Robert Browning Essays (2215 words) - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Robert Browning Robert Browning, one of the most talented poets of the Victorian period, is famous especially for his dramatic monologues. Often these long poems deal with such issues as love, death, and faith. Much of his work is directly reflective of his life and of those issues that were of direct concern to him. One conflict seen throughout Browning's poetry is one of spirituality. His poetry forms a spiritual timeline; it reveals his spiritual influences and opinions. It formed his own Bible of beliefs which he possessed. Because Browning's views on spirituality changed, his poetry also gives insight on the internal conflicts within his life. The paper will explore Robert Browning's spiritual journey as is reflective in his poetry. Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, near London, England on May 7, 1812. He was raised by his father, also Robert Browning, and by his deeply religious mother, Sarah Anna Weideman-Browning. His often indulgent parents gave him the freedom to explore new literary and philosophical ideas of the time period, yet he was also instructed to believe the unexplained mysteries of the Christian faith(Miller, 1953). His mother, who had strong ties to the congregational church, took great time to instruct Robert in his religious studies. With this open atmosphere, however, Browning exhibited signs of disinterest in religion during his early childhood. The town preacher, in fact , found it necessary to publicly scold for restlessness and inattention Master Robert Browning(as cited in,Miller, 1953, p.9). Robert Browning's tendency toward skepticism was recorded early on. Robert Browning's first deviation from his faith was at the age of fifteen or sixteen. His primary influences were the Flower family and the writing of P.B Shelley. Browning often traveled to the Flower's house to discuss music, poetry, and aethism (Irvine & Honan, 1974). Eliza Flower , with whom Browning was infatuated was an influence in Browning's aethism. She was one of the primary influences that turned Browning away from the Christianity of his mother. His other influence, the writing of Shelley, a known aethist, taught Browning to be an independent free thinker. After reading Shelley's book, Queen Mab , Browning became an aethist and a vegetarian(DeVane & Smalley, 1984). He rejected his mother's world to gain a sense of liberty and independence(Irvine & Honan, 1974). This faith change at such an early age seemed to lead to a continual spiritual inconsistency throughout his life. Browning had trouble accepting any faith or religion he chose to follow and often questioned his judgment in faith related decisions. Robert Browning considered Shelley to be moral because he was true, simple hearted and brave(cited in Payne, 1967, p.198). He found him to also be a man of religious mind because Shelley was everywhere taking for granted some of the capital dogmas of Christianity, while most vehemently denying their historical basement (cited in Payne, 1967, p.199). Browning clearly possessed a great respect for Shelley which followed him through much of his early poetry. Browning's life was fundamentally affected(Miller, 1953, p.9) by the Shelley's writing. During his adolescence, Browning may have recognized Shelley's, fearless spiritual independence(Miller, 1953, p.9). He noticed a principal of conduct whereby to measure in the years to come not only the sum of his own poetic achievement but the very nature of human integrity itself(Miller, 1953, p.9). Although there is no available poetry written before his first published work, Pauline, his early aethism is still reflected in his early poetry. Robert Browning eloped to Italy with Elizabeth Barret. Upon meeting his extremely religious wife and with her persuasion, Browning began to realize that Shelley's poetry had led him to a life of self- absorption. Yet, Robert took a skeptical attitude on the spiritual rappings, spurred on perhaps by his wife's immediate will to believe(Markus,1995, p.219). Eventually, though, Robert Browning made the decision to return to his Christian faith, perhaps due to his respect for his deeply religious mother or to the persuasion by his spiritually inclined wife. It is said that Elizabeth, Browning's wife, believed that spiritualism offered an alternative to melancholy: an assurance reinforcing faith(Miller, 1953, p.192). Browning, however was often skeptical of his wife's spiritualism. Despite this, Pauline reveals a return to God, but also displays an undying reverence to Shelley.

Should artists censor themselves for kids essays

Should artists censor themselves for kids essays "I don't ever want everybody to know everything that I'm joking about and serious about. That's the fun with creating and doing music. Eminem has probably been one of the most controversial artists of his time. He is the first white rapper to make it mainstream, (besides the one hit- wonder Vanilla Ice) is a five time Grammy award winner, and has sold millions of records. Ironically enough, Eminem could be considered both the most hated and the most loved rapper of the last 5 years. The controversy surrounding him stems from the lyrical content of his albums containing songs about killing his wife and his mother, insulting other pop stars, and homophobic rants to name a few. Chris Kirkpatrick, you can get your ass kicked Worse than them little Limp Bizkit bastards, And Moby, you can get stomped by Obie, You 36 year old bald headed fag blow me Let go, it's over, nobody listens to techno Eminems justifications for using these hate lyrics boil down to the fact that he is expressing himself as an artist and that there is a parental advisory sticker on his CDs, as he realizes that young kids shouldnt be listening to them. Parents argue that these stickers, which dont allow children under the age of thirteen to purchase the cds, are not enforced properly by retailers, if enforced at all. Why is that Eminems or any other artists responsibility? Technically speaking, the artist is not responsible for the enforcement of these stickers, but maybe they should be. I believe that artists do have a right to their freedom of speech, but if their music is something that is as controversial as Eminems is, they should definitely use their platform as an icon to support the initial purpose behind the parental advisory stickers. In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Eminem responds to the questioning ...

