American Poetry Essays Examples For College & High School Students in PDF

1744 total results

An Analysis of the Poem Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D.C. Berry (596 words, 2 pages)

Poetry ResponseThe poem Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D. C. Berry is literally about the experience of reading poems to a class and the classs reaction to the poems. Berry uses an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem, comparing the class to a school of ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poem A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy (590 words, 2 pages)

Poetry Response A Work of ArtificeThe poem A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy contains a very powerful message, if one cares to see it. At first glance, the poem is simply talking about bonsai trees, but, upon further inspection, the poem is truly about how women are confined into ... Read More

The Human Impact on the Environment in Anecdote of a Jar, a Poem by Wallace Stevens (426 words, 2 pages)

The poem Anecdote of a Jar by Wallace Stevens is an interesting poem, which I believe is about humans environmental impact. It comments on how a small impact can grow to become a large one affecting an entire area.Stevens begins the poem one with talking about placing a jar in ... Read More

An Interpretation of Richard Cory, a Poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson (323 words, 2 pages)

The poem Richard Cory explores the disconnection between outward appearance and inner feelings. It also addresses what does not really make people happy and role models.In the poem, Richard Cory is a gentleman who everyone looked up to. He was handsome, rich, and well educated. Everyone in town wanted to ... Read More

An Analysis of a Heart Break in One Art, a Poem by Elizabeth Bishop (453 words, 2 pages)

One Art is an interesting poem by Elizabeth Bishop. From the poem, one can see to paradoxes of a breaking heart. The poet wants to tell herself anything to make the situation better but nothing will. She invites pretty, innocent little lies to tell herself so she will pretend to ... Read More

An Interpretation of Poem, a Short Poem by William Carlos Williams (396 words, 2 pages)

Poem is a short simple poem by William Carlos Williams. The poem has four stanzas, each with three lines. These lines contains between two and five syllables. Poem is written in free verse. It has no rhyme scheme and is not metrical. I like this poem because it is so ... Read More

The Symbolism in Fire and Ice, a Poem by Robert Frost (309 words, 2 pages)

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost is a highly symbolic poem. It discusses fire and ice as vehicles which led to destruction of the world.In the poem, Frost observes how some people believe fire will bring destruction of the Earth, while others believe ice will end the world. I believe ... Read More

Poe’s Interpretation of Insanity in The Tell-Tale Heart (1583 words, 6 pages)

Edgar Allan Poe once said, I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity, but what exactly are sanity and insanity? Insanity is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as the state of being mentally ill madness extreme foolishness or rationality, and sanity as the ability to think and behave ... Read More

The Archetypal Element of Darkness in We Grow Accustomed to the Dark by Emily Dickinson and Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost (992 words, 4 pages)

The archetypal element of darkness, in stark contrast with light, is a critical part of any writers toolbox. Besides its obvious ability to alter the atmosphere of any given piece, darkness can also be used symbolically to achieve a specificpurpose in writing. Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, two American masters ... Read More

The Role of Changes in the Poems X and Actuarial File by Jean Valentine (1125 words, 4 pages)

ChangeChange is an inevitable part of life, actions happen, events are held, lives are introduced and taken away. Through the poems X, and Actuarial File, change is suggested to be an inevitable part of life, and because of this constant change, in the end, this change ends up generating a ... Read More

An Interpretation of Buttons, a Poem by Carl Sandburg (994 words, 3 pages)

Poetry Explication on ButtonsThis is a two sided story that shows the effortless attitude towards war by the civilians in front of the newspaper office and the contrasting soldiers dying in war. This poem takes place during the Russo Japanese war from two very different perspectives. This was also known ... Read More

A Review of Because I Could Not Stop for Death, a Poem by Emily Dickinson (907 words, 4 pages)

Because I Could Not Stop For DeathBecause I Could Not Stop for Death is one of Emily Dickinsons most famous poems. This poem is not only one of her most famous poems but perhaps one of the most famous poems ever written. Emily Dickinson was a phenomenal poet but unfortunately ... Read More

The Different Symbols in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, a Poem by Robert Frost (543 words, 2 pages)

Stooping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is a poem that appears very symbolic. It paints the serene picture of a traveler making a short stop through desolate woods. This scene may elicit a number of emotions from the reader depending on how they interpret the simple scene of a ... Read More

The Life and Work of Emily Dickinson (2646 words, 11 pages)

Emily DickinsonAn Island of GeniusVoluntary isolation from society is a course of action seldom chosen but in rare cases has birthed genius. In one such case an extraordinary writer was produced and though her work was not recognized during her lifetime the world would later benefit from her 1,775 poems. ... Read More

An Analysis of The Facebook Sonnet (327 words, 2 pages)

1).Why does a fixed form rather than an open form seem especially appropriate for the themes of this poem?Upon reading The Facebook Sonnet we notice that this sonnet follows a certain rhyme scheme which adds to the poems fluidity. If the poem was written in free verse, it would lose ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poem Because He First Loved Me by Fanny Crosby (471 words, 2 pages)

