Joseph Conrad: An Innovator in British Literature Essay -- Conrad

Joseph Conrad: An Innovator in British Literature      Ã‚  Ã‚   Joseph Conrad’s innovative literature is influenced by his experiences in traveling to foreign countries around the world. Conrad’s literature consists of the various styles of techniques he uses to display his well-recognized work as British literature. "His prose style, varying from eloquently sensuous to bare and astringent, keeps the reader in constant touch with a mature, truth-seeking, creative mind" (Hutchinson 1). Conrad’s novels are basically based on having both a psychological and sociological plot within them. This is why Conrad’s work carries its own uniqueness from other novels when being compared to his.    Examples of Conrad’s literature include novels such as Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, and The Secret Agent. Heart of Darkness is basically based on his own experiences, but Conrad also adds fiction into this particular novel (Dintenfass 1). It has been said that Conrad’s style of writing is described as "...life as we actually live it...[is] to be blurred and messy and confusing-- and the abstract ideas...[of] actual experiences can sometimes produce in us, or in that part of us, anyway, which tries to understand the world in some rational way." Acquiring this from the novel gives the reader a psychological perspective in that they are receiving feedback in a conscious way such as a hallucination or a phantasm (Dintenfass 2). Readers have curiously questioned the purpose of his novels such as Heart of Darkness, but the answer is quite simple. "[The] purpose is to get the reader to re-live [any] experience in some [significant] and concrete way, with all its complexity and messiness, all its darkness and ambiguity, intact" (Dintenfass 3). An addi... ...n, eds. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 1 Detroit: Hale Research Co., 1978. Dintenfass, Mark. "Heart of Darkness: A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture." 14 Mar. 1996. *http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~csicseri/dintenfass.htm* (2 Feb. 2000). Draper, James P., ed. World Literature Criticism: 1500 to the Present. Vol. 2 Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1992. Hamblin, Stephen. "Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent." *http://www.ductape.net/~steveh/secretagent/* (2 Feb. 2000). The Hutchinson Encyclopedia. 1999. 2 Feb. 1999. *http://ukdb.web.aol.com/hutchinson/encyclopedia/72/M0013572.htm Magill, Frank N., ed. 1,300 Critical Evaluations of Selected Novels and Plays. Vol. 2 Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press Inc., 1976. Stein, Rita, and Martin Tucker, eds. Modern British Literature. Vol. 4 New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1975.

How Act 2, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet May Have Been Staged Essay

Open in London in 1599, William Shakespeare’s Globe theatre grew to be recognized as the most popular playhouse in the region and home to some of the greatest players in England. The King’s Men, previously the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, were a playing company for whom Shakespeare was a member of for most of his career. They frequently performed in the Globe and staged many of Shakespeare’s works. Nevertheless, the lack of stagecraft information provided from these XVI century texts has made it hard to interpret how Shakespeare originally intended his plays to be performed in the Globe. In particular, the famous tragedy of Romeo and Juliet suggests that there are many alternative staging options for each scene. However, from a close reading of the play-text as a manual for performance, it is possible to describe how the play may have been staged, specifically in Act 2, Scene 1, by analysing elements such as the acting measures, the costume d esign and the stage setting. To commence, in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, there were many important rules in regards to acting that players had to consider when performing in the Globe theatre. When Shakespeare wrote his plays, he included as many female characters as he did male characters. Nonetheless, the traditions and values of the Renaissance did not allow women to act or become actors, due to the fact that it was considered immoral for a woman to be on stage. At the time, they had no social status other than their association with their husbands or fathers. Moreover, actors were considered to have a low social status, thus it was considered improper and socially unacceptable for a woman to become a performer. Instead of editing all of Shakespeare’s texts to adher... ...e theatre’s unique structure. Works Cited Adams Novak, Elaine. Staging Shakespearean Theatre. Cincinnati: Betterway Books, 2000. Print. Hodges, C. Walters. The Globe Restored: A Study of the Elizabethan Theatre. London: Oxford University Press, 1968. Print. Leed, Drea. â€Å"Elizabethan Make-up.† Elizabethan Costuming Page. 2010. Web. 10 December 2013. Smith, Irwin. Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956. Print. Staging Shakespeare. Seminars on Production Problems. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1990. Print. The Arden Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s Theatres and the Effects of Performance. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2013. Print. The Oxford Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2000. Print. The Signet Classic Shakespeare. Hamlet. New York: New American Library, 1998. Print.

