Poem Analysis Essays (Examples)

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 King…

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…

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…

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,…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The vivid imagery of the first lines of the verses make almost anything that is not frozen or cold instantly welcome, and the image of "greasy Joan" keeling the pot (that's "cooling" the pot, to modern readers) is definitely amongst these things. The fact the her pot needs to be "keeled" in the first place also means that it was hot beforehand as well, which is precisely the opposite image of what is provided earlier in the verses of the song. Though there is not a major twist in the intellectual direction of the poem or in its form, then, there is a definite shift in the imagery of this song/poem that makes Shakespeare's meaning all the more clear.

It is variation that makes life -- and literature -- exciting, and Shakespeare certainly manages to pack a punch into his poems by changing up the direction of his poems as…

" The stanza discusses how Bill's friends tried to "persuade" both themselves and him that they were not afraid and therefore showed this by comforting him with kisses. However, the following stanza shows how this statement is not entirely true. The poet goes on to state, "If we had more, we would have given more. As it was we stood next to your bed, stopping, though, to set our smiles at the door." At first the poet tries to convince himself that they did all they could, more than necessary, even going as far as standing guard over his deathbed. Yet in the last line the poet admits that this was not enough and was in fact nothing but prefabricated "smiles at the door."

The feelings of guilt continue in the final stanza, which states: "Not because we were less sure at last. Only because, not knowing anything yet, we…

This reading is obviously at odds with Poirier's, but cannot necessarily be considered wrong.

However, a third reading based on Frost's own assessment of the poem, as given to his poet friend Ezra Pound, may shed some light on another possible interpretation of the themes in "In Neglect." Pound states that there is a personal element to the poem that places it within the context of love and economy. According to Pound Frost's poem "is to his wife, written when his grandfather and his uncle had disinherited him of a comfortable fortune and left him in poverty because he was a useless poet instead of a money-getter" (Richardson 69). Such a biographical note gives the poem even more dimension. In this light, the theme of chastisement (as read by Faggen) becomes a theme of abandonment -- or rather a theme on the glad acceptance of abandonment. From this point-of-view, it…

alt hitman grew to fame in America for writing poems that were as long and as sprawling as his very strides throughout the wide walks of the country itself. In this respect, his poem "A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Grey and Dim" is very much different. It is certainly one of the poet's shorter works, and is not as ambitious as others he has written. And although the poem is set in a natural environment in the woods (which is a characteristic of many of the author's poems), its theme is not nearly as triumphant and as supportive of the country which his works were known to champion. An analysis of the language in this poem reveals that hitman carefully constructs elements of alliteration, anaphora and figurative language to express a dismay in America and in the form of religion that principally represented the country.

This particular poem…

Unfair

Robert Francis was an American poet whose work is reminiscent of Robert Francis, his mentor. Francis' writing has often compared to other writers such as Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Henry David Thoreau. Although Francis's work has frequently been neglected and is "often excluded from major anthologies of American poetry," those that have read his work have praised him and his writing. In "Fair and Unfair," Francis comments on balance in nature and in society. Like Frost, Francis contends nature has the ability to provide guidance if only man is smart enough to observe it. In "Fair and Unfair," Francis is able to find balance through what is written and how it is written.

The poem is told from a first person, omniscient perspective and the narrator appears to be addressing the general public; it appears as though the narrator seeks to bring attention to how nature has become disregarded…

Benediction

means Blessing english. The poem found " Les Fleurs du Mal " ( The flower evil ) 19th century french authors Charles Baudelaire. It poem. In analysis lexis choice words author lastly answer question flowers evil poem ?.

Charles Baudelaire's poem "Benediction" is composed out of nineteen quatrains designed in twelve syllable lines that hold an abab rhyme plan. This is a rather traditional type of verse when considering trends contemporary to Baudelaire. However, the poet compensates for the apparent conventional display of his poem by introducing innovative and vivid imagery that makes it possible for readers to look at matters from a whole new perspective and that is likely to have generated much controversy at the time when it was published.

