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Topic 4: The meaning and significance of "beauty" in Rita Dove's Thomas and Beulah and Brian Turner's Here, Bullet

Concept: For this blog, I want to explore the concept of beauty in Dove and Turner's works, how they are similar, how they are different, and how they relate to an outside poem famous for its beauty. I have picked the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, because not only is it an old work of beauty, I think that it has a lot to contrast and compare itself to Thomas and Beulah and Here, Bullet.

Thesis: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, say many, but in the eyes of a poet, beauty can mean everything. Whether making a poem about the horrors of war in Brian Turner's Here, Bullet or the love of a man and his wife in Rita Dove's Thomas and Beulah, beauty can be found anywhere and the best of poets can express that love to the most shallow of skeptics. But what is beauty, and what about it appeals to so many of us? That is perhaps the hardest question to answer, as beauty is often the world's most complex idea (next to love), but through out the works of Dove and Turner, beauty can be seen and identified.

# The love Thomas and Beulah share, leading into the tough times that they endure

#The beautiful words used to describe a woman on life support not being saved

#The beauty in Beulah's father coming home drunk and making critiques about Thomas

#The Rubaiyat, why it is beautiful, and how it is similar in atmosphere to Turner's work

#The Rubaiyat, why it is an authority on beauty, and how it is similar in spirituality to Dove's work

#How love can and can't be beautiful

#How Turner's beauty is different from Dove's beauty

#The relationship Turner shares with his work, and why it is beautiful

#The relationship Dove shares with her work, and why it is beautiful

#Probably some other things

Conclusion

Two Internet sources:

http://www.therubaiyat.com ; This site has several translations of the Rubaiyat

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/dov0bio-1 ; This site has an extensive biography of Rita Dove

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/poetry/profiles/poet_turner.html ; This site outlines some information about Brian Turner and has a link of him reading two of his poems.