Famous Poets & Poems

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe

American Author: 1809-1849

Most famous for his mystery and horror stories

His works rely heavily on setting and atmosphere

His poems and stories are very well known in western literature. Among the most famous are “The Raven,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

A Dream Within A Dream I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep- while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream

Questions

1. What is the setting in the first stanza?

2. What do you think he means by: “my days have been a dream”?

3. Where is the setting in the second stanza?

4. What do you think this poem is about?

Margaret Atwood

Atwood

Canadian Author born 1939

One of Canada's most famous writers

She has written novels, short stories and poetry

Her works often have a feminist message

She often criticizes society and works to change the way people think.

You Fit Into Me

you fit into melike a hook into an eye

a fish hookan open eye

Questions

1. How many stanzas does this poem have?

2. What do you think this poem is about?

3. How does this poem use imagery?

4. What is the simile used in this poem?

5. Why is the poem so short?

William Butler Yeats

Yeats

From Dublin, Ireland: 1865-1939 Was educated in London In 1923 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature

He is one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century

Adeh Wishes for the Cloths of HeavenHad I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with the golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams...

Questions

1. What is the rhyme scheme?

2. What do you think this poem is about?

3. What is “night, and light and half-light” referring to?

4. What imagery is used in this poem?

Emily Dickinson

Dickinson American writer- 1830-1886

As a young girl she was an excellent student and she enjoyed music, art and literature

She never liked to spend time with a lot of people. As she got older she stayed mostly in her home away from society

After she died her sister discovered 1700 poems in her room. Two years later the poems were published and Dickinson became famous after her death.

Video on Dickinson

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

I'm Nobody! Who are you?Are you -- Nobody -- Too?Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! they'd advertise -- you know!

How dreary -- to be -- Somebody!How public -- like a Frog --

To tell one's name -- the livelong June --To an admiring Bog!

Questions

1. What do you think this poem is about?

2. In the second stanza there are two similes. A frog and a bog. What is she comparing them to?

3. Is there any connection between Dickinson's real life and the message in this poem?