The Giant Book of Poetry (2006)

by William H. Roetzheim

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABABCC end rhymes—Vocabulary: vales: valley with a stream; jocund: light-hearted.

  1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: cells: rooms in a monastery; blithe: carefree; Furness: location in England—Notes: Most poets consider the sonnet the most restrictive of the poetic forms, yet here William writes a sonnet laughing at this attitude, and pointing out other people/things in life that enjoy the metaphorical confinement of a sonnet.

  2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, iambic trimeter for 3rd line in each stanza, ABABCCDD end rhymes—Vocabulary: vale: small valley normally with a stream; chaunt: chant; Hebrides: a group of Islands off the coast of Scotland.

  1 Form: Mostly ballad meter—Vocabulary: kerchief: head scarf; porringer: shallow bowl with a handle.

  1 Form: Ballad, xAxA end rhymes—Vocabulary: Eftsoons: soon; kirk: Scottish church; bassoon: wind instrument; minstrelsy: troop of minstrels; ken: recognized; swound: swoon; Albatross: sea bird; vespers: evening prayer time; averred: declared; fathom: six feet; wist: become aware of; water-sprite: nymph that inhabits the water; Gramercy: expression of surprise; Hither: to this place; weal: welfare of the community; gossameres: gauze like fabrics; twain: two; spectre-bark: ghost ship; clomb: climbed; bemocked: mocked; main: ocean; hoary: white with age; wan: pale; sedge: grass-like plant; corses: dead bodies; jargoning: nonsense talking; seraph: type of angel; shrieve: hear confession; trow: think; tod: bushy clump.

  1 Form: iambic, 4-3-4-3-4-4- pattern, xAxABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: Blenheim: site of battle in 1704 as part of War of Spanish Succession; childing: pregnant—Notes: Some wars seem pointless at the time, some seem pointless only in hindsight, but an argument can be made that from a long enough historic perspective all wars are pointless.

  1 Form: Iambic, 4-3-4-3-4-4 pattern; ABABCC end rhymes—Vocabulary: weal: well being—Notes: The narrator seeks companionship in books, and hopes that his writing will grant him some measure of immortal life, as the authors around him have achieved some degree of immortality.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABAB end rhymes.

  2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes—Notes: Another example in the “eternal life through poetry” theme.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes.

  2 Form: Anapestic dimeter, xAxAxBxB end rhymes—Notes: The last, lonely rose in a flowerbed is compared to the narrator, who is similarly at the end of his life with all of his companions dead and gone.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: raven: black and shiny.

  1 Form: Iambic trimeter, ABAB end rhymes—Notes: In this case, the “we” is the narrator, now too old to spend the night in amorous adventures.

  2 Form: Iambic tetrameter xxAA end rhymes—Vocabulary: quicken: stimulate.

  1 Form: Iambic, 3-2-3-2-3-3-2 pattern, ABABCCC end rhymes—Notes: Most of this poem has a fairly straight-forward “carpe diem”, or “seize the day” theme, beginning with the fleeting nature of nature’s delights, then moving to the fleeting nature of human interactions and traits, and entreating the reader to seize the day. The last two lines, however, are a significant shift in tone and deepening of the message. My personal interpretation is that Shelley is telling us to enjoy the beauty that we see around us now, because like a dream, it will suddenly vanish and leave us weeping.

  1 Form: Ballad—Notes: The poem creates a mood of loneliness and approaching death, with even the bird left alone with it’s companion dead. The mill wheel both contributes to the mood and may represent the inexorable march of time.

  1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: Ozymandias; Greek translation of Egyptian Ramesses the Great; visage: expression—Notes: The message of the poem involves both the transience of earthly power, and also the fact that what comes closest to giving lasting life is art. The actual inscription on the tomb in Egypt reads: “King of Kings am I, Ozymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.”

  2 Form: Iambic pentameter, AABBCC … End rhymes—Vocabulary: waxes: grows increasingly; blackguard: scoundrel; cudgels: club—Notes: The poem describes a popular form of entertainment in the middle-ages.

