In "The Musicla Instrument" Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses the story of Pan to show the differnce between art and nature. She shows that while art is beautiful, it also is destruction. The use of Pan is important becuase he's a god but he's also half goat. Because he's a god, this poem says that he consequences of beauty are universal and not limited to humas. Pan is also a goat, an animal, which explains his willingness to do something good while not caring about the consequences. This is showing the animal we have in all of us. In lines three and four when the poet illustrates the search for a reed, “deep”, “cool”, “turbidly”, “limpid” are contradictory terms, the author is using these to reinforce that the art has a beautiful part and a destructive part, which are also contradictory. In lines ten and eleven use images of the dead lilies and the flight of the dragonfly to show the destructive side of art. In the third stanza it uses descrptive words like “hacked” and “hewed” to emphasize words the destruction and damage Pan is doing to the reed. This also creates sympathy for the reed because Browning describes it as patient, meaning enduring pain with calmness. There is nothing that reed can do to overpower Pan. The sixth stanza says that the music was so beautiful that the lilies grew back, the dragonfly returned, and the sun didn’t set. This stanza shows us the beauty of the music that can make up for the destruction caused by the creation of art. The next stanza says that the true gods sigh for the cost and pain of the reed. It mentions, also, that Pan’s half animal body. This describes the anmial in all of us because we still make arnt even though there are consequences, the gods only think of the destruction of the reed, it’s a symbolism of life. Two poetic devices that are used in the poem are repition and simile. The repition in the poem puts emphasis on “the great god Pan” and “the river” creating an image that builds while you read the poem. The similie that is used is “then drew the pith like the heart of a man”, pith is like a spong, like center of most stems. When the poet uses the smilie of compairing it to the heart of man she is saying that Pan has killed the reed by taking out its “heart”. |
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PB The Annoying Sun "The Sun Rising" is a poem written by the poet John Donne. It is a 30 line poem written in 3 stanzas with the poet as the lover. There is also no fixed pattern. The rhyme never varies, however the stanzas go in this order: abbacdcdee, and so on. The poets tone is very harsh, while he is addressing the sun to leave him and his lover alone. As the poem starts, John Donne is very angry at the sun. He feels that he is too important for the sun to be waking him up and that he should go bother people lower than him, while the sun is doing its regular job of peeping through the curtains as it does each morning. Although he could escape the light of the sun buy simply closing his eyes he doesn't want to loose sight of his lover. He goes on to prove that the sun has no "real" power over what him and his lover do but he says he chooses to let him in so he can see the real beauty of his lady. He then list lots of exotic places and says that his woman is all of those places because of how beautiful they are, as is she (lost of comparison going on here). Then he goes on to say " All here in one bed," "She's all states and all princesses." He is basically saying that all the beautiful and wonderful things the sun sees on his journey they compare to his lady. "this bed is thy center and these walls, thy sphere." This is saying that the universal importance to the lovers, making all the physical world around them subject to them. This poem over all gives a voice to the feeling that the lovers have that they are on the outside of time and all their emotions are the most important things. While the love between him and his lover may seem awesome, it can be kind of true that love is one of the most important than the chaos of the world. There's nothing John can do to change the movements and actions of the sun; from his perspective the whole world in right there with him, with his lover helping that be. D.C
The Elegy by definition is a "mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead." And this is what this poem is about. It's a man speaking at a funeral about a women that he has lost. He praised her and talked about her virtue and great a person she was. She was big into her faith when he said "The noblest freedom, not to choose against faith or honor's laws." This woman was brought up to be a good person so it was expected of her to be a good person. The speaker wants this women back now that she's dead. He wants her back but also wants to be like her in how she lived her life. When he says "What I in her am grieved to want." He wants live his life like she lived her's. Strong in the faith and also a nice person. A person nice enough that other people praise them for being a nice person. He's mournful yet hopeful. "The Canonization" by John Donne This poem seems to be voiced by an individual who is utterly caught up in his romance. Throughout the entirety of the poem, the speaker mocks those who oppose his love, uses a plethora of metaphors to describe the immense passion he feels for his partner, and even says that their relationship will achieve a sort of immortality and go down