Poetry Notes for May 2023 Examination

0475 Literature in English

Away Melancholy by Stevie Smith

"Away, Melancholy" is English poet Stevie Smith's song of sorrow and hope. The poem's speaker,
hoping to banish their "melancholy," reflects that while the world might sometimes seem unbelievably
terrible, it's also miraculous. And that, the speaker argues, is because humanity manages to have faith
in love and goodness in spite of life's pains. Smith first published this poem in her famous 1957
collection Not Waving But Drowning.

The speaker tries to cast their deep sadness away, telling themselves to let it go (all through
the poem, they'll repeat this refrain).

Looking for consolation, the speaker reflects that the world keeps going on: trees and the
earth are green, the wind blows, fire jumps up and rivers run. The speaker repeats their
refrain, telling their sadness to go away.

The ant busily looks for food, and just like all the other animals, it lives its life either eating or
being eaten. The speaker again tells their sadness to go away.

Humanity, the speaker goes on, also bustles around like an ant, eating, reproducing, and
dying; humans are animals too. The speaker again tells themselves to let their sadness go.

Of all animals, the speaker says, humanity is the best. (In an aside, the speaker tells their
sadness to go away.) Humans are the only animals that set up a sacred stone, pour all their
own goodness into it, and call it God.

Therefore, the speaker says, don't even talk about cruelty, disease, and war; don't bother
asking whether the image people call God can possibly be good and loving.

Instead, reflect that it's astonishing that people go on believing in the ideal of goodness that
they call God. The speaker tells themselves to let their sadness go.

Humanity, the speaker says, tries to be good, and sighs longingly for love.

Battered, beaten down, dying in a pool of blood, humanity still looks to the heavens and cries
out, "Love!" This is astonishing, the speaker says: humanity's goodness is what's
incomprehensible, not humanity's failings.

One last time, the speaker cries: go away, melancholy. Let it go.

Despair and Hope

"Away, Melancholy" depicts the struggle to find hope and beauty in an often terrible world.
Trying to banish their "melancholy" (or heavy, persistent sorrow), the poem's speaker takes
comfort in the thought that, even in the worst circumstances, humanity somehow manages
to believe in the ideals of goodness and love. Rather than asking why the world is so awful,
the speaker concludes, people should marvel at the fact that humanity’s faith in "virtue" and
"love" persists in spite of it all.

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The poem's speaker suffers from a dreadful melancholy, a sorrow that seems to permeate
the whole world. Doing their best to cast this sadness away, they try to cheer up by looking
out at nature: "Are not the trees green / The earth as green? Does not the wind blow […]?" In
other words: Doesn't nature keep on going no matter what, and isn't that beautiful?

But in this speaker's painful state, these traditional consolations aren't enough. Sure, nature's
eternal cycles might be beautiful, but they also remind the speaker that "All things hurry / To
be eaten or eat." In other words, life is just a meaningless struggle for survival, in which people
and "ant[s]" alike bustle around "eat[ing]" and "coupl[ing]" (or having sex) until it's time for
them to be "bur[ied]." This speaker is clearly so deep in their sadness that even the idea that
the world goes on in spite of their sadness can't do them much good.

This grim predicament, however, lets hope in the back door. It's easy to feel that life is nasty,
brutish, and short, the speaker reflects, but somehow, people still manage to find meaning,
and that in itself is miraculous. Even in a world full of "tyranny," "pox" (or disease), and "wars,"
people believe in goodness—so much so that they learn to call their ideal of goodness "God"
and worship it. It's "enough," the speaker says, to know that people go on believing in the
love and goodness they call God even when they're "beaten, corrupted, dying." This capacity
for belief in the face of horror is so beautiful and astonishing that the mere thought of it
should itself give people hope.

Alas, melancholy can't be banished so easily. The poem's constant refrain of "Away,
melancholy" suggests that the speaker needs to push their sadness back over and over;
marveling at humanity's persistent belief in the good isn't a cure-all. But then, that's exactly
the poem’s point. Reaching out for hope and love even in the depths of "melancholy," trying
to "let it go," the speaker practices what they preach, making just the leap of faith the poem
describes. Hope, this poem suggests, doesn't mean pretending the world’s sorrows don't exist
or don't matter, but confronting them—and believing in goodness anyway.

Humanity vs. Nature

Humanity, this poem suggests, is both part of nature and separate from it, and that paradox is what
makes people special, wonderful, and awe-inspiring.

This poem's "melancholy" (or deeply sorrowful) speaker reflects that human beings and animals are
basically the same: they live out their little lives waiting either "to be eaten or eat." There's no
difference in the way that a human being and an animal "eats, couples, buries" (eats, reproduces, and
dies, that is). People are subject to just the same urges and cycles as the rest of nature—and their lives,
in this way, aren’t any more meaningful than an ant's.

However, there's a clear difference between animals and human beings, too: the ability to reflect on
this predicament and get "melancholy" about it in the first place! In fact, the speaker's melancholy sits
right next to what they feel makes humanity "superlative" (or superior, best of all): the ability to
imagine and aspire to something better, richer, and more meaningful than eat-or-be-eaten brutality.
Humanity, the speaker observes with wonder, is the only animal that could come up with the concept
of "goodness," let alone believe in it. Being human, in this poem, thus means being at once an animal
and something more than an animal. Self-awareness and the capacity to reflect are what make people
"melancholy" (who ever saw a melancholy ant?) and what makes them "superlative," miraculous
creatures.

