Free Essay Example. Poetry on Post-Modernism

James Galvin's Post-Modernism(1951) is an avant-garde poem that talks about horses and the author's love for them. From the poem, post-modernism is a fashionable fragmentation and a seemingly self-congratulatory topic of cleverness that was supported by exposition. The timeframe of Galvin's writing corresponded to the cultural revolutions of the 1940s when famous actresses like Rita Hayworth dominated silver screens and dancing stages. While Hayworth's glamorous sensation rippled across Brooklyn screens to all applauses, other people like Galvin were bored. It is during that period that when the avant-garde was gaining ground and the fuss around postmodernism began to proliferate. In this poem, at such moments, Galvin begins his writing about post-modernism. For the persona, "horses are wishes"(Galvin, 1951), and he fancies the dark ones. The poem indicates fragmentations of ideas that indicate scepticisms about culture, literary criticism, and art. The first stanza indicates a conglomeration of unrelated ideas typical of the avant-garde. The first line of the first stanza talks about a celebrity, Hayworth, and the bomb indicates how explosive her fame was and how relevant she was in the 1940s. The third line talks about the persona's boredom to all the fuss and makes him find fascination with horses.

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Galvin's portrayal of horses indicates some gracious animals of peace, athleticism, and sports, but no matter how many times humans betray them, they always forgive us. The poem paints a picture of an observant persona who spends the most time around the ranches, and the imagery of the same is brought out by the twitching of the fences and spurs mentions in the poem. Galvin makes this poem personal as he brings the images of the horses as close as possible to the minds to the reader(s). He captures the manes, tails, and eyes of the horses in a close-up form of imagery that leaves the picture ingrained in mind. All this personalization is brought about by the love and awe that Galvin gets from the horses, and he captures he embodies his images with the exact words, like the horses' gentleness. Galvin's poem is a juxtaposition of two bombshells; one is the hyper-rationality brought by the new culture and the other a boredom that ignites the passion for another thing. It seems, from this poem, that Galvin has spent most of his life around horses, and even riding them. His attitude on how humans treat horses is concerning because he feels like the animals are treated badly even though they are gentle and magical. The confusion projected by the persona seems to suggest that those who ride the horses at the time of speaking are strangers unbeknownst to the persona, and this is why he cannot recognise a rider when he dismounts from a horse.

From a personal point of view, Galvin's poem is a personal presentation of love for animals because of their value to humans. The rural West has been known for a horse-based culture for more than four centuries. His intention seemingly is to sensitize the new generations of the post-modernism period to be gentle to animals instead of being predatory to them. He intends to stop the all the confusion brought about by cultural revolution like the pop culture, and redirect people's attention to care for these creatures as that is the only way annihilation of all sorts can be avoided in the post-modern time. By saying that we do not deserve the horses, just lie poetry, Galvin attaches an immense value to the animals and poetry itself.

A Reflection on The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges

The Topic of Death

Jorge Luis Borges' "The Aleph" is a narrative about grief and loss in which the author recalls the death of a loved one by the name Beatriz Viterbo who died one in the morning in February (Borges, 1945). Another great concern of this story is the nature of infinity and how it compares with the illusion of reality; these two aspects are weighed upon through the comparison between Beatriz and her Cousin Argentino. This section presents a reflection of The Aleph while also giving personal viewpoints that can help understand the story and the author's intentions.

From the narrator's accounts of the events that morning, Viterbo braved her death without pity or fear. On the same day on which she died, the author noticed that that the sidewalk billboards had a new brand of cigarettes being advertised. This change, according to the narrator, signified one of the many changes that were to come following the demise of his beloved. Even though the change signified new beginnings, it only meant the demised was going to be forgotten, and this caused a great deal of pain to the narrator. For that reason, he vows to himself that he would not be changed by life and forget Beatriz's memories, rather he would dedicate himself conserve the good memories they shared. Borges asserts that the universe will try to change, "but not me" ( Borges, 1945, p.1). One of the first acts of remembrance was done on 30th April of every year, which was Beatriz's birthday. Borges would return to her father's house and pay respect in politeness to both Beatriz's father and her cousin Carlos Argentino. Beatriz's memories are well preserved in the numerous pictures hanging on the walls, and the narrator would observe them religiously remembering every occasion on which each picture was taken. Some of those moments included the Carnival day of 1921, her first communion, wedding, and divorce, among other important occasions that mattered in the deceased life (Borges, 1945). With each visit, Borges seemed to stay longer, and this gradually caught Argentino's attention, and the latter's confidence in the former grew.

