Category: Poem Analysis

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Fuzzy Wuzzy By Rudyard Kipling (Soudan Expeditionary Force) We’ve fought with many men acrost the seas, An’ some of ‘em was brave an’ some was not: The Paythan an’ the Zulu an’ Burmese; But the Fuzzy was the finest o’…

Meditation at Lagunitas

Meditation at Lagunitas By Robert Hass All the new thinking is about loss. In this it resembles all the old thinking. The idea, for example, that each particular erases the luminous clarity of a general idea. That the clown- faced…

Provide, Provide

Provide, Provide By Robert Frost The witch that came (the withered hag) To wash the steps with pail and rag, Was once the beauty Abishag, The picture pride of Hollywood. Too many fall from great and good For you to…

Life’s Tragedy

Life’s Tragedy By Paul Laurence Dunbar It may be misery not to sing at all, And to go silent through the brimming day; It may be misery never to be loved, But deeper griefs than these beset the way. To…

A Wise Old Owl

A Wise Old Owl A wise old owl lived in an oak The more he saw the less he spoke The less he spoke the more he heard. Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird? Summary of…

A Lecture upon the Shadow

A Lecture upon the Shadow By John Donne Stand still, and I will read to thee A lecture, love, in love’s philosophy. These three hours that we have spent, Walking here, two shadows went Along with us, which we ourselves…

Breakfast

Breakfast By Jacques Prevert He poured the coffee Into the cup He put the milk Into the cup of coffee He put the sugar Into the coffee with milk With a small spoon He churned He drank the coffee And…

Hickory, Dickory, Dock

Hickory, Dickory, Dock By Mother Goose Hickory, dickory, dock, The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck one, And down he run, Hickory, dickory, dock. Summary of Hickory, Dickory, Dock Popularity of “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”: Published in the 16th…

Island Man

Island Man By Grace Nichols (for a Caribbean island man in London who still wakes up to the sound of the sea) Morning and island man wakes up to the sound of blue surf in his head the steady breaking…

Spring and Fall

Spring and Fall By Gerard Manley Hopkins     To a young child Margaret, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! as the heart grows older…

Rain

Rain By Edward Thomas Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me Remembering again that I shall die And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks For washing me cleaner than…

Harlem Shadows

Harlem Shadows By Claude McKay I hear the halting footsteps of a lass In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass To bend and barter at desire’s call. Ah, little…

The Rose That Blushes Rosy Red

The Rose That Blushes Rosy Red By Christina Georgina Rossetti The rose that blushes rosy red, She must hang her head; The lily that blows spotless white, She may stand upright. Summary of The Rose That Blushes Rosy Red Popularity…

As from a Quiver of Arrows

As from a Quiver of Arrows by Carl Phillips What do we do with the body, do we burn it, do we set it in dirt or in stone, do we wrap it in balm, honey, oil, and then gauze…

Fare Thee Well

Fare Thee Well By Lord Byron Alas! they had been friends in youth: But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we…

won’t you celebrate with me

won’t you celebrate with me By Lucille Clifton won’t you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in Babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except…

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword By Mariska Taylor-Darko We all know that the pen is mightier than the sword, But some days ago the sword thought it was mightier than the pen They lie bad! The pen is…

Cross

Cross By Langston Hughes My old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she…