It appears that Baudelaire inspired himself and influenced himself to get actively involved in devising "Benediction" as an attempt to reconnect with his personal identity. Even with…

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 the impoverished, which largely takes the form of the poem's speaker. The author utilizes a number of specific literary devices to emphasize the pervasiveness of this theme and of poverty's impact upon people; these devices include metaphor, diction, and onomatopoeia.

The theme of poverty and its debilitating effects upon the impoverished is demonstrated a number of ways in this poem of Cervantes. One of the most accessible of these is through her usage of metaphor. Poverty engenders the effect of dulling the lives and perceptions of people burdened by it. The author utilizes a metaphor about the weather to convey this fact. She writes, "Sun, scarcely a penny in that dreary…

This indicates that the friendship he refers to never truly existed in the first place. Indeed, in Stanza XIII, he has the audacity to make a claim for the "truth."

This, as the reader has come to expect at this stage, is only very brief. The only claim to truth is that the woman was indeed light. However, because of this very lightness, she claims not to have done any wrong. She disregards the feelings of the friend in favor of her own desires for life with the speaker. Her exclamation to "Never mind that youth" appears to echo the feelings of the speaker. The woman has done the speaker no harm, and he has not harmed her. Instead, together they have harmed the innocent friend and broken what friendship there might have been left for him and the speaker. "Never mind" here can therefore also be interpreted as "I…

In the end of the poem she has tied together her themes to show that her words do not divide her from her father. The very fact that she, the daughter and the author has in English expressed her emotion and care towards her father indicates that language has not divided him from her. His fear is thus unjustified, and in spite of his fear that his daughter will learn a language different than his own and grow farther from him, he loves his daughter and the words she creates in English. Just because she is proficient and talented in English she is still a Spanish speaker and still a daughter.

Language is not a divisive element in Bilingual/Bilingue, as although a Spanish speaking father fears his daughter's learning of English, it does not change her heart. Utilizing English with Spanish synonyms until the end in which she describes her…

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, but as the poem develops, we see that it is at first a memory of a lunch with Elena and then Elena's own recollection of the tragic events that destroyed her life. The memories of the poet and Elena merge, becoming as one. The poet remembers her meal with Elena even as Elena recalls her last night with her husband years earlier in Buenos Aires. In the poem, Forche uses the simple symbolism of a meal shared together to bring to light how important remembrance is and how important it is to mourn and recognize the sacrifices others make on our behalf.

"The Memory…

The Monster's suffering was the root of all his murders, and Victor the cause of all his pain. It was at this point that the monstrosity of Victor's character is understood better, making Victor the greater monster in the story.

2.)

The poem "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" encompasses everything that the Romantic period had to offer. The physical aspect that the poem can portray, and the feeling that reading invokes makes this one of great substance and significance. The deep connection with Nature, is one that makes this poem a part of the Romantic Era's history, encapsulating a part of history in its lines.

The poem provides very rich description that invokes feeling; that is what the Romantic Period is all about. "Here, under this dark sycamore, and view / These plots of cottage ground, these orchard tufts, / Which at this season, with their unripe…

The words "Out "and Over" both convey a sense of loss and leaving, which enhances the meaning and intention of the poem as an exploration of grief.

The final lines of the first stanza are very short and concise. They are almost brutal in their finality and in the way that they suggest the inescapability of death through their analogy to winter. The direct simplicity of these lines and the way that they are positioned after the other longer lines, adds weight to the meaning of the poem and we feel the sense of loss and grief. Note as well the use of alliteration in the second last line of the stanza: "Silent, and soft, and slow."

This also adds to the sense of inevitability and the finality of death.

The use of alliteration, combined with the shorter and longer lines in the stanza is an example of the way…

Divorce Poem

Before dawn I called for you,

My poem, but you didn't come.

