The Giant Book of Poetry
Page 73
1 Form: Iambic trimeter except the 3rd line of each stanza, which is tetrameter, xAxA end rhymes.
1 Form: Mostly iambic pentameter, ABBA end rhymes.
2 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: billows: waves; briny: salty; sealing-wax: wax used to seal letters.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: chancel: area around alter of a church; glebe: plot of land by parish for use by the priest—Notes: The dead buried in a churchyard cemetery are awakened by gunnery practice in preparation for war.
1 Form: Iambic, 3-3-4-3 pattern, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: equanimity: calmness—Notes: His body is old, but his heart still longs for romance.
2 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: coomb: Hollow in a hillside—Notes: This poem refers to a legend that at midnight on each Christmas Eve oxen kneel in honor of Christ. Notice that if given the chance to observe this, the author would go while hoping that it would be true, implying that he no longer really believes the story. The poem is really about not just Questioning faith, but longing for the innocent acceptance of faith.
1 Form: Anapestic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: spudding: digging with a spade; docks: wild greens used in salads; barton: a region in England; hag: an old woman; sock: exclaim; megrims: depression.
1 Form: Anapestic, 6-5-4-6 pattern (note that the 6-foot lines in the printed book have margin forced line breaks), ABBA end rhymes.—Vocabulary: tined: pronged; bracken: ferns; hillock: small hill; waxed: increasingly; glen: valley; henchman: loyal follower; burn: stream; nether: lower; bating: stopping; Brake: held back; gluttonous: greedy; kern: lout; crag: rocky part of a cliff; gillie: hunting guide; gibe: mocking remark—Notes: Perhaps a story written as a lesson regarding abuse of slaves or servants.
1 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABABABCCDD end rhymes—Vocabulary: plat: plot of land—Notes: A hidden sanctuary left in the middle of the corn-field, and perhaps metaphorically, any peaceful island in a sea of trouble.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: fain: happily.
2 Form: Iambic but irregular line lengths—Vocabulary: Binsey: location in England; dandled: bounce child on knee; delve: dig; hew: cut with ax; rack: torture; únselve: remove; especial: special—Notes: The narrator bemoans the fact that his beloved grove of aspen trees has been chopped down. This is best appreciated when sung or chanted.
1 Form: Iambic but irregular line lengths—Vocabulary: Carrion: dead, decaying flesh; rude on: disrespect—Notes: This poem was written as Gerald was undergoing an inner conflict between his role as poet and his role as priest. Like all of his work, it is best appreciated when read aloud or sung.
1 Form: Iambic but irregular line lengths.—Vocabulary: Goldengrove: fictitious place in England; unleaving: trees losing leaves; wanwood: Decay of woods; leafmeal: loss of leaves—Notes: Addressed to a child sad over the loss of leaves on the trees, the narrator says that this is but a small taste of the loss she will suffer and that her mourning is really for her lost innocence.
1 Form: Iambic but irregular line lengths—Vocabulary: minion: follower or dependent; dauphin: eldest son of the king; dapple: mottled; wimpling: rippling; skate: type of ray (as in sting-ray); chevalier: knight; sillion: strip of cultivated land; gall: friction burn; vermillion: a reddish-orange color.
2 Form: Blank verse—Vocabulary: mites: very small creatures; monads: single celled microorganism; wizen: dried up; mote: speck; infusoria: group of micro-organisms; Aeonian: relating to an eon.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes—Notes: This beautiful piece was somewhat spoiled for many when it was read by Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh immediately prior to his execution.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: trundle-bed: low bed on wheels.
1 Form: Ballad.
1 Form: Iambic but with initial trochees lines 1,2,3 and an initial anapest in line 4 of each stanza. Tetrameter lines for 1,2,3 and trimeter for line 4 of each stanza. AAAB CCCB end rhymes.
2 Form: Iambic, 3-3-4-3 pattern, ABAB end rhymes.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: bough: branch; Eastertide: Easter season; threescore: sixty; score: twenty—Notes: The narrator meditates on how short life is and the need to enjoy beauty for the moment.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: victuals: food; hop-yard: a field where hops (for beer) are grown; Mithridates: an ancient king of Pontus—Notes: A friend of Terence begins by complaining that the poems Terence writes are depressing and asks for something more cheerful. Terence replies that if cheer is what is desired poems are a bad choice when compared to beer. However, beer creates a false sense of happiness. He then goes on to say that his poems reflect the sad reality of life. Finally, he claims that by reading sad poems the reader is inoculated against sad events in their life, and thus able to better survive them.
1 Form: Iambic 4-3-4-2 pattern, xAxA end rhymes—Vocabulary: unbegot: not yet in existence.
2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: lintel: horizontal beam—Notes: An athlete died shortly after winning the championship for his town. Housman congratulates him on, in effect, Quitting while he was ahead.
