Saturday, January 25, 2020
Why Do Young People Commit So Many Crimes Criminology Essay
Why Do Young People Commit So Many Crimes Criminology Essay The rate of crime had been increasing before the year of 1995. Law, sociology, physiology and other disciplines tend to view the criminals as abnormal persons from moral point. The causes of crime are criminal psychology, the genetic characteristics and social environment. They think that youth criminal have no moral value and feelings, who crime without clear motives and do not consider the punishment. In 1998, Stephen Levitt used the economic methods of maximized behavior, market equilibrium and stable preferences to explain the youth crime in his Juvenile Crime and Punishment. He believed that young offenders are also completely rational economic man, who will carefully trade off the cost, income balance, then seek to maximized benefits. Levitt tested the strongly direct correlation between the number of juvenile crime and juvenile justice system punishment from 1978 to 1993. Based on this theory, this paper aims to discuss the specific causes of youth crime in Canada, and analysis would be made on the data of Statistics Canada. Following this, some suggestions would be given on how to reduce the number of young people committing crime. 2.0 Discussion 2.1 According to the course of the economics of crime and punishment, what are the possible determinant factors impacting on young people crime? The causes of youth crime are various. Crime is the consequences of different social, cultural, economic and family conditions (Muhammad, 2008). Generally, because there are so many causes this paper select some reasons and discuss them particularly. (1) Social environment Social environment has long been recognized as the major cause of the youth crime, which include school environment and community environment. The problem of youth crime is not alone but a part of the whole society. That is to say the violence of youth is part of the violence of adult. The economics of crime and punishment has three assumptions. In the beginning, everyone is a rational person who can decide their own behavior and maximize their benefits. What is more, whoever crimes will suffer punishment since each one is equal and the possibility of punishment is 0 to 100 percent. In the last, the more severe punishment will be given for the more serious crime. As a matter of fact, young people usually spend a lot time in school, so school environment has deep influence on youth crime. Statistics show that currently there is a sharp growth trend of juvenile delinquency in the United States, and the U.S. youth homicide and suicide increased by 3.2 times in the past decade. During the same time, the ratio of aged under 15 dead because of shot is 12 times higher than the ratio of other 25 countries combined. In recent years because of violence in the campus, the youth of United States is suffering pain about widespread youth violence. Although among all the murder and suicide case only 1% occurred in the campus, the figure has an anticipation of fast growing. Meanwhile aside from school, young people also spend much time in community where they can know peers and do meaningful things together. From the assumption of the rational economic person, community activities can help individual realize the maximum of ones own benefit. However young people are always sensitive about the others opinions so that they are influenced by others easily and then they will imitate others behaviors. (2) Economic condition In general, poverty and unemployment of economic condition which are two major factors influence the youth crime. Between the benefits and justice, the criminals always select the first due to the economics of crime and punishment. This theory fully considered the probability of the two kinds of cost, and then looked for a method which can save the most for the society. Thus the standard of estimating a policy is not depended on the justice and fairness but on the beneficial result. Firstly if one can not afford the cost of his life, the possibility he choose to crime will be higher. That is because he need to live but he can not receive money from a legal way. Through a classic Becker type model, economists estimate how potential criminals cost in the legitimate job market by using an unemployment data. The analysis shows that unemployment and crime are positively correlated in the cross-section dimension. Meanwhile the rate of youth unemployment increasing leads to increases in crime. To decrease crime, it seems that all strategies chosen to combat youth unemployment should be examined. Secondly poverty is a reasonable factor to understand. Despite the benefit system of the whole society has been designed to fulfill daily needs of each person, the gap of the poor and the rich are becoming deeper and deeper. The reason why young people commit crime is they do not want to work and the cost of crime can ignore easily. (3) Family effects All in all, there are many aspects in the family structure which can lead to youth crime, such as family clash, parents low income, ignorance of parents, lack of communication, family breakup, family violence, and so on. Improvements in all invisible areas should be focused on by crime prevention. In order to design the policy more effective, each factor should be identified the contribution to the youth crime. To begin with, as a proverb said a persons character is mostly from his family or the environment he live. With the increases of divorce, family harmony is broke up. Young people themselves do not have enough knowledge to differ the bad from the good, so they need their parents help. If they do not receive enough information and supervision, the possibility of crime will get higher. What is more, neighborhood effects on crime and delinquency for male and female youth is an important fact. According to an experiment evidence, female youth arrested for violent and property crimes are relative to a group which has many members from lower-poverty areas. In opposite, males arrested decreases for violent crime, at least in the short time, but increases property crime. The different treatment between male and female youth effects appears to mirror differences in what disadvantaged backgrounds male and female youths from and how each gender responds to same new neighborhood environments. 2.2 Explain the data about youth crime at Statistics Canada. Use econometrics methods to analyze the specific reasons of the increasing number about young people crime in Canada. (1) Rates of youth crime According to the data of Canada given (Statistics Canada, 2006), the rates of youth violent crime and total Criminal Code offences (excluding traffic) climbed up while the rates of property crime dropped from 2005 to 2006. In 2006, there are almost 180,000 young people involved in some crime of the Criminal Code, excluding traffic offences. This means that in this age group nearly 6.8% youth crime accused. Both the total amount and rate of young people charged for homicide got their highest point during the past two decades. Among the young people, the number of youth violent crimes nearly takes up one quarter of the total number for youth committing crime. Youth crimes reported for Criminal Code offences 2006 2005-2006 1997-2006 Number of youth charged Number of youth cleared by means other than charging Total youth accused Youth crime rate Youth crime rate % change in total youth crime rate Violent crime 20,500 18,972 39,472 1,528 3 12 Property crime 25,780 39,681 65,461 2,534 -3 -34 Other Criminal Code offences 27,661 45,271 72,932 2,823 9 34 Criminal Code(excluding traffic) 73,941 103,924 177,865 6,885 3 -6 Drug offences 6,382 11,509 17,891 693 2 97 From: The Juristat: Youth crime in Canada,à 2006, Vol.à 28, no.à 3 From the table above, the rate of property crime has a sharp decline and become the lowest point of the past decade. That is to say, the poverty reason of youth crime gets less influence on the behavior of young people. However the rate of drug offences has a surprising increase and it has become the major factor of youth crime. The table also shows there are slight climbing on the rates of violent crime and other Criminal Code offences. (2) Consequences of youth crime People are affected by crime on many aspects, usually young people are innocent about the law and punishments they choose to commit crime blindly only for the money they want or a way to let off their feelings. As a result, violent and drug substance abuse have bad effects on young people daily life and the security of the whole society cannot be guaranteed. Parents will concern their children security and maybe they cannot work with all their enthusiasm. Each youth will be afraid of going to school since there are so many violent crimes on campus. (3) Analysis of regression (RSS) Firstly according to the table the rates of poverty crime and the rates of Criminal Code (excluding traffic) declined so that the two rates have little effects on the youth crime, in order to build model more easily, the above two referred rates will be removed. Secondly a model should be built to determine whether the three rates left have relations with youth crime then some reasons can be given clearly. Through the data of model, a result of the RSS will be introduced in the following content. Equation: y =ÃŽà ±+ÃŽà ²1 x1 +ÃŽà ²2 x 2 + ÃŽà ²3x 3+ÃŽà µ In the equation, y indicates the rate of youth crime while x1 x 2 x 3 are separately on behalf of violent crime, other Criminal Code offences and drug offences. ÃŽà ²1 ÃŽà ²2 ÃŽà ²3 are parameters represent the relation of x and y. Result Coefficients Standard error T Stat P-value Lower 95 % Upper 95 % Intercept -0.0577 0.006621 -18.3402 5.28E-08 -0.083423 -0.05553 XVariable1 0.0002423 5.038E-05 10.696 6.35E-09 0.001439 0.00438 XVariable2 0.005873 7.341E-05 12.372 4.67E-12 0.07963 0.00634 XVariable3 0.08212 1.287E-05 0.3527 18.35E-08 6.657E-05 8.342E-05 ÃŽà ±= -0.0577 ÃŽà ²1= 0.0002423 ÃŽà ²2 = 0.005873 ÃŽà ²3= 0.08212 Equation: y =-0.0577+0.0002423 x1 +0.005873 x 2 + 0.08212x 3+ÃŽà µ (4) The specific reasons of youth crime in Canada On the one hand, drug and substance abuse is the most important factor contributed to the rate of youth crime. This factor has become the dominant strength for youth crime which mostly comes from the lack supervision of the environment young people live. The rate of drug-related youth crime has increased dramatically compared with 10 years earlier. Drug and substance abuse will not only have bad effects on youth mentally but also it will damage the health of young people that can not recover easily. The pressure may be from family, school and the inside of youth heart so others can not discover in a short time. On the other hand, the rates of violent crime and other Criminal Code offences are climbing up slightly. The reason is mostly from the social factors which include poor impulse control, lack of communication and the imitation of others behaviors. Aside from the mental factor, it is true young people usually get a lot of pressure from the surroundings, if they can not find a legal way to relieve their feelings the probability they chose to crime will be climb up. Even some of young people view crime as a pleasure that is awful, and this kind of thought mostly comes from the media and films. They commit crime for fun, it will damage others benefits eventually so will the youth. All in all, it is necessary to control the number of youth drug crime which has become the most serious problem of the society. Meanwhile lack of family communication and school correct guide can also lead to young people committing crime. That is to say young people always know nothing about their behaviors and what bad results will happen to the persons they maybe hurt. 3.0 Based on the economics theory and the information in this article, what advice would you give organizations in reducing the rate of young people crime? First for the dramatic increase in the youth drug and substance offences, it is necessary to redesign the program of youth education. Currently there are still many people who do not realize the importance of the education, even the people with higher education. In order to broadcast the essence of education, a new system of education should be designed and displayed among persons from one to another. If a young person receives higher education, he can get a job more easily and the possibility of crime will get down. In a long run, the awareness of whole society will decrease the rate of unemployment so that the number of crime can be controlled completely. Secondly it is efficient to reduce the drug availability since the problem of drug and substance abuse is the most serious one. To make fewer people get access to dangerous drugs availability of it is needed to be cut short. A drug addicted young person may work without enough attention and thus cannot afford his/her drug expenses. As a result youth may crime so that they can get money they need. Government should carry out effective ways to reduce the drug availability, and give severe punishment once the drug criminals are accused. A record of each criminal activities and asset possession etc. should be maintained by the police system, and all vehicles must be registered in a platform so that it is easier to find the criminal track. Youth may consider more about the result of the crime with the fear of their record on previous crime. Thirdly it is necessary to enhance the law forcing agencies. Since the number of youth crime is climbing up, it is obvious that more police needed. To improve the police attitude about work, the environment they work should be improved and the problem in their life should be solved as soon as possible. The train of the police is necessary because offenders will commit more crimes when they think the police cannot have enough capacity to catch them. If the whole level of forcing agencies is improved, offenders will think more deeply about committing a crime. Youth stealing goods usually sells them to get money they want. There are special markets to recycle the stolen good for sale. If these markets are forced to close in law, goods youth stolen cannot find a method to change money. As a result, the incentive of stealing or robbing goods can be decreased. At last, youth crime has become a serious problem which needs government and citizen effort together to solve. Aside from the measures above, there are still some other methods which can be taken to control the youth crime. For example, if government can supply more employment opportunities, the rate of youth crime will fall. Besides, reducing of poverty and inequality is also a good way to control the number of youth crime. The inequality can be declined through correct tax policy with fair consideration.à The rich should be levied more heavily than the poor so that the poor can receive more help from the government and the increasing minimum of wage in the country. When the number of young people getting work is increasing, the chances of their criminal activities will fall. 4.0 Conclusion Through the analysis of the Canada database in 2006, building a model and using the RSS method it is obvious to see there are three reasons contributed to youth crime. The most important one is drug and substance abuse which take up more than 90% of the whole youth crime. Following it is other Criminal Code offences and violent crime. The conclusion is these three reasons take up almost all the youth crime which should be given enough attentions. In addition, there are many bad consequences of youth crimes which can influence the young people themselves, the family they live and even the whole society. Thus it is necessary to take measures immediately to solve the problem of youth crime. To sum up, young people is the hope of the whole country so how to reduce the number of youth crime has many relations with the future of the country. Based on the theory and data, the reasons why young people commit crime are given properly, and the government should take some measures according to these reasons in order to control youth crime. Meanwhile lack of family communication has bad effects on the children in their growth, and this can lead to a series of problems in the society. Government must call parents for their responsibilities to their children, only by doing so can be the problem solved completely. Through the government, family, and the whole society cooperate each other closely, make sure each young person realizes the bad effects of the crime so that a new social environment will be formed.
