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The Second Coming Critical Analysis

Literature, English Literature, Poem Analysis, Poetry

The Second Coming Poem

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
roubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Introduction

The Poem “The Second Coming” is composed by an Irish poet, ‘William Butler Yeats’, Who was known as one of the greatest dramatists, prose writers, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century English Literature. The poem was written in 1919 and published in 1920. Yeats won several Literary Prizes in his literary career including Nobel Prize in 1923. He was much inspired by William Wordsworth, William Blake, John Keats, and many other poets of the Puritan age and Romantic age. The theme of his poem is – love, war nature, humanity, and relationship as well.

Theme Of The Poem

Violence, Anarchy, apocalypse, Christianity, prophecy, and meaninglessness are the major themes foregrounded in this poem.

Significance Of The Title

The title of the poem, “The Second Coming” has a thematic significance. The poem’s title refers to the second coming or the return of Jesus Christ in order to save humanity. The speaker of the poem describes the chaotic situation in the world and hopes for the second coming.

Analysis Of The Poem

The present poem “The Second Coming” is one of the most successful poems of W. B. Yeats. It is a non-rhyming poem. It is a poem of twenty-two lines expressing the opinion of the second incarnation. In the first stanza of the poem, the poet explains the state of complete disorder in Ireland. The poet says that time passes very fast and the wheel of time also moves fast. It changes rapidly. The poet further says that the falcon does not hear the falconer. Here falcon is a small bird of prey and the falconer is a trainer of the bird who trains the falcon in the art of preying or who gives the training of preying to the falcon. But now the falcon is not in the control of the trainer.

Here poet wants to say that the situation is out of control in Ireland. There is a state of anarchy everywhere in the country. Thus, it is a state of complete disorder. People do not respect laws and rules. Innocent and weak people are destroyed and killed while evil or wicked are worshipped. The good people are losing their faith and confidence while bad people are growing very fast. The poet says that evil people are being stronger and virtuous people are being weaker in the state of disorder in the country. Here the poet tries to show the time of the twentieth century in Ireland. Thus the poet presents the age here in an impressive way.

In the first stanza, the poet tells us about the state of anarchy spread in Ireland. Now he imagines the second incarnation. The poet has a strong belief that the second incarnation of God can save this Earth from sin. The poet says that when sins are on its top then God comes on the earth to save mankind. The violence has crossed its limit and it is intolerable for people. So now it is the correct time for the coming of God on Earth. He says that God would appear on Earth Very Soon.

The poet has a firm belief that a special miracle is about to happen very soon. The second incarnation of God surely would appear on the earth. The poet imagines that the second incarnation of God would have a strange shape. It would have the head of a man and the body of a lion and would appear first in the desert. His shine would be unbearable like the shine of the sun.

It is a huge shape having an angry and colorful sight. The poet gives the name Sphinx to the huge body of the combination of man and beast. The poet says that now there is a state of anarchy everywhere and sin has reached its top and Sphinx is now awake after the sleep of twenty Centuries. He is outraged now.

It seems as if the poet is influenced by Hindu philosophy because the incarnation of God ‘Narsimha’ resembles the imagination of the poem. As Jesus Christ took birth on the earth to save mankind. Like that the second incarnation of God also would appear on the earth to save Mankind.

Conclusion

The poem expresses ‘W. B. Yeats‘ opinion on the state of anarchy in Ireland and his belief in the coming of a second incarnation of God to save humanity from sin. The poem is an impressive representation of the time and situation in Ireland during the twentieth century and Yeats’ belief in the power of a higher being to save humanity.

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Break of Day in the Trenches Poem Analysis

Literature, Poem Analysis

Break of Day in The Trenches Poem

Introduction

“Break of day in the Trenches” is a poem, composed by ‘Isaac Rosenberg’, the great war poet during the modern age. This poem is an illustration of the futility of war and the folly of the persons who are engaged in the first world war (1914-1918). Rosenberg himself is fighting in the war as a soldier. Showing the futility of war Rosenberg says,

“Nothing Can Justify War.”

