Essay on Watching Tennis and A Subaltern’s Love Song

Watching Tennis and A Subaltern’s Love Song Introduction The themes and ideas are so similar that if one was to briefly explain what both poems were about, you would think that they were exactly the same poems. Yet what really separates these two poems is their technical side. Form The form of a poem can be mainly observed by looking at and listening to the poem. Rhyme scheme, verse length, and line length are but a few examples of a poem’s form. A Subaltern’s Love song is a relatively long poem compared to Watching Tennis. It contains eleven verses, each of four lines length. There are between ten and thirteen syllables in each line. As this poem tells us a story and has a regular rhyme scheme, it is a narrative and†¦show more content†¦It has a steady rhythm in the first two verses as he thinks about the woman and gives us his thoughts. This smooth rhythm gives a sense of harmony as he describes the woman and her grace. As the verse length and rhyme scheme change, it adds an element of loss of control. This is because the man is making love to the woman and the change in form results in an unorthodox sounding poem. This helps visualize the man’s nothing-to-lose attitude for love. Another way Betjeman emphasises the fact that the man constantly thinks of this woman is how he starts the poem with â€Å"Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn† and ends the poem with â€Å"†¦Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.† We can see that not only has he started and ended with the same name, to emphasise his love, but he also makes a slight change. â€Å"Miss J. Hunter-Dunn† is mentioned at the start of the poem and â€Å"Miss Joan Hunter-Dunn† at the end. The difference is that he changes the J to Joan. This emphasises how he has become familiar with her as he is now engaged. He is, in a sense, emphasising his happiness and smugness on getting engaged with her by deliberately changing her name. He includes two words next to each other which sound very similar, although one is an adjective and the other is a noun. â€Å"Carefullest carelessness.† These juxtaposed words create the image of delicacy. This same idea is not used in

Night Creature Blue Moon Chapter 24 Free Essays

I grabbed the rifle right out of the guy’s hands. â€Å"Hey!† He tried to get it back, but I shoved him with one firm hand on his chest. I nearly passed out from the beer fumes, but I managed to stay upright and keep him from snatching the gun. We will write a custom essay sample on Night Creature: Blue Moon Chapter 24 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Jerry Uber wasn’t the brightest star in the sky. His shaved head only proved my point. Jerry didn’t have the smoothest noggin or the best skin. Right now he looked like a lumpy egg with diaper rash. â€Å"You can’t carry a rifle without a case in the middle of town, Jerry. You know that.† â€Å"How am I gonna shoot rabid wolves if my gun’s in the case?† â€Å"Shoot?† I put my finger in my ear and jiggled it. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Me and the other men.† He puffed out his chest. His beer belly went with it. â€Å"We’re gonna do what you cops haven’t.† I glanced up and down the street. The tourists were gone. Only the gun-toting citizens remained. Vigilantes. I hated these guys. â€Å"Yeah, well you’re gonna have a tough time without your gun.† I headed for my car. â€Å"Huh?† Jerry danced around behind me as if the beer he’d already drunk today needed to be released right now. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d relieve himself on the street. Then I could arrest him and there’d be one less drunken idiot in the woods. â€Å"Thass my gun. You can’t do that.† â€Å"Actually, I can.† I unloaded the thing and pocketed the bullets, then laid it on the passenger seat of my car. â€Å"You can pick it up from Zee when you’re sober. Bring along your case.† â€Å"Zelda?† He shook his head and put up his hands. â€Å"Aw, Jessie. You know, she scares the crap out of me.† â€Å"You, me, and everyone else in town. That’s why she’s in charge of the guns.† Since Jerry and I had had dealings before, he didn’t argue. He went home. No doubt to get another gun. I picked up my radio, not bothering to give my call sign, since I wasn’t technically working. â€Å"I need to talk to Clyde right now.† â€Å"He isn’t here. Can I help you?† The voice was new – young, hopeful. She wouldn’t last. â€Å"Yeah, find him. Tell him we’ve got armed citizens all over town and the tourists are leaving.