Thursday, March 12, 2020

The Lords Baltimore and Their Impact on American History

The Lords Baltimore and Their Impact on American History Baron, or Lord, Baltimore is a now  extinct title of nobility in the Peerage of Ireland. Baltimore is an Anglicization of the Irish phrase baile an thà ­ mhà ³ir e, which means town of the big house.   The title was first created for Sir George Calvert in 1624. The title became extinct in 1771 after the death of the 6th Baron.  Sir George and his son, Cecil Calvert, were British subjects rewarded with land in the new world.   Cecil Calvert was the 2nd Lord Baltimore. It is after him that the Maryland city of Baltimore is named after. Thus, in American history, Lord Baltimore usually refers to Cecil Calvert. George Calvert George was an English politician who served as  Secretary of State  to King James I. In 1625, he was given the title Baron Baltimore when he resigned from his official position.​ George became invested in the colonization of the Americas. While initially for commercial incentives, George later realized colonies in the New World could become a refuge for English Catholics and a place for religious freedom in general. The Calvert family was Roman Catholic, a religion which most inhabitants of the New World and followers of the Church of England were prejudiced against. In 1625, Geroge publicly declared his Catholicism. Involving himself with colonies in the Americas, he was at first rewarded with a title to land in Avalon, Newfoundland in present-day Canada. To expand on what he already had, George asked the son of James I, Charles I, for  a royal charter to settle the land north of Virginia. This region would later become the state of  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Maryland. This land was not signed over until 5-weeks after his death. Subsequently, the charter and land settlement was left to his son, Cecil Calvert. Cecil Calvert Cecil was born in 1605 and died in 1675. When Cecil, second Lord Baltimore, founded the colony of Maryland, he expanded on his fathers ideas of freedom of religion and separation of church and state. In 1649, Maryland passed the  Maryland Toleration Act, also known as the Act Concerning Religion. This act mandated religious tolerance  for Trinitarian Christians only. Once the act was passed, it became  the first law establishing a religious tolerance in British North American colonies. Cecil wanted  this law to also  protect Catholic settlers and others who  did not conform to the established state  Church of England.  Maryland, in fact, became known as a haven for Roman Catholics in the New World. Cecil governed Maryland for 42 years. Other Maryland cities and counties honor Lord Baltimore by naming themselves after him. For instance, there is Calvert County, Cecil County, and Calvert Cliffs.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Leda and the swan essays

Leda and the swan essays Leda and the swan was written by William Butler Yeats in 1924, a widely anthologized piece with several interpertations. The most commonly accepted version tells a tale of Zeus in the form of a swan coming to earth and impregnating the youthful Leda. As a result of this intercourse Leda produces an egg which brought forth the beautiful Helen of Troy. In a less Literal translation it is written up as "the manifestation of Yeats' unrequited love from Maud Gonne". (Holstad) Miss Gonne being a fellow mystic, member of the 'Heretic Order of the Golden Dawn'. A system where in members believed that physical connection lessons the creativity of the soul and there by only interacts with Yeats on a metaphysical plain during dreams or meditation, has drivn him to vent his human frustration in a literary Yeats cleanses himself of these emotions, in the form of a traditional Italian Sonnet. A poem of Fourteen lines consisting of two stanzas,one Octave and one sestet, allowing for a repetitive ABAB rhyme scheme. It also has multiple allussions to Greek Mythology largely inpart to the fact that it is written about Zeus, lord of the Greek gods. Yet that is not its only mention of said mythology, he also mentions Helen of Troy, Agamemnon and his tratorius wife -who goes un-named but dearly mentioned in his line "The broken wall, the burning roof and tower and Agamemnon dead"-(Kennedy) The imagery of the poem helps to depict the two beings by illistrating the concrete form of Leda against the more abstract shape of the swan. (Hargrove) Where in Leda is spoken of throughout the poem as "her thighs", "her nape", "her helpless breasts" as the Swan is never literaly called Zeus or even a swan it is merely mentioned as "great wings" "dark webs" "white rush" and "feathered glory". leaving a much fainter vi ...