This poem was written in 1916. It is a stream-of-consciousness narrative that takes the reader into the deepest, most desolate parts of World War I. Rosenberg wrote it in 1916. In this poem, he makes a subtle comparison between human beings and rats through the medium of the soldiers in the trenches. The War is between the German and the English.

In the poem “Break of day in the Trenches”, Rosenberg makes a subtle comparison between human beings and rats through the medium of the soldiers in the Trenches. The rat which is o friendly towards the English poet will also cross no Man’s Land and make friends with the German enemy. The rat, that ubiquitous feature of World War I imagery, here acts as a reminder of the English and German’s common humanity, even in times of war.

About Isaac Rosenberg

Issac Rosenberg is known as a great English trench Poet. His poem from the Trenches is recognized as some of the most outstanding poetry written during the First World War (1914-1918). He was only 28 when he died. He was killed while fighting in World War I. Among his world-famous war poems included – ‘Dead Man’s Dump’, On Receiving News of the War’, ‘August 1914’, ‘Break of the Day in the Trenches’, ‘God’ and ‘The Jew’. He wrote, “I never joined the army for Patriotic reasons.”

Structure of the Poem

The poem “Break Of Day In The Trenches” is written in a long stanza consisting of 26 lines. It does not follow a particular rhyme scheme or a specific rhythmic pattern. So the poem is written in “free verse”.

The theme of the Poem

The Horrors of War
The Irrationality of War
The Un-Idealizing of War
The Devastation of War

Summary of the Poem

As the soldier was about to build the wall in the trenches, he was touched by the live rat whose cosmopolitan sympathies he appreciated. The rat touches the English hand and will even touch the hand of German Soldiers. It does not make discrimination between friends and enemies, this and that, mine and yours, and many others. Human beings are even inferior to rats in the sense that they make the discrimination. Human discrimination is a responsible factor behind the war. Human beings are so pervasive and hateful that they even shoot the rat if they knew abut its fair attitude. They transfer their mutual hatred for each other onto the rat.

The speaker invites the rat to look at these eyes where the iron, flame, and aghast heart dominate. The human eye should be full of love, affection kindness, and benevolence. But unfortunately, those human virtues have been replaced by cruelty, hatred, a service of revenge, and the desire for mutual destruction. The speaker feels inferior to the rat for not being able to maintain universal sympathies like him.

Next Speaker comments on human nature using the image of the flower poppies. Poppies have roots in human veins means to say it symbolically stands for humanity. The speaker further complains that “Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins” are dropping day by day. People are the flower standing for humanity. But the humanist flower has been gradually dropping flower. But the humanist flower has been gradually dropping flower. But the poem raises hope with the speaker’s claim that his poppy is safe for just a little while. Despite being a soldier, he is aware of human degeneration and this awareness is the source of hope.

On the one hand, the Poppy is the symbol of hope in the poem. But on the next hand, it is the symbol of war, especially its redness stands for the blood of the dead bodies of the soldiers in the battle. The whitening of the dust on the poppy signifies the process of the dying of the poppy which metaphorically means the upcoming death of the poetic persona.

Conclusion

Thus, we can say that “Break of the Day in Trenches” is recognized as the most admired poem of the First World War by ‘Issac Rosenberg’. The everyday horror of the war and the sentiments of the soldiers’ are expressed very well without any sentimentality.

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– Varsha Singh

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Let me not to the Marriage of True Minds | Sonnet 116

Literature, English Literature, Poem Analysis

Introduction

“Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds” by William Shakespeare is one of the most recognizable sonnets of all time. It explores the nature of love and what “True Love” is. William Shakespeare is credited to have written a total of 154 Sonnets.