in history for all others to admire. In the first stanza and second stanzas, the speaker is seemingly chastising the listener for opposing his love. In the first stanza, the speaker tells the audience that he's fine with them criticizing any other part of his life, as long as he will let him love. In the second stanza, he rhetorically asks, "Alas, alas, who's injured by my love?" This implies that any criticism of his love is out of place since it hasn't hurt anybody. In the third stanza, the speaker shifts from chastising the listener to describing the unfathomable passion he and his partner share for one another. He uses numerous metaphors that help portray to the reader the uniqueness of their feelings for one another. In the fourth stanza, the speaker begins to describe how their love will be "canonized", which means that it will achieve a sort of "sainthood". He states that sonnets will be written about their unquestionable love for one another, and in the fifth stanza, the speaker suggests that their love will act as a guide to all others. He seems to believe that he and his lover are saints of love, and that couples for generations will look to their teachings for help. -TB William Blake's poem The Lamb is very interesting. You can tell that it is written in a child's point of view because of the way it is written. In this poem it is referencing The little lamb as Jesus. William Blake asks a question at the beginning of the poem and as the poem goes on he seems to answer the question himself. In the first stanza William Blake asks the question "dost thou know who made thee". To me that is in reference to who and how Jesus was made and everything else in the world was made. Even though William asks the question in this stanza he also answers it in this stanza. The rhyming pattern in this stanza goes AA, BB, CC, DD, AA. The first and last 2 lines are the same exact lines which is interesting because it's like William is trying to get a point across that way. In the second stanza William Blake doesn't ask a question but he talks about the lamb and in this case the lamb is Jesus. William Blake talks about the characteristics of the lamb and what makes the lamb "the lamb". This is the stanza where you really figure out that it is a child's point of view because it says "I a child..." The rhyming pattern in this stanza is different. This stanza goes AA, EF, GG, FE, AA. Even though the rhyming pattern is different in this stanza the repetition of the first and last two lines is the same as the first stanza. In the poem you can tell that it is song like which is a refrain. PR George Herbert’s, Peace, is an outstanding poem. There are many references to the Bible, specifically the New Testament. If you aren’t familiar with the Bible, you probably aren’t going to understand the meaning of this poem. It discusses the life and death of Jesus Christ. This leads you to the tone of the poem. Reverent would be a good term to use to describe the tone because it is treating the subject of peace very respectably. Also, you could say the tone is contemplative because it is reflecting on the issue of where peace can be found. The first line of the poem states, “Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell...” This is an apostrophe because the poet is seeking “peace” which is not yet present. The poet has not found what he is searching for. Also, the wind is personified. The rainbow mentioned in the first verse of the second stanza is a symbol of hope. This was God’s promise to everyone that he would never flood the Earth again. In the fifth and sixth verse of the second stanza, “the clouds immediately did break and scatter,” which portrays the removal of God’s presence. The main biblical allusion to the bible is the “Prince” which is referring to Christ. Also, the “twelve wheat stalks” are a reference to the twelve Apostles. Jesus commanded the Apostles to preach the Word everywhere-“planting the seed” as the poem suggests. Another idea brought up in the poem was the crucifixion of Jesus. “He sweetly liv’d; yet sweetnesse did not save his life from foes,” is implying that Jesus was the perfect person, but his kind actions did not save him from his jealous enemies. Herbert’s poem also suggests to “make bread of the grain from his garden,” which is talking about the Word of God which God put here for us to take. Lastly, the meaning of the poem is the best part. The poem itself tells a story of man on a quest for peace. He looked everywhere in nature and could not find it. Finally, the man learns that where God is, peace and tranquility will be found. God is hope, forgiveness, kindness, and love. If you reach out to him, then there will be peace in your life. If not, you are set to be on a road of evil and hatred. Charlotte Smith's elegiac sonnet titled "To Sleep" introduces herself as doubtful and miserable, which is noticeable in line one when Smith wrote, "COME, balmy Sleep! tired natures resort!" When she capatilized every letter in the word "come," the first letter in the word "sleep," and uses explanation points it implies that Smith badly wants to have a pleasant sleep. She seems mad because she has not had any and is exhausted. Furthermore, on lines four and five there seems to be a sense of anxiety and distress when Smith says, "light vision," "aching head," and "partial Power!" This emphasizes that Smith has no control, as bad as she wishes to rest. Smith seems to be