‘On His Blindness’

Author: John Milton.

Main Theme of the Poem:

Man should submit to the will of God and try to make the best use

of the talents given to him by his Creator.

Summary of the Poem:

The poem starts with the speaker, Milton, reflecting upon his blindness
and how God expects him to make full use of his ability as a writer, if he
cannot even see the paper on which he writes.
He uses the word light to refer to his blindness and also his inner light.

Metaphor:(though my soul more bent / To serve therewith my Maker )

The author compares his soul to a servant who is bent to show obedience.

Personification:.  Patience is personified as a person who speaks and

answers the poet’questions.

Paradox: (They also serve who only stand and wait .) People who only stand

and submit to the will of the Creator, even if they do no work, also serve

and obey God.

Alliteration: (my days in this dark world and wide)

The words ‘days’ and ‘dark’ begin with the same consonant /d/. Also, the

words ‘world’ and ‘wide’ start with the same consonant /w/
 ‘Whoso List to Hunt’

Auther; Sir Thomas Wyatt

Summary of the Poem:

The poem tells of a deer hunt in which several riders are chasing a

hind. The deer hunt and the hind are both metaphors, the hunt

representing young men pursuing an attractive woman at the king's court

and the hind representing the woman herself,

Main Theme:The main theme of the poem is Unattainable Love .

Other themes:Yielding to Absolute Power

Metaphor:

1-Comparison of a woman to a hind [female deer].

2-Comparison of the task of catching and winning the woman to catching

wind with a net.

Paradox; ‘And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.’

Alliteration:

 Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind

 so sore

 Yet may I by no means my wearied mind

Meter :The meter is iambic pentameter,

 ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his Love’

Author:, Christopher Marlowe

Main Theme:Simple love

Summary of the Poem: ‘

The is a pastoral poem. generally center on the love of a

shepherd for a girl The speaker is a shepherd, who pledges to

do the impossible if only the female object of his desires will

accept his pleas. The addressee is the shepherd's beloved. The

occasion is spring.

Apostrophe:

‘Come live with me, and be my love’. The poet speaks to the girl

whom he loves asking her to accept his offer of love.

Structure ;

The poem consists of six stanzas. Each stanza is a quatrain

consisting of four lines.

Meter;

iambic tetrameter(four iambic feet)

 ‘To the Moon’

Author:Sir Philip Sidney

Main Theme:Suffering in love

Summary:The poem is Astrophel and Stella. the speaker feels

frustrated because Stella, his beloved, has rejected his love.

He looks up at the sky to see the pale moon and begins

complaining to the moon of Stella. He begins by sympathizing

with the moon by wondering whether it has also been a victim

of love.The speaker expresses the suffering he endures in his

love and complains to the moon of his beloved who ignores his

feelings.

Apostrophe: ‘With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the

skies! The poet addresses the moon asking why the moon is sad

and miserable.

Alliteration: the repetition of the sound /s/ in more than one

word throughout the first line of the poem (sad/steps/skies).

Rhyme Scheme:The poem is a sonnet of 14 lines rhyming abba,

abba, cdcd, ee.

 ‘To Daffodils’

Author : Robert Herrick

Main Theme: Humans, like flowers, have a very short life in this world.

Summary: In his poem, Herrick says that we feel sad to see the beautiful

daffodils being wasted away very quickly. The duration of their life is so short

that it seems even the rising sun still hasn’t reached the noon-time.

To Daffodils’ is generally about the daffodils and the shortness of their lives.

Apostrophe: , the poet addresses daffodils telling them that we feel sorry

because their life, like ours, finishes quickly.

Fair Daffodils we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

Simile:the poet compares the short life of daffodils to that of humans which is

also short and brief We have short time to stay, as you’.

The life of people is as short as the rain of summer like(Like to the summer's

rain;)

Metaphor: ‘As your hours do, and dry/Away,’

The poet compares life to hours in order to show the quick flow of life.

Personification: Herrick personifies daffodils as if they were human beings in

order to make the similarity between the life of daffodils and that of people

Alliteration: alliteration appears in the first line where the sound /w/ such as

‘we’ and ‘weep’.

Assonance: Assonance is clear in first line. like words ‘weep’ and ‘see’ in the first

line and in second line like ‘haste’ and ‘away’

 ‘Death, Be Not Proud’

Author: John Donne

Main Theme:Death is just a way to eternal life. After people die, they move to
eternity and death will not be able to overcome them.

