I am having a test on the romantic poets and poems and I can not find alot of info on them;

Robert Burns - To a Mouse, John Anderson, My Jo, A Red, Red Rose, Auld Lang Syne

William Blake - Found your infor on THe Lamb and The Tyger but need help on the poem Holy THursday, SOngs of Innocence, SOngs of Experience; Divine Image, Human Abstract, Proverbs of Hell from the Marriage of Heaven and Hell and A New Jerusalem.

William Wordsworth - Lines COmposed above TIntern Abbey, My Heart Leaps Up, Composed upon Westminister Bridge, It is a Beauteous Evening, To World is TOo Much with Us, London 1802, Ode on Intimations of Immortality.

Cooleridge- Frost at Midnight, Kubla Khan

Plus, Shelley, Keats, and Lord Byron.

I am overwhelmed. Can you send me to some sites that analyze these poems.

I need it by Dec 9.
Thanks MIke

Eek! Seven poets and you haven't done your reading on any of them?

Here's a page that might help. [www.unm.edu]

pam

mwarren, this site may help you with the William Blake:

[www.newi.ac.uk]


Les

The following site has some information on William Wordsworth:

[www.geocities.com]


Les

Thanks. I did read them all but do not understand alot of them.

>I did read them all but do not understand alot of them.

Take a number and go to the back of the line.

Everything you seek about those poems/poets can be found on the internet. On Google, for example,

Coleridge "Kubla Khan" analysis OR interpretation OR discussion

Which yields,

[tinyurl.com]

A test on all these poems suggests that you are not expected to have done too much more than read the poems several times.

Some of the poems listed may appear quite easy, others scholars have been arguing about for 200 years and, unless you are a critic of rare device, you are unlikely to find the absolute meaning of the poem that everybody will come to accept.

There is no right or wrong analysis of a poem. Having read the poems answer honestly as to what the poems invoke in you, what you think the poet is trying to say. The key to understanding is to read and read again and don't waste your time looking for hidden meanings.

>There is no right or wrong analysis of a poem.

I think we need to get shirts with this blazoned on the back!

pam

Unfortunately Chesil, there are instructors out there who feel that there "are" still wrong and right answers to interpretation. That is the reason we often get disgruntled readers who even after hearing plausible interpretations from one of our forum members, still want to know "the" answer. Especially here in the states, far too many teachers will not allow for any disparity in their thinking, no matter how well-thought out, or researched it has been. They still look on the teaching of poetry as a science,
rather than an art.


Les

Les, some of the poems quoted in the question have no agreed interpretation after 200 years of close examination. Explanations by forum members often differ in interpretation of particular poems. The nature of criticism changes.

That said, one of my historic concerns with offering advice here has been that we usually have no idea as to how the question has been phrased, what the teacher has been focusing on in class and that we may be offering advice that is inappropriate.

Nevertheless, I'm with John Keating in The Dead Poets Society and not the mathematician of English, whatever his name was.

Haha. This reminds me of a huge discussion we had in my Intro to Lit class about a poem's true meaning, and is what the reader gets out of the poem right or is the only right answer what the author decides? I think we decided that, for the purposes of in-class analyzation, we were going to guess the poet's meaning and keep our own meanings to ourselves to prevent further arguments. Oh yeah, I'm of no help here. I just thought I'd share...

Dead Poet's Society is a great movie.
"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world." ~John Keating

There's a mathematician of English? That just doesn't seem right. Immoral, unjust...unconstitutional, even....

appgrrl, how do you guess the poet's meaning without interpreting it yourself?

The mathematician was the writer of the book in the film where they had to draw a graph that illustrated the greatness of the poem.

A graph! That must be where that method of analysis came from that depends on the title, and 'whether it fits.'

pam

Graph? No graphs, please, I beg of you. I'm a firm believer that math and poetry do not mix. Math is something that was invented to be used as a torture device...especially calculus.

Oh, and Chesil, the whole argument started because no one could agree on what the poem meant, and some were saying that what they got out of it was what the poet meant for us to get out of it, and others were saying that they got different feelings from it, regardless of what the poet meant. It was long and drawn out, and trying to explain it confuses me. I think it's because I'm not getting enough sleep. Yay for exams.

Dictionary definition of calculus - a stony morbid concretion formed in various organs of the body . I have one in my brain - too much maths! I agree entirely with appgrrl.

