He is neither too melancholic like Arnold nor too optimistic like Robert Browning, another contemporary, in terms of the tone, mood and theme of his poetry. ... But in the following lines, the poet contradicts what he had said before in the first stanza, "we have but faith" and he writes that it is just for knowledge and trust that we believe in things we see "it comes from thee", moreover in line 22 when man has no fear, "we mock thee". Surely, the theme of the poem, Arthur Henry Hallam's death provided him the excuse to question his faith in God and as well as in the rest of the p...

• Word Count: 5237
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: High School

In the poems; 'Here', 'Essential Beauty' and 'Faith healing' Larkin explores the universal theme of desire. ... The alliteration used in 'thin and thistled' and 'night north' uses harsh consonant sounds which make the man - controlled landscape sound inferior to the countryside which is natural. ... There is also a powerful image of the land 'ending' and 'distance' over the sea. ... Larkin describes 'the boy', 'a pensioner', 'dying smokers' and 'going dark' to describe a progression ...

• Word Count: 2501
• Approx Pages: 10

The king goes across the sea on a ship, and a storm arises and drowns all aboard. ... Morpheus is to go to the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) and enliven the king's drowned body with his own spirit. ... In her dream, Alcyone sees Seys at the foot of her bed, and he tells her that he has died and that she must find his body by the sea and bury it. ... The knight then begins a tirade against  Fortune, who turns her wheel at a whim, making him, a man she has favored before, into a miserable wretch. ... Socrates taught that the philosophical man should be above the vagaries of Fortune. ...

• Word Count: 5753
• Approx Pages: 23
• Grade Level: High School

The Gladstone Parliament of 1880–85 was the 'no-man's land' between the old Radicalism and the new Socialism. ... It was largely a poetry of urban themes; the Romantic dependence on nature had already declined. ... His poems are largely traditional in theme, form, and structure, and show a continuity with the Wordsworthian art of recording the impact of ordinary daily events on an individual and sensitive mind. ...

• Word Count: 10566
• Approx Pages: 42