A people who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand! I saw the fences half co... more A people who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand! I saw the fences half consumed, their ends lost in the middle of the prairie, and some worldly miser with a surveyor looking after his bounds, while heaven had taken place around him, and he did not see the angels going to and fro, but was looking for an old post-hole in the midst of paradise. I looked again, and saw him standing in the middle of a boggy Stygian fen, surrounded by devils, and he had found his bounds without a doubt, three little stones, where a stake had been driven, and looking nearer, I saw that the Prince of Darkness was his surveyor."
In his essay, The Language of Paradox, Cleanth Brooks argues that although we tend to see poetry ... more In his essay, The Language of Paradox, Cleanth Brooks argues that although we tend to see poetry more so as " the language of the soul " rather than " the language of sophistry, " the poet is inevitably forced to approach his truth, " …only in terms of paradox " (Brooks 3). This doesn't mean Brooks sees poetry as dealing exclusively in paradox or that poetry involving paradox eschews any sort of emotional outpouring. Rather, he sees paradox as revelatory, insofar as it exposes a new meaning hidden underneath the apparent tension stemming from its configuration. Brooks maintains that by delving into existing paradoxes within a poem, a reader may potentially discover the thrust behind a poem's fervency. Building on this notion, I will argue that not only is there an existing paradox in Browning's " My Last Duchess, " but that beneath the apparent discordance exists the very power by which the reader is affected. Before providing an example to substantiate his case, Brooks concedes that Wordsworth's poetry is known for its simplicity and for its candidness. Few would argue, after a first reading of Wordsworth's oeuvre, that his poetry deals in anything sophistical. Yet Brooks contends that underpinning the typical, simplistic Wordsworthian poem is, " a paradoxical situation " (Brooks 4). He gives us " Composed upon Westminster Bridge " as an example that, through its underlying paradox, we can understand its power and account for its success. On its surface, Worthsworth's poem seems devoid of any paradoxical language. We see the speaker construct a metaphor at the poem's beginning, noting how London's skyline, its,
A people who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand! I saw the fences half co... more A people who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand! I saw the fences half consumed, their ends lost in the middle of the prairie, and some worldly miser with a surveyor looking after his bounds, while heaven had taken place around him, and he did not see the angels going to and fro, but was looking for an old post-hole in the midst of paradise. I looked again, and saw him standing in the middle of a boggy Stygian fen, surrounded by devils, and he had found his bounds without a doubt, three little stones, where a stake had been driven, and looking nearer, I saw that the Prince of Darkness was his surveyor."
In his essay, The Language of Paradox, Cleanth Brooks argues that although we tend to see poetry ... more In his essay, The Language of Paradox, Cleanth Brooks argues that although we tend to see poetry more so as " the language of the soul " rather than " the language of sophistry, " the poet is inevitably forced to approach his truth, " …only in terms of paradox " (Brooks 3). This doesn't mean Brooks sees poetry as dealing exclusively in paradox or that poetry involving paradox eschews any sort of emotional outpouring. Rather, he sees paradox as revelatory, insofar as it exposes a new meaning hidden underneath the apparent tension stemming from its configuration. Brooks maintains that by delving into existing paradoxes within a poem, a reader may potentially discover the thrust behind a poem's fervency. Building on this notion, I will argue that not only is there an existing paradox in Browning's " My Last Duchess, " but that beneath the apparent discordance exists the very power by which the reader is affected. Before providing an example to substantiate his case, Brooks concedes that Wordsworth's poetry is known for its simplicity and for its candidness. Few would argue, after a first reading of Wordsworth's oeuvre, that his poetry deals in anything sophistical. Yet Brooks contends that underpinning the typical, simplistic Wordsworthian poem is, " a paradoxical situation " (Brooks 4). He gives us " Composed upon Westminster Bridge " as an example that, through its underlying paradox, we can understand its power and account for its success. On its surface, Worthsworth's poem seems devoid of any paradoxical language. We see the speaker construct a metaphor at the poem's beginning, noting how London's skyline, its,
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