under pressure everyday of her life. Likewise, on lines five through seven Smith also includes that she can't sleep by comparing herself to a peasant and a poor sea boy who can sleep and enjoy it even at the "rudest hour" which also reveals her jealousy of those who can sleep and she desires it. The speaker seems to beg for sleep, but her self-awareness seems so strong that even the "opiate aid" does not give relief (line 13). On line twelve Smith writes, "Who wake to labour, liberty, and love." This gives an idea of being trapped and she does not wish to experience these negative feelings. Additionally, sleep can be considered encouragement to grow. It could also relate to her experiences with dependence of men by her choice of words such as, "charm," and "love." It also suggest that Smith is going through a loss, such as death or someone close to her. Typically, when someone is depressed from a loss they will have trouble sleeping and hope for happy, peaceful sleep just like in lines one through three. Continuously, "Secure all thy blessings, partial Power!" could infer that Smith has a lot of people praying for her during this difficult time and she feels very blessed. Along with this Smith wrote on line 9, "Clasp'd in her faithful Shepards guardian arms'" giving off a feeling of hope that Smith will sleep and that her loved one is better off now with God." Overall, the tone of this poem seems to be gloomy due to her lack of sleep and has a self and imaginative theme. One can conclude that madness is evident in this poem because she can't sleep. The speaker is constantly begging for sleep, but stays awake. She cannot turn off her mind, therefore cannot escape the self except through death. Wordsworth's poem, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," is very cheerful/content with lots of word choice. From the beginning of the poem to the end, it has a sense f happiness; there is not a shift in this poem. There is also a lot of personification. By doing this, he makes the poem seem even more happy by bringing nature to life. The title shows that he describes himself as a cloud. From this, I get a sense that he is content with himself being a lonely person and loves what he does as a poet. Not only does he describe how happy he is with positive diction, he also uses nature to show his feelings, ("golden daffodils," "waves beside them danced," "beneath the trees," "beside the lake.") This connects back to the title of him referring to himself as a cloud. The repetition of the personification "dancing with the daffodils" demonstrates that he's so content with being a poet, he could dance with daffodils. Even though the title creates a negative persona with "wandered lonely," throughout the entire poem, I definitely understand that he isn't unhappy. Overall, the speaker uses his great diction, repetition, and personification to show his feelings towards being a poet. Even though the poem doesn't have a shift, the reader gets the hint that he loves what he does though he may be lonely. This may get the reader to think differently about poets and how creative and different their jobs can be. This poem is definitely related to real life because the poet describes how much he loves to write. Many other poets can relate to this. Even people who aren't writers can read it and maybe decide to change their minds about their career. Wordsworth makes being a poet seem like a great career. If you are very passionate about something, such as nature, you can express your thoughts and feelings through poetry. He demonstrates this well throughout "I wandered lonely as a cloud." Death is Everywhere S.F. When reading this poem, I enjoyed that there was a story throughout while focusing on one idea. (Some poems solely focus on describing the main idea or an object, but the story makes the poem easier to follow and understand.) In the first stanza, the speaker wishes to tell only his lover of his strange fits of passion. The second stanza includes a simile which describes the beauty of his lover, and we learn the speaker sets out for his lover's cottage. The next four stanzas are used to describe the speaker's distraction by the moon yet his horse continues to take him to her cottage. In the final stanza, the speaker seems to be daydreaming of his lover but is quickly startled by the concept of her death. One thing I noticed that Wordsworth did with the structure of the poem was start it out slow-paced, but as the poem continues, the pace picks up. This mimics the content of the poem. The speaker starts with his leisurely trip to his lover's house, but along the way "The sinking moon... Came near, and nearer still" and the "horse moved on; hoof after hoof He raised, and never stopped" which implies the moon is sinking much faster, the horse is moving faster, and his lover's cottage is nearing much faster. The speaker ends still distracted then interrupted by the bothersome thought of his lover being dead. Also, I noticed multiple shifts in the poem. Between the first two stanzas, there is a shift from a serious tone and idea to a more relaxed idea. Another shift occurs between the sixth and final stanza because the tone goes from distracted yet serious to optimistic to intense and urgent. All of this ties together to the overall idea that death lingers everywhere and is abrupt. Lastly, I recognized the poet's use of diction throughout the poem. Words and phrases such as strange, dare, alone, sinking, never stopped, and dropped contribute to the possible theme of death and the idea that death is everywhere and can take one by surprise. Also, my interpretation of the "strange fit" was probably the speaker's uneasy, "gut feeling" that something was wrong, which is the death of his lover in this case. This conclusion is mainly supported by the poet's use of diction and shifts that imply the speaker is on edge with different emotions. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this poem. Her writing is her battle with life. In writing she struggles with the challenges of adolescene. The father is concered about this. He feels she is trapping herslef into her room, or her thoughts and genuienly wishes her a smooth path to adulthood and freedom from the constraints of her adolescent life. The memory of the birds battle to be freee eventually gives it the strenght to soar to great heights. He concludes that in order to be fully free, you must be able to contend with life's chains. Dealing with imprisonment, freedom can be acheived. He recongizes at the end of the poem that the child's chocie to be a writer cab potientially cause her imprisonment and freedom. He wishes that freedom be borne from her choice to write. The metaphor about the trapped bird is also relevant to the poem. The father is comparing the trapped bird to his daughter. The father sees she is struggling to find her way just like the bird trapped in the room. And wishes that she find her way or her own path. The father also remembers when he was in a slump with his writing his daughter would to because he knows that his writers block can be very frustrating and cuase defeat, as it almost did to him. The father feels like he is shut out of his daughter life as he sees that the door is shut. He also knows that as a father he can open the door, but he knows that he shouldnt. The stillness inside the room makes him feel that there is rejection, and the pausing rejects the fathers wish which now seen as too easy and merely poetic. - Imager - Simile - Imagery Sonnet? Theme: Neutral My firdt poem was The Inner City by Lucille Cliffton. To my understanding she is talking about how people see the world today. People go through life simply looking at small things except for the big picture. Clifton used repition throughout her poem. " in the inner city" was one example of repition. She does this because she want to let the reader know whst the poem is actuslly about. She also uses los of imagery. She uses this because she wants the reader to picture all the things she's pointing out in her poem and really focuse on them. Simlie is another literary device that i saw within her poem. She compares the structure of the houses in the city to dead men. This is saying that there's a lot of buildings/homes because people die everyday; thats a lot of people.
By: Caitlin Ford S.N Love’s Alchemy is a poem in which John Donne explores how people perceive “true love.” The poem is not a sonnet, because it exceeds the 14 line limit of a sonnet. The rhyme scheme is AABBACDDCCEE. The title of the poem caught my eye because Alchemy is a type of mysterious science. Was Donne trying to liken love to a mysterious science? Donne begins the poem with a sexual innuendo (which took me forever to see, but now that I do, it’s glaring at me) saying “Some that have deeper digg’d love’s mine than I, / Say where his centric happiness doth lie;”. This means that people who have more extensively “experienced love” than him (ew) find that happiness lies within that. I find it strange that Donne puts this kind of revolutionary statement at the beginning of the poem rather than the end. He goes on to accuse others who say that love should be spiritual, not physical (“That loving wretch that swears / ‘Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds,” ) of being idiots, basically. In the last line of the first stanza, he says that those who believe this way “But get a winter-seeming summer’s night.” which to me, says that they’re getting more than they bargained for by choosing to love only based on spiritual attraction. B.T
My first poem is "To Coy His Mistress" by Andrew Marvell. My first impression of this poem is that it was a typical love poem about a man telling his lover that he will lover her and wait for her forever. In the first part of the poem, it's talking about how this unknown man will never get tired of looking at this lady because she is so beautiful. As the poem goes on, though, it is revealed that the man is trying to persuade his lover to give into him and give him her virginity. I had to read it a couple of times to get this meaning from it. He says "but at my back I always hear time's winged chariot hurrying near". This is the first shift in the poem that I caught. He went from admiring her and saying he'll wait forever, to telling her that they are running out of time and their beauty and youth is leaving them in an almost angry tone. The second shift I caught is in the line "And now, like amorous birds of prey". Here he has lost his angry and pressuring tone and tells her that it's natural and not wrong in a reassuring tone. He tells her that they should go ahead and go through with it while they are young. This is all I was able to obtain as far as the meaning of this poem. there was still a few lines that I didn't understand, but over all it was pretty simple. M.R
