The Poetry of A. E. Housman Essay -- essays research papers

The Poetry of A. E. Housman Housman was born in Burton-On-Trent, England, in 1865, just as the US Civil War was ending. As a young child, he was disturbed by the news of slaughter from the former British colonies, and was affected deeply. This turned him into a brooding, introverted teenager and a misanthropic, pessimistic adult. This outlook on life shows clearly in his poetry. Housman believed that people were generally evil, and that life conspired against mankind. This is evident not only in his poetry, but also in his short stories. For example, his story, "The Child of Lancashire," published in 1893 in The London Gazette, is about an child who travels to London, where his parents die, and he becomes a street urchin. There are veiled implications that the child is a homosexual (as was Housman, most probably), and he becomes mixed up with a gang of similar youths, attacking affluent pedestrians and stealing their watches and gold coins. Eventually he leaves the gang and becomes wealthy, but is attacked by t he same gang (who don't recognize him) and is thrown off London Bridge into the Thames, which is unfortunately frozen over, and is killed on the hard ice below. Housman's poetry is similarly pessimistic. In fully half the poems the speaker is dead. In others, he is about to die or wants to die, or his girlfriend is dead. Death is a really important stage of life to Housman; without death, Housman would probably not have been able to be a poet. (Housman, himself, died ...

Ancient Egypt vs. Mesopotamia Essay

The Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies are two of the oldest civilizations in the history of the world. The Egyptian and Mesopotamian political, social, and cultural parts of their lives developed differently, but there is a similar basis between the two. Although they had similar political systems in that they both were ruled by kings, the way they viewed their kings and the way that they both constructed their power differed. Both civilizations constructed their social classes similarly in that they had kings at the top, followed by other officials and merchants, and at the bottom the slaves and peasants. They both had their own form of writing; Mesopotamia had cuneiform, and Egypt had hieroglyphics and cursive script, respectively. While they are similar in many different political, social, and cultural activities and ideas, they have enough contrast to be viewed as different societies. Politically, because they were geographically open to envision, Mesopotamia culture created compact self-governing political units- the city-states. By the third millennium B.C.E. the concept of king (lugal) developed, quite possibly because of increased quarrels over resources. The power of religious leaders decreased as the power of kings increased. And although the kings took over control of temples, Mesopotamian kings did not claim divine power. Political changes occurred in Mesopotania because of the succession of people that followed the initial Sumerian people, like the Akkadians, the Kassites Medes and Persians who established their temporary political dominance. By 1750 B. C. E., the written law code of King Hammurabi, was used to maintain political authority and continuity.In sharp contrast is the continuity of political history in ancient Egypt. Legendary King Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt into one nation that lasted with continuity of culture from 3,100-1070 B. C. E. with thirty dynasties. Unlike Mesopotamian kings, the Egyptian king was represented as Horus and as the son of Re, and fit into the pattern of the dead returning to life and the climatic renewing life of the sun-god. As Egypt’s chief priest, he intervened with the gods on behalf of his people and land. No written law code was developed in Egypt. The pharaoh governed the country through a large efficient bureaucracy. In highly urbanized Mesopotamia, specialization of function, centralization of power, and use of written records enabled certain groups to amass unprecedented wealth. Women could own property, maintain control of their