Thomas Hardy’s The Ruined Maid is a poem consisting of an imagined dialogue between two working class women, one of whom, ‘Melia, has transformed herself into an apparently wealthy, sophisticated lady. In the time since the two last met, it is heavily implied ‘Melia has become a “kept” woman, a...

Robertson’s “La Stanza Delle Mosche” conveys something of an entire world within a single space, and in a matter of thirteen lines. Nothing particularly dramatic is the subject. In fact, there is virtually no real event, feeling, or action of any overt meaning as the subject. It is instead a...

The poem I beg of you, Zhong Zi appears to be one of the most interesting songs found in the anthology The Classic of Odes. This poem refers to the early Zhou period and reflects on the most important values of that period. I beg of you, Zhong Zi is...

Theodore Roethke's poem, "My Papa's Waltz" is a poem that describes the speaker's complicated memories of his father, particularly in how he seems to think fondly of what very well may have been an abusive relationship. The exact extent of the abuse, if present, is intentionally unclear; the poem's overall...

Robert Frost is famous for his philosophical approach to poetry so that each poem contains numerous symbols and allusions behind which vital questions of life and essence are to be found. One of the most curious things about his poetry is that Frost manages to use one and the same...