Abstract
In this paper the author reviews the gratitude expressed in D.H. Lawrence's poem "Piano", Anne Bradstreet's poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband," and Toni Morrison's writing "Nobel Prize Speech." He highlights how the dictionary definition of gratitude as meaning thankfulness is not enough to justify the depth of the word. But, in poetry the word gratitude, becomes much more. The author describes how, in each poem the gratitude expressed can relate to the whole story and life of a person. One of the examples he gives is D.H. Lawrence's poem "Piano", which he describes as a nostalgic view of the gratitude Lawrence has for his mother's relationship. The author also relates to the other poems and their more deep meaning of gratitude which is expressed. In conclusion he reiterates that the dictionary meaning of gratitude is not enough, especially in poetry, as there is much more to the word.

From the Paper
"At first glance, Bradstreet's poem looks only like a love song; it does not outwardly thank anybody. However, a closer reading reveals not only its theme of gratitude, but also the notion that viewing the poem under the guise of its first appearance oversimplifies the poem and hides its complexity. Indeed, "To My Dear and Loving Husband" is written in rhymed couplets and is a mere 12 lines long. Nevertheless, it is clearly an illustration of the Puritan belief that wealth is a measurement of blessing (Ryken 20). Specifically, Bradstreet says, "Love is greater "than whole mines of gold/ Or all the riches that the East doth hold" (lines 5-6), thereby acknowledging that her greatest wealth is love."

Tags:love, eternity, benefit, emotional, personal, reader, words

Abstract
As the 21st century begins, poetry remains relevant to the lives of people in the Western world, an antidote to the popular culture of spectacle and instant gratification. Using the example of British poet, Jamie McKendrick, this paper argues that poetry remains relevant because it reflects what is universally felt and experienced by humanity. Poetry is irrelevant to popular culture, but not to the populace. McKendrick's poetry reflects life in a way that more spectacular entertainment cannot do. His poems invite the reader to reflect on great questions and to notice small details and beauties of the world. One of McKendrick's abilities is to express emotions in a way that the readers themselves could perhaps never manage. Poets are truth-speakers, and because their work truly reflects life, it is seldom straightforward. It is rare that a poem is fully appreciated after the first reading. Poetry demands engagement with the reader or listener; it cannot be passively watched like a Hollywood film. The reader must interact with the poem, and in the process, helps create the poem, since the meaning inferred by one reader may be different from that of another reader, and both may be different from the author's intended meaning. The paper concludes that poetry continues to be relevant because it expresses the human experience and does so with an uncommon intimacy and truthfulness.

From the Paper
"A poem will last for centuries if it skillfully explores the human experience because the essence of that experience does not change. Sappho and John Donne, for example, will always be relevant because people will always develop romantic infatuations. Alienation, longing, love, grief, the search for meaning, the discovery of the sublime in mundane life: These things will always be relevant. McKendrick can set his poems outside of time, as he does with "The Belen", or set a poem in Dante's Hell, because he writes about being human, not about being human in a particular century. In Ink Stone, he often writes of loss. The struggle of the intellect to understand death and the loneliness felt at the death of someone who understood one's dreams will resonate with readers in the next century as much as in this one because the act of grieving will not change."

Tags:british, contemporary, jamie, mckendrick, poetry

Abstract
This paper compares two pieces of literature, Sir Phillip Sydneys' "The Apology for Poetry" and Book I of Edmund Spenser's poem "The Faerie Queene", that assert that a piece of literature is not considered real poetry unless it teaches and that poetry should teach by delighting. The author closely analyzes the characterizations, tropes, descriptions, and scenery in both works. Concluding that both Sydney and Spenser are both great poets who realize that there is no need to apologize for poetry that not only teaches and makes one more virtuous, but also excites and delights.

From the Paper
"How it delights the reader would depend on, of course, the poem itself. Since it cannot be determined if the piece of work is real poetry at its best until after it has been proven to teach, the criterion for real poetry is hard to define. Nevertheless, as aforementioned, Sydney claims there is one standard that it has to reach - the ability to teach. It is also made known to the reader that the author is of the opinion that by delighting an audience, the author of a poem can teach the reader. In order to actually ascertain the truth of this claim, one must first establish and accept a definition of delight. Looking up the word delight in the Collins English Dictionary, one would find the following entry: delight (di'lait) vb 1 (tr) to please greatly. 2 (intr; foll by in) to take great pleasure (in). 3 extreme pleasure or satisfaction; joy. 4 something that causes this (Collins English Dictionary, 415). Following from those given definitions, this paper will show how Book 1 of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene is real poetry because it teaches by delighting."

