The Good-Morrow is a metaphysical love poem by John Donne, originally published in his 1633 collection of Songs and Sonnets. This three stanza poem revolves around two main metaphors, a couple of lovers waking into a new life, and a new world created by their love.
The Good-Morrow, by John Donne, chiefly deals with a love that advances further from lusty love to the spiritual love. In the poem, the speaker at first regrets his early life, spending as meaningless as the seven sleepers of Ephesus spent in the den. He praises the true and selfless love of his beloved and claims that after being one in love, they are now actually awakened, physically and spiritually.
The Flea, composed by a great metaphysical poet John Donne, was first published posthumously in 1633. The title, the flea is a conceit, an extended metaphor in this poem. The flea has sucked little blood from the speaker and the lady and the mingling of their blood in the body of the flea is regarded as their unification and marriage by the speaker.
'Fra Lippo Lippi' is the one of the most popular of Browning's monologues. The subject, Brother Lippi, was a monk and painter of Renaissance Italy. He was one of the first painters in the naturalist school. He is here made to voice many of Browning's conviction about art and its relationship to reality and the Ideal; in fact, the poem expresses many of Browning's ideas about life and art, ideal and reality, religion and morality, and especially the function of art or the responsibility of the artist.
My Last Duchess has been admired for its theme as well as style. Browning's purpose in creating the Duke is to make a statement about the comparative values of sophistication and naturalness. The whole poem is but the visible part of the iceberg, but the submerged invisible part is not a matter of vague suggestiveness; it is both psychologically and historically defined.
Dryden, who was the greatest literary figure of the Restoration period achieved remarkable success in almost every class of literature, and in his work we have an excellent reflection of the second half of the 17th century. He was a famous dramatist, a critic of repute, a poet of great fame and a writer of prose, but it was in the field of satire, personal and political, where he won his laurels. He was not the first man in England to write satires, but he imparted it a distinction by his skill and genius.
In Mac Flecknoe, Dryden practically invented, as far as English literature is concerned, the mock-heroic poem. Spenser's Muiopotmos and Drayton's Nymphidia are earlier examples, but they are purely and delightful exercises of fancy, and do not have the satirical content of the classical mock-heroic. Dryden seems to have conceived the mock-heroic or parody as a kind of anti- image of the true heroic.
The supreme merit of Absalom and Achitophel lies beyond doubt in its superb gallery of satiric portrayal of characters. His portraits shine with carefully detailed descriptions, and all such descriptions do not transgress the limits of moderation and sobriety. He tries to be fair and avoids high-flown language. Though he is not above being coarse and indecent sometimes, yet as a rule he is tolerant like Chaucer.
This poem is one of the beautiful and startling descriptions of a sunrise. The beauty, brilliance and freshness of the sunrise is described in terms of the sparkle and glitter of the rubies, topazes and flashing light from the musket. Emily Dickinson's method is to throw before the reader a series of metaphors and images.
Bring me the sunset in a cup is one of the finest poems on Nature by Emily Dickinson. It is one of the typical poems of Dickinson displaying her approach to nature and its rich, vibrant and enigmatic sun setting in the evening. She depicts her immense pleasure to watch the fascinating evening. It has many startling and finest poetic phrases. The poem is obviously on the glories of Nature.