POETRY – 953 words – Flashcard

-portrays life as it ought to be, as perfect; life at its best; focus on plot, setting, action
-the Ideal; Love of Nature
-Ex: “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (Christopher Marlowe)

-life-as-it-is; focus on characters; “everydayness”
-Ex: “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” (Sir Walter Raleigh)

-life-at-its-worst; focus on environment/heredity
-describes the human existence according to “scientific causality”
-Ex: “Two Songs” (C. Day Lewis)

tells a story; includes a conflict (good vs. evil)

in the middle of many things; don’t know the exact beginning or end

stories within a story; an overall/overarching story with individual stories within (Ex: “Aladdin” is a story within “The Arabian Nights” collection of stories)

for the romantics, life is transitory; life is in a state of change, change is good, passing from a situation to a better situation

direct address to something not human

-14 lines; lines must rhyme; follows a specific metrical line (iambic pentameter)
-subject matter: love and nature
-Shakespearean: made it popular;
problem described in first 3 quatrains; solves problem in the last 2 lines (couplet)
-Petrarchan: describes problem in first 8 lines; solves problem in last 6 lines

-Written by Seamus Heaney
-Epic poem written in episodes; parts form an organic whole–> epic purpose: “Behavior that’s admired is the path to power among people everywhere”
-Beowulf is a Christ-like figure–> sacrificial; 12 soldiers (disciples) and their leader
-Grendel = evil; defeated by Beowulf
-line 13/14: “a comfort sent by God to that nation”
-line 99: introduction to Grendel
-reference to Cain; Grendel is his descendent–> Grendel is jealous of guests; it is in his nature to be evil
-line 180: reference to Jesus –> “blessed is he”; he = Jesus (Beatitudes)
-pg 6/7: Battle between Beowulf and Grendel–> Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands; no weapon (man-made) could kill him; evil can’t be killed by something man-made; use mind (outsmart) evil to overcome it
-pg 9: can’t take treasure with; possessions = not eternal
fights dragon; sacrificial, ends up dying; reference to Jesus

-Written by Ezra Pound
-form = ballad; narrative, characters, plotline, moral at the end
-the speaker makes a song about himself and the suffering he has endured while traveling over the ocean in winter
-he says the comfortable “city dwellers” know nothing of his suffering
-his spirit is troubled, urging him to endure the harsh conditions on the winter sea so that he can seek a faraway “foreign” homeland
-spring comes and it provokes the man to go on another journey- seafarers chest leaps out and soars all over the world (his spirit) then returns unsatisfied
-riches don’t last, fight hard against the devil so bravery will be remembered after death- then you can live forever with the angels
-the days of earthly glory are over- the weak have inherited the Earth
-a sinful soul can’t take his gold with him after death
-it is important to fear God- only a fool does not fear God
-a man must live humbly, think about earthly life, focus on heavenly home
-work to get to heaven, where joy awaits us
-repetition of sounds; creates a rhythm (representation of the rhythm of the ocean)
-compare and contrast poem; sailor vs. someone who lives on land

-Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
-Overall: pilgrims that represent a cross-section of society make a religious journey from London to Canterbury
-General Prologue–> characterizes each pilgrim and host; includes what they wear and what they ride (reflects social status); whoever tells the best story = winner; if they don’t tell a story they have to pay for everything; host will pick winner when the journey is over”The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
-poem is about an educated woman who eventually gets the right to make her own decision about being with her husband
-framework device
-the woman tells him a story before they go to bed, but does not tell him the end until the next day (this is how she was able to live b/c usually he slept with women and then would kill them)
-the woman has been married 5 times (allusion to the woman at the well in the Bible)
-the woman rides the horse like she owns it and is in control of the horse (shows her character)- she did not ride the horse side saddle like most women do
-the woman says that her view of marriage is “I’ll do for you if you do for me” (she wants $ and he wants sex- business deal)
-she tells a story about King Arthur’s round table–> one of the knights rape a maiden; queen finds out; knight was brought back to the court and king wants to kill him; queen gives grace to knight to learn what women really want; knight is desperate to find the answer; finds an old lady and they go to king arthur’s court; she whispers answer into his ear (women desire to have sovereignty-choice) [ ironic because young girl who he raped wanted the same thing]; old lady says she wants to marry him in return for her answer; old lady gives him a choice- let me be unfaithful and young or faithful and old; he lets her choose therefore he get young, beautiful, and trustworthy; unsatisfying ending because no justice for young girl; shows how life is unfair; everything works out for the knight because he has power and status and is a man

