Poetry Reviews and Analyses from the Reconstruction Era

[Ms. Cassady]

Death rules a lonely city in the far west, where the buildings are unknown and everything comes to rest by melancholy waters. Nighttime prevails here. Although in eternal darkness, light from the sea shines on the tower and death looks down from his tower. The graves lie open, but none of their riches tempt the still waters. Then, suddenly, a breeze causes some movement in the sea, which gains a red glow as if to resemble the coming of the underworld as the city begins to sink.
In the poem “The city by the sea” Edgar Allan Poe uses diction, symbolism, and imagery to create an effective and engaging piece. By beginning with the personification of death, “City in the Sea” quickly sets the tone of darkness and sorrow for the remainder of the poem. This exemplifies the gothic setting that Poe establishes in this piece. The city does not have a realistic location and instead takes place in a more romantic setting. The land promotes mystery for all. Poe’s Gothicism deals mainly with atmosphere and mood, and the loneliness of the city and its closeness with death help to set the increasing horror.
In “The city by the sea” the main meaning of the poem revolves around hard labor and death. Death rules the city, and from his tower he emphasizes the increasing death in the city. The city is located “far down within the dim west” which represents the direction of the setting sun and that symbolizes a large amount of death. The dead are “gaily-jeweled” which implies happiness and celebration, but they lie in open graves and they only have the energy of the waves. Eventually, the first sign of movement fails to save the city and it ands up sinking slowly. The city’s lack of willpower positions it as destined for doom and it begins to sink.

[PPSEL Writing]

Rights and Knowledge
By: Yushi

“But some of us would try to steal a little from the book”. “Learning to Read” by Frances E.W. Harper reveals how slaves wanted to read, but their owners kept the books away from them so they could not educate themselves, although the northerners supported the slaves to read.
To begin with, the poem had emotions. In the poem it said, “Well, the northern folks kept sending the Yankee teachers down; and they stood right up and helped us, Rebs still sneer and frown”. The poem also says, “Our owners always tried to hide book learning from our eyes. The slave owners didn’t want slaves to read; therefore, they attempted to educate themselves. The poem shows how difficult it is to do certain tasks without freedom, and everyone deserves to learn.
Furthermore, Frances Harper used outstanding language in her poem. Most of the time, the poem had rhymes. In each individual stanza every other line rhymes. The rhymes go abcb. A slave’s life story, and the struggles to educate yourself was revealed. In the 10th stanza, it said “But I was rising sixty, I had no time to wait. So I got a pair of glasses, and went straight to work. The author wanted the reader to understand what harsh things the slaves had to go through. “Knowledge didn’t agree with slavery,” “Twould make us all to wise”. Every line in the poem had excellent language usage to unravel a history.
In addition, “Learning to Read” had historical references. Back during the Reconstruction Era, slaves did not have rights, like the people in this poem. Events in the poem happened during the Reconstruction Era. Having a historical twist may give readers a good idea of what took place during the era. Overall, the poem had a remarkable layout and great language usage, which also left readers hanging, wanting to know more about the historical events in the poem.

[PPSEL Writing]

The past is the past and will never come back. The Past by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a pome that has many poetic devices such as, repetition, rhyme, and alliteration. These poetic devices all make his pome the best of the best.
Ralph Waldo Emerson has a line of repetition in his poem called the past. In line six it states “turn the key and bolt the door.” He uses the word the twice and that could be considered repetition because it is used twice in the same line. Ralph has very powerful words to make his poem just right.
Furthermore, he also uses rhyme in his poem. In lines one and three there is rhyme at the end, “paid and laid” rhyme. When the author uses rhyme it makes the reader want to read more, because it is important to put poetic devices to catch the reader’s attention.
Lastly, the reader uses alliteration in his pome. He says “nor haughty hope” and when I saw that I thought that that could be considered alliteration because the words have similar beginning sounds.
In conclusion the pome the Past by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a life carrying experience that will make you think harder about life.

[Ms. Cassady]

In the poem “Charge of The Light Brigade” Alfred Lord Tennyson shows how hard life is for a soldier in antebellum America. First and foremost, it is very dangerous to charge blindly into battle. Tennyson depicts this when he says, “into the jaws of death, into the mouth of Hell” next, lines 17-19 show our heroes being trapped by cannons. At the end stanza 5, many men have died. These selections show in themselves that war is extremely treacherous. To continue, a soldier is not permitted to question orders. Gives good insight on how a good soldier reacts to his order, “Their’s not to make a reply, Their’s not to reason why. Their’s to do and die.” The repetition of “their’s” shows ownership to the soldier. Also, being a soldier is both physically and mentally demanding. In stanza 3 we see the soldiers must fight for awhile with sprints in-between. Tennyson ends the poem with the “noble six hundred” returning home as heroes.

