The Last Night That She Lived

Emily Dickinson

The last Night that She lived
It was a Common Night
Except the Dying -- this to Us
Made Nature different

We noticed smallest things --
Things overlooked before
By this great light upon our Minds
Italicized -- as 'twere.

As We went out and in
Between Her final Room
And Rooms where Those to be alive
Tomorrow were, a Blame

That Others could exist
While She must finish quite
A Jealousy for Her arose
So nearly infinite --

We waited while She passed --
It was a narrow time --
Too jostled were Our Souls to speak
At length the notice came.

She mentioned, and forgot --
Then lightly as a Reed
Bent to the Water, struggled scarce --
Consented, and was dead --

And We -- We placed the Hair --
And drew the Head erect --
And then an awful leisure was
Belief to regulate --

2. Rephrase lines 11-12 and 12-15 so that their plain sense is clear.

11-12: "Rooms in which there were people who would be alive tomorrow"

12-15: "Anger and jealousy arose, that she should die while others continued to live"

3. What do the images of "a narrow time" (18) and "Too jostled" (19) contribute to the emotions of the poem?

"[N]arrow time"
4. Why is the comparison in lines 22-23 particularly effective?

5. Explain the emotional and spiritual adjustments expressed in the last four lines.

On the Sonnet

John Keats

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fetter’d, in spite of pained loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of poesy;
Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gain’d
By ear industrious, and attention meet:
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.

2. The poem prescribes a specific approach to writing sonnets. What qualities does the speaker suggest a good sonnet should have?

Melodious, attention to the "sound" of the sonnet, the meter, the rhythm.

3. The speaker compares poetry to a foot and the sonnet form to a sandal. What does he mean by suggesting the sonnet should be "more interwoven and complete" (5)?

Sonnets are supposed to be better or carefully crafted. One should take care when writing a sonnet.

4. What negative qualities does the poem imply that bad sonnets display?

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
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.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

1. "[S]urvive" (7) is a transitive verb with "hand" and "heart" as direct objects. Whose hand? Whose heart? What figure of speech is exemplified in "hand" and "heart"?

The hand and the heart are Ozymandias'.

2. Characterize Ozymandias.

Cold, callous, power-hungry, never satisfied, narcissistic.

3. Ozymandias was an ancient Egyptian tyrant. This poem was first published in 1817. Of what is Ozymandias a symbol? What contemporary reference might the poem have had in Shelley's time?

Ozymandias is a symbol for the decline of powerful leaders and their empires.

4. What is the theme of the poem and how is it "stated"?

All great leaders, and their empires, decay. This is made perfectly clear by the words on the pedestal of Ozymandias' statue: "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Everything "Mighty" sooner or later falls into ruin.

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet; and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, -
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.

And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

1. Being a chimney sweep in the 18th century was awful. Characterize the boy who speaks in this poem. How do his and the poet's attitudes toward his lot in life differ? Look specifically at lines 3, 7-8, and 24.

The boy seems to have accepted his lot in life. He doesn't know anything else, this is what he's been doing his whole life. In line 3 ("Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!") the boy is simply stating that he was a tiny child when he was sold to his master. The poet is sarcastic--the boy was made into a chimney sweep before his tongue could even form the word.

Lines 7-8, ""Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."--while the boy speaking appears to be trying the make the best of his and his friend's situation, the poet is mimicking the attitude of those who let these boy be made into sweepers. Complaints are met with "oh, it's not so bad" and a careful does of spin.

Line 24, "So if all do their duty they need not fear harm."--again, the boy is making the best of his situation, and imagining a happy future for himself if he keeps working hard. The poet, on the other hand, is hinting at the treatment of the boys. Obedient, hardworking boys do not get punished.


2.The dream in lines 11-20, besides being a happy dream, can be interpreted allegorically. Point out possible significances of the sweepers' being "locked up in coffins of black" (12) and the Angel's releasing them with a bright key to play upon green plains.

The sweepers locked up in black coffins in the dream are locked up in black coffins in their lives, trapped inside of confining chimneys. I think the poet is talking about reform and putting an end to the labor these boys are sold into and forced to do.

To Autumn

John Keats

1.

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

2.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

2. How many kinds of imagery do you find in the poem? Give examples of each.

3. Are the images arranged haphazardly or are they carefully organized?

I think the poem was carefully organized. The first stanza kicks off the personification of autumn. The idea of "fruitfulness" that is first formed in stanza one carries on into the second stanza, but this stanza sees the beginning of the harvest, as evident by the mention of a granary and "a half-reaped furrow" (16). These first two stanzas are the process of maturing and aging, and the last stanza, one full of song. This last stanza alleviates the unspoken fears people have concerning their personal autum, comforting the reader by reminding them that the song of their spring has only been replaced by a new one.

4. What is autumn personified as in stanza 2? Is there and suggestion of personification in the other two stanzas?

Autumn is personified as a woman in stanza two. Personification is first used in the first stanza:

"SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run" (1-4)

5. Although the poem is primarily descriptive, what attitude toward transience and passing beauty is implicit in it?

It's okay to get old.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

Lord Byron

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

2. This poem is based on this biblical story. How do the rhythm and imagery of the poem convey the spirit of the biblical account?

