AP Literature 19th-20th Century Review: Each Poem

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - Thomas Gray

Forgotten lives of ordinary people and inevitability of death

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Heroic quatrains

PD: Elegy, imagery

Thomas Gray:

- Churchyard poet

- Cambridge

To a Mouse - Robert Burns

Speaker regrets destroying a mouse's nest; reflects on how plans fail

M: Mixed (Scots, iambic)

R: Burns stanza

PD: Apostrophe

Robert Burns:

- Scottist dialect

A Red, Red Rose - Robert Burns

Declaration of deep lasting love that endures time and distance

M: Ballad meter

R: Ballad stanza

PD: Simile

Robert Burns:

- Scottist dialect

The Lamb - William Blake

Celebrates innocence and God's creation of the lamb

M: Trochaic rhythm

R: Rhyming couplets

PD: Symbolism

William Blake:

- Artist & visionary

- Wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

The Tyger - William Blake

Questions how God could create something both beautiful (lamb) and terrifying (tiger)

M: Trochaic tetrameter

R: Rhyming couplets

PD: Symbolism, Rhetorical questions

William Blake:

- Artist & visionary

- Wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

The World Is Too Much with Us - William Wordsworth

Criticizes humanity's obsession with materialism over nature

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Petrarchan sonnet

PD: Apostrophe

William Wordsworth:

- Nature was religion

- Hoped to witness French revolution

- Greatest of Romantic poets

- Co-authored Lyrical Ballads

Composed upon Westminster Bridge - William Wordsworth

Describes the peaceful beauty of London at dawn

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Petrarchan sonnet

PD: Imagery

William Wordsworth:

- Nature was religion

- Hoped to witness French revolution

- Greatest of Romantic poets

- Co-authored Lyrical Ballads

London 1802 - William Wordsworth

Calls for moral renewal in a declining society

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Petrarchan sonnet

PD: Apostrophe (to Milton)

William Wordsworth:

- Nature was religion

- Hoped to witness French revolution

- Greatest of Romantic poets

- Co-authored Lyrical Ballads

Tintern Abbey - William Wordsworth

Reflects on the past, growth, and spiritual power of nature

M: Blank verse

R: No rhyme

PD: Imagery, reflection

William Wordsworth:

- Nature was religion

- Hoped to witness French revolution

- Greatest of Romantic poets

- Co-authored Lyrical Ballads

Kubla Khan - Samuel Coleridge

Dreamlike vision of imagination and creativity; inspired by Kubla Khan

M: Irregular

R: Irregular

PD: Imagery, symbolism

Samuel Coleridge:

- Co-authored Lyrical Ballads

Ozymandias - Percy Shelley

Great rulers and empires fade with time--Fallen statue

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Irregular Petrarchan sonnet

PD: Irony

Percy Shelley:

- Drowned, cremated on beach

- Heart buried in Protestant Cemetery in Rome

Ode to the West Wind - Percy Shelley

Connects natural forces with destruction and inspiration

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Terza rima

PD: Apostrophe

Percy Shelley:

- Drowned, cremated on beach

- Heart buried in Protestant Cemetery in Rome

Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats

Contrasts eternal art with fleeting nature of human life

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Ode stanza

PD: Paradox

John Keats:

- "working class 'Cockey poet"

- Died of tuberculosis at early age

Crossing the Bar - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Portrays death as a calm journey into the unknown

M: Iambic (irregular)

R: Regular quatrains

PD: Extended metaphor

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

- Most popular Victorian poet

Ulysses - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Aging hero refuses to stop seeking adventure and purpose

M: Blank verse

R: No rhyme

PD: Dramatic monologue

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

- Most popular Victorian poet

My Last Duchess - Robert Browning

Duke reveals his controlling and jealous nature discussing his late wife

M: Iambic pentameter

R: Heroic (rhyming) couplets

PD: Dramatic monologue

Robert Browning:

- Poetic reputation overshadowed by wife

Dover Beach - Matthew Arnold

Laments the loss of religious faith in the modern world

M: Iambic (irregular)

R: Irregular

PD: Imagery, metaphor

Matthew Arnold:

- Solution to Industrial Revolution

I heard a Fly Buzz - Emily Dickinson

Quiet, ordinary moment of death (fly)

M: Common meter

R: Common meter

PD: Irony

Emily Dickinson:

- Led sequestered and obscure life

- Wrote 1800 poems, but few were published posthumously

Because I Could not Stop for Death - Emily Dickinson

Death escorts the speaker into eternity

M: Common meter

R: Common meter

PD: Personification

Emily Dickinson:

- Led sequestered and obscure life

- Wrote 1800 poems, but few were published posthumously

Facing West from California's Shores - Walt Whitman

Expresses longing for spiritual origins and meaning

M: Free verse

R: None

PD: Apostrophe

Walt Whitman:

- "hot-tempered poet of the people" in youth, "good gray poet" in maturity

A Noiseless Patient Spider - Walt Whitman

Compares a spider's web-building to the soul seeking connection

M: Free verse

R: None

PD: Extended metaphor

Walt Whitman:

- "hot-tempered poet of the people" in youth, "good gray poet" in maturity

God's Granduer - Gerard Manley Hopkins

God's presence remains strong in nature despite human damage

M: Sprung rhythm

R: Petrarchan sonnet

PD: Metaphor

Gerard Manley Hopkins

- Burned all early poetry after converting to Roman Catholicism

- Poetic experimentations; "sprung rhythm"

Channel Firing - Thomas Hardy

Shows absurdity of war and human conflict

M: Iambic (irregular)

R: Irregular

PD: Irony

Thomas Hardy:

- Famous as a novelist

The Second Coming - W.B. Yeats

Depicts a world falling into chaos and a frightening new era emerging

M: Iambic (loose)

R: Irregular

PD: Symbolism

W.B. Yeats:

- pre-eminent Irish of twentieth century

- Involved in Irish Nationalism and mysticism