Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art" is clearly about loss. She tells the reader that in the first line: "The art of losing isn't hard to master...." She might have called the poem "One Lesson" instead of "One Art," because on the surface she pretends t Continue Reading...
Upon looking at these marks on its body, the speaker of the poem suddenly shifts to a different state of mind. The marks seem to impress her with the power of a revelation. Symbolically, the right to live wins the victory over the initial act of mur Continue Reading...
The keys and the house are not in her possession any longer but the "cities, rivers, and caves" do not belong to her as they once did. This kind of loss, too, does not represent what the poet would define a disaster. However, true loss is explored i Continue Reading...
Like the first stanza, in keeping with the villanelle structure of repeated refrains, it ends in the word "disaster." However, the references to loss in this stanza have become more specific, such as lost keys. Only in the fourth and fifth stanzas d Continue Reading...
Elizabeth Bishop The mundane, human experience in "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop, author to numerous literary works, particularly on poetry, had been known for her effective illustration of everyday experience in the most extraordi Continue Reading...
Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell The publication in 2008 of Words in Air: The Collected Correspondence of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop offers the reader a privileged glimpse into the long and emotional friendship between two major postwar Am Continue Reading...
The almanac symbolizes the passing of time or life. As a result, it cannot help but point to death and bring forth tears. We see this alluded to with the child's drawing, as the man wears "tear like buttons" (29), symbolizing all that has passed. Th Continue Reading...
This poem is a favorite of mine because it reminds me to slow down and appreciate everything. It does not take long nor does it take much to renew and revive and that is exactly what the poet wishes to communicate. In Joy Harjo's "Remember," the p Continue Reading...
The child's presentation of his naive question that is asked without any expectation of an answer conveys an innocence over the entire poem. In the second stanza, however, the imagery is not quite so clear, and the images become more analogy than p Continue Reading...
Elizabeth Bishop's, "Filling Station" Elizabeth Bishops poem "Filling Station" is about the poet's ability to see something magnificent in the most ordinary of things. It is through the observation of a dirty filling station that Bishop is able to Continue Reading...
Being of nature, a supposedly passive entity does not necessarily stime the female poet, it can also, in Bishop's construcion, empower her as a speaker. Yet, there is one caveat -- for Bishop's poem remains tantalizingly silent about her own gender Continue Reading...
However, towards the end of the poem, readers were given a glimpse of hope from the Voice, whose awakening from the sleep -- that is, desire to die -- had been interrupted, and his reflections on his disillusionment were once again converted to hope Continue Reading...
What many of these other people have to say about themselves and their situation an about the change of hear they may have now that they have heard Pippa sing could be fodder for a dramatic monologue in the way Browning would later shape that form. Continue Reading...
The statement "Maybe that room was his home, his room and everything what left from it is a wall and a fly" made me think about how an intelligent young child must feel when something senseless like bombing changes their life. After reading your ess Continue Reading...
Speaking of the United States, for example, since 9/11, there has been an increased in intolerance regarding Muslims. This prejudice toward Muslims has also sparked increased intolerance for Christian people, as Christianity is the dominant religion Continue Reading...
Apparently Plath wrote the poem during her stay in the hospital, which can be a depressing place notwithstanding all the nurses and orderlies dressed in white. The appendectomy followed a miscarriage that Plath had suffered through, so given those r Continue Reading...
I pulled over and called out to him, while being very conscious how ludicrous I sounded, did he by any chance know of a church where there was to be a poetry reading tonight?" The man did indeed tell Simic where the church was, indicating that poetr Continue Reading...
" While the narrator in Thomas' poem urges his father to resist death, the narrator in Pastan's poem wishes to advise her father to give up his struggle against it by saying, "father let go, and death will hold you up." Both poems show that the youn Continue Reading...
The choice cannot be repudiated or duplicated, but one makes the choice without foreknowledge, almost as if blindly. After making the selection, the traveler in Frost's poem says, "Yet knowing how way leads on to way/I doubted if I should ever come Continue Reading...
Robert Hayden is set at a time during the cold climates. However, despite the time frame in which the poem was set, the poem is still applicable to situations not properly set in the cold days of living. What the poet, Robert Hayden, points out is t Continue Reading...
Boy at the Window Richard Wilbur's "Boy at the Window" "Boy at the Window" by Richard Wilbur is a poem about the reciprocal pity that a young boy and a snowman have for each other as they both watch the other interact in an environment in which the Continue Reading...
Barbara Howes' "Looking Up at Leaves" Barbara Howes, who died in 1996, is too little read at present, yet she remains an exquisite lyric poet. One understands why Louise Bogan once judged Howes "the most accomplished woman poet of the younger gener Continue Reading...
This was inexcusable. He got his rifle, and he began to shoot them, one by one. Somehow, though, he couldn't hit the last woodchuck, the wiley one. That night, he dreamed about that woodchuck, the one that got away. He dreamed he shot that woodchuck Continue Reading...
King Lear by Shakespeare, like his other plays, is a truly timeless work. The tragedy with which the play ends, together with the growth and pain experienced by the characters throughout the play continues to evoke pity even today. This, according to Continue Reading...
Fern Hill (Dylan Thomas) The "Poetry Explications" handout from UNC states that a poetry explication is a "relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationship of the words, images, and other small units that make up a po Continue Reading...
Satan has many names in literature, beginning with the Bible, and they are not limited to the image that people have come to associate with his person. For example, Lucifer means "Angel of Light" (apparently the station from which he fell), but he h Continue Reading...
Poe and the Imp of the Perverse The Imp of the Perverse Edgar Allan Poe is known for exploring the psychological constructs of horror and terror through his short stories. In Poe's "Imp of the Perverse," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Black Cat," Continue Reading...
shape and to create our modern world? The modern world was shaped by a range of events and powerful people. One of the first most influential people was Clovis. Clovis was the founder of the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings, and one who defeat Continue Reading...
incongruous to try to compare the artists William Shakespeare and Bob Marley. These two men, separated by centuries and embodying two very different forms of art, both make up part of the history of popular culture. One man is considered the premier Continue Reading...
The characters of God, Stan, and Jesus are also significant in this epic and because they are considered valuable in their roles in the poem, we can assume that Milton found similar value with these characters in life itself. Through these character Continue Reading...
What has been determined to date is Machaut's masterful use of language and syntax to help amuse and entertain his intended audiences, and in an era absent the Internet, cable television and the popular press, it is not surprising that his works wer Continue Reading...
Persona Christi An Analysis of the Priesthood "in persona Christi" and "in nominee ecclesiae" The questions that surround the functions of the priesthood and the diaconate today appear to be part and parcel of the greater uncertainty that surround Continue Reading...
Jesus' Teachings, Prayer, & Christian Life "He (Jesus) Took the Bread. Giving Thanks Broke it. And gave it to his Disciples, saying, 'This is my Body, which is given to you.'" At Elevation time, during Catholic Mass, the pr Continue Reading...