Self-Respect

Self-Respect The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others - who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something people with courage can do without. ~Joan Didion, author of a Star is Born, winner of the National Book Award.   Self-respect is not easily achieved, because all around us we are barraged with stimuli telling us how great or worthless we are. The fact is, without self-respect, what others think consumes us. When we understand, love, and care for ourselves, and in turn our storytelling, we then have the mental maturity to sift through the judgment of others . . . picking and choosing which judgment is worth listening to. In this business, we get kicked around enough without doing it to ourselves. When I read on Facebook the comments in writers groups, where writers are depressed, wondering if they ought to keep writing because they cant make money, make sales, or receive glowing reviews, I feel sorry for them. Not for the reasons they express, but for their lack of self-respect. They are screaming it. When someone is self-assured, they are a magnet for others. After all, most people dont feel good about themselves, and they gravitate to those who do. When we are not shackled That doesnt mean we dont make mistakes. Frankly, the main reason writers self-publish is to own all the responsibility. That means they accept the responsibility for all that goes well and all that fails, both of which are good. Both of which make us stronger. We did it. We own it. We do what we want and accept the fallout or glory. To accept without placing blame on others is the epitome of self-respect. So write. Publish whichever way you like. If a choice fails you, avoid pointing the finger at anyone other than ones self. Analyze what happened and launch into another direction, wiser and stronger. To blame others means you struggle to look at yourself in the mirror. Once you get past that obstacle, you can do damn near anything you want because nobody is in your way. You do, adjust, do, adjust, until you are the grandest being, in love with who you are and what you do. Doors open to people like that, because people want to be you.

Lab report paraphrasing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lab report paraphrasing - Essay Example The term, total squared error, is used in defining the accuracy of the original signal in the Fourier series. The accuracy of the Fourier series can only escalate if the value of â€Å"m† increases. The accuracy, for example, deteriorates or is very low when the value of â€Å"m† is 1. Consequently, the accuracy of the experiment is very high when the â€Å"m† value stands at 6. The poor accuracy results from the failure to take into consideration the original signal. The original signal serves as a crucial first step towards solving the Fourier series. It is, therefore, important to have a high value as â€Å"m† in order to increase the accuracy of the series. H. Wilbraham was the first scholar to identify the Gibbs phenomenon. Josiah Gibbs then later studied the phenomenon in detail. The phenomenon has a direct relationship with the Fourier series. It appears as a small sinusoidal wave in square waves. The phenomenon forms part of the troughs and peaks in the series. The sinusoidal waves cannot be eliminated unless the â€Å"m† rises to infinity. In other words, the small peaks forming parts of the square waves are always present. There are several uses of Fourier series in Electrical engineering. There are, for example, very useful in studies involving harmonic analysis. Harmonic analysis refers to the assessment of periodic functions that constitute simple sinusoidal elements. The methods are of immense importance in noise analysis, filter designing, and signal analysis. These are just a few areas of the wide harmonic analysis that calls for thorough understanding before undertaking computations of the

The Recession And Its Impact On The Economic Essay

The Recession And Its Impact On The Economic - Essay Example The securities later lost value following the US house bubble and mortgages began to default in payment in 2007. The subprime losses that emerged began the crisis, which exposed other risky loans and overpriced assets. An increase in loan losses and the collapse of the Lehman Brothers in September 2008 brought a big panic in the inter-bank loan market. The shadow banking system caused major banks and financial institutions in Europe and US to go bankrupt and suffer huge losses. The crisis was majorly caused by the emergence of shadow banking system that included investment banks and non-depository financial institutions. The systems rivaled the depository system yet they weren’t subjected to regulatory safeguards (Tett & Gillian 2008). The housing bubble burst leading t major losses and default in the mortgage payment. The accumulation of household debt prior to the crisis resulted in balance sheet recession. Consumers started to pay down debts which reduced their disposable income, thus slowing down the economy further. US government policies encouraged home ownership even to people who couldn’t afford it, resulting in lax lending standards, unsustainable increases in house prices an d debts. I support the approach which proposes for a simpler and smaller financial sector in which the size, power, and complexity of the financial system are limited in important ways. A smaller financial sector has the strengths of providing more benefits to the economy. These benefits include a more effective monetary and fiscal policy, increased corporate financing, reduction in market risks and greater integration. A smaller financial sector has the strength and the advantage of influencing the government to develop sound and efficient monetary and fiscal policies.

