Author Archives
-
Analysis of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind I O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Shelley’s Ozymandias
Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip,… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel
Ariel Stasis in darkness. Then the substanceless blue Pour of tor and distances. God’s lioness, How one we grow, Pivot of heels and knees!—The furrow Splits and passes, sister to The brown arc Of the neck I cannot catch, Nigger-eye… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus
Lady Lazarus I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it—— A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen. Peel… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Sylvia Plath’s Daddy
Daddy You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had to kill you…. Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Browning’s Andrea del Sarto
Andrea del Sarto But do not let us quarrel any more, No, my Lucrezia; bear with me for once: Sit down and all shall happen as you wish. You turn your face, but does it bring your heart? I’ll work… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Browning’s Fra Lippo Lippi
Fra Lippo Lippi [Florentine painter, 1412-69] I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave! You need not clap your torches to my face. Zooks, what’s to blame? you think you see a monk! What, ’tis past midnight, and you go the… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess
My Last Duchess FERRARA That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Will’t please you sit… Read More ›
-
Analysis of W. B. Yeats’s The Second Coming
One of the most famous poems in the English language, The Second Coming is the definitive vision of the Yeatsian apocalypse. It incorporates and intensifies ideas of cyclic creation and destruction already articulated in poems like “The Magi,” “On Woman,”… Read More ›
-
Analysis of W. B. Yeats’s Easter 1916
The Easter Rising of 1916 catalyzed the final phase of the Irish struggle for independence and forced Yeats to recant the stinging assessment of “September 1913” that “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, / It’s with O’Leary in the grave.” In… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s Snow
Snow (1916) The three stood listening to a fresh access Of wind that caught against the house a moment, Gulped snow, and then blew free again—the Coles Dressed, but dishevelled from some hours of sleep, Meserve belittled in the great… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s Skeptic
The speaker moves between two positions: belief and disbelief. He addresses the “Far star” that “tickles” his “sensitive plate” and whose heat is so intense that it can fry black atoms white. He refers to his body as his armor… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s A Servant to Servants
In this dramatic monologue, a woman “servant” addresses a man who camps on the land she and her husband, Len, own. Several commentators have noted the similarity of the title to “and thou shalt be a servant of servants,” Noah’s… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s A Serious Step Lightly Taken
A Serious Step Lightly Taken (1942) Between two burrs on the map Was a hollow-headed snake. The burrs were hills, the snake was a stream, And the hollow7 head was a lake. And the dot in front of a name… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s The Self-Seeker
The Self-Seeker (1914) “Willis, I didn’t want you here to-day: The lawyer’s coming for the company. I’m going to sell my soul, or, rather, feet. Five hundred dollars for the pair, you know.” “With you the feet have nearly been… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s A Roadside Stand
“A Roadside Stand” was first published in the June 1936 issue of the Atlantic Monthly before being collected in A Further Range with the subtitle “On Being Put out of Our Misery.” Frost at one time considered the title “Euthanasia”… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s ‘Out, Out—’
‘Out, Out—’ (1916) The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s One More Brevity
One More Brevity (1962) I opened the door so my last look Should be taken outside a house and book. Before I gave up seeing and slept, I said I would see how Sirius kept His watchdog eye on what… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s On a Tree Fallen across the Road
On a Tree Fallen across the Road (1923) The tree the tempest with a crash of wood Throws down in front of us is not bar Our passage to our journey’s end for good, But just to ask us who… Read More ›
-
Analysis of Robert Frost’s An Old Man’s Winter Night
An Old Man’s Winter Night (1916) All out of doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane in empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze… Read More ›
You must be logged in to post a comment.