Robert Bly Essays - Guggenheim Fellows, Robert Bly, Poetry

Robert Bly Throughout the 20th century, Robert Bly has provided a wealth of poetry on a wide variety of topics. Alongside his themes, Robert Bly has also developed different stylistic methods to convey those thoughts. Such themes vary to this day, dealing with issues that have personally affected him, and also those of society in general. His poetry is a time-line pondering solitude, the Vietnam War, nature, frustration and relationships among all sorts, conveyed not only in conventional stanzas, but in a form called "prose" poetry as well. Contributing and inspiring to many, the work of Robert Bly provides an interesting take on American poetry. Robert Blys' first collection of poems were released in 1962, titled, Silence in the Snowy Fields. Divided into three sections: "Eleven Poems of Solitude," "Awakening," and "Silence on the Roads," all combine along with the title to explore as Richard P. Sugg states: "human nature as twofold, consisting of both the conscious and the unconscious. . ." A poem "Return to Solitude" explores the conscious and unconscious aspects of human nature, relating a desire to exist in the purest, solitary state; one of inside the womb. "Return to solitude" seemingly jumps between the conscious and unconscious state, all the while conveying a yearning for a more solitary existence. The first stanza, portrays solitude via the imagery. "It is a moonlit, windy night. / The moon has pushed out the Milky Way." Envisioning these two lines invokes a sense of remoteness, a picture of a single, bright moon in the night sky without any stars. "Clouds are hardly alive, and the grass leaping. / It is the hour of return." With the clouds hardly alive, or non-existent, the moon is now explicitly alone in the sky; an obvious image of solitude. "It is the hour of return" in effect, makes the first stanza a conscious thought, since it is a statement, a bold declaration that is consciously put forth. The unconscious comes to play in the second stanza. "We want to go back, to return to the sea," communicates a sense of yearning within the speaker, almost as if a true desire were being confessed. The sea is then described: "The sea of solitary corridors / And halls of wild nights," whose imagery portrays a birth canal, a corridor and also a hall where sexual intercourse, hence the "wild nights" would occur. "Explosions of grief, / Diving into the sea of death," correspond to a sexual climax, but are understood by the speaker as negative. By these events occurring, it is creating a person and hence eventually the birth of him/her and the inevitable loss of the pure, solitary state. Hence the explosive climax is labeled as grievous and paired with an ominous image of "Diving into the sea of death." The third stanza ponders what would happen if the pure state of solitude was ever reached. "What shall we find when we return? / Friends changed, houses moved, / Trees perhaps, with new leaves." These images give a sense of a renewed life, a different life with different friends and a different home, and even perhaps a rejuvenation in one's self, as conjured by the new leaves on trees. Robert Bly's "Return to Solitude" is one of the many poems within Silence in the Snowy Fields that conveys a dual side to humanity: the conscious and unconscious, and also explores solitude. Following Silence in the Snowy Fields came the turbulent Vietnam War, where Robert Bly took an incredible anti-war stance, seen not only in his poetry but by his frequent activism in protests and rallies. In 1967, Robert Bly published The Light Around the Body, a three sectioned collection of poetry that leaped into current issues. "Asian Peace Offers Rejected without Publication" is such a poem that portrays a different theme and a different methodology in bringing it to the surface. "Asian Peace Offers Rejected without Publication" promotes a realization regarding mankind's misconception of war, while making a statement to never forget the atrocities that have already occurred in the past. "Men like Rusk are not men: / They are bombs waiting to be loaded in a darkened hangar." Here Rusk and his fellows have lost all their human qualities, thereby losing the ability to be compassionate and understanding. The speaker then labels Rusk and his cohorts as bombs, the embodiment of modern carnage and destruction. "Rusk's assistants eat hurriedly, / talking of Teilhard de Chardin," An interesting twist then takes place, with the speaker introducing the idea that those favoring destruction, claim to do it under a

Tips for Writing a Sample Preschool Observation Essay

Tips for Writing a Sample Preschool Observation EssayThere are several different strategies to writing a sample preschool observation essay. Some of these tips and strategies are very similar to those that you would use when you were in preschool, but most of them have been adapted from other authors who write for elementary school students.The first tip for writing a sample essay is to make sure that the essay is both descriptive and also specific. In general most people prefer to give general information about what the preschool class did and what the teachers said to the children. However, there are few situations where this isn't an option. If the child was put in charge of cleaning the classroom (or the kitchen), then there may be no time to specify precisely what activities were completed.The second tip for writing a sample essay is to establish relationships between all the activities and their consequences. This can be done by giving details about what happened during the act ivities. For example, you may have one activity (such as coloring) which occurred in the first session. Afterward, the child was required to bring a cloth to make a hat for the teacher.In addition, it may be necessary to provide specific information about what you observed, in order to distinguish what you observed from something else. For example, you may have noticed that all the children were talking at the same time. You may wish to include some information about the number of words each child spoke during the discussion, but this information may not be sufficient to know if the topic was one of the special topics, such as 'how to put on a hat.'The third tip for writing a sample essay is to avoid giving any type behaviors that are typical of either the child or the teacher. For example, although the child may be doing something good, you may find that he or she doesn't really care about it. In addition, the teacher may also play the role of 'bad boy' goodgirl, and this can be an unreliable way to describe behavior.The fourth tip for writing a sample preschool observation essay is to do a final check for errors. This can be as simple as rereading your essay and making sure that all the information is correct. After all, if you're writing an essay for middle school students, you want to be sure that you aren't taking the wrong information out of the descriptions you provided.There are other tips for writing a sample preschool observation essay that are very similar to those used in elementary school. However, in many cases, you will find that even these tips will prove helpful to you in your writing efforts.