Alexander Pope

Born	21 May 1688 London England
Died	30 May 1744 (aged 56) Twickenham, Middlesex, England
Occupation	Poet, writer, translator
Notable works	The Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Criticism, His translation of Homer
Literary period	Augustan, 18th century
Genre	Poetry, Translations, Literary criticism

 

 

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is, for the most part, regarded[citation needed] as the best English writer of the mid-eighteenth century, most popular for his humorous section and for his interpretation of Homer. He is the third most habitually cited author in the English language, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.[1] Pope was an expert of the brave couplet.

Early life

Pope was brought into the world in the City of London to Alexander (senior, a cloth shipper) and Edith (conceived Turner) Pope, who were both Roman Catholics. Pope's schooling was influenced by the laws in power at the time maintaining the situation with the setup Church of England, which restricted Catholics from instructing on the agony of unending detainment. Pope was instructed to peruse by his auntie and afterward shipped off two clandestine Catholic schools, at Twyford and at Hyde Park Corner. Catholic schools, while unlawful, were endured in certain spaces.

From youth he endured various medical conditions, including Pott's disease[2] (a type of tuberculosis influencing the spine) which twisted his body and hindered his development, almost certainly assisting with taking his life at the somewhat youthful age of 56. He never developed past 1.37 meters (4 feet 6 inches) tall. In spite of the fact that he never wedded, he had numerous ladies companions and thought of them clever letters.

In 1700, his family had to move to a little bequest in Binfield, Berkshire because of the solid enemy of Catholic conclusion and a rule keeping Catholics from living inside 10 miles of one or the other London or Westminster. Pope would later portray the field around the house in his sonnet Windsor Forest.

With his conventional instruction now at an end, Pope set out on a broad mission of perusing. As he later recollected: "In a couple of years I had plunged into an extraordinary number of the English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek writers. This I managed with no plan except for that of satisfying myself, and got the dialects by chasing after the stories...rather than read the books to get the dialects." His #1 writer was Homer, whom he had first perused matured eight in the English interpretation of John Ogilby. Pope was at that point composing section: he guaranteed he thought of one sonnet, Ode to Solitude, at twelve years old.

At Binfield, he additionally started to make numerous significant companions. One of them, John Caryll (the future dedicatee of The Rape of the Lock), was twenty years more established than the writer and had made numerous associates in the London artistic world. He acquainted the youthful Pope with the maturing dramatist William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor artist, who assisted Pope with reexamining his first significant work, The Pastorals. He likewise met the Blount sisters, Martha and Teresa, who might stay long lasting companions.

meters (4 feet 6 inches) tall. In spite of the fact that he never wedded, he had numerous ladies companions and thought of them clever letters.

In 1se met the Blount sisters, Martha and Teresa, who might stay long lasting companions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Famous works

 

Alexander Pope (1711)

The Iliad of Homer (1715 to 1720)

Eloisa to Abelard (1717)

The Odyssey of Homer (1725)

The Dunciad (1728 to 1743)

Moral Essays (1731 to 1735)

An Essay on Man (1733 to 1734)

Imitations of Horace (1733 to 1738)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HomePoetry analysis: A Sunset of the City, by Gwendolyn Brooks

Poetry analysis: A Sunset of the City, by Gwendolyn Brooks

ASTIKA WEBTECH November 07, 2020

Paper - Vlll

 

 

A Sunset of the city  

                                    by Gwendolyn Brooks    

 

Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.
My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,
Are gone from the house.
My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite
And night is night.

It is a real chill out,
The genuine thing.
I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer
Because sun stays and birds continue to sing.

It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone.
The sweet flowers indrying and dying down,
The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown.

It is a real chill out. The fall crisp comes
I am aware there is winter to heed.
There is no warm house
That is fitted with my need.

I am cold in this cold house this house
Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls.
I am a woman, and dusty, standing among new affairs.
I am a woman who hurries through her prayers.

Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my
Desert and my dear relief
Come: there shall be such islanding from grief,
And small communion with the master shore.
Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin,
Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry
In humming pallor or to leap and die.

Somebody muffed it?? Somebody wanted to joke.

 

Poetry analysis: A Sunset of the City, by Gwendolyn Brooks

 

“Sunset of the City” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a symbolic poem that characterizes a woman who is in the Sunset of her life. The poem is reflective of the woman’s life as well as heavy with the realization that she is in the final stage of her life on Earth.

The title of the poem is symbolic of the speaker’s life. The word “sunset” symbolizes the end of the day. The end of the day symbolizes rest after a long day of work. The woman’s life has been spent and it is symbolic that her work on Earth is nearing the end. The word “city” is symbolic of activity, energy, and spirit. With the choice of the word “city” in the title, Brooks creates the image of someone who had a lively and passionate lifetime, by this final stage of life is not nearly as active and robust as it was.

