Poetry
This is a large un-organized group of essays that covers a lot of poems and poets. After the page is loaded you can use the Find order from the commands Menu in your browser or just scroll down to find what you want
 
A Poison Tree
 
William Blake is a mystic person, in other words, he has a special relationship with God. The Bible was the reference for his symbols and that feature is clearly noticed throughout the poem. In an allegorical way, the poem shows Blake’s mysticism through the use of symbols. Language, for Blake, was not an expected set of words, but he used it to higher levels of thought and he saw divine vision behind the words. He was romantic in his style and his outlook. He is also a mystic in his search for truth and reality; he explores the secret of nature and the secret of the soul. This poem is about good and evil, that are both natural. The poem is based on the central image of the tree of life. We have two worlds, the world of sin and the world of imagination.
The tree is baring the apple which kills the Foe who steals it. It is the tree of imagination, a mystical symbol. It is a symbol of man’s search for the unity with God. The poem is based on this Christian symbol. Adam when stealing the apple from the tree will lead to fall or death.
In the first stanza we have two symmetrical statements finishing with the word ‘End’. The body of the tree is going to be extended and the direction of its growth will be downwards. We have two personal pronouns in the second stanza. In the third stanza the growth of the tree begins, then we have another appearance of the personal pronoun  in the fourth stanza to witness the moment of triumph. The poem does not give us time to relax or pause till it reaches line fifteen that starts without a conjunction to provide the first relief.
Moreover, we have two lexical sets in which the words are related to one another. The first lexical set is ‘angry, wrath, foe, fears, tears, night, poison’ while the second set is ‘friend, morning, smiles, shine, garden, tree’. Growth, also, is an extended set that includes nature. The apple here stands for sin, while it is supposed to stand for virtue, while the eating of the apple represents evil. We could also notice couplets in the form of antonyms as the form noticed in the choice of words as ‘morning and night’.
The tone of the poem in the second and third stanza is slow and calculated while in the last stanza we feel a tone of triumph and victory. The foe deserved to be punished. The poem gives no moral judgment but shows that this is the natural order in the world. It also clarifies an idea that shows man blind to his fate. The whole poem is expressive, mystic, and shows a careful use of contradicting terms.
 
A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day
by John Dryden
John Dryden is an English poet dramatist and critic. He first came to notice with Heroic Stanzas (1659). Throughout his life, he wrote brilliant critical prefaces and discourses, notably the Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). His last years were occupied chiefly with translating Juvenal, Vergil, and others.
         Dryden begins his poem by a key word ‘harmony’ and this kind of harmony is not ordinary but it is the heavenly harmony. He represents nature as asleep and unconscious until it heard the voice of the divine Creator ordering it to wake up and come to life. Nature is composed of everything, the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry and so on; all of these contradictory characteristics of nature started to move and each went to its suitable position.
         The poet is following a new method in describing the process of creation. He is stressing the fact that music and harmony are important factors in the process of creation. Thus, he makes a relationship between musical instruments and man. He enhances this idea of music and starts to compare men and women to different musical instruments. For example, he relates drums to men and violins to women. Then he compares the voice of the organ to St. Cecilia’s voice. He extends in this comparison saying that both voices attract the angels from the sky and they mistake earth for heaven. At the end of the poem the poet stresses the power of the divine Creator saying that He who created this heaven will destroy it on dooms day.
An Apology For Poetry
By
Sir Philip Sidney
Sidney is considered the first of the great English poet-critics, because of his Apology For Poetry. The work is a ‘defense’ or ‘apology’ for imaginative writing in general. The body of Sidney’s argument or defense falls under three general titles. First, he notes that poetry has been the first educator that leads to more civilized state and more sensitivity to knowledge. The second argument is represented as a philosophical argument about the aim of poetry. Sidney’s third argument is about the moral value of poetry as based on the first two arguments. He attempts to establish poetry as the highest of all arts. He thinks that poetry is the best form of art that could please and instruct.
Sidney argues for the supremacy of poetry. He says that poetry is the first light given to ignorance, and the first great works of science, philosophy, history, and law, were all written in verse. Sidney stresses on the value of poetry referring to the Greeks who called their writers ‘makers of creations’. He says that the poet has an advantage over both, the philosopher and the historian. He wanted to defend poetry against the charge of being immoral, corrupting, lying and encourages idleness.
In answer to Plato’s objections that poetry tells lies, Sidney answers that the poet invents; that is to say that the work of poetry is the telling of a story that is not literary true. Sidney believes that untruth may be valuable as a means of communicating wisdom. For Sidney, lies could be valuable if they are used as allegorical ways of teaching morality. Sidney defends imaginative literature, he investigates the nature and value of poetry. To him, the poet does not imitate, express, or discuss things that already exist; he invents new things. Invention is the main feature of a poet, he creates new things by drawing on his wit. The world of poetry, for Sidney, is better than the real world. The ideal world of the poet is of value because it is better than the real world and it is presented in a way that leads the reader to try to imitate it. The imitation is not done by the poet, it is something that the reader has to do to benefit from poetry. In the world of the poet, goodness prevails and wickedness is punished; this is the meaning of ‘poetic justice’.
AN APPEAL BY SIR. THOMAS WYATT
 
This poem is one of Sir. Wyatt’s poems that deal with love. It portrays the picture of a lover who tries to convince his beloved not to leave him. He states how his love went on. Moreover, he is begging her to stay with him and trying to soften her heart, but, at the end of the poem, all of his effort seems to be in vain.
In this poem, the poet is addressing his beloved. He is asking her if she will leave him. He starts gradually saying “And wilt thou leave me thus?” In the first stanza he is encouraging her to “Say nay” because by doing this she is doing a shameful behavior. This will cause him to feel pain and will make him in a state of grief. As a result, she will be the one to be blamed. At the end of the stanza he repeats his first question trying to know if his words have empressed her. Wyatt moves to the second stanza showing how much he loved her “In wealth and woe among”. He loved her during the times of her happiness and the times of sadness. At the same time, he can not imagine that she will ignore all this love. He asks her “is thy heart so strong” to the extent that you could leave me “As for to leave me thus?” In the third stanza, he reminds her that he has given her his heart knowing that she will never leave him or cause him any pain. At the end of the stanza he repeats the same question “And wilt thou leave me thus?” Then, he tries to move her emotions “have no more pity”. Finally, his beloved seems to be cruel “Helas, thy cruelty”, he says. The final line shows that, still, he can not imagine that she will leave him and so he repeats the question he started by.
The poem is composed of four sestets. Its rhyme scheme is [abbbac]. Each line is written in iambic triameters except the last line of each stanza. It is written in iambic diameters. Sir.Thomas Wyatt used alliteration in “thou, thus” and “grief, grame”. The sound ‘g’ expresses his sadness and the heavy burden he is bearing. Assonance and consonance are, also, clear in “Say nay, Say nay” to emphasize on his refusal of the idea of leaving him. The refrain, in the poem, is used excessively to emphasize on the lyrical element and, also, on his rejection of her decision. The refrain, also, shows how much he is in love and how much he is trying to encourage his beloved not to leave him.
No figures of speech are clearly noticed in the poem except for “given thee my heart”. It is a common metaphor showing an important part of his body that denotes deep love, as if it could be a very precious possession that could be given to someone we love. Finally the poem is framed by a question that Wyatt knows its answer and his beloved is going to leave him.
 
 
Farewell by  Sir. Thomas Wyatt
        The poem consists of four stanzas; each stanza is of seven lines. Its rhyme scheme is [abab bcc]. The poem shows a lover who is betrayed by his beloved. He is facing her with the fact that he will leave her in return to her faithless behavior.
        In the first stanza Wyatt starts with a question “What should I say?” After that, he explains the reasons behind the question. He states “Since faith is dead/ And truth away/From you is fled”. His beloved became faithless and untrue. He moves forward and asks another question “Should I be led/With doubleness?” It seems that he did not decide yet, but he directly says “Nay, nay, mistress!” That means that he had made his final decision to leave her. In the second stanza, he describes the relationship between them. They exchanged promises to be true to each other but he found out that she has a double heart and decides to leave her. “I promised you/ And you promised me/ To be as true/ As I would be,/ but since I see/ your double heart,/ Farewell my part!” The third stanza is intended to clarify Wyatt’s inner feelings and how he thinks. He says that what is in his mind is to leave his beloved and that he is not blind to consider her as a partner. The last line of the stanza shoes that he will trust only what he sees. He says “Though for to take/ It is not my mind/ But to forsake,/ I am not blind,/ And so I find/ So I will trust,/ Farewell, unjust!” The word ‘unjust’ signifies that the whole situation is a result of her behavior. In the final stanza Wyatt faces his beloved with the fact that she said she would always obey him. This fact means that she can not refuse his decision. He says that he will forget all about the time he wasted with her. Moreover, he says that he will leave her without kissing her a good-bye kiss. He expresses himself clearly in the following words “Can ye say nay/ But you said/ That I alway/ Should be obeyed, / And thus betrayed/ All that I wist/ Farewell, unkist”.
        In order to strengthen his ideas, Wyatt uses figures of speech. For example, he uses a metaphorical language in “Faith is dead---Truth..fled” showing faith as a being that could die and truth as a bird that could fly. In the second stanza he shows his beloved as a very special part that belongs to him “Farewell my part”.
        Assonance and consonance are used in “Nay, nay” and “Can ye say nay”. Further more, the words “unjust” and “unkist” shows that he will not change or regret his decision. Although each stanza contains a part of what is in his mind, the whole poem is unified by one theme, which is leaving his beloved, and forgetting all about the time he spent with her.
 
 
Courtly love
With reference to Thomas Wyatt’s Steadfastness, An Appeal and Farewell
        Courtly love is a theme of poetry that flourished in Europe in the twelfth century and after. In courtly love, the lover loves by subjecting himself to an idealized dominance by his beloved. In courtly love, the lover is of a humble and noble character. He belongs to a courtly elite. He loves adulterously and raises the level of his passion to such a height that it assumes an almost sacred status.
         In his book, The Courtly Maker, Raymond Southall states that Chaucer influenced Wyatt. The influence of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde is very evident in Wyatt because it represents the situations and attitudes that constitute courtly love. The hero, the courtly lover, first talks about his freedom, then, on seeing the lady, he falls in love. He retires to his room secretly complaining against his lack and then declares his love. If the lover is accepted he joyfully sings, if rejected he complains. After that, fortune turns its wheel and the lovers separate. The lover complains and his complaints become violent when he discovers his lady’s unfaithfulness. It is true that many of Wyatt’s love poems follow the convention of courtly love, yet, we also meet a poet who expresses his own condition.
        We have pointed out that An Appeal, Steadfastness, and Farewell are examples of courtly love. In An Appeal, Wyatt laments the fact that his beloved left him in spite of his great love. He tells her:
“And wilt thou leave me thus
  and have no more pity
  of him that loveth thee?
  Helas... thy cruelty!”
        In Steadfastness, the poet begins by reminding his beloved of how he has wanted to win her heart. He tells her that he has been honest and faithful but all of his efforts have been wasted:
“Forget not yet the tried intent
  Of such a truth as I have meant
  My great travail so gladly spent
  Forget not yet”.
He begs her not to forget his pain and trouble since he has devoted himself to her. He ends the poem by telling her that his love will remain sincere, strong and unchangeable:
“Forget not then thine own approved
  The which so long hath thee so loved,
  whose steadfast faith yet, never moved
  Forget not yet.”.
         In Farewell, the poet begins by taking a decision to say good-bye to faithlessness. He says that although he trusted her she proved to be faithless:
“What should I say
  Since faith is dead
  And truth away
  From you is fled
  Should I be led
  with doubleness
  Nay, nay mistress”.
He finally says that she betrayed his trust and so “I wist / Farewell unkisset”
         In the three poems, we feel a strong lyrical element. Wyatt makes use of several devices such as repetition, alliteration, assonance and rhyme to express his emotional state. In An Appeal, there is alliteration between “grief” and “grame”, and “wealth” and “woe”. There is, also, assonance between “say, nay”. Moreover repetition could be noticed in the first and last line of every stanza:
“ And wilt thou leave me thus
   Say nay, say nay”.
         In Steadfastness, there is alliteration in “painful” and “patience” as well as repetition of the final line of every stanza “Forget not yet”. In Farewell, there is alliteration in “from” and “fled”, assonance in “Say” and “nay” and repetition of certain words as “Farewell” and “Nay”. All these devices stress the meaning and add to the music.
         Wyatt’s poems are conversational and subjective. Since the poet addresses his beloved, we find direct and personal statements like “I promised you and you promised me” in Farewell. In An Appeal, he says “And wilt thou leave me thus / that hath given thee my heart”. The lines he uses are short and effective and this helps in expressing the sad mood of the poet. The best example of this style is in Farewell’s first lines:
“What should I say
  since faith is dead
  And truth away
  From you is fled”
It must be noted that in Steadfastness, the best example of courtly love poems, the poem strictly follows the tradition. First, he worked hard to make his beloved accept him. He reminds her of all the troubles and pain he had gone through for her own sake, but she rejects him. However, he remains patient until the very end. On the other hand, Farewell begins by the poet taking a final decision. The poem does not really fit in the courtly love tradition. In short, we can come to the conclusion that Wyatt was not a blind follower of traditions. He followed the convention but added his own individuality.
 
An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife who Died and were Buried Together
by Richard Crashaw
         Richard Crashaw is an English METAPHYSICAL POET. The son of an ardent Puritan minister, he converted to Catholicism and lived on the Continent. His fame rests on his intense religious verse, which combines sensuality with mysticism in a manner suggestive of baroque art. Steps to the Temple (1646), his major volume of poems, was enlarged to include Delights of the Muses (1648).
 
         In this poem he describes the state of a husband and wife who were buried together. He states the fate of two people who were faithful to each other even after their death. He addresses the poem to the two persons (man and woman) who are wedded once more, but this time the grave is their marriage bed. He uses this metaphor in order to soften the image of the grave and make it a beautiful place for the husband and wife. He says that fate and death could not separate them and that they lived one happy life and they were buried together. Then he addresses the reader asking him not to weep on noticing this kind of fate, because the lovers are in peace and they are only asleep for a short duration of time. He is asking the reader to let them sleep till the night is gone ‘stormy night’. Death is represented as a stormy night that will end and after that there is dawn and light where they will wake up again and live the eternal life.
         The manner by which the poet uses shows his mysticism and delivers his message in a convincing way. He states that death cannot separate the lovers from each other and he ends his poem with the promise of an eternal life in heaven;
And they waken with that light,
Whose day shall never sleep in night.
An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope
 
Pope was pre-occupied with the idea of concision and precision. He applied this technique to his poem; we will note that the couplets are very concise, yet they expose various levels of meanings to us. Pope here is interrogating his own self as well as his own race. He is showing man’s abuses and defects, man’s shortcomings as well as his tyranny. He emphasizes the fact that man should investigate his race and find out the bad as well as the good qualities.
Pope’s opinion shows that man lives in a state of indecision. He is bewildered and does not know which way to go. He says that man is darkly wise. Using the word ‘dark’ shows that he is pessimistic, while the word ‘wise’ gives reference to the old age because wisdom comes with old age. According to Pope, man stands between two states of mind; he is in doubt to act or not to act. He is in doubt to call himself a god or an animal. Man also suffers from this state of mind, whether to follow his intelligence, reason, or to follow his bestial animal.
Pope is uncovering man and the human race hoping that we will learn a lesson from our own past history. His aim is to teach and delight at the same time. His precise way is clear through saying that man is born but to die, or ‘To be human is to err.' which shows that man thinks and uses his mind only to make errors. The more knowledge man attains the more he gets the sense of inferiority. This feeling is because of the plenty of knowledge that exists. Man’s pain is brought by his own self he even brings curse to himself. Yet, the only judge of truth is man, however endless mistakes are thrown at him and falls into them. Man is the riddle, the puzzle of this world, the most difficult being to understand because his actions are so unexpectedly sudden.
A satirical tone is expressed when Pope is telling man to tell the planets in what orbits to run. As if he is saying correct old time if you can and regulate the Sun if you can. He is making fun of man; this is mockery and satire. Pope is directing his satire at the human race. He is asking man, if he dares, to go and teach God how to rule. Pope is being highly critical of the human race. Teachers and professors are being attacked. He is attacking the learnt elite who think that they have achieved all knowledge on earth and think they are gods, but they are only fools. Again he is highly critical by saying that the human race is superior when they say a mortal man unfolded Nature’s laws. They admire Newton’s laws who are not heavenly but earthly. Newton, the individual is superior to the human race. Humanity produced such a person who comes once a century and once an age. Moving forward, Pope is trying to reveal to us our insignificance in the universe. He says that man is nothing and a small microbe can kill him. He directs his criticism at the skeptics. He asks whether man can explain his origin, how he began and how he will end. He is attacking the skeptics who became atheists. He says that a person’s passionate actions can destroy every thing good he did. He advises man always to be humble in his actions and work.
Epistle III deals with the human race as a whole, man’s action and behavior. It also deals with the art and the artist. It teaches critics how to criticize and analyze a work of art because there are several trends. He stresses that all human souls are derived from one great huge soul residing above. Above implies heaven, and below implies the human race. This combination represents a link between the individual and his creator. He uses the expression ‘Plastic Nature’ to refer to the real world, real nature. He says look at nature and learn. This works to one end; the goal is the survival of the animal world, the human race.
Pope describes a system that relates each part to the other. It connects the greatest dinosaur with the smallest ant, because when both die they return to dust. Man helps animal and vice versa. All these creatures are being served and serve each other, nothing stands alone. It is a chain that no body knows where it ends.
Pope’s Essay on Man continues to reflect not only his feelings, but also what went on during the 18th century. Obviously, in the 18th century there were a lot of skeptics who expressed their feelings, thoughts and ideas in completely different ways. Since Pope was a believer in Divine power, he tried to counteract such skeptical ideas by using science, mathematics, and all the other branches that fall under them to attempt to prove the existence of a Divine power as well as by linking various forms of life to each other and showing how this process of linkage takes place. He asks his readers and, consequently, the critics to always bear in mind the existence of a universal cause that acts upon every one and every thing.
 
AN ODE TO HIMSELF BY BEN JONSON
         Ben Jonson was a very famous dramatist than being a poet. Jonson wrote a number of elegies, songs and odes. As a poet, Jonson rejected the Italian influence especially the influence of Petrarch. He followed the classics and considered Latin as better than the Greek. He rebelled against the tradition of courtly love and brought the critical intellect into poetry to give it more solidity and reality.
         The poem starts by a satirical title, he is writing this poem for himself questioning his passivity against the figuration in the writing of poetry. Jonson is addressing himself and his contemporaries as well. He expresses his psychological condition and his disagreement with the way of writing, used by the metaphysical poets, and the conceits that create a barrier between the poet and his reader.
         In the first part, Jonson personifies knowledge as something that protects you and can provide you with different learning fields. Yet, relaxation and laziness could destroy our wit, talent and knowledge. He uses a dramatic structure in portraying the common weaknesses in him and among all the poets of the time.
         The second stanza has a reference to the classical figures. He points out that the sources of poetry are always available and that they are innumerous so that the poets do not have to imitate each other. From Greek mythology he mentions the “Aenian springs” as the source of spiritual inspiration for all the writers. Moreover, he personifies these sources in order to convey a feeling that they are ashamed from the way poetry is written.
         After that, he is encouraging the poet, even if not appreciated, to take an action and try to find a way out. His advice is not to depend on fortune, stay in ease and wait for something to happen. In the fourth stanza, he says that the audience are uncultured and that a poet could easily attract them with any ordinary material and they can easily be taken with false baits. The false bait, here, stands for the writings of his time, which is beyond the level of good poetry.
         The fifth stanza is a request to all the poets to write in their own way and stop imitating “Take in hand thy lyre”. He uses a metaphor in comparing writing to playing an instrument so you must choose the right tone. He made up his mind to take an action and to start changing the style of writing. He wants his contemporaries to have the best style of writing and to produce to the whole world a new style, different from what had already been given.
 
        The poem ends by criticizing the conditions of the age. Jonson says that they cannot accept reformation and that those who express their opinions freely, get imprisoned. He expresses his dis-satisfaction with unqualified writers who do misguide people morally. He is determined to send his message in the air so that everyone could hear him. He encourages poets to keep on trying and not to give in.
         We can notice that Jonson’s style was different from the 16th century poets. His style is direct trying to satirize the poetic diction whether in drama or in poetry.
 
Anonymous
“weep you no more, sad fountains”
The poem has no known poet to belong to. It starts by addressing the fountains that usually meant the source of life and is always associated with beauty. Yet, the fountain is not described as being happy or giving life, but it is described as being sad. He makes a connection between the fountains’ water and women’s tears in saying ‘weep no more’ . Then, the poet starts to give an advice to the fountains. He gives an example to explain his advice. The example urges us, and the fountain off-course, to look at the top of an icy mountain and see how the sun wastes the snow. He wants to tell the fountain that its water should run fast or else the water will evaporate and it will dry up. After that the poem tells us the reason of the fountain’s sadness. The fountains are weeping because the poet is in a bad state of mind and he cannot see his beloved.
In the second stanza the poet addresses himself and he is weeping for the loss of his beloved who has died. He says that the sun arises smiling at the beginning of the day and sets beautifully at the end of the day. Further, he is asking himself to stop crying because if he kept on crying his tears would dry up. This links the poet with the fountains in a skillful manner. The poet does not want to keep on crying because his eyes may melt out of sadness and weeping on his dead beloved lady.
 
Break, Break, Break
by Alfred Tennyson
Tennyson, Lord (1809-1892), Alfred Tennyson, was one of the most important English poets of the 1800's.  He succeeded William Wordsworth as poet laureate of the United Kingdom in 1850.  Tennyson earned his position in literature because of the remarkable range of his natural talents and his dedication throughout his long career to perfecting his art.  Tennyson stands today both as a great national poet and as one of the supreme craftsmen in the English language. Tennyson was the most popular British poet of the Victorian era, but he avoided public life.
Tennyson's influential place in the intellectual life of his age comes largely from his concern about the vital issues confronting Victorian England. During the Victorian Age, great economic, social, and political changes occurred in Britain.  The British Empire reached its height and covered about a quarter of the world's land.  Industry and trade expanded rapidly, and railways and canals crisscrossed the country.  Science and technology made great advances.  The size of the middle class grew enormously.  By the 1850's, more and more people were getting an education.  In addition, the government introduced democratic reforms, such as the right to vote for an increasing number of people.
In spite of the prosperity of the Victorian Age, workers lived in terrible poverty. During the second half of the 1800's, new scientific theories seemed to challenge many religious beliefs. The theories of Darwin and other scientists led many people to feel that traditional values could no longer guide their lives. Victorian writers dealt with the contrast between the prosperity of the middle and upper classes and the wretched condition of the poor.  In the late 1800's, they also analyzed the loss of faith in traditional values. The Victorian poets looked at nature differently. As humans lost their faith nature also was looked upon in a different way. They believed nature is hostile and it is not affected by the human life.
 
 
Care-Charmer Sleep
by Samuel Daniel
         Samuel Daniel is an English poet and historian. Best known for his SONNET sequence Delia (1592), he also wrote court MASQUES, narrative poems, Senecan tragedies, and history, including a History of England (1631). His works include The Civil Wars (1595-1609), a poetic account of the Wars of the Roses.
         In this sonnet he is taking the role of an escapist. He is asking for rest from this world, but this kind of rest is not temporary, it is eternal rest. In other words, he is asking for death. This request is clear from reading the end of the poem.
 
         In the first part he is addressing sleep using the first person, as if he is talking to a person (personification). Then, he mentions death as the brother of sleep. This mentioning of death at the beginning of the poem seems to suggest the poet’s inherent and strong desire to die. By following this attitude, the poet has an attitude of a desperate man who cannot confront the problems he faces in everyday life.
         The tone of the poet is a complaining kind of tone and it expresses
his state of depression. The mood of the poem itself is gloomy and the atmosphere is dark. The choice of diction (language) is also sad and reflects a feeling of pessimism. For example, words such as ‘night, darkness, cares, mourn) are typical examples of the sad tone of the poem. The poet uses the word ‘cease’ to stop his dreams and his suffering and this word implies that he wants to die, because life, to him, is full of sorrow and grief.
         The whole sonnet expresses the writer’s desire to escape from life through death and eternal rest. It is his disappointment and his inability to face life, that leads to this desperate desire expressed through his sad words and slow tempo of the poem.
 
