Study Of Poetry Essays - British Poetry, Christian Mystics

Study Of Poetry Essays - British Poetry, Christian Mystics Study of Poetry An Essay Study of Poetry and A Poet's Ability to Forsee The Future The world is changing and evolving at an astounding rate. Within the last one hundred years, the Western community has seen advances in technology and medicine that has improved the lifestyles and longevity of almost every individual. Within the last two hundred years, we have seen two World Wars, and countless disputes over false borders created by colonialists, slavery, and every horrid form of human suffering imaginable! Human lifestyles and cultures are changing every minute. While our grandparents and ancestors were growing-up, do you think that they ever imagined the world we live in today? What is to come is almost inconceivable to us now. In this world, the only thing we can be sure of is that everything will change. With all of these transformations happening, it is a wonder that a great poet may write words over one hundred years ago, that are still relevant in today?s modern world. It is also remarkable that their written words can tell us more about our present, th! an they did about our past. Is it just an illusion that our world is evolving, or do these great poets have the power to see into the future? In this brief essay, I will investigate the immortal characteristics of poetry written between 1794 and 1919. And, I will show that these classical poems can actually hold more relevance today, than they did in the year they were written. Along the way, we will pay close attention to the style of the poetry, and the strength of words and symbols used to intensify the poets? revelations. The World Is Too Much with Us, written by William Wordsworth in 1807 is a warning to his generation, that they are losing sight of what is truly important in this world: nature and God. To some, they are one in the same. As if lacking appreciation for the natural gifts of God is not sin enough, we add to it the insult of pride for our rape of His land. Wordsworth makes this poetic message immortal with his powerful and emotional words. Let us study his po! werful style: The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! (Lines 1 - 4) Materialism, wasteful selfishness, prostitution! These are the images that these lines bring to me! Yet, is it not more true today than in Wordsworth?s time, that we are a culture of people who simply consume and waste? The third line awakens me, and says that I have been raised with the mentality that I am not a part of nature, and that I do not identify my needs with those of nature?s needs. This mentality may have been quite true in 1807, but it is surely more true in 1996. There is absolute disregard of nature in the acts of well respected western corporations. Would someone who is in-touch with nature orchestrate the ?slash and burn? of beautiful rain forests of South America, or the life giving jungles of Africa and Asia? Would someone who is in-touch with nature dump c! hemical waste into waters that are home to billions of plants and animals? These and other abominations have surely increased in the last 189 years since this poem was written. What makes the sin even worse is the fact that men who order this destruction are well respected people in our culture. The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. ? Great God! (Lines 6 - 9) Wordsworth gives life to nature in his words, and displays to us nature?s agony and pain, ?howling at all hours.? But, we listen not! For we are out of tune, and much too important to ourselves, that we may not listen to the wind, rain, land or sea. I do not know which is the greater sin: the pillage of the earth?s natural beauty, or man?s torturous inhumanity toward his fellow man. London, written in 1794, by William Blake is a poem of civilization?s decline ? and also the decline of compassion and humanit! y. I wander thro? each charter?d street, Near where the charter?d Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. (Lines 1 - 4) London,

Foster this Advanced Business Writing Skill

Foster this Advanced Business Writing Skill There is one business writing skill that separates advanced business writers from those who are merely functionally proficient. It is the ability to synthesize complex ideas and extract the significant nuggets of information that are relevant to a particular reader and situation. In essence, these are mini-executive summaries, used widely in many communications at work. We often think an executive summary is the first part of a formal report. In fact, functional executive summaries are deployed frequently and widely by those with advanced business writing skills: When your boss asks you, "Why should we fund this project?" When you summarize a vendor performance. When you recommend a solution to a work problem. When you are asked, "Why should I hire you?" When you analyze data for trends. When you verbally summarize project pitfalls at a meeting. When you summarize the insights discussed at a meeting, relevant to the overall goals. The ability to see the big picture, to quickly understand what is significant to the situation, and extract and convey the relevant essence will greatly help your career, your department, and your company. It will also greatly improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information flowing across your company. Synthesizing and extracting executive summaries is fully contextual. It will always depend on your readers' needs. Let's apply this concept to the situation of a college student working at a summer internship, who is an economics major working for a start up specializing in sustainable agriculture shipping. This student's mother, college advisor, and internship company owner all ask him, "What did you do during your internship?" Certainly, much information will be similar, but each person has specific interest and focus. Appropriate executive summary or synthesis responses for each of these audiences might be: Internship Company Owner, who will care about the value the intern brought to the company: "I developed a web portal that provides cost of living information for this area, to help with recruiting top talent. My data analysis of comparable companies in other locations indicated our location is a competitive hiring advantage." College Advisor, who will care about the student's learning and application of course skills: "I developed a web portal using HTML and CSS, which we covered in Computer Science 410. Also, using an extensive data set and regression analysis, we were able to estimate and compare costs of living in the company area." Mother, who will care about a permanent job after graduation (My son is a college junior, so I am certain a job after graduation is a primary interest of all mothers!): "I developed a web portal and analyzed cost of living data. Website development and data analysis are two skills listed on all of the business analyst positions I hope for after graduation." Therefore, the first step in synthesizing complex information is defining your audience thoroughly. Distill what really matters. The second step is presenting information that is significant and meaningful to that particular audience. Notice the summary statement made to the Internship Company Owner above has no mention of functional tasks, what team the intern worked on, or dates he worked. That is all simple functional information that led to the significant information. The company owner wouldn't care about this. The owner wants to know the value the intern brought to the business. Noise vs. substance There is, sadly, far too much fluff and task information bantered about in business writing. Mere action tasks never belong in an executive summary. Don't fall into this trap. Instead, synthesize meaningfully, and extract what is truly most significant to your reader. This ability think critically and present relevant, synthesized information to various audiences is an advanced business writing skill you want to foster in your department and in your own writing. If this is a skill you wish to hone in your organization, please contact us.