Analysis of A Poison Tree by William Blake

A Poison Tree

By 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 & morning with my tears: 

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles. 

And it grew both day and night. 

Till it bore an apple bright. 

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine. 

And into my garden stole, 

When the night had veild the pole; 

In the morning glad I see; 

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

The first stanza of Blake's poem is about anger.  It's not merely about anger, but it tells how anger works through nominal attribution.  The first line tells us he was angry with his friend, the second tells that he let his anger understand this and it ended.  Merely seeing the object of ones anger as a friend is enough to end it.  The second couplet tells us he was angry with someone whom he didn't inform his anger about.  One can hypothesize that he didn't inform it that it was a foe or friend is because the narrator never became aware enough to tell his anger about it.

The first couplet of the second stanza is no longer at odds with the second couplet.  The narration has given over to anger and there is no balancing or oppositional  discourse within the mind anymore.  Here the whole stanza is about how he nourished his anger, willingly or not.  Here again we're edified by the poem in what makes wrath grow within a person.  Fear, deceit, suffering, and glorying in wrath.

The third stanza talks about the fruit of this behavior which was a poisoned apple.  The narrator's foe sees this as an opportunity to take advantage of. Because of the behavior and motivations of the prior stanza the poison tree grew, and bore poisonous fruit. 

The fourth stanza talks about the deceit and folly of his enemy in trying to get into his garden by deceitful ways.  His enemy, having thought he was in for a sweet treat is instead poisoned and laid out dead beneath the tree. The narrator because of the nature of the wrath that grew in his heart, is happy to see this.  

Analysis of If you Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

If You Forget Me

 by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

Today's poem is by Pablo Neruda.  It's a translation from Spanish and if you can understand Spanish I highly recommend you take a look at the work in it's original language, even if you know only a smattering.  Pablo Neruda is perhaps best known for his love poetry, and here is a fantastic example.

The first stanza is a phrase broken down into two lines that frame the topic of the poem.  The fear of a lover losing their loved one, not through death but through forgetfulness.  It's perhaps a little worthwhile to understand that couples often lose each other through forgetfulness to one another.  It may be this aspect of loss that the poet is referencing.  

The second stanza speaks of the lovers knowledge of how these things work.  This is the second plain statement made in a row.  Perhaps repeated to convey the ardency of the narrator's love for the beloved, and the willingness to be totally honest about how it works.

The fourth line invokes the sense of sight, and the lines following after convey what the narrator might see as the moon or an autumn tinged branch.  Here the thought is not finished yet and the narration goes on to imply what the narrator might touch, be it a log or ashes.

The eleventh line is quick in it's turn of topic to the beloved.  The aforementioned lines are simply pathways to her.  The twelfth line speaks to the universality of this sense of being carried.  All things carry him to her.  This is the stuff of metaphors. 

The next few lines go on to characterize this phenomenon as little boats that sail to her being.  These outer phenomenon carry him to the isles of her, that are always waiting for him.

The next stanza is short and encapsulates the threat of rejection in the guise of ebbing love.  The narrators love for the beloved shall stay proportional to how much he is loved by her.  If  slowly she should stop loving him, he shall stop loving her slowly.

The stanza following this one details the ends of such an ebbing love, forgetfulness.  It's contrast to the preceding stanza is that forgetfulness is sudden unlike the ebbing love above.  It follows the same basic meaning as the stanza preceding but deepens in it's projections of lost love.  If the narrator is forgotten, he'll have already forgotten his lover.

The stanza after is a third repetition of what will happen if he is forgotten by the beloved.  Detailing in what way the beloved might lose her love for the narrator.  Here he imagines himself as a tree where his heart is rooted upon the shore.  But unlike a tree he's unwilling to be left alone on the shore, and much unlike a tree he'll pick himself up and move on with life. Particularly to shores where he's wanted.

The last stanza is a return to the beloved though.  As a poem of hypothetical rejection it ends on a high note,  detailing how such a fate as above mentioned might be avoided.  The beloved must feel as though she is destined for him.  Every day a flower, in some sense an article of beauty must climb to her lips in search of him.  The results of this sort of love is made clear.  The ardor that burns in the heart of his beloved will be mirrored in his own.  Nothing that he does or thinks concerning her will go dead or be forgotten.  This line is important because the subject of the poem is about the hypothetical loss of love through forgetfulness.  The poet recognizes that love is the enemy of forgetfulness and vice versa.  That their love is interconnected, fire feeding upon fire.   The last line deliberately befuddles and makes difficult to discern which of them the possesses the fire, implying that such things are too closely intermingled to define.   This fire will be in her arms, but will also persist in his.  She has become his fire, a fire that needn't worry about being extinguished. 

