of the more than 1000 tragedies written during that century, only 31 remain, all by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The plays are highly formal, they are written in verse and consist of scenes (episodes) among characters (never more than three speaking characters in a scene) alternating with choral songs (odes). The stories are mostly drawn from myth or ancient history, although the focus is not on a simple retelling of a story (with which the poets often took liberties), but on a consideration of humanity's place in the world and the consequences of individual actions. Generally, little action occurred onstage and most events and information were related through dialogue and choral songs. The plays were presented at festivals in honor of Dionysus, including the Great Dionysia at Athens, held in the spring; the Rural Dionysia, held in the winter; and the Lenaea, also held in the winter following the Rural Dionysia. The works of only three poets, selected in competition, were performed. In addition to three tragic plays (a trilogy) each poet had to present a satyr... Free Essays on Greek Theater Free Essays on Greek Theater The first evidence of dramatic literature dates from Greece in the 6th century BC, and the first extant piece of critical writing on the origin of theater is Aristotle's Poetics (about 330 BC). Aristotle claimed that Greek tragedy developed from dithyrambs-choral hymns in honor of the god Dionysus-which not only praised the god but often told a story. According to legend, Thespis, a choral leader of the 6th century BC, created drama when he assumed the part of the leading character in a dithyrambic story: He spoke and the chorus responded. From this it was but a small step to the addition of other actors and characters and the evolution of drama as an independent form, according to Aristotle. But the seemingly spontaneous development of highly sophisticated tragic drama with virtually no precedents is difficult to explain. Greek tragedy flourished in the 5th century BC. Of the more than 1000 tragedies written during that century, only 31 remain, all by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The plays are highly formal, they are written in verse and consist of scenes (episodes) among characters (never more than three speaking characters in a scene) alternating with choral songs (odes). The stories are mostly drawn from myth or ancient history, although the focus is not on a simple retelling of a story (with which the poets often took liberties), but on a consideration of humanity's place in the world and the consequences of individual actions. Generally, little action occurred onstage and most events and information were related through dialogue and choral songs. The plays were presented at festivals in honor of Dionysus, including the Great Dionysia at Athens, held in the spring; the Rural Dionysia, held in the winter; and the Lenaea, also held in the winter following the Rural Dionysia. The works of only three poets, selected in competition, were performed. In addition to three tragic plays (a trilogy) each poet had to present a satyr...

