Paper Example on Poetry Analysis

Title of Poem: "Our journey had advanced."

Author: Emily Dickinson

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Title The poem may simply mean the journey has moved to a notch higher for the traveler, or it may be about the advancement of the journey itself.

Paraphrase In lines one through four, the speaker describes the beginning of the journey to eternity.

In lines five through eight, the speaker talks of the reluctancy in the feet moving forward due to the surrounding situation where they are in between the forest of the dead and the cities before them.

In lines nine through twelve, the speaker brings out the clear picture of a point of no return where the route behind is sealed, and they must forge ahead to where eternity awaits, with God at every point.

Connotation Imagery: Imagination is used to express the roads to eternity : "that odd Fork in Being's road" and "Behind a Sealed Route."

Plethora use of dashes everywhere in the poem to emphasize the point of moving forward with no point of return.

Attitude The tone is sober, even as the speaker realizes that speaker advances and has to take significant steps in life.

Shifts There is a shift in tone from the first stanza where they are moving at ease only to shift to the amazement and finally to hopelessness at realizing its a point of no return (Leonard 29).

Title In my perspective, the title suggests the journey and process through which we humans transition from life to death and will ultimately face the judge (God).

Theme The theme of the poem is about the significance of the journey through life where roads in life require informed decisions to be made as we move forward and transition between life and death (Leonard 30).

Title of Poem: "Ulylsses"

Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson

Title The title sounds that it might be about Ulylsses

Paraphrase In the first stanza, the speaker reflects on the travel and voyage that have shaped the very essence of his being, articulating 'I am a part of all that I met' describing his restlessness in the rest of the stationary and without adventure in the line (Lines 23-24). The second section of the poem is a call to the speaker's loyal mariners to join him on his pursuit for fulfillment as some work might yet be done or not becoming men that strove with Gods (Alfred 297).

Connotation The speaker literary addresses specific instances though the poem refers to the notion that when an individual ages, life starts to lose meaning. As the speaker has cooled, he feels that his life is typically dull, and this is a call to voyage in which he can restore meaning to his life again.

Attitude/Tone The speaker appears discouraged. However, when he continues, he appears to gain a sense of vigor regarding the state of his life and attainments.

Shifts There is a shift between lines 5 and 6. The tone in the initial paragraph of the poem is despair as Ulysses takes into account his present life and individuals. However, the tone then shifts to restiveness when he clarifies his desires to carry on his previous adventures.

Title The speaker is in Ulysses. Also, the poem utilizes Greek mythology and the tale of Ulysses to address the theme of the poem.

Theme The theme of journey expressed in the poem is viewed through the desire of the protagonist to undertake a quest travelling to the far stretches of the earth and looking for knowledge and fulfillment.

Title of Poem: "The Mouse's Tale."

Author: Lewis Carroll

Title The poem might simply imply that the mouse is telling a story or that the story is about the mouse itself (Witten et al. 1911).

Paraphrase The poem begins by a mouse offering to tell Alice his history which he says is a long and sad tale but Alice thinks that the mouse means its tail and is left puzzled wondering how a long tail can be sad. Meanwhile she pictures the recitation in form of a tail-like shape that is twisted.

The mouse then explains itself in the tale as a third person on how a cur(dog) named Fury proposes they go to law where he will prosecute and condemn the mouse to death acting both as a jury and a judge.

Connotation Imagery: This is illustrated by Alice picturing the recitation as a twisted tail as she mistakes tale for tail. The poem also has the shape like a mouse's body, with short dashes to show its paws and a longer line to form the tail.

Rhythm/Rhyme: The rhyme can be seen as tail-rhyme with rhyming words occurring internally such as judge and jury.

Attitude The tone is one of sadness as the mouse tries to explain how the dog wants to condemn him to death without trial.

Shifts The poem shifts from a playful tone to one that is serious and sad towards the end of the poem.

Title The title of the poem in my view brings out the justice system where innocent people sometimes go to trial for crimes they did not commit or are sometimes denied their right to trial and sentenced to face jail term or even death without defending themselves.

