Essay Topics in The Sound of Waves

Essay Topics in The Sound of WavesThe Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima is a wonderful collection of short essays on subjects ranging from travel and new places to philosophy, literature, and politics. The collection has something for every reader, from lively travel essays on ancient China and Japan to engaging discussions of American and European literature. Here are some of the essays in this valuable collection that can be used as background reading in college.'I Like Paris: We must always keep our eyes open and see the best of Paris in ourselves and others. Let no one ever put us off, or make us feel too tired or too ashamed to enjoy the beauty of our city.' By Y. Mishima. Yukio Mishima is a noted poet and translator who write of his interest in the art of making a city work in a poem that describes the fine arts as an art of pleasure that could be practiced in any city, anywhere in the world.'The Last Argument for Freedom' By Ralph Waldo Emerson. This article from the first of th e four essay topics in The Sound of Waves begins with a passage from W. H. Auden's famous poem 'Of the Sounds of Silence.' It was perhaps intended to remind us of Auden's poem 'On the Necessity of Having Done With Everything,' published in the same volume of the same volume. Emerson's description of the process by which man 'rudiments his thoughts' in a timeless moment of silence is a beautiful description of how we react in moments of anxiety or calm. He describes the process in the third of the four essay topics in The Sound of Waves.'Waking and Sleeping: The Nature of our Self' By Yukio Mishima. Mishima describes the nature of self in this essay on the fourth of the four essay topics in The Sound of Waves. He discusses the nature of our self through a poem about the nature of reading about the self.'A Poem for Freedom' By Yukio Mishima. The fifth essay topic in The Sound of Waves is an essay about the nature of words in this poem. The language in Mishima's poem is evocative of th e language of love in Mishima's work and it would appear to be an attempt to describe this emotion in order to evoke it within the reader.'What Is a Man? What Is a Woman? How to Change Your Self' By Yukio Mishima. A poem that can be read alone, without Mishima's essay topics, or with his essay topics may be found in this essay. In a section of the poem that has been quoted many times, Mishima describes the difference between a mother and a lover.'Every Self-Contained World Is Doubtful, And All Doubtful Worlds Are Beautiful' By Yukio Mishima. Mishima compares the world of the beautiful with the world of the real. He describes the beautiful world as the realm of truth, while he describes the realm of the real as the realm of fantasy.The Sound of Waves is filled with witty and exciting essays, each of which are sure to make the reader think about life and literature in a different way. Recommended for students in a variety of courses including creative writing, creative nonfiction, and the history of ideas.