Major English and American Poets of the Romantic Period Project

Write a one paragraph response for each of the following poems: “The Tyger”, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “She Walks in Beauty”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “The Raven”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “O Captain! My Captain!”, and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” Choose 8 more poems to also respond to, one at least 170 lines long, and another one 70. Each response should do the following: describe the main sections or divisions of the poem; summarize what it’s about or what the main point is; respond to an image or line that struck you as especially powerful; and give an overall impression of the poem, explaining why you had this response.

The Tyger: I read this poem over, and over again, like I did with most of these poems. Two things came up in my mind. One, that the purpose for the word Tyger being written with a Y is to make you stop and read more carefully, and take a look at the symbolism. An image kept coming to my mind and my conclusion of what William Blake is identifying as the Tyger is for me a description of Satan, and I will explain why.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright* (suggestion of burning in the fires of hell)
In the forests of the night,*
>What immortal hand or eye*
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?*< (immortal hand or eye. the idea of God creating Satan, fearful symmetry, fearful giving the image of a very dreadful bad evil thing something to be afraid of, and perfect, symmetry which is an excellence of proportion, so for this reason this is the line that strikes me the most)

In what distant deeps or skies (deeps or skies, both Satan going from an angel in the skies to hell in the deeps)
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? (Again the fires of hell)
>On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire? < (This one is pretty clear, wings, and the hand that would dare seize, a forceful action, the fire)

>And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? < (I am not sure that I am understanding this line right but it could be connected to Satan as first being art and being twisted the sinews of his heart)
>And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet? < (The using and for what he uses the word dread)

>What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp> (The creation of Satan)
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? > (The lines that make me think that the above is referring to the creation of Satan)

>When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?*
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?*< (The stars throwing down their spears, the falling of Satan from heaven. and water’d heaven with their tears, heaven was lamenting the fall of Satan from a perfect angel to what he is. Did he smile his work to see, I think this questions God, wonders if he smiled, if he was happy. That He the God that made Jesus (The lamb) made Satan)

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

Please don’t think that I am obsessed with Satan or making assumptions of something that really is not there. I just found the connections and made them; in my opinion William Blake is obsessed with Satan. This poem is, if it is a poem about Satan – which I think is strongly suggested, a strong question and wondering about Satan, as first impression, probably followed after a thought of good forces versus evil.

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey: this poem is divided in paragraphs, pretty huge paragraphs that if you divide it in ideas they pass as quick as two line sentences when you read them. The transitions from line 22 to line 23 are two completely different sections. The first one talks about him arriving to this place that was emotionally connected with him after 5 years, and describes everything around him and describes a little bit what it means to him. In the second section from line 23 to 57 William Wordsworth stops describing the place at all, and really starts commenting on how hugely emotionally connected this place is to him, it’s all it talks about. Were in the first section it barely even touched the subject, it was more concentrated on describing the place. The third section which is from line 58 to 111 talks about how he was so thoughtless 5 years back and how things just went and he did not really appreciate him, were now he is fully aware. The fourth section that goes from line 111 to 159 talks about his sister and how now he can appreciate things that she cant, but really how she is like he was before, in the good and bad sense of it. I like it how William Wordsworth talks very strait, he does not use very complicated language and does not use allot of symbolism. Which makes it easier to read and understand, but yet the final idea is not a easy thought. Basically that you should enjoy things as much as he did and recall those places as you grow old. A poem were I can say that a line didn’t strike me the most, the whole first paragraph and the intensity and detail of the objects he was describing struck me.