1 Form: Ballad.
1 Form: Alternating iambic tetrameter, iambic trimeter, xAxAxA end rhymes—Vocabulary: Solomon: King Solomon (Bible); obdurate: hardened in wrongdoing; Bunker Hill: revolutionary war site; incubus: evil spirit.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: This extract is taken from a book. After looking at the power of circles (in this extract), Black Elk goes on to say that the white men have forced Indians to live in squares (square house, square cars, square offices, and so on).
1 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: knaves: deceitful people.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: coppice: grove of small tress; heath: uncultivated open land; anemones: type of herb; broods: nests.
1 Form: Primarily iambic trimeter, ABAB end rhymes.
1 Form: Modified ballad, iambic pentameter alternating with iambic trimeter, ABAB end rhymes.
2 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: moth-hour: time when moths begin flying (twilight); mavrone: Irish expression of shock; fen: marsh.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: moor-fowl: marsh bird; lotus: a water plant; languid: lacking energy.
2 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABBA end rhymes—Vocabulary: wend: go; wildering: wildering: bewildering—Notes: The lesson that people are not interested in hearing your tales of woe is told through a series of metaphors.
1 Form: Haiku.
1 Form: Free verse.
2 Form: Free verse.
3 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: chemic: chemical.
2 Form: Iambic tetrameter—Vocabulary: beeves: steer ready for slaughter; drouth: drought; till: plow.
2 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: portico: Porch with pillars; Joliet: prison in Joliet Illinois—Notes: Although this is the story of an arson, it’s really the story of the willingness of some to destroy the old for the new, and the frequency with which the people trying to do this are punished.
1 Form: Free verse.
2 Form: Haiku.
1 Form: Sonnet.
2 Form: Iambic, 4-2-4-2 pattern, ABAB end rhymes where A is exact word matches.
1 Form: Iambic pentameter, irregular but frequent end rhymes.
2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABABAAAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: league: 3 miles.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: divers: diverse.
1 Form: Iambic pentameter, xAxAxBxB end rhymes—Vocabulary: hermitage: monastery; Roland: French hero killed in 778; Convivially: festive—Notes: Although once popular, Eben has outlived his friends and is now alone. Eben recognizes in the fragile nature of his jug the fragile nature of “most things.” But Eben goes on, until even the jug itself is empty.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: sexton: functionary of a church—Notes: There is an obvious message about the tender heart beneath the rough exterior, but notice that when he was happy at home he was able to slaughter the animal
s, but he was not able to do so when he did not have a happy home to return to after work. Perhaps he needed the happiness at home to overcome the sadness of killing during the day in the slaughterhouse.
2 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: sole: bottom of his foot; crown: top of his head.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: evanescent: vanishing like vapor.
2 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: drear: dreary; lorn: forlorn; churls: rude boorish person; sluggard: lazy person; ineffable: indescribable—Notes: Those he looked down upon in life were exalted over him in heaven.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: Sardis: Important city in Asia Minor about 600 BC, destroyed by Tamerlane in 1402.
2 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABBA end rhymes—Vocabulary: Impenitent: without remorse.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: weir: a dam to divert water for the mill—Notes: The end of mills in the town, and the double suicide of the miller and his wife.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: perforce: by necessity—Notes: The man is haunted by memories of all of those he knows who are dead, with even the sound of the leaves sounding like those long gone acquaintances.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: sheaves: bundle of stalks from grain.
2 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: rank: growing profusely; reprobate: predestined to damnation.
1 Form: Free verse.
2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes.
1 Form: Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)—Notes: Understatement at the end is used to underscore the horror of the scene. Compare the reaction of the boy here with the reaction of the construction worker in Mark Turpin’s poem “Poem.”
1 Form: Iambic pentameter, AABBCC … End rhymes—Vocabulary: square: conform.
2 Form: Sonnet—Notes: The narrator withdraws, metaphorically to a forest, after a fight. His wife is not able to enter after him, and he sees her as if at a distant.
1 Form: Blank verse…Vocabulary: mica: a mineral.
1 Form: Ballad—Notes: This can be read as a metaphorical look at a walk through the autumn of the narrator’s life.
2 Form: Mostly iambic pentameter; irregular but frequent end rhymes—Vocabulary: hoary: white (with dew in this case); russet: reddish brown type of apple—Notes: The poem may also be read as a metaphorical description of someone at the end of a long, productive life.
1 Form: Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)—Vocabulary: pane: windowpane, but perhaps a double meaning; consigned: entrusted.