-Queen Elizabeth
-love letter; epistle = letter (epistolary technique)
-rejecting a suitor; played men against each other to benefit her country
-acknowledges she made a mistake but moves on

-Queen Elizabeth (very fat; utiliatrian= useful/good for many things; virgin queen)
-two audiences: her cousin and everyone else (her enemies); cousin was Mary Queen of Scotts who also had a claim to the throne; she plotted against Elizabeth; warning against traitors
-symbolically uses metaphors; people reaching beyond their grasps, trying to put together forces against her
-recurring tree metaphor: threatens/warns enemies; reference to decapitation; efforts will be “fruitless”

-Isabella Whitney (second published female British poet)
-early form of apostrophe; address people in London (apostrophe= direct address to something)
-describes different parts of the city

-Christopher Marlowe
-asks her to be his mistress and she says no (woman has logic)
-he does not love her, just wants her to be his love
-wins her love by giving her material possessions
-example of romanticism

-Sir Walter Raleigh
-reply to Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
-follows the same pattern; lists same things, but contradicts each point
-represents a woman with logic

-C. Day Lewis
-Allusion to “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (Marlowe)
-context: written during 1935 during the Depression, WWII
-the man will not give her anything, she will work and toil but if “these delights” may move her, then he wants the girl to be his love
-lack of possessions implies that what women really want isn’t tangible; they really want honesty; portray life as it really is/is going to be

-Shakespeare
-nature aspect of sonnet: passing of time; transition of seasons
-writing to a woman; afraid time will pass, will be too late
-last couplet: nothing can stop time; reference to Death (scythe)
-only way to combat time is to have children; they carry on your legacy
-carpe diem (seize the day); convince her to live while they’re alive

-Shakespeare
-summer: things are young, fertile, peak of life
-questions how do you escape the boundaries of time?
-cheat time figuratively; live through poem
-as long as the poem lives, they live; their love lives

-Shakespeare
-compare her fame to anyone who has a monument in their name
-monuments will eventually fall but poems will last the test of time
-reference to the return of Jesus
-when people read the poems, their love will live on

-Shakespeare
-appearance doesn’t matter; he loves her anyways
-she is too smart to fall prey to false flattery; he loves her mind
-he can’t lie to her through false comparison, therefore he gives her his honesty

-John Milton
-reflects in Shakespeare’s legacy and its impact
-eight rhyming couplets (total: 16 lines); purposely didn’t put it in a perfect sonnet form because he didn’t want the comparison
-start poem with a question and answers it in the last two lines; people would want to live in Shakespeare’s grave; be remembered like him; Shakespeare has fame that outlasts anything man-made or materialistic
-says shakespeare doesn’t need a monument b/c his poems are good enough

-John Milton
-Milton eventually went blind; he reflects upon his struggle to serve God despite his new disability
-biblical allusions to the parable of the talents; Milton’s “talent” = writing
-personifies Patience to represent the Holy Spirit (as part of the Trinity)
-people can serve God in multiple ways including simply standing and waiting for his direction

-John Milton
-he thought he saw his ESPOUSAL wife (“espoused” = biblical allusion to Mary)
-has never seen his wife; she died in childbirth
-she is going to heaven because he had a dream and saw her there; she is described as saintly and wearing white
-only time he can see her is in his dreams
-opens his eyes and sees nothing b/c he is blind

-Phillis Wheatley (first published African American Poet)
-condensed narrative; distinct rhyming/metrical pattern; heroic couplets; reflects contemporary “white” author fashion
-narrative about her life
-allusion to Cain–> she says she is a decendant of Cain b/c her skin has a mark, just like Cain had a mark
-diabolic = diablo (devil); diabolic dye = mark of the devil (alliteration)

-Phillis Wheatley
-talks about the power of creation
-showing she is not the only one (African American) with skill; raise awareness of stereotypes
-write poems about painters; painters paint interpretation of poems

-William Blake
-heroic couplets; describing a scene at St. Paul’s Cathedral
-kids going in 2 by 2 (allusion to Noah’s ark); children are innocent (lambs), being led in by deacons ; “beadles” (church officials) killed Jesus, took away his innocence; Blake is afraid children will be corrupted by church officials; juxtaposition of religious symbols and current situation in London-“the struggle of the soul to free its natural energies from the pull and force of reason and organized religion…” THIS IS THE WHOLE POEM- means he does not like organized religion

