Poems Essays (Examples)

deliberations -- deeply thoughtful, philosophical ponderings -- about traveling through life and encountering troubling decisions, then asking questions vis-a-vis those decisions. Frost's "The Road Not Taken" turns out to be the road that was taken, although the speaker assures the reader that it was a tough decision. And in Rossetti's "Uphill" the speaker is unsure of the future but must keep traveling even though at the end of the journey the light is fading. Both poems embrace the confusion and even uncertainty about the future, and both are reflective of -- and in a real way they mirror -- how life moves along through time and why intelligent, thoughtful people can have fear of the future and can be troubled as to how and why the future will be kind or unkind to the individual.
Speakers

Poem One (Frost): Frost's speaker lets the reader know in the first stanza that…

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 romantically involved as they investigate a startling connection between the two Victorian poets of whom they have made specialized study. Byatt's feat is an especially remarkable tour de force as she invents and adroitly interlaces the poetic works of both Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte into her narrative. This essay will present a critical analysis of Ash's poem "Swammerdam" as it reveals it's intricate intratextual roles in the novel.

Randolph Henry Ash writes the poem "Swammerdam" during the period of time during which he and Christabel LaMotte are initiating the secret correspondence that will develop into the great passion of their lives. Byatt intends the reader to know that Ash aimed this poem specifically at Christabel…

Thematic Analysis:
Irony and the Futility of Existence in the Poems of Stephen Crane and Louise Gluck

Both the poets Stephen Crane and Louise Gluck address themes of angst and despair in their works as can be seen in Crane's "Four Poems" and Gluck's "Snowdrops." However, while Crane addresses this theme in a humorous and ironic fashion, Gluck does so in a much more personal manner. Crane uses a sense of poetic distance between himself and the subject matter to make the topic more bearable while Gluck uses personal anecdotes and speaks with a world-weary voice of personal experience.

"Four Poems" unfolds in a series of short, disconnected anecdotes with a similar theme designed to underline the futility of human existence. The first poem depicts an imaginary dialogue between a man who clearly stands in for all of humanity and the universe:

A man said to the universe:

"Sir I…

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, and each of these domains will have its own, slightly different interpretation and analysis of the oft-cited and much praised Sonnet 18. But the reality is the poem says what it says and while some will debate the finer points of the poem (the language, the historical relevance, the imagery, the themes, the dangling modifiers, etc.), the overall meaning is straightforward and easy to apprehend, especially when compared to some of the more unintelligible Shakespearean sonnets (number 108 comes to mind). So, what is the overall meaning of the poem? Allow me to answer that question by doing another, painstakingly banal, explication of "Shall I Compare Thee to a…

Noiseless Patient Spider
Read "A Noiseless Patient Spider." By Walt Whitman

Then list the repeated words from both parts of the poem

As indicated by the question, the poem is comprised of two fairly short paragraphs. There are two words that are obviously repeated in the first stanza and those would be "mark'd" and "filament." The words of the second stanza that stand out are "surrounded," "till" and "O my soul." "

Then, jot a note or two about why you think the poet used repetition.

In the case of "filament" that is clear a reference to the fact that an actual spider web is an array of many, many threads of spider silk. The use of "mark'd" is probably a reference to how significant this spider's practice is given its vast surroundings and how it continues about its business of spinning webs. In the second stanza, the focus on…

fall among the literary forms of history preservation alongside songs and other literary work. They were and still are a means of conveying the emotions and reactions that one has towards a particular situation. For instance, some poems are currently focused on wars, which might or might not have occurred; it all relies on the poet's preference. Other poems are quite simple and have dived deep into the subject of war, how it started, its causes, and the effects and repercussions of that particular battle whereas others seek to discuss means of avoiding wars. Hence, this paper shall briefly discuss the personal and collective responsibility in race torn Germany in orld ar Two. The poems, which were utilized for research on this topic were "Frozen Jews" by Avrom Sutzkever and "First they came ... " by Pastor Martin Nielmoller.
Historical Context

During the orld ars, Germany had its portion of…

Emily Dickinson's "After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes," and "Eagle Poem" by Joy Harjo.
After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes

Emily Dickinson is known for her ability -- through her poetry -- to recreate a feeling or an emotion that all humans feel at one time (albeit most individuals are not able to use appropriate language when a terribly hurtful or even excruciating event happens in life). In this poem she doesn't share with the reader exactly what happened to cause such distress in her life, but she doesn't have to share precisely what led to her poetic response, because the poem becomes universal. That is, anyone who has recently suffered a loss, or a tragic incident (someone died in a sudden terrible accident) can relate to Dickenson's poem because through metaphor, simile, irony, prosody (the rhythm of alliteration, for example) and imagery, the feeling is shared with…

