Shield Of Achilles

Interpreting Poetry: Audens Shield of Achilles The Shield of Achillesî is a nine-stanza verse form that uses an episode from Homerís ancient Hellenic epic Iliad (c. 800 b.c.e.; Eng. trans., 1616) to meditate on the violence and brutality of the advanced(a) world. The poem begins with an unnamed woman looking over the bring up of an unnamed man; the 2 argon named in the violate stanza, but those who know the Iliad well will immediately do from the poemís title that the woman is the goddess Thetis, the mother of the classic hero Achilles. The man over whose shoulder she looks is Hephaestos, the god of be eat and metal-working, who is commissioned by Thetis in book 18 of the Iliad to cast down a shield for Achilles to carry into battle. In the firstly stanza, Thetis looks to arrest how Hephaestos is decorating the shield. Expecting to touch conventional symbols of victory and power, she sees sooner that Hephaestos has utilize images of ìan imitation wilderness î and a ìsky like lead.îThe succeeding(prenominal) two stanzas depict in sharper detail the images engrave or embossed on the shield: a devoid plain stitch filled with expressionless nation stand in line, ì delay for a sign.î As they stand, a vocalize comes from above declaring the arbitrator of ìsome cause.

î Without discussion or reflection, the people march aside in lines to serve that cause, which eventually brings them to grief.In the quaternary stanza, the poem returns to Thetis. Where she expects to see ìritual pietiesî in the forms of sacrificial awe and ceremonial offerings, she finds inste ad ìQuite another scene.î Again, the follo! wing two stanzas describe the scenes interpret on the shield. This time, she sees a barbed-wire enclosure, where bored sentries and a crowd of devoid observers watch as three figures are crucified. ìTheyî have no hope, no pride, and the lines are written so that ìtheyî might be the crucified figuresóthe crowd, or the sentries, or all three. They have lost their humanity, and ìdied as men before their bodies died.îThe seventh stanza...If you indispensability to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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