Geoffrey Chaucer
 
 
Geoffrey Chaucer lived in an eventful age, when the Hundred Year’s war with France had already begun. When he was in his twenties, the English language was established as the language of law-courts. Chaucer belonged to that growing class from which so many great writers sprang. He was the son of a man engaged in trade; his father was a wine merchant. Moreover, he had intelligence, a strong sense of humour, a fine musical ear and the ability to tell a story. He has many achievements, in which he did not use the East Midland dialect of English that was spoken in London. He found this dialect lacking in words and in knowledge of literature that he can learn. That is why he had to create the English language we know today and to establish its literary traditions. He speaks to us today with his voice during his own age. Chaucer is modern in that the language he uses is the language of our time. That modernity of Chaucer’s English is proved by the number of phrases, from his works, those have become part of every day speech. In his works, he has his own spelling and pronunciation, and he gave the vowels a universal quality. He has different verse and prose achievements; the verse works are his most important achievements.
         It is possible that Chaucer went on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and this could be associated with his masterpiece. Chaucer’s masterpiece is The Canterbury Tales; he stood on his own feet and gave literature something it had never seen before. Observation of life as it is really lived, pictures of people who are real, and a modern view of life full of love, humour, passion and love of humanity. When reading Chaucer we can find out that his brilliant descriptive gifts and his humour carry us along and make us forget that we are reading a poet who lived six hundred years ago. The Canterbury Tales is a long work but unfortunately, Chaucer died before one quarter of the work was finished. It is a collection of short stories that had been popular for a long time on the continent. What had never been done before was to take a collection of human beings, of all temperaments and social positions, and mingle them together, make them tell stories and make these stories illustrate their characters. The prologue to the tales is a marvellous portrait gallery of typical people of the age, but we have timeless human beings.
         Both the general prologue and the various tales that make up The Canterbury Tales are written in heroic couplets. Chaucer uses this very effectively. Yet, when we first read Chaucer, our first impression is that the lines are not musical and that they do not scan, (can not be divided). This is a very mistaken impression but rather natural. The music of Chaucer’s poetry depends on many things including pattern, rhyme, and the variation of vowel sounds on the delicate use of alliteration. Most of our initial difficulty in appreciating the music of Chaucer disappears as soon as we realise his way of speaking. It differs from ours in two ways, the first is in the way vowels are pronounced and the second is the accentuation of syllables. Chaucer’s English was still a young language partly derived from French. Although no one can pretend to know exactly how it was spoken, there can be no doubt that many of the French derived words were still pronounced as in French language. However, it is certain that his vowels were not the English ones of today.
 
         The next greatest work of Chaucer is Troilus and Criseyde; a love story taken from the history of the Trojan War. It reads in some ways like a modern novel, and it can be called the first full-length piece of English fiction. Chaucer opened the way to a new age of literature, but it was a long time before any poet, as great as he is, to come along to build on his foundations.
 
Chaucer’s World
 
 
Chaucer conceived of the universe as governed by a harmonious order or law. Every thing whether cosmetic or domestic is included in that harmonious order. This idea was demonstrated in his literary work. The order of the universe was hierarchical. This universal order was conceived of as either a chain or a series of corresponding levels. The chain extends from God’s throne to the meanest inanimate objects. The first link of the chain is the inanimate class that merely exists; such as the elements, fire, air, water, liquid, and metals. However, among them there is a difference in quality; Gold is better than Brass. The second link is the vegetative class. The sensitive class is the third link and it is divided into three levels. Creatures with touch but no hearing, memory or movement like shellfish and parasites. Creatures with touch, memory and movement, but no hearing, like ants. Higher animals such as horses. The fourth class is man, who has existence, feeling and understanding. Man represents the total microcosm, and the human soul is considered the highest grade in this class. The fifth position is occupied by the angels, they are the rational and spiritual. They are free from any attachment to the lower faculties of man. They are only in touch with the noblest part in man, which is his soul.
         In this order, the elements are in a ladder form. The element supports the planets; planets support the beasts, and the flesh of beasts support man. According to this belief, the top of the inferior class touches the bottom of its superior. Each class in this chain has a premier, for instance; the lion among beasts, the dolphin among fish, the elephant among animals, and King among man.
 
 The Knight’s Tale
Part One:
         Old stories tell us that there was once a Duke called Theseus, he was Lord and Governor of Athens. He conquered many countries, and among them a place called Scithia. He married Hippolyta, made her queen, and brought her with her sister Emily to live with him. The two ladies met a group of women lamenting their dead husbands, and saying that the cruel Lord Creon of Thebes dishonoured their husbands’ bodies by ordering not to bury them properly. The Duke is moved and he led a battle against Creon and restored the bodies of the women’s husbands. After the battle, Theseus took two perpetual prisoners, Arcite and Palamon, and kept them for several years. The place where the prisoners were kept was near the garden. One day, while Emily was wandering in the garden, Palamon saw her from his cell and cried out as if in pain. Arcite asked him what happened and he replied that his cry was out of his admiration to the ladies beauty and he wished she could help them escape. Arcite saw her and was deeply influenced by her beauty that he said that if he did not see her daily he would die. Palamon got upset and reminded Arcite that he was the one who fell in love with the lady first, also he accused him of being a traitor to their friendship and that he must help him and not to be against him. But, Arcite argued that both of them cannot win the lady and everyone is free to feel as he would like since neither had a chance of winning her love.
 
         One day, Perotheus, a Duke and a friend of Theseus and Arcite at the same time, begged that Arcite would be released under the condition not to return to Athens and if he did he would be beheaded. Theseus gave his approval and Arcite was set free. Both, Arcite and Palamon envied each other. Arcite thought that his friend can still see his beloved, and, on the other hand, Palamon felt that Arcite could return with an army, capture Athens and wins the lady.
 
Part Two:
        Arcite returned to Thebes and his state was deteriorating and his appearance changed. After two years of suffering he decided to return in disguise, to Athens. He did and was able to work at Theseus’s place and he was well paid. At the same time Palamon succeeded, with the help of a friend, to escape from prison. He hid in a field, and while he was in his place he heard Arcite, who was passing by on his horse, talking to himself and claiming his misery. Palamon appeared and accused Arcite of being a traitor, and they started fighting. Theseus, by chance, saw the fight and insisted to know their true story. After condemning them to death, he set a condition to give them their freedom. This condition was that they must return on a duel after a year, and the winner will marry Emily.
Part Three:
         Theseus built a stadium with three altars, one to Venus, the goddess of love, Mars, the god of war, and Diana, the goddess of chastity or virtue. After a year, Arcite and Palamon returned and were ready to fight. Arcite prayed for Mars, Palamon for Venus, and Emily for Diana. Both goddesses and the god of war promised victory and achievement. Saturn the god of destiny told Mars that Arcite will win, Venus that Palamon will marry Emily, and Diana that Emily will get the best.
Part Four:
         The battle started with conditions that the wounded will be taken aside with no need to end in killing one of the opponents. Palamon was wounded and Arcite won a victory, but while riding his horse, Saturn ordered the horse to go wild, Arcite fell and was badly injured. While he was close to death he called for Emily and Palamon and blessed their love. After many years and after the mourning for Arcite lessened Theseus gave the permission to Emily and Palamon to get married. They married the same day and lived happily together with no sorrow or jealousy.
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The Wife Of Bath’s Tale
         In ancient times when Arthur was King, a knight raped a young woman and people asked the King to punish him. The Queen asked the King to let her determine his fate. She asked the knight a question and gave him a year to try to answer it. The question is “What is the thing that women desire most?”. the knight asked every one he met and got different answers with no accurate answer. The year passed and still the knight has no answer on his way back, the knight saw women dancing. He got close but they vanished and remained an ugly old woman. He told her his story and she said that she will help him and give him the answer to the question under one condition. This condition was that the knight must promise to do anything she asks for. He agrees, accompanies her to the Queen, and answers the question. The answer was “ supremacy over her husband”. The answer was right and in return the old woman asked the knight to marry her. After a private and joyless wedding the knight was disgusted from the woman because she was ugly and old. The woman told him that age means respect and that ugliness will prevent him from feeling jealous and also that she will be a faithful wife. The knight agreed and when he turned to kiss her he found a young beautiful woman. They lived happily ever after because the knight allowed himself to be governed by his wife.
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 The Squire’s Prologue
         The host turns to the Squire and asks him to tell a tale about love. The Squire says that he is not able to speak on that subject, but he will tell a tale, and he hopes he will be excused if he says anything wrong.
The Squire’s Tale
Part One:
         A noble King called Cambuskan, once lived at Tsarev in Tartary. He was loved by everyone, and he and his wife Elpheta had two sons and one daughter called Canace. Canace was extremely beautiful that no one can describe her. The King ruled for twenty years and decided to celebrate this anniversary. A knight appeared during the festivals and announced that he has brought valuable gifts from his King. His name was Gawain. The gifts were a horse of brass but by a magical touch on its ear, it could fly and run faster than any other horse. The second gift was a mirror that shows friends and enemies and tells the future. The third was a ring that enables any one to talk with any living thing. The fourth gift was a sword able to cut through the strongest armour. The wounds of the sword could never be healed except when laid flat on the wound. Many people wondered about the origin of the magical gifts, while the knight joined the festival and then explained the function of the brass horse to the King.
Part Two:
         After the festivals and after the people left. Canace, the King’s daughter, woke up very early in the morning. With the new ring on, she went for a walk in the palace garden. She heard the bird’s singing and understood their songs. She came upon a falcon who was crying, after asking it about the cause of her sadness; the falcon replied that her lover left her to another bird. Canace took the falcon home and took care of its wounds. Finally, the Squire says that he will now tell the stories of the royal family and the ways in which their lives were affected by the gifts of the foreign King.
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The Physician’s Tale
         It is the story of a rich honourable knight named Virginius. He had a wife and a beautiful daughter who was fourteen years old. The girl was patient, kind, humble, chaste, and temperate. The Physician warns all parents that they should set themselves as good examples for their children to follow. One morning the daughter and her mother went to town and a judge named Appius saw her and decided to have her. He knew that this would be difficult but he hired a criminal called Claudius to help him. Claudius claimed that Virginius stole one of his servant-girls long ago, and that the knight claimed that she is his daughter. The judge ruled that the girl should be kept with Claudius till the knight is able to defend himself. Virginius returned home and told his daughter that she must die instead of accepting the shame of having her chastity taken from her. Then the knight beheaded his daughter. Virginius returned to the judge Appius and presented the head of his daughter. He was accused of murder and sentenced to be hanged. News spread about the judge’s treachery, and people forced their way into the court, threw Appius in prison, freed the knight, and sentenced Claudius to be hung. Virginius kept the life of Claudius but sentenced him to exile instead. The moral of the story is “forsake your sins before they forsake you”.
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The Pardoner’s Prologue
         The Pardoner says that he has his own method in preaching in the church. He speaks loudly and stresses that money is the source of all evil. He shows the parishioners official documents and speaks in Latin. He shows them his religious relics. He makes a great deal of money selling these relics to people who believe what he says about them. His technique involves preaching against greed. The Pardoner admits that he is preaching against a vice that he himself has, yet as guilty as he is, he does cause others to repent. It is no secret that he is not a moral man, but he will tell a moral tale. The tale he will tell is one he often uses when he is trying to encourage people to give money to him.
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  The General Prologue
 
It is spring, and the rain, the sun and the wind have encouraged new growth. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and people are deciding to make pilgrimages to holy shrines. Many people from different parts of England are travelling to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket.
         Chaucer, the narrator, is at the Tabbard Inn in Southwark, waiting to begin his pilgrimage. Twenty-nine pilgrims arrive at the inn, and Chaucer speaks to each of them. They all agree to leave together early the next day. Chaucer begins to describe each of these pilgrims.
NOTE: Chaucer’s role as a narrator is basically that of an observer and recorder, and he begins his task by presenting a series of brief but colourful portraits of each of his companions.
The Knight
         He is an ideal knight who has fought all over the known world. In addition to being a skilled jouster, he is honourable and well-bred. He was a perfect nobleman.
The Squire
         The Knight’s son is a young man who dresses well and who can sing, play the flute, write songs and dance. He is also skilled in riding and contest. Many of his brave feats have been demonstrations of his love for his lady.
The Yeoman
         The knight and his son are accompanied by a Yeoman, who is their servant. Dressed in green, he carries with him all the equipment of a hunter.
The Prioress
         The prioress is graceful, pretty, and careful of her appearance. She loves pretty things. She practices courtly manners. Finally she is sentimental and tender-hearted. She cannot bear to see a mouse caught in a trap, and she is devoted to her little dogs. She is travelling with another nun and three priests.
The Monk
         The monk is a wealthy man, owning several horses and expensive riding equipment. He loves food, hunting and fine clothes. He is fat and hairless, but very easy going.
The Friar
         Hubert, the friar, is a merry, careless man. He has arranged many marriages for young women, after he has made them pregnant, but he is well-loved by rich farmers and especially rich women. When he hears confession, he pays the most attention to those who give the most money. He is a good singer and musician, and he visits the taverns more than he visits the poor houses. The Friar is good at getting money from people, and he dresses very well.
The Merchant
         The merchant is well-dressed, well-mounted and proud in his speech. He is nationalistic for business reasons, but he is heavily in debt.
The Clerk
         The Clerk is very thin and shabbily dressed. As a student, he spends all his money on books instead of food and clothes. Although he is learned, his speech is humble and sparing.
The Man Of Law
         The man of law is careful, wise and rational. His knowledge of law is extensive. Because he can recite the details of cases from many years ago, people think he is wiser than he really is.
The Franklin
         The Franklin has a white beard and a red face, and he loves to drink and to enjoy life. He is generous and wealthy, and he loves to entertain. One of his chief pleasures is food, and he always keeps his house full of fine things to eat.
The Haberdasher, the Dyer, the Carpenter, the Weaver, and the Carpet Maker
         The five men are all wearing new and expensive clothing, and their knives are mounted with silver instead of brass. Their wives enjoy being called ‘Madame’ and having precedence over other people at religious ceremonies.
The Cook
         The cook is accompanying the guildsmen and preparing their meals. Although he is a good cook, he also drinks a lot and has an enormous sore on one of his legs.
The Shipman
         The Shipman is something of a rascal since he steals wine and drowns anyone he takes as a prisoner. He is master of a ship and although he is a good sailor, he cannot ride a horse very well.
The Physician
         The physician is very knowledgeable about medicine and surgery. He uses astrology to help him diagnose and cure people, and he can quote from all the medical authorities. He knows very little about the Bible, however, and though he made a lot of money during the Plague, he is reluctant to spend it.
The Wife Of Bath
        The wife of Bath is a middle-class housewife. She likes to be noticed. She wears a big hat and on Sundays her head kerchiefs weigh ten pounds. She is a very authoritative person and insists on always being first at the offering. She is a woman of experience. Moreover, she is fond of travel and has been on pilgrimages all over Europe and as far as Jerusalem. Furthermore, she has had a full sex life. She had five husbands, and apparently some lovers in her youth. The woman is gap-toothed. This indicated a high sexual nature in the Middle Ages.
The Parson
         The Parson is a good but very poor man. He gives money to the poor, and he is very devoted to his parish duties. Although he tries to win over sinners by his example, he does not hesitate to scold an obstinate sinner, whether wealthy or poor.
The Plawman
         The Plawman is the Parson’s brother. He is a hard worker and is very religious. His faith in God does not alter in good or bad times.
The Miller
         The Miller is so tough he can break any door by running at it with his head. Among his other accomplishments, the Miller is good at stealing wheat and playing the bagpipes. He is very fond of bawdy stories.
The Manciple
         The Manciple works for a law school, and it is his job to purchase the food. Although he is not as learned as the young lawyers, he is a shrewd and practical man who can outwit anyone.
The Reeve
         The Reeve is a skinny man with a closely cropped beard and short hair. He manages a large estate, and he is so efficient and shrewd that he makes a lot of money. He even tricks his master by loaning him property that he already owns, while the Reeve collects the interest. Before he became a Reeve, he was a carpenter.
The Summoner
         The Summoner is very unattractive, with a red face. Pimples, boils and a scaly infection. He loves to eat peppery food like garlic, leeks, onions and strong wines. He is lecherous, and if someone buys him some wine, he will ignore the fact that they have a mistress.
The Pardoner
         The Pardoner says he has come straight from Rome with some pardons that he hopes to sell. He also has a number of fake relics, which he hopes people will buy. He is a friend of the Summoner, and the two men like to harmonise on songs together. However, the Pardoner has a voice as weak as a goat’s. He has long yellow hear and no beard. Much of the Pardoner’s success is due to his oratical ability. He manages to frighten everyone into giving him money.
 Notes on the Friar's and Summoner's tales
Both the Friar and the Summoner tell satirical comic tales. Each is a short story that satirizes the stupidity of friars and summoners. Both the summoner of the Friar's tale and the friar of the Summoner's tale misunderstand things that would be obvious to the lowest intelligence, and destroy themselves through their own stupidity.
The friar's description is the longest in the whole prologue, on the other hand, the summoner's description is equally negative, particularly his physical description and love of onions, garlic, leeks, and strong red wine. In addition, we should not forget that during the medieval period friars and summoners were in direct competition for the material support from the people they worked with. Friars had to beg for their living while summoners often blackmailed thier clients in order to pad their wallets.
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Geoffrey Chaucer constructed many unique and colorful characters in the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer thought that most of the church was corrupt. He illustrates this effectively in the summoner. The summoner is depicted as an evil man with few good characteristics. Chaucer accomplishes this through the summoners physical appearance, dialogue with other characters, and symbolism of his possessions. As in many of Chaucer's portraits, the summoner fits some of the traditional stereotypes, but he also has a few distinct characteristics.
Chaucer emphasized the cruel physical appearance of the summoner. Chaucer describes him as an ugly man, scarred with pimples. The strongest medicine of the day could not enhance his features. Mercury and other strong ointments failed to cleanse his face. Chaucer implies that only a man of bad character could have such a physical appearance.
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Chaucer and Character
Chaucer, in "The Canterbury Tales", gives us a brief description of each of the "pilgrims" going on the journey, in the "General Prologue". In these descriptions, Chaucer sets up the audience for what is to come. By giving these descriptions, the audience has an idea of what the particular pilgrim will be like. In the "General Prologue", Chaucer relays his description of a Knight. The first lines paint a picture of the fearless knight. Chaucer goes on to comment on the Knight's dress. This passage is illustrating the fact that instead of a "Knight in Shining Armor", we have a "Knight with Rusted Chain Mail". In doing so, Chaucer has shattered the stereotypical view of what a knight should be, and gave his audience a character flaw for the knight..
The key to the general description is Chaucer's ability in finding these flaws in character. Once done, the reader can expect that there is a tale behind these flaws. In brief, Chaucer seems to utilize the "General Prologue" to describe the different pilgrims, not so that the audience can get a sense of what the character is like, but to give us the character's flaws. The Knight has flaws, and the audience is trained to pick out these flaws. Thus, instead of a stereotypical view, there is a obscure sense of the Knight's character.
The Nun's Priest's Tale
In The Nun’s Priest’s Tale the central characters are the chickens Chauntecleer and Pertelote, and Russell the fox. The tale begins, with its description of the "povre wydwe" and her "narwe cotage". But as soon as we are introduced to the cock Chauntecleer, the fun begins. The first information we have about Chauntecleer is that "In all the land, of crowyng nas his peer". The description pokes fun at Chauntecleer. The tale moves on to describe Chauntecleer from head to toe with the colours of jewels and flowers. It is absurd when applied to Chauntecleer, because it is usually used to describe a beautiful young woman. Ironically the description fits Chauntecleer perfectly. Next we meet the other chickens in the run, Chauntecleer's "sustres and his paramours", particularly Pertelote. Chaucer never lets us forget that these chickens really are chickens - they peck, they are incestuous, and they are not nobly born. Having set the tone of irony, the tale moves on to a more serious satire.
The satire begins when a debate on the topic of the significance of dreams is sparked by Chauntecleer's fright at a dream. Pertelote begins by claiming dreams are meaningless: "Nothyng, God woot, but vanitee in sweven is". Hence, Chauntecleer shouldn't be so cowardly about his dream. Chauntecleer responds with the contrary view that dreams can be a "warnynge of thynges that shul after falle". He argues this at great length, out classing Pertelote, by naming authorities ranging from saints to great philosophers, to the bible, and the classics. He also quotes two lengthy supporting examples and makes passing reference to several more. Through the sheer mass of his evidence he wins his argument.
Despite having all the correct logic at his wingtips, Chauntecleer fails to interpret his dream correctly. The Nun's Priest's rhetorical display is to point up the uselessness of theoretical abstraction in the face of sudden natural danger.
 
Chorus of Priests
by
Fulke Greville
         In this poem, the poet is suffering from doubt and scepticism. He is trying to convey the opinion that he is created sick  to the reader. After that he says that the laws of nature are diverse. Moreover, he claims that there is a contradiction between passion and reason; what the body needs is contradicting with morals, religion and reason. He is attacking nature for creating man weak. The attack of nature takes different shapes; it creates flowers and destroys them, it hates error while it created it, it asks us not to do many things while knowing that it is a difficult task. Again, in his attack, nature offers impossible rewards after long suffering. The poet does not believe in heavenly rewards.
        In this poem, the poet neglects the fact that man is more agressive than animals. Animals kill for living while human beings kill for no justified reason. He is spreading the sense of doubt and disbelieving in order to have followers for his beliefs.
 
 
Come Sleep, O Sleep
 
Sir Philip Sidney is an English poet, soldier, and politician. His most important works are the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella and the collection of pastoral idylls Arcadia, both published posthumously. Although the poem could be categorised as a love poem but it is not considered part of the trend of courtly love. This is judged because the poet still has a hope to see his beloved, while in the courtly love tradition, the lover has no hope. In the poem there is a contrast between love and hope on the one hand and sadness and sorrow on the other. From the beginning of the poem we can notice that the writer cannot sleep and he is asking sleep to come and make him rest. He is addressing sleep as an abstract thing and he considers it the place where the mind rests. Sleep is described as a medicine that cures the disturbed mind. While sleeping, the poor can dream of wealth and the prisoner can dream of freedom.
In thew second stanza the writer describes sleep as a shield and he is asking for its protection. The poet compares himself to a country were feelings and emotions are fighting within him as if there is a civil war taking place inside of him. The writer goes on his request and promises sleep that if it came to him and succeeded in stoping the quarrell he will give it a prize.
In the third stanza, the writer talks about normal sleep in a quite dark room with comfortable pillows. He asks sleep to unite him with his beloved. He asks sleep to bring both his head and his beloved’s head to the same room. Still if this happens he promises sleep to give it a reward.
The poets reward is mentioned in the final couplet. The writer says that if sleep came to him, he would dream about his beloved, Stella. Due to this dream, the writer will be able to give sleep his greatest reward which is the picture of his beloved.
The poem develops its idea through three quatrains and a couplet. The writer starts by describing his need for sleep. Then he moves forward to explain what sleep can do. Finally he promises sleep a great and valuable prize which is the picture of his beloved. This shows his deep affection and love.
The poem is a Shakespearian sonnet. Its rhyme scheme is (abab abab cdcd ee). Almost all of the poem is framed by the use of personification by addressing sleep as a figure that could act, respond and accept rewards.
 
 
DAFFODILS
BY
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
         Wordsworh is considered one of the famous romantic poets. The principles of Wordsworth’s poetry were that the language of poetry should be the language of ordinary people. He was against poetic diction. Nature, to him, meant a lot and his attitude towards it was remarkable. His worship to nature made him prefer the simple people living in the countryside and not the people who live in town because their language was not pure.
         The poem talks about his state of being on solitude. He is wandering without an aim, then he compared himself to a cloud, which is an object of nature, and describes the daffodils in terms of the natural world. The poem has important elements of the romantic poetry.
         The poem opens with the poet in a state of loneliness and passivity. He reminds us of the mood when we are aimless and undirected; unaware of the world surrounding us. This sense is emphasized by the description of clouds that floats over the ‘vales’ and ‘hills’ in a lonely state. Then, he sees the daffodils, first, as a crowd then as a host. The shapeless crowd changes into an image. This vividness is emphasized when the daffodils change their color from yellow to golden. This expresses the brightness of the poet’s imagination. The daffodils are placed in relation to the lake and trees. They grow best in the shade and water and they dance with the breeze. After that, Wordsworth, compares the daffodils to the stars in the milky way. They show a great beauty and they are stretched in one endless line with great beauty and happiness. He adds that he can see a large number of daffodils moving their heads in a very beautiful way increasing the beauty of the scene itself. He describes the stars as dancing beside the lake and shine with light and happiness by the force of the breeze. When he first saw the daffodils he did not think of the real meaning, he considered them as a treasure and he is surprised by the pleasure they give to him. Further, now, he feels his heart dancing with joy.
         The poem has contrasts between the poet’s loneliness and the crowd of the daffodils. Also, he used personification in the word ‘dancing’ and ‘tossing’. He, also, exaggerated in ‘ten thousand’ and ‘ they stretched in never ending line’. Consonance is easily noticed in ‘breeze, trees’ and in ‘cloud, crowd’. More over, alliteration in ‘on, o’er’, ‘high, hills’ and assonance in ‘shine, line’, ‘glance, dance’ and ‘way, bay’. The poem is romantic in its attitude and its subject matter and that is emphasized through the poet’s images, feelings, and musicality.
 