Bees Affected by Cell Phones Radiation Essay Example for Free

Bees Affected by Cell Phones Radiation Essay Bees are vanishing and cell phones are everywhere†¦there definitely could be a link. The Institute of Science in Society delivered a press release in April 2007 saying â€Å"one likely culprit of [CCD] is a new class of systemic pesticides, which are not only sprayed on crops, but also used universally to dress seeds in conventional agriculture, and can confuse and disorientate bees at very low concentrations† although â€Å"another candidate is a radiation from mobile phone base stations that has become nearly ubiquitous in Europe and North America where the bees are vanishing; this possibility is considerably strengthened by preliminary findings that bees fail to return to the hives if cordless phone base stations are placed in them. † The following experiment may prove that it is all about the wireless phones: Researchers at Landau University in Germany designed a simple experiment for students on the Environmental Science course. Eight mini-hives, each with approximately 8 000 bees were set up for the experiment. Four of them were equipped with a DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication)-station at the bottom of the hive, and the other four without the DECT-station served as controls. At the entrance of each hive, a transparent plastic tube enabled the experimenters to watch the marked bees entering and leaving the hive, so they can be counted and their time of return after release recorded for a period of 45 minutes. The experimenters also studied building behavior by measuring the area of the honeycomb and its weight. In the course of the experiment, three colonies exposed to mobile phone radiation and one non-exposed control colony broke down. The total weights of the honeycombs in all colonies, including those at the time of breakdown were compared. The controls weighed 1 326g, while those exposed to the DECT-stations weighed only 1 045g, a difference of 21 percent. The total area of the honeycomb in the controls was 2 500, compared to just 2050 in the exposed hives. But it was the number of returning bees and their returning times that were vastly different. For two control hives, 16 out of 25 bees returned in 45 minutes. For the two microwave-exposed hives, however, no bees at all returned to one hive, and only six returned to the other. The article continues, saying: Clearly the present findings need to be taken much further, but their significance should not be downplayed for a number of reasons. The findings are compatible with evidence accumulating from investigations on many other species including humans, showing that mobile phone radiation is associated with a range of health hazards including cancers. Furthermore, bees are known to be extremely sensitive to magnetic and electromagnetic fields, and there have been many suggestions that they could be used as an indicator species for electromagnetic pollution.

The Failure of Crace’s Quarantine :: Quarantine Essays

The Failure of Crace’s Quarantine Quarantine is the latest installment in a sub-genre of literature where the central conceit is to tell a story from the point of view of the minor characters in a famous tale, with the more renowned stars of the originals taking in subordinate roles. Quarantine he tells the story of Christ's forty days in the wilderness, but with Jesus shunted to the periphery, in favor of several other pilgrims. In particular, the novel focuses on a trader, Musa--dishonest, loutish, and brutal--whom Jesus almost incidentally brings back to life from an apparently fatal illness. In turn it is only Musa, despicable as he is, who realizes that there is something extraordinary about this young man from Galillee. The novel is only partially successful, in large measure because this structural technique falls flat. While Crace succeeds brilliantly in evoking the harsh atmosphere in which the quarantine takes place, the narrative comes to a screeching halt whenever Jesus is absent. Musa is simply too unpleasant a character for us to care what happens to him and none of the others really grab our attention. Nor can their stories hope to compete with the action we know to be taking place away from center stage. Crace's demystification of Jesus is not very effective either. On the one hand he portrays Jesus as merely an overly pious youth, estranged from his family because of his bizarre behavior, and says of those who undertake this desert ordeal : This was the season of the lunatics: the first new moon of spring was summoning those men--for lunatics are mostly men. They have the time and opportunity--to exorcize that part of them which sent them mad. Mad with grief, that is. Or shame. Or love. Or illness and visions. Mad enough to think that everything they did, no matter how vain or trivial, was of interest to their god. Mad enough to think that forty days of discomfort could put their world in order. The fact that Musa turns out to be such an unsuitable candidate for resurrection, defrauding his fellow travelers and finally even raping one young woman, is probably intended to be an ironic comment on the nature of "miracles." And the torments sent by Satan to test Jesus are revealed to be nothing but petty annoyances foisted upon him by Musa.