  1 Form: Mostly iambic tetrameter, ABABCC end rhymes—Vocabulary: boughs: tree limbs.

  1 Form: Sonnet—Notes: similar to the biblical reference to the phrase “This too shall pass,” applying to both good things and bad things.

  1 Form: Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)—Vocabulary: Thanatopsis: a meditation upon death; shroud: burial cloth; pall: coffin; swain: country lad; mold: earth of a grave; patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or any of Jacob’s 12 sons; hoary: grey or white with age; sepulcher: burial vault; vales: valley, typically with a stream—Notes: Considered by many to be the first American poem of significance, this was written when he was 17 years old. His father found the manuscript in a desk and submitted it to the North American Review on his son’s behalf.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABBCC… End rhymes—Vocabulary: lurid: pallid in color; covert: shelter.

  1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: vernal: spring; wrought: built; bier: coffin and stand.

  1 Form: Iambic, 3-5-3-5-5-5 pattern, ABABCC end rhymes—Vocabulary: lay: ballad; languid: lacking energy; limn: describe.

  1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: breast: rise over; beshrew: curse; meet: fitting; boughs: tree limbs; hopples: piles of stone; cornels: type of tree; wist: knew.

  1 Form: Iambic, 3-5-5-3 pattern, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: Whither: where are you going; fowler: hunter of birds; plashy: watery; marge: edge; billows: waves; illimitable: limitless—Notes: If God is able to guide a migrating goose, then he will also guide the narrator through his life.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, ABABABCC end rhymes—Vocabulary: palmer: pilgrim who carries a palm branch from the holy land; malady: illness; rill: small brook; broidery: needlework; vespers: evening prayers; boon: favor; shrive: confess; clime: climate; erewhile: heretofore; zephyr: gentle breeze; ditty: short song; honeyed dart: cupid’s arrow; bower: shaded recess; Theseus: king of Athens who slew the Minotaur; Dido: queen and founder of Carthage, who rescued Aeneas, then killed herself when Aeneas abandoned her; almsmen: one dependent on alms for support; swelt: faint from heat; Ceylon: Sri Lanka; racks: torture implement; lazar: leper; panniered: saddlebags or wicker baskets like saddlebags; ducats: coins; ledger-men: accountants; covetous: desirous; Boccaccio: Italian poet (1351 - 1353), wrote the Decameron, gittern: Middle-Ages guitar; blithe: carefree; balustrade: railing; Bestride: straddle; Apennine: mountain chain in Italy; eglantine: wild, pink rose; matin: morning; fain: gladly; Arno: river near Florence, flowing from the Apennines; bream: freshwater fish; freshets: sudden overflows from the stream; wan: pale; ‘scape: escape; roundelay: poem or song with recurring theme; Hinnom’s vale: valley between Mount Zion and the Hill of Evil Counsel. Idolatrous Jews burned their children alive as sacrifices to Moloch and Baal, and since that time the valley has been used to dump waste and a fire has been constantly burning, and has come to symbolize corruption and evil; lute: ancient stringed instrument; lorn: forlorn; loamed: covered with dirt; miry: muddy; Languor: exhaustion; palsied: trembling; Druid: ancient Celtic priest; sepulchral: near tombs; woof: the crosswise threads in a fabric, perpendicular to the warp; avarice: insatiable greed; heather: evergreen shrub; knelling: ring slowly; Seraph: a type of angel; spangly: sparkly; hie: hasten; Champaign: plain; betide: befall; mould: soil; hoar: white with age; travail: strenuous work; plaining: poetic complaint; Lethean: from the river of forgetfulness (Greek); Melpomene: the muse of tragedy; Baalites: worshiper of Baal; pelf: dishonestly acquired wealth; shrift: confession; guerdon: reward; burthen: burden.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, irregular line length for last line in each stanza, xAxA end rhymes—Vocabulary: wight: living being; sedge: grasslike plant; meads: meadows; grot: grotto; thrall: servitude; gloam: twilight; sojourn: reside temporarily—Notes: He has experienced the beauty of the mysterious woman, but now she is gone and he is doomed to suffer perpetual misery s
earching for her rather than appreciating the beauty in the rest of the world.

