... person would say that a small flask of powder could burn for a day. Donne feels this is equal to the fleeting passion of love. There are three predominant images in tile second stanza that show Donne's views on love. The first image is of the personification of Love. Love is a physical being who swallows a person's heart after the heart has been consumed by grief because "into love's hands ... is compared to a large fish that eats the smaller fish. Here, the fish represent the hearts of the broken-hearted that have been consumed by love. In the third stanza, Donne uses one extended imag...

• Word Count: 770
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! (Appendix I) The physical beauty, the speaker can conclude, reflects days spent doing well, a mind at peace, and a heart whose love is innocent. Byron convinces the reader that this woman is perfect. If any one aspect of her were to be different, she would be half ... like light and darkness to portray a perfect balance. George Byron's poem would have been a plain love poem, but because the forces are so pronounced by his use of colorful language, rhythm, and use of human chara...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In his poem, "Flame-Heart", Claude McKay expresses his longing for his homeland in a romantic fashion with non-racial themes. He uses vivid descriptions to show a great love of his home, Jamaica, conveying it's loveliness. Rhyme scheme and stylized nature also play a role in McKay's highly reminiscent work. "Flame-Heart" is a poem in the traditional romantic style, resembling the works of Shelley and Wordsworth ... in its fashion. Serving as a sort of introduction, the ... recollects it fondly and with longing "ten brief years" after having left. McKay paints a picture of a tropical paradise...

• Word Count: 523
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Walt Whitman in which a captain's life is being described. Mr. Keating teaches them about the idea of "carpe diem". Romanticism also deals with a person's out look on life; one can see this through the students" actions and how they follow the ideals of "carpe diem". The character Knox Overstreet for instance pursues his feelings towards a girl Chris and after being tested many times wins her ... heart through a poem. Neil takes a chance and tries out acting in the play Midsummer's Night Dream against his fathers permission, Neil in ... the end decides to end his life because he couldn'...

• Word Count: 477
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... and discussed. Contrasting themes of both poems are sorrow and patience. The wife in "The Mistress" endures the sorrow because of her husband's infidelities of pursuing an affair with his mistress but still continues to fulfil a wife's duties without giving up. Instead, she maintains her pride and patience throughout such a heart-wrenching ordeal as in lines 7-9, 'I have tried to keep our ... house going, against my inclination...' Likewise, "On His Blindness", poet John Milton becomes visually impaired at a fairly early stage of his life and doubts his ability to fulfil and contin...

• Word Count: 879
• Approx Pages: 4

... strength and vitality. This is a very strong criticism towards humans and their interest towards observing the wild, their need to watch these animals while they are imprisoned and vulnerable, for we can only fully see them while they feel trapped and we feel safe. But even though the jaguar is in "prison darkness" it does not let humans treat it as ... a circus act. In the last two stanzas we can see the conflict between the jaguar and the bars that keep it from its real home ... that it is physically in a cage; it is not in one mentally. The "bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear" ...

• Word Count: 618
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the sea. The tone of the poem is solemn, sweet and gentle. The gentleness of the tone emphasizes the feelings the ocean embodies a person. The rhythm of the poem is slow, and has the soothing affect, as the tone. The purpose of the poem is to generate the reader's perception of the ocean and make the reader realise the beauty and peacefulness of the ocean. It focuses on the positives of nature, and tries to evoke a feeling of appreciation for ... happen when you stop appreciating nature, and the natural beauty of the world. It is tyring to portray a message that you have to listen to yo...

• Word Count: 482
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... to Christ. He writes a masterful description of the experience of watching the bird's physical feats and his heart's response to the experience. The poem's subtitle "To Christ our Lord" gives the reader the message that this poem is about more than just the moving experience of watching the windhover. This whole experience of observing the bird is a reflection of the glory of Christ's life and resurrection. Hopkins uses ... identified with Christ. The bird is depicted as "hung on the rein" (4) so that he cannot go away. Christ is "reined" in that he is always available to mortals for the...

