In a poem about a couple who get distracted while out for a stroll by a house filled with song and dancing, love and lust are the major opposing themes. The images shown through the window of the harlot, who from his perspective symbolizes lust, appear to disgust and fascinate Wilde. While skeleton-like creatures of lust dance in what the author perceives to be an ugly shell of what love is, a song about real love is playing in the house. (Weinstein 71). The image of the dancing woman is used to illustrate how lust has replaced real love as the dominant emotion. The couple can not ignore the lure of lust despite attempting to emulate real feelings. Sadly, at the end of the poem, the woman leaves her partner and joins the dance in the harlot’s house, depicting lust’s lure and downfall of true love.
The preface in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The preface serves as a primer of how the novel is to be read. It is a collection of a list of Oscar’s precepts which create a manifesto about the role of the audience and the artist, the purpose of art, and the price and value of beauty. Wilde describes the artist as the creator of beauty and condemns anyone who finds ugliness in the place of beauty. He states that a book can only be written well or badly, but it can not be considered moral or immoral, as morality constitutes only one part of the purpose and main idea of art. Wilde concludes the preface by saying that it is okay to form something valuable so long as it is not admired as art (Weinstein 78). Creating a useless thing is a great deal and, therefore, art is reasonably useless and exists for its own sake and not for some moral reason.
Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
The poet served in the British Army during the First World War, but, sadly, he died shortly before the peace agreement was signed. Wilfred’s poem is very compelling in its attempts to depict the feebleness of soldiers caught in war. The poet brings out the general conditions of the soldiers in the battle and the condition after the horrendous gas attack. After that he recounts on an individual who lived through such a time. The poem has an anti-war tone with the poet describing the war in first person putting himself among the helpless soldiers. By projecting the mental pain of the soldier’s face, Owen hits the romantic illusion of war and attacks warmongers. He also requests people not to tell illusions to their children, as the truth needs to be known.
When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats
The author wrote this poem during a period of uncertainty in his relationship with his wife and When You Are Old highlights their failed relationship. William addresses the poem directly to his lover instructing her to open the book in which this poem could be found and re-read it. While doing so, she should recall how many people had loved her both with true and false intentions. Yeats goes on to tell the lover that there was one man who had loved her with all his heart. The poet tells the former lover in the final stanzas that she should be filled with regret because their love did not last (Weinstein 92). Love and regret are the main themes of this poem and even though the story is based on the poet's own love life, the sentiment can be shared among most rejected lovers.
Works Cited
Weinstein, Arnold. Understanding Literature and Life: Pieces by Oscar Wide and Others in Drama, Poetry and Narrative. Springer, 2004, pp. 67-97.
