Contents

Poetic Devices ................................................................................................................................................... 2

Poems ................................................................................................................................................................ 3

THERE IS NO FRIGATE LIKE A BOOK....................................................................................................... 3

Reference to the Context................................................................................................................................ 3

Central Idea .................................................................................................................................................... 3

Literary Devices ............................................................................................................................................. 4

Symbolic Interpretation ................................................................................................................................. 4

Dreams............................................................................................................................................................... 5

Reference to the Context................................................................................................................................ 5

Central Idea .................................................................................................................................................... 5

Figures Of Speech & Poetic Devices ............................................................................................................. 5

Symbolic Interpretation ................................................................................................................................. 5

Virtue ................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Reference to the Context................................................................................................................................ 6

Figurative Language ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Symbolic Interpretation ................................................................................................................................. 6

Paraphrase ...................................................................................................................................................... 7
English

Poetic Devices

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds

Imagery

Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses

Metaphor

A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of
the "to be" verb are used, such as "is" or "was", to make the comparison

Meter

The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllable

Onomatopoeia

The use of words which imitate sound

Personification

A figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, or inanimate objects with human traits or abilities

Point-of-view

The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem
(1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective, 3rd person
limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but limits information about
what one character sees and feels, 3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to
"know" and describe what all characters are thinking)

Repetition

The repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas

Rhyme

The similarity of ending sounds existing between two words

Simile

A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as "like", "as", or "than"

Stanza

A grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme

Poems

THERE IS NO FRIGATE LIKE A BOOK

Reference to the Context

These lines have been taken from the poem “There Is No Frigate like a Book” written by Emily Dickenson.

Central Idea

, "There is no Frigate like a Book" is a celebration of the power of reading. Reading is great! Reading is fun!
Reading is the best way to escape your dull, humdrum life, and go out and "see" the world! In fact, the poem
even slyly suggests that reading might be better than actual travel – after all, it immediately announces that
"There is no Frigate like a Book" (line 1), suggesting that a book even tops a real ship. This poem ecstatically
shows us just how amazing books are, and reminds us that we shouldn't take reading for granted, even though
it's just a simple, everyday activity. After all, whether you're just seeking a little escapist vacay, or longing to
transport your soul to a distant, mystical realm, books are the only way to get there.
Literary Devices

Emily Dickinson uses several literary devices in this poem to give it form and meaning. A few important
literary devices Dickinson uses in “There is no Frigate like a Book” are simile, overstatement, imagery, and
connotation. First, Dickinson uses the literary devices simile and overstatement. The similes Dickinson uses
help the reader better understand what she was thinking when she was choosing her words for the poem. The
words “Frigate like a Book” (1) help the reader understand that a book, though small in size, is capable of
delivering vast amounts of knowledge.

Symbolic Interpretation

Though a person experiences brutal, boring, or frustrating moments in his or her life, there is
nothing like a book or poem where one vicariously enters an adventure, as if he or she can
temporarily escape from the truth of his or her reality. In Emily Dic kinson’s “There Is No Frigate
like a Book,” the speaker describes how even the poorest can access these adventures. Through
the deeper connotative meaning of the poem, the speaker describes how books and poems can
unveil information, consume one into a story, or even possibly unleash the human soul!

The poem initiates with the same line as the title, “there is no frigate like a book.” The speaker
uses the image of a frigate, denoted as a fast warship, to describe the swift power a book can
unleash. A book takes one on an adventure quickly, for example, like being drafted into the
military and starting a war adventure (possibly even traveling on a frigate). A frigate has the
power to take one across the oceans to any place thinkable, or even unthinkable. With its strong
and swift movements, this naval vessel has endless capabilities, just like a book has endless
opportunities to quickly enthrall readers into unimaginable worlds or indescribable feelings. The
first thought concludes by saying that books take us to “lands away,” which connotes to a better
place, or possibly a temporary escape from one’s own life. In lines three and four, the speaker
compares coursers, meaning swift war horses, to pages of poetry through a simile. The poetry is
described as “prancing,” in alliteration (prancing poetry) which helps create an image of the swift
horses carrying a person away. Once again, a swift war horse can take one across the land, over
mountains and along rivers, just like a poem can take readers on a journey.

The second and final sentence of the poem begins by describing how even the poorest .
Dreams

Reference to the Context

These lines have been taken from the poem “Dreams” written by Langston Hughes.

Central Idea

Basically the theme has to do with the importance of holding the dreams. The speaker advises to the reader to
hold your dreams, because if dreams die, life will be like a bird with damaged wings that cannot fly. When
dreams go away, life is “barren field” covered with frozen snow.