Analysis of The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

The poem is written in three stanzas and three movements.  The first line starts with a sense of resignation.  The narrator is tired of their present surroundings I will arise and go now.   The tempo conveys a stern but ardent wish to go to Innisfree.

The second line begins the manifestation of his yearning and his dream, how it would play out.   Here there's an expression of a simple desire, a small cabin made of modest materials.  

The third line addresses how the narrator would subsist on Innisfree, which would apparently be honey and beans.  The sincerity of the wish is made evident through the exacting detail in which he makes it plain that he wants nine bean rows.  

The fourth line reveals that the yearning for Innisfree is in part a wish for solitude.  To live amongst the birds and the bees.  In this line the reference to bees is expressed.   .The next stanza will make reference to birds through the depiction of the linnet's wings.

The beginning of the second stanza deepens the reflection for solitude, elaborating that it's actually a yearning for peace.   The narration is almost self evident in this respect, as the second half of the line emphasizes that peace comes dropping slow.  As the cadence of the poem builds, one feels one is dropping more deeply into what Innisfree would be like.  At first there was just the wish for Innisfree.  Then it's revealed as a desire for solitude.  Then this desire for solitude is revealed in truth as a wish for peace.  Yeats will begin elaborating on what this peace would be like in vivid imagery.

 

The depiction of what Innisfree would be like begins earnestly enough in the morning.  Yeats will go on to depict the highlights of beauty in the natural surroundings and time of days there, much the same way Impressionist painters of his time depicted light in different times of the day in their landscapes.  The veils of the morning here is a metynomical phrase for the morning mist, from which the peace of the day begins.  

The glimmer of midnight would be the stars in that Isle far from the city, and the purple noon would be an embellishment of the sheer vibrancy of the day.  The poem helps invoke a dreamlike quality of extended time through the a-chronological order in which the events of the days there take place.  It begins with morning, moves to midnight, and back to the afternoon again.  This provides almost a time-lapsed quality to the depiction of Innisfree.  The third line reinforces cadence through both glimmer and glow, which are alliterative repetitions throughout the line reinforcing the quality of the light at Innisfree. 

The last line depicts the aforementioned reference to birds in Linnet's wings.  Here Yeats comes back to the sounds of Innisfree he first summoned through the sound of the crickets.  Here the sounds of Innisfree are so subtle as to include the sounds of a birds wings, emphasizing how peaceful a place it is.

The beginning of the third stanza marks a shift in topic, bringing the reader back to the present and the city.  Here the narrator sits and thinks of Innisfree night and day.  The symmetry in references to the times of day at Innisfree is palpable here.  Where the day's and nights of Innisfree are painted with extravagance, no such beauty exists here in the nights and days of the city.  

The ebb of lake water at Innisfree brings the narration back to the dream.  With subtle sounds that are almost inaudible calling the reader back to the past depictions of Innisfree. 

The narration cements the symmetry of the split between where the narrator is, and where he dreams by finally invoking the external environment of the city.  Here the pavement is made to contrast from the beauty and vividness of Innisfree by coloring it gray.  Despite the external circumstances the Lake Isle of Innisfree lives on in the heart of the narrator.  It's echoing sound resounding in the depths of his heart. 

Analysis of Roses and Pearls by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Roses and Pearls

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Your spoken words are roses fine and sweet,

The songs you sing are perfect pearls of sound.

How lavish nature is about your feet,

To scatter flowers and jewels both around.

Blushing the stream of petal beauty flows,

Softly the white strings trickle down and shine.

Oh! speak to me, my love, I crave a rose.

Sing me a song, for I would pearls were mine. 

 This love poem is a twining of two subjects: her spoken words and the songs she sings. Each is twined with their respective metaphors: roses and pearls.  The first line approaches her voice as roses in the same way that roses are the first word of the title.

Here the word fine may take on a more descriptive notion than just merely satisfaction, as in "that's fine"  here the petals may be delicate and fragrant in subtle ways.  As in the french word fine which means delicate.

The second line brings in alliteration with perfect pearls and songs you sing.  The poem has a rhyme scheme of ABAB and is elegant and concise in it's topic.

The third line is a build up to the fourth in which Dunbar addresses both metaphors by another name, lauding her richness.  In the fourth line roses become flowers and pearls become jewels.