7 Ways to Beat Writers Block

7 Ways to Beat Writers Block 7 Ways to Beat Writers Block 7 Ways to Beat Writers Block By Michael Every writer, at times, has trouble thinking of what to say next. Or what to say at all. The cause may be fear, pressure, perfectionism, but often lack of inspiration. No doubt even Mesopotamian scribes of five thousand years ago hesitated before putting stylus to tablet. We’ve written about writer’s block several times over the years, and here are seven practical suggestions to ease the symptoms of writer’s block. 1. Give yourself something to edit Seeing all my mistakes motivates me to change them. So why not leave your rough drafts rough? Dont proofread as you write. Leave out words (I, you, he, she, they, a and the) that may help you write faster. Abbreviate freely. Later, fixing these little things gets me into an mood for work, and I end up fixing the big things too. Correct spelling, neat handwriting or accurate spellchecking is only necessary to make sure you can later recognize what you wrote. Getting close may be okay. I’ve typed usable prose in the dark. When Ive seen rough drafts of famous literature, I marvel at how rough they were. 2. Get a running start As you work on your book, to make it easier to get started again, reread or even retype what you wrote last time. With my first novel, I allowed myself some light editing of what I had already written, before charging into the new days writing. That may not work for everyone. Many writers prime the pump by doing free writing putting down anything that comes into their heads. You could start by copying out a paragraph from an author you admire. Or type a common proverb over and over, such as All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. On second thought, dont do that. 3. Choose your stopping points Stop when you know what you will say next, not when you dont. That is, dont finish your scene before stopping for the night; leave it ready to finish the next day. Yes, this seems counter-intuitive, stopping the flow of words to keep the words from stopping. But this way you can choose your own stopping point instead of letting circumstances (or bedtime) choose one for you. Youre stopping at a point from which its easy to start again. For example, if youre Jane Austen writing Pride and Prejudice, as soon as your heroine finds out who broke her sisters heart (because the man tells her it was him), that’s a good place to call it a night. In tomorrow’s writing session, Miss Bennet will tell Mr. Darcy exactly what she thinks of him, and writing the rest of that scene will be a breeze. 4. Write super-slow Writing slowly is the normal way to write, so if you get used to it, you wont stress about it. Everybody thinks faster than they can verbalize. A professional speaker might give a memorized speech at 9,000 words an hour, but a professional writer can’t memorize anything because they haven’t written it yet. They might write 1,000 words an hour, less than one word in three seconds. Even dictating one word a second sounds embarrassingly slow to someone who isnt used to it. Great writers get used to it. Imagine Charles Dickens as he begins writing A Tale of Two Cities sometime between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. one day: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.. (long pause) it was the age of (pause) something (pause) wisdom, it was the age of (pause) something something (long pause) foolishness It sounds a lot better without the pauses, but I don’t think Dickens could have written without any. Dickens was sharp, but not superhuman. He was a phenomenally successful public speaker, but he spoke smoothly only because he carefully prepared his speeches. With a pen. He couldn’t write his first draft as smoothly. Even a skilled public speaker doesnt speak without pauses, so why should a writer feel ashamed of pauses? 5. Write super-fast On the other hand, you might try to write at the speed of your thought. Writing fast lets unexpected thoughts slip in. You will lose fewer of those good thoughts that flee away before you can write them down. When the thoughts come more slowly, that is less of a problem. When the thoughts come more quickly, you may find your fingers cant keep up with them. Above all, if you find your train of thought derailed by your internal editor, dont let it win. Simply refuse to edit until you’ve finished writing. One helpful technique: never hit the backspace key more than once. Tell your internal editor that at this point, if you want editing or proofreading, one backspace is all you get. Another helpful technique: never hit the backspace key at all. 6. Mix it up Changing around the elements of your story, making them fresh, will often spark inspiration. We wrote about one way to do that the SCAMPER method, which stand for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to Other Uses, Eliminate, and Reverse but there are many others. Changing up your approach to your writing will benefit more than yourself. Readability experts such as Rudolph Flesch have discovered that readability goes up any time a writer uses an unexpected word, such as chicken in an astronomy article, or cucumber in a web design article, or any time a writer uses quotation marks anywhere. 7. Recharge your batteries One way to break your writers block is to change your routine. Research shows that you can increase your creativity simply by using your less-dominant hand occasionally. So spend some time away from writing. Spend time reading. Read something outside your field. Work outside your field (or work in a field, if you never have). Pray or meditate. Visit another part of the world. Chop wood. Talk to a a child. You’re a writer, yes, but you’re not only a writer. Becoming a fuller human being will make you a fuller writer, and writers block may become less of a problem. 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 Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Definitely use "the" or "a"Hyper and HypoEspecially vs. Specially

