Jonathan Joseph
eNotes Educator
Achievements
9
Educator Level
521
Answers Posted
102
Answers Bonused
About
I have taught just about every subject at every level, but my real home is Literature; that includes American, British, Biblical and modern Hebrew, plus baseball cards and cereal boxes.
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eNotes Educator
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Literature Whiz
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Poetry
Rona Adshead, born in 1933, is an author from New Zealand. In her poem, "Teenage Sky," Adshead uses a number of "language," or poetic devices. 1. ALLITERATION: the repetition of words... -
Answered a Question in Kamala Das
"The Freaks," by Kamala Das, is a poem about a couple (presumably a man and a woman) who cannot arouse much sexual desire for each other, and perhaps not for anyone. The man has his hand on the... -
Answered a Question in Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni, born in 1943, is an African-American poet who first gained prominence during the 1960's, a decade in which African-Americans struggled to gain civil rights and also explored their... -
Answered a Question in Porphyria's Lover
"Porphyria's Lover" is a narrative poem by Robert Browning. It first appeared in print in 1836. On a stormy night, the narrator's lover, named Porphyria, "glides in" to his house and... -
Answered a Question in Matthew Arnold
The line you refer to is from a poem by Matthew Arnold, entitled "A Last Thought, first published in 1849. The narrator of the poem speaks to a friend who has been involved in a long "contention,"... -
Answered a Question in The Night the Ghost Got In
In James Thurber's short story, "The Night the Ghost Got In," two young brothers think that they hear footsteps from the first floor of their family's house at about 1:15 in the morning. The... -
Answered a Question in Kamala Das
Kamala Das is a contemporary female poet from India. She can most definitely be considered a "confessional" poet, because her poems often focus on her personal life, including many aspects of... -
Answered a Question in The Bells
The words tinkle and clanging are examples of onomatopoeia, meaning that the words "sound" like what they mean. In "The Bells," Edgar Alan Poe uses these and many... -
Answered a Question in The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
"The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man," by James Weldon Johnson, was originally published in 1912. In the preface to the original edition, the publishers claim that by reading the book the... -
Answered a Question in Dusk
"Dusk" is a short story by the British author Saki, a penname for H.H. Munroe. "Dusk" begins with its main character, Norman Gortsby, sitting on a park bench at dusk. As he sits on the bench,... -
Answered a Question in Bruce Dawe
In "Enter Without So Much as Knocking," the contemporary poet Donald Bruce Dawe creates an impression of a suburban family that is materially well-provided for, but spiritually empty. The poem... -
Answered a Question in Slavery, Historical
The "Middle Passage" is the term used to describe the forced journey of African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean to the American continents. The Middle Passage was endured by millions of... -
Answered a Question in The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and Robert E. Lee's "Letter to his Son" are both masterpieces of diction; that is, they both use language correctly and effectively. One of the most effective... -
Answered a Question in Song: To Celia
The poem, "Song to Celia," by Ben Jonson (1572-1637), contains just two characters: a woman named Celia, and an unnamed narrator, who is her lover. In the beginning of the poem, the lover... -
Answered a Question in An Episode of War
In Stephen Crane's "An Episode of War," a Civil War lieutenant is shot and wounded while he is engaged in the peaceful activity of dividing coffee into rations for his troops. Throughout the... -
Answered a Question in José MartÃ
Let's begin with two poetic devices that can only be appreciated in the poem's original Spanish. 1. RHYME SCHEME: The poem's rhyme scheme is ABBA, CDDC. For example, Line 1 ends with... -
Answered a Question in Chicago Poems
Carl Sandburg was the perfect poet to write a poem about the city of Chicago in 1914. Sandburg, in fact, did write a now-classic poem about Chicago in that year. Sandburg grew up in Illinois,... -
Answered a Question in An Episode of War
In Stephen Crane's short story, "An Episode of War," a Civil War lieutenant is hit by an enemy bullet while he is dividing up piles of coffee beans for his soldiers. For most of the rest of the... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
"Dr. Faustus" is Christopher Marlowe's dramatic presentation of the legend of Johann Faustus, a man who sells his soul to the devil in order to gain pleasure and secret knowledge. In Scene VI of... -
Answered a Question in Lenore
Here are some poetic devices that Edgar Allan Poe uses in his poem, "Lenore." INTERNAL RHYME: Words within the same line that rhyme. "Lenore uses this technique numerous times, including the... -
Answered a Question in An Episode of War
"Is tragedy the result of excessive pride, or is it the result of a cruel twist of fate?" (http://www.enotes.com/tragedy-reference-guide/tragedy). This is an old question that perhaps never... -
Answered a Question in Mending Wall
A metaphor is a comparison that does notuse the words "like" or "as." For example, if I say that a little girl "is a doll," I don't mean that she is actually a doll; rather, I... -
Answered a Question in Carter Revard
Carter Revard, a poet, was born in 1931. He is descended on his father's side from the Osage tribe of American Indians. In "Discovery of the New World," Revard satirizes the discovery of the... -
Answered a Question in Douglas Dunn
"Men of Terry Street" is a poem by the contemporary Scottish poet, Douglas Dunn (born 1942). The poem describes a group of men who come at night to the narrator's neighborhood of Terry... -
Answered a Question in Shakespeare