No, maths has a clarity which poems rarely achieve. You can't argue over maths, its beauty shines through without the fog that poets wrap their thoughts in.

Math...beauty...nope, don't think there's any correlation there at all. If I had a choice between bright and shiny math, or dense, foggy poetry, I'd pick the poetry everytime. Math just makes me feel stupid. Poetry doesn't, as long as I'm not trying to figure out what the poet is trying to say. :)

Discussions of this type always lead me to this poem:

Geometry

Rita Dove

I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.

As the walls clear themselves of everything
but transparency, the scent of carnations
leaves with them. I am out in the open

And above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
sunlight glinting where they've intersected.
They are going to some point true and unproven.

Les

This sent me to Whitman's 'When I Heard the Learned Astronomer,' but I came across this one instead. Rather off-topic, but I like it.

When I Read The Book
by Walt Whitman


WHEN I read the book, the biography famous,
And is this, then, (said I,) what the author calls a man's life?
And so will some one, when I am dead and gone, write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life;
Why, even I myself, I often think, know little or nothing of my real
life;
Only a few hints--a few diffused, faint clues and indirections,
I seek, for my own use, to trace out here.)


pam

For Appgrrl, math and poetry can coexist. For example this is from our own USP:

Author: Kellygirl (---.kp.org)
Date: 01-29-03 18:51

Zero is where I think I'll start
It's nothing, nil and nought
Its function is to hold a place
And keep the numbers taut

Intimidating Algebra
Let's take a look and see
A letter where a number was
It's simple as can be

There's nothing like Geometry
The part of math that's pure
Its points and lines and surfaces
Undoubtedly endure

And what of Trigonometry?
And how is it applied?
It's all about the triangle
And measuring its side

The Pentagons aesthetic shape
The interest it provides
It's actually a Polygon
Exhibiting five sides

And then there is the Nonagon
Of intricate design
As well, a Polygon with sides
But it exhibits nine

A Palindromic episode
Twenty five, eighteen, ten
A number sequence in reverse
Just flip and read again

Just what determines Equation?
And Linear the sequel?
A mathematical statement says-
The two expressions, equal

The principles of math survive
Its history is ample
As far back as the dawn of time
I'll give you an example

A theory back in ancient Greece
Led Pythagoras to seek
He proved equivalent the Square
The Triangle unique

I think that our societal dislike of math is as much from early sociaization as it is anything else. Perhaps if Dr. Seuss had written algebra textbooks..........

pam

... we'd all be measuring the cat's hat?

He already gave us a head start-

One fish
Two fish

and so forth!

pam

How could I forget about Seuss? But then One Fish, Two Fish was never my favorite. I was always partial to Green Eggs and Ham.

Has anyone else noticed just how off-topic we've gotten?

What, you're going to claim Dr. Seuss isn't romantic?

pam

My favourite is 'Horton the Elephant Hatches the Egg'. One of the great triumphs of romantic literature. At least that was my view when I was 5. The key line is at the end:

'And it should be, it should be, it SHOULD be like that!'

Seuss is romantic? Or Seuss is a romantic poet? I think he missed out on the era, but who doesn't want to hear, "The Cat in the Hat" recited by their loved one in front of a cozy fire!

"And I meant what I said, and I said what I meant; An Elephant's faithful, 100%!"

pam

Absolutely, Pam. Unforgettable!

Ian

Thank God you learned guys stick so close to the point.
I'd get lost, otherwise.



Stephen

Stephen at this point a question by one of our young readers about one of the Romantic poets will probably bring us back around to the original question whatever that was.

Les

Yes, mwarren seems to have left the thread, so we're just talking amongst ourselves.

pam

Yes, mwarren needed information by December 9, but we aren't under any such time restraints.

"Biography" on the A & E network had a really good 2-hour program on Dr. Seuss. He was the best thing that could have happened to children's literature. Even at age 6 or 7 I knew the Dick, Spot, & Jane books weren't very good. And then I read "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street"--which eventually led to hanging out here on the Poetry Archives with all you good people!

I'm having test on some poems and i need alot of information about poems listed below:

William Worthsworth-composed upon westminister bridge and London

can you send me some sites that analyze these poems.


I need it by March 14.

Thanks rumeysa

[www.cs.rice.edu]

[www.sparknotes.com]