† I spent the next hour confiscating weapons. When my car was full and my pockets weighted with bullets, I drove to the station. I knew I was fighting a losing battle. These guys all had more guns. They’d be out in the woods come nightfall. Someone was going to get shot. I could only hope that that someone wasn’t me. Clyde had never materialized, which was strange. For all his minor annoyances, he had always been on top of things. No Mandenauer, either. Not so strange – considering the source. After I’d tagged, recorded, then locked up all the guns, I did manage to find Zee. In the break room with a cup of coffee on her left, a lit cigarette on her right, and a roast beef sandwich the size of a small dog in the center. I swear she ate red meat at every meal. Zee’s longevity was a never-ending mystery, like so many others. I’d heard stories of Great-aunt Helga who smoked all her life and lived to be a hundred and four, contrasted with stories of jogging health-food fanatics who keeled over at forty-two. Go figure. Since Zee was enjoying herself, I backed out of the break room so she could continue. â€Å"Where you goin’ ?† She didn’t even turn my way. The woman had ears like a bat. And she looked like one, too. â€Å"I need to find Clyde.† â€Å"Sit.† Zee indicated the chair to her right. With a glance at the smoldering cigarette, I took the one to her left. â€Å"Want half?† She pointed at the sandwich. The beef hung out of the bread – thick, red, and juicy. The scent, combined with that of horseradish, reminded me of the wolf pyre in the woods. I shook my head and swallowed hard. Zee shrugged. â€Å"More for me.† She made short work of the sandwich. The woman could certainly eat. How she could be stick-thin was another of life’s little mysteries. Although now that I thought about it, Zee had a habit of gorging a day here, a day there, then existing on cigarettes and coffee in between. With a sigh and a pat for her distended belly, she sat back and lifted her cigarette. I made a face. She blew smoke rings at me. I waved them away. â€Å"You know I hate that.† â€Å"Which is why I do it.† She winked. â€Å"I hear some evidence has turned up missing.† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"Since I’m in charge of the evidence room, that upsets me.† The sharp tap of her fingernail against the table punctuated Zee’s irritation. I braced myself for the explosion. Instead, she took another drag and blew it out slower than slow. â€Å"I didn’t exactly want to dance a jig when I heard.† â€Å"Any clue where the stuff is?† â€Å"If I knew, then it wouldn’t be missing.† She lifted one eyebrow. â€Å"Are you getting smart with me?† â€Å"No, ma’am. I need to find Clyde.† â€Å"Good luck. He went ten-seven after he left the hospital.† â€Å"Then I’ll call him at home.† I shoved back my chair. Zee grabbed my arm. â€Å"Leave him be.† Something in Zee’s voice made me stay where I was. â€Å"Why?† She took another drag on her cigarette, blew the smoke out the corner of her mouth in a stream that shot away from me for a change. â€Å"He’s taking it hard.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Clyde went to school with Mel’s dad. He had to tell Tony what happened. Cherry’s a mess.† â€Å"Oh.† I didn’t know what else to say. â€Å"I told Clyde about the tourists and the gun freaks. He called in some extra help from Clearwater.† I thought of the amount of citizenry with guns, the depth, darkness, and expanse of the woods. . â€Å"That’ll work.† My sarcasm must have been showing, because Zee snorted. â€Å"Who knows, maybe the idiots will thin out the wolf population.† â€Å"Or the other way around.† â€Å"Either way, we win.† I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. â€Å"Heard from your mom lately?† Zee asked. â€Å"Who?† Zee lit another cigarette from the embers of the first. â€Å"Guess not.† She took a deep drag and let the smoke drift out on a contented sigh. She and I hadn’t had a good talk in a long time. Considering our age difference, you wouldn’t think we could. But Zee was young at heart, despite the probable black tar therein. She was the best friend I’d ever had, and I loved her. â€Å"You gonna tell Mom about the guy?† â€Å"What guy?† â€Å"Don’t screw with me, girl. Cadotte. Is he as good as he looks?† â€Å"When did you see him? And how do you know†¦ † I fumbled for a word. â€Å"Anything?† â€Å"I have my sources.† She no doubt did. Sources she’d never reveal to me. The woman knew everything that went on in Miniwa. It was downright terrifying. And often quite handy. Unless it was me she knew everything about. I narrowed my eyes. â€Å"You didn’t tell Clyde, did you?† Zee shook her head. â€Å"Clyde’s got enough problems right now. He thinks of you as his daughter – or near enough. He’d kill Cadotte if he found out you were banging him.† â€Å"Nice,† I murmured. Though banging was probably a pretty good word, considering what we’d been doing. But I was more interested in Zee’s observation of Clyde’s feelings for me. â€Å"Clyde thinks of me like a daughter?† heard the hope in my voice and cursed myself. I’d never had a father. I didn’t need one now. Zee contemplated me a moment. â€Å"Sure. Just like I think of you as the granddaughter I’ll never have.† â€Å"No gramma worth her salt would ever use the word banging.† Zee cackled. â€Å"Aren’t you glad?† â€Å"Damn straight.† Zee and I had talked about many things over the years, but mostly present tense. What we’d done today, what we’d like to do tomorrow, whose butt was better than Jimmy Smits’s. She’d told me once that her family was dead. She’d come to Miniwa because she had nowhere else to go and stayed because she liked the trees. Her expression had been so sad at the time, I never had the heart to ask her anything about her past again. â€Å"So what are you gonna tell Mummy Dearest about the guy?† â€Å"Uh, nothing?† â€Å"That would be my advice. She’d have a conniption.† â€Å"You got that right.† Zee had met my mother once. It had been hate at first sight – on both their parts. My mother said I clung to Zee like moss to a tree just to annoy her, and maybe she was right. But Zee had given me more affection and support in the years I had worked with her than my mother had given me all of my life. Pathetic but true. â€Å"Although I might have to agree with Mummy on this one.† I gaped. â€Å"What?† Zee shrugged. â€Å"Unless you’re just doing him.† He’d actually been doing me – quite often – but that was my business. â€Å"There’s nothing serious starting up with you and him, is there?† Zee was staring at me too closely. I began to sweat. â€Å"You haven’t mistaken sex for love or anything, have you?† â€Å"Of course not. Do I look stupid?† â€Å"Never said that you did. I just don’t want you to get hurt.† â€Å"And that would happen because†¦ ?† â€Å"Mixed relationships never work out.† I knew Zee didn’t much care for the Indians, but I’d never expected her to be so blatant in her prejudice. â€Å"What are you trying to say, Zee?† â€Å"I went out with a beautiful man once.† Her eyes went dreamy. â€Å"It was nice at first. But not for long. He actually thought I should be grateful.† She snorted. â€Å"Women propositioned him right in front of me like I wasn’t even there.† I blinked. â€Å"By mixed, you mean – â€Å" â€Å"Cadotte’s hot, Jessie. You’re†¦ † She lifted one shoulder, then lowered it. â€Å"Not. I know. Big deal.† â€Å"Now, now. No need to get testy. Face the facts. You aren’t Marilyn Monroe. A guy like him, pretty soon he’ll start listening to all those people who are asking him what he sees in you.† I’d thought the same thing. But the more I got to know Cadotte, the less I could see him caring what people thought. Second Shift appeared in the doorway. She glanced at Zee, flinched, then focused on me. â€Å"Jessie, we got trouble in the woods.† â€Å"No shit,† Zee muttered. â€Å"If you can’t be constructive†¦ † I began. â€Å"Shut the fuck up,† Zee finished. It was, after all, her favorite saying. â€Å"What’s the matter?† I asked the youngster, who appeared to have swallowed a frog. â€Å"The um†¦ uh†¦ † She waved her hand back toward the command center. â€Å"Two words?† I held up two fingers, then tugged on my ear. â€Å"Sounds like?† She tilted her head and stared. â€Å"Don’t confuse her, Jessie.† Zee slurped what must be, by now, ice-cold coffee. â€Å"You never let me have any fun.† I sighed. â€Å"The um†¦ uh†¦ what?† I asked. â€Å"The other patrol. Two Adam Four.† Henry. â€Å"What about him?† â€Å"Shots fired in the forest. Screaming. Something about an ambulance. Backup. Help.† My gaze met Zee’s. â€Å"Let the games begin,† she muttered. How to cite Night Creature: Blue Moon Chapter 24, Essay examples

Why Did Europeans Expand Into America free essay sample

Alongside these three key factors is another two factors, Emperor Charles Habsburg’s (Charles V) call for expansion of Christendom by converting the natives of the New World and the desire for economic power through monopolising on the trading of specific commodities, mainly spices although this also including fabrics, foodstuffs, basic resources and curiosities. Exploration had not been an entirely new concept to the world of Early Modern Europe. During the Middle Ages exploration had been overland and eastward, mostly dominated by tales of the Italian Marco Polo and his establishment of embassies with trading posts such as Constantinople and Samarkand along the illustrious Silk Road, which stretched all the way from Venice to China via Asia Minor, Persia and India. Come the turn of the fifteenth century, due to the advent of new navigational science replacing the dated classical geography of Ptolemy, discovery turned westward towards yet to be discovered America and south into what Ptolemy had called on his maps terra incognita, or lands unknown, which turned out to be the unchartered regions of Africa. Both these directions of exploration were partly in search of a viable sea-route in the Orient in order to break Venice’s iron-grip on the import of spices, silks and others goods from Africa and Asia. These projects were heavily dominated by Portugal and Spain since France was currently busy dealing with conflicts of both internal and external nature, Italy content with its monopoly over the Mediterranean sea-routes and imports brought in from the Silk Road and convinced that no other viable route were possible decided to sit out