The Rime of the Ancient mariner: I think that this story can be divided in two parts, one the story of the tree dudes going to the wedding and two the story within a story. This poem is great and it mainly says a story, the story of the mariner and the problems that the albatross caused. A very cool supernatural story. Another poem were I can’t call out a line that struck me the most, there are many lines that struck me. Where it says that the mariner let go off the wedding-guest and his eye made him unable to move, where it talks about the wind pushing the ship to a land that I think is somewhere in the arctic, and I think that the lights and creatures on the water was them getting into a Borean aurora, and the mariners being so dry as really being so cold, having their mouths frozen by the cold, it is just another connection and explanation that I made even though the story is mostly supernatural. Where it talks about the crawlers walking across the surface. Where he bites his arm and sucks his blood so that he can speak. The skeletal ship and the women are just so cool. The way that they dropped dead looking at him and that water surrounded him and that he felt whispers making him unable to pray while all his dead mariner buddies were staring at him, the idea of him staying like that for 7 days and 7 nights. It is all SOOO cool!
this poem I don’t think that it was meant to really give a message, but rather to tell a story. The symbolism behind there being 3 wedding guests, why 3? Why 7 days? This is stuff I mostly ignored and rather concentrated on the sweet story and enjoyed reading it.

She walks in Beauty: This poem is composed of just one section, the show of love and appreciation for his cousin, this one section is based on, everything that is said is to say something good about her cousin, which I think it was better before me before I read it was his cousin ( I guess times were different xD). A line that struck me is: And all that’s best of dark and bright. When he says that about her he is saying that he loves her for her flaws too, which I think is pretty cool. My now impression of this poem is “weird” because she is his cousin.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: as first impression this is a hard poem to understand, I see some sarcasm in the writing. Or maybe it is rather a conflict and contradiction. Like it talks about the life that the imaginary fantasy people have, and yet they are carved motionless in the marble of the urn. It is where you see the mortality of humans and the malleable against the immortal. I am not sure how to divide this by sections its just allot of thought and the difficulty in understanding some lines makes it difficult, one of these lines which also is the line that struck me the most is:

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”–that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

It is a nice phrase to say that rhymes it is nice to hear, and it leads you to allot of thoughts.
The Raven: This poem is great, it is freaky and scary and makes you feel weird stuff which is awesome. I think it can be broken in sections of feelings and thoughts of the writer, first he is about napping, second he is thinking of Lenore, third he is scared and disturbed because this raven is HAUNTING him. He conflicts him by repeating the word nevermore and makes him question himself. The line that struck me the most is:

“Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; but the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” This I whispered, and echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”
This part is just so strong, and it has a fast paste when you read it, darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, dreaming; and then it stops and makes you read a bit slower. The element of darkness and stillness and the sense of thinking you are alone were you aren’t. The word nevermore has no meaning in this poem. It is what is driving the man mad. He asks the raven many questions, but the only answer he receives is the meaningless word nevermore. Now if there is a connection between Lenore, maybe the reason why he is in prison, with the raven is hard to say. I think that the raven really symbolizes loneliness and going crazy with one self, hearing sounds and smells and not being able to deal with your own thoughts, self-torture, and the physical features of a raven can kind of show this. I think that the fact that Edgar Allan Poe was nuts helped him write this. So frightening, this is first time a poem gives me the chills. I wouldn’t say that this poem is depressing; I think that it is fantastically terrorific. This poem made me suddenly become aware of the dreadful loneliness of my fragile room, even though I had my TV and my music on. Great poem.

10/10 for this poem.

Ode to the West Wind: Each of the seven parts of Ode to the West Wind contains five stanzas, four three line stanzas and a two line ender. The poem is mainly about. Now I didn’t think that the raven was depressing, and I do think this is. The idea that he has nothing to lose nothing to care about and wants to be carried by the wind, indentifies itself by the wind and just wants to die and let his heart by like the wind, instead of being unchained. He counts his hours in the earth. A line that struck me was:
If I were a dead leaf thou mightiest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with the

this guy wishes he was something else. He really finds no self value. Very emo. But it is an ok poem, first impression it seemed happy and free and careless but after you read it a few times its not.

