Dempsey gives a modern interpretation of Emily Dickinson's "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark." He raises uncertainties regarding the meanings of the various images and words, rather than providing clear meanings to clarify the meaning of the poem as a Continue Reading...
The prevailing notion through the repetition of the line, "Be Careful," which is repeated four times in the eight line poem is that one should not take things for granted and act out of line. Even in the smallest details one should have good though Continue Reading...
Idyllic, Idolizing, Late Victorian Tears The poem by the Victorian poet laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson entitled "Tears, idle tears," has the unfortunate status of having its become such a common phrase in modern parlance, that the reader finds him or Continue Reading...
ee cummings "she being brand new" At its surface, E.E. Cummings's poem, "she being Brand/-new" appears to be a poem about a man getting to know his way around a brand new car. The unnamed narrator of the poem describes each nuance as he discovers it Continue Reading...
Swammerdam Byatt in the novel Possession succeeds brilliantly in the monumental technical achievement of creating a deeply layered romance in which two twentieth century literary scholars, Roland Michell and Maud Bailey, become themselves romantical Continue Reading...
Shakespeare Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day The explication of Shakespeare's sonnet, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" has been done ad nauseum. A quick web search will pull up a million websites dedicated to Shakespearean sonnets, an Continue Reading...
And all that would remain would be their brothers to mourn them, inconsolable. The anxiety expressed by this poem is acutely felt and accurately represents the norms of the era. During this era, if someone was killed by someone else, the family of Continue Reading...
Line 12 - Again, he notes that the land and country will change, but it will still remain close to what it is today. Line 13 - This line talks about creation and the birth of Earth, just as the poem celebrates creation and the birth of a building. Continue Reading...
(Jones, p. 49). These confessional poems are often "searing in their self-inquiry" and "harrowing to the reader" and typically take their metaphors from texts and paintings of Dickinson's day. Some scholars posit that the "Master" is an unattainable Continue Reading...
message of the poem. This narrative poem follows one, dynamic event - the death of a boy using a saw to cut wood. The poem does not have rhyming lines; it is simply a block of text that narrates one single and very important event. It begins very qu Continue Reading...
Plath speaks of this state as winter, "scrupulously austere in its order" in which the girl is completely in control of her own feelings and not tempted to experience sexual pleasure, her "heart's frosty discipline exactly as a snowflake." A snowfla Continue Reading...
Memory of Elena A Poem to Explain Grief Often a poem's meaning is apparent from only the title. This is not the case with "The Memory of Elena," a poem written by Carolyn Forche in 1981. At first, the title suggests a poetic recollection of Elena, Continue Reading...
Emily Dickinson's poem, "I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died," the setting is the death bed of the speaker, in the nineteenth century, with family and friends gathered around. The line "The Stillness in the Room" eludes that it takes place indoors aft Continue Reading...
microtheme Gordonr's poem - file attached a microtheme analysis paper focuses a specific poem a specific Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem "To My Brother" addresses the ills of poverty. The poem's theme explores the effects and perceptions of poverty on th Continue Reading...
To be "acquainted with the night" is here obviously to have an experience of the darker and more profound regions of the human mind. All the images in the text indicate that the poet crosses the boundaries of consciousness, entering a world of veile Continue Reading...
Gentle into That Good Night and This Is it: A Comparison Dylan Thomas' poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night and the Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald song This Is It both deal with the mortality of man. Each is a plea to a dying father, Thomas' Continue Reading...
"(Krupp, 44) I think that Whitman's stance is extremely important for my studies and my future development as an individual. On the one hand, the poet's admonition indicates that the study of the spiritual development of humanity is equally significa Continue Reading...
Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid" is often described as the poet's response to Homer's epics "The Iliad," and "The Odyssey" in that it details the Trojan War and its aftermath from the Roman perspective. It is a Roman claim to great and far-reaching or Continue Reading...
The "blueblack cold" of a winter morning suggests the touch of cold and the sight of blue frost in the darkness. The "cracked hands" of the father who labors for his living appeals to a sense of cold, harsh touch. The son can "hear the cold splinter Continue Reading...