Here the subtlety of Dunbar evinces itself again as the blush of the roses is conveyed through blushing and its obvious connotations to her cheek.  The beauty of petals is indeed flowing across all her person in this poem.

The sixth line conveys how the songs she sings trickle down and shine.  Here the notes of her voice could be construed as individual pearls, the way one might read them in sheet music.  There's a little bit of synesthesia in depicting visually the qualities of her sounds.  The complimentary nature of Dunbar's love poetry is that his excellence in imagery is conveyed towards the sound of his lover's voice in both song and speech.   Dunbar does this paradoxically in written form.  The power of this is that in the reading of the poetry it is itself a conveyance of sound, but here it paints visual impressions of the beauty of his lovers voice.

The sixth and seventh line conveys the narrators difficulty in restraining his passion and craving for her words and song.  Imbued as they are with such imagery, Dunbar reinforces the connection between words and roses and pearls and song in the last lines. 

Analysis of A Well-Worn Story by Dorothy Parker

A Well-Worn Story

by Dorothy Parker 

In April, in April,
My one love came along,
And I ran the slope of my high hill
To follow a thread of song.

His eyes were hard as porphyry
With looking on cruel lands;
His voice went slipping over me
Like terrible silver hands.

Together we trod the secret lane
And walked the muttering town.
I wore my heart like a wet, red stain
On the breast of a velvet gown.

In April, in April,
My love went whistling by,
And I stumbled here to my high hill
Along the way of a lie.

Now what should I do in this place
But sit and count the chimes,
And splash cold water on my face
And spoil a page with rhymes? 

The first stanza begins with in April in April.   April is also appears in the first line of another famous poem The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.  The full line in that poem goes April is the cruelest month.  Here as the narration covers the topic of disaffected love, the cruelty of April in this poem will assume it's own significance. 

The second line follows up with my one love came along.  Here is an introduction into the topic of the poem which is a love affair.  It also introduces the rhyme scheme ABAB.

 Line three creates an image akin to The Sound of Music with the narrator running up a hill.  Here she's running the slope of her high hill, or towards the apex of her happiness.

The next line explains how she got up the hill, which was along the thread of a song.   The line carries both a possible figurative sense with her being drawn up a hill by a thread.  It could also convey  it could be that her lover was a singer, or a fellow poet like herself.  In anycase, it brought her happiness on her high hill.

The beginning of the second stanza invokes the hardness of his eyes comparing them to an igneous rock.  The etymology of igneous means fire, so one could say there's fire in his eyes.  The second line of the second stanza is cynical in a way characteristic of Dorothy Parker.  There's a subtle suggestion here of us against the world within the two lines.  Here it's an expression of her sincerity in love, that she would attribute the hardness of his eyes to the cruelty of the society they live in.

The second half of the second stanza returns to the subject of his voice.  In the first stanza that the thread of a song was his voice, here that voice develops in character. The effects on his lover and are expressed as powerful. 

The third stanza talks about the the shared intimacy between the two.  Together through both public and secret places.  The second line reinforces the idea of the two of them against the world as they walk the muttering town.

The second half of the third stanza is striking in it's imagery.  She more or less talks about how she wore her heart on her sleeve of the finest and softest of dresses.

The fourth stanza comes back to that creeping cynicism so rife throughout the works of Dorothy Parker.   Here again she reiterates the first line that began the poem in an euphoria of love.  The second line talks about how her love went whistling by.  The lines in and of themselves have no intrinsic meaning.  It could mean that her lover strolled by while she became elated.  It could mean he moved on without any thought of her.  In anycase it's the nonchalance of the lines that strike the reader.  The pent up ennui that has to be expressed.

The second half of the stanza talks about how she's still up on her high hill.  But that she stumbled up along the way of a lie.  We're never told exactly what that lie is.  We can assume it was a lie told by her lover.

The last stanza is one of resignation to her fate.  She sits upon her hill bored and counting chimes.  Whatever that means.  The last half of the final stanza talks about waking up from a dream.  To splash cold water on her face.  The poem ends on a fourth wall lean, making fun of the fact that she has to write a poem about her disillusionment, which is exactly what this poem is about.  It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth at the end.  The sardonic nature doesn't seem to make up for the loss of love that expressed in the poem. 

