The One Girl at the Boys Party By Sharon Olds When I take my girl to the swimming party I set her down among the boys. They tower and bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek, her math scores unfolding…
Tag: poem analysis
Cat and Mouse
Cat and Mouse By Ted Hughes On the sheep-cropped summit, under hot sun, The mouse crouched, staring out the chance It dared not take. Time and a world Too old to alter, the five mile prospect— Woods, villages, farms hummed…
Sonnet 132
Sonnet 132: Thine Eyes I Love, And They, As Pitying Me By William Shakespeare Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me, Knowing thy heart torments me with disdain, Have put on black and loving mourners be, Looking with…
Sonnet 129
Sonnet 129: Th’ Expense of Spirit in a Waste Of Shame By William Shakespeare Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme,…
I Am Not Yours
I Am Not Yours By Sarah Teasdale I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea. You love me, and…
The Rime of The Ancient Mariner Part II
The Rime of The Ancient Mariner Part II By Samuel Taylor Coleridge The sun now rose upon the right: Out of the sea came he, Still hid in mist, and on the left Went down into the sea. And the…
Out, Out
Out, Out By Robert Frost The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count…
A Cradle Song
A Cradle Song By William Blake Sweet dreams, form a shade O’er my lovely infant’s head! Sweet dreams of pleasant streams By happy, silent, moony beams! Sweet Sleep, with soft down Weave thy brows an infant crown! Sweet Sleep, angel…
The Shield of Achilles
The Shield of Achilles By W. H. Auden She looked over his shoulder For vines and olive trees, Marble well-governed cities And ships upon untamed seas, But there on the shining metal His hands had put instead An artificial wilderness…
A Walk After Dark
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…
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…