“Breathless” by Wilfred Noyce Florence Wong Essay

â€Å"Breathless†, which was written by Wilfred Noyce at 21,200 feet, describes the emotional struggles and physical challenges the speaker experienced and overcame while climbing a mountain. And through it, Wilfred Noyce illustrates the theme of man versus nature as well as the correct attitude in achieving goals by emphasising the ambivalence of the speaker toward finishing the climb. This is demonstrated through the poem’s tone, form and structure and the use of imagery respectively. To begin with, the tone throughout the poem is discouraged and almost desperate, yet conflicted with determination. In line 5-6, â€Å"Legs lift-why at all?† suggests that the speaker is feeling hopeless at that moment since he is having a hard time climbing up the mountain as described in line 1-2, â€Å"Heart aches, lungs pant†. However, in line 19-20, â€Å"don’t look up, till journey’s done† and in line 29-31 â€Å"Go on† and â€Å"don’t look up† indicate the strong determination in the speaker to finish his journey on the mountain. The speaker is commanding himself to carry on, even though he would love to take flat steps instead as showed in line 11-12, â€Å"a flat step is holiday†. The determination to â€Å"conquer† nature is expressed here. On top of that, the poet is trying to relate this to people’s daily lives: just like how the speaker struggled with finishing his climb, people experience hards hips and temptations throughout life, and it is perseverance and self-discipline that lead them to reaching their goals. Secondly, the structure and form of the poem portrayed the level of difficulty of the climb to the speaker. The outline of the poem is not regular or smooth, depicting the rugged and twisty road the speaker is climbing on, and furthermore all the different problems people face in their lives. There is also no stanza, which means the lines are all alined, without any gaps in between, just like the continuous climb the speaker is doing, and the unceasing challenges in people’s lives. Moreover, the lines are short, some chopped off in the middle (caesura), and the words are short with little syllables. This imitates the ragged breath,  steady, fast heartbeat and small footsteps of the speaker while climbing up the mountain, and also the intense atmosphere while doing it (since he is confronting with the edge every moment). And more importantly, it is written in such way so when readers read the poem out quickly, they will feel breathless as well, just like the speaker does in the poem. In addition, for most of the lines in the poem, the rhyme scheme of ABCB is adopted, like how line 2, â€Å"pant† rhymes with line 4, â€Å"scant†, but line 1 and line 2 don’t. This is to imitate the repeating process of the speaker putting his feet forward one by one, as well as his pounding heart and panting lungs. Besides, this poem is written in free verse, which means it does not have a fixed pattern of meter or rhyme. During the middle of the poem-â€Å"Grind breath/ once more then on; don’t look up till journey’s done†, it is where the ABCB rhyme scheme adopted so far breaks down. This indicates that the speaker is really breaking down at that point, losing hope, but also finding the flicker of determination (since he said â€Å"don’t look up till journey’s done†), contrastingly. The idea of free verse is to provide a sense of roughness of the climb and losing breath during the climb in the poem. Finally, a circular structure is used in this poem as well. â€Å"Heart aches, lungs pant/ dry air/ sorry,scant.† appeared at the beginning of the poem, and so in the end of it. This is to emphasise the physical pain the speaker is going through climbing the mountain, also the greatness of the mountain, since it is able to â€Å"oppress† the speaker. In overall, the structure and form of the poem helped intensify the feeling of exhausted and despair, and mostly, breathless, showing how weak and vulnerable human being is to nature. In the meantime, this parallels to the fact that the journeys that people choose to embark on is often hard and full of challenges. Thirdly, the imagery created by Wilfred Noyce in the poem, again, pictures how challenging the speaker’s climb is. The senses auditory, taste and smell do not apply since the speaker is climbing a mountain. The imagery of a long, difficult and vague journey ahead is depicted by the things the speaker sees: â€Å"loose drift, heavy fall†, â€Å"the journey ahead† and â€Å"glasses dim†. The imagery of close to falling/fainting is created by what the speaker feels: heart aching, lungs panting, dry air, prodding the snow, grinding breath, hand wrenching, limb faltering, a slack throat and heart  beating. Then, the imagery of depression and wanting to give up is created by harsh, dynamic or monosyllabic words like â€Å"grind†, â€Å"wrench†. It also creates the sound effectApart from that, the speaker describes the feelings of his different body parts separately, one by one, as if they were separate, or falling apart. These imagery emphasise how desperate the speaker is while climbing the mountain, the same thing a lot of people feel while confronting challenges in their lives. In conclusion, Wilfred Noyce wrote this poem to contrast the greatness of the nature and the weakness of human, as well as how people should be persistent and persevering when facing depressing challenges in life. He conveyed his message by using mainly the tone, form and structure and use of imagery in the poem. Ultimately this is all intended to create the effect of breathlessness to the reader, and it is very effective.