I had woken up to the song

Of the cardinal perched

On the fence. You weren't at my desk in all the words that I wrote down and crossed.

You weren't in my shoes nor in the letters that had come and gone all month

Nor in the space held by a window,

Its fourteen trees, its seven stars

That always lag behind.

The poetic features in this poem are subtle yet effective. The line breaks are positioned so that there is some enjambment (going over into the next line) to give an articulate, forceful rendition of the poet's feelings. The subject of the poem is not difficult to ascertain. The poet is writing literally, about a divorce poem, not merely a divorce, and not merely a poem. You will note the "d" sound repeats itself…

microtheme Mohammad's poems- file attached A microtheme analysis paper focuses a K. Silem Mohammad's poem "Breathalyzer" is fairly obtuse, and much more than a little bit confusing. The source of this confusion, however, stems from the fact that it is a poor example of poetry, and reflective of many of the traits of modern or postmodern poetry that nearly make it unworthy of the name poetry. Still, the source of the meaninglessness of this poem is the desultory nature of it. There are numerous words, which are portioned in lines that make neat, geometric shapes on the paper. Yet there is no true connection between them, which renders them all but devoid of meaning.

The random and disjointed nature of the words in Mohammad's poem are evinced relatively early on in this work. In the second stanza of the poem (further testament to the random nature of this work is…

As mentioned, an important aspect of the poem is its style, which is easy to read but is also complex and deceptively simple. The poem uses simple but powerful images in order to express the central theme of the critique of the way that governments and those in control and authority can deprive us of our freedom. For example, the poem states that the citizen, had everything necessary to the Modern Man, phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.

The Unknown Citizen 2)

These ordinary images add to the impact and the meaning of the poem. In essence, what the poem suggests is that while the modern individual has all the material aspects and goods that are deemed by those in power to be necessary to a contented life, he has in fact been deprived of his personal and individual freedom.

Freedom is in effect replaced by material goods.…

Sonnet Analysis

The Quality of Beauty, Love, and Sonnets

Sir Thomas Wyatt's sonnet "How the Lover Perisheth in His Delight as the Fly in the Fire" describes how love, passion, and/or beauty can be all-consuming and self-destructive. The poet uses a long-running metaphor of birds as a substitute or symbol for male lovers generally and the speaker of the poem specifically, while the sun is the female lover and possessor of great beauty -- the source of the fire or passion, in some sense. It is the nature of the birds and their relationship to the sun that concern the speaker at first, however; he comments that some are able to shield their eyes from the sun's light, and that others only come out at night because the sun is simply too much for them to handle, but that many try to play in the sun but ultimately find themselves…

Eat a Poem

At first, Eve Merriam's "How to Eat a Poem" seemed like an excuse for a silly metaphor. However, after reading the poem I realized that the poet does an excellent job in writing a poem about poetry. Its underlying message rings true: poetry should be devoured and savored fully for their personal impact. Poems should not be eaten delicately, as with "a knife or fork or spoon / or plate or napkin or tablecloth." They aren't elite gourmet meals, and they should not be treated, or read, that way. Rather, poems should be consumed without worrying about correct interpretations or analysis. The essence of a poem cannot be enjoyed if the reader is too polite and afraid, or too ready to throw away certain parts of it. I appreciated this because too often, people pick apart poems to try to eat them "politely."

Also, as Merriam states,…

Wanna Hear a Poem

I agree with you that Steve Coleman's piece "I Wanna Hear A Poem" would be an excellent choice of a first poem to study in an introductory poetry class, given the way that it frames all of the many weighty and sometimes contradictory expectations teachers and students bring to poetry. Questions which inevitably arise in a class when students begin to discuss poetry are: what is poetry? How is it different from prose? What purpose does poetry uniquely fill in the literary landscape? Coleman's ambitious demands for poetry, rendered as a long, searching, compelling drumbeat of a list highlight the 'specialness' we demand of the poetic format. Poetry must mean something that transcends the surface meaning of the poet's words. I also agree the poem is an excellent jumping-off point for discussing the various functions poetry has fulfilled in societies across the ages.

