A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg: Summary and Analysis

A Supermarket in California is a poem by American poet Allen Ginsberg first published in Howl and Other Poems in 1956. This poem is a tribute to Walt Whitman in the centennial year of the first edition of Leaves of Grass. This poem criticizes the mainstream of American culture and is considered one of the major poetic works of the Beat Generation. It seems that there's nothing more American than a neon supermarket in California, filled with mothers, babies, and canned soup. This is not just a poem about Walt Whitman, Ginsberg, or even a supermarket, the title announces that it's a poem about America.

Sun, Jun 10 2018

O Taste and See by Denise Levertov: Summary and Analysis

O Taste and See by Denise Levertov is a short poem that depicts the real ways to live the life to the fullest and enjoy the every moment of life the way it comes to us. Reversing the allusion of Wordsworth sonnet ‘the world is too much with us’ the speaker argues that the world is not enough with us only because the life we have today is uncertain and we need to cross the street and die one day. Death is inevitable and we have to give up this life at any cost.

Sun, Jun 10 2018

O Sweet Spontaneous by Edward Estlin Cummings: Summary and Analysis

O Sweet Spontaneous by Cummings is about the significance of earth in the modern and unique style in poetry writing. The speaker identifies the earth sweet and spontaneous. He asks the question that how often the doting fingers of lusty philosophers have pinched and poked the earth. Similarly, he wants to know where the naughty thumb of science has pinched the earth or not. He asks how often the religions have squeezed the earth in a mighty way. But the earth is the lover of rhythm. She is true to the incomparable couch of death and answers all them with only with spring.

Sun, Jun 10 2018

Heart's Needle by William DeWitt Snodgrass: Summary and Analysis

Heart's Needle by William DeWitt Snodgrass, also known by his pseudonym S. S. Gardons was first published in 1959 in the collection of Heart’s Needle. Immediately after the publication, this poem was praised for its straightforwardness, important message, and autobiographical elements. This poem bagged the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Snodgrass in 1960. In this famous poem, the poet shows his failing relationship with his daughter.

Sun, Jun 10 2018

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams: Summary and Analysis

The poem 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus' touches upon the Greek tragedy of Icarus. Icarus is the son of Daedalus. Icarus and his father were exiled in Crete. He took flight from imprisonment wearing the fragile wings his father had fashioned for him. Icarus was warned by his father not to go near the sun to keep him safe form the consequence of wax melting.

Fri, Jun 08 2018

An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin: Summary and Analysis

An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin was written in 1956 and published in 1964 in his collection named 'The Whitsun Weddings'. It is a formal lyric in which the poet gives his 20th century perspective on the funerary monument of 14th century Earl and his wife.

Wed, Jun 06 2018

Love Calls Us to the Things of This World by Richard Wilbur: Summary and Analysis

Love Calls Us to the Things of This World is one of the most celebrated poems of English literature by Richard Wilbur. The title was taken from the passage from St. Augustine’s Confessions. Wilbur received the famous Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1988 for the Collections New and Collected Poems where this poem is also included. This poem is praised for its clear use of conceit, controlled form and symbols.

Wed, Jun 06 2018

Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins: Summary and Analysis

Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a modern poem about philosophical definition of human life. It is a dramatic meditative poem since it narrates an event, imagining a philosopher as a speaker in conversation to a girl name Margaret. We find character, dialogue, and setting and plot as well in the poem. The poem is about the reality of human existence that has been well introduced through its title 'Spring and Fall'.

Wed, Jun 06 2018

The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket by Robert Lowell: Summary and Analysis

The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket is one of the prominent poems of Robert Lowell which was first published in 1946 in his famous collection Lord Weary’s Castle. As the poem is a mourning poem on the death of Lowell’s cousin Warren Winslow, it can be taken as an example of elegy: it has all the necessary elements for the elegy. The poem is divided into seven sections with irregular use of pentameter and trimeter.

Tue, Jun 05 2018

The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks: Summary and Analysis

Gwendolyn Brooks is a renowned Black female poet who penned this short poem called The Bean Eaters in 1960. She has successfully created the picture of a couple who are socially isolated and in a dire economic condition. She has used jazz rhythm in this poem and breaks the traditional syntax of so called white discipline, morality and goodness.

Tue, Jun 05 2018