Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Free Essays on Tacitus And Nero

The question posed in this essay is a profound one which has perplexed and kept scholars interested for generations. The â€Å"Socratic problem† as it has been coined, is one which is difficult in defining. Paul woodruff wrote of Socrates, â€Å"he is our model of a philosopher†. How many aspects of Socrates are there, and which one, if any, shows the real historical Socrates? This is the problem met when trying to recreate the historical mans thoughts, for the evidence is all from other parties, and so must be tainted with certain social and personal biases and opinions. There are essentially four sources to base our historical Socrates upon . Writers both of, and after his time, they have varying degrees of accuracy. Plato, a philosopher of the highest order, and an extremely close companion to Socrates himself, is the first and probably the most accurate of the sources. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato and an esteemed philosopher in his own right, would have had second hand knowledge of Socrates. Xenophon, a military general who at the time of Socrates, was probably only a casual aquaintance . The last of the sources is the comic poet and social critic Aristophanes, who wrote rather disparately of Socrates in his comedies. From these sources of the time, three Socrates emerged and it is from these which one can begin to piece together the thoughts of the historical philosopher. The first is the Aristophanic Socrates. Depicted in his Comedies as a Sophist, a natural philosopher who would teach arguments for money and denounced the existence of the gods of common opinion. For example, in Clouds by Aristophanes, Socrates agrees to teach pheidippides, strepsiades son, to win any argument, for a price: â€Å"Listen to his pronunciation – the drawl, the open mouth – did you hear? Its not going to be easy to teach him to win cases and make good debating points, which do not actually mean anything. And yet [reflectively] for 6ooo drachmas, H... Free Essays on Tacitus And Nero Free Essays on Tacitus And Nero The question posed in this essay is a profound one which has perplexed and kept scholars interested for generations. The â€Å"Socratic problem† as it has been coined, is one which is difficult in defining. Paul woodruff wrote of Socrates, â€Å"he is our model of a philosopher†. How many aspects of Socrates are there, and which one, if any, shows the real historical Socrates? This is the problem met when trying to recreate the historical mans thoughts, for the evidence is all from other parties, and so must be tainted with certain social and personal biases and opinions. There are essentially four sources to base our historical Socrates upon . Writers both of, and after his time, they have varying degrees of accuracy. Plato, a philosopher of the highest order, and an extremely close companion to Socrates himself, is the first and probably the most accurate of the sources. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato and an esteemed philosopher in his own right, would have had second hand knowledge of Socrates. Xenophon, a military general who at the time of Socrates, was probably only a casual aquaintance . The last of the sources is the comic poet and social critic Aristophanes, who wrote rather disparately of Socrates in his comedies. From these sources of the time, three Socrates emerged and it is from these which one can begin to piece together the thoughts of the historical philosopher. The first is the Aristophanic Socrates. Depicted in his Comedies as a Sophist, a natural philosopher who would teach arguments for money and denounced the existence of the gods of common opinion. For example, in Clouds by Aristophanes, Socrates agrees to teach pheidippides, strepsiades son, to win any argument, for a price: â€Å"Listen to his pronunciation – the drawl, the open mouth – did you hear? Its not going to be easy to teach him to win cases and make good debating points, which do not actually mean anything. And yet [reflectively] for 6ooo drachmas, H...

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Empress Dowager Cixi - Chinese History