‘Kubla Khan’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a world-famous poem that many believe has romantic influence. Written in the summer of 1797, Coleridge, then in ill health, decided to retire to a farm house in the middle of Linton and Porlock, Continue Reading...
Flea This paradoxical and provocative poem by John Donne illustrates a number of the central characteristics of Metaphysical poetry. This paper will attempt to elucidate the paradoxical elements of the poem through a close reading of the text. The Continue Reading...
Andre Lorde "Beams" Explication In Audres poem "Beams" she suggests that the process of aging and the loss of the vigor youth is something that cannot be halted. The poem expresses the sadness and loss of innocence that results from the perception o 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...
William Blake's "The Lamb" In the poem "The Lamb," William Blake distinguishes his unique style through the incorporation of religious symbolism, creative lines, and simplistic patterns. "The Lamb" was published as part of a series of poems in 1789 Continue Reading...
They are of an indeterminate time and place -- like a dream. Coleridge's evident admiration for this fantastic place makes the viewer admire it as well, although it could also be interpreted as the palace of an autocrat. At times, his declarative l Continue Reading...
Moreover, and this is where the tone takes its turn, the poet derides summer for its temporary nature. In all of its delighted qualities, the poet suggests, it is a fleeting sensation compared to the lasting statement of her loveliness. Again, we f Continue Reading...
Lord Byron's poem, "The Vision of Judgment," Satan ascends from hell to prosecute the newly deceased George III and claim George's soul. After a farce of a trial, George slips into heaven where he spends eternity practicing his psalms. Of course, o Continue Reading...
Outline Thesis: A poem about the ravages of time and the fallibility of human power, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” exemplifies the use of irony, imagery, and symbolism. I. Context A. Shelley wrote “Ozymandias” duri Continue Reading...
Beowulf On the surface, the poem Beowulf seems to be a simple tale of a brave hero who triumphs over three monsters and engages in several other battles in order to preserve what is "just" and right. A more thorough reading, however, reveals that th Continue Reading...
Hamlet and Revenge Hamlet -- Prince of Denmark -- is considered to be one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. (Meyer, 2002). It is also one of his most complex plays. It is about the evolution of a character within the context of a revenge drama -- tha Continue Reading...
E.E. cummings's "she being Brand/-new" appears to be, at its surface, a poem about a man taking his car for a spin and learning the nuances of his new vehicle. The imagery and descriptions cummings uses allows the reader to understand the various thi Continue Reading...
Finally, the sestet ends with a question about whether any moral lessons can be learned from this little scene in nature: "[w]hat but design of darkness to appall/if design govern in a thing so small." In other words, the speaker is asking whether h Continue Reading...
Most apparent of these symbols is the 'turning of the doorknob,' which signifies the impending death of the Mailman, being a cancer patient. Another symbol used in the poem is the Mailman himself, who embody the individual who have been the model of Continue Reading...
Note in the above two lines the way that the coming "doom" is emphasized by word order and the placement of active verbs at the end of each line. Use is also made telling adjectives such as "lowering sky" to emphasize the apparent awesomeness of the Continue Reading...
The soldier is simply unable to live with this corruption. Instead, the narrator continues as his voice by proxy, indicting the society that caused the war and created the atrocity the killed the solder. Likewise, Graves is forever changed by his ex Continue Reading...
The poem focuses heavily on maternity and the fact that a woman is forced to live life day-by-day, with a different understanding of "good." For God, though, this respect again is usually interpreted as simple obedience. It is God's most basic defin Continue Reading...
2. The book, the Story of the Treasure Seekers, is about six siblings, who are in quest of a treasure to gain back the lost riches of their family. Each child comes up with his or her own unique plan of looking for the treasure, thus representing h Continue Reading...
Poetic Elements in Three Spiritual Poems Biblical poetry (50): Both Sample Poem 1 and 2 could be considered examples of biblical poetry, as both Thomas and Hopkins explore themes relating to divinity, spirituality and faith. Hopkins' poem "God's Gr Continue Reading...
Dylan Thomas was an English poet who was greatly inspired by his father, David John (D.J.)Thomas, an English Literature professor at Swansea Grammar School. As a response to his father's death, Thomas penned "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," Continue Reading...
