Study Like a Boss
Comedy, Courtly Love, Drama, Fiction, Novel, Protagonist, Short Story, Tragedy, 1984, A Raisin in The Sun, Animal Farm, Beowulf, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, George Orwell, Hamlet, Into The Wild, Lord of The Flies, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, A Modest Proposal, All Quiet on The Western Front, Allegory, Antigone, Between The World and Me.
The poem “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson tells the readers about the gap in social class between people and that outward appearances are not always what they seem to be. In other word, what you see on the outside might just different from what you’ll see in the inside; don’t judge a book by … Read more
In the poem “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur, the speaker’s love for his daughter is analogous to a captain’s love for his ship. In the first line of the speaker says, “In her room at the prow of the house.” This could be interpreted that the daughter’s room is at the front of the house, … Read more
The poems “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir William Raleigh, and “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe have the same central theme, that love and nature are beautiful but don’t last forever. Both authors use literary elements to support this central idea. In “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, Raleigh … Read more
Charles Baudelaire is often considered a late Romantic poet. Even Baudelaire sought to equate himself with archetypal Romantic figures like Byron, Hugo, and Gautier; the latter once claimed that Baudelaire had “found a way to inject new life into Romanticism” with the publication of his magnum opus, Les Fleurs du Mal. However, the novelty that … Read more
So, discoveries, they come in many varied forms and magnitude, but ultimately, they lead to new perceptions of the world, new understandings of ourselves, others and the formation of new values. Robert frost has displayed these affects in his poems; A Tuft of Flowers, And Home Burial, when in relation to the quote “happiness is … Read more
Amongst the ideas presented in the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples, the theme of isolation is prominent. Although Coleridge’s poem departs from Romantic stylistic tendencies, it exemplifies many of the ideas which defined the era, while Shelley uses a more typical Spenserian stanza form, manipulating this … Read more
In the literary writing “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake, I assume that the reader could pick out several themes that the author placed in the poem. Throughout the poem Mr. Blake uses the tone, speaker, and diction to develop and support that theme. The theme I was able to derive was the child’s lack … Read more
In “A Supermarket in California,” Allen Ginsberg uses the American supermarket as an extended metaphor for a poet’s mind and experiences. In this supermarket of the mind, the poet can select images and inspirations much as one would search for items on a grocery list. The free-verse form allows for the free association of ideas. … Read more
In the opening line of Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters,” Odysseus issues the rallying call of “Courage!” to his men as they head forward in their trajectory towards a strange and unnamed “land.” For these weary wanderers, this place is clearly another inevitable detour and not their ultimate destination of home; even so, its exact nature … Read more
One of the most potent works by the writer D.H Lawrence is The Piano, a poem that explores the role of memory in life. A similar idea is explored in The Gift by Li Young Lee. These two poems show that memory plays a complex role in the journey of life and that it often … Read more
Carol Ann Duffy wrote ‘The World’s Wife’ in order to scrutinize the representation of both men and women, inspired by her strong feminist views — reconstructing, for example, many of the ‘voiceless women’ from throughout history. As Duffy expressed it; ‘like sand and the oyster it’s a creative irritant. In each poem, I’m trying to … Read more
Most of us have a clear perception of what fairy tales are, or what we assume them to be. Over the past century, these tales have been burdened with so many clich’s, such as evil queens’ curses and damsels-in-distress, that we tend to identify them based on the presence of such clich’s. The fairy tale … Read more
Handsome, charming and highly intellectual, Rupert Brooke was one of the first soldier- poets of First World War. His poems are cemented to the ideals and fears of generation at the time of cultural transitions. His literary pieces are extremely influenced of social, cultural and political matters. The rural imagery and the classical tradition of … Read more
In Skirrid Hill, Owen Sheers explores many themes, one of which is undoubtedly manhood. Throughout the collection, he often focuses in on adolescence and discovering his power as an individual. In this way, it seems clear that Sheers is a poet who explores exactly what it feels like to be a man. Despite this, many … Read more
Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a work about transience, and perhaps no two things in the natural world are more fleeting than life and beauty. Artists aim to preserve these two qualities in their work by simultaneously imitating the natural world to give the appearance of life to static creations and also looking to transcend and outlast … Read more
Humans inflict suffering on other humans and when events are forgotten, they are repeated. In the poem “Shooting Stars,” Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. This is a poem in which human suffering is being actively portrayed. … Read more
