Lines 3 and 6 are important as well because they deviate from the couplet pattern and offer up different themes as well. In addition to the shadows and ghosts them, the poet notes "doors forget but only doors know what it is that doors forget." Thi Continue Reading...
Throughout the poem, the narrator discusses the geese's journey, and her envy for that journey. She wishes for something that could make her pulse pound in the same way that the geese are compelled to complete their journey. However, the meaning goe Continue Reading...
Persimmons," a Light in the Darkness "Persimmons" is a free verse poem written by Li-Young Lee that explores how persimmons as a symbol, both figurative and as a word, have impacted an unnamed narrator in the poem. The poem is told from a first per Continue Reading...
43). To that comment, Tennyson is believed to have replied that the poem is "The embodiment of my own belief that the Godlike life is with man and for man" (Brunner, p. 43). In critiquing the Palace of Art Brunner offers common-sense substance that Continue Reading...
" (lines 20-21) the journalist, the activist... must be the observer and not make the news. Lastly the point-of-view of the unnamed dead, "enemy" whose ears were cut off to use an example of cruelty and to elicit fear, "Some of the ears on the floor/ Continue Reading...
John Berryman's "Dream Song 14" Dream Song This poem, friends, is boring. The entire work seeks to illustrate the idea that "life, friends, is boring." It does so by being itself tremendously boring. Though the author occasionally uses exciting or Continue Reading...
pleasant and romantic world depicted in "She Walks in Beauty," Byron illustrates a dark, cold, and hopeless world in "Darkness." "Darkness" is an elaborately detailed poem that remains a testament to Byron's flexibility as a poet. When I consider th Continue Reading...
Ralph Waldo Emerson's idealized and mesmerizing description of the role and life of the poet describes not only the particular calling and obligation of those who choose to follow the poetic muses but also -- because of Emerson's own influence on the Continue Reading...
William Wordsworth: A Wordsmith for All Time Harold Bloom in his book Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds says "Wordsworth remains, in the twenty-first century, what he has been these last two hundred years: the inventor of a po Continue Reading...
Audre Lorde, "Contact Lenses" Audre Lorde's "Contact Lenses" is a poem that demonstrates a deep engagement with feminism through its analysis of the poet's own subjectivity. I hope through a close reading of the poem -- included in Lorde's 1978 coll Continue Reading...
While the poems are no doubt universal, we can see elements of Americana sprinkled throughout them. Cultural issues such as decision-making, the pressure of responsibility and duty, and the complexity of death emerge in many poems, allowing us to se Continue Reading...
Frost's poem mirrors the Biblical Fall story. The narrator explicitly states that he "let it fall and break," just as Eve let herself break down and eat from the tree of forbidden fruit (line 13). The narrator also notes, "But I was well / Upon my w Continue Reading...
poetic form involves some kind of structural formula dictating how it is to be written. Beyond this, myriad of differences exist among abstract or genre poems. The three poems, "My Last Duchess," by Robert Browning, "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Continue Reading...
The third and fourth lines of the poem emphasize the idea of silence and separateness. There was an hour All still From the above lines it becomes clear that the poem is describing a particular moment or an important short space of time. This fit Continue Reading...
WILLIAM BLAKE'S MILTON-TRANSFORMATION The great Romantic poet, William Blake, is known for his revolutionary ideas and his fiery attacks on everything he opposed. His work is usually not very complex in nature but since it is connected with the infi Continue Reading...
Poetry in an Prosaic World: Marianne Moore and Rafael Camp's Metapoetic Texts on the Form Both the first lines of "Poetry" by Marianne Moore and the title of the poem "The Next Poem Could Be Your Last" by Rafael Campo startle the reader from a mom Continue Reading...
Worn Path by Eudora Welty "A Worn Path" is recognized as one of Welty's most illustrious and often studied works of what is considered to be short fiction. Illusorily simple in scope and tone and, the story is made to be very structured upon a journ Continue Reading...
Western civilization has been developing according to a set of coordinates that are entirely separated from the ones of its Eastern counterpart. The focus of this paper is to propose subjective psychologically-minded interpretations to a series of As Continue Reading...
Shelley and Smith's Ozymandias Compare/contrast In Ways of Seeing, John Berger (1972) claims, "When we 'see' a landscape, we situate ourselves in it. If we 'saw' the art of the past, we would situate ourselves in history." Berger proposes that shari Continue Reading...