-William Blake
-written in heroic couplets
-This poem teaches how anger can be dispelled by goodwill or nurtured to become a deadly poison
-The wrath the speaker feels is not directly personified as a tree, but as something that grows slowly and bears fruit
-In the opening stanza the speaker states, “My wrath did grow.” The speaker later describes the living nature of the wrath as one which, “grew both day and night,” and, “bore an apple bright.”
-The apple is a product of hate, the ironic “fruits of one’s labor,” and a biblical metaphor for sin
-destruction will occur if the tree is showered with sour emotions
-Like the events of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, man gives in to the weakness of sin and falls.
-reference to Tree of Knowledge–>compare and contrast (friend vs.foe)
-poem about forgiveness
-he kills the enemy at the end b/c he does not forgive

-William Blake
-transition from innocence to experience; can’t go back to innocence once it is corrupted; pure to corrupt
-complaint with organized religion and using reason to make rules

-Anne Bradstreet
-prologue to a book of published poems; book published without her knowledge
-she is a women, so she technically shouldn’t be writing about ships and other manly things
-she is facetious–> “men do it best, and women do it well” (implies that women are multitaskers so we can only do a bunch of things well instead of one thing great)
-she says that “not everything shines like glitter and gold” –> slap in the face to men
-ironically implies that she is inferior to men; repetition of self-effacing implies that men are dumb and she must repeat what she is saying
-line 25-8: “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue, who says my hand a needle better fits; A poet’s pen scorn I should thus wrong; for such despite they cast on female wits” ; “obnoxious”
– doesn’t know her place; acting inappropriately; better suited for sewing, not writing
-last 2 lines: make everyone else look better because her work is average; allusion to the “Merchant of Venice” (everyone picked the gold casket, but average wood one was the right one)

-Anne Bradstreet
-compare and contrast poem; letter to child because didn’t know if she would survive childbirth
-wants stepmother to read letter; want her to take care of her child like they were her own

-Anne Bradstreet
-not sonnet because only 12 lines; love poem with heroic couplets
-lines 11 and 12: have ideal love; live eternally because perfect love; earth love will transition to paradise love (similar theme to Shakespeare)

-Anne Bradstreet
-extended metaphor: husband = sun; her sun
-last two lines: they are one/united physically/spiritually no matter where they are

-William Wordsworth
-blend of Shakespearean/Petrarchan sonnet; talking about the structure of the sonnet
-references to people who live in a confined life, yet are still happy; know boundaries and accept them; confinement = good

-William Wordsworth
-Sonnet; standing at foot of daughter’s grave (she was the apple of his eye)
-happy because daughter is in heaven; hoping to be renewed/reunited in heaven
-C. S. Lewis wrote a book with the same title about his wife Joy who died

-Robert Burns
-narrator = plow boy; destroys mouse nest
-talking to mouse; “all in this together”
-apologizes for ruining his house
-uses the term “of mice and men” to allude to John Steinbeck’s book
-he thinks the mouse is better off than he is b/c the mouse lives in the present and he still has his past in his conscious to haunt him
-mouse men; man can remember past and think about the future; mouse only lives in the present; memories of past = bad, therefore fearful of the the future

-Robert Burns
-love poem; similar to Marlowe’s poem
-carpe diem; love her until the end of time but he will be 10,000 miles away
-hyperbole–> “the love will not run dry until the seas go dry”

-Percy Bysshe Shelley
-writes about a place where Ozymandias is the ruler
-story within a story, within a story (framework device)
-refers to Ramses’ tomb; framework story (line 10: nesting of stories)
-forces of nature wore down monument; forgotten (similar to Shakespeare’s theme)
-ironic couplet: Ozymandias is no longer forgotten because of the poem

-John Keats
-NOT about sonnets (about a girl chained naked-confined)
-uses the words “strained, feadered, confined” to express the idea of confinement
-Keats says we have been putting women into poems, therefore he is saying they are confined by certain limitations, etc. (just like a sonnet)–> he sets women free by freeing her from the limitations
-Reference to Andromeda: a beautiful princess chained naked to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster but rescued by the hero Perseus
-Tells about what the poem does: fit into metrical pattern, make it rhyme
-Allusion to Midas (king who turned what he touched into gold): that’s what poets do, take all sounds and syllables and keep them for themselves, plugging them into their poems
-Laurel=victor (crown for winner) winner of poetry prizes also got a laurel wreath
-Repetition: one of a poet’s tools; when you see something repeated, it’s probably important
-talks about things being enclosed (in bondage, restrained) (line 1=chained, line 3=fettered, line 4=constrained, line 5=sandal, line 14=bound, garland)
-talks about how we’ve been putting women in poems and stereotyping them; what poets need to do is feel free of the models before them