The Charge of the Light Brigade: You can divide this poem in 3 sections
1: the light brigade heading to the camp of death

2: the light brigade fighting there

3: the light brigade retreating

This poem is about the Light brigade and their courage into going towards death. The line that struck me the most was:
Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley’d and thunder’d; Storm’d at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell.
I like it because it gives a pretty vivid image of their retreat and of the chaos that happening. My impression of this poem is that it might be a crusade, since they call their selves the Light Brigade. That might be religious.
O Captain! My Captain!: This is another one section poem it is all about the captain being dead and people not realizing, the head of the ship is dead and they continue to celebrate their won. While the speaker, his son, does but he has a hard time believing it he is expecting his father to raise up and see his accomplishments. But the captain has fallen cold and dead. My impression over this poem is sad because it seems like they really accomplished a big thing and as if they were a big deal in their town and in their docks, as if they were fighting for something important. Because they won’t and it very clearly expresses that everyone is glad about it until they realize that the captain is dead. The line that stroked me the most was:

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

this captures the moment were they go from happy and looking for the achiever of all this the captain, to seeing the captain dead and watching their faces turning, pretty emotional moment.
When I Heard the Learned Astronomer: This poem is trying to show the difference between studying something and knowing it inside out. And being out there and just feeling it yourself. It is trying to say that the scientific process is inferior to experiencing Nature by itself. There are two sections we can divide this poem in: 1. when it is talking about all the studying in the classroom

2. Were it says that it was unbearable and that he had to go out and feel it by himself.

I think that the idea that this poem is trying to get across is that scientists lose the feeling of what they are studying by not feeling it. And that spending hours in a room figuring every aspect of a thing does not compare to feeling it and that scientists should be aware of that, and not be carried away. A line that strokes me in this poem was in the changing from classroom to outside nature:
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

I think this pretty much summarized it up, and what was before it just gave it emphasis.

Worldview analysis: The Tyger
Things we can infer about:
God & Mankind, Purpose, Moral Order & creation: The blacksmith, God, creator has a part in every single paragraph with the idea that it created the tyger, but this idea of the blacksmith roots itself with the tyger (also appearing in every single paragraph). To the point were it almost feels as if you are talking of the same thing. So you are left with one question, what is the blacksmith, God, creator? And almost makes it feel as if the tyger was the blacksmith, God, creator, I think this is one of the main questions in mankind, what is the creator? Who is the creator? Can we prove creation??????? If we can know our creator than we can know why we were created, why we are here, our purpose, and we can define our Moral Order in conform to our creator.

70 line poem or more: Potato Blossom Songs and Jigs by Carl Sandburg
(http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/carl_sandburg/poems/2596.html)

RUM tiddy um,
tiddy um,
tiddy um tum tum.
My knees are loose-like; my feet want to sling their selves.
I feel like tickling you under the chin—honey—and a-asking: Why Does a Chicken Cross the Road?
When the hens are a-laying eggs, and the roosters pluck-pluck-put-akut and you—honey—put new potatoes and gravy on the table, and there ain’t too much rain or too little:
Say, why do I feel so gabby?
Why do I want to holler all over the place?. . .
Do you remember I held empty hands to you
and I said all is yours
the handfuls of nothing?. . .
I ask you for white blossoms.
I bring a concertina after sunset under the apple trees.
I bring out “The Spanish Cavalier” and “In the Gloaming, O My Darling.”

Bring a concertina after sunset under the apple trees.
Let romance stutter to the western stars, “Excuse … me…”

I like the simplicity of it and yet all the quotes of un-simple things. I like the southern tone of it and how it talks as in a childish way, almost as if it is his first love, the only love he ever knew. It uses a very innocent tone. A line that stroke me was were this guy says:
The story lags
Which is kind of funny and striking to see that word “lags” in a poem, it is a pretty Modern day written poem I guess. The main way to divide this poem I think is by looking at every time he makes a comparison to other writings and see what it is trying to compare. Which will tell you what he is trying to say, relating to the potato blossoming and the love that comes along with that.

170 line poem or more Indications, The by Walt Whitman http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/walt_whitman/poems/17584.html

THE indications, and tally of time;
Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs;
Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts;
What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of the pleasant company of singers, and their
words;
The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or dark—but the words
of
the
maker of poems are the general light and dark;
The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality,
His insight and power encircle things and the human race,
He is the glory and extract thus far, of things, and of the human race.

