Industrialized Poets Essay

Edgar Allan Poe, Walter gum benzoin, and Arthur Rimbaud each(prenominal) lived in the turbulent 19th ampere-second where the idyllic countryside was giving way to the industrialized field. Their poetry reflects the profound impact industrial enterprises onslaught had on the world. Starting from Edgar Allan Poe, to Arthur Rimbaud and finally to Walter Benjamin this base will discuss the effect of industrial enterprise on their respective world grab vis--vis the event of the world during their life time.A City in the SeaBy Edgar Allan PoeLo Death has reared himself a throneIn a strange urban center lying aloneFar down at bottom the dim West,Where the rock-steady and the bad and the worst and the bestHave gone to their eternal rest. at that place shrines and palaces and towers(Time-eaten towers that tremble not)Resemble nothing that is ours.Around, by lifting winds forgot,Resignedly on a lower floor the skyThe melancholy wet lie.No rays from the holy heaven coif downOn the long night-time of that town notwithstanding light from give away the lurid seaStreams up the turrets silently Gleams up the pinnacles far and submit Up domes up spires up kingly halls Up fanes up Babylon- care walls Up shadowy long-forgotten bowersOf sculptured ivy and stone flowers Up galore(postnominal) an(prenominal) and many a marvelous shrineWhose wreathd friezes intertwineThe viol, the violet, and the vine.So bl curiosity the turrets and shadows thereThat all seem pendulous in the air, trance from a proud tower in the townDeath looks gigantically down. on that point open fanes and gaping gravesYawn level with the luminous wavesBut not the riches there that lieIn each divinitys diamond eye Not the gaily-jeweled deadTempt the waters from their bedFor no ripples curl, alasAlong that wilderness of glass No swellings tell that winds may beUpon some far-off happier sea No heavings hint that winds have beenOn seas less hideously serene.But lo, a stir is in the airThe wave t here is a motion thereAs if the towers had thrust parenthesis,In slightly sinking, the dull run As if their tops had feebly givenA void within the filmy Heaven.The waves have now a redder glow The hours are eupnoeic faint and low And when, amid no earthly moans,Down, down that town shall peg down hence,Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,Shall do it reverence. The setting is in a city in the west conventionalismd by death who is worshiped by all. This set is often quoted or at l einsteinium used for the crafting of gothic films or at produce. Death looks down upon all from his high tower, like Sauron atop Barad-Dur. The city has domes, spires and kingly halls, and fanes and Babylon like walls. The poem makes a or else ironic point because the west has always been associated with good and life and the east with evil and death. For example, in Tolkiens nobleman of the Rings Trilogy Aragorn is the goodly Lord of the West while the Sauron commands a legion of evil Easterlings . Poe speaks of a contemplative end of old age when the waves now have a redder glow, the hours are living faint and low. The waves turning red as a sign of orchestra pits approaching because red is the color of fire and hence the color of Hell and the Devil. and when, amid no earthly moans, down, down the tower shall settle hence, Hell rising from a thousand thrones, shall do it reverence. It would appear that the poem speaks of the city of death as if it were superior to Hell. Rather, as if Hell were subordinate and must pay homage. The end is a creepy scene where the Devil expresses gratitude to the devil for allowing him to come and rule the Earth. As can be expected of Edgar Allan Poe the setting is dark and brooding. In relation to the modernization universe experienced during Poes time it is kind of possibly a comment on the widening gap mingled with the rich and poor as a result of industrialization, specifically the manufacturing plant agreement. Poe lived in the ea rly 19th Century in his time factories were being setup left and right.People were migrating from the provinces to the cities in order to get jobs at the factories because the cottage industries they used to have were no longer viable. Instead they had to actuate to cities. The cities were grim gothic environs in their own right. Sanitation, Housing, and food were all in short supplies. The cities were dirty, grimy, disease ridden affairs for the vast majority of the sylvan immigrants. Life was short and dangerous, they lived miserable lives often instituteing in insensate conditions for pulverization owners who ruthlessly abused them.Contrast this with the capitalists who owned the factories. The newness of the mill system meant that laws were not yet in place to protect the rights of the working(a)s. Unscrupulous factory owners worked the peasants to the hilt. Fourteen-hour work days and Six-day work weeks were not unknown.Wages were a scandal, with no wage boards or unions to protect them and with the labor being a buyers grocery store most workers had no choice precisely to accept the poor contend or be unemployed. As a result, the factory owners could become oppressively rich. In fact, in the Victorian era the Nobles and the now-wealthy Capitalists mingled as equals in the generous parties of the day. Men like Vanderbilt and Astor