However, as well…

The mystery, which is representative for Kroetsch, would simply disappear once someone would give a translation for his poem.

Readers are likely to think that the poem is too authoritarian in the beginning. Their inability to understand its meaning when trying to relate to the exact meaning of the words used Kroetsch used would be frustrating. However, this is essentially wrong. The author wants people to feel free and to think what ever they want to instead of limiting themselves to a simple and rather restrained idea at the time they read his poem.

The protagonist in "Surfacing" is to a certain degree comparable to Kroetsch, as she too is discontented with the strict nature of language and with the fact that it does not give people total freedom. The use of language however affects Atwood's creation to a higher degree. It transpires the will to virtually abandon everything related…

Wild Geese Analysis

Oliver's "Wild Geese"

Mary Oliver is an American poet who explores an individual's relationship with nature through her work. Oliver's poetry has been described as "an excellent antidote for the excesses of civilization for too much flurry and inattention, and the baroque conventions of our social and professional lives. She is a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making" (Mary Oliver, n.d.). In "Wild Geese," Oliver uses imagery, content, and form to explore the relationship between an individual and nature.

In "Wild Geese" (1986), Oliver use of imagery helps to establish the bond that she is advocating between individuals and nature. The first six lines of the poem focus on the individual and establish that the individual does "not have to be good" and does "not have to walk on [their] knees/for a hundred miles…

Growing Up

A Quest for Knowledge and Answers with Plenty of Lessons Learned

The two works of literature to be examined here are the short story "The Stolen Party" by Liliana Heker and the poem "Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde. These pieces detail the struggles, fears, successes and implacable worries of childhood. In them, one sees reflected one's own childhood, as the pieces are quite innocent and straightforward in their description. The most important theme, present through both stories, is the pervasiveness of those questions that are so reflective of growing and learning. This essay will examine some of these important childhood wonderments, and will discuss them below.

The events of childhood always seem of the utmost importance as they take place. Whether they are happy, sad, embarrassing or otherwise, these events, above all, teach. Sometimes it is true that they are important, but otherwise one might even forget them,…

Hughes' poems. Don't tell us about theme or how you relate to it. Tell us about the form of the poem. Name and define some of the elements of the form. Tell us about its attributes and history, what Hughes' influences were in this poem, and so on. Can you find Whitman's influence here, where and how?

Langston Hughes was one of the great artists of this period, and the themes of Black identity and frustration against slavery and discrimination can be seen in many of his poems as, for instance, the famous one of "Bound No'th Blues"

In the poem "Bound No'th Blues" (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bound-no-th-blues/), the rhythm supports the pome's theme of the woman's fatigue and loneliness. The poem reiterates: "Road, road, road, O!

Road, road…road…road, road!

Road, road, road, O!"

The road is ongoing and eternal; there is no end to this.

The words are truncated. The sentences are…

Keats' to Autumn

An Analysis of Keats' "To Autumn"

John Keats' "To Autumn" is a kind of "companion piece" to another English poem, "Ode to Evening," by illiam Collins -- a poem very much in the mind of Keats when he seat to work on "Autumn." Inspired by the English countryside, Keats, like illiams, evokes nature's reflection of the poet's own emergence from youthfulness to adulthood. Composed only two years before his death, there is already in this work a sense of the imminent end awaiting the young poet -- who is even still at his most fruitful. "To Autumn" carries with it the dichotomous theme of life in its fullness, haunted by "mists" and mellowness and a creeping kind of melancholy that portends the harvest. This paper will analyze Keats' "To Autumn" and show how the poet uses imagery, personification, and structure to illuminate and convey the fullness of…

Snyder "Lumber Strike"

