"When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be," by John Keats

"When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be," is an emotional poem. It was written on John Keats's deathbed. He talks about his fears of having things he never got a chance to do, and things he will never be able to experience again. He also fears dying before he has had a chance to accomplish everything he wanted to accomplish. He has so many thoughts that he will never get a chance to put down on paper before he dies; "...Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, Before high piled books, in charactry, hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain..." I believe that he is also lamenting over the love that he will never be able to feel; all of the romances that he was never able to experience. " I think that "fair creature of an hour," refers to how fleeting life and love are. "On the shore of the wide world I stand alone," means that he is on the border between life and death. He stays there and thinks with his mind that is still full of energy and life, while his body slowly dies. This poem has a fairly basic rhythm with every other line rhyming with each other.

Another Poem by William Blake: "The Fly"

"The Fly" has a very similar rhythm to "The Sick Rose." Each stanza is four lines long. William Blake is contemplating the differences between a man and a fly. He realizes that he and the fly are not that different. His life could be snuffed out by some random chance just as easily and as quickly as he brushes away the fly's life. They also both have lives that they live from day to day. The life of the fly and the life of the man are both equally significant, or insignificant, depending on what your point of view is. There are many flies, and many people; the death of a man is an insignificant tragedy. Just like the death of the fly, the death of a man, while tragic, will hardly be noticed contrasted with the big-picture. So, the poet lives out his days until chance comes and brushes his life away. The poet should be happy while he is alive, even though his life is so insignificant. When he dies he should still be happy, because his death will allow for new life to take his place. The last two stanzas of this poem are a bit difficult to interpret.

William Blake's "The Sick Rose"

O rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

I believe that his poem is about a disease killing a beautiful person. "The invisible worm" symbolizes a disease. A disease can not be seen, thus, "invisible," and a disease inhabits a body like a worm in a corpse, feeding on the life of the afflicted the way that a worm feeds on the petals of a rose. The rose symbolizes a body. The disease "flies in the night," because it arrives seemingly over night; you wake up in the morning and you are sick. The "bed of crimson joy" refers to the life of the diseased person. The "dark secret love" of the disease is its need to become one with the person it is invading in order to survive. The irony is that the disease's life will end the life of the person. The poem has a rhythm that reads so that each line of the poem sounds like a separate statement.

Sara Teasdale's "There Will Come Soft Rains"

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pool singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself when she awoke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

"There Will Come Soft Rains," by Sara Teasdale, is my favorite poem because of its tone and subject matter. I believe that this poem was written during the World War I time period because of the diction and subject matter. The WWI period is my favorite historical subject. I believe that this poem was written during the WWI period because of the lines that say: "...not one will know of the war,... at last when it is done." WWI is often referred to as "The War" or "The Great War." The line implies that the war has been going on for a long time, which furthers my belief that it was from the WWI period. The tone reflects the feelings of many people during the WWI time period; melancholy, but still with hope that the war would end someday, and everything in nature and the world would be well again. I enjoyed the diction and rhythm of the poem. The strong adjectives paint a vivid picture of birds and nature in the mind of the reader. I liked the way that the poet expressed the idea that even if all of the people in the world disappeared, the world would still go on as if there never was people. This is an interesting idea to think about, and I enjoy indulging in such philosophical thinking.

E.E. Cummings's poem, "l(a"

"l(a," by E. E. Cummings, is a very interesting and artistic poem. The poem is mostly vertical with a "waving" horizontal "motion" to the letters which could symbolize a leaf falling; as the poem says, "a leaf falls." Around "a leaf falls," is the word "loneliness." This could mean that a falling leaf is lonely. A falling leaf could symbolize a dieing person; death is a lonely thing experience. It doesn't need to be you(yourself) dieing in order to experience this loneliness. Experiencing the death of a loved one can bring on powerful feelings of loneliness, even if you aren't truly alone. "l(a leaffall s)onel iness" could also refer to failure, or the ending of one's time in the spotlight. A fall from fame, usefulness, or the end of being wanted could be a very lonely experience; feelings of rejection can bring about feelings of loneliness. The old is brushed aside to make room for the new, like a tree shedding its leaves. From a technical point of view I really like the diction; very few words are used to express a vast concept: loneliness. Although the poem is only three words long, it maintains a simple and satisfying rhythm visually through the flowing pattern and spacing used to represent the fall of a leaf.

A Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

What a world,
where lotus flowers
are ploughed into a field.

I enjoyed this haiku by Kobayashi Issa because it is short, sweet, and to the point. This haiku could be interpreted a few different ways. It could be speaking about urban expansion that reduces the landscape to a landscape that would be featureless if not for the houses. Or, it could be talking about how civilization fears that which is different from the rest, and destroyes those that are unique in order to maintain conformity. I feel that the haiku is essentially asking "Is nothing sacred anymore?" People will destroy something as beautiful as a lotus flower in order to fulfill their needs. Nothing in nature is treated with respect anymore, and people will irresponsibly desecrate nature without considering the consequences for the present and for the future, and no one cares about the beauty something might have; all that matters is how something can be exploited. Shrines to sacred deities and spirits are neglected and ignored, and tradition is forgotten. Fields of flowers and grass make way for rows of wooden houses and muddy streets, and a beautiful pond is used as a cesspit. I think that Issa saw these things and was appalled. The language of this haiku is very simple. It almost sounds like prose. Although, there could have been poetic devices lost in translation.