SINCE THERE”S NO HELP

In the poem “Since There’s No Help,” Michael Dayton displays the deep feelings that accompany the breaking-off of a relationship.  The speaker personifies the emotions in order to provide a deeper understanding of the post-breakup depression: “Now, at the last Gasp of Love’s latest breath,/ When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,/ When Faith is kneeling by his bead of death,/ And Innocence is closing up his eyes.”  Drayton’s personification of emotion allows the reader to understand the mental process that occurs at the end of a more physical sense of comprehension.  In addition to giving lifelike characteristics to his feelings, the speaker changes his tone from cautious, to sorrow, to hope.  “Be it not seen in either of our brows/ That we one jot of former love retain./… Faith is kneeling by his bed of death/… From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.”  The shifts from fear of residual emotion, to a mournful “death” of love, to hope for love to come again aids the speaker to share the depth and changes in how he responds to the end of the relationship.  Michael Drayton’s poem “since There’s No Help” uses personification and changes in tone to make his work an intense and empathetic analysis of post-breakup emotions.

Sonnet LXI: Since There's No Help

Michael Drayton

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part, 

Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have giv'n him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover.

Response to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"

Through graphic displays of human depravity, Joseph Conrad not only handed the reader the information on human cruelty, but submersed him into the suffering using intricate imagery deep enough to cause him to form his own opinion on the plot action.  The Heart of Darkness, a historical fiction frame narrative, breaks down human nature to its most raw element, as is alluded to in the plot’s progressive journey into deepest darkest Africa.  Joseph Conrad presented the wickedness graphically without moralizing, thus forcing the reader to come to grips with and develop his own opinion.

          Marlow, the main character and frame narrator, vividly described his surroundings during his travels from England to inner Africa.  He reported the mass worship of Kurtz, a “universal genius” well-versed in philosophy and extremely successful in the plunder of ivory from natives, and the disappointment his disciples felt when he surrendered to his own mortality.  In contrast, Marlow witnessed Kurtz’s own downfall, summed up in his final words, “The horror, the horror!”  Kurtz had encouraged the revering of himself, while unabashedly shedding the blood of countless innocents in the pursuit of the power-bringing ivory, and surrounded himself with the heads of his enemies as mementos of his superiority.  The Heart of Darkness showed man’s depravity and man’s innate need to worship.

          The Heart of Darkness is an exercise in analysis and moral development.  Because it strictly and meticulously reports the action and does not pass judgment, the novel causes the reader to think deeply about the unwise placement of faith and failure of man to act as God.  The suffering of the natives under Kurtz’s control, as well as Kurtz’s own horrific life, serve as an open-ended lesson to whomever desires to delve into the pain.  The reader, to truly appreciate Conrad’s work, must realize his own worldview, come to an understanding of the gravity of mankind’s depravity, and from that develop a framework to prevent such viciousness in his own circle of influence.

Revelation 20: A Poetic Representation

Revelation 20-

Down a thousand miles

In the pit of vipers

The Devil and the demons

Hide from what they know.

Ripples in deep water,

Reaching, moving, defined,

Burning, Charring waves,

Lapping at Hell’s door.

Coming ever closer

The heat draws sweat of venom.

Fallen angels they were titled,

Now to take the final fall.

Rejoicing, praise, and singing

Burn through twisted ears,

Ending, scorning lifetimes

Spent causing misery and tears.

The clock of Fate grows ever larger,

Ticking in the Demon’s ears.

Reminding them of Justice

And renewing all their fears.

Falling, crowing, screeching:

Agony the final sound

Heard from Sin and sinners

Plummeting below.

Screaming, Crying “Pity,”

While none above will hear.

The punishment of the greedy

And scourging of the peer.

Fumes of dizzy thickness,

Grabbing at their feet.

Pulling into darkness

A mirror to the heart.

What Is an American?" by Hector St. John Crevecoeur

What Is an American?" by Hector St. John Crevecoeur

Selected Passage No. 6

"The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. This is an American."

               

            The passage, referring to a rebirth of the “American,” displays a complete overhaul of the original, punitive worldview held by an American man.  From “involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labor” to “toils of a different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence,” the author shows a drastic 180⁰ reversal of ideology.  The American man overthrew the governing, leeching authority and became self-sustaining.  Finally reaping the rewards of his own hard labor, the American faces the challenge of realizing his new independence and building a new sense of self-worth based upon his new freedom. 

The “new principles” refer to the existence of a failing previous moral system.  Described as being based on “involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labor,” the past American man was, to the author’s disapproval, an enslaved man.  This old, subjugated version of an American was brutally taken advantage of by a personage deemed to be a higher power.  This influencing authority systematically stole the work, belongings, and general independence of those under its influence. 

Without an obligatory offering of all skills, labor, and general autonomy, the American found it necessary to embark upon a journey of self-discovery: “The American is a new man, who acts upon new principals; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions.”  Based on the generalization of the “American” man, it can be inferred that this quotation is referring to America as a whole, freed from subjugation to Great Britain through the Revolutionary War.  By induction, the author believes himself to be a witness to the birth of a new cornerstone philosophy of the United States of America and a new American dream.  This dream, based on a realistic understanding of past pain and a hopeful glance to a new future, requires a completely new ideological system.  Suddenly finding the freedom to make its own decisions without complete subjection to the wishes of another, the United States of America faced the challenge of developing a world view, deciding upon its moral code and philosophical obligations, and developing opinions independent from the influence of the rulers of Great Britain.