Poetry, a language used in various creative elements and forms by distinct poets, has meaning in terms of the poet's ambition, decisions, and mood. The primary objective of poetry is essentially to confer pleasure on the audience or reader. Robert Gray, a contemporary Australian poet, exercises a unique sense of purpose and symbolism throughout his poems "Flames and Dangling Wire", "Byron Bay: Winter" and "Journey, the North Coast", through his integration of the philosophies of Dharma, Buddhism, imagery, artistic influences and universal experiences. Gray's aspiration involves self-reflection between the reader and the poet, creating images to allow the reader to visualize the words in his poems, and writing about real-life experiences that almost any reader is able to relate to and interpret in a way different. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "Flames and Dangling Wire", composed based on a journey to an apocalyptic landfill that explores the unity of humans with nature and the metaphysical world essentially involved in destroying oneself. Ultimately, the message that Gray wanted to convey through this poem was the annihilation of humanity towards nature and the circumstances that this abandonment will have on human beings. The principle is to establish a moment of self-reflection for the reader by fabricating a theory of equality through the philosophy of metaphysics and using nature as a force of power. Humans rely on nature for their survival, so Gray incorporating this theory that humans self-destruct is ironic. Exemplified through "behind us, the city driven like stakes into the Earth, a water bird rises above this swamp while a turtle moves on the Galapagos coast", Gray's poetic choices involved the juxtaposition of the city, an entity created by man, with aquatic birds and turtles. Through this distinction between man-made objects and native objects, Gray evokes a sense of hope which creates the appearance of waterfowl and the turtle while the first stanza generated a dark and murderous atmosphere. “Stick like stakes into the earth” this simile connotes violence and murder. It suggests that the city is meddling and murdering the land. The insinuation of the "Galapagos shore" reminds the reader that the natural world will perish when it is left alone in nothingness. "Flames and Dangling Wire" invites the reader to resonate the effects of their concomitance in metropolitan life. It exaggerates the virtuous claim to examine their effect on the Earth and the spiritual destruction of oneself. Gray reminds the reader that the post-apocalyptic world exposed in the poem deciphers the uncertainty and oscillation of all matter. This concept is demonstrated through the quote “And standing in the mirage of the city, I realize that I am in the future. So it will be after the men are gone. It will be made of things that have worked." The person is placed in a situation of reflection and realization that killing the earth will ultimately leave them in nothingness and isolation, that they will ultimately kill themselves. The reader is able to recount this sense of isolation and reflect on one's contribution to society, which is Gray's ultimate intention. Gray almost threatens the reader with the choice of prophetic words in this quote such as “shall,” “will.” The diction demonstrates that sooner or later everything will end, however, due to the nature of the entire poem, including its sinister and disturbing aura, the reader questions their future and its outcome. The greyrepresents this purpose throughout the poem through the physics behind the nature of atoms and matter. Another important element of humanism is present in "Flames and Dangling Wire", through its effective use of artwork such as the "Raft of Medusa". “A worker lifts an unidentifiable mulch fork, throws it into the fire: something flutters like the rag held up in The Raft of Medusa, demonstrating the French shipwreck of 1816. 147 people were put on a raft and the survivors lived on cannibalism, starvation and dehydration. Gericault, the artist, expressed through his painting a paradox of how a horrific subject can be transferred into a powerful painting. It also represents the vain hope of the sailors as salvation is in sight, but unattainable. However, in the context of the poem, humanity is abandoned to its fate. Gray implements the artwork as a visual comparison for the reader to imagine to the intensity of the poem's setting. Next, the incentive of imagination is inserted into Gray's poem “Byron Bay: Winter”. The poem is written in the traditional ballad form, however it is adapted with loose rhyme and flow. Gray once said "my poems are about a visual experience that becomes a language." This concept of imagery is present in almost all of his poems through his references to specific artistic movements and works of art. Gray's motive in this poem is to achieve maximum clarity through the imagery he incorporates into his poems. Gray, himself a liberated artist, incorporates artist Paul Cezanne, a French post-impressionist painter. “Next to me, streams of swamp oak fronds unfolding from Cézanne on health, a guard carriage follows the vat of a train.” Notable characteristics of Post-Impressionist art involve bright colors, thick paint, real subjects, use of natural colors, and distortion for expressive effect. Cézanne once stated that “a work of art that does not arise from an emotion is not a work of art.” The influence of Romanticism is also very clear in this poem. The character's extensive presence throughout the poem reminds the reader that the poem describes his or her impression and experience of the landscape. “Barely contained by sight,” he emphasizes when he mentions the landscape subsumed by the eye. The emotional response to nature is not usually explicit, but it intervenes. The concluding epiphany when the person sees the landscape in its entirety is heavily influenced by romance, as the connection with God is deciphered through the appreciation of nature. The concept of this is known as Pantheism, which is the clarity that God is found through nature and its creations, not through dharmic detachment. Gray's ambition is to vividly express and imagine the reader's vision. By describing every moment, color, visual aspect surrounding the character, Gray successfully allows the reader to imagine the poem. This is strongly influenced by his interest and participation in art and artistic creation. The interconnection of nature with itself, such as the unity of animals, land, sea, sky, often set in a limited space, further strengthens the representation of Gray's landscape art. Through the description of nature, Gray exercises the spiritual experience of the self and its relationship with the natural environment around it. Gray's second reason is essentially that nature offers many opportunities for self-reflection and this is represented through his artistic influences. As in works of art, the audience has the opportunity to lose themselves in the work of art. Gray's aim is also for the reader to get "lost" in his poetry through his imagery. Also, “Journey, the.
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