Dejection
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 
Coleridge is one of the most important romantic poets. Through his poem he is representing his philosophy. In his opinion, joy could not be achieved except through peace within the person’s self. It is the interior light that helps man to see nature in a different way. Coleridge thinks that joy and imagination are closely linked and the loss of one of them will lead to the loss of the other. In Dejection, Coleridge laments the fact that he is no longer happy and that deep in his heart he is sad. He cannot enjoy the beauty of nature because it is already killed. He believes that joy should come from one’s soul in order to be able to sense and enjoy the beauty of nature.
The poem uses a lot of figures of speech. For instance there is personification in ‘does nature live..’ He compares nature to a human being or a living creature that accompanies the poet. Moreover, he compares joy to a cloud that brings fertility and enriches the earth. In addition, Coleridge compares himself to a bridegroom and nature to a bride.
Finally, Coleridge is a purely romantic poet who believes in the importance of  the joy that springs from within the soul of man. This enables man to feel the beauty in nature and to revive his imagination and his power of creativity. The poem says that when sorrow kills the joy inside of a person; he is no longer able to use his creative powers.
 
Description of spring, wherein each thing renews save only the lover by
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
         Henry Howard was a poet who translated much of Virgil’s Aeneid, introduced into English the blank verse form of five iambic feet, and introduced from Italy the sonnet form of three quatrains and a couplet. This poem, as the title mentions, is a description of spring. It shows that everything, during this time of the year, is renewed. Yet, it excludes the lover, who does not enjoy it as he is sad and unhappy.
         The poem starts by mentioning that the sweet season has come, accompanied by its flowers and its beautiful green colors that covers the hills and valleys. The poet goes on describing several things, as, for example, the turtle with its children holding its tale, beautiful flower smells, animals breaking the winter coat, fishes floating with new repaired scales. Moreover, the snakes have changed their skin, the birds are singing, and the bees started to make their honey. Howard says that the winter, which destroys flowers, has ended. But, at the end of the poem, the poet concludes it, saying that although he sees pleasant things surrounding him, yet his sorrows are causing him a lot of pain.
         The poem is written in the form of a sonnet, and it is  full of alliteration, assonance, and consonance; that stress on the musicality of the poem. Its rhyme scheme is (abab abab abab aa)-three quatrains and a concluding couplet. Alliteration could be noticed in ‘soot, season’, ‘bud, bloom...brings’, ‘turtle, tale’, ‘hart, hung, head’, ‘busy, bee’, ‘winter, worn’, and ‘sorrow, springs’. There is also assonance in ‘hath, clad’, and ‘hart, hath’. Consonance is used in ‘buck, brake’, and ‘decays, springs’.
         The poet has given an accurate description of spring and all the beautiful things that happen during this season. Yet, at the end of the poem, the couplet presents the main theme of the sonnet, which is the poets sadness. He says that among the pleasant things he sees, ‘And thus I see, among these pleasant things’, each and every sign of winter dies except his sorrows ‘Each care decays-and yet my sorrow springs’. There is a clear metaphor in the last line, comparing his sorrows to flowers of spring that starts to flourish in spring. The irony, here, is evident because the poet’s intention is to show his sadness and not happiness, yet he used the word ‘springs’. The whole poem seems to be an introduction to his main problem and it seems to pave the way to the reader to feel his pain in comparison to all the beautiful things he mentioned.
 
Thomas Gray
"Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard"
Thomas Gray has some of the Romantic characteristics. Yet, he was affected by the old Classical school. They were interested in the form and the accuracy of words. The elegy is about lamenting the death of Richard West who is Gray's friend. He was a poet who died young. The expression of lamentation turns to be an expression of anger at some moral problems. Gray sets an opposition between the rich and the poor.
In the poem, Gray deals with melancholy and sadness using a Romantic attitude. He represents the idea of death in company of the solitary man who is unable to face society. The opening stanza builds the atmosphere of evening and from the beginning we have the element of time. The poet finds himself alone in the darkness of the night. The scene is set to be still and solemn, except the beetle and the bells ringing around the necks of the sheep. The poet hears the sound of an owl complaining to the moon. At this part we have an analogy between the poet and the owl; both are secluded. Using the 'elm' trees emphasizes the idea of sadness as it was a conventional symbol of sorrow. Under the elms, grass covers the graves that contain the bodies of the rustics. Every is isolated from the other in his narrow cell.
Gray shows his sentimentality in bringing the domestic image of a ploughman and his family at home. The poet is thinking of the daily domestic life these dead men are missing. Gray also refers to the woods that bowed before the ploughmen powerful strokes. Nature is practical and associated with the farmer and his productive life. At the same time it is poetic when describing the darkness and helping in creating a spiritual mood.
Nature drives Gray to make an opposition between the urban and the rural values. He addresses city people asking them not to mock the useful labour of the farmers. The poor country is uneducated and deprived from some gains yet it spared corruption. Moreover, Gray says that however powerful, beautiful, wealthy city people are, they will one day fall as victims to death. Wealth cannot return life to a dead person. Gray is lamenting the poor people's ignorance, he is not revolutionary; he is just being sympathetic. Gray moves on to describe education as a curse. Lack of education made it impossible for the poor to kill. Poverty saved them from vice and evil.
The poem combined between Neoclassical elements as the use of heroic quatrains in form and the church yard in content and description..
 
 
Epithalamion
By Edmund Spenser
 
Epithalamion is a poem that consists of 24 stanzas that represent the 24 hours of Spenser's day of marriage. Influenced by traditions, Edmund Spenser decided to celebrate his marriage and praise his young bride. In his celebration, he combined between different classical influences. Petrarchean, Neo-Platonism and Protestantism were the most clear and evident; while Calvinism could be slightly identified.
The Petrarchean force showed itself in the keen awareness of the human will, a taste of the pleasures of the musical world and a state of troubled mind. Spenser shows the mood of the lover and his troubled mind through his preoccupation with his own emotions. These emotions lead to the Petrarchean tension between a god centered and a self-centered universe.  The tension is represented through comparing the love of his lady with the love of his God. At this point the reader feels the sense of trying to reconcile the physical with the spiritual love. By this attempt appears the Neo-Platonic influence on Spenser's cultural center.
Neo-Platonism aimed at trying to over come the gap between the spiritual and the physical. The Neo-Platonists believed that beauty comes from the 'One' or 'God", with whom the soul longs to reunite. They believed that earthly love moves us upward towards spiritual love. Spenser shows that there is the visible beauty that the eye can see, yet there is a higher beauty that no one can see. His admiration for the bride's beauty is a way up, blended with his love of her moral qualities.
The third cultural effect is that of Protestantism. Spenser's interest in Neo-Platonic ideas happens to accord with his English Protestantism. This influence shows man's inability to bridge any gap between himself and God. The influence of Protestantism is also noticed in the lover's expression of the deal of mutability in marriage. Epithalamion expresses the relationship of men and women in courtship and marriage. The conflicts between the influences appear clearly in the development of the lover's relation to his lady. Spenser proceeds through a courtship, Petrarchean in style and mood, in which he must subordinate himself to his lady in order to win her favor.
Traces of Calvinism could be noticed in Spenser's poetry. Yet, Spenser is not a Calvinist. His agreement with Calvin is within Calvin's agreement with Protestantism. Finally, one can say that Spenser successfully produced a highly coherent poem; in which he celebrates his marriage day by using different cultural forces as Protestantism, Neo-Platonism and the Petrarchean.
 
 
 
 
Shakespeare's Sonnets
 
William Shakespeare composed 154 sonnets in his lifetime. After his first two years in London, Shakespeare started writing in the English sonnet form. In these sonnets we can notice that love was one of the major characterizations of the early modern period. Shakespeare is an expert in being aware of the position of being in love and the dynamics that make up this emotion. His poems reflect his awareness of love and also his awareness of his verbal genius. Through examining some of Shakespeare's sonnets we can find different kinds of proof to this idea.
In sonnet 17, Shakespeare starts his poem with a full meaning quatrain. He wonders about his verse and then develops the second quatrain to show his inability to number his beloved "graces." Through the idea of the passage of time, Shakespeare reaches his conclusion. In the final couplet, he says that his beloved will live twice by being the subject of his immortal rhyme, "in my rhyme." The couplet also shows Shakespeare's awareness of love in a world of time and change.
Many of Shakespeare's sonnets do not depict love as a commitment. Shakespeare's love relationships and traditions are changing in sonnet 62. In this sonnet, Shakespeare admits his sin of self-love in the first quatrain. Then, in the second quatrain, he develops towards numbering what he thinks about himself, "face so gracious", "truth" and "worth." After that he realizes his reality and concludes the sonnet by "for myself I praise/ Painting my age with beauty of thy days" in a strong commitment to self-praise.
One of the major characterizations of early modern period is the wonderful ability to confirm that love is not so easily defined and it is uncertainty that makes love powerful. Shakespeare was able to capture this in sonnet 91. In his introductory quatrain, he shows that people glories are variable; some glory is in "birth", "body-force", "skill", "wealth", "garments" or "horse." In the second quatrain, Shakespeare declares that his glory is non-of the glories mentioned. His glory is in his love to a special beloved. His final couplet shows his awareness of time and age. Shakespeare, also, expresses the idea of the beloved whom he is never allowed to posses. It is noticed that this is one of the sonnets where Shakespeare did not praise himself. This poems treats separation, idleness, and death as threats to the lovers world. Moreover, Shakespeare is directly addressing his mistress instead of merely writing about her. His voice is more personal and direct than the other poems we have mentioned.
Sonnet 130 is a return to Shakespeare's self-praise. He starts by numbering different colorful comparisons between the beauty of his beloved and the "sun", "Corel", "snow" and golden "wires." Shakespeare, then, moves to olfactory images as "perfumes" and "breath" and adds an auditory image in "music". Yet, his final couplet praises his love and poetry, "I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare."
Another sonnet to discuss is sonnet 141. In it, Shakespeare starts by saying that his love is not by the eye and that it is much better than that. He proceeds saying that his love is not even obtained by any of his five senses. In his third quatrain he says that the source of his love is his heart, "foolish heart." The use of the word foolish gives more than one meaning, especially when following with the word "serving." Shakespeare talks about a love experience that seems not mutual. There are dark shadows of insecurity and anxiety. Each quatrain takes a different appearance of the idea or develops a different image to express the theme. In the sonnet, the first few lines reflect on the theme of his writings, and the last two lines bring the sonnet to a conclusion.
 
 
ESSAY ON CRITICISM
BY
ALEXANDER POPE
         This was the first major poem written by Pope. It was based on studying the classics. Pope collected the classic form in a poem and added what is necessary. Among the advice he gave is that writers should follow nature and its rules. He, also, suggests that the writer should follow reason and wit together. He adds that critics should not be proud.
         In the beginning of the poem, he is advising the writers to follow nature. He says follow the standards that do not change. The poem is considered a didactic one in the sense that Pope is teaching. He says that we have to follow nature because we learn from it. Nature is universal and it is the source of our knowledge that we have to follow. Nature is life’s force because it is the creation of God. It is the end and the highest level and so, what we write must reach the same level of harmony. Using the word “art” Pope means the artistic work. For him, nature is a treasure. He says “Art from that fund each just supply provides”. He means that if you take your material from nature, it gives you the correct supply to whatever you need. It is a piece of advice, he says, if you take your material from nature you will not suffer pride. Nature does not boast, it is humble. He is advising the writers not to be so proud.
         Pope uses the word “the whole” to connote that the whole body will be energetic to write. The person will be guided from above. He will not see the spirit but will remain inside himself and feel the sense of inspiration. When he gets his inspiration from nature he will be creative. Moreover, Pope is emphasizing on wit and the ability to think. Those who have this ability need some sort of inspiration to turn their intelligence into use. After that, he uses an image of a horse, this image shows the muse as riding a horse with the mind controlling it. The horse does not need to be faster, it needs to be controlled.
         Pope repeats the same meanings, but he uses different words. He emphasizes his idea by saying “ Follow and your judgement fram”. He makes a simile combining nature with liberty to bring a clearer view of what he is trying to teach. Adding to that, he believes in the rules of the ancient and his advice is to follow them. He says that the ancients were inspired and they made a hard job. They wrote great poetry and we have to follow them in order to be great as they were. Their works will never die and will last during ages. Consequently, we should follow their steps, work hard as they did and try to achieve what they have achieved.
 
 THE RAPE OF THE LOCK
BY
ALEXANDER POPE
Alexander Pope, in this poem, is writing about a trivial subject. This type of poetry is called ‘mock epic’. This kind of poetry flourished in the eighteenth century, which is called the Neo-classical age. The main aim of the poets of the age was to imitate the classical writings. Yet there was no heroes or warriors to write about and so they tended to parody the classical works. This is the exact thing Pope has done. The poem describes the process of a woman applying make-up as if she is a warrior preparing himself to a war or performing a religious sermon.
To employ his idea, Pope uses a metaphorical language. He shows the act of applying make-up using the word ‘sacred’ as if it is a religious act. Moreover, he uses different words to emphasize this idea, such as ‘mystic’, ‘nymph’, and priestess’, and ‘goddess’. He adds “unnumbered treasure ope at once..” as if the tools of make-up are like worshippers who jump as soon as a religious sermon begins. Further he uses different images that appeals to our senses. He uses a visual image in “glowing blush”, and an olfactory image when he appeals to our sense of smell in “Arabia breathes”. Then he shows that the lady’s comb is the most expensive kind, which is made of ivory. The use of paradox is, also, noted in “awful beauty”. The message behind this paradox is that this beauty is artificial. Also, personification is clear in “awful beauty puts on all its arms”, where he compares beauty to a warrior getting ready for war.
Musicality in the poem is represented through the heroic couplets Pope uses. Alliteration is another clear device as in ‘puffs’, ‘powder’ and ‘patches’. At the end of the poem he delivers a message showing that the world of the aristocracy is full of artificiality. In short, Pope is giving an advice not to be deceived by outer appearance and not to be misled by emotions and imagination. We have to judge through reason that is never wrong. In order to deliver this message he chose one of the features of his age and represented it in the mock-heroic epic form that enabled him to extract some laughs from his readers.
 
 
GEORGE HERBERT:
         George Herbert is one of the members of the Metaphysical school. He devoted his poetry to religion. He is the author of some famous religious poems such as “The Temple” and “The Collar”, but none of those poems was published during his lifetime. His poetry involves a mystical belief and his language is often that of human love.
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THE COLLAR
“The Collar” is a poem with an irregular rhymed verse. It presents the poet trying to give up his faith in God because it is a heavy burden, and he is seeking the world and all its pleasures. But, at the end, comes the voice of his true nature; surprisingly he hears the voice of God and returns back to his faith.
The poem starts with the poet saying “no more” and asks whether he should continue in his suffering. He wants to abandon his faith. He moves to say that he is free and asks another question that shows his hesitation. He wants to know whether he should stay serving God or to enjoy what he has missed. After that, he starts to number what he has missed, such as “wine”, “corn” and “flowers”. He feels that the service of God is like a prison that prevented him from enjoying a lot of pleasures. Then, he asks his heart to break away and “Forsake thy cage”. At the end of the poem, he reaches the conclusion that he must forsake faith; but, in the last two lines, he hears the voice of God saying “child” and suddenly he goes back to faith and says “My Lord”.
Herbert used different tools to convey his poem. He used repetition in “free, free” to emphasize his feelings that he is free to choose his way. More over, he uses a simile to compare his life to a wind in “loose as wind, large as store..” by this simile the reader could sense his freedom. He, also, uses a metaphor in comparing his life in the service of God, to a harvest of thorns that injures him and keeps him bleeding “Have I no harvest but a thorn..” The image of “blood” helps in convincing the reader that he is suffering. Herbert moves forward to give the reader a visual image of the pleasures he missed. He uses an extended metaphor comparing “wine..” and “corn..” to a river and a field. The river is dry and the field is drowned as a result of the poet’s entering to the service of God. When the reader senses these pleasures, he is prepared to accept Herbert’s decision. Herbert decides to “Recover all”. He uses a metaphor to compare the world’s pleasure to something that he had lost and should be recovered. Further, the poet compares his serving life to a ‘cage’ and a ‘rope’ that ties him and encourages him to take his decision. Also, he compares his heart to a blind person who chooses to blind himself, this personification helps the reader to sympathize with the poet and feel his suffering.
 In the final part of the poem, Herbert states that he is the one to be blamed because it was his own decision and choice to keep on in the service of God. The end of the poem carries a surprise when Herbert hears the voice of God saying “child” as if God is a father who reminds his child that He can hear him and able to forgive his weakness and understand his thoughts. Through this call, the poet, directly returns to his faith saying “My Lord”.
Herbert is successful in conveying his idea of confusion. He succeeded in making the reader to sympathize with him and share his sadness, and finally, through the last two lines, shares his happiness and joy.
 
 THE GOD GIFT
BY
GEORGE HERBERT
         George Herbert, in this poem, is talking in favor of the innumerous gifts of God. In the first stanza he shows us a symbol of one of God’s most important gifts. It is that of water represented through a complex image of a glass. Also, water, in itself, is a symbol of purgation. The second stanza shows that God has blessed man and gave him everything. He gave him the  gift of blood, beauty, wisdom, knowledge, honor and pleasure through his senses. That shows the human race enjoying all of the world’s pleasures. Yet, God says that humanity is used to take and not to give. They neither obey the creator nor thank him. This idea is reflected through the third stanza. It is expressed through the words of God saying that human beings adore his gifts instead of adoring him. Man finds his rest in nature and not in the creator of nature. At this point, the gift of rest will be given to man. Both, man and nature will loose at the end. Thereby, if pleasures and gifts will not lead man to God, weariness will lead him.
         The poem shows that God has given every pleasure accompanied with weariness and restlessness. It is essential because if human beings are always in a state of happiness and rest; they will never resort to God.
 
I Saw My Lady Weep ‘Anonymous’
In this poem the poet is describing his beloved state, saying that the more she gets sad, the more she gets beautiful. When his beloved is sad she is able to affect his heart. He is attracted to her sadness more than he is attracted to her body. Sadness makes her passions wise and her tears are delightful.
The poet goes on to describe her as the most beautiful in the whole world. Then, he shows his concern about her sadness. He says that tears and crying although make her more beautiful, yet they can destroy a person.
The last stanza describes the lady in a different manner using a different tone of voice. He assosciates his lady with the four seasons and describes her dress during each season. In this part the poet’s beloved could be nature itself. Nature that could rain and be more beautiful after crying and during each season she wears a different dress. After describing each dress he says that he prefers seeing her undressed where she will be more beautiful and attractive.
 
THE GOOD MORROW BY JOHN DONNE
John Donne is a metaphysical poet who was born as a catholic. He went to Oxford and Cambridge but he could not graduate because of the religious oaths that graduation involved. He visited Italy and Spain and became a priest in 1615. In 1621, he earned the reputation as an eloquent preacher. Donne was the leader of the metaphysical school. His poetical works may be divided into three parts; satires, elegies and divine. In all of his poems he attempted to relate love to alchemy. That is why we say that his imagery is more scientific and philosophical than that of the Elizabethans. Donne has invented more than forty stanza forms because he never liked to repeat himself.
The theme of the poem is about love and how could it change lovers' life. It shows the feelings of lovers. They felt that they were sleeping and have just woken up by a wonderful love relation and a fantastic new life waiting for them. In this poem there is not a lot of music in words, sounds or expressions. Moreover, the rhyme scheme is irregular and this is a feature of metaphysical poetry.
Donne uses metaphors such as “were we not wean’d” where he describes himself and his beloved as babies until they met. Another metaphor shows them sleeping for many years before they could have the chance to meet each other “Snorted we in the Seven sleeper’s den”. The poem, also, has reference to chemistry in “love so alike that none do slaken”. A reference to geography is presented through “North” and “west”.
In the poem, Donne uses alliteration in “snorted, Seven, sleepers” and, also, in the word “one”. The word gives us a clear idea about his love and how he feels. He and the lady whom he loved are going to be one person and there is nothing going to separate them.
This poem is completely different from the courtly love expressed by Wyatt and Spenser. In Donne’s poems, the feelings shine in spite of the conceits and the scientific references. It is clear, also, that Donne is fond of playing with pronouns and adjectives that are sometimes shocking and strange. Donne’s love poetry is protest against the tradition of courtly love. He rejects the conventional praise of women as models of purity and beauty. Donne’s woman is treated as a woman not an angel. His poetry is clearly appealing to modern sensibility because of its freshness and disregard of conventions.
 
 
JOHN DONNE:
John Donne was born in London, 1572. He was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons. His poetry is noted for its ingenious fusion of wit and seriousness and represents a shift from classical models toward a more personal style. Donne’s poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects. He wrote cynical verse, poems about true love, neoplatonic lyrics on the mystical union of lovers and hymns and holly sonnets depicting his own spiritual struggles. Donne was fully prepared for his own death. Having left his sickbed to deliver his last sermon, he then returned home to pose for his portrait in a funeral shroud. He died a month later in Mar. 31,1631.
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THE EXTASIE BY JOHN DONNE
         Donne’s poem is based on the idea of the soul leaving the body and holding communion with the divine. The title of the poem expresses this meaning. The word ‘extasie’ is derived from a Greek word that means to stand out. In the poem the souls of the lovers come out of their bodies; but they hold converse with each other and not with God. The aim of the poem is to combine the physical and the spiritual side of love. Donne tries to clarify his opinion about love. He is convinced that this relation could not go on if expressed through senses only. The soul and body must be interwoven in order to assure the success of this relation.
         The first four opening lines set the scene of the poem. It is an accurate description of the bank, and an image of the fragile grace, a flower that has always been a symbol of purity and virginity. Then, the lovers are described, sitting motionless, gazing into each other’s eyes and holding hands. They are in a state of a physical union. An introduction to the spiritual union is introduced through the use of ‘threading’ of eyebeams. Yet this is the only kind of union they have achieved. The use of ‘As yet’ prepares the reader to the union that is about to follow.
          The lines expressing the lovers’ current state could have a duel meaning. They may be pointing to the spiritual union or suggest a more complete physical union of sexual love. On the other hand, a religious person could judge the ‘extasie’ as the liberation of the soul from the body and being engaged in the contemplation of the divine things. Donne is expressing the idea of love through using a profound image of religious ecstasy.
         Donne represents the lovers as unified as they belong to neither side. Anybody who happens to notice and understand them and their state of souls would “part far purer than he came”. Proceeding through the poem, we can find out that Donne’s description of the lovers’ state in the ecstasy, is ‘not sexe’, but a deep union or exchange of souls. Each soul has the identity of both itself and its partner. There is a general agreement that the poem is about the interdependence of body and soul.
         Readers and critics differently interpret the last two lines of the poem. Many readers see these lines as meaning that the poet is asking his beloved to turn from the refined state of ecstasy to physical love. On the contrary, others see that Donne is, only, asking her to return from this spiritual state to their bodies. Having been liberated from their bodies in the ecstasy, the souls should return and draw the physical nearer to the spiritual.
         The poet is keeping the balance between the physical and the spiritual sides of love. The harmony in this relation could not be achieved except through this balance. The rest of the poem expresses the relation between souls and bodies to be able to achieve the ideal pattern. The souls are moving spirits; the bodies are the spheres in which they move. Otherwise, the soul is like a prince that is imprisoned and could not be seen in its kingdom. The final part of the poem states that the souls of lovers cannot communicate and express their love without the medium of the body.
         The poem, in its shortness, is a complex work of art and that is why many critics have differently interpreted it. It followed the metaphysical trend of bringing together the opposites as the spiritual and physical, the metaphysical and the scientific, the religious and the secular, the abstract and the concrete and the human and the non-human. Donne displayed this trend through images and conceit and bringing the opposites together and shifts from one to the other in a swift and a natural way.
 
