Essay about Poetry Analysis Mezzo Cammin

Although this is a short poem, there are so many different meanings that can come from the piece. With different literary poetic devices such as similes, imagery, and symbolism different people take away different things from the poem. One of my classmates saw it as an extended metaphor after searching for a deeper connection with the author. After some research on the author, we came to learn that the

Another thing the two sonnets share is metaphorical language; it used to imply a comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common ground. Christina Rossetti establishes an idea of metaphorically remaining “alive” through remembrance. The juxtaposition in line 1, “Remember me” and “gone away” implies that the poet suggests that the memory is the last thing a person has that still ties them to life. Henry Longfellow utilizes metaphorical language when he compares a tangible object to emotions. He includes, “There is a mountain…/that…/displays a cross of snow upon its side. / Such is the cross I wear upon my breast” (lines 9-12). The image of a mountain that bears a cross shape filled with snow manifests an image of the angelic figure going towards heaven. Longfellow purposely used a mountain to further implicate religious ideas; the height of the mountain shows that is closer to heaven because it is going upward. The snow symbolizes the wife and that she is on the peak of the mountain, reaching towards heaven. He wears the pain of the loss of his wife on his chest because she is within his soul.

There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as

Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.

The stanzas of this poem displays different situations, objects, and people that affect his life. However theses lyrics could be related to all. For example, the first stanza talks about a truck which symbolizes the memories and the times with his dad. In addition, the influence that only this truck can give. Even when offered the newest and latest, his standards and recollections are worth more.

While both Keats and Longfellow’s poems, “When I Have Fears” and “Mezzo Cammin,” focus on the unfulfillment of goals in life and the menacing appearance of death, their final assumptions of death are related but different. Both poems share similarity focusing on the poets’ thoughts as they contemplate the inevitability of their deaths and whether their accomplishments have meaning after death, but the poets exhibit a different attiutude towards their subject. Keats fears that he will not be able to fully accomplish his life goals before he dies, but he acknowledges the frivolity of earthly aspirations when faced with death. On the other hand, Longfellow, while also mourning the loss of his chance to accomplish his goals, maintains comfort in the past compared to the uncertain future. Longfellow maintains a grim, pessimistic tone throughout his poem juxtaposes the almost hopeful tone Keats exhibits throughout his poem. Through the use of imagery, literary devices, and diction, Keats and Longfellow convey their overall contrasting attitudes toward death.

Thesis: In the poem “A Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost shares how sometimes in life one has to make decisions rather they’re good or bad. However there are consequences following one’s decisions and choices. One can use their second chance by looking forward and choosing to take the right paths in life.

The last stanza goes into great detail about how even though the author’s father did so much for his son on a daily basis, the son was still an ungrateful person. In this poem the author does a good job of showing how a father’s love for his son can be a major driving force that would cause a dad to work so hard every day to provide for his son even if his son was unappreciative. Throughout the poem, the speaker’s remorseful tone is indicative of his feelings of regret and sadness towards his own apathy about his father’s will for him to have a good life. In the first stanza the author is sad because he feels like he never got the chance to tell his dad thanks for all the hard work he put in to provide for his family.

I chose this poem because it explains how people think every day. People believe that they have to try and be perfect everyday in order for people to not judge them. Everybody tries to be unique and impress others in some way. I think this poem makes the claim that people should focus on being happy instead of trying to be perfect. It states that if you change the person that you are then your priority will not be happiness which is the most important thing a person should have. The last line of the poem says, "Who looks back in your reflection?", to me this means that you should just be yourself because everybody is focusing on themselves making sure they are flawless that they most likely are not even paying attention to each flaw that you

The poem by Langston Hughes is a short poem, with only eleven lines. This poem was written 1951 when African Americans where still racially segregated and where still facing prejudice as well as economic hardships. The speaker, not clear if male or female makes correlations of the outcome of the “dream deferred”. He or she wonders if it dried up, festered, or is stinking up, crusting over, or exploding.

The legacy and influence of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was not short-lived. In fact, many English teachers teach on his poetry today because they believe it is easier to understand, and more effective at preparing students for understanding complex poetry. Longfellow is also known for the various catchphrases we use today, such as, “footprints on the sands of time”

"A Psalm of Life" and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" both by poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Emily Dickenson are similar poems expressed by theme, mood, and structure. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow forms a picture in his reader’s minds with his poem by expressing his theme of ‘living life for a purpose." His mood in the poem is inspiring, and motivating. "Act in the living present! Life is real! Life is earnest!" in this quote from the poem, Longfellow explains how a person should live their life for a purpose and make the best of it because it doesn’t last long. Longfellow sends a message to inspire its readers to live actively, and neither to lament the past nor to take the future for granted.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote two very touching poems. Both similar, but different in many ways as well. Also both written in very two different parts of his life. One of them he wrote when he was young and one when he was quiet a bit older. One of them being " A Psalm of Life". In this poem Longfellow expresses that everyone should live in the moment because tomorrow may or may not come but we are not in charge of that so we might as well enjoy our life. By saying this we also shouldn't dwell on the past because that is out of our hands as well. He believes that we should leave our mark on this world when we unfortunately have to leave it, and hopefully make people remember us. By making people remember us he preaches that we not follow

Though this is then broken by the poem in the final stanza as the boy becomes a man that grew out of his father’s shadow and now compares his father to his younger self. Through the entire last stanza he does this “I was a nuisance,tripping,falling,/Yapping always.But today/ It is my father who keeps stumbling/Behind me, and will not go away”(21-24). This is Heaney comparing the boy’s youth and the man’s old age and compares them. Heaney makes the two stages of life similar in that they rely on others to support them. This is clearly what the son is now complaining about, as he now has to support his father in his old age. He is complaining about his stumbling father behind him, as the boy is now a man and has his own life and skills that the father now lacks due to old age. This comparison of father and son brings out what the poem is trying to convey that there is a cycle in life of people relying on one another for support.

In my preparation for this essay I thought that there was going to be very little that I would learn about the elements of poetry. This is not because I am an expert and have nothing new to learn, but rather the opposite. I have never really spent the time to break down and appreciate poetry. One of the reasons I think that I haven’t spent the time on poetry is due to my reading habits. I usually read to gather information and poetry is on the other end of the spectrum. Fredrick Gruber sums this up, “Poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.” (Gruber) Having said all of this though, I did see a couple of things that I could apply to my own writing. I will first start off with some elements of poetry that I