1.10.2015

Lyric Poems Brief Descriptions

Jovie Ann Matanguihan

“He Wishes for Cloths of Heaven” William Butler Yeats
The poem “He Wishes for Cloths of Heaven” which was written by William Butler Yeats is an Ode that consists of 8 lines. It has pairs of rhymes arranged alternately in every line. It is a poem that could possibly be about himself or someone who is dreaming of giving a gift, particularly a beautiful cloth, to someone dear to him. But the persona mentioned in the end that he only had his dreams to tread the beautiful cloth because he was very poor.

“Pied Beauty” Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote the poem entitled “Pied Beauty” which consists of 11 lines that describes several things. The poem gives emphasis to the diversity and imperfections of everything that God has made, that amidst the differences and imperfections, people which was referred in the poem as “we” should still praise Him, which pertains to God.

“This Dust was once the Man” Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman’s elegy entitled “This Dust was Once the man” is a lyric poem which only consists of 4 lines but already expresses about his thoughts on how Abraham Lincoln lead his country during his presidency.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” John Keats
The poem entitled “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is written by John Keats. It is divided into 5 stanzas consisting of 10 lines each. The persona in the poem was talking about the frozen pictures painted to an ancient “urn”, commonly known as “vase”, which were also the different aspects in life like love and death. And in the end of the poem, the persona mentions that even after so many years, beauty still remains.

“One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Edmund Spenser

“One day I wrote her name Upon the Strand” is a beautiful sonnet written by Edmund Spencer. The poem is about a male persona wanting to leave a mark through writing their names in his poems but the female persona disagrees. She believes that nothing can last forever. But the male answered that even if they die, through his writings, the love they have shared will never be forgotten and their love can cross afterlife.