Figures Of Speech & Poetic Devices

The poem 'Dreams' is a short poem, consisting of two stanzas each of four lines. The theme is the power of
dreams to keep us afloat in difficult times. Each stanza uses a specific metaphor to deliver the poet's message
about dreams and hope. In the first stanza, Hughes compares life without dreams to a bird with a broken wing
that cannot fly. The second stanza uses the metaphor of a barren field frozen with snow. In both cases, the
picture created by the metaphor emphasizes the bleak situation of living life with no dreams or hopes for the
future.

Symbolic Interpretation

It's only two stanzas and eight lines long, but 'Dreams' offers some basic instructions to those who read it:
keep hold your dreams, because without them the world can be a brutal world.

Let's analyze the poem.

Hughes starts out by immediately admonishing readers with a simple piece of advice: to 'hold fast' to your
dreams. These aren't the types of dreams you have at night while you're fast asleep, but rather the dreams of
your future, the things you hope for, or the goals you want to achieve.

The author continues by telling us what will happen if we allow our dreams to die. He says that Life is like a
'broken-winged bird that cannot fly.' That's pretty dire imagery, isn't it? Essentially, the author is saying that
dreams help to give our lives purpose and meaning, and without them, life is harsh and difficult.
In the second stanza, Hughes again urges readers to hold fast to their dreams. In this instance, the author
compares the loss of a dream to living in a cold and barren field. Have you ever been out in a cold and barren
field? There's no life, no joy, and nothing grows.

Virtue

Reference to the Context

These lines have been taken from the poem “virtue” written by George Herbert.

Figurative Language

The first stanza of “Virtue” is referring to a beautiful sunny day. “Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,”
(line 1) is a line that takes us inwardly to a perfect spring afternoon where all is good. Herbert makes the
wonderful comparison between day and the virtuous soul. He describes the day as something tranquil and
brilliant and then compares it to the marriage between a man and a woman. “The bridal of the earth and sky;”
(line 2) However, we are then impacted with the spiritual truth that even this will all fade away.

Symbolic Interpretation

Herbert uses personification to usher in a more emotional context by saying “The dew shall weep thy fall to-
night” (Line 3) because the day must come to an end which is a metaphor of death. The poem continues with
the comparison of a beautiful rose and a virtuous soul. The rose is “angry and brave” (line 5) and makes a
rash onlooker rub his eye in amazement. However, Herbert writes that the root of the flower is in its grave
and it will fade (line 7). Finally, Herbert brings us to the season of spring which includes both beautiful days
and beautiful roses.

Spring could also represent time and everything in between. It is likened to “A box where sweets compacted
lie;” And just as before the third line of the quatrain iterates the shortness of earthly glory. “My music shows
that have your closes,” By music Herbert is referring to his poem and how his poetry bears testimony to the
mortality of nature. In the same way as the poem must come to a close, so also must nature come to an end.
The first three stanzas are filled with consistent repetition.

He begins each with the word “Sweet” and ends with “must die”. The first three stanzas echo each other so
that we, the reader, can understand and retain the theme. Herbert has built up momentum through repetition
and moves us from a sweet day to a sweet rose and then to a sweet spring. We are then led to the last quatrain
which is slightly different from the previous three. It begins not with “Sweet” but “Only a sweet…” Also it
ends with the word “lives” instead of the previous repeated word “die. The virtuous soul described by Herbert
is “Like a seasoned timber, never gives.” (Line 14) The words “seasoned” and “never gives” suggest that a
sweet and virtuous soul is strong and able to endure. The imagery used in line 15 “whole world turn to coal”
is referring to Scriptures that contain prophetic and apocalyptic messages foretelling how the world will all
be burned. However, even though the whole world and everything in it shall be burned, the virtuous souls will
then chiefly lives.

George Herbert’s imagery and diction in “Virtue” presents the reality that all the beauty of this earthly realm
is temporary and only a life obedient to God will satisfy the gap of eternity. Based upon George Herbert’s
life, I believe that he was a man who had disregarded the pleasures and lusts of the world in order to find a
satisfying, sacred life. “Virtue” is a poetic reminder that earthly glory is simply a picture of God’s glory.
Furthermore, we should not put our hope in creation, for it will all be burned like coal. The only thing that
will last the fire is a sweet and virtuous soul.

Paraphrase

In George Herbert's poem, "Virtue," the images that begin the first and second stanza are considered sensuous
in nature (appealing to the senses), rather than that which appeals to the intellect.

Herbert's overall themes in his poetry generally center on religion, especially in light of rebellion and
obedience, but it is not seen as clearly in "Virtue." Herbert does draw attention to the connection between
"intellect and emotion." These two "forces" struggle with each other in the first three stanzas of the poem.

