The Highwayman

For those of us who love a touch of romance and tragedy, this poem gives more than enough of it. Unfortunately, the book's preview is nothing like the poem. I wouldn't advise you to read Kiss of The Highwayman unless you want to.

Alfred Noyes' poem is the perfect example of a wonderfully written poem. It rhymes, it builds, it masterfully uses repetition… what can I say? It's a masterpiece. Alfred Noyes, born in 1880, published this poem in Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems, in 1907. It is arguably his most beloved poem.

The Lady of Shallot

This beautiful poem is told in true Tennyson fashion. It is a tale of King Arthur's court, and is filled with the magic that comes with tales such as these. It is a special treat to read again.

Where you can view the poem with art work. It is a lovely experience. Tennyson taught me the art of using figurative language. He also helped me develop pacing and rhyme.

The Raven

This poem and I go way back. We met in the sixth grade and I've frequently revisited it since. I love Poe. He may have been a drunk in his day but I still think he was an awesome writer. He's amazing, dark yes, but also amazing. I recommend Poe to all aspiring poets. This sadly tragic and painful poem helped me understand the importance of images. Just read it and see what effect the “shadow” in the last stanza has on you!

Annabel Lee

Ah, sweet and melancholy. Poe managed to capture a broad range of human emotions in his poem. Anger, love, passion, and sorrow, all drip from his pen, masterfully arranged by his genius. If you want to learn to move the heart of your reader, or if you'd like to know how the masters did it, this is the poem to read.

In Memoriam

image source

I recommend that you read the whole thing. I remember stumbling upon it in my AP English textbook, my beloved Norton. At once I was captured by the pain and the passion, the sorrow, and the anguish that Tennyson poured out onto those pages. Each poem breathed with life I'd never seen before. I want to share a little bit of his poem here,

“I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel:
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within” (Tennyson, 5). Can you feel that? That is pure beauty.

I encourage all aspiring poets to study these writers. Study all of the poets you can get your hands on, but especially these; these are the ones that will be your foundation; these are the ones that will make others wonder at your mastery of the language, at your instinctive pacing and internal rhyme, at your ability to let the poem run wild and yet have it stream from the paper and to the reader like a powerful beam of sunlight into one central direction. Happy reading! Till next time.

Robert Frost bares his very soul to the reader in this heartrending poem, but he opens with a simple, matter-of-fact statement. "I have become one acquainted with the night.". The statement says so little and yet so much. He is acquainted with the dark- the gloom, the fear, and most of all the loneliness of the night hours. The narrator, like so many of us, has had his share of the darker side of human experience. He is well acquainted with the night of sorrow, suffering, and human misery. Robert Frost also begins every sentence of which there are only seven with "I" which clearly represents isolation.

In the second verse of the first stanza, the poet mentions the rain. The rain symbolizes both happiness and prosperity which could mean that the narrator has been through the best and the worst of times while in the third verse of the first stanza: "I have outwalked the furthest city light". The word "light" in this verse could symbolize optimism, hope and opportunity and so one can interpret this verse as being that the narrator has lived and enjoyed the best of his life and that he has explored all the limits of human accomplishments. The word "light" in this verse could also depict safety and so to "have out walked the furthest city light" refers to going beyond the safety of the light and the companionship of the city. This first stanza sets the solemn and solitary mood for the poem.

In the second stanza the narrator describes "look(ing) down the saddest lane". However, Frost uses the word "looked" which means that the narrator could have been depressed but not completely miserable. If Frost were to describe the narrator as being extremely sad he would have used the word "walked" instead of "looked".

Part of the second stanza, the narrator describes passing "the watchman on his beat and (dropping his) eyes, unwilling to explain". "The watchman" in this part of the stanza could depict God and so one can assume that the narrator has done something or involved in something undesirable and therefore was unable to meet his eyes.

In the third stanza, the speaker hears "an interrupted cry" in the far off distance. He stands still to listen and the sound of his feet stops, but the cry is too distant to make out clearly. The physical distance seems to be a metaphor for emotional distance. The speaker has been rejected or a rejecter of someone in the past, perhaps a lover.