Theme The theme in the poem bring out a journey of sadness and regret as the mouse explains how he is to be condemned to death without a trial explaining the pain that victims of misjudgment undergo when they are denied a chance to defend themselves bringing out the injustice in the judicial system.

Title of Poem: "Sick on a Journey"

Author: Basho Matsuo

Title The title sound about being tired about being bored going on a journey or getting ill when going on a journey.

Paraphrase In line two, Matsuo tells the audience what he is giving to the world even after he passes away. "only my dreams will wander" clarifies that the poet's feeling that he left behind was his poems. He describes the emotion that only his works will impact individuals after he perishes and that anything else he had conducted would not impact anyone. The phrase 'only' provides the impression that Matsuo feelings he only left his poems to impact other individuals.

Line three describes the poet's thought of his life. In a remote hut for a proper ration of his life, the poet spent a lot of time writing and proceeding to adventures on his own. Also, he views life as 'desolate moors.' Matsuo says 'these desolate moors' to define earth and justify that the poem might have his own perspective of life, though he sees that the poems that are left behind will impact individuals. 'Desolate' is a negative phrase that the poet uses to describe life as an audience the impression he was not contented with how life treated him. Also, 'moors' is another word that he utilizes to describe individuals who are fans of his poems. In addition, I believe that Basho sees the universe as a moor though describing it as desolate convinces me to believe that he does not like the impact of colonization on his land. Deriving his poetry concepts appears, he sees his poems as reflects on what the unearthed wilderness is like. Arguably, he is providing a clue on what land not intruded by human beings is like. The line demonstrates how his perception of life and how his poems will remain clinging on the minds of haiku readers.

Connotation The speaker uses symbolism with the word 'dreams.' The latter is used to epitomize what the poet is leaving behind when he perishes and those of his poems (Basho 11).

Attitude The tone of the poem is sad. The poet used the term "sick on his journey' to explain that life is a journey and is almost approaching an end.

Shifts There is a shift in his health when he suffers from fever as he reaches Osaka.

Title The title of the poem expresses that Matsuo rarely gave himself time to recover from his longest voyage ever. He perhaps had a clue that it will kill him. During his endeavors, he fell ill and came down with a fever, which he disregarded till it worsened, and he could not get up.

Theme The theme of the poem is about the journey. It discusses Matsuo somehow manages to express the loneliness of individuality, the sadness of ending, and the craving to traveling onward even when that journey can only carry on in the imagination.

Title of Poem: "Epigram on Milton"

Author: John Dryden

The poem may simply be about Milton or his life (Odell 159).

Paraphrase The speaker talks about three epic poets born in three different ages that brought honor in Greece, Italy, and England, respectively, and link Milton to the two who, in this case, are Homer and Virgil.

Homer is unrivaled in lofty thoughts, Virgil in majesty, and the third who is Milton is a combination of the first two as nature could not go any further in any of these qualities.

Connotation Rhythm/Rhyme: The poem is three couplets, which means it has two lines that rhyme in five feet of repeating iambs.

Attitude The tone expressed is one of sadness at the loss of a great man in poetry and society as his achievements are great. This can be seen from the fact that nature could not go any further in creating qualities beyond those he possessed.

Shifts The poem shifts in tone as the works of the first two are praised which, when combined, creates a greater third poet. It sad in the end as Milton has to go the way of every man which nature dictates, which is death.

Title In my view, the title of the poem suggests that life and nature have a way of creating successful and great men in various fields though eventually, they must follow the same path, death.

Theme The theme of the poem is about the journey in this world where some great men and women get recognized for their contribution in society through their works in various fields such as poetry, literature, arts, science, among others.

Works Cited

Alfred, Lord Tennyson. "Ulysses." Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems, ed. Christopher Ricks (1842 (1842): 297-99.

Basho, Matsuo. Basho's Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho. SUNY Press, 2012.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns, and William Edwin Rudge. Journey of the Magi. Faber & Gwyer, 1927.

Leonard, Douglas Novich. "Dickinson's Our Journey Had Adva...