Student Essays from Yeditepe English Literature

  A Glance at the English Civil War Period Through Poetry by Umut Can Bulut Over the years, art has kept its place as an important indicator to help understand the spirit of a certain time. An artwork, by containing in it intense emotion and unique viewpoints to life, can say a lot that would not be found in a simple account of history. Therefore, studying artworks in their time context can unveil some interesting links between the work and the influential events of the time period. Poetry, being one of the most emotionally expressive art forms, works perfectly in that regard. Thus, using poetry to take a glance at the past is a great way of getting valuable insight into the history, in this case getting insight into the English civil war period. Abraham Cowley, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton were all well-known poets of that time. Therefore, putting their famous works which were written around that time, like Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” or Milton’s Paradise Lost along with...

Clemente By Onur Saatçıoğlu      He then uttered what he ought to have uttered all along, his Act of Contrition, while I leaned towards his side of the confessional to show my sincere interest. The paper-like curtains separating us would not prevent me from seeing his white, silk armor with gold embroidery, partially covered with a crimson stole. As I was trying to raise my aged eyes back to where they should be, I could not but help think about how much I detested this so-called house-dress. It made my stomach ache and it did not only do that but also made me want to vomit in an uncontrolled manner. A sudden silence filled the wooden box, when I realized it was my turn to talk, to repeat what I have been repeating for the past forty years,      “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit.”      My rusty voice, which had been worn out since last week’s cold weather, caused an unpleasant contradiction with...

Renaissance Poets and Their Depiction of Love and the Beauty of Women by Zehra Senem Nurel      The Renaissance period is an age that involves many different styles of art. During the reign of Elizabeth I, art and literature were immensely assorted. Queen Elizabeth herself was deeply interested in theatre and poetry. For that reason, the contemporaries of that age tried to create various types of genres. When it comes to poetry, we can see the two definite types of sonnets: the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet and the English or Shakespearean sonnet. Since both Petrarch and Shakespeare gave new ways to poem writing, the styles are named after them. Thanks to these great poets, the genre of sonnet became highly popular during the Renaissance. The genre of the sonnet that Petrarch made popular during the early Renaissance became even more widespread with Shakespeare’s different meter techniques.  Focusing on the English sonnet, we understand that Shakespeare was actually a...