In his poem entitled "Shakespeare," Matthew Arnold praises the great dramatist and poet William Shakespeare. Arnold praises Shakespeare's extraordinary knowledge of human nature: [Your... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
In "An Ordinary Day," the poet describes a number of ordinary phenomena of nature that he saw when he took a walk. Some of these things are: *"The light glittered on the water" *"Cormorants... -
Answered a Question in Annabel Lee
Romanticism was a literary movement that lasted from approximately 1789 to 1832. Two important features of Romanticism were: *the idea that an... -
Answered a Question in Literature
I find myself attracted to literature that creates (or re-creates) a world, or a little slice of a world. I am not referring only to setting, but also to the characters and plotlines that... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," by James Thurber, is about a timid man who is taking his wife shopping in suburban Connecticut. Mrs. Mitty is interested in getting a hair-do and in buying... -
Answered a Question in Denise Levertov
In "The Secret," by Denise Levertov, the narrator tells about two girls who "discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry." Although the narrator (presumably Levertov herself) is... -
Answered a Question in The Storyteller
"The Storyteller," by Saki (whose real name was H.H. Munro) is about a woman who is travelling by train with two young nieces and a nephew. The Aunt tries to entertain the children by telling... -
Answered a Question in The Solitary Reaper
In "The Solitary Reaper," William Wordsworth describes a scene from the Scottish highlands: a "solitary Highland Lass [girl].../Reaping and singing by herself." The narrator of the poem refers to... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
Forrest Hamer is an African-American poet who was born in 1956. His poem, "Lesson," deals with themes of racism and a boy's attachment to his father. The narrator of the poem is a little boy who is... -
Answered a Question in Language Arts
"Inkhorn words" are words that writers "invented" and introduced into the English language, usually based on Latin or Greek words. An inkhorn, literally, was an ink bottle made out of an... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Near the end of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Hamlet takes a stroll with his friend Horatio. They come across two jolly fellows who are digging a grave in the yard of the palace. Hamlet picks up a... -
Answered a Question in Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
As you write in your question, one of the themes of Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" is that nature has the power to heal and nurture the human spirit. The poem begins... -
Answered a Question in The Gift of the Magi
"The Gift of the Magi," by O. Henry, is the story of a couple who each make a supreme sacrifice in order to buy a Christmas gift for each other. Della, the wife, wants to buy a chain that her... -
Answered a Question in Mending Wall
Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" consists of an argument between the narrator about the need for a stone wall that separates their two properties. The neighbor is strongly in favor of the wall;... -
Answered a Question in Barter
In the poem, "Barter," Sara Teasdale makes a list of some of the "beautiful and splendid things" that life offers "to sell" to us. These include: *"Blue waves whitened on a cliff"... -
Answered a Question in Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower
"The Education of Nature," by William Wordsworth, is about a girl who is blessed by Nature with beauty and vitality, but then suddenly dies, leaving her lover, the narrator, with only "the memory... -
Answered a Question in Sylvia Plath
"Bitter Strawberries," by Sylvia Plath, describes a conversation that takes place among farm workers who are picking strawberries. The conversation is about "the Russians," who pose a threat to the... -
Answered a Question in Nissim Ezekiel
"Night of the Scorpion," by Nissim Ezekiel, is a narrative poem that includes several striking images. These images can be interpreted as symbols. The poem begins by telling that "Ten hours /... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
Sir John Squire (1882-1958) in his poem "There was an Indian," describes Columbus's discovery of America from the point of view of an Indian (Native American). The poem begins by describing the... -
Answered a Question in If We Must Die
Claude McKay (September 15, 1889-May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American author who advocated black self-determination; that is, he believed that African-Americans should rely on themselves to become... -
Answered a Question in Raymond Souster
In "Roller Skate Man," Raymond Souster describes a disabled man who transports himself on a block of wood that sits on top of roller-skate wheels; the man propels this gadget by pushing his hands... -
Answered a Question in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
An allusion is when an author refers to another work of literature or art. In the beginning of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson describes one of the main characters in the story, Mr.... -
Answered a Question in James Thurber
Always happy to answer a question about Thurber, one of my favorite authors. Jack "Pal" Smurch, the protagonist of "The Greatest Man in the World," is an assistant mechanic who has recently... -
Answered a Question in Sonnet 18
In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, the narrator tells his beloved that she will live forever if her description is written in "eternal lines" of poetry: Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,... -
Answered a Question in Shakespeare's Sonnets
The language of this sonnet is a bit tricky. The poet begins by saying that he does not "pluck" his decisions "from the stars." He does not use astrology to "tell of good or evil luck, / Of... -
Answered a Question in We Real Cool
"We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is about seven teenage boys who have left school to spend their time playing pool. The boys brag that they "lurk late," "sing sin" and "thin gin." They also...
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