Monday, February 18, 2013

Poetry Essay #1 "Conscience"

AP Poetry Essay #1: Henry David Thoreau’s Conscience What is conscience? Yes, conscience is an instinctive response And yes, conscience is a series of moral convictions that operate to supersede impulsive desire. However, when exposed to individual perception and unrestrained emotion, the conscience is capable of change. In Conscience, Henry David Thoreau employs apostrophe, anaphora, and an alternating rhyme scheme and meter to communicate how the virtuous conscience is undermined by the complexities of the truth. Through the promotion of his ideal conception of conscience, Thoreau acknowledges how our instinctive nature is corrupted by carnal emotions. Asserting that “Conscience is instinct bred in the house,” Thoreau recognizes that “Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin[s]” that undermine the intrinsic principles of morality (Thoreau 1-2). And through censuring emotion, Thoreau explicates how this detraction from morality is an inevitable experience that humans must endure in order to gain perspective, learning from the consequences of their actions. Using parallel structure to emphasize the need for a conscience which is unalterable, Thoreau associates a virtuous conscience with simplicity. Commenting that “A conscience worth keeping” is “A conscience wise and steady” and “A conscience exercised about/Large things,” Thoreau demonstrates the pertinence of using moral convictions to as a guidance to achieve success (Thoreau 16, 18, 22-23). Under the assumption that an unrelenting moral conscience will contribute to eternal salvation, Thoreau communicates his perception of the world, a time where conscience was not convoluted by the complexities of life. Employing an alternating rhyme scheme and meter throughout this poem, Thoreau portrays how the conscience is not immunized against corruption. The conscience can be changed. When criticizing the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, Thoreau contrasts the desire to be “predestinated to be good” with the virtue of honesty, which allows individuals to be “false to none” (Thoreau 25, 28). Of course, the disillusionment endured when exposing moral conscience to incriminating allegations is self-induced. Exploring the pervasive contradictions in a perception of good and evil, Thoreau writes “If not good, why then evil,/If not good god, good devil” (Thoreau 35-36). Without the infrastructure of a conscience undeterred by perceptions of the truth, Thoreau astutely observes that you will concede to temptation, sacrificing your integrity. While a conscience will function for individual perception of an objective truth, it is not unalterable. Encountering the vices and darkness of the world is a disheartening experience, and, consequently, individuals will change their perception. And their conscience. Truly, in the end, nothing can be immunized against corruption. Not even the conscience.

7 comments:

  1. I like your analysis of on Thoreau's view of the conscience. I believe that a lot of his ideas on the conscience comes from his romantic/transcendentalist nature. Romanticism and transcendentalism called for innocent heroes and heroines, as well as a return to simplicity, Thoreau exemplifies this views throughout his poem, commanding the reader to "Turn it out doors/Into the moors" (Thoreau 4-5) and praising the "life whose plot is simple" (Thoreau 6). In this poem, thinking creates the sin that makes a sickly conscience. The idea of corrupting thoughts again circles back to the Romantics, who believed that society, which obviously shaped the thoughts of those within it.

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  2. I think that your analysis "Conscience What is conscience?" by Henry David Thoreau is great. I agree that Society shapes the conscious. We all live in a world where people tend to mold into a stereotype, why do you think stereotypes exist? No matter how hard most people try they tend to like the same things as people who are similar to themselves. I suppose societies ways is what makes me really like the quote, "Born to its own affairs,/ Its own joys and own cares; (30) I like the idea that even though people fit into stereotypes, there is a chance that you can stand out and be yourself. That the conscious gives us that ability.

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  3. Addressing your essay about “Conscience” by Thoreau, I want to discuss how meaning is created. From what you wrote I can see that you believe conscience is ever changing and depending on “carnal emotions” as well as “inevitable experiences” in life. You analyzed the poem based on Thoreau’s commentary about conscience and I see this in the way you analyze the parallel structure and censored emotions. You discuss various rhetorical devices and strategies such as anaphora, apostrophe, alternating rhyme scheme and alternating meter in order to reach the conclusion which states that not even a strong conscience can resist temptation and avoid corruption. My question to further your analysis is, if a conscience cannot exist devoid of corruption, should humans live in acceptance of the fact or should humans live in a constant fight trying to change that fact?

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  4. I think that your analysis "Conscience What is conscience?" by Henry David Thoreau is superb. I agree that Society shapes the conscience. We all live in a world where people tend to mold into a stereotype, why do you think stereotypes exist? No matter how hard most people try to fight trends, they tend to like the same things as people who are similar to themselves. I suppose societies ways is what makes me really like the quote, "Born to its own affairs,/ Its own joys and own cares; (30) I like the idea that even though people fit into stereotypes, there is a chance that individuals can stand out and be unique. That the conscious gives us that ability.
    Another take on conscience's is that they change depending on the thinker. We, as thinkers, tend to be molded by society; however, we are also born with certain personality traits and acquire some at such young ages that society cannot bend them or shape them into its own creation. With these pre-determined characteristics we create the meaning behind "Born to its own affairs" (30) Our mind has its own destiny, it is how we react to the world that changes our actions.

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  5. In your analysis of the poem “Conscience”, your opinion that the author “demonstrates the permanence of using moral convictions as a guide to achieve success in life” (Justice) is similar to the way I interpreted the poem. The idea that “conscience can be changed” is interesting to me in that I had not considered that conscience could be manipulated by situations and circumstances. It made me re-evaluate my own interpretation and understanding of the word conscious itself. I realized that conscience is a personal moral guide that cannot be “immunized against corruption” (Justice). However, with that being said, I came to the conclusion that most everybody has a conscience; something that pulls them back (or tries to) when they make mistakes, people have the freewill to choose whether to listen to that conscience or not when facing corruption. All people will be exposed to evil and corruption in their life, as the world is not perfect, but if people choose to listen to their conscience then perhaps they will be able to make better decisions or react to corruption in a better way.

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  7. Lovely analysis...my take is that conscience is certainly home bred..as u grow up society influences it in a Big way...and between the ages of 20 and 25 emerges ur true self and ur version of right and wrong largely driven by the conscience u would have built by then

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