Out of all the 154 sonnets he wrote, 126 are quite intimate in tone and are dedicated to a young male lover or friend ‘Mr. W. H.’ and rest to a woman known as the ‘Dark Lady’, but there is no documented historical evidence to suggest that people ever existed in Shakespeare’s Life. In this poem, he compares love to the star that is always seen and never changing. Even though the people in love may change as time passes, their love will not.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was one of the greatest poets and dramatists of the English Language. Born at Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He went to London where his reputation as a dramatist and poet was established. During his literary career, he wrote a total of 154 sonnets, probably written between 1593 and 1598, which were published in 1602. The above-mentioned sonnet is sonnet number 116. He also wrote approximately 37 plays.

From and Structure of the Poem

The poem, “Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds” as is consistent with the sonnet is 14 lines long. Shakespeare breaks from the traditional Petrarchan sonnet, which is usually broken up into an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines). Shakespeare, however, writes this sonnet as 3 quatrains (a stanza with 4 lines), with the rhyming couplet at the end. Later this form of sonnet writing was identified as the “Shakespearean Sonnet”.

“Sonnets are largely written in ‘iambic pentameter’, which is also true for ‘sonnet 116’. The rhyme scheme followed by this sonnet is ABABCDCDEFEFGG – three quatrains and a couplet.

The theme of “Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds”

“Love” is the main theme of the poem “Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds”, love versus time, the concept of true love, and love as a source of guidance also are themes that are discussed in this poem.

About The Poem

In the first stanza of this poem, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of marriage to compare. It to true, real love. He is saying that there is no reason why two people who truly love should not be together, nothing should stand in their way. Perhaps he is speaking about his feelings for the unknown young man for whom the sonnet is written, Shakespeare says if love changes, it is not truly loved because nothing will change it.

The second quatrain of the sonnet beings with some vivid and beautiful imagery. He can now tell us what love is – he says that love is something that does not shift, change, or move, it is constant and in the same place.

The speaker says that love is just like a lighthouse in the sea. It withstands the wear and tear of storms and remains unshaken in severe conditions. Just like the north stars shows the direction of the lost ship in the midst of storms, true love directs the wandering souls in the right direction. The worth of true love is also like the value of the North Star. The value of these two cannot be estimated even if we come to know their heights.

In the third quatrain, the poet says that True Love is firm and constant. It never ends. Time has no effect on true love, love is not time’s slave. It does not change with the passage of time. Although time is a universal destroyer. It can destroy everything. It can cut down the physical beauty of a person. But true love does not come in the range of time’s sickle.

Time has no effect on true lovers. Here time is personified as a farmer harvesting the crops with a sickle. In other words, physical beauty is temporary, seasonal, and immortal. He is simply stating here that love does not change over the course of time, instead, it continues on ever after the world has ended.

In the last two lines of the poem “Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds”, the poet says that if someone proves he is wrong about love, then he is never worth the following words, and no man ever loved. He is conveying here that if his words are untrue nothing else would exist. The words he just wrote would have never been written, and no man would have ever loved them before. He is adamant about this and his tough words are what strengthen the sonnet itself. The speaker and poet himself are convinced that love is real, true, and everlasting.

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Tintern Abbey Summary By William Wordsworth | Tintern abbey Poem Explanation

Literature, Poem Analysis, Poetry

Introduction

“Tintern Abbey” is probably the most famous poem by one of the most famous British Romantic poets, “William Wordsworth.” The full title of the poem is “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and first published in 1798. “Tintern Abbey” is one of the triumphs of Wordsworth’s genius.

It belongs, along with other 19 Poems by this author and four by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to “Lyrical Ballads”, Which is considered to be the inaugural book of English Romantic poetry. The poem deal with the influence of Nature on the boy, the growing youth, and the man. The poet has expressed his tender feeling toward nature through this poem.

About Poet

William Wordsworth was one of the founders of English Romanticism. He was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, on April 7, 1770. P. B. Shelly another great poet of romanticism called him the poet of nature. Wordsworth along with Coleridge published “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798, in which he defined poetry as,

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.”

Imagination, Subjectivity, Nature, Pantheism and Mysticism, and Humanism are the basic theme of Wordsworth’s Poetry. His most famous poem is “I wander lonely As a Cloud”, She was a Phantom of Delight, The Solitary Reaper, The lucy poems, lyrical Ballads, and “We are seven.”

