Poetry Essays

•Beauty and envy are both shown between the poems "Helen" and "To Helen." Through elements such as syntax, imagery and symbolism we can see that "To Helen" shows Helen to be a thing of beauty and admiration, while "Helen" makes her out to be a beauty that others envy.
•"To Helen" has a diction that
Makes Helen seem beautiful, gorgeous, even admirable. Even the title "To Helen" makes it seem like a gift or some type of letter starting with a soft introduction. The level of intimacy in these words, with a syntax that made it seem as though the author could be in love with Helen. The symbolism used made her imaginable as something graceful, like the Statue of Liberty. Something that is meaningful. Although given a single passage, which stated
"How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!" It seems as though he writes this as someone who loves Helen and admires her from afar.
•"Helen" takes and approach of someone who is explaining a crowds outlook on Helen, being based on envy and jealous admiration. The poem almost explains her as a repulsive thing in there eyes displayed in this excerpt, "All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills." The imagery here shows an envy that is so hot against this "Helen" that the author writes "hating it deeper." A complete opposite reaction than "To Helen" had upon "Helen." Again looking at the titles even, "Helen," makes it seem more as a way of confronting someone or needing to talk to someone or write something to someone in a serious matter. From the passage you can see that the diction chosen was more of criticizing words than admiring, and the syntax created a well known and understanding if the hatred portrayed. However, it was told from a view of someone from afar, a third party if you just like in "To Helen." Both were told in the place if someone who was watching from a window if you will, or someone from beyond the shadows.
•Both essays used similar emphasized techniques to portray their view upon this character "Helen." Both essays had a syntax and diction that created a dealing of love and compassion like in "To Helen," or a feeling of hatred and despise as in "Helen." Also each poem set a tone right off just by how the titles were written. Although these poems had very different view upon a seemingly common character "Helen," they were the same in the techniques used to show their views.









•"The unknown citizen" explains the way a persons lives. The poem explains a certain persons impact on society and how positive it was. It shows that this citizen believes in unity and helping out everyone, a universal benefit is the best benefit of all. Although this sounds like someone who is a great person, he is still no different from an average citizen.
• In "The Unknown Citizen" it portrays a character that believes in serving his or her community. "For in everything he did he served the Greater Community." This line shows that this citizen believes in a community and believes that as a unit we must benefit from fellow citizens action. He served a purpose for others in his community. This displays a human who is giving, and cares about his life and the others around him.
• Even though this poem has already set up a character who seems like such a great addition to a community, it springs something on the reader, that doesn't come to mind right away.
"And that his reaction to advertisements were normal in every way." "And had everything necessary to the modern man." This shows that even though this character seems like a great citizen, he or she is no different from you or I. Anyone can make a difference rather it be big or small, even someone who feels their average can make a huge difference, because even this citizen, and still an average daily life guy. It even states, "That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint."
•Even though this person was a saint, the question was still asked "Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard." This shows that even though he was an average person, was a saint, and did everything of an average man, it does not mean that every citizen is happy. There are plenty of people who are unhappy, and no one hears about it even though we are a community, the things that are truly important, are often overlooked.