Poetry Test

Ozymandias

Author: Percy Shelley

Type: Sonnet

Context: Expansion of slavery in the colonies; prominent belief that non-Christians were lower & would be saved if they were enslaved

Exigence: Competition w/ Horace Smith; Discovery of a Statue of Ramses II

Percy Shelley

Born 4 August 1792 & Died 8 July 1822.

He went to Oxford University, but he got kicked out;.

He eloped with Harriet Westbrook & ended up falling in love with someone else. Married the other woman, and proceeded to run around England.

Member of Pisan Circle.

He went to Italy when he ran out of money.

Sonnet 43

Author: Elizabeth Barret Browning

Type: Sonnet - Petrarchan

Context: 500+ secret letters between her & Browning; Sonnets from the Portuguese

Exigence: She received a letter from Browning, who was confessing his love.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Author of Sonnet 43 and Sonnets from the Portuguese

Born in England on 6, March 1806, Browning was from a wealthy Christian family that owned plantations in the Caribbean.

Her life was riddle with hardships: lung disease, pony accident, mother dies, and the abolishment of slavery/her family’s fall from wealth.

Her closest brother died at sea, which caused her to lock herself up for 5 years. She writes a lot during this period, where she detaches herself from Christianity.

On Being Brought From Africa to America

Author: Phillis Wheatley

Type: Lyric

Context: Growing slave trade, where slavery was justified by saying Africans were “lower” and needed “saving”

Exigence: Somerset case

Phillis Wheatley

This poet was a Christian African American woman who was kidnapped from her home in West Africa.

In 1761, she was taken by a slave ship en route to Boston. There she was sold into slavery, where she would eventually free herself.

She was a prodigy, and was considered by many to be better than her ordinary white peers.

Dream Deferred

Author: Langston Hughes

Type: Free verse

Context: Written after WWII; Jim Crow laws are still prominent; Brown v. Board; Civil Rights Movement

Exigence: Hughes felt separated from his white colleagues; he wanted to have his works recognized by all people.

Langston Hughes

Writer from the Harlem Renaissance who helped to end black silence.

Death be not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)

Author: John Donne

Type: Sonnet - Petrarchan

Context: 1600’s, new king in England, Catholic Reformation

Exigence: Brother died after being executed for harboring a Jesuit

What Lips my Lips Have Kissed

Author: Edna St. Vincent Millay

Type: Sonnet - Petrarchan

Context: Written during an era of “hookup culture”, Bohemian lifestyle, and flapper (rebellious) culture

Exigence: Lost memories of her past lovers, she has passed a phase in her life due to her age.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Born in Rockland, ME, in 1892. She had two younger sisters and divorced parents.

She had a passion for piano, before she was discouraged and encouraged to become a poet.

Lived the Bohemian Lifestyle.

Was once arrested for protesting executions in Charleston.

Died in 1950 in New York.

Rite of Passage

Author: Sharon Olds

Type: Free verse

Context: Cold War & Vietnam War; Most people supported the US’s war efforts; Second wave feminism; Hippies

Exigence: Birthday Party

Sharon Olds

Born on 19 November 1942, this poet grew up as a Calvinist with an abusive father.

She graduated from Stanford & Columbia. Afterwards, she would become a Professor at NYU, and she would receive the Guggenheim fellowship.

Do not Go into that Gentle Night

Author: Dylan Thomas

Type: Villanelle

Context: End of WWII

Exigence: His father was dying

Dylan Thomas

Born in Wales in 1914.

Had bronchitis & asthma. He was an alcoholic.

Was a pacifist & anti fascist

Died due to pneumonia that was most likely aggravated by his alcohol problems.

Telephone Conversation

Author: Wole Soyinka

Type: Free Verse

Context: Nigerian Civil War; Activist for human rights;

Exigence: Had difficulty renting in England; ended up in prison after being arrested during the Nigerian Civil War, so he wrote poems (many being political commentaries)

Wole Soyinka

Born on 13 July 1934 in Nigeria.

His father was an Anglican minister.

He studied in both England and Nigeria.

He married 3 times, with two of them ending in divorce.