Friday, January 17, 2020
Online reservation of Eden spring resort Essay
RATIONALE OF THE STUDY The web has become an opportunity for the marketers to add value to products and services. The phenomenal growth and rising of the popularity of the internet and the World Wide Web has become a key to attract more consumers and businesses to engage the benefits of Electronic Commerce (E-commerce). This E-commerce is sited as any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact (Aldin, Brehmer & Johansson, 2004). This has transformed the traditional commerce and enhanced sales and exchanges of merchandise and information. It is not just considered as single entity of technology but a combination of technologies where applications, processes, business strategies are necessary to do business electronically. The availability of goods and services with the click of a mouse is changing the global setting. It is critical for companies to know how do they attract customers to their website, engage them to turn into paying customers and also retain them in returning to your website. Online communications techniques used to achieve goals of brand awareness, familiarity and favorability and to influence purchase intent by encouraging users of digital media to visit a web site to engage with the brand or product and ultimately to purchase online or offline through traditional media channels such as by phone or in-store (Chaffey, 2009). In the Philippines, e-commerce is mostly being implemented by major retailers and multinational corporations for bank-to-bank exchange. A number of Business-to-consumer transactions have emerged through the years such as auctions, online shopping, and online banking (Lacson, Pasadilla, 2006). This just shows that Filipino businesses welcome this new opportunity in selling goods since 16% of the population is using Internet. This new marketing strategy will not only benefit those big companies but also the small businesses who cannot afford to advertise their products. Just by creating a website in a very affordable cost would make the business grow in terms of sales and enhance the company image as well. As summer is fast approaching, everyone wants to relax and spend quality time with their family and have fun at the same time. One of these relaxation sessions that will come in mind is outing, nature-tripping and swimming. Eden Spring Resort was planned to be for private use only. Family gatherings, special occasion and some invited family friends. But as the time passed, they developed it and made it a business, a Resort, and as this resort started, many people may it be local or foreign appreciated the beauty of the resort. The nature, the view, the fresh air, the peaceful and quite environment enticed them so much that they want to come back and bring significant people from them to enjoy the same experience that they had. When their business started, we found out that the personnel of the Eden Spring Resort theyââ¬â¢ve been using a manual reservation every time they have customers. we notice that the customerââ¬â¢s of the resort are having a hard time on how to reserved the resort like birthday parties, weddings, family reunion and different kinds of occasions. So our proposal is about the web based reservation of Eden Spring Resort. Through this research, we may be able to help the resort in the enhancement of their business in order for them to have many costumers and also they will have an organized filing of the different transactions. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Through this research project, we may be able to help the resort in their business and also to provide a hassle-free reservation for their customers. The aspects that are related to this research are the organized filing of reservations made by the customers, the level of the administratorsââ¬â¢ computer literacy, assisting the management of the resort to be able to attain a smooth and systematic operation and procedures, to provide a dependable and accessible reservation system that will ensure their clients a quality service, the availability of management staff with related training and knowledge in modern information technology that will periodically update and improve service provider capability to sustain a quality and dependable internet connection. This study seeks to answer the following: 1. What are the possible transactions of the Eden Spring Resort that can be improved using the online reservation? 2. What are the needed information requirements of Eden Spring Resort in terms of: 2.1. Checking-In and out ofà guests to rooms; 2.2. Reservation of different kinds of occasion (Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversary etc.). 3. What are the acceptance level of the developed online reservation of Eden Spring Resort in terms of: 3.1. Perceive of usefulness and 3.2. Perceive of ease of use? SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY Nowadays, computer plays an important role in our life, most especially to the people that are having their business. There are the people who will benefit on our research study: Owner. They will have an organized file with a complete data that they will be needed in the reservations. Employees. Their work will be much easier and faster. Present Researchers. This study will help them develop and improve their knowledge that they have learned and skills that they experience. This will also served as one of their requirements in passing this level. Future Researchers. This will serve as their additional reference for their research. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY This study focuses on the online reservation of the Eden Spring Resort. The researchers will interview the owner and the employees, and also we will give some questionnaires so that we can gather informationââ¬â¢s that we will need. This study will be conducted in the Eden Spring Resort, located at Sitio Tab-ang, Barangay Pagatban, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental Philippines and this study is limited only for the year 2014ââ¬â2015. The respondent of this study are the owner and the employees of the said resort. DEFINITION OF TERMS Electronic Commerce (E-commerce) ââ¬â commonly known as E-commerce or eCommerce, is trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) ââ¬â is an electronic communicationà system that provides standards for exchanging data via any electronic means. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY The theoretical framework of this study will be anchored on the Rapid application development (RAD) of James Martin (1991). Rapid application development (RAD) is a response to processes developed in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method and other Waterfall models. One of the problems with these methodologies is that they were based on a traditional engineering model used to design and build things like bridges and buildings. Software is an inherently different kind of artifact. Software can radically change the entire process used to solve a problem. As a result knowledge gained from the development process itself can feed back to the requirements and design of the solution. The waterfall solution to this was to try and rigidly define the requirements and the plan to implement them and have a process that discouraged changes to either. The new RAD approaches on the other hand recognized that software development was a knowledge intensive process and sought to develop flexible processes that could take advantage of knowledge gained over the life of the project and use that knowledge to reinvent the solution. (Martin, 1991) As Shown in figure 1 there are four phases in RAD, they are: Requirements Planning Phase, user design phase, construction and cutover. Requirements planning phase combines elements of the system planning and systems analysis phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Users, managers, and IT staff members discuss and agree on business needs, project scope, constraints, and system requirements. It ends when the team agrees on the key issues and obtains management authorization to continue. During the User design phase, users interact with systems analysts and develop models and prototypes that represent all system processes, inputs, and outputs. User Design is a continuous interactive process that allows users to understand, modify, and eventually approve a working model of the system that meets their needs. The third phase is Construction phase which focuses on program and application development task. In RAD, however, users continue to participate and can still suggest changes or improvements as actual screens or reports are developed. Its tasks are programming and application development, coding, unit-integration and system testing. The last phase is cutover phase. Thisà phase resembles the final tasks in the SDLC implementation phase, including data conversion, testing, changeover to the new system, and user training. Compared with traditional methods, the entire process is compressed. As a result, the new system is built, delivered, and placed in operation much sooner. This approach will help us in developing our system that will help the Eden Spring Resort in their online reservations. FIGURE 1: Theoretical Framework of the Study CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY Instead of using manual system that can cause a huge compilation of data using file cabinet of which is time consuming for the personnel in searching and retrieving a certain file. The researchers therefore suggest the use of a system which will help the management in terms of their transactions. The conceptual framework of the Online Reservation of Eden Spring Resort is presented below. The first phase is the requirements planning phase, the first thing that the researchers will do is to differentiate the different transactions of the Eden Spring Resort. However, the researchers already observe the common problems occur in their current system before the actual study begins. Because of the problems identified, the researchers proposed a system that will help them. After the researchers identified the different problems and the different transactions, the researchers will identify the needed requirements on every transaction to be use in developing a system. The researchers will also interview the owner and the employees to know how their transactions are being conducted. The second phase is the user design phase, the information that the will be gathered in the requirements planning phase will be used in making the user design of the system. The information gathered will be the bases in determining the inputs and outputs of the system. Researchers will also include the flow of the information so that users will be guided upon using it. The third phase is the construction phase; the researchers will start creating the program for the system and documenting as well. The documentation will serve as a guide on how to use the system. System testing will be done also while in this phase. Users can suggest some changes or improvements while the system is being developed. The last phase or the forth phase is the cutover phase, researchers will letà the users test the program to observe some errors and eliminate them to make the system work successfully and to meet the needs of the user. Users can still suggest some changes or improvements while the system is being tested. After it will be tested and no more errors or bugs were found, the system will now ready for deployment. FIGURE 2: Conceptual Framework of the Study REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES The application of the Internet in the business world has become a major trend in practice and generated a hot stream of research in the recent literature. The Internet, as a collection of interconnected computer networks, provides free exchanging of information. Over 400 millions of computers or more than 400,000 networks worldwide today are communicating with each other (Napier, Judd, Rivers, and Wagner, 2001). As such, the Internet has been becoming a powerful channel for business marketing and communication (Palmer, 1999), and for new business opportunities ââ¬â as it is often called as ââ¬Å"e-businessâ⬠or ââ¬Å"e-commerceâ⬠today (Schneider & Perry, 2001). This new e-business or e-commerce virtual marketplace allows small companies competing with business giants by just having a better web presentation of their products/services. Under the same wave, online customers can enjoy a wider choice of products or services, more competitive prices, and being able to buy their favorite items/services from the sellers located thousands miles away. It provides communication between consumers and companies and through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), buyers and sellers can exchange standard business transactions such as invoices or purchase orders with remarkable ease. The role of website quality in attracting online bookings and empirically test their proposed model with potential lodging customers. Authors indicate that information completeness and ease of use are important determinants of website quality. (Jeong et al.2005) According to the study of airfare reservation system, airfare reservation systems over attributes like information quality, system use, system quality, services quality, and customer loyalty. Their results show that North American-based websites outperform Asian-based ones.