 HYMNE TO GOD, MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS BY JOHN DONNE
         This poem is said to be written a few days before Donne’s death (1631). Another opinion is that it was written earlier, during a serious state of illness (1621). As in other poems, Donne employs metaphors from geographical explorations. In the journey of the spirit towards its final discovery; he uses maps and names of distant places to interpret this experience. He pictures his body as a flat map of the world on which the doctors survey the course of his sickness.
         In the first stanza, Donne expects himself going to the ‘ Holy Room’, where a group of Saints chant hymns in praise of the greatness and glory of the God. He imagines that he will be a member of this group and he will sing with them in the praise of God. Before going to this place, in the actual world, he will compose a poem in which he will express his thoughts about his future life in the other world.
         The second stanza shows Donne as compared to a map where doctors are examining him and trying to diagnose his disease. The doctors are represented as cosmographers. They believe that the poet will die of fever. Donne calls the diagnosis a ‘south west discovery’. He wants to say that fever is the way that he will travel through to the other world. He does not regret that he will die out of fever. On the contrary, he shows that west and east are close to each other on the map. In other words, death is the starting point of resurrection. It is only after death that the poet’s soul is going to heaven.
         Donne elaborates his conceit in the fourth stanza. He imagines, on the map, various places, such as: Pacific ocean, the East and Jerusalem. It is only through the strait of suffering that he can reach Paradise. For him, Paradise could be located any where on the map. The fifth stanza reveals Donne’s inner feelings. He feels that Adam is present and surrounds his face, while Christ’s blood is saving his soul. In other words, he believes in the original sin but he also believes that Christ would redeem him.
         In the last stanza, the poet prays to God to accept his soul. He has suffered for his sins, and now in Heaven his sufferings should be blessed by the mercy of God. The poet goes on to say that he has always preached the word of God and hopes that his sermons may come true in his own case.
 
 THE FLEA BY JOHN DONNE
In this poem Donne expresses his refusal of his mistress’s reasons for keeping her virginity. Through this attitude his intellectual and moral mastery is attested. He reaches a conclusion that the loss of maidenhood is nothing more than a flea’s bite. Donne exaggerates by using this idea of a flea; but through his skilful argument and the reasons he offers his mistress is supposed to do nothing but surrendering. The originality of Donne is proved by turning the conventions upside down; he makes the whole idea seems that women are not won by gifts, faithful service and loving speeches, but by a metaphysical proof that virginity is worthless.
The argument of the poem begins and ends by a flea’s bite. The flea has bitten both the lover and his mistress and now it contains a mixture of their bloods. It brought a kind of union that the lover desires. This action has happened without any moral protest from the mistress. After expressing his idea, she tries to kill the flea; but he prevents her saying that this insect, now, is the symbol of their union, their marriage bed and the church in which their marriage was celebrated. Disregarding her complaints, by killing the flea, she is committing a sin. They have become a single being in the flea’s body and she will be murdering part of him by killing the flea. The crime will, also, involve suicide, for she will also kill part of herself and destroy the marriage temple in which they were united.
The mistress ignores this argument and kills the flea. Through this action she tries to prove that, even when the flea’s blood has ‘purpled her nail’, neither of them has become weaker. She has achieved a short triumph, but she gave her lover a chance to convert this triumph against her. He admits that she is right, but she did see that nothing has happened to her and this is, exactly, the conclusion he wants her to reach. Nothing will happen to her and her honor will suffer no more than a flea’s bite.
The poem is a masterpiece if regarded as a masterstroke to an inherited convention. Donne’s representation of the flea as a symbol of unity between both lovers, is an astonishing conceit that is incomparable with any other metaphysical conceit. It seems like a ridiculous metaphysical imagination; but it succeeded in pushing the lady into his hands. The logical reasoning has enabled the unconventional lover to outwit the lady and force his own terms upon her. In short, The Flea is a remarkable lyric for its realism, its emotional intensity and its cleverness. Donne has argued the case of physical union without any social inhibitions.
 
 A HYMNE TO GOD THE FATHER
 BY
JOHN DONNE
         Donne wrote this poem in his illness of 1623. The poem expresses the inner doubts and conflicts of the poet regarding his own sin. The poem ends with a note of hope, faith, peace and security; which is not common in Donne’s religious poetry. In this poem, Donne depended on the thought “for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord”.
         Donne considers himself a great sinner. His sins are divided into four categories. The first sin, he mentions, is his participation in the original sin. Although it was committed before his birth, he still feels that he has participated in it. That is why he is asking for God’s forgiveness. The second sin is a general category that includes all of his personal sins. He regrets his sins but he is not able to free himself from them. At this part, Donne introduces a refrain saying that if God has forgiven him, he still has many more sins “When thou has done, thou has not done, / For, I have more”.
         Donne’s third sin shows that not only he sinned by himself, but also he convinced others to sin. He knows that this is a fatal sin, but he is asking God to forgive it, too. The fourth sin committed by Donne is that of fear. He blames himself for his fear that denotes that he lacks faith in the divine love and mercy. He feels that his soul will not be able to cross the sea of eternity and would never reach the world of the divine. Donne considers this sin the worst of all. He prays to God to assure him by swearing that His Son, Christ, would shed the light of his love and mercy on him at the moment of his death. He says “that at my death thy Sonne / Shall shine as he shines now”.
         The poem is similar to other hymns, but it is lyrical and set to music several times. The poem is characterized by extreme simplicity of design and expression. Most of its words are monosyllabic. The repetition in the refrain serves in the poem dramatic structure. The echoing of Christ’s last words on the cross “thou hast done” is a moving display of Donne’s intellectual and imaginative command.
 
HOLY SONNET  BY  JOHN DONNE
 
John Donne is the greatest Metaphysical poet. He wrote essays, satires, lyrics, songs and sonnets. He wrote the “Holy Sonnet” and other similar poems, after his wife’s death. His style is characterized by the use of paradox, hyperbole, and image. He influenced 20th century poets as W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot.
         In this poem, Donne is addressing death. He asks death not to be proud of being strong. He says that death is nothing but a short sleep and that it comes with war, illness and weak men who kill themselves. At the end of the poem he is ironic in saying that after this sleep we will wake forever and death itself will die.
         The sonnet is divided into an octave and a sestet and its rhyme is (abba abba cdd cdd). From the beginning of the poem, Donne personifies death and addresses him by the words ‘thee’ and ‘thou’. He asks death not to think that he has a great power as some people may say, he says “Death be not proud.... / Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so;”. Then he challenges death saying that he cannot kill him because death is nothing but rest and sleeps. He goes on saying that there is much pleasure that results from death and that soon the best men will die to rest their bones and deliver their souls. He says “And soonest our best men with thee do go, / Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.”. In the sestet he says that death is just a slave to ‘Fate’, ‘Chance’, ‘kings’ and ‘desperate men’. He adds that death comes with poison, war and sickness. More over, drugs and chemical materials could make people sleep as death does. The final two lines sum up Donne’s irony saying to death that we will wake after this short sleep and we will never be dead again; meaning that death shall die, “One short sleep passed, we wake eternally, / And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.”.
         Donne used different methods to make his poem musical and clear. He used a clear example of consonance in the third line in ‘...,those, ... thou think’st, thou ..... throw’. Also in ‘thou then’ in the twelfth line. His comparison of death with ‘poppy’ and ‘charm’, emphasizes the idea that death is extremely weak. Further, Donne uses a metaphor that shows death as a slave who has no will of his own. Death, according to Donne, is a tool in the hands of fate, chance, kings and those who give up their lives. In the last line of the poem the word ‘Death’ is repeated to emphasize on Donne’s challenge and to prove that death will lose at the end.
         It is a metaphysical poem especially if we regarded its subject. It also reveals Donne’s mastery and his religious beliefs represented through the idea of eternal life after death. Finally, Donne was able to convince the reader that death is really weak and through using his wit and logic we sense that at the end, death will be the only loser.
 
 THE HOLLY SONNET XIV
“BATTER MY HEART...”
BY
JOHN DONNE
         In this poem, Donne portrays man’s sense of worthlessness and his inner conflict of whether God will forgive him or not. First he feels a need for a total change. Then he represents his state as that of a town captured by a foreign enemy and his entire struggle is in vain. After that, he expresses his agony and asks for God’s forgiveness. Finally, he feels himself married to the devil and asks God to divorce him and win him on his side.
         In the first stanza, Donne is asking God to mend him. He feels that in order to become a different person, he needs a complete change. He wants to overcome all of his bad qualities of being a worthless creature. His choice of words reveal a violent tone, especially in “knock”, “over  through me”, “to break” and “to burn”. In order to bridge the gap between him and God, he uses a colloquial language and addresses God as an ordinary person. Then, he compares himself to a captured town, using a conceit. It shows that the poet is longing to reach purification and unity with God. Being united with God will make him relaxed, comfortable and sure that he deserves God’s forgiveness. Still his efforts are in vain showing that he is, still, not sure of his purity and devotion to God. He, then, knows that through the reason and rational thinking man can protect himself. It is one of God’s gifts that are given to man in order to protect him. But, in Donne’s case, he says that his reason is weak and can neither guide or protect him. He is trying hard to reach union with God but he fails.
         After ending the first two quatrains, the octave, Donne puts a full stop to denote a change in the poem. He feels agony, restlessness and uncertainty. Again, he is pleading for God’s forgiveness. Further, he compares his state to that of being married to a devil. Controlled by this devil, he is unable to decide, choose or reach salvation. Hence, he asks for the help of God who can break this relation and divorce him from the devil. He asks God to win him on his side saying “take me to you, imprison me”.
         Donne, in this poem, feels that he will never reach salvation except through death. The sense of guilt will never be separated from him. This is a typical attitude of Donne’s religious poetry. He speaks of different things, yet, expressing the same idea. He uses this method in almost all of his religious poems and some of his love sonnets.
 
 A VALEDICTION OF WEEPING
BY
JOHNE DONNE
         In this poem, Donne is addressing his beloved, telling her that she is the cause of his tears. These tears are valuable because they reflect the face of the lady. He adds that not only the face is reflected through the other, but also the tears are pregnant of the lady’s picture. Notice the use of the personification in the idea of pregnancy of tears and the simile of reflecting a picture as if the face is a mirror of his beloved. Donne continuos in his conceits saying that when the tears fall on the ground, they take her picture with them and they are separated. The union between them is broken and they are no longer united. His aim of saying those lines, is to prove to his beloved that weeping is a waste of time and it results in breaking their union. He is trying to be practical, faces his beloved and convincing her that they must stop this action of weeping. He is playing the role of a realistic person. In this first stanza, Donne’s lines varied from short to long to draw the attention more. His choice of words was in purpose, but the words he used were rather conventional.
         In the second stanza, Donne exercises his knowledge in geography when he draws the image of “ball”. He says that both his and her tears will overflow and drawn the whole world. Following his aim, he asks her to put an end to weeping and crying. Then, he presents the image of “wind” that reflects life with all its frustrations. Moreover, he feels that he must make use of time. In his opinion, time is always passing and there is no chance for hesitation. At the end of the poem, he says that they are still weeping and still not unified and this will lead to their death.
Donne shared the metaphysical trend with other poets of the time. The passage of time was a constant threat to these poets. They thought there is not enough time to loose.
 
 
 The Sun Rising
Donne
John Donne is the greatest metaphysical poet. He wrote essays, satires, lyrics, songs and sonnets. His style is characterized by the use of paradox, hyperbole, and image.
In this poem Donne is not trying to conquer a lady's mind or out wit her thoughts. Instead, he is attacking a superior force for interrupting him and the lady he loves. He starts the poem with a strong attack on the sun by calling it 'fool' and 'unruly'. The poem is not addressed to his mistress but to the sun. The sun has disturbed their enjoyment. The union between them is broken and they are no longer united.
As the poem develops we recognize that it has a double purpose. On the one hand, the poet is attacking the sun and framing the whole poem with challenging it and ordering the sun to submit to his will and intentions. On the other, Donne is praising his mistress in an indirect way. This double purpose gives the poem a special poetic interest, for as the speaker's attention moves from the sun to his mistress. Donne's tone varies from angry protest to laziness and emotional content.
Donne starts by a direct insult then he moves to another kind of objective attack. He satirizes the duties the sun must perform in the world of his own movements. Donne proceeds by making boastful statements about his ability to eclipse the sun. His metaphysical approach is continued by his claim that nothing exists apart from the lovers. Donne exercises his geographical talent when he draws the image of his mistress using the words 'both the Indias of spice and mine'. He does not compare his mistress to precious stones or mythological figures.
The poem represents Donne not as a lover but as an aggressive individual who has challenged a greater force to submit to his will. The poem is a complex work of art and that is why many critics have differently interpreted it. It followed the metaphysical trend of bringing together the opposites as the metaphysical and the scientific, the abstract and the concrete and the human and the non-human. Donne displayed this trend through images and conceit and bringing the opposites together and shifts from one to the other in a swift and a natural way.
 
 
 
 Woman's Constancy
Woman's Constancy has many features of Metaphysical poetry. The poem begins without a specific preparation or setting. The lover is addressing his mistress and using an unromantic language mixing between colloquial expressions with legal terms and excluding literary decoration.
Donne starts the poem by an introduction aimed to his lady after a day of love. Then he gives a small mocking question about what will the lady say next day.  The opening words of the poem turn on an electric current. Donne bursts with a series of questions that are intended to criticize his mistress and cast doubt upon her ability to manipulate with his talented attack. In this way the poem develops in an atmosphere that differs from the common lyrical love poetry. There is a sense of masculine power. His mistress has loved him for a whole day and sure she will find an excuse for dropping him but how will she justify her behavior. He asks if she will say that there are other promises to another lover, or that her promises were given under heavy love emotions and that he should not have relied upon. Donne, finally, says that she might say that she did not intend to be faithful. His final conclusion is that his mistress is a lunatic and that he must not waste his time in arguing all her false reasons. The poem is an assault on the prevailing convention.
 
 
 
 
John Keats
         Keats is a Romantic poet, who was born in the year 1795, and who suffered from not being recognised by people. He, also, wrote a poem named Endymion that brought upon him a lot of criticism. He read widely in Greek and ancient mythology, and he translated the Aeneid to the English poetry. Many of Keats’s poems are written in a typical 18th century type. In 1817 he started living in solitude; Keats was in love with Fanny Brown and under the influence of this love, he wrote three Odes. Ode To A Nightingale, Ode On A Grecian Urn, and Ode To Autumn. In 1820 he started to get ill and died in 1821. His Odes stand alone in literature because of their new form and spirit.
Life
by Francis Bacon
         This poem is give a symbolic name which is ‘Life’. Symbolism frames the whole poem and it even starts with a metaphor. The opening metaphor states that life is a bubble and it is short. After that the whole poem extends from this metaphor and asserts this truth. From the first line we assume that the poet is using his imagination to reflect the state of man. He describes man as full of defects, cares and fears. He asserts that man is weak and should not trust this world because everything will return to dust and die.
         The poet is reflecting a disturbed state of mind that results from a lack of faith. He mixes reality that is represented through life and death, with pessimism. In the next stanza, the poet goes on to state that humanity lives with sorrow and that it is oppressed. He offers the reader a choice between different kinds of life; in the court of kings, in the countryside and in the city. Then he describes each one of them. He says that the life in the courts of kings is full of fools, while in the countryside it is full of weak men and in the city it is full of vice. He moves on to describe the life of an individual and that of a married person. What is noted is that the poet is always giving the negative side of things and never the positive. This brings us to the conclusion that he does not feel comfortable.
         In the final stanza he begins to deal with man’s emotions and describes them as being a disease that affects mankind. He shows man’s inability to decide whether to stay in his own country or to face the hardships to travel. He compares between life during war and during peace and he says that both kinds of life cannot make him happy or comfortable.
         Finally he asks what to do and he wishes not to have been born. But, since he was born, he wishes to die. This expresses his escapist view. The poem is a clear statement made by a man who fears life and wants to escape from it through the shortest road of death.
 
LIKE AS A SHIP by Edmund Spenser
           Spenser`s Like As A Ship belongs to his sonnet sequence that shows Spenser`s admiration of an Elizabethan woman whose surname is not known or certain. He wrote eighty-nine sonnets; the first fifty-eight sonnets show that Spenser`s love and devotion are in vain, she remains as cold and hard as steel while he wept and pleaded. Then he falls ill and on the anniversary of his falling in love he writes sonnet sixty in which he says that the past year was longer than all of the forty years he has lived. At last his mistress softens her heart and accepts his love. The last twenty-five sonnets are the songs of a happy accepted lover.
            In this poem Spenser wants to say that one can not live without love because it is the guide that shows us the right way. He compares himself to a ship that makes its way in the ocean with the help of a guiding star,"Like as a ship that through the ocean wide / by conduct of some star doth make her way ". He goes on saying that it lost its way because clouds covered this guiding star," So I whose star, that wont with her bright ray / Me to direct, with clouds is over cast.” His guiding star is covered with clouds and this makes the ship "Do wander now in darkness and dismay."In other words, the poet wants to say that his relationship with his beloved is facing some troubles and this is reflected in his image of the ship that is lost in the sea of troubles.  He expresses his state "through hidden perils round about me placed." Then we feel a change of tone when Spenser hopes than when the storm ends and the sky is clear "My Helice, the lode star of my life / will shine again and look on me at last / with lovely light to clear my cloudy grief ". Spenser concludes the poem with a rhyming couplet saying that till this time he will wander around comfortless and sad.
                   It is a Spenserian sonnet composed of three quatrains and a final couplet. Its rhyme scheme is (abab bcbc cdcd ee) and it is written in iambic pentameters. The musical element in the poem is very obvious; the poet uses alliteration in "darkness and dismay" that stresses the idea of sadness and depression. Another example of alliteration in " lodestar...life " emphasizes the fact that his beloved is the only star that can help him. More over he uses assonance in "far...star" and in the last line in "In secret sorrow. And sad pensiveness" to show his misery and sorrowful thinking. The figurative language Spenser uses is best exemplified in the extended simile of the ship to show the connection between his own condition and that of a ship lost in the ocean because its guiding star is hidden by clouds.
                  Finally, Like As A Ship is one of the poems that shows Spenser`s talent and skill in employing the language to express his feelings. The extended simile is one of Spenser`s devices to hold the reader's attention and the choice of words is very suitable for his feelings of sadness.
 
 THE BOWER OF BLISS  BY
EDMUND SPENSER
         In this poem, Spenser tried to revive a golden age that existed only in his mind. He looked back to the medieval allegory and the virtue in the platonic sense. The poem is a part of Spenser’s Faerie Queen in which he describes the natural setting where the witch seduces the hero or the warrior.
         The poem begins by presenting us with the image of the witch or the supernatural being that represents evil. This image expresses the intrusion of vice into the world of virtue. Ugliness and discord appeared in this natural setting where there should be only beauty and harmony. His images enhance the harmony of the atmosphere; he combines birds with voices and instruments, as well as waters with the sound of the wind. This use of images emphasizes on the contrast between the setting and the sin committed in it.
         Around the scenery of the hero and the witch, many beautiful ladies and wanton boys sang. Facing this situation, the witch or the evil power, regained the hero’s sight. She used juxtaposition in placing evil and virtue side by side “Ah see the Virgin Rose how sweetly shee / Doth first peepe forth with bashful modestee”.
         The poem is meant to make the reader realize the shortness of time. He says “So passeth, in the passing of day / of mortal life the leaf, the bud, the flowre”. The final couplet declares the idea that one should enjoy oneself because life is short. These lines, also, expresses the idea of sin. Spenser used the word “crime” especially to denote sin.
 
“London” by William Blake
 
At the time the poem was written, London was considered the capital of the Empire in which the sun never sets. It was considered the richest and wealthiest country in the whole world. Therefore the reader may expect a rich view of the place, but, on the contrary, Blake gave the opposite of what the reader expected. Blake represents suppression, misery, and weakness.
         Blake started the poem showing that suppression and misery are found every where in London. His feelings are that nothing is free to run neither the people nor the river. In the second stanza he describes people as afraid of speaking and as being their own censor. The use of the word ‘every’ is repeated to emphasize on the meaning. People are afraid of speaking to the extent that they seem to choose to tie themselves. They do not think about their future and they are afraid of the rulers.
         In the third stanza, Blake started to give details. He represents an image of a child in order to clarify his criticism of the degrading social and economical conditions. The child instead of playing or going to school is cleaning a chimney. This image shows the oppression applied on a little child who ought to be protected and not exposed to dangers, dirt, and diseases. Blake criticizes the society for not protecting children. Moreover, the church, which is supposed to stand for justice, is criticized for accepting this situation and for seeing the children’s misery and doing nothing. Furthermore, he brings the image of the soldiers who are not interested in fighting and they have no aim in the war. These soldiers are fighting only for the Monarchy and not for a reason of there own. They go only for the sake of the palace. For Blake, the soldiers are like the children, they are victims to the society and the palace. His reference is to the society’s injustice, the church’s ignorance and the carelessness of the monarchy.
         In the last stanza he speaks about a major problem caused by the industrial revolution. This problem is that of women selling their bodies for living. The victim, in Blake’s point of view, is the prostitute while the blame falls on the society. For him, a wealthy country must take care of its women. He says that if these women cannot find a suitable job, they cannot earn their living except through this way. He blames every body for the degrading women’s situation and says that no body is going to escape his responsibility.
         The poem consists of four stanzas; each consists of four lines. Blake uses a regular rhyme scheme (abab, cdcd, efef, ghgh). In the poem Blake chose three images to criticize the religious institutions, the social institutions and the monarchy and the moral degradation.
 
Lord Randal
         The poem is about Lord Randal who is weary of life not because of his sickness from the poison given to him but, because his beloved, his own true-love has betrayed him. Life has disappointed him and he returns to his mother as a child seeking safety and refuge.
         It is a folk ballad written in a form of a dialogue and it consists of five stanzas framed by repetition. The repetition serves as a kind of refrain to help the ballad to be sung as it was meant to be. In each stanza, the refrain serves to focus on the development of the situation, and the reader begins to realise that more and more is implied until he discovers that the Lord is not tired from the hunt, but death makes the young man fain to lie down. The details are given gradually and only the essential is revealed leaving the reader to suggest the rest of the story.
         The reader knows nothing about the relation between Lord Randal and his true love, except the fact that she poisoned him. Her motive is not revealed. Moreover, we know nothing about the relation between the Lord’s mother and his true love except her suspicions. This suspicion could reveal a natural jealousy on the part of the mother, revealing an ironical but tragic situation because her son is dying. We, the readers, start to know why does the Lord need his bed and start to sympathise with him as the situation and its symbolic meaning is gradually developed.
         The last line in the poem ‘sick at the heart’ expresses Lord’s Randal agony and through repetition in the poem, the reader has come to expect the emphasis and the climax. The poem has an expressive variation in repetition that is not accidental or arbitrary but rather revealing and explanatory.
 
 
Love And Life
In this poem the poet expresses his feelings about love, life, time and reality. He insists on holding on to the current moment because it is the only reality one can have. The past is not real as it is a memory that is stored in the memory. On the other hand the present is the concrete part of life.
The poet follows in arguing his idea by saying that anything in the future is not till it actually happens. Man cannot control time and cannot enjoy, even the future. The future will be present and then it will be transferred to past and it is gone. The same applies to the lovers who cannot hold up with each other forever because one cannot posses the passing of time. He argues that no one should blame anything but time. You could love, be loved and separated. Plus you can express an opinion and give a promise yet time changes everything. Enjoying the present is one of the metaphysical principles that is skillfully knit in this poem. The poem begins by the poet’s realization that time passes and that he is getting older. Then, he moves to philosophical ideas about love as being a moment that could pass and drawn into the past. In the final stanza, he says that true love could be forever but one cannot control the passing of time.
 
 
 
My Heart Leaps Up
This poem belongs to the romantic movement. The poet describes a romantic idea from his individual point of view. The poem starts with the pronoun ‘My’ saying that his heart is shacked when he sees a rainbow in the sky. The poet is speaking about himself and clarifying his feelings and emotions. The word ‘leap up’ displays a strong feeling. Then he says that his state was the same when his life began, and it is still the same now. He is grown up and he still admires the sight of the rainbow. He also feels that his state will remain as it is even when he grows old.
The romantics believed in the purity of childhood and that man can learn from this purity. Moreover they believed that God exists in nature. The poem circles around the idea of purity and the existence of God in nature in a simple frame of a child’s state of happiness when he sees the rainbow in the sky.
 
