Poem Analysis Essays (Examples)

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Lower Eastside Poem" - analysis
The poetic turn is largely meant to provide audiences with the feeling that the speaker experiences an inner conflict and wants to project it onto listeners. It is practically as if he or she would want audiences to gain a more complex understanding concerning the ideas that he or she is referring to in addition to simply appreciating the concepts the poem describes. Miguel Pinero's poem "A Lower Eastside Poem" describes the speaker wanting to go in a gracious way, as he wants his ashes to be scattered across the Lower Eastside of New York City's Manhattan area in an attempt to remain a part of the territory forever.

Pinero describes the Lower Eastside using a series of expressions that emphasize the area's depravity. To a certain point, one might be inclined to believe that he believes himself to be superior to most individuals in the….

Poem Analysis Essay: “The Ecstasy” by John Donne John Donne is one of the celebrated poets, in the area of love. The poem “The Ecstasy” is one of the most renowned poems written by John Donne, which conveys the author’s distinctive and progressive notions regarding love. The poem explicates the perspective that untainted, divine or real love is existent solely in the union of souls instituted by the physical. From Donne’s perspective, true and pure love is solely existent when the physiques and souls of two human beings are intimately unified. Donne’s delineation of ‘ecstasy’ is intricate, if not indescribable. At the highpoint of love, Donne has the conviction that a state of ecstasy is existent between lovers that espouses all facets of their being with one another.
The first stanza of the poem depicts the two lovers as sitted on an elevated expanse such as a riverbank. The setting is deemed….

Looking at Poem Analysis
PAGES 4 WORDS 1157

George on "The oad Not Taken" by American poet, obert Frost, is accurate in its capturing of the presence of 3 ages associated with the persona in the poem. A number of contradictions are included in this analysis, pertaining to the poem's time frame. This essay will explore the poem's analysis in terms of selecting the appropriate path to be taken in a given life event, while being aware of how paths lead to other paths. One has to realize that choices dictate life, and hence, should choose wisely, as a decision once made is not easy to reverse. obert Frost's widely-known poem, The oad Not Taken, portrays life's journey. This paper will briefly summarize the poem, analyzing its key themes.
Choosing appropriate paths

Indication of two roads (line 1)

Analyzing both paths (line 4)

c. Decision to choose one path (line 5)

d. This path needed discovery as it was less travelled (line….

The poem that is reviewed in this brief essay is The Very End, as written by Tom Sleigh. As is indicated by the essay assignment prompt, the poem is about Sleigh’s grandmother. This is made quite clear on the page with the poem. Indeed, there is the text “For my grandmother” just below the title of the essay. What follows is a poem that is not terribly long. However, there is obviously a lot going on and the verbiage on display is both profound and nebulous at the same time. This is true in terms of what is said about his grandmother. It is also true about what is said about others. While Sleigh’s message is shrouded and dressed with some interesting references, the intent of the poem’s author is quite clear. Analysis
One thing to point out about the poem is how Sleigh swings back and forth in terms of who….

Snake
Poem Analysis: "To the Snake"

Denise Levertov's poem, "To the Snake," uses the presence of a snake to express the speaker's simultaneous fear of and attraction to sexuality and intimacy. The snake itself is an overt symbol of the male member and, as such, illustrates the dangers which are presented by desire. The speaker hangs the green snake "round my neck" (Levertov 1) and strokes its "cold, pulsing throat" (2), actions which are suggestive of sexual activities. However, the snake's response to the speaker's ministrations are rife with peril. Indeed, the snake is heavy on the speaker's shoulders and responds with hisses which suggest that it is likely to bite or attack the speaker. The use of a snake in this context also evokes the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in which the snake in the Garden of Eden was used to tempt Eve to disobey God. Levertov builds….

prolific black American writers recognized in the world of contemporary American literature is Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou was born Margurite Johnson in Arkansas, but later changed her name to Maya Angelou, after her husband's last name, a man named Tosh Angelou (Life and Times 2002). Maya Angelou had struggled through hard life and poverty, living her life in perpetual abuse to opportunist and abusive men. She had a difficult childhood, and was raped at the age of 8 by her mother's friend, and by the age 16, gave birth to her son (Quilt Pages 2002). She sustains herself and her son by working, and Maya Angelou worked on different odd jobs. She was considered the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco, the first black woman screenwriter and director in Hollywood, and became known for her work for the civil rights movement along with Malcolm X and Martin Luther….