The imagery, specifically that detailing the massive size of the Assyrian forces ("And the sheen of their spears..." (3), for example), plays up the idea that only some divine intervention could possible have prevented the destruction of this city. The description of the sudden death of the Assyrian forces, starting with line nine, also contributes to the sense that this victory was an act of God.

3. Identify significant images in the poem. How do they deepen and enrich the poem's meaning?

"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold" (1)--emphasizes the fact that this is a God's "flock" being attacked. Contrasting that which is vicious with that which is gentle.

"And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!" (23-24)--if the sudden death of a couple thousand men didn't get the point across to you, this should--God is powerful and protects his flock.

The world is too much with us

William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

1. What two relevant denotations has "wreathed" (14)?

According to the internet, "wreathed" can mean that something is something shaped like a wreath, or adorned with a wreath.

2. Explain why the poet's words are more effective than these possible alternatives: earth for "world" (1); selling and buying for "getting and spending" (2); dozing for "sleeping" (5); posies for "flowers" (7); nourished for "suckled" (10); visions for "glimpses" (12); sound for "blow" (14).

Wordsworth word choices are more natural, which helps with the over all theme and feel of the poem. I think these words are more "relaxed," and some of them (like earth, flowers, and getting and spending) are broader than their alternatives--the images they bring to mind can vary greatly.

4. Is "Great God!" (9) a vocative of an expletive? Or something of both?

I'd say it's a little bit of both. The poet is almost telling God that he'd rather be a nature-appreciating pagan than the some-sort-of Christian he apparently is, but he's also frustrated and expaserated.

5. State the theme of the poem in a sentence.

Humanity, in its effort to evolve, expand, and become greater, has failed to stop and smell the roses.

Peace

George Herbert

SWEET PEACE, where dost thou dwell ? I humbly crave,
Let me once know
I sought thee in a secret cave,
And ask’d, if Peace were there.
A hollow winde did seem to answer, No :
Go seek elsewhere.

I did ; and going did a rainbow note :
Surely, thought I,
This is the lace of Peaces coat :
I will search out the matter.
But while I lookt, the clouds immediately
Did break and scatter.

Then went I to a garden, and did spy
A gallant flower,
The crown Imperiall : Sure, said I,
Peace at the root must dwell.
But when I digg’d, I saw a worm devoure
What show’d so well.

At length I met a rev’rend good old man :
Whom when of Peace
I did demand, he thus began ;
There was a Prince of old
At Salem dwelt, who liv’d with good increase
Of flock and fold.

He sweetly liv’d ; yet sweetnesse did not save
His life from foes.
But after death out of his grave
There sprang twelve stalks of wheat :
Which many wondring at, got some of those
To plant and set.

It prosper’d strangely, and did soon disperse
Through all the earth :
For they that taste it do rehearse,
That vertue lies therein ;
A secret vertue bringing peace and mirth
By flight of sinne.

Take of this grain, which in my garden grows,
And grows for you ;
Make bread of it : and that repose
And peace, which ev’ry where
With so much earnestnesse you do pursue
Is onely there.

1. Vocabulary: gallant (14), virtue (34). "Crown Imperial" (15) is a garden flower, fritillary; "Salem" (23) is Jerusalem.

2. Identify the "prince" (22), his "flock and fold" (24), the "twelve stalks of wheat" (28), the "grain" (37), and the "bread" (39).

The prince is Jesus Christ, his flock and fold are his followers, the twelve stalks of wheat represent the twelve apostles, and grain and bread represent the spread of Christianity and the sustenance it provides.

3. Should the "secret cave" (stanza 1), the "rainbow" (stanza 2), and the flower "garden" (stanza 3) be understood merely as places where the speaker searched or do they have more precise meanings?

I think the secret cave represents man's mind. Perhaps the speaker sought peace through some sort of meditation or self reflection. The rainbow could be nature, or superficial items. The garden might represent the heart, the beautiful flower with worm-eaten roots being vanity (which is wicked or rotten underneath a lovely façade).

4. Who is the "reverend good old man' (19), and what is his garden (37)?

The reverend good old man is a priest who grows the grains of Christianity in his heart (garden).

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.

1. The first two stanzas might be interpreted literally if the third and fourth stanzas did not force us to interpret them symbolically. What do the "rosebuds" symbolize (stanza 1)? What does the course of a day symbolize (stanza 2)? Does the poet narrow the meaning of the rosebud symbol in the last stanza of merely one of its specific meanings?

2. How does the title help us interpret the meaning of the symbol? Why is "virgins" a more meaningful word than, for example, maidens?

3. Why is such haste necessary in gathering the rosebuds? True, the blossoms die quickly, but others will replace them. Who really is dying?

4. What are "the worse, and worst" times (11)? Why?

5. Why is the wording of the poem better than these possible alternatives: blooms for "smiles" (3); course for "race" (7); used for "spent" (11); spend for "use" (13)?

