admin Intro William Shakespeare’s sonnets explore themes of love, time, beauty, mortality, and the power of poetry to preserve memory. • Love and devotion • The passage of time • Beauty, loss, and legacy You may also enjoy: Sonnet 18 — “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” A meditation on beauty and how poetry … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Love You may also enjoy: Romantic Love Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) — William Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Grief You may also enjoy: Grief for a Loved One “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” — Walt Whitman 1 When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Joy You may also enjoy: Joy in Nature “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” — William Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Anger You may also enjoy: Anger and Moral Protest “The Cry of the Children” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning “Pheu pheu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;”[[Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]]—Medea. Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Despair You may also enjoy: Personal Despair “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain” — Emily Dickinson I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through – And when they all were seated, A … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Guilt You may also enjoy: Personal Guilt and Remorse “A Poison Tree” — William Blake I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in fears, Night … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Shame You may also enjoy: Personal Shame and Inner Conflict “When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes” (Sonnet 29) — William Shakespeare When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Sadness You may also enjoy: Sadness and Loss “O Captain! My Captain!” — Walt Whitman O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow … Read more
Introduction Why Poets Write About Hope You may also enjoy: Hope in the Face of Hardship “Invictus” — William Ernest Henley Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not … Read more