In the first stanza, the "Sweet day" appeals to the emotional force with its attributes that point to...

...cool, calm, bright, [and] the marriage of earth and sky.

The second stanza deals with the emotional response to the "Sweet rose" and its beauty, seen with its red
color that inspires recognition of anger and bravery; the intellectual response, presented with an awareness of
death is found in the plant's roots:

...Thy root is ever in its grave

And thou must die.

So the images of the day and the rose appeal to the emotional (the human condition) and are found and
described in the first two lines of each stanza. The opposing force (recognized by the intellect) is found in the
last two lines of each stanza, which points out the eventual end of all things: these last two lines describe the
"death" of the day and the rose.

In the first two lines of each of the stanzas, an emphasis is placed on the beauty of the present, whereas in the
last two lines, a statement about timeless inevitability is made.

In Stanza 1, the "sweet day" is currently "so cool, so calm, so bright" and described with optimism as a
"bridal." But that present loveliness is met with an ominous prediction of the future: "the dew shall weep . .
. to-night." In Stanza 2, the "sweet rose" is currently "angry and brave," and the "rash gazer" presently is told
to "wipe his eye." But in the third line, the word "ever" suggests a truth that exceeds time, a truth outside of
the present, of the "root" always being "in its grave."

The last line of each stanza is like a death knell: "thou must die." While the beginning of each stanza
passionately observes the beauty of the present with words like "sweet" and "so," the ending of each stanza
pounds an inevitable, recurring, timeless reminder of doom: "thou must die." The grave monotony of the
repeating "thou must die" over each stanza reinforces the inevitability and uncaring nature of the reminder.

Nature is beautiful, as seen in the poignant descriptions of the sweet day and rose. But nature is also
unforgiving, always sounding, if not now then eventually, the pendulum of the hearse, no matter the beauty
of the present.

The Table Turned

Reference to the Context

These lines have been taken from the poem “The Table Turned” written by William Wordsworth.

Central Idea of the Poem

Central Idea of the Poem: The central idea of poem by the poet is to encourage his friend to leave his books
aside and submit himself to nature, who is the best teacher in the world when it comes to teachings of life and
experience. The poet says the nature contains much more knowledge than the books, and teaches us how to
appreciate things around in our life than to dissect them.
Theme of the Poem: The theme of the poem is to show that the nature knows much more than the human
beings, and the books that the humans keep reading all the time. But the books do not contain as much as
knowledge as the nature does, and submission to nature would teach us much more in life.

Poetic Devices

Allusion:

“Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,” The poet is trying to say that the nature is spontaneously full of
nature and it is much healthier than the books that his friend reads being inside his room.

“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;

Our meddling intellect

Miss-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—

We murder to dissect.”

In this stanza, the poet has used allusion throughout to explain that the teachings that the nature brings are
much sweeter knowledge than the books that are present around him, which he read all the time. The books
spoils him and lets him break down everything for finding the purpose of its existence, which he needs to just
enjoy by looking and feeling.

Contrast:

“Books! ’Tis a dull and endless strife:

Come, hear the woodland linnet,

How sweet his music! On my life,

There’s more of wisdom in it.”

The poet establishes a contrast here by saying that books are something which are dull and are like a prolonged
duty to keep reading them and try and understand what is written in it. But the nature teaches lessons with
passion and with much more love, and gives more knowledge than the books could provide.

“One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.”

The poet is trying to establish a contrast between the knowledge that his friend could gather from his books
and the knowledge that he could gather from the sages’ altogether. He says that the impulse of the woods
would teach him much more than what the sages would teach him in his life.

Personification: The poet has personified nature as a person who is full of knowledge, and could be the best
teacher when it comes to teaching lessons of life. The nature knows much more and better than the sages, and
it would teach us in such a way that we absorb everything and feel light and serene at heart.

Rhyme and Rhyming Scheme: The rhyming scheme of the poem is abab, and is maintained throughout the
poem. For example:

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;-a

Our meddling intellect-b

Miss-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—-a

We murder to dissect.-b

The poet has used some archaic English words in the poem to bring about a biblical touch in the poem.
Otherwise, the poem is written in very simple words. For example:

And hark! How blithe the throstle sings!

He, too, is no mean preacher:

Come forth into the light of things,

Let Nature be your teacher.