Empress Dowager Cixi - Chinese History Few people in history have been as thoroughly vilified as the Empress Dowager Cixi (sometimes spelled Tzu Hsi), one of the last empresses of Chinas Qing Dynasty. Depicted in writings by English contemporaries in the foreign service as cunning, treacherous and sex-crazed, Cixi was painted as a caricature of a woman, and a symbol of Europeans beliefs about the Orient in general. She is not the only female ruler to suffer this indignity. Scurrilous rumors abound about women from Cleopatra to Catherine the Great. Still, Cixi received some of the worst press in history. After a century of defamation, her life and reputation finally are being re-examined. Cixis Early Life The Empress Dowagers early life is shrouded in mystery. We do know that she was born November 29, 1835, to a noble Manchu family in China, but even her birth-name is not recorded. Her fathers name was Kuei Hsiang of the Yehenara clan; her mothers name is not known. A number of other stories - that the girl was a beggar who sang in the streets for money, that her father was addicted to opium and gambling, and that the child was sold to the emperor as a sex-slave - seem to be pure European embroidery. In truth, Qing imperial policy forbade the publication of personal details, so foreign observers simply made up stories to fill in the gaps. Cixi the Concubine In 1849, when the girl was fourteen, she was one of 60 nominees for the position of an imperial concubine. She was probably eager to be chosen, since she once said, I have had a very hard life ever since I was a young girl. I was not a bit happy when with my parents... My sisters had everything they wanted, while I was, to a great extent, ignored altogether. (Seagrave, 25) Fortunately, after a two-year preparation period, the then-Empress Dowager selected her as an imperial concubine from among the large pool of Manchu and Mongol girls. Qing emperors were forbidden from taking Han Chinese wives or concubines. She would serve Emperor Xianfeng as a fourth-rank concubine. Her name was recorded simply as Lady Yehenara after her fathers clan. A Birth and a Death Xianfeng had one empress (Niuhuru), two consorts, and eleven concubines. This was a small assortment, relative to earlier emperors; as the budget was tight. His favorite was a consort, who bore him a daughter, but while she was pregnant, he spent time with Cixi. Cixi also soon became pregnant  and gave birth to a boy on April 27, 1856. Little Zaichun was Xianfengs only son, so his birth greatly improved his mothers standing in court. During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), Western troops looted and burned the lovely Summer Palace. On top of existing health problems, this shock is said to have killed the 30-year-old Xianfeng. Co-Empresses Dowager On his death-bed, Xianfeng made contradictory statements about the succession, which was not guaranteed to Zaichun. He did not formally name an heir before he died on August 22, 1861. Still, Cixi made sure that her 5-year-old son became the Tongzhi Emperor. A regency council of four ministers and four nobles assisted the child emperor, while the Empress Niuhuru and Cixi were named co-Empresses Dowager. The Empresses each controlled a royal seal, meant to be a mere formality, but which could be used as a form of veto. When the ladies opposed a decree they refused to stamp it, converting the protocol into real power. The Xinyou Palace Coup One of the ministers on the regency council, Su Shun, was intent on becoming the sole power behind the throne or perhaps even wresting the crown away from the child emperor. Though Emperor Xianfeng had named both Empresses Dowager as regents, Su Shun tried to cut out Cixi and take her imperial seal. Cixi publicly denounced Su Shun and allied herself with Empress Niuhuru and three imperial princes against him. Su Shun, who controlled the treasury, cut off food and other household items for the Empresses, but they would not give in. When the royal household returned to Beijing for the funeral, Su Shun was arrested and charged with subversion. Despite his high post, he was beheaded in the public vegetable market. Two princely co-conspirators were allowed to die by suicide. Two Young Emperors The new regents faced a difficult period in Chinas history. The country struggled to pay indemnities for the Second Opium War, and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was in full swing in the south. Breaking with Manchu tradition, the Empresses Dowager appointed competent Han Chinese generals and officials to high office in order to deal with these problems. In 1872, the 17-year-old Tongzhi Emperor married Lady Alute. The following year he was made emperor regnant, although some historians charge that he was functionally illiterate and often neglecting matters of state. On January 13, 1875, he died of smallpox at just 18. The Tongzhi Emperor did not leave an heir, so the Empresses Dowager had to select an appropriate replacement. By Manchu custom, the new emperor should have been from the next generation after Tongzhi, but no such boy existed. They settled instead on Cixis sisters 4-year-old son, Zaitian, who became the Guangxu Emperor. At this time, Cixi was often bed-ridden with a liver ailment. In April of 1881, Empress Dowager Niuhuru suddenly died at the age of 44, possibly of a stroke. Naturally, rumors quickly spread through the foreign legations that Cixi had poisoned her, although Cixi was herself probably too ill to have had any part in a plot. She would not recover her own health until 1883. Guangxu Emperors Reign In 1887, the timid Emperor Guaungxu came of age at 16, but the court postponed his accession ceremony. Two years later, he married Cixis niece Jingfen (although he reportedly did not find her long face very attractive). At that time, a fire broke out in the Forbidden City, which caused some observers to worry that the Emperor and Cixi had lost the Mandate of Heaven. When he took power in his own name at 19, Guangxu wanted to modernize the army and bureaucracy, but Cixi was wary of his reforms. She moved to the new Summer Palace to be out of his way, nonetheless. In 1898, Guangxus reformers in court were tricked into agreeing to cede sovereignty to Ito Hirobumi, Japans former Prime Minister. Just as the Emperor was about to formalize the move, troops controlled by Cixi stopped the ceremony. Guangxu was disgraced and retired to an island in the Forbidden City. The Boxer Rebellion In 1900, Chinese discontent with foreign demands and aggression erupted into the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion, also called the Righteous Harmony Society Movement. Initially, the Boxers included the Manchu Qing rulers among the foreigners they opposed, but in June 1900, Cixi threw her support behind them, and they became allies. The Boxers executed Christian missionaries and converts all over the country, tore down churches, and laid siege to the foreign trade legations in Peking for 55 days. Inside the Legation Quarter, men, women and children from the UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Russia and Japan were huddled, along with Chinese Christian refugees. In the fall of 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance (the European powers plus the US and Japan) sent an expeditionary force of 20,000 to raise the siege on the Legations. The force went up-river and captured Beijing. The final death toll from the rebellion is estimated at almost 19,000 civilians, 2,500 foreign troops and about 20,000 Boxers and Qing troops. Flight from Peking With the foreign forces approaching Peking, on August 15, 1900, Cixi dressed in peasant garb and fled from the Forbidden City in an ox cart, along with Emperor Guangxu and their retainers. The Imperial Party made its way far to the west, to the ancient capital of Xian (formerly Changan). The Empress Dowager called their flight a tour of inspection, and in fact, she did become more aware of the conditions for ordinary Chinese people during their travels. After some time, the Allied Powers sent a conciliatory message to Cixi in Xian, offering to make peace. The Allies would allow Cixi to continue her rule, and would not demand any land from the Qing. Cixi agreed to their terms, and she and the Emperor returned to Peking in January of 1902. The End of Cixis Life After her return to the Forbidden City, Cixi set out to learn all she could from the foreigners. She invited Legation wives to tea  and instituted reforms modeled on those in Meiji Japan. She also distributed prize Pekingese dogs (previously kept only in the Forbidden City) to her European and American guests. On November 14, 1908, the Guangxu Emperor died of acute arsenic poisoning. Although she was quite ill herself, Cixi installed the late Emperors nephew, the 2-year-old Puyi, as the new Xuantong Emperor. Cixi died the following day. The Empress Dowager in History For decades, the Empress Dowager Cixi was described as a devious and depraved tyrant, based largely on the writings of people who did not even know her, including J.O.P. Bland and Edmund Backhouse. However, contemporary accounts by Der Ling and Katherine Carl, as well as later scholarship by Hugh Trevor-Roper and Sterling Seagrave, paint a very different picture. Rather than a power-mad harridan with a harem of faux eunuchs, or a woman who poisoned most of her own family, Cixi comes across as an intelligent survivor who learned to navigate Qing politics  and rode the wave of very troubled times for 50 years. Sources: Seagrave, Sterling. Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China, New York: Knopf, 1992. Trevor-Roper, Hugh. Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse, New York: Knopf, 1977. Warner, Marina. The Dragon Empress: The Life and Times of Tzu-Hsi, Empress Dowager of China 1835-1908, New York: Macmillan, 1972.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The Cold War Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Cold War Economy - Essay Example This is by availing its population with reliable employment opportunities and other essential services like housing, education for the veterans and other services, hence comprises some of the strategies during then aimed at empowering private sector. The American regime during cold war adopted or utilized mixed economy in its quest to evade fiscal anguish evident in the way it boosted the private sector. In order to ensure the then depression did not cripple banking industry, the state intervened with the intention of cushioning loaning process especially. As Mooney explains, â€Å"The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) established during the Great Depression to revitalize the real estate and home construction industries played a central role in creating postwar suburban America (Mooney, 147).† Hence, boosting the housing market by instituting FHA such that private sector did not have doubt in recovering their invested resources. This is through subsidizing long-term loan mo rtgages that acted as a great boost to the private sector towards doubling their efforts. This led to the creation of American suburb areas, which the private sector during then could not manage.It assisted veterans who wanted to go to college or technical school; it also helped millions of veterans purchase homes by guaranteeing mortgage loans made by private lenders (Moony, 139).† The aim of this Bill entailed evading the burden of the returned population from the war as they started to age. Since once they do not have anything to rely on will be the burden of the state to cater for their respective upkeep in terms of medical care. By imparting them with appropriate knowledge and varied skills within few years, they will be able to depend on themselves. In addition, the government will channel financial support meant for their care to other sectors, hence boost the economy. The government also came up with tight laws meant to secure firms’ interests such that employee s backed by their respective unions could not result in â€Å"wildcat strikes† which extremely expensive. According to lecture notes, â€Å"1947 Taft-Hartley Act established certain Presidential powers to be used to retain order in certain emergency situations (such as a strike or lockout that would likely cause adverse effects on an entire industry or would threaten national health, safety or security) (Lecture notes, November 13, 2013).† Hence, showing the then relationship between private sector and the central regime in ensuring both private sectors, which in this case encompassed industries and workers coexisted well. This is by ensuring both parties once there were any misunderstandings they were capable of resolving them adequately and effectively without resulting to injurious incidences. Some of these injurious or detrimental incidences encompassed unnecessary strikes and sometimes firms retrenching workers due to their respective union persuasions.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for your financial Assignment

Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for your financial organisation for the 21st Century - Assignment Example suggests that corporations have a duty to society to act in ways that benefit everyone and promotes social justice—to try to neuter the capitalist impulses that allow companies to be competitive and make profits. Nevertheless, many companies have done it to try to burnish their reputations in crowded marketplaces. The truth is that there are many ways to go about instilling this kind of thinking within the company. Part of it can be external, with us investing in causes that we think are appropriate. Another way to do it is through values and codes of ethics. Some say that spending money on CSR is a waste and that we should focus on improving profitability and returning money to our shareholders. That idea may be short-sighted. As one leading researcher recently wrote: Opinion and research has been divided regarding the relationship between CSR and financial performance. On the one had, conventional wisdom would assume that CSR has been considered as a zero-sum tradeoff with profitability: more money spent on CSR means less spent on increasing market share, or re-investment. Conversely, academic thought has also suggested that those companies, who appear to be more responsible in the areas of environment and societal behavior, would more attractive for investors, and therefore perform better financially (Cavett-Goodwin 2007). All of these are important considerations as we look at the pluses and minuses of this possible strategy in the next section. We must be mindful that CSR is not zero-sum, but that everyone can benefit from using it. It can do a lot of good for a great many people. A question that has troubled many people since the dawn of time is how should a person lead a good, ethical life? Furthermore, how should a business behave in an ethical manner? There are as many theories as there are grains of sand on the beach, but a few ideas over the years have been more popular than others. Some people are born into religions where these questions are