The speaker of Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” reflects on his abusive father. Using an ABAB CDCD rhyme scheme and fixed meter, the poet underscores the main motifs of music and dance. The titular waltz is a structured dance set to a specific type of music. Constrained by the form of the waltz, the speaker seems to have internalized guilt and complicity in his father’s behavior by suggesting that it takes two people to waltz. His “clinging”(line 12) and having “hung on like death” (line 3) add another dimension of pathos to an already heart-wrenching story. The reader will protest the child having any responsibility for the father’s behavior, adding to the dramatic tension in the poem. Music and dance symbolism also add a potent degree of irony to the poem, as a waltz is typically associated with fine art and not with domestic violence. The subtle cues in….

The Most Important Features in “The Pitcher” by Robert Francis The poem “The Pitcher” by Robert Francis tells the story of a pitcher’s purpose and frames it in terms of communication—as though in pitching the ball, the player is engaging in a form of communication with the batter that intends to be both accurate and misleading at once. The pitcher is described as an individual who wants the batter to understand but “to understand too late”—i.e., to swing at a missed pitch or to watch a strike pass over the plate. Francis uses the poem’s structure, diction, imagery, sounds, meter, symbols, irony and figures of speech to convey the subtle relationship between pitcher and batter in the game of baseball, and this paper will show how the poet accomplishes this in “The Pitcher.”
The type of poem is a simple, unrhymed two-verse stanza type. Each line is structured metrically, consisting of 10-11….

Husband" is a story that focuses on marriage and finding someone. Mme. Carette is the mother to Marie and Berthe. While Berthe tries to seek independence, working an office job, Marie is simple-minded, hoping to marry. Their mother, Mme. Carette is the one who wants her to find someone all while wishing for someone for herself. In one way or another, they all find that marriage often takes center stage in a woman's life.
Mme. Carette is a religious woman. Although she tries to hide parts of herself, she shows how much she wants a husband not just for her children, but for herself. On page 306, Mme. Carette explains how a husband can help her up the step of a streetcar and lay down the law to Berthe. These are things a daughter cannot do and therefore are reasons for Carette to want someone. Marie wants someone as well….

WB Yeats's Poem
PAGES 4 WORDS 1421

Yeats' "The Stolen Child"
An Analysis of the Temptation to Flee Reality in Yeats' "The Stolen Child"

Yeats' "The Stolen Child" depicts a world in which fantasy and reality are in contention with one another. The conflict is between the sense of reality (barely perceptible and inundated by a flood of dreamlike perceptions) and the flight of fantasy. A parallel might be drawn between the poem and the social problem of addiction. If the poem on one level is about a child's escape/flight from reality into fantasy, it might also be said that the poem on a deeper level is about those who suffer from addiction are unable to face reality and must fly from it. Indeed, the imagery used by the fairy narrator evokes scenes comparable to states of inebriation or drunkenness. While fear and the ominous sense of death both appear to be underlying factors in the poem, this paper….

Upstairs analysis
"to the One Upstairs:" God as Boss

In "To the One Upstairs," Charles Simic personifies God by comparing the deity to a boss at an office or workplace. While Simic's references and analogy may be considered to be somewhat unorthodox, and possibly heretical and blasphemous. There are several aspects of the poem that help to make it unique and discriminate it from other literary works. Some elements that allow "To the One Upstairs" to be engaging and draw the reader in include the poem's theme, the personification of God, and the analogy that Simic is able to draw between a boss and God.

"To the One Upstairs" draws upon Simic's personal background and his beliefs on religion, and God, are reflected in this highly religious poem. Though the poem does not name God as its subject, it is highly religious, a theme that carries through the entire poem. Simic makes….

Ulysses is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that recounts King Ulysses' experiences during his journey back to Ithaca after fighting at Troy. Throughout the poem, Tennyson is able to develop Ulysses' character through a first-person introspective of the king's experiences, which allow the reader to understand what Ulysses is thinking and what his motivations are.
At the beginning of the poem, it is quickly established that the narrator of the poem is someone of high-ranking, specifically a king. Moreover, the narrator establishes that he is old and that despite his rule and authority, he feels as though his people do not know him. Tennyson writes, "It little profits an idle king,/By this still hearth, among these barren crags,/Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole/Unequal laws unto a savage race,/That hoard, and feed, and know not me" (Tennyson lines 1-5). In these introductory lines, the narrator also establishes he….

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 coming washing day.
The following lines express an obviously ironic comparison between the mundane images of washing day and tragic events in history.

Saints have been calm while stretched upon the rack,

And Guatimozin smil'd on burning coals;

ut never yet did housewife notable

Greet with a smile a rainy washing-day.

Lines 29 -32)

The reference to the death of the Mexican Emperor Guatimozin makes the concerns and work of the maids and housewives seem extremely trivial and are a good example of the way that the mock-heroic expresses a point-of-view through satire.