An Analysis of Gary Snyder's "Lumber Strike"

Gary Snyder's "The Late Show & Lumber Strike of the Summer of Fifty-Four" is at once both a poem about an historical incident that shutdown production lines in the Northwest Lumber industry in 1954 and a poem that transcends time and space to contemplate existence. A beat poet whose imagery often tends to linger on the natural world, Snyder uses a still moment in an otherwise usually bustling setting of outdoor industry to look around at the glory of the natural world, of which he is only allowed a momentary glimpse before he must return to civilization to "stand in line" for work. hat Snyder finds, however, in the natural world where all labor has ceased is more than words can describe: it is a transient place -- a kind of limbo "between heaven and earth" -- where some wisdom…

Synge's iders To The Sea

Analysis of structure, narrative, and irony in Synge's "iders to the Sea"

John Millington Synge is considered to be one of Irish literature's most influential writers. Born near Dublin in 1871, he was highly interested in studying music before turning his attentions to literature. In 1898, Synge made his first visit to the Aran Islands, which he continued to visit at various intervals for the next four years (J.M. Synge, n.d.). It was during this time that he began to study the way of life on the islands. "On they rocky, isolated islands, Synge took photographs and notes. He listened to the speech of the islanders, a musical, old-fashioned, Irish-flavored dialect of English. He conversed with them in Irish and English, listened to stories, and learned the impact that the sound of word could have apart from their meaning" (J.M. Synge, n.d.). The influence of…

One study published in the American Psychiatric Association found that "PTSD has been shown to predict poor health not only in veterans of the 1991 Gulf ar but also in veterans of orld ar II and the Korean ar. Our study extends these findings in a group of active duty soldiers returning from recent combat deployment to Iraq, confirming the strong association between PTSD and the indicators of physical health independent of physical injury" (Hoge, Terhakopian, Castro, Messer & Engel, 2007). From this study one can certainly glean that PTSD has a somatic component to it, or at least there is a prevalence in which persons afflicted with PTSD also suffer from physical health problems. One can also assume that the somatic component was downplayed or overlooked in prior studies, as most treatments for PTSD do not seem to address the physical aspect of the disorder.

To elaborate on this…

Creation Myth Analysis

Case Study of the History of iblical Creation Narratives

What Is Myth?

What Is History?

Manetho

Josephus

Jeroboam

Is Genesis 1:1-2:4 Myth?

Is Genesis 1:1-2:4 History?

Is Genesis 1:1-2:4 oth Myth and History?

An Analysis of the iblical Creation Narrative of Genesis 1:1-25 and Egypt's Possible Influence on the Historical Record

God created the world in just six days, and rested on the seventh, but scholars have not rested at all over the millennia in their investigation of its account in the historical record, particularly Genesis 1:1-25. Given its importance to humankind, it is little wonder that so much attention has been devoted to how the universe was created and what place humanity has in this immense cosmos. Indeed, the creation of the universe and the origin of mankind are the subject of numerous myths around the world, with many sharing some distinct commonalities. According to S.G.F.…

Introduction

Beginning a My Papa’s Waltz analysis essay can appear like a formidable task, as the poem is so simple, yet so enigmatic. Luckily, writing such an analysis essay can help you build a higher level of appreciation for the poem, as it can show you the layers of meaning embedded throughout each line. Close scrutiny of this poem can demonstrate the power that a precise word choice can wield in communicating feelings and visuals. In this piece, the words work together to create a picture of tension, uncertainty and danger. Written over fifty years ago, My Papa’s Waltz is still an example of writing that can comment upon the intricacies between parent and child.



Summary

My Papa’s Waltz is one of Theodore Roethke’s most famous poems, written in 1948 and included in the seminal volume The Lost Son and Other Poems. This is a collection of poems that documents…

" Communing with nature is the ultimate Dionysian act; the poet's subsequent writing of the communion is the Apollonian gesture that tempers this Dionysian indulgence.