(Law and Leung 2002) The online booking in the hospitality industry (includingà Hotel/motel, airlines, travels packages, etc.) is increasing at a very rapid speed recently, especially at the lower rate end. (Deegan & Horan, 2003) The hotel industry is certainly full aware of this trend and fully willing to contribute its share in this effort. In fact, the industry has realized that during those early forays into cyberspace, the industry didnââ¬â¢t view e-booking strategically (many hotels simply considered online room bookings at the time as a way to pick up additional business by selling distressed inventory through those online travel agencies), and handed over too much control of inventory and pricing to those third party online travel agencies. Now the industry is in the unenviable position of trying to take back the reins after early shopping patterns have been established. While the pressure to sell their inventory rooms online will be continuing, the industry has developed its new online stra tegy striving to get a better grip on this emerging marketing channel. (Jiaqin Yang, Jan Flynn & Krista Anderson) Online hotel reservations are becoming a very popular method for booking hotel rooms. Travelers can book rooms from home by using online security to protect their privacy and financial information and by using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels. People can book directly on an individual hotelââ¬â¢s website. An increasing number of hotels are building their own websites to allow them to market their hotels directly to consumers. Non-franchise chain hotels require a ââ¬Å"booking engineâ⬠application to be attached to their website to permit people to book rooms in real time. One advantage of booking with the hotel directly is the use of the hotelââ¬â¢s full cancellation policy as well as not needing a deposit in most situations. (John Burns) According to Stuart study entitled ââ¬Å"International Reservations Systems ââ¬â Their Strategic and Operational Implications for the UK Hotel Industryâ⬠, presented details of the method and results of an investigation of the role and influence of international re servations systems within the UK hotel industry. The research comprised three questionnaire surveys of the use of computer reservations systems and distribution services by UK hotels. These were analyzed and produced an indication of general use of systems and the contribution which these currently make to hotel groups and consortia. The work also included a study of developments in access methods and changes in buyer behavior as observed by representatives of computer reservation andà distribution system, travel agency, hotel representation and intermediary companies. (Stuart 1995) According to this study, the system allows the guests to do their booking online by them self. Some of task that the system can do are providing a query for arriving date and the length of staying, providing the number of On rooms, view all available rooms and provides user the ability to choose one or more of them, recording the number of on rooms, view all available rooms and provides the user the ability to choose one or more of them, recording kind of guests and how many going to be in the single room, providing the cost of booking, asking the users if they want additional service; such as, dinner or breakfast, storing the guests detail; like, name, address and telephone, asking the user for confirmation, final confirmation views with the detail of booking and the guests can review or cancel the booking. (Louw, Door Janne, 2006) 658 Apartelle Online Reservation System, short term base lodging is the main reason that a hotel has been established. In the Philippines, wherein many foreign people go and have a vacation, hotel is always their first destination to have relaxation after long hours of travel in an airplane. Because of the rapid increase of foreigners visiting the Philippines for a vacation, a common sight is the establishments ad sophisticated hotels for competitive advantage. The 658 Apartelle Online Reservation Management System is not only a database for guest list but also an online reservation system, where potential guest can have online reservation which will automatically be sent to the database of the 658 Apartelle. Based on the proponentââ¬â¢s observation and interview, they have found many problems such as time consuming logging of the guest list names to the log book, difficulties in making reservations and difficulties in retrieving information on their previous guests because of the papers that are scattered everywhere and misplacing of the guestless records. (Bituin Abi, August 2010) A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, where visitors are being attracted to take their holiday or vacation. It refers to places, towns or sometimes commercial establishments operated by a single company. On the other hand, a hotel is differentiated as an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Computer programmers are continuously developing a systemà application to better serve resort or hotel guests because some hotels and resorts are becoming fully automated while others are still striving for the similar setting. The researchers introduce a ââ¬Å"LAN-Based Reservation with Billing System for Hacienda Gracia Resort and Hotelâ⬠to improve its reservation and billing system. The advent of new technology gave rise to easy and hassle-free interaction between and among humans. This is why most hotel and resorts prefer to employ computerization in their business. (Lagman , September 2012) RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES This section includes research design, research environment, research respondents, and data gathering procedure, research instrument and statistical treatment of the study. Research Design The researchers used the descriptive method in which the employees and the owner are the respondents in the Eden Spring Resort. à This method will be used in acquiring the response of the questionnaire and interview as the main tools in gathering the desired information that is needed for the study and getting the responses of the respondents regarding the information for the development of the online reservation of Eden Spring Resort. Research Environment This study was conducted at the Eden Spring Resort that was located in the Sitio Tab-ang, Barangay Pagatban, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental Philippines. The owners of this establishment are Mr. Dominador Torillo Ortaliz also known as Dennis and Mrs. Elizabeth Nodado Ortaliz also known as Beth. Eden was a combination of the names of the owners, Elizabeth and Dennis. They started constructing the Eden Spring Resort in mid of February but they started their business on June 14, 2012. Research Respondent The owner and the employees will serve as our respondent of our study. They are the one who will be frequently using the system. Data Gathering Procedures After asking permission to the owner of the establishment, we will be giving the questionnaires to the owner and the employee, we will also conduct an interview to them about the different problems encountered by the resort. Research Instruments The tool used by the researchers to gather the informationââ¬â¢s needed is the questionnaires. The questionnaires are used to gather some data to the management of the resort regarding the current reservation or different transactions made by the Eden Spring Resort. Statistical Treatment of the Study This research study will use weighted mean formula in determining the acceptance level of the developed computerized recording system. Where: WX = weighted mean f = frequency x = values n = total number of respondents ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This study will have (2) parts. Part 1 contains the Thesis write up which consists of three (3) chapters. Chapter I presents the problem and scope of the study. This covers the Rationale of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Significance of the Study, Scope and Limitation of the Study, Definition of Terms, the Theoretical Framework of the Study and its Schematic Diagram, Conceptual Framework of the Study and its Schematic Diagram. It also discusses further on the Review of Related Literature and studies of the research problem. It explained the research methodology, which comprises the Research Design, Research Locale, Research Respondents, Research Instruments, Data Gathering Procedure, and Organization of the Study. Chapter II includes the Presentation and Analysis of the Data Gathered from the respondents. The Data were presented in tabular form which were analyze and used as basis were implications can be drawn. Chapter III was the summary of Findings, Conclusion, and Recommendation, after which the program design. Part 2 contains the System Design, Flow Chart, Data Dictionary, and Systemà Requirements.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Urbanization In The Gilded Age - Free Essay Example
Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 507 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/07/26 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Gilded Age Essay Did you like this example? à In the beginning of the Nineteenth Century different countries immigrated to what was known the New World or Promise Land because there was better work and a better lifestyle in America. Japanese and Chinese settlers relocated to the American West Coast. Settlers lived in horribly housing conditions called Tenements. Donââ¬â¢t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Urbanization In The Gilded Age" essay for you Create order Most immigrants came to America to earn money to send to their families and when the families had enough money the immigrants would move back home. The Gold Rush of 1849 caused many of Chinese immigrants to move on the west coast. There were so many Chinese immigrants that Chester A. Arthur signed an act called the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act prohibited all Chinese laborers into the United States. Once the life of the New immigrant happened, Native born Americans thought their country was being over ran by foreigners. Most businesses owners were philanthropists which means they donated money to great causes for building structures that were hospitals, libraries, and music halls. Some business owners were accused of having a monopoly or trust. This means they have complete control over supply of a product or service. Monopolies are bad because it limited peoples choices. The Bessemer Process was a cheap industrial process to speed up the making of steal to get the industrialization going. Elisha Otis was a big person during this time by inventing the elevator, to get to the top of buildings like skyscrapers. But the great change of industrialization was the Standard Oil Co. This oil company was owned by John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller had a near-monopoly of the oil business but late in his life he changed to a Philanthropy. By doing this he donated to the community and had an Abundance of Natural Resources and still save money. The Abundance of Natural Resources was that settlers used oil as medic ine, and grease for their wagons and tools.à With almost every drop of the countrys oil flowing through his refineries, he was able to shape price structures and production decisions at every other phase of the process, from the oil wells to consumers homes. Urbanization was the result of population increase; technological and economic changes offered opportunities in the urban industries and reduced the demand of labor on farms. Urbanization had some negative effects that were bad public health, population growth and pollution. Urbanization turned out to be great because it brought new job opportunities for the poor and immigrants. Urbanization had educational improvements, as well as medical improvements. Urbanization also strengthened the womens reform and the workers union. The kids were hired on by big businesses to work in the factories or wherever they needed them to for long hours. The reason why they got hired is because they were cheap labor. During Urbanization the women were pushing for the right to vote and in 1890 the Western States gave women the right to vote. But the female suffrage only allowed the white women to vote. Led by Ida Wells, black women went against lynching and helped start the National Association of Color ed Women.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
HIV and AIDS Essay - 1159 Words
HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease in which the bodys immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off certain infections, known as opportunistic infections, and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system. When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are the immune cells that normally protect us from disease. The hallmark of HIV infection is the progressive loss of a specificâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦Most of them do not know they carry HIV and may be spreading the virus to others. Here in the U.S., nearly one million people have HIV infection or AIDS, or roughly one out of every 250 people. At least 40,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV each year, and it is estimated that half of all people with HIV in the U.S. have not been tested and do not know they are carrying the virus. Since the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS has killed more than 30 million people worldwide, including more than 500,000 Americans. AIDS has replaced malaria and tuberculosis as the worlds deadliest infectious disease among adults and is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Over 13 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic. A person who is HIV-infected carries the virus in certain body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. The virus can be transmitted only if such HIV-infected fluids enter the bloodstream of another person. This kind of direct entry can occur (1) through the linings of the vagina, rectum, mouth, and the opening at the tip of the penis; (2) through intravenous injection with a syringe; or (3) through a break in the skin, such as a cut or sore. Usually, HIV is transmitted through: Unprotected sexual intercourse (either vaginal or anal) with someone who is HIV infected. Women are at greater risk of HIV infection through vaginal sex than men, althoughShow MoreRelatedHiv / Aids And Aids1472 Words à |à 6 PagesHIV/AIDS is the major ongoing issue attacking sub-Saharan Africa. The damage caused by HIV/AIDS strips families, communities, and increases poverty. In Kenya, the plague has mainly targeted those in the fertile and reproductive age groups. According to estimates by the United Nations of AIDS (UNAIDS), ââ¬Å"Indication of 22.5 million people were living with HIV in Africa, over 1.6 million people were estimated to have died from this syndrome, and well over 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDSRead MoreAids : Hiv / Aids Essay1330 Words à |à 6 PagesLauren Kennedy United States HIV/AIDS Part 1: Background of Topic: What became later known as aids was detected in West Africa when scientists identified a species of chimpanzees that had a version of this virus in their immune system. They later found out that the disease was transmitted to humans and created into HIV when people hunted these animals for food and came in contact with their infected blood. Decade after decade this illness swooped over Africa like a blanket and began to spread toRead MoreHiv/Aids Essay1086 Words à |à 5 PagesHIV/AIDS BSHS302 May 21, 2012 Faye Flanagan HIV/AIDS Social issues facing HIV/AIDS today are as diverse as the people that are affected by the disease. Advocating for a large group of people takes action at the macro human service practice. The goals and intervention strategies will be similar to micro human service and will involve the same strategies to bring justice to human rights for all members of society. One strategy is including a broader range of other diversity in research inRead MoreThe Epidemic Of Hiv And Aids1535 Words à |à 7 Pagespopulation include providing access to health care, HIV testing and syringe services programs. The Office of HIV Planning in Philadelphia focuses on the needs of the population, conducts community outreaches and educational sessions. As previously stated, 32 state Medicaid programs reimburse for routine HIV screening of adults aged 15-65 years, regardless of risk. This policy allows for individuals to more likely participate in this screening process. HIV testing can be done through health care professionalsRead MorePrevalence Of Hiv / Aids1525 Words à |à 7 PagesPrevalence of HIV/AIDS in Ohio It was already stated that the HIV/AIDS epidemic impacts persons regardless of sex, age, race/ethnic group and/or geographic region in Ohio, but certain populations seem to be more impacted than others. There are 11, 544,225 people living in Ohio. 80% are white, 12% are black, 3% are Hispanic, and less than 2% are Asian. Each year in Ohio, about 1,000 people are diagnosed with HIV. In 2013, 1,180 people were diagnosed. Overall, there are almost 20,000 known to be livingRead MoreThe Effects of Hiv/Aids2132 Words à |à 9 Pages | QUESTION: Discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on education. CONTENTS 1.) Introduction. 2.) Discussion. i.)à loss of professionals to the effects of HIV and AIDS ii)à Funds channeled to combat effects of HIV and AIDS on education in Kenya iii) High dropout rates to the effects of HIV and AIDS on education iv) The introduction of HIV and AIDS as a unit on the Kenyan syllabus v)à à Stigmatizations caused by the effects of HIV and AIDS on education in Kenya 3.) Conclusion Read MoreStigma of Hiv/Aids1812 Words à |à 8 PagesStigma of HIV/AIDS It goes without saying that HIV and AIDS are as much about social phenomena as they are about biological and medical concerns. From the moment scientists identified HIV and AIDS, social responses of fear, denial, stigma, and discrimination have accompanied the epidemic. Discrimination has spread rapidly, fuelling anxiety and prejudice against the groups most commonly affected, as well as those living with HIV or AIDS. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of educationRead MoreHiv/Aids in Nigeria6960 Words à |à 28 PagesLITERATURE 2.0 INTRODUCTION HIV/AIDs has been ranked among the common disease of all times that is threatening us with the extinction of youths and adults. It is not only terrorizing the entire generation but also kills and leaves millions of orphans for the oldest grandparent to carter for. 2.1 HIV/AIDS IN NIGERIA According to USAID brief (2004), Nigerian epidemic is characterized by one of the most rapidly increasing rates of new HIV/AIDS cases in West Africa. Adult HIV prevalence increased fromRead More AIDS/HIV Essay2283 Words à |à 10 PagesHuman Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing contaminated needles and syringes, mother to child (perinatal) and contaminated blood product (National Association of Health Authorities, 1988). 1.2 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH Late HIV diagnosis remains a major problem among black Africans in England. In 2007, about 42 per cent of black Africans diagnosed with HIV were diagnosed late (HPA, 2008a). This compromises their survival chances becauseRead MoreAids : Hiv And The Pursuit Of Happiness1366 Words à |à 6 PagesThe AIDS epidemic has been a controversial debate for many years. As Sturken says in her text, there is discourse on AIDS of hysteria and blame, but AIDS also produces a discourse of defiance and criticism (Sturken 147). Using Sturkenââ¬â¢s article AIDS and The Politics of Representation and the film Living Proof: HIV and the Pursuit of Happiness I will discuss the two different discourses and views of AIDS. These simultaneous discourses on AIDS, result from the variation of ways people in our society
Monday, December 23, 2019
Answer four questions based on some chapters Example
Essays on Answer four questions based on some chapters Essay Task Benefit Cost Analysis Q1 Private Optimization is where the prices are set in such a way to guarantee maximization of the businessesââ¬â¢ profits. The costs are high to allow the investors account for their requirements such as the accounts payables, tax payables, as well long and short-term liabilities. Therefore, the consumer does not benefit because of the high costs, and the investor uses the profit maximization approach in order to get the gross benefit. The Internal Rate of Return of debts along with equity should be superior to the discounting rate given. Social Optimization is when the costs are set at the market price without considering the liabilities. In this case, either the investor or the consumer may loose depending on the rate of inflation or the rate of demand and supply. The demand and supply forces are equivalent in public optimization; therefore, they meet at equilibrium. The business in this case does not wish to maximize the profits but to get the net be nefit. The decision rule is that the project should be accepted if the Internal Rate of Return is greater than the discounting rate. Q2 A referent group considers the profit of a project in relation to the Investors of the business. The description of a referent group is not dependent on either private or public projects. This is because; it does not consider external debts as well as other liabilities such as loans. It utilizes the opportunity costs as the competence costs to ensure the total profits of a business irrespective of whether it is public or private sector. Therefore, the projects are carried out based on opportunity costs and the benefit cost. In this case, the projects are accepted once the benefit costs are greater than the opportunity costs. The Net present values should be greater or equal to zero for the project to be undertaken. The costs are set to meet the equilibrium point where the demand as well as supply is satisfied. The prices are also adjusted depending on the rate of inflation or deflation, in order to meet both the business and customer satisfaction. When the market price and the shadow price of inputs and outputs differ, it affects the distribution of the benefits and costs of the products of the company. In that, if the shadowing price is higher than the market price, there will be less demand hence reduced supply. On the other hand, if the market price is higher than the shadowing price of the company, there will be high demand, thus increased distribution. Q3 It is exceptionally vital to carry out the ââ¬ËEfficiency Cost Benefit Analysisââ¬â¢ so as to be able to understand the trends of the market forces. This enables the business to determine the competitive market forces of demand and supply and be able to adjust the prices appropriately. This analysis helps the company to meet up its cost as well as benefits, also, the benefit of the customer. In this case, the output is equal to the input; therefore, there is equal distribution of cash flows. It therefore ensures that both the existing and additional supplies as well, as demand are contented. Q4 Project BCA analysis deals with the issue concerning debt financing and taxation that are immensely significant in incorporating the pertinent details required. Private BCA shows how the quantity of ICP that assists in determining how it will stand to either lose or lose in all situations. The efficiency BCA conversely shows the significance of BCA and the ways it has achieved her goals and missions. In analysis, one should use the same discount price to ensure that the scrutiny was performed on the equal grounds, there equal effects. This aids in giving accurate results resulting from precise analysis.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Sociology Investigation Free Essays
The Sociological Investigation ~ These notes are taken and adapted from Macionis, John J. (2012). Sociology (14th Edition). We will write a custom essay sample on Sociology Investigation or any similar topic only for you Order Now Boston: Pearson Education Inc. There are two basic requirements for sociological investigation: Know how to apply the sociological perspective or paradigms or what C. Wright Mills termed as the ââ¬Å"sociological imagination. â⬠Be curious and ready to ask questions about the world around you. There are three ways to do Sociology. These three ways are considered as research orientations: A. Positivist Sociology Positivist sociology studies society by systematically observing social behaviour. Also known as scientific sociology. It includes introducing terms like independent variable, dependent variables, correlation, spurious correlation, control, replication, measurement, cause and effect, as well as operationalizing a variable1. Positivist sociology requires that researcher carefully operationalize variables and ensuring that measurement is both reliable and valid. It observes how variables are related and tries to establish cause-and-effect relationships. It sees an objective reality ââ¬Å"out there. â⬠Favours quantitative data (e. g. data in numbers; data from surveys). Positivist sociology is well-suited to research in a laboratory. It demands that researchers be objective2 and suspend their personal values and biases as they conduct research. There are at least FOUR limitations to scientific / positivist sociology. Positivist sociology is loosely linked to the structural-functional approach / paradigm / perspective. B. Critical Sociology Critical sociology uses research to bring about social change. It asks moral and political questions. It focuses on inequality. Specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a value to a variable (Macionis: 2012, p. 50). Personal neutrality in conducting research (Macionis: 2012, p. 50) It rejects the principle of objectivity, claiming that ALL researches are political. Critical sociology corresponds to the social-conflict approach / paradigm / perspective. C. Interpretive Sociology Interpretive sociology focuses on the meanings that people attach to their behaviour. It sees reality as constructed by people in the course of their everyday lives. It favours qualitative data (e. g. data acquired through interviews). It is well-suited to research in a natural setting. Interpretive sociology is related to the symbolic-interaction approach / paradigm / perspective. Gender and Research Gender3, involving both researcher and subjects, can affect research in five ways: Androcentricity (literally, ââ¬Å"focus on the maleâ⬠) Overgeneralising Gender blindness Double standards Interference Research Ethics Researchers must consider and do the following things when conducting research: Protect the privacy of subjects / respondents. Obtain the informed consent of subjects / respondents. Indicate all sources of funding. Submit research to an institutional review board to ensure it does NOT violate ethical standards. There are global dimensions to research ethics. Before beginning research in another country, an investigator must become familiar enough with that society to understand what people there are likely to regard as a violation of privacy or a source of personal danger. Research and the Hawthorne Effect Researchers need to be aware that subjectsââ¬â¢ or respondentsââ¬â¢ behaviour may change simply because they are getting special attention, as one classic experiment revealed. Refer to Elton Mayoââ¬â¢s investigation into worker productivity in a factory in Hawthorne, near Chicago. 