Critical Appreciation of Poems
Critical Appreciation of Poems
Critical Appreciation of Poems
Although William Shakespeare is best known as a playwright, he is also the poet behind
154 sonnets, which were collected for the first time in a collection in 1609. Based on
the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet, Shakespeare’s sonnets differ from the norm by
addressing not only a young woman – which was the norm in Italy – but also a young man,
known throughout as the Fair Youth. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? is one of the
Fair Youth poems, addressed to a mysterious male figure.
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? attempts to justify the speaker’s beloved’s beauty
by comparing it to a summer’s day, and comes to the conclusion that his beloved is better
after listing some of the summer’s negative qualities. While summer is short and
occasionally too hot, his beloved has a beauty that is everlasting, and that will never be
uncomfortable to gaze upon.
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare
thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2,
the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he
is “more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are
shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or
too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of
autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells
how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy
eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how
the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the
poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Upon Westminster Bridge
EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge stretching over the River Thames,
linking Westminster and Lambeth. It proved essential in ferrying traffic to the developing
South London and south coast ports, thus avoiding the congested London roads.
While William Wordsworth was taken with the glory of nature (that does not mean to say
that he was unaware of the beauty offered in other places as well) London, which was
considerably not natural, has attracted the attention of several poets, among them
Wordsworth. His poem Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 is a
celebration of this city.
The poem is a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet, arranged into an octave or eight-line section
and a sestet or six-line section, rhyming abbaabba and cdcdcd . The first eight lines praise
the beauty of London in the early morning light, as the poet stands on Westminster Bridge
admiring the surrounding buildings. Wordsworth begins by offering the view from
Westminster Bridge the highest possible praise: there is nothing fairer in all the world. And
he writes that anyone who could see such a sight and just carry on walking past without
stopping to appreciate the view would be soulless indeed. London appears to wear the
morning’s beauty like a piece of clothing. The ships, towers, and other buildings that make
up the London skyline are silent (the world hasn’t begun to stir yet) and ‘bare’. Here there is
no gaudiness but plain and simple beauty, despite the man-made origins of these
structures. These buildings appear to be submitting to nature: they ‘lie / Open’ to the fields
and the sky, those earthly and ethereal landscapes that sandwich them, as if the London
buildings are between earthly beauty and the beauty of the heavens, and exist not in
contrast to them but as a natural bridge between them. Because the workaday world hasn’t
started yet and the wheels of industry are still, the air is ‘smokeless’ at the moment: clear
and clean. But this will be overturned when London wakes: in reality, the world of nature is
at the mercy of mankind and the systems of trade and industry which rule from the city, just
as the sky will be polluted by the plumes of smoke from the chimneys of factories.
The poem is a ballad, which tells the tragic tale of Lord Ullin’s daughter and her lover, a
Scottish chieftain. The poem begins with the girl and the chieftain arriving at the banks of
Lochgyle with the intention of going across it, to safety. They are being closely followed by
Lord Ullin and his men and so the two lovers are desperate to go across before others arrive
at the shore. The lover requests the boatman to ferry them across and promises to pay him
a silver pound.
The boatman hesitates because the weather is stormy and it is dangerous to cross the Loch
just then. But, when the girl pleads with him and says that she would rather face the stormy
weather than an angry father who would surely kill her lover, the boatman is touched and
agrees to take them across without money.
Thus, the boat leaves the shore just as Lord Ullin and his men reach the place. All his anger
evaporates the moment he sees his daughter in the boat, battling against the fury of the
raging tempest. The sight of his daughter crying out for help from the storm-ravaged boat
melts his heart and he cries out to her to return with the assurance that he would forgive
her. But it is too late and before his very eyes the little boat capsizes and the two lovers and
the boatman are drowned in the turbulent waters.
The mood of the poem is very dark, serious, emotional and sad as it recounts the tragic tale
of the two lovers. The setting of the poem is the Scottish Highlands.
