Le Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats: Summary and Analysis

Le Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats is a narrative poem which means the beautiful lady without mercy. It is composed in the spring of 1819, is an exquisite ballad, recapturing, as it does, the simplicity, the spontaneity, the directness, the vividness, and the graphic force of the ancient models. It is John Keats’s finest ballad in English literature. Le Belle Dame Sans Merci is a ballad, a form of medieval art, which is revived by John Keats.

Tue, Aug 08 2017

The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats: Summary and Analysis

The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats was written in 1819 and published in 1820. This poem is taken as one of the finest and the most prominent in the 19th century literature. This poem is written in Spenserian stanzas: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single line in iambic hexameter.

Tue, Aug 08 2017

Ode to Psyche by John Keats: Summary and Analysis

Ode to Psyche is a tribute to the Greek goddess Psyche, with whom Cupid fell in love. With her devotion to Cupid and her stoic tolerance, she overcame the jealousy of his mother Venus and was taken to heaven and finally changed into a deity. The myth symbolizes the purification of human intellect into soul and the elevation of love to divinity.

Wed, Aug 02 2017

I Travell'd Among Unknown Men by William Wordsworth: Summary and Analysis

I Travell'd Among Unknown Men is a series of Lucy poems composed by the English poet William Wordsworth in 1801. The poet shows his sincere love to his motherland. The sentiments presented here reflect Wordsworth's immense love for his homeland. Having returned from this continental visit, the poet realized that he preferred England to other countries because of its association with Lucy. When living away from the country only one realizes the love and value of one's motherland.

Tue, Jul 25 2017

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal by William Wordsworth: Summary and Analysis

'A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal' is the greatest of the Lucy poems composed by William Wordsworth and probably one of the greatest in the English language. This brief elegy on Lucy belongs to that group of exquisite lyrics, which are collectively known as 'Lucy' poems. The keynote of this poem is immortality. In only eight lines, Wordsworth conveys, with absolute conviction, intensity and compression, the whole of the human situation posed in 'Three Years She Grew', and the whole of the concept of Lucy as integrated with nature.

Tue, Jul 25 2017

Strange Fits of Passion Have I known by William Wordsworth: Summary and Analysis

This poem was written in Germany in 1799 and published in 18O0. The character Lucy is found in many of his poems. She is presented as a symbolic lover, and sometimes as a pure and innocent love of a child or a father. In most of his poems, he loses Lucy. This loss of Lucy may be symbolic of some of the losses of his real life.

Tue, Jul 25 2017

September 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden: Summary

W.H. Auden wrote September 1, 1939 in the eve of the 30s decade when Poland was attacked by Hitler as the beginning of the Second World War. It consists of nine stanzas of eleven lines each. The poet wrote this poem to bid adieu to the 1930s and to find out the real causes of the war. This poem is written in the first person directly addressing to the reader.

Thu, Jul 06 2017

September 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden: Critical Appreciation

'September 1, 1939' was first published in the New Republic, on October 18, 1939, and was reprinted in the poet's collection of 1940, Another Time. This poem achieved a new eminence after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.The title of the poem “September 1, 1939” is the date of Hitler's invasion of Poland with which a decade of shameful political compromise came to an end and the long awaited war at last broke out.

Thu, Jul 06 2017

Spain by W.H. Auden: Summary

'Spain' was written in 1937 about the Spanish Civil War by W. H. Auden. This is the most celebrated poem of Auden and it is one of the rarest war poems which was used as pamphlet in the war period. At that time, Hitler had already taking grip over Eastern Europe and Fascist Franco was in power as the head of Spain.

Mon, Jul 03 2017

Spain by W. H. Auden: Critical Analysis

This is perhaps the most celebrated of all the poems of the 1930s, for it gave striking artistic form to the natural sentiments of a whole generation of young men and women. Its effect was comparable to that of the French Revolution on young writers such as Wordsworth and Coleridge. The poem originally sold as a pamphlet at a shilling, the author's royalties being given to 'Medical Aid for Spain'. It was one of those rare occasions in the twentieth century, when an important poet found popular expression for the public feelings of his age.

Mon, Jul 03 2017