Sunday, November 17, 2019

The human nature Essay Example for Free

The human nature Essay How much is human frustration worth? Is it worth losing a chance to buy a present for the girl you like? Or is it worth participating in a lottery which is nothing more but a silly tragic fatal ritual? I was asking these questions while reading James Joyces Araby and Shirley Jacksons The Lottery. For me, both stories represent the ultimate point of human despair: at this point, the person is no longer able to control his (her) life and surrenders under the pressure of overwhelming circumstances. I think that frustration is the central element of both stories; it touches the depth of the readers soul and turns into disruptive revelation about the perversity and hideousness of the human nature. Human strength and endurance has no limits; human evil and self-interest are unlimited, too. James Joyces Araby shows human frustration in its powerlessness in the face of insuperable circumstances. Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. [†¦] When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped (Joyce 62). The whole life of the anonymous narrator is filled with joy of seeing the young lady walking in front of him, and passing her before their ways diverge. He lives his life from morning to morning, when he will see Magans sister again. This is the life full of waiting; this is the life full of expectation, anxiety, dreaming and almost physical attraction. The same is the life of villagers whom Jackson describes in her The Lottery. It is the life full of expectation mixed with the feeling of threat, fear, and imminence of the coming end: Bobby Martin already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones (Jackson 10). As the young boy cannot wait to visit the bazaar I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me childs play (Joyce 63), the villagers cannot wait to hear when the new victim of the annual ritual will be declared: guess we better get started, get this over with, sos we can go back to work (Jackson 13). The deeper Joyce goes into the young boys soul, the larger is the prairie between his promise to visit the Araby bazaar and the realization of his inability to fulfill the promise: Nearly all stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness (Joyce 65). How bright and shockingly sincere Joyces revelation could be, Jacksons story has gone far beyond Joyces reasonable limits. Jackson has gone even deeper to the moment of unexpectedness which emphasized the unlimited nature of human mercenary character. In the light of Jacksons The Lottery, Araby produces an impression of the boy’s relatively mild reconciliation with the surrounding opportunities and circumstances. Moreover, I feel that Joyce still leaves some hope that everything will change: ultimately, there will be another bazaar and another girl, although the young boy does not yet understand it. On the contrary, Jackson uses unexpectedness to emphasize how far human coldness, rationality, and perversity can go; the author shows, how easily humans turn into beasts when they pursue material interests, leaving no hope to escape the lottery’s trap. Jackson shows how human desire to kill turns into a usual feeling, when it becomes regular for and acceptable by other community members: the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten oclock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner (Jackson 10). Conclusion Both stories end up in frustration; for Joyces character, frustration is reflected in the hollow sound of two pennies that fall against the sixpence in my pocket (Joyce 66). A creature driven and derided by vanity (Joyce 66) is the end result of Joyces striving towards recognition and love. For Tessie Hutchinson, frustration becomes real as she holds the slip of paper that has a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office (Jackson 17). Later, this frustration turns into the feeling of inevitability of tragedy, when a stone hit her on the side of the head (Jackson 17). In both stories, frustration is the shocking reflection of the human hideousness, cruelty, and indifference which leave no chance for spiritual and physical resurrection. Works Cited Jackson, S. â€Å"The Lottery†. 10-17. Joyce, J. â€Å"Araby.† 61-6.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

decriminalize drugs Essay -- essays research papers

One the many controversies in our country today, regards the prohibition of illegal narcotics. Deemed unhealthy, hazardous, and even fatal by the authorities that be; the U.S. government has declared to wage a â€Å"war on drugs.† It has been roughly fifteen years since this initiative has begun, and each year the government shuffles more money into the unjust cause of drug prohibition. Even after all of this, the problem of drugs that the government sees still exists. The prohibition of drugs is a constitutional anomaly. There are many aspects and sides to look at the issue from, but the glaring inefficiency current laws exude is that any human should have the right to ingest anything he or she desires. The antagonist on the other end believes that by doing so chaos would result because of the ingestion of said substances. This purely speculation, and we have seen in the history of man that this has never occurred nor is there reason to believe it will happen this time. Many proponents of the current drug laws claim that legalization and/or decriminalization would in turn increase the number of drug users. If a drug is legalized/decriminalized, the price will fall and the quantity of demand will rise. The evidence from prohibition suggests we can expect two broad patterns of response if legalization occurs. First, there will be a small rise in consumption, which will take place to some extent across the spectrum of consumers. People who had never used drugs may choose to use them. Secondly, there will be a change in the nature of the drugs used and in the way in which they will be used. Specifically, there will be a move toward less intensive drug forms and less abusive patterns of use. When drugs are illegal, more damaging drugs drive out less damaging ones. In jurisdictions that liberalize their drug laws, this process will reverse itself. The evidence on this from Prohibition is unequivocal: as soon as repeal occurred, the consumption of hard liq uor dropped by more than two-thirds. In addition, there was a massive shift from higher potency liquor toward the lower-proof varieties of liquor. The vast majority of all people, addicts and alcoholics included, do not consume drugs as a means of destroying their lives. Nor do they consume them intending to become addicted to them. Abuse and addiction are the adverse consequences that sometimes occur when drugs are ... ...its goal and at this rate we as a nation will run out of money long before it does ever come close. The real tragedy of this situation are those who suffer, and those are the ones incarcerated. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1997 3 out of 4 state and 4 out of 5 federal prisoners may be characterized as an alcohol or drug involved offender. The percentage of those in prison for drug offenses was 54.8% in 2002. Prisons are overcrowding and it seems less money is being put into them. Prison sentences are being handed out everyday and the average length of those put in for drugs has doubled from 1986 to 1999. The rehabilitation of these â€Å"criminals† is almost nonexistent. The culture inside of prison hardly reinforces the recovery of the inmates, instead it breeds a criminal culture from which it s hard to escape. In conclusion, the government’s war on drugs has not been successful to date, and shows no sign of victory in the future. I think it that is about time we reconsider what values we hold high and take a second look at the damage that already has been done by the war on drugs. What it comes down to is personal freedom and the constitutional anomaly that destroys it.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Metaphysical Poetry and John Donne Essay