3 The personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male (Macionis: 2012, p. 50). The term Hawthorne Effect is defined as a change in a subjectââ¬â¢s behaviour caused simply by the awareness that s/he is being studied. Methods: Strategies for Doing Sociological Research There are the basic FOUR methods: A. Experiment This research method allows researchers to study cause-and-effect relationships between two or more variables in a controlled setting. Researchers conduct an experiment to test a hypothesis, a statement of a possible relationship between two (or more variables). This research method collects mostly quantitative data. Example of an experiment: Philip Zimbardoââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Stanford County Prison. â⬠o Advantages Provides the greatest opportunity to specify cause-and-effect relationships. Replication of research is relatively / quite easy. Limitations Laboratory settings have an artificial quality to it. Unless the lab environment is carefully controlled, results may be biased too. B. Survey and/or Interview This research method uses questionnaires or interviews to gather subjectsââ¬â¢ / respondentsââ¬â¢ responses to a series of questions. Surveys usually yield or produce descriptive findings, painting a picture of peopleââ¬â¢s views on some issues. This research method collects mostly qualitative data. Example of a survey: Lois Benjaminââ¬â¢s research on the effects of racism on African American men and women. She chose to interview subjects / respondents rather than distribute a questionnaire. o Advantages Sampling, using questionnaires, allows researchers to conduct surveys of large populations or a large number of people. Interviews provide in-depth responses. o Limitations Questionnaires must be carefully prepared so that the questions and instructions are clear and not confusing. Questionnaires may yield low response / return rate from the target respondents. Interviews are expensive and time-consuming. C. Participant observation Through participant observation, researchers join with people in a social setting for an extended period of time. Researchers also play two roles, as a participant (overt role) and as an observer (covert role). This method allows researchers an ââ¬Å"inside lookâ⬠at a social setting. This research method is also called fieldwork. Since researchers are not attempting to test a specific hypothesis, their research is exploratory and descriptive. This participant observation research method collects qualitative data. Example of participant observation: William Foote Whyteââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Street Corner Society. o Advantages It allows for the study of ââ¬Å"naturalâ⬠behaviour. Usually inexpensive. o Limitations Time-consuming. Replication of research is difficult. Researcher must balance role of participant and observer. D. Existing or Secondary sources Researchers analyse existing sources, data which had been collected by others. This research method is also called library research or archive research. By using existing or secondary sources, especially the widely available data by government agencies, researchers can save time and money. Existing sources are the basis of historical research. Example of using existing sources: E. Digby Baltzellââ¬â¢s award-winning study ââ¬Å"Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia. â⬠How could it be, Baltzell wondered, during a chance visit to Bowdein College in Maine, USA, that this small college had graduated more famous people in a single year than his own, much bigger University of Pennsylvania had graduated in its entire history? o Advantages Saves time, money and effort of data collection. Makes historical research possible. o Limitations Researcher has no control over possible biases in data. Data may only partially fit current research needs. How to cite Sociology Investigation, Essay examples
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Essay Hymn to Intellectual Beauty1The awful shadow of some unseen Power2Floats though unseen among us; visiting3This various world with as inconstant wing4As summer winds that creep from flower to flower;5Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower,6It visits with inconstant glance7Each human heart and countenance;8Like hues and harmonies of evening,9Like clouds in starlight widely spread,10Like memory of music fled,11Like aught that for its grace may be12Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery. 13Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate14With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon15Of human thought or form, where art thou gone?16Why dost thou pass away and leave our state,17This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate?18Ask why the sunlight not for ever19Weaves rainbows oer yon mountain-river,20Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown,21Why fear and dream and death and birth22Cast on the daylight of this earth23Such gloom, why man has such a scope24For love and hate, despondency and hope?25No voice from some sublimer world hath ever26To sage or poet these responses given:27Therefore the names of Demon, Ghost, and Heaven,28Remain the records of their vain endeavour:29Frail spells whose utterd charm might not avail to sever,30From all we hear and all we see,31Doubt, chance and mutability. 32Thy light alone like mist oer mountains driven,33Or music by the night-wind sent34Through strings of some still instrument,35Or moonlight on a midnight stream,36Gives grace and truth to lifes unquiet dream. 37Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart38And come, for some uncertain moments lent. 39Man were immortal and omnipotent,40Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art,41Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. 42Thou messenger of sympathies,43That wax and wane in lovers eyes;44Thou, that to human thought art nourishment,45Like darkness to a dying flame!46Depart not as thy shadow came,47Depart notlest the grave should be,48Like life and fear, a dark reality. 49While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped50Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,51And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing52Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. 53I calld on poisonous names with which our youth is fed;54I was not heard; I saw them not;55When musing deeply on the lot56Of life, at that sweet time when winds are wooing57All vital things that wake to bring58News of birds and blossoming,59Sudden, thy shadow fell on me;60 I shriekd, and claspd my hands in ecstasy!61I vowd that I would dedicate my powers62To thee and thine: have I not kept the vow?63With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now64I call the phantoms of a thousand hours65Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visiond bowers66Of studious zeal or loves delight67Outwatchd with me the envious night:68They know that never joy illumd my brow69Unlinkd with hope that thou wouldst free70This world from its dark slavery,71That thou, O awful LOVELINESS,72Wouldst give whateer these words cannot express. 73The day becomes more solemn and serene74When noon is past; there is a harmony75In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,76Which through the summer is not heard or seen,77As if it could not be, as if it had not been!78Thus let thy power, which like the truth79Of nature on my passive youth80Descended, to my onward life supply81Its calm, to one who worships thee,82And every form containing thee,83Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind84To fear himself, and love all human kind. The Spirit of Classical Hymn in Shelleys Hymn to Intellectual BeautyStyle, Spring, 1999 by John KnapppicSave a personal copy of this article and quickly find it again withFurl.net. Get started now. (Its free.)Richard Cronin has observed that in Shelleys poetry, as in his life andthought, there is an ever-present drive towards a rejection ofconventional controls countered by the recognition that controls,systems, conventions, are humanly necessary (35). These contrary pulls, asCronin calls them, make Shelleys attitude toward literary genreproblematic and make further genre-linked critical approaches to his poetryvery challenging, so much so, in fact, that little genre criticism existsin modern Shelley studies. Yet, as Jennifer Wallace points out, Shelleywas an extraordinarily diverse writer, experimenting with genre far morethan either Keats or Byron and maintaining an active dialogue throughouthis life with the forms offered by literary tradition (4). This is not tosay that Shelleys generic experiments are poetic imitations. Genre forShelley is unfixed and mutable. Envisioning genre as a process . . .subject to the flux of history, he judges poetic accomplishment by thedegree to which a writer expands or modulates generic conventions andconsequently alters them for the future (Cronin 33). Every great poet,Shelley asserts in A Defence of Poetry, must inevitably innovate uponthe example of his predecessors in the exact structure of his peculiarversification (484). The contrary pulls that Cronin detects in Shelleyspoetry, and which problematize the status of genre in the poems, aresometimes activated or exacerbated by Shelleys genre choices. Theyindicate Shelleys sophisticated understanding of the mutability of genrewhile they figure that mutability in the poetry itself. The Hymn to Intellectual Beauty exemplifies how Shelley employs genre andgenre-linked features in innovative and figurative ways. The poem is indialogue with the classical hymn, a genre to which tradition grants unusualstructural flexibility and in which writers, including Shelley, find both apositive support and a challenge to their innovative skill. The classicalhymn presupposes fundamental separation while aspiring to unity, and soprovides Shelley with inherent contrary pulls, or inherent dialectics,congenial with his aim to contain an effusive, inspiring power in poeticform. That Hymn to Intellectual Beauty struggles between containment andeffusion is not disputed by critics today, but Shelleys modern readersrecognize that dialectic as working primarily in language itself. Questionsof genre are frequently passed over, and, despite the generic claim ofShelleys title and the features of classical hymn that appear in the poem,critics are reluctant to come to terms with hymn. In fact , criticaldiscussions of the generic resonances of the Hymn often rest onmisapprehensions about genres that Shelley himself did not share,particularly that genres exist immutably and apply equally to all past andpresent literary works. Adopting a vague exemplar of the Christian hymn,for instance, recent readers of Shelley conclude that the Hymn toIntellectual Beauty is an ironic hymn or simply an ode (Cronin 224; Curran58; Fry 8; Hall 136). Observing the critical confusion surrounding itsgenre, Stuart Curran writes that the poem seems to present us with ageneric crux (58). But largely overlooked by commentators, the traditionof classical hymn can be brought to bear in ways that both supplement ourunderstanding of the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and illustrate Shelleysshrewd employment of genre to oppose its potential to become fixed andinert. Modern critics of Shelley discern a dialectic of containment and effusionin the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. Primarily, they understand thatdialectic as operating in language itself. For Tilottama Rajan, it is themechanism of a Romantic deconstruction that unfixes, disseminates,disarticulates, and disrupts ostensible meaning and unity, so that thepoem survives not as what it originally was but as a series ofindeterminate self-transformations (292, 283, 296). Shelleys languageunravels the statement to be illustrated through it and intimates hisprofound uneasiness with the relationship of poetic conception andrepresentation (Rajan 281-82). According to Rajan, illustration andrepetition make expression a differential process in Shelleys writing bycreating crevices between the parts of any analogy or between the differentconceptual and figurative planes. The resultant Hymn is a fissuredtext that cannot contain its meaning and that can become poetry onlywith the aid of a reader, who will save it from the disfigurations ofhistory or representation by supplying a unity not in the text (280-81,2). For Rajan, the dialectic of containment and effusion in the Hymn toIntellectual Beauty is detectable in places of linguistic indeterminacy orgaps in representation that call for additions by the reader beyond thefeatures of the original. She claims her approach paradoxically renews theoriginality of the text by liberating it from the tyranny of the originalintention behind it (293).