I chose this blooger to be named the best because I felt as if he/she did a great job choosing poems and had a clear and thoughful analysis. I love the background and the poem that this person chose. I thought that the anaysis for each poem was really informative. I loved everything about it! Good Job!! 
Honorable mentions…
Blog to pass the time, Bluediamond19, liveandlearn4, and m1ssyou.
Good job everyone!
Livin my life in a slow hell
Different girl every night at the hotel
I ain’t seen the sunshine
In three damn days
Been fuelin’up on cocaine and whiskey
Wish I had a good girl to miss me
Lord I wonder if I’ll ever change my ways
I put your picture away
Sat down and cried today
I can’t look at you while I’m lying next to her
I put your picture away
Sat down and cried today
I can’t look at you while I’m lying next to her
I called you last night in the hotel
Everyone knows but they won’t tell
But their half-hearted smiles tell me somethin’ just ain’t right
I’ve been waitin’ on you for a long time
Fuelin’ up on heartaches and cheap wine
I ain’t heard from you in three damn nights
I put your picture away
I wonder where you been
I can’t look at you while I’m lyin’ next to him
I put your picture away
I wonder where you been
I can’t look at you while I’m lyin’ next to him
I saw you yesterday with an old friend , It was the same old same how’ve you been? Since you’ve been gone my worlds been dark and grey, You reminded me of brighter days, I hoped you were comin’ home to stay, I was headed to church, I was off to drink you away.
I thought about you for a long time
Can’t seem to get you off my mind
I can’t understand why we’re living life this way
I found your picture today
I swear I’ll change my ways
I just called to say I want you to come back home
I found your picture today
I swear I’ll change my ways
I just called to say I want you to come back home
I just called to say I love you, come back home
I always want to belt this song whenever I hear it. I think it is so honest and rugged. It talks about the harsh truths about hard break up; drugs, alcohol, finding other company, etc. This song is really depressing. These two lovers are apart and they want to be together, but they aren’t. They are using drugs, drinking, and sleeping with other people to fill the void. The last stanza, is both lovers singing…
I thought about you for a long time
Can’t seem to get you off my mind
I can’t understand why we’re living life this way
I found your picture today
I swear I’ll change my ways
I just called to say I want you to come back home
I found your picture today
I swear I’ll change my ways
I just called to say I want you to come back home
I just called to say I love you, come back home
I feel like they are begging each other to come back. They want each other to “come back home”.
I’m alone
Yeah, I don’t know if I can face the night
I’m in tears and the cryin’ that I do is for you
I want your love – Let’s break the walls between us
Don’t make it tough – I’ll put away my pride
Enough’s enough I’ve suffered and I’ve seen the light
Baby
You’re my angel
Come and save me tonight
You’re my angel
Come and make it all right
Don’t know what I’m gonna do
About this feeling inside
Yes it’s true – Loneliness took me for a ride
Without your love – I’m nothing but a begger
Without your love – a dog without a bone
What can I do I’m sleeping in this bed alone
Come and save me tonight
You’re the reason I live
You’re the reason I die
You’re the reason I give
When I break down and cry
Don’t need no reason why
Baby, Baby
You’re my angel
Come and save me tonight
you’re my angel
Come and take me allright
Come and save me tonight, Come and save me tonight, Come and save me tonight,
Come and save me tonight, Come and save me tonight
I can remember when I first heard this song. My boyfriend and I were at a party together. I was on one side of the room and he the other. He then looked over at me and played this song. For some odd reason, I have never felt more in love. He has always told me that I was his “angel” and that I saved him. Before we met he was going down somewhat of a reckless path and said that I changed him for the better. I also think that he saved me too. He also saved me from a reckless path.
Don’t know what I’m gonna do
About this feeling inside
Yes it’s true – Loneliness took me for a ride
Without your love – I’m nothing but a begger
Without your love – a dog without a bone
What can I do I’m sleeping in this bed alone
This is my favorite part of the song. The narrator is saying that with out his lover’s love, he is nothing. The feeling that he is “feeling inside” is probably the love he has for his girl and the feeling of losing her combined.
I want your love – Let’s break the walls between us
This is my favorite line of the poem. It shows that they are in love but are still very distant. The narrator wants to get closer.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host, of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretch’d in never-ending line
Along the margin of the bay:
Ten thousand I saw at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:-
A Poet could not be gay
In such jocund company!
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
What wealth the show to me had bought;
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fill
And dances with the daffodils.
According to teleflora.com, the daffodil is a “symbolism of rebirth and new beginnings, the daffodil is virtually synonymous with spring”. I think that the narrator, who compares himself to a cloud, is very lonely and could have lost a loved one. I think the narrator is comparing his lost love to a daffodil; there is still hope for them to be together. The narrator speaks of these “daffodils” as “fluttering and dancing in the breeze” which can have a meaning of his love dangling in front of him and not being able to get her. Another way of looking at this poem is that the narrator is sad or depressed because it is winter out but he has the daffodils of spring to look forward to and cheer him up. When people think of spring they often can relate it to a rebirth or a new beginning. According to the narrator, the daffodils are beautiful, symbolizing the beauty of nature. These daffodils made such a great impact on the narrator. I think that the daffodil has a literal meaning and a figurative meaning.
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.