As the narration continues, the narrator cuts open certain similarities and differences between Beatriz and her cousin. The author realizes that Argentino is the exact antithesis of Beatriz, who had an ethereal personality that bordered reality. Her cousin Argentino, despite being too human, is entirely ordinary but with a pointless existence. Argentino's views on certain aspects of modern humanity are more passive, unlike Beatriz. According to her cousin, it is utterly unnecessary and pointless for people to travel when they can keep in touch and know eah other's status through the use of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and cinema (Borges, 1945, p.2). For man is so equipped in the 21st century, Argention mentions that "actual travel" is "superfluous" (Borges, 1945, p.2). It becomes apparent that Beatriz was the opposite of who Argentino was. For those differences, the author relates Argentino to works of literature asserting that both are pompous, inept and vast in equal measure. It is undoubted that Argentino loves literature, and he confirms this by saying that he documents his ideas and has some in a poem called "The Earth" (Borges, 1945, p.3). A crucial point of Borges' story is that he convinces Argentino that his house, which is about to be demolished the expansion of business premises, has an aleph down in the basement and so Argentino should not allow the house to be brought down. The aleph allows Borges to see all points on earth simultaneously and instantaneously but denies seeing anything when Argentino wants to now; this makes the latter to question his sanity. Language limitations restrict Borges' from describing the aleph as he cannot its details as they diminish from his memory.

From a personal point of view, Borges story unveils the pain related to losing a beloved one, and the struggles people go through not to leave their memories behind. The Aleph indicates that even though memories of loved ones cannot be erased easily, they are eventually gradually forgotten and become indescribable just like the aleph as time goes by. The author's work, however, is not convincing enough as far as talking about loss is concerned because Beatriz's death and memories are used as pretexts of the aleph. Borges succeeds in informing that the illusion is to hold on to the memories, but the reality is that people forget after long periods.

A Reflection on Blowup by Julio Cortazar

Topic Of Gender Relations

In Julio Cortazar's Blowup, the reader gets to experience the events of a young photographer Roberto Michel, when he goes out and not only takes pictures but also tries to influence actions. Notably, the author begins the story not by immediately narrating what had happened but by wondering or mulling over how the story ought to be told and the reasons why it must be told (Cortazar, 1968, p.101). After deciding on how to tell it, the readers are taken to the events of one Sunday morning when the narrator was strolling along the Seine. This paper represents a reflection of Cortazar's story while also providing personal views on the author's intentions.

Cortazar propagates his narration through the eyes, life, and experiences of Michel, who is also a French-Italian translator and has a passion for photography, which takes most of his free time. Used also as the persona and narrator, Michel's life is external to the narrated occurrences but also tangential to them in that he is also a participant. From the story, Michel takes a photograph of a seemingly older woman seducing a boy (Cortazar, 1968, p.103). From a far, the persona first thinks she is his mother, but, after looking at his body language, the narrator realizes how the boy reacts nervously to the woman's advances.

From this realization, Michel begins taps into his imagination, trying to guess the boy's age and says that he is "turning fourteen, perhaps fifteen."(Cortazar, 1968, p.105) From guessing the boy's age, the narrator places the boy into a context that fits his age, like going to school, walking the streets as he thinks of the females in his class, and how nice it could be going to the movies. The reader also gets a share of the narrator's cocoon of thoughts for the boy, like studying hard and being the only hope for his mother. Michel observes that the woman and the boy had planned to meet and decides to take their picture, after which the woman charges angrily towards him, demanding to be given the picture. A man from a packed car gets into the conversation (Cortazar, 1968, p.107). Cortazar ensures that Michel takes a keen interest in the picture, which he prints and enlarges before studying it to detail. After studying the enlarged picture, the narrator decides that the man and not the woman, was the villain because he unscrupulously forces the lady to seduce the boy all for personal pleasures of the man. In the end, Michel forces his way inside the picture and affronts the man while the boy escapes. The aspect of blow up comes in the picture when the narrator discovers that what he saw initially was not the real thing but something else.

From a personal perspective, Cortazar makes a deliberate effort to use photography as a means of seeing the world, understanding and confronting certain societal aspects which have been regarded as the status quo. He taps into the consciousness of psychotic mind through the use of a nonsensical language with disjointed phrases. The author creates something for the observant persona, giving him a role in the picture by making him retreat into psychic projections and rejecting what is seen. However, the author fails to provide enough details in the story to reveal why seeing a homosexual sight was so painful to Michel.