Published in The School of Eloquence in 1978, Tony Harrison’s “National Trust” is the embodiment of his frustrations at the British social-class system. Through this poem, he divulges how, after receiving a post-War opportunity for education, he was dislocated from his family. “National Trust” exposes his opinions regarding this vexed transformation, including his subjective comments … Read more
‘A record of failure and disappointment’ is a reductive assessment of a poignant collection of poetry that explores the nature of existence and the conflicts, contrasts and contradictions of life. Larkin presents experience in a mixture of delicate tones (“your hands, tiny in all that air”), stark criticisms (“grim head-scarfed wives”) and moving ambiguity (“Here … Read more
‘I sing of arms and of the man, fated to be an exile’, begins Virgil, and it is on precisely the issue of this man of arms that critical debate in recent years has tended to centre. Scholars continue to disagree on whether or not Aeneas is presented as a good soldier, although the question … Read more
In his poem Hymn of Not Much Praise for New York City, Thomas Merton effectively describes a society governed by immorality, fueled by materialism, and spawning inhumanity. It is derived from a mindset focused solely on the achievement of wealth, and inspired from stories of rags-to-riches and sudden successes rewarded to hard workers. However, while … Read more
The nature of God has been a controversial subject for writers throughout the centuries. In the poem “Caliban upon Setebos,” Robert Browning explores the relationship between deities and their subjects through the voice of Caliban, a brutish monster-servant adopted from Shakespeare’s Tempest. Though the cruel and capricious Setebos is the main subject of Caliban’s musings, … Read more
“Sonrisas” by Pat Mora is a poem that describes groups of women in two separate rooms. The title, “Sonrisas,” means “smiles” in Spanish, however, the poem isn’t only about smiles; it focuses on the activities of two groups of women. The narrator remarks on their conversations, clothing, coffee, and culture. The poem is comprised of … Read more
T.S. Eliot’s “Whispers of Immortality” is a close examination of life and death. Penned during the war-torn years between 1915 and 1918, Eliot’s quatrain poem cites the writers John Donne and John Webster as examples of metaphysical poets whose work depicts an understanding of mortality and spirituality. Juxtaposed against the work of Donne and Webster … Read more
The first U.S. Poet Laureate for three consecutive years (from 1997-2000), Pinsky has succeeded in much more than poetry. In 1984, for example, he was the author of an interactive fiction game called Mindwheel; today, he is the poetry editor for the irreverent online Slate magazine. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that his poetry embraces … Read more
In the poem “a song in the front yard,” Gwendolyn Brooks uses denotation and connotation to depict underlying meanings of specific words and phrases that add to the significance of the poem as a whole. Brooks uses denotation to refer to the reality of the speaker’s situation at hand, and connotation to express the comparison … Read more
The title of Wallace Stevens’ poem “Nuances of a Theme by Williams” implies that he intends to comment on, possibly celebrate, and almost certainly explore the potential distinctions and variations available in the poem by William Carlos Williams titled “El Hombre.” Stevens includes “El Hombre,” in its entirety minus the title, in the opening four … Read more
Love is a subjective and special word to each individuals. Each humans has their own thoughts and notions about love. This intense feeling of affection and bond can be the most incomparable and priceless state that one can ever be in. However, there is a fine line between love and obsession. This passionate intensity can … Read more
Women and Roses by Robert Browning explores the idea of dreams concerning love, in particular sexual love. The speaker imagines the three women of time as roses: the past, present, and future. Though this poem appeared within the repressive Victorian era, through the allusions and dream visions Browning manages to explicitly develop the sexual fantasies … Read more
The Chaste Chase: Britomart’s Naivety in The Faerie Queen Juliette Tang June 1, 2005 For a text of Elizabethan literature, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is unique in its portrayal of chastity-a virtue generally associated with the domestic sphere-in the figure of Britomart the female warrior. Similarly unique is Britomart’s representation as an almost hermaphroditic … Read more
Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy and the Old English poem “The Wanderer” are both testament to the enduring quality of literature. Writing in the sixth century A.D., Boethius discusses such varied topics as happiness, the existence of evil, and the path to God while locked in a cell with the goddess Philosophy. In contrast, “The … Read more
Charles Baudelaire is often considered a late Romantic poet. Even Baudelaire sought to equate himself with archetypal Romantic figures like Byron, Hugo, and Gautier; the latter once claimed that Baudelaire had “found a way to inject new life into Romanticism” with the publication of his magnum opus, Les Fleurs du Mal. However, the novelty that … Read more
Charles Baudelaire uses his works to describe his idea of the spleen, or “the restless malaise affecting modern life” (Bedford 414). The spleen is an organ that removes toxins from the human body, but to Baudelaire it is also a symbol of melancholy, moral degradation, and the destruction of the human spirit, brought on by … Read more
Duffy’s poems, Adultery and Disgrace, portray the theme of betrayal in a number of different ways. Both show that betrayal is destructive and deadly to relationships, however, different diverse, including sibilance and oxymorons, are used across the two poems to portray this. It is possible to infer that the two poems are linked as Adultery … Read more