(1)In his detailed analysis of Shelleys perpetual transference from a stateof containment to a state of effusion, Jerrold E. Hogle, like Rajan,conceives literary context in terms of linguistic indeterminacy. For Hogle,transference is a preconscious invasion of awareness that prompts inShelley a conscious will to write that can never recover the originalimpulse exactly as it was (24). Since it impels Shelleys peculiarlanguage, he writes, transference must finally be put in linguisticterms (12). Hogl es remarkably abstract approach (Wallace 17)nevertheless sheds light on an inherently iconoclastic and revolutionarypoetic impulse in Shelley that constantly criticizes any limits that tryto confine it and exploits the tension between established andexperimental methods of composition (Hogle 14). That mobile impulse can beexamined in relation to genre as well as language. Surely, as Hogle pointsout, Shelley strives to modulate canonical thinking about the properstyle and themes of poetry, and he is drawn toward a peculiar combinationof traditional and rebellious techniques of writing, toward modes ofcharacterizing, image shifts, genre choices, stanza arrangements, rhymeschemes, and stances of address (vii) that frequently explode the mostestablished, conventional thought-relations into interconnections withothers that were rarely thought to be analogous before (26-27). ButShelleys conception of genre is of secondary interest to Hogle, whodevelops his theory of transference along dif ferent lines. Like Rajan,Hogle considers linguistic indeterminacy the basis of every stage ofShelleys thinking and writing (18). Generic and stylistic consistenciesin Shelleys poetry become antithetical foils in Hogles subsuming processof transference. His reading of Shelley nevertheless leaves room for acritical approach to Shelleys writing that conceives the dialectic ofcontainment and effusion in generic terms and locates a worksindividuality in relation to generic conventions. The Hymn to Intellectual Beauty has, of course, a linguistic order. Butas Alastair Fowler points out, literary order need not inhere primarily inwords (5). In the Defence, Shelley acknowledges a sublexical literaryorder: The language of poets has ever affected a certain uniform andharmonious recurrence of sound, without which it were not poetry, and whichis scarcely less indispensable to the communication of its influence, thanthe words themselves, without reference to their particular order (484). Critics who inventory the lexical and sublexical features of a literarywork its repertoire can recover patterns, structures, and meanings thathelp to illustrate coherence and communicate meaning. Ascertaining a worksrepertoire is also useful to critics who would relate that work to literarytradition, for repertoires often are generically organized. As Fowlerexplains, superstructural (57) features (rhyme, closure, topic, metricalforms, stanzaic scheme) and common linguistic features (rhetoric, idiom,presentational mode) have a privileged status unqualified by subsequentsound-changes, semantic changes, or changes in convention (256). Whenmarked by a traditionally recognized complex of substantive and formalfeatures (74) that includes a distinctive linear sequence of parts(whether organized typographically or by contents), a literary work can beassociated with at least one genre and, thus, will maintain the continuityof generic descent (60). Continued from page 1. This is not to say that a single set of characteristics can define a genre,that genre boundaries cannot change, or that a work can belong to one genreonly. Shelleys Hymn to Intellectual Beauty includes generic featuresthat suggest it is in dialogue with the classical hymn, but it is not aHomeric hymn, despite family resemblances. The character of genres is thatthey change, writes Fowler; only variations or modifications ofconvention have literary significance (18). A genre, for Shelley, is notcrudely prescriptive. It is a historical process, that is, a set ofconventions subject to the flux of history (Cronin 33). In Shelleys view,genres are mobile and ever-changing; they are bound up in perpetualtransference. A poem has artistic significance for Shelley only if itmodulates or departs from its generic conventions and restyles them for thefuture: Every great poet must inevitably innovate upon the example ofhis predecessors in the exact structure of his peculiar versification(Defence 48 4). Shelley remains suspicious of the communicative efficacy of traditionalgenres, however, and he adopts a particular form only after considerabledeliberation. As a number of critics have observed, Shelleys assertion inthe Defence of Poetry, when composition begins, inspiration is alreadyon the decline, underscores his ambivalence about poetry as a medium oftransmission (504).(2) For Shelley, writing poetry necessarily involves thedegradation or distortion of inspiration; inspiration is inevitablycompromised when it takes material form. Indeed, Paul Cantor points out, heregards the collapse of imaginative vision into fixed form as thefundamental fall (92-93). Shelleys view makes the status of genre in hiswriting problematic, but he is far from regarding poetry, or indeed theentire history of literature, as a mere record of failures. Nor does heregard the examples of literary history as necessarily fixed. Compositionbegins despite declining inspiration, and in a few remarkable cases ther esult is enduring poetry. Shelley explains in the Defence that, at least in part, efficientcommunication relies on the appropriation of a suitable poetic structure. Only supreme poets can subdue the evanescent visitations of divinityunder the light yoke of poetic form without complete devitalization (485,505). Such writers are, in Shelleys view, spirits of the most refinedorganization, whose poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and mostbeautiful in the world; it arrests the vanishing apparitions which hauntthe interlunations of life, and veiling them, or in language or in form,sends them forth among mankind, bearing sweet news of kindred joy to thosewith whom their sisters abide (505). Shelleys objective as a poet is toredeem from decay these visitations of the divinity in man and thereby tojoin the ranks of foremost poets. Despite acknowledging the existence ofelite poets and enduring poetry, however, Shelley questions thecommunicative efficacy of the established literary forms. Dante,Shakespeare, Milton, and other supreme poets capable of perceiving andteaching the truth of things have employed traditional forms in order tocommunicate t hat truth (485). But how viable would traditional forms be inShelleys own hands? In the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Shelley wrestleswith a literary tradition for which he has great esteem, of which hedesires to be a part, and upon which he aims to innovate. Appropriately, Shelleys poem is in dialogue with classical hymn, one ofthe oldest and most neglected genres in that tradition, which conveys thesingers reverence for his subject, desire to do it justice, and, often,anxiety about his own compositional skill. Because Coleridge, Wordsworth,Byron, and other contemporary poets had failed to revitalize the dormantclassical hymn, Shelley would test his resuscitative and innovative skillsunhindered by competition. Shelleys knowledge of Greek literature allowedhim to realize the heterogeneity of ancient writers and to reflect thatvariation in his own writing (Wallace 4). His familiarity with classicalhymn is confirmed by his translations of the Homeric Hymns, begun roughly ayear after the composition of the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. AndShelley is attracted to the genre for a number of reasons. Tradition grantswide latitude to composers of classical hymns; as a result, the genre isunusually flexible. Works in the genre are not characterized by meter orlength and are often mixed with other genres, including epic and elegy(Cairns 92). All classical hymns address gods, but the composer or singeris by no means bound to believe in them, nor is the writer precluded fromsyncretizing them, obscuring them, or altering religious or philosophicaldoctrine associated with them. Callimachus, who takes his gods seriouslyonly as literary figures, provides Shelley with a firm atheistic precedent. Since classical hymn must reckon with fundamental separation (of singer anddeity, of human and divine, of temporal and eternal) while aspiring toreturn and integration, the genre is congenial to the dialectic ofcontainment and effusion that Shelley develops in the Hymn to IntellectualBeauty. Even in prose, Shelley describes the influx of inspiration in theterms of hymn, as the union of divinity and humanity: It is as it were theinterpenetration of a diviner nature through our own (Defence 504). Shelleys gods exist and can be worshipped only in, or by means of, poetry. In the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, he presents himself as a modernclassical hymnist who will expand the tradition by apostrophizing,describing, and praying to a unique migratory divinity in an innovativeway. He also figures the brief visitations and departures of that divinity(or activates the dialectic of containment and effusion) structurally andstylistically by employing and by altering a number of the classical hymnsgeneric conventions. The only classical hymns that survive before the year 400 BC are ascribedto Homer; Shelley translated seven of these between 1817 and 1820. Thethirty-three extant Homeric Hymns are hexameter oral compositions that werepreserved later in writing. There is little firm knowledge about thecircumstances surrounding their composition and performance, but criticsgenerally agree that the hymns were presented at public feasts, festivals,and religious occasions (Clay 6-7). Thucydides refers to the Homeric Hymnto Apollo as a prelude, which would have been chanted by a rhapsode beforean epic recitation, and a number of the Homeric Hymns presumably servedsuch a function (Evelyn-White xxxiv). Although they range in length from ahandful of lines to several hundred, and address numerous divinities, theHomeric Hymns share recognizable linguistic and superstructural featuresthat organize the works and establish a distinct generic repertoire.(3)They are predominantly narrative pieces with subsidiary ly ric sections. They appear in a linear sequence of parts: exordium, exposition, andperoration. A firm decorum of subject relates the hymns to the actions andattributes of the Olympian gods. The hymns presuppose a special stylisticattitude of inferior to superior, particularly of supplicant to deity. Theyfollow an interlaced or discontinuous pattern of action. Their epideictic,elaborate, and elevated rhetorical style is fitting for the honoring ofgods. Most of these features are not discrete aspects but functiontogether in the poetic context with other characteristics (Rollinson 22). Of course, there is nothing like exact equivalence from hymn to hymn. Thegreat disparity merely between the length of the Homeric hymns To Zeusand To Hermes precludes any one-to-one correspondence. Nevertheless,there is a kinship about the Homeric Hymns and a sequence of influence andimitation that proceed from them to the hymns of Callimachus, Cleanthes,and the Roman Emperor Julian, all the way to Shelleys Hymn toIntellectual Beauty. This tradition connects the works generically whileallowing wide variation. Philip Rollinson outlines the tripartite structure of exordium, exposition,and peroration introduced in the Homeric Hymns and shows that it is amongthe most pervasive and influential characteristics in subsequent classicalhymns (16). The Homeric Hymns generally begin with an exordium, whichincludes an invocation and often an apostrophe to the god praised, proceedto an exposition describing some of the deitys basic attributes or acts,and close with a perorational prayer or salutation to that deity. Even theshorter Homeric Hymns tend to follow this pattern, as the hymn ToHephaestus illustrates:Continued from page 2. Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Hephaestus famed for inventions. With bright-eyed Athene he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, men whobefore used to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts. But nowthat they have learned crafts through Hephaestus the famed worker, easilythey live a peaceful life in their own houses the whole year round. Be gracious, Hephaestus, and grant me success and prosperity! (Hesiod 447)The tripartite structure of the Homeric Hymns organizes and incorporatesother genre-linked features, including the singers reference to himself inthe first person, a catalog of epithets describing the god, and recurringrhetorical formulae that introduce narrative sections and close the hymns. Like the Homeric epic, familiar features in the Homeric Hymns make iteasier for listeners to pay attention while simultaneously educating andinstructing them. Further, consistent patterns in the individual HomericHymns confirm the works as members of a particular genre, one that aims toinstruct listeners in the propriety of invoking and worshipping theOlympian gods. Formal patterns and generic identification, therefore, bearupon the meaning of the Homeric Hymns. In his six imitations and adaptations of the longer Homeric Hymns, theAlexandrian poet Callimachus modulates and varies the generic conventionshe inherited (Rollinson 22). The Callimachean hymns range in length from 95(To Zeus) to 326 lines (To Delos) and follow the pattern of exordium,exposition, and peroration. They include descriptive epithets for the gods,first person references to the singer, and sections narrating rituals ormyths associated with the deity praised, and they instruct listeners in theproper means of praise. But as Rollinson points out, Callimachuss hymnsare very skillfully constructed artifices that reveal the composersdistinctly literary ambition (25). Their structural details,rhetorically ornamented formality, and emphasis on the display ofhistorical, geographical, and mythological erudition sharply distinguishthem from their Homeric predecessors. For instance, Callimachus abandons strict hexameter lines for elegiaccouplets in On the Bath of Pallas (Hymn 5). At one point he introducescontemporary persons and events in To Delos, lavishing praise on hispatron, Ptolemy Philadelphus, another god, the most highest lineage of theSaviours (Hymn 4, lines 165-66). In To Apollo, Callimachus gives agenealogy of his native Cyrene, and lists the city among the most blessedof Apollo (Hymn 2). The status of the Olympians becomes problematic in theCallimachean hymns. Callimachus, Rollinson writes, did not take hisOlympians seriously at all, except as literary tools (32). He gives them anew relevance that is not religious, but purely literary (26). The godsare imaginative springboards for Callimachus. He exploits their richmythological associations in order to showcase his learning, to questionthe veracity of previous accounts, and to ornament the formal patterning ofthe hymns. Reflecting an Alexandrian literary appreciation of the gods andach ieving a very high degree of structural organization and technicalfinish in his hymns, Callimachus consequently alters the conventions ofclassical hymn for the future (22). International Business Ventures EssayPerhaps it is appropriate that, attempting to join tradition by subduingthe brief visitations of inspiration and harboring suspicions about thetransmissive efficacy of traditional poetic forms and genres, Shelleyshould compose a poem in dialogue with a genre fraught with dialectics. Shelley brings to the genre a nontraditional divinity that is accessible bymeans of neither doctrine nor reason, but by poetry only. He does notintend to teach or elucidate divinitys principles, but to show that itsprinciples cannot be taught or elucidated. Because classical hymn grapplesfundamentally with the problem of containing and expressing the divine andthe ineffable, the genre proves to be a positive support and building-blockfor Shelley. Genre-linked features of classical hymn also reinforce Shelleys stylistictroping of containment and effusion, to which we now turn. Even beforereading it, readers are aware of the unique stanzaic form of the Hymn toIntellectual Beauty, merely because of the way the poem appears on thepage. Shelley appropriates a homostanzaic (one recurrent stanza) patternwith a rigid program of indentation instead of the irregular strophes andverse paragraphing he uses in other poems of this period, includingAlastor and Mont Blanc. Shelleys translations of the Homeric Hymns,most of which are written in heroic couplets, suggest that he believesclassical hymn adhere to a systematic formal pattern. His original worksbearing the title of hymn or ode also demonstrate Shelleys tendency towardtypographical regularity. Of Shelleys eight multi-stanza hymns, five arestanzaically uniform; of his five poems designated as odes, only the Odeto Naples is stanzaically irregular (although it is composed in repeatingP indaric triads of strophe, antistrophe, and epode). In the remaining odeshe employs a single, recurrent stanza. Since Shelley composes homostanzaichymns and odes with such frequency, it is difficult to ascertain thestructural distinction he draws between the two genres. Indeed, manycommentators assume that Shelley makes no distinction.(7)The elaborate typography of the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty suggests thatit is a contained whole, its continuity fully in Shelleys control. Henever veers from the poems stanzaic uniformity. The twelve-line stanza ofthe Hymn, which appears to be original with Shelley, employs threedifferent line lengths, a distinct pattern of indentation, and a strictabbaaccbddee rhyme scheme.(8) For Shelley, it is a beneficial support. Itoffers a proportioned space in which to write and by which to order hisexperience by during composition (Fowler 31). The stanza also offers achallenge by enticing Shelley to transcend its boundaries stylistically. Asstanza 6 illustr ates, Shelley seems to show off the very form by which heintends to contain the Spirit of Beauty:I vowed that I would dedicate my powersTo thee and thine have I not kept the vow?With beating heart and streaming eyes, even nowI call the phantoms of a thousand hoursEach from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowersOf studious zeal or loves delightOutwatched with me the envious night They know that never joy illumed my browUnlinked with hope that thou wouldst freeThis world from its dark slavery,That thou O awful Loveliness,Wouldst give whateer these words cannot express. (61-72)Shelley uses a rigid pattern of indentation to exploit the contrary pullsof formal continuity and discontinuity. The first five lines emphasizeregularity and containment. Indentation corresponds to rhyme. The first,fourth, and fifth lines are left-justified and rhyme; the second and thirdlines are indented identically and rhyme. Only the fifth line, a hexameter,varies from the pentameter norm. As the stanza develops, the symmetry ofthe initial lines is compromised by a sudden elasticity in line-length andindentation. Indentation for the last seven lines corresponds to meter,with tetrameter lines indented the farthest. The sixth, seventh, ninth, andtenth lines are tetrameters and rhyme. The eighth line rhymes with thesecond and third, and is likewise pentameter, but a string of interveningrhyming couplets enfeebles that correspondence. Structural symmetry iscompromised as the stanza develops; in the lower half of each Hymnstanza, Shelleys lines expand and contract like a beating heart (63). Looking at the mechanisms of prosody that operate within the Hymn toIntellectual Beauty, one gains a broader view of how Shelley structuresthe genre-linked dialectic of containment and effusion. Since the classicalhymn does not have a fixed form, Shelley need not adhere to a particularmeter, rhyme scheme, or stanzaic arrangement. Nevertheless, he composes thepoem in a demanding metrical and structural pattern. Shelley uses rhyme,varying line-length, repetition, and assonance to emphasize the poemsstructural boundaries and to suggest visual and aural integrity. Thesedevices help establish sublexical order in the poem, including a uniformand harmonious recurrence of sound, which, for Shelley, is indispensableto any poetry capable of communicating its influence (Defence 484). Atthe same time, Shelley enfigures effusion by use of enjambments andcaesurae (which disrupt the poems syntax) and by use of what JohnHollander calls the bridging, associating, linking function of rhyme andother pr osodic devices (119). Linking words, lines, and stanzas, Shelleyestablishes an expanding chain of figures and sounds that often seems toextend and operate outside of poetic form. Shelley is thus able toapproximate the passing of the migratory Spirit of Beauty. As Harold Bloomremarks, the Hymn communicates a vision whose reality is, and can onlybe, embodied in a chain of metaphors; a single metaphor could not fit theevanescent nature of the phenomenon that is the poems theme (37). Shelleyactivates lexical and sublexical figures to produce this intricate chain. Continued from page 6. Numerous enjambments and caesurae in the Hymn to Intellectual Beautyoffset the primary typographical metaphor of containment and magnify theimpression of effusion, not through any linking function, but by jarringthe poems syntax and opening up alternative, short-lived syntacticstrains. In their very abruptness, the structural impositions of enjambmentand caesurae figure the sudden disappearance of the Spirit of Beauty fromthe grasp of the singer. Over a third of the poems eighty-four lines areenjambed, producing periodic disjunctions between syntax and lineboundaries. In nearly half of the Hymn, caesurae break the syntax withinline boundaries. An overview of this dispersion shows Shelley movingfurther away from uninterrupted syntax as the Hymn proceeds. Whereasstanza I contains only two caesurae within line boundaries, central stanza4 and concluding stanza 7 contain nine syntactic interruptions apiece. From the poems opening lines, the dialectic of containment and effusion inthe Hymn to Intellectual Beauty is apparent, structurally andstylistically:The awful shadow of some unseen PowerFloats though unseen amongst us, visitingThis various world with as inconstant wingAs summer winds that drift from flower to flower. (1-4)This is a power that transcends the tangible landscape, making its verymateriality seem false (Watson 206). The power itself is thrice removed, aninvisible shadow further distanced through simile. In the above quatrain,enjambment works to extend the separation between singer and Spirit to theverge of imperceptibility. Shelley stresses the transitory by cutting offhis lines at unseen Power (1), visiting (2), and inconstant wing (3),and then leaving these already transitory terms to dissolve quickly intothe empty space beyond each line. The linking function of rhyme heredestabilizes the quatrain. Although Power and flower rhyme, theintervening and feebler visiting / wing rhyme, along with therepetition of flower in line 4, weaken the resonance of the enveloperhyme. In the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Shelley establishes a sense ofstability in the first stanza by means of repetition, but it is immediatelycompromised because the repeated words, unseen, inconstant, andvisit, are not associated with stability (1-3, 6). He uses the wordlike five times in the first stanza, and each time it introduces atemporal simile. Summer winds, moonbeams, shades of evening, clouds, andmemories of music come and go, like the Spirit of Beauty, without regardfor human desire (5, 8-11). In this series of similies, as Bloom notes,instead of creating an impression of containment, all of the naturalcitation is wavering (37). In the stanzas last line, the singer stressesand repeats how dear the Spirit is to him, Dear, and yet dearer for itsmystery (Hymn 12). But his use of the comparative suggests that theinscrutability of the Spirit is more precious than any of its temporaryavatars. In addition to suggesting the Spirits inscrutability, the finalword in stanza 1, mystery , leaves both reader and singer uncertain oftheir ability to apprehend the Spirit within the poetic trappings of theHymn.Containment and continuity are reasserted in the opening lines of stanza 2,but these qualities fail and fade as quickly as they appear. It is as ifreaders were expected to share the singers hopelessness upon eachdisappearance of divinity:Spirit of Beauty, that dost consecrateWith thine own hues all thou dost shine uponOf human thought and form, where art thou gone?Why dost thou pass away and leave our state,This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate? (13-17)Shelley continues to enfigure containment and evanescence by employingindentation, enjambment, caesurae, line