Benjamin Franklin and his contribution to US Essay

Benjamin Franklin and his contribution to US - Essay Example He is favourably considered by many historians as a person who valued personal freedom and fought to see the wishes of the people prevail. This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the contributions of Benjamin Franklin to the country he played a role in founding. Fire was very a dangerous threat to Philadelphians therefore Benjamin Franklin created the Union Fire Company in 1736 to remedy the situation. The company became one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in the United States of America. In 1752, Benjamin created the Philadelphia Contribution for Insurance against Loss by Fire to help those who often suffered irreversible economic loss because of fire damages (Brands 83). Those who had insurance policies were lucky because they could not be wiped out financially by fire damages. In London Benjamin opposed the Stamp Act but failed to prevent its passage. Consequently, he made a political miscalculation by recommending a friend of his to the post of stamp distributor for Pennsylvania. This act annoyed the Pennsylvanians and they threatened to destroy his home in Philadelphia because they believed he had been supporting the measure that they were against all along. However, Benjamin soon realized the extent to which the colonies were resistant to the Stamp Act and gave a testimony before the House of Commons that led to its repeal as noted by Brands (56). In his testimony he said that the Americans would not pay taxes if the Stamp Act was adopted. This made Benjamin the leading American spokesman for American interests in England. He wrote famous essays on behalf of the colonies and was appointed by as an agent of many other colonies to the crown. In 1773, Benjamin wrote two essays that were his most celebrated pro American satirical writings. His essays were An Edict by the King of Prussia and Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One (Houston 312). After the return of Benjamin to Pennsylvania, in 1963, the western frontier

Standardized STATE testing and stress and anxiety in elementary school Research Paper

Standardized STATE testing and stress and anxiety in elementary school children in 3rd-5th grades - Research Paper Example This paper is going to give an in-depth analysis of test anxiety and how it can be controlled. The use of standardized testing in the education sector has become ever-present (Cassady, 2010). As significant as examinations are in the life of students, test anxiety among elementary students seems to have been disregarded. The demands for students to perform well in examinations are a reality. The TAKS test produce stress and anxiety on many children resulting to emotional tension. Pressure and demand is placed on students to perform and achieve higher scores in their examinations. This calls for the need of counselors to implement interventions to help reduce stress and anxiety (Putwain and William, 2008). Researchers in the fields of education and psychology have described test anxiety as a relatively stable personality trait. In advanced and critical cases it generates devastating psychological and behavioral responses. Cassady (2010) and Putwain and William (2008) agree that elementary students show signs and symptoms of test anxiety. Test anxiety has many effects on the cognitive abilities, behavior, emotions and health of the child as explained by BNET (2010), Carter et al. (2008) and Cassady (2010). The elementary students can be equipped with tools to enable them to deal with test anxiety as cited by Cassidy et al. (2002), Walsh and Murphy (2003) and Putwain and William (2008). Carter et al. (2008), BNET, (2010) and Cassidy et al. (2010), state that the test anxiety affects the performance of the students. Cassidy et al. (2002) and Lohaus and Klein- Hessling (2003) concur that the children at the elementary level can be taught relaxation tools to handle test anxiety. Students in the elementary level experience tension and apprehension before and during an examination (Cassady, 2010). This state can be described as anxiety which