In the fourth stanza, the sentence of the third stanza continues. This continuation is an unusual break from the mainly short sentences of the fist two stanzas. Here, the narrator emphasizes negativity by the lengthy line seeming to drag out and dwell on the topic, and by telling the "cry" was not to comfort him by making him feel neither needed nor wanted. The narrator then describes the moon as a time keeper. It is "One," "against the sky" as if it was viewed as signally opposing a huge unknown (the night sky). Also, by the moon being a luminous "clock" it is bright and almost a positive image while keeping order. 

Unlike the "watchman" the moon does not seem to be a judgmental figure. The moon is the closest thing to a positive image in the whole poem. In the ending stanza, the moon declares "the time" to be "neither wrong nor right." This appears to make this negative experience for the narrator a passing phase instead of a permanent state. It makes an indecisive, unclear statement which seems to justify and satisfy the narrator. 

The last line is the same as the first line. This adds to the theme of mystery and darkness of the poem.

This poem seems to have the classic quest design in which the narrator's night walk is symbolic of isolation and detachment from his surroundings in both social and natural aspects, but there is no concrete answer to end the quest. The separation from man to man or man to God (the watchman and the cry) and from man to nature (the unreachable moon) has a constant effect on humanity in this poem. The separation and negativity in this poem is oddly deliberate by the narrator and seems to directly parallel the strange short and then long sentences and internal rhymes all crammed into the varied form of a sonnet. The only conclusion given by the poem is that of acceptance. It seems that after the dark journey of searching the streets and the soul, the narrator was forced to realize that there is not an answer that will cure his isolation and detachment from society. The ending rhymes of the last two lines "right" and "night" seem to echo like a sigh of relief as if the narrator is pleased these thoughts are over and are memories. 

The Anxious Dead by Canadian John McCrae delivers its message for increased gun control in a subtle yet effective way. Gun Control Equals Murder by American Bob Wallace is more upfront with its stance against gun control.

The moods of the two poems are also different. The Anxious Dead is a gloriously hopeful and optimistic poem that calls, almost pleadingly, for the end to war and gun violence. It does so in a tasteful manner. The poem still honours veterans' sacrifices and contributions to freedom and keeps “the faith for which they died”, but it also shows the imbecility that even after all this death and destruction “we still make war”. Canada's freedom was not won on the battlefield. It was won in the meeting room. Canadians view war and guns as unnecessary solutions to a conflict that could be solved without bloodshed, of course their poetry will reflect this attitude.

Gun Control Equals Murder is exactly the opposite. Instead of having an optimistic view of the future it has a pessimistic view of the past. The poem is based on the speaker's tale of two girls raped and murdered by a group of teenage boys. The speaker seems to be saying “if only”. “If only the girls had had a gun. If only I had been there to protect them”. The speaker thinks that “if those girls had even had a two shot derringer on them they would be alive today”. Just like the opinions these poems promote, the moods made are in stark contrast. The Canadians' hope that mankind will realize the error of his ways and put an end to guns is a mirror opposite of the Americans' regret at what happened because guns were not there. America's freedom was won on the battlefield. They view war and guns as solutions to a conflict because that has been what has worked for them. If it ain't broke why fix it?

Likewise, both poems get their meaning across in very different ways. The Anxious Dead uses four stanzas of “abab” rhymes to advocate gun control. It starts off with a recurring form of anaphora, “O guns”, which is repeated throughout the poem. Metonymy is used once in the poem, replacing “O guns” with “O flashing muzzles”. The speaker also uses archaic language when he says, “Bid them patient, and some day, anon,/They shall feel the earth enrapt in silence deep.” The use of this device gives the poem a timeless quality. It says, war was happening then and it is happening now. Anastrophe is employed in the line, “then let you mighty chorus witness be”, to maintain the rhyme. Allusion to Caesar is also used. The speaker's use of literary devices is meant to make the poem flow faster and sound sweeter. The speaker figures that the better it flows and the sweeter it sounds the more inspiring it will be.