-Edgar Allen Poe
-Vulture=science, metaphor because they eat carcasses, waiting for things to die; science ruins dreams
-Basically says: When I look into the skies, I want to see the stars as jewels in the sky, the constellations; but the scientists said that they’re just starts; I was soaring, but you’ve dragged me down; You’ve torn apart all these things, including me and my imagination
-romantics believed life was changeable/transitory, but he did not

-Edgar Allen Poe
-A lament over a woman (Lenore) who is no longer in his life
-Structure: Prose poem; Ten-sentence patterns; Line rhyme: line rhyming within itself, middle with end (repeated); Middle of the line rhyme with the previous line
End of line 4 rhymes with line 2; Space at line 6: dropped line
-Student reading at midnight (probably for finals since it’s December), reading forgotten writers; Looking for any excuse not to study
-raven says “nevermore” to everything
-raven knocks on his window at midnight
-he realizes talking to the bird is not helpful & he loses his sanity

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson
-story of unrequited love; divided into stanzas; metrical pattern/ rhyming scheme unique to poem
-her job is to weave tapestrys; she can’t leave the tower because she is cursed; she looks out the window she will die; looks out using the mirror: reality is skewed, backwards. She is dead; if she leaves the tower she will die; trapped/imprisoned by man (tower = phallic symbol); curse of womanhood (period): representation of fertility, ability to bear children, confined to that role in life
-decides to leave the tower because she sees Sir Lancelot
mirror cracks; sacrifices life for love; would rather be in love than alive; goes in a canoe and died; allusion to Ophelia (Hamlet)

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson
-Sonnet, 4 lines, simple rhyming pattern to let poem be straightforward and not distracting.
-Going on a journey during sunset — talking about the end of life and liking it to taking a journey, sailing out into the unknown is like dying.
-Has hope because he will see his captain (God)
-Water, unknown future, uncertainty = biblical allusions but as long as He has God he is safe. Focus on stanza 4!
-Tennyson looking at death in a positive way and comparing it to life at sea by using metaphors.

-Cristiana Rossetti
-Her take on death is that she does not care if people remember or forget her.
-Be happy or not because she may or may not remember it

-Cristiana Rossetti
-She is talking about her death.
-Structure- 14 lines its a sonnet; First eight lines are setting up the situation, you answer the question solve the problem.
-She would rather the loved one respond in the absence of her to be happy because if he’s forgotten her she is ok with that; Because if he remembers it will make him feel sad.

-Cristiana Rossetti
-Sonnet, last two lines are key
-On the surface poem is about a woman who knows how to pose for a painting
-But the woman looks at the painting of herself and says that is not her
-So in other words sometimes how you perceive yourself is not how everyone else may perceive you; how people see themselves and other people

-Cristiana Rossetti
-Structure: 16 lines, Oratorical style that is very engaging, responsive reading; She wants the readers to be engaged; rhetorical questions.
-First speaker is on a journey; narrative that is full of life experiences that will teach us something.
-The responses are positive which are talking about heaven; Beds in an “inn” talk about Jesus; people are taking a journey and there are no beds, like Jesus when He was born had no bed; Jesus makes bed for everyone in heaven (biblical allusion).
-“Vale of Tears”–> in the middle ages referred to life with this term because it was so hard they just needed to get through it

-Emily Dickinson
-Was a recluse and she loved taking flowers from her garden to people
-She cooked etc…guarded her privacy so that she could write poetry
-Doesn’t like titles to her poems; her poems are very hard to interpret, she hides the meaning.
-She announces that she is a “nobody” in this poem; being famous is like being a “frog who lives in a bog”; a bog is like dead water and barely supports life.
-There is no secret to the way she writes poetry
don’t be selfish; allow others to forget so they can be happy

-Emily Dickinson
-One of her famous poems, topic of depression
People think she had migraines; the funeral is an out of body experience

-Emily Dickinson
-Capital letters emphasize something; draw attention to them
-morning = homonym (mourning)
-when people died, visited them in parlor
-get on with your life when I die; Sweep up the heart and do not put it away permanently, and bring it back when you come back to life.
-hopeful poem; need to get back to the heart of the home (which is the kitchen with the fire place); hopeful you will be with the person you lost in heaven once more someday

-Emily Dickinson
-metaphor: little children hear lightening and parents don’t tell them the complete truth; can’t handle the truth
-Sometimes tell truth in bits and pieces; sometimes need full effect
-biblical allusion: paul needed to be blinded in order to do the truth.

-Elizabeth Daryush
-sonnet
-she gets everything handed to her everyday- her future is just like the present