Poetry Guides - Summary, Analysis, and Poetic Devices | LitCharts

Poetry Guides

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by Robert Browning

The Victorian poet Robert Browning's "Life in a Love," first published in 1855, explores the often obsessive, irrational nature of unrequited love. The poem's speaker vows to endlessly pursue his b...

by William Blake

English Romantic poet William Blake first published "A Dream" in his important 1789 collection Songs of Innocence. In the poem, the speaker describes dreaming of a lost ant crying out for her famil...

As I Walked Out One Evening

"As I Walked Out One Evening" is W.H. Auden's song of disillusionment, mortality, and love. The poem's speaker wanders out for an evening stroll and overhears a kind of debate between a young lover...

by Robert Browning

The Victorian poet Robert Browning's "Life in a Love," first published in 1855, explores the often obsessive, irrational nature of unrequited love. The poem's speaker vows to endlessly pursue his b...

by William Blake

English Romantic poet William Blake first published "A Dream" in his important 1789 collection Songs of Innocence. In the poem, the speaker describes dreaming of a lost ant crying out for her famil...

As I Walked Out One Evening

"As I Walked Out One Evening" is W.H. Auden's song of disillusionment, mortality, and love. The poem's speaker wanders out for an evening stroll and overhears a kind of debate between a young lover...

by Stanley Kunitz

Published in The Poems of Stanley Kunitz (1978) when the poet was 73, "The Layers" deals with themes of aging, change, and loss. Its speaker, who is old enough to have "walked through many lives" (...

by Robert Browning

The Victorian poet Robert Browning's "Life in a Love," first published in 1855, explores the often obsessive, irrational nature of unrequited love. The poem's speaker vows to endlessly pursue his b...

by William Blake

English Romantic poet William Blake first published "A Dream" in his important 1789 collection Songs of Innocence. In the poem, the speaker describes dreaming of a lost ant crying out for her famil...

As I Walked Out One Evening

"As I Walked Out One Evening" is W.H. Auden's song of disillusionment, mortality, and love. The poem's speaker wanders out for an evening stroll and overhears a kind of debate between a young lover...

by Stanley Kunitz

Published in The Poems of Stanley Kunitz (1978) when the poet was 73, "The Layers" deals with themes of aging, change, and loss. Its speaker, who is old enough to have "walked through many lives" (...

Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare wrote "Sonnet 45" in the 1590s, and it was first published with his collected sonnets in 1609. Like the surrounding poems in Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sequence, this sonnet add...

"The Castle" is an allegorical poem by the Scottish poet, autobiographer, translator, and critic Edwin Muir, first published in his 1946 collection The Voyage, and Other Poems. The poem's speaker i...

by Stanley Kunitz

Published in The Poems of Stanley Kunitz (1978) when the poet was 73, "The Layers" deals with themes of aging, change, and loss. Its speaker, who is old enough to have "walked through many lives" (...

Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare wrote "Sonnet 45" in the 1590s, and it was first published with his collected sonnets in 1609. Like the surrounding poems in Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sequence, this sonnet add...

"The Castle" is an allegorical poem by the Scottish poet, autobiographer, translator, and critic Edwin Muir, first published in his 1946 collection The Voyage, and Other Poems. The poem's speaker i...

The Bright Lights of Sarajevo

by Tony Harrison

The English poet Tony Harrison wrote "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" when on assignment for the Guardian newspaper during the bloody Bosnian War. "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" observes the Saraje...

Half-Hanged Mary

by Margaret Atwood

"Half-Hanged Mary" is Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's tale of patriarchal cruelty and powerful transformation. This dramatic monologue's speaker is Mary Webster, a 17th-century woman hanged for w...

by Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell published "Night Sweat" in his 1964 collection For the Union Dead. The poem can be read as a vivid, nightmarish portrait of anxiety and self-doubt, as well as of the toll these emotio...

Ode on Solitude

by Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope, widely considered the most prominent English poet of the early 18th century, wrote "Ode on Solitude" in 1700—when he was only 12 years old! The poem bears little resemblance to the ...

Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"

by William Shakespeare

“Sonnet 94” was written by the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare and first published in 1609. The speaker begins this particular poem by praising the kind of beautiful, powerful perso...

by Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen's "Tableau" is a poem about interracial intimacy and its effect on a prejudiced community. The poem's speaker describes two young men—one Black, one white—walking arm in arm down the...

Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"

by William Shakespeare

"Sonnet 27" is part of William Shakespeare's Fair Youth sonnet sequence, a large group of poems addressed to an unidentified—but apparently very attractive—young man. It occurs relatively early in ...

by Grace Nichols

“Island Man” was written by the poet Grace Nichols, who was born in Guyana but moved to England in 1977. Like Nichols, the man in the poem is an immigrant from the Caribbean. Each night, he dreams ...

by John Masefield

In English poet John Masefield's "Sea Fever," a speaker passionately insists that he must return to a sailor's life in order to be happy. The freedom of the open sea and a life of travel and advent...

Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare wrote "Sonnet 45" in the 1590s, and it was first published with his collected sonnets in 1609. Like the surrounding poems in Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sequence, this sonnet add...

"The Castle" is an allegorical poem by the Scottish poet, autobiographer, translator, and critic Edwin Muir, first published in his 1946 collection The Voyage, and Other Poems. The poem's speaker i...

The Bright Lights of Sarajevo

by Tony Harrison

The English poet Tony Harrison wrote "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" when on assignment for the Guardian newspaper during the bloody Bosnian War. "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" observes the Saraje...

Half-Hanged Mary

by Margaret Atwood

"Half-Hanged Mary" is Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's tale of patriarchal cruelty and powerful transformation. This dramatic monologue's speaker is Mary Webster, a 17th-century woman hanged for w...

by Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell published "Night Sweat" in his 1964 collection For the Union Dead. The poem can be read as a vivid, nightmarish portrait of anxiety and self-doubt, as well as of the toll these emotio...

Ode on Solitude

by Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope, widely considered the most prominent English poet of the early 18th century, wrote "Ode on Solitude" in 1700—when he was only 12 years old! The poem bears little resemblance to the ...

Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"

by William Shakespeare

“Sonnet 94” was written by the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare and first published in 1609. The speaker begins this particular poem by praising the kind of beautiful, powerful perso...

by Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen's "Tableau" is a poem about interracial intimacy and its effect on a prejudiced community. The poem's speaker describes two young men—one Black, one white—walking arm in arm down the...

Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"

by William Shakespeare

"Sonnet 27" is part of William Shakespeare's Fair Youth sonnet sequence, a large group of poems addressed to an unidentified—but apparently very attractive—young man. It occurs relatively early in ...

by Grace Nichols

“Island Man” was written by the poet Grace Nichols, who was born in Guyana but moved to England in 1977. Like Nichols, the man in the poem is an immigrant from the Caribbean. Each night, he dreams ...

by John Masefield

In English poet John Masefield's "Sea Fever," a speaker passionately insists that he must return to a sailor's life in order to be happy. The freedom of the open sea and a life of travel and advent...

The Bright Lights of Sarajevo

by Tony Harrison

The English poet Tony Harrison wrote "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" when on assignment for the Guardian newspaper during the bloody Bosnian War. "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" observes the Saraje...

Half-Hanged Mary

by Margaret Atwood

"Half-Hanged Mary" is Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's tale of patriarchal cruelty and powerful transformation. This dramatic monologue's speaker is Mary Webster, a 17th-century woman hanged for w...

by Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell published "Night Sweat" in his 1964 collection For the Union Dead. The poem can be read as a vivid, nightmarish portrait of anxiety and self-doubt, as well as of the toll these emotio...

Ode on Solitude

by Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope, widely considered the most prominent English poet of the early 18th century, wrote "Ode on Solitude" in 1700—when he was only 12 years old! The poem bears little resemblance to the ...

Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"

by William Shakespeare

“Sonnet 94” was written by the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare and first published in 1609. The speaker begins this particular poem by praising the kind of beautiful, powerful perso...

by Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen's "Tableau" is a poem about interracial intimacy and its effect on a prejudiced community. The poem's speaker describes two young men—one Black, one white—walking arm in arm down the...

Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"

by William Shakespeare

"Sonnet 27" is part of William Shakespeare's Fair Youth sonnet sequence, a large group of poems addressed to an unidentified—but apparently very attractive—young man. It occurs relatively early in ...

by Grace Nichols

“Island Man” was written by the poet Grace Nichols, who was born in Guyana but moved to England in 1977. Like Nichols, the man in the poem is an immigrant from the Caribbean. Each night, he dreams ...

by John Masefield

In English poet John Masefield's "Sea Fever," a speaker passionately insists that he must return to a sailor's life in order to be happy. The freedom of the open sea and a life of travel and advent...

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