Poetry Essays

Carol Ann Duffy seems to ask political/feminist questions in the following poems and believes women to be partly responsible for mass production, industrialisation and technology. The women in Duffy’s poems are seen as obsessive (The Diet, Work) and not in control (the woman who shopped). All three poems seem to combine aspects of femininity into […]

The world’s wife is a compilation of poems published in 1999 and written by Carol Ann Duffy, a modern feminist poet. It covers various myths in order to give women a voice. This includes the short monologue like poem: “Medusa”. How do metaphors, symbols and allegories contribute in clarifying the meanings of the poem? Primarily, […]

The task set out in this essay is to examine the listed devices (accentuation, creation of hierarchies, shifts of accent, ambiguity, semanticisation and creation of relationship) of syntactic foregrounding, using examples from poems as illustration. The word ‘foregrounding’ when used in a literary context means to ‘make strange’. In other words poets use various literary […]

In this critical essay I will be writing on account of “Shooting Stars” by Carol Ann Duffy. Duffy successfully reveals the true horrors of the Second World War using a wide variety of poetic techniques, of which in this task I will evaluate and finally conclude with my own opinion. Throughout the dramatic monologue Duffy […]

Edgar Lee Masters and Amy Lowell are two poets who have similarities and differences in their approach to poetry. Despite these differences, both poets manage to establish a deep emotional connection with their readers by using a combination of romanticism and modern techniques in their writing. They both explore themes such as life, love, and […]

According to Clugston (2010), poetry is a form of literature that encompasses everything the poet perceives and all of their senses, emotions, experiences, and imagination. It reflects human life but is written concisely and expressively using figurative language. Comprehending it can sometimes be challenging. Poetry aims to captivate the reader’s attention and invites them into […]

In the clever yet relatable poem by Robert Graves, “The Naked And The Nude,” the narrator compares and contrasts the words “naked” and “nude. ” In order to prove his point of how semantics can change the feeling associated by a word, which is normally subjective, Graves persuades the reader with structure, allusions, and tone […]

John Keats’s poetry was greatly influenced by the Romantic Period and the Romantics, appreciation and exaggeration of nature’s beauty. Keats’s believed that the deepest meaning of life lay in the appreciation of material beauty, and that this beauty could be found in many different objects. He expresses this idea through the form of poetry. ‘To […]

Chaucer, who is considered the father of English poetry, resided during the Middle English period. His literary creations can be categorized into three phases. The initial phase, referred to as the French period, demonstrates Chaucer’s significant reliance on French sources and structures. This is noticeable in two of his poems, namely “The Book of the […]

In 1966, Seamus Heaney published his first collection of poems, called “Death of a Naturalist, which deals with the loss of childhood innocence and the following transitions into adulthood. In this collection of poems, we are shown his admiration for his ancestors, his own distorted view of nature and why he became a writer. The […]

T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is an intricate poem that is intentionally difficult to understand; it contains a myriad of allusions to other texts, it has a fragmented narrative structure, speaks in various languages and utilizes surreal imagery. These features, amongst others, contribute to the poem’s complexity. I wish to examine, in detail, how […]

“When I Have Fears” by John Keats and “Mezzo Cammin1” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow can both be seen as poems written to show that death is inevitably drawing nearer. In both poems, symbols and diction are used to help the reader contrast the two separate works, and through these techniques, these two men elucidate on […]

In the poem “The Things We Dare Not Tell,” Henry Lawson’s purpose is to state the two different types of secrets that people posses which are; the kind that should be external to others and the kind that should be kept internal from others. He adopts a simpering and deceived aspect in order to relate […]

Advancing like a silent threat, the onset of winter is presented throughout the poem as a season with sinister intent. The “acid breath of noon” approaches in a “Slow” manner, as if sneaking up on autumn. The personification of the “acid breath” not only suggests to the reader the fog is murderous, but one could […]

The reason I chose the poem “The Well Dressed Man with a Beard” (By Wallace Stevens), was because… Well, honestly there was no reason. I opened up a poetry book and decided to open it at random and do whichever poem was on the page. I thought it would be a good challenge. Plus, when […]

Time is sometimes said to be precious because it is the one thing which can never come back and which can never be replaced. To live life to the fullest and to seize the day because life is impermanent are just some of the principles that people uphold in their life just because they see […]

This paper addresses some the most prominent problematics of working with an established literary canon, including the extent to which, when implemented in universities worldwide, it represents the emerging concerns of diverse communities across the world. The main argument extended in this discussion is that, while the western-centred literary canon is being increasingly replaced by […]

In the poem “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church,” Emily Dickinson expresses the feeling that everybody practices their faith and religion in a different way. The narrator of this poem portrays the idea of self practice. Being able to completely understand and interpret the meaning of this piece of poetry was not a short […]

A literary work called a poem expresses emotion or ideas with a unique style and rhythm. Kenneth Slessor’s ‘Beach Burial’ and Bruce Dawe’s ‘Elegy for Drowned Children’ both explore death and mourning. While ‘Beach Burial’ reflects on the Battle of El Alamein in World War II, ‘Elegy for Drowned Children’ ponders the fate of those […]

The extract I have in front of me is a poem by Seamus Heaney. Heaney is an Irish poet who grew up in rural Ireland. His poems often deal with childhood, farm life, politics and traditional culture in Northern Ireland. The poem I have is called Storm on the Island. Heaney’s poem explores the power […]

Wires by Philip Larkin is an analogy of a society trapped by rules and limits and a demonstration that fear prevents humankind from following their desires. Larkin writes this poem in 1950 with the idea of showing his point of view of the world. In the poem the cattles are trapped by the wires imposed, […]

‘Lady Lazarus’ was written by Sylvia Plath. On a literal level, this poem is about death and attempting suicide. It is most likely that it was written from Plath’s personal experience as she was known for her suicidal nature. This poem has 28 tercet stanzas. There is no clear rhyme scheme yet rhyming can be […]