of overseas expansion. Finally the powers of England and the Netherlands attempts failed until the seventeenth century when they rose up to take over where Portugal and Spain were beginning to falter through lack of resources. In 1415 Portugal captured the Moroccan city of Ceuta under King John I providing a strong post for exploration along the unknown African west coast, the promise of fame and fortune for being the first to chart the terra incognita filled King John’s son Henry with â€Å"inspiration which was to mould his whole life† , this venture was about to take Henry â€Å"down the African coast, even around Africa to India† via the Portugal’s discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. However whilst in Ceuta Henry learned from Moroccan Muslims about the riches waiting along the Gold Coast, ripe and ready, for whoever was first to discover them, thus Henry’s voyages were not entirely based on finding fame through discovery and exploration but partly on for gaining his nation financial benefits. By 1500 Portugal had also begun to turn its eye westward across the Atlantic to see what lay beyond the unknown waters and during this year, after hearing tales of the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, Portugal sent several fleets in search of new lands and to Portugal’s success soon arrived upon Brazilian shores discovering the Incan Empire. Although this provoked disagreement with Spanish explorers who under the conquistador Hernando Cortes had worked south from Yucatan to conquer Peru, a disagreement that was settled by the Treaty of Tordesillas which declared that all lands further than â€Å"370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands† belonged to Portugal and everything less belonged to Spain. Fernao de Magalhaes (Ferdinand Magellan) envisioned a way to reach the Moluccas faster than Portugal’s route via the Cape of Good Hope by venturing west beyond the Americas. Magellan took his proposal to Emperor Charles V who held the Spanish throne after the death of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Magellan voyage was perilous and led to his death having got caught up in a local dispute in the Philippines, his remaining crew decided against returning by the same route and opted for taking the better known but risky Portuguese guarded route around Africa. This gave Magellan his title as being the first man to circumnavigate the globe, and revolutionised cartography so that maps fell more in line with those of today As Prince Henry held the true Christian conquistador spirit there was a third element to his African voyages â€Å"he [Henry] wanted to deal a body-blow to Islam† and expand the Christian Empire across the new found lands. Henry thought this could be achieved if he was able to capture the Orient and the Realm of Prester John, also known as Abyssinia. Holding these lands would have the Islamic Empire trapped in a pincer movement, surrounded by the Holy Roman Empire to the west and the Portuguese Empire to the south and east. Henry’s plans for a crusade against Islam looked promising as Portuguese missionaries managed to establish Christianity into the lands south of Congo in 1491 and later on captured Mozambique, which gave Portugal a firm position against Muslim fleets sailing in from the north and providing Portugal with a port of call on way to India. After King Ferdinand died in 1503 the Trastamara came to an end handed the Spanish Throne over to the Habsburgs, which Emperor Charles V gladly received. With Charles now at the throne Spanish exploration took a new flavour, eager to expand Christendom as far as possible Charles took advantage of Spain’s 700 year old tradition of crusading against Islam and used Spanish conquistadores to sail westward into the Americas. One of the key figures in Charles’ religious expansion in America was Hernando Cortes who arrived in Yucatan in 1519 where Cortes alongside Spanish missionaries began installing the Christian doctrine and Christian education and expanding the Spanish-Habsburg Empire south through the Aztec Empire until he reached Peru where expansion came to a halt having bumped into Portuguese explorers, Spanish expansion had to end here due to the 1493 Treaty to Tordesillas, which was drawn up the Pope Alexander VI as a way to ‘fairly’ divide the Americas between Portugal and Spain. From the sixteenth century the population of the European powers began to boom, this was not helped by the Portuguese who having â€Å"claimed Madeira (1420), the Azores (1439), and the Cape Verde Islands (1460s)† were importing slaves back home where they were to receive a Christian education, in hope of converting them, and eventually become recognised as Portuguese citizens. In 1500 the combined population of Spain and Portugal was 9. 3 million, 7 million of which were Spanish citizens, with Italy having 10. million citizens, Germany 12 million, France 16. 4 and England putting forward another 4. 