Major American Writers Essays - Robert Frost, Frost,

Major American Writers The honored title of "Major American Writer" tends to be ambiguous and ill defined in part because each individual reader holds preconceived notions about what characteristics a writer should possess to be classified as a major author. Every work an author creates combines with the others to form a body of material on which the writer is judged. This class on Major American Writers studied five authors with completely different genres, writing styles, and general appeal. The choice for these particular authors was based on criteria unique to the instructor. Since every reader requires different characteristics, this paper will outline my specific criteria for a Major American Writer and apply those to Robert Frost and Henry James. Frost is a perfect example as defined by my characteristics of a major writer. His work embodies all the features necessary to categorize him as such. While James's work is well critiqued and studied, he does not meet my criteria for a major writer. His work falls short in some of the fundamental requirements. There are four specific criteria by which I define a Major American Writer. The most important for the significance of an author is the relevance of the writings to human nature. Timeless works of literature or poetry connect with the audiences' innermost emotions. The nature of the world is constant change and if the work of an author is not able to transcend the change it will be forgotten or obsolete. One thing constant enough to be the focus of the work is the human condition. Another criterion for a Major American Writer is that the substance of the work must also engage the reader. Writing cannot be effective without an audience. If the author has no impact on people the material written accomplished nothing. Engagement may come about through the entertainment value or intellectual interest, neither being of greater importance. Style as well as substance is necessary when discussing criteria for an author to be a Major American Writer. The technical aspects of a work, such as narrator and form, are important in a work because they are ways to distinguish a superb writer from a mediocre writer. The last criterion for a Major American Writer is the overall impact on literature. Major authors should have the ability to reshape or redefine literature or public thought in some manner. Considerations of the author's contributions to the genre as well as the world of literature are consequential when deciding to include the writer in the category of a major writer. Not every author who is considered as a major writer needs to totally fulfill all the criteria set forth. There are many other considerations that could qualify an author for this honor. These four conditions are simply a starting point for qualification. The first writer I chose to examine is Robert Frost. He expressly fulfills all four criteria for qualification as a "Major American Writer". Many of his poems deal with the innermost workings of the human experience. He beautifully illustrates difficult to explain emotions with prose and poetry. His poem "The Road Not Taken" reveals the conflict between choices made and choices passed. This is not something easily expressed in words, but Frost eloquently makes his point. The second criterion Frost meets is the engagement of the reader. The excellence in his work lies in the fact that anyone can read and enjoy his writings. There are levels of meaning that can be read in a very basic, literal manner or studied for complexity of meaning so as to engage lay readers or scholars. "After Apple-Picking" is as much about picking apples as it is about life and death. Frost's writing style also helps his writing to be accessible and to engage the reader. This writing form fulfills the third criterion for a "Major American Writer." His style of blank verse and unrhymed lines give the poetry a tone of normal conversation. The technique is followed almost continually throughout his poetry revealing his dedication to the technical aspect of writing as well as the artistic. Metaphors are present in his work but not dominating to the point of convolution. They relate to the actual events in the poem and attribute the work a deeper meaning. A lyrical poet with a passive style, Frost allows the audience to decide the meaning of the poem. He attempts not to show too much personal influence on the reader's understanding. Frost's work left a legacy on the world that will not soon be forgotten. A modernist poet, he combined

