ELA 100 Essential Literary Works

Harlem: Context

"Harlem" was written during the time period following the Harlem Renaissance of the 1910s and 1920s, an outpouring of literature, art, and music from the black community in Harlem. Langston Hughes was a leader in this movement, which sought to explore and center black experiences and formulate a distinctly black aesthetic, rather than following white models and norms. In his seminal 1926 essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," Hughes described the challenges facing black artists, who were fetishized and exoticized by white society on the one hand and dismissed and silenced on the other. Hughes argued that black artists must embrace their culture as a source of true creativity and beauty.While the Harlem Renaissance is considered to have ended with the onset of the Great Depression in the late 1920s, it lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement, and later for the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. When Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, he did so consistently with the values he had laid out in his essay nearly 30 years before. During the Great Migration in the early twentieth century, more than six million African Americans moved from the rural South to cities in the midwestern, western, and northern United States. There, a combination of state-sanctioned racism—including redlining and segregation—and white supremacist violence forced black people into poor sections of cities where they faced rampant unemployment and unfair rents. Harlem was one such neighborhood that came to be known as a ghetto, entrapping the people who lived there within cycles of poverty. These conditions led to the Harlem riots of 1935 and 1943, both of which were also triggered by instances of violence against African Americans; the 1943 riot began after a white police officer shot and wounded a black soldier. By the time the poem was written, in 1951, black people had fought for the U.S. military in World War II to defeat fascism and defend American visions of freedom and equality. Yet these soldiers were forced to fight within segregated ranks, and at home all black Americans continued to endure legal and extralegal racism and violence.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Context

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is considered a landmark in 20th-century English literary history. Written by T.S. Eliot in 1910 and published in 1915, it shocked many contemporary critics when it was first published, with its irregular metrical and rhyme patterns, sometimes disturbing subject matter, and depiction of the alienating conditions of modern life. In this sense, "Prufrock" represents a decisive break with Romantic poets and writers like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, as well as the literary modes that dominated the late 19th and early-20th centuries. It rejects the rigid meter and sometimes sing-song rhymes of Victorian poetry, opting instead for a mix of verse forms and the novel form of "free verse," poetry with no discernible meter. This is not to say, however, that Eliot entirely rejects all prior poetic models. On the contrary, the poem frequently alludes to older poets and poetic forms. First and foremost, it reflects his deep reading of Dante, one of Eliot's favorite poets—the poem opens with an epigraph from the Inferno and arguably transforms and updates Dante's vision of Hell into a modern urban landscape. Eliot also explicitly alludes to Shakespeare, when the speaker notes ironically that "I am not Prince Hamlet," and makes implicit allusions to Homer, Andrew Marvell, and Robert Browning. Far from turning away from the canon that has come before him, then, the poet takes these traditions and re-frames them—as in the Hamletpassage, when the speaker compares himself negatively to the protagonist of Shakespeare's play. "Prufrock" alludes to the "greats" of the Western literary canon, but it also seems profoundly ambivalent about what greatness even means anymore in the modern world. Ironically, "Prufrock" has become a "great" of another kind—the first great modernist poem. Modernism was a literary movement of the early 20th century that emphasized a sense of large-scale social and aesthetic change in the wake of significant disruptions to European life (namely, World War I). With its revision of traditional forms and haunting depiction of isolation and ennui in the modern world, "Prufrock" was an inspiration for later modernist poets like William Butler Yeats and W.H. Auden, who dealt with similar themes. "Prufrock" is considered one of the defining texts of modernism because it speaks to many of the social and historical conditions that characterized that era in English literary history. At the beginning of the 20th century, European and American life had undergone significant and irrevocable changes. Industrialization had transformed society and the workforce, creating both new economic opportunities as well as a sharper division between rich and poor. The speaker of "Prufrock" registers these changes in society with his sense of the sharp class divisions between middle-class drawing rooms where "women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo"and the "half-deserted streets" with "one-night cheap hotels." New technologies and industries improved quality of life for many people—bringing in, for example, wider access to electricity—while also creating the new problems of pollution and unsafe working conditions. The speaker is also alive to these contradictions when he describes the "yellow fog" of polluted smoke that seems to choke the city, pervading every corner of the streets. When "Prufrock" was published, in 1915, World War I had just begun. This "Great War" continued and in many ways finalized the break-down of traditional social divisions and ways of life that had begun at the turn of the century. Many young men were killed and the traditional English aristocracy fell into decay. For writers like Eliot, destruction of an old way of life brought new artistic opportunities, as well as an attitude of skepticism and questioning of authority. In "Prufrock," this spirit is felt in the poem's ambiguous and sometimes mocking attitude to convention and the traditional sources of cultural authority.

The Road Not Taken: Rhyme

"The Road Not Taken" follows a strict ABAAB rhyme scheme. In addition to the poem's regular use of end rhyme, it also makes irregular use of assonance. The vowel sound /ah/ (as in the word "and") repeats throughout lines 6-12, adding to the pleasing musicality of the verse. While it was not out of the ordinary for Frost to use strict rhyme schemes of the sort present in "The Road Not Taken," it also wasn't universal—sometimes his use of rhyme could be erratic.

The Road Not Taken: Form

"The Road Not Taken" is an example of formal verse (meaning that it rhymes and has a strict meter), but it doesn't adhere to any specific poetic form (such as a sonnet) that dictates, for instance, how many lines a poem must have. "The Road Not Taken" is a 20-line poem made up of four quintains (five-line stanzas). The four stanzas loosely correspond to the four stages of the speaker's engagement with the decision which the poem takes as its subject: weighing the different options; choosing to take the road less traveled; realizing the decision-making process was flawed; and finally, attempting to make sense of the experience despite this.

The Road Not Taken: Meter

"The Road Not Taken" is written in loose iambic tetrameter, meaning that each line mostly consists of iambs (unstressed-stressed) and has roughly eight syllables. However, Frost frequently substitutes anapests(unstressed-unstressed-stressed) for iambs throughout the poem. For instance, in the poem's first stanza, each line contains three iambs and one anapest: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Note that in the above, the order of iambs and anapests differs from line to line. For instance, the first line goes iamb-iamb-anapest-iamb, while the second goes iamb-anapest-iamb-iamb. Frost's approach to meter is artful but not strict, lending the poem a pleasing rhythm while still allowing for him to employ an informal, reflective tone that doesn't feel artificial because of an unnaturally consistent pattern of stresses. Frost's use of iambs also lends the poem a steady rhythm of walking (step-step step-step), helping to capture the experience of the speaker's walk through the woods in the sound of the words. "The Road Not Taken" is typical of Frost's work in that he tended to use traditional meters in his poems, but adhered to those meters loosely rather than strictly.

Unknown Citizen- Context

"The Unknown Citizen" was written in 1939, shortly after W.H. Auden emigrated from the U.K. to the U.S.A. The poem was first published in the New Yorker magazine, before appearing in Auden's collection, Another Time (1940). It appears alongside some of Auden's most well-known poems, such as "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Funeral Blues," and "September 1, 1939." Like those poems, "The Unknown Citizen" uses a lightness of touch and Auden's characteristic humor to explore a heavy subject. Generally speaking, "The Unknown Citizen" fits into the genre of dystopian literature. This refers to works which deal with nightmarish alternative worlds that are usually grounded in a modern trend taken to an extreme. 1984, which is probably the quintessential work of dystopian literature, portrays a world in which an individual's every action and thought are monitored and assessed by the state. Indeed, that's precisely what is going on this poem (which predates the publication of 1984 by a decade). It's worth noting that the tone and voice of the poem borrow from the sound of official government bureaucracy. State literature—e.g., the instructions found at passport control—are often written in passive voice, as if there is no real human being behind the speech. The faceless "we" in this poem gives no indication about the identity of the speaker other than that they represent the state. Furthermore, while this poem looks on the surface like a kind of elegy, it reads more like an official presentation made in a board room. "The Unknown Citizen" was written in 1939, around the outbreak of World War II. With the world facing another global catastrophe, questions about what kind of society people wanted to live in were pressing concerns. The atrocities of Nazi Germany, for example, were a horrific attempt to prioritize the so-called master race above those people considered inferior. Eugenics—the pseudoscientific attempt to purify humanity—is referred to line 26 of the poem, in which it is implied that a chief "Eugenist" dictates how many children people should have. Eugenics, however, is by no means limited to Hitler's ideology, with various groups and organizations talking up its virtues throughout the 20th century and even in the present day. One of the most interesting aspects about "The Unknown Citizen" is the way that it takes aim at two very different ideologically-driven societies. In its overbearing bureaucracy and state surveillance, the poem clearly gestures towards the Soviet Union and its methods for top-down control of its citizens. Bloated and invasive institutions like the "Bureau of Statistics" or "High-Grade Living" have roots in their historical counterparts in Soviet Russia. Indeed, the "Instalment Plan" is most likely an allusionto Soviet Union's Five-Year Plans, which instigated sweeping changes to society in an effort to turn the country into an economic superpower. But the poem also seems to take aim at another dominant world ideology: capitalist consumerism. This, of course, has much more in common with the American Dream than with any Russian vision. The "Modern Man" sounds like an mid-20th century advertising concept, and "Fudge Motors Inc." appears to be a reference to Henry Ford's company, Ford Motor (which was responsible for much of the standardization of life at which Auden takes aim). The personal possessions referred to in line 21 speak to the idea that an individual's status can be demonstrated by the things they own, which is no less an ideology than communism (though may be more subtle in the way it takes hold).

We Real Cool: Meter

"We Real Cool" doesn't have a regular meter—at least not in a traditional sense. However, most of its lines have three syllables (the first line has four syllables and its final line has two) and all of the poem's sentences are exactly three syllables long. This helps it feel rhythmic and musical despite not having a meter. Specifically, the poem imitates the syncopated rhythms of jazz. Syncopation describes music that is swinging and offbeat in a controlled way (from ragtime to jazz to hip hop). Jazz is generally played in 4/4 time. In other words, jazz has four beats per measure. Since the lines and sentences in "We Real Cool" are only three syllables long, they would seem to be missing a beat. However, the missing beat can be found in the enjambment at the end of each of the poem's lines. After each enjambment, the poem pauses for a moment—a beat. (Indeed, when Brooks reads the poem aloud, she takes an exaggerated pause at the end of each line: "We / Left school. We [beat] ...") The missing beat that one hears in the poem's enjambment helps the poem sound syncopated: it mimics the off-kilter rhythms of jazz. Readers can hear this syncopated rhythm in the poem's opening lines:

We Real Cool: Form

"We Real Cool" has eight lines cut up into four two-line stanzas, or couplets. While the poem doesn't have a regular meter, most of its lines have three syllables and it does have a regular rhyme scheme. Unlike most rhymed poems, however, these rhymes are internal—they fall inside the line, rather than at its end. And with the exception of the poem's final line, every line is enjambed. "We Real Cool" has a complicated but carefully controlled form, even if it doesn't follow the rules of more traditional forms (such as the sonnet or the villanelle). Instead, Brooks invents her own structure for "We Real Cool," and she does so to capture the rhythms of the pool players' speech. In line 7, they note that they "Jazz June," and the poem itself is fittingly close to jazz in its rhythms. The enjambments at the end of each line syncopate the poem, giving it the swing and hiccup of the music that the pool players listen to. And in doing so, the poem asserts that there is something musical and beautiful about the way these young people talk.

We Real Cool: Rhyme

"We Real Cool" is written in rhyming couplets—sort of. The poem's rhyme scheme is: AABBCCDD However, there's a catch. None of the poem's rhymes appear where one normally expects to find a rhyme—at the end of a line. Instead, they all appear inside the lines: they are examples of internal rhyme. By using internal rhyme instead of end rhyme, Brooks shifts and syncopates the rhythm of the poem. That is, she makes it enticingly offbeat. Instead of ending with a firm, definitive rhyme, each line ends with a sharp, surprising enjambment—the word "we" gets isolated, cut off from the rest of the sentence. As we discuss in our entry on the poem's meter, these enjambments are important to the poem's rhythm: they help Brooks capture the syncopated rhythm of a jazz beat. The poem's internal rhymes are thus key to its rhythm, the way it takes on the characteristics of jazz. And its rhymes help the poem mimic jazz in another way: like most popular songs, jazz songs tend to rely on rhyme. With its strong, regular rhymes and its pulsing syncopated rhythm, "We Real Cool" thus sounds like a jazz song, its speakers like jazz singers, crooning to the reader.

We Wear the Mask: Rhyme Scheme

"We Wear the Mask" employs the rhyme scheme of the 15-line rondeau (though it is important to note that the rondeau form has many variations). The rhyme scheme is as follows: AABBA AABC AABBAC The "C" in this pattern represents the refrain of the rondeau. The first and the last stanza of the poem follow the exact same rhyme scheme (with the exception of the refrain in the third stanza). Each stanza opens with a rhyming couplet using the same "A" rhyme, creating a sense of echoing and internal consistency. Most of this poem also uses perfect rhymes, allowing the reader/listener to focus more on the ideas being discussed than to get tripped up by overly complicated language. However, there is one slant rhyme with the word "subtleties" in line 5. This is an important moment that contributes to the poem's exploration of deception. The nearly-perfect rhyme scheme builds an expectation of steadiness in the reader, which is then subverted by the slant-rhyme.

Harlem: Form

As a free verse poem, "Harlem" has no set form. Its 11 lines unfold over four stanzas of very different lengths, adding a sense of unpredictability to the poem. Ultimately, the poem creates its own form, suggesting that those whose dream has been deferred must find their own answer to what will happen to the dream, even if this answer explodes the rules of dominant white society.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: Form

As the title suggests, this poem is an ode. The ode is a verse form which dates back to Ancient Greece. Keats's choice of form, then, fits perfectly with the object of contemplation—a verse form that harks back to an ancient world to match with an object made in the same era. Keats's poem consists of five stanzas, each with 10 lines. In its original form, the ode was often celebratory; this ode is markedly different in tone, however. Likewise, Keats's poem does not fit into the more traditional formats originally established for odes (the Homeric and Pindaric). Keats developed his ode form because he felt that the other established forms did not quite fit what he wanted his poems to do. This poem is an inquiry and interrogation which the sonnet, for example, would not be able to accommodate. The ode form allows for a more prolonged examination of the urn, and gives space to raise doubts and questions. One other point worth noting is that odes, in the classical era, were generally sung and/or accompanied by music and dance. Music features in the images of the urn, but the poem is characterized by the "quietness" and "silence" with which the urn responds to the speaker. There is therefore a kind of gentle irony at play in Keats's choice of form—a musical tradition here expressing a kind of noiselessness.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Themes

Anxiety, Indecision, Inaction- The speaker in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is paralyzed by indecision. The poem's momentum is continuously frustrated by digressions—the speaker's thoughts trailing off in seemingly unrelated directions—and by the speaker's sense of his own inadequacy. By depicting the speaker's intense struggle with indecision, the poem suggests that excessive preoccupation with doing the right thing—whether when expressing yourself, forming relationships with others, or simply deciding how to style your hair or what to eat—can actually stop a person from ever venturing forth into the world or, in fact, doing much of anything at all. From the beginning, the poem sets up a juxtaposition between action and inaction. The first line states "let us go," implying that the poem will move forward in time and space—in other words, that it will go somewhere. But that momentum is quickly stalled. These streets "follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent," suggesting that the various paths they offer up feel both boring and threatening—that there is no clearly good path to take. And though the speaker says that the streets "lead you to an overwhelming question," the speaker doesn't actually pose that question. Instead, he explicitly says not to inquire further: "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'" Maybe the question is just which direction is best to walk in or, indeed, where they're going in the first place—simple queries that become hurdles in the speaker's mind. In any case, the speaker's habitual procrastination seems to be rooted in social anxiety, since, paralyzed with fear about making the wrong choice, he appears to find even basic decisions about what to eat or how to dress overwhelming. In fact, the speaker admits that he finds time for "a hundred indecisions, / And for a hundred visions and revisions," all before sitting down his afternoon tea! He imagines "descending the stair" and greeting people, but in reality he is too timid to do so because he imagines that people will laugh at his bald spot and shabby clothing (which, in turn, suggest that the speaker is getting older—and that he has been wasting his time with all this indecision). What's more, it's not just that the speaker can't follow through on his planned actions. He doesn't even seem to know how to begin to ask "the overwhelming question." Instead he asks "how should I begin?" and "how should I presume?"—suggesting that he feels incapable of overcoming the first hurdle to taking action. He repeats those phrases at the end of two different stanzas, giving the impression of a stuttering or repeated failed start. For the speaker, trying to make the best choice repeatedly results in no choice at all. He is also paralyzed by a feeling of his own inadequacy, as implied by his reluctance to "presume" and his repetition of the phrase "Do I dare?" He doesn't take action, in other words, because he doesn't feel that he has the right to do so. Overcoming indecision requires agency, but the speaker remains trapped in his repeating patterns because he feels that he can't "dare" to do anything. There are times when the speaker does seem close to doing something, but the poem ultimately indicates that wanting to act isn't enough. Taking meaningful action, it suggests, requires that an individual "dare" to make a choice without being certain that it's the best choice—a risk that the speaker can't bring himself to take. And while the speaker thinks he'll have plenty of time to do things, this seems like wishful thinking. Given his propensity to waffle about every little decision, he'll likely continue to agonize over his choices until there's no time left—his indecision having stopped him from living a full life.

How Do I Love Thee: Rhyme

Because "How do I love thee?" is a Petrarchan rather than an English sonnet, it follows a different rhyme scheme than, say, a sonnet by Shakespeare. An English sonnet typically follows the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, in which four rhyming quatrains are followed by a rhymed couplet. However, the Petrarchan sonnet consists of a rhyming octave followed by a rhyming sestet, for the rhyme scheme of: ABBA ABBA CDC DCD

Poem: The Cambridge Ladies who live in furnished souls

By E.E Cummings It is likely that his poem "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls", by E. E. Cummings, is purely a response and a commentary about the social set of people he was exposed to in his college days. Clearly he holds disdain for these women who "live in furnished souls are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds" (Lines 1-2). "Furnished souls" is a reference to the ladies station in life, wanting for nothing. Yet in being blessed with everything, they are not good people, but rather "unbeautiful", however they are either too snobby or ignorant to realize this, and thus are able to live with "comfortable minds" or not a care for the world. The women claim to be faithful Protestants, but as daughters of the faith, are "unscented, shapeless spirited they believe in Longfellow and Christ, both dead" (4-5). While they give lip-service to what wonderful members of the church community they are, in reality their faith is lacking substance, like an odorless flower, it is an ephemeral concept to them without shape, possessive of a will beyond their grasp and control. To console themselves, they find comfort in Longfellow and Christ, not so much because they have such a strong belief in them, but because they are safe things to believe in. As well-to-do socialites, it is important that these ladies are seen out and about often, doing good things for the community. They would have us believe it is their raison d'etre and, so, "are invariably interested in so many things—at the present writing one still finds delighted fingers knitting for is it Poles? perhaps. while permanent faces coyly bandy scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D" (6-10). The phrase "delighted fingers" is misleading, in that they must have us think so. To be anything other than delighted would be contrary to the image of a good Protestant in the community. They keep themselves so busy to fill the empty time they cannot even remember for whom they are knitting this week. Throughout it all they wear their "permanent faces", their social masks that allow them to fit into the upper crust society, of which they belong, gaily keeping up with the gossip about their contemporaries. Finally Cummings shows his distaste and contempt for these women and the fact that they are so far removed from what he considers the "real" world. He sees these women as being in an ethereal cloud above everyone else, their minds clouded with the need to be perfect within their society and fit in. They have never known hardship, so cannot truly understand the problems of the world, even as they do church work to help the unfortunate: "...the Cambridge ladies do not care, above Cambridge if sometimes in its box of sky lavender and corner less, the moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy" (11-14). Such concerns are beneath them, outside their ignorant scope of mind. As the moon is a satellite far removed from Earth, so is the common man, such as Cummings, far removed from these postured and affluent ladies of Cambridge. The poet uses the final phrases such as "sky lavender and corner less" (13) and "rattles like a fragment of angry candy" (14) to cause further disassociation with the reader, empathetically drawing them into his feelings about them.

Poem: Nothing Gold Can Stay

By Robert Frost "Nothing Gold Can Stay" was written in 1923 by the American poet Robert Frost. It was published in a collection called New Hampshire the same year, which would later win the 1924 Pulitzer Prize. Frost is well-known for using depictions of rural life to explore wider social and philosophical themes. "Nothing Gold Can Stay," written when Frost was 48, is no exception, using the metaphor of spring's ending to examine the transience of youth, beauty, and ultimately life itself.

Harlem: Themes

Cost of Social Injustice- Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, more than a decade before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was also writing in the aftermath of the 1935 and 1943 Harlem riots, both of which were triggered by segregation, pervasive unemployment, and police brutality in the black community. Hughes's poem responds to this context. The title, "Harlem," places the poem in this historically black and immigrant neighborhood in New York City, while the "dream" could be any dream that those in Harlem have had: a dream for a better life, for opportunity, for equality—most broadly, for access to the American Dream itself. But, as the poem tells readers, this dream has been continuously put off (specifically, by the policies that made black Americans second class citizens). The poem makes it clear, however, that a "dream deferred" by injustice doesn't simply disappear. Instead, that dream must be accounted for sooner or later. Inevitably, the poem suggests, there will be a vast societal reckoning as the dreamers claim what is rightfully their own. At first, though, the speaker addresses the idea that deferring a dream may lessen the dream itself, making it feel ever more unreachable as it fades away. The poem suggests that the deferred dream could "dry up" or "fester like a sore"; it might "stink like rotten meat ... Or crust and sugar over / like a syrupy sweet." Each of these images suggests something spoiling, losing potency, or outright decaying—which is perhaps exactly the outcome a racist society, hoping to maintain the status quo, might want; such a society wants to see this dream of racial equality lose its bite and scab over. Each comparison also makes palpable what it might feel like to have a dream that can't be realized because of injustice. These images all imply the cost faced by black people forced to bear this injustice like a painful, infected "sore." Later, the speaker wonders if that dream "just sags / like a heavy load." In other words, maybe this dream of equality just forever weighs on communities like Harlem, dragging them down rather than lifting them up. But then the speaker proposes an entirely different outcome for this dream, asking, "Or does it explode?" This image of explosion brings to mind the Harlem riots of 1935 and 1943. It could also refer to the explosion of the dream itself, in the sense that the American Dream could be "exploded," or shown to be hollow or false. Most importantly, the final question shifts from images of the dream withering away, festering, and sagging—all experiences that would impact those most targeted by injustice—to an image of the dream "explod[ing]" outward. All of society, this final question implies, will have to reckon with the dream, as, in its energy, vitality, and righteousness, it claims its due.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Themes

Desire, Communication, Disappointment- Although the speaker in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" might appear silent and affectless to others, his interior life is alive with hope and desire. In particular, he appears to have a deep longing for romantic connection—but he struggles to communicate that desire, and so it remains mostly unfulfilled. Indeed, despite being a "love song," the poem never quite manages to discuss love itself; instead, it stays bogged down in the false starts and half-finished thoughts that characterize the speaker's attempts at connecting with other people. The poem makes it clear that people like the speaker can only really experience love by breaking through these communication barriers, but it also embodies just how difficult doing so can be. There are a few key moments in the poem that suggest the speaker feels romantic or sexual desire for women, but is unable to express those feelings. For example, he asks at one point if it is "perfume from a dress" that distracts him, and he is preoccupied with the image of a woman's "arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl"—a fixation that seems erotic. However, his desires are soon stymied by self-doubt and recrimination. He asks himself: "And should I then presume? And how should I begin?" These repeated questions show that he doesn't know how to begin a conversation with a woman and thinks that it would somehow be presumptuous to do so. The speaker's sense of thwarted communication is so strong that it even colors his fantasies. When the speaker imagines expressing his desires and feelings to others, those scenes inevitably dissolve into disheartening moments of misunderstanding. For instance, the speaker imagines posing what he calls "the overwhelming question," saying "I am Lazarus, come from the dead, / Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all." However, although the speaker compares himself to the Biblical figure and offers the promise of total revelation—"to tell all"—he doesn't actually manage to communicate much of anything. Instead, he imagines his listener falling asleep and needing "a pillow by her head." Even in his fantasies, then, he experiences the disappointment of being unable to communicate, protesting: "That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all." The speaker's attempts at communication only grow less effective as he is overcome by hopelessness and disappointment. By the end of the poem, the speaker's disappointment seems to have hardened to the point that it has become entrenched within him; he doesn't seem to expect that his desires will ever be fulfilled. He describes the singing of mermaids in exquisite detail, but admits: "I do not think that they will sing to me." Instead, he remarks that he "[grows] old." Because the speaker's efforts at communication have been unsuccessful, he gives up on trying, instead imagining that his opportunity to share his hopes and dreams has already passed. The speaker's exclamation partway through the poem that "it is impossible to say just what [he] mean[s]" underscores exactly how interconnected desire, communication, and disappointment are for the speaker. His frustration suggests that romantic fulfillment requires clear communication—something the poem indicates the speaker might not be capable of.