Form and Structure of the Poem

Lines composed a few miles above the Tintern abbey are not written with a transparent rhyme scheme. The poem is written in iambic pentameter. This type of verse is made up of five sets of beats per line. The first set of beats per line. The first beat is unstressed, Followed by one stressed.

Theme Of The Tintern Abbey

Nature, Memory and Time, Imagination and Creativity, Spirituality and Religion, and Human Connection are all themes found in the poem.

Nature

The poem is primarily concerned with the speaker’s deep connection to nature, which he describes as a source of spiritual and emotional renewal. Wordsworth celebrates the beauty and power of the natural world, which he believes can inspire and sustain us even in difficult times.

Memory and Time

Another important theme in “Tintern Abbey” is the relationship between memory and time. The speaker reflects on his past experiences of visiting the abbey, and how those memories have influenced him over the years. He also considers the passage of time and how it has affected his perceptions of the world around him.

Imagination and Creativity

Wordsworth was a key figure in the Romantic literary movement, which emphasized the power of imagination and creativity. “Tintern Abbey” reflects this emphasis, as the speaker uses his imagination to re-create his memories of the abbey and explore the deeper meanings of his experiences.

Spirituality and Religion

While not overtly religious, “Tintern Abbey” does explore spiritual themes related to the natural world. The speaker describes nature as a kind of spiritual presence that can inspire awe and wonder in humans. He also suggests that this connection to nature can be a form of worship or a way to commune with a higher power.

Human Connection

Finally, “Tintern Abbey” is a poem about human connection, both to nature and to each other. The speaker reflects on the ways in which his experiences of the abbey have shaped his relationships with others, and how his sense of connection to nature has helped him to feel more connected to humanity as a whole.

Background

The poem has related to Wordsworth’s personal history. He has previously visited the area with a troubled twenty-three-year-old in August 1993. In 1798 he returned with his beloved sister Dorothy Wordsworth to the same place. Dorothy is referred to as “friend” throughout the Poem. So, this poem details the revising of the Banks of the Wye during a tour, 1793 and it is a famous natural poem of Wordsworth.

Explanation of the poem

The poem begins with the speaker, Wordsworth himself, having returned to a spot on the banks of the river wye that he has not seen for five long years. This place is very dear to him and is just as beautiful and mystical as it was when he left. He sees the same streams cascading down the cliffs of rocks making a mild incessant sound so pleasing to the ears. The steep slopes of the rocks look as majestic as before. The sky is as calm as before. Together solitude and serenity of the surroundings embalm his mind.

The speaker pauses under the Sycamore trees and scans the cottage and the orchards that dot the place. There are fruit-laden trees that stand hidden in the midst of rich vegetation around them. The speaker finds the landscape has hardly changed in the five years gone by.

There are chimneys giving out plumes of smoke apparently from the cottage. It seems as if the smoke is coming out from the midst of tall trees as the cottages stand hidden among them. The vast grazing grounds are there just as before.

There are nomadic herdsmen who graze their animals in the forests. They move from place to place with their animals, so they have no houses. Then, there are the hermits who lead reclusive lives in their desolate caves. Only candles light up to dispel the darkness of night. The speaker is pleasantly surprised to discover that the features that made the place so strikingly beautiful five years ago are all there in fact.

The lapse of five years has transformed our speaker’s mind. He is now more capable to look inwards and reflect. In his younger days, viewing was narrow and unidimensional. But new the different facets of Nature have begun to influence him in a benign and banish the anguish from his soul and nature has brought solace, succor, and peace to his troubled mind.

The speakers refer to the rough and tumble of daily life where humans struggle to earn their livelihood and try to acquire possessions that supposedly bring them happiness and joy. But the travails experience. In such moments, the speaker seeks refuge in the lap of Nature.