Characteristics of nutrients and their benefits to the body Essay

In order to obtain good health everyone must consume a balanced diet. To do this we must eat recommended amounts of food from the five food groups which are, fruit and vegetables, meat, fish & alternatives, bread, cereals & potatoes, milk & dairy and foods which contain fats and sugar. These five food groups contain the seven components of a balanced diet they are, protein, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water. Proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids, there are 22 different types of amino acid and the body needs all of them to function properly. There are many forms of protein, which all play an important role in the function of the body. For example, collagen is a protein and is vital for the strength, elasticity and composition of hair and skin. If not consuming enough carbohydrates, the body will look for other sources of energy, such as proteins found in muscle tissue. Proteins, however, are not efficient sources of energy for the body. Proteins are essential nutrients for the human body. They are one of the building blocks of body tissue, and can also serve as a fuel source. Carbohydrates are one of the main types of food. The liver breaks down carbohydrates into glucose which the body uses for sugar. Carbohydrates also protect muscles and help regulate the amount of sugar circulating in the blood so that all the cells get the energy they need. Sugars and starch are the main types of carbohydrates; these carbohydrates provide energy for the body. Lipids in the body store energy and are serving as components of hormones and vitamins. Vitamins are an essential nutrient which the body cannot produce enough of on its own, so it has to get it from food. Minerals help your body grow, develop, and stay healthy. The body uses minerals to perform many different functions such as building strong bones to transmitting nerve impulses. Fibre can’t be digested so it helps clean out the intestines by moving bowel movements along. Water has many functions in the human body. Some of its actions include its use as a solvent, as a lubricant, as a conduction system for moving unnecessary waste, and as a mode of temperature regulation. Macronutrients are also essential for good health; they break down carbohydrates and fats, which provide energy to the body and they assist in the absorption of protein, which provides the building blocks necessary for cell growth and repair. Micronutrients depend on vitamins and minerals to regulate the release of energy from food because they don’t provide energy.

Adolescent Risk Substance and Addiction

Adolescent Risk Substance and Addiction Introduction According to Stanis and Andersen (2014), substance use among adolescents occurs when one consumes drugs or alcohol. Substance use may not always cause addiction, but it might cause habituation when used repeatedly. The continued use of drugs and alcohol leads to substance abuse.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Adolescent Risk: Substance and Addiction specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The problems associated with this vice affect personal life, education, health, and safety. When adolescents are addicted, they continue using drugs even when they are aware of the consequences. After addiction, it becomes hard for the adolescents to stop taking drugs. Instead, they become tolerant to the drugs. Since the dependency on drugs is the key indicator for addiction, many adolescents have become addicts due to many factors. This paper will show that during adolescence, the probability of drug usage and depe ndency is high. In addition, this life period is crucial as structural and functional developments occur in the body, and thus individuals are highly vulnerable to acquiring a substance use disorder. Therefore, it is necessary for parents to ensure that they keep close supervision of their children to prevent possible initiation to drugs and alcohol. In addition, early adolescence is the best moment when caregivers and child psychiatrists can initiate drug use and abuse prevention programs. Factors that lead to substance use and addiction Many factors lead to substance use and addiction among teens in the United States including sociocultural, psychodynamic, and biological elements. Various sociocultural factors influence drug and alcohol use amongst adolescents. These factors entail societal and cultural issues that influence substance use and addiction. Stern and Morr (2013) indicate that films that are produced and watched in the United States can affect the adolescents’ p erceptions toward substance use and initiation.Advertising Looking for research paper on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Watching films depicting youths smoking and drinking alcohol may create the attitude that drugs are necessary to increase efficacy if the character is presented as a hero. In addition, drinking and smoking characters in movies are represented as personalities who enjoy the high-class status, and this lifestyle appeases teenagers. The mass media has also provided much information about substance use, thus leaving the adolescent