I'm trusting, only trustingIn Jesus day by dayI feel His presence nearer,While pressing on my wayMy soul is full of glory,And this my song shall beI love my blessed Saviour,Because He first loved me.I'm trusting, only trustingIn Jesus ev'ry hour,Who saves me by His mercy,And keeps me by His powerI'll ... Read More

An Examination of the Themes and Symbols in the Novel Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (670 words, 2 pages)

In Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin works with themes of redemption, race, and sin. He does this through John, Richard, and Broadway. Through these symbols, Baldwin is attempting to say that without the Lord on your side and a respectful attitude towards the realities of the world ... Read More

An Homage to the Writing Style of Whitman in Sherman Alexie’s Defending Walt Whitman (870 words, 3 pages)

In Sherman Alexies Defending Walt Whitman, Alexie highlights Whitmans particular style of writing and pays homage to it by mimicking it in this poem while defending him. With the use of a lot of the same devices as Whitman and by placing Whitman himself in the story, Alexis is able ... Read More

An Analysis of Archibald Macleish’s Poems Using the New Critical Ideas (472 words, 2 pages)

According to New Critical ideas, each poem, work ought to be read assomething different, the whole which is completely various from the others,so that it is hardly likely to compare one poem with another one as all ofthem should be perceived as unique. In the result, the most significant isthe ... Read More

The Use of Figurative Language in the Poems of Emily Dickinson (518 words, 2 pages)

Figurative language dips poems in a liquid that gives it the charm of many interpretations. Specifically in Emily DIckinsons work, she abuses the use of similes, metaphors, and personification. Her poems, My life closed twice before the close, I heard a fly buzz- when I died, and Much madness Divinest ... Read More

Whitman as a Poet of the Soul: Uniqueness of Walt Whitman’s Poetry (274 words, 1 pages)

Walt Whitman Poet of the SoulWalt Whitman wrote diverse and challenging poetry. Especially when compared to the other popular poets of his time, it is obvious that he is different. Much of his poetry lacked form, structure, or rhyme. Whitman broke the stereotypes of what poetry should be by addressing ... Read More

An Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky (426 words, 2 pages)

Emily DickinsonThe brain is larger, or has more potential, than the sky. Side-by-side the brain will contain the sky, easily. The second stanza is nearly the same as the first, except with the metaphor being the sea the brain is deeper than the see. Blue to Blue (meaning compared) the ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poem Design, an Italian Sonnet by Robert Frost (608 words, 3 pages)

Sonnet Paper Design by Robert Frost"Design, a poem written by Robert Frost, is an Italian sonnet. An Italian sonnet usually includes an octave, an eight-line part, and a sestet, a six-line part. Usually these two parts have two contrasting points. When the poem moves from the first part to the ... Read More

The Symbolism of a Tree in the Black Walnut Tree, a Poem by Mary Oliver (458 words, 2 pages)

In the world people often create emotional connections with many different inanimate or animate objects. This can be seen in the poem The Black Walnut Tree as two women, a mother and a daughter, debate whether or not to sell their walnut tree. In the poem Mary Oliver reveals the ... Read More

An Analysis of E.E. Cummings’ Her Flesh Came: Sexuality in the Poem (874 words, 3 pages)

Modernism does for poetry what it achieved in every other form of art during its span, in that it tore down the barriers of traditional poetry and erected the new rule There are no rules. Imagism is a prime example, wherein the simple description of the subject is all that ... Read More

The Use of Literary Devices in the Poem Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (276 words, 1 pages)

In Maya Angelous poem, Still I Rise, she expresses her feeling about how people treat other people. Angelous poem epitomizes hope. When hard times come, smile. Whenever you fall, get back up and when you think all is going wrong, rise(32), against it!Angelou uses a grand variety of literary devices. ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poem The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot (1220 words, 3 pages)

The Hollow Men AnalysisThe words used in the third part of the Hollow Men are chosen precisely to convey the message that T.S. Eliot wants the reader to understand. In the first two lines of the third part, it says "This is the dead land This is the cactus land." ... Read More

An Analysis of the Metaphor in the Opening line of the Poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (750 words, 2 pages)

According to the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, a metaphor is a figure of speech that associates or compares two distinctly separate things without employing a connective word such as like or as (else, it would be a simile). Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, is the ... Read More

An Analysis of Hope in CCCXIV by Emily Dickinson and the Road by Cormac McCarthy (1436 words, 5 pages)

Contrast The Road and CCCXIVHope is an integral part of the human experience. It gives people the will to live and provides comfort to those who need it. It exists to keep humans alive through the toughest of times. Humans in the most desperate situations keep hope alive by believing ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poem Everyday Life by William E. Stafford (348 words, 2 pages)

Analysis of The Well Rising In William E. Staffords poem, The Well Rising Stafford is basically talking about everyday life. For example, when he says The sharp swallows in their swerve flaring and hesitating he is saying that as the day goes by I await the next to come. Knowing ... Read More

American Poetry Essay Examples