Thread: The Brook and The Seven Ages

I'm stuck with something my sister was given for her English class.

The Question is: "Compare the parallelism of the journey of the brook (Poem: The Brook - Alfred Tennyson) to the seven ages of man (The Seven Ages - William Shakespeare).

hey candid what an interesting set of poems..
I am reading through I will hopefully come back with few ideas

from what I understand
the Brook refers to stream,river and the character the man, using I, becomes the brook as the poem progresses, like an imagery, man becomes water brook.
so the poem starts of talking of I the man to then turn or become part of the brook to signal an idea of eternity.
the seven ages ,
refers to the birth and death of his character, the man, who is born, is a child, a schoolboy, a lover, a soldier, a justice, grown up then old men,
notice:
Sans teeth sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
sans in french means '' without.''
so the two poems are a contrast of one that is eternity against mortality but with a twist.
the brook is in away saying that eternity is only when man becomes part of the stream, a play on word. so in my views one that is deceptive because neither of the two characters, achieve eternity.
I hope that this help candid.

All the World's a Stage is a monologue from the play As You Like It, it is not a poem as such.

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

All the World's a Stage is a monologue from the play As You Like It, it is not a poem as such.

I am not familiar with As You Like It ,will go and have a look.

Originally Posted by candid petunia

I'm stuck with something my sister was given for her English class.

The Question is: "Compare the parallelism of the journey of the brook (Poem: The Brook - Alfred Tennyson) to the seven ages of man (The Seven Ages - William Shakespeare).

It reads like a homework assignment; why are you stuck with it?

Bloggsworth, I know it's not a separate poem.

Cran, it is a homework assignment. Wait, is it talking about the stages of the growth of the brook to join the river and the stages in man's life? But I still don't really get the whole thing.

the poet starts off as a man, refered by as I, then as the poem progresses the I, man, becomes part of the brook.
it is an imagery to suggest eternity in becoming part of the brook which should run forever and which as we know rives and seas are on this earth eternal.
the seven ageas, the birth and death of man, to refer to mortality.
a contrast between mortality and eternity only in a non human form.

Originally Posted by candid petunia

Bloggsworth, I know it's not a separate poem.

Cran, it is a homework assignment. Wait, is it talking about the stages of the growth of the brook to join the river and the stages in man's life? But I still don't really get the whole thing.

I still don't understand why you are stuck with your sister's homework assignment, however ...

[The Question is: "Compare the parallelism of the journey of the brook (Poem: The Brook - Alfred Tennyson) to the seven ages of man (The Seven Ages - William Shakespeare).]

Assuming that the word used is the one meant, then the student is not being asked to compare the journeys, but to compare how each journey is presented in recurring self-similar words or phrases: parallelism

ETA: in other words, it's a grammar exercise, rather than a philosophical exercise.

parallelism in the same of similarities and differences
the parallel is the journey of man through two dimensions
one is mortality
and the eternity
one baby to old men then death then rebirth so it is circular
and the brook from man to entity which is water but then no rebirth to this one just nothingness.

Ah okay. Thanks Cran. Thank you too, Nacian.

just one more candid parrallelism means the same and different because the two parallels are the same but never meet hence similarities and differences.

The challenge for the student is to be able to distinguish between parallelism

Parallelism means that words used in pairs or groups should all have the same grammatical form (verbs and verbs; nouns, nouns, and nouns; gerunds and gerunds, etc.) When using words or phrases with coordinating conjunctions or in a series, make sure that they follow the same grammatical structure.

-(link: Free English Study, speaking, listening, grammar lessons, reading, writing, vocabulary - Parallelism

- and simple parallels

a. Having comparable parts, analogous aspects, or readily recognized similarities: the parallel lives of two contemporaries.
b. Having the same tendency or direction: parallel motives and aims.

-(link: parallels - definition of parallels by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.