116 Answered Questions for the topic Poetry

06/06/19

Whose were the "best minds" being destroyed in Ginsberg's "Howl"?
In Allen Ginsberg´s most famous poem "Howl", he claims he was witness to the destruction of the best minds of his generation: > I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,... more
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06/06/19

What is "This is Just to Say" about?
In ["This is Just to Say"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Just_To_Say) by William Carlos Williams, the speaker appears to deliver an apology for stealing the plums of the person at whom the... more
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06/06/19

Had Keats read any of Homer's works before reading Chapman's translation of them?
In "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," John Keats writes: > Oft of one wide expanse had I been told <br/> > That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;<br/> > Yet... more
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06/05/19

Using two-syllable words?
Is it ever okay to use two-syllable words as unstressed in a rhyme or poem?e.g. In this sentence using "pigeon" as two unstressed syllables:>The śmall pigeon r&#225;n to the édge of the... more
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06/05/19

What is "the Poetic Genius"?
In ["All Religions are One"](https://www.glyndwr.ac.uk/rdover/blake/allrels1.htm), William Blake develops an argument around a concept called "the Poetic Genius". From the modern, surface meaning... more
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06/05/19

How does the golden bough in "Sailing to Byzantium" relate to the story in the Aeneid, if at all?
According to [Wikipedia]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_to_Byzantium) of W.B. Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" is > a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Yeats explores his thoughts and... more
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05/28/19

A figure of speech combining two phrases?
I have read somewhere that it is typical of poems such as Nibelungenlied to use a figure of speech which in fact merges two phrases into one by the mean of a common word. An example could be the... more
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05/28/19

Why are haiku usually of 17 syllables?
One of the characteristics of Haiku is that the poems are usually of 17 syllables (5-7-5). Exceptions exist, of course, but 17 is the norm. Why 17? How did the originators of Haiku come to settle... more
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05/26/19

What does the line "The echoes of your rocks my carols wild" mean?
From the poem "An Evening Walk" by William Wordsworth (emphasis added): > FAR from my dearest Friend, 'tis mine to rove Through bare grey dell, high wood, and pastoral cove; Where Derwent... more
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05/22/19

What does "toby" mean, in London slang of Orwell's time?
In the George Orwell poem ["A Dressed Man and a Naked Man"](https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/poetry/a-dressed-man-and-a-naked-man/), two men are haggling for the... more
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05/22/19

Could Ozymandias be interpreted as referring to the power of the Church/pope?
The poem's central line that establishes the theme of power: >"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Does the "king of kings" part happen to be a subtle reference to the English papacy by any... more
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05/20/19

Style of poetry that plays with typographic rivers?
> In typography, rivers, or rivers of white, are gaps in typesetting, which appear to run through a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces. >... more
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05/14/19

Who wrote the poem that begins "What have we not done for this country"?
About 15 years ago I read a popular history (in the sense of popular science, not popular politics) of the 20th century which includes a short poem that I believe went as follows: > What have... more
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05/14/19

Why does only one of R. S. Thomas' poems conform to traditional poetic devices?
R.S. Thomas was a Welsh poet who worked between 1942 until his death in 2000. His poems are almost exclusively modern in structure, in the sense that they eschew meter and rhyme in favour of a more... more
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05/13/19

Meter and number of syllables per line in "The Raven"?
After reading some analysis of "The Raven", I've become confused about how syllables are counted. For example, in the second line: *Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore* A... more
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05/06/19

Does Shakespeare steer the reader's sympathy towards Venus or towards Adonis?
In the narrative poem [*Venus and Adonis*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_and_Adonis_(Shakespeare_poem)), Shakespeare reuses a story from Ovid's *Metamorphoses* (which he often used as a... more
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05/05/19

What did "Moloch" represent in Allen Ginsberg´s poem "Howl"?
In Allen Ginsberg´s poem "Howl", what did "Moloch" represent? > What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? >Moloch! Solitude!... more
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05/04/19

Sentence structure of a stanza in "Ozymandias"—how the grammar works?
>Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. I do get that it says that the one... more
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05/04/19

What is the symbolism of the Western Wind (or Zephyr)?
I was reading some poetry and I stumbled upon the four-line ['Western Wind' by Anonymous](https://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/poetry_in_motion/atlas/newyork/western_wind/), written in the 16th... more
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05/03/19

Does "The Soul selects her own Society" by Emily Dickinson have a simile?
Here is the poem "The Soul selects her own Society" by Emily Dickinson. > The Soul selects her own Society — Then — shuts the Door — To her divine Majority — Present no more — > >... more
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04/30/19

What does the "good night" symbolize in Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night"?
*Do not go gentle into that good night* by Dylan Thomas, he begins with "Do not go gentle into that good night". He also uses this as one of two alternating refrains. In this poem, what does the... more
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04/20/19

What are the "dark Satanic mills" in Blake's Jerusalem?
The short poem *Jerusalem* by William Blake - not to be confused with his much longer epic poem of the same title; I'm talking about the "did those feet in ancient times" one - contains the... more
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04/17/19

Meaning of "We make the wise distinction still, soever made in vain" in a poem by Dickinson?
[A poem](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/We_send_the_Wave_to_find_the_Wave_%E2%80%94) by Emily Dickinson: > We send the Wave to find the Wave— An Errand so divine, The Messenger enamored... more
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04/17/19

Doesn't Burns' use of parallelism reinforce "My Heart's in the Highlands" visual images?
Here is "My Heart's in the Highlands" by Robert Burns (https://www.bartleby.com/360/8/24.html). > My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart’s in > the Highlands a-chasing... more
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04/15/19

What do the "mirror" and the "lake" represent in "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath?
In ["Mirror" by Sylvia Plath](https://allpoetry.com/poem/8498499-Mirror-by-Sylvia-Plath), the speaker in the poem says, > Now I am a lake. But, also at times implies that the speaker is a... more
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