The Work Of Poet And Philosoher Archibald Lampman :: essays research papers

The Work of Poet and Philosoher Archibald LampmanPoet and philosopher Archibald Lampman (1861-1899) led not a life of hisown, but an existance forced upon him by peers and an unfeeling and cold society.Dying removed before his time, Lampman led a life of misery. He was supported onlyby a few button up friends and his immortal poetry. This essay is founded around singleparticular of his works but I feel it necessary to discuss the conditions inwhich he lived in order to fully understand what he was attempt to express and/orsymbolize.Lampman really hated his day to day life, he lived only for his friends andhis works. Trapped in a city for which he had no love, he often reflected hisloathing of it in his numerous works situated in cities. A lover of nature,Lampmans poems often immediately assumed a tone of life, mirth, and a feeling ofpleasure and warmth the others formed a picture of death, hell, and hate allheld together by the one problem that is always present, Man.With few cl ose friends like Duncan Campell Scott, and other that werepoetically inclinded, Lampman formed a group through-out collage that metfrequently to write and discuss. Close friends like that influenced him towrite such popular pieces as "Heat" and "A sunset at Les Eboulements" and yet inhis darkest moments we get the main topic of this essay "The City of The reverse ofThings". Like most abundant poets, Lampmans moods and feelings had a rail effecton the nature and topic of his poetry. Lampman chief poetry was done after agreat joy in his life, or a great sadness. Sadly, Archibald was not a rich manand lived not a happy life, and most of his poetry reflects that. "The City ofThe End of Things" was written in a time of great sadness and hate for the world.Published one year after his death many people fail to realize the directconnection to themselves in the poem.Lampmans poetry was divided into two moods, saddness and joy, each primarlyinvoled with nat ure or cities. Let us discuss the tools used in "The City ofThe End of Things". Dubed "The Apocalypic City" by Many experts, these mutationsof the apocalypic city shows how much Lampmans visions shifted with his moods.He was passionatly committed to social change, but in extreme he identifiedredemption with inactivate oblivion (N.G Guthrie)The infernal features of the City are so many inversions of the values thatLampmans saw in natural landscape. Its roaring furnaces, its "ceaseless round"