Define metaphysical poetry, its characteristics and John Donne as a metaphysical poet. The concept metaphysical deals with the philosophical view of the nature of things. Metaphysical poetry is often mentioned as poetry inspired by a philosophical concept of the universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence. Metaphysical poetry is involved with the whole experience of man, but the intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets. Metaphysical poetry has an amazing power to explore and express ideas and feelings about the world and its diverse phenomena in a rational way to captivate the readers. Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. A group of 17th-century poets, whose work is characterized by the use of complex and elaborate images or conceits, typically using an intellectual form of argumentation to express emotional states are denoted as metaphysical poets. Members of this group include John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick and Richard Crashaw who explored the nature of the world and human life, and who used images that were surprising at that time. Their poetic works have been abundant with the various perspectives of human life especially – like love, romance and sensuality; about man’s relationship with God – the eternal perspective, and to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art. The metaphysical poetry presents innovative and wondrous use of puns, paradoxes and employs cunning logical propositions; Metaphysical poem is brief but intense and embodies a style that is energetic and vigorous. A metaphysical poem is an expanded epigram, characterized by the striking use of wit and irony. Metaphysical poetry demands concentration. Moreover a metaphysical conceit makes the poetry more vibrant and notable. It is largely used to make a comparison of cleverness and justice and its invention is often more impressive than its justness. A metaphysical conceit is used to persuade, or to define, or to prove a point that’s why the metaphysical poetry is usually argumentative and persuasive. A metaphysical poet attempts to establish a logical connection between his emotional feelings and intellectual concepts with the help of far-fetched imagery. The clever placement of unlike imagery, thought and emotions, contrasting pair of statements and unifying altogether makes it extraordinary. According to Ben Johnson; â€Å"the metaphysical poets showcase their knowledge and intelligence in their poetry. † The metaphysical poets play with thoughts as the Elizabethans had played with words which clearly show the wit and intellect of poets. The controlled flow of emotions is the exhibition of the potential the poets carry to express feelings in controlled language. Metaphors, similes and personifications are significant elements of metaphysical poetry. In addition to this a combination of sensibility portrays the marvelous fusion of head and heart, of intellect and emotion, of thought and passion. The metaphysical poets harmonized thoughts, reasoning, feelings and images. Being successful at merging diverse fields, metaphysical poetry also contains a sense of humour though it is not laughable but it brings a smile to the reader’s face. Metaphysical poetry is usually a dramatic monolog, the poet is addressed to the audience like in drama and every idea is for the audience. Furthermore the abrupt openings of metaphysical poetry are therefore an attraction which creates an interest for the readers. The metaphysical poets were more interested in the use of intricate rhythm, realism and obscurity. Joan Bennet observes that in the case of Donne and his circle, the term that â€Å"metaphysical actually refers to the style rather than subject matter†. John Donne (1572-1631) was inclined to the personal and intellectual complexity and concentration that is displayed in his poetry. He is acknowledged as the master of metaphysical poetry. John Donne was Born in London into a prosperous Roman Catholic family, at a time when England was staunchly anti-Catholic, Donne was forced to leave Oxford without a degree because of his religion. He studied law and, at the same time, read widely in theology in an attempt to decide whether the Roman or the Anglican Church was the true Catholic Church . In the meantime, he became known as a witty man of the world and the author of original, often dense, erotic poems. Donne participated in two naval expeditions, he was briefly sent to prison for secretly marrying his patron’s niece. In 1615, at the age of forty-two, Donne accepted ordination in the Anglican Church. He quickly earned a reputation as one of the greatest preachers of his time. He was Dean of St. Paul’s since 1621 until his death. John Donne is regarded as both the pioneer and the chief spokesman of metaphysical poetry. The importance of his innovation was recognized by Thomas Carew, who praised Donne as the monarch of wit who ‘purged’ /’The Muses’ Garden’, threw away ‘the loose seeds / Of Servile imitation †¦ And fresh invention planted’. But his poetry is also difficult and complicated. Donne adopts different oles and postures – the libertine rake, the devoted and constant lover and the cynic who feels cheated by his experience in love, the despairing sinner fearing damnation, and bold suitor, claiming his right to salvation. His poetry expresses radically contradictory views – of women, the body, and love. Donne’s poetry about love and about his relation to God invites connections with his personal life, yet it resists attempts to read it biographically. His seventeenth-century biographer, Izaak Walton, assigned the secular love poetry to the youthful Donne and the religious poetry to the mature priest. His notable works are The Good-Morrow, The Sunne Rising, Death Be Not Proud, Batter My Heart, The Canonization, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day , Twicknam Garden and The Anniversarie . The Songs and Sonnets explore man’s relation with woman, seeing erotic love as one of the most important experiences of life. Donne’s love poetry describes passionate sexual love with vigor and intensity. There are far too many suitable poems to consider all in detail, but The Good-Morrow and The Sunne Rising belong together. Whereas the Elegies in their political language and analogies often connect love and the political world, here there is a sharper opposition between the two spheres. The private little room of love (the microcosm) contrasts with the outside world of princes, explorers, lawyers, and merchants, who are all preoccupied with material concerns. â€Å"The Good-morrow† is a complex poem which moves around two central metaphors, of a pair of lovers walking into a new life together and of new world created by their mutual love. John Donne gave a poetic status to a simple idea in an argumentative way in a three stanza structure. But the fluency of the stanza is leading to the brief penultimate line and final Alexandrine with its stately, measured quality. On (line-4) there is a reference to bible to the seven sleepers, /or snorted we in seven sleepers den/ metaphorically may be Donne and his beloved were sleeping. Furthermore in (lines 8-14) he claims that his experience of mutual love gives him a new perspective from which the rest of the world looks insignificant. The world of love contains everything of value; it is the only one worth exploring and possessing. Donne uses conceits and metaphors to exhibit his knowledge of geography, which is evident by the reference to the sea voyagers, that the lovers are not interested in the new worlds and discoveries, they are happy with each other and they don’t want anything else. /Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, / Let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown, / Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one/. While the following lines /Where can we find two better hemispheres/Without sharp north, without declining west? Compares the world of the lovers in the geographical world that our world is full of love and our love for each other is true and never ending. Love creates its own perfect world, combined of two better hemispheres. Donne’s keen interest in discovering, links him with important concerns of his age. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of exploration, both scientific and geographical. England also saw the emergence of modern, experimental science. The New World was being explored, and astronomical observations by Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo led to the discovery of a new order of the heavens. Donne telescoped images and draws references from diverse spheres of cosmology, geography, science, philosophy, alchemy, theology, sea-voyages, mythology, religion, law and even from colonial enterprise so far as Britain was then emerging as the greatest empire through colonial expansion in different countries. Certain images or ideas recur so often as to seem typical: kingship and rule; subjectivism (â€Å"one little room an everywhere† â€Å"nothing else is†); alchemy – especially the mystical beliefs associated with elixir and quintessence and cosmology, both ancient and modern (references both to spheres and to the world of â€Å"sea-discoverers†). Another love sonnet by Donne â€Å"The Sun Rising† is a dramatic monologue addressed to the sun and the beloved. Here Donne uses personification metaphors and similes to make it interesting and attractive. Sun and ants are personified and different images are used (lines 5-10) like schoolboys, factory workers, huntsman, life of London and the royal class. There is a conceit where beloved’s beautiful eyes are compared to India (undiscovered beauty) and the sun can see that if India is as beautiful as his beloved’s eyes or his beloved’s eyes are more beautiful, this far-fetched conceit illustrates Donne’s wit and intellect. There is a metaphor where the beloved is compared to the states and princess/she is all states, and all princes, I, nothing else/ it gives the idea that for the poet, the beloved is the entire world, royalty, majestic and grand and maybe the sun also believes that. Hence the microcosmic world of love becomes larger and more important than the macrocosm. /Princes doe†¦. All wealth alchimie/ here poet says that his beloved’s beauty is copied by princess and further a metaphor express that she is more honorable and worthy than wealth and gold and their love is all the wealth for them. The concluding couplet/ Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere/ This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere/ brings forth a cosmic imagery to show how the microcosmic world of the lovers symbolizes the macrocosmic world. Donne’s Divine Poems explore the man’s relation with God, often describing it in terms of human love, and seeking to discover the true relation between man’s love for God that promises salvation. Even with his Divine Poems exploring religious experience, Donne seeks to understand the relation between erotic and spiritual love. In Donne’s Divine Poems the sense of sinfulness is so great that the speaker insists it will take extraordinary efforts on God’s part to save him. The demands for an intense, intimate relation with God are often couched in erotic language. Perhaps the most startling poem is the sonnet ‘Batter my heart, three person’d God’, in which the speaker metaphorically says that he is like a woman who loves one man (God) but is betrothed to another (Satan), and wants to be rescued, even by force. It’s a paradoxical poem with conceits and metaphors and one of the best known in his holy sonnets. On (line 5-8) a conceit is used where the poet is comparing himself to a town which is conquered by enemies and he wants God to come to him and dominate him. Donne took ideas from the bible and Christian priests in his holy sonnets. Death Be Not Proud is Donne’s another argumentative poem, that death is not all-powerful, since it must eventually give way to eternal life, we fear as death is (for Christian believer) only form of sleep from which we have to awake on the day of judgment, when death will be abolished. There is a reference to (Jesus Christ) in last 3 lines of (Death Be Not Proud) and the idea is taken from bible as he wants forgiveness with blood as each drop of Christ’s blood is salvation /why swell’st thou†¦ death, thou shalt die/. The argument of the poem is that. There is another reference to the flood in Noah’s time/from rest and sleepe, †¦ rest of their soules deliverie/(lines5-9). Donne in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning compares the lovers with a pair of compasses. Such a far-fetched comparison to show the affinity and relationship of the lovers in terms of compasses is indeed astounding for which Samuel Johnson describes metaphysical conceit as a combination of dissimilar images or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently. Again in Twicknam Garden Donne makes another brilliant use of conceit whose ingenuity, Helen Gardner considers, is more striking than its justice: ? The spider Love, which transubstantiates all/ And can convert manna to gall. In Donne’s poetry we will also examine a sudden dramatic beginning and finer exertion of colloquial language, as exemplified in the abrupt, conversational opening of The Canonization where the poet-lover admonishes the intruder in a colloquial tone for hampering their privacy: ? For God‘s sake hold your tongue, and let me love, / Or chide my palsy, or my gout/ My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout?. If we keenly observe, we will find that many of the tensions and contradictions in Donne’s poetry can be seen as deriving from wanting to satisfy conflicting human needs and desires. Some poems like ‘The Indifferent’ or ‘Community’ insist on male independence and autonomy in erotic relations. Others like ‘The Sun Rising’ or ‘The Canonization’ show a strong desire for intimacy. Donne’s poetry thus expresses the instability and infinity of human desire. For all its various attitudes, what is so wonderful about Donne is that, for all his realistic assessment of those limits, and for all the admissions of guilt about his immoderate desires, he never gives up wanting — and asking for -more. There are some other well-known contemporaries of John Donne like Andrew Marvell (1621–78), who is one of the English metaphysical poets. Among his best-known poems is To His Coy Mistress, a clever and entertaining attempt to persuade a young woman to go to bed with him there is an explicit argument of this poem. Other works of Andrew Marvell include The Coronet, Bermudas, The Definition of Love and The Garden. Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) is another metaphysical poet, who wrote The Retreate, The World, Man and â€Å"They Are All Gone into the World of Light†. In The Retreate, Vaughan notes that â€Å"shadows of eternity are seen by him in natural phenomena such as clouds or flowers. His works express one’s personal relationship to God. George Herbert another worth mentioning English poet and priest, is one of the metaphysical poets who dealt with religious themes such as doubt, suffering and joy, using simple language and metaphors. Herbert’s poetry is elegant as the result of art as a cultivated expression, but not forced, spiritual humility. He wrote Jordan in which there is religious devotion versus secular love, other works are The Pearl, The Collar, Discipline and Love. Following the steps of John Donne, Richard Crashaw (1613-1649) wrote many metaphysical poems like EpigrammaticumSacrorum Liber, Steps to the Temple, Delights of the Muses, Carmen Deo Nostro and that’s why he is also short listed among the brilliant and illustrious metaphysical poets. His collection The Temple was published after his death. All these legends have played an important role in the survival of metaphysical poetry. Lastly, I will mention that metaphysical poetry gives us a new dimension to create a far-fetched link with the help of metaphysical conceits, which stimulates us to think beyond the surface level and show our wit and shrewdness. I would praise all the metaphysical poets, for their commendable job and setting a new trend in English poetry. The tremendous versatility of Donne and his contemporaries paved the way for future generations to produce something as grand as metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry has its great importance in English literature due to its vivacious imagery and attractive techniques. Indeed, metaphysical poetry is a milestone achievement for metaphysical poets; it’s worth reading and worth admiring.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

