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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
Jack Donne (wild)
John Donne (married)
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
First Wave: Women’s Suffrage
Second Wave: Equal Rights
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.
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