Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe, by Helen Chasin The sonnet has been one of the most widely used and well-known verse forms for over four centuries. Generally written in series, but quite effective as individual poems, they have celebrated love, death and many other expressions of private, personal...

The Life and Times of Elizabeth Barrett Browning During the early nineteenth century, feminists were first coming out into the political forefront. Among them, Elizabeth Barrett Browning emerged as one the greatest woman writers of all time. She wrote of "social reform, for the rights of l...

Christina Rossetti's sonnet "In an artist's studio" almost seems to describe Renoir paintings, many of which contain the same female face. However, Rossetti's poem is rich with metaphorical undertones that suggest deeper themes of beauty, truth, and illusion. An artist paints the same face over ...

The accessibility of Pablo Neruda's poetry is demonstrated in thefilm "IL Postino", where Neruda's poetry plays and important part in thedevelopment of Mario, a postman in a small Italian town. The accessibilityof Neruda's poetry is tied closely to his use of contemporary language, andthe ran...

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, sonnets were the most popular form of circulating poetry, and thus William Shakespeare (1564-1616) composes his own lengthy sonnet cycle, concentrating only on a handful of themes. With the traditional, or Italian, style dominating the poetic forum, Shakesp...

William Wordsworth's romantic worldview is conveyed in "The world is too much with us," a sonnet which expresses Wordsworth's dissatisfaction with materialism. As it is an Italian-style sonnet, "The world is too much with us" contains fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter with an ABBAABBA ...

"On His Blindness" The poem "On his Blindness", written by John Milton is considered, aside from Paradise Lost, one of his best works. The way the poem was written did not appeal to me, as it was somewhat hard to read. Although I was not intrigued by the style of the ...

The Sonnet "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a unique sonnet in its structure and meaning. Instead of a regular structured sonnet dealing with love or death, Shelly shows a story of a fallen empire in "an antique land" destroyed completely except for one sculpture. This l...

The Renaissance rose from the Middle Ages in the Sixteenth Century. It was a golden age of music, philosophy, architecture, art, and perhaps most importantly, literature. Many topics were written about and reflected on. Among these topics were romance and chivalry. Italian poet and scholar Petrach t...

Be sure to read the introduction to this section ("The Formation of a Western Literature" 1541­ 1545) carefully. Latin as a "universal" language of the educated and the continent­wide domination of the Catholic Church made a European culture possible. (By the way, "Catholic" doesn't have the denom...

\"Sonnet 18,\" written by William Shakespeare during the Renaissance Period is very much a reflection of the poet\'s own feelings of immortalising beauty which is captured magically amongst the quatrains. This is depicted utilising a number of poetic devices throughout the sonnet and reflects the pe...

This is a poem about the joy and sadness that comes with the flash of burning life soon blown out with nothing more then a sigh. It focuses on the sadness as those we care for go far too gently into that good night. Of those who left before their time. As this poem was written specifi...

John Milton's "When I consider how my light is spent" chronicles the poet's spiritual journey as well as his struggle with physical blindness. Light conveys a dual meaning in this sonnet: it signifies Milton's eyesight and symbolizes spiritual "light." Moreover, "light" also refers to the poet's ...

William Wordsworth's "The world is too much with us" shows that with changing times, there is a natural shifting of beliefs that is often necessary to justify one's place in the world. It is a poem rich with Wordsworth's common themes of Nature and alienation, but takes an unexpected turn on the vie...

William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper", part of his Songs of Innocence, is about a young boy who was sold as a baby into the life of a chimney sweep. The boy has a dream about the child chimneysweepers' dreadful lives coming to an end, and finally being set free into God's ar...

ASSISI CRITICAL ESSAY Sam Shedden Question: Choose a poem that has something important to say to you by closely referring to the poet's language, briefly explain why you consider the subject matter to be important, and go on to analyse how the writer conveys the importance of the subject. Ref...

SophisticationAs the English teacher threw the essay at the student, the girl realized how she had betrayed her trusting teacher. She didn't really know why she did it; perhaps it was a case of laziness and frustration. She recalled the night she wrote it, sitting frustrated in front of the comput...

The sonnets, 130 and 292, written by William Shakespeare and Francesco Petrarch, both shows their passionate love towards their woman and it is very interesting to compare and contrast the two. Although their passionate mind was similar, they differ in form, tone, and meaning.First of all, the form...

"The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe are typically dark pieces of literature by the great American author. Poe's use of mystery and darkness in both poems sets the tone for what will lead to a horrific ending for both main characters in each of his works. Despite the fact t...

Rhyme Scheme, Symbolism and Tone in Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night"Robert Frost is known as the most famous twentieth-century, New England poet. The sonnet "Acquainted with the Night" has drawn more commentary and analysis than any other poems. The extraordinary rhythmical arrangement a...

Poem AnalysisOne of the finest poems composed by Robert Herrick, "Corinna's Going A-Maying," assumes a theme of nature and man's interactions within nature, specifically May Day. This celebration was held in numerous cities and was the unofficial commencement of spring. The narrator's tone is one of...

On First Looking into Chapman's HomerMuch have I traveled in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse have I been told That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne, Yet did I nev...