Poetic Devices

“The Tables Turned” is subtitled “An Evening Scene on the Same Subject,” indicating that it forms a pair
with the poem published immediately ahead of it in Lyrical Ballads, “Expostulation and Reply.” A reader
should understand one to understand the other.
In “Expostulation and Reply,” William Wordsworth’s friend Matthew, finding the poet sitting on a stone,
urges him to quit dreaming and to read those books through which the wisdom of the past sheds essential light
on the problems of the present. William replies that while he sits quietly, he feels the force of “Powers” which
give his mind a “wise passiveness.” By implication, this passiveness is more precious than the knowledge that
can be gained by reading.

“The Tables Turned” is a short lyric poem of thirty-two lines arranged in eight stanzas. It takes the form of an
address by a speaker (who most readers will agree is Wordsworth himself) to a friend, the Matthew of
“Expostulation and Reply.” The scene is presumably that of the other poem in England’s Lake District; by its
subtitle, “An Evening Scene on the Same Subject,” one may assume that the events of the poem take place
later in the same day.

Wordsworth metaphorically turns the tables on his friend, for this time it is Wordsworth who makes the
confrontation. The poet’s general argument has not changed: The mind is much better off when it responds...

Symbolic Interpretation

“The Tables Turned” contains eight quatrains of a specific kind; they are “ballad stanzas.” Such a stanza
generally has four lines of alternately eight and six syllables, which rhyme abab. Many of the poems published
in Lyrical Ballads are written in this kind of verse. This was the stanza in which many folk ballads were
composed, so to choose to write in it signaled that a poet was departing from the usual poetic form of the
eighteenth century, the heroic couplet.

The poem begins playfully. The poet remonstrates with Matthew, calling forth a fanciful image of his friend’s
growing double over his books with a witty implication that he is behaving like, and perhaps coming to
resemble, the witches in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606), with his “toil and trouble.” The next three
or four stanzas are also light in mood. The poet continues to use the imperative voice to call upon his friend
to come away from books, and he uses most of the poem’s vivid visual images in so doing. Most of the poem’s
few metaphors (bird as preacher, nature as teacher) occur in stanza 4. In each, the amount of semi-serious and
abstract assertion increases: from none in stanza 2 to almost all of stanza 5.

In the climax of the poem, stanzas 6 and 7, the reader finds almost no images, no metaphors. The poet is
serious, not urgent or playful. Stanza 6 states the positive side of Wordsworth’s argument. Its language has a
grand and prophetic simplicity; its rhythm is appropriately regular and calmly emphatic. Stanza 7 states the
negative: It is more cacophonous, irregular in rhythm, and polysyllabic than stanza 6. Its final line (“We
murder to dissect”) is the poem’s most forceful in meaning and most dramatic in presentation. The poem ends
on a somewhat less intense but hopeful note, as it returns to the imperative to call Matthew forth and to define
how he will attain the insights the poet has described.

GOD’s Grandeur

Reference to the Context

These lines have been taken from the poem “GOD’s Grandeur” written by Gerard Manly Hopkins.

Central Idea
The problem that Hopkins poses in the octave is that of the human response to God: Why do people ignore
the beauty and grandeur of God’s presence in the natural world? The problem of the world’s beauty and its
divine origin was a central one for Hopkins, who was a talented artist and musician as well as a poet. His
sketchbooks are full of detailed drawings of forms he found in nature: shells, twigs, waves, and trees. When
he converted to Catholicism in 1866, he gave up his original plan of becoming a painter and decided to
become a Jesuit priest. At that time, he worried that his attraction to the natural world and his love of music,
art, and poetry was in contradiction to his religious vocation. He feared that his aesthetic impulses would
draw him away from the strict asceticism he believed he must practice. He destroyed most of his early
poems when he took religious orders.

Hopkins’s resolution of his conflict came about when he was deeply moved by a newspaper account of a
shipwreck that killed five German nuns. He told his rector about his feelings. The rector remarked that he
wished someone would write a poem about the subject, and Hopkins took this casual comment as a personal
mandate. He broke his seven-year poetic silence by writing “The Wreck of the Deutschland.” After that, he
continued to write poetry. In his poems, Hopkins explored his complicated feelings of faith and doubt. By
celebrating the beauty of the natural world as an expression of God’s power and “grandeur,” Hopkins could
reconcile his religious faith with his love of nature.

Repeatedly in his poetry Hopkins used his deep love of nature’s beauty to reaffirm his belief in the God who
created and maintained the world. In “God’s Grandeur,” this theme is developed with a great technical
virtuosity to create a passionate poem that is somehow both a warning and a reassurance. Although Bridges
delayed publication of Hopkins’s work, fearing that readers would find it strange and difficult, contemporary
readers find Hopkins an exciting and powerful poet. It is difficult to imagine modern poetry without the
groundbreaking work of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Symbolic interpretation

“God’s Grandeur” is a Petrarchan sonnet describing a world infused by God with a beauty and power that
withstands human corruption. The poem begins with the assertion that God has “charged” the world with
grandeur. It then describes the implications of this “charge.” The grandeur is like a physical force, an
electric current, a brightness that can be seen.