dowry, and even engage in trade but men monopolized political life. Some women worked outside the home in textile factories, breweries or as prostitutes, tavern keepers, bakers, or fortune tellers. Inside the home women grew wove baskets, had vegetable gardens, cooked, cleaned, and fetched water. For the most part, their writings reflect *elite male activities. Temple leaders and the kings controlled large agricultural estates, and the palace administration collected taxes from subjects. The lowest class of people tended the fields and used their strength in the off-season to build large public works like ziggarets. Women were subordination to men and had no property rights. In Mesopotamia by the second millennium B. C. E. merchants had gained in status and in power th rough gilds. In the Old Babylonian period, the class of people who were not dependent on the temple or palace grew, the amount of land and other property in private hands increased, and free laborers became more common. The Mesopotamian civilization had 3 social classes: 1. free landowning class- royalty, high-ranking officials, warriors, priests, merchants, and some artisans and shopkeepers; 2. the class of dependent farmers and artisans, whose legal attachment to royal or temple, or private estates made them the primary rural work force; and 3. the class of slaves, primarily used in domestic service. Egyptian class structure was less defined and more pyramid in shape. Compared to Mesopotamia, a far larger percentage of the Egyptian population lived in farming villages and Egypt’s wealth derived from a higher degree from cultivating the land. When not need for agriculture the peasants labored to build the tombs of the pharaoh. Slavery existed on a limited scale and was of limited economic significance. In contrast to Mesopotamia, Egyptian merchants had a low social status. For women subordination to men is evident but they are represented with dignity and affection in tomb paintings. Legal documents show that Egyptian women could own property, inherit from their parents, and will their property to whomever they wished. Marriage, usually monogamous, arose from a couple’s decision to establish a household together rather than for legal or religious ceremony. Both parties could dissolve the relationship, and women retained rights over her dowry in case of divorce. In ge neral, the limited evidence suggests that women in ancient Egypt enjoyed greater respect and more legal rights and social freedom than women in Mesopotamia and other ancient societies. Despite some initial inspiration, Egyptian culture separated itself from Mesopotamia in a number of ways beyond politics and monument building. The Egyptians did not take to the Sumerian cuneiform alphabet and developed a hieroglyphic alphabet instead. Hieroglyphics, though more pictorial than Sumerian cuneiform, were based on simplified pictures of objects abstracted to represent concepts or sounds. As in Mesopotamia the writing system was complex, and its use was, for the most part, monopolized by the powerful priestly caste. Heiroglyphics were written on papyrus paper while cuneiform was written on clay tablets with a blunt reed called a stylus. Like Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform was written in both rows and columns although cuneiform was only written from left to right. The Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies were very similar in many aspects of their lives. They both developed two of the earliest forms of writing in hieroglyphics and cuneiform, with both forms differing greatly from each other. They also contained strikingly similar social classes and structures, as with many other civilizations. They were both ruled by â€Å"kings†, but many parts of their political system were drastically different due to the way that they were constructed and administered. Egyptian civilization and a fundamental Mesopotamian culture lasted far longer than the civilizations that came later, in part because of relative isolation within each respective region and because of the deliberate effort to maintain what had been achieved, rather than experiment widely.