In the poem The Chimney Sweeper: a little black thing among the snow, It starts of by talking about this little black thing in the snow crying an weeping, I picture this as a young boy covered in black soot from a chimney that was left in the snow. In the first quatrain (there are 3 quatrains in this poem) there is a lot of negative diction “black”, “crying ‘weep! Weep!’ ” which suggest that’s something has happened, something that hasn’t happened before. At the end of the second quatrain it states “They clothed me in the clothes of death, and taught me to sing the notes of woe.” The “they” is the little boy’s parents and the “clothes of death” are the clothes of a chimney sweeper, the parents made their young son take part in an awful job that is meant for people much older. In the last quatrain the William Blake states. “Because I am happy and dance and sing, they think they have done me no injury” This means that even though the young boy is happy on the outside it doesn’t mean he is happy on the inside and it doesn’t mean the parents have not caused him pain. The part I didn’t understand in this poem was why William Blake repeatedly use all the religious diction. I was confused when he said that “they were both gone up to the church to pray”, “and are gone to praise God and his Priest and King”, and “who make up a heaven of our misery”. I don’t know why William Blake included these lines in his poem. There is not a very detail structure to this poem other than the 3 lines of 4 which make up 3 quatrains. Quatrain always ends with rhymes, in this particular poem the first quatrain it AABB, and then in the second quatrain changes to CACA, and the last quatrain changes to DEDE. The overall poem is about a little boy whose parents make him work as a chimney sweeper in the winter and left him alone. Alejandro Espinosa In the beginning of the poem Virtue the tone sounds rather pleasant with words such as "sweet" "bridal" "calm" and "bright". These words give it that pleasant tone because all of those words are generally associated with something positive. Now the this poem isn't a sonnet because it goes over the fourteen line limit, but it does follow a similar rhyming pattern. It starts of with an AB pattern, but as you read on you see that it changes to a CB, then DB and so on because the words in the second and fourth lines rhyme the same way throughout the entire poem. What is interesting is the fact that he repeats each new stanza with the beginning word "sweet", yet in the last stanza it starts as "Only a sweet...". The word sweet is repeated six times in the entire poem. Why is that I have no idea why he deliberately repeated that specific word. Now something that is important is the word "die". It is repeated three times and is the very last word in only three out of the four stanzas. Clearly George Herbert is trying to get a message across about death. Though it is rather ironic how he describes these positive images and then all of the sudden you see the word "die". Even more ironic is the very last word in the whole thing is "lives". So you are reading "For thou must die. And thou must die. And all must die." to finally "Then chiefly lives." Why is that? Going back to my earlier comment about how it starts off with a pleasant tone, towards the middle we see a couple of negative words such as "angry" and "grave". Is George Herbert trying to describe Virtue as something beautiful and dark? Virtue is defined as : showing high moral standards. So is one being virtuous a combination of something positive and negative in ones actions? There is still quiet a few things in this poem that I do not understand that would be rather interesting for a class discussion. The Tiger AM This poem starts off as very dark and gloomy atmosphere. This is supported by the negative diction, such as 'immortal', and 'distant deeps', provided by the author. Slowly the poem start to change; in the second stanza the diction starts to become brighter, with words such as 'fire' and 'aspire'. The tone changes into a desirable and ambitious attitude due to the diction change. Slowly towards the end of the poem the diction is very positive like 'smile' and 'heaven'. All this diction change helps the author, William Blake show a change throughout the poem. He starts this poem by describing a Tiger as a very fearful animal. This is the reasoning for the negative diction because a Tiger is not a sweet animal. The poem then transfers into talking about a Lamb. This biblical reference shows the transition from a large manipulative animals to a small, pleasant Lamb. Lambs are often characterized as a majestic animal compared to a tiger. The author helps develop these characteristics by asking a large amount of rhetorical questions throughout the poem. Each stanza has at least one rhetorical question. This makes you think about what the author is wanting you to focus on because he steers your mind (by using questions) into the answers he wants. By repeating the first stanza again for the last stanza the author revisits the fact of the tiger. This leave you with the impression of a large impressionistic tiger. |
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May 2015
AuthorsFocused, determined, and a whole lot sassy: Mrs. Costisick's AP Literature students want you to delve into the ostentatious world of poetry with them as they augment their own understanding of some of the most famous writings known to us. No Dr. Seuss here. Categories |