Poetry about struggle: The African-American experience Poetry is a medium which naturally lends itself to dealing with the topic of oppression. It enables members of historically-marginalized groups, such as African-Americans, to express themselves Continue Reading...
Night That She Lived The narrator of this work gives the indication that the setting of the work is a deathbed, it might be in a hospital as there are reportedly others who will go on living that engender in the dying woman and those who presumably Continue Reading...
However, because of Gilgamesh's thought that he may be invincible, he is actually putting his friend's life at risk by going on his adventure. In his attempt to prove that he is brave and that he would rather die for a cause, he actually indirectly Continue Reading...
Women and Commodities In both Jonathan Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room" and Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market," women are presented both in a world of commerce and as commodities themselves, but only Rossetti's text is critical of this formulati Continue Reading...
John Donne's "The Canonization" begins relatively simply, as a familiar lyrical ode to his mistress. Gradually it deepens in meaning while approaching the final verses, where Donne reveals the true complexity of his vision of love. "The Canonization" Continue Reading...
Penetrating Poetry: An Examination of Cultural Poetry Every country, culture, and time period has had poets living within their society to help record the very essence of which their people live. These poets, known for expressing raw emotion, have Continue Reading...
Heard the Learn'd Astronomer "When I Heard a Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman is a lyrical poem consisting of just eight lines, one single stanza, and was first published in Leaves of Grass in 1855 (Whitman 340). The poem begins with the same li Continue Reading...
The interpretation of the poem, like the speaker's interpretation of the statue, will likely depend on what he or she feels at the time about his or her own life. The subjectivity of perception is also evident in the "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufroc Continue Reading...
Written from the cat's point-of-view, it forces the reader to examine their sense of superiority. The cat tells of all of the things that humans cannot do, but that cats do with ease. Unlike the anger expressed in Piercy's early years, the Cat's Son Continue Reading...
Message, Different Genres Literature is a means by which people can raise questions about the society they live in and address issues of concern to them. One of the questioned often raised relates to the role of women in society. Female writers are Continue Reading...
" Obviously, I personally wouldn't expect Rita Dove to stick with strict literary conventions without part of her poems' charm to be lost. It is interesting to note her attitude towards her African-American identity, as well as towards her presence Continue Reading...
Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" tells the story of a traveler making the decision to travel the road less traveled, but looking back upon the road not taken and wondering what might have been. On first glance the reader might assume that Frost is Continue Reading...
Crow & Hawk: the Bird Spirit Poetry of Ted Hughes Poets and prophets from Aesop to Isaiah to Blake have traditionally used animal figures to convey a criticism of existing culture, endowing the natural with metaphoric import. In most preliterate Continue Reading...
James Wright comments on life in an American steel town with his poem "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio." Using free verse, Wright is nonetheless able to imbue the poem with flowing cadence. The poet offers his readers a glimpse into a small segm Continue Reading...
Human Suffering in the Works of W. Faulkner, S. Plath, T. Roethke, and W. Shakespeare Literature is considered as one of humanity's powerful medium of expression. Different forms of expression are used in literature, such as poetry, plays, novels, Continue Reading...
Gloria Anzaldua captures the essence of the Aztlan homeland and its mestizo nature in "Wind tugging at my sleeve." Using diction conveying a strong sense of place and geography invokes the specific qualities of the land and climate necessary for anch Continue Reading...
Race in Poetry A Topic of Constant Relevance The importance of race in the United States is discussed on many levels, from nightly newscasts to political campaigns to courtrooms. It is the conversation that never ends in this nation. The particular Continue Reading...
John Keats The most widely respected source for the history of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, records as early as Chaucer in the fourteenth century a meaning for the word "star" used (as the OED puts it) "with reference to the Continue Reading...
William Blake was never fully appreciated in his own time but is still an influence on literary, political and theological analyses long after his death. While the amount of modern literary criticism that now exists should hold testament to his impor Continue Reading...
This concept reveals the complexity of "psychological and physical damage" (Pagliaro), leaving one can to wonder, "whether it can be stopped and its root causes done away with ever" (Pagliaro). The answer to this question, and this state of mankind, Continue Reading...
She is to remain quiet and calm, trusting the necessity and inevitability of the speaker's leaving. The second and third strong images in the poem concern the love connection between the couple. The poet uses gold as a metaphor for the pliability a Continue Reading...