How Do I Love Thee: Context

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) was a poet of the Victorian era, or the period of the 19th century in which the United Kingdom was ruled by Queen Victoria. Her poems were very popular at the time, and attracted the attention of Robert Browning, a prominent poet in his own right. He wrote to her, "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett," and they secretly married years after their first meeting. During the years of their marriage, Browning and Barrett Browning greatly influenced one another's poetry. For instance, one of Browning's volumes of poetry, Men and Women (1861) had a title taken from a line in Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). Barrett Browning also had particularly important relationships with other women writers. As a young woman, she had read and greatly admired Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women (1790). While living in Europe, she met George Sand, the pioneering French woman novelist who wrote under a male name. In turn, Barrett Browning's work—especially her long poem Aurora Leigh (1856), which tells the semi-autobiographical story of a woman writer—was a source of inspiration for later women poets and activists like Emily Dickinson and Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in the mid-19th century, during the Victorian period of British history. Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain from 1837 to 1901. That period witnessed profound transformations in British society, economic organization, and culture. It was the era in which Great Britain arguably peaked in its international prominence and influence, as the British Empire extended across much of the known world. The British economy, meanwhile, benefited significantly from the Industrial Revolution, as inventions like the train, the telegraph, and the telephone transformed people's ability to travel and communicate with one another. In some ways, the Victorian period was an era of greater democracy that granted more political power to ordinary people. The 19th century saw the growth of the labor movement, more working-class people gaining the right to vote, and higher incomes and standards of living. At the same time, however, industrialization led to new social ills, like widespread urban poverty and slum living, overcrowding due to the massive growth of the British population, and disease epidemics. A similar paradox attended the role of Victorian women like Barrett Browning. Increasingly, women could gain respect and prestige as authors of novels, poetry, and prose in their own right. At the same time, Victorian women were still very constrained in their ability to work and lead independent lives in a society that regarded them as the property of their husbands and fathers. Barrett Browning's increasing interest in women's rights was marked by her reading of feminist thinker Mary Wollstonecraft, her notably egalitarian marriage with Robert Browning, and her more liberated life on the European continent, where she socialized with other women authors and spent much of her life in middle age.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers: Context

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) published almost nothing during her lifetime, and after 1865 she rarely even left her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts. But from within her small, circumscribed world, she explored the heights and depths of human experience through her groundbreaking, world-changing poetry. No one else sounds quite like Dickinson. Her poems use simple, folky forms—ballad stanzas, for instance—to explore profound philosophical questions, passionate loves, and the mysteries of nature. "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" plays some relatively unusual games with its meterand shape, but still uses plenty of characteristic Dickinson em-dashes, which make many of the lines here seem to hold their breath in awe and suspense. While Dickinson didn't get too involved in the literary world of her time, she was still part of a swell of 19th-century American innovation. Her contemporary Walt Whitman (who became as famous as Dickinson was obscure) was similarly developing an unprecedented and unique poetic voice, and the Transcendentalists (like Emerson and Thoreau) shared her deep belief in the spiritual power of nature. Dickinson herself was inspired by English writers like William Wordsworth and Charlotte Brontë, whose works similarly found paths through the everyday world into the sublime, terrifying, and astonishing. After Dickinson died, her sister Lavinia discovered a trunk of nearly 1,800 secret poems squirreled away in a bedroom. Published at last, Dickinson's poetry became internationally famous and beloved. Dickinson's work and her life story still influence all kinds of artists. Dickinson's most fertile creative period coincided with the American Civil War, which ran from 1861-1865. This bloody conflict began when southern states, fearing that an abolitionist upswelling in the federal government would disrupt their slavery-based economy, seceded to form the Confederacy. Battles between the southern Confederacy and the northern Union would kill hundreds of thousands. Dickinson, born and raised in Massachusetts, was firmly on the Union side; one of her letters records her amusement at the rumor that the defeated Confederate president Jefferson Davis was ignominiously captured disguised in a woman's skirt. But she didn't directly address the war (or contemporary events generally) in her poetry. Instead, as in this poem, she tended to take a wider and more philosophical view, reflecting on world events from the heights of eternity. Imagining the fall of all those quaint "Doges"—a word that conjures the Italian Renaissance more than the 19th century—Dickinson seems to put all wars into perspective: even the noisiest, bloodiest conflicts, this poem suggests, can never make a real dent in Death's eternal silence.

The Odyssey: Themes

Fate, The Gods, And Free Will- Three somewhat distinct forces shape the lives of men and women in The Odyssey: fate, the interventions of the gods, and the actions of the men and women themselves. Fate is the force of death in the midst of life, the destination each man or woman will ultimately reach. Though the gods seem all-powerful, "not even the gods/ can defend a man, not even one they love, that day/ when fate takes hold and lays him out at last." While fate determines the ultimate destination, the nature of the journey toward that fate—whether it will be difficult or easy, full of shame or glory—depends on the actions of gods and men. Sometimes a god works against a particular man or group of men that have in some way earned that god's anger, as when Poseidon blocks Odysseus's attempts to return home to punish him for blinding Poseidon's son Polyphemus. In such instances, the destructive actions of the gods tend to affect men like natural disasters: they alter men's lives but do not curtail men's freedom to act as they choose amidst the rubble. Sometimes a god works to help a man or group that the god favors, as when Athena disguises Odysseus on his return from Ithaca; but in these cases the line between human free will and divine intervention can get quite blurry. Athena helps Telemachus to take action by giving him courage: but does she affect him like a steroid that artificially augments his strength, or like a wise friend that helps him to more fully grasp his own inherent abilities? Whether the gods manipulate human actions or inspire humans to follow their own free will is never entirely clear

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Themes

Hesitation and Choice- Throughout the poem, the speaker seems to be stuck in a space in between society's obligations and nature's offer of solitude and reflection. Though the speaker reflects on the possibilities offered by each, he or she is ultimately never able to choose between them. In fact, the speaker's literal and figurative placement seems to suggest that choice itself might not even be possible, because societal rules and expectations restrict the speaker's free will. In other words, beyond exploring the competing pulls of responsibility and personal desire on the speaker, the poem also considers the nature—or mere possibility—of choice itself. The speaker starts and ends the poem in a state of hesitation. In the first line, the speaker says, "Whose woods these are I think I know," a statement which wavers between a sure declaration ("I know") and doubt ("I think"). This may suggest that the central conflict of the poem will be the speaker's battle with uncertainty. The physical setting of the poem, in which a speaker stops partway through a journey, mirrors this irresolution, finding the speaker neither at a destination nor a point of departure but rather somewhere in between. The speaker also notably pauses "between the woods and frozen lake"—literally between two landmarks. On top of that, the speaker has stopped on the "darkest evening of the year." If we understand this to mean the Winter Solstice, then the poem also occurs directly between two seasons, autumn and winter. Thus, the speaker is physically poised on the brink between a number of options, suggesting the possibility of choice between physical worlds, and, later in the poem, between duty to others and a personal wish to rest in solitude. However, it's unclear in the end if the speaker chooses to fulfill his or her "promises" or merely accepts the obligation to do so as an incontrovertible fact of life; that is, whether he or she actively makes a choice to continue or accepts that there is no choice at all. Though the speaker seems to indicate in the end that he or she will continue on and keep his or her promises, this doesn't seem to be a straightforward decision. In fact, it may not be a decision at all, but rather an embittered consent to the rules of societal life. The speaker may very well wish to stay in the "lovely" woods, but is ultimately unable to do so. However, we can also read the final stanza as demonstrating that the speaker hasn't left the woods yet. Although he or she has obligations, there are "miles to go," and the dreamy repetition of the final lines could suggest that there are either too many miles left to travel, or even that the speaker is slipping into sleep—effectively refusing to make a choice (or implicitly choosing to stay, depending on your interpretation). Thus, it is possible to read the entire poem as embodying a moment of hesitation, wavering between two poles but never leaning toward one or the other. This would further complicate the outcome of the poem, resisting a definitive reading and suggesting that the tensions between society and nature, and between obligation and individualism, are never black-and-white, but constantly in a murky state of flux.

Middle Passage: Form

In an effort to distinguish every voice in 'Middle Passage', Robert Hayden uses a unique form and structure. The poem is a free verse of three stanzas, but each stanza is so peculiarly written that they are often referred to as "sections". Sections he numbers with Roman numerals. Each stanza comprises one or two personas echoing their different but syncing thoughts. Adding to the peculiarity of the stanzas, Robert uses italics, double spacings, hanging indents, and quotes to recognize each speaker.

Sympathy: Literary Devices

Imagery: Imagery is used to make the readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, "When the sun is bright on the upland slopes", "And the river flows like a stream of glass" and "I know why he beats his wing." Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /o/ in "And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars" and the sound of /i/ in "I know why the caged bird beats his wing." Simile: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between different persons and objects by using 'like' or 'as'. For example, the flowing river is compared with the stream of glass in the fourth line, "And the river flows like a stream of glass." Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sounds of /h/ and /b/ in 'When he beats his bars and he would be free'. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings different from literal meanings. The caged bird symbolizes African Americans desperate for freedom from slavery. Cage stands for various tactics white people used to block their ways to freedom. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects different in nature. There is an extended metaphor of bird used in this poem. Here the caged bird is an entire African-American community in slavery. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break. Instead, it continues in the next verse. For example, "For he must fly back to his perch and clingWhen he fain would be on the bough a-swing;And a pain still throbs in the old, old scarsAnd they pulse again with a keener sting—I know why he beats his wing!" Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. For example, the words 'I know what the caged birds feel' as repeated to express the poet's agony of his people.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Context

Langston Hughes wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" when he was only 17. According to legend—a legend that Hughes promoted—he was taking a train from St. Louis to Mexico City to visit his father. When the train crossed the Mississippi, inspiration struck and the poem poured out. Whether the story is true or not, the poem quickly became one of the most famous documents from the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement that flourished in the 1920s in Harlem, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan. In the Harlem Renaissance, black artists, writers, and intellectuals developed distinctively black literary and artistic forms. The literature of the Harlem Renaissance celebrates black life, black traditions, and protests the virulent racism of the 1920s. Its key literary figures include Hughes, Claude McKay, and Zora Neale Hurston. In articulating black experience in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Hughes rejects many of the central traditions of English poetry, like meter and rhyme. Those traditions are often associated with white Europeans. Instead, the poem tries to develop a distinctly black literary voice to express the distinctiveness of black culture. This would be a lifelong project for Hughes; he would experiment with a number of forms—including African-American musical forms like the blues. Here he draws on the free verse developed in the 19th century by the American poet Walt Whitman. Yet Hughes' take on free verse is arguably even more radical than Whitman's, with greater variety in line length and stanzastructure. In using a form so closely associated with American poetry—Whitman is often considered the father of American poetry—Hughes insists that he's as much an American poet, and as much an American, as Whitman himself. In this sense, Hughes departs from other poets who worked alongside him the Harlem Renaissance. Where Hughes rejected white poetic traditions, poets like Claude McKay experimented with European literary forms like the sonnet (see, for instance, McKay's Petrarchan sonnet, "If We Must Die"). McKay's poem makes a different formal argument than Hughes's. It argues that black writers are capable of outdoing giants of European poetic tradition, like John Milton and Francesco Petrarch, on their own turf. Hughes, however, suggests that such competition is unnecessary and ultimately unproductive. According to Hughes, it's more important to develop an independent black poetic tradition, one that asserts the vibrancy and persistence of black culture. Because it stretches from the dawn of human history to American slavery, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" has an extremely broad historical context. Indeed, its context might be said to be human history itself. In engaging such a broad context, the poem challenges the dominant historical narratives of its time. These narratives were assembled by white historians and tended to ignore or slight the accomplishments of black people in human history. Indeed, the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel claimed in his Philosophy of History (1837) that the African continent—and by extension, black people—were simply outside human history: that they didn't contribute in any way to the political and cultural development of human society. The poem asks its readers to reconsider that history and to recognize the centrality of black people in human history and culture. In doing so, the poem engages with a more specific historical context: the early 20th century in America. At the time the poem was written, in the 1920s, many black people were fleeing the American south—with its discriminatory laws and racist violence—for new lives in northern cities like New York and Chicago. Once in the north, they found new and vibrant black communities, which sparked major black literary movements, like the Harlem Renaissance. (They also encountered much of the racism and restrictions they had tried to leave behind in the south). Many of these migrants were only one or two generations removed from slavery, so that it remained part of the living memory of the black community. Slavery tore people from their communities, cutting them off from their traditions, their languages, and their religions. One of the key challenges facing the black community was to reconstruct a sense of identity—to reclaim the parts of its history that had been destroyed or obscured by slavery. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" attempts to answer this challenge by presenting a speaker whose experience includes slavery, but also stretches far beyond it.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Themes

Modernity and Alienation "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is often regarded as one of the quintessential "modernist" poems, reflecting the social and intellectual conditions of the early 20th century. The poem emphasizes exciting features of modern life—like electricity and new medical technologies—but it also suggests that modernity comes with a persistent sense of alienation and isolation from others. Through the example of the speaker, the poem indicates that the modern condition essentially results in feeling alienated from the world. The poem refers to several technologies that would have been relatively new in the early 20th century, like lamplight, industrial factories, and anesthesia in hospitals. At the same time, all this new activity and industry seems to have left the speaker behind. He describes how the "yellow fog" slithers through the streets like a cat that "rubs its back upon the window-panes," but he rarely interacts with actual people, as the streets are "half-deserted." The smog seems more alive to him than the people themselves. The speaker already seems weary of this new world, in which events follow one another in a repetitive, cyclical fashion. He claims: "I have known them all already, known them all; / Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, / I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." He suggests that nothing can surprise him anymore or disturb the normal rituals of polite society. For the speaker, taking action would mean "to force the moment to its crisis," which seems an impossible task after the civilized, sedate activity of taking "tea and cake and ices." There is thus something emotionally deadening and alienating about the seemingly empty social rituals that characterize the modern world. Modernist literature was also often characterized by rejection of traditional figures of authority. In keeping with this tradition, the poem deconstructs the traditionally respected pillars of Western culture, religion, and literature, leaving the speaker feeling isolated and pessimistic about his diminished connection to those traditions. For example, the speaker comments ironically that he is "no prophet," like John the Baptist, and that rather "the eternal Footman hold[s] my coat, and snicker[s]" (basically, death laughs at him). The poem thus makes its protagonist an object of mockery rather than a figure of greatness. The speaker himself seems to feel an inability to measure up against these literary greats, as when he proclaims that "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be," and is simply a nameless, subservient "attendant lord " or even "a Fool." He doesn't draw strength or inspiration from these would-be authority figures of literature and culture; instead, they leave him feeling isolated and disheartened. This reaction suggests that modernist trends in literature may only enhance the alienating experience of living in the modern world. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" suggests that, for all the wealth and technological comforts of modern life, there is something profoundly alienating about this new way of experiencing the world. The speaker feels unable to participate in the social life of the world around him or to relate to the literary context that has come before him. Modernity doesn't connect him more with others; it just leaves him feeling even more alone.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: Themes

Mortality- "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a complex meditation on mortality. Death preoccupies the speaker, who responds by seeming to both celebrate and dread the fleeting nature of life. The scenes on the urn depict a Classical world that has long since passed—and yet, in being fixed on the urn itself, these scenes also evoke a sense of immortality. The urn is therefore a contradiction—its scenes speak of vibrant humanity and, because they are frozen in time, seem to represent a kind of eternal life. At the same time, everything and everyone in the urn's world is no more. Sensing this contradiction, the poem can be read as a process of response, in which the speaker tries to make sense of mortality—both that of others and their own—without ever coming to a comfortable resolution. Art, Beauty, Truth- "Ode on a Grecian Urn" examines the close relationship between art, beauty, and truth. For the speaker, it is through beauty that humankind comes closest to truth—and through art that human beings can attain this beauty (though it remains a bittersweet achievement). At its heart, the poem admits the mystery of existence—but argues that good art offers humankind an essential, if temporary, way of representing and sensing this mystery. The poem's famous ending is vital to understanding the speaker's position on art, beauty, and truth, and contextualizes the lines that have come before. The speaker's concluding sentiment—"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"—demonstrates that, in the context of this poem, beauty and truth are one and the same. Art's role is to create this beauty and truth, but the speaker doesn't present beauty and truth as clearly definable aspects of human existence. The speaker feels this connection intuitively—and the one-way conversation with the urn, and what it represents, is an attempt to make sense of these intuitions. History and Imagination- In "Ode on a Grecian Urn," the speaker makes a powerful effort to bring history to life. The poem functions as a kind of conversation, between an early 19th century speaker on the one hand and Ancient Greece on the other. Of course, this conversation can only really happen in one direction—it is up to the speaker to imagine the lives and stories that, though once real, now only exist in the urn's pictures. Overall, the poem argues that imagination is key to understanding and sympathizing with what has come before—but that this effort can never give a full picture of the richness and detail of worlds that are long gone. Part of the speaker's fascination with the urn is that it is a genuine historical object that was created around the time of historical moment that it depicts. The craftsmanship of the urn, combined with sheer luck, has allowed a small part of the history that it embodies to survive for millennia. The speaker foregrounds the importance of objects in relation to history by calling the urn a "Sylvan [rural] historian," instantly drawing a link between the speaker's own historical moment and the urn's and noting that the urn has survived as a "foster-child of silence and slow time." The speaker thus emphasizes both the immense length of time in which the urn has existed but also its "silent," inanimate quality. That is, without an effort of the imagination on the part of the viewer, the urn itself says nothing about history. The poem thus partly becomes a real-time example of this effort to actively engage with the past.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Themes

Nature Vs Society- In "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," the speaker describes stopping to watch the snow fall while riding a horse through the woods at night. While alone in the forest, the speaker reflects on the natural world and its implicit contrast with society. Though Frost's poem resists a definitive interpretation, the natural world it depicts is at once "lovely" and overwhelming. The fact that it seemingly lures the speaker to linger in the dark and cold suggests that nature is both a tempting and a threatening force, a realm that resists people's efforts to tame it while also offering respite from the demands of civilized life. The poem presents the natural world as distinctly separate from human society. The poem begins with the speaker thinking about who owns the property he is passing through—"Whose woods these are I think I know"—yet it's clear that there's no one there to actually stop the speaker from trespassing. The owner's "house is in the village," meaning "he will not see" the speaker. While this owner may think the woods belong to him, he can't control who passes by "his" land any more than he can stop the woods from "fill[ing] up with snow." The land owner's absence and futility, in turn, suggest that the human impulse to dominate the natural world is misguided. The complete lack of signs of civilization, meanwhile, further emphasizes the distance between society and nature. There are no farmhouses nearby, and the only sound apart from the "harness bells" of the speaker's horse is that of the wind. Though the speaker acknowledges that, at least conceptually, he or she stands on someone else's woods, the physical isolation indicates the impotence of conceptual structures like ownership in the first place. In other words, people can say they "own" land all they want, but that doesn't really mean anything when those people aren't around. Far from the sights and sounds of the village, the speaker stands alone "Between the woods and frozen lake" on the "darkest evening of the year." Together all these details again present nature as a cold and foreboding space distinct from society. At the same time, however, the woods are "lovely" enough that they tempt the speaker to stay awhile, complicating the idea of nature as an entirely unwelcoming place for human beings. Indeed, though the setting seems gloomy, the speaker also recounts the "sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake." This language makes the setting seem calm and comforting. The speaker finds the wind "easy" or mellow and the snowflakes "downy," like the soft feathers that fill a blanket or pillow. Finally, in the final stanza, the speaker definitively says, "The woods are lovely, dark and deep." This suggests the speaker's particular interest in the solitude that the woods offers. Though the speaker knows that he or she "has promises to keep"—suggesting certain societal demands that pull the speaker to continue—the woods are a tempting place to stop and rest. For a moment, the speaker is able to pause for no reason other than to simply watch the falling snow. However raw and cold, then, nature also allows for the kind of quiet reflection people may struggle to find amidst the stimulation of society.

Beowulf

Old English. By Anonymous. Beowulf was probably created by a scop, a professional Anglo-Saxon poet. Much like bards, scopscreated poems to preserve the myths and histories of their people. These poems would be performed from memory at feasts or other public gatherings as part of an oral story-telling tradition. Sometime in the eleventh century, two scribes preserved Beowulf in writing, creating the single manuscript of Beowulf we have today. The original poem and the poet were pagan, but the scribes were Christian and added Christian details to the poem: the poem now calls God the ultimate judge and ruler and even refers to events in the Old Testament. The story told in Beowulf occurs around 500 A.D., and many of the characters in the story can be directly related to real historical figures. It is known that the historic Hygelac, for instance, died around 521 A.D. More generally, Beowulf emerges from the Germanic/Scandinavian culture that flourished in Northern Europe during the last centuries of the Roman Empire and after.

The Unknown Citizen- Themes

Oppression, Surveillance, and the State- "The Unknown Citizen" is a parody of an elegy (a poem to commemorate someone who has recently died). This elegy is delivered by "the State"—the government and its institutions—rather than by a loving friend or family member. Through this, the poem pokes fun at and implicitly critiques the modern world for granting too many far-reaching powers to the state, showing how the state oppresses those unlucky enough to live within its grasp. In particular, the poem looks at how this oppression is achieved through surveillance—through the state knowing everything about its inhabitants. The title is thus ironic, as there's little that the state doesn't seem to know about the dead man. Overall, the poem argues that freedom is impossible in a society that so closely watches its citizens, even under the guise of helping them live a supposedly good life. Though on the surface the poem is praising the life of the dead "unknown citizen," it only does so because this person lived a textbook example of an obedient, non-questioning life. In the poem's world, a good citizen is one who does everything they're is supposed to. Indeed, that's why the speaker—the creepy "we" of the poem—begins by offering what is probably the highest compliment in this dystopia: "there was no official complaint" against the dead man (according to the Bureau of Statistics). In other words, he never did anything wrong. If he had, the state would "certainly have heard" about it—revealing the frightening reach of their view into people's lives. There is a kind of parable at work here, as the poem implies that a state with too much power will only use that power to sink its claws deeper and deeper into people's everyday lives. Standardization/Conformity- Written against a backdrop of increasing mass production and industrialization, the poem describes the dead citizen as "the Modern Man." The poem displays an intense anxiety about the direction of humanity's travel during the 20th century, questioning whether the values that seem important to this "Modern Man" are actually eroding what it means to be a human being. The poem implies that modern society, in an effort to optimize productivity and happiness, has made everyone essentially the same and robbed life of the kind of individuality that makes it meaningful in the first place. The state makes it out as if this man was free to choose how he lived, yet the reality is that this choice was an illusion. Modern society has told people what they should want and how they should live, which the poem implies makes it impossible for people to actually think for themselves. In such a world, there are right ways to live and wrong ways, and these are defined by the state. This man was thus "a saint" only because he always held the "proper opinions"—the ones that were officially sanctioned. Lurking under the surface of the poem is a question that strikes at the heart of this theme—to what extent the dead citizen himself can be held responsible for his now life. He has no voice in this poem whatsoever—which makes sense given his lack of individuality—but perhaps he willingly surrendered some of his freedom in order to fit in. Auden leaves this question open-ended, but it certainly speaks to contemporary obsessions with brands, celebrity culture, and social media. That is, all three of these have the surface illusion of enabling people to be themselves—to express who they really are. The poem thus implies that people should always question and examine the values that they use to define their freedoms and sense of individuality.