[Ms. Cassady]

Learning to read with a helping hand
“Learning to read” by: Francis Harper
Zachary S
Reach out your hand and let someone grab it for you are lending a reading hand. In the poem “Learning to read” by Francis Harper you will find a multitude of metaphors, imagery, and an amazing tone. With the imagery of this poem it adds a whole new meaning to it. For example: “and greased the pages of his book” adds a great sense of tactile touch. An amazing sense of auditory is: “who heard the children spell.” The imagery pulls you into the poem and makes you feel like you are one of the many voices calling out for a hand to pull them out of the deep dark void that is the segregation era.it makes you reach out and lend a much needed helping hand to pull the African Americans out of the void. In addition, the metaphors add a whole new perspective to the poem. For example: “but as I was rising sixty, I had no time to wait.” This adds a great sense of feeling that you need to do what you want before you lose it all. And a sense of independence would be: “and I felt as independent as a queen upon her throne.” The metaphors will put a much needed smile on your face and encourage you to keep reading further into the poem. To include, the tone of this poem makes you feel happy that thee whites are giving the colored a source of education and quote-on-quote “freedom with chains.” Line 1-4, first stanza, the tone makes, you too, that you hate the rules. Lines 41-44, last stanza, the author make you happy that the colored now have freedom. Even though there is now freedom from slavery, there is still lots of strings to be taken away for people to be truly free. All in all, the poem “Learning to read” by Francis Harper is a great life lesson because it teaches you that your life, education, and freedom will always come at a price. In conclusion, this poem has an amazing tone, engaging imagery, and metaphors that give it the final touch.

[Ms. Cassady]

Amaranthine Love
In the poem “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, the poet engages his audience to continuously read this poem and wish there was more. Some of the lines are very alluring, yet seem so simple. An example of this could be, “Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air.” This line is very descriptive and overall, just engaging. Brooke does a good job of explaining the theme of the poem throughout it and does not state the theme exactly. In fact, Brooke discloses the theme, in a very subtle way, throughout the poem. “The Soldier” can engage a profusion of audience members no matter whom or where they are. Rupert Brooke uses poetic devices in a very exquisite style on all accounts in this poem. A list of these devices may include: symbolism, personification, tone/mood/voice, and many more. Brooke also has an engaging theme. All of these devices are used to enhance this significant poem. Inescapably, Brooke uses very many poetic devices to grapnel the reader in the poem “The Soldier”

To begin, Rupert Brooke uses symbolism in his poem to explain and engage the audience. One of his lines states, “A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,” This line is explaining that England is making a person who was not aware, more aware that death comes at a price, but love is always free. Even though England is not alive, it is still a really powerful line. Brooke uses this to emphasize this amazing poem. The poem “The Soldier” has a deluge of significant symbolisms in “The Soldier” to help contract the pursuer to continue reading the poem. Also, in “The Soldier” Brooke uses symbolism to change the tone in the poem very subtly. Brooke clearly symbolizes that when the soldier dies, he will always be with his lovers. This is going more in depth with the line “A pulse in the eternal mind, no less” and Brooke really emphasizes this.

Proximately, Rupert Brooke also uses personification in “The Soldier” to catch the audience among his poem. Brooke gives England human qualities to explain how “The Soldier in the poem is with England and how England is depressed at his death. Even though England is a country withholding three million people (estimate from early 1900s), this country was given human qualities. Brooke did a very good job at using very little personification lines and still showing how important it is in the poem. In fact, this poem has 1-2 lines with personification and those lines are some of the short ones. Even with the amount of personification used, Brooke made this device visible in those lines in “The Soldier”.

Equally important, the overall theme and tone/voice of “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke is a good theme for a great poem. For starters, one of the many thought out themes of “The Soldier” is that even when death comes, love will always be by your side. Even with how hard the times are, love can always find time for its favorite person in the whole entire world, YOU. Love is endless, it will never go away even if you think no one loves you, no matter what you’re always being loved. Brooke does explain the theme a little bit more throughout the poem; some of the lines from “The Soldier” explain this theme as well. One of those lines might be “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England.” This line is very descriptive in what the theme might be and gives a clear example of it.
Altogether, “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke is an overall outstanding poem that uses many poetic devices including but not limited to: symbolism, personification, theme, and tone/voice. In conclusion, the poem “The Soldier” is a very engaging poem using multiple techniques to grasp readers of any kind no matter the person.