Finance For Managers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Finance For Managers - Assignment Example 1 Profitability Ratios â€Å"It is impossible to assess profits or profit growth properly without relating them to the amount of funds (capital) that were employed in making the profits. The most important profitability ratio is therefore return on capital employed (ROCE), which states the profit as a percentage of the amount of capital employed† (BPP 2009). Profitability ratios are usually calculated in order to perform vertical analysis or to compare one year with another. These ratios include net profit margin and gross profit margin, return on capital employed (ROCE), earning per share (EPS) and price earning (P/E) ratio. The net profit margin, gross profit margin and ROCE are the only ones that are relevant for this exercise. The calculations for the four divisions are shown in Table 1 in the Appendix. Profitability The ROCE may be used to assess how well the management of the divisions have performed (BPP 2009, p. 306). Two ratios may be used to help explain ROCE. They a re profit margin and asset turnover. These ratios are described as secondary ratios while ROCE is described as a primary ratio. Profit margin is calculated under profitability while asset turnover has been included with efficiency ratios. ROCE can be used to determine whether the divisions are getting value for money from borrowings to make it worthwhile. Quality Products Division The figures for ROCE suggest that there have been consistent improvements over the three year period. The figures have increased from a negative 6.9% return to a 7.7% return in 2008 and a 9% increase in 2009. However, management indicates that the division needs to achieve a 10% return on investment (ROI) and it is currently below that level. The figures also indicate that the profit margin of the Quality Products Division has improved over the past years from a negative 5.7% in 2007 to 5.7% in 2008 and 6.4% in 2009. The gross profit margin has also increased consistently from 38.9% in 2007 to 40.4% in 200 8 and then to 41.4% in 2009. Kitchen Division There was a significant decline in the ROCE from 16.9% in 2007 to 11.9% in 2008, followed by and small decline to 11.4% in 2009. This is above the 10% ROI that the division needs to achieve. There have been inconsistencies in the profit margin over the period. The profit margin declined from 5.3% in 2007 to 3.6% in 2008. However, there was a marginal increase to 3.9% in 2009. The gross profit margins for the period declined from 39.2% in 2007 to 36.2% in 2008 and increased to 37.6% in 2009, which is not consistent with the changes in net profit. This was due to a more than proportionate increase in cost of sales. Bedroom Division The ROCE declined from 11.8% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2009. This is above the 10% ROI required by management. However, the profit margin is very small even though it increased from 3.5% in 2007 to 4.1% in 2008 and declined to 4% in 2009. This was in spite of the consistent decline in turnover. The gross profit margin increased from 26.4% in 2007 to 31.4% in 2008 and a decline to 29.8% in 2009. This was so because the ratio of cost of sales to turnover was proportionately higher in 2007 then in 2008 and 2009. Office Division The ROCE declined for 14.2% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2008. However, it improved during 2009 to 12.5%. These percentages are above the ROI of 10% required by the management. There was a decline in

Strategic Management Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic Management Analysis - Essay Example With the company being driven towards revolutionizing the locomotive industry by 2020, the company made a difference through offering alternative mechanisms of powering locomotives by use of electricity, which is seen to be less hazardous while compared to the fossil fuels commonly used. Despite the fact that the electricity technology for locomotive propulsion existed even prior to the combustion engine technology, the Better Place organization is celebrated for improving on these ideas and designing improved systems for revolutionizing the industry. This therefore imply that the absence of the organization would imply that no solution to the problem of green gas emissions highly contributed by the locomotive industry would have been found and no efforts would be pursued to make the world a better places as the organization envisions. Better Place’s Visions: the organization’s main vision had been to link together the main players within the locomotive industry globall y for a more unified system in production and improvement of the locomotives produced. This meant that unification of customers, car companies, utilities as well as battery companies would ensure that the electric vehicles would be widely adopted. Besides, owing to the major hurdle that the EVs faced in reduced mobility, the company has a vision to improve on mobility of the EVs (Etzion and Struben, 2011, p. 5). Better Place’s stakeholders: The main stakeholders in the Better Place organization were the various governments that were supportive to the initiative and which are affiliated through registration and financial support, as well as general auto manufacturers interested into such a promising venture. Despite the governments contributing on financial resources, they also aided through policy frameworks to create an enabling environment in respective countries. Ideas and general infrastructure of manufacture of such vehicles was offered by the auto manufacturing companie s affiliated to the ideology of better place on the planet. Scenarios and industry analysis: The locomotive industry has undergone great and notable steps over generations since the initial era when transportation was through animal driven locomotives. Technological advancement brought about the discovery of the steam engine, which was initially developed for farm mechanization but later it was adopted for personalized mobility. However, with basic notable shortcomings in use of steam engines for personalized movement, the electric vehicle was designed in the early years of 19th century. Preference of electric vehicles to steam vehicles was on cleanliness, little noise and general ease of use. It is worth noting that the EVs were more expensive to the steam ones but by the close of the 19th century, more EVs were sold. Henry Ford later invented the ‘assembly line’, which is equally celebrated as a remarkable step in revolutionizing the locomotive industry by reducing ma nufacture time as well as the related costs of labor. The Ford, Chrysler as well as the General motor companies was the dominant companies in the time, which specialized in manufacture of the ICE vehicles though others slowly came in. It is to be noted however that the effects of use of the fossil fuels by the ICE are adverse to human health and the