We Wear The Mask: Themes

Oppression/Racism/Identity- "We Wear the Mask" speaks to the experience of being a member of an oppressed group. The speaker is part of a community of people who must constantly "mask" their true feelings while presenting a happy face to the world. As a result, these people effectively have two identities: a true self, hidden behind the mask, and the self they present to simply get by in a prejudiced society. Although race isn't mentioned in this poem, it is essential to its meaning: most of Dunbar's work engaged with race in some way, and this mask metaphor extends itself to the specific experience of being black in America at the end of the 19th century—a time when black people often had to hide their suffering in order to survive in an unjust and unsympathetic society. That said, the poem can also be taken as an account of the pain and frustration of being forced to endure societal oppression and prejudice more generally. Empowerment/Resilience-Throughout "We Wear the Mask," the speaker describes deep and prolonged suffering. The group in this poem have "torn and bleeding hearts," express "tears and sighs," and are "tortured souls" who must constantly pretend they are not struggling. However, there is also a sense of resilience running through the poem. Wearing this "mask" is a constant reminder of their oppression, but it also, in a way, binds this group together—creating a sense of camaraderie and shared strength that helps them endure such pain. The phrase "We Wear the Mask" is both the title of the poem and its refrain. The repetition of the phrase throughout the poem illustrates that it has become a sort of mantra to this group. In the conclusion of the poem, the phrase even becomes an exclamation—"We wear the mask!"—thus giving the final line a sense of enthusiasm, and perhaps even a sense of pride. Also note how, in line 5, the speaker almost boastfully explains that this group can "mouth with myriad subtleties." This line suggests to the reader that members of this group hold a level of expertise in their form of deceit. Though they certainly don't enjoy their circumstances, they do seem able to feel pride and a sense of accomplishment when they perform their craft well. Later, the speaker remarks that "we sing" even though "the clay is vile / Beneath our feet" and the miles they must walk in it are "long," indicating that, while the journey is difficult, they can and will continue to endure it with a brave face. This demonstrates that the group is strong, both in spite of their suffering and because of it. This is also language in this poem that suggests that the mask is a choice (though this choice could be an illusion). The speaker says, with an arguable air of triumph, "let them only see us while / We wear the mask," and "let the world dream otherwise, / We wear the mask!" Seeing as the speaker is oppressed, it is unlikely that the mask is trulyoptional—at least, not without facing further consequences for removing it. To take off the mask could potentially mean not being able to survive in a society that seeks to oppress the speaker. However, the group can feel empowered from choosing to go on as opposed to giving up. Thus, the speaker and their group can find confidence as they continue to use the mask and survive their ordeal. In lines 6 and 7, the speaker poses a rhetorical question: "Why should the world be over-wise / In counting all our tears and sighs?" While this question suggests that "the world" the speaker refers to would be unsympathetic to their plight, it also offers that, perhaps, the world does not deserve to know the anguish of the speaker. As a marginalized people, it may benefit them to shield their suffering from their oppressors, as it denies the oppressor the opportunity to enjoy (or at least know the true extent of) the power they hold. This, in turn, can shift the sense of control the group has, and give them a sense of strength and unity.

We wear the Mask: Context

Paul Laurence Dunbar published "We Wear the Mask" in his collection Lyrics of Lowly Life in 1896. While the poem's language and themes are representative of the majority of Dunbar's writing, the poet's popularity in the late 1800s had much to do with his work in something called dialectics (literary work that evokes the language of a specific region or country), especially in regards to his popularity with white readers. Dunbar's use of "Negro dialect" is debated among scholars (as is the concept of "Negro dialect" in general, as many consider it to be a racist caricature). Some argue that Dunbar's dialectic work is both inaccurate to the groups he seeks to represent and a perpetuation of racist stereotypes meant to attract white readership. Others counter that his dialectic work represents only a fraction of his literary output. "We Wear the Mask" is an especially pertinent poem in this conversation, as many believe that it is Dunbar's way of acknowledging and complicating his dialectic work. "We Wear the Mask" is also not the only poem in which Dunbar explores his own personal use of the "mask.""The Poet," for example, describes a poet who "sang of life" in all of its multitudes but was only praised by "the world" when singing "a jingle in a broken tongue" (that is, in dialect). It appears that Dunbar struggled with feeling somehow complicit in regards to using racist stereotypes in his own writing, but simultaneously compelled to continue doing so because it was the only work white society chose to recognize. Dunbar's contemporaries included activists and writers W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Frederick Douglass, as well as James D. Corrothers (who wrote poems specifically citing Dunbar, such as "Me 'n' Dunbar," and "Paul Laurence Dunbar.") and his own wife, poet and musician Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson. Unlike her husband, Alice was criticized for lacking racial themes in her work, with her rebuttal being that she intended to expand upon what black literature could look like, citing that black people could write about more than just the experience of being black or a Southerner. Famous black poet and activist Maya Angelou cites Dunbar as a major literary influence: the title for her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is a line from Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy." Angelou also adapted "We Wear the Mask," in which she expanded upon its themes of race, oppression, and survival. Dunbar was a poet of the post-Reconstruction era of the United States. Reconstruction, which lasted from 1863-1877, was a significant era in the history of civil rights, as it marked the end of both slavery and the Southern state's secession. The term "Reconstruction" both refers to the era, and also refers to the attempt at transforming the former Confederate states after the Civil War. Reconstruction is largely considered a failure by most historians, for various reasons. For one thing, during this time the "Black Codes" were established in the American South to restrict the recently-freed black population in an attempt to maintain political and social dominance. The Black Codes eventually evolved into Jim Crow laws, which established racial segregation. The Reconstruction era also saw the beginnings of terrorist group the Klu Klux Klan, which targeted black leaders with racially-motivated violence. Thus, while slavery has been outlawed in the United States by Dunbar's day, this certainly did not mark an end to the suffering and discrimination of black Americans. The year in which "We Wear the Mask" was published—1896—was also the same year in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the legality of racial segregation, via the Plessy v. Ferguson court case. Homer Plessy, a biracial man from Louisiana, violated the Separate Car Act, which stated that white people and black people must ride in separate train cars. The case went to trial and ultimately resulted in a loss for Plessy, with the Supreme Court establishing that, as long as public facilities were "equal" in quality, the separation of black people from white people was constitutional. This emotional impact of this event (and of racial segregation and racism as a whole) roots itself in "We Wear the Mask," which highlights the coded ways in which the African American people conducted themselves under white supremacy.

Odyssey: Themes

Piety, Customs, and Justice- he world of The Odyssey is defined by rules that prescribe human interactions. Important customs include hospitable behavior to strangers and guests, respect for family and marriage, and punishment of those who have violated these customs. The lines between these customs can be blurry, and at times the customs may even conflict - as in the case of Agamemnon's son Orestes, who must avenge Agamemnon's murder by his wife Clytemnestra, but in doing so has to kill his own mother. A person who fails to follow these customs usually falls victim to violent justice meted out by other humans or by the gods. Cunning, Disguise, and Self-Restraint-The qualities of cunning, disguise, and self-restraint are closely related in The Odyssey - in some ways, they're sides of the same coin. Odysseus is cunning, or clever, in many instances throughout his journey; one needs cleverness in order to survive in this ancient world of gods and monsters. As part of his cunning, Odysseus often disguises his identity - sometimes in order to survive a dangerous trial, as when he claims to be called Nobody in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, and sometimes in order to achieve a goal, as when he assumes the appearance of a beggar upon his return to Ithaca (he also disguises himself as a beggar as part of a military maneuver in Troy: both disguises ultimately bring him glory). "The man of twists and turns" is like Proteus, who escapes his captors by changing shapes.Similarly, Odysseus's many disguises are emblematic of his self-restraint: disguise separates the inside from the outside, just as self-restraint separates feeling from action. Penelope and Telemachus are also cunning in their own ways, and their cunning, too, is connected to self-restraint; and Odysseus's crew often meets with disaster because of a lack of self-restraint, as when they slaughter the Cattle of the Sun, or when they eat Circe's poisoned meal. The characters of the Odyssey need cunning, disguise, and self-restraint to survive the trials of the gods and achieve glory. Memory and Grief Memory is a source of grief for many characters in The Odyssey. Grief and tears are proper ways to honor the memory of absent or departed friends, but grief as a mere expression of selfish sadness or fear is somewhat shameful - Odysseus often chides his crew for wailing in grief for fear of death. Moreover, the grief caused by memory is in many instances a guide to right action. Glory and Honor Odysseus and other characters are motivated by pursuit of glory and honor. In the course of the story, the two terms acquire distinct meanings. Glory is attained mainly by victory in battle and by feats of strength and cunning, while honor is attained by just, lawful behavior. Sometimes the two pursuits conflict with one another, since striving for glory can lead to reckless, proud behavior that violates customs and angers the gods. For example, Odysseus blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus in order to avenge the deaths of six crew members: the violence is an act of honor because vengeance is customary and just.

We Real Cool: Themes

Rebellion/Social Change-"We Real Cool" consistently acknowledges the costs associated with its speakers' rebellious lifestyles. They may lead glamorous, pleasurable lives—but they're also in danger as a direct result of their behavior. At the heart of the poem, then, is a question about whether the sacrifices the speakers make are worthwhile. The poem doesn't answer this question directly—and it's definitely possible to read the poem as a condemnation of the speakers. But it's also possible to look at their acts of rebellion as a direct and necessary challenge to authority and social complacency. This is especially true when considering the moment when the poem was written, at the height of the American Civil Rights movement. In one interpretation of the poem, the speakers are simply wasting their lives. Instead of getting an education, preparing to enter the workforce, and making a difference in society, they stay out late, get drunk, and listen to jazz. When they die, they do so having failed to make an impact on the world—or having done anything to make their lot in life better. However, the poem provides some hints that the speakers' rebellion isn't entirely pointless or in vain. Their rebellion is directed, focused. They rebel against symbols of authority and power, like the "school." Similarly, when they say they "Jazz June," they might have something more significant in mind than just listening to music on a summer night. "June" might be interpreted as another symbol for authority. More precisely, it could be read as a symbol for the complacent, unquestioning lives that many people—particularly people who benefit from the way society is organized—lead. In fact, in interviews, Brooks has suggested that she understood "June" in this way when she was writing the poem. To "Jazz June" is thus to disrupt this pleasant complacency—to make people think about the ways in which society needs to be changed. And since the poem itself closely imitates the rhythms of jazz in its sound, it's possible to think of this moment as describing the poem's own aspirations: like the speakers, the poem itself wants to disrupt, to cause people to question the way society (or literature) is organized. For Brooks, writing at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, this kind of rebellion—and the questioning it hopes to inspire—is likely connected with the struggle for black civil rights. Though the delinquent figures she describes aren't presented as social justice leaders, the poet may be dignifying their rebelliousness by putting it into a poem, and subtly trying to connect it to broader demands for social change. Alternatively, it's possible to understand the poem as presenting the pool players as examples of the detrimental effects of racism on black communities: without meaningful opportunities to improve their lives, the speakers turn to petty crime. In either case, the poem makes a powerful but implicit case for social change—specifically for a challenge against the power structures of a society that allows prejudice and oppression to thrive.

Middle Passage: Context

Robert Hayden published 'Middle Passage' in 1945. The poem falls within the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade, which began in the 15th century and ended in the 19th century. During this period, European nations and America enslaved over ten million Africans. These Africans unwillingly boarded ships that sailed through a route known as the Middle Passage; thus, bringing them to America. The journey usually took about two to three months; within these months, the enslaved suffered many forms of torture. Men were packed like a sardine in a room with so low a ceiling, they couldn't stand. They lived with their filth, each other's diseases, and their brothers' corpses. The women, though kept above deck, were constantly molested by the crew. Often, the slavers threw the sick and the dead into the sea. Rebelling, some of the enslaved broke free of their shackles and join their brothers in the water. Where sharks ate them.Even though the slave trade was abolished sometime later, Robert Hayden wrote this poem to remind both races—and the world—of this period, the practice, and its effect. Something we still experience in today's society.

How do I love thee?: Themes

Romantic Vs. Spiritual Love: In "How Do I Love Thee?" true love is depicted as long-lasting and even eternal. However, the poem also reveals a tension between love as an attachment to earthly life and the things of this world, and love as something that transcends life on earth. By evoking her religious faith so often, the speaker likens her romantic love for her beloved to a religious or spiritual feeling. At first it seems as if her love for this person on earth might be as powerful as love for God. But while the speaker acknowledges the strength of her romantic feelings here and now, she also expresses the wish that both she and her lover will eventually transcend their earthly lives and go to heaven together, where their love will be, with God's help, "better after death." Romantic love, for her, is ultimately closely linked to and perhaps even indistinguishable from love for God. The poem thus argues that true love is eternal, surpassing space, time, and even death. Although the poem is often read biographically, as an address from the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her husband, this depiction of eternal and all-powerful love could also apply to any human love, since the speaker and addressee are both unnamed in the poem itself. From the poem's first lines, the speaker describes her love in terms that sound spiritual or religious. For example, she asserts: "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach." Crucially, it is her "soul" that is expanding as a result of her love. Love, for her, engages the soul as well as the body. She also explains that her love helps her "feel" "the ends of being and ideal grace." "The ends" here connotes the "goals" of existence—which, for the speaker, is the attainment of "ideal grace." The speaker is clearly evoking the religious meaning of "grace" as a gift from God. If her love gives her grace, then she means that it is bringing her closer to God. The speaker also writes that she loves her beloved "with [her] childhood's faith" and "with a love [she] seemed to lose / With [her] lost saints." Her "childhood's faith" and her "lost saints" presumably refer to the Christianity in which she was raised. The speaker's description of her "lost saints" suggests that perhaps she has experienced a loss of faith as an adult, but this new romantic love restores her faith in God and gives her back the love she had "seemed to lose." The speaker's love is undeniably grounded in earthly life; she seems to imagine that she will spend "all [her] life" with this person and devote all her "breath," "smiles," and "tears" to them. At the same time, however, she also imagines that her love will continue even after this time. She hopes that, "if God choose," she and her lover will go to heaven and she will be able to love this beloved "better after death." This implies that the speaker sees romantic love as something that, with faith in God, can continue after death and indeed even deepen. Ultimately, the speaker's romantic love does not compromise her love for God. Rather, she likens her romantic love to a religious experience that helps her recapture her "childhood's faith" and brings her closer to God and "ideal grace." She prays that God's salvation in heaven will perfect her earthly love (making it "better after death") and render it eternal. In this way, the poem argues that romantic love is closely related to—and indeed perhaps transforms into—love for God.

Sympathy: Themes

Struggle, prejudice, and social discrimination are the major themes of this poem. Throughout the poem, the caged bird tries his best to win freedom but fails. Although he is captivated, when he sees his fellow birds playing with the wind, he longs to see the same freedom in his life. For the sake of freedom, he bleeds, gets scars, but nothing happens. It is through the analogy of this tiny creature, Dunbar highlights the never-ending sufferings and catastrophic situation of the African American people. Unlike this bird, their wounds have become scars. They are deprived of natural and fundamental rights and are imprisoned even in normal life. After many years, they stood up for their rights. Unfortunately, their voices were choked by the supreme authorities. Despite facing hardships, they never lost hope.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Themes

Social Obligation vs. Personal Desire- Though the speaker is drawn to the woods and, the poem subtly suggests, would like to stay there longer to simply watch the falling snow, various responsibilities prevent any lingering. The speaker is torn between duty to others—those pesky "promises to keep"—and his or her wish to stay in the dark and lovely woods. The poem can thus be read as reflecting a broader conflict between social obligations and individualism. This tension between responsibility and desire is clearest in the final stanza. Although "the woods are lovely," the speaker has other things to which he or she must attend. This suggests that the speaker is only passing through the woods on some sort of business—which, in turn, helps explain how unusual it is that the speaker has stopped to gaze at the forest filling with snow. Indeed, the fact that the speaker's horse must "think it queer"—even a "mistake"—that they're stopping implies that the speaker's world is typically guided by social interaction and regulations, making solitary, seemingly purposeless deeds especially odd. The speaker doesn't seem to be the kind of person who wastes time or reneges on his promises. However much the speaker might like to stay in the "dark and deep" woods, then, he or she must continue on, once again prioritizing responsibility to others and social convention. Of course, the speaker seems to show some ambivalence toward these social obligations. The speaker subtly juxtaposes his or her interest in the woods with regret about his or her duties to others: the woods are lovely, "but I have promises to keep." The promises seem to be a troublesome reality that keeps the speaker from doing what he or she actually wants to do—that is, stay alone in the woods for a little while. Indeed, the specific language that the speaker uses to describe the woods suggests he or she isn't quite ready to leave. They are "lovely, dark and deep," implying the woods contain the possibility for respite from the comparatively bright and shallow world of human society. Social responsibilities thus inhibit the chance for meaningful reflection. Additionally, the image of snow's "downy flake" suggests that the speaker is as attracted to the woods as one might be to a comfortable bed. In fact, the speaker seems wearied by travel and social obligation, and the woods seem to represent his or her wish to rest. But this wish cannot be realized because of the oppressive "miles to go," which must be traveled as a result of duty to others (i.e., in order to "keep" those "promises"). Thus, the final lines may suggest the speaker's weariness both toward the physical journey that remains and the social rules that drive that very journey forward in the first place. Ultimately, we don't know if the speaker satisfies his or her social duties or remains in the woods. On the one hand, the admittance of having "promises to keep" can be read as the speaker accepting that social obligations trump individual wishes. Yet it's also possible to read the final lines as the speaker's continued hesitation; perhaps the speaker is thinking about the miles left to go but not yet doing anything about it, instead remaining torn between the tiresome duties of society and the desire for individual freedom that is manifested in the woods.

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Themes

The Transience of Life, Beauty, and Youth- "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is about the fleeting nature of beauty, youth, and life itself. According to the poem, nothing "gold"—essentially nothing pure, precious, or beautiful—can last forever. The poem begins by focusing on changes in the natural world. The "first green" leaves of spring are compared to gold, nature's most prized metal, immediately establishing gold as symbolic of everything that is fresh, youthful, and beautiful. Yet this "hue" is also the "hardest" for nature, personified in the poem as a female figure, "to hold." Nature is trying to stop the freshness of early spring from fading, perhaps like a mother who wishes her children would stay young forever. This is impossible, and readers know that the first buds of spring will mature and, eventually, fall. The speaker then speeds the natural cycle up to hammer home this point, saying that the first blossom of spring lasts "only ... an hour." This is an exaggeration of course, but it emphasizes just how fleeting this fresh, lovely stage of life is. The precious beauty and innocence of youth, the poem is saying, flashes by in the blink of an eye. The speaker then broadens the poem's scope to include Eden, the biblical paradise from which human beings were expelled according to the Book of Genesis. Eden was a land free from sin and suffering that infamously and inevitably ended, the speaker says, just as the promise of the new morning ("dawn") must give way to the reality of the day. In each of these examples, something beautiful and innocent—untainted by the world—proves fleeting, unable to endure. In the second half of the poem the speaker also notably starts using language related to sinking or descending to describe the path of everything that is at one time young and beautiful. This suggests that the inability of anything "gold" to last is because life itself is a corrupting force that drags such beauty down. Thus, Eden didn't simply end; it "sank to grief." This implies that it began on a high—but, like leaves and flowers that flutter to the ground from tree tops, couldn't stay in such a vaulted place, protected from earthly realities. Similarly, "dawn goes down to day." The idea of dawn going "down to day" is especially unusual, and inverts the familiar image of the sun rising into daylight. Metaphorically, dawn can be interpreted as the beginning of a life—a blank slate for a new day. Its going "down to day" thus highlights the loss or tainting of that opportunity, as well as the process of aging and, ultimately, death. Indeed, the poem looking downward subtly evokes burial and the notion that all life inevitably ends up in the ground. Overall, then, the poem argues that nothing pure or perfect can last; life takes its toll on everything, and death awaits us all. The promise of spring is followed by autumn and winter; green leaves will turn brown and begin to rot. Yet the poem may not necessarily be trying to create melancholy. Instead, perhaps it's pushing the reader to accept the reality of such transience in order to better appreciate golden moments while they last.

Dover Beach- Meter/Rhyme

The meter in "Dover Beach" is highly unpredictable; any time a pattern seems to be establishing itself, it is soon disrupted. This unpredictability plays out both in the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables and in the lengths of the lines. For example, line 10 features iambic pentameter(five feet) whereas line 21 is a line of iambic dimeter (two feet). This restless variation is quite unusual for the Victorian time period in which the poem was written, and it contributes to the reader's real-time experience of the speaker's psyche, which is disturbed, worried, and — crucially — unpredictable. Like other aspects of its form, the rhyme scheme in "Dover Beach" is erratic and unpredictable. It can't quite be said that there isn't a rhyme scheme—lines certainly do rhyme strongly—but they don't settle into an overall pattern.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Rhyme

The poem arguably rejects rhyme so thoroughly because rhyme is often associated with the European tradition of poetry. In fact, the rise of rhyme's popularity historically coincided with European colonialism and the slave trade. In rejecting rhyme, the speaker rejects a specific period of European culture, a period in which European countries did horrifying violence to black traditions and communities. The poem works hard to develop its own music, a music independent from this European tradition, turning instead to devices like anaphora, parallelism, and refrain.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers: Rhyme

This poem's elegant rhyme scheme is clearer to the ear than the eye: because of the poem's unconventional line breaks, the rhymes appear to perform some hop-skips! The overarching pattern, however, runs like this: ABCB DEFE Keep in mind that the poem is often printed as quatrain stanzas, with line 3 here actually being part of line 2, line 7 combining with line 6, and so forth. It's easier to see the rhyme scheme when printed this way: Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -Untouched by Morning - and untouched by noon -Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection, Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone - While it isn't obvious on the page, then, this pattern is actually classic ballad rhyme, one of Dickinson's favorite rhyme schemes. There's also a characteristic Dickinson slant rhyme between "noon" and "stone" here—an off-kilter echo that introduces a note of unease to this fatalistic poem. In fact, Dickinson's line breaks here introduce opportunities for even more peculiar rhymes. Take another look at lines 8-13: Worlds scoop their Arcs - and Firmaments - row -Diadems - drop -And Doges surrender -Soundless as Dots, On a Disk of Snow. The major rhymes here are "row" and "snow." But by breaking the lines where she does, Dickinson also introduces an assonant slant rhyme between "drop" and "dots"—a rhyme that would be internal if the line breaks were in more standard places! The poem's rhymes thus dance with the poem's unusual form, creating an effect that's both comforting and unsettling—appropriate for a poem about death's dual role as a protector and an all-powerful conqueror.

Poem: Harlem

by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951 as part of a book-length sequence, Montage of a Dream Deferred. Inspired by blues and jazz music, Montage, which Hughes intended to be read as a single long poem, explores the lives and consciousness of the black community in Harlem, and the continuous experience of racial injustice within this community. "Harlem" considers the harm that is caused when the dream of racial equality is continuously delayed. Ultimately, the poem suggests, society will have to reckon with this dream, as the dreamers claim what is rightfully their own.