Tags:poetry poem literature, redcrosse knight, the apology

Abstract
This paper tackles the difficult task of assigning a general definition and meaning to the art of poetry. It uses quotes from Aristotle, Plato, Pablo Neruda, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth and Charles Johnson. The claims made by the poetry greats and the author are then supported by examples in classic poetry. It is very articulate, and provides a strong, clear argument. It is both reflective and analytical.

From the Paper
"According to Galileo, "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." This task of discovery is certainly not an easy one, and most are either not willing or not able to share such a process with the world. A good poet, however, thrives upon this very challenge. 1971 Nobel Prize Laureate Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto (penname Pablo Neruda) said that the poet's obligation is to "feel the crash of the hard water / and gather it up in a perpetual cup" so that "through [him], freedom and the sea / will make their answer to the shuttered heart" (ll. 16-17, 29-30). The poet must put his ear to the world and experience each of nature's lessons; this knowledge, however, is useless if he cannot convey it to an audience in indelible ink. He must share these axioms in his words, either through personal experiences or general observations. Most modern classifications of quality poetry are derived from two main camps: that of Plato, and that of Aristotle. Plato affirmed that "all good poets... compose their beautiful poems not by art, but because they are inspired and possessed" (1025). He emphasized that it is the driving force that overcomes a poet that distinguishes his work, not his ordinary ability use the craft. Furthermore, Aristotle explains that "the reason why men enjoy seeing [poetry] is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, 'Ah, that is he.'" (1026). Poetry, then, is an articulation of a worldly truth, which may be achieved through a variety of isolated or universal means, and is directly the result of profound passion escaping the author."

Tags:aristotle, definition, english, ginsberg, grecian, keats, neruda, ode, pablo, philosophy, plato, poem, poet, poetry, truth, urn

Abstract
This essay analyses the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Three aspects of the poetry are considered: romanticism, American pragmatism, and the art of Longfellow's writing. This essay examines three of Longfellow's poems - The Slave's Dream, My Lost Youth, and A Psalm of Life - and concludes that Longfellow's poetry demonstrates characteristics of romanticism, but with an American perspective on pragmatism and art.

Tags:longfellow, romantic, poetry

Abstract
This general overview of Wallace Stevens' work, introducing his individual volumes of poetry, book-by-book, highlights the major points of his poetics without the usual associative amalgam of theme, form, diction, imagery, symbolism and belief that complicates most surveys of his poetry. The paper explains that the volumes appeared as separate collections, but the Stevens criticism and scholarship invariably commingles them as if they were parts of a simultaneously generated whole. This book-by-book overview clarifies the poetic perspective and suggests revisiting his collections with a fresh modular approach.

From the Paper
"Wallace Stevens' poetic development began with his apprentice poems published under pseudonyms in the Harvard Advocate at the turn of the century, but it was not until more than twenty years later that his elegant style and ambiguous motifs detonated into the flashy modernism of Harmonium (1923). The first change of style was drastic; he jettisoned the conventional sonnet, absorbed imagism, experimented with semi-open forms and, by liberating his style, he liberated also his sense of the bizarre, comical, and relentlessly aesthetic. Even between the brief lyrics and the deft prosody of the longer poems, Stevens' style invariably shifts to accommodate his tenets about the axis of imagination and reality. This overview looks at those shifts book-by-book."

Tags:american, development, literature, modern, poetic, poetry, prosody, stevens, wallace

Abstract
This paper analyzes the poetry of Muriel Ruckeyser, as found in her book "The Book of the Dead", and that of Adrienne Rich, using her work entitled "Twenty-one Love Poems". The paper gives a biographical background on each of the poets, stressing their importance to the contemporary women's movement and to American poetry. Rich's poems are explored for their ideas on the relationships between women, and Ruckeyser's are studied in terms of their comparison to a documentary and in relation to her strong political view.

From the Paper
"To many, Poetry is the voice of women. It is the way in which women can express their inner thoughts and feelings, to write the things that they can not say. Poetry is more than words on paper but someone's feelings and life poured into the readers mind. Poets let the readers climb inside their heads and taste what the poet feels, sees, and thinks.
Two major women poets that are in the inner ring of American feminist poets are Muriel Ruckeyser and Adrienne Rich. Though their poetry may be different in content, many of their messages are the same: we need to be heard. Ruckeyser's "The Book of the Dead" describes conditions and feelings of the Gauley Bridge tragedy through actual courtroom testimonies to words from actual citizens of the town. Adrienne Rich's "Twenty-one Love Poems" describes in many ways, her love of her companion as well as their struggles and times together."

