Poems Flashcards Answers

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Sonnet 169: Petrarch
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*octave: problem & sestet: solution *abbaabba-cdcdcd *The speaker loves a girl, but he knows that he should be fleeing her because she is deadly. *He then decides to tell her of his love, but "[he] ha[s] so much to say [he] dare not start."
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Sonnet 292: Petrarch
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*octave: problem & sestet: solution *abbaabba-cdcdcd *First describes beautiful lover in octave. *Then says that she is dead and expresses his sorrow in the sestet. He can't write anymore poetry b/c he is so sad
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To Lucasta, going to the Wars: Richard Lovelace
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*tone-light and pleasant *Themes: duty and honor *"I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not Honour more" (ll 11+12)
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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Dylan Thomas
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*"battle speech" given to Thomas' father who was battling cancer *"villanelle" structure *repeating lines : "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "rage, rage against the dying of the light" at the end of each stanza" (ll 1 +3) *theme: dont give in to death, fight to the last breath
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Leda and the Swan: William Butler Yeats Emerging Modern Period
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*allusion to Greek mythology: Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan and raped her;Leda is queen of Sparta; had four kids (2 from husband=Castor and Clytemnestra, 2 from Zeus=Helen and Polythesis) *themes: sex, the supernatural, transformation, fate and free will *significant lines: How can those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs? *Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
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The Second Coming: William Butler Yeats Emerging Modern Period
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*spiritus mundi(spirit of the world) *Second Coming = allusion to Christ *Themes: Good v. Evil, Armageddon/War, versions of reality (spiritus mundi), memory and the past *significant lines: Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. * TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer
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Siren Song: Margaret Atwood Emerging Modern Period
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*Themes: mythology; differences between men and women *sirens= three dangerous, seductive, bird-like women; they keep the men captive after they shipwreck and eat them *significant lines: at last. Alas it is a boring song but it works every time.
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Death Be Not Proud: John Donne
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Metaphysical Poet/Renaissance Period *Personifies death, calls it insignificant. Death is powerless *Christian influence: The afterlife is greater than life, so death does nothing *themes: mortality, afterlife, life vs. death significant line: "Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men"
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Ozymandias: Percy Bysshe Shelley
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*Themes: mortality, insignificance of humanity *decaying statue of Ozymandias in the desert. despite his power, all of his work is now in ruins *no matter what work you do, it will decay eventually. the powerful Ozymandias has no work left intact *significant lines: Nothing beside remains./Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,/The lone and level sands stretch far away
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The World is Too Much With Us: Wordsworth
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Romantic Period *Sonnet (Petrarch) *"Little we see in nature that is ours" *Theme of the progression of technology and how consumed the people of the world are with it, and materialism *In today's age, nobody stops to observe nature (Wordsworth condemns this) * nature's beauty does not phase us *speaker comments that if he did not believe in God, he would look for ancient gods in the seas and enjoy their presence (Proteus, Triton)
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On this Day I Complete my 36th Year
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Romantic Period- Byron **Themes: Effect of time, equating time w/ death *1st 4 stzs: imagery of decay/death: -- Love, passion, emotional relationships gone --still loves but no one loves him back --"My days are on the yellow leaf":alludes to Macbeth --The fire within him is a "funeral pile" *TURNING POINT: after stanza 4: --Speaker still has his passion and will bring it to battlefield, channeling negative emotions --"parent lake" (metaphor)- will join with soldiers to be a part of something , will ignore feelings of rejection
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The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
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Renaissance Period/Pastoral - By: Sir Walter Raleigh - reflecting back on studies of Greeks (nymph, Philomel) - realistic response to The Passionate Shepherd - nature is not always beautiful - reiterates many of Marlowe's images and ideas, but distorts them through the lens of time - witty, ironic - more mature outlook than the shepherd's dreamy idealizations
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Backgroud of Sonnets
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The English Renaissance -During the 16th century became one of the most popular forms of poetry in England -Used to conevey deep and intense feelings -Often expressed idealized love -The speaker is most often a man -He often tells of his love for some woman who remains aloof and unreachable
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Sonnet 30
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The English Renaissance -By: Edmund Spencer -Part of a collection of sonnets or sonnet sequence -Simulates the ritual of courtship -4 line units called qutarains followed by 2 rhyming lines called couplets -Interlocking rhyme scheme (abab bcbc cdcd ee) -The speaker is in love with a woman who does not love him -He is fire and she is ice -His love is unrequited -The more he loves her, the more she rejects him -Paradox: [his] fire should melt [her] ice but it seems to just make her colder -(Last line) Love is higher than nature i.e. this should not be happening fire should melt ice
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Sonnet 75
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The English Renaissance -By: Edmund Spencer -The speaker is in love with a woman -In his love, he seeks to immortalize her by writing her name in the sand -The lover told him he was 'vain' because she would die eventually and her name would die also -He says that he could immortalize his loved one in poetry -Through his poetry their love will last forever
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Kubla Khan
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Romantisism -By: Samuel Taylor Coleridge -A fragment of a (opium?) enduced dream -Was interrupted and forgot the poem -Expresses the beauty and serenity of nature contrasted with its savagery and wildness -Rhyming Iambic Pentameter -Allusion to the story of Kubla Khan i.e. the pleasure dome, the river alph -Main theme: man and the natural world
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I wandered lonely as a cloud
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Romantic period (we painted it) By Wordsworth - narrator (compared to cloud) reflects on looking at dancing daffodils -daffodils are personified "tossing their heads" , "a crowd, a host." -themes = nature, "bliss of solitude" "flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude"
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To an Athlete Dying Young
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-mostly iambic tetrameter -alliteration: line 5 "road all runners" line 22 "fleet foot" -apostrophe: talking about a deceased athlete -oxymoron: line 14 "silence sounds" -simile: comparison of glory and a blooming rose in line 12 "it withers quicker than the rose" -athlete dies while he is a champion. townspeople treated him like a hero and admired him. the speaker says that the athlete will never have to see his records being broken or his title being taken from him because he died. -theme: glory is fleeting. the speaker praises the athlete for dying before he sees his glory fading
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Terence, This is Stupid Stuff
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-broken into sections: reprimendation, response, justification, historical allusion -simile: dead cow to Terence's view of poetry -Terence claims that food and beer are more important in life than poetry is -Milton's Paradise Lost can't compare; it doesn't "justify God's ways to man" in a way that common people can understand
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My Mistress' Eyes
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-William Shakespeare (Renaissance) -sonnet; 14 lines; iambic pentameter -themes of love and beauty; the object of the poem is unknowing of Shakespeare's love -body of poem: realistic description of the woman he loves; his woman is not like the idealized -end of poem: his love is unique, others are making false comparisons about their lovers "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false compare." -use of contrast: contrasts a feature of his woman to a better aspect of nature "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;/Coral is far more red than her lips' red"
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Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day?
