British Poetry
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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...
In this nonsensical portrayal, William Blake's symbolism fails to achieve the desired result of castigating a religion for its sage guidance regarding self-control. more...
In sonnet 17, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's always melancholy speaker muses on the poetics of her relationship with her poet/lover. more...
Shakespeare's All the world's a stage
According to the Shakespeare character, Jaques, in the play, As You Like It, a man's lifetime undergoes seven distinct ages. more...
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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...
William Blake's 'The Sick Rose'
By: Joshua Feldman
This brief poem encapsulates the fall that is detailed in the 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' with a multi-faceted symbolic premise. more...
William Blake's 'The Clod and the Pebble'
By: Joshua Feldman
This compact poem symbolically presents a dichotomy between selfish and unselfish love. more...
By: Joshua Feldman
'London' is a viciously provocative poem that urges its readership to release themselves from the "mind-forg'd manacles" that are strangling the city. more...
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