He was the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Still I Rise

Author: Maya Angelou

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: During the Civil Rights Movement, where there were many protests and rallies against racism

Exigence: Returned from Africa, somewhat recent deaths of MLK & Malcolm X

Maya Angelou

Born in Missouri, then moved to St. Louis.

When she was young, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend (got beaten to death).

She was inspired to speak again because of a woman named Mrs. Flowers.

Was apart of the Harlem Writers Guild; was a Civil Rights Activist; was a professor at Wake Forest Uni.

Lived in Africa for a bit.

The Flea

Author: John Donne

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: Elizabethan England

Exigence: Wanted to seduce a woman

John Donne

Born in London, England in 1572.

There were a lot of deaths in his life: father, sisters, brother, stepfather, his children.

He had a widowed mother, who eventually remarried.

Went to Oxford at 11, but would not graduate because he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy (he was Catholic).

Ran around Europe for fun before running away with Sir Thomas Egerton’s niece (Anne More). At the time, Donne was Egerton’s secretary. He was arrested for doing that.

He was sent to prison because George More did not want to pay the dowry.

Lived the rest of his life as a lawyer, and his wife died in childbirth; the child was a stillborn.

Second Coming

Author: W.B. Yeats

Type: Free Verse

Context: End of WWI

Exigence: Response to WWI

W.B. Yeats

Irish Protestant, who established the Abbey Theater with Lady Gregory because he fell in love with an Irish revolutionary.

He studied mysticism; he believed in the gyre system.

Gyre system

The belief that people have good & bad gyre(karma?). Every 2k years is the peak of good or bad gyre.

2k years ago (relative to the Second Coming) was the peak of good gyre with the Birth of Jesus.

Phases of John Donne’s life

1. Jack Donne (wild)

2. John Donne (married)

3. Doctor/Dean Donne (religious/Priest)

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Author: Wilfred Owen

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: World War I; was in the hospital because he had shell shock

Exigence: Gas attack on him & his men on the western front

Wilfred Owen

Was born in the UK in 1893.

He failed to get into London University, so he worked for the church instead.

Went to France in 1915 to teach, but joined the war efforts when WWI broke out.

He was friends with Siegfried Sassoon, who was a mentor to him.

Died one week before the armistice.

Jesse Pope

Was a poet at the same time as Wilfred Owen. Owen wrote about how it was an atrocity to glorify the war for teens.

Pope was the opposite, she glorified the war and encourage teens/all able-bodied men to participate.

Is My Team Ploughing

Author: A.E. Housman

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: The First and Second Boer Wars, 1880-1881 & 1899-1902

Exigence: Rejected by Moses Jackson, failed to find friends

To an Athlete Dying Young

Author: A.E. Housman

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: Victorian Age; Great Game (China + Olympics); Scramble for Africa

Exigence: Death of Moses Jackson

A.E. Housman

Born in Fockbury, Worcestershire, England on March 26, 1859. Eldest of 7; close to mother, but she died.

This poet attended St. John’s College, Oxford in 1877. Met Moses Jackson; fell in love & got rejected. Went into depression.

Scholar of classical texts (Latin & Greek). Worked as a professor for the most of his life.

Only published works were the Shropshire Lad & the Last Poems. In a way both of them were dedicated to Moses Jackson.

Siren Song

Author: Margaret Atwood

Type: Free Verse

Context: Book of poems titled You are Happy (ironic title); Canadian Bill of Rights was recently passed (important for women & minorities)

Exigence: Second-wave feminism, got divorced, and writing in response to Odyssey which portrayed men as stronger than women

Margaret Atwood

Born in Ontario, Canada in 1959.

She started writing at a very young age.

She went to Victoria College University of Toronto and Radcliffe College.

She wrote the Handmaid’s Tale; her works were often responses to discrimination towards women.

She won 55 awards (2 being General Governor’s Awards)

Waves of Feminism

1. First Wave: Women’s Suffrage

2. Second Wave: Equal Rights

3. Third Wave: Spice Girl Feminism; do it for themselves

The Darkling Thrush

Author: Thomas Hardy

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: Industrial Revolution

Exigence: Turn of the century; uncertain of & worried about the future

Thomas Hardy

Born in England in 1840.