with curiosity and urge to try drugs and alcohol. Peer pressure is a significant cause of substance use and in the process of conforming, one ends up being addicted. Living among friends who drink alcohol or do drugs increases the probability that a teenager will be compelled to ape the peers. Unfortunately, in the United States, a large number in the society ofte n views drunkenness as humorous and trendy. Most teens end up enjoying getting high simply because they attract attention due to the silly things they do when inebriated. Other teens use drugs and alcohol to escape the societal pressures According to Pape (2012), adolescents always like living among friends who appreciate what they do and they are encouraged to continue with their habits when their friends join them. Psychodynamic factors entail emotional issues, past events, as well as psychological disorders. A teenager, who went through a challenging childhood, may feel inferior and scared in life (Clinton, Clark Straub, 2010). Consequently, they start drug and alcohol use to deal with their situations. Psychodynamic factors often occur subconsciously. Teens in this situation do not recognize that they are consuming drugs and alcohol in a bid to erase their past issues. However, teens unknowingly end up developing drug dependency whenever they face situations that remind them of their past.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Adolescent Risk: Substance and Addiction specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Continued dependency automatically causes addiction and teens start to feel inadequate when not using drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, mental disorders can play a role in substance use and addiction. Adolescents who suffer from mental disorders find solace in substance use as a way of self-intervention. They end up being addicted because they feel relieved whenever they use drugs to help them deal with their psychological disorders (Schmidt, Lee Beecham, 2007). Biological factors entail heritable genetic risks that may lead to a certain disorder. The presence of a substance use disorder in one or both parents has predominantly been indicated to be a key risk aspect amongst adolescents. Some people have unique physiology and genetic traits that trigger substance use and find enjoyment, hence it becomes hard to resist drugs and alcohol. Thus, these teens are at a high risk of developing drug dependency due to their genetic vulnerability (Dennis, White Ives, 2009). However, this aspect should not be used as an excuse to abuse drugs and alcohol because some intervention measures can be applied to minimize the risks. Legal and ethical issues influencing substance use Even though substance use at early age is prohibited in the United States, adolescents gravitate towards drug and alcohol use and end up being addicted by an array of drugs and alcohol (Stern Morr, 2013). Most Americans attach some essence to being left to make own decisions. The notion of individuality has permeated almost all areas of the Americans’ private lives and parents end up letting children make uninformed decisions in the precept of developing independence.Advertising Looking for research paper on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More People believe that the United States provides a legal structure, which limits the government and others from exercising control on one’s private life. The principle of independence is transcribed in the Constitution and the legal systems have retaliated the need to let the Americans make own decisions regarding issues that influence their private lives. However, the situation is relatively different for adolescents since they lack the capacity to make some decisions and the society does not allow them to make decisions such as indulging in substance use. Even though the law on the usage of drugs and alcohol restricts adolescents below the age of 18 years, they indulge in this malpractice regardless of its legal and ethical repercussions. In addition, even when the law prohibits substance use among teens, it lacks proper procedures towards preventing this malpractice. Some ethical issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, and children rights pose significant challenge s when dealing with this issue (Kong, Singh, Camenga, Cavallo Krishnan-Sarin, 2013). Despite the various consequences related to substance use and addiction, drug and alcohol use continues to be a problematic practice to a large number of American teenagers. The ethical decision-making approaches are a stabling block when identifying a swift way to address substance use among teenagers. For instance, the issue of informed consent serves to meet the moral duty of respect for the addicted adolescents. By issuing the teenagers with the options of choosing to engage in counseling program or not, it gives them the courage to advance with their behaviors. Despite the teenagers’ functional and cognitive capacity, they should not be allowed to feel protected by the law, since the impulsivity of the substance might compel them to underrate the risks that they engage in (Kuehn, 2007). In addition, teens develop a misconception that