Essay Sample on Edgar Allan Poe and His Art Works

Essay Sample on Edgar Allan Poe and His Art Works The last years of his life were nothing but a miserable picture of despair, hopes, which burst out from time to time, short – time crushes, flushes of alcoholism, constant changes of accommodation. He declaims his â€Å"Eureka† in bars in Richmond. He drastically seeks hand in marriage with Sarah Helen Whitman, â€Å"Helen of thousand dreams† in Providence. He makes an attempt to commit a suicide in Boston. In Norfolk and other cities he gives lectures on â€Å"The poetic principle†. Autumn 1849 – he is again in Richmond, desperately looking for money to establish journal. After that he is going to Baltimore. This is a place, where he will be found on the third of October near the electoral district. In four days he will pass away. There will be nine people present at his funeral†¦ Edgar Allan Poe’s biography is full of dramatic events and feelings. A man, who loses his parents in the age of 3, a man, who breaks off an engagement with his Richmond beloved (Regan, R, 2005), a man, who loses financial support from his relatives and takes a decision to go to the army is a man, who creates a fabulous world of sophisticated poetry, a mysterious detective story and a laconic, deep, touching short story. Poetry always appears as something intimate and personal, it is the highest level of literal creating not only in terms of the content, but also in terms of the formal aspect, which actually determines the harmony of the creation itself, its originality and its level of â€Å"sophistication†, so to speak. Poe’s poetry is exceptionally touching and heartfelt, for it is saturated with the author’s conception of poetry and its mission: there is nothing more sophisticated and high-toned than the poem itself, a poem, which is nothing else but a poem, a poem, which is written for the poem. A poem is not only a linguistic reflection of the poetic feeling, but also one of the most delicate means to evoke the same poetic feeling in others. Still Poe didn’t have an opportunity to give his all to his â€Å"passion† – poetry. His poetic heritage is rather poor. The late lyrics by Poe didn’t get any brand-new qualities. The diapason of poetic topics is also rather narrow and traditional: love, loss of the beloved, the ideal’s inaccessibility, the fluidity and mortality of all existing in the world, impossibility to express secret thoughts with words. Regarding romantic imagination as something high – souled and exquisite, he still realizes, that it has not only its limits, but also has a quality of running down. Thus, he pays great attention to the formal aspect of the poem, to its structure, music, rhythmic image of beauty, melody – this is his professional, technical and theoretical definition of poetry. The Poe’s poem doesn’t actually operate with the idea of plot. The best pieces of his poetry do have a strenuous inner dynamic, as a classical example one should take the â€Å"Raven†. Eighteen verses of the poem express a gradual, dramatic realization of the hero’s loss, of despair and pain. Raven becomes a symbol of this pain and grief – â€Å"Nevermore†¦Ã¢â‚¬  his constant caw creates a depressing soundtrack to human mourning. Poe has worked out a complex of methods, which underlain the basis of detective stories. Though, the author â€Å"didn’t contribute much to the construction or the content of the detective story† (Stern, P, 1957, p. 26 ), he gave an impulse to develop the genre of the detective novel – Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Hammet, Simenon and their heroes came out, so to speak, of Poe’s detective. Poe’s stories are logically structured, one will not find there neither scenes of violence nor atmosphere of cruelty. Among Poe’s masterpieces, â€Å"The fall of the house of Usher† and â€Å"William Wilson† should be specially remarked for the author’s portrait and psychological skill to depict a deep character with morbid sensitivity and sophisticated intellect. The morbid concentration of the main hero in â€Å"The fall of the house of Usher† on his own personality, his inner affections, his disgust to the reality lead in the end to his tragic collapse. Some critics notice hidden motives, which give an opportunity to assume, that Roderick Usher becomes a predecessor of Adrian Leverkuehn, T. Mann’s main character of the â€Å"Doctor Faustus.† â€Å"William Wilson† represents a specific variation of the split mind theme. In the name of fame and success, the main hero strangles the voice of his best â€Å"me†, he doesn’t listen to the whisper of his own conscience. As the opposite good genius tries to restrain the hero from making the next indign step, the hero kills him – in the same way, as Dorian Gray thrusts a knife into his portrait, which became his own conscience. Undoubtedly, Poe has become a writer of the worldwide. But there are still so many rousing discussions about Poe’s place in the American literature. Some critics accuse him of incapability to depict life in its â€Å"brightness† and â€Å"happiness†, he is blamed for the lack of these colors in his heritage. Some even wonder why he hasn’t created a book â€Å"for millions†. But†¦did he have to? Those common accusations have really nothing to do with the genius of his poetry – poetry in prose, poetry in his world-perception. Poe’s genius conducts pioneer tragic tradition, which reflected the contradiction between the American dream and its fulfillment in reality.