Hey guys,
So as you may have seen in my email, I have been pretty sick. This outline is from my original draft. I am skyping with Dr. Phillips in the morning regarding my paper, and plan to post another outline sometime tomorrow when I hopefully feel better and have a chance to work on my paper more. If you read this and want to make comments, feel free, but I won't be offended if you don't (especially since this is super late). Thanks all, and drink your Vitamin C!!!
1. Title: The Maze of the Mind
2. Introduction: What a mind-spinning task it is, to think about the brain. The brain, believed by most to be connected to our mind, controls every aspect of human function, including our mental processes. Yet, when one thinks about thinking, it does not seem like a detailed or calculated function of human survival; thinking is freedom. Many would argue that thinking knows no bounds. If this is accepted as true, then it can be concluded that thinking about the brain, and thus the mind, can be done in a limitless number of ways. But even more mind-spinning than the concept of thinking, is how we are able to convert these thoughts into words. Thoughts do not occur as if there is a typewriter in the brain, with words that can be spoken or written on command. The person doing the thinking must decide which symbols to use to create the words that will best convey the precise ideas that are being calculated and manipulated by the mind. This is the beauty of written language. It is an admirable feat to create writing that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Combining these two facets, the idea of thinking about the brain and the idea of transferring thoughts from mind to paper, is no easy task. The brain has yet to be fully understood by humans, and the mystery of the brain will arguably never be completely solved. For this reason, perspectives on the brain and its existence as a whole are sure to vary and even clash for the rest of time. This is what makes it fascinating to look at literature from earlier times regarding the brain and the mind. Many literary artists have attempted this difficult task over the years, and one of the most interesting places to look at this feat is poetry. Like the mind, poetry is free. Two poets, in particular, captured this idea remarkably well. John Keats and Margaret Cavendish both display eloquent use of language and creative manipulation of words to convey precisely what they perceived the brain to be, and how it functions. By using poetry as a vice, these two authors successfully conveyed to the audience not only their thoughts on the mind, but also the very idea that the mind is a free body of thought, unable to be contained by the physicality of the human body.
3.
2. Introduction: What a mind-spinning task it is, to think about the brain. The brain, believed by most to be connected to our mind, controls every aspect of human function, including our mental processes. Yet, when one thinks about thinking, it does not seem like a detailed or calculated function of human survival; thinking is freedom. Many would argue that thinking knows no bounds. If this is accepted as true, then it can be concluded that thinking about the brain, and thus the mind, can be done in a limitless number of ways. But even more mind-spinning than the concept of thinking, is how we are able to convert these thoughts into words. Thoughts do not occur as if there is a typewriter in the brain, with words that can be spoken or written on command. The person doing the thinking must decide which symbols to use to create the words that will best convey the precise ideas that are being calculated and manipulated by the mind. This is the beauty of written language. It is an admirable feat to create writing that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Combining these two facets, the idea of thinking about the brain and the idea of transferring thoughts from mind to paper, is no easy task. The brain has yet to be fully understood by humans, and the mystery of the brain will arguably never be completely solved. For this reason, perspectives on the brain and its existence as a whole are sure to vary and even clash for the rest of time. This is what makes it fascinating to look at literature from earlier times regarding the brain and the mind. Many literary artists have attempted this difficult task over the years, and one of the most interesting places to look at this feat is poetry. Like the mind, poetry is free. Two poets, in particular, captured this idea remarkably well. John Keats and Margaret Cavendish both display eloquent use of language and creative manipulation of words to convey precisely what they perceived the brain to be, and how it functions. By using poetry as a vice, these two authors successfully conveyed to the audience not only their thoughts on the mind, but also the very idea that the mind is a free body of thought, unable to be contained by the physicality of the human body.
3.
Margaret
Cavendish’s view of the brain differed tremendously from other people studying
science during her time.
Knowledge
of the brain during this time was quite trivial. In fact, the mind was a
relatively new concept during the 15th century.
Cavendish
drives her point home with the wittiness of her persona throughout the poem.
Through
both the comparison of the brain to the ‘squaring a circle’ quandary and the
use of clever diction to poke fun at scientists of the time, Margaret Cavendish
successfully portrays the image of the brain as a circular mystery.
John
Keats poem has quite a different message from that of Cavendish. In “When I
have fears that I may cease to be”, Keats conveys the idea that thinking about
the mind is a terrifying endeavor.
Keats
discusses the idea of the mind being limitless, and his fear seems to stem from
the idea that he will run out of time to transfer all of his thoughts from his
brain to paper before he dies.
Keats
becomes reflective as he discusses the idea of emotion.
Keats
ends “When I have fears that I may cease to be” with inarguably one of the
greatest fears for mankind: losing your mind.
Much
different from Cavendish, Keats followed the traditional Shakespearean sonnet
form.
4. Conclusion: The two authors would surely agree that the mind is an unsolvable mystery. More importantly, Cavendish and Keats address two facets of the human mind that amazingly were regarded as valid centuries ago as well as in present day. Cavendish, in revolutionary insight for her time, remarks on the fact that the mind is a mysterious manifestation that should and will remain so, and Keats expresses the fear that results from this very fact. Together the poems of these two authors encompass the undefined and the unknown that is the mind. Through clever diction, vivid imagery, wittiness from Cavendish, and emotional connection to the audience from Keats, the combined efforts of these poets demonstrates the freeness and unbound nature of mind and thought and, most significantly, the fact that it will forever remain this way.
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