2 Form: Blank verse—Vocabulary: bracken: a weedy fern.
1 Form: Mostly unrhymed iambic pentameter—Vocabulary: piqued: a feeling of wounded pride.
1 Form: Mostly iambic tetrameter, irregular but frequent end rhymes.
2 Form: Iambic pentameter but with an unusually large number of trochees.
1 Form: Anapestic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: girdled: bark eaten off in a ring; budded: new buds eaten; grouse: chicken-like bird; tamaracks: short needled tree; arboreal: relating to trees—Notes: There is an underlying message of needing to trust in faith after you have done everything you can to protect or prepare something (someone) that you love.
1 Form: Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)—Vocabulary: wonted: accustomed.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, irregular but frequent end rhymes.
2 Form: Sonnet.
1 Form: Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)—Notes: This poem is complex in subtle ways. First, it’s about the annual rite of coming together with a neighbor to mend a stone fence. Then there’s the narrator’s insistence that the walls between neighbors are, at least in this case, unnecessary and in all cases counter to nature’s inclination, with the neighbor insisting that “good fences make good neighbors.” But then, in describing the neighbor it’s obvious that the narrator has his own mental fences that separate him from his “stone age” neighbor.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter but an unusually large number of anapests, irregular but frequent end rhymes—Vocabulary: fain: rather—Notes: The leaves operate as a metaphor for the human soul. They anticipate release from the tree (earthly life) to explore that which is beyond, but when the time comes they are tired and end up wanting nothing but to rest in a corner.
1 Form: Sonnet—Notes: The tree represents obstacles, which are then personified.
2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABABBxB end rhymes—Notes: The rest of death is inviting, but the narrator has more to do in life before he is ready for death.
1 Form: Mostly iambic pentameter with substitutions and some lines split across multiple physical lines.—Vocabulary: chamber: bedroom.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: hie: go quickly; bluet: flowering plant—Notes: A silent, hidden observer of things both living and dead, far and near, day and night.
2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, but an unusually large number of anapests, xAxAxBxB… end rhymes—Vocabulary: pistil: sex organ of a flower, normally inside the flower; phoebes: flycatcher (type of bird)—Notes: The decaying farm is viewed from three perspectives, the animals (nature) which are now reclaiming the farm; a normal human; and a human who is sufficiently versed in country things to see the decay from the nature perspective.
1 Form: Iambic pentameter, AABBCC … End rhymes—Vocabulary: peeper: type of frog; rill: rivulet; brake: area overgrown with dense brush —Notes: A poem about that deals metaphorically with death and renewal.
1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABCCA end rhymes—Notes: The road is a symbol for any decision in life where both options are roughly equally good, but the selection of one or the other will have a big impact on the future.
1 Form: Sonnet.
2 Form: Blank verse—Vocabulary: clematis: vining plant.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: savor: a distinctive taste or smell.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: savor: distinctive quality; vermilion: orange red color; fulminant: exploding; hemlock: poison—Notes: The narrator in the winter of her life, slowly, elegantly committing suicide to move onto the next plane, while outside the youth are so exuberant and lustful.
1 Form: Iambic, irregular line lengths—Vocabulary: squills: type of flower; brocaded: heavy fabric with raised design; se’nnight: a week ago.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: epitaphic: inscription on tombstone.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: banshee: female spirit who wails to warn of impending death; wan: pale; loon: type of bird.
1 Form: Ballad.
2 Form: Anapestic trimeter, rhyming pairs of lines in various configurations—Vocabulary: trussed: tied up tightly; wan: unnaturally pale—Notes: The wounded soldier is trapped under barbed wire between lines during WWI.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: precept: rule of personal conduct; Gehennas: hell; sirens: beautiful women who sing to lure sailors to their death on rocks; scrofulous: morally degenerate; dissolute: lacking moral restraint; galoot: uncouth person; cant: monotonous talk; cadaverous: deathlike; pinions: wings of a bird; winnowing: separate wheat from chaff; gallivanting: roaming about searching for pleasure; malamute: sled dog; iniquitous: wicked; “Fount of the Law”: Bible—Notes: They symptoms of scurvy, a common ailment in the Yukon, are accurately described.
1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: flume-head: head of a narrow gorge with a stream flowing through it; freshets: a sudden overflow from a stream after a thaw; calcined: heated to the point of decomposition; Moose-hides: Indian tribe; fleer: smirk or laugh in contempt; ptarmigan: an arctic game bird (grouse); sacerdotal: priestly; carded: combed out; vastitudes: immensity; up-shoaled: made shallow; scathless: unharmed; mushed: drove a dog sled; Fournier and Labelle: Two characters from other Robert Service ballads; poke of dust: bag of gold dust; wiles: tricks; malamutes: sled dogs; Dawson: mining town in Alaska; rind: outer layer of ice; caromed: bounced; dight: dressed; mail: armor; slough: depression filled with mud; hooch: inferior liquor; sardonic: mocking; twain: two—Notes: The devil is often portrayed as having hoofed feet.