The Sentiment, Mood, and Philosophy of The Best Slow Dancer :: Free Essay Writer

The Sentiment, Mood, and Philosophy of The Best Slow Dancer Feelings can twist reality in the most peculiar ways. Emotions push the mind to the most stunning conclusions, and stir within the soul the strangest storms. In fact, senses reach their peak in David Wagoner’s poetic work â€Å"The Best Slow Dancer†. In the poem, Wagoner brings out the height of sentiment through the eyes of a teenage boy at a school dance, who overcomes the teenage social hierarchy and his own fear to share in the longed-for dance with one special girl. All the while Wagoner takes his readers into depths of wafting dreaminess, romance, and intimacy they are projected through an unbroken flow of words uninterrupted by punctuation, rhythm, or strict lines. â€Å"The Best Slow Dancer† portrays the mental state of a boy as he experiences a dance. It is a short dance, but one that seems to him prolonged for an eternity, the â€Å"three-second rule forever/ suspended†. The feelings that go through the youth’s soul range from extreme delight to just as extreme tension, and the reader may see them all exhibited in the lines of the poem. His surety when with the girl in his embrace is seen when his â€Å"countless feet light-footed sure to move as they wished wherever [they] might stagger without her†, but then he â€Å"tried†¦to tell her [he wasn’t] the worst one†, the worst of the boys, the one that she would not be seen dead with—which implies that he is fearful of the fact that she might reject him, â€Å"not waving a sister somebody else’s partner†. The full textual image demonstrates that the boy is with all his heart trying to impress the girl, and gets the dance with her against all odds of popularity and such, and then he treasures the experience, as he says to himself â€Å"remember† at the end. All throughout â€Å"The Best Slow Dancer†, the key ingredient to the image within the reader’s mind is the mood set by the poem. The mood is mystical, quixotic, intimate, and continual. This state is accomplished by three techniques—poetic devices, turns of phrase, and contortion of syntax. The main pair of poetic devices that set up all these moods and humors simultaneously are enjambment and synecdoche. Enjambment is bizarre in this poetic work, especially in descriptions of physical setting or position, such as the setting of the dance, â€Å"in the school gym across the key through the glitter/ of mirrored light†, or the position of the main character with his â€Å"cheek against her temple, her ear just under/ that†.

Review of Human Nature in Voltaire and Swift Essay

Satire is defined as individual follies and vices found in human being through ridicule and irony. The purpose of satire is not to humour but to bring improvement through verbal attack by using wit. One of the common features of satire is irony and sarcasm which has been used by authors for centuries including Swift and Voltaire to show the shortcoming of human nature. Swift was born and educated in Ireland and spent his early life in England. His career started with the â€Å"A Tale of Tub† and â€Å"The Battle of Books†; where he satirized the human weakness in various ways. In â€Å"A Tale of Tub†, he mocks his countrymen revealing the shallowness of philosophers and writers of his time. He also shows how the philosophers and writers are used by ruling elite to achieve their agenda which was betrayal from truth and honour. However it was â€Å"Gulliver Travel†, where Swift has openly mocked the human nature. He particularly observes human nature in a very disturbing way for which many critics called him misanthrope. The book portrays Lilliput (Britain) lacking in democracy; where highest position is given to the one who can jump high (instead of merit and honesty). He also shows, how court positions were filled by personal favour rather than offering to the most worthy candidate. He reveals the social pretension and weakness of human institution in his times. For example he talks about the fall of minister in Lilliput because he could not please the King; is actually replication of his life. He also fell out of favour because he could also not please the King. In the Gulliver’s Travel, he also criticizes the Laputa intellectuals, which is indirect criticism of Royal Society of England that Swift considered nothing more than a club for abstract ideas. Swift considers such kind of writers and scholars as parasite on society who waste time and money of the society without providing any added benefit. Swift divided human nature into two parts; the reason and benevolence and the selfish appetite which he has left for yahoo. He analysed the human nature and shows that its human vanity that prevents him to detect flaw and improvement. Swift wants its audience to be shocked by his revelation of human nature, but the purpose is improvement by exposing follies. Voltaire on the other hand was extreme in his views about human nature; as his world view was more skeptical. Being an atheist to the core, he was against the religious fundamentalism; however he advocated the social and religious tolerance. His true portrayal of human nature is depicted in Candide that details various characters including liars, traitors, killers, and hypocrites. However his view is not an outrage like Swift, but crude truth told with manners. He explains that the human societies are comprised of puppet like characters that are incredible and improbable committing follies. Voltaire captures this selfishness in human nature through parody showing human being imperfection. His views are similar to Swift; however his manner is not as crud as Swift. Thus we can conclude that aim of both Swift and Voltaire was to look at man as an imperfect being; which commits follies ; however these follies can be improved, if man is willing to look beyond his vanity. Reference †¢ Morris Weitz, Philosophy in Literature: Shakespeare, Voltaire, Tolstoy & Proust. ayne State University Press, 1963. †¢ Kathleen Williams, Jonathan Swift and the Age of Compromise. University Press of Kansas, 1968.

The Characters Of Socrates And The Greatest Evils - 894 Words

Socrates believes that he is an individual who had the potential to accomplish extraordinary feats due to his unique set of traits. He claims, â€Å"If they were of any use, Crito, the many would be able to do the greatest evils, and so they would also be able to do the greatest goods, and that would be fine. But as it is they can do neither, since they cannot make a man either wise or foolish† (Crito, 44d). Only certain people have the capacity to complete enormous feats, and those people are not average citizens of the state. Instead, they must have qualities that set them apart from the rest of the population. Furthermore, â€Å"it is reputed at least that Socrates is distinguished from the many human beings in some way† (The Apology, 34e).†¦show more content†¦One area where Socrates is very open about what he doesn’t know is death. Since, â€Å"no one knows whether death does not even happen to be the greatest of all goods for the human being; but people fear it as though they knew well that it is the greatest of evils† (The Apology, 29a). Socrates is emphasizing that people make assumptions about specific aspects of death, but those people don’t actually know what death is like. The majority of people are content to fear death even though there is the possibility that death could be the greatest experience that humans have. Socrates openly claims that he doesn’t know what death is like, but the â€Å"wise† men say that death is to be feared. Socrates challenges the beliefs of the many again, â€Å"we must not pay much heed to what the many will say to us, but to what the one who knows about just and unjust things will say† (Crito, 48a), It is important to ignore what the majority of people say, and to listen to the person who has a better understanding of justice than oneself as that person possesses more knowledge about the topic than the majority of the people. Socrates belief about extraordinary individuals holds true for people in the more recent history. Adolf Hitler is an example of an extraordinary individual who used their outstanding qualities for evil purposes. Hitler rose to power legally and without seizing it himself. Instead he manipulated President Hindenburg into handing power over. 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