The Socio-Cultural impacts of late night tourists on residents of Ayia Essay

The Socio-Cultural impacts of late night tourists on residents of Ayia Napa - Essay Example After the 1974 war in Cyprus, Ayia Napa has developed from being a small fishing town to one of Europe’s finest destinations. Through out the years it has experienced a mixture of changes in tourism demographics, by attracting visitors interested in the local culture twenty years ago to visitors who are mostly interested in clubbing now. This new inflow of mass tourism has affected the socio-cultural lifestyle of the village. Late night tourists are the visitors who come to Ayia Napa for clubbing and entertainment mainly. The number of the young tourists has rose in the last decades. Page and Connel (2009) argue that Sociocultural impacts are directly related with the host community of the destination and occur when tourists cause changes to the individual behaviour, social relationships, culture, lifestyle and value systems of the locals. Mathieson and Wall (1982) as well as Wolf (1977) agree and also state that the socio-cultural impacts are the different effects that tourists have on the host communities. Cooper et al (2008) note that the socio-cultural impacts can be both, positive and negative. Wall and Mathieson (2008) claim that most of the impacts are negative in contrast to the economic impacts that tourism can have on a host destination. Affeld (1975, cited in Wall and Mathieson, 2008) argues that the cultural and social impacts of tourism fall into three categories; the tourist, the host and tourist-host interrelationships. Fox (1977, cited in Wall and Mathieson, 2008, pp. 220) states that â€Å"The social and cultural impacts of tourism are the way in which tourism is contributing to changes in value systems, individual behaviour, family structure and relationships, collective lifestyles, safety levels, moral conduct, creative expressions, traditional ceremonies and community organisations†. Goeldner and Ritchie (2006) notes that local peoples attitudes and mode of life is determined by the way visitors

The Core Competence of the Corporation Assignment

The Core Competence of the Corporation - Assignment Example Definition: Core competency: Core competency is what a company does well (a company’s strength), that differentiates it from other similar business establishments. M. Tampoe describes core competence as management subsystems which incorporate processes, diverse technologies, resources and knowledge to distribute services and products which would reap unique and sustainable benefits and also add worth to an organization. Introduction: The idea of "core competencies" in the organization is one of the most significant business shaping ideas in the present business world. This is one of the key thoughts that lie behind the present wave of outsourcing, as companies concentrate their attempts in key strong (work) areas and outsource as much as they can of everything else. The opening point for understanding core competencies of an organization lies in understanding that a business in order to acquire good position in the market requires having something that consumers uniquely value . The most powerful method to succeed worldwide competition is still unseen to many of the business establishments. Here the study talks about the core competencies of the corporation Boom-Bust Construction Ltd. ... The following case study talks about the Boom-Bust Construction Ltd (BBLC). First of all, to understand how to build up core competencies; it is advisable to understand what is and in not a core competency? According to Prahalad, core competencies are not necessary on the subject of: outspending competitors on Research &Development, sharing expenses between business units and amalgamating vertically. At the same time as the construction of core competencies may be helped by some of these proceedings by themselves, they remain inadequate. What is the topic about? The following study makes an attempt to critically review the article about the core competencies of the corporation (by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel) and application of core competency ethos in business industry. The following case study talks about Boom-Bust Construction Ltd (BBLC), it is a large family building organization owned by Jed Boom. As per C.K. Prahalad, the application of core competency in BBLC might help to de velop various new opportunities. Core competencies are inclined to be rooted in the capability to coordinate and incorporate various groups in the company. At the same time as an organization may be capable to hire a group of brilliant scientists with a particular skill, in doing so it does not itself become competent in that skill. But the efficient coordination between every group involved in bringing an invention to the market, can be taken as a core competency of the company (Core competency suggestions by P.J.H Shoemaker, S.T. Walsh & J.D. Linton, M. Tampoe and D.C.Band & G. Scanlan). Criticisms: The idea of core competencies was started by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel in the year 1990 as a part of management literature. The two main

WADA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

WADA - Essay Example However, the likelihood of doping is reduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency. This body was established in the year 1999 with the aim making sure that athletes compete in a sporting environment that is free from doping. It has come up with policies, standards and rules, frameworks, for anti-doping programs in sports. The agency also has a list of substances that are banned and methods which are prohibited in sports. The agency spends millions annually to catch dopes, even though; this amount is believed to be far from enough. WADA has influenced the world sport by making sure that there is fairness in sports. It advocates for tests to be carried out randomly during races and severely punishes the athletes who are caught doping. These tests reduce unethical practices in sports. Many professional sports leagues including Olympics follow WADA guidelines which encourages fairness, equity, â€Å"playing true†, and which define the rules in sports (Pedersen, 2011). Some elite athletes continue to dope in sports for the purpose of achieving the victory, when anti-doping organizations only expends little to catch dopes and some sports leagues even do not have an active control of

Research Evaluation Tables Essay Example for Free

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