Suppose you’re a creator. Among architecture, sculpture, music, and literature, which do you think offers the most promise of an enduring monument? Explain your answer.
I think that if I were to create something because I wanted it to last for a long time, probably I would choose to make a work of literature; I think that books are really a great way of communication and of showing how things were, it is something that has a life of its own and that will really express and show what you wanted to portray in the first place. Architecture, sculpture and music are limited types of communication, because you cant have a building that tells a long story, or a song that is really long an explains things in detail and a sculpture is only the beginning of a story, whereas literature can be really long, detailed and it is an entire story if you want it to be.
Irony is the discrepancy between expectations and reality. Explain the fundamental irony in the sonnet.
Personally, I think that this sonnet’s irony is the fact that the city of grandeur that is mentioned here is in rubble; the king that proudly made the statement about the big beauty that this city held is now mistaken because his beautiful city is now no longer standing up.
Discuss, What you think is the speaker’s message about pride -and whether it also applies to artists.
The message of pride that this sonnet has is mainly in the king’s statement; this man was so proud of his city that he said that it was the best and that it was going to be the best forever, but in fact the city is now no longer standing and the pride that once was present in this city now can no longer be. This type of pride does apply to artists, because their works are for them the best ever and they think that these works will always be the best no matter what.
Could this poem apply to any contemporary figures that wield political power? Explain.
It can apply to political figures, because it is common that they think that the city or country that they are representing is the best, but they cannot see that this can all fall apart in a matter of seconds they are, in a sense, blinded by pride.