What each of these three poems has in common is the fact that they are based around images of human figures confronting the Dionysian motifs of descent and ascent via nature. Each poem represents a struggle between the Apollonian and Dionysian extremes, a struggle that is very much part of every human being's life. In Hamilton's poem, the poet is quite eager to run away altogether from Apollonian order into the wild chaos of poetry and the sea. It does not take much convincing for her; from the moment the poem opens, she is ready to go. Olds's poem represents a more virulent struggle between the two poles. While the father in the poem has clearly made his choice and has learned to live with…

In fact, he identified himself entirely with it, even in his own self-reflection. In the reflective poem "leroy," published in 1969 under his newly adopted name Amiri Baraka, a nostalgic comment on his mother becomes a lofty vision of himself as the bearer of black wisdom -- that "strong nigger feeling" (5) -- from his ancestors forward to the next generation. He refers to this legacy that he is passing on as his "consciousness" (11), an indication that he had by this point in his life entirely adopted his race as his identity.

This wholehearted self-identification with race, along with a keen awareness of his cultural power as a poet, combined to create an artist absorbed with his own capacity for social comment and change. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Baraka became disenchanted with the somewhat passive anti-establishment attitudes of the Greenwich Village artistic community, and moved…

High Treason

This is a an analysis of the poem 'High Treason' by Jose Emilio Pacheco. This paper focuses on the various means that Pacheco has used to make his poem effective.

The poem 'High Treason' by Jose Emilio Pacheco is one that is unusually short, but at the same time, the message in this poem has been made very clear. The poet has not created a riddle or a mystery for the reader to unravel; rather he has been blatant about how he feels for his country. The poet uses language that is clear and, therefore his message in the poem cannot be misunderstood. It appears that the poet has deliberately used this language so that there is no clause of misunderstanding by the reader. By writing a poem without the usual metaphorical tangles and without the persistent and subtle puns Pacheco has created a verse that the normal…

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 herself bracing his or her ear for more and more cliches as the poem progresses. In other words, one hears that tears are idle so often, one can easily forget, not only that Tennyson said, "I know not what they mean," but that the poem attempts to express the seriousness of futility of grief, or outward displays of affection by calling tears idle, in that they do no real work in the world. The use of 'idle' in multiple variances of meaning, from impractical and lazy, to idyllic, to idolizing is in fact quite profound and sophisticated, yielding a poem with a compact linguistic and stylistic structure.

It is also…

The horn, like Saturn,

Is suspended in its ring of steering wheel;

And below is the black tongue of the gas pedal,

The bulge of the brake, the stalk

Of the stick shift,

Lines 17-21)

The simile, "like Saturn" succeeds in expanding on the image of the car in adding a sense of its larger symbolic meaning. The other images also tend to provide the car with natural attributes - such as a tongue.

In the final lines of the poem, there is a suggestion of Apollonian individualism. The protagonist overcomes the fear of the car and drives. This can be seen as an assertion of individuality over the Dionysian mystery or, on the other hand, acceptance and entrance into that mystery. The last lines of the poem tend to favor the latter interpretation.

The world's open gate, eternity

Hits me like a heart attack.

There is a sense of…

Antjie Krog's Country Of Grief And Grace

Antjie Krog (2000) uses metaphor and extended metaphor throughout the poem "Country of Grief and Grace" -- itself an exploration of existential crisis in South Africa, ravaged by apartheid and violence. Krog descends into this maelstrom to provide the reader a glimpse, a hope, a ray of light that beams through the sludge of hopelessness, despair and grief. Through her use of metaphor and extended metaphor, Krog constructs an alternate way of looking at the world in which she lives -- a framework that invites the reader to question the borders and boundaries of time and space which keep separate the past and the future, the young and the old, the black and the white. By merging or synthesizing the elements of her country into a cohesive whole, Krog shows that all is one -- and in this revelation is the seed of…

The park is clearly preferable to a railway station, not only because it is more idyllic for the scene of an erotic encounter, but also because it is a Dionysian setting, preferable to the crude, structured Apollonian setting of a railway station. In a park, one may readily lose oneself in the eroticism of nature and become one with the natural environment. This is surely preferable to hanging around the filthy men's room of a railway station, "tallying up the merits of each / / of the latrines," in O'Hara's words.

