Dreams

The epic is a narrative poem of supposed divine inspiration treating of a subject of great and momentous importance for mankind, the characters of the story are partly human and partly divine, and the language and style in which the incidents are related are full of elevation and dignity. If a long narrative poem should satisfy all the tests of epic poetry, but if the subject which is celebrated be of a trivial nature, like the cutting off a lock of a woman’s hair, which is the story that is related in Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”, then such a poem is called a mock-epic. A mock-epic poem is supposed to be the inspiration of a Muse and the language is stilted and grandiose, but the subject is of very frivolous and of commonplace nature. Mock-epic or mock-heroic or heroi-comical terms are applied to literary works in which the epic or heroic tradition is ridiculed. Characteristics of “The Rape of the Lock” as a mock-epic poem: 1. Parody: Hazlitt has call...

In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. Clearly the seventeenth century had the courage of its metaphors and they made them the organic parts of its staple, imposed them on the nearest and the farthest things with equal vigour as clearly as the nineteenth century lacked this courage and was half- heartedly metaphorical or content with similes. The difference between the literary qualities of the two periods is not the difference in degree between poets. It is something which had happened to the mind of England between the Age of Donne, Crashaw, Lord Herbert and the time of Tennyson and Browning. It is the difference between the intellectual poet and the reflective poet. Tennyson and Browning are the poets who think, but they do not feel their thought as immediately as the odour of a rose. A thought to Donne was an experience, it modified his sensibility. When a poet’s mind is equipped perfectly for its w...

The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft—the Devil's magic—and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice, and it continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later.

The Puritans of early America were constantly reminded of the consequences of sinning. One such dynamic pastor of the time was Jonathan Edwards whose mission was to convert and convince his congregation of sinners. He did this through his powerful sermons. In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards uses several rhetorical devices that contribute to the effectiveness of his sermon. Edwards uses imagery to paint a horrifying picture of eternal damnation for unsaved souls. His use of graphic words describing the horrors and torment awaiting sinners has a remarkable effect on his audience. Even if Hell isn't a real place and all of the pain and suffering described is a lie, Edwards' way of delivering his message is so successful that it scares his listeners into believing and following his proposed method of redemption.  Elsewhere, he uses imagery to give his congregation a mental picture of God holding sinners above the fiery pits of Hell. After fill...