they are doing free to do what they want provided the y do not harm others. Individual Characteristics of adolescent substance abusers In many cases, individual characteristics of teenagers who use drugs and alcohol at times resemble typical teenager behavior. This aspect makes it hard to determine whether a teen is using drugs or going through the usual adolescence experience. In the US, a high percentage of substance users among the adolescents are boys. The non-white populations are said to be more affected as compared to their white counterparts. According to Dennis et al. (2009), the African American teens who report to have been using drugs and alcohol also confess to having experienced early negative childhood experiences such as abuse or neglect. Familial issues relating to living standards are the main reasons why substance use is prevalent among the non-white adolescents. Personal appearance is a key indicator that a teen may have been using drugs. Messy outlook demonstrates a lack of concern for one’s appearance. Afte r continued use of drugs and alcohol, adolescents find little essence about their hygiene and they do not mind if their current situation affects others. Eyes appear reddish due to alcohol consumption and lips look soot like. Adolescents who indulge in substance use develop personal habits that include frequent night-outs, increased need for privacy, and avoiding eye contact with parents and teachers. Adolescents also develop an increased craving for money, and thus they might end up stealing from family and friends because drugs are expensive. Drug usage may also result in a sudden lack of appetite or generate sudden appetite upon use. Adolescents often engage in fast and multiple intoxications because most drugs are short acting, but with a rampant onset. This scenario is mostly witnessed among teenagers who do not like delayed gratification or have generated the perception that they are efficient when intoxicated (Dunn, 2014). Among the teens that are attending schools, when they initiate substance abuse, they develop poor school attendance and end up dropping out of school or they are suspended due to undesirable behaviors. Delinquency is another common trait among adolescent substance abusers. In most cases, teens who use drugs engage in theft and burglary activities to obtain money to buy drugs. In addition, the users become increasingly disruptive, vulgar, and aberrant due to the rapid influence of the drugs. Mental disorders and emotional problems are common characteristics among teenagers that use drugs and alcohol. Even though mental disorders may not develop during early adolescence, with continued abuse, the user becomes highly susceptible to various mental disorders. Anxiety, depression, and anger start to impair the individuals’ judgment, hence a significant drop in academic performance (Ruiz, Strain, Langrod, 2007). Family problems affecting adolescents The family, as a socializing institution, is a major protective agent for the adolesc ents. When the family is dysfunctional, it is potentially a risk factor to the development of adolescents. Risk factors related to the family can take various forms, which include problems associated with family dynamics and functioning, family characteristics, and environment where families reside (Barnett et al., 2014). When present, family problems influence certain teenagers more adversely than others to engage in habits that can be detrimental. Risk factors associated with family dynamics and functioning are highly linked to rebellious behavior among teens. For instance, inappropriate parental practices like lack of close supervision, unnecessary permissiveness, inadequate or exceedingly strict discipline, and poor communication pose huge problems for the adolescents. This aspect leads to substance use, poor performance in school, and voluntary association in delinquency groups such as teen gangs. Close supervision is the major variable that predetermines other traits of family functioning. The parents should learn how to identify if their children are using drugs and alcohol. Good communication is necessary to convince the teenager to avoid any form of substance abuse. Mistreatments during early childhood development and family conflicts cause substantial physical and psychological damage to the adolescents. Witnessing violence in the family creates a lasting risk impression that may lead to aggressiveness and anger among teenagers. Mistreatment has been linked with several delinquency behaviors such as dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, and substance use. Family criminality and particularly that of the father, is a clear predictor of inappropriate behavior in boys. Adolescents find it hard to live with this reality, and thus they start using drugs and alcohol to forget about things that negatively affect their wellbeing (Nakhaee Jadidi, 2009). In a case where parents use drugs and alcohol, there is a high probability that children will be tempted to initiate and unfortunately they end being addicts. Problems related to family characteristics include the implications of single parenthood. Single parenting is viewed as a problem because the family