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- William Shakespeare (Renaissance) -sonnet; 14 lines; iambic pentameter -theme: seasons like summer will fade, but her beauty never will because Shakespeare has captured it in the lines of his poem -body of poem: talks about fading beauty and how some aspects of summer are too brutal; the winds are too rough, the sun is too hot, summer is too short "And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:/Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines" -end of the poem: immortalizes his lover in the lines of his poetry "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
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Barbara Allan Ballad
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Anglo-Saxon Medieval Period Anonymous -this poem is actually a song, with over 92 versions -stanzas of 4 lines each -a man loves Barbara Allan, but she does not love him back -eventually, man dies because he is not loved back -Barbara does not care much at first, but after he dies, she suddenly becomes grief stricken -She too dies, and they are both buried in a Church courtyard. -On his grave grows a rose, on hers a briar (bright flower with prickly stems)...the rose and briar end up growing together
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
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Metaphysical Poem by John Donne -John Donne was leaving his wife for something -they must make no noise and not react physically to their sorrow, because that is what earthly couples do - their love transcends earthly love; it is more spiritual -they will be able to love through their separation because they are one soul that can never be separated metaphors: -their love is like flexible gold, bends and stretches but doesn't break - compass: she is the fixed foot, while he travels around and far, but they will always still be connected
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Canterbury Tales: Chaucer
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-Knight: noble/polite -squire: obsessed w/love -prioress: has a "love conquers all" bracelet -monk: hunts and has too much fun -friar: Gives penance to those who give him $ -merchant: talks of $ all the time -clerk: eats books instead of food -man of law: tries to appear busier than he is -franklin: obsessed with food -cook: has an ulcer -shipman: steals wine -physician: obsessed w/gold -wife of bath: feigns religion, but is a slut - parson: pure and kind -plowman: hard worker -miller: steals from customers -manciple: smart -summoner: drunk & corrupt -pardoner: sells pardons
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She Walks In Beauty: Lord Byron
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-Romantic period (deals with ideal love) -Theme: light/dark contrast (beauty of contrast) -Narrator (3rd omniscient) describes a beautiful women with vivid imagery: beauty like a cloudless night, she is made up of the best of dark and light, innocent of heart -Rhyme: ababab 3 stanzas
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When We Two Parted: Lord Byron
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Romantic period -Theme: lost love, one-sided love -Narrator (1st person) describes a relationship with a woman that unhappilly ended. describes woman as cold and decieving and how her cruelty impacted him -Rhyme: 4 stanzas of 8 lines abababab
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The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
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Renaissance Period: - Carpe Diem - Less emphasis on religion - Humanism - <3 music and artLiterary Characteristics - Idealizing - Emotional - Vibrant images - Rural imagery - Catharsis usually seen -written in iambic tetrameter Summary - shepherd tries to woo a beautiful maiden by comparing her to nature and tempering her with natural gifts
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An Apostrophe to the Ocean
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Romantic Period - Highly emotional - Discussion of tangible emotions - Less on "God" figure - idealizing of nature and human qualitiesSummary - Speaker addresses ocean and speaks of the ocean's power, ability to control fate, ever lasting beauty - Loves the ocean like a father - Talks about how manmade things (like empires and walls) don't last and can be destroyed in a blink on an eye because of nature
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Ode to a Grecian Urn: John Keats
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Major themes: frozen in time,forever young, nature* Summary: some guy is holding an urn, he is describing how the urn and the paintings of the people on it are forever frozen in their young age Literary Devices: personification* Three paintings on the urn: First- drawing of a guy and a bunch of "maidens" Second- painting of a musician who's songs never get old Third- a priest about to sacrifice a baby cow Significant Lines: Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time (line 2) When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe (lines 46-47)
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My Last Duchess
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Victorian Time Period: gothic style, psycho-examination Themes: Jealousy, power, madness Dramatic monolouge Summary: asking someone for their daughter's hand in marriage to be the next Duchess. He dicusses his last Duchess, how she was very "flirty" and easily please with other men. So, he kills her, so he can have her all to himself.
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Porphyria's Lover
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Victorian Time period(same conventions as MLD) Themes: love, sin, power of love Summary: stormy nights, realizes how much he loves her, so he strangles her so she can be his "object". Then after the murder cuddles with the corpse. * During this time period, many poets portrayed women as "objects" & property that "belong" to men
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