In the opening line, the woman admits she is “no longer looked at with lechery or love”. This line reflects that the woman was physically desirable in her youth, but the season of her life for being desired and loved has passed. Time and age has taken away her beauty and her desirability to be in her presence.

In the line that follows Brooks writes “my daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls/and are gone from the house.” This reflects that the woman’s children have moved on and have become adults.  They are leading their own independent lives now and have left her behind like the toys of their youth. Marbles and dolls are symbolic of play things and youthful frivolity, something used to pass the time that they have outgrown. For the mother, who is the speaker of the poem, she is no longer relevant in their lives. Instead, if her adult children would return home and see the toys from their youth, they may reflect on the fun that they had with the item, but they don’t take it out and play with them.

In the toys had a place in the adult children’s lives they would no doubt to be a novelty on a shelf, and more likely they would be something the adult children would just discord. It leaves the reader with the impression that if her children do come to see her, that it is just for a quick visit, a novelty, not that the mother is a centerpiece of their daily lives.

The next statement made by the speaker is that husband and lovers are “pleasant or somewhat polite”.  It creates a question in the mind of the reader who the lovers are “pleasant or somewhat polite”. It creates a question in the mind of the reader who the lovers are. On the surface, one might think that this means male physical lovers and that may be, but there is a possibility that these “lovers” mean friendships instead. It would make sense that she may be referring to her husband and friends as people that are present in her life, but who offer no real meaning. It is like the tolerate her. As pleasant as these people are in her life, it doesn’t change the fact that “night is night”. This means that sunset is nearly over and her time on Earth is coming no matter what her relationships   are with her family or friends.

The speaker next indicates that she is not fooled into believing that there is a possibility that she is still in the summer of life. Summer would symbolizes the prime of life, in full bloom, growth, and beauty. She knows that even though life goes on and there is still sunshine and birds, that doesn’t mean that she is in the summer of her life.  Brooke symbolizes the passing of summer and the prime of life with the images of “sweet flowers in drying and dying down” as well as “grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown”. This is symbolic of the women’s own personal beauty. She sees in herself that she is not in the prime of blooming and blaze; instead, she is as the stage of drying and shriveling up.

Brooks repeats the phrase “It is a real chill out.” At the beginning of the second and fourth stanzas, the repetition of this phrase is used to emphasize the sense of inevitability. The speaker can’t delude herself into believing that it is a temporary chill and not a change to the final season of her life.  It emphasize that it is real and lasting. She realizes that she is in house that is ill-prepared for winter. This symbolizes the decline of the woman’s health. She realizes that she is heading into a stage where it will not be warm enough for her to survive, just as it was not warm enough for the flowers and the grass to survive.

 With the personification of life as a house, Brooks uses words such as “echoes”, “tremulous”, “lost halls”, and “dusty” to describe her life.  The word “echoes” has connotations of something far off that as time continues to pass the sound becomes less and less. This is reflective of her memories of her youth, marriage, raising children and managing a household. “Tremulous” gives the connotation of emotions and refers. Leaving her life behind is an emotional thing for the woman and fear of where her life is heading next creates an impression of vulnerability. “Lost halls” creates the impression that there were paths that she did not take in life and symbolizes regrets. “Dusty” creates the sense of non-use. If something sits idle and unused, it becomes dusty. The speaker is like the dusty house, unused and gathering dust.

The speaker gains acceptance for her situation and appears to see the end of this dry “desert” as dear relief.  She feels that when death comes, it will be an island of relief from a hard life and all her grief. She mentions “communication with the master shore” which would be symbolic of the day that she sees the face of God, her day of reckoning. She indicates that she “hurries through her prayers”. This gives the sense that she feels an urgent need for prayer in the hope for heavenly forgiveness. Earlier in the poem  she mourns  for the children  who no longer see  her  as relevant, this  gives  the reader  a sense  that the woman   sees  herself as a sinner, in need or prayers and forgiveness to reach the “master shore”.

Brooks leaves the reader with the impression that the woman is left with a  sense of  dilemma wondering if she should die a withering death in the  winter of her  life or if she should “leap and die” which  would indicate thoughts  of suicide. This may also indicate the need for the urgent prayers.

Brooks ends the poem with a single line stanza “somebody muffed it? Somebody wanted to joke”. This final line leaves more questions than it answers. “Muffed” would indicate a mistake. It seems like Brooks may be symbolizing that the speaker is unhappy with her “house” and her surroundings. She hints at regrets, sins, and perhaps lovers.  Is it the woman who fears that she has “muffed it”? is she fearful  at the end of her life that she has sinned so greatly that she may not see the “master shore?” There is also the suicidal hint, which may reflects the sin of suicide which may be so great that after a life well-lived to kill herself would make it that she would not arrive at the “master shore”. Perhaps it is the intent of Brooks to have the reader feel unease at what the end is for the speaker. The final words “somebody wanted to joke” gives the sense that someone was perhaps not taking the spiritual tenets of life seriously enough and heaven and may not be reward.

 

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