Shield Of Achilles

Interpreting Poetry: Audens Shield of Achilles The Shield of Achillesî is a nine-stanza metrical composition that uses an episode from Homerís ancient authoritative 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 give-up the ghost 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 genuine hero Achilles. The man over whose shoulder she looks is Hephaestos, the god of put up and metal-working, who is commissioned by Thetis in book 18 of the Iliad to extend down a shield for Achilles to carry into battle. In the premier(prenominal) 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 utili se images of ìan imitation wildernessî and a ìsky like lead.îThe following two stanzas depict in sharper detail the images inscribe or embossed on the shield: a bare(a) plain stitch filled with expressionless slew rest in line, ì delay for a sign.î As they stand, a utter 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 ordinal stanza, the poem returns to Thetis. Where she expects to see ìritual pietiesî in the forms of sacrificial overawe and ceremonial off erings, she finds instead ìQuite another sc! ene.î Again, the following 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 entertain 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 expect to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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