To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

1. Vocabulary: coy (title), Humber (7), transpires (35). "Mistress" (title) has the now archaic meaning of sweetheart; "slow-chapped" (40) derives from chap, meaning jaw.

2. What is the speaker urging his sweetheart to do? Why is she being "coy"?

The speaker is urging his mistress to live life to its fullest, and in the moment. He's propbably trying to get her to have sex with him by employing the "we could die tomorrow" argument, and that is most likely why she is being so very coy.

3. Outline the speaker's argument in the three sentences that begin with the words If, But, and Therefore. Is the argument valid?

The speaker argues that time (death) could come whenever, its "winged chariot" at his back already. He mentions that the dead do not embrace, and therefore he and his mistress should take advantage of their youth.

4. Explain the appropriateness of "vegetable love" (11). What simile in the third section contrasts with it and how? What image in the third section contrasts with the distance between the Ganges and the Humber? Of what would the speaker be "complaining" by the Humber (7)?

I like the use of vegetable love when compared to the second section, which basically talks about decomp and decay and worms eating away. Both seems like a slow process, both involve dirt (in usual burials). This is contrasted i. the third section, when youth "sits on [...] skin like morning dew." One image, vegetables, draws images of roots and dirt, the other conjures up images of youth and freshness.

In the third section, the image of the speaker and his sweetheart curling up into one ball contrasts the distance of the Ganges and Humber, next to which the speaker might be complaining about his sweetheart's distance or her coyness.

5. Explain the figures in lines 22, 24, and 40 and their implications.

6. Explain the last two lines. For what is "sun" a metonymy?

The sun is a metonymy for time and, therefore, death, which approaches with the passing of time. The speaker argues that, if he and his mistress cannot avoid death, they should live life to the fullest and force death to catch up to them.

7. Is this poem principally about love or about time? If the latter, what might love represent? What philosophy is the poet advancing?

I think this poem is primarily about time, with love representing youth and it's rash decisions. The poet is advancing the idea of living life to the fullest, and not wasting a moment.

When my lover swears that she is made of truth

William Shakespeare- Sonnet 138

When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor'd youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:

Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.

1. How old is the speaker? How old is his beloved? What is the nature of their relationship?

The speaker is older than his beloved, probably by a substantial amount if they feel the need to lie about.

2. How is the contradiction in line 2 to be resolved? In lines 5-6? Who is lying to whom?

The contradiction in line 2, and later in lines 5-6, are resolved by the characters denial of them. The speaker knows that his love is lying to him, and chooses to ignore it. The beloved knows that she is lying to herself, but chooses not to acknowledge it. Tye two are lying to themselves.


3. How do "simply" (7) and "simple" (8) differ in meaning/ The words "vainly" (5), "habit" (11), "told" (12), and "lie" (13) all have double denotative meanings. What are they?

The speaker is "simply" choosing to ignore his beloved's lies. He does this by blaming her tongue, which supresses "simple truth"--things that should be apparent (like the speakers age), and easily accepted.

"Vainly" could mean "with a high opinion of one's self," or "desperately, with little-to-no hope of succeeding.

"Told" here can mean "counted, or accounted for," which would relate back to the speaker's advanced age. It can also refer
to the speaker and his beloved's desire to not talk about his age, as it would undo all of their lies.

In the poem, "lie" means not only to not tell the truth, but to lie next to one another, as lovers do.


4. What is the tone of the poem--that is, the attitude of the speaker toward his situation? Should line 11 be taken as an expression of (a) wisdom, (b) conscious rationalization, or (c) self-deception? In answering these questions, consider both the situation and the connotations of all the important words beginning with "swears" (1) and ending with "flattered" (14).

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

William Shakespeare- Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

1. Vocabulary: temperate (2), shade (11). What different meanings does "temperate" have when used to describe a person or "a summer's day"?

Generally, to be temperate is to be moderate. A temperate person us one who avoids extravagance. A temperate climate, or temperate "summer's day," is one which lacks extremes in temperature.

2. What details show that "a summer's day" is lacking in loveliness and is intemperate?

"Rough winds," the (sometimes excessive) heat of the sun, and the fact that they must end and give way to the other seasons show that summer days are not as lovely or intermperate as one would believe.

3. What are "the eye of heaven" (5) and "his gold complexion" (6)?

The sun and the sun's rays.

4. The poem begins more or less literally comparing the person being addressed to "a summer's day," but at line 9 it departs from what is literally possible into what is impossible. What does the poem gain by this shift in meaning?

The poem becomes more than just a sappy love poem--for me it almost becomes sad. The idea if someone never losing their beauty makes me think of death--a young person remembered as they were, a rose in full bloom, or a temperate summer's day.

5. Explain the logic behind lines 13-14. Is it valid proof? Why or why not?

The poet is stating that the subject, their beloved, will live on in the poem. The subject will forever be beautiful in the poem, which will be read or relevant as long as man continues to exist.