The narrator talks of a little black figure that is walking through the snow covered in soot and crying. ... The remaining three stanzas are told from the point of view of the boy. ... The author uses the line of, "A little black thing among the snow" to describe the boy. The boy appears to be a dark mysterious figure on a white pure background. ... At the beginning of the poem the narrator talks of how the young boy is crying, but in the second stanza the boy talks about how he is happy. ...

• Word Count: 364
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

As a young boy he lived in Buffalo, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, Lawrence, Kansas, Mexico City, Topeka, Kansas, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Kansas City, Kansas. ... In an excerpt from an article about Langston Hughes in Encarta 97, it says that he was discovered in 1925, while he was working as a busboy in a restaurant in Washington, D.C., when he accidentally left three of his poems next to the plate of Vachel Lindsay, an American poet. ... Hughes was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance because he was one of the most talented and famous black writers in his time. The Harlem R...

• Word Count: 517
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Hughes being a young black men growing up in the 1930's in America, expressed his opinions of the treatment of blacks through poetry. ... Living in Harlem most of his life, Hughes can easily relate to the "splinters and torn up boards" talked about in his poem. Post-structural Theory of Criticism "Mother to Son" also contains important truth and values about life. ... In lines Fourteen through sixteen it reads, " So boy, don't you turn back. ... During this time period in America blacks of all ages needed inspiration. ...

• Word Count: 532
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Provoked by their poor quality of life, he wrote two poems about them, both called "The Chimney Sweeper". ... As stated, both poems are about the unfortunate destinies of many little children who at a very young age were dressed in black and recruited as chimney sweepers. ... They are about the unjust lives of boys who were forced to work in horrible conditions in order for them to stay alive. ... When reading poem 1, I was left with the impression that the speaker was innocent, nave and a good-natured little boy. ... They would simply be replaced by another and possibly even younger boy. ...

• Word Count: 2076
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence, the narrator, a little boy who is in his innocence and youth, is unaware of how difficult his life is. ... The boy's belief that "if all do their duty, they need not fear harm" (Line 24), even though he has been abandoned by his father and is forced to work in such degrading conditions, reveals his innocence and naivety about the "harm" he is exposed to on a daily basis. ... In the first three lines, the narrator calls what he sees as a "little black thing among the snow" (Line 1) instead of a child...

• Word Count: 1939
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Owen had an anti war attitude as he wrote poems about the truth at war. ... Pope uses alliteration "lie low" which makes the poem memorable and makes the poem sound as if we should be glad about war. ... Pope uses emotional black mail in the third line, "Your country is up to her neck in a fight" Pope compares the country to a helpless woman. ... Owen's attitude is clearly anti war, which was why Pope and Owen detested each other so much "Disabled" is about a victim of war. ... The young boy sits in the park watching children play - reminding him of his youth, that wasn't th...

• Word Count: 1300
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Owen had an anti war attitude as he wrote poems about the truth at war. ... Pope uses alliteration "lie low" which makes the poem memorable and makes the poem sound as if we should be glad about war. ... Pope uses emotional black mail in the third line, "Your country is up to her neck in a fight" Pope compares the country to a helpless woman. ... Owen's attitude is clearly anti war, which was why Pope and Owen detested each other so much "Disabled" is about a victim of war. ... The young boy sits in the park watching children play - reminding him of his youth, that wasn't th...

• Word Count: 1280
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basualto, more commonly known as Pablo Neruda, began his widely renowned career in poetry as a young boy. ... Isla Negra is a very small town located about two hours from Santiago, the capital city. ... Pablo Neruda is a poet who is not ambiguous about his feelings. Because there is no hidden meaning in Neruda's words, and he is very open about his feelings. ... Oh the black cross of a ship. ...

• Word Count: 1395
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

John Agard addresses the issue of racism in "Half-Caste," and it is obvious from the beginning line of the opening stanza, "Excuse me," that the narrator in the poem is confronting the audience about being labelled in society as "half-caste." ... The image of Tchaikovsky playing the piano works well as the poet looks at the contrast between the white keys and the black keys and implies they work together in harmony to produce a complete and beautiful sound. ... The poet uses irony as he is saying that because the boy is only half a person he must only cast half a shadow. ... John Agard uses hu...

• Word Count: 881
• Approx Pages: 4

The poem talks about the narrator's life in the house where he and his family lived and kept "pre-war Europe alive" for nineteen years. ... In this poem the narrator speaks about his perspective of his father, and his lack of understanding of him and his polish culture. ... The responder can see there that the father is blind to the boys needs, he can only see that the boy continues to love him and believes that that is all that matters. ... They arrive from America believing that they are a superior race and above all blacks. ... The girls realise that they are going to have to accept th...

• Word Count: 1417
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

A point to make about the apparent simplicity of Blake's poems is that they are deliberate (in an attempt to simplify the moral dilemmas of the time and present them in a form which could be understood). Ironically, the Songs of Experience are somewhat simpler in the way that the speaker of the poem is the voice of experience, warning the innocence about the futility of life. ... In the Songs of Experience version, the narrator introduces the boy chimney sweep as no more than a 'little black thing'. ... The sweep's clothes are 'clothes of death' not just because ...

• Word Count: 1564
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The novel is about a man, Mr. ... She had an affair and the boy isn't the husband's son. ... Why it looks as if she didn't know what she was about!... This is portrayed when he says, "Petals on a wet, black bough" (Pound 790). ... It is relating a flower, "Petals on a wet, black bough" (Pound 790), to something of deeper meaning and that's the meaning of art. ...

• Word Count: 1594
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Robert Frost's poem, Birches, he exemplifies the way he feels about the troubles of life and how an easy way to overcome them would be through imagination. ... The speaker in the poem is presently looking at the trees while thinking about his childhood. Although not much background about the speaker is given, the audience is aware to the fact that the speaker was once a swinger of birches. ... The only obvious alliteration in the poem would be when the speaker discusses the black branches of the birches. ... The speaker must also worry about the outcomes of his actions, and the pos...

• Word Count: 1047
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) - American writer, known for the use of jazz and black folk rhythms in his poetry. ... William Carlos Williams- The American writer avoided artificiality and sentimentality in his work by producing clear, direct verse about common, everyday subjects. ...

• Word Count: 1931
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

I refer to these poems as "early" because they are considered here are a selection of well known verses published in the eleven years (1913-1923) spanned by Frost's first four books: A Boy's Will, North of Boston, Mountain Interval, and New Hampshire. ... In an interview he said, "One thing I care about, and wish young people could care about it, is taking poetry as the first form of understanding. ... In any case, there is something about "walking the line" and building it, mending it, balancing each stone with equal parts skill and spell that made Frost write this, kind of, mysteri...

• Word Count: 1699
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

So many of her poems deal with and talk about the minds and lives of women, a topic that I find particularly interesting. ... The language used in this line creates a very clear image - it is almost as if they are in a black and white movie, expressionless simply "rehearsing" their lines, in this case being the children's names and birthdays. ... It is a poem about a housewife cleaning up the after-Christmas mess, who, as it becomes obvious, isn't very happy with her life. ... O where's the demon lover, the wild boy who kissed the future to her flesh beneath what skies, w...

• Word Count: 1594
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The twentieth century really begins before the end of the nineteenth century. Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent the end of an era. An end-of-century stoicism, and a growing pessimism among writers and intellectuals, may be traced to several sources, not least the publica...

• Word Count: 10566
• Approx Pages: 42