Literary embellishments in Gun Control Equals Murder are less about style and more about atmosphere. The speaker creates a feeling of casual conversation with the reader by using similes such as, “I felt like I was two inches tall” or “I felt like I could have crawled into a mouse hole”. The speaker also uses satire to add some levity to what is otherwise a very grave subject. Overall, the speaker delivers his message in a benign, caring, and informal package, much like a friend giving advice to another friend. Both poems succeed in promoting their point, be it in a sweet symphony of words or a heartfelt suggestion from a friend.

The Anxious Dead uses the theme of war to promote its point on tightening up gun control because war is something that all Canadians fear and detest. If the speaker can show how brave soldiers with guns want only to exchange them for peace, then he can convince the fearful civilian to exchange his pistol for the greater good of man. The speaker does not blame soldiers for the death and destruction war has brought on to mankind. He, instead, encourages us to abolish war and guns as testament to all those who lost their lives because of it. “They [dead soldiers] shall feel earth enrapt in silence deep; shall greet, in wonderment, the quiet dawn, and in content may turn them to their sleep”. The speaker is saying that we must wake up from the dark and fearful night of war and embrace the glorious dawn of reconciliation. This and only this will bring our fallen soldiers final peace. Canadians are weary of war and guns, Americans not so much. While themes of war are appropriate for convincing Canadians of the merits of gun control, such themes will not work south of the border to convince Americans of the disadvantages of it.

What does work in persuading Americans is violence. War is violent, but because of what it has done for the advancement of American society they overlook that aspect of it. Unprovoked violence works best because unlike war, which has a point to it, unprovoked violence is pointless. The speaker for Gun Control Equals Murder understands this and uses the story of the rape and murder of two little innocent girls to pull on the heartstrings of Americans. No one can argue the fact that if those girls had had a gun they probably would still be alive today, but what would they have had to do with that gun to scare off their aggressors? Point the gun at them? Fire off a round? Shoot one of them? The speaker implies that only violence can counter violence. The hope being that the violence needed to counter will be less than what would have occurred had counter action never been taken.

This leads us to the unconditional hate shown by the speaker towards the teenage aggressors. His hatred of them is so strong that his fantasies about what he would have done had he been there are so well thought-out and planned that he even knows when he would have to reload his gun so he can finish shooting the little twerps in the knees. This is what he would have done to prevent the boys from murdering the two girls. This is his counter violence. His zeal with which he says this encourages Americans to believe that this is how we should counter violence. Some may not agree with his tactics but the sheer fierceness of them will prompt others to increase the ferocity of their counter violence, even if not to his level. The speaker has succeeded in his goal of convincing Americans on the disadvantages of gun control by appealing to their hearts and giving them reason to arm themselves so that they too, can counter violence.

To Canadians that notion is almost laughable. They believe that two wrongs do not make a right. On the other hand, Americans scoff at Canada's theory that fewer guns mean less crime. Americans think that fewer guns will, if anything, allow crime to flourish because people will not be able to defend themselves. The opinions expressed in Canadian and American poetry are different because Canadian and American ways of thinking are different. Our life makes us who we are. The same goes for countries. America and Canada are like two brothers. America, the eldest, had to fight for every bit freedom his parents granted him. Canada, the youngest, simply had to ask politely for freedom since his older brother had already cleared the way. Both brothers came from the same place, but the order in which they came has made all the difference.

