Monthly Archives: May 2015

The frost in Frost at Midnight concerns me.  It is a very cold poem and, within it, there is a vulnerable child.  The poem stressed how weak and fragile the child is.  The author has dreams for this child, and always … Continue reading →

This poem is another that deals with a woman’s sexual exploration.  The portion that describes Madeline as a mermaid stood out to me.  Mermaids can be associated with sirens, who have this evil, bewitching quality to them.  It made me think … Continue reading →

I enjoyed the simplicity and complexity of Robert Burns’ poem To a Mouse.  The basic action of the poem can be summed up easily.  A farmer turns over a mouse’s nest with his plough, and then he talks to it, apologizes … Continue reading →

Among the multiple poems related to abolition and the slave trade, I found Southey’s The Sailor Who Served in the Slave Trade unique.  In other areas, poets speak of how the slave trade is shameful for Christians and spoke generally on … Continue reading →

I did not like Blake’s poem A Little Black Boy.  It annoyed me that his soul must be considered white to be pure.  Even with the ending in which it suggests that the speaker “will be like [the white boy]” it … Continue reading →

A Hymn to Morning contains elements of the sublime.  The sun cannot just rise.  It needs music when it appears.  And all greenery acknowledge its appearance with song.  I looked at A Hymn to the Evening as well and found it exceedingly … Continue reading →

Of the Hymns to Hindu Gods and Goddesses the Hymn to Surya stood out to me.  I noticed in the introduction to the hymn that Surya is associated with the sun.  The introduction also points out that most main gods are … Continue reading →

Coming into Don Juan, I was reminded of the Old English poem Beowulf.  I mainly thought of Beowulf because Don Juan is one of those poems that must have a long background before it gets to the character it is named after. … Continue reading →

Thought that this would be a good song to share to put people in the mood for sea-related poems such as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Beachy Head.”  It contains nice sea-side sounds.

When looking at the poems “The Little Boy Lost”, “The Little Boy Found”, “The Little Girl Lost”, and “The Little Girl Found”, they first struck me by their similar titles.  I found their relative sizes striking as well.  There’s more … Continue reading →