 
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Robert Browning grew to maturity during the last phase of Romanticism. His experimental style and development of the dramatic monologue may be his most lasting contribution to poetry.
In My Last Duchess, Ferrora, the hero, is giving memory to his late wife whom he had murdered. He was moved by his jealousy of her behavior, “This grew, I gave commands / Then all similes stopped forever”. Ferrora believed that his wife did not respect the love and family name he offered. She was easily attracted by the attention of others. He found that he had to have her killed when she went too far.
Browning was not only a practitioner of the dramatic monologue but he is, especially, associated with it. He placed his characters in special predicaments and made them think aloud so as to display their distinctive mentalities. The poem reveals both characters, the hero and his duchess. Ferrora appears to be a jealous husband and an expert of art. In the poem, Ferrora is appreciative of his last duchess portrait:
“That my last Duchess painted on the wall,
  looking as if she were alive. I call
  that piece a wonder.”
Towards the end, he draws the attention of his companion to the beauty of the statue of Neptune “Notice Neptune, though”. This proves that he is an admirer of art. Every thing in the poem seems to leave a good impression on his wife. On the contrary, it seems that his wife appreciated nothing at all. Whatever he does did not please her. Any “favour” offered by him was equal to her joy at riding her “mule”.
The tone of the poem is not narrational but rather conversational. That is the most important feature of dramatic monologue. There are plenty of examples in the poem of this device like “she had a heart, how shall I say?” The poem is written in iambic pentameters and the rhyme scheme is [aa bbcc ddee....]. However, the run on lines helps to produce the dramatic effect of flowing speech.
This poem is a brilliant example of dramatic monologue. Browning has managed to present the peculiarities that work in his characters’ minds. The capacity of Ferrora to look at, and appreciate the quality of art, in his late wife’s portrait, is strange but rather outstanding.
 
My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is
by Edward Dyer
 
         This poem compares between the material wealth and self-content. The poet enjoys a good and intelligent mind and he is satisfied with what he has. He finds contentment more than any other person and he insists on not being a prisoner to wealth or any other kind of materialistic desires. The poet does not believe in poverty, but he believes in self-contentment because he thinks that the rich and those who have wealth suffer more than the poor and needy.
         Through the poem he precedes in comparing between those who have wealth and those who do not. He is giving a moral lesson and is teaching people how to lead their lives without laughing at other people’s losses or envy at other people’s gains. The poem is concluded by the poet’s idea about his own self. He says that his wealth is his health and his ease of mind. He does not bribe anyone to please and he does not offend or attack. The poet’s conclusion is that he is self-contented and that he is happy in this state and desires nothing more.
 
ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE
In this poem, Keats attitude starts with his Romantic suffering by using the word ‘ache’ to show that his heart aches with pain. Then he starts to share the feelings of happiness with the Nightingale and to feel one with it. The Nightingale is compared to a nymph that moves among the trees in nature. The Nightingale is singing a summer song. It is singing freely, happily, calmly, and enjoying peace. Keats is envying the Nightingale for being able to sing easily, he is comparing the Nightingale to the Romantic poet who cannot find it easy to do so. Every poet has moments of difficulty when he cannot find the suitable words to express his feelings. He is also envying the Nightingale for its freedom. The Nightingale is flying from tree to another. It is free in nature and without any restrictions. The Nightingale is in a sharp contrast with the Romantic poet himself, who feels  imprisoned and has problems in artistic ratio and does not write easily. Keats longs to travel and fly, as all the Romantic poets do, to far away places. He wishes to escape from this earth with the Nightingale. He wants to get lost and he does not want any body to see him or follow him. Keats expresses his feelings of being fedup with reality and he starts to describe to the Nightingale what happens in real life. He says that knowledge only comes with sadness and that youths die young. As a matter of fact, Keats himself died young. He stresses that as long as you are innocent you are not suffering, but once you acquire knowledge and experience, you begin to feel sadness. After that, Keats introduces the idea of ‘transcendentalism’. He will escape from reality through his poetry. He describes the night sky with its moon as a queen surrounded with nymphs. Light passes with the air, through the planets and then reaches him, it does not come directly to him. Then he moves to the wish to die. He is living in love but not totally in love. He wishes that death would take his breath into the air and get lost and dissolve into the air. Then he addresses the Nightingale by telling it that when the poet dies the Nightingale’s song will last forever. The Nightingale’s ability to sing and create art is immortal. Finally he wants his poem to be immortalised as the Nightingale’s song, and retreats saying that he cannot deceive himself by feeling at one with the Nightingale. He ends
 the poem by saying goodbye to the Nightingale, and having a feeling that he cannot know whether what he had was a dream or a vision.
An Ode To Grecian Urn: Keats wrote this poem while he was looking at a picture on an ancient vase. The vase has a natural scene with two lovers, and through the poem, Keats compares between the scene on the vase and a realistic scene in life. He starts by envying the branches on the vase because they will be eternally green, unlike the real leaves in nature. There will be spring all the time. Then he moves to the lovers who will still have hope in the future and will keep their love, because it is a picture. While, in real life love usually ends in disappointments. Through the poem, Keats stresses that art is immortal. Art will always accompany man. Art is equal to beauty, while beauty is equal to truth. This is the most important lesson art should teach us. To keats, Grecian Urn is a reassurance against the sorrows of life. Art can be a support.
_____________________________________________________________
Ode To Autumn
In Ode To Autumn, Keats settled down and became more calm. He is expressing autumn in England, its beauty, and its calmness. Keats does not represent a struggle in this poem.
 
Ode To The West Wind
by Shelley
 
The West Wind is a wind that springs in November but it means more than being so. Every where we have plenty of yellow dry leaves, the strong wind blows and cleans the leaves every where. The leaves are compared to people, running away from death. The poem is a prayer where the protagonist addresses the west wind.
         The first direct reference in the poem is to whatever is dead or whatever has a promise of life. They will lay in winter bed until the spring. The spring is an image of rebirth, regeneration, of renewal. The dark wintry bed seems to be a grave, but, it is a source of regeneration and new life. The spring is compared to a shepherd driving his flocks. It is also compared to a woman.
         In the first part the poet is referring to the impact of the West Wind on earth, but, in the second, it is its impact on the sky and the sea. The first part is composed of four stanzas, each of three lines and a final couplet. The first stanza ends (aba), the second (bcb), (cdc), (dd). Shelley managed to write a relatively long poem with the same structure.
         The West Wind is given a power, a divine power that has the force to destroy. It is a poem about the cycle of nature. The rebirth is associated with the power of God. The poem might be put in different interpretations. In a sense it could be a political poem, a religious poem, a poem about nature and many things of a sort.
         Part two of the poem shows that the wind influences the clouds and the rain. The dark sky gives the impression of death, but some-how this dark sky result in rain. Rain gives new birth, and the West Wind, actually, causes rain to fall and earth to be regenerated. Shelley tries to compare the clouds and the rain to the leaves falling from the trees but, it is a difficult image to visualise. The West Wind becomes a death song that declares the end of the year. The second stanza serves as a narration of the main theme presented in the first stanza.
         A movement to the sea is presented in part three. The poet makes political allusions when he draws the reader’s attention to the possibilities of a political reading to the poem; it is shown when the poet says that the wind is attacking the Mediterranean. Shelley was a supporter of the French revolution and the poem is written after the defeat of Napoleon in ‘Waterloo’. The reference to the Mediterranean is a reference to the French revolution. For the first time, the poet makes it clear that the West Wind is not only a natural force, but a political force of change as well. The French revolution, like a power of regeneration, destroyed that is actually dead and preserved that is worthy of living. When he says that the West Wind is splitting the Atlantic into two, he refers to the American revolution and the separation of England.
Part four brings together three images, earth, air, and sea. The poet wishes to be part of nature, and to go back to his childhood. These
 romantic lines protest against reality and express the need to fly away from every day’s life. It is typical the Romantic dilemma. The lines express the dilemma of the Romantic poet who fails to adopt the status-quo. The Romantic ego is melancholic because of his inability to go with reality. The poet wishes to be as free as the West Wind, but, as a grown-up, he knows that he cannot. He wants to escape reality, but it is not possible because there are things that make man less free than he wants. Life, as expressed by the protagonist, is a chain. The West Wind is something insight, it is some sort of power. The poet wishes to be an instrument of the West Wind. He is actually free as the West Wind but, he wishes the West Wind to have impact on him as it has its impact on the forest and the sky.
         The poet, in the fifth part, would like the West Wind to be him. He wants it to dictate on him. As a poet, he would have his poems to reach to every one. The poems are compared to the dead leaves. They are not read by others. Shelley was complaining of not being known enough. These poems will remain dead as long as they will be read by others, but they will live once they communicate by others.
         The last lines of the poem show that Shelley thinks of the poet as a prophet. The poet here is a West Wind of a sort. The poem is about nature, death and life. It is a poem about the French revolution, and also about the role of the poet. It is a typical Romantic poem in its craftsmanship. Shelley is at his best and represented a poem with powerful emotion.
 
On My First Son
This poem opens in the formal way of an elegy, ‘farewell.’ It is lamenting the death of a child. The poem describes the sad feelings of a father who lost his son. The poem involves both philosophical and religious ideas. The father is trying to convince himself that death is the natural end to any living thing. To show that it is hard to convince himself, the poet uses punctuations. He is trying to control his sad feelings towards his eldest son.
The child was his joy and his source of happiness. Now he feels that he made a sin by loving him to much. He knows that children are gifts from God and that now he is paying back for his sin of loving his son that much. Then he tries to insert a relief by saying that dead people go to better places. He should envy and not lament his son. He says that his son has escaped from the old age. Finally he sweared not to love anything as much as he loved his son so that when he looses it he will not get that sad.
 
ON THE TOMBS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY BY
FRANCIS BEAUMONT
         In this poem, Beaumont expresses his feelings about life, death, quality and morality in very clear terms. He begins the poem by addressing mortality or the human race at large. He gives a warn saying “behold and fear”.
         He starts the poem by asking people to look upon the tombs of great kings and queens who, now, are nothing more than dust. They lack the strength to move their hands and also their pulpits have become sealed with dust, he says “Where from their pulpits seal’d with dust / They preach, ‘in greatness is no trust’.” Their greatness did not prevent them from dying.
         The satirical tone in the poem is revealed through the metaphor of “Westminster Abbey”. It’s size is an acre, that is an element of reality, but irony is in the sense that this acre, instead of being sown with seeds it is sown with bones and ashes of kings who have died.
         Trying to bring his message, Beaumont increases his sarcasm when he personifies bones crying out loud. They say that although these bodies were of kings and queens they turned to dust just like the ordinary peasants. The final couplet of the poem delivers the message of the poet; he says that fate does not differentiate the poor and the great. He says “Here’s a world of pomp and state, / Buried in dust, once dead by fate.”
 
 
Out, Out
Robert Frost is an American poet, known for his verse concerning New England life. Frost attended college and earned a living by working a wool mill, a shoemaker, a country schoolteacher, the editor of a rural newspaper, and a farmer. He also wrote poetry, but he had little success in having his poems published. Frost's first works of poetry were group of lyrics called A Boy's Will. He continued to write poetry with increasing success. Frost's poetry is based mainly upon the life and scenery of New England. Frost's poems are concerned with the interaction between humans and nature. His works show his strong sympathy for the values of early American society.
Out, Out narrates the story of a boy who is working in this young age and he suffers till death due to the materialistic way of life. The boy used to work in a yard and he used a saw to do his job. The saw ‘leaped out’ of the boy’s hand and he was deeply injured. The boy’s suffering did not move any feelings of sympathy in the people around him. He continued in his suffering till he died.
The death of the boy is a symbol of the loss of innocence and values. It is a reference to the materialistic age that leads to the loss of human values. After the boy’s death, everybody returned back to his work as if nothing happened. The poet shows that there is no sympathy and people’s hearts are hardened like the machines that dominates the age.
The poet reflected his disapproval of the materialistic trends. Moreover he showed, through the death of the child, how mechanization is destructive and dangerous. Mechanization is an enemy of nature, beauty and human values.
 
PARADISE LOST BY MILTON
Milton lived in the first half of the 17th century. He was a very outstanding epic poet and sonneteer. He was a puritan who inherited the spirit of personal independence and religion from his father. In 1652 he became totally blind. He was arrested and imprisoned for his political work, however in his later years of his life he published his outstanding work, mainly, Paradise Lost, Paradise Gained and Samson Agnostis. Paradise Lost was written in twelve books. Wishing to write an epic, Milton listed out a number of subjects to choose the proper theme and the one he finally picked was the theme of ‘The Fall Of Man’. The chief sources in writing this epic are the Bible, the Elliad and the Odyssey written by Homer.
The first two books in Paradise Lost are of the best out of the whole number of twelve books. Book nine is interesting because Milton relates a human drama of Eve’s fall and Adam’s resolution to eat the apple. It is clear that Milton affirms that man’s misfortune comes from his passion and not from God.
Some critics say that Satan in Paradise Lost is Milton himself, but it is not a fair opinion, for other critics says that the development of Satan’s character is not a representation of the character of Milton.
In writing the poem, Milton faced a lot of problems as whether man has his own free will or not. Another problem was the representation of the character of Satan and the envy that was echoed in his voice and how far do they represent Milton himself.
The epic’s speeches are magnificent and they sound as debating. Each part of the poem creates and arouses some interest and some suspense through Milton’s realistic tone. He chose blank verse because he did not believe that he needed any regularity of music in his lines. His syntax is elaborate and it has endless variety of effect along with different variations in word order. Milton’s lines have their own music that directs the reader to the idea he wants. When Milton uses classical imagery or medieval details, he does not put them for mere decoration, but he links them with reality and makes them quite effective in the development of his thoughts. The poem is not a story from the Bible, but it is about the nature of man.
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The first part of the poem is a soliloquy by Eve, recollecting Satan’s words about increasing her knowledge and information after eating from the forbidden tree. Milton is emphasizing on the weakness of Eve and how she is easily convinced by the temptations to eat from the tree. She says to herself that if the fruit is “the cure of all”, so why
 should not she reach to the tree and taste the fruit. She knows that this fruit is divine and forbidden, yet she hears the words of Satan and thinks that God will not banish her because she is his own creation. Then she convinced herself that she must not hesitate as she is going to gain more knowledge.
Milton is trying to show us how an ordinary person will behave in facing all these temptations. Man usually tries to use some reason to explain to himself why he should do a thing or another. But, he also wants to point out that reason is not always right. The way Milton describes the moment she sets herself to the action shows how quick and not well studied action it is “rash hand”. Also, he wants to emphasize that she is eating her end. Milton lowers down the tempo of the line to show that she is at her end.
Eve has committed a mistake of dis-obedience in an evil hour that will cause nature to reflect her sighs and pain and the signs of her regret and sorrow. Immediately after eating from the tree, her character changed completely. She is not the innocent, pure woman who was talking in a low soft tone, her behavior changed towards Adam too.
Milton represents Eve in the weaker side, she is tempted, was all by herself and she puts out her hand and is about to eat. She insists to be alone and Adam refuses, for a long time, to leave her knowing that she was always depending on him. Eve imagined that she is eating something that she had never tasted before and this is because she is eating not for the sake of the fruit but for the sake of knowledge. She thought that she will immediately gain the wisdom, but unfortunately she does not.
Eve’s greediness is emphasized, here, to express the excitement in her to get the results of her disobedience. Moreover it is used to emphasize that she depended on her senses and for so she was easily tempted. By doing so, she was unaware that she is eating death “eating death”. There is a pun in the word ‘death’; she is not the one who is eating death, but on the contrary, it is death that is eating her.
 
Poverty in London
By Samuel Johnson
 
Samuel Johnson has been considered a man in search for truth, and sympathetic with the poor and miserable. His writings are mostly in defence of reason against the imagination or the emotions. He admired the moral values and artistic order.
The poem Poverty in London is an attack against the attitude of society towards the poor. He starts the poem by explaining that all types of crimes are not considered wrong ‘shameful’ except the crime of poverty. This is considered a metaphor in comparing poverty to crimes. He says that the law follows the poor and even the goddess of inspiration is angry with any sign of poverty. The successful businessman is amused by the sight of a poor man in a torn cloak (coat), and makes fun of him instead of helping him. Even the very rich people find many ways to insult those suffering from poverty. One of the causes of sadness and distress to any poor person is the bitter satire and the expression of ‘scorn’ making fun of his miserable condition. The poet represent a picture of a poor man’s generous heart being wounded by a stupid person’s insult, which is like a shooting dart. In this first section of the poem, the attack is on society and how wicked people can be to their fellowmen instead of offering them help.
In the second part, the poet turns to heaven in search for a hope or a rescue for the poor. He asks rhetorical questions which are unanswered. He regrets that heaven has not supplied any resort or any undiscovered area for the poor, where they can find a certain peace or happiness. He attempts to raise a kind of hope and to make the poor refuse insults and injustice, but he is disappointed by the sad truth that poverty cannot rise except in very slow steps in such a world. In this society, everyone is a slave to material profit to the extent that kind words and smiles are sold for return of money, and everything is reached by bribes and flattery. The whole tone of the poem is sad and hopeless, since the poet starts by the idea of the crime of poverty and ends by the power of money and flattery. He succeeds by emphasising the fact that even heaven does not offer help to the poor. The heroic couplet in which the poem is written, adds to the force of the idea and emphasises the attitude of the writer.
 
Romanticism
Romantics yearn for the infinite.  The English romantic poet William Blake thought he could "see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower."  Romantics view nature as a living spirit, connected to human feelings of love and compassion.
Romanticism stresses freedom for the individual.  It does not favor restricting social conventions and unjust political rule.  In literature, the romantic hero is a rebel or outlaw. Just as the romantic hero is in revolt against social conventions, the romantic artist is in revolt against artificial ideas.
During the Romantic Movement, most writers were discontented with their world. To escape from modern life, the romantics turned their interest to remote and faraway places, the medieval past, folklore and legends, and nature and the common people.  The romantics were also drawn to the supernatural. Many typically romantic characteristics appear in the poetry of William Wordsworth.  He believed we learn more by communing with nature or talking to country people than by reading books.  He also believed that harmony with nature is the source of all goodness and truth. Romantic poets often wrote in the first person and wrote openly about their own lives and experiences.
 
 
 
Romanticism
 
It is an intellectual movement that flourished in Europe between the middle of the 18th and 19th centuries. Romantics generally believed in the uniqueness of individual expression, as it is constituted by life experience. The romantic work expresses the poet’s desires, wishes, way of thinking, and his relation to others. It is a protest against the social ugliness and poverty. The Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge are generally taken to mark the formal beginning of English romanticism.
         English romanticism is distinguished for its lyric poetry: Blake’s “The Tyger” and “London”, Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”, and Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”. Blake is a visionary English poet and painter who belongs to the romantic trend. The earliest of Blake’s well-known works is “Songs of Innocence”, a series of lyrics in the simple form of children’s poems. He printed them in 1794, adding a series of “Songs of Experience”.
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Satire by Alexander Pope
After the restoration of the King’s throne, people needed stability and order. In order to achieve this aim there was a dire need for satire. Through satire people are aware of their follies and they are encouraged to keep order and not to revolt. In this poem Pope is not making fun of any one; he is not writing about a serious topic like that of An Essay On Man. Simply, he is satirizing the follies of his society.
Pope speaks about the role of art in enhancing order in society. He believes that poetry, in particular, has to teach a certain message. His opinion is that people should fear of men of literature because they could satirize those who commit mistakes. Those sinners are exposed through the writers and satirists. Literature has a mission that is more important than religion or law. If people could escape the punishment of religion or law they will not be able to escape literature and its punishment. Through his satire, Pope is warning people of doing errors or else he will punish those people.
Pope starts the poem with a direct question. He is doing a direct approach asking a person why is the poet provoked to write satires. The reader is provided with the direct answer which is the whole poem. One of the reasons is that goodness is attacked and insulted by vice in society. Standing by virtue is an aim that has to be reached. Pope stresses his involvement by saying that if people are pretending to be something far from their reality, he will attack and punish them. He uses the word ‘mine’ to stress his presence. He says that the insult is ‘mine’ because he is a friend of every clever mind. He is the man who represents all mankind. The poet is proud because he is not a slave to anyone and he is a free person. Another reason for being proud is that people who are not afraid of God are afraid of him and fear his punishment in his satires. When he exposes the sins of the sinners people will know them and they will be excluded from society.
By expressing his pride, Pope is not upsetting the chain of beings, he is not disturbing order. He says that satire is a sacred weapon in his hands and that through using it he is doing a holly mission. Pope is not claiming that he is God; yet, he says that God and Heaven help him in his aim. Pope is against all sinners and hypocrites. All those who praise Kings for money and give false preaching are hypocrites who only glitter when exposed to light. These hypocrites are like insects and they must be exposed to the public.
Pope is defending the idea of stability and order. He is defending virtue, and warning all those who commit mistakes and who are hypocrites, that he will expose them to the public and punish them in his satire.
 
 
From the Songs of Innocence
The lamb
In this poem Blake is trying to show that God is not separated from his creation. The poem is written in rhyming couplets to be sung by a child. The title signifies an image of a lamb, this image has been always associated with Christ. Moreover, the reader of the poem can notice the existence of three lambs; the real lamb, the real child who is compared to a lamb and the lamb that signifies Jesus. The child is an image of innocence as Jesus is a symbol of innocence. Blake is saying that God and his creation can never be separated. According to the mystic belief, there is nothing in the world that is not God. God in Blake’s poetry is not conceived of as separate from existence.
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 SONGS of Innocence
The Songs of Innocence is an introduction to a series of songs that Blake intended to write. In it he describes his state as using his pipe to perform melodious rhymes while suddenly he met a child. The child here is a symbol of Christ. This laughing child asked him to pipe a song about a lamb. Noticing both references, the child and the lamb, the reader can interpret the religious tendency in the songs of innocence.
Blake shows the happiness of the child in hearing the cheerful song and asking the poet to repeat it. We can fell the representation of childhood and nature throughout the poem. In the third stanza the child asks for dropping the pipe and singing cheerfully. Moving forward the child or the symbol of Christ asks the poet to write the songs of innocence in a book that enables all to read it.
Blake obeys and starts to write the songs that will bring joy and happiness to every child. In general the poem has its romantic features and gives reference to innocence through using the image of a child, which refers to childhood and to Christ. Moreover the idea of the lamb that represents Christ will be elaborated in a dependent poem that enlarges the image and the reference.
 
From the Songs of Innocence
The lamb
In this poem Blake is trying to show that God is not separated from his creation. The poem is written in rhyming couplets to be sung by a child. The title signifies an image of a lamb, this image has been always associated with Christ. Moreover, the reader of the poem can notice the existence of three lambs; the real lamb, the real child who is compared to a lamb and the lamb that signifies Jesus. The child is an image of innocence as Jesus is a symbol of innocence. Blake is saying that God and his creation can never be separated. According to the mystic belief, there is nothing in the world that is not God. God in Blake’s poetry is not conceived of as separate from existence.
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 SONGS of Innocence
The Songs of Innocence is an introduction to a series of songs that Blake intended to write. In it he describes his state as using his pipe to perform melodious rhymes while suddenly he met a child. The child here is a symbol of Christ. This laughing child asked him to pipe a song about a lamb. Noticing both references, the child and the lamb, the reader can interpret the religious tendency in the songs of innocence.
Blake shows the happiness of the child in hearing the cheerful song and asking the poet to repeat it. We can fell the representation of childhood and nature throughout the poem. In the third stanza the child asks for dropping the pipe and singing cheerfully. Moving forward the child or the symbol of Christ asks the poet to write the songs of innocence in a book that enables all to read it.
Blake obeys and starts to write the songs that will bring joy and happiness to every child. In general the poem has its romantic features and gives reference to innocence through using the image of a child, which refers to childhood and to Christ. Moreover the idea of the lamb that represents Christ will be elaborated in a dependent poem that enlarges the image and the reference.
 
That Time of Year
by William Shakespeare
Beside being the greatest dramatist of all times, Shakespeare wrote sonnets and long narrative poems. His 154 sonnets are believed to be written from 1592 to 1603. The poem is about a period in the poets life. It is a Shakespearean sonnet comparing between autumn and the poets age. As spring is childhood, autumn is a symbol of the old age. From the beginning of the poem the poet compares himself to autumn. He uses nature to describe his age. The trees are no longer holding birds.
Through out the poem the poet is involved in each quatrain and his age and state are compared to nature. The movement of the sun corresponds to human age. The rising of the sun describes childhood, while sunset is darkness and death.
The third quatrain has a significant metaphor using fire as its core. Fire starts bright and flashy flames and ends with black ashes. It has the same circle of life and it ends in a bed of ashes. In the couplet the poet sums up his idea showing that he loves life very much. He feels he is near to death and that makes him loves life more than he used to do during his young age.
The poem has a timed sequence, where the first quatrain uses autumn which takes a long period of three months. The second quatrain uses the Sun which is a shorter period of only one day. While, the third quatrain uses fire which takes no more than moments. This time sequence indicates how time passes quickly and how the poet feels towards the passing of his age. Time is getting shorter and the poet’s love of life increases.
 
