Poetry Study Guide Poems

“I wandered lonely as a cloud”

Author: William Wordsworth

Year: 1807

Theme: relying on past memories to make you feel better

Tone: lonely, peaceful

Purpose: to showcase the healing and restorative power of nature on the human spirit, specifically through the use of memory

“Divorce”

Author: Billy Collins

Year: 2008

Theme: something warm and cozy can turn bitter in a matter of seconds

Tone: depressive, aggressive

Purpose: to illustrate the emotional breakdown, bitterness, and cold separation of marriage

“We wear the Mask”

Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar

Year: 1895

Theme: the world does not allow you to express your true self

Tone: sad, depressive, resilient

Purpose: it illustrates the psychological and emotional burden of hiding one’s true suffering behind a forced facade of happiness to survive in an oppressed society

“Introduction to Poetry”

Author: Billy Collins

Year: 1988

Theme: you don’t know how much life is in something until you free it from criticism

Tone: misunderstood, depressive, persuasive, disappointed

Purpose: to encourage readers to enjoy, experience and explore a poem using their sensed rather than aggressively over-analyzing it to extract a single, rigid meaning

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Author: Robert Frost

Year: 1923

Theme: The conflict between the peaceful, tempting allure of nature versus the human obligations, responsibilities, and promises

Tone: Quiet, calm, reluctance

Purpose: to explore how human beings feel torn between the desire to escape into the peace and the real-world duties they must fulfill before they rest

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”

Author: Dylan Thomas

Year: 1951

Theme: Dylan does not want to accept that death is a natural thing and live life to the fullest

Tone: defiance, anger, grief

Purpose: to urge people to fiercely resist death and fight for life until their final breath

“If”

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Year: 1943

Theme: a lesson to achieve true maturity

Tone: motivational, inspiring

Purpose: provide a guide on how to develop true maturity, emotional resilience, and the ideal moral character

“The Red Wheelbarrow”

Author: William Carlos Williams

Year: 1923

Theme: appreciate the little things that are often over looked

Tone: peaceful, grateful, calm

Purpose: to focus the attention on the fundamental importance, beauty, and utility of everyday objects that are taken for granted

“This is just to Say”

Author: William Carlos Williams

Year: 1934

Theme: sometimes you give into temptation even though it can disappoint others

Tone: guilt, apologetic, remorseful, comfortable

Purpose: a brief confession that shows the tension between temptation and dealing with the guilt

“The Charge of the Light Brigade”

Author: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Year: 1854

Theme: miscommunication leading to a devastating masquer

Tone: depressive, heroic, patriotic

Purpose: to honor and memorialize the extreme bravery, sacrifice, and unwavering obedience of the British soldiers

“Barbie Doll”

Author: Marge Piercy

Year: 1973

Theme: women feel like they aren’t valued for their true self and have to change to be accepted in society

Tone: depressive, judgmental

Purpose: to critique and expose the destructive nature of societal norms and unrealistic beauty standards forced upon women

“The Road Not Taken”

Author: Robert Frost

Year: 1916

Theme: choosing your own path and don’t follow others to feel like you are fitting in

Tone: happy, sad, encouraging

Purpose: to explore how choices and decision-making shape a person’s future

“Head, Heart”

Author: Lydia Davis

Year: 2007

Theme: a battle between the head and the heart

Tone: sad, depressive

Purpose: to explore the painful, repetitive cycle of grief and the internal conflict between logic and amotion following a major loss

Compare: “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and “Barbie Doll”

They both criticize society

Compare: “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays”

They both show different relationships a child can have with their father

Compare: “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”

They both represent a message and reply from an admirer to his romantic interest