Poetry ID Quiz

l(a / le / af / fa / ll / s)

• Falling leaf

• Loneliness / isolation

• Word “alone” is broken apart visually

• Very unusual spacing and arrangement

• The shape of the poem matters

l(a) — e.e. cummings

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r / grasshopper

• Letters are scrambled and separated

• Poem visually imitates the movement of a grasshopper

• Words seem to jump around the page

• Focus on movement and transformation

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r — e.e. cummings

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store

• Religious poem

• Speaker talks directly to God

• Man begins wealthy and falls into poverty

• “Wings” and “flight” are important images

• Speaker asks God to help him rise again

• Shape of the poem resembles wings

Easter Wings — George Herbert

The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy

• Father and son

• Dancing/waltzing

• Kitchen

• Child is held by the father

• Father is rough and physical

• Mixed feelings about the father

My Papa’s Waltz — Theodore Roethke

Our Bog is dood, our Bog is dood

• Repeated phrase

• Religious-sounding language

• A childlike voice becomes darker

• The speaker's belief is questioned

Our Bog is Dood — Stevie Smith

We real cool. We / Left school.

• Pool players

• Seven young people

• Left school

• Lurk at night

• Jazz / drinking / rebellion

• Ends with “We die soon”

• Very short lines

We Real Cool — Gwendolyn Brooks

The houses are haunted / By white night-gowns

• Strange dreams

• Sailor

• People seem trapped in ordinary, boring lives

• Dreams and imagination contrast with reality

• “Disillusionment” is important

Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock — Wallace Stevens

Call the roller of big cigars, / The muscular one

• Funeral

• Dead woman

• Ice cream

• Emperor of Ice-Cream

• Someone is preparing the body for burial

• Strange combination of death and celebration

• Repeated command-like language

The Emperor of Ice-Cream — Wallace Stevens

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough.

• Very short poem

• Subway/train station

• Strong visual comparison

• Only a couple of lines

In a Station of the Metro — Ezra Pound

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness

• Greek urn

• Ancient artwork

• Lovers who never finish their kiss

• Music that never ends

• Beauty

• Truth

• Art lasts forever while human life changes

Ode on a Grecian Urn — John Keats

I have done it again. / One year in every ten

• Speaker talks about dying and surviving

• Repeated deaths

• “Dying is an art”

• Audience watching the speaker

• Holocaust / Nazi imagery appears

• Speaker compares herself to a cat

• Resurrection / coming back to life

Lady Lazarus — Sylvia Plath

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –

• Speaker is dying

• Deathbed scene

• Family and people are waiting

• A fly suddenly appears

• Blue fly

• Buzzing sound

• Final moment is interrupted by the fly

• Dickinson's dashes are noticeable

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – — Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me

• Death is personified as a gentleman

• Death comes in a carriage

• Speaker is taken for a ride

• School

• Fields

• Setting sun

• Eventually reaches a grave

• Death is calm rather than violent

Because I could not stop for Death — Emily Dickinson

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

• Drums

• Mourners

• Speaker feels mentally overwhelmed

• Floor seems to break

• Reason / sanity begins to collapse

• Funeral is used as a metaphor for psychological breakdown

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain — Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant—

• Truth

• Truth can be too powerful if presented directly

• Uses lightning as an image

• People need truth gradually

• Short poem with a lesson about how truth should be communicated

Tell all the truth, but tell it slant — Emily Dickinson

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

• Two roads

• Yellow wood

• Person must make a choice

• One road is chosen over another

• Speaker thinks about the road not taken

• Choice and uncertainty

The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep

• Evening/night

• Speaker stops to watch the woods

• Horse shakes its bells

• Quiet and peaceful setting

• Speaker wants to stay but has responsibilities

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening — Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night

• Night

• Walking alone

• City streets

• Rain

• Speaker is isolated

• Has become familiar with nighttime

• Repeated phrase about being “acquainted”

• Lonely / disconnected feeling

Acquainted with the Night — Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree

• Apple picking

• Ladder

• Apples

• Harvest

• Speaker is exhausted

• Falling asleep / dreaming

• Wonders whether his sleep will be ordinary sleep or something deeper

• Nature and death can be connected

After Apple-Picking — Robert Frost

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

• Nightingale

• Bird's beautiful song

• Speaker feels tired of human suffering

• Wants to escape reality

• Wine

• Poetry

• Imagination

• Nature

• Thoughts of death

• Eventually returns to reality

Ode to a Nightingale — John Keats

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night

• Blacksmith imagery

• Hammer, furnace, anvil

• Speaker asks who could create such a frightening and beautiful creature

• Questions about God and creation

The Tyger — William Blake

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert

• Statue

• Desert

• Ruins

• Ancient king

• Ozymandias

• Proud inscription

• King claims to be powerful

• His empire is completely gone

• Theme of power and pride being temporary

Ozymandias — Percy Shelley

I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath

• Anger

• Friend vs. enemy

• Speaker tells his friend about his anger and it disappears

• Speaker hides anger toward an enemy

• Anger grows like a plant

• Poisonous fruit

• Tree / garden imagery

• Enemy eventually dies

A Poison Tree — William Blake