A Walk After Dark By W. H. Auden A cloudless night like this Can set the spirit soaring: After a tiring day The clockwork spectacle is Impressive in a slightly boring Eighteenth-century way. It soothed adolescence a lot To meet…
Category: Poem Analysis
In Tenebris
In Tenebris By Thomas Hardy “Percussus sum sicut foenum, et aruit cor meum.” —Ps. ci. Wintertime nighs; But my bereavement-pain It cannot bring again: Twice no one dies. Flower-petals flee; But, since it once hath been, No more that severing…
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Lake Isle of Innisfree By William Butler Yeats I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the…
The Fisherman
The Fisherman By William Butler Yeats Although I can see him still— The freckled man who goes To a gray place on a hill In gray Connemara clothes At dawn to cast his flies— It’s long since I began To…
O were my love yon Lilac fair
[O were my love yon Lilac fair] By Robert Burns O were my love yon Lilac fair, Wi’ purple blossoms to the Spring, And I, a bird to shelter there, When wearied on my little wing! How I wad mourn…
Porphyria’s Lover
Porphyria’s Lover By Robert Browning The rain set early in to-night, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, And did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break. When…
Risk
Risk by Anais Nin And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Summary of Risk Popularity of “Risk”: Anais Nin, a French-born American writer…
To Lucasta Going to The Wars
To Lucasta Going to The Wars By Richard Lovelace Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind To war and arms I fly. True, a new mistress now I chase,…
The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner
The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner By Randall Jarrell From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,…
The Mountain and the Squirrel
The Mountain and the Squirrel By Ralph Waldo Emerson The Mountain and the Squirrel Had a quarrel, And the former called the latter “Little prig.” Bun replied, “You are doubtless very big; But all sorts of things and weather Must…
MCMXIV
MCMXIV (1964) By Philip Larkin Those long uneven lines Standing as patiently As if they were stretched outside The Oval or Villa Park, The crowns of hats, the sun On moustached archaic faces Grinning as if it were all An…
Her Voice
Her Voice By Oscar Wilde The wild bee reels from bough to bough With his furry coat and his gauzy wing. Now in a lily-cup, and now Setting a jacinth bell a-swing, In his wandering; Sit closer love: it was…
Never Seek to Tell thy Love
Never Seek to Tell thy Love By William Blake Never seek to tell thy love Love that never told can be For the gentle wind does move Silently invisibly I told my love I told my love I told her…
Monologue for an Onion
Monologue for an Onion By Suji Kwock Kim I don’t mean to make you cry. I mean nothing, but this has not kept you From peeling away my body, layer by layer, The tears clouding your eyes as the table…
Mad Girl’s Love Song
Mad Girl’s Love Song By Sylvia Plath “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) The stars go waltzing out…
Jerusalem
Jerusalem By William Blake And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon Englands mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On Englands pleasant pastures seen! And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And…
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r By e. e. cummings r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r who a)s w(e loo)k upnowgath PPEGORHRASS eringint(o- aThe):l eA !p: S a (r rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs) to rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly ,grasshopper; Summary of r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r Popularity of “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r”: This coded poem first appeared in 1935 and has…
Balloons
Balloons By Sylvia Plath Since Christmas they have lived with us, Guileless and clear, Oval soul-animals, Taking up half the space, Moving and rubbing on the silk Invisible air drifts, Giving a shriek and pop When attacked, then scooting to…
The Good Life
The Good Life By Tracy K. Smith When some people talk about money They speak as if it were a mysterious lover Who went out to buy milk and never Came back, and it makes me nostalgic For the years…
The Angel
The Angel By William Blake I dreamt a dream! What can it mean? And that I was a maiden Queen Guarded by an Angel mild: Witless woe was ne’er beguiled! And I wept both night and day, And he wiped…