This poem touches my heart. Being an athlete myself, I understand what happens when you are showered with compliments about a good game and bashed with comments about a bad game. I feel like athletes take everything seriously, even if their fame and glory is temporary. I think that Housman is saying that it is better for smeone to not out live their fame and glory because when your fame and glory disappear when you are alive, you feel like ou have nothing to live for. When a person dies before their fame and glory runs out, there name means more than a name, but it is a symbolism of a fallen hero and the beginning of a legacy. I personally would like to live through out my fame and glory and then retire gracefully. I really like how this poem uses comparison; “And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than rose”. Laurel is what the Greeks and Romans put on their champions’ heads. We still use this during the Olympics. I don’t think that the whole “dying” theme is about dying. I think it is about losing. I think that Housman is trying to say that you should maybe retire before you get beaten at your sport and your name means nothing in the end. That way when you retire, you have your fame left with your dignity and pride.
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
The narrator in this poem is obviously very happy. The theme of this poem is love and a feeling of a new experience.
In the second stanza, the narrator is excited to see her lover. She has a sense of anticipation. Christina Rossetti uses similes to show how she feels. “My heart is like a singing bird” and “My hear is like a rainbow shell”. When we read these lines, we usually associate rainbows and singing birds with happy thoughts. We know that the narrator was expecting her lover because in the last two lines of the first stanza, “Because the birthday of my life / is come, my love is come to me”
In the second stanza, the narrator is is preparing a bed for her and her lover. She gets silk and down sheets ready. “Carve it in doves and pomegranates / And peacocks with a hundred eyes”. A dove a symbol of peace. The narrator feels peace of mind when she knows that her lover hs come to her. In Armenia, the pomegranate is a symbol of fertility, abundance, and marriage. In ancient times, the peacock was a symbol of resurrection and immortality.The narrator uses this symbol to show the readers that she feels like she is born again; her lover makes her feel like a virgin. Christina Rossetti uses all this symbolism to xpress the narrator’s feelings towards the anticipation of her lover.
All in all, I believe this poem is about love and the feeling of being a born agai virgin. The narrator obviously thinks that her lover is very special and they have an intense connection with each other. “The birthday of my life” is how the narrator feels when her and her lover get together. She is born again with a new life everytime.
O my luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonny lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only love,
And fare thee weel, awhile!
And I will come again, my love
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.
This is a lyrical poem which means it can be sung. After doing a little research online, it was said that Robert Burns dedicated his last ten years of life putting his work into the original Scottish dialect. This poem is filled with similes. He almost always compares his love to something during this poem. The first two similes in this poem are easily understood but then the rest get a little complex. All in all, the narrator is saying that no matter what he will love whomever until the end of time and through everything. It is quite a beautiful poem. ” ‘A Red, Red Rose’ is written as a ballad with four stanzas of four lines each. Each stanza has alternating lines of four beats, or iambs, and three beats. The first and third lines have four iambs, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in da-dah, da-dah, da-dah, da-dah. The second and fourth lines consist of three iambs. This form of verse is well adapted for singing or recitation and originated in the days when poetry existed in verbal rather than written form.” (Ezine Articles).
SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that ’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
This poem is one of my favorites. I love how beautifully written it is and how honest it is. The narrator of this poem obviously loves his wife/girlfriend. This poem contains simlies. For example, “She walks in beauty, like the night”(1). This poem also has a lot of imagery. You can almost picture this beautiful woman with “raven” (black) colored hair, a pale face face that is completely flawless, and ambitious eyes with an innocent personality. The narrator compares his lover with all the natural beauties of the earth; starry night sky, daylight, and a gentle breeze. This poem also flows very well. I love Gordon’s word usage and his use of punctuation. It is almost like he is talking to himself about her. The narrator is very passionate about how he feels about his lover.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful – a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
‘I love thee true’.
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed – Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried – ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
When the title is translated, “The Beautiful Lady with out Pity”, says it all about the poem. The poem is about a beat up knight who comes in contact with a beautiful and wild failry looking woman. This woman then takes the knight to her “elfin grot” where she woos her knight. Being tired, the knight falls asleep and has dreams about “pale kings and princes too,Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried – ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!”. When he awakes from his dream filled slumber, he finds himself on the same “cold hill’s side” laying there sick and pale. I absolutely love this poem because Keats uses such grand imagery. When reading this poem I can picture perfectly a cool day with a handsome knight who is sick and then meets a beautiful almost mythical looking woman, and then the entire poem is turned around to this twisted ending where the beautiful woman takes advantage of the knight and leaves him to die with the rest of the men who she has done this with. This poem is just not something to read and think it sounds pretty. It is much more than that…It is a beautiful story than ends in something that we do not expect. It questions our instinct on first impresions.
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
Edgar Allan Poe writes this to make readers understand his love for a woman whom he is madly in love with. Poe uses imagery to show us the Beauty of Helen. Helen is also an allusion. Helen was believed to be the most beautiful woman in the world (Helen of Troy). Poe explains that her beauty is not only physical but also mentally or soulfully (not sure if thats a word). Poe explains to us that his Lover is his home, “The weary, way worn wanderer bore/ To his own native shore”. Poe also uses alliteration through out the poem to make is idea more clear and much more memorable. He also makes allusions to ancient Greece and Rome. This time period must have greatly interested him. Poe is madly in love with this woman whom he compares to “Helen”. This woman is his heart, his soul, and his home. She is the direction that he wants to go and he will follow her anywhere, whether it be literal or not.