structure is highly vulnerable to various factors that lead to youth delinquency. For instance, single parents are relatively reluctant when it comes to supervising their children and they may lack adequate time to create rapport with the child, lack finances, and poor lifestyles. This situation can lead to a stressful life, thus encouraging teens to gravitate towards substance use. Similarly, residing within poor neighborhood increases the chances of engaging in drug and alcohol use because most of these illicit drugs are readily available in such localities. Drug dealing supports livelihood for most youths who live in the ghettos. The social context within poor areas exacerbate ineffective parental activities, thus adolescents living in a poor setting and being brought up in a regi on where parental closeness is lacking develop the problem of substance use (Ruiz et al., 2007). School issues that impact youths at risk According to Stern and Morr (2013), a study conducted in 2009 suggests that 41.8% of high school teenager confessed to taking alcohol within 30 days prior to the survey. The study also indicates that the commonly abused substance is marijuana. Stern and Morr (2013) show that currently in the US, drug and alcohol abuse is the main cause of death for teens between ages 15-24. Despite having this knowledge at their disposal, teens continue to use drugs and alcohol. Therefore, why do high school students continue to use drugs and alcohol despite the inevitable dangers? Every aspect of the students’ lives influences their capacity to learn and prevail in school. However, various school-related circumstances place students at a risk of using drugs and alcohol. School-related factors include inappropriate discipline system, poor or inadequate coun seling, poor communication, failure to incorporate student-learning preferences, and mismatch between home and school culture (Clinton, Clark, Straub, 2010). These circumstances may lead to dropping out of school and teen pregnancy because in most cases students initiate drugs after they feel defeated by the aforementioned conditions. For a long time, the predictors of dropping out of school seem to be consistent. Potential dropouts share various aspects such as poor academic performance, they are more likely to be part of the low earning families, and they demonstrate psychological challenges. If the schools lack an effective discipline system, students will not feel the obligation to stay free from drug use. Instead, they will initiate it because nobody seems to be against it or it is a presumably cool habit. In addition, if school systems ignore student-learning styles, learners will feel the pressure from the teachers to conform to a system that they rarely understand, and thus end up using drugs to avoid study-related stress. Other teens believe that alcohol and drugs are best substitutes for educational success or self-actualization. School culture versus home culture is another key determinant of the students’ initiation into substance use. If the school culture is overly strict as opposed to the home culture, which might be somehow relaxed, the students finds it hard to adjust whenever in school (Nakhaee Jadidi, 2009). When the schools fail to initiate proper communication to create room for successful adjustment, students start using drugs and alcohol to boost their low self-esteem. Therefore, it is essential to involve parents when formulating policies that govern the students’ behavior while in school to ensure that there is no collision of values and principles. Early initiation of drugs and alcohol raises the risk of early onset of sexual activities among school teens. This aspect results in unwanted teen pregnancies, which compel young girls to drop out of school, in most cases. If schools formulate good policies that consider the students’ needs, then it can prove possible for schools to be free of students who use drugs and alcohol (Stern Morr, 2013). Prevention, intervention, and treatment Considering that substance use is avoidable, it is intriguing that it persists and plays a significant role as a key cause of death among youth every year in the United States. The prevention of the initiation of drugs and alcohol is a key way to avoid drug dependency. As shown by Stanis and Andersen (2014), the initiation of substance use can be cut by 1.5 million adolescents if effective prevention measures are adopted. The main role of these developmental-based prevention programs should focus at either inhibiting the use or postponing the age of initiation. This research emphasizes that childhood, psychological deregulations initiated by stress, irritability, and other cognitive dysfunctions may result in su bstance use among teenagers. These findings offer significant implications when formulating a model of prevention and intervention to be used during early development and adolescence. Considering that the United States has staged various campaigns towards eradicating substance use among adolescents and the behavior persists, it has become necessary to start by targeting children who demonstrate symptoms of psychological dysfunction. The detection and treatment of early indicators of