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Doesn't Burns' use of parallelism reinforce "My Heart's in the Highlands" visual images?
Here is "My Heart's in the Highlands" by Robert Burns (https://www.bartleby.com/360/8/24.html).
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in
the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and
following the…
Elena Kolumba
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8
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Meaning of "We make the wise distinction still, soever made in vain" in a poem by Dickinson
A poem by Emily Dickinson:
We send the Wave to find the Wave—
An Errand so divine,
The Messenger enamored too,
Forgetting to return,
We make the wise distinction still,
Soever made in vain,
The sagest time to dam the sea is when the sea…
CopperKettle
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8
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2 answers
Why did Emerson choose 'hobgoblin' in his quote 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds'?
Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
I understand the quote. But Wikipedia doesn't explain the origin of the following signification? It differs from the original that portrays hobgoblins as guileful.…
user175
8
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1 answer
Was authorial intent ever taken seriously in academic literary theory?
What does the author mean? and What does the author want to say/convey/express/...? are questions we heard countless times during literature classes at school. In other words, it is a common didactic device. However, in the 1940s, W.K. Wimsatt and…
Tsundoku
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8
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2 answers
Do computer-generated poetry, stories, etc. fit in any common definition of literature?
My question is inspired by this reading challenge proposal about The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed, which collects short stories, etc. that were generated (written?) by a computer program.
Does this fit in with any commonly-accepted…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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8
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4 answers
What did Pope intend to say by "Whatever is, is right"?
What did Pope intend to say by "Whatever is, is right"?
Source: The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer (2nd edition, 2016), p. 86, middle.
Related to this is one final question: What is fiction meant to do? Why are you
reading a novel at all?…
user175
8
votes
2 answers
Comparing frequency of word use across Shakespeare's plays
There are numerous concordances that list all of the words, and their frequency of use within each of Shakespeare's plays. However, I am interested in the presence and frequency of use of words across those plays.
For example, I would like to…
bib
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8
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Why are letters hostile to the Childlike Empress?
When the Childlike Empress reaches the home of the Old Man of Wandering Mountain, she has to climb a ladder made out of letters, his message to her.
Her wide white gown was in tatters, for it had caught on every bend and crossbar of the…
Rand al'Thor
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What is the "Eastern wolf" in this poem?
I'm reading through J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fall of Arthur and in I.29 - I.33 it says
[...] But what foe dareth
war here to wake or the walls assail
of this island-realm while Arthur liveth,
if the Eastern wolf in his own forest
at last…
auden
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Looking for a Fiction Book where One Vote Decides the Result of the Election
I'm looking for the title and author of a book.
I believe the action takes place in XXth century's USA, in an alternative history.
Statistical and political analyses made huge progresses, to the point that they can forecast with a 100% accuracy the…
Clément
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8
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0 answers
What narrative techniques and literary devices in The Three-Body Problem required or justified adjustment in the English translation?
In a postscript to the English translation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, Ken Liu drew attention to his approach to the translation work. Ken Liu writes that "differences in linguistic structure and cultural references, are actually easy to…
Tsundoku
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8
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1 answer
Is it possible that Bastian's journey to Fantastica was purely metaphysical?
The first half of The Neverending Story is about Bastian reading a fantasy story about Atreyu's adventures in Fantastica. The second half is about Bastian's own adventures in Fantastica, a world which he basically recreates from nothing, becoming a…
Rand al'Thor
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8
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1 answer
Is there evidence that the fate of some "A Song of Ice and Fire" characters was inspired by the "Divine Comedy"'s contrapasso?
In the Inferno in Dante's Divine Comedy, sinners are punished by a process that either resembles or contrast with the major sin they committed. For example, the violent are submerged in a river of boiling blood: true tyrants are fully submerged;…
Tsundoku
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8
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2 answers
What does "chafed" mean here?
I would like to know what "chafed" means in the following sentences:
"I like her," said Daisy, "I think she's lovely."
But the rest offended her—and inarguably, because it wasn't a gesture but an emotion. She was appalled by West Egg, this…
Pasta Addict
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8
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What is the symbolism of Eustace's arm ring?
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace put a cursed arm ring on, which resulted in him becoming a dragon.
Does the arm-ring itself have any special symbolism (e.g. he was entrapped by his own greed and was utterly unable to free himself of it),…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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