Poem Analysis Essay Examples

The poem “Love is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay was written about the idea of love not being one of our basic needs of living. In her poem she makes it clear that love does not help us to breathe. Love does not help fulfill our hunger. And love does not help heal…

The Victorian era is a time when people emphasized the advances in science and started questioning the existence of God. In “Dover Beach,” written by Matthew Arnold, The poet senses the turn of historical time and finds this change echoed in the continually shifting figure of the beach – the blurry border between land and…

Did the Romantic period bring love to everyone’s view? Or did it simply bring other ideas to the light? From around 1770 to 1850 (during the eighteenth century) an intellectual musical, literary, and artistic movement started known as the Romantic era. The poem written by Robert Burns named “To a Louse” and the poem “The…

Everyone’s childhoods holds special memories and experiences that are significant. The poem, “The Centaur” by May Swenson captures one little girl’s experience of a day where she let her imagination run wild, and uses different poetic devices to accentuate the importance of the events that occur. This is seen by diction, imagery, structure, and point…

“When grief is deepest, words are fewest”, a quote by Anne Voskamp, perfectly describes the message portrayed in the poem, “Home Burial”. The author, Robert Frost, effectively uses the language and lifestyle of people who have gone through a tragedy in their life to convey a realist encounter to his readers. With the help of…

“I Can’t Help You”, is a poem written by, Ryszard Krynicki, one of the best post World War II Polish Poets as of today. Krynicki is a WWII survivor, he experienced the horrible effects of war and managed to live through tuff times since his parents were deployed to a Nazi labor camp when he…

This is a poem about a young boy who using a buzz saw who becomes distracted by the thought of dinner and cuts his hand. Later when the doctor arrives, the boy slowly dies. The buzz-saw snarling and rattling in the yard is the sound the saw makes when the boy is cutting what im…

“For That He Looked Not upon Her” by George Gascoigne explores the complexity of human yearning and the anguish that may arise from it. Throughout his writing, Gascoigne illuminates his main points through the use of diction, imagery, metaphors and connotative words. The standard sonnet form of the poem supports the speakers’ convincing defense for…

Maya Angelou was an American poet born in 1928, at a time when the African American people were going through the worst forms of oppression, inequality, discrimination, slavery and racism. This poem, Still I Rise, was a wake up call, not just for her, for but for the society to stand up against oppression and…

Figurative language enhances literature and you can this impact the poetry in John Donne’s Death, be not proud and Emily Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for Death. John Donne conveys the theme that Death isn’t proud, mighty, or dreadful even though some have called it so. Whereas, Emily Dickinson’s underlying message is that Death…