4 million to the total population of these five major European powers . A century later the population of these six countries had risen significantly from somewhere in the region of 21. 7% to 23. 4% bringing the total population of western Europe (not taking into account the United Provinces or other small nations) up to approximately 64. 5 million, with one third belonging to Germ any. This boom in the population put pressure on the limited resources Europe could provide especially with a trend of poor harvests between 1526 and 1580 which plagued Europe causing inflation to such a point where in some areas such as Vivarias â€Å"breed was unobtainable at any price and local people were forced to eat acorns† and even in prosperous Venice â€Å"there almost certainly were not enough working days in the year to enable a builder’s journeyman to buy sufficient bread for a family of four† . Not just foodstuffs but also other basic resources, such as timber, leather and wool were falling into short supply adding to the problem of inflation and creating extra urgency for nations to seek new suppliers from overseas in order to maintain their empires back home and keep the people at peace, this was one problem Germany found difficult since famine had led to a peasants revolt in 1525 as well as a rise in fatal diseases such as bubonic plague, pneumonia and septicaemia. Another contributing factor to European inflation was the surge of gold and silver being brought in by Spain and Portugal during their economic exploitation of the newly discovered lands. One prominent factor behind Europe’s overseas ventures, and one that tainted each of the four powers which took to the seas, was the promise of economic power through conquering important sea-routes and commodity markets. The capture of Ceuta gave Portugal an opportunity to break into African trade routes granting them access to commodities that would otherwise have to pass through Venice and the Ottoman Empire who would impose tariffs on all passing trade. Prince Henry saw this opportunity and used it as a means to obtain rare commodities at a cheaper rate than overland routes were charging. In 1485 â€Å"Castile was in financial trouble due to its ongoing struggle against the Iberian Muslims† so when Christopher Columbus, having been previously turned down by England, France and Portugal, put forward his proposal that he could navigate a viable trade route to the Indies by crossing the Atlantic, allowing Spain to conquer the thriving spice-market, Spain decided to support Columbus by supplying him with ninety men and three ships which later departed from Palos on the August 2nd 1492, it was Columbus’ three voyages to the Americas which allowed Spain to secure a stable revenue for its declining treasury. Columbus’ ventures also provided Spain with slaves which were used to establish an overseas Empire â€Å"that could rival its Iberian neighbour† . In the later half of the sixteenth century England started to seek trade via the seas after Englishman Anthony Jenkinson had obtained â€Å"privileges of trade† within the Ottoman Empire during an interview with the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and letters of recommendation from Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia, these letters and privilages allowed England access into an exclusive group in which only members were able to trade along Volga and in the Caspian sea, it was within these waters that Jenkinson sealed a deal with Persian Governor Abdullah Khan whereby English wool would be exchanged for Persian silk. Towards the end of the sixteenth century late arrivals the Dutch entered the seafaring scene sending three fleets along the northeast passage down the Volga into Asia, two fleets across the Atlantic to the Americas and several vessels down the southeast route through the Cape of Good Hope to India in order to establish embassies overseas so that the Dutch could join in with Portugal, Spain and England in exploiting lucrative trading posts. To conclude it is possible to break down the reasons behind Europe’s overseas expansion during the years 1415-1715 into four symptoms: the acquisition of fame through discovery, the expansion of Christendom through crusades, the urgency for basic resources brought on by population pressure, and finally the desire for wealth and economic power. However each of these symptoms are not entirely independent since Spain’s importing of silver from America spurred inflation which contributed to the need for cheap basic resources, as Portugal’s importing of African slaves contribute to the population pressure. Also Prince Henry The Navigator’s voyages were composed of several factors including the economic, religious and explorative. It is only with England and the Dutch that it becomes clearer as to the incentives for their voyages as both powers journeys to these exotic lands were based solely on economic grounds.