stress and other related substance-initiating factors should be done early enough by the parent, caregiver, or child psychiatrist to limit the chances of the child from indulging in substance use. In addition, the education programs for both adolescents and their parents should be facilitated to increase awareness about the consequences of substance use and abuse for the adolescent and the entire society (Ruiz et al., 2007). From a social perspective, engaging in social activities such as sports competit ions, religious duties, and volunteer programs reduces the possibilities of a teenage from engaging in drug and alcohol abuse. On the other hand, adolescents who avoid these activities are more likely to indulge in substance use. However, since adolescents comprise individuals at a high risk of substance use, the appropriate programs should be targeted to initiate the much-needed change. Indicated prevention approaches target teenagers, who demonstrate signs of behavioral challenges or exposed to substance use disorders due to biological aspects. For instance, in Massachusetts, treatment is done through the Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment model (Stanis Andersen, 2014). Treating adolescents suffering from substance use disorders results in a huge toll on the United States’ financial, medical, and labor resources. Adolescent psychiatrists often face cases of substance abuse in the course of duty. The medical assessment may include a laboratory examinatio n of urine or blood screening. The extent of the teenagers’ substance abuse gives the direction in which the treatment should follow. For example, a teenager who drinks daily will need detoxification whilst undergoing rehabilitation. This aspect means that if the situation is severe, the treatment should first emphasize on alleviating or substantially minimizing the substance consumption. If the psychiatrist establishes that the substance use is propelled by other disorders and that dealing with the initial causes may result in the reduction of substance use, the planned treatment model may not consider the substance dependency issue. As the treatment goes on, the psychiatrist should be ready to deal with the possibility that s/he might have judged the condition incorrectly. Conclusion Adolescents remain the most vulnerable group upon which substance use is initiated and addiction thrives with continued use. Since substance abuse has been shown to be avoidable, it is unthinka ble to incur the huge costs to treat the disorders associated with the practice when there is an opportunity to tame the situation before it develops. Given that the family has been identified as the integral part in the teens’ development, it is necessary to involve parents in the campaign to eradicate substance use among adolescents. In a bid to prevent harmful student characteristics related to substance use, strict school policies that address basic principles, values, and perceptions may be useful in drug prevention. References Barnett, N., Miles, R., Loxley, M., Linkletter, M., Clark, C., Melissa, A. (2014). Peer associations for substance use and exercise in a college student social network. Health Psychology, 33(10), 1134-1142. Clinton, E., Clark, C., Straub, J. (2010). The quick-reference guide to counseling teenagers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Dennis, L., White, M., Ives, M. (2009). Individual characteristics and needs associated with substance misuse of ado lescents and young adults in addiction treatment. In C. Leukefeld, T. Gullotta M. Tindall (Eds.), Handbook on Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment: Evidence-Based Practice (pp.45-72). New London: Child and Family Agency Press. Dunn, M. (2014). Association between physical activity and Substance use behaviors among high school students participating in the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Psychological Reports, 114(3), 675-685. Kong, G., Singh, N., Camenga, D., Cavallo, D., Krishnan-Sarin, S. (2013). Menthol Cigarette and Marijuana Use among Adolescents. Nicotine Tobacco Research, 15(12), 2094-2099. Kuehn, B. (2007). Many Teens Abusing Medications. Journal of the American Medical Association, 21(28), 16-17. Nakhaee, N., Jadidi, N. (2009). Why Do Some Teens Turn to Drugs? A Focus Group Study of Drug Users Experiences. Journal of Addictions Nursing, 20, 203–208. Pape, Y. (2012). People’s overestimation of peer substance use: an exaggerated phenomenon? A ddiction, 107, 885-891. Ruiz, P., Strain, C., Langrod, J. (2007). The substance abuse handbook. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams Wilkins. Schmidt, U., Lee, S., Beecham, J. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of family therapy and cognitive behavior therapy guided self-care for adolescents with bulimia nervosa and related disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 591-598. Stanis, J., Andersen, S. L. (2014). Reducing substance use during adolescence: a translational framework for prevention. Psychopharmacology, 231, 1437–1453. Stern, S., Morr, L. (2013). Portrayals of Teen Smoking, Drinking, and Drug Use in Recent Popular Movies. Journal of Health Communication, 18, 179–191.