MY LAST DUCHESS
BY ROBERT BROWNING
‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is a well-known dramatic monologue. It suggests that
the speaker has killed his wife. The poet’s inspiration for this poem came from the Duke and
Duchess Ferarra. The Duchess died under very suspicious circumstances.
This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who
lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining
an emissary who has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage (he has recently been
widowed) to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his
palace, he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess, apparently a young and lovely girl.
The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions, then about the Duchess herself.
His musings give way to a diatribe(speak badly) on her disgraceful behavior: he claims she
flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name.” As
his monologue continues, the reader realizes with ever-more chilling certainty that the Duke
in fact caused the Duchess’s early demise: when her behavior escalated, “[he] gave
commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.” Having made this disclosure, the Duke
returns to the business at hand: arranging for another marriage, with another young girl. As
the Duke and the emissary walk leave the painting behind, the Duke points out other
notable artworks in his collection.
“My Last Duchess” comprises rhyming pentameter lines. The lines do not employ end-stops;
rather, they use enjambment—that is, sentences and other grammatical units do not
necessarily conclude at the end of lines.
THE EPITAPH
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
The book Paradise Lost is an epic poem – which is a long story told in verse form. The poem
is written in blank verse, or lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, and is over 10,000 lines
long. Milton had become blind by the time he composed much of this poem and so dictated
it to different scribes including his daughter, Deborah.
The poem is a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve from the biblical book of Genesis which
describes the creation of Heaven and Earth and of Adam and Eve.
The selected lines from the poem Paradise Lost opens with an invocation and the Milton the
poet explains the theme of his poem-first act of disobedience towards the God and then its
consequences. He explains the story of Adam and Eve who ate the Fruit of Forbidden Tree
that brought sorrow and death to human beings until Jesus came to the world and purified
it again brought happiness back.
Now Milton invokes the Muse (source of mystical inspiration) to assist him divinely in giving
voice to his purpose of writing (Milton calls it Adventurous Song). Milton’s muse is Holy
Spirit which, in his views, makes his song superior to the others. According to Milton, his
purpose of writing is to “assert Eternal Providence and justifie the wayes of God to men.”
In section 2, Milton moves from prayer to the disobedience of Adam and Eve that occurred
because of the serpent (i.e. Satan) that made them be expelled from the Heaven. Poet then
moves to an event before Adam and Eve. Satan who was Lucifer, an angel, who along with
his companions considered himself “to have equal’d the most High” and rebelled against
the God.
A war started between God and Satan, in which the latter was defeated and thrown out of
Heaven into Hell along with his companions who are now demons. All the demons including
Satan remain “rowling in the fiery Gulfe” i.e. the fire for nine days.
Around them is “dungeon horrible” and fire flames. Poet describes the scene of Hell which
he calls Choas. Satan ultimately regains the conscious and “with bold words breaking the
horrid silence” speaks to Beelzebub.
The Raven
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—
Merely this and nothing more.
"The Raven" is the most famous of Poe's poems, notable for its melodic and dramatic
qualities. With eight stressed-unstressed two-syllable feet per lines, combined with the
predominating ABCBBB end rhyme scheme and the frequent use of internal rhyme, refrain
of "nothing more" and "nevermore" give the poem a musical lilt when read aloud. Poe also
emphasizes the "O" sound in words such as "Lenore" and "nevermore" in order to underline
the melancholy and lonely sound of the poem and to establish the overall atmosphere.
This popular narrative poem is written in the first person. ‘The Raven‘ personifies the feeling
of intense grief and loss, while other symbols throughout the poem reinforce
a melodramatic mood that emphasizes the main character’s grief and loss. ‘The
Raven’ explores the world of emotional wars that individuals face in all walks of life;
specifically, the fight one can never ignore, the fight of control over the emotions of grief
and loss. These battles are not physical, but leave scarring and bruising just as if they were.
Poe has produced a wonderful piece of work that resonates with the feelings and
experiences of every reader that comes across this poem.