They prepare for death—yet are they not the finish, but rather the outset,
They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be content and full;
Whom they take, they take into space, to behold the birth of stars, to learn one of the
meanings,
To launch off with absolute faith—to sweep through the ceaseless rings, and never be
quiet
again.

This poem can be divided by every time that it compares something to the makers of poems, philosophers, musicians, politics, sailors, travelers. And how poems and the makers of poems are always better, you could divide this poem in its repetitions followed by its comparisons. This poem is ok. I think that the guy is obsessed with poems and thinks that poem makers are not given enough credit, and how poems are better than everything. I disagree; I think you need to find your balance. A line that stroke me was were it said:
All this time, and at all times, wait the words of true poems;
The words of true poems do not merely please,
The true poets are not followers of beauty, but the august masters of beauty

I think that this guy is overreacting, and the way that he said it really stroke me because you can clearly see this guys ego.

The book has got interesting in the sense that it goes quickly and with allot of detail, and it is fun to see weird names for stuff that we are used to referring to that story for ex. Caliburnus = Excalibur.
The story touches things like Avalon and some other typical places and items in the real story.
at this point to be honest I have decided to drop this book, and pick another one. I just don’t find it worth while reading if it is a story I am not interested in.

To what the original Arthur tale is about and what I knew about it I think that this book really will give allot more to add to it, but I still have to get a little in ahead in the book to really tell if the book will talk about the well known story about the dragon and Merlin or if it is going to put it in a completely different point of view or not even touch it and go to maybe the after happenings of that story.

So far the book is ok, it is not complicated to read but if you read it too much you will get to a point were you won’t want to anymore. The book does not hook you like others do but this is so far to were I have read, and maybe it will change.

1. Summarize the main conflict. Is it man versus man, man versus nature, society, or

self, or is it a combination? Did you find the conflict interesting and engaging?

What did or did not appeal to you about it?

The main conflict is about a man who lives in a post-apocalyptic society who is looking for order and conflict in the world, after being 16 years looking for it. I say that it is DEFENETLY man versus society; it is the society that put him in that situation, that people their selves in that situation. And all that he wants is some order something to remind him of back then when everything was ok. Sadly it is more complicated than that. there are a group of hyper survivalists known as the holnists named after their creator, which make everything more complicated and also there are people just like him that are traveling in large groups and their goal is pretty much to survive at what ever cost they can. Also his lack of bullets which are pretty extremely important as you can imagine, Gordon (the protagonizer) is running low on. Specially since they stole his shotgun. He later on goes to find a group named Cyclops, this came by a lucky chain of events.

- Survivalist thief’s stole most of his equipment and his shotgun

-  He (Gordon) tries to follow them and comes to find a abandoned never found old postman truck

- He is lucky enough to find postman clothes so that he would not die off the harsh weather.

- After being 30+ years old and ready to die ( since that is a old age for time’s being life expectancy) he finds hope in seeing what that dead postman’s intentions where.

- And he goes off to find the Cyclops.

I found this book very interesting and engaging for all the detail and included and the action it had, and the harsh times that it pictured for Gordon, were interesting. Eye opening maybe.

2. What is the climax? How is the conflict resolved? Did you find the resolution

satisfying? Why or why not?

The Climax is when he finds the Cyclops and their idea of fixing their scientific machines, I think the conflict was resolved when Gordon traveled south and seems like went to the prime center (probably California) of the holnists. It was pretty satisfying when he founds the Cyclops which was what Gordon was looking for 16 years. But then that was not the end of the book.

3. What are the main characteristics of the protagonist (give support)? What

character in the book was most interesting to you? Why?

He Gordon is very stubborn he is very strong and he has allot of faith, you see this all over the book I guess I could say a he has a high level of tolerance for the things that happen to him. I think that the most interesting character in the book was him, he is very profound and smart and has deep thoughts and it is interesting to see a person like that in this kind of situation.