• Word Count: 475
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... was a victim of a surprise attack. She is described as "a staggering girl," "her helpless breasts"(Rosenthal, 115). The Swan is identified as overpowering- "the great wings," "the dark webs," "he holds her helpless breast upon his breast"(Rosenthal, 114). The first stanza describes this poem as a rape. The swan is not known for being a violent bird. It is a peaceful, beautiful bird. Perhaps this is why Zeus chose ... though she was being raped, felt a satisfaction too. In the fourth line, "Leda is envisioned as being consumed with animal passion"(Rosenthal, 114). "The brute blood," desc...

• Word Count: 1080
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and the heart to become the victim. Images, an underlying theme, comparisons and much more structure the poem. The first stanza allows the damage of love to be almost timeless. The second stanza uses personification and the theme of death to express love as fatal to one. The third stanza uses the speaker's personal experience and repetition for better understanding and a stronger impact from the poem. The final stanza gives insight for a lesson for a lesson ... learned and useful diction. The poem expresses how a broken heart impacts one and the purpose ... ...

• Word Count: 886
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... through simile to a walled town. This is a conceit, or complicated comparison that is carried throughout the poem. He asks God to use a battering ram to knock down the gate to the town, his heart. Then, he asks God to use force to "break, blow, burn" the town. The town is the speaker, but he says that he is already "usurped," because someone else already holds him hostage ... does not work in this way. He acknowledges that God has acted upon him already in subtle ways, "for you/As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend." In other words, God has knocked upon his heart, the gate ...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... women who have not yet fallen in love, " Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste Rejects mankind, is by some Sylph embraced: For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Assume what sexes and shape they please." The sylph Ariel protects Belinda, the main character of poem. Ariel guides Belinda in her daily activities and longs to keep Belinda from any harm. In ... the story of Beowulf, the God-like figure was at the forefront, fighting battles and portraying the heroic role. Conversely, the main duties of the sylphs are to direct others. Additionally, the power of Ariel is later ren...

• Word Count: 1107
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... explains that no one will be certain of the day of reckoning if they do not live by the rules set by the lord. "The pure of heart will be in bliss. The hard of heart will be in blazing fire." (Verses 13-14) The hard of the heart are the wrongdoings in a life of a human. This verse use the analogy of blazing fire to describe that something bad will happen if ... those who had committed sins and does not follow by the words of the lord. It accuses those people for denying the reckoning but also tells them that the lord is watching over them and when the day of reckoning come along they wi...

• Word Count: 359
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... of her state. And in the second stanza, the imagery of coldness is related to "The sculptured dead, on each side, seem to freeze" as the whole setting of the coldness symbolizes paleness and death. This is a contrast to the state of experience that Phorphyro will bring as he has a heart on fire for Madeline "Had come young Phorphyro, with heart on fire for Madeline" (stanza 9) which means that his ... warmth will later on melt Madeline's chastity-freezing soul. And in stanza 11 Phorphyro "stood, hid from the torch's flame ... " which symbolizes his flaming heart that is also eager to tr...

• Word Count: 620
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a story of despair over love that is not returned. A young man loves a woman who loves another. When the man she loves marries another, she marries another man she does not love out of anger and breaks the heart of the first man who loved her. It is so old a story. Yet somehow always new; And he has just lived ... it. It breaks his heart in two. (9-12) The despair in this poem is more than just that of the young man who loved the maiden. By calling it an old story that is always new, Heine says it will repeat itself over and ... go to her. At the same time, he looks for any sign of hope...

• Word Count: 1828
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 1) This poem is also written in a unsophisticated rhyme pattern which seems to add the simplistic nature and childish tone of the poem. The reader gets a real feeling for the Innocence that the Lamb portrays. The animal itself, Lamb, it seen to be a very calm and harmless creature. The lamb, with "wooly bright" clothing (6), plays in the pastoral settings of streams, (4) meads, (4) or meadows and vales, (8) or valleys. ... meek and he is mild, / He became a little child" (13-16). The Lamb and the child, are both symbols of Jesus Christ and of the innocence that is classically assigned t...

