Lady Lazarus

In “Lady Lazarus” poetic devices such as allusion, metaphor, apostrophe and irony are used to help develop the speaker”s feelings of confusion, paranoia and self contempt. The speaker reveals the life’s quest to destruct men and the gruesome attempts of suicide. Doctored who helped are being mocked and compared to Nazis. The Lazarus motif is seen troughout the poem and the poet is “Lady Lazarus”.

Blackberrying

”Blackberrying” is a celebratory poem about motherhood. The mood of the poem in the first two verses is one of happiness and joyfulness. Towards the end of verse two and the whole of verse three there is a change in mood and the poem becomes kind of bleak. The word ‘blackberries’ is used several times in the opening of the poem. This is used to alliterate and place emphasis the importance of the object in the poem, which could maybe be a symbol of how Plath’s children were an important part of her life. The imagery used creates a feeling that the nothingness and the stop that the road comes to in the poem means death. Plath mentions ‘blood sisterhood’ which can be interpreted as in the ritual of becoming ‘Blood brothers’ when two people cut each other and rub the wounds together, though changed to the feminine form of ‘sisterhood’ relating to the blackberry bushes as a metaphor for the bond between mother and child.

Daddy

“Daddy” is a poem full of vivid, sometimes brutal imagery. The poet uncovers great bitterness concerning father’s death and unresolved feelings toward him, with hints of troubled relationship with another man. The poem is mostly autobiographical but also deals with the problem of Holocaust.

Fever 103

In ”Fever 103” author describes her own ilness as poem unfolds in the wearied blur of fever – “Darling, all night I have been flickering, off, on, off, on. The sheets grow heavy as a lecher's kiss.” Electricity, heat and light are all throughout this poem. The speaker grows increasingly bright, and the fever becomes a metaphor for a force both creative and destructive. Her fever is a light and it consumes her, making her pure, allowing her to reach Paradise. Poem also links the horrors of nuclear attack with her anguish at the betrayal of trust in marriage “Greasing the bodies of adulterers Like Hiroshima ash and eating in. The sin. The sin.”

Gulliver

In this poem the speaker is negotiating relationship between subject and object: self and others as dialectical processing. The speaker feels like she describes clouds – with no strings attached. But others are caught in spider webs, bribes and corruption. She feels treatened too, and yells “Step off!”. She is untouchable.

The Colossus

In ”The Colossus”, the speaker imagines her dead father as the Greek sun-god, and she struggles to repair the broken pieces of the huge statue of the Colossus who is now a floating drowned man. Speaker wants to repair her inner world as she hopes that the fragments of her beloved father will be reassembled within her self. However, since she cannot reinstate the external loved object successfully, she also cannot regain the loved internal object. The process of reparation is not successful.

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

The poem talks about people searching for meaning where they will probably not find it. They all look in the same direction - at the sea, a metaphor for the unknown. They see neither far nor deep, but that does not stop them from looking. This is similar to people having trust in a religion, even though they don’t have much solid evidences. In the stanzas “The wetter ground like glass Reflects a standing gull” the gull represents the reflection of the “gullable” crowd. Their faith is strong and all they need is an ocasional ship pass by.

Mending Wall

” Mending Wall” is about creating a barrier that limits the intermingling between two plane of existences, the individual and nature. This poem is about the protection of individuality and the signifiance of boundaries. A paradoxical situation also occur in the poem, where the narrator's neighbor has completely lost the signifiance or recognition of its worth beyond tradition. In this sense Frost is illustrating the negatives of placing a wall. The alienation and isolation of complete seperation. Frost constantly rebuilds this wall and in doing so engages in the development of a relationship with his neighbor instead of completely isolation. Though "SOMETHING" that constantly tears down the wall is something simlar to the very essence of nature.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

This poem speaks not only of the nature but life itself. Gold is a metaphor for “special, precious and beautiful”. Everything precious fades away, nothing good can last. This extrapolates to youth, beauty, innocence and ultimately life - everyone is mortal. It also resonates with the feelings of the fresh love, wich is so amazing but inescapably fades with time. With this poem we discover one of the nature’s laws – everything passes.

