Ethics

This poem was told through 1st person point of view and written with a rhythm of trochaic pentameter. By writing this story using free verse and open lines, the author was able to create a flow of words that made it easy to read. I thought that the use of free verse was symbolic of how quickly life goes by; all of the sudden the speaker went from a young student to a woman who was looking at a Rembrandt painting in a museum. The last lines of the poem represent the theme to me, "I know now that woman and painting and season are almost one and all beyond saving by children." This points out that nothing can every truly be saved; everything will be gone someday. Also this could just be a literal statement that children couldn't save the painting or the woman, she is now just realizing this answer because she is maturing. The description of the students as "Restless on hard chairs" is a great example of concrete imagery, I can just imagine them. The carelessness and fickleness of youth is pointed out in the lines, "We'd opt one year for life, the next for art and always half-heartedly."

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

This poem is written in four stanzas, each with two sets of end-rhyming couplets. The speaker of the story was a nephew or niece of Aunt Jennifer who has observed her and her embroidery of tigers. Using abstract imagery, the speaker describes the embroidery screen that the tiger's prance around as "bright topaz denizens of a world of green." Alliteration is used to describe Jennifer's "fluttering fingers." There are many symbols in this poem. "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band" was a symbol that they didn't have a very happy marriage and he was very controlling of her. "Her terrified hands" are symbolic of the fear and defeat she experienced throughout life. The fearless tigers are symbolic of what she has always wished to be, in control and unafraid. Aunt Jennifer escapes her miserable reality by embroidering tigers. In the eyes of the speaker, the tigers will go on prancing unafraid, which will carry on the unfulfilled desires of his aunt.

The Road Not Taken

This poem was an allegory; the split in the road is symbolic of the choices we all must make in life. Therefore, the speaker is a person who was at a crossroad in his or her life. The speaker knows that there is no turning back once the path to take is determined. This is symbolic of the impact of the choices we make; we can't go back and change what we did or didn't do. Choosing to take the path less traveled has made all of the difference in the speaker's life. The theme is don't be afraid to take chances and be different from others. A great example of imagery from the poem is "And both...lay in leaves no step had trodden black." The poem was told in 1st person point of view and has a dactylic trimeter rhythm. The rhyme scheme for each of the four stanzas is ABAAB.

How Do I Love Thee?

This poem is a petrarchan and is written in trochaic pentameter. The speaker is someone who is deeply in love, and the poem is addressing the one whom the speaker is in love with. The word "love" is repeated many times throughout the play to emphasize the speaker's love. Similes are used frequently throughout the play to describe how deep the speaker's love is. The theme of this poem is that love is ever powerful; if God chooses, their love will even survive death and be strengthened in Heaven.

I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud

The title of the poem itself is a similie. This poem is written in iambic tetrameter and incorporates quatrains followed by end-rhyming couplets. The speaker is in a dream-like state about nature. He is thinking of how beautiful the bed of dancing daffodils are. Personification is used to describe the daffodils; "Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance." This poem is a romanticism because it is about nature and the personal experience the speaker has shared with it. Repetition of the word "dance" is used throughout this poem; this creates a cheerful and vivid picture in the reader's mind. The theme of this poem is that our souls are truly content when they are in nature.

The Noiseless Patient Spider

This poem is written in free verse, which is in a way symbolic of the theme of the story. The author alludes to the fact that humans struggle to find something that they can connect and hold on to. The spider contradicts what we as humans have a difficult time doing, it is persistent and not intimidated by its overwhelming surroundings. The speaker of the poem represents the author's true feelings and he is addressing his soul. Repetition is used to emphasize the word, "filament," which means a thin thread. Although the spider can only spin thin thread, it ends up building a large web because of its pesistence. Aliteration was also incorporated into this poem, for example: "vacant vast" and "seeking the spheres."

Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments

Like most of Shakespeare's works, this poem is written in iambic pentameter. The poem has three quatrains, followed by a couplet. The ending words of every other lines are in assonance. Shakespeare uses alliteration a few times in this poem, for example, "When wasteful war" and "shall shine." The tone of this poem is serious, but uplifting. The poem points out that monuments and everything else that has been built will be destroyed in time or in war, but love is eternal. Love and memories are the most important things in our lives because they can not be taken away by anyone. A life full of love means more than a life filled with fame.