Analysis of Regardless by Charles Bukowski

"Regardless"

by Charles Bukowski

the nights you fight best
are
when all the weapons are pointed
at you,
when all the voices
hurl their insults
while the dream is being
strangled.

the nights you fight best
are
when reason gets
kicked in the
gut,
when the chariots of
gloom
encircle
you.

the nights you fight best
are
when the laughter of fools
fills the
air,
when the kiss of death is
mistaken for
love.

the nights you fight best
are
when the game is
fixed,
when the crowd screams
for your
blood.

the nights you fight best
are
on a night like
this
as you chase a thousand
dark rats from
your brain,
as you rise up against the
impossible,
as you become a brother
to the tender sister
of joy and

move on

regardless.

 The first line begins a refrain that will commence each stanza throughout the poem.  The nights you fight best will dominate as the topic of the poem.  Each refrain will be followed by two contextual reasons across multiple lines identifying why the reader excels in fights.

The second line is simply the word are.  The spacing here adds pause.  If the poem were to be set to music it'd be something like a three quarter note pause.  This is to build up emphasis and help solidify and make cogent the reasons for fighting best.  

The third line will encapsulate something of the truth the poem is getting at.  In it's most fundamental form, the line conveys that when the reader is most opposed that is when they fight best.  But this isn't simply to convey opposition, it's the utter unanimity of the opposition all their weapons. 

Lines five and six straddle the line in meaning between universal reprobation  and schizophrenic voices.  The animosity of the insults is construed as strangling the dream.  Here the hatred of the crowds for the reader is palpable.  They threaten the dream of the reader and we'll see that their obdurate in their malice.  Bukowski keeps a staccato and asymmetrical rhythm consistent with beat poetry and zen aesthetics. The meter here conveys sincerity and intimacy of the feeling invoked.  

The next line is the refrain beginning the stanza afresh.  The second line are is consistent as well in it's repetition, building anticipation and rhythm for the whole. 

The meat of the stanza conveys again the reasons for the readers excellence in conflict, which stems from the unreasonable nature of the opposition.  Not only are the opposition unreasonable, they flagrantly kick any attempts at rationality in the gut.  That is to say they are positively hostile to reasoned discourse.

The next few lines in the stanza use the metaphor of chariots to convey the way gloom works.  This will begin an impression that the reader may carry into other lines.  Circling around and around in what may be a gladiatorial ring, the presence of gloom blocks off all routes of escape. There's a real threat of being destroyed by these impressions, but that's when the reader fights best.

After the  refrain the contextual circumstances for fighting best here is when the air is filled with the laughter of fools.  Here again the paucity of reason in the opposition is made apparent.  Not only are the opposition stupid, poorly informed, and/or ignorant, but there's a malignancy about them aired by their stupidity.

The second set of reasons come with the kiss of death that is mistaken for love.   Here the idea is a mistake on the behalf of the reader.  When betrayal or willful deceit by the loved one takes place, this is when the reader fights best.

The fourth stanza speaks about the rigged nature of the game being played.  The reader is against  impossible odds because the way the conflict has been set up.  The idea of a rigged game implies that there should be some sort of fairness involved with the competition.  That certain rules should be followed that allow the process to take place in some sort of framework where utter brutality would be impossible.  But the game is rigged, and there is no absolutely no capacity to trust the rules of this conflict.

The second half is when the crowd screams for you blood.  Here again the anonymous facelessness of the crowd is made malignant.  Given in the context of a fixed game,  the impression of a gladiatorial arena is invoked again.  The masses want blood, and they know the game is rigged but don't care.  This is when the reader fights best, when the injustice of the situation makes itself apparent.

 The last stanza brings home the immediacy of the fight.  On nights like this... here the reader is seen as scouring rats from their mind and standing up even under impossible odds.  The poem breaks it's form and forms up for a crescendo and denouement.

To become a brother to the tender sister of joy is not itself a straightforward metaphor.  Here the battle between despair and joy has been decided.  But the man, and he is a brother, is not joy himself.  He has beaten gloom, and become a brother of joy, but he moves on regardless, without getting caught up in what would be apparent victory under the circumstances.  Keeping joy under these combative circumstances would be to endanger it, or her if you like. 

Analysis of Helen by H.D.

Helen

 by H.D.

All Greece hates
 the still eyes in the white face, 
the lustre as of olives
 where she stands,
 and the white hands.

 All Greece reviles 
the wan face when she smiles,
 hating it deeper still 
when it grows wan and white,
 remembering past enchantments
 and past ills. 

Greece sees, unmoved, 
God’s daughter, born of love, 
the beauty of cool feet
 and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid, 
only if she were laid, 
white ash amid funereal cypresses.