Robert Frost speaker/persona poems. Comparing poems "Stopping Woods a Snowy Evening," "The Road Not Taken," "Acquainted Night." Argue prove position.
nstructions:

1300-1600-word analytical essay arguing to prove the author Robert Frost did use the same speaker/persona in his poems. Comparing poems "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "The Road Not Taken," and "Acquainted with the Night." Argue to prove my position. Using reasonable evidence found mainly in the poems to make points credible. Underline the thesis in the introduction and the topic sentences in the body paragraphs. When possible use short summaries or paraphrases instead of quotes. Please follow MLA document style for manuscript, in-text citation and works cited.

Robert Frost's lyric poetry depends upon a first-person voice which maintains a consistency of tone even as the lyrics strain to push the concrete details of the verse into a kind of symbolically universal significance. Frost is, of course, well-known…

Death in Robert Frost's Poems
Robert Frost was an American poet who was known for his literary works (poems) that depict the theme of "dark meditations" and psychological complexity in the subjects of his poem, according to an article by the web site Academy of American Poets (1997). The article's reference to Robert Frost's use of theme pertaining to 'dark meditations' will be discussed in this paper, as three poems from Frost will be analyzed in accordance to the said theme. The theme that this paper will focus on is the theme of death, and the poems that will be analyzed for this theme are the following: "Home Burial," "After Apple- picking," and "Fire and Ice." These poems are examples of Frost's dark meditation-themed poems, because all of these poems use the element of death as the primary focus of the narrative of the poem. However, despite the similarities in…

Poetic Paraphrase of Two Poems of Early Death:
On the Death of Friends in Childhood" by Donald Justice and Ted Kossler's "A Child's Grave Marker"

To paraphrase a poem is to put the poem's essential, but figurative meaning into a clearer, concise, and more prosaic form. Some might deny that paraphrasing a poem can ever render the true meaning of a poem because poetic meaning, by definition, lies in the images chosen by the author, and the rhythms of language used to express that image. However, attempting to glean the philosophic truth and to tease out the construction of a poem, however imperfectly, can be useful for a student of poetry, even if the true greatness of the poem lies only within the text of the poem itself.

With this in mind, it may be said that both "On the Death of Friends in Childhood" by Donald Justice and Ted…

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman
Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night: The strange country of the night

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, a 2011 Newbery Honor-award winning poetry volume for children, combines factual prose with soaring poetry to demonstrate to young readers that the night is a strange and wondrous place. Long after the reader has gone to bed, a new world of animals creeps out into the woods to eat, play, and grow. Some of these creatures are terrifying; some of these creatures are timid. But what is most impressive about Sidman's work is the way that she grounds even her most fanciful poetry in facts about the animal's biology and actual living habits.

For example, I had never heard of a primrose moth until reading "Love Poem of the Primrose Moth." In the poem,…

Robinson, hitman, And ordsworth
Poems are often vehicles of personal reflection and expression. Poets often write poetry to communicate their personal messages to the world. Edwin Arlington Robinson, alt hitman illiam, and ordsworth, are three poets who write messages for the world through their poetry. This paper will examine the theme, tone, and literary devices in the poems, "Richard Cory," and "Oh Captain! My Captain!" And "I andered Lonely as a Cloud."

These poems focus on themes of a serious nature. For example, Robinson's poem, "Richard Cory," we are presented with the subject of suicide committed by an individual that was rich and considered by the townspeople to be "everything/To make us wish that we were in his place" (Robinson 11-2). Richard Cory was a gentleman yet the town envied him because he was rich and "admirably schooled in every grace" (10). The poet also describes how the townspeople worked…