Poem: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was written by American poet Robert Frost in 1922 and published in 1923, as part of his collection New Hampshire. The poem is told from the perspective of a traveler who stops to watch the snow fall in the forest, and in doing so reflects on both nature and society. Frost claimed to have written the poem in one sitting. Though this is likely apocryphal, it would have been particularly impressive due to the poem's formal skill: it is written in perfect iambic tetrameter and utilizes a tight-knit chain rhyme characteristic to a form called the Rubaiyat stanza. Get LitCharts

Annabel Lee: Rhyme

"Annabel Lee" is an unusual poem in that it has a combination of regular and irregular rhyme schemes. The regularity comes from the shorter lines: line 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. All of these rhyme, and though there are numerous lines involved, the words that provide the rhymes are very limited: "sea," "Lee," "me" and "we." Other lines sometimes rhyme, but with no overall pattern. The first two stanzas demonstrate this tension between pattern and non-pattern: ABABCB / DBEBFB The repeated rhymes have a powerful effect. Using such a small set of words, they reflect the speaker's troubled and fixated mind—every other line (at least) returns him to thoughts of the sea, Annabel Lee, himself, or them as a couple. No other rhyme scheme is allowed to establish itself, because his mind is too singularly fixed on his relationship with Annabel Lee. These rhymes, of course, are based on the name of his lover, again reinforcing the idea that he can never let her go—that their souls are, in his view at least, forever bound together. These rhymes are part of the hypnotic effect that the poem builds over the course of its forty-one lines.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Context

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a villanelle. The villanelle was originally invented by French poets during the 16th century, but it really only became popular much later and in a different country: England. English poets started writing lots of villanelles in the mid-1800s. The form is thus connected to the Victorian period, with its strict social and sexual norms, and its relatively conservative poets. It is not a favorite form for the modernists—the generation of poets who, starting around 1870, attempted to develop new ways of writing that responded to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of society. To write a villanelle in the late 1940s or early 1950s, then, was to be a bit out of step with the times. In Dylan Thomas' case, this was self-conscious and intentional. He rebelled against the ways of writing that modernist poets like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound developed; he sought to revive older forms and tones. The villanelle is a perfect form for this project: associated, as it is, with a generation of poets who came before the modernists. Writing a villanelle is a way for Thomas to signal his commitment to those older poets and the ways that they wrote—and a way to signal his rebellion against the modernists. "Do Not Go Gentle into That Night" was written sometime in the late 1940s and early 1950s—the years just after the end of World War II. For Thomas, a Welsh poet, the war would've been an important presence in his life: throughout the war, the Nazis bombed towns and cities across the United Kingdom. The years after the war were dedicated to rebuilding—a project that sometimes required reconstructing entire cities from the rubble. Thomas would have seen the human cost of the war firsthand, both in terms of soldiers who died in battle as well as the civilians who died in air raids. Thomas does not directly address that context in "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Rather, the poem aims to be universal. Though it is dedicated to Thomas's father, who died several years after the poem was written, it offers advice to all readers in all times about how to face death with dignity. That said, one might speculate that the intense human suffering in World War II underlies the poem. The war seemed to show that human beings are expendable, and the poem meditates on how fragile and precious human life is. At the same time, the defiance with which England refused to give in to its enemies is also captured in the poem's spirit of vitality.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Rhyme

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" is a villanelle. Villanelles follow a very tightly controlled and limited rhyme scheme. Indeed, there are only two rhymes in the whole poem: words end in either "ight" or "ay." The first five stanzas of the poem (lines 1-15) are all rhymed ABA. For example, in the first stanza the final words are "night"/"day"/"bright." The final stanza of the poem (lines 16-19) is rhymed ABAA. This is pretty unusual for a poem in English. Since English is a hard language to rhyme, poets writing in English tend to favor poetic forms that use lots of different rhymes: they're easier to write, easier to manage. "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" doesn't give itself that freedom: instead it focuses on the A and B rhymes insistently. And despite the difficulty of sustaining its rhyme scheme, all of its rhymes are perfect rhymes. The speaker also exclusively rhymes single syllable words. There are no tricky, complicated rhymes in the poem. Its rhymes are straightforward, forceful.

Dover Beach- Form

"Dover Beach" has been noted by many critics for its unusual form. The poem is highly irregular and does not fit with any specific poetic form, and as such is considered an early precursor of free verse and other 20th century experimentation with form. The poem consists of four stanzas, each of different length. The first stanza is 14 lines, the second is 6, the third 8, and the fourth 9. The poem shows a speaker trying to grapple with a subject that they find difficult and not a little unnerving: humanity's loss of faith (in particular, the fading of Christianity). Accordingly, there is an instability to the speaker's psyche which expresses itself in numerous ways, including the poem's form. While much of Victorian poetry embodied principles of uniformity and strict obedience to form, this poem's departure from that rigidity signals a break with the past — which makes sense, given that the poem's subject is also focused on a rupture from the past brought on by new scientific learning that threatens and diminishes religious faith. As shown by the last stanza, in which the speaker predicts a new era of "confused alarms of struggle and flight" and "ignorant armies," the speaker senses that the times stand on a historical precipice, a transition point away from the certainties of faith to the skeptical rigor of science. The resistance of standard form embodies the speaker's fraught mental state, which is brought on by worry about what will happen to their society when it does away with the moral and spiritual reassurances of religion.

The Road Not Taken: Themes

Choices and Uncertainty- In "The Road Not Taken," the speaker describes him or herself as facing a choice between which of two roads to take. The speaker's choice functions as an extended metaphor for all the choices that the speaker—and all people—must make in life. Through the speaker's experience, the poem explores the nature of choices, and what it means to be a person forced to choose (as all people inevitably are). The poem begins with the speaker recounting the experience of facing the choice of which road to take. The speaker's first emotion is "sorrow," as he or she regrets the reality that makes it impossible to "travel both" roads, or to experience both things. The poem makes clear that every choice involves the loss of opportunity and that choices are painful because they must be made with incomplete information. The speaker tries to gather as much information as possible by looking "down one [road] as far as I could," but there is a limit to what the speaker can see, as the road is "bent," meaning that it curves, leaving the rest of it out of sight. So the speaker, like anyone faced with a choice, must make a choice, but can't know enough to be sure which choice is the right one. The speaker, as a result, is paralyzed: "long I stood" contemplating which road to choose. The speaker does eventually choose a road based on which one appears to have been less traveled, but the poem shows that making that choice doesn't actually solve the speaker's problem. Immediately after choosing a road, the speaker admits that the two roads were "worn... really about the same" and that both roads "equally lay" without any leaves "trodden black" by passersby. So the speaker has tried to choose the road that seemed less traveled, but couldn't tell which road was actually less traveled. By making a choice, the speaker will now never get the chance to experience the other road and can never know which was less traveled. The speaker hides from this psychic pain by announcing that he or she is just saving "the first [road] for another day!" But, again, reality sets in: "I doubted if I should ever come back." Every choice may be a beginning, but it is also an ending, and having to choose cuts off knowledge of the alternate choice, such that the person choosing will never know if they made the "right" choice. The poem ends with the speaker imagining the far future, when he or she thinks back to this choice and believes that it made "all the difference." But the rest of the poem has shown that the speaker doesn't (and can never) know what it would have been like to travel down that other road—and can't even know if the road taken was indeed the one less traveled. And, further, the final line is a subtle reminder that the only thing one can know about the choices one makes in life is that they make "all the difference"—but how, or from what, neither the poem nor life provide any answer.

If-- Themes

Composure and Self- Restraint--The speaker of "If—" champions a morality built on moderation. In this poem, he advises his son to move through life with composure, and to always exercise self-control, integrity, and humility. This means never letting "Triumph" nor "Disaster"—events either good or bad—go to one's head. Composure and self-restraint, the speaker implies, makes it possible to act with dignity in all circumstances and to lead a respectable and virtuous life. No matter what happens, the speaker believes, it's important that people keep their cool. He tells his son to "keep [his] head" about him even when everyone around him is losing their composure—not to respond with vitriol just because other people might "hate[]" him, for example. Similarly, the speaker says that his son should calmly devote himself to rebuilding his life if it ever goes to shambles, encouraging him to remain reasonable and diligent even when times are tough. The speaker also insists that his son shouldn't become smug about his own measured and virtuous way of navigating life: "[D]on't look too good, nor talk too wise," the speaker says, steering his son away from vanity (in the sense of merely wanting to look like a good guy) in favor of simple levelheadedness. Essentially, the speaker's saying that people need to find a happy medium between confidence and modesty (lest their self-assuredness blind them to their own shortcomings). Those who succumb to neither vice nor vanity are those who are capable of persevering through hardship, their "Will" always telling them to "Hold on!" The idea, then, is that composure leads to strength and integrity: the speaker insists that the world will be his son's oyster if only he practices restraint and discipline. These qualities will also turn the boy into a true "Man," the speaker says, indicating that he thinks respectable men are defined by their ability to lead measured, dignified lives. (Remember, this is an Edwardian poem with an essentialist view of gender—see the theme on Manhood and Masculinity for more about that.) All of these ideas about composure and restraint align with the stereotypically British "stiff upper lip"—in other words, the idea that one should be resilient in the face of adversity. This was a particularly popular worldview in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when a number of British poets embraced the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism, which urged indifference to both pain and pleasure. Because this indifference is so similar to the moderation the speaker tells his son to adopt, it's reasonable to read "If—" as the speaker's argument for why British society (and in particular, British men) should embrace Stoic ideals.

"Do not got gentle into that good night" Themes

Death and Defiance-In "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," the speaker acknowledges that death is inevitable—everyone dies, sooner or later. But that doesn't mean that people should simply give up and give in to death. Instead, the speaker argues that people should fight, fiercely and bravely, against death. Indeed, the speaker suggests, death helps to clarify something that people too often forget—that life is precious and worth fighting for. Family, Grief, and Old Age-

The Raven: Themes

Death and the afterlife Memory and Loss Supernatural and Subconscious Rationality and Irrationality Ancient Influences

Middle Passage: Themes

'Middle Passage' explores slavery as its central theme. After this, we meet the theme of bondage, where African men sandwiched below deck live with their feces. There's also the theme of sexual harassment; the crew abuse women kept above deck. Furthermore, themes of suffering, disease, cannibalism, and death feature in Robert's poem. Bias on the crew's side is a theme we cannot overlook as well. Ultimately, we encounter hope, where people like Prince Cinquez and John Quincy rise against the slave trade.

Dover Beach- Literary Context

"Dover Beach" was first published in 1867, though it is generally believed to have been written around the time of Matthew Arnold's honeymoon in 1851. It is a stand-out poem in the Victorian canon, and often claimed to be the greatest poem of the era. Partly, this is because it is so different from the other poetry of its day. Poets like Alfred Lord Tennyson (the poet laureate of England) and Robert Browning wrote with strict formality—indeed, much of Arnold's other poetry is similar to theirs—but this poem stands out in its refusal to settle down into a reliable shape or pattern. In this sense, the poem is a precursor to literary movements of the 20th century—to the innovations of Modernism and, in its fraught psychology, the spiritual doubt of Existentialism. Thomas Hardy's poetry probably comes closest to expressing similar concerns, in particular the close look at the fading of faith in the blinding light of scientific advancement. Another useful comparison is with William Wordsworth's poem "Tintern Abbey." In that poem, the natural environment provides the speaker with a sense of "tranquil restoration," in keeping with the generally positive associations of nature in Romantic poetry. In Arnold's poem, the sea does the opposite, ushering in a sense of deep, even eternal sadness and melancholy. Though the poem never explicitly mentions its historical context, apart from the vague reference to a prior era in which the Sea of Faith was abundant, most critics agree that the particular intellectual, spiritual and social moment in which it was written is key to its understanding. The poem expresses fear and anxiety about the loss of faith, and the historical context explains where this comes from. The 19th century in England was a time of significant changes in the way humankind saw itself in the world. For example, Charles Lyell's innovations in the study of geology had suddenly cast an almost undeniable doubt over the alleged timescales of the world's creation as described by the Bible. Similarly, Mary Anning—known as the "fossil lady"—had made discoveries of bizarre skeletons in the beach areas of southern England (which, like the poem's geographical position, look out over the English Channel), adding to that sense of doubt. Advances in evolutionary biology had unsettled the idea of man as the center of a universe created by God. In summary, Arnold was writing in a time of large-scale readjustment and anxiety. The poem gives expression to this mindset, ending on a fearful note about what the future holds.

Harlem: Rhyme

"Harlem" has no set, consistent rhyme scheme. Rather, it uses assonance and rhyming elements throughout to create patterns and then change these patterns, conveying the feeling and meaning of the poem at the level of its music. After the first, unrhymed line, which poses the primary question of the poem, the second stanza creates a rhyme scheme as it offers a series of possible answers. The ending of line 3 ("sun") rhymes with the ending of line 5 ("run"). This sets up an ABCB rhyme scheme that might appear in a traditional poem, creating a sense of formal control and resolution. Importantly, this rhyme scheme appears where the dream is depicted as withering away ("a raisin in the sun") and growing painful and aggravated ("like a sore") for the dreamer, but not impacting anyone in the broader society. In a sense, here, the rhyme scheme suggests that the dreamers are simply enduring the deferral of the dream, and "following the rules," just as the poem "follows the rules" of a conventional rhyme scheme. Yet the poem goes on to change these rules. After the ABCB pattern opening this second stanza, the poem introduces a group of three lines ("Does it stink ... like a syrupy sweet?") in which only two lines out of the three rhyme: "meat" rhymes with "sweet," while "over" is left unrhymed. The images continue, here, to convey a deferred dream that is losing its true power and potency (it is going bad "like rotten meat" and becoming sentimental "like a syrupy sweet") but the shift in the rhyme scheme introduces a sense of instability, of something left unresolved. Similarly, but differently, "sags" in line 9 is left unrhymed. The end of line 10, "load," also appears at first to be unrhymed, since it doesn't rhyme with the first line of its couplet. The rhyme comes unexpectedly in the poem's closing question, after the space of a stanza break: "Or does it explode?" the speaker asks. Here, for the first time, two rhyming lines appear consecutively, and the way the poem arrives at this rhyme is radically different from those that came before. The rhyme bridges two stanzas. And the last line arrives at a completely different possibility for the dream than those proposed up to this point. Here the deferred dream is not imagined as withering away, rotting, or sagging. Instead it is envisioned as bursting outward in its true vitality and power. The final question and rhyme, then, creates an unexpected musical resolution, as the poem suggests that the dream, rather than withering away, will explode outward, demanding to be reckoned with.

Harlem: Meter

"Harlem" is a free verse poem and has no set meter. However, it does use some metrical elements, and it uses elements of rhythm throughout. Notably, the opening line of the poem is written in iambs, poetic feet in which the first syllable is unstressed and the second stressed: What happens to a dream deferred? Iambs are most famously known as part of iambic pentameter, the metrical form associated with Shakespeare and classical poetry. Here, the speaker asks the poem's primary, opening question in iambic meter, aligning that question, and the poem, with some of the timeless questions of Shakespeare's sonnets. After this moment, the poem shifts into its own rhythms, which enact the rhythms and cadences of jazz music. Jazz, as a form, often takes simple rhythms and interweaves them with complex ones, in which unexpected beats are accented and emphasized. The section of "Harlem" that replies to the opening question—in other words, the whole rest of the poem—does so with jazz rhythm, taking up, and then transforming, the iambs of its opening.

How Do I Love Thee: Form

"How do I love thee?" is a sonnet—which is no surprise, since it first appeared in a collection titled Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). Because it is a sonnet, the poem has 14 lines. So far, so conventional. However, "How do I love thee?" isn't a traditional English sonnet, which typically has three sections of four lines called quatrains, followed by a final, two-line couplet. Instead, "How do I love thee?" is an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. (This form of sonnet is called "Petrarchan" after the great medieval Italian lyric poet Petrarch, but he didn't invent the form.) In contrast to the English sonnet, the Italian sonnet is divided into two sections: a section of eight lines, called an octave; and a section of six lines, called a sestet. The English sonnet typically has a "turn," or change of subject, in the final two lines, whereas the Italian sonnet will not necessarily have a turn. In this poem, the second section—the sestet—does introduce a new subject: the speaker's sense of the division between the love she feels now and the juvenile loves of her "childhood's faith" and "old saints." She then ends the poem looking forward to yet another transformation over time, from the love of her life to the hope of love in the afterlife. In this sense, the form of the Italian sonnet allows the speaker to introduce new themes and subjects, while maintaining a greater sense of flow and continuity between the lines than an English sonnet might allow her. The choice of the Italian sonnet form is also significant given that Barrett Browning titled her poetry collection Sonnets from the Portuguese. This title gave the impression that perhaps the poet had translated the work from a lost original, allowing her a way of avoiding the scandal or stigma of authorship that could sometimes attach to women poets. By using a "continental" rather than English sonnet form, the poet may have been trying to give the impression that the poem is of an exotic or foreign origin.

If-- Rhyme

"If—" follows a simple alternating rhyme scheme: ABABCDCD Although the speaker's advice is stern, this easy, singsongy rhyme scheme feels appealing, friendly, and musical—an effect that communicates the affection the speaker has for his son. After all, he's giving his son all this advice because he wants him to lead a meaningful, worthwhile life. Throughout the poem, the speaker alternates feminine endings and masculine endings—that is, lines that end with an extra unstressedsyllable and lines that don't.

If-- Form

"If—" is made up of 32 lines evenly divided into four octaves, or eight-line stanzas. This measured, balanced structure reflects the speaker's strict belief in the value of a measured, balanced life.n spite of being 32 lines long, this poem is a single continuous sentence! The speaker uses distinctive anaphora to join up this sentence's many clauses, starting thought after thought with the words "If you can."

If-- Meter

"If—" is written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains five iambs, or metrical feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). For example, line 2 looks like this: Are los- | ing theirs | and blam- | ing it | on you; Iambic pentameter gives the poem a bouncy da-DUM da-DUM rhythm that makes its speaker sound lively and vigorous. But it also gives the poem a little gravitas through its strong association with great writers like Shakespeare and Milton—associations which suggest the speaker takes the advice he's giving here very seriously.

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Rhyme

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" has a very tight rhyme scheme. The poem consists of four couplets and every end word is perfectly rhymed, resulting in the following pattern: AABBCCDD The tight rhyme makes it enjoyable to read aloud and pleasing to the listener's ear. This simple rhyme structure is also perhaps comparable to a nursery rhyme, the first poems children learn. Nursery rhymes often impart absolute truths or messages in a simple and memorable format. In the same way, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" presents a sweeping idea about the transience of life itself in a clear, concise, and seemingly simple package. The poem's rigid structure has a sense of inevitability to it too, carrying the poem forward and making it sonically predictable. That is, the reader comes to expect that each end word will have its rhyme in the next line. This mirrors the message of the poem—that seasons, time, and life must march onward toward their inevitable conclusion.

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Form

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" is a compact poem that packs a lot into its eight lines. These lines can be broken down into four sets of rhyming couplets. The form is simple and predictable, a sense further supported by the poem's steady meter and rhyme scheme. This simplicity makes the poem easy to read and remember, and allows its message to ring out clearly. The poem can also be thought of as having two sections. The first, lines 1 to 4, focus on establishing the fleeting nature of youth and beauty. In this chunk, lines 1 and 3 introduce the fresh beauties of early spring—the young buds on the trees and flowering plants. Lines 2 and 4, however, assert that such beauty and purity can't last. Lines 5 to 8 then take an even more pessimistic tone. Whereas the transition from beauty to transience took place over two lines in the first half of the poem, now each transition is condensed into a single line: leaf to leaf, Eden to grief, dawn to day. This second half of the poem piles loss on top of loss, and does so at a rapid clip. The speed of the second half the poem reflects the argument of the first: that all these "golden" things are fleeting.

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Alliteration

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" packs a lot of alliteration into its 8 lines. This alliteration combines with the poem'a steady meter and rhyming coupletsto give it a very musical sound; the poem is easy to memorize and satisfying to read aloud. This musicality, in turn, adds to the poem's sense of having an important message that should be passed on to others. Alliteration also connects certain words in the poem. For example, in line 1 the hard /g/ sound shared be "green" and "gold" connects the two words on the level of sound, supporting their metaphorical connection within the line. Line 2 then contains the most alliteration per line, with four repeated /h/ sounds: Her hardest hue to hold. The /h/ sound requires an exhalation of breath, making the line feel like a sigh—perhaps reflecting a sense of resignation at the fact that this golden hue simply cannot last. The reader's breath also almost runs out by the end of the line, reflecting the idea of time being up. In line 6, the sibilance of "So" and "sank" evokes the air being let out of a balloon, reflecting the feeling of Paradise sinking into the earth. Sibilance is also evocative of a hissing snake—which, of course, was the creature who tempted Eve and spurred the Fall of Man in the Bible. The alliterative letters within the lines move from /g/ to /h/, to /l/, to /s/, and lastly to /d/. This movement from sound to sound emphasizes the fact that nothing can stay. This alliterative progression also very subtly forces the tongue to move in the mouth from high to low. The /g/ and /h/ sounds require a higher tongue position than the more guttural /l/ and weighty /d/ sounds. This emphasizes the idea of falling as the poem moves from higher, airy sounds to darker ones. This underlines the message of the poem, that everything which is at one time light and youthful must sink into dullness.

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Context

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" was published in Frost's fifth poetry collection, New Hampshire, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924. The collection contains some of Frost's best known poems, such as "Fire and Ice" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Frost worked on "Nothing Gold Can Stay" for three years, from 1920-1923, and wrote six versions of the poem in total. Frost was writing in the early 20th century during the modernist literary period, a time when many writers aimed to disrupt stiff, traditional poetic structures and forms. Frost's work does contain some modernist qualities in that he favors natural diction (New England dialect in particular) and blank verse in many of his poems. That said, Frost also uses more familiar poetic structures in much of his work (this poem, for instance, is highly metrical and has a strict rhyme scheme). His focus on nature and rural life also contains echoes of the romantic literary period, a time when poets sought to capture the mystery, wonder, and power of the natural world. Among his contemporaries, Frost is often compared to Robert Graves. Both were writing at around the same time, and used more formal poetic structures than others writing in the modernist period. Both poets favored traditional forms, rhythm and meter in their poetry.Between 1900 and 1912, Frost and his family lived on the 30-acre Derry Farm. This period strongly influenced Frost's poetry and his relationship to the natural world. Frost's focus on nature and rural life is especially significant given general society's move towards industrialization at the time he was writing. However, Frost's poetry spoke to a wide population of people who were starting to question industrialization, especially in the aftermath of the First World War. Indeed, although there is no direct reference to historical context in this poem, themes of loss and unease tend to run throughout Frost's poetry and reflect the historical events of the period in which he was writing. The poem was written in 1923, just five years after the end of WWI and just three years after the end of the Spanish Flu pandemic. These two events in combination caused the deaths of millions of people, and imbued survivors with a sense of disillusionment towards the promises of safety and prosperity preached by modern society. In "Nothing Gold Can Stay," the speaker's lamenting the loss of youth and beauty may be a way of highlighting the tragedy of those who had lost their lives and naivete in the previous decade.

Poem: Annabel Lee

By Edgar Allan Poe "Annabel Lee" is the last poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the foremost figures of American literature. It was written in 1849 and published not long after the author's death in the same year. It features a subject that appears frequently in Poe's writing: the death of a young, beautiful woman. The poem is narrated by Annabel Lee's lover, who forcefully rails against the people—and supernatural beings—who tried to get in the way of their love. Ultimately, the speaker claims that his bond with Annabel Lee was so strong that, even after her death, they are still together.

O Captain, my captain: Form

"O Captain! My Captain!" is a ballad written in three eight-line stanzas, or octaves. However, it might be more accurate to assert that each stanza contains two formally distinct quatrains, or groups of four lines. This is because the first four lines and the last four lines of each stanza look very different in formal terms. n each stanza, the first four lines are longer, written in an iambic meter, and follow an AABB rhyme scheme. By contrast, the succeeding four lines are shorter, tend to deviate from the iambic meter of the preceding lines, and follow a CDED rhyme scheme. This formal difference is no accident, since it mirrors the thematic and emotional shifts implicit in the transition from one quatrain to another. Each stanza begins with vivid descriptions of scenes of communal rejoicing as the crowds celebrate the safe return of the ship to harbor. However, the stanza then redirects attention to the speaker's grief at the loss of his "captain," President Lincoln, who has died in his moment of triumph. In this way, the formal transformation undergone by each stanza mirrors the juxtaposition between victory and loss that is central to the poem's emotional landscape.