• Word Count: 1062
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... poems, natural imagery is involved. In the "Noon Walk On the Asylum Lawn", Anne Sexton uses natural imagery as the sources of fear for the person in the poem. The person is suspicious of "the summer sun ray" (line 1) that "sucks the air and looks around for me" (line 4-5). The person is also suspicious of a tree in which the sunray shifts through. Anne uses personification to ... safe place" (line 15). In the "Daffodils" poem, he is using memory of a scene to gain peace and happiness; he actually wants to get out of his state of isolation, "and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dan...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2

... see his love it would bring a special kind of joy to his heart. However, in line four "Gladder to catch the, than thou him- states that his desired love probably would not be as happy with him (Donne). The first and second lines of the fifth stanza has the speaker wishing that the competition for his love would be stuck in a was that he cannot reach her ... , or worse, finding the path to the prize too difficult. In the third and fourth lines of the fifth stanza, the speaker is hoping that she , herself, will make it impossible ... for the competition to reach her. In the first and seco...

• Word Count: 751
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... people come and go; but it is winter with your love" (Millay 34). Her heart is clearly broken, although she still stands tall in claiming that her heart has not changed. Rather, Millay critcizes her lover, as she had done in her personal life as well. She hardly criticized herself for the failure of any relationship, sexual or otherwise, because she did not intend ... for most of them to last long. Only those who would show concern for her and peak Millay's interest were able ... to penetrate her heart, even if the feelings were not reciprocated. However, Millay adjusted nicely with th...

• Word Count: 1063
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... follows faithfully not only in its classical Italian form, but also in its classical theme of love. She strives for a refined impression of sincerity. This simplicity is echoed with support throughout the poem itself. The deconstruction of her sonnet reveals a simple pattern following the progression of her words. Every stanza reaffirms points of love, and then offers support. "How do I Love ... arises. Love's rule over the sonnet is met with severe opposition from hate. In "The White City," Claude McKay pens a protest using the Shakespearian sonnet form. This more modern version of th...

• Word Count: 655
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... we will be Cleansed Weep! Weep! Weep! The narrator speaks; a young child has been left with nothing in hand, and only a will to live in his heart. William Blake proved that literature can be used for good and to let others know that they also do have a say in whether things are wrong nor right. He published, "The Chimney Sweeper" in a London newspaper in ... the late 1700's to tell of the conditions of young children who were forced to work in ... sold him when he was very young in order to live and for the boy to have a chance in life. The speaker seems to have a very religious backgr...

• Word Count: 551
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and his soul will never rise from the lost of his beloved Lenore. There is also repetition of "nothing more." "This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore?" - Merely this and nothing more." (5.29) "Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; - "Tis the wind and nothing more." (6.35) This repetition is showing us a longing for the speaker's lost love Lenore and ... the repeating of nothing more tells us that he gets his hopes up and ... then they are crushed when he finds it's only an echo, it's only the wind. It becomes apparent there is no hope for the r...

• Word Count: 724
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... could ever happen to you. In my opinion, Elizabeth Browning is a devoted wife. Who would go the extra mile for her husband. Selfless, caring, and self giving are just a few words to describe her. Browning's attitude gives me hope on love. When I stopped believing in love because of a broken heart, it was hard to start over. However, I met someone that pulls out my ... she invest into her husband. Without expecting anything in return. To me, that shows courage and faithfulness. The reason being is when I love a person I expect for them to show me that love in return. When I'm pouring my ...

• Word Count: 922
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... , symbolism and as a whole it is also an allegory. Imagery serves a large purpose in this specific poem and in all poems overall. According to Frye, "There's always some literary reason for using [imagery], and that means something in human life that they correspond to or represent or resemble" (Frye 25). Imagery is very prevalent in Blake's poem as he deeply describes ... ' means, so we can say that whenever a writer uses an image, or object from the world around him, he's made it a symbol" (Frye 25-26). This affirms that the nature of the Sick Rose', a natural object, stems from a human...

• Word Count: 730
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... civilization. His life is cut short by the fallacy of civilization. The fallacy in this case would be the chainsaw. The saw was too much for a young boy to handle, in the end taking his life. Civilization has put this heavy burden of living as a man onto the young boy, who represents nature. "Doing man's work, though a child at heart" (24) the spoil that civilization has done onto nature ... . Still true at heart still young, but forced to change into a full ... . This man will have to either push the dead doe off the road and into the river, or leave it here and give the fawn a slim cha...

• Word Count: 676
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School