Linda Pastan's "Marks" and Marge Piercy's "The Secretary's Chant" use the medium of poetry to provide powerful social commentary. Their respective poems use vivid imagery to convey the constricted roles in which women find themselves: especially as wife, mother, and office aide. These roles are subservient and underappreciated. The women speakers in these poems receive no respect for their hard work. Although Pastan's and Piercy's poems focus on two different aspects of female roles, their poems both convey similar notions related to the subjugation and oppression of women.
Both "Marks" and "The Secretary's Chant" use metaphor to convey the central idea related to the oppression of women; for Pastan the metaphor is school grades; for Piercy the metaphor is office supplies. In "Marks," the speaker refers to the way her husband and children both grade her continually. She receives, for example, an "A" in "last night's supper," and a "B…

spread of Islamic culture came the spread of Arabic language all the way to Mesopotamia. The writer or writers of the Hanged Poems came from the extent and influence of Islam after 622 CE. From here the use of Arabic language in poetry became popular, seen in the Qu'ran, and places that demonstrated Islamic religion. The origins of the Hanged Poems comes from ka'aba, a temple in Mecca, central shrine of Islam, which possessed on its walls a variety of poems, "hanged" on the walls that show a different era and maybe reveals how or why some of the works are still mentioned and discussed today. Some of these "hanged poems," "The Poem of Imru- Ul- Quais" and "The Poem of Antar" were permitted to endure after the Muslim order was recognized because it provided valuable insight into the minds and lives of Muslims that lived in antiquity.
"The Poem…

This is seen in entitled "Negation," which is a play on words of the French word for 'Negro" and the English word meaning absence: "Le negre negated, meager, c'est moi:...My black face must preface murder for you." Clarke thus creates his own language as a medium of expressing his message over the course of Execution Poems, a blend of English, slang, African French patter. As well as clearly delineating the voices of his own and his cousins' voices, Clark also occasionally blurs them, as when he notes the fiction of the Geo and Rue he is creating in the poetic cycle, and the question remains as to whose "black face" he is referring to that is assumed to be a murderer -- his own face, or the face of his cousins.
Clarke strives to use the language of the street to give the reader a sense of 'place' and the…

Robert Frost and Edwin Arlington Robinson capture the loneliness and isolation that can come from life in the modern world. In Acquainted with the Night, the speaker toys with self-obliteration, drawn to the darkness. He hides his fears and sadness, avoiding all contact with other people even when he passes them by. Similarly, Robinsons titular Richard Cory struggles with despair and purposelessness to the degree that he does take his own life. Although the setting, tone, and style of their respective poems are different, Frost and Robinson both paint vivid portraits of depression. The speaker of Acquainted with the Night and Richard Cory of Richard Cory can be read as mirror images of one another, both presenting a face to the world that belies their inner angst.For both Richard Cory and for Frosts speaker, the light symbolizes the mask people present to the world and the darkness represents ones inner…

Historical Pain Is Fused into ‘The Reservation Cab Driver’ The author of ‘The Reservation Cab Driver’, Sherman Alexie, has dedicated his life to writing poems, short stories, and novels. He has depicted characters who are living or struggling as Native Americans in the United States in his work since he was a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian and growing up in Wellpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Sherman Alexie published the book The Business of Fancydancing on May 1, 1992. In it are five short stories and forty poems. One of the poems is “The Reservation Cab Driver.” Since this poem deals with a Native taxi driver’s life (if readers could not notice through the title), it is crucial to know the background of the author and history of Native Americans. The cab driver and his circumstances are calmly described in third-person view. Yet, by authentically depicting a Native American cab…

Chaos and Disintegration As Yeats noted in “The Second Coming,” things fall apart when the center cannot hold. This was how Yeats characterized the seeming collapse of society between the Wars. The 1920s were Roaring in America (but that would end with a bust and a Great Depression). In Germany, the 1920s were abysmally bad: hyperinflation and immorality, the Cabaret, Anita Berber, poverty, prostitution, despair—that was life for Germans in the wake of the Versailles Treaty. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” published in 1922 and Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) are two literary works that bear out Yeats assessment that “surely some revelation is at hand; / Surely the Second Coming is at hand”—i.e., that the end of times is near—only, instead of Christ appearing on a cloud to judge mankind, it is the anti-Christ, the “Spiritus Mund” (spirit of the world)—“lion body and the head off a…

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…

Chinese Cultural Revolution in Literature
There are a number of stark images found in the works of literature reviewed by Dao, Cheng, and Hua in this assignment. Specifically, this paper details the imagery evinced in Bei Dao's "Resume," Gu Cheng's "Curriculum Vitae," and Yu Hua's "On the Road at Eighteen." That imagery and those works in general are thinly veiled allusions to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which took places in the early to midway part of the 20th century. It largely appears as though the imagery evinced in this work are indicative of some of the more salient factors of this revolution. Regardless of the political orientation of those who took place in this revolution, one of the more demonstrable facets of its manifestation was a surplus of fighting, pain, bloodshed, and even death. All of these images are found in the aforementioned works of literature, which suggest that the…

