A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) is one of Tennessee Williams’ most celebrated plays, a powerful exploration of desire, mental instability, and cultural conflict. Set in the working-class neighborhood of New Orleans, the play follows Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle who seeks refuge in the modest home of her sisterContinue Reading
A lyric is any fairly short poem, uttered by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought, and feeling. “O Captain, My Captain,” is a ceremonial poem uttered in a public voice on a public occasion, namely on the death of Abhraham Lincoln.Continue Reading
An elegy is a poem of mourning. Most elegies are about someone who has died. Some elegies mourn a way of life that is gone forever. “O Captain! My Captain!” mourns the tragic death of President Abraham Lincoln. The poem was written in honor of President Lincoln following his assassination,Continue Reading
O Captain! My Captain! ——- Walt Whitman O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won; strong windThe port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: boat ButContinue Reading
The Civil War had a great impact on Walt Whitman’s life. He moved to Washington in 1863 and, after volunteering as a wound dresser in Washington hospitals, determined to devote his life to war service. His experiences during the war inspired many poems, a collection of which, Drum-Taps, was published inContinue Reading
“Come up from the Fields, Father” is a poem from Walt Whitman on the topic of warfare, more specifically the impact that a soldier’s involvement in war has on the family. The poem occurs on a calm Ohio autumn day, tranquil and wondrous on a quiet farm. The eldest daughterContinue Reading
Come Up from the Fields Father By Walt Whitman Come up from the fields father, here’s a letter from our Pete, And come to the front door mother, here’s a letter from thy dear son. Lo, ’tis autumn, Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder, Cool and sweetenContinue Reading
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was a pioneering American poet whose work marked a decisive break from traditional forms and themes of poetry. Born in Long Island, New York, Whitman had a diverse early career as a printer, teacher, and journalist, which brought him close to the everyday experiences of ordinary people—somethingContinue Reading
In the Jacobean age tragedy mostly degenerated into melodrama. A melodrama lacks in subtlety and depth of characterization, and the dramatist depends for his effects on the exploitation of crude physical horrors. There is much in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi that is merely melodramatic and sensational, lurid and gruesome. AllContinue Reading
Often ranked second only to Shakespeare among Jacobean tragedians, Webster is the author of two major works, The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614), which are more frequently revived on stage than any plays of the period other than Shakespeare’s. Webster’s tragedies, while praised for their poetic language by some commentators,Continue Reading