THOMAS TRAHERNE
 
        Thomas Traherne , 1636?–1674, English METAPHYSICAL POET. His finest work, expressing an ardent, childlike love of God, appeared in the 1670s but was lost until rediscovered and published as Poems (1903) and Centuries of Meditations (1908). Although, he is one of the Metaphysical poets, his tone expresses happiness and satisfaction. His studies provided him with a vast perception of the universe and the realization of the presence of God, always, in this universe.
         In his works, several attitudes could be traced. First, the relation between the individual and mankind in general. He is not interested in man as an isolated individual, but man that can be part of the whole. According to him, happiness could not be achieved except through the unity between one man and all mankind. This approach makes him different than his contemporaries. He is aware of the problems through which his people pass, but he decides to help and not to increase their agony. He insists on man caring for all humanity, the spiritual fulfillment can only be attained through admiration and love to all mankind.
         Traherne’s second attitude is towards childhood and the different stages in man’s life. This attitude links him more to the Romantics. In his poems “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of experience”, he speaks about man’s early stage of life and then he moves to the stage of experience; which is the state of faults and sins. He refers to life as a circle that starts from innocence and after experience it returns back to its starting point. Traherne insists on regaining purity and innocence.
         Traherne was, also, aware of the changes and the scientific development of the time, yet, it never created a barrier between him and God. Moreover, Traherne used symbols borrowed from the Bible, but they were common and familiar to the ordinary reader. He succeeds in breaking the barrier between him and the reader and in simplifying his message to him.
 DREAMS BY THOMAS TRAHERNE
         In this poem, Traherne represents the idea that Paradise which man is seeking to enjoy, comes from self-contentment and the satisfaction with what he has. Dreams is a highly philosophical poem, which deals with the hidden reality that all human beings are searching for. Traherne links between the human stages, the paradise and the power of the human mind. The poet reveals the theme that any paradise is inside the human being who has the free will to choose whether to reveal it or not. The poem deals with the universal theme of paradise, which is the main interest of all human beings.
         Traherne begins with a realistic scene. Although he closed his eyes and dreaming, he uses a literal language saying that he can see the skies, the hills the sparrow, the sun and the land. He emphasizes this realistic scene by the word “real”, then he closed the stanza by a rhetorical question that, can he see all these elements in the darkest night and while closing his eyes? The use of these elements is a symbol that shows what he sees in his dream as  realistic details. Adding to this, the extensive use of visual images noted in this stanza.
         The second stanza stands for the power of the human mind. The poet, now, is able to see people and experiences the same air. Then he shows that mind only can tell this world. He is confident of man’s power, especially his brain that could imagine all these beautiful realities. The joyful tone of the stanza is noticed through Traherne’s use of alliteration “fresh, fair” and “sense, sky”. He also used assonance in “by, day” and repeated “true” to show the realistic nature of what he sees.
         The third stanza he notices the nature of his dream. He understands that what he sees is a restored memory in his brain. There are things that you cannot see but you can understand with your brain. He compares sleep to death and to the sacred secret. Beside Traherne’s metaphorical language, figures of speech are also noted in this stanza. The stanza contains three questions to emphasize his wonder then his state of certainty that all what he sees is only an act of memory.
         The fourth stanza deals with childhood. At this period, his innocence did not know the difference between right and wrong. Traherne fills this stanza with metaphors in order to express his idea. He says that during his childhood and innocence, he considered earth as heaven and now, by night, he is awake and can see all of these things. It is a symbol that shows childhood as pure and real as what he saw. Repeatedly, he repeats the words “Real, true” to emphasize the reality of the scene.
 He moves to manhood in the fifth stanza. It is the stage of awareness and knowing the difference between things. Yet, he is talking in favor of the stage of innocence. To stress on this comparison, he uses many examples as, “Ribbans” and “wings”, and “virtue” and “sin”. The sixth stanza declares that through experience, man must be able to be mature and that thought is the main tool that man can use. But, still, he expresses his fear of his experience. In this stanza, alliteration could be clearly noticed in “and, all” and “their, thought”.
         The seventh stanza he shows that man has got a great gift from God, which is the power to think. He says that men are blind of the reality that exists in them by using their minds. When his thoughts turn to a dream it is like the escape of mind. This reality in himself is the only means to lead a happy life.
         The last stanza sums up the poem and says that things are not what they are, but how we think of them. The brain is the only way to determine whether to live in paradise or in hell. The philosophical style and the poet, by many faces, succeeded in conveying his own purpose to his reader.
 
THE BELLS
BY
THOMAS TRAHERNE
                  The poem is considered metaphysical because it is mainly concerned with the saving of the soul. He starts the poem saying “my soul” but his interest is in humanity at large. He is speaking to souls and at the beginning of the poem, he personifies the bells saying that they call with loud voices for all the people, different families, every where and anywhere. The tone of the poem is a happy one. He admits a sin that all people go through different stages that could distract them and cause them to suffer from an inner conflict. But, still, the domineering tone of the poem is the happy one.
         He speaks about the bells as creatures of religion that are asking people to listen to the words of God. His opinion is that every thing in the world is affected and changed by the words of God and that signifies the strength of the Creator. His message is that if the materialistic world is affected then the soul must be affected as well. He continuos saying that bells are made by man and now they are divine.
         In the second stanza, Traherne brings a contrast between the bells and Adam. Bells are made of clay and so is man. But, man refines bells and man must be able to refine himself. He wants to send a message to humans. He says that man is the creation of God  and that he is refined, elevated and not as low as any object. As a result, man’s heart must be strong and human. He encourages the elevation of the soul to reach God. If the soul is separated from God it is like being buried in a dark cave or a very deep mine.
         Thomas Traherne tells people that they have to care and think of each other. This gives a lot of satisfaction and help to raise people above the materialistic way. He asks his soul to help him in delivering a message to all mankind. In a very simple language, he says that bells do not only rise our souls but also calls on our duties to be carried on. The poet describes them as sounds that have no flow nor weakness. They are the sounds whose wider mouth calls us for our duties. Through the poem, Traherne stresses on the idea that the only way to achieve happiness is to respond to the bells and to carry on our duties.
THE RETURN
BY
THOMAS TRAHERNE
         Traherne starts the poem with a satisfied attitude. He knows that he is capable of joining the Creator. He chooses to start the poem by the word “infancy” because he believes that infancy is the earliest stage of purity and innocence. He considers it the closest stage to God and is capable of reaching it once more. His idea is that life is circular; it starts with infancy, goes through maturity and manhood, then returns back to the very early stage. Returning back after passing through the different stages of life, is the main theme of the poem.
         An element of romanticism could be traced in the poem. The poet is saying that he has learned from his infancy and he uses the current image of a child who speaks before his birth. Using the word “I still”, gives us the senses that he  has been going on since he was born till the present moment when he is writing this poem. Being close to God and his sense of self assurance did not depart from him. He speaks about the early stage of his life as the wisest stage. Furthermore, he is choosing to stay away from any temptation. He wishes to stay away and remain as pure and innocent until he can resist all of the world’s temptation. But, we can notice a hidden confession of sin or evil by saying that he was wisest when he was an infant. By saying this he admits that there were certain periods in his life when he was not wise enough. Then he wishes to return to the earliest stage of purity. He flies back to be newly born and, therefore, washes away all the sins that he has committed during his life.
         Traherne is contrasting the two different stages of life, that of innocence and experience. He chooses to go back to his innocence. He is mature and in the stage of manhood he has passed through experience. He believes that this stage distracted him from God and directed his attention towards the materialistic objects. This could lead him far from the worship of God and that is why he wants to return to the stage where nothing prevented him from the worship of God. In that stage of the soul’s purity, he has nothing to do with the materialistic world. He has the feeling of a man who is capable of being once more strong and elevated, a person who does not care about materialistic objects. His only aim is to thank God for all the gifts He has given to him.
 
 
That Time of Year
by William Shakespeare
Beside being the greatest dramatist of all times, Shakespeare wrote sonnets and long narrative poems. His 154 sonnets are believed to be written from 1592 to 1603. The poem is about a period in the poets life. It is a Shakespearean sonnet comparing between autumn and the poets age. As spring is childhood, autumn is a symbol of the old age. From the beginning of the poem the poet compares himself to autumn. He uses nature to describe his age. The trees are no longer holding birds.
Through out the poem the poet is involved in each quatrain and his age and state are compared to nature. The movement of the sun corresponds to human age. The rising of the sun describes childhood, while sunset is darkness and death.
The third quatrain has a significant metaphor using fire as its core. Fire starts bright and flashy flames and ends with black ashes. It has the same circle of life and it ends in a bed of ashes. In the couplet the poet sums up his idea showing that he loves life very much. He feels he is near to death and that makes him loves life more than he used to do during his young age.
The poem has a timed sequence, where the first quatrain uses autumn which takes a long period of three months. The second quatrain uses the Sun which is a shorter period of only one day. While, the third quatrain uses fire which takes no more than moments. This time sequence indicates how time passes quickly and how the poet feels towards the passing of his age. Time is getting shorter and the poet’s love of life increases.
 
 
The Cavalier Poets
The idea of love and women is an important subject treated in different ways in different schools of poetry. For instance, the lyrical poets took care of making delightful patterns until the metaphysical poets revolted. They tended towards a more direct impact through lyrical poetry. When the Cavalier poets appeared they learned from both the lyrical and the metaphysical poets. They owe something to both parties.
Elizabethan poetry portrayed women as a symbol of purity, honor, modesty and beauty. Women were deeply respected. Spenser's poem Epithalamion serves as an example. In it, Spenser celebrates his marriage and compares the beauty of the bride to the sun shining from the east. She is so perfect and he cannot wait till the day of their union. On the other hand, the Cavalier poets did not respect women at all. Sometimes a woman is mocked for her thin body as in one of Suckling's poems. But, in Spenser's poem, he shows the inward beauty. The beauty of the soul is the most important and the eye cannot recognize this kind of beauty.
On the contrary, the Cavalier poets always suspect passion. In Carew's poems, he describes sexual 'napture' in active and impulsive terms. Yet, a Cavalier poet never looses his emotional balance. He may pretend passion to tease or to amuse or gain his masculine ends but he is perfectly prepared to admit and redicule his own duplicity.
While the Elizabethan poets considered time as an enemy, the Cavalier poets adopted the philosophy of 'Carpediem' to challenge time. This is clear in many of Carew's poems where he tells his beloved that her beauty will not last forever and so it is better to make use of it before it fades away. The Cavaliers suspect the over expression of emotion as being no more than a game on the part of the speaker. They can play the game well but hardly ever without an ironic half-smile. At the same time they wanted to make a balance between the spiritual and the physical love and this attitude was taken from the Metaphysical poetry.
Furthermore, the Elizabethan lyrical poets, as Spenser, were fond of the archaism. The word 'Epithalamion' is a Greek word meaning 'a song sung near the bridal chamber.' Spenser's language is characterized by the use of more words than necessary and a highly decorative poetic language. In contradiction to the language of the Elizabethan poets, the Cavalier poets used direct and colloquial language expressive of highly individual personality. This is very obvious in Suckling's 'A Ballad Upon a Wedding' where he not only uses a commonplace vocabulary and a naïve style but also places the poem in the mouth of a fictional character who speaks in near-dialect and in a conversational tone.
To sum up, Cavalier poets realized poetry from the various bondages of previous fashions. The value of the Cavaliers is not only historical, however. They gave us something that no one else has given us since. They gave a strong masculine poetry that is continually life-enhancing, always courageous, vigorous and charming.
 
 
The Clod and The Pebble
This poem could be considered a conversational poem; since it includes a conversation between the Clod and the Pebble. It is a song in the form of a poem. In the poem, the Clod expresses the idea of love and self sacrifice, while the Pebble is a symbol of selfishness and egotism. The poem is divided into three quatrains written in iambic tetrameters and the line’s rhyme is (abab).
The poet combines between symbolism and the use of antithesis. The Clod is a symbol of love. It suggests giving everything that could please your lover even if you had to sacrifice yourself. On the other hand, the Pebble is the symbol of egotism. It represents the self admiration and the desire to please yourself without thinking of anyone else. The use of antithesis is noticed through the comparison between two points of view about love. The first is about giving yourself totally to your lover and living as a candle in the wind. While, the second is caring for yourself so that no one could approach or hurt you.
 
 
 
The Degeneration Days
By Samuel Johnson
Johnson's poem is based on a personal experience. Through it he aims to delight and teach. The poem is framed by an argument. This argument is held by the presence of a person who comments and criticizes. This person is a friend who is able to give his point view. Being a friend makes him familiar with everything about the poet.
The person in the poem is introduced as a person who travels from one place to another. This introduction prepares us to the idea of a comparison between places. He came from a happy calm place and he feels pain as the scene is approaching a town. The main idea of the poem is 'worth.' Many sides of life are discussed as the worth of poetry, politics, social and the real worth of things.
The first worth discussed in the poem is the materialistic worth. People are shown as eager for their own benefits and not caring for the welfare of humanity. The outcome of this attitude is more poverty and pain. The poem expresses that nothing is left but hopes. Yet, hope could not grow in the hearts of those people. The poet asks God to find another place than this place where hope has no place. He asks God to give him a place in the countryside where he can feel hope.
The poet moves to the military sins; where the British soldiers were poor. He wants the time when the soldiers defended their country for its own welfare and not for money. These soldiers were poor but they were ready top defend their country. The criticism moves from the soldiers to the people of the government. The poet wants the people to vote on a just basis. People vote for their pension and so they do not choose the right person to represent them. He criticizes different sectors in society. People are looking for fame, money and power and not for the benefit of the country or the welfare of humanity. He wonders about himself and others who are like him; everything is twisted and what is good is considered bad.
The poem moves on to the description of poverty in London. He says that heaven is reserved to the poor people who are suffering from different degrading conditions. Worth and improvement is rising very slowly and smiles are sold for money. A servant could gain the love and money from flattering his master and not from serving him.
Johnson's style is complicated due to his use of sophisticated words and poetic diction.  He is very careful in his choice of words and he provides technical parallelism through the argumentative use of his friend. Moreover he borrows French and Latin words and a lot of polysyllabic words that shows his interest in languages. He also uses capital letters to gain the interest of the reader in certain points in the poem. Samuel Johnson is a poet who combines between the romantic features and the neoclassical methods and thus he could be considered a transitional poet.
 
 
THE DEMON LOVER
    The Demon Lover is a folk ballad that is inherited from one generation to another by word of mouth. It tells the story of a person who has come back to his beloved after seven years; but has found her married to another person. Thus he tries to tempt her to abandon her family and escape with him and he succeeds in doing so. At the end she discovers that he is a devil and he sinks her in the sea.
        A folk ballad is an anonymous song that has dramatic elements, a kind of music represented in repetition of words, phrases or lines, strong passion and super natural elements. In most cases, the folk ballad has a tragic painful end.
        All the characteristics of the folk ballad are successfully applied to this poem. The music is clear by the use of repetition, alliteration, assonance and rhyme. There is a repetition of some lines as “O hold your tongue of your former vows”, in the second stanza; where she is trying to prevent him from speaking about his former promises and their previous relation. In the fourth stanza we have another repeated line “I might have had a King’s daughter ”. This line is said to make the woman feels jealous but she repeats it in the fifth stanza and tells him that he is the one to be blamed for not marrying a King’s daughter. There is, also, repetition of some words as  “Far” which was used to convince the woman that he came especially for her. The repeated word “weeping” shows the woman’s regret but when it is too late. More over, alliteration is used in the words “cheek, chin” to emphasize the woman is not a monster; she loves her children but she has conflict which resulted in a step towards the wrong way. As a result the reader may sympathize with her. We also find alliteration at the end of the poem in “Sank, Sea” to stress the meaning. Assonance is used in “Ye, me” to show their relation and exchanged promises.
        As for the rhyme, The Demon Lover is divided into quatrains and quatrains help in developing the ideas and make the poem suitable for singing. These quatrains consist of alternative iambic tetrameters and triameters rhyming [abcb]. We find a rhyme in the second and fourth lines of each stanza as “Strife, wife” and “see, thee” that makes a lovely tune. These kinds of music stress certain feelings, reflect certain ideas and reveal what is important to the poet.
        The poet uses the dramatic element that plays an efficient role in this ballad. He starts with a dialogue to attract our attention and to involve us in the situation. The first pronouns he uses are“I”and“you”. This way is more impressive than narrating as it introduces the lover as a human being and gradually pushes us to guess the conclusion that he is a devil. The poet also uses the narrative element by using the pronouns “She, He, They”. The voice of the narrator appears in ““O Yon is the mountain of hell”, he cried”.
         The focus of the poem is a male and a female. The female’s lover tries to tempt her by using various ways. First, he starts to cry to arouse her sympathy, and then he tries to arouse her jealousy by telling her that he can marry a King’s daughter. He, also, uses materialistic tricks like his ships, his sailors and the music. He does this in full description to show her that every thing is glittering.
        The conflict in the poem is between passion and duty. The woman is torn from the inside between staying with her family and eloping with her lover. At first, she refuses but then she is attracted and abandons every thing to elope with him. At this part there is an impressive image which is the contrast between “Heaven” and “Hell”. This leads us to begin to identify ourselves with this woman and think of her problem as ours.
        The poet introduces a super natural element; that is the devil. The climax comes when the woman discovers that he is a devil “until she espied his cloven foot/ And she wept right bitterly”. We are shocked to see how gigantic and huge he has become. He strikes the topmast by his hand, the foremast with his knee and both actions need a strong giant. The woman was deceived by outer appearance and did not understand that not all that glitters is gold. She feels that she has lost every thing and weeps when it is too late.
        The character of the devil is very significant because if he remained as a male we would not sympathize with the woman. The poet wants to say, also, that any person who persuades a lady to elope with him, abandoning her family, is a devil. The hidden moral lesson in the poem is to protect society and to warn women to be aware of such situations as this will be their end. In spite of that, he gives us an emotional side by speaking well about her from time to time.
        Finally, we find a catastrophe when we know the end of this woman. We are supposed to feel pity for her and fear from acting in the same manner and being in her situation. The poem could be a general story of a struggle between a human being and a devil, not specifically between a male and a female. The poet has succeeded in keeping us in suspense till the end of the poem.
 
The Garden
By Andrew Marvell
Marvell experienced the conflict between the public faith and the private taste. The Garden attempts to manipulate this problem. Unlike pastoral poetry, the speaker in The Garden is not a simple shepherd; on the contrary, he is a man of taste. The garden is opposed to the gloomy life of the city. It is a proper place for the thoughtful solitary man.
In the first stanza is against noise, deception and the uselessness of men's efforts. In stanza two, the poet addresses innocence and regrets his waste of time in company of men. He says that society lacks the beauty found in "delicious solitude." In the following stanza, the poet depicts the beauties of the garden. He stresses the idea that those beauties are incomparable and immortal. The fourth stanza elaborates this idea through the significant use of mythological references as Apollo and Par. The beauty of the garden is compared to the beauty of the gods. The fifth stanza appeals to the senses. The lines are carried by the powerful image of the "luscious clusters of the vine" crushing their wine "upon my mouth." There is a kind of simplicity due to the skilful use of language, alliteration and the frequent use of the "k" sound.
Stanza six is a point of transformation. Marvell shifts from the description of sensuous beauty into intellectual profundity. The emphasis falls on the action of thought, on the creative power of reason. The mind responds to the surroundings that are perceived by the senses.
Through out the poem, Marvell guides the lines into the Christian Platonic stream of poetry. The Platonists believed in the existence of two worlds, the world of Being and the world of Becoming. Before man was dismissed from Eden, he was living in the world of Being and since his dismissal he has been living in the world of Becoming. The first is the true reality while the second is the material world. The goal is to overcome this material world and reach the eternal reality. Marvell starts with the material world and moves on from the senses to the active mind. Intellect works on the information gained from the senses and tries to reach reality. The sights are changed through intellectual argument into conceits.
 
The Main-deep By James Stephens
In this poem the poet is not present. He is dealing with a particular metaphor about the waves. He is not talking about the sea, instead he deals with the waves and implies different ideas in it. The poet concentrates on an image and he loads it with his ideas and feelings. He starts by describing the movement of a single wave. The movement is heavy and the wave is long and rolling. As it rolls, it keeps digging at the sea’s depth.
In the second stanza, the wave’s movement has changed. Now it is wide and unbroken. It seems that the poet is standing on the shore while describing that the wave is moving on one line. In the third stanza, the poet uses the word ‘flush’ showing that the wave has started to speed-up. The wave ends when it reaches the shore and returns back to the main deep as if it never existed.
The poem may be referring to one’s life; where it starts strongly and man gathers his powers and gets ready for a rush, then he fades away. Another reference may be drawn towards the idea of fame. Fame starts slowly and reaches its peak, then it withdraws back as if it was never there. The poem itself starts smoothly then speeds up and finally fades away. It follows the spring rhythm with two stresses in each line except for the third stanza where there are three stresses to emphasize on the quick movement.
 
 
 
The passionate shepherd to his love by Christopher Marlowe
 
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a highly conventional poem. It celebrates the innocent life of shepherds and shepherdesses. The poem is written by Christopher Marlowe who is a famous Elizabethan dramatist and poet. In this poem Marlowe imagines himself as a shepherd. He idealizes this kind of life by picturing all the good aspects that we can enjoy in nature.
The poem starts with an invitation “come live with me and be my love/ and we will all the pleasures prove”. He goes on numbering the pleasures that she can enjoy if she comes and live with him. For example, he mentions “A bed of roses, a cap of flower”, “A gown made of the finest wool” and “A belt of straw and ivy-buds/with coral clasps and amber studs”. Marlowe ends the poem with an invitation “If these delight thy mind may move/Then live with me and be my love”
In order to convey his message, Marlowe uses different kinds of images. In the first stanza there is a visual image when he says “That hills and valleys, dales and fields/or woods or steepy mountain yields”. Then another kind of image is presented. This time it is an auditory image in “By shallow rivers, to whose falls,/Melodious birds sing madrigals”. In the third stanza there is an olfactory image when he says “And I will make thee beds of roses,/And a thousand fragrant posies”. While, in the fourth stanza, there is a tactile image when the poet talks about the wool taken from lambs “A gown made of the finest wool/which from our lambs we pull”. However, we find that the poet’s choice of the word “pull” is not very successful since it destroys the image. We also can notice that the poet is forced to use it for the sake of the rhyme.
The lyrical element in the poem is very impressive. Marlowe uses alliteration in “pleasure, proof” to show that she will enjoy all these pleasures if she lives with him. Alliteration is also used in “Melodious, madrigals” to show how sweet the songs of the birds are, and in “coral, clasps” to indicate the preciousness of his gifts. We can see that the poet repeats some of his phrases. He repeats “Come live with me and be my love” which is a clear refrain. It is repeated several times to show that the poet insists on his beloved to live with him.
Marlowe imagines himself as a shepherd and is successful in depicting the life of shepherds. He succeeds in conveying its beauty using all suitable images to convince his beloved so that she may agree on living with him.
 
