British Poetry
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Sonnet 22 finds the speaker growing ever more fanciful as she paints a haven for the loving couple whose union is strengthened by soul force. more...
The speaker is growing accustomed to hearing her lover say, "I love you,"-so much so that she is now commanding him to repeat it again and again. more...
Sonnet 20 from Sonnets from the Portuguese finds the speaker in a pensive mood, dramatizing her awe at the difference a year has made in her life. more...
In six quatrains, Blake presents a speaker who dramatizes the pathetic plight of children forced to labor in squalid conditions in London during the 18th century. more...
The two lovers exchange locks of hair, and the speaker makes a ceremony of the exchange as she again emphasizes the royalty of her lover's station and talent. more...
Auden's "Canzone" features five duodectains and a final cinquain. The speaker expounds poetically yet philosophically about the vicissitudes of the human condition. more...
The speaker gives a lock of her hair to her belovèd as she dramatizes and philosophizes about the significance of the gift. more...
All feature articles in British Poetry
The British Landscape Conserved by its Poets
By: Duncan McGibbon
Britain's landscape poets have done more to preserve its countryside than any environmental or ecological conservancy has. more...
The Profane Wit of John Wilmot Earl of Rochester
By: Angela Zito
Rochester's "Allusion to Horace" and "Imperfect Enjoyment" exemplify the harsh, honest language and explicitly sexual imagery that have earned him both notoriety and fame more...
Laurence Binyon, Poet of the Great War
By: Duncan McGibbon
Laurence Binyon was a figure of the literary establishment . He wrote the Ode to Remembrance with no experience of warfare and no idea of how great the toll was to be. more...
W.B Yeats' Poem "The Folly of Being Comforted"
By: Lucille Lever
In W.B. Yeats' poem "The Folly of Being Comforted," a passionate lover's heart engages in a dialog with an "ever kind" friend - the lover's own intellect. more...
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester Biography
By: Angela Zito
Though notorious for his debauched behavior and lascivious language, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester was nevertheless one of Restoration London's most celebrated poets. more...
William Blake's 'The Garden of Love'
By: Joshua Feldman
This poem uses the deterioration of an Edenic garden to represent the corrupting effect of organised religion upon our internal state of being. more...
The White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling
The White Man's Burden is a layered poem in many ways; it represents numerous elements of late Victorian sensation and hints at the future of the empire. more...
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