The concept of contradictions abounds in Frost's poetry. Frost's book North of Boston contradicts what people believe about his poetry. Because some of his poems are obviously not in traditional forms, readers assume they are free verse. But this confuses them when they find regular pentameter line joined with irregular rhythms of speech. Frost's technique of using “sentence sounds” in blank verse brought a modern sound to poetry. (Greiner 23). In 1928, Frost published West-Running Brook, which included several dark, contradictory poems. These poems include "Spring Pools," "On Going Unnoticed," "Bereft," "Tree at My Window," and "Acquainted with the Night" (26). Because of his elusiveness, a characteristic of his poetry, his poetry could seem contradictory and, therefore, confuse readers. Another trait that makes Frost's poetry so contradictory is its multiple layers. The use of layers presents readers with many views and possibilities. These layers allow all readers to find their beliefs displayed within the poems. As can be imagined, this style causes disputes when discussing the meaning of the poems (Beacham 1173). Another reason for confusion and contradiction is that Frost wrote about normal events with familiar language. As a result, many people accept the first interpretation they get, instead of delving in further (1174).

A prime example of the layers and possibilities can be found in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," which gives readers many meanings as to the theme of the poem. Some of these themes include the peacefulness of snow, duty, death, and even self-mockery. The common, but incorrect interpretation, is a moral theme about keeping promises. As Beachham writes, "A critic who reads Frost moralistically, believing that "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a lesson about keeping promises, has fallen into Frost's trap." He goes on to caution readers not to "impose their own ideas," or to "blindly accept any interpretations.” The way that readers miss Frost's intended theme is by applying their own ideas about morals to the poems (1174).

Traveling along Frost's contradictory road, "The Subverted Flower" tells of ordeals in life that can prohibit young love. The poem portrays the girl as a frigid and inhibited animal, controlled by her mother. Frost's disturbing and depressing poem contradicts his love for his wife and may have been a revenge poem. Critics believe that because Frost's wife had refused to marry him before she graduated, Frost wrote the autobiographical, seventy-three line poem that explained his sexual insecurity and jealousy he suffered before his marriage (Greiner 28).

Perceiving man's thoughts of self importance, Frost contradicts people and lowers the human life span from seventy years to one hour in "On Going Unnoticed." The line reads, "You linger your little hour and are gone, / And still the woods sweep leafily on, //..." (qtd in Greiner 26).

Frost's contradictory poem "An Old Man's Winter Night" belies Frost's public persona. Instead of the expected poem, warm and soft, the reader finds a sad tale of an old man with nothing to live for, and death quickly approaching. Alone and hopeless, the old man is held by a fear of the darkness coming and of sleep. He is compared to a house, his mind has been ravaged by years that have passed, and as Frost said, "One Aged man--one man--can't keep a house,/A farm, a countryside..." (qtd in Greiner 25).

The contradictions continue in "Dust of Snow," a small and simple poem with a deep meaning. It reads, "The way a crow/ Shook down on me/ The dust of snow/ From a hemlock tree// Has given my heart/ A change of mood/ And saved some part/ Of a day/ I had rued," (qtd Ellis 723). The poem contradicts human emotion connected to snow. The speaker's attitude seems odd because after new snow falls, the ground is pure and white, but the speaker is not happy or joyful. Another contradiction is the animal that cheers the speaker up. This is a crow, a generally hated bird (723). The crow received its bad reputation because it symbolized the devil in medieval times (724). Frost most likely did not mean for this to happen, but it could have been his way to try to get an outsider, the crow, accepted as something not totally evil in literature.

The final poem of contradictions, "After Apple-Picking," includes a grand example of misunderstood theme (Beacham 1174). In this poem, Frost deliberately uses words and ideas that he knew would confuse readers (1175). But because he wanted readers to catch on, he adds subtle hints to guide them. One of his hints is the pronoun change in line 16. Frost uses this change to supposedly draw the reader into the poem and give him a part in the story. Reading this poem, the reader believes that the sleep Frost is referring to is his own death, thus he is troubled by it in his sleep. As the reader read on, he discovers that Frost is instead talking about a simple-minded woodchuck when he uses “one” (1176).