 
The Rape of The  Lock
by Alexander Pope
The restoration age was the time when Charles II came from exile in France in 1660. He was restored to the throne. Just before the age of Pope, there were some poets in that time who had some poetic characteristics of those of the 18th century. They tended towards the classics, logic, and an interest in the form. Their work ,mainly, depended on thinking not feeling. Pope continued the same type of tradition. He was excellent in his usage of heroic couplet and the imitation of the tradition, but he did not write in a spontaneous way so his work seemed artificial. Many of his poems expressed that he wants to teach a lesson. He was from a Roman Catholic family, educated by a priest and then educated himself by reading.
The Rape of The Lock was written for a particular reason. There is a quarrel between two aristocratic families, a gentleman simply cut a lock of the hair of a fine lady of the other family. It is a trivial reason to start a serious quarrel. Out of admiration, the Lord cut a sample of her hair, but instead of being happy as he admired her beauty, she was mad at him and her whole family got mad too. After that a friend of both families asked his friend, Alexander Pope, to patch the quarrel by writing a poem.
In the poem, Pope started to preach certain values and uses some points of satire to criticize the triviality of the aristocracy. He does not simply ask the two families to stop quarrelling, but he finds that it is an opportunity to write a poem that has more values and various ideas. He introduced a new kind of poetry which is the mock heroic epic. He used the satire in a new way. The epic hero is Blinda who stands with the lock of hair taken from. There are many examples of the epic machinery, all of them are given in a comic way. Instead of the battlefields, we have tables on which games are played. Instead of the gods, we have the sylphs who are supernatural creatures helping Blinda to add more beauty by putting make-up. The poem goes beyond the occasion of cutting a lock of hair. Pope shows the shallowness of the upper class.
Pope’s aim was not to make fun of the aristocratic class, but to teach people something. He is trying to show the follies that could be corrected and improved. Blinda is not attacked by Pope because of being a sinner who deserves severe punishment; instead he shows her as a human being who has mistakes that could be corrected. At the beginning of the poem, the veil is removed and Blinda is represented sitting in front of her toilet performing her activity. She is compared to a goddess who is performing certain religious rituals and her toilet is compared to an alter. The sylphs help her to beautify herself so that she can cause all the young men to loose their minds over her beauty.
Alexander Pope is describing the dressing table of a fashionable lady who possessed many things like powders, lips-sticks ....etc. Although he is describing a trivial subject, he used typically the form of an epic. Pope took this chance to criticize the fashionable ladies. Being an imitator of the classic epic, he used the supernatural. Pope describes the heroine of the epic as the hero of the epic was described while he is getting ready to go to the war. Here the heroine is getting ready for going to a party where a quarrel was to take place. He says, the toilet, powder and puffs, are hidden on the table, the vases are arranged in secret order. The heroine is dressed in white, she was not an ordinary woman but a fairy. He emphasizes on the fact that she is spending a lot of time to prepare herself and that she neglects her mind. Moreover, she is shown as a priestess, she is like a holly person on earth and she is facing the holy offering of the alter.
The poem is written in closed heroic couplet and iambic pentameter. We stop at the second line of the couplet and also the sense is completed in the second line; this creates a sort of monotony. In his description, Pope used different kinds of metaphors. He used personification in the words ‘unveiled’ and ‘laid’. He, then, compared Blinda to a fairy. He used only godly qualities as a sense of supernatural. The use of the word ‘inferior’ denotes that she is a goddess, but on earth. Further, Blinda is afraid because she is going to a party; as if she is going to an adventure. Pope uses a sustained metaphor through the use of the word ‘trembling’. To emphasize that this lady is very rich, Pope uses hyperbole in ‘unnumbered treasures’. The words ‘Arabia’ and ‘Breathes’ refers to the famous Arabian perfumes and personifies them. Pope means to satirize the fashionable society who uses the Bible only to decorate the table. Blinda does not respect the Bible, but it is set next to her love-letters. The expression ‘puts on all its arms’ is used because the hero of the epic is usually described to show how courageous this person is. This is a reference to an epic. The word ‘fair’ functions as a pun, it refers to Blinda as a fairy and it also means beautiful.
The poem is typically Neo-classical. It is written in the form of an epic. It deals with a trivial thing and it teaches a lesson to human beings and not only to the aristocratic class.
 
 
THE RETREAT
BY
HENRY VAUGHAN
         Henry Vaughan is one of the significant Metaphysical poets. He wrote religious poetry and a very few secular poetry. The works of George Herbert influenced him.
         The poem speaks of similar themes as those found in Traherne’s poems. He is interested in the innocence of the early stages of life, childhood and purity. Vaughan is describing the early stages that have innocence and the light of being close to God. He feels that he does not know this world; he is leading a double life. One of these lives is that of the purity of the soul and the other is that of flesh and blood. Further, he is speaking about his relation to God and he wants to gain his love, forgiveness and protection. At the stage of manhood he is miles away from his early stage.
         Vaughan speaks in a personal tone that was common at his time. He, also, emphasizes that this must be the feeling of the rest of the people. His use of the first person ( I ) emphasizes his personal tone. He admires God’s gifts that are symbolized in nature and all what is in it. But, he describes them as weak because they belong to the world. Through these weak glories and gifts, he still feels a shadow of eternity. There is an everlasting Creator who has created all these objects for man.
         Henry Vaughan emphasizes the contrast between the two stages of his life. When he grew to manhood he was separated from God. He committed sin and is no longer able to see the face of God in his creations. His expressions are very clear and he cannot find the strength, power or courage to go back. Speaking in a general way, he says that some people would choose to go on their lives. But, he will go back. He ends with the title of the poem by referring to the very early stage before he was born. He adds that one can be united with the creator only after death.
 
 
 
The Return of Chaos
by Alexander Pope
         Pope was mostly satirical in his works, attacking the dullness of society. In this poem, the poet is describing the state of a world which is ruled by disorder and chaos. He addresses chaos as a queen with a dark throne similar to a primitive night of past ages. With the coming of darkness, the imagination fails to work and the golden clouds disappear, while the beautiful rainbow can no longer be seen. The bright star is immediately put out and all the light fades on the heavenly path as if the Greek gods’ eyes were closed one by one, never to see anything again. As chaos approaches, every truth and every beautiful art vanishes and even reason or wisdom are helpless. Philosophy, also has no way as there is no hope beyond the disorder. There are attempts to resort to science and mathematics but, even these things are in vain and worthless, as all logic and order are upset. There is nothing to depend on, therefore, both art and science are completely useless.
         Religion, which should be accepted and followed, is ashamed of all this disorder and hides her divine light. As a result, morality is no longer important and there are no values of right and wrong. Public as well as private fame and success die away and have no courage to appear.
         In this poem, the world does not posses any bright side to hold on to, not even a religion or a divine power. Chaos rules everything and there is no sense of creation or success, it seems like a huge black curtain has covered the whole universe.
         Pope, in this work, reflects the complete idea of the title The Return of Chaos. He wishes to describe the state of society if it lacks order. He uses contrasting ideas like ‘flash, decay’, ‘night, light’ and ‘sense, rave’. He also explains that even the different branches of art and science cannot work or produce anything valuable in an atmosphere of disorder and chaos. The ideas of the poem are dark and fearful, especially since he shows that even religion and morality cannot change the darkness which returns with chaos.
         The poem is written in heroic couplets to express the importance of the idea he is presenting. Each couplet serves in the progress of the poem and in clarifying the idea of chaos with all the dangers it brings to society.
 
 
The Reverie of poor Susan by William Wordsworth
When we read about Romantic poetry we think of Wordsworth, he was more recognized than Blake. Wordsworth’s attitude was very different; he mainly wrote symbolic poems about nature and countryside people, and in this sense he takes poetry from the upper class to the ordinary people.
Susan is an estranged countryside girl who is away from her town, and she longs to turn home. She hears a bird every morning and once she hears the bird, she longs to return back home. The bird reminds her with her home. She is romantic, she escapes to nature by her imagination where the bird symbolizes freedom and echoes her yearning for her home.
The poem starts with an actual moment, Susan is far from her town, she goes out every morning, and she is cut off from her home. Susan suffers from estrangement and alienation. We see Susan alone and the only other character in the poem is the bird. That is the initial moment of loneliness; she is longing for something different, she goes back home at least by her imagination. From the here and the now she flies with her imagination and her note of enchantment is her vision. It does not only allow her from the here and the now but, it also externalizes her longing. Susan’s vision is going back to the moment of the past. One can reach a moment of the past but he cannot keep it forever because it is a moment of imagination. It is short so it will not last long.
She starts from alienation back to alienation, which is the present moment, or reality. We can notice that Wordsworth’s characters are ordinary not great ones but countryside people. The character of Susan will constitute the main character in Wordsworth’s poetry.
The role played by the bird in the poem is one of the common characteristics in Romantic poetry. We have many birds flying. The birds in Romantic poetry are very important because of their ability to fly, that is to say their ability to transcend the here and the now and also the ability to sing. In the birds ability to fly the Romantics found a suitable analogy or metaphor for the need to externalize or express their over flowing emotions.
 
 
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
In the poem we can notice that there is a story within the other. First, the mariner is talking to the wedding guests. Second, the narrator tells us the scene of the wedding. The mariner is one of the guests, he is a very old man who chose another guest to narrate his story. The guest was scared when the mariner held his hand, and he was wandering, why did the mariner choose him.
The second stanza represents the details of the wedding, but in the third stanza the man started to narrate his story. The mariner had the ability to hold the guests with his glittering eyes. He starts describing that the ship was going to the south and the weather was good. At this point the poet interrupts the narration giving us information of the wedding party; this will happen every now and then. The mariner completes his story, there is a storm, snow and mist, and he has to face a difficult situation. At the moment, Coleridge gave expressing words reflecting the sound of the snow. The ice was all around and suddenly a nice bird came out of the mist, this bird was considered a good omen. After giving the bird food and following it, the bird was killed. The mariner believed that killing the bird will cause a lot of trouble. It was considered a sin and his ship mates blamed him for killing the bird; he repeats “I have killed the bird”. His mates sometimes blamed him and sometimes they did not. For the first case the bird was considered a good omen because it could have led the ship to its way; while in the second case the bird is a bad omen because it came out of the mist.
In this poem Coleridge used all of his tools to give the time, musicality, and sound of every thing. In order to do so, he divides the line into two parts and sometimes three, he also uses the iambic metre, alliteration, and the natural presence as the sun and the moon. Moreover, water was usually a sign of life, but in the poem it is a punishment. It is every where and yet it does not provide the thirsty mariner, the whole scene seems to look weary. It is a sort of symbolism, because if we looked at the action of killing the Albatros, which seems normal, we could find out that it acts as a symbol. The mariner had a cross round his neck, but after the action of killing, a substitution took place, and the Albatros took its place  around the mariner’s neck instead of the cross. The cross usually meant salvation and sacrifice, while the Albatross is a curse and the mariner seems to be punished by having to live with it round his neck. He is also punished by being lonely because his two-hundred mates died on board of the ship. He is cursed because if he is dead that means the ship will be a phantom; but he has to live and to suffer throughout his life.
When every thing in the mariner’s story goes to the supernatural, the wedding guest interferes and we are back to the party. This mixes reality with the supernatural. It also pins down the mariner’s story to the real.
Coleridge imbodies one of the central themes of romantic poetry, the theme of solitude, it is a kind of torment to the mariner. The killing of the Albatross is a crime against nature. The punishment is to be banished from the grace of the human and the natural world. The poem is rooted in the romantic world picture.
The mariner’s story has not come to an end, he becomes a wanderer. The mariner tells the story at certain moments, he tells that he feels the agonies. The need to tell a story becomes a physical need, a need to communicate with others.
The mariner is an every man, he is a variation on the universal theme, from ignorance to knowledge. The trip shows that his ignorance leads him to the killing of the Albatross. The crime results in suffering and punishment. Atonement is achieved when the mariner, after his long isolation, feels at one with the universe in blessing the sea creatures, fish, he relates himself to nature. The knowledge acquired by the mariner is the realization of the unity of life in all its forms, animal, human, and natural forms.
The poem has a logic of its own. It may not be realistic but it has a constant logic of its own. The logic of the poem is based on the romantic conception of the unity of life, it is based on the belief that human and natural things constitute one whole. The killing of a bird is the rejection of the unity of the universe and the rejection of this oneness that binds man and the bird to the universe.
 
 
 
The Solitary Reaper
         This poem belongs to the romntic movement. Romantics generally believed in the individual expression and their work expresses the poet’s desires, wishes, way of thinking, and his relation to others. It is a protest against the social ugliness and poverty. The Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge are generally taken to mark the formal beginning of English romanticism. Romanticism is a term applied to literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and 19th cent. The romantics are associated with belief in a return to nature and in the inner goodness of humans.
         This poem is composed of four stanzas each one of them is of eight lines (octave). In its first stanza, the poet asks the reader to stop and look at ‘her’; she is a girl standing alone in the field and singing ‘by herself’. The girl is cutting the ‘grain’ and the whole valley is full with her voice.
         In the second stanza, the poet is comparing the girl’s voice and singing to a nightingale’s. He says that her voice is welcoming and warm and that no one has heard such a voice, even from a bird in spring. This voice was breaking the silence everywhere even in the far islands of Scotland.
         The third stanza is a question about what she sings. The poet is asking if anyone could say what is the song about, is it about history or about the happenings of the day. At the end of the stanza he wonders if it is an ordinary song.
         The last stanza sums up the poet’s feelings. He says that whatever the song is about he still enjoyed it. He listened for a while and stood in silence, and as he was moving and climbing the hill, he still felt the music in his heart. He felt the music for a long time even when he could not hear the girl.
         The poem shows the romantic attitude of the poet, as it describes a scene among the fields and greens. It is also full of comparisons and personifications that show the poet’s admiration to the girl’s voice and singing. Moreover the whole situation gives the poet a memory that will be kept in his heart even if he cannot actualy hear the girl.
 
 
The Three Ravens
Anonymous
         It is a story written in the Ballad form and following its trends. It says of a Knight who has been killed and his hound (a kind of dogs) is guarding his body. Moreover, his hawks are guarding him against crows that could come near him. The knight’s mistress comes and buries him with her own hands and then dies herself. The poem is portraying the scene beside the body without discussing what led to the knight’s death.
         The poem starts by mentioning the ravens. They  are described in detail standing on a tree and thinking of food and breakfast. Through their conversation, we are introduced to the presence of a dead body beneath their tree. The scene has other creatures that are also described. There is a hound guarding the body of the Knight and two hawks preventing any intruder, they are defending their master. Then a  young lady appears and she holds the knight’s head and kisses his red wounds. After that, she buries him and stay till she dies. The poem concludes by a couplet that hopes that God sends every gentleman a hound, hawks, and a lover like the young lady.
         The poem is set with contrast that appears between the ravens, who represent cruelty, and the hound, hawks and the lover, who represent loyalty. Moreover, the ravens themselves are describing the scenery and relating it to the reader. They give details and ideas without saying them directly. From their description we feel that the hound, hawks, and the girl are faithful and loving to their knight. At the same time, they are saying that the hawks are preventing intruders that might like to get food, that means they know the reality of themselves and expressing it in an indirect way.
         Without intending to give a moral lesson, the writer succeeded to portray two ways of looking at life. The ravens look at life in a selfish materialistic way, and they think of having the body for their breakfast. While, on the other hand, the hound, hawks, and the young lady, represent the spiritual look, that is concerned with faithfulness and love to the dead Knight.
 
 
The Tyger
This poem has two references, one is God’s creation and the other is man’s creation. Blake’s symbolic tyger is an image of man’s image to create. In particular, it refers to man’s ability to produce in factories. In the second stanza he refers to the tyger in relation to the seas, in the fourth we move to an image that draws an industrial process and factories. The reference to the danger in the stanza, is a reference to the tyger’s power. The poem is about the creative energy in which the tyger is the image of power.
God’s ability to create is reflected in man’s ability to create. Man’s imagination is that which makes him close to God. The tyger here is an image of three forms of creation; God’s creation, the artist’s creation, and the ordinary man’s creation. Man produces the beautiful and meaningful works of art and things in every day life. The poem is not about the creator or the creature, but it is about the process of creation itself.
         The image of the tyger is a symbol of the natural and divine violence and experience. Through this poem and that of the “Lamb”, Blake shows that innocence and experience are the nature of mankind.
 
 
 
THE Wife of Usher’s Well
The Wife of Usher’s Well is a folk ballad that is inherited from one generation to another by word of mouth. It tells the story of a woman who was told that she will not see her children again. Thus, she tries to see her sons just once and her wish was granted. At the end she discovers that they became ghosts and that she has to leave.
A folk ballad is an anonymous song that has dramatic elements, a kind of music represented in repetition of words, phrases or lines, strong passion and super natural elements. In most cases, the folk ballad has a tragic painful end.
All the characteristics of the folk ballad are successfully applied to this poem. The woman loves her children but she did not have the opportunity to see them. This results in a strong wish to see her children. As a result the reader may sympathize with her.
The Wife of Usher’s Well, is divided into quatrains and quatrains help in developing the ideas and make the poem suitable for singing. It starts with sadness and sorrow for the loss of her children. Then there is excitement and hope. The poem moves to happiness and joy when the woman is prepared to see her children. A full circle is completed when the woman returns back to her sadness after loosing her children once more and forever. These kinds of music stress certain feelings , reflect certain ideas and reveal what is important to the poet .
The poet uses the dramatic element that plays an efficient role in this ballad. He starts with a dialogue to attract our attention and to involve us in the situation. This way is more impressive than narrating as it introduces the woman as a human being and gradually pushes us to guess the conclusion that her children died. The poet also uses the narrative element . The voice of the narrator is the voice of the woman and that makes us more involved in her feelings. We come to know that there are other characters with her, especially when she was preparing to see her children.
The poet introduces a super natural element; that is the ghosts. The climax comes when the woman discovers that her children have become ghosts and that they belonged to another world. She feels that she has lost every thing and weeps when it is too late. The ghosts are very significant because if her children were alive we would not sympathize with the woman as much as our sympathy for their death.
 
 
The World
H. Vaughan
The title of this poem is carefully chosen to be of great significance. The image of the World was used in a comparative way. It is this round and spherical shape that holds the mortal existence. The world is the place where humans live and die and the place where vegetation and animals, also, live and die. The poet begins by representing us with a universal picture of the world; where the planets revolve around each other. Then he links this world with the idea of the world that holds mortal creatures. He gives us examples of human nature. A pun is used in the word ‘mole’ to denote the similarity between the animal that lives under the ground, and the banker who spends his life in collecting money and wealth. The poet gives another ambiguous example of the politician. The politician is described in comparison to the black fog over the city of London. The politician is a person who would use any means to reach his desired end.
Vaughan stresses the triviality of everything in comparison to God’s powers. He shows the insignificance of man in comparison to our world. Then he moves on to show the insignificance of the world in comparison to the cosmos and the universe. Finally he compares the universe to God’s eternity Who created all. This panoramic view helps us to imagine the whole scenery and reach the conclusion that our world is just a tiny spot of no significance at all.
This image of the world is moved step by step till we reach the image of the wedding at the end of the poem. In this image the bridegroom presents a golden ring to his bride. This image serves as a good comparison between the trivial happenings on earth and the ring of eternity and the light of heaven. This is the aim of all human beings. The golden ring of the bride represents the microcosm while the ring of heaven is the macrocosm. This image ends the poem in the same panoramic view represented through a more complicated, but rather significant, image.
 
 
 
 
Thomas Nashe’s Poem about Life & Death
 
Thomas Nashe is one of the 17th century poets. During this age there was a pre-occupation with two main ideas; love and death. This was due to different factors, or precisely, two main factors. First, was Britain’s great power that enabled it to discover new lands and gain more power. Second, was a religious tendency that accompanied the rapid developing life.
During that age Nashe wrote his poem. It is of a melancholic nature and deals with the theme of life and death. Nashe expresses, in a pessimistic way, his own ideas about the power of death and the shortness of life. He personifies death throughout the whole poem. Death is like the plague or the plague it self, it takes people’s lives and cripples human beings. It affects everything, even a man’s limp. Images in the poem reflect the passing of time and the power of death as the image of the flower and the image of the dead Queen. Nashe makes use of pun as in ‘All things to end are made’. He also makes a metaphor in ‘Beauty is but a flower’. Repetition is also noticed in the fourth stanza in ‘come! come!’. he ends the poem with a refrain that reminds us with the main theme of the poem.
Nashe’s aim seems to teach us that life is short and that we have to enjoy ourselves before it is time to visit the grave. At the same time, the poet’s pessimism is relieved through one short suggestion that one should not trust his wealth. This suggestion shows a rich man’s wise piece of advice that has an optimistic under-tone.
 
 
 
 
Tintern Abbey
This poem belongs to the Romantic Movement. Through description, we find that the poem is lyrical. That is to say the description of nature is a tool to express the poet’s attachment to nature and his love to it. To the poet, nature is dear for its own sake and for the many things it gives, for the moment of joy, for the moral support, and for the rare moment of vision.
In the poem, the moment is not precious for its sake but because it will be a source of memory in the future; that is why it is a precious moment. The poet is near the beauteous forms, so he is happy not because he is near the place but because the support and happiness that he will gain from returning back.
The poet says that he has no need to find meaning in nature as nature was all in all in his childhood, so his relationship to nature is spontaneous. He says that his interest in nature is borrowed from the eye. He loves nature because he saw it and felt it; he has no need to look for another charm. His relation to nature is a purely physical relation as that of a wild animal. This kind of relation with nature has passed “that time is past”. It is a recurrent statement of Romanticism. Something is lost and something is found. The lost and the found are a recurrent Romantic theme. There is a need or attempt to recompensation in Romanticism. There is something lost, it is the golden past. Now, there is a recompensation. The protagonist has the ability “to hear the still sad music of humanity”. That is to say, to identify with humanity at large, to feel at one with it and to be sensitive to its suffering, as if humanity produces music which can only be heard by the sensitive.
Such awareness of the suffering of others is not the only recompensation, the protagonist can also feel at one with the things of nature. He becomes part of a larger whole that manifests itself in the human and the natural. The presence in nature is what gives the poet an elevated thought. The Romantics feel that man’s mind is fitted to nature and nature seems to be fitted to man’s mind. The presence of the sublime is to be felt in the beauteous form of nature. Man’s mind is not only a mirror where the beauteous forms are reflected, it is a lamp which reflects the outside reality of man as well it receives. Man’s mind is not simply fitted to the world, but it also enjoys a relation with the world according to the Romantic view.
For the Romantics, nature is also a source of power. The Romantics concept includes the existence of spiritual essence behind nature. In this material world man can find this spiritual force.
At the end of the poem and for the first time, we realize that there is another character to whom the protagonist addressed himself at the end of the poem. This person is his sister Dorthy Wordsworth. She is his sister and his close friend, they are communicating with each other as they have a very rare kind of relationship. She is young and in her language he sees his formal state and sees himself. For him, he feels that nature fortifies the heart and makes it able to face the ugliness and selfishness of daily life.
 
 
 
TO HIS COY MISTRESS  BY
ANDREW MARVELL
         Wit and passion are combined in this poem. It expresses the smoothness of feelings and emotions that are extra-ordinarily beautiful. The poem is a lyrical achievement that uses different images, written in couplets and delivers a message that time is short and it quickly passes.
         Marvell starts his poem trying to encourage his beloved not to be shy because there is no enough time. He develops his idea saying that if she did not start to enjoy herself and to stop being coy, she will be committing a crime against nature. He divided his poem into three stages. First, he tells his beloved that if he had enough time he would spend ages in describing her beauty.  The second stage informs her that time is running out and finally, the third stage is the rejection of the idea of giving in to time and remaining shy.
         The poem is dramatic in the sense that the poet makes us imagine that the woman is present. Also, because the mounting of the tension which makes the situation appear as real. The poem starts with a slow movement, a series of hyperbole in praise of the lady, describing what he would do if human life were not bounded by space and time. He says “ My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than Empires and more slow. An hundred years should go to praise”. Then he continues in his hyperbole and finally says “For lady you deserve this state; / Nor would I love at lower rate.
         The next part of the poem reminds her of the passage of time, “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near...”. This part ends with a frightening couplet, he says “The grave’s a fine and private place / But none I think do there embrace”. The final part of the poem expresses Marvell’s logical conclusion “Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.” The enemy, in the poem, is discovered, feared and conquered.
         The poem exhibits man’s race with time. It is a race that turns lady’s coyness to a crime. Marvell employed a macrocosmic background to throw more light on human action. In other words, in the macrocosm, time and space become dimensions of fate for the individual, the microcosm.
 
 
 
To Jane
by Shelley
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822) was one of the great English lyric poets.  He experimented with many literary styles and had a lasting influence on many later writers. Shelley was born on Aug. 4, 1792, in Sussex into a wealthy and politically prominent family.  He had a stormy career at Eton College and Oxford University, from which he was expelled in 1811 for writing a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism. Shelley's spiritual attitudes were intensely personal and tended to oppose traditional Christian views.  Shelley felt that spiritual truth was not based on either supernatural revelation or natural experience.  Instead, he thought truth could be understood by the imagination alone. He believed in a perfect world that is not on earth. Earth itself is a shadow of a better world. This belief shows that he adopted Plato’s beliefs concerning the perfect world. He believes that the poet sees the shadow of the better world and that is a special gifted person who is like a prophet and can see things differently.
His poem To Fane is a love poem that shows how love can affect people and makes them see things differently. Fane’s songs are compared to moonlight and the poet seeks a different and better world in them. The songs take the poet to a far world that is better than ours. Moreover the poem shows us the power of poetry that could take us to better worlds.
In the first stanza their is a comparison between the far stars and their light and the moon that is closer and has a beautiful strong light. The rays of light that comes down from the stars are compared to the strings of a guitar that make noise with no melody. On the other hand, the songs of  Fane are compared to moon light. The second stanza describes the beauty of the songs that gives life to the guitar instead of being just an instrument. The strings of the guitar are giving light to the earth. This beauty is shown through the power of nature represented by the bright rays. In the third stanza their is a metaphor that compares Fane’s songs to the drops of dew that cover the trees. Dew is water and water is life and thus the songs are giving a new life to the trees. Combining the moon light, the dew and the trees portrays a beautiful natural scenery.
The fourth stanza brings to key words ‘overpower, revealing’. These words denote that there is a new thing that we saw. Poetry and songs enabled us to see something beautiful and new. Songs remove the veil from our eyes to see the beauty of the world.
 
