Analysis of Archibald Lampmans The City of the End of Things Essay

Analysis of Archibald Lampmans The City of the End of Things Iron Towers. marvelous flames. Inhuman music, rising and falling. Grim depths and abysses, where only night holds sway and unappeasable creatures crawl ahead their awesome Master. Through these disturbing images, and a masterful adaptation of the sonnet structure, Archibald Lampman summons forth The City of the End of Things. The anonymous City he creates is a place of mechanical sla very(prenominal) and despair, where constitution cannot exist, and human life is forfeit. The place is a veritable Hell no, worse than a hell - it is Tartarus. By evoking the name of this, the most feared of realms in simple Mythology, Lampman roots his poem, and thus his City and message, in Greek and Roman legend. This is very big since, by wrapping the poem within a fabulous narrative, it automatically begins to undermine any attempt to enforce Christian (and other) readings upon it. It becomes important to underst and exactly what is intended by the usage of Tartarus, and precisely how deeply it permeates the structure of the poem. Tartarus was not just another realm within the innocent world - it was a land beyond Hades, beyond the Underworld, lying as far downstairs hell as the Earth lay below Heaven is was said that an anvil would fall for nine days before reaching it. It was a land of exile, a prison for those who displeased the trustworthy ruling hierarchy of Gods and divine beings. Uranus imprisoned his first children there the Titans, having overthrown their father, threw the daphnia into Tartarus - only to take their place once Zeus rebellion disposed of the magisterial giants. It soon became a place of such fear that the mere threa... ...in fact, front screw-loosely chaotic. Our mindless support of self-centred political systems, of abuse of fashion plate human beings of different nationalities - it may well have appeared quite insane to him. The poem, therefore , delivers a strong message of warning we must develop a stronger awareness, a care of what is happening, lest we, the collective we - humanity, the Idiot, are left in the ruins of our effort, alone, forever. whole kit and caboodle Cited Grimal, Pierre. Tartarus The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. sore York Blackwell, 1986. p.443. Lampman, A. The City of the End of Things. Canadian rime From the Beginnings Through the First World War. Ed. Gerson, C and Davies, G. Toronto McClelland & Stewart, 1994. 259-262. Tripp, Edward. Tartarus Crowlls Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York Crowell, 1970. p.545.