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree/ Toward heaven still,/ And there's a barrel that I didn't fill/ Beside it, and there may be two or three/ Apples I didn't pick upon some bough/ But I am done with apple-picking now./ Essence of winter sleep is on the night,/ The scent of apples: I am drowsing off./ I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight/ I got from this morning from the drinking trough/ And held against the world of hoary grass./ It melted, and I let it fall and break./…One can see what will trouble/ This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is./ Were he not gone,/ The woodchuck could say whether its like his/ Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,/ Or just some human sleep. (Frost 26-27)

Frost uses this poem to explain how as readers use their imaginations to make death seem like more that it is, so they do to his poetry. Readers seem to read Frost's poems and make up their own meanings to the poetry.

Frost's use of contradiction does in fact give his poetry a strange, eerie quality. Although critics and readers alike today try to decipher his poems, some of his deep meaning that have not been uncovered yet, may never be found. Robert Frost was a brilliant man with a great imagination, and is still one of the great American poets.

Dickinson's era was initially one of progression as America broke its ties from Great Britain in the War of Independence in 1776. However, the nation was soon plunged into the Civil War in 1861, partly from the ideology that all men were created equal. Politically and ideologically, this century was an unstable one with many movements attempting to explain the existence of man on earth and significance of large-scale conflict. This questioning mentality which was fostered, was opposed by the traditional Puritan doctrine. Dickinson had a Puritan upbringing and from very early on in life, she was taught that all men were evil. No-one could be saved from eventual damnation except for the "elect", a small number of people pre-selected by God.

This idea of strict, unalterable pre-destination after death concerned Dickinson greatly. Calvinist (a form of Puritanism) theology taught that fate was the ultimate determinant of one's life. One should not have the audacity to deviate from it. Dickinson often questioned this concept and spent most of her adult life as a complete recluse to meditate on the profound truths of life.

Because Dickinson was exposed to Calvinism since childhood through regular Church attendances, many of her poems were written in the compressed brief stanzas similar to Church musicals. "Safe in the Alabaster Chambers" contains simple words but many of these hold rich connotations and meanings. This reflected Dickinson's complexity of thought as she wrote purely in images. For example, in the first stanza, the dead were said to be safe or secure in their burial tombs. They were untouched by the "Morning" and the "Noon". These two times of the day could be interpreted with both the physical and metaphorical meanings. Literally, the "Morning" was a time of the rising sun as "Noon" signalled the advancing day. In metaphorical terms, the morning was symbolic of hope, renewal and youth whilst noon was when the pinnacle of the hopes and dreams could be reached. On both levels, such aspects of earthly life could never be experienced by the dead again.

Dickinson capitalised specific words in the poem. Capitalisation served to draw out emphasis in a particular image and to endow symbolic importance on a description. "Morning" and "Noon" had been capitalised because of the rich connotations that each word, used in the context of the poem, could give. "Alabaster Chambers", "Rafter of Satin" and "Roof of Stone" showed this technique also because all these inanimate objects are now given muli-layered connotations.

The imagery in this poem could be absorbed in various ways. The first verse of the second stanza reads - "Grand go the Years in the Crescent - above them - ." This signified that time passed with the changing phases of the moon - from months, to years, to centuries, to eons. The line also gave the impression of a dome shielding the dead from the effects of time.

"Worlds scoop their Arcs" could have two different meanings. One would give the image of planets continuing their orbits whilst another would give the image of the revolutions of societies - how a society could rise, crumble and fall in a continuous cycle. The poem itself gave an overall impression of whiteness, indicated by alabaster, a smooth white stone; satin, usually a white pall over a corpse; "Roof of Stone", the white marble gravestone; and finally "a Disc of Snow." Such blaring whiteness was symbolic of a barren and empty purity. Now that the people were dead, good and evil no longer hold any distinction for them.

"Lie the Meek members of the Resurrection" is a biblical allusion to one of the Beatitudes - "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." Ironically, these corpses had become inheritors of the earth by now being forever entombed in it. Resurrection referred to the Christian belief that after death, people's souls would resurrect with Christ.