Tags:feminist, lesbian, poetry, poet, women's, movement, biography, American, relationship, documentary, politics

Abstract
This paper on the pastoral convention in poetry describes the historical roots of the convention and its development. It shows that pastoral poetry is more than a mere convention and many works pertaining to the convention are of a high literary merit with social, political and personal thoughts evident in the work that can only be truly appreciated if they are examined in detail beyond the face value. The paper uses examples of poems that may be seemingly relatively simple with the themes of the convention have a deeper meaning that depends on the reader's interpretation.

From the Paper
"Pastoral Poetry is a literary work dealing with the lives of shepherds or rural life in general. It typically draws a contrast between the innocence and serenity of simple country life and the misery and corruption of the city, especially court life. The Pastoral imitates rural life, usually the life of an imaginary Golden Age, in which the loves of shepherds and shepherdesses play a prominent part. The term today loosely pertains to poetry that contains a reference to rural life."

Tags:ecologue, elizabethan, idyll, love, pastoral, poetry, theocritus, virgil, poem, rural, golden, age, shepherd

Abstract
The author looks at literary criticism, its definition, specific function and the contradictions that arise from its use. The author then looks at how different literarcy critics have attempted to pin Baudelaire's poetry down to something concrete, like knowledge, and in the process destroy the very notions he was portraying. By looking at the dependence of literary criticism on Aristotelian philosophy of art, in analyzing Baudelaire's poetry, the author illustrates how the intended meaning, and therefore, by extension, it's beauty has been destroyed.

From the Paper
"From the arguments above, it becomes obvious that criticism is applicable to Baudelaire's poetry as long as it is constrained within the limits of internal and semiprivate analysis. These approaches do not harm the beauty of the works, on the contrary. They are the means for explication of modernity, which is one of the elements of beauty according to Baudelaire - the element of particular. External evidence, in contrast, not only is inappropriate, being tangent to criticism, but also contradicts the second essential element of beauty - the element of absolute."

Tags:baudelaire, beauty, criticism, critics, fallacy, poetry, modernity

Abstract
This paper examines the moments of appreciation, which is the primary theme in Simon Ortiz's poem "My Father's Song" and Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays." The poem focuses on the similarities between the two poems. First, the paper demonstrates how the poets of both "My Father's Song" and "Those Winter Sundays" use their writing as a sort of memory of something significant that their father taught them. At the time, continues the paper, this lesson seemed unimportant or irrelevant but in retrospect, it was instrumental in shaping the man the poet became. The paper also examines how the poems are both touching without being overly sentimental. Furthermore, the paper shows how both poems express love realistically, through simple events and actions. Lastly, the paper discusses the poems similar structure -- both are tributes to the poet's father, focusing on qualities that were unique unto him.

From the Paper
"These poems are poignant because they are touching without being too sentimental. In "My Father's Song," the poet is remembering an event that probably lasted no more than ten minutes. However, within those ten minutes, he was able to hear his father's song, which consisted of strong, gentle, and silent movements. His act is significant because the man takes the time out of working to move the mice to the edge of the field. The grown up poet remembers "the very softness/of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice/and my father saying things" (Ortiz 23-5). This moment triggers the poem in the first place when the poet misses his father and "his voice" (3). The simple and seemingly insignificant things he misses are more powerful than any momentous occasion could ever be. Likewise, in "Those Winter Sundays," we find that uncomfortable moments turn out to be the ones that evoke powerful memories. Johnson states that while we cannot ignore the fact that the poet calls actions of love "lonely" (Hayden 14) and "austere" (14), the "seeming contradiction is precisely what the poet wishes to portray. His idea of love is that it has many conflicting qualities and that it expresses itself in complex ways" (Johnson). The poems are about the actions of a father that speak love without ever saying it or ever having to define it. In many ways, this is how we learn to recognize love--by subtle actions and gestures. These poems also express the love of the each poet. In "My Father's Song," it is woven between the lines from beginning to end with the poet fondly remembering and missing his father and the things he used to say. In "Those Winter Sundays," the poet's final question releases the love that the father's actions prompt."

Tags:father, son, parent, life, lessons, meaning, poetry, tribute, appreciate, thank, you, gratitude