Poetry Page 37

If We Must Die, by Claude McKay is a sonnet written during the Harlem Renaissance period; a period where there was a flowering of African-American literature and art, (1919- mid 1930s). Though the Harlem Renaissance period was a time of thriving people and culture in the African-American community, prejudice was still very much active; something…

Alfred 1 Jacqueline S. Alfred Professor Hayden English 1102 6 November 2011 An Analysis of “The Workbook” When is a gift more then a gift? Can a gift be given not out of love, but out of cruelty with intent to punish, threaten, and subjugate? The poem “The Workbook” written in 1914 by Thomas Hardy…

You can listen to the poem here:  The abduction of Helen of Troy, the wife of Menelaus, by the Trojan Prince Paris, was the catalyst for the Trojan War. Because of the ambiguity of the occurrence, there exist feelings toward Helen that are at odds with one another. There are those who feel as…

Marge Pierce who was born in Detroit, is known as a feminist writer. Her poem, ‘Breaking Out’ was first published in the Harbor Review in 1984. The poem portrays the double oppression faced why a girl, for being a girl child and a child, at the same time. The poem depicts how the girl wants…

Poetry Analysis: “Conjoined” versus “Most Like an Arch This Marriage” People often dream of finding the perfect soul mate…a special someone with similar hopes and goals for their future. They dream of someone to share the good and bad times with them. They dream of a person that will love them unconditionally until death parts…

Gerard Manley Hopkins was both a Jesuit priest and a poet.  His poem,“The Windhover” covers only a tiny span of time, the few seconds that the kestrel hangs in the air as it seeks its prey.  The moment leaves the narrator breathless.  Hopkins brings the reader into the moment with his use of sprung rhythm. …

The Tables Turned The Tables Turned The Tables Turned William Wordsworth UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books; Or surely you’ll grow double: Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks; Why all this toil and trouble? The sun, above the mountain’s head, A freshening lustre mellow Through all the long green fields has…

The poem ‘If’ is directed to Kipling’s son, and is a message to him on his route to manhood. This is seen in the very last line of the poem, when Kipling writes: “And- which is more- you’ll be a Man, my son!” The poem is about setting goals, taking risks, being a leader and…

Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning This dramatic monologue is narrated by Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto to his wife Lucrezia. They live in Florence. Andrea begs Lucrezia that they end a quarrel over whether the painter should sell his paintings to a friend of his wife’s. He acquiesces to her wish and promises he…

Spellbound, by Emily Bronte, is a poem about the powers of a force beyond human control. This force captivates and lures a person despite the possibility of being put in an adverse situation. Emily Bronte effectively captures this emotion in her poem which is just three stanzas and only four lines a piece. In each…