The poem clearly links the theme of homosexuality with Dionysus on an emotional level, as well:

So we are taking off our masks, are we, and keeping our mouths shut? As if we'd been pierced by a glance!

The song of an old cow is not more full of judgment than the vapors which escape one's soul when one…

Tyger, by William Blake. Specifically, I will begin by addressing the outer, or obvious, meaning of the poem. Following this discussion, I will give a thorough, and detailed analysis of the inner meaning of the poem, The Tyger, by William Blake.

At a very superficial reading, the outer, obvious, subject of the poem is, of course, a tiger.

The author wonders at the beauty and raw power of the tyger. This is seen in the following lines "burnt the fire of thine eyes," "Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night." Blake asks who created the tiger, and wonders at who could possible create such a beast. "What immortal hand or eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry." Further, Blake asks if God, the creator was happy to see his handiwork, the tyger.

However, like virtually all important poems, The Tyger certainly has a deeper meaning than is suggested by…

It is interesting thus that many of the symbols that usually have a positive meaning in the literary tradition, such as the starts which are shining brightly in the sky or Margaret's golden hair which makes her resemble an angelic figure, have negative connotations in the poem through the reversals that Celan proposes. Also, the blue eyes of the German master and the fact that he writes love letters to Germany might beguile the reader for a moment and make him or her believe that these are the symbols of purity and innocence in the text. Both the commander and Margaret symbolize the Arian race which was considered by Hitler as absolutely faultless. The fact that Margaret is corrupted and destroyed by evil in Faust is a hint at the way in which the Nazi regime turned the qualities of the Arian race into an instrument of evil. Sulamith, by…

Flanders Fields: A World War I Poem Written by John McRae

The poem "In Flanders Fields" was written by John McRae, Canadian soldier, surgeon, and last, but not least, a poet, during World War I. McRae's poem gives a voice to those who died fighting in the war. Flanders Fields is reported to have been "the generic name of the World War I battlefields under the medieval County of Flanders." Golden Map, nd, p.1) In Flanders Fields was penned by McRae during the War Poetry Movement, a time during World War I when many poets penned poetry relating the battlefield tragedies. The primary themes in McRae's poems were death, revenge, and honor. Righter, 2008, p.1) The most famous of all his poems is "In Flanders Field" in which the idea of a tragic theme of war is related. Righter, 2008, paraphrased) A great deal of symbolism is used by McRae…

Choices seen as roads that appear to be the same are more clear because they allow us to understand that many choices in life are not black and white but gray. Regardless of that, we still must decide which way to go. The literal forest with its paths represents life and the seemingly unimportant choices we make everyday.

The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAAB and it is made up of four stanzas with five lines in each stanza. Every line of the poem has nine syllables and the scansion of the poem is four feet per line. Frost employs the technique of sound in "The Road Not Taken." Alliteration appears with the words yellow, travel, and traveler and grassy and passing. Assonance appears with many of the rhymes, including wood, could, stood, lay, day, way, sigh, and by. Frost uses these literary techniques to convey a difficult issue…

Leadership, Values, And Beowulf

The epic poem of Beowulf is a narrative a famous warrior who eventually becomes a powerful king. The story involves the exploits of a Scandinavian warrior-prince who comes from the land of the Geats, located in what is now southern Sweden. The poem may be divided into two periods of the Beowulf's life. These two periods exemplify the heroic life in youth and old age.