The title takes it's appellation from the mythological character Helen of Troy.  Popular myth accorded her the title of the most beautiful woman in the world.  Eris, the goddess of discord threw an apple into a wedding feast that was to be given to the prettiest of the goddesses. After some squabbling Paris of Troy was chosen to judge between the beauty of Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena.  Paris, choosing Aphrodite was awarded with the hand of Helen.  Helen and Paris eloped together to Troy where they stayed until the Trojan war began.  

 The siege of Troy was long and regaled in myth for it's many events.  Its contextual information provides us with an understanding of why Greece would despise Helen so much.  Which is related in the first line of the poem. 

 All Greece hates

The poem begins with Greece's animosity towards Helen.  Here everyone in Greece is included in the phrase.  The poem will constantly return to the idea of Greece's hatred.

  the still eyes in the white face,

 The second line begins with a description of Helen, as though drawn from statuary.  Her face white, and eyes still.  Where most would admire her beauty, Greece hates it.  

 the lustre as of olives

 Lustre here means light.  Olives are traditionally associated with Greece and held great importance in their ancient culture.  The line may herald olives as though they were laurels of glory for the Greeks.  Indeed one may think of Helen as the prize fruit of their society.

and the white hands

This line is a simple and pure appreciation of Helen's hands.  The stanza has a simple rhyme scheme of AABCC.  The poem doesn't use exact rhyme for every line, creating a little assymetrical adds to it's beauty.  

All Greece reviles

Here again we return to Greece's hatred of Helen. The poem drives a unity between the hatred of the Greeks and the beauty of one of their own who betrayed them. Reminders of Greek hatred will follow every mention of her beauty. 

   

 the wan face when she smiles,

 Wan here means pale but in a delicate and beautiful way.  The nature of her smile is left ambiguous.  We don't know if it's an ingenue's smile, a coquettish smile, one of shame or any other. 

Hating it deeper still,  

As she grows more beautiful Greece's hatred for her deepens.  The ugliness of the Greeks is kept corollary and in contrast to Helen's beauty.

when it grows wan and white,

Here the line continues the alternation between hatred and beauty, keeping them in perfect contrast.  Greece seems like a spurned lover, who's jealous possessiveness is in perfect ratio to Helen's beauty. The line has a perfect rhythm along with alliteration in wan and white.

remembering past enchantments,

Here the Greeks cleverness is driven into wariness by remembrance of their past infatuation with Helen.

and past ills.   

The closing line makes use of repetition of the word past to emphasize the subtlety of the wariness and humiliation the Greeks received.  The Rhyme Scheme for this stanza is AABCDB.  Again the last rhyme is a close rhyme adding to it's aesthetics.

Greece sees, unmoved,

The next stanza begins with the obstinancy of the Greek opposition. The rhyme scheme here will be ABCDEEE.  The repetition of rhyme in the last three lines will add emphasis to the sentiments conveyed within them.

 

God’s daughter, born of love,

Here the Greeks are shown to suffer from the error of Hubris, that is opposing the will of the gods.  Remember that Helen's elopement was instigated at divine will.  

the beauty of cool feet

Here again the narrative lauds her statuesque qualities.  

 and slenderest knees,

 The poem is careful never to become over sensuous concerning her beauty.  It's depictions use the words white, wan, cool, and slenderest.  Helen's purity is kept despite the apparent loss of purity at what would be her actions.  This is in contrast to the purity of the hatred of the Greeks.  If there's a power differential between Helen and the Greeks it's in Helen's favor as the Greeks constantly find themselves the ones being moved to action by Helen's utter stillness as depicted in the poem.  

could love indeed the maid, 

The pentultimate lines of the poem concern the ability of the Greeks to actually love and accept the idea of Helen. This of course only means the satiation of their hatred.

only if she were laid, 

Here their hatred finds it's surcease under certain conditions.  Again the poem builds up to the finesse and subtlety of her beauty.  Where she held the appearance of a perfect statue of beauty, the following lines intimate that she would still be fine and pure after her funerary rites.

white ash amid funereal cypresses.

Here the funeral cypresses represent the wood used to fuel a pyre.  Greece's emotional polarization still revolves around the purity of Helen.  But only if she were pure white ash.  Here the first adjective white used to describe her beauty is reiterated but in a different context.  The love that should be accorded to her because of the purity of her beauty, would be accorded only in the purity of her funerary ashes.