In “Portrait d’une Femme,” Ezra Pound examines the fragmented nature of the modern woman; cluttered with culture and accumulated intellect, her character exhibits mere parts of a whole that is both inscrutable and alluringly fascinating. Contrasting one feminine archetype, the radiant goddess, the mystifying siren, Pound’s urban lady struggles to configure her identity within the … Read more
When T. S. Eliot wrote The Waste Land in 1922 he was a self-proclaimed atheist. Some six years later, he described himself as an adherent to anglo-catholic Christianity and thus wrote the Four Quartets. As is possible to postulate, some scholars believe that there is an innate Christian-ness in The Waste Land and have hence … Read more
Evolution of Attitude in Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” T. S. Eliot’s notoriously opaque “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” can be interpreted only by acknowledging that the speaker’s thought process is not consistent throughout but an ongoing process. On first reading, the poems stanzas seem to belong to separate plots … Read more
Hughes is well-known for his nature poetry and use of animal symbolism. In both “The Jaguar” and “Hawk Roosting”, the animals symbolize different human characteristics while remaining, on the surface, an in-depth, fantastic poem about the animal itself. “The Jaguar” is written on a literal level about a trip to the zoo. The point of … Read more
How do we describe an emotion? Happiness, sadness, and fear, all simply words which we tie to certain “feelings,” observable by bodily functions — flushed cheeks, tears, goosebumps, the production and distribution of certain hormones. As humans our emotions manifest as art, but when the chosen medium is through language, how accurate are our descriptions … Read more
The speaker struggles over the fact that his beloved is no more. According to many critics the speaker is donne himself and ‘st lucy’ represents his beloved anne more. As his wife died in the year 1617 and the poem was published in 1627. But some critics say the poem can also be dedicated to … Read more
Having subdivided the text into three distinct parts, namely, the State, the Church and the Commons, Gower’s Prologue addresses all three estates from its stylistic “medial” point. Although initially dedicated to the king, this poem addresses all people – the “lewed” as well as the learned, though with perhaps less of an emphasis on the … Read more
“A Summer Evening’s Meditation” is a poem by Anna Letitia Barbauld that was published in 1773. The poem details the expansive thoughts of the speaker who is reflecting and philosophizing upon a summer evening’s sky. In this poem, Barbauld carries readers through the cosmos for a transcendental experience with her poetic stylization and by use … Read more
Linda Pastan’s 1988 poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home”, concerns the idea of children growing up and leaving, whether it be for college or simply riding a bike for the first time. The speaker of the poem starts out with a nostalgic feel, addressing the child and reminiscing on a time the child was eight … Read more
In Medieval times, women were usually forced to be dependent on a man for her safety, prosperity, and guidance. Yet, in Marie de France’s fictional tales of courtly love, men are in fact victims to women’s charm. Men are unable to live without their lovers, and their desire for love leads these men to be … Read more
Emily Dickinson wrote many poems throughout her life; however, very few were published. Emily wrote her poems to be encrypted and enigmatic for the reader. She valued her abilities to create a deeper meaning in her poems; she also loved to make not only small part of her poems, but the whole poem symbolic. Emily … Read more
The poem “Punishment” by Seamus Heaney was written in 1975 as a part of the anthology North. It is a part of Heaney’s bog series, in which he describes the Irish bogland, and the different artifacts and remains that have been found within the Northern European bogs. In these poems, the bog imagery is metaphoric … Read more
The zeitgeist of Romanticism, while notoriously broad in its philosophy, had definite universal views upon the concepts of the individual, nature and imagination; which constitutes the basis of what today are known as the main aspects of the movement. Such aspects, addressed in Samuel Coleridge’s “The Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”, include the focus upon the … Read more
The message of “Leda and the Swan” is often interpreted in drastically different ways due to the ambiguity of the text. Much of this ambiguity can be attributed to intentional contradiction by the author, William Butler Yeats. This contradiction emphasizes the nature of sexism, for sexism is often portrayed as a misdirected view of the … Read more
“Salome” is a poem taken from Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems The World’s Wife; most of the poems share a common feature: a historically marginalized narrator retelling the story from personal perspective. Salome’s character originally appeared in the New Testament and over the centuries many novels and paintings focused on Salome and the legend … Read more
This poem was written by Christina Rossetti and the name of it is ‘What is pink?’. It is basically about colours but on a deeper level, showing us the positive side of it. There is unity in this poem and no stanzas . In lines 1-4, the poet uses the words “pink” and “red”, these … Read more
In “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” William Butler Yeats’ poem, he focuses on man’s inner nature. He touches on many thoughts that must race through one’s mind at the point when they realize that their death is unavoidable. Main idea of this this poem is death. In this poem, these thoughts include the airman’s … Read more