length, and assonance. The firstquatrain again displays the symmetry produced by indentation. But itsinitial line, split by a medial caesura into two segments syllabicallyequal, undermines this symmetry. The Spirit of Beauty and its consecratingpower are separated: linear disruption compromises t he Spirits integrity. In lines 14-15, Shelleys enjambment of all thou dost shine upon / Ofhuman thought creates at least two interpretive strains without disruptingthe stanzas syntax. One might read line 14 as a description of theSpirits infinity: it makes sacred every single thing it shines upon. Butthe syntax spills rapidly into line 15, making it evident that the Spiritof Beauty specifically illuminates human beings and their produced forms. The Spirit consecrates all . . . / . . . of human thought and form onwhich it shines: all is qualified by human in lines 14-15. Shelleysenjambment here suggests that the Spirit of Beauty is uncontainable at onemoment and confined to human minds and art forms at another. To make thestatus of divinity even more problematic, Shelley allows neither of thesestrains to prevail. Created and sustained by enjambment, the firstdissolves as the next line is read. The second strain is abruptly cut offby a medial caesura in line 15. Just as the singer apprehends divinity, itevaporates: where art thou gone?Shelley employs the hexameter in stanza 2 with particular figurativeefficacy. Following the light pentameter of line 16, which approximates theswift departure of the Spirit of Beauty, the hexameters heavily accentedmonosyllables dim vast vale of tears, top-heavy disyllabic vacant andtrisyllabic desolate, /a/ assonance, and repeating phonemes /v/, /d/, and/t/ underscore and prolong the singers ho pelessness upon the Spiritsabrupt departure. The accumulation of syllables in the hexameter gives way,just as abruptly, to the tetrameter of line 18 (Ask why the sunlight notforever), calling attention again to the linear elasticity of the lowerhalf of the Hymn stanza and to the brevity of the Spirits visit. The closing couplet of stanza 2 why man has such a scope / For love andhate, despondency and hope? (23-24) offers another example of howShelley exploits the implications of line and stanza-ending to underminestructural continuity. Shelley weakens the stanzas and couplets effectsof closure by ending with a question. The question reverberates across thestanzaic break before the singer informs us that it cannot be answered inany poetry or by any metaphysical inquiry: No voice from some sublimerworld hath ever / To sage or poet these responses given (25-26). Shelleyhas actually intimated the unanswerability of this question in the asking,by playing off its scope (23). At the end of line 23, the questionappears to be an inquiry into the (presumably vast) extent of humanintellect and is left open by the enjambment after scope. But Shelleyabruptly restricts that scope to the non-rational qualities of love andhate, despondency and hope in line 24. The seemingly unhindered range ofhuman bei ngs is thus reduced to a view determined by irrational powers andvery limited in extent. Shelley implies that the possibilities for a returnto or union with the sublimer world are diminished by humanitysmisreading of its own scope (25). In the manner of Julians hymns, the singer narrates in stanza 5sexposition his personal experience of union with divinity. Shelleyreinforces the union by figuring it in meter and rhyme. The Spirit ofBeauty descends on the singer unexpectedly, in swift tetrameter, anddissolves along with the singers extacy in the very next line (60). Shelley places this brief rhapsodic union (the sheer sublimity of whichobliterates all of the Frail spells and poisonous names that can besqueezed into a hexameter) within stanza 5s closing couplet, that is,within a mere two of the Hymn's eighty-four lines: Sudden, thy shadowfell on me;! I shrieked, and clasped my hands in extacy! (29, 53, 59-60). The associative chain produced by the provocative feminine off-rhymes,ruin / pursuing / wooing / blossoming, parallels the growingintensity of action in stanza 5 leading up to the climactic final couplet(50, 51,56, 58). It also traces the developmental stages of the singer thatled to his encounter with the Spirit of Beauty. Continued from page 7. Just as the singers devotion to the Spirit reaches a new level followingthe Spirits descent, the poems syntax takes on a new degree ofaccommodation in the peroration in stanza 7. The Spirit of Beauty issomewhat more subdued, for it now inspires calm instead of extacy (81,60). The singer, too, seems more at ease. His focus is on his onward liferather than the dark reality of the grave, and he recognizes a sereneharmony and lustre where he once saw adim vast vale of tears, vacantand desolate (80, 47-48, 73-75, 17). The passive youth who once wanderedthe starlight wood now appreciates the harmony of an autumn afternoon(79, 51,74-75). The final couplet in the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,however, upsets this tranquillity:Whom, Spirit fair, thy spells did bindTo fear himself, and love all human kind. (83-84)This is a tightly-knit ending, predominantly iambic and reinforced byrhyme. But the sense of formal containment is countered by a subtle senseof disruption. Three caesurae interrupt the syntax of the couplet. Thebreak at line 83, like those at lines 14 and 23, establishes at least twointerpretive strains: the first associates human beings with metaphysicalpower; the second revokes this power and circumscribes human beings withinvery particular earthly limits. Shelley frees his syntax from a singlestrain by paradoxically using bind at the point of enjambment. At the endof line 83, the singer is bound to a boundless Spirit. In the next line,however, we find that the singer is not bound to the Spirit of Beauty afterall. He is specifically bound To fear himself, and love all human kind(84). This, it appears, is the obligation of singer, devotee, and reader;one might be tempted to interpret this as atheistic doctrine. But as wehave seen, Shelley aims in the Hymn to avoid the didacticism of previousclassical hymns. He does not wish to add to the long line of Frail spellsand uttered charms that distort the vital poetic ideas inspiring them(29). The final line of the poem , which may appear to be doctrinal, isambiguous. Shelley does not specify whether fear denotes mistrust,respect, doubt, or reverence. As the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty ends,the syntax again begins to open up. Yet Shelleys solemn and serene andcongregational final image, of human unity in the service of an inspiringSpirit and in the face of transience, is another reminder of the classicalhymns peroration and a sign that Shelleys dialogue with that genre isopen until the end of the Hymn (73). Shelley has managed both to mediate a number of opposing qualities in theHymn to Intellectual Beauty and to keep his synthesizing consciousnessintact (Curran 78). The poem is a precarious mediation of enclosure andeffusion, separateness and union, innovation and convention one thatleaves many tensions unresolved. Appropriately, the Hymn is in dialoguewith the classical hymn, a genre linked by convention to such dialecticsand granted wide structural variability by literary tradition. Shelley doesnot imitate a particular example of classical hymn, but employs a number ofits genre-linked features to transcend the limitations established byprevious works in the genre. In the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, just asCallimachus, Cleanthes, and Julian restyle the Homeric Olympians and thegenre-linked features of the Homeric Hymns, Shelley also employs theresources of hymn to restyle time-worn values associated with the genre. Shelley introduces a personal, non-traditional deity that exists only inpoetry. Knowledge of this deity is derived neither by doctrine nor reason,but only through patterns of internal consistencies and disruptions in thepoem itself. As the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty demonstrates, patternsbrought to light through the analysis of genre affect meaning in Shelleyspoetry, and while genre criticism is not the whole of criticism, it makesan invaluable contribution to Shelley studies because it helps toillustrate the coherence of works that might otherwise appear enigmatic orindeterminate. Notes1 Rajan points to the association in the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty ofdarkness to a dying flame (45) as a paradigmatic instance of a Shelleyanrepresentational gap or place of indeterminacy. In this instance, shewrites, An idea is embodied in a figure whose subtext generates adifferent and autonomous idea (Rajan 286). The figure of darkness canseem to continue the idea of beauty as fostering human development, butRajan regards this reading as secondary to the one that suggests darknesssmothers the dying flame (286). The point is well-raised, but if Shelleysmeaning is vacuous, as Rajan argues it is, attending to primary connotationseems to compromise the aim to be free of the tyranny of the originalintention (293). 2 See esp. Cantor 92-93 and Wolfson 912. 3 For a discussion of the major Homeric Hymns (To Apollo, To Hermes,To Aphrodite, and To Demeter) as a genre that bridges archaic Greektheogonic and epic poetry, see Clay 3-16. 4 I cite Julian by manuscript section number as presented in the LoebClassical Library edition of his works. 5 For a helpful explanation of Julians syncretized and philosophical gods,see Wilmer Cave Wrights introductions to Julians hymns (348-51; 439-41). Rollinson also provides useful information on Julians hymn innovations (28-32). 6 For an extensive survey of the classical hymn tradition during theRenaissance, with particular emphasis on Spenser and Marullo, see Rollinson(50-155). See also Schlueter (esp. 214-50), who claims that a secondarytradition of classical hymn, with a particular hymnic model, wasintroduced during the Renaissance by Sidney and Milton and continued byGray, Collins, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats (244). Drawing onthe rhetorician Menanders description of the hymnos kletikos, Schlueterconceives this model as a tripartite structure similar to the one positedby Rollinson and discussed here. Schlueter provides few examples, however,to buttress his argument that Shelleys To Night is in dialogue with, orinnovating upon, the primary tradition of classical hymn. 7 Shelleys hymns include the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, the Hymn ofPan, and Hymn of Apollo, and translations of seven Homeric hymns. Hisodes include Ode to Heaven, Ode to the West Wind, Ode to Spain, Odeto Naples, and Ode to Liberty. Shelleys Hymn to the Sun consists oftwo twelve-line stanzas in heroic couplets, and the Hymn to Mercury ispresented in ninety-seven stanzas of ottava rima. Of Shelleys remaininghymns, two are composed in irregular strophes (To the Moon and To theEarth, Mother of All), two are a single stanza long (To Castor andPollux and To Mercury), and one is incomplete (To Venus). 8 Critical notice of the form of Shelleys Hymn, particularly of itstwelve-line stanza, has been cursory. In their respective studies of thepoem, Harold Bloom, Stuart Curran, Paul Fry, and Susan Wolfson do notinvestigate the unique Hymn stanza. Among the few references to thisstanza, Ernst Haublein observes merely that stanzas of ten, eleven, ortwelve lines hardly occur in English poetry . . . Shelley has a twelveline stanza in Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,' (33). David Robertson, inhis comparison of Shelleys hymn and Psalm 90, notes that Shelley choosesa very demanding stanzaic form (twelve iambic lines, the first four ofwhich are pentameter, the fifth hexameter, the next six tetrameter, and thelast pentameter, with rhyme scheme abbaaccbddee) and invariably adheres tothat form (63). Shelleys stanza is in fact pentameter at line eight; onlyin the first stanza is line eight tetrameter. Curran suggests, as Bloomdoes to a lesser degree, that Shelleys Hymn responds antithetically toColerid ges Hymn Before Sunrise,' written in 1802 (Curran 58; Bloom 11;35). Formally, the two works are quite different. Coleridges Hymn iswritten in blank verse and appears in eight irregular strophes; ShelleysHymn is homostanzaic and follows strict rhyme and indentation schemes. Although the twelve-line stanza of Shelleys Hymn is unique, similarstructures are used elsewhere by Coleridge, Thomas Gray and Sir WilliamJones. Coleridges Ode to the Departing Year (1796) contains a twelve-line strophe that appears twice and is very similar to Shelleys Hymnstanza. The single difference in rhyme scheme shows at line 5, whereColeridge has a b rhyme, Shelley an a. Coleridges alexandrine is placed atstanzas end, while Shelleys is placed at line 5. Only two tetrameterlines (a couplet) appear in the Coleridge strophe, their indentationmatching the two previous rhyming couplets. To illustrate the similarity ofShelleys and Coleridges typography, here is the first strophe from Odeto the Departing Year:
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