Discuss The Dramatic Presentation of Justice and Morality Essay

The crucible written by Arthur Miller, in 1953 is set in the heart of puritan 16th century America. The main plot is about the witch hunts during that period and the lives that were affected by it. Although the play is about the witch hunts in Salem in the 16th century, the sub plot is really referring to the injustice that Miller himself was experiencing when he wrote it. In the play, it was not only acceptable practice in Salem to accuse people of witchery (usually women) but it was also acceptable to render them completely unable to defend themselves from such accusations. The society’s Puritanism, hysteria and conflicting views on morality and all that is just accounted for the horrendous tragedies to follow. Justice and morality are the main themes introduced throughout the play – justice, meaning the administration of law according to prescribed and accepted principles and morality, meaning the degree to which something is morally acceptable. Many issues associated with justice and morality such as the difficulties and dangers of conforming to strict principles including the consequences of the misuse of justice are also highlighted in the play. This essay will discuss those themes and how the audience is presented with them dramatically. ‘The Crucible’ meaning something in which substances are melted at high temperatures could be referring to a cauldron used by witches or an explosive situation. ‘The Crucible’ also means a severe test or trial which could be referring to the difficult decisions the characters had to make. The ambiguity of the title makes it difficult for the audience to fully understand and predict the nature and mood of the play outrightly. Throughout the play the audience is subtly presented with particular emotive issues. Miller used the literary device of an allegory to be able to depict them to maximum effect. He used lighting to convey emotions and tones, the same way he would a character. For example the footnotes of act one mention a candle in the room and sunrays beaming through the window giving the room â€Å"an air of clean spareness†. This could be interpreted as reflecting the way in which the puritans perceived themselves, free from corruption or impurities. Throughout the play, light was used to symbolize scenes depicting kindness, softer, more sincere emotions or highlight good characters in the play. But as the plot thickens, Miller uses less light which draws the audience towards the climax of the play. Dark lighting generally denotes bad atmosphere, for example the courtroom in Act Three is described as a â€Å"solemn, forbidding place† even though light shone through the back window. Again, at the very end of Act Four, when John Proctor is finally led away, Reverend Hale begins to pray and a light shines on his face. Again light is used to show raw emotions, and to portray both Proctor and Hale as good pious people. The language used throughout the play is archaic and biblical. Miller used biblical references throughout the play to help further illustrate and highlight the extent of Puritanism in Salem and how religion was the focal point of life in Salem. For example when Procter is pleading with Reverend Hale, he refers to him as ‘Pontious Pilate’ a roman official who found Jesus neither innocent nor guilty and washed his hands of the affair. However, it is more likely that Procter’s reference to the Bible was a subtle way of proving himself and his wife to be practicing Christians. Arthur Miller’s development of Abigail William’s character in ‘The Crucible’ greatly affects the plot of the play. Her snobbishness and perceived superiority made many people believe in her lies. Her superiority complex stems from the fact that she was an unmarried orphan, this placed her at the bottom of the social hierarchy in Salem. Her resentment of those that betrayed her influenced many of her decisions. From the very beginning of the play, it is clear to all that Abigail was a person who craved control, albeit subtly at times. Miller used the literary device of juxtaposition to show this to the audience. Juxtaposition is when two or more things are placed next to each other in order to create contrast and allow further analysis. In Act One, scene one where Reverend Parris is praying over Betty, Abigail appears to be an innocent, concerned niece â€Å"I will never hurt Betty, i love her dearly†. But as we see in the next scene, she threatens her own friends into silence. â€Å"Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and i will come to you in the black of some terrible night and i will bring some pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know i can do it. † The â€Å"evil† that made her capable of drinking chicken’s blood made the girls fear her, so much so that when Procter asked Mary (his house helper) to tell the courts about Abigail she replied â€Å"she’ll kill me for saying that†. Juxtaposition was also used to show the different levels of morality between the characters. Throughout all the chaos of trying to find who is moral and who isn’t, the audience is fully aware that Abigail was behind it all and she is the person lacking in morals. This made it possible for the audience to make the contrast between her and the other members of the community. Again Abigail’s acted superiority complex revealed itself when Reverend Parris asked her why no-one in the village had rehired her, she replied by saying how they wanted to enslave her and how she would not â€Å"blacken her face for any of them†. This further illustrates her feelings towards the black slaves in the community. It was almost as if she was saying she would rather be without a job than lower herself to their level. It was this reasoning that made it so easy for her to use Tituba (Parris’ slave) as a scapegoat to take all the blame for the witchery. It was also easy for the rest of the villagers to believe Abigail’s accusations because they too thought themselves better than Tituba. An example of this is in Act One where Tituba takes a step backwards before attempting to talk to the reverend but he scrambles to his feet and quickly dismisses her.