Study Guide to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Poem “Kubla Khan”

Study Guide to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Poem â€Å"Kubla Khan† Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that he wrote â€Å"Kubla Khan† in the fall of 1797, but it was not published until he read it to George Gordon, Lord Byron in 1816, when Byron insisted that it go into print immediately. It is a powerful, legendary and mysterious poem, composed during an opium dream, admittedly a fragment. In the prefatory note published with the poem, Coleridge claimed he wrote several hundred lines during his reverie, but was not able to finish writing out the poem when he woke because his frenzied writing was interrupted: The following fragment is here published at the request of a poet of great and deserved celebrity [Lord Byron], and, as far as the Author’s own opinions are concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, than on the ground of any supposed poetic merits.In the summer of the year 1797, the Author, then in ill health, had retired to a lonely farm-house between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in Purchas’s Pilgrimage : â€Å"Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall.† The Author continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he has the most vivid confiden ce, that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines; if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of t he latter!Then all the charmIs brokenall that phantom-world so fairVanishes, and a thousand circlets spread,And each mis-shape the other. Stay awile,Poor youth! who scarcely dar’st lift up thine eyesThe stream will soon renew its smoothness, soonThe visions will return! And lo, he stays,And soon the fragments dim of lovely formsCome trembling back, unite, and now once moreThe pool becomes a mirror.Yet from the still surviving recollections in his mind, the Author has frequently purposed to finish for himself what had been originally, as it were, given to him: but the to-morrow is yet to come. â€Å"Kubla Khan† is famously incomplete, and thus cannot be said to be a strictly formal poem- yet its use of rhythm and the echoes of end-rhymes is masterful, and these poetic devices have a great deal to do with its powerful hold on the reader’s imagination. Its meter is a chanting series of iambs, sometimes tetrameter (four feet in a line, da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM) and sometimes pentameter (five feet, da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM). Line-ending rhymes are everywhere, not in a simple pattern, but interlocking in a way that builds to the poem’s climax (and makes it great fun to read out loud). The rhyme scheme may be summarized as follows: A B A A B C C D B D BE F E E F G G H H I I J J K A A K L LM N M N O OP Q R R Q B S B S T O T T T O U U O (Each line in this scheme represents one stanza. Please note that I have not followed the usual custom of beginning each new stanza with â€Å"A† for the rhyme-sound, because I want to make visible how Coleridge circled around to use earlier rhymes in some of the later stanzas for instance, the â€Å"A†s in the second stanza, and the â€Å"B†s in the fourth stanza.) â€Å"Kubla Khan† is a poem clearly meant to be spoken. So many early readers and critics found it literally incomprehensible that it became a commonly accepted idea that this poem is â€Å"composed of sound rather than sense.† Its sound is beautiful- as will be evident to anyone who reads it aloud. The poem is certainly not devoid of meaning, however. It begins as a dream stimulated by Coleridge’s reading of Samuel Purchas’ 17th century travel book, Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered, from the Creation unto the Present (London, 1617). The first stanza describes the summer palace built by Kublai Khan, the grandson of the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty of Chinese emperors in the 13th century, at Xanadu (or Shangdu): In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree Xanadu, north of Beijing in inner Mongolia, was visited by Marco Polo in 1275 and after his account of his travels to the court of Kubla Khan, the word â€Å"Xanadu† became synonymous with foreign opulence and splendor. Compounding the mythical quality of the place Coleridge is describing, the poem’s next lines name Xanadu as the place Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man This is likely a reference to the description of the River Alpheus in Description of Greece by the 2nd century geographer Pausanias (Thomas Taylor’s 1794 translation was in Coleridge’s library). According to Pausanias, the river rises up to the surface, then descends into the earth again and comes up elsewhere in fountains- clearly the source of the images in the second stanza of the poem: And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:And ’mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river. But where the lines of the first stanza are measured and tranquil (in both sound and sense), this second stanza is agitated and extreme, like the movement of the rocks and the sacred river, marked with the urgency of exclamation points both at the beginning of the stanza and at its end: And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war! The fantastical description becomes even more so in the third stanza: It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! And then the fourth stanza makes a sudden turn, introducing the narrator’s â€Å"I† and turning from the description of the palace at Xanadu to something else the narrator has seen: A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora. Some critics have suggested that Mount Abora is Coleridge’s name for Mount Amara, the mountain described by John Milton in Paradise Lost at the source of the Nile in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) an African paradise of nature here set next to Kubla Khan’s created paradise at Xanadu. To this point â€Å"Kubla Khan† is all magnificent description and allusion, but as soon the poet actually manifests himself in the poem in the word â€Å"I† in the last stanza, he quickly turns from describing the objects in his vision to describing his own poetic endeavor: Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight ’twould win me,That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome! those caves of ice! This must be the place where Coleridge’s writing was interrupted; when he returned to write these lines, the poem turned out to be about itself, about the impossibility of embodying his fantastical vision. The poem becomes the pleasure-dome, the poet is identified with Kubla Khan- both are creators of Xanadu, and Coleridge is apeaking of both poet and khan in the poem’s last lines: And all should cry, Beware! Beware!His flashing eyes, his floating hair!Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise. The PoemNotes on ContextNotes on FormNotes on ContentCommentary and Quotations â€Å"...what he calls a vision, Kubla Khanwhich said vision he repeats so enchantingly that it irradiates and brings heaven and Elysian bowers into my parlour.†from an 1816 letter to William Wordsworth, in The Letters of Charles Lamb (Macmillan, 1888) Samuel Taylor Coleridge writing this poem â€Å"The first dream added a palace to reality; the second, which occurred five centuries later, a poem (or the beginning of a poem) suggested by the palace. The similarity of the dreams hints of a plan.... In 1691 Father Gerbillon of the Society of Jesus confirmed that ruins were all that was left of the palace of Kubla Khan; we know that scarcely fifty lines of the poem were salvaged. These facts give rise to the conjecture that this series of dreams and labors has not yet ended. The first dreamer was given the vision of the palace, and he built it; the second, who did not know of the other’s dream, was given the poem about the palace. If the plan does not fail, some reader of ‘Kubla Khan’ will dream, on a night centuries removed from us, of marble or of music. This man will not know that two others also dreamed. Perhaps the series of dreams has no end, or perhaps the last one who dreams will have the key....†from â€Å"The Dream of Coleridge† in Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952 by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Ruth Simms (University of Texas Press, 1964, reprint forthcoming November 2007)

qreew essays

qreew essays The composer of some of the most influential pieces of music ever written, Ludwig van Beethoven created a bridge between the 18th-century classical period and the new beginnings of Romanticism. His greatest breakthroughs in composition came in his instrumental work, including his symphonies. Unlike his predecessor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for whom writing music seemed to come easily, Beethoven always struggled to Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, and was baptized on Dec. 17, 1770. (There is no record of his birth date.) His father and grandfather worked as court musicians in Bonn. Ludwig's father, a singer, gave him his early musical training. Although he had only meager academic schooling, he studied piano, violin, and French horn, and before he was 12 years old he became a court organist. Ludwig's first important teacher of composition was Christian Gottlob Neefe. In 1787 he studied briefly with Mozart, and five years later he left Bonn permanently and went to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn and later with Beethoven's first public appearance in Vienna was on March 29, 1795, as a soloist in one of his piano concerti. Even before he left Bonn, he had developed a reputation for fine improvisatory performances. In Vienna young Beethoven soon had a long list of aristocratic patrons who loved music and were eager to help him. In the late 1700s Beethoven began to suffer from early symptoms of deafness. The cause of his disability is still uncertain. By 1802 Beethoven was convinced that the condition not only was permanent, but was getting progressively worse. He spent that summer in the country and wrote what has become known as the "Heiligenstadt Testament." In the document, apparently intended for his two broth ...

Can terror ever be legitimately employed in conflict Discuss with Essay

Can terror ever be legitimately employed in conflict Discuss with reference to examples - Essay Example During World War II, both the Allies and the Axis used terror as a weapon of winning the war. Different debates have questioned the legitimacy of using terror as a weapon for ending conflicts. Terrorism is viewed to bring negative effects to a nation; this is because in attaining its main objective, the central target is the civilians (Herman 2008, p. 13). Although it brings negative impacts to a nation, sometimes use of terror benefits the nation. For instance, it can assist in the acquisition of freedom. This was the case in South Africa during the time of Apartheid. Apartheid was abolished through the use of terror. Although war is thought to be associated with vast negative effects, sometimes violence can bring positive results to a group or a nation. In this paper, I will discuss whether terror can be legitimately employed in conflicts. According to different researchers, legitimating of terror is justifiable in some cases. In extreme cases, where democratic and peaceful methods have been exhausted, it is justified and legitimate to resort to terror. In situations of suffering and repression, with a ruthless, oppressive state and no possibility of having international relief, it is necessary to resort to violence in order to defend the citizens. A state engaging and using terror in order to fight and rescue its citizens uses terror in a legitimate and justified manner (Coady 2010, p. 21). It is the function of a state to protect its people without fear; hence, if the use of terror remains the only option for the state to use in order to fight for its people, it would be interpreted as necessary and justifiable. Each person or minority group has a right in expressing discontentment in a certain issue of concern. The state has the role of representing its people and should make facilitation of this possibility. In addition, it is