could afford to build Palatial estates fit for kings sort of possibly at the expense of the wretched workers in their factories.In my opinion, aside from his already dark and brooding outlook and writing style, Edgar Allan Poe was inspired to bring out A City in the sea by his exposure to the factory system. The oppression of the workers vis--vis the extreme privilege of the owner may have get ahead jaded mr. Poe. He would is not the first, and he was certainly not the proceed to suggest that Hell itself will rise from the City in the Sea. pitiable forward, Arthur Rimbauds Une Saison en Enfer or A season in hell w as written at the time when he was recovering from a gunshot. The book of account has had considerable influence on later Surrealist writers it was considered a revolutionary work because it shunned conventional description, straightforward narrative and didactic purpose. His work revolts against naturalism, precision and objectivity. Rimbaud relies on suggestion and evocation rather than concrete depiction. For this paper we will focalise on the second poem dismal blood.The poems read like the confessions of a self-confessed scoundrel. And why should it not? Rimbaud had a homosexual lover named capital of Minnesota Verlaine who later shot him when they broke up. The book was direct result of his gibe and the tumults he underwent while recovering from the wound. Initially the book was unsuccessful.The poem Bad Blood, like the rest of his work, reads like the rants of a self-confessed scoundrel. He explores his pre-Christian, Gaellic origins and emphasizes his craziness from mod ern civilization.Scholars are at variance as to what the actual chemical group of his work is. However, the general consensus is that it has to do with the Narrators struggle to fabricate the ideals of Christianity with the Hypocrisy and Corruption of Western Civilization. There are many dualities presented and undefended for what they are.In relation to his times the Hypocrisy and Corruption was at its hilt. In those days nearly every europiuman power had colonies overseas. All European nations, at least in the west, professed freedom and civil liberties as intrinsical rights. Slavery and serfdom were obsolete and illegal in Western Europe. save all one has to do is leave the confines of continental Europe so see that slavery is still widely practiced. I swear that as result of modern printing and communication methods like the international Morse code code and the AFP news began to travel faster than it did before. This exposed Rimbaud to the many forms of Hypocrisy and Cor ruption that crippled the morale fiber of Europe.For example, Africans are case-hardened as second-class citizens in their own country. They are forced to work inhumane conditions in the mines, plantations and farms of their European masters for little or no viable compensation. Civil liberties are denied to colonials to the hilt, in the Philippines the Spanish are allowed to irritate up the locals skillful for not showing them the proper deference.In fact, he did not have to go very far. There were many reports of women and children working in English coal mines. They even went on strike to admit their inhumane wages and working conditions. Normally news from England would take days or even weeks to reach continental Europe and vise versa but thanks to the telegraph a workers strike in Paris can be known to Londoners as quickly as the next day.Finally, Benjamins work was perhaps the most heavily affected by industrialization. In fact, his book Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century is almost entirely about the advances and changes brought about by the rapid industrialization of the bygone century. The book outlines the changes in almost glowingly utopia perspective. This is in furrow to the dark, brooding and cast out views of the previous authors.For example, the first chapter Arcades points out that material and accessible conditions that makes Arcades possible. With the advancement of capitalism, Arcades have become obsolete, replaced by the department store. As an aside, Benjamin describes to Arcades as almost utopian paradises.The next chapter about Daguerre photography mentions the intent of photography in transforming art. The chapter also mentions how photos become a good and emphasizes the commodity trade of photographs in relation to portraits. Benjamin will later refer to this as unconscious optics.The fourth chapter points out how the rapidly industrialized world has successfully separated home from work. In the olden days of tillage quite a little worked that land where they lived. In his day people traveled instead far to reach the factories and shops where they worked. Simply put, Benjamin chronicles the changes that industrialization has brought about. It is appears he view industrialization as positive since there are few mentions of the negative aspect of it. Instead Industrialization is viewed positively as a manner to improve the lives and livelihoods of people. Industrialization brought about massive changes during the 19th century. Poets and writers as purveyors and chroniclers of the peoples world-view are not isolated from these sweeping changes. These authors are just a few examples of how the great changes of their times greatly affected their styles.