The poem starts by acquainting the reader with the problems of Hrothgar, King of the Danes, who is being threatened by Grendel, a monster who relentlessly has come to the kingdom night after night for twelve years to carry off and devour the vassals of Herot. Beowulf hears of this situation and resolves to defeat the monster. Eventually, Beowulf defeats Grendel in hand to hand combat tearing off one of the monster's arms. The following night Grendel's mother comes to avenge…

Dylan's "The Times they are a Changing," Hughes' "Harlem: A Dream Deferred," and Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" all investigate the themes of human goals, and the impact of society upon these goals. Hughes' poem provides an analysis of how the deferment of life goals by society can result in great destruction to both the individual and society. Auden's poem also looks at the loss of life goals, this time through the overarching control of a mechanized, soulless state and conformity. In contrast, Dylan's lyrics provide hope for the realization of dreams and hopes through social change.

In his poem, "Harlem: A Dream Deferred," Langston Hughes investigates the theme of the destructive impact of deferring dreams. In his first sentence, Hughes sets up a rhetorical question, "hat happens to a dream deferred?," and then sets about determining the effect of life goals that are delayed or put off. Clearly, Hughes wants…

hile illiams writes of the "tingling" of the new year, the "tingling" is not merely natural, not simply the world sprouting into rebirth. It is a very human, manufactured kind of celebration of the world's bounty.

Thus to read the painting as a kind of a mockery of Icarus and the artist's desire for transcendence may not be entirely fair. Brueghel, after all could have just shown Icarus falling into the hungry sea, unnoticed by nature. The key to a more nuanced interpretation of the painting is evident in Brueghel's deliberate choice of a perspective. According to David Cole, this is a "crucial aspect" of understanding the poem (Cole 2000). "The landscape and the action are seen from above -- from the viewpoint, in other words, of Daedalus. The force of the picture is thus, I think, to move the viewer not only to recognize the unconcern for catastrophe inherent…

hile imagination is important to the poem, it is not all of it. Stuart claims that the poem is often "dismissed as a youthful, nostalgic, derivatively romantic lyric" (Stuart 71). In this way, we can see how the poem is more than just a wishful place. The "retreat to the island of Innisfree is a journey in search of poetic wisdom and spiritual peace, a journey prompted by supernatural yearnings, a journey in quest of identity within a tradition" (71). Stuart claims that the wisdom and peace that the author seeks can only be "realized through a poetic and spiritual grasp of the purity and even identity that exists between the legendary past of the Celtic world and the present" (72). The place is real and it is imagined. Clearly, Yeats intended for us to see both worlds through his lens.

Chrism Semansky agrees. He states, "The details in the…

Racine's Phaedra -- Compared to Blake's "Lamb" and Melville's Billy Budd

As Bernard Grebanier states, Racine's Phaedra speaks "with the violence of life itself" (xiv). If one were to compare the French playwright's most famous female lead to the English-speaking world's most famous male lead (as Grebanier does), it would have to be to Hamlet, whose passionate assessment of life is likewise problematic. Indeed, Phaedra raises many themes, including the importance of origin, innocence, and sin -- themes that may be found in as seemingly disparate works as illiam Blake's "The Lamb" and Herman Melville's Billy Budd. hile Racine's Phaedra is the tale of a woman, torn by a passion that possesses her so cruelly that it destroys not only her life but the lives of others around her -- including the innocent man who is her obsession, Hyppolytus; Blake's poem deals with the triple theme of origin, innocence, and…

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 poem is essentially argumentative and displays a number of conceits or paradoxical comparisons. The poet uses words and meanings in an unconventional and often startling sense to convince his lover to make love with him.

The poem compares the image of a flea to love and physical union. The entire poem is a sustained argument to convince the protagonist's lover of the validity of this comparison. The image of the flea is used to spur or encourage the loved one into agreeing to the unification of their blood through intercourse. It is also significant to note in this regard that during the Renaissance it was believed that in the act of…