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…

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 whole. Indeed, this appears to be a requirement with regard to the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Her images are vague, arbitrary and highly personal in ways that raise poetry to the art form it deserves to be. The images in this particular poem are no exception, as will be seen by the various interpretations offered by a variety of authors. Especially problematic is the image of "Darkness" that is found throughout the poem, and that appears to be dichotomized with the concept of "Light."
According to Dempsey then, the post-modern reading method applies the content of poetry primarily to the reader rather than the author or the context of the…

Cassandra
Louise Bogan was an American poet whose work "Cassandra" analyzes the impact that a curse has on the titular character. Born in Maine in 1897, Bogan led a tumultuous life that was often shrouded in secrecy and one in which she frequently battled personal demons. Through her poetry, Bogan analyzed and deconstructed the issues that haunted her. "Cassandra" is based on the Greek myth of Cassandra and the curse Apollo put on her when she rejected his advances and maintained that she wanted to stay a virgin. As a result, Apollo transformed the gift of foresight he had bestowed upon her because she was beautiful into a curse by having her predictions shrugged off by anyone that would hear them. Through the use of allusion, tone, and dualities, Bogan not only illustrates Cassandra's curse and personal struggle, but simultaneously comments on the prevailing social inequalities between men and women.…

Romantic era poets like Coleridge and ordsworth both relied heavily on nature imagery to convey core themes, and often nature became a theme unto itself. In "To illiam ordsworth," Coleridge writes accolades for his friend using many of the tropes of Romanticism, including the liberal use of nature metaphors to commend ordsworth's creativity. The metaphors are mainly encapsulated by the spirit of springtime and the ebbing of energy that seasonal rebirth entails. Elements of nature in "To illiam ordsworth" include the tumultuous transition from winter into spring, with its attendant storms, as well as the swelling and ebbing of energy that comes from the act of gestation, procreation, and birth.
In "To illiam ordsworth," Coleridge shows that poetry and the act of creating poetic verse is akin to the mystery of creation itself. Coleridge uses analogies of pregnancy and birth to underscore the parallel between creative writing in poetic format…

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,…

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…

Waking Poem
A Poem on the Philosophy of Waking: Rhythm of the Morning

Ring ding dong

And the night that seemed so long

That stretched out like a knife

That was darker than my life

Is vanished like a dream

And I'm awakened by the scream

Alarming every time

And I cannot seem to find

The fingers to the button or a way to stop the sudden and never-ending bludgeon of the clock that keeps right on like that energizer jawn so I grab it off the stand and I take it in my hand

And now I'm carrying my time and now everything is mine the morning and the shine that takes me from my place into a higher space where I pray that every day could be exactly right this way that I get up with the sun and know that I'm a be the one to gathering…

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 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 thoughts as bad thoughts will turn into bad actions and thus bad habits and the cycle will continue indefinitely. Be Careful is thus an effective poem and one in which its point is not only verbally articulated, but articulated through the form and expression of the poem as well. It is remarkable that such a short and simple repetitive poem can have such an emotional impact and even have a twist at the end as destiny is an important aspect of life that everyone tries to make the best. Destiny is the entire future and how the future effects not only a person, but others around…

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…

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…

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…

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 quietly, and seems to be one of Frost's poems that celebrate nature and American life, but the end is far more disturbing and tragic. Frost may have written the poem to show how life is fleeting, and everything can change in a split second.
The content of this poem is quintessential obert Frost. It opens with fine imagery of the New England natural world that immediately gives the setting and tone of the poem. It reads somewhat like a Normal ockwell painting, with a perfect setting, close-knit family, and chores consuming their daily lives. The unsuspecting reader expects a perfect family farm…

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…

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.…

The extent of the hyperbole may not be clear to a modern audience, but ten thousand miles was an almost incomprehensible distance when Burns wrote the poem and would have taken a tremendous amount of time, regardless of method of travel.

