Walpole had done his best to shun the body politic, but the physical structure was rebuilt in the Gothic style after a massive fire destroyed most of it in 1834. Like, for example, the Houses of Parliament. In direct contrast to the austere neoclassical buildings popular at the time - including his own father's estate - Walpole's house slowly inspired the construction of other fanciful creations, buildings that looked ancient even when brand new. Utterly unique at the time, like his novel, the home kicked off a whole architectural movement: Gothic Revival. His renovations were so attention-getting that the home became a tourist destination, and Walpole opened it as a museum even while he still occupied it. For 45 years he groomed his showpiece, creating a Gothic castle complete with an enormous oak front door, cloistered courtyard, and a huge stone-gray library. It was named "Chopp'd Straw Hall" when he bought it, but Walpole quickly dubbed it the more romantic "Strawberry Hill" and set about expanding and decorating it in the classic medieval style. Indeed, his book was inspired by his life's true focus: his house. His other major literary achievement was the book The Castle of Otranto, which combined horror and romance in the first-ever Gothic novel, a genre that quickly became hugely popular.īut Walpole's obsession with Gothic wasn't limited to literature. It may not have, had Walpole not distinguished himself beyond letter writing. But Walpole's word slowly made its way into the lexicon. It was in a letter to a friend that Walpole referenced a happy, accidental discovery, calling it "serendipity." The word was made up, created, he said, from the title of a fairy tale, "The Three Princes of Serendip." Serendip was the former name of Sri Lanka in the story, Walpole explained, the princes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of." This particular letter and its serendipitous revelation were of no particular historical consequence. Walpole's father was Britain's first and longest-running prime minister, and although he himself became a member of Parliament, Walpole avoided engaging in politics for the most part, preferring to spend his time writing thousands of letters to his friends and remodeling his "little play-thing-house." Through these two seemingly frivolous occupations, Walpole made his most lasting contributions. Falling in love promised a minefield of adverse social consequences.It's the birthday of Gothic writer Horace Walpole ( books by this author), born in London (1717). Today, love is perhaps a more transient thing, experienced easily and quickly abandoned if it fails, but in Yeats´ time, when propriety mattered and behaviour was governed by religious beliefs, individuals had to think very carefully before entering a relationship, taking into careful consideration not only the possible uncomfortable results of difficult romance, but also what other people thought. “There is nobody wise enough to find all that is in it,” is a despairing line, commenting on the immensity of the task facing a young man encountering romance for the first time. Yeats has made it an enemy, testing his wisdom. “Crooked” of course also implies dishonesty, even illegal activity, so love is very much on the wrong side of the tracks in this verse. “Love is the crooked thing” he says, in other words something that twists and turns, not in lovely loops like a girl´s long hair, but in an unpredictable way that can confuse. In contrast to the lightheartedness of the first verse, the second introduces a feeling of frustration at the immense power of love and its ability to deceive. He shows more creativity in the second stanza with the lines, “Till the stars had run away/And the shadows eaten the moon.” This is an unusual phrase that most readers won’t have heard before, but still, in the context of the poem, the readers will understand what Yeats is saying. This is another way of expressing his affection for the woman. Loop can also refer to the uncertainty in love. Looped means entangled in this woman and also describes strands of her hair. “Looped in the loops of her hair,” is a great line that uses the word “loop” as two different meanings. “Go and love,” is also repeated several times, to show that it is an important line. “brown penny” is repeated over and over and adds to the flow of the poem. There is also a fair amount of repetition. By flipping the penny, he is taking a chance. The choice of using a penny is appropriate. This is a conflict within himself, but he uses “brown penny,” as someone to converse with. A poetry element Yeats really works with in this poem is diction.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |