Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Authoring Inclusion: The Sonnet's Shifting Form, Aloysius Devine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The history of canonical love poetry is inaccurate without the inclusion of minoritized groups. The relevance of the sonnet’s incomplete history and its lingering impact on contemporary poetry are not examined enough within academia. The sonnet is taught through white-, straight-, and cisgender-centered lenses, contributing to the erasure of historically relevant sonneteers who do not align with these identities. This thesis celebrates the diverse history of sonneteering, while drawing attention to the remaining narrow-mindedness within the poetic community. This thesis dismantles traditional elements of the sonnet through varying form, subject matter, and stylistic choices.

When viewed in the physical form, …

Romantic Ideals In Contemporary Folk Music, Brett Schwartz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines contemporary folk music from no earlier than 2006, specifically music of the bands The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, and Bon Iver. Providing a close reading of select songs, I prove that modern music is seeing a revival in the Romantic Era and Transcendentalist ideals and philosophy. The works and philosophy of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), John Keats (1795-1821), as well as Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), among others and their critics are all considered for points of comparison to the modern lyrics. The reason for this revival is considered in the conclusion …

Tiny Supernovas, Jesse Jay Ross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work seeks to expose the truth in as many different forms as possible. As the title, Tiny Supernovas, suggests, it is influenced by the concept of the explosions of super-massive stars. This explosion is known as a supernova. It is only through a supernova, only through the death and subsequent explosion of one of the largest sequence of stars, that we obtain many of the elements necessary for life here on earth. All heavy metals come from supernovas. Everything we and our planet are made from comes from these explosions. Yet, there is a similarly prolific release of energy …

The New Girl, Angela Marie Meredith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The New Girl is a collection of poems in which the poet assumes a direct, unfeigned voice. These rhythmic poems cover the deeply personal to the universal and social. The body is presented as a record of experiences both good and bad. Feminist issues pertainingto marriage, work, and sexuality are explored. Whether the poem is about a personal relationship or some aspect of society, it is likely to be multi-dimensional and suggest a duality. Overall, the poems are rooted in the spiritual and attempt to relate, with holistic honesty, a sense of reverence for the impure parts of life.