After Apple-Picking

”After Apple-Picking” is full of metaphors. Life is just like a great apple harvest, as you have to do much of the same routine every day. There are many things, which you can do with your life. “There were ten thousand fruit to touch,” There are also many opportunities or instances in life where you may not succeed, and this may be represented by the fallen apples. “That struck the earth”. “As of no worth” The use of ‘apples’ in the story also relates to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The entire poem is trying to be a metaphor for life, and life in heaven.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

The poem is simple on the outside, talking about the beauties of the forrest on a snowy evening. But there is much more to it. It talks about a tired man, who is feeling the aproaching death (represented by the word “sleep”). He does not fear it, he looks forward to it “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep” but he knows he can’t go yet because he has “promises to keep”. This is even more emphasised with the repetition of the last verse “And miles to go before I sleep”.

The Oven Bird

In “The Oven Bird” there is a question of what will happen when he (author) dies and returns to all the birds that have died before him. The poem is basically saying that when you die, you will return to the ground where other great people are buried. The paradox of the Oven bird assertive voice completes the suggestion that only a new "language" can accommodate the dimishing of things, for he neither sings not speaks.

Leaves Compared with Flowers

The poem talks about people searching for meaning where they will probably not find it. They all look in the same direction - at the sea, a metaphor for the unknown. They see neither far nor deep, but that does not stop them from looking. This is similar to people having trust in a religion, even though they don’t have much solid evidences. In the stanzas “The wetter ground like glass Reflects a standing gull” the gull represents the reflection of the “gullable” crowd. Theis faith is strong and all they need is an ocasional ship that goes by.

Easter 1916

In "Easter 1916," Yeats asserts that Ireland and its people have been "changed utterly". Yeats also suggests that Ireland had to affirm its independence and national identity through rebellion and the passionate pursuit of change. Author questions the significance of these individuals in that "Was it needless death after all?". It concludes that although Ireland must continue to pursue change, there is "A terrible beauty" that could insight a unified effort for Irish independence or could eventually revert back to Ireland's conformity to English rule.

An Irish Airman foresees his Death

The poem talks about an Irish pilot thinking about his life and upcoming death. We discover that he does not fight because of his duty to his country but because of his ultimate wish to fly, which is uncovered in the lines: “A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds”. He views his past and future life as meaningless (“waste of breath”) but this moments in the clouds are pure delight to him. The lines “Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love” also express the Irish position during the 1st world war, as they had to defend Britain (which they did not love) against the Germans (which they did not hate).

The Second Coming

”The Second Coming” is about a shift in community, it describes moments before revelations begins. Everything is falling apart and life is chaotic and hard to live. Author compares this with great civilizations and implies how they did not succeed. For example “A shape with lion body and the head of a man” refers to a lost Egyptian civilization. In second verse author gives hints that after all this chaos, there is a change coming – still not sure if this will save us.

When you are old

In this poem the poet is whispering to a woman, who is “old and grey and full of sleep” (sleep also being a metaphor for “close to death”), telling her to remember the young days when she was loved by many men. In the first half of the poem one gets a nice warm feeling, which is created by carefully chosen words such as fire, soft, love, beauty, and grace. However the other half starts with a “but” and makes a turn in the theme. The poet exposes that one man (probably him) loved her more than others, not just her beauty but “the pilgrim Soul” in her. And he tells her to “Murmur, a little sadly” because she let that love go by.

Reconciliation

In “Reconciliation” author tells us how he is reunited with his inspiration for writing poems that tell us more than just history facts like “Helmets, and swords, and half-forgotten things”. In the end he also warns that inspiration never leaves him again, because without it he is lost and scared - “But, dear, cling close to me; since you were gone My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone”.

No Second Troy

The poet writes about the love of his life, who broke his heart: “she filled my days With misery”. He tries to not resent her for that and pragmaticaly excuses her actions : “Why, what could she have done, being what she is?”. He describes her as beautifull and intelligent but then indirectly compares her to the Helen of Troy – who was responsible for the Troyan war - with the last retorical question: “Was there another Troy for her to burn?” . With this dark predicament he uncovers his feelings of resentment for her.

Sailing to Byzantium

“Sailing to Byzantium” is a short poem of thirty-two lines divided into four numbered stanzas. The title suggests an escape to a distant, imaginary land where the speaker achieves mystical union with beautiful, eternal works of art. Poem deals with the nature of the human soul. The fate of the soul of the speaker is never confirmed. His soul may never reach into eternity. The hope in his fate lies in the monuments of art that inspired his journey. Others have succeeded before him and his task is not an impossible one. If he does succeed, then his promised song may inspire others to make the long journey as well.