The scene opens on a “dreary” or boring midnight and a “weak and weary” character. The
quiet midnight paints a picture of mystery and suspense for the reader. The air of suspense
continues to build as Poe shifts the narrative from the tapping on the door to the thoughts
of the character. This could also portray that the character himself is avoiding answering the
door. If we look at the door symbolizing his weaknesses and insecurities we can easily
understand why he would want to avoid opening up to whatever was tapping on it. The
character begins to build some confidence as he draws closer towards the door to see who
would come to see him at such an hour. He calls out saying sorry ‘Sir’ or ‘Madame’, he had
been napping and the ‘tapping’ at the door was so light that he wasn’t even sure that there
was actually someone knocking at the door, at first. As he is saying this, he opens the door
only to find nothing but the darkness of the night.
Finding nothing on the other side of the door leaves him stunned. He stands there staring
into the darkness with his mind racing. How could he have heard the clear continuous
knocking at the door only to find nothing…physical? Now because he had been pining for
Lenore, she quickly comes to mind, so he whispers her name into the empty night ‘Lenore?’
and an echo whispers back ‘Lenore!’.
"A Noiseless Patient Spider" is a lyric poem written by the 19th Century American poet Walt
Whitman. Whitman originally wrote the poem as part of a longer piece, "Whispers of
Heavenly Death," for The Broadway, A London Magazine in 1868. The poem was later
republished in an 1891 edition of Leaves of Grass. Although much shorter than many of his
well-known poems, "A Noiseless Patient Spider" deals with one of the central concerns in
Whitman's work: what it means to be an individual seeking and creating connections with
the larger world.
In this poem, Whitman makes excellent use of imagery and metaphor. The speaker starts by
vividly describing the experience of watching the spider weave its web, allowing
the reader to share his fascination. In the second stanza, he elevates these images into
metaphors for his soul's figurative desires: "to the bridge you will need be formed" and "till
the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere." Even the title of the poem is a descriptive
image; the phrase "A noiseless patient spider" invokes the image of this tiny creature sitting
perfectly still, waiting for its moment.
In this poem, the spider and the speaker's soul both face a similar plight. They must use
their skills to build connections, searching for meaningful and effective bonds. In the first
stanza, Whitman's characterization of the spider reads as somewhat hopeless - the creature
is "isolated" and will be "ever unreeling" his web without any promise of making an impact
on his "vast" environment. However, as is often the case with Whitman's poetry, the poem
ends with an optimistic idea. Although it is difficult to "ceaselessly" search for connections,
his soul will eventually be successful and then he can rest, just like a spider with a
completed web.
This poem is made up of two stanzas of five lines each. As usual, there is no set meter or
rhyme scheme. The separation of stanzas in this poem represents a shift from literal (the
speaker watching the spider make its web on the rock) to figurative (the speaker addressing
his soul's attempts to make connections in the world). The aim of the poem is to draw the
comparison between the speaker's soul and the spider, which is why the two stanzas mirror
each other in size and structure.
Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
The literal translation of the words of this haiku poem, by Robert Hass, is:
Old pond…
a frog jumps in
water’s sound
‘The Old Pond’ is one of the best-known Japanese haiku of all time. This haiku consists of
three phrases that contain the syllable count of 5-7-5.
This haiku contains manifold meaning inside its brevity and compactness. To begin with, the
literal meaning of the Japanese text is of great importance. As it gives the key to the inner
meaning of the text. In the first phrase, “Furu” means old, and “ike” means pond. Here, “ya”
is a “kireji” or “cutting word”. Thereafter, in the second phrase, “kawazu” means frog, and
“tobikomu” means “jumping into”. In the last phrase, “mizu” means water, and “oto” stands
for sound. Here, “no” is a phoneme or an “On”. In Japanese, “On” stands for “sound”. In this
way, the literal meaning of the text, in Standard English, is “Old pond—frog jumping into—
water’s sound.”