The poet deepens the reader's appreciation of the theme by employing imagery, contrast and an ambiguous tone. ... There is a confusion of tenses, "the dead man lay moaning", however, the poet is using the dead man as a symbol for her own feelings of isolation; by just existing he embodies all she is trying to say and so is in effect "moaning" to her. This personal treatment of the theme helps us appreciate it more as it shows the poet has a deep understanding. ... The line "It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way" is ambiguous as it describes how he really died, the col...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3

His brother Allie dies when Holden is younger. ... In the second verse of "The Boxer" there are the following lines: "When I left my home and my family, I was no more than a boy, /In the company of strangers,/In the quiet of a railway station, /Running scared, /Laying low," (Simmon and Garfunkel) This applies to Holden. ... /I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome /I took some comfort there." ... In verse five of "The Boxer" these are the lyrics : "Then I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone /Going home, Where the New York City winters aren't blee...

• Word Count: 555
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The strict form of the villanelle emphasizes the melancholy the speaker feels for his father's condition, and also emphasizes the father's stubbornness to want to lay down and die. ... Not only are they a son's plea to his dying father, but they embody the theme of the poem as well. ... Both of these parts will die, one will not immortalize the other. ... They too "rage against the dying of the light." ... "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray", (17) is the speaker begging his father to show some sort of passion for the life that is leaving him, he can even ye...

• Word Count: 791
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

When I first saw the title I was not expecting it to be about a funeral because a lot of people relate to mid-term break as being a good thing. ... It shows another movement of time, which is a theme in this poem. ... This keeps the time together which was deliberately done by the poet, as time is a theme in the poem. ... Stanza seven tells you how the boy or girl died. ... In the poem time is an important theme as it goes over two days. ...

• Word Count: 1950
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

His fascination with mortality shows up in his poetry, The Lucy Poems, for instance are a series of poems about a young girl who may or may not been a figment of Wordsworth imagination who ultimately dies. ... In the year date of April 23 1850 at the age of 80 William Wordsworth died of an aggravated case of pleurisy in which the lining surrounding the lung inflames and when breathing the two inflamed lungs rub against each other causing sharp pain. ... One primary theme that William Wordsworth focused on in his poetry is nature as it could be represented in the poem "The World is too muc...

• Word Count: 2404
• Approx Pages: 10

The obvious theme of this particular poem is lethargy; it is an almost mournful tone, a feeling derived from the attitude that he creates. ... There is the description of Blake, wherein though laying and shooting up with Garver, he sat and loved another. ... Again, one finds irony, in that the "hotel vanished" as Garver did, or rather died "in Mexico." ... The setting and point of view relate directly to the theme. ... The "old men are still alive but the old Junkies are gone-" These men have not wholly died. ...

• Word Count: 901
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

When the guns finally did fall silent, the German, Austrian, Russian empires collapsed, and the greater part of a generation of young men lay dead. ... In this poem he is saying if you die for your country you will be a true patriot. ... In "Dulce et decorum Est pro patria mori" describes a soldier dying of poison gas. ... The last two lines of this stanza describes the soldier dying, "Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning". ... Wilfred Owens use of half rhyme gives his poetry a disturbing quality that amplifies his themes, as i...

• Word Count: 983
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874 and he died in Boston on January 29, 1963. ... Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont, and died on January 29, 1963 in Boston (Frost). ... And once I marked his flight go round and round, As where some flower lay withering on the ground. ... "The most striking feature of Frost's poem is his use of a paradox to illustrate the purpose or central theme of the poem. ... It is underlined in line 8: But he had gone his way, the grass all mown, And I must be, as he had been, "alone, ...

• Word Count: 1806
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The poets begin their poems with easy grace "I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed", "lay down to rest on a bare hillside" yet with concentrated power. ... The first word in the poem; "I", is repeated throughout the poem, emphasizes the hawk's proud attitude. ... The hawk's philosophy of life is very clear; other creatures must die for it to live. Aware of the lack of remorse that such creatures possess, the man in "Vulture" expects on the onset of seeing the vulture to die. ... The two poems which were both filled with rich images, sounds and symbolic images did remain focuse...

• Word Count: 1305
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

He quickly introduces the theme of death and compares the dead leaves to "ghosts" (3). ... The only problem is that they lay "cold and low" or unnourished or not elevated. ... The arrangement and structure of the stanzas also serve purpose to emphasize Shelley's theme (Shelley, Complete Poems 233). ... Thus, implying that the power has to stay within people in order for death to become a "dying flame-. ... At one point he cries out to God to reveal himself, saying "I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed [religion]; I was not heard "I saw them [the dead] not-. ...

• Word Count: 1748
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The poem begins with what appears to be a couple walking along during a nice summer day, and there they saw the object that was the dead animal that was laying belly up on the side of the road with its legs spread like a prostitute. ... This brings about the realization that we are all to die, and nothing can be done to prevent it. ... This means that the same thing will happen to us when we die, we will be given back to Nature. The very last stanza seems to be the narrator talking to his girl as they look at the carcass, saying something to the effect of "I am your man, if you get far from my...

• Word Count: 1751
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Notwithstanding the fact that the majority of Robert Frost's poetry on our course explores themes of isolation and sadness, there are poems in which he expresses his complete union with and love for nature. ... I enjoy this poem, because it displays Frost's capacity for independent thought. ... He says "die early and avoid the fate" and if you are to lead a long life then "make the whole stock exchange your own". ... However, like all of his poems, this poem can be read on a metaphorical level and beneath the cynicism lays truth and reason. ... Frost says "I ...

• Word Count: 2104
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School