O Captain, My Captain: Meter

"O Captain! My Captain!" is written in iambic meter (unstressed-stressed). However, this is a general rather than a strict rule, since many lines are irregular. The poem's first line, for instance, follows this stressed/unstressed pattern for the most part yet has a trochee (stressed-unstressed) in its third foot: O Cap- | tain! my | Captain! | our fear- | ful trip | is done, Depending on how you read the line, you could also scan this as two amphibrachs, a very rare metrical foot that follows an unstressed-stressed-unstressed pattern (da-DUM-da): O Captain! | my Captain! Either way, the emphasis on the start of the word "Captain" seems appropriate given the importance of this figure in the poem. Even so the first four lines of the first stanza follow a mostly regular iambic meter. In the fifth line, however, there doesn't seem to be any discernible meter whatsoever. Instead, all that's clear is the repeated stress on the word "heart," a moment of epizeuxis and emphasis that mimics the beating of a heart itself:

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers: Form

"Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" takes a familiar Dickinson form and plays with it in strange and innovative ways. At first glance, the poem appears to be broken into two peculiar stanzas: one of five lines, and one of eight. But when one reads the poem aloud, one discovers that, for the most part, it sounds an awful lot like quatrainsof tetrameter—that is, four-line stanzas with four strong stresses per line. Many of Dickinson's poems used similar quatrains. This poem, then, does something clever: it breaks up a regular form into off-kilter pieces, creating a slow and unpredictable pace. That unsettled shape perfectly suits an unsettling poem about the absolute power of death.

Sonnet 18: Form

"Sonnet 18" is a Shakespearean sonnet, meaning it has 14 lines written in iambic pentameter and that follow a regular rhyme scheme. This rhyme scheme can be divided into three quatrains followed by a couplet. Lines 1 through 12 follow and ABAB rhyme scheme—the first and third line of each four-line unit rhyme with each other, as do the second and fourth lines. In the final two lines, the rhyme scheme shifts: the two lines rhyme with each other. These final two lines are the poem's volta or turn. In the volta of a sonnet, the poet often changes their mind, takes an opposing viewpoint, or complicates the argument the poem has so far made. The volta comes relatively late in a Shakespearean sonnet; in a Petrarchan sonnet, it falls at line nine. Because the Shakespearean sonnet was a new form in the 1590s, when Shakespeare likely wrote these poems, the Petrarchan sonnet sometimes haunts Shakespeare's writing. That's arguably the case here: the real change in the sonnet's perspective comes at line 9—where one would expect to find it in a Petrarchan sonnet. Instead of changing the argument of the previous 12 lines, the couplet of Sonnet 18 restates its argument. The sonnet is a thus a subtle hybrid between the two kinds of sonnets.

Sonnet 18: Rhyme

"Sonnet 18" observes the traditional rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet: ABABCDCDEFEFGG The rhymes of the poem are not always exactly perfect, and Shakespeare does frequently rhyme single syllable words with multi-syllable words (for example "temperate" and "date"). However, the poem's strong meter keeps the reader from hearing this as a moment of syncopation or rhythmic disturbance: "temperate" and "short a date" are rhythmically equivalent. The poem also contains a few significant instances of internal rhyme: for example, the slant rhyme between "line" and "time" in line 12. This sonic similarity encourages the reader to think about the conceptual relationship between "lines" and "time." The poem's strong rhyme overall reinforce its sense of permanence: the poem is so well constructed that it must endure for eternity.

Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening: Meter

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" features perfect iambictetrameter. For instance, line 1 reads: Whose woods | these are | I think | I know The entire poem follows this unstressed-stressed metric pattern, which gives every line a controlled, precise feeling. The meter contributes to the feeling that the poem is meticulously crafted and perfectly whole. There is a very musical feeling to the iambic tetrameter, as if the entire poem could be sung or incanted. This helps the reader focus on the thematic content of the poem, without ever tripping over awkward lines. This especially feels evident in the final repeating lines, which seem almost like the chorus of a lullaby. This perhaps reflects the calm of the speaker and the serenity of the natural world in which the speaker has stopped. At the same time, however, it makes the poem feel simpler than it really is; though the rhythm is smooth and untroubled for the most part, Frost is exploring nuanced ideas that are more complicated than the simple, straightforward meter would suggest. Indeed, the precision of the piece is belied by an internal uncertainty and hesitation that plays out in the speaker wavering between the woods and the promises he has to keep. This creates a tension between the assuredness of the form and meter and the dubiousness of the speaker's actions.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Meter

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" at first might look like it has no discernible meter. Its patterns of stresses often significantly diverge in the course of even a few lines, and it can't be said to fit many of the traditional meters. However, although the poem doesn't follow any one particular meter all the way through, it does move in and out of different meters. This formal flexibility allows the poet to experiment with and interrogate different metrical forms, just as he experiments with and questions many of the traditional assumptions of the Western literary and cultural tradition. Much of the poem is written simply in "free verse"

J. Alfred Prufrock: Form

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" doesn't follow a traditional form; its line and stanza lengths vary dramatically throughout. However, one literary form that it definitely does follow is the dramatic monologue—a direct address between the speaker and the reader. This is a highly intimate form that emphasizes the close connection between the speaker and the listener or reader to whom he has chosen to reveal his secrets. The poem's status as a dramatic monologue explains the speaker's continuing digressions and shifts to other seemingly, unrelated topics. The form allows the poet to experiment with a stream-of-consciousness style of narration—in which the reader is given access to the speaker's thoughts exactly as they cross his mind. This gives the poem an immediacy that is arguably lacking in other, more traditional literary forms of narration.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Meter

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" does not have a set meter. Instead, it is written in free-verse. As a result the pattern of stresses with each line varies organically. For instance, the first line contains two stresses, an iamb (a duh DUH rhythm) and a trochee (a DUH duh rhythm): n the absence of a set meter, the poem's rhythms flow like a river: sometimes accelerating and finding a groove, sometimes slowing down, becoming languorous and luxurious. It's possible to see such an effect in the way line 2 swoops through a series of unstressed syllables ("ancient | as the world"), before falling into a groove of iambs ("and old- | er than | the flow"). In this way, the poem not only describes rivers, it imitates their distinctive rhythms, the way they flow.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Form

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is written in free verse, which means that it has no set rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. Sometimes its lines are very short; sometimes they are very long. For instance, the first line of the poem, "I've known rivers" contains just four syllables, while the second line has twenty-three. As a result, the poem's lines move like a river's current: sometimes full of energy and rushing forward, sometimes running slowly and softly Hughes also experiments with the length of its five stanzas. Stanzas 2 and 5 are only a single line, while the poem's third and central stanzaextends to four lines. Stanzas 1 and 4, which employ the refrain "I've known rivers," have two lines. This pattern creates a kind of structural symmetry, much as in a blues song. In general, the poem's flowing, variable, free verse lines allow Hughes to find a poetic expression of the historical complexity of the black experience.

Unknown Citizen- Form/Meter/ Rhyme

"The Unknown Citizen" is a deeply ironic poem that takes the form of a parody. These are words to mark the unveiling of a statue dedicated to a "citizen" known only by his identification number. The speech is meant to be a kind of elegy commemorating this man's death and celebrate his exemplary life—which was exemplary only because he behaved exactly as the state wanted. Like a parasite, the state has taken hold a form usually meant to express deep emotion, sincere sentiment, and genuine regret, and instead uses it here to make tribute to somebody for their sheer conformity. Though the poem is rhymed and has some metrical elements, the form is just one long stanza of 29 lines (with an epitaph at the beginning). This makes it quite prose-like—indeed, the poem avoids sounding beautiful or emotionally moving, and reads more like a presentation given in a conference room. Essentially, it is a list of all the thing the unknown citizen did right during his life, and the various ways that he was closely watched by the state. Two rhetorical questions at the poem's end indicate that "freedom" and "happiness" are "absurd" concepts in this particular dystopia. The Unknown Citizen" does use meter, but not in a particularly consistent way. The poem is based mostly around the anapest, which is a three-syllable foot that goes da-da-DUM (unstressed-unstressed-stressed). But there are variations in meter and line length throughout. "The Unknown Citizen" uses rhyme throughout, but there is no regular rhyme scheme. Sometimes the poem uses rhymes one after another, creating neat and tidy couplets, and sometimes these rhymes sounds are more spread out. Perhaps the rhyming is used to establish the poem's sense of irony—this is not a real elegy, but rather a mock one. It's a parody of what is usually a heartfelt expression of emotion—and the inability to emote properly is part of the state's problem (or what Auden sees as its problem). That is, the state doesn't really sympathize with the dead man—and so it's rhyming seems appropriately random and insincere.

We wear the Mask: Meter

"We Wear the Mask" employs a fairly regular iambic tetrameter. Each line contains eight syllables in an unstressed-stressed pattern, with the only exceptions being lines 9 and 15. For example, line 1 is an example of regular iambic tetrameter: We wear | the mask | that grins | and lies, The line begins with an unstressed syllable ("We") and follows that with a stressed syllable ("wear"). "We wear" thus represents one iambic foot. The rest of this line follows the same pattern. Iambs closely mimic the sound of regular English speech, granting the poem a colloquial feel—a simplicity of sound that belies the complicated, painful themes being broached. The clear, consistent meter it perhaps itself a kind of "mask" for the turmoil bubbling underneath the surface of the poem. However, this pattern is broken in lines 9 and 15, when the refrain is introduced. Unlike the rest of the poem, the refrain is written in iambicdimeter, meaning there are only two iambs in the lines (and just four syllables total): We wear | the mask. The regularity of the meter throughout this poem enhances the intensity of the much shorter refrain. In other words, in limiting the variation of the meter, the speaker builds expectations that are broken when introducing the refrain. This, in turn, enhances the importance of the refrain, while preventing the regularity of the rhyme scheme and meter from sounding too monotonous.

We Wear the Mask: Form

"We Wear the Mask" is a variation of the rondeau, a form that originated in France in the 14th and 15th centuries. A rondeau consists of three stanzas that incorporate a refrain and a specific rhyme scheme. The rondeau has many variants, but the one used here has 15 lines broken up into a quintain (five lines), quatrain (four lines), and a sestet (six lines), with the refrain "We wear the mask" appearing in last lines of the second and third stanzas. The rondeau was originally paired with music and dancing, with the refrain being sung. This might be subtly alluded to by the singingmentioned in line 12. More broadly, given that singing and dancing are often seen as expressions of joy, the poem's form itself can be thought of as a kind of "mask": even as the poem describes the emotional pain and suffering, it has a pleasant rhythm and meter. If you were to hear this poem without paying close attention to the words, you might even be temporarily enchanted by the steady, bouncy pacing. Like the mask, then, the poem's form is somewhat deceiving. What's more, given that the poem can be read as speaking specifically to the way black people must pretend to be content while being oppressed by society, the musicality of the rondeau could also be seen as a knowing nod towards the offensive trope of the "happy slave." This trope often included instances of an enslaved black person engaging in song and dance, meant to be a sign of said person's joy.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Form

A villanelle is a poem of nineteen lines, and which follows a strict form that consists of five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by one quatrain (four-line stanza). Villanelles use a specific rhyme scheme of ABA for their tercets, and ABAA for the quatrain. The first and third lines of the first tercet function as repeating refrains, which alternate as the final line of each subsequent tercet and appear again as the two final lines of the concluding quatrain. Although villanelles often do use meter, they don't have to use any one type of meter in particular.

The Road Not Taken: Context

Although Frost was an American poet, many of his earliest poems were written and published in England between 1912 and 1915. Frost didn't associate himself with any particular poetic school or movement, but when he began to publish work more widely in the United States in 1915—still very early in his career—the imagist poets were instrumental in helping to promote his work. Ezra Pound, for instance, favorably reviewed one of Frost's early collections (A Boy's Will), saying that Frost's style "has just this utter sincerity." Frost's poetry might also be broadly considered to be modernist. "The Road Not Taken" appeared in 1916 as the first poem in a collection titled Mountain Interval. Mountain Interval, and "The Road Not Taken" along with it, were regarded as a turning point in Frost's career, marking a shift from his earlier poems (that were largely dramatic monologues or dialogues) to poems that were, as the Poetry Foundation describes them, "brief meditation[s] sparked by an object, person or event." As in many of Frost's later poems, "The Road Not Taken" takes place in a pastoral setting in which the characters' actions take on symbolic significance to illustrate some general truth about human life. In a time when many of his contemporaries were turning away from the traditional verse practices of the 19th century, Frost was markedly more conservative in his technique, always using traditional meters. He was influenced by 19th-century Romantic poets (such as Keats) in both his subject matter and his thinking about craft, but he made his poems feel distinctly modern through his use of colloquial and everyday speech. Frost wrote "The Road Not Taken" at the start of World War I, just before returning to the United States from England. As a poem about the impossibility of understanding the significance of one's life choices, "The Road Not Taken" can be read in the context of Frost's personal life, as he moved his family overseas, just as easily as it can be read in the context of world history, with a global war suddenly and unexpectedly erupting and upending people's lives. Take, for example, the case of Frost's friend, Edward Thomas, after whom Frost reportedly modeled the speaker of "The Road Not Taken." Thomas, after reading an advance copy of Frost's poem, decided to enlist in the army and died two years thereafter.

Sonnet 18- Themes

Art & Immortality

Poem: How do I love thee? Let me Count the ways

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" is a sonnet by the 19th-century poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It is her most famous and best-loved poem, having first appeared as sonnet 43 in her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). Although the poem is traditionally interpreted as a love sonnet from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her husband, the poet Robert Browning, the speaker and addressee are never identified by name.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Themes

Blackness, Perseverance, and cultural identity- "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" stretches from the earliest moments of human civilization all the way to American slavery, emphasizing that black people have both witnessed and participated in the key moments of human history. In the face of centuries of slavery and oppression in America, the poem's speaker asserts the perseverance of black cultural roots. The poem argues that people of African descent have not simply been present for all of human history, they have been a guiding forceshaping civilization. In this sense, the poem is an ode to black perseverance. The speaker of the poem acts as a representative figure. After all, the title is "The Negro Speaks of River," not "A Negro..." (At the time of the poem's writing, "Negro" was a common term that wasn't considered offensive). In this sense, the speaker models how he or she thinks the black community as a whole should relate to its history and culture. As an almost mythical figure, the speaker emphasizes the depth of his or her experience, which turns out to represent the entire history of black people. The speaker has "known rivers ancient as the world," and "bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young." The Euphrates is a river in the Middle East associated with an area called the Cradle of Civilization, where human agriculture first began. As such, the speaker is saying he or she was present at the very start of human history, implying that black people have helped shape the world as we know it. Invoking this deep history establishes the fact that black experience extends as far back as any other people's, creating a profound sense of community and connection between black people.

Poem: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

By Dylan Thomas "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a poem by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, first published in 1951. Though the poem was dedicated to Thomas's father, it contains a universal message. The poem encourages the dying—the sick and the elderly—to fight bravely against death. The poem also celebrates the vibrancy and energy of human life, even though life is fragile and short.

Poem: "The Raven"

By Edgar Allan Poe The unnamed narrator is alone in his house on a cold December evening, trying to read. As he is about to fall asleep, he hears a quiet knock at his door, but decides to ignore it. He says that he has been reading in the hopes of relieving his sorrow over Lenore, his beloved, who has passed away. Though he tries to convince himself that nothing is there, his curiosity and fear overwhelm him. He eventually opens his door, speaking "Lenore?" into the darkness. When he hears tapping at his window, he opens that, too, and a Raven flies inside his room, landing on a bust of Pallas. The narrator jokingly asks the Raven's name, and is surprised to hear it respond "Nevermore." He mutters to himself that the Raven will probably leave him just as his friends and loved ones did, to which the Raven responds once more "Nevermore." The narrator then seats himself directly in front of the bird, trying to understand what it means by "Nevermore." Suddenly, the narrator perceives that angels sent by God have caused the air to become dense and perfumed. Anxious, he asks the Raven if the angels are a sign that heaven will relieve him of his sorrows, to which the bird says, again, "Nevermore." With the same response, the bird rejects his hope that he might see Lenore again in heaven, as well as his impassioned request for the bird to leave him alone. Finally, the narrator tells us that the Raven has continued to sit atop his chamber door above the bust of Pallas, and that he will live forever in its shadow.

Poem: The Armadillo

By Elizabeth Bishop The poem takes the reader through the previous night's events. First, the speaker focuses on the beauty of the balloons and how they appear against the night sky. They mimic the stars and the planets. But, when they fall, they're deadly. Like a cracked egg one fell behind her house. She went out to look at it and noted the terror the fire struck into the surrounding creatures. Owls, armadillos, and rabbits are seen fleeing the woods. 'The Armadillo' by Elizabeth Bishop is a ten stanza poem that's divided into quatrains. The lines follow a structured rhyme scheme of ABAB or ABCB, and so on, changing end sounds as the poet saw fit. There are moments in which the rhyme scheme is not quite perfect, and additionally instances in which Bishop makes use of half-rhyme. Also known as slant or partial rhyme, half-rhyme is seen through the repetition of assonance or consonance. This means that either a vowel or consonant sound is reused within one line, or multiple lines of verse. For example, the long "e" in the words "receding," "solemnly, " and "steadily" in stanza five and the use of the constant "t" in the second and third lines of the third stanza. Bishop makes use of several poetic techniques in 'The Armadillo'. These include alliteration, simile, enjambment and caesura. The first, alliteration, occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same letter. For example, "frail" and "fire" in line three of the first stanza and "downdraft" and "dangerous" in lines three and four of the fifth stanza. A simile is a comparison between two unlike things that uses the words "like" or "as". A poet uses this kind of figurative language to say that one thing is similar to another, not like metaphor, that it "is" another. There are several examples within 'The Armadillo'. For instance, the comparison between the fire balloons and hearts in the second stanza. Or, the second line of the sixth stanza that reads "It splattered like an egg of fire". This is in reference to the crashing of the balloons Caesura occurs when a line is split in half, sometimes with punctuation, sometimes not. The use of punctuation in these moments creates a very intentional pause in the text. A reader should consider how the pause influences the rhythm of one's reading and how it might proceed an important turn or transition in the text. The best example can be found in liens three of the ninth stanza. It reads: "So soft!—a handful of intangible ash" Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. There are examples to be found throughout 'The Armadillo,' such as the transition between lines one and two of the first stanza and lines two and three of the sixth.

Poem: Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

By Emily Dickinson "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" is American poet Emily Dickinson's reflection on the all-conquering power of death. Observing the dead lying "safe" in their marble tombs while the stars spin above them and nations rise and fall, the poem's speaker notes that the dead aren't disturbed one whit by anything the living are up to. And because the living will all one day be dead, their squabbling doesn't seem to count for much, either. Death, here, is both a conqueror and a comforter. Unlike most of Dickinson's work, this poem was published in her lifetime (though in a different version): it first appeared in a newspaper, the Springfield Daily Republican, in 1862.

Poem: The Return

By Ezra Pound 'The Return' by Ezra Pound is a twenty-nine line, five stanza poem constructed from short lines of varying lengths. The poem was written in 1913 and then published in The New Poetry: An Anthology in 1917. Pound has not chosen to structure this piece with a standard pattern of rhyme or rhythm. Instead, the lines flow in free verse—a way of writing that was still relatively new at the time during Pound's life. He is known as a pioneer of the form. A reader will immediately notice the varying lengths of the lines. Pound has chosen to structure his writing in this way as it forces a reader's eye to jump from line to line. The use of enjambment, especially between the third and fourth lines, is very effective. Here, the words "uncertain" and "wavering" are separated by a line break. This is not a natural stopping point in one's speech. It emphasizes the meaning within the words themselves. The "wavering" comes after a break in the line— the word wavers uncertainly itself. The poem begins with the speaker stating that "they" are returning. The gods are tentative in their steps as if they are unsure how to proceed. They sway and have trouble walking. It is immediately clear they do not have some strength they used to. This is only emphasized in the next lines as the speaker remembers what they, and their "silver hounds" used to be like. They had a strength that was unmatched and a ferocity to be feared. 'The Return' concludes with the gods remaining in their "pallid" and sick form. In the speaker's eyes, they will never have the power they used to.

Poem: We Real Cool

By Gwendolyn Brooks. "We Real Cool" is a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, first published in her 1960 collection The Bean Eaters. The poem describes a group of teenagers hanging out outside of a pool hall. It imagines these teenagers as rebels who proudly defy convention and authority—and who will likely pay for their behavior with their lives. The poem isn't overly pessimistic, however, and also suggests that such youthful rebellion may not be entirely in vain. It's possible to read the poem as a warning against self-destructive behavior, and also as a celebration of people who risk their lives to challenge authority.

Poem: The Odyssey

By Homer Most ancient Greeks believed that the Trojan War took place in the 11th or 12th century BC, but on a slightly smaller scale than what was depicted in stories and legends. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance scholars believed that the Trojan War was pure invention, but in the past century archeologists and geologists have excavated sites that correspond topographically to the geography of Troy and surrounding sites, as they were described in The Iliad. Today, most scholars agree that the Mycenean Greeks did storm a city called Troy in the 11th century BC, but that the details of the battle described in The Iliad and The Odyssey are fictitious. The Odyssey is the sequel to The Iliad, which describes the events of the Trojan War. The epics are considered the first known works of Western literature, and exerted vast influence on most of the authors and philosophers in ancient Greece as well as epic poems written in Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance times, such as The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost. Some scholars have pointed out resemblances between The Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian poem that dates back to the 18th century BC.

Poem: Ode on a Grecian Urn

By John Keats "Ode on a Grecian Urn" was written by the influential English poet John Keats in 1819. It is a complex, mysterious poem with a disarmingly simple set-up: an undefined speaker looks at a Grecian urn, which is decorated with evocative images of rustic and rural life in ancient Greece. These scenes fascinate, mystify, and excite the speaker in equal measure—they seem to have captured life in its fullness, yet are frozen in time. The speaker's response shifts through different moods, and ultimately the urn provokes questions more than it provides answers. The poem's ending has been and remains the subject of varied interpretation. The urn seems to tell the speaker—and, in turn, the reader—that truth and beauty are one and the same. Keats wrote this poem in a great burst of creativity that also produced his other famous odes (e.g. "Ode to a Nightingale"). Though this poem was not well-received in Keats' day, it has gone on to become one of the most celebrated in the English language.

Poem: The Negro Speaks of Rivers

By Langston Hughes "The Negro Speaks of River" is a poem written in 1920 by the American poet Langston Hughes. One of the key poems of a literary movement called the "Harlem Renaissance," "The Negro Speaks of River" traces black history from the beginning of human civilization to the present, encompassing both triumphs (like the construction of the Egyptian pyramids) and horrors (like American slavery). The poem argues that the black "soul" has incorporated all of this historical experience, and in the process has become "deep." The poem thus suggests that black cultural identity is continuous, that it stretches across the violence and displacement of slavery to connect with the past—and that black people have made vital, yet often neglected contributions to human civilization.

Poem: Dover Beach

By Matthew Arnold. "Dover Beach" is the most celebrated poem by Matthew Arnold, a writer and educator of the Victorian era. The poem expresses a crisis of faith, with the speaker acknowledging the diminished standing of Christianity, which the speaker sees as being unable to withstand the rising tide of scientific discovery. New research and intellectual inquiry cast doubt on humankind's central and special role in the universe. The speaker in the poem senses this change almost subconsciously, seeing and hearing it in the sea that the speaker is looking out upon. In its expression of alienation, doubt, and melancholy, the poem is often interpreted as a remarkably forward-thinking precursor to 20th century crises of faith—like Existentialism and Absurdism. In essence, the poem is an inquiry into what it means to be alive.

Poem: We Wear the Mask

By Paul Laurence Dunbar "We Wear the Mask" was written by African American poet and novelist Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1895. Like much of Dunbar's work, "We Wear the Mask" is a reaction to the experience of being black in America in the late 19th century, following the Civil War—a period when life seemed to have improved for black Americans yet in reality was still marked by intense racism and hardship. Dunbar compares surviving the pain of oppression to wearing a mask that hides the suffering of its wearer while presenting a more joyful face to the world. All that said, the poem itself does not specifically mention race; its message is applicable to any circumstance in which marginalized people are forced to present a brave face in order to survive in an unsympathetic, prejudiced society.

