Introduction Leigh Hunt’s “The Glove and the Lions” explores the perilous love games played at the king’s court as well as the results of going too far. Leigh Hunt’s four-stanza poem “The Glove and the Lions” was first published in The New Monthly Magazine in London, England, in May 1836. The speaker’s tone is consistently … Read more
Introduction During World War II, Anglo-Irish poet Louis MacNeice wrote the poem “Prayer Before Birth,” which was originally published in his 1944 collection Springboard. The speaker, an unborn kid, expresses tremendous wisdom regarding humanity’s propensity for self-destruction and violence while praying for future direction and protection from the tragedies of the modern world. In the … Read more
Introduction Paz Latorena, a writer from the Philippines, is the author of “The Small Key.” A woman named Soledad and her husband Pedro Buhay is the subject of the story. They are rural dwellers. One morning, Soledad wakes up knowing the farm will yield abundantly, yet she still feels unsatisfied inside. Some of her husband’s … Read more
Introduction: ‘The Man He Killed’ is a poem written by Thomas Hardy. It is a poem that delves into the mind of a man traumatized by war, thus allowing the reader a peek into the mind of a soldier from a war-torn region. About the Poet: Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a prominent English novelist and … Read more
Introduction Shakespeare’s “Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me” is one of his most well-known soliloquies. It first appears in Act Scene 1 of his well-known tragedy “Macbeth,” as it becomes clear why he killed Duncan: to claim the throne. The soliloquy portrays his self-control being overpowered by the act he is going … Read more
Introduction: ‘Daffodils’ or ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ is a notable Romantic poem written by William Wordsworth. Based on one of a stroll the poet took himself, this poem brings out the thoughts and feelings he had experienced then through the daffodils he had seen. About the Poet: William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an eminent … Read more
Introduction John Donne in his poem “No Man is an Island” explores the interconnectedness of all people. Donne essentially makes the case that because each person is a part of the larger whole that is humanity itself, people need one another and are better off together than they are alone. The passage is a well-known … Read more
Introduction: ‘Sonnet 43’ is a poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Each sonnet in this collection, including this poem, is directed toward her beloved husband Robert Browning, who also happened to be an eminent Victorian poet at that time. About the Poet: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) was a prominent English poet. Noted to be the … Read more
Introduction The Nigerian poet and novelist Gabriel Okara has incorporated imagery of his native Nigerian delta into his poems, and his writing fuses the lexicon of his native Ijaw language with English concepts. Both in terms of form and subject, “The Mystic Drum” is an African poem. Okara returns to his roots in history, religion, … Read more
Introduction Wordsworth and Coleridge were friends with the British essayist and writer William Hazlitt (1788–1830). In the year 1822, he wrote the article “On the Ignorance of the Learned.” Hazlitt persuasively makes the claim that formal education breeds ignorance and animosity. He thinks that book learning cannot replace experience. One must actively participate in life, … Read more
