Beowulf: Context, Poetic Style, Structure, and Christianity
Beowulf: Historical Context
The Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian peoples had invaded the island of Britain and settled there several hundred years earlier, bringing with them several closely related Germanic languages that would evolve into Old English. Elements of the Beowulf story—including its setting and characters—date back to the period before the migration. The action of the poem takes place around 500 A.D. Many of the characters in the poem—the Swedish and Danish royal family members, for
Yeats’ Mystical Poems: Love and Symbolism
The Song of Wandering Aengus
W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) – Irish Literature
“The Song of Wandering Aengus” (1899) reflects Yeats’s deep interest in mythology and mysticism. The poem tells the story of Aengus, who encounters a magical transformation. A fish he is cooking turns into a “glimmering girl” with apple blossoms in her hair. She calls him by name and then vanishes into the light.
Though old and weary from searching for her, Aengus remains determined. He dreams of finding her, kissing her, and being
Read MoreUnderstanding the Poet’s Emotions and Symbolism
Understanding the Poet’s Emotions and Symbolism
Questions & Answers on Poetic Extracts
Extract 1
(a) What has been compared to a late winter’s moon?
Ans. The narrator’s aging mother has been compared to the late winter’s moon.
(b) Why has the comparison been made?
Ans. The narrator’s mother looked old, frail, and very pale, like the moon in late winter. Hence, the comparison.
(c) Identify the poetic device in the lines.
Ans. The poetic device used in the line ‘as a late winter’s moon’ is a simile.
(d)
John Donne’s ‘The Flea’: Analysis and Meaning
John Donne’s poem ‘The Flea’ is included in the Songs & Sonnets.
The Flea is one of John Donne’s most popular, erotic poems. As the title indicates, it focuses on an insect that was a common nuisance in the Elizabethan period—the flea—and turns it into a sexual metaphor.
That such an irritating creature could be used to such good effect is a poetic triumph, but it’s still not certain that, for all of Donne’s wit and ‘ribald humor’, the speaker succeeded in his sexual conquest.
This poem is
Read MoreUnderstanding Verses, Poems, and Lyrical Forms
The verses are metrical combinations that have a fixed structure on the number of lines, their extent, the kind of rhyme, and its distribution.
Key Verse Forms:
- Couplet: Two lines of stanza art more or less together in rhyming assonance or consonant. AA, aa.
- Trio: Stanzas three major art verses that rhyme in a consonant according to different patterns. It is often presented as a series enshrined for the rhyme (Tercets Chains).
- Quartet: Four-line stanza rhyming major art in a consonant.
A poem is a complete
Read MoreAntonio Machado: Poetics and Analysis of His Works
Poetics
Back in 1912, the portrait gives us fundamental data. It can be debatable, due to passion or vehemence, that sometimes appears in his verses. In their stance before Modernism and the aesthetic, they reject pure poetry conceived as such. By contrast, full acceptance of poetry has its root in the cordial, the human: “The universal feeling.” Independence from fashion, or defense of labels, and obedience to the compromised poetry of poetry itself, and with it, the poetic reality. Machado has
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