Poem: Sympathy

By Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a renowned African American poet, wrote the poem. Sympathy is a thought-provoking literary piece about slavery and freedom. It was first published in 1899. The poem speaks about brutal slavery, racial segregation, and social discrimination practiced in American society against the African-American community. Using the metaphor of a bird, Dunbar highlights the importance of freedom. He also describes captivity through the plea and struggle of a caged bird. As this poem is about the caged bird, the poet explains how the bird feels after deprived of the pleasures of life. This feeling leads him to protest against it. The poem opens with a natural setting. A bird starts chirping and the river takes turns to its way and the sun shines. Only the caged bird feels underprivileged. His sufferings and feelings of constraints lead him to protest, but his protest goes in vain. He helplessly bashes himself to the bars and gets wounded. His wounds turn into scars, but he does not taste freedom. After a continuous struggle, he decides to sing for freedom. It is through the act of singing he is going to shake the doors of heaven. Thus, he starts singing and longs for the happy days of his life. The poem describes the persistent efforts of the bird that does not lose hope.

Poem: The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost Written in 1915 in England, "The Road Not Taken" is one of Robert Frost's—and the world's—most well-known poems. Although commonly interpreted as a celebration of rugged individualism, the poem actually contains multiple different meanings. The speaker in the poem, faced with a choice between two roads, takes the road "less traveled," a decision which he or she supposes "made all the difference." However, Frost creates enough subtle ambiguity in the poem that it's unclear whether the speaker's judgment should be taken at face value, and therefore, whether the poem is about the speaker making a simple but impactful choice, or about how the speaker interprets a choice whose impact is unclear.

Poem: Middle Passage

By Robert Hayden 'Middle Passage' is a narrative poem by Robert Hayden about the Atlantic Slave Trade. From the whites' perspective, this historical poem details the traumatic experiences Africans endured en route to America. "Middle Passage" literally means the route these slave ships traveled from Africa to North America. With the voices of several white men, the poet narrates to readers the goings-on on the referenced slave ships. A crewman gives a short but gruesome account of the suffering Africans endured en route to America. Unlike other narrators, he isn't a staunch supporter of the slave trade. He only wishes to return home—to America—and escape the horrors of the ship. Through a second speaker—a sailor—Robert details the savage behaviors of the white crew towards Africans. The speaker tells us of diseases, sexual harassment, and deaths. The less than healthy living conditions on the ship frighten the sailor. Another crewman renders an ironic prayer for the crew's safe journey back to America; the fourth speaker ponders on the slaves' plight and the benefit the whites reap from it. Through a former slaver, we glimpse the history behind the slave trade, which the greed of certain African rulers facilitated. This speaker sees the practice as a profitable business. Lastly, another sailor narrates the conquering of their ship, thanks to an African prince. As a staunch supporter of the slave trade, he expresses his discontent with people like John Quincy, who fight against the practice. Nonetheless, the poem ends on a hopeful note, stemming from these fights against the slave trade.

Poem: If--

By Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling, one of the most famous poets of the late British Empire, published "If—" in his 1910 book Rewards and Fairies. The poem's speaker advises his son to live with restraint, moderation, and composure. The son should always keep his wits about him, the speaker says, never overreacting; he should learn to be confident without being vain, accept hardships without dwelling on them, and behave with dignity. Living this way, the speaker suggests, will make the son a true man. This is a poem of advice not just from a father to a son, but from Fathers to Sons: a poem about an idealized kind of self-sufficient male virtue. Its worldview borrows heavily from Stoicism, an Ancient Greek philosophy that encourages people to live uninfluenced by pleasure or pain—a perspective that appealed to English writers like Kipling and plays into the stereotypical idea of the British "stiff upper lip."

In the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"

By T. S Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a poem written by T.S. Eliot in 1910 and published in 1915. It is considered one of the quintessential works of modernism, a literary movement at the turn of the 20th century that emphasized themes of alienation, isolation, and the diminishing power of the traditional sources of authority. The poem is a dramatic monologue, in which the speaker narrates the anxieties and preoccupations of his inner life.

Poem: Epitaph of a Tyrant

By W.H Auden. W. H. Auden spent some time in Berlin during the 1930s, and it was here that he probably wrote 'Epitaph on a Tyrant', which was published in 1939, the year that the Second World War broke out. The specific tyrant Auden had in mind, then, was probably Adolf Hitler, though the poem can be analysed as a study in tyranny more generally, too. Themes: Tyranny, Control, Manipulation, Literary Devices: Allusion, Symbolism, Rhyme Scheme (Irregular)

Poem: O Captain, My Captain

By Walt Whitman "O Captain! My Captain!" is an elegy written by Walt Whitman in 1865 to commemorate the death of President Abraham Lincoln. It was first published in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865), a collection of Whitman's poems inspired by the events of the American Civil War. The poem is perhaps Whitman's most famous—which is ironic, since it is far more conventional in meter, form, and subject than much of Whitman's other work. Although some critics have suggested that Whitman regretted ever writing "O Captain! My Captain!" it undeniably captured the mood of a nation in mourning and has remained one of Whitman's best-loved and most-quoted poems.

Poem: Song of Myself

By Walt Whitman This most famous of Whitman's works was one of the original twelve pieces in the 1855 first edition of Leaves of Grass. Like most of the other poems, it too was revised extensively, reaching its final permutation in 1881. "Song of Myself" is a sprawling combination of biography, sermon, and poetic meditation. It is not nearly as heavy-handed in its pronouncements as "Starting at Paumanok"; rather, Whitman uses symbols and sly commentary to get at important issues. "Song of Myself" is composed more of vignettes than lists: Whitman uses small, precisely drawn scenes to do his work here. Whitman's grand poem is, in its way, an American epic. Beginning in medias res—in the middle of the poet's life—it loosely follows a quest pattern. "Missing me one place search another," he tells his reader, "I stop somewhere waiting for you." In its catalogues of American life and its constant search for the boundaries of the self "Song of Myself" has much in common with classical epic. This epic sense of purpose, though, is coupled with an almost Keatsian valorization of repose and passive perception. Since for Whitman the birthplace of poetry is in the self, the best way to learn about poetry is to relax and watch the workings of one's own mind.

Poem: The Red Wheelbarrow

By Willam Carlos Williams Free verse. William Carlos Williams published "The Red Wheelbarrow" in his 1923 poetry collection, Spring and All. In this collection, the poem does not have a title, but is merely marked "XXII" (the Roman numeral for the number 22). "The Red Wheelbarrow" is considered one of the most prominent poems of the Imagist movement, which was started by Ezra Pound in the early 1900s as a reaction against the more passionate and excessive Victorian Romanticism. Imagism, by contrast, focuses on the "hard, dry image." The movement also found inspiration in the short and exact haiku, as well as from ancient Greek lyricists. Williams, along with Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), and James Joyce, were considered major players in the Imagist movement. However, Williams eventually began to stray from the movement, which can be seen in his later writing. At the time, Williams felt he was overshadowed by T.S. Elliot's wildly popular The Wasteland, which was published the same year as Spring and All. Nevertheless, Williams is considered to have had a major influence on both Imagism and the later Beats poets, such as Allen Ginsburg. Williams was also a physician, and some scholars have argued that "The Red Wheelbarrow" is actually a reference to a toy that belonged to a dying patient of his. However, Williams later revealed that the wheelbarrow belonged to an African American neighbor of his, stating, "I suppose my affection for the old man somehow got into the writing." In any case, it is important to note that poems are often quite layered and can represent multiple ideas at once—their themes can even emerge subconsciously, as indicated by Williams demonstrating that perhaps he did not actively set out to write a poem about his neighbor. It is important to avoid basing too much literary analysis on the author's biography. "The Red Wheelbarrow" was published in 1923, which, in the United States, was a period of economic and industrial growth. The 1920s, known as the "Roaring Twenties," saw an increase in more modern appliances, such as television sets, cars, telephones, etc. being introduced to the home. This upswing in production and consumption led to significant lifestyle changes as well. For example, women gained the right to vote in the United States and became more independent than the years before. In the context of this poem, the glitz and glamor of the 1920s hardly makes an appearance, instead focusing on a simple machine and its rural surroundings. It may seem as though the historical context did not have any impact on the poem, but it could be argued that this poem is a reaction to the economic boom of the 20s; if the reader interprets the wheelbarrow as being representative of manual laborers and farmworkers, the speaker of the poem is suggesting that the reader remember the common people who have played a significant role in the country's success. If the reader is to see the poem as a simple act of paying attention to one's surroundings, then perhaps the poem serves as a reminder to have respect for the simpler things in life, even when surrounding by flashy modern inventions.

Poem: The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By William Butler Yeats

Poem: Sonnet 18

By William Shakespeare "Sonnet 18" is a sonnet written by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. The poem was likely written in the 1590s, though it was not published until 1609. Like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, the poem wrestles with the nature of beauty and with the capacity of poetry to represent that beauty. Praising an anonymous person (usually believed to be a young man), the poem tries out a number of clichéd metaphors and similes, and finds each of them wanting. It then develops a highly original and unusual simile: the young man's beauty can be best expressed by comparing him to the poem itself.

We Real Cool: Context

Despite its monumental reputation, "We Real Cool" was written during a time of change for Brooks. It presents a poet in transition. By the time she published "We Real Cool" in her 1960 collection, The Bean Eaters, she was one of the most famous poets in the United States. In 1949, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her epic poem Annie Allen, becoming the first black author to do so. She had been publishing with the most prestigious New York publishing companies. However, as the 1960s progressed she gradually turned her back on mainstream publishing—choosing to publish her work with Haki Madhubuti's Chicago-based Third World Press. This transition marks a broader transition. As she came under the influence of younger poets like Amiri Baraka—and the "Black Arts Movement" that they launched—she wanted to write "poems for black people, about black people," as she noted later—and to publish with black owned and operated publishing houses. She turned her back on mainstream success in order to do so. As she made this transition, "We Real Cool" remained a centerpiece of her repertoire—a poem she would often read for black audiences. The poem thus became a rallying cry for independent, black artistic movement: a celebration of rebellion and self-determination, whatever its costs. "We Real Cool" was first published in 1960, at the height of the American Civil Rights movement. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, black Americans lived as second-class citizens: confined to separate and unequal schools and neighborhoods, often denied the right to vote. During the 1950s and 1960s, black Americans led a series of legal and political campaigns to reverse these discriminatory laws and to change American ideas about race, winning victories that changed the fabric of American life. Though the poem never explicitly acknowledges that its speakers are African American, the poem is usually understood to describe a group of African American teenagers hanging out at a pool hall. In interviews, Brooks has said that she wrote the poem after seeing a group of delinquents hanging out outside a pool hall, the Golden Shovel, in Bronzeville—the segregated black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago where she lived for most of her life. The rebelliousness of the speakers, their refusal to live within the boundaries of social norms, takes on a different flavor when it is placed in the context of the Civil Rights movement. One might understand the poem as celebrating their rebelliousness, their unwillingness to live within the boundaries set up for them by a racist society. Or one might understand the poem as mourning the tragic shortness of their lives: meditating on the way that black lives are limited and cut short in a racist society.

Annabel Lee: Context

Edgar Allan Poe is a towering figure of American literature and literature written in English more generally. He was orphaned at an early age, giving him a tragically early experience of grief and loss. He was a prominent critic in American literature, praising work that helped to establish a distinctly American tradition, as opposed to a British one. Writers whose work Poe praised included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville. He was also a big admirer of Charles Dickens's novels—indeed, his famous poem "The Raven" was directly inspired by Dickens. "Annabel Lee" also shares a common subject—the death of a beautiful young woman—with Poe's "Eulalie" and "Ulalume." In fact, he called this subject "the most poetical topic in the world." Poe's literary output was by no means limited to poetry; many of his short stories are considered classics of the genre. He established the Gothic genre in American literature, and also explored detective fiction and sci-fi too. This poem shares a number of elements with the gothic genre: death, the supernatural, and a fantastical setting. Poe's continuing influence over literature can hardly be overstated. The poem itself deliberately takes place in an ahistorical setting, offering no references to date its world apart from the vague assertion that "it was many and many a year ago." The poem was published in 1849, part of the American Antebellum Period and a time when the United States was experiencing a period of relative tranquility. Of course, though still a number of years before the American Civil War, the debate around slavery was nevertheless intensifying at the time. Though born in Boston, Poe grew up in slave-owning Richmond, Virginia. His writing, however, does not ever explicitly address the issue of slavery. Indeed, this poem appears entirely concerned with its own world, which encompasses only the speaker and his beloved. Many believe "Annabel Lee" is based on Poe's real-life wife Virginia Clemm, who was also Poe's cousin and married Poe at age 13. Clemm died of tuberculosis at age 24, and her death appears to have significantly affected her husband; dying women appear in many of Poe's subsequent works.

Annabel Lee: Meter

Edgar Allan Poe plays with the reader's expectations in "Annabel Lee" through variation of the poem's meter. A high percentage of the poem's metrical feet employ anapests, which have a dramatic and propulsive sound—but if overdone can start to sound comic. Accordingly, Poe mixes these anapests up with iambs. For example: It was man- | y and man- |y a year | ago This is a line of tetrameter that goes anapest-anapest-anapest-iamb. It accelerates dramatically through the anapest, but is then disrupted by the final iamb. To see the difference in effect, here is a line with largely the same informative content that sticks to the anapestic foot: It was man-|-y and man-|-y a year | in the past If "Annabel Lee" was like the above line throughout, the rhythm would take on a comedic regularity that wouldn't fit with the subject matter. Instead, the frequent switches between iambs and anapests create tension and represent the speaker's inability to move beyond the death of Annabel Lee. There is also something quite hypnotic about this push and pull between iambs and anapests, as though the lines are like the waves coming in and out of the "sounding" sea nearby, where Annabel Lee is entombed. Even though the feet still vary, the last two stanzas have a quicker flow than what has come before. Arguably, this is because the poem is reaching its climax, as the speaker loses himself in thoughts about his love with Annabel Lee—and their eternal future together. Not all of the lines in these stanzas start with two unstressed syllables, but the three-syllable sound of the anapest is prominent throughout these stanzas. This line, for example, is purely anapestic: But our love | it was strong- |er by far | than the love Whereas this line gets rid of one of the first syllables (technically called catalexis): Can ev- | er dissev- |er my soul | from the soul So even if the first foot isn't an anapest, the fact that the variation happens at the start of the line makes it very easy for the speed of the three-syllabled anapests to keep their pace. As the speaker delves deeper into his thoughts—and becomes overcome with emotion—the meter makes it sound as if he is speeding away from the reader, perhaps suggesting that the reader is as incapable of understanding the nature of this love as all the other people mentioned earlier.

Romeo and Juliet Key Facts

Full Title: Romeo and Juliet When Written: Likely 1591-1595 Where Written: London, England When Published: "Bad quarto" (incomplete manuscript) printed in 1597; Second, more complete quarto printed in 1599; First folio, with clarifications and corrections, printed in 1623 Literary Period: Renaissance Genre: Tragic play Setting: Verona, Italy Climax: Mistakenly believing that Juliet is dead, Romeo kills himself on her funeral bier by drinking poison. Juliet wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and fatally stabs herself with his dagger. Antagonist: Capulet, Lady Capulet, Montague, Lady Montague, Tybalt

Annabel Lee: Form

Edgar Allan Poe referred to this poem as a ballad, though it does not fit any of the strict definitions of that mode. It does feel ballad-like, though. That's because it generally unfolds through a pattern that alternates between longer lines and shorter lines, which is a typical feature of ballads. Just as importantly, it's also the content itself that gives this poem a ballad-like feel. Ballads are predominantly narrative, in that they tell a story. "Annabel Lee" tells the story of her death, and how that has come to affect the speaker's life. Furthermore, traditional ballads were often about doomed love affairs and/or murders—exactly what the reader sees in "Annabel Lee." The poem's refusal to settle into a regular ballad structure, which would usually consist of quatrains, is part of the poem's atmosphere. Just as the meter hints at regularity but never quite gets there, the form approximates a regular structure but falls deliberately short; the stanzas don't follow a predictable structure or number of lines. This has an unnerving effect on the reader's experience of the poem, highlighting both the intensity of the speaker's grief and the possibility that his perception of reality is fractured. The incompletion of the poem's form also embodies the way in which Annabel Lee's life was cut short in youth.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Context

Frost wrote "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" while working on the long poem "New Hampshire," both of which would later be published in 1923 in a collection of the same name. New Hampshire would become a watershed publication in Frost's career, winning him the Pulitzer Prize and containing other famous poems like "Fire and Ice" and "Nothing Gold Can Stay." These works all maintained naturalistic and philosophical themes while relying heavily on traditional meter and verse forms. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," like much of Frost's work, focuses on rural life and the natural world, especially that of New England, where Frost mainly lived. However, while a poem like "New Hampshire" is a celebration of Frost's home state and the people within, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" represents a different vein in Frost's work: poetry as a meditation on a moment or object. In some ways, this bridge between concrete subject matter and more philosophical writing could be seen as a bridge between 19th century realism and the early modernism of the 20th century. Certainly, connections can be drawn between modernist works such as Wallace Stevens's "The Snow Man," published two years earlier in 1921, and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Many modernists championed Frost, such as Amy Lowell and Ezra Pound, and their work in Imagism (a literary movement focused on creating sharp, clear images for the reader) likely had some influence on "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Yet Frost's work was also very attuned to traditional and classical poetry, and in this way resisted the explosion of free verse that would come to dominate modernist poetry. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is written in Rubaiyat form, made famous in the English-speaking world by Edward FitzGerald's translation of the 12th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam. The poem also nods towards Dante's use of terza rima, another form of interlocking chain rhyme. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was written just several years after the conclusion of World War I, which had forced Frost to move from England, where he briefly lived, back to the United States. Though his poetry never overtly dealt with the war, the devastating conflict cast a huge shadow over much of modern literature and art at the time. Poets found themselves grappling with the place of the individual in a world that perhaps lacked meaning or God. Such questions can be seen indirectly in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," whether it is the speaker's meditation on solitude or the more foreboding and ominous symbol of despair that may be suggested in the powerful draw of the woods.

A Midsummers Night Dream Key Facts

Full Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream When Written: Early to mid 1590s Where Written: England When Published: 1600 (though it was first performed earlier, probably between 1594-96). Literary Period: The Renaissance (1500 - 1660) Genre: Comic drama Setting: The city of Athens and the forest just outside, in some distant, ancient time when it was ruled by the mythological hero Theseus.

Key Facts about Beowulf

Full Title: Beowulf When Published: Beowulf exists in a single damaged manuscript in the British Library. The manuscript was probably written in England in the early eleventh century, though the poem itself was probably first written down in the eighth century, and was passed on orally before that. Literary Period: Medieval; Anglo-Saxon Genre: Epic poem Setting: Northern Europe, especially Denmark and Sweden, around the sixth century Climax: Beowulf's final fight with a dragon Point of View: The unnamed speaker of the poem Old English Style. Beowulf is the longest poem written in Old English. Old English poetry uses alliterative meter, meaning that the stressed words in a line begin with the same sound. A line of Old English poetry has two halves, with a brief pause, called a caesura, in the middle of the line. The two halves of a line are linked by the alliteration (repetition of an initial consonant); at least three words in a line alliterate. Old English poetry also uses kennings, compressed metaphors like "heaven's candle" for the sun, or "whale's road" for the sea, or calling a woman married in an effort to gain peace a "peace weaver

Paradise Lost: Key Facts

Full Title: Paradise Lost When Written: 1658-1663 Where Written: London, England When Published: First edition in 1667, revised second edition in 1674 Literary Period: Late English Renaissance Literature, English Restoration Literature Genre: Epic Poetry, Christian Mythology Setting: Heaven, Hell, and Paradise Climax: Eve eats the forbidden fruit Point of View: Third person omniscient

The Odyssey: Key Facts

Full Title: The Odyssey When Written: 8th or 7th century BC. Where Written: Ancient Greece When Published: The poem was passed down orally for many generations, but the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos established a committee to compile and revise Homer's manuscripts in the 6th century BC. The oldest complete manuscript of the poem dates back to the 10th or 11th century AD. Dozens of English translations have been published since the 17th century. Literary Period: Ancient Greece (pre-Classical) Genre: Epic Poem Setting: The Pelopponese and the Ionian islands in Mycenaean Greece, in the 10 years after the fall of Troy, circa 12th century BC. Climax: The slaughter of the suitors Antagonist: The suitors, Poseidon Point of View: Third person omniscient

Key Facts about Hamlet

Full Title: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark When Written: Likely between 1599 and 1602 Where Written: Stratford-upon-Avon or London, England When Published: First Quarto printed 1603; Second Quarto printed 1604; First Folio printed 1623 Literary Period: Renaissance Genre: Tragic play; revenge play Setting: Elsinore Castle, Denmark, during the late Middle Ages Climax: After seeing Claudius's emotional reaction to a play Hamlet has had staged in order to make Claudius face a fictionalized version of his own murder plot against the former king, Hamlet resolves to kill the Claudius without guilt. Antagonist: Claudius Point of View: Dramatic

Key Facts about Othello

Full Title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice When Written: c. 1603 Where Written: England When Published: 1622 Literary Period: The Renaissance Genre: Tragedy Setting: Venice and Cyprus Climax: The murder of Desdemona, by Othello Antagonist: Iago

Play: Waiting for Godot

Full Title: Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts When Written: 1948-1949 Where Written: Paris When Published: 1954 Literary Period: Modernism, Postmodernism Genre: Drama, Tragicomedy (a mixture of tragedy and comedy), Theater of the Absurd Setting: The side of an unidentified road, near a tree, at an unspecified time. Climax: Beckett's play essentially lacks a climax. Vladimir and Estragon spend both acts waiting for the arrival of Godot, but Godot never comes. Antagonist: While Vladimir and Estragon speak of an anonymous "they" who threaten to beat them and from whom they must hide, there is no real antagonist in the play. Part of the characters' predicament is that there is no precise cause or origin of the suffering and alienation they feel.

Poem: The Children's Hour

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most widely known and best-loved American poets of the 19th century. He achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequaled in the literary history of the United States and is one of the few American writers honored in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey—in fact, he is believed to be the first as his bust was installed there in 1884. Poems such as "Paul Revere's Ride," Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847), and "A Psalm of Life" were mainstays of primary and secondary school curricula, long remembered by generations of readers who studied them as children. Longfellow's achievements in fictional and nonfictional prose, in a striking variety of poetic forms and modes, and in translation from many European languages resulted in a remarkably productive and influential literary career. His celebrity in his own time, however, has yielded to changing literary tastes and to reactions against the genteel tradition of authorship he represented. Even if time has proved him something less than the master poet he never claimed to be, Longfellow made pioneering contributions to American literary life by exemplifying the possibility of a successful authorial career, by linking American poetry to European traditions beyond England, and by developing a surprisingly wide readership for Romantic poetry.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Meter

In English, villanelles are often written in iambic pentameter, a meter with a da DUM rhythm that goes on for five feet (making ten syllables total per line). "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" follows this tradition.

No Exit

Jean-Paul Sartre Full Title: No Exit Where Written: Paris, France When Published: 1944 Literary Period: Modernism, Existentialism Genre: Drama, Existentialist Drama, One-Act Play Setting: A drawing-room in hell Climax: Exasperated by his torturous interactions with Estelle and Inez, Garcin declares, "Hell is—other people!" Antagonist: Garcin, Inez, and Estelle are all each other's antagonists

Dover Beach Themes

Loss of faith- Written during the Victorian era, Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" admits to and laments the loss of religious faith that came with advances in various fields at the time: evolutionary biology, geology, archeology, and textual analysis of the Bible, to name a few. The poem senses the turn of a historical epoch and finds this change echoed in the transitional figure of the beach—the blurry border between land and sea Nature and alienation- Linked to the idea of a loss of faith is a shift in the way people relate to the natural environment. Written shortly after the era of the Romantic poets, who praised nature as an antidote to overly rational thinking, "Dover Beach" questions humankind's relationship with nature. Instead of finding happiness or the sublime in the natural environment, the speaker finds a deep sense of sorrow (even while admitting to the beach's beauty). The cold indifference and vast power of the natural world make the speaker feel small and insignificant. The poem is therefore an attempt to capture the complexity of human experience as just one part of the natural world, rather than its center. Love- With the retreat of religion causing a crisis of spiritual faith, the speaker turns to love as an answer for the loss of God. Perhaps, the poem suggests, love between people can compensate for the loss of the connection between God and mankind. But the poem only argues that love has the possibility of creating the certainty that religion once did—it doesn't make the case that this is inevitable.

