Dream Songs by John Berryman: Summary and Critical Analysis

The post-modernist epic Dream Songs is a vast mosaic of the mental life of a typical mid twentieth century American character, also based on the author’s own life and experience. The poem presents, in an expressionistic manner, the 'dreams' of a character named Henry, who claims to have suffered many and heavy losses in his life; now he is frantically trying to cure himself by a kind of artistic psychotherapy by writing (or spurting out) in the language of dream and neurosis about all kinds of troubles, releasing all his repressed energies, and indulging in his dream.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

Melodic Trains by John Ashbery: Summary and Critical Analysis

In the poem Melodic Trains, the narrator is boarding inside a train. There is a little girl beside him. He can see the scenes and people passing by as the train travels ahead. The journey doesn't end; nor is it any meaningful.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

Paradise Lost by John Milton: Summary and Critical Analysis

The fable or story of the epic is taken from the Bible; it is the simple and common story of the fall of Adam and Eve from the grace of God due to their disobedience of Him. Paradise Lost encompasses a little more of the biblical story. In heaven, Lucifer (who became Satan after his being thrown to the hell), was unable to accept the supremacy of God, and led a revolt against His divine authority. After a terrible war with His Angels, he was finally thrown into hell, where they lay nine days in a burning lake.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

Lycidas by John Milton: Summary and Critical Analysis

Milton's elegy 'Lycidas' is also known as monody which is in the form of a pastoral elegy written in 1637 to lament the accidental death, by drowning of Milton’s friend Edward King who was a promising young man of great intelligence. The elegy takes its name from the subject matter, not its form. No rules are laid down for the meter. The theme of the elegy is mournful or sadly reflective.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats: Summary and Analysis

Ode on a Grecian Urn is an ode in which the speaker addresses to an engraved urn and expresses his feelings and ideas about the experience of an imagined world of art, in contrast to the reality of life, change and suffering. As an ode, it also has the unique features that Keats himself established in his great odes.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats: Summary and Analysis

Keats's Ode to a Nightingale is considered one of the finest odes in English Literature. It reveals the highest imaginative powers of the poet. The poem was inspired by the song of a nightingale, which the poet heard in the gardens of his friend Charles Brown. The sweet music of the nightingale sent the poet in rapture and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast table, put it on the grass-plot under the plum tree and composed the poem.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden: Detailed Summary

King David of Israel who is compared to Charles II of England had no legitimate issue from his legally married wife, though he had a number of illegitimate children from his several mistresses. Of these illegitimate issues, Absalom who is compared to the Duke of Monmouth was the bravest, handsomest and most polished of mien and manners. He charmed everybody and won their esteem and regard. He had distinguished himself in a number of battles abroad. He was the favorite child of his father, the King, and popular with the people.

Mon, Nov 11 2013

A Note Left on Jimmy Leonard's Shack by James Wright: Summary and Critical Analysis

This poem is at one level a simple recounting of the poet's own childhood experience. The whole poem is the content of a 'note' that a boy writes and leaves near a sleeping drunkard whom the boy cannot wake him because of fear.

Sun, Nov 10 2013

Dead Soldiers by James Fenton: Summary and Critical Analysis

The poem Dead Soldiers by James Fenton is an example of journalistic poetry. This poetry comes in the form of reporting. Many ideas are implied through metaphors and symbols maintaining the clarity and trustworthiness of whatever are being reported. This poem renders one particular event; a party at Cambodian Civil War.

Sun, Nov 10 2013

The Lifeguard by James Dickey: Summary and Critical Analysis

The Lifeguard by James Dickey is a poem that explores the burden of responsibility that every man carries within his mind. On a literal level of the poem, we find a life-guard (a man who is there to save people from drowning in swimming pools) who has failed to rescue a child, even after attempting the whole day long, and are now thinking of his failure with a sense of guilt and tragedy of his failure.

Sun, Nov 10 2013