  1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: maidenhead: virginity; nought: nothing; pippin: a type of apple; pips: seeds; nipping: biting or pinching.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, unrhymed— Notes: Notice that the last line is incomplete, left hanging much like the poem is left hanging. The hand held toward the reader is embodied in the poem itself.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, irregular but frequent end-rhymes—Vocabulary: Sylvan: woodland; deities: Gods; Tempe: a valley in Greece near Mt. Olympus; dales: valleys; Arcady: a region of ancient Greece; timbrels: ancient instrument similar to a tambourine; ditties: simple songs; boughs: tree limb; cloyed: sick of; lowing: mooing; citadel: stronghold; pious: reverent; brede: ornamental braiding; trodden: stepped on; Pastoral: rural scene—Notes: A careful descriptions of the scenes from an ancient urn, where he is congratulating the figures on being frozen through eternity and describing the benefits of this frozen state.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABB end rhymes.

  2 Form: Blank verse—Vocabulary: dervishes: Muslim monk; diadems: crowns; faggots: bundle of sticks; pleachd: shaded by interwoven branches or vines; fillet: narrow strip of color on the heraldry of the chief—Notes: Day is personified as a line of daughters of time, each offering us gifts. The narrator realizes too late that he has wasted the gifts offered to him that day.

  3 Form: Iambic pentameter with some variations; earth song is irregular meter—Vocabulary: sitfast: stationary; mould: dust; heritors: inheritor; avarice: immoderate desire for things.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, AABBCDCD end rhymes—Vocabulary: Rhodora: plant with rose-purple flowers; wert: were—Notes: This poem notes that a higher entity is responsible for both the big things and the little things, and that beauty exists with or without observations of the beauty by people.

  1 Form: Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)—Vocabulary: Delated: carried; artificer: craftsman; bastions: projecting parts of a fortress; naught: nothing; coop: cage for poultry or small animals; Parian: fine white marble or porcelain; Maugre: notwithstanding.

  1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: Theocritus: Greek poet.

  1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: certes: certainly.

  2 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: cull: pick out; prescience: premonition—Notes: A brilliant Volta, changing and deepening the direction of the piece. We start with the wonderful, romantic message of the depressed person later realizing that throughout this dark time their true love was in the world waiting to be discovered. The message is then broadened with a parallel to atheists not realizing that God is present in the world waiting for them to discover him.

  1 Form: Sonnet.

  2 Form: Sonnet.

  1 Form: Anapestic trimeter, ABABBA end rhymes—Vocabulary: Jugurtha: Berber King of Numidia, 156-104 BC—Notes: Jugurtha was held in Rome in the prison Tullianum, also called the Mamertine Prison. It was originally created as a cistern for a spring located in the prison, and used to prepare and wash dead bodies prior to its conversion to use as a prison.

  2 Form: Iambic tetrameter, irregular but frequent end rhymes—Vocabulary: blithe: carefree.

  1 Form: Iambic trimeter, xAxA end rhymes—Vocabulary: Croyland: abbey in Lincolnshire, England; Saint Guthlac: lived in Croyland circa 700 AD; Saint Basil: lived 329 AD - 379 AD; Bartholomaeus: Monk from Touraine, France (1478-1535); Guthlac and Bartholomaeus: names of the two bells.

  1 Form: Sonnet—Notes: A sonnet helping us to see how we are all children before the unknowns of life and death. Nature takes things away from us as we get older, but promises new and better things for us.