The constant use of the dash could not be ignored here as this poem was filled with it. The dash usually gave the effect of a pause or a continuation of thought. During these times, the reader was encouraged to dwell more deeply on the images created that preceded the dash and to question the nature of the images that would follow. The last line did so perfectly. It began with - "Soundless as dots -." Here, the reader should question the idea of dots being soundless and further, what dots these were. It is answered by "on a Disc of Snow -." The reader then gains the idea that the author was referring to the microscopic dark areas of a snowflake. Dickinson was indicating that the great changes of the universe would be as soundless as dots on a snowflake to the dead.

A tone of utter quietness or soundlessness seemed to be conveyed by all of these techniques. This again reflected the death-like silence that could only be associated with the atmosphere prevalent in a cemetery. The change in tone lay in the second stanza where gigantic, immense movement was illustrated, a diametric contrast to the stillness in the first stanza. "And Firmaments - row - " depict the skies and heavens moving progressively onward, demonstrating the inevitability of change. "Diadems - drop - " referred to monarchies or dynasties falling from power, further supported by "Doges - surrender - ." Doges were once the rulers of Venice. Both these verses indicate that power - of any kind - whether it be the power of the universe or the power of man, all will change through the passage of time.

'Safe in the Alabaster Chambers' was a powerful poem, drawing vast, almost dimensionless images of galactic changes to chaotic upheavals of earthly power and finally to the intricate, minute details of a snowflake. The theme developed was that the dead would not be able to perceive such vast ravages of time and change. Dickinson's fascination with death could be quite morbid but it was through this fascination that she had produced such poetry, full of imagery and meaning. It also explored the common questions posed by all mortal minds - those pertaining to the meaning of life and death, fate and destiny, immortality and what would await us on the other side of life.

Oftentimes we are misled to believe one thing when the real facts actually pertain to another. Truth in the real world could actually be stranger than fiction or those that are depicted in literature. A classic example of this would be Poe's “The Mystery of Marie Roget”. The story is actually based on a real New York story crime mystery which remains unsolved to this day.

Poe used the method of ratiocination in his mystery tales. Detective fiction tells us that “truth is what remains after the impossible has been determined-no matter how improbable that truth may seem.” Poe best exemplified this premise in his mystery works. Often, there is more than one truth in the story. Sometimes, these truths are conflicting. As in the case of “Murders in Rue Morgue” which deserved special mention since it was the first tale where Poe made use of ratiocination. Here, we see apparent "impossibilities", as seen by the police because of their preconceived biases, to be in actuality real "possibilities".

Truths may not appear obvious. But as Poe pointed out in his finest mystery story “Purloined Letter”, “the case is so difficult to solve because it appears to be so simple.” This rule applies to most detective stories. Often the most complex mystery appears to be so because it occurs in the “most obvious place”. Truth, therefore, is not hard to find if we look for it with open eyes, with inner discernment instead of relying on physical senses alone.

The language of the stories could either help or conceal the truth depending on the reader. Given the facts, he could arrive at logical conclusions. Or, he could let his biases color his judgment thereby limiting his perception on the matter under investigation. In the Purloined Letter, for instance, detective Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin asked Monsieur G to search Minister D's house thoroughly so he could find the letter that the latter used to blackmail the former. After a month of searching the entire house, Monsieur G gave up. It turned out that the letter was hidden in plain sight but cleverly disguised.

All of the aforementioned stories bore striking resemblance in the way Poe arrived at the solution. All stories used the principle of ratiocination - which is the application of clear logic to solve the mystery.

Poe gave hints to the solution as the story evolved. All the clues, as a matter of fact, are mentioned in the story. But in detective fiction, it is not enough to produce clues but also to arrange these clues in such a way that at the end of the story one arrived at an

unexpected solution, which in hindsight would have shed light or give logic to the story in the first place. Despite the half-facts presented to the reader, it was easy to sense in the way Poe constructed the story that something was going on and deserved the reader's attention. A number of the scenes and incidents in the stories mentioned above have dual meanings. One is obvious. The other and often the most important is hidden except for those with really discerning eyes and revealed at the end.