Tennyson’s Ulysses

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a lyrical continuation of the quest and life of Homer’s Odysseus. Starting shortly after Ulysses (Odysseus) returns home, “Ulysses” relates the difficulties experienced in adjusting to domestic life, his sheer boredom with the duties of being king, and his hunger for more travel and adventure. “Ulysses” explores the concept of the quest and the meaning of a life worth living, especially a life worth living for a man who had already lived life beyond the norm. Through “Ulysses,” Tennyson demonstrates that the quest is more than just an adventure: it is living life fully.

It’s All Wet

In “The Flow of the River,” Loren Eiseley takes the reader on a symbolic adventure exploring man and nature. Eiseley relates two of his experiences in the outdoors: floating down the Platte River on his back and his short relationship with a talking catfish found frozen in the river. As Eiseley floats down the Platte, he ponders the natural beauty around him and the connection of the natural world and humans that water creates. A frozen catfish, assumed dead, becomes Eiseley’s ultimate metaphor for the correlation of man and nature. Through these experiences with elements of water, Eiseley explores the character of man and nature. Eiseley’s use of symbolism demonstrates that through water, man and nature are the same.

Phi Theta Kappa Certificate

Surviving the Test of Time

In just fourteen short lines, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” eloquently captures a moment in time and history. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822, was born into wealth, educated at Eton and Oxford, traveled widely throughout Europe, wrote extensively, and died regrettably young in a boating accident (Wikipedia.org). “Ozymandias”, written in 1818, is believed to have been written “in competition with his friend Horace Smith, as Smith published a sonnet a month after Shelley's which takes the same subject and makes the same moral point” (Wikipedia.org). “Ozymandias” is not considered Shelley’s best work by experts, but has become his most well-known as it has been his most anthologized (Sparknotes.com). The obvious moral of “Ozymandias” is simple: the mighty and powerful are subject to, and victims of, the inevitable forgetfulness of time and history. Less obvious but far more profound is the idea that the work of the artistsans is what gains the respect and honor of history. Through use of theme, structure and word choice, Shelley’s “Ozymandias” shows that it is not the work of the mighty and powerful that stands the test of time, but the work of the artists.

Dark Silence, Light Noise

In “Silence,” Chinese-American author Maxine Hong Kingston relates her childhood experiences in American and Chinese schools. Kingston describes the difficulty she had with speaking English out loud at her American school, which was in sharp contrast to her experience at her Chinese school. Through the use of many comparisons and contrasts primarily relating to her difficulty with the English language, Kingston explores the sharp differences between the cultures, the teachers’ attitudes towards children, classroom expectations, the sound of voices, and her own self-image. While Kingston is unable to speak, she lives in noisy world where her silence is not golden. Kingston’s “Silence” it is not so much about her inability to speak, but about her perceived inability to feel like she fit in and belonged.

Wandall, or Hopefulness

Wandall, or Hopefulness

Translated from the Yiddish of Toomuch Drincks, a good man

of a good town, with additions found in the stalls of the Tipple Inn's men's room.

With apologies to Voltaire.

CHAPTER I

How Wandall Came to the Good Town and met the Mayor and went to Church

There came to the town of Dekadent, in the land of Coolyuras, a world weary wandering woman known as Wandall, who had traveled far and wide in search of a good town filled with good people. Wandall, having heard from far away of this good town, arrived believing her search had ended. A town of golden streets, where good people helped their neighbors and all the high school cheerleaders were blond. A good town, with so little crime it needed but one cop, who worked only part-time.

Summary: Gretel Ehrlich's "About Men"

In “About Men,” Gretel Ehrlich finds the stereotype of cowboys too simplistic.  According to Ehrlich, the popular image of cowboys of being tough and quiet – almost loners – is far from their reality and a disservice.  Ehrlich finds the simplistic, popular image of cowboys, and to a lesser extent men in general, reduces the complex duality of their natures to mere cardboard characters.  Ehrlich further states that the job of a cowboy is far more complex then the movies depict, that it is a job often tough on the body and heart, one with long hours and little pay.  Not only are they “convivial, quirky, and softhearted,” Ehrlich states their lifestyle requires they be “midwives, hunters, nurturers, providers, and conservationists all at once” (Ehrlich 252-253).  For Ehrlich, the unsophisticated, one-dimensional stereotype is a disservice to cowboys at large and men in general.


Written for Professor Sutter's English Composition I class at Pikes Peak Community College, 4th February 2004.

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Update November 18, 2015: The above work was recently quoted in a young man's high school AP English paper.  He forgot to properly quote and cite it.  It wasn't intentional plagiarism, just a simple mistake, for which he has since genuinely apologized for.  He panicked, thinking if my original work above was no longer online, he would not get in trouble, so he reported this post as a DMCA violation so it would get taken down.  Which, of course, is overreacting :)  The original post has since been reinstated and the DMCA claim rescinded, more apologies made and accepted.  

Update June 22, 2017: LOL! It happened again! A student (this time in a community college) copied my summary above in its entirety for a course assignment.  When the professor failed his paper after it was flagged by the college's plagiarism checker, the student claimed my post - which dates to 2004 lol - was a copy of HIS work, and filed a DMCA claim against me!  Needless to say, an administrator at the community college and myself had a very interesting chat that eventually involved this student, appropriate apologies from the student, the DMCA claim rescinded and my original post above reinstated, yet again.

Students, remember, whenever you use the internet to research for your papers to always properly quote and cite them!  I also recommend checking your papers at http://www.plagscan.com/seesources/analyse.php or  http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ or any other online plagiarism checker to make sure you didn't forget to properly quote or cite something!