Annabel Lee: Themes

Love Death and Grief

How Do I Love thee: Themes

Love Vs Reason: The poem thus begins as a means of attempting to justify love in rational terms. By expressing her desire to "count the ways," the speaker suggests that her love can be explained on an intellectual level. At the same time, however, she admits that love is actually something more profound, spiritual, and dictated by fate. In this sense, her opening determination to "count the ways" in which she loves slowly succumbs to an understanding that love is often not a rational feeling and can't be explained. The speaker sets out to "count the ways" in which she loves, and this organizational structure shapes the form of the rest of the poem. Over the course of the poem, the speaker names seven ways in which she loves her partner. This might at first look like a counter-intuitive or overly argumentative format for a love poem, and by framing her declarations in this unusual way, the speaker implies that love can be measured and "counted." In particular, she suggests that her love for her partner is reasoned and rational because it is grounded in the everyday, mundane actions of life: "I love thee to the level of every day's / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light." This love isn't necessarily the stuff of legends or dramatic romances; rather, it exists in mutual bonds of day-to-day care. The speaker also explains that she loves her beloved "purely, as [men] turn from praise," implying that her love isn't based on pride or self-aggrandizement. By focusing on these virtues of purity and self-sacrifice, she implies that love can be measured simply in the degree of care one gives the other person. And yet, even as the speaker declares that her love can be "counted," she frequently uses language that implies her love is something huge, all-encompassing, and resistant to bounds or limits. For instance, she declares: "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach," which sounds potentially infinite. The idea of infinity continues into the end of the poem, when the speaker expresses the desire that she and her beloved will love after death in the afterlife—which is to say, infinitely, because in Christian theology, salvation leads to eternal life in heaven. "How Do I Love Thee?" begins by declaring that it is possible to "count" the ways in which one loves. But it ends by looking forward to heaven and the afterlife, a time in which it will no longer be possible to measure love, because love will be infinite. In this way, the poem first imagines love as something rational or measurable, but ends by asserting that love sometimes can't be explained by reason or measured, no matter how hard one might try to do so.

How do I love thee?: Themes

Love as Choice and Freedom: Throughout the poem, the speaker frequently describes love as a free choice based on admiration for a lover's qualities. Reading the poem biographically, this is a significant choice for a poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who had little choice in her own life: she lived at home until her forties under the power of a controlling and restrictive father. It is thus not surprising that the poem places a high value on choice and freedom as romantic values. For this speaker, love is not just a source of joy or even spiritual fulfillment; it's also a means of achieving freedom within constraining circumstances. The speaker states: "I love thee freely, as men strive for right." She thus explicitly frames her love as something that is not coerced or influenced by anyone else, but rather as something that comes from her own agency and free choice. By comparing her love to an effort to "strive for right," she also connects romantic love to a broader set of ethical values and goals. That is, her love is something that empowers her and gives her the agency to make her own decisions about her life, rather than relying on someone else. What's more, the poem is written in a first-person voice that gives the speaker an air of authority and reinforces this theme of agency. For instance, she declares "Let me count the ways," an imperative sentence that puts her firmly in control of the poem's narrative. She makes frequent use of the "I" and "me" pronouns, which further adds to this sense that the speaker is asserting her own voice and feelings in the poem. The list of ways in which the speaker loves her beloved is also structured like a list of arguments or supporting points, from her opening assertion that she will "count the ways." The speaker is thus depicted as articulate and confident in defending her choice of partner. Additionally, the speaker emphasizes that her love is a free choice in her adulthood, as compared to her lack of agency in childhood, when she was told what and how to worship. For example, she claims that she has transferred her "passion" from her "childhood's faith"—the religion she was taught as a child—and "put [it] to use" in her love for her partner. She admits that she "seemed to lose" her love for her "lost saints," but now this new love has made her faith more powerful because it is a love of free choice. Ultimately, the poem makes a powerful equation between love, choice, and freedom. The speaker emphasizes that she loves "freely" and that her affection for her partner is a result of her own assessment of his value. It is not a value imposed from external authority like her "childhood's faith," but is rather an expression of her own agency. "How Do I Love Thee?" is a poem that emphasizes the speaker's power and agency in making her own romantic choices. This is a particularly bold claim for a woman of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's time, when women often lacked the opportunity to exercise agency over their own lives.

The Road Not Taken: Themes

Making Meaning- In "The Road Not Taken," the speaker must choose between two roads without having complete information about how they differ. Even after having chosen the second road, the speaker is unable to evaluate his or her experience, because the speaker can't know how things would have been different if he or she had chosen the first road. In the final stanza, the speaker imagines him or herself in the distant future looking back on this choice. In this way, the poem engages not just with a choice being made, but with the way that the speaker interprets that choice and assigns it meaning after the fact. It is only when looking back, after all, that the speaker sees the choice of which road to take as having made "all the difference." Many people read the poem straightforwardly, and believe the choice did make "all the difference." The poem, however, is not clear about whether the speaker's final assertion is true. The speaker explains that he or she chose to take the second road because it seemed more "grassy" and less worn than the first, but soon admits that the two roads were actually worn to "about the same" degree. By raising the question of whether there was actually anything special about the road the speaker chose to take, the poem further questions whether taking the second road could have possibly "made all the difference," or even any difference at all. The poem implies that the speaker in the future may look back and construct a narrative of his or her life that is simpler and cleaner, and which gives this choice more meaning than the truth would support. Using this interpretation, the poem can be read as commenting more broadly on how all people fictionalize their lives by interpreting their choices, in hindsight, as being more purposeful and meaningful than they really are. The poem can also be read in a third and more positive way, though. In this third interpretation, the poem implies that it's less important whether the speaker's choice actually "made all the difference" than it is that he or she believes that it did. In this reading, the poem recognizes that the speaker—and all people—fictionalize their lives by creating meaning where there may not be any, but portrays such meaning-making not as fraudulent, but rather as a part of being human. All three of these different possible readings co-exist in "The Road Not Taken." The poem does not suggest a solution to the question of the meaning in the speaker's choice, but rather comes to embody the question itself, allowing for contemplation of the mysteries inherent in defining or interpreting a life.

If-- Themes

Manhood and Masculinity- To the Edwardian-era speaker of "If—," manhood isn't something one is born with, but a quality one earns. The poem reflects some rather old-fashioned ideas about masculinity; after all, the self-sufficiency and levelheadedness the speaker describes would be virtues in any person, and marking them out as specifically male feels antiquated and sexist. Yet poem also doesn't just grant every man these qualities, and instead suggests that men must earn manhood. Masculinity, the poem insists, is a demanding goal that one must strive for, and the few who achieve virtuous manhood enjoy a rock-solid sense of self. To be a capital-M "Man," in this speaker's view, is a virtue, an achievement, and its own reward.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers: Poetic Devices

Metaphor- Metaphors make the poem feel both sinister and droll. One of the poem's central metaphors is a pretty well-worn one: the idea that death is only "sleep." Here, the "meek members of the Resurrection"—that is, the dead, waiting for the Christian Judgment Day when they'll be restored to life—are said to be simply drowsing down in their tombs. This one line hints that, while this is a poem about death's all-conquering power, there's a greater power even than death: God. But not until the literal end of the world will God's power overrule death's. Until then, the dead lie asleep in tombs that are understatedly described as either "chambers" (a word that can mean "bedrooms") or houses, with "Rafter[s]" and "Roof[s]." But the poem is realistic about what these cozy domiciles are built from: chilly white "Alabaster," hard "Stone," and the "Satin" that lines coffins. These metaphors feel more than a little creepy, inviting readers to draw closer to the physical realities of death than they might prefer to. The poem similarly takes something grand pretty lightly when it describes the "Firmaments"—that is, the skies—"row[ing]" past. This moment of personification depicts the heavens themselves as nothing more than weekenders messing about in boats. Nothing going on in the world of the living, this metaphor implies, not even the grand movement of the stars, makes even the slightest impact on the dead.

Innisfree: Themes

Nature and Spirituality- Labor and fulfillment

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers: Themes

Power and Consolation of Death: In "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers," a speaker imagines the dead lying safe in their tombs, utterly undisturbed by anything that's going on above them. Nothing that happens on earth makes the slightest difference to the dead, the poem suggests—a fact that also serves as a subtle reminder that death will bring an unceremonious end to whatever seems so important to the living now! Death, in this poem, is the strongest force there is, and it makes a mockery of all earthly power. At the same time, however, it's also peculiarly comforting, protecting the dead from the chaos and uproar of earthly life. Imagining the dead under the stony "roof[s]" of their tombs, the speaker observes that they lie there undisturbed by the passage of time. "Untouched" by "morning," "noon," the dramatic sweep of the "Years," or the movement of the heavenly "Firmaments" (or skies) themselves, the dead seem to be simply resting peacefully until the "Resurrection"—that is, until the Christian Judgment Day, and the end of time. What's more, death makes the dead indifferent to earthly power struggles. No matter how many "doges" (that is, powerful magistrates) supplant each other and how many "diadems" (or crowns) pass from hand to hand, no mortal doings disturb the dead one bit. All the world's political ruckus, to the dead, is "soundless": an image that might also suggest that power struggles doesn't make much difference to anything, in the long run, since all the players end up dead, too. That might all sound a bit grim—but to this poem's speaker, it's also comforting. The dead aren't just undisturbed: they're "safe" from all the world's chaos and mess, just waiting peacefully for the "Resurrection" to come. Death's calm, stony permanence completely insulates the dead from pain or worry. Death, this poem suggests, is thus both a conqueror and a protector. It makes a mockery of all human power struggles, but it also welcomes everyone into its unbreakable tranquility.

We Real Cool: Themes

Rebellion/Youth/Mortality- We Real Cool" is a poem about rebellion—and its costs. The poem is spoken by a group of seven teenagers hanging out outside a pool hall. These teens present themselves as rebels who skip school, stay out late, and party hard. On the one hand, these pool players stand in for everyone who's played hooky—for all teenagers who push back against authority and do their own thing. Yet the poem also suggests that such rebelliousness has serious costs: it makes these young people less safe. The price of living fast, the poem implies, is to die young. The speakers of "We Real Cool" stress the ways in which their lives defy social convention. They cut class and "lurk" late into the night. They get into fights and drink. They're hardly model students or citizens. But for most of the poem, the speakers are proud of their transgressions. They aren't ashamed to be rebellious: instead, they "sing sin." In other words, they praise and celebrate their own behavior. But the poem consistently suggests that things are more ambiguous than the speakers acknowledge. Note, for instance, the name of the pool hall where they hang out, "The Golden Shovel." The shovel is "golden"—fancy, expensive—but it's still something that people use to dig holes, ditches, and graves. It may be glamorous, but it's still a shovel. In this way, the subtitle of the poem subtly suggests that the reader shouldn't take the speakers at their word: that they shouldn't entirely fall for the surface-level glamor or pleasure of their rebellious lifestyle, because this rebellion—for all its fun—is still the "shovel" digging their own graves, the nail in their coffins. The speakers themselves admit that their rebellion does have a serious cost: they will "Die soon." It's important that this line comes at the end of the poem. Were it to appear in the beginning, it might suggest that the speakers are responding to the fleeting nature of life—that they're wringing every last drop of enjoyment out of their time on earth before it inevitably ends. This is a possible interpretation, but the fact that the phrase "we die soon" comes only after all this description of rebellion makes sit more likely that such death is the result of this rebellion. That is, living life with abandon brings the speakers closer to death. The poem thus has a complicated, ambivalent relationship with the rebellious people it describes. On the one hand, the poem seems to take joy in their transgressive attitudes. But on the other hand, it meditates with pathos and sincerity on the way that youthful rebellion can cut lives short.

If-- Context

Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular British writers of the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods—that is, the turn of the 20th century. He published "If—" in his 1910 book Rewards and Fairies, a work that demonstrated his mastery of both prose and verse. Kipling had already published both poetry collections and popular children's books (like The Jungle Book and Just So Stories); Rewards and Fairies, which alternated between historical fiction and poetry, melded his interests, combining his poetic talents with his knack for storytelling. With its endorsement of self-restraint and poise in even the most trying circumstances, "If—" is a perfect example of how British literature has championed the principles of Stoicism, an Ancient Greek philosophy that taught indifference in the face of hardship. The general idea of Stoicism is that people shouldn't let extreme emotions affect the way they move through life, regardless of whether those emotions are negative orpositive. Even Shakespeare toyed with this idea in his play Hamlet, in which Hamlet says, "[T]here is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"—implying that it's possible to use intentional, diligent thought to alter one's perspective on life. These Stoic ideals worked their way into a mindset that is now associated with the British national character. Writers like Kipling helped cement this stereotypically British outlook, which is sometimes called the "stiff upper lip"—a term used to describe British integrity, endurance, and composure. This sentiment became particularly popular in the Victorian era, as evidenced by poems like William Ernest Henley's "Invictus," which was published in 1888 and ends with the lines: "I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul." Kipling's "If—" is very much in keeping with this worldview, playing on the idea that respectable people (or, in male-centric turn-of-the-century Britain, respectable men) should have the kind of integrity and diligence that puts them in charge of their own destinies.In an interview he gave after the publication of "If—," Kipling said the poem was inspired by a man named Leander Starr Jameson, who led what's known as the Jameson Raid. This 1895 military campaign was a failed attempt to incite a British rebellion in South Africa. The fact that this raid was unsuccessful might make one wonder why, exactly, Kipling had Jameson in mind while writing a poem about what it means to be an upstanding, respectable man. But Jameson's failure is actually a perfect illustration of the speaker's belief in the importance of composure, confidence, and perseverance: after his failed raid, Jameson went on to a successful political career. The poem was published in 1910, a period of relative peace in Britain. However, the British crown was still waging colonial wars abroad (much to the imperialist Kipling's approval). World War I was also only four years away, and the horrors of World War II and the Blitz (in which ruthless German bombing campaigns devastated cities across the UK) followed close on its heels. Given this national history, it's no surprise that "If—" remains one of the most popular poems in Britain to this day: it captures the country's commitment to ideals of self-possession, courage, and unswerving perseverance in the face of adversity.

Sonnet 18: Meter

Shakespeare writes "Sonnet 18" in iambic pentameter—a meter he uses throughout his work, in both poetry and plays. Shakespeare uses the meter so often because it mimics the way people actually talk: unlike other meters, like trochaic tetrameter (the meter of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"), iambic pentameter tends to fade into the background, a subtle rhythmic pulse that one notices only when it is disturbed by unnatural or unexpected metrical substitutions. An example of perfect iambic pentameter is seen here: And summer's lease hath all too short a date;

Sonnet 18: Context

Sonnet 18" was most likely written during the 1590s. The form first entered English in the 1530s and 1540s when poets like Thomas Wyatt began translating Francesco Petrarch's poems. Over the intervening half-century, the sonnet became an increasingly popular form, particularly among the aristocracy, who used it to write about their illicit affairs and to find favor at court. Shakespeare—who was a commoner—thus approaches the form with some skepticism, interrogating and reformulating its clichés, testing the sonnet to see if and how he might use it for his own purposes. For example, the traditional subject of the sonnet is unrequited heterosexual love: a male poet writes about an exalted and unattainable woman whom he adores with a fervor that borders on worship. Shakespeare introduces an important—if not unprecedented—twist to that tradition: the first 126 of his sonnets are addressed to a man. Shakespeare's sonnets have become some of the most widely read and popular poems in the English language—and Sonnet 18 remains perhaps the best known of Shakespeare's poems. In Shakespeare's own time, they seem to have been not particularly popular; they were largely forgotten until Edmund Malone's 1780 edition rekindled interest in them—in part by casting them as an autobiographical document. (Whether we should or should not read these poems autobiographically remains a subject of major debate among scholars.) In the context of Shakespeare's Sonnets, "Sonnet 18" plays an important role. Literary scholars generally group the first 17 sonnets together. They're called the "procreation sonnets" because they urge the young man to reproduce as a way to preserve his beauty: "And nothing 'gainst time's scythe can make defence / Save breed to brave him when he takes the hence," Shakespeare writes in Sonnet 12. These sonnets consider the possibility that poetry might preserve the young man's beauty—and they reject that possibility. ("But wherefore do not you a mightier way / Make war upon this bloody tyrant time? / And fortify yourself in your decay / With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?" Shakespeare asks in Sonnet 16.) Sonnet 18 thus marks a major shift in the argument of Shakespeare's sequence: poetry replaces heterosexual reproduction as a way to preserve the young man's beauty. In doing so, it acquires a power and permanence that Shakespeare himself had denied it just two poems earlier. Although there is continuing debate among scholars about when Shakespeare wrote his sonnets (some say it was as early as the 1580s; some say it was as late as the first decade of the 17th century), most agree that they were likely written in the early 1590s, possibly when the theaters were closed due to plague. Certainly by the mid-1590s, individual poems began to appear in compilations like The Passionate Pilgrim. This places the sonnets in the midst of what C.S. Lewis called "the golden age" of 16th century literature, in the same decade that Spenser and Sidney's major works first appeared in print—and that Shakespeare himself wrote some of his most important plays. It also places the sonnets in a period of relative political calm. After years of conflict abroad, Elizabeth had defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. Though she was aging—and did not have an heir—she was secure on her throne, a universally admired figure. Though Shakespeare's culture was on the verge of dramatic and violent change, the Sonnets, with their focus on domestic matters, affairs of the heart, seem insulated from that change

Intimations: Themes

Souls Immortality- Wordsworth's poem argues that the human soul is everlasting. The speaker believes that the soul actually comes from heaven, where it exists before people are born, and that it will one day return there. The speaker finds a deep sense of comfort and inspiration in this idea that the soul is eternal, having always existed, and also immortal, going on after death. Childhood Wonder and the pain of growing up- The poem's speaker remembers that, when he was a child, the natural world was full of spectacular beauty and wonder. Sure, nature still looks "lovely" to him as an adult, but as a child, he remembers, he could see heavenly light shining in even the most common of plants. He has to work pretty hard not to be "sullen" about losing the ability to see the world this way, but maintains that it's simply the cost of growing up. The further people get from childhood, the speaker argues, the more used to the world they get, and the less they can perceive the world's intense, spiritual beauty. The poem presents this as a sad loss, but also as part of the natural order of things. Consolations of Memory- The poem's speaker feels he's lost a lot by growing up: when he was a child, nature seemed to shine with "celestial light" for him, but as an adult, that luminosity is just a memory. At the same time, he finds that such memories offer some consolation. While he mourns the beauty he could once see, he finds "strength in what remains behind": his memories of how he saw the world in childhood, and his adult "philosophic mind" that allows him to reflect on those memories.

O Captain, My Captain: Themes

TH Victory and Loss On the one hand, its mourning is tempered with joyful reminders that the war is won. Its celebrations, on the other hand, are haunted by melancholy. In this sense, Whitman's poem illuminates the lingering pain and trauma of losses sustained in war—as well as the impossibility of ever separating the triumph of victory from its human costs. Grief and Isolation- Each stanza of "O Captain! My Captain!" pivots between public celebration and private grief. In this way, the poem foregrounds the tension between outward emotional expression and internal emotional experience. The speaker must reconcile his personal grief for President Lincoln, whom he seems to regard as a paternal figure, with the wider grief—and joy—of the nation. Through these tensions, Whitman suggests that deep grief for a loved one can be an isolating force that makes loss even more painful than it might otherwise be The Individual vs the nation- .O Captain! O Captain!" depicts the overwhelming grief and trauma that followed one of the most notorious political assassinations in United States history. At the same time, it suggests that the nation will move on and even thrive after the loss of its leader. In doing so, the poem interrogates the relationship between the individual and the wider political community, ultimately suggesting that the United States as a nation is a political project that can and must transcend the life of any single person—even though individuals are still very important.

Harlem: Themes

The Individual and the Community- "Harlem" can be read in two ways at once: the deferred dream in the poem can be interpreted as a collective, social dream—the dream of an entire group of people—and it may also be interpreted as an individual dream. In fact, the poem suggests that individual and collective dreams are intricately connected. Ultimately, the poem implies that individual dreams cannot be realized without the realization of the larger, collective dream of equality. Perhaps most obviously, the poem can be read as being about the deferral of a collective dream. The title, "Harlem," frames the poem as being about the experience of an entire community—that of Harlem. The dream, then, implicitly, is the dream of this neighborhood and group of people. In the poem, the dream is also described with the singular "it," suggesting that the dream is the samethroughout the poem and that there is one, primary dream continuously at stake. Given the title, this suggests that throughout the poem, the dream described is the dream of Harlem as a whole. At the same time, however, the poem can be read as about the deferral of individual dreams—that is, the hopes and desires of single people within this community. The poem compares the deferred dream to things that an individual would experience. A "raisin in the sun" is a tiny thing that a single person might observe; similarly, "a sore" is something an individual would endure. An individual might encounter the "stink of rotten meat" or have to bear "a heavy load." These comparisons suggest that the dream in the poem could be an individual dream, or many individual dreams, and the deferral of these dreams is experienced on a personal, immediate scale. The use of "a dream" instead of "the dream" further suggests that the dream could be interpreted in different ways, including on the individual level. The word "the" is often used with proper nouns, or to convey something that is singular, public, or widely known. Conversely, "a" suggests that the dream is one of many dreams, not the only one. This supports the idea that the dream could be an individual dream, or one of many individual dreams. The historical context of the poem also supports these two readings. "Harlem" was written in 1951, during the era of Jim Crow segregation and the early period of the Civil Rights Movement. It was also written in the aftermath of World War II, when black Americans fought in the United States military—to defeat Nazism and to defend American visions of equality and liberty— but were forced to do so within segregated ranks. The sense of a collective dream of equality, and the deferral of this dream, was intensely present. The persistence of systemic racism also meant that many individual dreams of black Americans could not be realized. For example, a black family might dream of buying a home, but racist policies like discriminatory lending practices and redlining made this virtually impossible. Within this context, many individual dreams could literally not be realized without the realization of a larger, collective dream of equality and Civil Rights. By making both individual and collective experience present within in the poem, "Harlem" reflects and comments on this reality, suggesting that the deferral of the collective dream of equality is felt and carried on a palpable, human scale.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Rhyme

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is written largely in blank verse, meaning that it doesn't rhyme. However, this is not to say that the poem makes no use of rhyme . On the contrary, rhyme makes frequent—albeit inconsistent—appearances in the poem. For example, the first two lines feature an AA rhyme: Let us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread out against the sky Such AA rhymes appear at various places in the poem. Other lines use an AABB pattern, which also appears in the first stanza: Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,The muttering retreatsOf restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Rhyme thus has an oddly prominent role at the beginning of a poem that generally does not use end-rhymes. Clearly the poet is still making a significant use of rhyme, even when he seems to turn away from it. Rhyme is given similar prominence in the poem's most frequently-used refrain, the rhyming couplet, which also follows an AA rhyme scheme: In the room the women come and goTalking of Michelangelo, The poem also features use of rime riche, the repetition of the exact same word at the end of the line. This appears in lines 15-16, which rhyme "window-panes" and "window-panes." Often, though, the speaker's rhyme pairings seem comical or deflationary, as in lines like these: Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker "Flicker" is paired with "snicker" and "ices" is paired with "crisis," in two incongruous associations. The pairing is "crisis" with "ices" makes the speaker's predicament seem less serious and even comical. Similarly, "snicker" is a deflation of the speaker's sense of his possible "moment of greatness." Rhyme, then, has an ambiguous function in the poem. It is seemingly not, as it would have been for 19th-century poets, an opportunity for the poet to show off his virtuosic skill with language. Instead, at the turn of the 20th century, when "Prufrock" was written, rhyme starts to look in this poem like something a bit silly and out-dated—an opportunity to show what is absurd about the world, rather than a performance of artistic accomplishment.

