Poetry Writing Fluencies

English 11B

Poetry 1 – John Donne’s “Song”GO and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root,Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the devil's foot,Teach me to hear mermaids singing,Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What windServes to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights, Things invisible to see,Ride ten thousand days and nights, Till age snow white hairs on thee,Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,

All strange wonders that befell thee, And swear, No whereLives a woman true and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know, Such a pilgrimage were sweet;Yet do not, I would not go, Though at next door we might meet,Though she were true, when you met her,And last, till you write your letter, Yet she Will beFalse, ere I come, to two, or three.

Themes• Relationships• Impossible things

• Do you agree with the speaker? Is it impossible for someone to be both beautiful and faithful?

Other topics

Poetry 2 – John Donne “Holy Sonnet 10”Death be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,And soonest our best men with thee do go,Rest of their bones, and souls delivery.Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,And better then thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?One short sleep past, we wake eternally,And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Themes• Death as a mortal being• Victory over death• Fear of dying

• What happens when we die?

Other topics

Poetry 3 – Robert Burns “Auld Lang Syne”

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and auld lang syne?

CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my jo, for auld lang syne, we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!and surely I’ll be mine!And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?Should old acquaintance be forgot,and old lang syne

CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!and surely I’ll buy mine!And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.

Themes• Remembering:

– times gone by (the past).– people who have left us

(passed away).

• Why is this song so popular around the new year?

• Is it right that old times should be remembered, or should we move on from the past?

Other topics

Poetry 4 – William Blake“The Tyger” (1794)

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Themes• Creation: Who created the

tiger - a kind God or an evil devil?

• Duality: can something be both beautiful and evil/horrible (cars, technology, etc.)?

Other topics

Poetry 5 – Percy Bysshe Shelley“Ozymandias”

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away".

Themes• Pride and the fall (the rise

and fall of civilizations)• Man vs. Nature• Time

Other topics

Poetry 6 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Kubla Khan”

Or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to

man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled

round:And there were gardens bright with

sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh! that deep romantic chasm

which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn

cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was

haunted By woman wailing for her demon lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy

motion Through wood and dale the sacred

river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!The shadow of the dome of pleasureFloated midway on the waves;Where was heard the mingled

measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves

of ice!A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw;

It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she

played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight 'twould

win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves

of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Themes• Imagination

– With in dreams• Visions

– Desire to achieve – Danger of doing so

• Chant-like or musical style-- Rhyme scheme ABAABCCDEDE

• Motifs– Natural world

Other topics

Poetry 7 – Christina Rossetti “Goblin Market” (1862)

• Laura and Lizzie live by themselves, and are accustomed to draw water every evening from a stream.

• As the poem begins, the sisters hear the calls from the goblin merchants, who sell fruits in fantastic abundance, variety and taste/smell.

• Lizzie warns:“We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry thirsty roots?”

• On this evening, Laura lingers at the stream after her sister has left for home, intrigued by the goblins' strange manner and appearance. Wanting fruit but having no money, the impulsive Laura offers a lock of her hair and "a tear more rare than pearl."

• Laura gorges on the delicious fruit, then once she is finished, returns home in an ecstatic trance.

• Lizzie reminds Laura about the cautionary tale of Jeanie, another girl who had eaten the goblin’s fruits and died after a long and horrible decline. Laura dismisses her sister's worries, and says she shall return to the goblins the next night and return with more fruits for herself and Lizzie.

• The next day, as Laura and Lizzie go about their work in the house, Laura dreamily longs for the coming evening's meeting with the goblins. But at the stream that evening, as she strains to hear the usual goblin chants and cries, Laura discovers to her horror that, although Lizzie still hears the goblins' voices, she no longer can.

• Unable to buy more of the forbidden fruit, and sickening for the lack of it, Laura falls into a slow physical deterioration and depression. As winter approaches, she withers away, ageing at an unnatural rate.

• Weeks and months pass, and finally Lizzie realizes that Laura is on the verge of death.

Tender Lizzie could not bearTo watch her sister’s cankerous careYet not to share.She night and morningCaught the goblins’ cry:“Come buy our orchard fruits,Come buy, come buy;”—Beside the brook, along the glen,She heard the tramp of goblin men,The yoke and stirPoor Laura could not hear;Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her,But fear’d to pay too dear.She thought of Jeanie in her grave,Who should have been a bride;But who for joys brides hope to haveFell sick and diedIn her gay prime,In earliest winter timeWith the first glazing rime,With the first snow-fall of crisp winter time.

Till Laura dwindlingSeem’d knocking at Death’s door:Then Lizzie weigh’d no moreBetter and worse;But put a silver penny in her purse,Kiss’d Laura, cross’d the heath with clumps

of furzeAt twilight, halted by the brook:And for the first time in her lifeBegan to listen and look.

Themes• Biblical allusions

– Forbidden fruit– Temptations

• “Fallen women”• Drug addiction• Sisters

Other topics

Poetry 8 – Alfred Lord Tennyson"The Lady of Shalott“ (1833-1842)

• Part 1– The Lady of Shalott, Elaine of Astolat, lives in a castle on an island near

Camelot.

• Part 2– In her tower she weaves and watches shadows of newlyweds in her

mirror. She longs to be wedded.

• Part 3– She sees Lancelot, a knight of Camelot, singing on his way to Camelot.

Sick of shadows, she leaves her room because she wants to risk seeing him.

Poetry 9 – Robert Browning “My Last Duchess” ()

Themes Other topics

Poetry 10 – Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach” ()

Themes Other topics

Poetry 11 – Dylan Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” ()

Themes Other topics