Introduction The speaker of the poem opens by describing how a steady stream of raindrops beat down on the roof of his “bleak hut.” His health is not very good. The speaker is by himself in a trench somewhere in the First World War battlefields. He muses over death in general and his mortality in … Read more
Introduction Thom Gunn’s poetry “The Man with Night Sweats” eloquently captures the sense of loss and vulnerability. After waking from a warm dream, the speaker discovers that he is cold and perspiring. This startling contrast creates the ideal environment for contemplating the body, its resiliency, and the sadness of its unavoidable aging. About the Poet … Read more
Introduction “I Shall Paint My Nails Red” is a poem by Carole Satyamurti published in her collection of poems titled as “Changing the Subject” in 1990. The speaker of the poem is conflicted on her decision to paint her nails red and states several reasons for why she would like to do so. About the … Read more
Introduction The title of T. S. Eliot’s mock-heroic, modernist work “Sweeney among the Nightingales” may have been inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “Bianca among the Nightingales.” The word “Nightingales” in the title really refers to prostitutes. The poem follows the pattern of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, in which a trivial event … Read more
Introduction In August 1906, Blackwood’s Magazine originally published “The Highwayman.” The next year, it appeared in Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems. Since its publication, the public has consistently found it to be popular. The poem was written while Noyes was 24 years old, yet it is set in the 18th century in England. He … Read more
Introduction “Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” is a sonnet composed by William Shakespeare that goes through the mental state of the speaker who thinks he lacks talent and opportunities. But later towards the end of the poem, he realises the wealth he possesses and the poem takes a cheerful turn. … Read more
Introduction Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare is one of the most known sonnets published in 1609. It contrasts the conventional idea of a sonnet that displays the beauty and magic of love. Shakespeare composed this sonnet as if to mock his lover’s beauty to unveil the realism of love. About the Poet William Shakespeare, one … Read more
Introduction “Sonnet 65” was composed by William Shakespeare, an English Renaissance poet and playwright, and originally published in 1609. The speaker of the poem laments the passing of time and asks how something as fragile as beauty can last when even the most durable things on earth inevitably fall apart and deteriorate. However, the speaker … Read more
Introduction “Sonnet 27” is a part of William Shakespeare’s Fair Youth sonnet sequence, a substantial collection of poetry written for an unnamed—but truly very attractive—young man. The first of five poems in which the speaker observes this young man from a distance, it appears rather early in the overall sequence. In particular, “Sonnet 27” explores … Read more
Introduction Shakespeare’s second sonnet, “When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow,” is the first in which the unnamed “Fair Youth” is mentioned. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in all, the second of which is titled “When forty winters shall besiege thy brow.” It is one of several sonnets that address the subject of procreation and is … Read more