How Walmart Can Improve Sales Essay

1. What strategies would you recommend to current CEO Mike Duke? 2. How can Wal-Mart benefit from Internet retailing? â€Å"The internet has interesting aspects and will definitely serve a growing market throughout the 21st Century.† (David, P. 69) Wal-Mart.com allows customers easy and convenient access to Wal-Mart’s millions of products without leaving their homes; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year; in turn will boost sales because Wal-Mart.com is able to display all products available, unlike store, which have limited space. As long as Wal-Mart.com continues to offer low prices and low shipping prices with the same quality of service, with easy checkout, it can be most profitable allowing Wal-Mart to benefit from internet retailing. 3. How aggressively should Wal-Mart expand internationally and where? I don’t believe Wal-Mart should move progressively when expanding internationally. It is the right time to expand internationally, anywhere east of the North America continent. Wal-Mart expanding internationally keeps them from being vulnerable to fluctuations of the U.S. dollar, allowing them to generate earnings from the countries east of the U.S. Wal-Mart should expand aggressively, which will allow customers all over the world â€Å"to associate their name with low cost, greatest selection of quality merchandise and highest standards of customer service.† (David, P. 68) 4. Should Wal-Mart expand the convenient store concept in China and other markets? I believe it is a good idea to expand the convenient store concept in China and other markets. According to Convenience Store News; â€Å"small formats are leading store growth in the Asia-Pacific region with traditional convenience stores seeing significant growth. China added more than 4,000 new c-stores in the past 12 months.† (Kress, 2012) 5. Should Wal-Mart get a foothold in Europe before competitors seize the initiative?

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Abe Lincoln1 essays

Abe Lincoln1 essays History Essay The United Sates declared its independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. Great Britain did not recognize its independence until, the Treaty of Paris, two years after the American forces defeated the Britain army at the siege of Yorktown. Since the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the United States has had forty-two different presidents. Among these presidents, two of the best have were George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. This essay will prove that George Washington was the greatest U.S. president of all time. There are certain attributes that good presidents have. It is said that good presidents are always stubborn and disagreeable. 1 Along with those two qualities good presidents are intelligent, selfless, hard working, good communicators, good listeners, good problem solving tactics, determination, and they are able to recognize problems. George Washingtons rise to power started in 1732 when he was born, in Westmorela nd, Virginia on his fathers farm. He lived until 1799, when he died at the age of sixty-seven. He served as president from 1789 threw until 1797. When growing up, George received most of his education from his father and older brother. When he was 17 he was named the surveyor of Culpeper County, this was the first public office position he held.2 When Washington was finished surveying, in November of 1752, he was appointed the adjutant in the colonial militia. His first mission did not come until the following summer, when he volunteered to take a message from Governor, to the French commander. Following this mission he was brought to the kings attention, and he was given a lieutenant colonels commission.3 Washington showed his opposition to Britain started in 1759 when he became a member of Virginias House of Burgesses. He was known to be shy and reserved4 but he opposed the British rules and re...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Set Up Bathroom Pass Procedures to Manage Hall Traffic

Set Up Bathroom Pass Procedures to Manage Hall Traffic Covering all of the points in a planned lesson often takes every moment of class time. Students who interrupt you to ask for permission to use the restroom throw you off your tight schedule and disrupt their classmates attention. You can minimize the distraction with a bathroom pass system that allows students to excuse themselves, giving them some limited autonomy.   Take time at the beginning of the year to explain your rules about appropriate and inappropriate times to use the restroom. Remind students that they have the preferred time before school, between  classes, and at lunch to use the bathroom. While you can never deny a student access to the toilet, you might set a rule that no student can sign out during the first or last 5 minutes of class or during lecture. This allows enough time for you to complete a mini-lesson or giving directions. Set Up Your Bathroom Pass System Some teachers use clipboards holding a  paper that has columns to record the students name, destination, the  time out and the time back. Students fill out each column independently and take the generic bathroom pass to their destination. This system records daily activity by all students. Another bathroom pass system suggestion uses a plastic index card holder and 3x5 index cards, one per student. At the beginning of the school year, pass out 3x5 index cards and ask students to write their name. Then have them divide the flip side of the index card into four equal areas. In the upper right corner of each quadrant, they should put a 1, 2, 3 or 4 to correspond to the four grading quarters. (Adjust the layout for trimesters or other terms.)   Instruct students to label a row across the top of each area with a D for Date, T for Time and I for Initial. File the cards alphabetically in the plastic holder grouped by class periods and find a convenient location near the door to keep it. Ask them to return the card to the holder in a vertical position so it stands out from the others; you will go through after class or at the end of the day and initial them. This system records daily activity by individual students. Explain Your Bathroom Pass Tracking Method Let students know that your system allows them to excuse themselves from class for a few minutes when they really need to go. Tell the students that if they want to use the restroom, they should quietly fill in the chart or retrieve their card without interrupting you or their classmates and enter the date and time in the appropriate place.   Monitoring the Restroom Pass System Whatever the system you adopt, whether it is a sign-in/sign-out sheet or index cards, you should make sure that all students are following the system.You should also look for patterns.  For example, is a student leaving at the same time daily?  Are the restroom visits having a negative impact on academic? Does the student make poor choices about when to leave? If you notice any of these, you have a discussion with the student.   While some teachers dangle prizes for not using bathroom passes, there can be some health issues associated with students ignoring their bodies signals. There are also medical conditions, including pregnancy, that increase trips to the restroom. Teachers should always be aware of any medical conditions listed on a students individual educational plan (IEP) or 504. Tips You could also Include trips to the locker, other classrooms, etc. in the bathroom pass passes.The index cards are inexpensive to use and to replace, which makes them more sanitary  than other objects.If your school uses physical hall passes, keep those near the card file so students can grab one on their way out of the door.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Communication Strategies in Nike Inc Assignment