Now after so many years, the speaker is well-established in life. He recollects his earlier years as a youngster when he wandered around the hills, wood and the river enjoying the beauty. But he had failed to appreciate the hidden benefits of Nature-gazing then. Happily, for the speaker, those immature days are over. The speaker has comprehended the power of Nature. He feels the enormous power of Nature and its gigantic manifestation.

The speaker talks about the pervasiveness of the beauty of Nature. The many faces of Nature like the setting sun, the wind, the meadows, and the wood inspire the observer to be thoughtful about the underlying attraction of Nature. The speaker states that his life would have decayed and wasted away if he had come under, and benefited from the invigorating influence of Nature.

Here the author brings Nature. Here the author brings in his sister Dorothy. He should have done it at the beginning of the poem but waited till now to mention her. He addresses her as his ‘dearest friend’. He implores Nature to save him from myriad pernicious experiences in life such as touches of sarcasm of selfish people, vile men, unsavory words, and bad judgments.

To save Dorothy from such humdrum existence, he beseeches Nature to shower its bounty on his sister. He wants the moon to light her solitary path, the misty winds from the mountain to blow against her face, etc. The speaker’s mind overflow with love for his sister Dorothy. He wants nature to bequeath all its beauty and bounty to Dorothy so that her mind becomes a repository of all its sublime sights and sounds. She could then use these memories to tide over all the difficulties of life like solitude, fear, pain, and suffering.

The speaker becomes emotional about the possibility of his separation from her due to his death. With a sense of deep appreciation of his love for Nature and his sister, he wants to dedicate his memories of woods, streams, grazing fields, rocks, etc. to Dorothy so that she could remember him when she gazed at Nature.

Conclusion

Now we can say that through the poem “Tintern Abbey” the poet has expressed his honest and natural feelings about Nature’s superiority. Wordsworth has shown a way to establish a better life and has taught how a close relationship with Nature could be created in order to give birth to a peaceful and harmonious life in the world. He advises everyone to learn from the past. Geoffrey Hartman says about Wordsworth’s poetry:-

“Wordsworth’s poetry to looks back
in order to look forward the letter”

Thus, William Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey” is typical ecocritical work that strives to promote a relationship between Nature and Human beings.

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Ode to a Nightingale By John Keats | Ode to Nightingale Summary

Poem Analysis, Literature, Poetry, Summary

Introduction:

Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” and John Keats’s “Ode to A Nightingale” proves itself to be an excellent example of Wordsworth’s definition of poetry. The poem was composed in the spring of 1819 and was published in July 1819 in an issue of the ‘Annuals of the fine Arts. According to him, this poem is written under a plum tree in Hampstead. His friend Charles brown told the real story of how Keats Composed the nightingale’s song.

about the author:

John Keats was one of the leading names of the second-generation romantic poet along with lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. But his works were published only for four years before his death from tuberculosis at a very young age (25). A few weeks after Keats’s death, Shelley wrote ‘Adonais’, an elegy on Keats. Of Keat’s six major odes of 1819, “Ode to psyche” was probably written the first, and “To Autumn” written last.

John Keats wrote sonnets, Odes, and epics. All his great poetry was written in a single year, 1819. Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes, Ode on Indolence, Ode to Psyche, Ode to Melancholy, and the two unfinished versions of an epic on Hyperion. He says,

“Beaty is truth, truth is beauty”

In other words, beauty is all we need to discover the truth, and the truth is itself beautiful.

Structure and form of the poem:

The poem’s rhyme scheme is ABABCDECDE primarily used in all modes of that time. The Ode contains eight separate stanzas, each of which is ten lines. The meter of each stanza is an iambic pentameter except for the 8^th line of the Stanza, there are only six syllables per line rather than ten.

The theme of the poem:

The main themes of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ are death, morality, immorality, nature, human suffering, and poetic imagination. According to him, death is the end of all people, which is unavoidable and is the poem’s central theme. If a man wants the best place to live. Man, always suffers on this earth, and the poet wants to be free from all miseries, just like the nightingale.