Employee Welfare and Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is supremely important in an organization because it is what productivity depends on. If your employees are satisfied they would produce superior quality performance in optimal time and lead to growing profits. Satisfied employees are also more likely to be creative and innovative and come up with breakthroughs that allows a company to grow and change positively with time and changing market conditions Employee welfare defines as â€Å"efforts to make life worth living for workmen†. These efforts have their origin either in some statute formed by the state or in some local custom or in collective agreement or in the employer’s own initiative. Job satisfaction represents the constellations of person’s attitude towards or about the job. In general, job satisfaction is the attitude towards the job as a whole. Job satisfaction is a function of satisfaction with different aspects of job, i. e. supervision, pay, works itself, co-workers, promotion, etc. , and of the particular weighting or importance one attaches to these respective components. Modern management considers human being as resource and it is an importance for the success of any organization. It is the strength and aid. Therefore employees attitudes, interest, quality, job satisfaction, etc. , have a bearing productivity of a firm unless the management is able to recognize employees needs and wants they will lose motivation and morale and it will affect the best interest of the firm. Work is one of the most important activities in a person’s life. Who do have satisfying job rarely have fully satisfying lives. Dissatisfaction in work can lead in many circumstances to lower production and friction on the job. So that it must be considered by the management and steps should be taken to find out the factors which cause job dissatisfaction and to reduce such dissatisfaction. In general employee satisfaction is the attitude towards the work environment, salary, relationship with their colleagues, job security, grievance handling, performance appraisal, training and development, management style, quality policy, career counseling and so on.

Article About Love Essay

Country, Location, & Flag : The name of my country that I am researching is Poland. Poland is located in the heart of Europe, on the North European Plain. It is bordered by the Baltic sea to the North and Northwest. By Germany to the West, by Ukraine, Belarus. Russia and Lithuania to the east and northeast and by Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south. In general, Poland mountainous in the south with the terrain becoming increasingly flatter toward the north. The flag is just two colors. White on top and red on the bottom. Climate: The climate in Poland is determined mainly by the country’s geographical location. Poland is in the temperate latitudes. The average annual temperature in Poland is about 8’C/46’F and varies for the regions of Poland depending on height above sea level and distance from the Baltic Sea. In the summer, for instance, temperatures are lower in northern Poland because of the Baltic Sea. The lowest temperatures are in the mountains and the highest are in the western and central Poland. Poland sees an average annual rainfall of 600 millimeters. The highest precipitation is in the mountains and uplands and the lowest occurs in the central, lowland areas of Poland. On the average, precipitation in summer is twice that in the winter. In the summer months of June, July and August, showers alternate with dry, sunny weather and the temperature averages about 18’C/64’F; the maximum summer temperature is 40’C/104’F. Early autumn is generally sunny and warm before a period of rainy, colder weather in November begins the transition into winter. Winter, which may last one to three months, is cold and cloudy and brings frequent snowstorms but relatively low total precipitation. The average temperature in January is about -4’C/25’F but it can fall as low as -35’C/-31’F.pring arrives slowly in April, bringing mainly sunny days. Read more:Â  Essay About Love Economic & Political System : Poland has a free market economy. As for the politician system, Poland is a country with a republican political system in which power is concentrated in the citizen’s hands. Poland is a parliamentary democracy which means that all citizens can participate in ruling the state and have a constitutionally guaranteed influence on it’s fate. They also enjoy equal rights. Major Trading Partners : Major trading partners would have to be, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, & Czech Republic. Unique Characteristic and Natural Recourses: Well Poland has beautiful mountains, and one really unique thing I like is that the weddings last about three days. Natural resources of Poland are coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, salt, etc. Custom & Cultural Info: When greeting someone a good handshake, direct eye contact, a smile and the appropriate greeting for that time of day will suffice. Do not use first names until invited to. Moving from the use of formal to the informal names is such an important step. When it comes to eating most meals are served family-style, and always try a bit of everything. Alcohol is also usually poured in a small glass. Quality Of life Compare To U.S : I don’t really see a big difference. In both countries people work, go to school, and do the usual. Currency & Language & Exchange Rate v USD: The currency is zloty and the exchange rate is 0.31 US dollar. National Foods & How To Say Hello: Most popular dish in Poland would have to be pierogi which is my all time favorite! Bigos, kielbasa, golabki are also very popular and yummy as well! Anyways to say hello in polish you simply say, czesc! Educational Opportunities ,Current unemployment Rate ,Life Expectancy & GDP: Education is a little different then here in the US. You start off with kindergarten and it goes all the way up to 8th grade and you stay with your class all 8 years, so you never have new kids in your classes. Then from 8th grade you go to a different school to start high school which is 4 years and once you have your class in 9th you stay with them till 12th. It’s a bit confusing but still pretty simple. As for unemployment rate, the currency is 14%! Life expectancy is 76.25 years and the GDP is 514.5 billion USD. Major Sports & Famous People/ Inventions: They play different sports like basketball and volleyball but of course the major one is SOCCER! My favorite(: As for inventions the bulletproof vest was in fact created by a Polish inventor called Jan Szczepanik in 1901. The vest was made of multiple layers of silk that were specifically woven so that they could stop bullets. The invention turned out be quite successful and the cloth used in the vest passed the practical test when it prevented the assassination of the Spanish king Alfonso XIII. Family Life: They usually just live like we would in the US. Once you are married you go off with your husband and if you have kids then you just stay in a home with them obviously! Not really anything different or unusual! Foreign Trade/ Exports & Imports : I’m not sure if Poland has more exports or imports because It kind of balances out. Most of Poland’s imports are capital goods needed for industrial retooling and manufacturing inputs like machinery. Poland exports fruits, vegetables, and dairy products.