Communication Strategies in Nike Inc - Assignment Example The paper tells that Nike is dominating the sports material industry for the past 33 years. Nike emerged as the number one athletic footwear company in the US and secured the position of number two American brands in terms of name recognition among overseas consumers, the status of the company matched with that of renowned organizations such as IBM and Coca-Cola. This high degree of recognition is one of the main reasons how Nike has been so vastly successful. "Values and mission is the vision of Nike". Values and Mission both are hand glove, which makes the vision a meaningful. Nike's core values center on the spirit of competition and the thrill of winning, its mission is a big hairy, audacious goal that has led it to annihilate its competitors, Adidas and Reebok. The company's goals include delivery of value to the shareholders by building a profitable portfolio of global footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories brands. And High single-digit revenue growth; Mid-teens earnings per share growth; Increased return on invested capital and accelerated cash flows; and Consistent results through effective management of its diversified portfolio of businesses. Nike is continuously engaged in the construction of its effective and impressive strategies and to achieve the goals with its profoundly qualified and experienced team of directors and presidents and its CEO. The strategies are focused in four key areas such as 1.Deepening the company relationship with consumers, developing, improving and maintaining the relationship with the consumers is vital for any organization especially the company engaged in the business of consumer goods; 2.Delivering superior, innovative products to the marketplace, it is very important to keep a keen watch on the improving trends in technology and fashion to and adjust the quality of the products to suit accordingly to the changed conditions there fore this good strategy which can keep the customers behavior intact with the compa ny product; 3.Making the company's supply chain a competitive advantage, through operational discipline and excellence, the company supply chain also plays important role in the business sine it is ultimate wing which enables to reach the company product to the intended audience if this supply chain is not monitored, managed and not made at competitive and advantageous to the end audience the market for the product will immensely effect; and 4.Accelerating growth through focused execution, construction and planning of the strategies only the first step towards achieving the aimed growth of the industry the aims and objective can be achieved only when they are implemented and put into execution. The communication strategies of the company with its audience includes the marketing communication teams these teams which include the supplier chain, distribution chain and the sales divisions; Posters this mode of communication leaves impressions on the consumers about the company products, the posters depicting quality and its feature of the product the company wants to communicate to the intended audience; Trade shows and Displays, trade shows and displays are also effective means of communication.

Friday, November 1, 2019

Hitler's table talk Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Hitler's table talk - Term Paper Example In fact, he viewed Europe as a racial entity not a political entity. He praised the diligence and ingeniousness of the Germans. He disliked the French, the English and the Russians. He, however, expressed his respect for the English. He equally respects the Italians, attributing the success of the National Socialism in Germany to the Fascist success in Italy. The English were proud yet incapable of creative inventions. His dislike for the Russians was apparent. He considered the Russians as lazy people, who are not motivated to work. Russians are not capable of doing anything good. If at all, some good came out of a Russian, it is due to the â€Å"Aryan blood in his vain† (Cameron and Stevens 4). He dislikes Russians but dreamt of conquering Russia to acquire the wealth of St. Petersburg. He planned to colonize Russia by employing soldier-peasants as the Colonial Masters. He desired the Eastern Europe, with Russia and Ukraine as the main targets, his lands of conquest. He has no objective of going outside Europe to colonize other races. He was determined to crush any resistance from the Russians. He also dreamt of colonizing the Ukraine by using soldier-peasants and the Baltic states by employing the Dutch, Norwegians and the Swedes.. Once colonized, he will turn Ukraine into an agricultural country that will provide raw materials for the expanding German industries. He also has the same plan for Rumania. In fact, his plan was that Rumania, also an eastern European country, should stop any form of industrialization, and focus on directing the wealth of her soil to German industrial growth and in return, Germany will supply Rumania finished products. Furthermore, the Russians will be denied education. They are to remain illiterate. His plan was to make Eastern Europe reliant on Germany industry. In fact, he planned was to prevent military and economic power from rising in any country that is east of Germany. This was mainly a military strategy, which will prevent Germany’s western military rival from allying with military powers east of Germany. This will secure Germany position. The book also shows Adolf Hitler’s perception of the German people. He loves Germany. Germans are superior to any race. The Germans are hardworking people. German scientists dominated the American scientific community. Furthermore, he believed that the German Army was technically the best in the world, better than the English Army. He based his claim on the historical fact that two out of the three wars of annihilation, Cannae, Sedan and Tannenberg, where fought by the German Army. He planned to improve that military record by adding the conquest of Russian, Poland and Western Europe to the historical list of wars of annihilation. He praised the initiative of the German military as against the lack of initiative that exist with the German civil administration. He was not opposed to mistakes in so far as they yield long-term positive results. I n his opinion, mistakes are inevitable and those in charge should take responsibility. The German civil administration, according to Hitler was overloaded, lack initiative and over- organized. He attributed the lack of initiative with fear of making mistakes. Indeed, he compared the English administrative style in India with the one in Germany. While the English governed successful a hundred and fifty million people with a hundred and forty-five thousand men, the