  1 Form: Ballad, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: Beleaguered: besieged; specters: ghosts; Prague: capital of what is now the Czech Republic; Moldau: Currently called the Vltava river; wan: pale; vale: valley—Notes: The story of ghosts being dispersed by church bells is then expanded to the idea that people are haunted by their own “ghosts” in life and that religion can dispel those ghosts as well.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, irregular but frequent end rhymes.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, xAxA end rhymes—Vocabulary: Mather: Cotton Mather (1663-1728); Magnalia Christi: the book “Magnalia Christi Americana”; crank: unstable; walty: liable to roll over; mould: the earth of a grave.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter except last line of each stanza iambic trimeter, AABCCCB end rhymes—Vocabulary: marl: mixture of clay and limestone; wax: increase in size; wane; decrease in size; Coptic: afro-Asian (especially Egyptian); potsherds: fragments of broken pottery—Notes: Note the circle between the pots (metaphor for people, or perhaps even societies) making a full circle from clay to pot to fragments of pots and back to clay to begin again.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, AABBC end rhymes—Vocabulary: mouldering: crumbling; blast: gusts of wind in this case; repining: being discontented.

  2 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: Molinos: Miguel de Molinos (1640-1696); commingling: blending; Amesbury: town in Massachusetts—Notes: The concepts here are very zen-like.

  1 Form: Ballad—Vocabulary: gilded: covered with gold foil; climes: climates.

  1 Form: Iambic trimeter, xAxA end rhymes.

  1 Form: Iambic tetrameter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: bowers: shaded recess—Notes: The narrator compares his hold age with the winter of the forest, but nature replies that, unlike him, she will renew in the spring.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, AABB end rhymes—Vocabulary: creed: formal statement of religious belief—Notes: This poem refers to a biblical story in which Jesus visits two sisters (Mary and Martha). One sees only his human form and spends her efforts being a host to his earthly needs. One sees in him God and, ignoring his earthly needs, listens to his teachings.

  2 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: meekened: made meek.

  1 Form: Iambic pentameter, irregular but frequent end rhymes—Vocabulary: unthwarted: unstopped—Notes: He cannot answer his own or other’s questions about what lies beyond the grave, other than to rely on faith he learned as a child from his mother.

  2 Form: Anapestic, alternating tetrameter and trimeter, ABAB end rhymes—Vocabulary: billows: waves; bark: sailing ship; chaff: stems after seeds are removed; flail: manual threshing device—Notes: This poem looks at perspectives. From the perspective of the shore the boat moves between sun and shadow, while from the perspective of the boat’s pilot the boat moves between beacons (buoys) to avoid shoals and other sources of danger. Similarly, the narrator moves between goals which are internal, and the others looking from shore do not understand these goals and measure progress by different criteria. For example, the narrator’s goals may be related to writing poetry while the people on shore are critics. Another example would be the narrator’s goals being happiness in life while the people on shore are relatives measuring success by financial criteria.

  1 Form: Anapestic lines 7 feet long (split here to 4-3), AAA end rhymes—Vocabulary: seraphs: type of angel; dissever: separate—Notes: The narrator’s childhood sweetheart died (probably of a fever), and the narrator continues to mourn next to her tomb by the sea.

  1 Form: Anapestic dimeter xAxAxA end rhymes where the last two rhyming words are the same word.—Vocabulary: naphthalene: flammable product of coal tar—Notes: In this poem the narrator is dead, yet still thinks of his last moments with his love, Annie.

  1 Form: Trochaic octameter, or as formatted here, trochaic tetrameter, AAxBCCCBxBB—Vocabulary: surcease: stop; obeisance: gesture of deference; mien: bearing or manner; Pallas: Greek goddess of wisdom and useful arts, guardian of Athens; shorn: clipped; craven: cowardly; Plutonian: related to the god Pluto, god of Hades; dirges: funeral lament; censer: container burning incense for religious festivals; Respite: short interval of relief; nepenthe: drug to reduce grief (Odyssey); quaff: drink; balm in Gilead: healing sap from shrub grown only in Palestine; Aidenn: heaven—Notes: The narrator, in his depression, is creating his own form of hell. He realizes early o
n that the bird only says one word, and then begins to pose Questions where that one word will contribute to his haunting depression.