The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd - Essay Example

Reading Assignment: Poetry - Sonnets Summary of poems Sir Walter Raleigh p. 878 “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”. Thisis a love poem where the poet expresses his love for the shepherd and how she would live with him, “To live with thee and be thy love”. The poet proclaims his love for the shepherd by saying, “If all the world and love were young.” She compares that when living things are alive, they still die (line 15-16) and wishes youth would last forever without ever growing old. The poet uses imageries to show his wish for their love to live forever (Bloy 15). “What is our Life.” This poem compares life to a play of passion (Line 1). He says that our life is us acting in the play and heaven is our audience. Eventually, we die and when we are buried, our graves represent curtains being drawn down at the end of a play, which is reflected as our life. “Sir Walter Raleigh to His Son.” The poem is about a father speaking to his son. It uses wood that makes the tree, weed that is a danger to the tree and wag that is the knave. When all these are put together, they rot. He warns the son to always beware when things are put together and to always pray. “About where Laura’s grave lay.” The poem is about Laura’s grave and the speaker sees her grave in a temple where a Fairy Queen lies down on Laura’s hearse. This is like a blessing as the Fairy God Queen is oblivious of Laura’s grave (Abrams 878). Michael Drayton. P. 966 “To the reader of these sonnets.” This is a sonnet sequence first printed as Ideas Mirror. It symbolizes Plato’s idea of beauty. “How many paltry foolish painted things.” This is about poet’s love for one woman. The change in the mood of the poem in the first stanza shows his feelings for this woman and the hate for other women. “Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part.” This is a love poem that is sexual, about two people who are in love and their love is now dying. He protests that they should go their separate ways and that she is the only one who can save it. He leaves the relationship in her hands (Abrams 966). John Donne p1233 “The Flea” The poem is about a conversation between two lovers. The poet uses the “flea” as the love between them. The poet is earnestly asking his lover to sleep with him. He uses imagery and connotative words to explain why his lover should sleep with him using a clever and intelligent argument to convince her. He uses the flea in describing it sucking their blood, which refers to their love. It is a classic poem using the flea as a symbol for wanting them to be together. “A Valediction of Weeping” and “A Valediction of Forbidding Mourning.” A valediction means taking off or saying good bye. Both poems are love poems. In a “valediction of weeping,” the poet is begging and pouring out his emotions as to why he has to leave. The poet portrays weeping by using the words tears, water and seas to show his emotions and his regret in leaving. In “a valediction on forbidding mourning,” the poet talks about death. The poet is also talking to his lover. Death should be accepted but with no fear. The poem is calm and not full of emotions, as in valediction of weeping. The feelings portrayed are spiritual. He expresses his emotions as movements of the earth with no tears and no floods. Their love is above emotion (Abrams 1233). Sonnet 10. This is about death and the author wants death to die. The poet is speaking to death as a person. Death comes when men die and go to rest and their soul is delivered (line 8). Death is caused by war, poison and sickness. At the end, the poet sees death as simply a short sleep and when we wake up from the short sleep, death is gone and will die. Sonnet 14. The speaker is talking to God and is asking him to restore his soul. He has decided to go after God’s enemy and asks God to break whatever is holding him back in order to be free. The only way he can be pure is if God takes him by force. Sonnet 17. This is a love poem. The poet writes about his lover who has died. The poem is on her praise. He writes about saints and angels who are with her in heaven. He fears that the devil may take his love away. George Herbert p. 1595 “Easter Wings.” The poem is about creation and how God created man. In the beginning, God created man and he had everything (line 1). Through sin, man becomes poor (line 5) and loses everything. Man leaves in sorrow as he is being punished for his sin. Man is ashamed. If man goes to God (line 19) clipping his wing on God, then God shall save him (Abrams 1595). Paraphrase of one sonnet in modern English Robert Herrick P. 1643 “To the virgins, to make much of Time” Gather your rosebuds while you may Old time is still flying And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow you will be dying The glorious lamp of the heaven and the sun The higher he is getting The sooner will his race be run And nearer he will be to setting The age is best which is first When youth and blood are warmer But to be spent the worse and worst Times still succeed the former For having lost but once you are prime You may forever be tarry (Abrams 1643). Poetic Analysis of John Milton p. 1814 John Milton was a poet who became blind in 1651. The poem, “When I consider how my light was spent” focuses on his blindness. My light in the poem refers to his life when he could see. He now spends time in a dark world and he has no more light to use. His light is all used up. He is looking for a way out of his blindness and contemplates suicide, and refers death as talent. Death is useless “talent useless,” as he cannot even commit suicide. He uses sarcasm when he refers death as a talent. This clearly reflects his anger at his life being blind. He is frustrated that he is blind and cannot write poetry which he enjoys. It is this frustration that leads him to have suicidal thoughts. However, the strength of his faith keeps him from killing himself (Greenblatt & Meyer 24). In lines 5 – 8, he uses “my maker” to refer to God. He promises to serve God despite his blindness. He has to continue writing poetry as he has to be accountable to God and explain what he did with his life after he lost his eyesight. He says God does not need gifts from men on earth (line 10). As he continues his work while blind, he does not need to look at this as a gift to God. God is powerful and controls all the earth. There are many angels who will do what he asks. God “Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed.” God does not need anyone. He has his angels who will do all that he asks. They can be found all over the world, on the land and in the sea. God will serve anyone who is patient. “They also serve who only stand and wait." Milton believes in God and knows that his blindness will not stop him from living as he has his faith in God. Patience and faith in God will save him from his blindness (Abrams 1814). Works Cited Abrams, Meyer et al.  The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol. 1.  New York:   Norton, 2000. Print. Bloy, Barbara. English Literature: Close reading and analytical writing. New York: People’s Pub, 2005. Print. Greenblatt, Stephen, & Meyer Abrams. The Norton anthology of English Literature: The middle ages (to ca. 1485). New York:  Norton, 2006. Print. Read More