Summary:the speaker addresses death as one would speak to a feo who is too
weak and without power to show his threats.speaker tells the death he should
not be so proud.speakers points out to death that he is far from being any of
those things. Speaker points out that sleep which is the first deat is short and
one weak to live. Speaker tells the death should not puff up with pride for it is
death that will face the real death.

Structure of the Poem:The poem is a sonnet consisting of fourteen lines

divided into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six) lines.

Rhyme Scheme:The rhyme scheme of "Death, Be Not Proud" is as follows: 

abba, abba, cddc, ee.

Meter: iambic pentameter

Personification:‘Death, be not proud’: , Donne relies on personification. Death

becomes a person whom Donne addresses and challenges.

Metaphor ‘[Death] art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men’. Here,

the poet compares death to a slave.

Paradox :. Donne says to death: ‘Death, thou shalt die.’ The poet tells death

that it will die. He means that after death, people move to eternality and then

death will not be there.

Alliteration: alliteration, as the following lines indicate:

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me

 ‘Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?’

Author:William Shakespeare.

Main Theme:Admiration of the beloved. The poet admires the girl whom

he loves and says that she is more beautiful than a summer’s day.

Summary: Shakespeare compares his beloved to a summer’s day. he says

that she is more beautiful than the day of summer. He asks her, “Can I

compare you to a summer's day.Then, he shows the reasons which make

her lovelier than the day of summer. He addresses his beloved saying,

“The strong winds disturb the beauty of summer and the sun sometimes

becomes very hot. Everything beautiful will lose its beauty one day. But

Apostrophe:(Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?)

The poet addresses his beloved telling her that she surpasses the

summer’s day in beauty.

Metaphor: ‘But thy eternal summer shall not fade’. The poet compares

the youth of his beloved to a flower that never fades or loses its beauty.

Personification: ‘Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade’the

poet personifies death as a human being who feels proud because of his

ability to overcome people.

Structure:The poem consist of fourteen lines divided into four quatrains

and a concluding couplet.

Rhyme:The poem rhymes abab cdcd efef gg

 ‘Like as a Ship’

Author:Edmund Spenser

Summary:Edmund Spenser's Like as a Ship describes a break in

Spenser's relationship with his wife Elizabeth Boyle; it seems that they

had a fight and Spenser is trying to make her forgive him. Because of this

problem between him and his wife, Spenser compares himself to a ship

losing its way in the ocean during storm aship is traveling thrugh alarge

ocean with no land in sight uses the stars to guide its way, but when

stormy clouds block the star's light the ship will stray far from its

course and will lose its way.

Main Theme:despair and sorrow

Simile:‘like as a ship’. The poet compares himself to a ship that loses its

way in the ocean. The whole poem is built on this simile.

Personification: ‘doth make her way’. The ship is personified as a human

being or a woman who makes her way.

Another example of personification can be noted in these lines:

My Helice the lodestar of my life

Will shine again, and look on me at last

The poet compares his wife to a star that will shine again and guide him

to the right way.

Alliteration: the speaker uses words like “darkness...dismay’.

Structure of the poem:The poem is a sonnet consisting of fourteen lines.

 ‘Virtue’

Author:George Herbert

Main Theme:Everything in life dies and comes to an end except the virtuous soul; it lives

forever.

Summary:The poem consists of four stanzas. The first stanza speaks about the day

which the poet describes as being ‘sweet, cool, calm and bright. The second stanza

describes the rose. Roses are beautiful and their colours make the person who looks at

them feel happy and glad. The third stanza talks about spring referring to it as the best

season where plants and trees begin to grow again after their deaths in the winter

The final stanza tells us about the virtuous soul.

Apostrophe:‘Sweet day….’, Sweet rose…..’, ‘Sweet spring….’. the poet addresses the day,

the rose and spring telling them all that despite their sweetness and beauty, they will

finally die.

Personification: ‘The dew shall weep thy fall to-night’the poet compares the dew to a

person who can weep and cry.

Metaphor ‘The bridal of the earth and sky’. The poet compares the day to the happy

occasion of marriage. The couples are the earth and thesky.

Another metaphor ‘A box where sweets compacted lie’. the poet compares the season of

spring to a box of sweets.

Simile: Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like season'd timber, never gives;

the poet compares the virtuous soul to the wood of trees that grow up again and has a

new life.

Alliteration: ‘Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright!

Assonance: ‘Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye’. Both the words ‘rash’ and gazer

Structure and rhyme:The poem consists of four stanzas. Each stanza consists of a

quatrain (four lines) rhyming abab.