The poem continues in this fashion to present a view of the subject from different class perspectives. For….

House Is a Poem About
PAGES 3 WORDS 1027


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.

Line 14 - This line continues the theme of creation, using a metaphor of "Orion in December" to describe the theme of creation, rebirth, and permanence at the same time.

Line 15 - This beautiful line uses phrase and simile to create a beautiful illusion. "Evenings was strung in the throat of the valley like a lamp-lighted bridge" (Jeffers 15), and the image of the "throat" of the valley makes it seem delicate and beautiful at the same time.

Line 16 - This line brings the reader back to the house and the coastline, and the permanence of the ocean and the "white gulls" (Jeffers….

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 to be telling other that loss is a natural part of life, something we have to accept and learn to live with. She suggests a sort of Zen-like approach to loss: instead of letting it bother us, we should embrace loss. She then lists losses she has experience in her life. She has gotten past them; losing things does not "bring disaster."
Her first example is trivial -- misplacing one's keys. She suggests that individuals are not so important that they should be upset over looking for a set of keys for an hour. The reader knows already that she is not being realistic: looking for one's….

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2 Pages
Essay

Literature

Lower Eastside Poem - Analysis the Poetic

Words: 567
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

Lower Eastside Poem" - analysis The poetic turn is largely meant to provide audiences with the feeling that the speaker experiences an inner conflict and wants to project it…

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4 Pages
Essay

Poetry / Poets

The Ecstasy by John Donne Poem Analysis

Words: 1199
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Essay

Poem Analysis Essay: “The Ecstasy” by John Donne John Donne is one of the celebrated poets, in the area of love. The poem “The Ecstasy” is one of the most…

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4 Pages
Essay

Plays

Looking at Poem Analysis

Words: 1157
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Essay

George on "The oad Not Taken" by American poet, obert Frost, is accurate in its capturing of the presence of 3 ages associated with the persona in the…

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2 Pages
Essay

Death / Dying

Poem Analysis The Very End by Tom Sleigh

Words: 689
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

The poem that is reviewed in this brief essay is The Very End, as written by Tom Sleigh. As is indicated by the essay assignment prompt, the poem is…

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2 Pages
Essay

Literature

Poem to the Snake by Denise Levertov

Words: 667
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

Snake Poem Analysis: "To the Snake" Denise Levertov's poem, "To the Snake," uses the presence of a snake to express the speaker's simultaneous fear of and attraction to sexuality and…

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2 Pages
Term Paper

Literature

Poem Is Donald Hall's Letter With No Address

Words: 767
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Term Paper

prolific black American writers recognized in the world of contemporary American literature is Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou was born Margurite Johnson in Arkansas, but later changed her name…

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2 Pages
Essay

Poetry / Poets

My Papas Waltz Poem Analysis

Words: 691
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

The speaker of Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” reflects on his abusive father. Using an ABAB CDCD rhyme scheme and fixed meter, the poet underscores the main motifs…

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image
2 Pages
Essay

Literature

The Pitcher by Robert Francis Poem Analysis

Words: 714
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

The Most Important Features in “The Pitcher” by Robert Francis The poem “The Pitcher” by Robert Francis tells the story of a pitcher’s purpose and frames it in terms of…

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2 Pages
Essay

Plays

Analysis of Two Short Stories

Words: 616
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

Husband" is a story that focuses on marriage and finding someone. Mme. Carette is the mother to Marie and Berthe. While Berthe tries to seek independence, working an…

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4 Pages
Poem

Literature

WB Yeats's Poem

Words: 1421
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Poem

Yeats' "The Stolen Child" An Analysis of the Temptation to Flee Reality in Yeats' "The Stolen Child" Yeats' "The Stolen Child" depicts a world in which fantasy and reality are in…

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3 Pages
Thesis

Mythology - Religion

Upstairs Analysis To the One Upstairs God

Words: 953
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Thesis

Upstairs analysis "to the One Upstairs:" God as Boss In "To the One Upstairs," Charles Simic personifies God by comparing the deity to a boss at an office or workplace.…

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3 Pages
Essay

Literature

Ulysses Is a Poem by Alfred Lord

Words: 1133
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Essay

Ulysses is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that recounts King Ulysses' experiences during his journey back to Ithaca after fighting at Troy. Throughout the poem, Tennyson is able…

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5 Pages
Term Paper

Literature

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Analysis of

Words: 1402
Length: 5 Pages
Type: Term Paper

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…

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3 Pages
Research Paper

Literature

House Is a Poem About

Words: 1027
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Research Paper

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…

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2 Pages
Term Paper

Literature

Elizabeth Bishop's Poem One Art Is Clearly

Words: 647
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Term Paper

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…

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