The poet questions the human response to this grandeur. Why do humans not “reck his rod?” That is, why
do they not recognize and accept divine rule? Instead, humans have dirtied this world by using it for
mundane purposes. The images work on both the literal and metaphorical level. The poem may be read both
as a literal lament for the destruction of the environment by industry, and as a metaphorical lament that
humans are more concerned with the prosaic and utilitarian than with spiritual values. In any event, the
world seems tarnished, and humans seem insulated, unable to perceive the underlying beauty and grandeur.

The poem’s sestet dispels the gloom evoked in the first part. Even though humans are often insensitive to
the glory of the world, “Their lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” The beauty and power of the
world remains inviolable, intact. Though the night seems dark, there is a continuing restoration of the light
and morning, because the presence of God, like the dove of peace, protects and restores the world.

Although Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote this poem in 1877, he did not seek to publish his poems; he
entrusted them to his friend Robert Bridges. Bridges placed some of these poems in anthologies, but it was

Sonnets are fourteen-line poems built according to strict conventions in a tightly structured form. Hopkins
was intrigued with the sonnet form and used it often, sometimes adding his own variations. His poem “That
Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection” is a modified sonnet with twenty-three
lines.
“God’s Grandeur,” however, is written according to the conventions of the Petrarchan sonnet, named for the
Italian writer Petrarch. This sonnet form has two parts, the initial eight lines, or the octave (rhymed abba,
abba), and the concluding six lines, or sestet (which here uses the rhyme scheme cd, cd, cd). Typically, the
Petrarchan sonnet poses a problem in the octave and presents a resolution in the sestet. Hopkins poses the
problem of the human response to the beauty of nature, as created by God. The resolution comes through
God’s grace, for divine concern preserves the beauty of the world intact despite human despoliation.

Hopkins studied Anglo-Saxon and Welsh poetry and drew from them an interest in alliteration, which he
believed was essential to poetry. In “God’s Grandeur” the letter g is associated with God: “grandeur,”
“greatness,” “gathers,” and “Ghost.” Each line of the poem is knit together through intricate sound patterns
that include alliteration (repetition of consonants at the start of words), assonance (repetition of vowel
sounds), and...

Analysis of Literary Devices in “God’s Grandeur”

Literary devices are tools that enable the writers to present their ideas, emotions, and feelings and also help
the readers understand those more profound meanings. Hopkins has also employed some literary devices in
this poem to show the power of God’s glory. The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this poem
has been given below.

• Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /o/ in
“Generations have trod, have trod, have trod” and /ea/ sound in “And all is seared with trade;
bleared, smeared with toil”.
• Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that is grammatically the same, or
similar in their construction, sound, meanings, or meter. This device is used in the first stanza, “And
all is seared with trade” is paralleling “bleared, smeared with toil” and “And wears man’s smudge”
is paralleling “and shares man’s smell”.
• Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of
/d/ in “World broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings”.
• Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects
different in nature. The working of God’s power in his creation is compared to an enormous electric
charge in the second line of the poem where it is stated as, “It will flame out, like shining from shook
foil”.
• Simile: Simile is a device used to compare an object with something else to make the meanings clear
to the readers. There are two similes used in this poem. The first is used in the second line, “It will
flame out, like shining from shook foil” and “It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil”.
• Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of
/g/ in “It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil” and /d/ sound in “Their lives the dearest
freshness deep down things”.
 • Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of any word or expression in the poem. Hopkins has repeated
the words “have trod” in the fifth line to emphasize the ruination caused by men on earth.

The careful glimpse of literary analysis shows that Hopkins has skillfully employed these devices to express
his gratitude toward God. The appropriate use of these devices has made the poem deep and thought-
provoking for the readers.

Analysis of Poetic Devices in “God’s Grandeur”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of
the poetic devices used in this poem.

• Italian sonnet: Italian sonnet form divides the poem into 14 lines in two parts; the first part is called
an octave and the second part is called a sestet.
• Octave: An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter. Here the first
stanza is the octave.
• Sestet: A sestet is the part of Italian sonnet made up of six lines. Here, the second stanza is a sestet.
• Rhyme Scheme: The rhyme scheme followed by the entire sonnet is ABBAABBA CDCDCD.
• Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter comprising five iambs. This poem consists of iambic
pentameter such as, “The world is charged with the grandeur of”.