In sharp contrast to Burns' poem, Shakespeare's poem makes it clear that he does not believe his love is supernatural. hile many love poems, like Burns' "A Red, Red Rose," describe love as something greater than nature, Shakespeare celebrates the earthly nature of his love. Instead of using commonplace metaphors to exault his lover's beauty, Shakespeare uses these metaphors to demonstrate that his lover is not an exceptional beauty. Her eyes are "nothing like the sun;...her breasts are dun,...black wires grow on her head," and her breath reeks. (Shakespeare). In other words, Shakespeare acknowledges that his lover is simply a woman, not something greater than this earth. In fact,…

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 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…

Horses
This poem by Edwin Muir is in part about the bad things the "old world" (the world before the war) had to offer in comparison or contrast with the quiet power of the "new world" and its reliance on tools like horses. Horses once symbolized the society, but because of the disaster that silenced the radios and "swallowed its children…at one great gulp," there must be a dissent from acceptance of that old world. Hence, this is a dissenting poem. The "old" world was subjected to war and catastrophe, perhaps nuclear holocaust ("…that put the world to sleep"). It seems that while technology came along to supposedly help society, in the end that new technology (which is used not just for positive production but for war) is silent and rusting because society has abused its knowledge of technology.

hy do the horses appear? They are ghostly in this poem,…

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,…

RITES OF PASSAGE'
The poem 'Rites of passage' says a lot about the way society conditions young girls and boys to behave in a manner befitting their gender. This is not exactly a poem celebrating a young boy's birthday party, but it actually focuses on the way society and environment conditions people in a gender specific manner. The poem appeared in Sharon Olds' collection titled The Dead and the Living published in 1984. Olds is basically concerned with various stages and phases of life. Apart from celebrating various important milestones in one's life journey, the poet also goes a little deeper into these stages to find out how society trains young girls and boys to behave in gender-appropriate manner.

In this poem for example, Olds is surprised to see that boys from a very young age are aggressive in nature and therefore love playing generals and soldiers. This clearly shows…

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…

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…

Scheindlin
The poems of Raymond Schiendlin deal with the viewpoints of life from the Jewish people. He claims that the poems written by Jewish people during the medieval times as secular, but this view ignores the very difficult position that Jewish people of the period were put in. In the early centuries AD, Jewish people were kicked out of several countries, including England. In most of the countries where they were allowed to live such as Italy, they were not considered citizens of that nation. Christian nation in particular took issue with Judaism and did everything in their power to punish Jewish people for supposed crimes and to expel them from their nations (Short 64). Schiendlin's position is based upon the assimilation of Jews into various cultures, such as the Muslims and this is certainly true. However, no amount of cultural assimilation could allow the Jewish people to completely remove…

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…

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…

For Marlowe, the muse of song and dance are juxtaposed with the senses to inform a larger world -- not of innocent threats and fears, but rather one of coy teasing and delight.
Further, this rather flirtatious repartee' leads one to view the symbolic nature of love as part of the reason to make each day the most -- for what does one have if not love? Marlowe is full of symbols that evoke not only the season of Spring, but of more sylvan delights -- "valleys, groves, hills and fields," "shepherds and their flocks." Yet, Marlowe can be blunt as well, as he makes a bed of roses with "a thousand fragrant poises." Too, there is almost sexual tension and symbology when he comments on "ivy buds," "coral clasps," and "amber studs," -- clearly then indicating, "And if these pleasures may they move, Come live with me, and be…

Henry's father is hesitant to put across his feelings and actually influences the adolescent to channel his thoughts through his poems with the purpose of trying to connect with the world. The 'old man' is initially angered as a consequence of understanding that his son had the courage to express himself. However, he is concomitantly inclined to express admiration concerning this particular act. "Ideally both parents and adolescents learn to respect each-other's experiences and take responsibility for effectively shaping each-other's responses" (Greco & Hayes 121). hen considering Henry's approach, it appears that he took action regarding his relationship with his father. His poem acted as a catalyst and influenced the 'old man' to acknowledge that it was essential for him to change his attitude toward his son.

In addition to experiencing feelings normally associated with a parent's difficulty to connect with his adolescent son, the 'old man' amplifies the problems…

Harlem Dancer" and "The eary Blues"
Times Change, but the Struggle is Still the Same

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and political movement during the 1920s and 1930s that sought to celebrate African-American culture through literary and intellectual means. Two of the era's prominent poets were Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. Their poetry helped to highlight the struggles that African-Americans were faced with. In "The Harlem Dancer," written by McKay, and "The eary Blues," written by Hughes, the poets use music as a backdrop for the narratives of their poems. Although the blues, as music, are not limited to African-Americans, the style emerged from the experiences of African-Americans. Furthermore, the Harlem Renaissance sought to celebrate these experiences by bringing together the struggles of past generations and juxtaposing them with the struggles that younger generations were going through. "The Harlem Dancer" and "The eary Blues" are depictions of the struggles…

