Essays on Poetry and Poets

... and then the second speaker carries the poem to realization. It is ironic that the words inscribed on the pedestal "Look on my works. . . and despair!" reflect the evidence of the next line, "Nothing beside remains," that is, there is nothing left of the reign of the greatest king on earth.One immediate image is found in the second line, "trunkless legs.". One good comparison may be when the author equates the passions of the statue's frown, sneer, and wrinkled lip to the "lifeless things" remaining in the "desart." Another is when Shelley compares the "Works" of with "Nothing beside remains." shows the reader that two things will mark the earth forever. First: ...

... one's audience is completely stupid, thus the elaboration. In the first line the poet speaks of himself as being out of luck, and/or money and not well received by his fellow man. He has taken to crying about his social ostracism in line two. In an attempt to clarify for himself why he is in such a state he “ troubles” heaven with his “bootless” or useless cries. But as the poet has made clear heaven turns a deaf ear and no response is forthcoming. Again he becomes introspective and curses his fate. This first quatrain has given us an image of a grown man “down and out” if you will, who is accepting no responsibility for his life's station. ...

... is no excellence in killing. Whitman notes in "Beat! Drums! Beat!" that when war comes, everything stops, including the sense and reason of the moment. No matter what is happening, there is no excuse for attending to anything else. The urgency of the moment rules. "Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds", "Make no parley - stop for no expostulation." "Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties, Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,". In "The Arsenal at Springfield", Longfellow notes the senselessness of war. "The cries of agony, the endl ...

... having a hard time getting over losing one of her breast due to an operation. It also seems that she feels she might die. His wife is not comfortable with the way she looks and she shies a way from her husband every time he tries to get close to her: "In the widows before us,/ as we changed her dressings," (32-33) "One morning, I pressed my lips / to her chest until, at last, / she believed / and opened up to me" (35-37). In those lines he is showing his love to and for her. By kissing her scar on her chest he showed her that he really cares for her and that he will always be there for her. Heyen uses "Matrix" for the title of this poem for its meaning of a mold, ...

... it in his second line because he feels his love is "more lovely and more temperate"(ll. 2) during that day. He then proceeds to bombard us with images of natural nuisances such as windy days that "…shake the darling buds of May"(ll. 3); which hot weather magnified because it is coming from heaven and the seasons are changing. Shakespeare has taken the idea of a warm breezy summer day and twisted it into a sweltering day with the sun beating down on us. However, in the lines after the destruction of a nice day, he twists things back by the comments he showers on his love. He tells us that his love's beauty shall remain the same at all times, "…thy…shal ...

... to Poe himself, the reason for using "Pallas" in the poem was simply because of the "sonorousness of the word, Pallas, itself" (Poe, 1850). A less obvious symbol, might be the use of "midnight" in the first verse, and "December" in the second verse. Both midnight and December symbolize an end of something, and the anticipation of a transition to occur. The midnight in December could possibly be New Year's eve, a date with which most connect transition. With Poe's extensive vocabulary, he is qualified to bestow an ancient and poetic language in "The Raven" which eloquently depicts a surreal yet romantic picture of a man spending an evening in his chamber. ...

... tells us using strong images of pain and injury that the tumbleweed was thrown against a fence, a kind of prison from which it is difficult to escape. So the tumbleweed and the poet are both thrust against the barbed wire of life. This is another metaphor for the poet's difficult life. The poet and the tumbleweed are stuck in a painful, difficult situation. They are prisoners of their surroundings, helpless. “Like a riddled prisoner.” The words riddled prisoner are used to give us a powerful, painful, picture of the lost and hopeless feeling of the poet. He feels great pain at his situation, feels that there is no way out. He is hanging there on the fence, expos ...

... can control or stop. War, sickness, and poison are just a few. In the sixth stanza he says why should people gloat about death if know man has control over death? Why should you have pride about death? In the final stanza he says that our lives are but a short sleep compared to the eternal live we have after we awaken from that sleep. Once we die the soul is alive and death no longer presides. We are brought into eternal life. Death can no longer take us because it already has. Meditation 17, by John Donne The passage that I chose that best demonstrates the theme is, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of ...

... bitter cold, he tries to stress the meaning of old age. Readers then relate cold to wanting to curl up and do nothing. The same an elderly man would do because his options are limited do to age. It is truly felt while reading his work, Robison does not venture far from the pointat hand. While reading this great poem, you can clearly see that being old and alone will not stop Mr. Flood from living life to the fullest. In lines 9-13 of Robinson's masterpiece, Eben is having a ball at his party, no matter if he is the only one in attendance. “Well, Mr. Flood, we have the harvest moon Again, and we may not have many more: ...

... passing them; time was passing by, past her life. Her life has now past her by, and she is arriving at her final destination, which was her grave, yet she describes it as her house. In the end she is looking back, and sees how centuries have passed, yet she isn't passing by anymore, and to her this hundred years seems as no time at all. Finally she accepts her death, and is able to pass into eternity. To her death wasn't harsh like some see it, but a kindly, gentle soul, taking her for a carriage ride to her final home. A child experiences death much differently than an adult. Children aren't quite able to see death as the sad even that it is. "First Death in ...