ENGL 2802 Study Guide - Final Guide: Fifteen Dogs, Rhyme Scheme, Blank Verse
17 May 2017
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Document Summary
Epic: charact ers engage in verbal and physica l struggl e. From towards the last spike : about the construction of the rst transcontinental railroad line of the canadian. Question of nation building and heritage, moments of inclusion and exclusion within modernist landscapes. Physical tests: battle between forces of nature (the canadian. Shield is personi ed as a prehistoric monster) v. the construction team and william. Blank verse perhaps re ects how this poem is about a future that isn"t de ned yet. Less structure and certainty: shown in the epic struggle. Personi cation of landscape: creates tension; captures geography; aligns the people with the land. Almost like a civil war: working to make themselves better. The railway: symbolically uni es the country economically and physically. Pratt attempting to lift a historical event into the mythological realm: the epic makes it something grand in a way that is not necessarily understood today (w/ cars and planes); historical v. cultural importance.