He was an architect apprentice.

He moved to london and attended King’s College, but due to his poor health, he abandoned his studies.

His early pieces of writing were not successful, and drew a lot of negative criticism.

Became his local magistrate. He had marriage struggles, before remarrying to Emma Laviana Bilford.

Novels he wrote: Tess of the d'Urbervilles & Jude the Obscure

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Author: John Keats

Type: Dramatic Monologue

Context: Early 1800’s; growing British sentiment to learn about history; British power/Imperialism

Exigence: Benjamin Haydon articles about Greek sacrifices, religion, and art

John Keats

Born in London in 1795. Both of his parents died when he was young (his father’s skull was crushed by a horse in a stable)

He was an apprentice of a surgeon, and studied at Guy’s hospital.

He fell in love, but couldn’t get married because he had no money and was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

He wrote a lot, but his works were not well received.

Member of Pisan Circle.

The Chimney Sweeper

Author: William Blake

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: French Revolution; King George III; Industrialism & child labor

Exigence: Child labor & exploitation

William Blake

Born in London in 1757.

He had visions from a young age, and one of his prominent visions was after his brother, Robert, died.

He was an engraver.

His works were never popular until after the 1900’s.

Was apart of the burning of Newgate Prison. He was charged with removing a guy from his property.

To a Mouse

Author: Robert Burns

Type: Lyric Poem

Context: Scottish Agricultural Revolution; Industrial Revolution is beginning

Exigence: Destroys a mouse nest in November of 1785

Robert Burns

Born in Scotland in 1759. He was the eldest of 6; his father died in 1784.

He was worried about the negative impacts of Industrialism; he was against public execution.

He supported the French & American Revolutions; his views led to him losing his job.

He was the National Poet of Scotland; wrote Auld Lang Syne.

Ulysses

Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson

Type: Dramatic Monologue

Context: End of Romanticism; Victorian Era; Death of Arthur Henry Hallam (his friend)

Exigence: Death of Arthur Henry Hallam

Lady of Shalott

Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson

Type: Lyric Poem - Ballad

Context: Victorian Era / The Gilded Cage

Exigence: ???

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Born in England in 1809.

He was homeschooled, but eventually went to Trinity College.

His best friend was Arthur Henry Hallam, who suddenly died. His death led this person to drink a lot.

He was married to Emily Sellwood.

He was the Poet Laureate of England. The Queen of England actually had to bribe him 4 times with a baronship.

Wrote a poem called Timbuktu.

Was a part of an elite society called the Apostles.

Hiroshima

Author: Toge Sankichi

Type: Free Verse

Context: Japan & the Axis powers vs Allies; Atomic Bombs (Fat man and Little Boy)

Exigence: Survived the atomic bomb on August 6th, 1945; 70k died

Toge Sankichi

Born in Osaka, Japan in 1917.

He started composing poems in middle school, and composed over three thousand tanka and haiku.

He had respiratory problems which led to him not being drafted during the war.

He worked for Hiroshima Gas Company.

He survived the atomic bomb, and would become a member of the Catholic Church & Japanese Communist Party.

He was misdiagnosed with tuberculosis, in reality he had bronchiectasis.

He eventually died from leukemia.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Author: T.S. Eliot

Type: Dramatic Monologue

Context: Post Industrial Revolution; High society

Exigence: Prufrock is at a party and he wants to leave (with the girl sitting across from him)

T.S. Eliot

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1888.

He lived in Massachusetts, went to Harvard, and was privileged in almost every way.

He went to France for a year, before he settled down in England. He eventually became a British citizen.

He was mentored by Ezra Pound, and was friends w/ Virginia Wolf.

He married Vivienne Haigh-Wood; she went to a mental asylum.

Remarried to a woman named Valerie Fletcher, she died in 1965.

Founder for Modernism.

My Last Duchess

Author: Robert Browning

Type: Dramatic Monologue

Context: Victorian Age

Exigence: Death of the speaker’s first wife

Robert Browning

Born in London, England 7 May, 1812.

He was from an upper class family, went to the University of London but unexpectedly dropped out.

He was very progressive.

Married Elizabeth Barrett Browning.