Analysis of the following poems: William Wordsworth, "The world is too much with us;"
Emily Bronte, "Often rebuked, yet Always Back Returning;"
Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses" and
Emily Dickinson, "I heard a Fly Buzz-when I died"
Good poetry, like good music transcends time. The poetry of these five poets are legendary; they share one common thread, the mastery of using diction to stimulate the senses.
One cannot study British Literature without encountering William Wordsworth. In his sonnet, yes, it is a Petrarchan sonnet, "The world is too Much with Us," he politely expresses his disgust with man’s deviation from nature. Wordsworth begins his sonnet by saying that worldly advancements have cause depreciation of nature; consequently, man has trampled on nature, no one notices nature’s beauty anymore. As a matter of fact nature’s natural landscape is torn down and replaced with artificial artifacts, “Little we see in nature that is ours” (line 3). In line four he uses the heart as symbol for the depth of his love for nature; he goes further to emphasize his feeling of love with “the bosom of the sea.” He uses the sleeping flowers as an imagery and symbol to show how the destruction of the trees has taken away the melodious sound of the wind. Linesnine to the end, Wordsworth is saying that the rejection of nature is a rejection of Christianity; because God is in nature, and man’s dissention from nature is worse than an old fashion pagan. In the end, Wordsworth uses the symbols of Proteus, the god of rivers, and Triton Abby to show how heartbroken he is with the continuous annihilation of nature and just a glimpse of Proteus and Triton Abby would make him less unhappy than he is now.
"Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelly, is also a sonnet; it is written as a result of a conversation Shelly and his friend, Horace Walker had about the Egyptian statue Ozymandias. They both decide to write poetry about the statue; however, only Shelly’s poem survives the passing of time and is the best known sonnet in Europe. Shelly begins the sonnet by using the word “antique” to demonstrate age; and very befitting because the poem represents a statue of Ozymandias, more commonly known as Rameses II, and might be the Pharaoh referred to in the Book of Exodus. The next four lines are full of imagery that symbolizes “age,” for example, “legs of stone,” “trunkless,” “shattered visage,” wrinkled lip,” and sneer of cold.” Shelly says that this is what is left of what seems to have been a gigantic monument that did not weather the pestilence of the desert. In the second quatrain, Shelly shifts to another arbitrating figure, the sculptor that depicts the tyrant Pharaoh, who imposed his passionate rage on the world as buried beneath the cold, commanding exterior, the element does to him what he did to his subjects. Throughout the rest of the poem Shelly uses vivid words and phrases to show the ruthlessness of the king that this broken testament represents.
Emily Bronte is a Victorian writer who shocked society with her sometimes, uncensored writing, like Wordsworth, she enjoys nature. In the first stanza of her poem, Bronte acknowledges the fact that she cannot attain what she wants, yet she keeps grasping after her fantasies. “Oft/ And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning/ For idle dreams of things which cannot be” (lines 1-4). In the second stanza almost every word accentuates her desire for the simple life; “shadowy region,” meaning the unknown; she is drowning in “its unsustaining vastness,” and the dread of being swallowed up makes her want to hold on to her dreams. Emily is exerting assertion of her own life. In the rest of the poem, the figurative word is “walk.” She does not feel obliged to follow the path of the famous; she will create her own track, to do otherwise vex her. She wants to go “Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding, / Where the wild wind blows on the mountainside” (lines 15, 16); she feels more comfortable with nature; despite the fact that nature can be vicious; she agree that the mountains hold glory as well grief.
Ulysses is a hard poem to analyze as part of a three pages essay. The Roman Ulysses and the Greek “Odysseus” are the same, he is also the medieval hero of Dante’s Inferno. Tennyson wrote this poem after the death of his friend, Arthur Hallam. Ulysses is a dramatic monologue and it is also an elegy that Tennyson wrote for his friend; it is written in iambic pentameter and blank verses. Throughout the poem Tennyson portrays Ulysses as a man who is growing old but would not allow age to keep him from enjoying the things he is used to doing. “I cannot rest from travel: I will drink/ Life to the lee: All times I have enjoy'd/ Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those/ That loved me, and alone, on shore” (lines 6-9). The poem is repetitious as if Ulysses is convincing himself that this is the right thing to do; “Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades/not to shine in use!” (20-24). Ulysses is saying that to succumb to old age one becomes even older, getting up and keep going extend life. In the end he says: “Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Emily Dickenson is an American poet and a recluse; whose poems were published posthumously. Her poem, “I Heard a fly Buzz When I Die,” represents death. The poem begins with silence reinforcing the death theme. The fly is also representing decay, decay after death. In line four “Between the heaves of storm,” means sporadic crying. In stanza two, death is eminent; the breathing is getting shallow and shallower, finally death. She has made a will and has given away everything she ever owned; and now she is taken to the cemetery and the fly is there too. She is placed in her grave and covered up and she sees no more.
The Bible is Literature’s first literary book and it proves in the books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Songs of Salomon that good poetry will never die. Diction is the main requirement for the survival of good poetry. The reader has to feel, see and taste with the poet.
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