Explanation of the poem:

1^st In the very beginning of the Ode, the poet describes how he finds himself in a state of oppression and painful lassitude after listening to the bird’s song as if had taken poison or drugs and was drowning into oblivion. He is oppressed by its beauty and joy. But he is not at all jealous of the bird’s cheerfulness, rather he is extremely delighted because of the bird’s cheerfulness, rather he is extremely delighted because of the bird’s joy.

So, his “Heartaches”. Human happiness is limited. The poem begins with extreme straightforwardness and lucidity. His “drowsy numbness” does not result from any wine or drug but rather it is the result of the extreme delight that he feels after listening to the bird’s song.

2^nd No more he wants to say in the human world. He expresses his intense yearning to run away from the world of human suffering. He thinks of the romantic association of the origin country of the wine. He also visualizes a cup full of wine, which has its association with taste, touch, colour, smell, and sound. All these help him to disappear with the nightingale into the deep dark of the forest.

3^rd The bird is not all worried about the sorrows and sufferings of the humans, it does not know anything about these and the poet depicts his earnest yearning to run away from this human world,

“where men sit and hear
each other groan;
where youth grows pale, and
spectre thin and dies;
where beauty cannot keep
her lustrous eyes,”

Where is only sorrow and suffering, death and decay? So, this stanza is the reflection of the personal realization and experience of the poet personal. Actually, Keats witness his younger brother’s death at a very early age in 1818 and he was well acquainted with his own ill health. He feels that he can no more be part of all these burdens of line, he can no more tolerate the misery, premature death, and brevity of love and beauty. So, he wants the lap of nature to find solace.

4^th The poet longs to go to the nightingale’s world “not Charioted by Bacchus, god of wine and his pards”, but “on the viewless wings of Poesy, goddess of poetry”. He gives up the idea of getting inspiration from wine, he needs invisible assistance from poetic imagination. He feels his existence with the nightingale with the natural world in the presence of the moon and stars. Actually, after listening to the bird’s song the poet, with the help of his romantic imagination, tries to enter the nightingale’s world.

5^th In his romantic imagination the poet is in the beauty of the forest by the side of the nightingale. He cannot see the various types of flowers because of the darkness, but he can feel the fragrance of those flowers. He can feel the beauty of nature which is in stark contrast with the human world.

6^th He can easily accept “easeful death” in this beautiful and ecstatic world with the accompaniment of the nightingale’s song. It’s an extra achievement for him to die in the midst of “such an ecstasy!”. So, he invoked the “easeful death” but even after his death, the bird will continue to sing in such a joyful way Keats’s sentimental and reflective sensuousness achieves the highest from here.

7^th Now the poet calls the bird an “immortal bird”. The bird is not born for death because of its immortal voice. He brings in the allusion to Ruth the principal character of the “Book of Ruth”. Ruth was Moabitess and she was the windowed daughter-in-law of Naomi. After the death of her husband, she moved to her mother-in-law and both of them traveled to Bethlehem where she wins the love of Boaz, a kinsman of her mother-in-law through her kindness. Finally, she marries. This stanza is highly romantic.

8^th The poet is suddenly reminded of his mortal world by the word “forlorn”, which is bringing him back to his ‘Saut self’, his miseries his sorrows, and sufferings his desolate condition. Suddenly he comes back to reality. He cannot escape as easily as he has pretended. The song of the nightingale fades away in the distance, and the poet returns half dazed, to real life. At the end, the world of imagination is replaced by a painful real world which is always in stark contrast to the world of imagination. The poem ends with an acceptance that pleasure cannot last and, that death is an inevitable part of life.

Conclusion:

“Ode to Nightingale” in a nutshell, is the expression of feelings. It is a highly impressive poem by “John Keats”. The poem is evident that he is truly romantic and a pure poet. It reveals his strong imaginative powers. He has successfully managed to make comparisons and demonstrate nature and its objects. He has proved that song of the nightingale is immortal. It has also been proved that imagination is pleasurable and life is painful. Sidney Colvin said about this poem,

“It (Ode to Nightingale)
is among the varied
glories of English Poetry.”

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