Health and Fitness Portfolio

Wendy Wu June 12, 2012 PPL1OF Health – Fitness Portfolio Reflection: Fitness is the condition of being physically fit and healthy, which is what we’ve learned and have been working towards for the entire second semester of this school year (2011 – 2012) in our grade 9 physical education and healthy living course. Through tests that we have completed three separate times during this semester, we can see the progress and improvements that we’ve made throughout the five months. These tests pushed us to do our best and see how we do when we are at our best.These tests were there so that the teacher and ourselves to see how well we were doing in six components: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and agility. Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of one’s respiratory system (the heart and lungs) to provide oxygen and fuel for our bodies during sustained physical activity. This ability helps prevent any he art related illnesses, diabetes, etc. You could improve your cardiorespiratory endurance by continuously running, swimming, or cycling. In class, we were tested on this component by doing the beep test.The beep test consists of us continuously running from one point to another, stopping when reached the point and continuing after a beep. This cycle is continued until you feel like you cannot continue. The first time I completed the beep test was on February 21st and I received a 3. 5. After completing the test, I set a goal for myself the next time we do the beep test (which was in 8-9 weeks). This goal was to reach stage four of the beep test, meaning I had to run three more beeps to reach my goal. I thought this goal was â€Å"SMART† (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time).The second time I completed the beep test, I received a 4. 2, two more beeps over my goal. This means that I have improved by five beeps (0. 5). My goal for the last beep test that was in four weeks was to reach level 4. 5, which meant that I had to run three more beeps than the beep test I had just completed. June 1, was the day that I ran my final beep test of the year. I finished the test with a 4. 7, improving by five beeps. Completing the test with a 4. 7 means I had accomplished my goal and exceeded it. Overall, I had shown a steady increase throughout the semester when it comes to my cardiorespiratory endurance.I believe that this increase was because I was involved in track and field throughout the semester. For warm-up during track and field, we had to run four laps. I think this helped in improving my cardiorespiratory endurance. I can improve my cardiorespiratory endurance even more by running up and down the street in the mornings daily (or weekly) or swim laps every week to boost my cardiorespiratory endurance and the amount of air my lungs can intake. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle to contract repeatedly. This helps with sports and daily activities.Some sports or activities that need muscular endurance are weightlifting, stairs, etc. The main idea of this ability is so that we â€Å"feel the burn†. We figure out our muscular endurance by doing a test of abdominal crunches and push-ups. The first part is to see how many abdominal crunches you could do in a minute. The second part was to see how many continuous push-ups you could do. On the first test, I did 34 crunches in a minute and 20 continuous push-ups. After this testing, I set a SMART goal for myself of 35 abdominal crunches and 22 push-ups. The second test, I did 36 abdominal crunches and 22 continuous push-ups.With these results, I know that I have improved by 2 in abdominal crunches and 3 in push-ups, as well as showing that I had exceeded my goal by one with both sections of the testing. This led me to set my goals for the third testing which were to do 38 abdominal crunches and 25 continuous push-ups. The third testing results ended up to be 38 for abdominal crunches and 33 for continuous push-ups. This displayed an improvement on both tests, as well as accomplishing my SMART goals. In the abdominal crunches sections, I advanced by 2 crunches from last time and reach my goal.For my push-ups, I bettered myself by 10 push-ups and surpassed my goal of 25 continuous push-ups. In the end, these result show a steady increase for the first part (the abdominal crunches) and a slow increase that becomes greater for the second section of the muscular endurance test (continuous push-ups). I think there was an increase because in between the first and second testing, our class had spent a week in the weight room doing a new unit. The first half of the week, we focused on muscular endurance and I think that helped improve my results in the second test.The training we did in the weight room included bench presses, lat pull-downs, abdominal exercises, etc. I continued to do similar exercises before I went to be after the unit had ended, whi ch help improve my third test results. If I continue to do abdominal exercises and push-ups on my own time, my muscular endurance level would steadily increase. Muscular strength is the next component I am going to focus on. It is the amount or weight a muscle can contract once. This component increase muscle mass and increases your power, as well as helping with sports and daily activities like weightlifting, shot-put, javelin, discus, etc.We do a vertical jump test to determine our muscular strength level, which is when we are to stand against the wall with your arm extended to see your standing height. You would then jump with your arm extended to see how high you could jump and the difference between your standing height and your jumping height. I ended my first vertical jump test with 12 inches as my difference and set my goal for next time as 14† for my difference. My second testing result was a difference of 14†, which was my goal. During this test, I improved my muscular strength level by 2†. Then I had written my goal down as 16† for my next difference.I achieved this goal when I completed my third vertical jump and advanced myself from last time by 2†. Therefore, my overall muscular strength level had increased at a constant rate and improved because of the weight training unit we had done. Earlier I mentioned working on muscular endurance in the weight room for a part of the week; the other part was to work on our muscular strength. This helped me better myself in my muscular strength. I could improve my muscular strength level by doing weekly leg exercise like squats or free-weight/machine-weight/body-weight training with more sets than repetitions (reps).

