Poetry Unit Poems
"Amoretti 64"
Meaning: A man showing how much better his woman is than the rest of the world. Imagery: "Her ruddy cheekes like unto Roses red: Her snowy brows like budded Bellamores" shows how much better she is than everything else. Blazon: the convention of breaking a woman into parts and comparing them via similie
"My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun"
Meaning: A parody of the typical love poem. Jests at how women are compared to inanimate objects. Imagery: Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun" shows how there are better things than women. Blazon: the convention of breaking a woman into parts and comparing them via simile
"Hope is the thing with feathers"
Meaning: Characterizes hope as a pure force within oneself that prevails against all else. Extended metaphor: "Hope" is a thing with feathers; compared to a bird, she uses the bird's singing as a symbol of the everlasting optimism of oneself
"The Tyger"
Meaning: Even though God can create beautiful creates, he can also make vicious ones. Tone: Dreadful Mood: Fearful Symbolism: Lord is questioned for creating a vicious animal like the tiger.
"The Lamb"
Meaning: How the creator (God) made such a beautiful and tender animal. Tone: appreciative Mood: lighthearted Symbolism: Lord is praised for creating such a beautiful creature (lamb).
"Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too"
Meaning: It's difficult of reinvent yourself and change the direction of your life. Imagery: People can see themselves as spider man because he goes to work everyday and can't get out of his boring routine. Mood: childish, playful
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Meaning: One should fight the inevitability of death. Repetition: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" "Do not go gentle into that good night"
"The Summer I was Sixteen"
Meaning: One's childhood is carefree and relaxed, even when adulthood is quickly approaching. Imagery: "Tossing a glance through the chain link fence at an improbable world" shows that in adolescence, people disregard priorities and responsibilities. Structure: Lack of structure places a focus on a carefree youth.
"Musee des Beaux Arts"
Meaning: Shows growing selfishness and individualism among mankind. At present no one has time to think and worry about others' problems. Allusion: "The Fall of Icarus" by Peter Breughel
"The Stone Table"
Meaning: Shows internal conflict between the speaker and unpredictable death and the fact that it may separate them from their significant other Imagery: "Scion" shows that everything has at least a piece of itself to be nurtured for others. "Tree" shows that even when you have lost all others, your can continue to exist. "Stone table" shows that some things in life are fixed and unchanging.
"Traveling Through the Dark"
Meaning: Sometimes sacrificing one means saving many. Imagery: Description of the deer and what the main character did to save the other deer.
"The Death of Santa Claus"
Meaning: When you seek the truth, the magic disappears and you have to mature. Metaphor: "Elves wring their little hands, and Rudolph's nose blinks like a sad ambulance light," not only does the writer seem to describe the ambulance as the red Rudolph's nose but also develop a sorrowful tone. Imagery: Imagery is the main aim that the author seeks to create: And he drops his jelly belly in the snow.
"Question"
Meaning: You can't depend on things too long, because you'll end up being lost when they are gone. Imagery: This poem clearly is a question of what will happen when the soul leaves the body. The body is its house, its hound, and horse. It is the souls residence, senses and mobility, without it will the soul ever be the same? How shall he function without his body?