 
To The Moon
By Sir Philip Sidney
         Sir Philip Sidney is an English poet, soldier, and politician. His most important works are the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella and the collection of pastoral idylls Arcadia, both published posthumously. In this sonnet he writes about the moon and how it is in the sky and how it feels. The poet asks the moon about its sad steps towards its place in the sky. Moreover, the poet wonders if the moon in the sky can feel love and can judge this feeling. His question is whether the moon can feel the lover’s case.
         In the first four lines the poet asks his questions, while in the next four he answered them by using the word ‘sure’. He knows that the eyes of the moon “personification” can feel and judge the lover’s state. The poet can read the moon’s eyes and can understand its feelings “personification”. Then, after being sure, he returns back to his questioning. He asks about love where the moon lives. Is there love, is there beauty and is the beauty found there is as proud as that on earth?
The poet is asking if the beauty in heaven ‘above’ loves to be loved.
         The poem ends with a couplet that carries a question about lovers. He wants to know if lovers are scorned for their feelings and if they are faced with ungratefulness. At this point we can feel that the poet is complaining. The poet himself seems to have been scorned for his love and was faced by ‘ungratefulness’. In his reference to the moon, he is referring to a sentimental figure in literature that can improve his image, love, and sense of loneliness.
 
 
 
Virtue
George Herbert is a highly religious poet. The poem describes the beauty and the sweetness of the virtuous soul in comparison to the sinful soul. In the poem, the natural world is combined with the supernatural elements. This was a famous trend among the metaphysical poets. The metaphysical part of the poem is the world of the spirit. Thus, Herbert represents the world that is seen and touched. This world is full of sweetness and beauty it is concrete and enjoyable; in contrast to the unseen, abstract world of the unknown.
The poet uses nature for two purposes. The first is to show the bravery of the human existence through the image of a sweet rose. While, the second is relating the abstract world to the visible one to show the immortality of the soul. He uses the image of  the ‘sea and timber’. Thus, the poet is able to combine the abstract with the concrete to show the highly complex relationship that exists between this life and the life after.
 
 
Whoso List To Hunt
It is a love sonnet written by Sir Thomas Wyatt. The poem has two ideas. The idea of hunting and the idea of either the hunter’s success or failure. The hunter here is a man who is running after a woman. The woman in the poem is a deer which is a very beautiful and fast animal. This signifies that the poet’s beloved is beautiful and hard to reach. The woman was from a high class society and no normal man was allowed to love her. When the man announced his love he was punished. The woman was described as wearing a necklace that had the note that she belongs to Caesar and no one is allowed to hunt her.
The sonnet is divided into an octave and a sestet. In the octave the first half of the idea is expressed. The poet says that he knows where to find this animal but he cannot hunt it. He tried a lot but he did not succeed and he got tired. He decided not to try hunting her again but he will stand and watch her. He says that it is impossible to catch the air in a net and that the hope he had has gone.
The sestet gives the second half of the poem’s idea. The poet says that this love is hopeless. He feels that no one will be able to hunt this deer (lady). At the end he mentions the note round the deer’s neck to make it clear that his love to his beloved is hopeless.
 
 
Windsor Forest
By
Alexander Pope
In this poem, Pope chose a forest as a part of nature that is created by God. It is created without any interference from man and it is a part of the chain of beings. It is the order that God created. Pope represents nature as ordered, not wild. The word ‘Forest’ denotes wildness, yet nature is methodized. Order, for Pope, could be found not only in society but also in a wild forest. We have the elements we can find in a forest, animals, trees, green and yellow colors. We have also the play on sunlight and how it penetrates trees, and the play on shadows. The description of the scenery is also ordered. The order is not only in nature but also in describing to us a place that is supposed to be wild. The description is ordered to convince us with his view.
Pope was simply standing in front of this forest and he was very impressed by its beauty. What appealed to him of its beauty is the kind of order he finds in this place, and, directly, he remembers what he read about the groves of Eden and because he likes Windsor Forest. He wants to immortalize it as poets have done with Eden groves. He declares that Windsor forest is beautiful in its order and with all its parts complementing each other having a certain harmony or agreement. He says that this nature is not part of another world, Windsor forest is where he lives, so he finds it an opportunity to mention order in society and man’s life. Like nature there is order in every thing.
Pope also believes in reason. After giving us an over-all idea and when he moves to picturing details from the scene; pope draws the image of the sun penetrating the leaves to form spots of light like what we see on a board of checker. He wants to show us that this part of nature is going in a very systematic way. It is the natural world as created by God. This image shows us clearly how he thinks.
Pope, then, mentions the nymphs. Pope’s nymphs are different; they are partly human, partly not. He uses them in a very satirical way. For example, he satirizes the kind of love that was found in his age by satirizing the nymph who shows part of her love and represses a part. He compares nymphs to people, Pope satirizes people who try to pretend something that is not there, like nymphs. He describes the nymph as being in love and is making fun of her lover. We do not find new concepts or ideas in this poem; the only new thing is the use of nature.
In this poem, Pope is not simply describing a beautiful scene, but he is describing what he sees beautiful in them, which is order that he sees in his own special way. For example the description of the beauty of trees; what we normally find beautiful is their green color, their shapes, and shades. What Pope sees is totally different; he says that its beauty is in its order, in their length. He sees order in them even if some are shorter than others, because they have a certain system. He warns people not to interfere, and if man wants to interfere or change, that must be towards order and not away from it.
Pope uses heroic couplets and in them we have the use of parallelism, opposites and monosyllabic words. He uses the metrical devices in order to stress on the expression of order. In his poem An Essay On Man, he teaches man by using the imperative form to ensure that he is directing his words to man. In this poem he is not doing so, he is simply standing in front of the forest impressed by its beauty. His use of the ‘caesura’ gives a symmetrical representation of the poem, which stresses on the idea of order. Also parallelism helps as a device needed to establish a similar order to what he sees; this parallelism is noticed clearly in the part talking about the nymphs. Moreover, Pope’s language is very clear, he borrowed French words like ‘verdant’ or ‘vert’ instead of green. Also, he referred to the Greek mythology by comparing Windsor forest to ‘Olympus’. He mentions a lot of Greek gods and goddesses as ‘Par’ the god of shepherds, ‘Pompano’ the god of fertility, and ‘Flora’ the goddess of flowers. They are represented in connection to what they represent in the forest. The poem is totally represented in an ordered way as the forest itself is ordered in the poet’s point of view.
 
 
When My Love Swears That She is Made of Truth
 
The poem deals with the idea of appearance and reality through the characters of two lovers. Both lovers show their affection to each other, but in fact they are both doing an act of lying. Each one of the lovers is lying about his own age. As a matter of fact, they appear to be in love, but their love is based on lies, which shows the untruthful relation they are having.
The lover has grew old and he enjoys this superficial kind of love. He enjoys his lover’s flattery. His lady is giving him compliments that he enjoys in his old age, and he is skilfully lying to her. The tone of the poem shows their trust in one another. This trust is one of the writer’s methods to satirise this kind of untruthful love. At the end of the poem, it is shown that both lovers are happy and are enjoying the false appearance of love between them.
The poem is a Shakesperian sonnet, written in iambic pentameter. It is written in a way that shows the ‘tongue’ speaking instead of the whole. The use of the word ‘tongue’ emphasizes on the idea of falsity, because it is only words and flattery that shows their love, and not the lovers’ hearts and emotions. Using words like ‘swear, truth, and believe’, shows the mutual acceptance of lovers to this kind of relation.
 
 Richard Cory
 
The poem is based on the character of Richard Cory. Richard is a gigantic and legendary character who is admired by all people. Richard’s aim was to teach people not to judge others by their appearance. The character of Richard is described as a famous and a beloved one. For instance, people in the streets looked at him with respect and admiration. He is human in his words and he is well educated. Moreover, he is described as richer than kings. He was good in everything. Finally, we find out that one day he has put a bullet in his head and committed suicide.
The poem encourages the reader to feel cheerful as he faces an ideal character who has the appearance of a king. Yet, at the end of the poem the reader is shocked by the act of suicide.
The poem is divided into four stanzas each stanza consists of a quatrain. The words in the poem have a quick tempo and rhyme to give the poem a cheerful tone. The use of cizura in the first line is to emphasise the action of the people towards Richard. Moreover, there are long pauses as in ‘rich - richer’, this pause is in order to encourage the reader to contrast the idea of physical and spiritual richness. Furthermore, there is a metaphor in comparing Richard to a star shinning where ever he passed.
Diction in the poem is divided between Richard and the people. Words as ‘king, and crown’ belong to the appearance of Richard. On the other hand, words like ‘pavement, worked, waiting, bread, and meat’ are words that talk about the people and the other class of society. Lastly, the poem ends with suicide giving us the last lesson from Richard, which is not to judge people by their appearance but with what they really are.
 
 
Liberation, Exception and Vision
by Mureed Barghouthy
Mureed Barghouthy is one of the contemporary Palestinian poets who suffered the consequences of both; the occupation of the Palestinian land and the unstable political situations in the Middle East. His poems deal with the theme of war and violence. The theme is derived from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land; that led to depriving the Palestinian life from all of its meanings, significance and value.
Liberation is a very short and direct poem. Yet, it has many significant meanings. In it, the poet brings two extremes into comparison. He states that without his freedom, both life and death are equal. There is no difference between life and death since he has been deprived of his freedom, land and history. Being a contemporary Palestinian poet affected the style of the poem. The poet uses the adverb of time ‘now’ that signifies the status-quo. He feels the current Palestinian dilemma. In addition to the significance of the previous word, the poet uses the word ‘all’ to give a sense of collectivity. ALL of his ‘guards’ have deserted him, in other words he reached the state of losing faith in God and in people, friends, family and relatives. In a sense the poem shows that desertion and death came at the same time.
The sense of isolation is expresses through the poet’s showing that he has no future, no past, no relatives and nothing to protect him. The poem has one isolated hero who uses the first person and the pronoun ‘my’ indicating subjectivity and personality. The poem is featured by a sad melancholic tone and expresses a pessimistic loss of hope and sense of isolation.
In Exception Mureed continues in expressing his awareness and his representation of the Palestinian dilemma. It is a short poem that makes use of the current progress in the means of communication and transportation. Through these means everything reaches its destination while the poet’s state is being unable to reach his occupied country. The poet lists all the different means of transportation or communication, to show both, grief and happiness. Happiness for the easy connections and relations between people and grief upon his state of being deprived from his country.
The poem has a lot of significant words such as the word ‘all’ that appears at the beginning and end of the poem. It signifies everybody but the poet. Moreover, the word ‘arrive’ suggests distance and location. It deals with the idea of separation between two entities. He, also, refers to mental activities using the word ‘step’ which denotes hope and ambition to return to his country. This could be a military, political or organisational step.
To intensify his dilemma, the poet repeats his first line at the end of the poem. This repetition enlarges the effect on the reader. Everything in the world has a place, and people could communicate with each other but he cannot. We feel the (same) sense of isolation applied to the hero who is the poet himself. The poem has a sad and hopeless tone. Yet, at the end of the poem, the poet left three dots. These dots are a symbol of optimism and of the poet’s desire to feel that there is still a glimpse of hope for a better state.
The first person narration adds to the subjectivity of the poem and gives it a frame of loneliness and isolation. It is a personal experience that is expressed with no imagery at all. The only figure that could be noted is the use of caesura in the last line and an example of alliteration in ‘light-letters’.
A Vision is a short poem that speaks about the dark future that awaits the Palestinian children. Palestinian children are growing in gloomy circumstances and are going to meet pain, despair and a dark future that would end in a lamented situation in the future battle. Mureed is asking all of the Palestinian parents to give their children all the elements that could support them. All the elements are needed to face the present struggle and to give the children hope, faith and freedom to go safe and secure.
The poet used many significant symbols. He says ‘give our children plenty of milk.’ He means giving children health, strength, proper nourishment and proper cultural reference and principles. The poem’s heroes are the poet, the Palestinian children, and the Palestinian parents. Throughout the poem, the poet uses the imperative form. He wants the Palestinian children prepared for the future struggle. To symbolise the current situation of pain and despair, he used the word ‘night’, while to point at a glimpse of hope in the future, he uses the word ‘light’. In addition, he uses a punctuation mark in the first line to express that he is talking about the current situation.
The poem has a commanding nature showing the necessity of being serious and that there is no time for jokes. The tone of the poem is serious and pessimistic. Seriousness is to urge the Palestinian parents to prepare their children for facing the future battle. Pessimism is shown in the last line, where the poet laments the fact that despair and suffering had become a long time feature of the Palestinian state. The poem is gloomy and desperate. Yet, has a glimpse of hope and a search for a strong state that could be able to fight back the future’s dark attack.
 
 Night Patrol
by Hanan Ashrawi
This poem deals with the thoughts of an Israeli soldier as seen from the point of view of a Palestinian poetess. The poem starts with a soldier who is having an interior monologue. Through his words, Ashrawi points out the idea that the Israelis suffer a sense of guilt. The poet’s opinion is that the Israelis are afraid from the Palestinians and that they feel that the seeming silence is stranger than all of the Israeli weapons.
The patrol guard feels that the silence of the Palestinians is a great threat. The poet compares between the powerful silence and a rope that is wrapping the Israeli soldier and strangling all the Israelis. This could serve as a reference to the sense of guilt that is prevailing among the Israelis. The soldier is torn between his commitment to serve his country and his sense of guilt towards the real owners of the land.
For the first time, the soldier realises that he is doing something against his own will. He is actually forced to do things that he does not want to do. He feels that he is one of a lot of non-professional warriors. The soldier cannot fight his imagination and shows his first sign of rebellion against his own country. He feels that he is just a creature and not a full human being because he accepted his place and duty regardless the guilty treatment towards the Palestinians. He feels that he lost the innocence of childhood and entered a painful world of adulthood.
He rises a question about the need to separate between Palestinians and Israelis. He feels that this is not necessary since they are all humans. The soldier seeks a better future and a different tomorrow. He wishes to change his post on the next day. Through the poem we can notice that the Israeli soldier, who is a representation of many others, suffers from a psychological imprisonment. On the other hand, the Palestinians suffers from a physical imprisonment. The poem is a struggle for freedom and liberation represented through the ideas of an Israeli soldier. Instead of being in the stronger position, he suffers as the Palestinians suffer. It is a point of view that shows the uselessness of war and the damaging results of imprisoned bodies and minds.
 
From the diary of an almost - Four-years-old
by Hanan Ashrawi
This poem reflects the Palistinian problem and the Israeli occupation. The poet gives a vivid image of the kind of torture the Palestinians are facing. She depicts actual incidents that happened during the war. A little four-years-old girl was shot by a rubber bullet and the same happened to an infant.
The poem is set in the Palestinian land where terror and fear prevails. The children’s eyes were blinded by rubber bullets from a criminal who lost control. The poet carefully selected the words that express her idea. The word ‘half’ signifies the loss of one eye. The word ‘eye’ is repeated all over the poem to emphasise on the disastrous loss of one eye. The poem, also, expresses that the eye could see what is underneath. We can lose eyes but we never lose the other senses that enables us to fell and touch pain.
The poem specifies a soldier because the poet could not accept the existence of a lot who have this kind of cruelty. The use of the word ‘enough’ stresses the need to stop this pain and bitterness. The four-years-old girl seems to be forty-years-old. She gained a painful experience that is enough to the whole world.
The poet used the first person narration to express her personal experience and her involvement. Moreover, she used powerful expressions as feeling the bullet and not seeing it. There is also a use of contrast between ‘sight’ and ‘insight.’ The poet was able to show a panoramic scene of torture and made us imagine the kind of humiliation in the treatment of the Palestinian people. Ashrawi, also, arouses our pity and disgust against this painful experience.
 
 
AFRO-AMERICAN LITERATURE (I think this part belongs mainly to poetry)
         Due to the Afro-American’s history of torture and humiliation, Richard Wright said that the black American writers would not take their eyes of the auction block. The black American writers could not ever forget two things; that they were slaves and that they were inhumanly treated.
         Slavery started in 1444, from this time till the 19th century millions of Africans were sold as slaves and sent to the New World. The estimated number that went to the New World was 20 millions. The story started by a number of 18 Africans who came on a Spanish cargo ship that landed in James Town in Virginia in 1670.
         A prison was built near the beach and all of the Africans were gathered to be medically checked. Who was above thirty five years of age, defeated in his limbs, eyes, teeth or infected by any kind of disease, was rejected. Others were marked with hot iron on their breast. This was a mark of the French, English or Dutch companies.
         The first black literature was born on a slave plantation, they were folk tales, songs and poems. The most noted form was the spirituals. They were folk songs and from them came ideas, images, idioms and vocabulary. Easily understood lines, new stanzas and up-to-date changes improved these folk songs. More over, they were orally transmitted from one generation to the other. The spirituals tell of hard trials, wandering in some lonesome valley or down some unknown road a long way from home with brother, sister, father and mother gone. These forms of literature were born out of suffering and singing them was a sort of release. Although the spirituals were religious in their idioms, images and expressions, they conveyed hopes of freedom and justice. Most of the spirituals have a double meaning, the slaves knew that they could not sing about freedom without causing their masters to punish them.
         The father of all the African leaders, Dubois, said that these songs were a message to the world. They expressed the agony of an unhappy people and longing towards a true world. He adds that through these songs there is a breath of hope, faith in life, faith in death and sometimes an assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond.
         One of the spirituals is “Motherless Child”. In it there is an experience of alienation. It is conveyed through the image of a motherless child. First they are away from home and second they are slaves and not free to be themselves. But, in the third stanza we face a popular idea in the spirituals which is the image of flight. It is a symbol of hope to overcome the current time and place through flying.
 
        “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep” is another spiritual. The writer makes use of symbols to convey his image about tyranny and victims. He represents a Pharaoh as an image from the Old Testament and Mary from the New Testament and both are molded into one image in the poem. The writer says “ Oh, Mary don’t weep since old pharaoh’s armies are drowned in old times then other pharaoh’s armies will be drowned again”.
         Another spiritual is “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. Most of the images, in this song, are drawn from the Old Testament of the Bible, because the slaves were allowed to read nothing but the Bible. They identified themselves with the Hebrews of Egypt.
         “Steal Away” is, also, an inherited spiritual where the lines seem to refer to death. It serves as a kind of hope in death, a life free from the misery of captivity that features this life. In the poem, Jesus symbolizes freedom, hope and salvation. Apparently the song is religious but the religious idiom is a means to convey their whole life experience. In addition, there is “Po’ sinner” which is an alternative image of reality and justice. The sinner in this case is the white master.
         One of the most notable spirituals is “Big Sixteen”. It is a very simple story, but it conveys a subtle idea. It produces the feeling of eternal loneliness. There is no possibility that you will ever belong to a certain place. This sense of alienation is one of the basic experiences of the African slaves. They feel alienated from their homes and from humanity at large.
         During the spirituals’ phase “All God’s Children Had Wings” is a very significant folk tale. Like all the folk tales, we have an element of imagination, an unrealistic thing that is used to convey a realistic thing. The people, who are not given their human rights, present themselves as becoming super-humanbeings; they can fly and they have wings. The idea of flight is represented in a significant way. It is not mere flying, but it is a dream to break the hellish circle of enslavement and torture. It is a dream of transcending the human limitations and the life of slavery through wings and the ability to fly.
 
AFRO-AMERICAN LITERATURE
HARLEM RENAISSANCE
The first literary movement in black America is the Harlem Renaissance. Many writers paved the way for this movement. Those writers were concerned with the rights of the black Americans and insuring that they are part of the American experience. The most important writers of this movement are W. E. B. Dubois, Benjamin Brawley, James Weldon Johnson and Allail Locke. They attempted to give their people self-confidence and refused the idea that America was an Anglo-Saxon population.
         The words of Dubois about black Americans and their sense of having two souls and two thoughts in one dark body, convey his idea of the American history. He says “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife...this longing to attain self-conscious, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and true self. In this merging he wishes neither of older selves to be lost.” In this passage he is saying that the black American is divided into two. He is American, as he has no other home other than America, but still he is an African by birth, he has a different origin a different history and also a different culture. This towness of character will lead them to create a higher third; where the Afro-American does not lose his heritage as a slave, as an American and as an African.
         The black renaissance was a result of different conditions. First, was the growth of a black working class and black middle class and large urban communities. Second, is a rising black consciousness to achieve independence. The vogue for primitive is the third reason behind this renaissance. The painters found aspiration in the works of African art and Harlem became a place where people go to listen and watch black music and enjoy primitive dances. The black writers of the twenties were pre-occupied with self-definition and self-affirmation. They were aware that such a task would be possible through drawing on the folk love, the cultural heritage, the slaves’ spirituals, blues, folk humor, the meaning and rhythm of jazz and the black sermons.
         James Weldon Johnson wrote in one of his important essays “ What the colored poet of the United States needs to do is something like what Synge did for the Irish, he needs to find a form that will express the racial spirit by symbols from within rather than by symbols from without, such as the mutilation of English spelling and pronunciation. He needs a folk... expressing the imagery, the idioms, the peculiar terms of thought and the distinctive humor and pathos too, of the Negro but which will also be capable of voicing the deepest and highest emotions and aspirations and allow the widest range of subjects and the widest scope of treatment.”
          The poet Countee Cullen is one of the distinguished figures in the Harlem Renaissance. He wanted to be regarded as a poet and not a Negro-poet. He wrote, mostly, lyrical poetry. Of his significant works is “Yet Do I Marvel”. It is a sonnet where the “I” is expressed. In the octave he represents the image of wasted effort. He says that he does not doubt God’s kindness and goodness, yet, he cannot understand why did he create the mole blind? And why should man work very hard without a result? In the sestet we have an attempt of a resolution, yet it is not a resolution. There seem to be a paradox between blackness that suggests unendurable suffering and writing poetry that is flying and running. As if blackness is a tie and singing is an attempt to fly and run. To connote the wasted effort he used the image of a mythical figure, Sisyphus, who tries to reach the top of a mountain carrying a rock, which was very difficult, and every time he reaches the top, the rock falls and he tries up again and again. In the sonnet, there is a strain of romanticism as he associates writing poetry with singing and singing with flying and freedom. The poem shows that blackness is associated with inferiority, frustration and suffering, while singing is associated with superiority, freedom and happiness and both are difficult to be attached together.
         In another poem, “Heritage”, he talks about the problem of his relation to Africa. He is an American who is related to Africa because of his black skin, his memories and his awareness that his ancestors came from Africa. Then, he questions his identity. Does Africa represent a forgotten past or is it a part of the present? The question is compared to the steps of a person who is going up and down a street. Cullen’s body is compared to the street. After that he questions his conversion to Christianity. He became a Christian but also a slave. Through answering those quests he can answer the question of “who am I?” He has two conflicting selves. More over, he has a terrible problem of color. It is a racial problem that made him wish Christ was black to give him a support. The poem suggests two options, whether to be related to Africa or to dis-regard this heritage and become an American.
         Langston Hughes is one of the outstanding black American writers. He wrote “The Nigro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, which is one of the important documents of the Harlem Renaissance. He published more than forty books, mostly poetry books. He was a poet a playwright and a short-story writer. He wrote two autobiographies and critical essays as well. In his poem “Mother To Son”, we have a mother talking to her son about a hard and a collective experience. In other words, it is her experience as well as others. From the very first lines, the image of life is compared to stairs that are very hard to climb. This first part is full of meanings, rich in association and it shows that there is nothing to be given; neither warmth nor support. In the second part of the poem, we have a woman who is climbing this stair. While, in the third part, the mother is asking her child not to look, return or go back because she spent a lot of effort to reach this state. Also, she is asking her son not to give up and sit down on the steps doing nothing because you found it difficult to go up and continue, and do not fall and let us down. It is a conversational poem, written in spoken language with its spelling mistakes and no decorations. Its beauty lies in representing the history of a given people, the hardships and the achievements through the character of a woman climbing up the stairs.
         “Harlem” is another significant poem. It is a poor residential area. The title shows us that the dream is of a certain community. The reference here is to the American dream, a dream of a good life; but in Harlem, the dream is postponed. The poet gives us many alternatives. Does the postponed dream shrink and lose its vitality but still it is there? Or does it produce something ugly; does it become like rotten meat that is not fresh any more? or does it produce a crust to protect itself?, or does it explode. It is a collective dream which has been deferred, Harlem is the embodiment of the dream deferred. The poet uses images of ugly scenes. There is a great simplicity in the images but they are also rich in association. In the image of the grapes the meaning implies that it is losing its freshness and shrinks, but it is still sweet and it does not die. It connotes shrinking and the loss of vitality but at the same time it has a value of a sort. Then, a repulsive image is represented. It is the difference between “The Sore” and “rotten meat”. The sore is related to the person of it only, but the rotten reflect on others. The main quest in the poem is what would happen to a postponed dream? this dream might explode and become neither destructive nor constructive. It could result in chaos or a revolution.
 
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