4. Overall, did you enjoy it? Who would you recommend it to? What age levels do

you think it is appropriate for?

I enjoyed the book allot, I would recommend it to anyone over 8 that could understand the medium level of writing that the book has, because I think that the symbolic messages and the civilization views you can see in the book, could teach us all a lesson.

So far this is until I have read and I found it very interesting and with a strong message of a strong faith, and desire to continue

The Name of the Wind’s main conflict is basically the idea of the Chandrian and the way it affects people in a magic based harsh society. Kvothe (the main character) gets especially involved more than most of the people because of his innate ability in magic, his search for the name of the wind, and the events occurred to his father. Kvothe meets Abenthy who was the only one to ever have graduated of the University and he intrigues Kvothe with his many abilities in particular, the ability of naming, which is a magic that controls the power of objects by knowing their name, particularly the wind. He is searching for a powerful enough magic for him to avenge his father and his family.

I think that it is man versus nature. Against the nature of the mythical/fantasy in the book, where the Chandrian evil goes against him (Kvothe).

I found it very interesting, usually a story that has too much fantasy and BS and is not interesting for me because I look for a degree of reality in what I am reading. In this book it tells the events in a very believable way.

2. What is the climax? How is the conflict resolved? Did you find the resolution
satisfying? Why or why not?

The climax in the book is Kvothe and his quest on finding the name of the wind which is finished when he meeting Elodin. Because in this world the power lies in the name of things, and there is great power in the name of the wind.
The conflict is resolved when he enters the University finally, there is only one University and meets the master of names.

Yes, it was satisfying because after all his search even though he finds Elodin who is the master of names, Elodin does not give it right away, it is later on so it is not like he just found Elodin and was easy for him to get everything he was looking for.

3. What are the main characteristics of the protagonist (give support)? What
Character in the book was most interesting to you? Why?

Kvothe’s main characteristics are that he loves knowledge, and always needs to be intrigued with something always needs to be researching on something, he even got into looking up the Chandrian for this reason. He reminds me a lot to Matheo in a lot of ways. The most interesting character in the book for me was his father, the relationship that he had with Kvothe, what he got into and the damage he caused because of his never-ending thirst for knowledge (much like Kvothe)

4. Overall, did you enjoy it? Who would you recommend it to? What age levels do
you think it is appropriate for?

I really enjoyed it, at first I thought that it was the best book I had ever read, then it kind of got a little dull. I would recommend it to people who like fantasy and who like submerging into the book. Even though it is fantasy… It is not a hard reading but it is not easy either. I would say this book is for people 13 years old that know about literature to a 40 year old.

·        Because I heard of allot of people that read it and they recommended it to me.

·        Because it is one of the first books that I read that has been written recently with modern up-to-date situations.

·        Because the theme seemed interesting or futuristic.

·        Because it talks about chips in the brain and I wanted to see what messed up idea the book had that probably related it to the apocalypse.

For all that I have read of the book:

I found it very veryyyy interesting, it shows allot of typical human social behaviour but in a very contrasted way which kind of made me feel bad of myself, remembering lame embarrassing situations that were in a way linked to the book.
the main character was again very interesting, he is a person who is extremely bored of life and you can tell how he is different than the people he is around at, this kind of shows what would maybe happen in the future were everything has been made so simple to us that we fall into a sort of depression, and he, you can tell that he wants to be with somebody but not so much in a physical way but rather in a emotional way, someone who he could be with. I think this is important to say about the main character because I think that this is something that we all want to some degree… even if we say we don’t, we do. The main character sees everything in a different, more cold and lonely way than how his peers see things. You can see this by the lines that he mentions his friends say, for example the first chapter title is “ Your face is not an organ “ to kind of correct his friend that thought that his face was an organ which was being smashed.

This book is awesome it is the best that I have read so far, and I love the psychology into it.
so far I can say that this is the best book I have read.