Robert Frost's famous poem, "irches," might be described as a poem of redemptive realism, a poem that offers a loving, yet tinged-by-the-tragic view of life as seen through the metaphors of nature. In fact, Robert Frost could be called a kind of subversive pastoralist, for unlike the romantic nature poets who preceded him, such as Wordsworth, he sees nature's wildness, her beauty, and yet her relentless harshness as well. The poem, "irches" is a perfect depiction of the balance we try to achieve between our own will and the will of nature; between joy and sorrow; between heaven and earth; between loving this life and weeping over it. "The desire to withdraw from the world and love of the earth is symbolized in the boy's game of swinging birch trees." (Lynen).
The poem is often thought to be divided into three main sections. The first is a very detailed, realistic…

Berry - "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High"
Berry lyrically describes his experience teaching with "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High." Readers can easily relate to his straightforward extended metaphor and poignant imagery describing the classroom as a giant fish tank. Berry portrays his multifaceted feelings about teaching with this poem, acknowledging the communication problems that exist between teacher and students. The poet's words are sensitive and not biased either toward the students or the teacher. Instead, "On Reading Poems" refers to the fundamental problems with the teacher-student relationship, especially when the subject matter is poetry. Because of the inherent difficulties with teaching poetry, the narrator flounders in front of his class and doesn't feel safe until he is at home with his cat.

Imagery is the main vehicle with which D.C. Berry communicates his main message. The first stanza of the…

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…

African-American culture flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Although often characterized by and punctuated with the “double consciousness” of being both black and an American, the work of Harlem Renaissance writers and poets was variable and diverse. Countee Cullen is unique among Harlem Renaissance poets. Many of his works reflect the English poetic traditions, even more so than American or African-American ones. “Cullen considered the Anglo-American poetic heritage to belong as much to him as to any white American of his age,” (“Harlem Renaissance: American Literature and Art”). Implicit in Cullen’s poetic styles and formats was the belief in a blended identity, and yet the poem “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks” shows that Cullen indeed did struggle with the double consciousness. Langston Hughes took a different approach than Cullen did, in terms of poetic style, subject matter, and approaches to race. Contrary to Cullen, Hughes believed “black poets should create a distinctive…

Hamzah Fansuri's Poems
Poem I

In this poem, Hamzah reiterates the fundamentals of the Islamic belief, reminding Muslims of the importance of following the main precepts of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the Prophetic tradition). The poem is also inspired by Sufi teachings of medieval Islamic scholars. For Hamzah, Sufi teachings do not contradict the orthodox fundamentals of Islam. On the contrary, Sufism helps a person to clean his or her heart and come closer to God. Hamzah starts the poem by warning the Adamites (children of Adam) against abandoning the first and foremost principle of Islam, that is faith in God. "Do not forsake the Ruler of the universe [Shahi Alam]," Hamzah writes. Then Hamzah makes another warning, which is related to the first: "Do not get drowned in the ocean of sin." The two warnings are mutually complementary since, according to Islamic tradition, the gravest sin is disbelief…

Love Poem" John Frederick Nims info authors life included literary criticism poem. essay a strong consistent thesis statement, written 3rd person
John Frederick Nims' poem "Love Poem" makes it possible for readers to understand that a love poem does not necessarily need to incorporate traditional concepts in order for it to be successful in sending the right messages. Nims' understanding of love appears to be much more complex in comparison to typical love-related feelings present in most poems. The poet wishes to surprise by putting across his strongest feelings and it is very likely that he wants readers to understand that loving words are not always enough to put across one's love. The lover that this poem is dedicated to is human and in spite of the fact that some might consider this to be a flaw, the poet intends to raise people's awareness regarding the perfection related to being…

" Rather than endlessly musing upon his father's death, like a drumbeat Thomas simply repeats that his father must not "go gentle into that good night." ith every tercet, the repeated lines take on a different nuance. Reading the poem is like hearing a favorite song sung in a different way, again and again -- every time, a different shade of meaning is brought forth in the refrain of the poem. It is all too easy for a free verse poem to say the same thing in different ways: Thomas uses the same words again and again to convey different shades of emotion: good men, wild men, grave men, all for different reasons, he states, have not borne the inevitability of death with meekness.
The reader comes to understand that repeated words are a paradox -- Thomas tells his father, begs his father, to do what is futile -- to…