Power Balance Bands Conclusion Essay Example for Free

Power Balance Bands Conclusion Essay The purpose of this experiment was to once and for all answer the question, â€Å"do the Power Balance Bands truly have an effect on a person’s balance strength and flexibility or is the whole thing a scam? † The company claims that the these bracelets have a hologram in it and when the hologram comes in contact with your body’s energy field, it allows your body to interact with the natural, beneficial frequency stored within the hologram, resulting in improved energy flow throughout your body. But is this true? The original claim for this experiment was that if people are wearing the power balance band while participating in various balance, strength, and flexibility tests then the band will in fact not have any effect on the persons balance, strength, or flexibility. The data showed a very small difference between the performance of the â€Å"fake† and â€Å"real† Power Balance Bands. All three tests showed no more than a . 3% difference between the means for both bands. This experiment was essentially an experiment testing the placebo effect on the use of the Power Balance Bracelet. The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered. The goal was to convince people the â€Å"original† Power Balance band actually worked, and that the â€Å"fake† one didn’t. My results showed little to no change in performance regardless of which band the student was wearing. This observation confirmed my hypothesis that neither band would have any affect on a person’s performance. The systematic error in this experiment was that I was not able to test 50 tests subject, I was only able to test 36 which luckily still allowed me to get accurate results. The Random error in this experiment was that it was difficult to measure the improvement, or digression of the participants, for both the Balance Test and the Strength Test. The only recorded limitation for this experiment was the fact that while performing the Balance and Strength Test if each participant made to 10 seconds while balancing they were stopped and had their abilities observed and recorded. The generalizability of the results can apply to all humans however; this experiment is exclusive in that it cannot be generalized for all other objects, insects, or animals. For future directions I would increase the sample size, and also change the tests so that they can be measured by something other than time.

Catherine Morlands Coming of Age in Jane Austens Northanger Abbey Ess

Catherine Morland's Coming of Age in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey Jane Austen's intelligence and sophisticated diction made her a revolutionary author, and her mastery surpasses most modern authors. By challenging conventional stereotypes in her novels, she gives the open-minded reader a new perspective through the message she conveys. Her first novel, Northanger Abbey, focuses on reading. However, she parallels typical novel reading with the reading of people. Catherine Morland's coming of age hinges on her ability to become a better reader of both novels and people. Austen first introduces Catherine as an unlikely heroine: "No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be [a] heroine" (13). This is the introductory line of Austen's first book, giving the reader the responsibility to realize this is a novel by stating Catherine's heroism. This is important for the reader to understand because Catherine, who loves to read fiction, considers herself to be a heroine in a gothic novel. Therefore, this sets the tone of the story as the reader recognizes the metaphorical gap between the ideal fictional heroine and the flawed Catherine Morland. The modern reader must be aware that, at this point in literary history, the novel was looked down upon as an inferior form of literature, particularly because of the grim and sensational content of gothic novels. Therefore, Austen finds it necessary to argue the vital importance of the novel: "Oh! it is only a novel!" replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with momentary shame--"It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda;" or, in short, only some work in which the thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delinea... ...The strength displayed by Catherine shows her ability to make her own judgments, which parallels her becoming a woman. With Catherine Morland and Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen has set a new benchmark for what a heroine and novel can be. Through Catherine, Austen shows the danger of becoming immersed in reading and its ability to hinder the judgment between fact and fiction. Reading is a dominant theme throughout the novel, as in both the reading of the gothic novel and the reading of a person's character. When these two notions clash, the reader is forced to decide which activity holds more importance. Austen ingeniously gives the reader an interactive role as a main character in her story by making one realize Catherine's reading ability is directly proportional to her coming of age. Work Cited Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.