Words: 1665
To a Mouse”- Robert Burns (Handout) Let life run its course The poem denotes the narrator of the poem is plugging his field when he cuts through a mouse nest. The poet shows regret and apologizes to the mouse before he goes on a tangent which reveals the deeper meaning of the poem. The connotation is that in life, we plan and do everything to make the future sweet Just like a mouse, yet luck can come and ruin it in one second. Life is unpredictable, and while preparing for the unpredictable future we aren’t enjoying the present moment – which the souse seems to be able to do.
The narrator reminisces on ‘prospects dreary’, I. E. Bad events that have happened in the past which in some ways prevent him from moving on. Furthermore, some say that he is very fearful of the future and that these two reasons do not allow him to enjoy the present. He is also hinting that we ‘humans’ aren’t very empathic or sympathetic towards animals and nature like this mouse, but both species prepare for the future hoping for nothing to affect our smooth lives. He asks, so what if the mouse steals our corn it still has to survive – and this is the same or humans: so why are we so apart?
Burns is talking about dreams and how there’s no difference between mice’s dream or a man’s dream. He’s saying that dreams are useless that they only leave you in pain and grief. “The Lamb”- Blake (712) Lamb represents goodness kindness and Jesus The poem begins with the question, “Little Lamb, who made thee? ” The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its “clothing” of wool, its “tender voice. In the next Tanta, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who “calls himself a Lamb,” one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb. The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb. “The Tiger”- Blake (712) Good and evil come from the same source? Did lamb creator create tiger? The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry? ” Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one.
From what part of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared to handle that fire? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible heart “began to beat,” its creator would have had the courage to continue the Job. Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace that the project would have required and the smith who could have wielded them. And when the Job was done, the speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt? “Did he smile his work to see? ” Could this possibly be the same being who made the lamb? The world s too much with Us”- Wordsmith (733) Man is so out of tune with nature and so obsessed with the materialistic things in life. The writer would rather be pagan than suffer seeing how man is attached. At least Pagans are intact with nature as he is very angry with man. “Chimney Sweeper”- Blake (Handout) Argument against child exploitation The poem “The Chimney Sweeper,” in both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, protests the living conditions, working conditions, and the overall treatment of young chimney sweeps in the cities of England.
Little boy soothing other ho is crying due to loss of hair as someone shaved it. No hair no dirt no problem innocent view. Having a dream about heaven that if he does his duty then all will be alright and he will move to heaven “London”- Blake Harsh conditions of England through the French Revolution The poem was published during the upheavals of the French Revolution, and the city of London was suffering political and social unrest, due to the marked social and working inequalities of the time.
An understandably nervous government had responded by introducing restrictions on the freedom of speech and the manipulation f foreign mercenaries. The City of London was a town that was shackled to landlords and owners that controlled and demeaned the majority of the lower and middle classes. Within the poem that bears the city’s name, Blake describes 18th century London as a conurbation filled with people who understood, with depressing wisdom, both the hopelessness and misery of their situation. The Sick Rose”- Blake (714) Love destroyed by Jealousy possessiveness Alternatively the poem may suggest that all beauty is susceptible to destruction or itself has the power to destroy. It is a reminder that there is a good and evil side to all things – love can be both Joyful and painful, and all life is proceeded by death. “l Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”- William Wordsmith (735) The memory of daffodils remains imprinted in the tellers mind as it is beautiful The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake.
The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a Joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils. ” “Solitary Reaper”- Headwords (Handout) Girl speaking in dialect.
Although can’t understand still hears songs playing in his head for which he is grateful even as he hears no more “The Solitary Reaper” begins tit the speaker instructing us to look upon “Yon solitary Highland Lass” who is “Reaping and singing by herself”. Thrilled by her song, the speaker compares the girl to a nightingale whose “melancholy strain” welcomes “weary bands / Of travelers” to “some shady haunt, / Among Arabian sands”. Yet he does not understand the words of her song (presumably they are in the Scottish Gaelic language), and impatiently cries, “Will no one tell me what she sings? He wonders if the subject is of “battles long ago” or of commonplace and universal things (“familiar matters of to-day”), reaps “some natural sorrow, loss, or pain. ” Then he dismisses his own musings “Whatever the theme,” he says, “the Maiden sang / As if her song could have no ending” -and refocuses his attention on the song. He listens, “motionless and still”, before finally mounting the hill and leaving the solitary reaper, still singing, behind. Though his ears cannot hear the song anymore, the sound of the Highland Lass’s music will forever be a fresh and evocative memory in his heart. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”- Coleridge Mariner has to tell a story- when he has an agony feels he must let it out by telling Tory. First he tells it to wedding guests- admits to shooting albatross for no reason and that nature will punish him, the albatross hangs around his neck as a burden until he blesses the sea creatures and continues towards penitence for remorse. Eventually it falls off. The wedding guests learn that all creatures regardless of size great and small, are made equal in Gods eyes and that none is to harm one over the other. “Ode to the West Wind”- M. Shelley Wind is both a destroyer and preserver.
West Wind Blows leaves off tree only to cover up seeds to allow them to grow. Spring Wind “Commanding”- Shelley (782) Traveler tells story of irony that he witnesses in the desert. A broken statue that has inscribed king of kings, look on my works, but in reality there is nothing but vast desert surrounding him. Egyptian attempt towards eternal life. “Bright Star WSDL I Were Steadfast As thou Art”- Keats (804) Man addressing star. He longs to be like the star as it is steady and unchanging. But does not want to resemble the loneliness, lone splendor and doesn’t want to look down on life by himself. Ode on a Grecian Urn”- Keats (799) Images inscribed onto urn prove to be story. His imagination wonders and he embraces a love so close to kissing the women but would rather hold back in order to always have that wondrous feeling of what it would feel like. Beauty and truth are only things that actually last for ever. “When I have fears that I may cease to be”- Keats (803) Keats describes fears of death through what the narrator wishes to accomplish through life. He fears death because he will miss the great things such as love, fame, and writing.
This poem reflects Keats worst fears; to die too soon” When I have fears hat I may cease to be”. The speaker in Keats poem actually reflects what is going on in Keats’ mind… Keats knew that he will die too soon because of his disease, and what hurts him the most is not being able to write his poems which will lead him to fame, and the loss of his beloved one… Keats recognizes the fact that death is inevitable but he doesn’t want to die before he writes his poems… And before his “pen has gleaned my teeming brain”… He is afraid that he will never be able to look at his “fair creature of an hour”.