Poem: Paradise Lost

by John Milton Milton was a radical Protestant Christian opposed to Catholicism and the Anglican Church that held power in England at the time. He also defended republicanism and was anti-monarchy, and so supported Oliver Cromwell when he overthrew Charles I of the Stuart dynasty. Cromwell then set up the Commonwealth of England and ruled as "Lord Protector" for many years. Charles II restored the monarchy in 1660, and Milton was forced into hiding because of his defense of Cromwell and the regicide of Charles I. Paradise Lost takes place in a mythic, prehistoric past, but Milton still filled it with allusions to the politics of present-day England. Paradise Lost contains hundreds of allusions, but its most significant influence is the Bible, as its plot is mostly based on the first chapters of Genesis. Homer's Odyssey and Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid are Paradise Lost's precursors in the genre of epic poetry, though they were written centuries before. Shakespeare was the greatest English writer of the generation before Milton, and their works are often compared. Milton's republican political philosophy was influenced by Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan.

Poem: The Unknown Citizen

by W.H Auden. "The Unknown Citizen" was written by the British poet W.H. Auden, not long after he moved to America in 1939. The poem is a kind of satirical elegy written in praise of a man who has recently died and who lived what the government has deemed an exemplary life. This life, really, seems to have been perfectly ho-hum—exemplary only insofar as this man never did anything to question or deviate from society's expectations. On the one hand, the poem implicitly critiques the standardization of modern life, suggesting that people risks losing sight of what it means to be an individual when they focus exclusively on the same status symbols and markers of achievement (like having the right job, the right number of kids, the right car, and so forth). The poem also builds a frightening picture of a world ruled by total conformity and state oppression, in which a bureaucratic government dictates and spies on its citizens' daily lives.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: Meter

The meter in the poem is generally a finely-wrought iambic pentameter. The stresses are well-controlled throughout, establishing a refinement of craft that deliberately mirrors the craftsmanship that went into making the urn itself. Just as the skill that went into the urn is disappeared by its immediate beauty, so too the poem hides its metrical form by virtue of the careful attention with which it is rendered. Line 8 is an example of perfect iambic pentameter: What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? There are, of course, some deliberate variations of the iambic pentameter throughout. Line 11, for example, can be scanned as a spondaic first foot: Heard melodies This emphasizes the audibility of the melodies in question, turning up the metrical volume. Likewise, the spondee at the start of line 17 emphasizes the lover's boldness. Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss To be sure, this sense of boldness is then undercut in the same line as the speaker forcefully repeats "never," followed by "canst." The meter in this moment reflects the contradiction between vitality and mortality in the poem; however vivacious the lover may seem, he is, in fact, still frozen in time on the urn, and thus not really alive at all.

Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening: Form

The poem features four quatrains written in a Rubaiyat stanza form. A Rubaiyat features a chain rhyme scheme, in which one rhyme from a stanza carries over into the next, creating an interlocking structure. A Rubaiyat has no specified length, but in the case of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the poem has four stanzas of four lines each, with each line made up of four iambic feet or beats. This precise, interlocking structure contributes to a sense of carefully constructed unity in the poem. In conjunction with the perfect meter and rhyme, the form helps achieve a pristine tightness in the poem that allows it to be read easily, almost seamlessly, like a song or even lullaby. Such a feel is fitting: just as a lullaby often offers a gentle tune that hides something more complicated or darker beneath (think about the lyrics to Rock-a-bye Baby, for instance), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" seems initially to be about the promise of freedom or rest offered by the woods, but on a closer read might also suggest the freedom or rest that can be found in death.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Rhyme

The poem follows a chain rhyme, in which one rhyme from each stanza is carried into the next, creating an interlocking structure. In this case, the first, second, and fourth line of every stanza rhyme, while the third doesn't. This third line, however, rhymes with the first, second, and fourth lines of the following stanza, and so on. Then, in the final stanza, the lines resolve into one continuing rhyme. This results in the following scheme: AABA BCBB CDCC DDDD Every rhyme in the poem is perfect, contributing to the feeling of precision of craft the dominates the entire poem. As with the regular, steady meter, the sturdy and consistent rhymes make the poem read very easily—and seem somewhat simpler than it actually is. Though it may appear almost like a lullaby or nursery rhyme, Frost is exploring deep metaphysical ideas of nature, freedom, and responsibility within these clear, precise lines. The only deviation from this scheme, in the strictest sense, is the repetition of the final two lines, which causes the final two rhymes to be identical words: "sleep." This choice to use the same word twice for the final rhyme places a special significance on the idea of "sleep," suggesting its thematic centrality to the poem and the speaker. In other words, rhyming "sleep" with itself suggests just how deeply tired the speaker is.

How Do I Love Thee: Meter

The poem is written in iambic pentameter, the traditional meter of both the English and Petrarchan sonnet forms. Each line of the poem consists of 10 syllables, broken up into five two-beat metrical feet. In turn, each metrical foot in iambic pentameter consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable, as in lines 2-3: I love | thee to | the depth | and breadth | and heightMy soul | can reach, | when feel- | ing out | of sight

O Captain, my Captain: Rhyme

The poem is written with regular end rhymes. Some of these are slant rhymes ("bells" and "trills," for example) while others are perfect rhymes("done" and "won"). However, the rhyme shifts halfway through each "octave," or stanza of eight lines. This is because the first four lines of each stanza are made up of rhyming couplets, but the last four lines are not. So in each stanza, the first four lines follow this rhyme scheme: AABB The second quatrain, however, has a different, more varied rhyme scheme: CDED The shift in the rhyme scheme between the first and second half of each stanza might be said to mirror the poem's shift in focus from the celebrations of cheering crowds to the speaker's melancholy and grief. The occasional internal rhymes in the initial quatrains ("near" and "hear" in line 3, "trip and "ship" in line 20) add to that sense of joy and celebration. The less regular rhyme scheme of the second quatrains, meanwhile, gives the poem a less polished and more chaotic energy, suggestive of the powerful emotions articulated by the speaker. It's also worth noting that the poem maintains some patterns of rhyme between stanzas, but does not do so for all the rhymes. In particular, all of the D rhymes in each stanza are words that end in an "ed" sound — they all rhyme together across the three stanzas. That is not true for any of the other rhymes. The D rhymes all share this trait because every stanza ends on the word "dead," and so this insistent rhyming with "dead" in each stanza serves to drive home the tragedy of Lincoln's death.

How Do I Love thee: Poetic Devices

The poem uses assonance several times throughout, usually to reinforce connections between words and highlight the literal meanings of the lines.The sonic resonances across these two lines give the impression of poetic harmony and unity. This is fitting for a poem that emphasizes the speaker's strong sense of connection with her beloved and with her faith. Similarly, the repeated use of the word "thee"—itself an example of anaphora in the repetition of the phrase "I love thee"—is also a form of assonance. I

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Meter

The poem's primary meter is iambic trimeter. This means that each line contains three iambs, poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed, or da DUM, syllable pattern. Take line 2: Her hardest hue to hold. Iambic meters generally echo the way people talk, giving the poem a steady yet predictable feel. The meter is very regular throughout the poem, giving the lines a strong sense of inevitability; everything must keep pushing forward, just as time itself never stops moving forward. The steady rhythm also makes the poem easy to memorize. This adds to the feeling that it's a kind of maxim or a proverb—advice to be given, rather than an idea meant to be thoroughly interrogated by the reader or listener. While most of the poem uses iambic tetrameter, there are two important exceptions to this metrical structure. This break from the steady iambic in the rest of the poem is a clear sign that the poet wants the reader to take note of these lines particularly. The first comes in line 1: Nature's first green is gold, And the next is in line 8: Nothing gold can stay. Both lines open with a trochee, which is the opposite of an iamb. Where an iamb goes da DUM, a trochee is stressed-unstressed, or DUM da. In the first line "Nature" is trochaic, and in the last "Nothing." The first word of each line is emphasized, creating a sonic connection between "Nature" and "Nothing" (a connection further enhanced by the fact that both words begin with the letter n). This is an interesting way of underlining the message of the poem: that nothing lasts. By comparing the vast idea of "Nature" and everything it contains with the finality denoted by "Nothing," the speaker implies that everything, even nature itself, will eventually end. The first line of the poem also contains a spondee, a beat in a poetic line that consists of two accented syllables (stressed-stressed). The spondee of "first green" slows down the line, forcing the reader to linger over this phrase. The poem is about the impossibility of holding on to beauty or youthful innocence forever. Stretching out the meter via "first green" suggests that the speaker is trying to hold onto this freshness for just a little while longer. The final line of the poem is also missing a syllable. Iambic tetrameter should have six syllables per line, but here there are only 5: Nothing gold can stay. The poem itself—an artifact of beauty—is thus cut short too soon.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: Rhyme

The rhyme scheme keeps a generally consistent shape throughout "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Each stanza can be divide into two parts in terms of its rhymes. They all begin with ABAB in the first 4 lines, though the subsequent 6 lines of the stanzas differ as follows: Stanzas 1 and 5: ABABCDEDCE Stanza 2: ABABCDECED Stanzas 3 and 4: ABABCDECDE This general division into 4 lines and 6 lines can be interpreted as textual representation of the shape of a Greek urn, which is generally narrower/smaller at the top than it is at the bottom: Another point of note is the way in which the variations in the 6-line sections of the rhyme scheme are resolved in the fifth and final stanza. In this concluding stanza, the poem returns to the exact same format as the first stanza, suggesting the somewhat cyclical nature of the poem. The speaker started on a point of mystery and longing for knowledge, and ends on a similar note.

Innisfree- Form/Meter/Rhyme

This poem does not follow a traditional, established verse form, but its structure is nevertheless straightforward. It consists of three four-line stanzas, or quatrains. Each stanza is comprised of one long sentence, divided in half by a semicolon at the end of its second line.Almost every line is also end-stopped, and the period that concludes each stanza neatly divides the poem into three parts. The poem's meter varies slightly from line to line and does not adhere to an established verse form. Instead, it follows its own intricate set of rules. Due to the poem's popularity and metrical complexity, scholars have debated its precise pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. This analysis reconstructs the poem's meter using recordings of Yeats's readings. n contrast to its meter, this poem's rhyme scheme is very straightforward: ABAB CDCD EFEF Each line ends on a stressed syllable and all but one is end-stopped, accentuating the rhymes.

Intimations- Form, Meter, Rhyme

This poem is, as its title suggests, an ode—an irregularly-shaped poem that honors a particular subject. Other famous odes from the Romantic era sung the praises of nightingales, winds, and autumn. The subject here isn't as tangible as any of those things, though. Instead, this poem celebrates "intimations of immortality," or hints of eternal life—an altogether more mysterious and slippery idea.Like a lot of odes, the Immortality Ode plays with all different kinds of meter, shaping its rhythms to the emotions it describes rather than trying to fit those emotions into a single pattern. The most common foot is the iamb, a foot with an unstressed-stressed, or da-DUM, syllable pattern, but line length varies wildly; some lines have just two stresses, and others five! The rhyme scheme of the Immortality Ode shapeshifts across the poem. Rather than sticking to a single pattern of rhyme, Wordsworth uses different rhyme schemes in every stanza, shaping his sounds to fit the ideas and feelings he explores.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers: Meter

This poem's tricky meter can appear either very complicated or very simple, depending on whether one observes it with one's eyes or one's ears. At first glance, the poem seems to use an irregular and unpredictable meter. It starts with a four-beat line of tetrameter, with an opening trochee (a foot with a stressed-unstressed syllable pattern) followed by iambs (poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern) and a dangling unstressed beat at the end: Safe in | their Al- | abas- | ter Chambers - Then it moves into two-beat lines of dimeter (two feet per line): Untouched | by Morning - and untouched | by noon - Then it launches into a five-beat line of pentameter: Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection, And finally lands on another line of tetrameter: Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone - But take another look! Dickinson hasn't gone completely off the rails here: she's merely divided what's basically a tetrameter rhythm into more lines than usual. The key to this whole complex pattern is the rhyme scheme, which behaves as if this poem were written in quatrains: there are just two major end rhymes here, even though the poem appears to have 13 lines. (See the Rhyme Scheme section for more on that.) Look what happens when this stanza is rearranged into a four-line quatrain: Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -Untouched by Morning - and untouched | by noon -Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection, Rafter of Sat in and Roof of Stone - Things are still a little funky here: the poem doesn't stick to any one flavor of metrical foot, and there's still that pentameter line sticking out. But the meter doesn't sound nearly as strange as the poem looks on the page. In fact, it's not so far from the ballad stanzas in which Dickinson often wrote. This trick is easier to spot in the second stanza, where the speaker consistently splits one line of tetrameter into two lines of dimeter, like this: Grand go the | Years, / In the | Crescent a- | bove them - The second stanza feels steadier than the first, falling into a roughly dactylic meter—that is, a meter built from dactyls, feet with a DUM-da-darhythm. This relative steadiness mirrors the rhythmic, cyclical "arcs" of the stars and planets these lines describe. Why might Dickinson have chosen to unsettle the poem's meter this way? Perhaps because this poem is dealing with an unsettling subject: the all-conquering power of death. These oddly divided lines slow the pace of the poem down, making it sound like a stumbling funereal march. But they also throw readers off balance, warning them not to get too comfortable.

O Captain, My Captain: Context

Walt Whitman is one of the most significant figures in the history of American poetry. His critical reputation is mostly the legacy of his collection Leaves of Grass (1855), which he revised many times throughout his life. His poems often experiment with form—they rarely rhyme or follow convention meter schemes—and explore themes of sexuality and erotic experience, which in fact led Whitman's employer at the civil service to accuse him of obscenity. In this sense, Whitman broke with many of the traditions of American poetry that came before him. For instance, the earlier work of the "Fireside Poets," such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Cullen Bryant, emphasized metrical regularity and pastoral or nationalist themes, such as odes to the American countryside. "O Captain! My Captain!" has been the site of heated critical controversy because it doesn't fit into an idea of Whitman's poetry derived from Leaves of Grass. In some ways it is more like the conventional poetry of the Fireside Poets, since it is metrically regular, short, and patriotic. As a result, modern critics have often argued that the poem is aesthetically inferior to Whitman's later, more experimental poetry, citing Whitman's own statement later in life that he wished he had never written it. At the same time, however, proponents of the poem have suggested that the poem's accessible and regular language and meter offers a vehicle through which to express powerful emotions in a controlled form. The poem was enormously popular when it was first published and is still regularly memorized and recited, suggesting that it offered a way for the American people to express their collective grief. "O Captain! My Captain!" was written in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War (1861-1865), the four-year conflict between the Northern and Southern states. After decades of tensions over the issues of slavery and states' rights, eleven Southern states declared independence from the Union in the early 1860s. The war exacted an enormous death toll, and Civil War battles remain some of the bloodiest days in American history, in terms of the cost to American lives. Finally, at the end of a long and grinding struggle that left the Union victorious, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate partisan, in 1865. The poem offers an extended metaphor for the political situation in 1865. The "captain" is President Lincoln, the ship stands in for the United States, and the port to which the ship is returning represents the Union's victory in the Civil War. Just as President Lincoln was assassinated at the war's end, the caption of the poem's title falls "cold and dead" in the moment of his triumph.

Othello

William Shakespeare From the eleventh to the fifteenth century, Catholics battled to re-conquer Spain from the Islamic Arabs and Berbers, or Moors, who had successfully occupied it since the 900s. The struggle inspired intense prejudice and suspicion that lasted well after the Moors were overthrown. Philip III of Spain expelled 300,000 "Moriscos" from the Iberian (Spanish) peninsula not long after Shakespeare finished Othello, in 1609. In England during Shakespeare's time, views regarding "Moors" were slightly more complex because of strong anti-Catholic sentiment in England and English fears of invasion by the Spanish. In fact, England maintained independent trade relationships with "Moorish" Northern Africa, despite Spanish and Portuguese protest. The English slave trade also brought blacks to Europe, from mid-sixteenth century onward. Queen Elizabeth herself founded The Barbary Company, formally institutionalizing this trade; in addition, she received a delegation of Moroccan diplomats in 1600. However, the English still felt a strong suspicion of Islam: Elizabeth issued a degree expelling Moors from Africa and Spanish "Moriscos" from the boundary of England in 1599 and 1601.

Romeo & Juliet

William Shakespeare In the early years of the Renaissance, Italy was divided up into several smaller city-states which often warred with one another. Rome was mostly ruins—but Padua and Verona came under Venetian control, and cities like Florence and Milan (sometimes called the "cradle of capitalism") flourished under early financial innovations spearheaded by the Medici clan of bankers and politicians. In the cities, politically powerful wealthy elites became patrons of the arts and a luxury class emerged quickly—but social inequality throughout the majority of the country was profound, and most of Italy belonged to the peasant class. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy—but the play knowingly wags its finger at the warring Capulets and Montagues, wealthy families who can't look past their own insularity and haughty self-importance to be good to one another, or to allow their children the chance at real love. Shakespeare drew on many poems, novels, and myths in the construction of Romeo and Juliet—but the play also may very well have been a timely critique of Renaissance-era social inequality and the trivial concerns of the upwardly mobile elite.

Play: Hamlet

William Shakespeare Hamlet is in many ways a product of the Reformation—a religious revolution in which Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church—as well as the skeptical humanism of the late Renaissance, which held that there were limits on human knowledge. Hamlet's constant anxiety about the difference between appearance and reality, as well as his difficulties with religion (the sinfulness of suicide, the unfairness that killing a murderer while the murderer is praying would result in sending the murder to heaven) can be seen as directly influenced by humanist thought. In the centuries since it was first written, Hamlet has been staged and set in different eras of history, from the late Middle Ages to the confines of a modern-day psych ward. Truncated and full-text versions alike have been produced on stage and screen, and 20th and 21st-century casts and directors have launched interpretations of the text which examine Hamlet as an Oedipal figure, as an individual suffering from mental illness, and even as the illegitimate son of King Claudius.

Intimations: Context

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) drafted the Immortality Ode over many years. He wrote the first four stanzas in 1802, slowly added to them, and published a first version of the complete poem in his 1807 collection Poems, in Two Volumes. He'd go on to revise and reprint this poem many times. Many scholars see this poem as Wordsworth's masterpiece and final word, the highest expression of his philosophy. This poem isn't just an exploration of everything dear to Wordsworth, but also a core sample straight from the heart of English Romanticism. The ideas this poem deals with—the human soul, the transcendent beauty of nature, the importance of deep feeling—are hallmarks of the Romantic period. In this early-19th-century movement, artists and thinkers reacted against Enlightenment ideals of clarity, elegance, and reason, embracing mystery, emotion, and earthy poetic forms like the ballad instead. But not every poet readers now think of as a Romantic dealt with these ideas in the same way. For instance, when Wordsworth shared the first few verses of this poem with his friend and collaborator Coleridge, Coleridge found enough to disagree with in its philosophy that he wrote a whole poem in reply: "Dejection: an Ode," which argues that the ability to appreciate the beauty of the world is a more complex emotional knot to untie than Wordsworth's poem allows for. Much-discussed and much-quoted, the Immortality Ode is still widely regarded as one of the most powerful and important poems in English literature. While Wordsworth was slowly becoming a devout Christian during the years when he was working on this poem, the religious beliefs that he describes here—that nature is holy and the soul is eternal—go a little outside the standard Christian framework. Instead, they have a lot to do with a nondenominational spiritual belief that became popular in the early 19th century: pantheism. Pantheism is the belief that God is in everything, and everything is in God. To a pantheist, nature isn't just beautiful because God made it, or because it reflects the divine, but because it's an actual manifestation of God. This school of thought was never so much a full-blown religious movement as a philosophy, but it was one that many poets and thinkers of the Romantic era felt deeply. Many 19th-century Western thinkers in particular saw pantheism as an antidote to institutionalized Christian dogma, which they felt had become oppressive and legalistic; see William Blake for just one fiery critique of Christian authoritarianism. Pantheism allowed for deep spiritual feelings without Christian cultural baggage. Pantheism and Romanticism both responded to sweeping 19th-century cultural changes like the Industrial Revolution. As the economic landscape of Europe became more and more mechanized and populations began to shift from the countryside to the city, many thinkers feared that people had begun to see nature as a mere resource, a wilderness to be mastered and stripped of its wealth. Reading nature as one of the faces of God, pantheism resisted a purely mechanical, rational, and exploitative worldview. The philosophy that Wordsworth espouses in this poem splits the difference between a more traditional Christian idea of God as a transcendent creator and a pantheistic idea of God-in-everything. To this poem's speaker, God can appear to be in everything—but only to children, whose souls have been hanging out with God in heaven more recently than adults' have.

Poem: Intimations of Immortality

William Wordsworth first published "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" in his 1807 collection Poems, in Two Volumes. Often considered one of Wordsworth's greatest masterpieces, this poem explores some of the themes that haunted Wordsworth across his whole career: childhood, memory, nature, and the human soul. The poem's speaker remembers that, when he was a child, he saw the whole world shining with heavenly beauty, and wonders where that beauty has gone now he's an adult. While he can never get that kind of vision back, he concludes, he can still build his faith upon his memories of it; the way the world looks to children, he argues, is a hint that every human soul comes from heaven, and will return there one day.

Poem: The Passing of Arthur

by Alfred Lord Tennyson This is the story told by Sir Bedivere, the last survivor of the Round Table. One night on the march westward, Bedivere overhears Arthur lamenting in his tent. The king is perplexed and confused by recent events, the failure of the institutions he has founded, and the people whom he trusted.

Long Day's Journey Into Night

by Eugene O'Neill Full Title: Long Day's Journey into Night When Written: 1940-41 Where Written: Tao House in Danville, California When Published: 1956 Literary Period: Modernism/Postmodernism Genre: Drama, Realism Setting: The Tyrones' summer house Climax: Long Day's Journey into Night relies upon the back-and-forth of the Tyrone family's many arguments. As such, there is no singular climactic moment. Having said that, the drunken altercation between Jamie and Edmund—in which Edmund punches his brother in the face for insulting their mother—signifies a breaking point in the play, where the tension becomes too much for the family to handle. Antagonist: Apathy and addiction are the primary antagonistic forces threatening to undo the Tyrone family.

Heracles

by Eurpides. mortal son of Zeus, strong and brave but lacks self-control, rises to Olympus after death Herakles (Ancient Greek: Ἡρακλῆς μαινόμενος, Hēraklēs Mainomenos, also known as Hercules Furens) is an Athenian tragedyby Euripides that was first performed c. 416 BC. While Herakles is in the underworld obtaining Cerberus for one of his labours, his father Amphitryon, wife Megara, and children are sentenced to death in Thebes by Lycus. Herakles arrives in time to save them, though the goddesses Iris and Madness (personified) cause him to kill his wife and children in a frenzy. It is the second of two surviving tragedies by Euripides where the family of Herakles are suppliants (the first being Herakles' Children). It was first performed at the City Dionysia festival.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: Context

ohn Keats is now one of the most celebrated poets in the English language, and this one of his most celebrated poems. In his own lifetime, however, Keats struggled for recognition, overshadowed by more successful poets like William Wordsworth. This poem was written in an astonishing burst of creativity during the spring of 1819, during which Keats also wrote his other odes (except for "To Autumn," written in September of the same year). Keats is generally considered a key member of the Romantic poets, in particular of the second generation which included writers like Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Romanticism doesn't mean the same thing as "romantic"—instead, it is characterized, loosely speaking, by a deep-rooted belief in the power of the imagination, the prophetic role of poetry in society, the importance of nature, and political engagement. Keats's writing was not well received during his lifetime, and he was the victim of snobbery from those who considered him to be an intellectual and artistic imposter. However, his reputation quickly rose in the centuries after his death in 1821 from tuberculosis at the age of just 25.Keats wrote this poem not long after the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789, which facilitated Napoleon's rise to power. The early 19th century can be considered a period of reappraisal in terms of the way the individual relates to society. The influential poet/critic William Wordsworth was particularly interested in the idea of civil liberties, though became more conservative as he grew older. Perhaps what's most interesting about this poem historically speaking is the very deliberate attempt by the poet to reengage with the ancient past in the hope of learning from it. This was part of an overall resurgence in interest in the history and artifacts from classical antiquity (ancient Greece and Rome). Keats's poem was notably written less than a century after the opening of the British Museum. The observation and contemplation of objects from other cultures was becoming an increasing popular activity, and was founded on the far-reaching power of the British Empire. The ethical debate about the practice of institutions like the British Museum continues to day, with the Greek government still trying to find a way to return the Elgin Marbles—a collection of classical sculptures—to their country of origin.