Sysco Case Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Sysco Case - Assignment Example se of business information systems is to predict certain patterns or trends that might otherwise escape the attention of management because of the difficulty of assessing such a big amount of raw data. This is where business information systems can provide their utility. The new term to designate this specific type of computer software is business analytics that is taking the world of business by storm. This new very potent tool has been called as the science of winning (Davenport & Harris, 3). Analytics has been used for a variety of ways to enhance a distinctive capability usually overlooked before due to the sheer mass of data and the difficulty of making sense out of it without the help of sophisticated quantitative analysis. In general, analytics (the newer term) goes a step further than old business information systems (BI) by producing quality data-driven insights that can be used by astute management in producing impressive performance not otherwise attainable before. The amazing power of analytics can be leveraged in a number of ways limited only by the imagination of the owner. Among these possibilities are identifying the most profitable customer segments and how to serve them best, introduce new products, improve the service or offer a better price. SYSCO was founded in Houston, Texas back in 1969 and today is the largest US food distributor. Its main customers are institutional clients such as hotels, restaurant chains, health care-related institutions, educational facilities and lodging establishments. As a measure of its size, company has 420,000 customers, 8,000 marketing associates and some 9,000 delivery associates. Overall, SYSCO has 45,000 employees as of December 2002. In a way, SYSCO is just sort of like any distributor that needs to manage its supplier relationships in a meaningful and tight way that ensures prompt deliveries at less cost. Due to its expertise and efficiency, it can unload a billion cases of product per year without major