Poems are not puzzles to be cracked. What you are required to do when you write about poetry is to arrive at a genuine and individual personal response to something which is carefully crafted in language.
Poets are masters of language. They choose words more deliberately and consciously than is usual. After all, language is their craft. However, although we cannot all be poets, it is important to realize that what poets do is not alien to us. We are all immersed in language. We all experience the world in language. We all seek self-expression. To express exactly what you mean is not always easy (just as poetry is not always easy), but it is always satisfying and rewarding.
The Last Ride Together “The Last Ride Together” is a one-of-a-kind poem by English poet Robert Browning that was first published in his 1855 collection “Men and Women,” his first significant work after his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett. It was made up of fifty-one poems, each written by a different Read more…
On The Move by Thom Gunn This poem titled On The Move, from Gunn’s second collection, is his most well-known work, and one of the most famous of all post-war poetry. The aimless yet frightening movement of a motorcycle gang becomes a metaphor for modern man’s sense of alienation and Read more…
A Prayer for my Daughter Introduction “A Prayer for my Daughter” is a 1919 poem by William Butler Yeats that was included in Yeats’ collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer in 1921. It is addressed to Anne, his daughter with Georgie Hyde Lees, whom Yeats married following the rejection of Read more…
Upon the Westminster Bridge Background William Wordsworth was enchanted by the early morning view of London from a coach as it crossed the Westminster Bridge on its way to Dover on 31st July 1802. He immediately penned a poem expressing his personal sentiments, perceptions, and interests. Upon the Westminster Bridge Read more…
Ode to the West Wind About the Poem Ode to the West Wind is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. It was published in 1820 in London by Charles and James Ollier as part of the collection Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Read more…
The Sick Rose By William Blake Summary The Sick Rose appears in Songs of Experience and is the follow-up to “The Blossom” in Songs of Innocence. On the contrary, the blossom celebrates nature’s beautiful innocent image. The Sick Rose paints a dark and depressing picture of nature. We can consider Read more…
Summary of ‘The Tyger’ William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” is the best example of pre-romantic poetry. The poem is divided into six short stanzas of four lines each. The sixth stanza is a repetition of the first. It has an end rhyme pattern of aabb, ccdd… The poem’s primary emotion Read more…
The poem “The Tyger” is included in Songs of Experience. It is closely related to a poem from the Songs of Innocence titled “The Lamb.” The lamb and the tiger could be interpreted as two different aspects of Christ. As previously stated, Blake gives Jesus a human/humane dimension, and thus Read more…
London by William Blake This poem is in the 1794 collection “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” The book combines two sets of poems linked by the contrast principle: one of” innocence” (childhood, idealism, hope) with poems like The Lamb or The Little Black Boy, and one of “Experience” (adulthood, Read more…
The Tiger and the Deer’ by Sri Aurobindo The poem ‘The Tiger and the Deer’ is one of Sri Aurobindo’s finest works of Indian English poetry. Aurobindo is widely regarded as India’s preeminent maestro of English literature. He was a philosopher, short story writer, dramatist, liberation warrior, and spiritual leader Read more…