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 Poetry Notes for May 2023 Examination
0475 Literature in English

Ozymandias P.B. Shelley

Lines 1-2

In "Ozymandias," the reader is receiving the information of the poem second-hand. The speaker
describes what someone else told him. The speaker is merely a go-between relating information from
the "traveller from an antique land" to the reader. Shelley does this to increase the distance between
the mighty figure that once was Ozymandias and the present. Not only does the poem describe the
rubble that once was his kingdom, but the speaker is not even looking directly at the rubble. The
emotional result is greatly reduced, as when a student reads about an historical event or a piece of art
rather than visiting it himself.

The poem begins with the speaker saying that he met a "traveller from an antique land," which brings
to mind a country like Greece or Egypt. This traveler told the speaker that, in the middle of a desert,
there are pieces of an ancient statue. First, the traveler describes two huge disembodied legs.

Lines 3-5

The legs are said to be standing in the sand of the desert. Near the legs, partially buried in the sand is
the statue's broken face. These two body parts—the legs and the face—are at opposite ends of the
body, so the resulting image is one that is very chaotic, inhuman, and unintimidating. On the broken
face, the traveler could see the expression. It was one with a frown, wrinkled lip, and a "sneer of cold
command."

Lines 6-8

The sculptor was very precise in his craftsmanship, creating a very complex and realistic facial
expression. The overall effect of these features is harsh. The traveler himself comments that the
sculptor clearly understood the driving passion and ambition of his subject. In fact, the traveler
suggests that the passions "yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things." Mindful of the lifelessness
of the broken pieces of statue, the traveler can still sense the passion that the sculptor strove to
preserve in the face. The traveler also notes the "hand that mocked them [the ruler's people], and the
heart that fed." This refers to the power of the king's hand to gesture and give commands, all of which
reinforced his position of authority over his people. His hand mocked his people; he kept them well
below him so that they could not threaten him. Yet at the same time, the ruler was human. He had a
heart that made sure his people were fed. Ozymandias used his power to an extent to care for the
needs of his people, whether in an attempt to be a good steward of his subjects or to ensure that his
rule would continue by maintaining the favor of his people.

Lines 9-11

The last thing the traveler describes about the statue is the pedestal on which it once stood. The
pedestal contains the words that Ozymandias wanted to communicate to his own generation and
those that would come after him; the words reflect his pride and arrogance. It reads, "My name is
Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Lines 12-14

These words are intensely ironic and provide the springboard into most of the thematic material of
the poem. After all, as the traveler describes, all around the pedestal is nothingness. A "colossal wreck"
of an old statue surrounded by endless sand is all that remains. The landscape is vast and barren.

THEMES

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Power

"Ozymandias" is a political poem about the illusion of fame and power. In the poem, Ozymandias was
so proud of his own power and so bent on asserting it that he commissioned a great sculpture of
himself glorifying his own authority. He must have believed that his political (and, given the time in
which the sculpture would have been made) military power was an integral part of his own identity
and purpose; after all, the way he chose to be depicted in the sculpture has all the hallmarks of strong
rulership. The face is stern and resolute, appearing to be unswayed by anyone with less power than
he. The hand keeps his people humble, yet Ozymandias is also the one who ensures that his people
are fed. His power is such that his people seemingly would not be able to provide for their own needs
without him. In all, the figure of Ozymandias is a commanding and powerful one.

The depiction of power is only part of Shelley's intent in the poem, however, and not even the most
important part. More important to Shelley is showing how this great and mighty authority figure is
ultimately reduced to rubble. The power he once possessed is long gone by the telling of the poem,
and Ozymandias's great monument to his fame as a ruler is eroded by time and the elements.
Ozymandias is no longer an intimidating figure at all, and he commands no respect from the "traveller
from an antique land," the speaker, or the reader.

On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book

Style

• The poem is a structured Shakespearean sonnet, with 14 lines. Although the poem is not visibly split
into stanzas, there is an idea change in line 8, as is to be expected in sonnets.

• Rhythmically ordered into 3 quatrains and a couplet.

• Although the poem’s language may be considered archaic today, the meaning still relevant.

• While the title conveys a reflective, albeit lightweight and informal topic, there is little of this style
used in the body of the poem.

Analysis

• The poem opens with an almost remorseful tone, conveyed by language such as ‘never meant to do
thee hurt’.

• The second line continues this mood, by referring to the hurtful act- ‘crush’d thee here between
these pages pent’.

• Pent is the past tense form of pen- this refers to the fact the pages are not blank, but instead filled
with a history, but it can also stand for imprisoned.

• This opening is considerably strong- it introduces engaging points that seek to interest the reader by
introducing a unique and quirky predicament.

• In the third line the poet then discusses the ‘own fair monument’ - this represents the memory of
the fly.

• The line ‘Thy wings gleam out and tell me what thou wert;’ shows how the fly left behind a message.

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• Positive language is used, such as ‘fair’ and ‘gleam’ to show that while the poet feels remorse, he still
has respect for the character of that which he destroyed.

• With the fifth line, the focus changes from the concrete (eg. wings) to the abstract – memories.

• The poet expresses how it is a shame that the memory’s of the fly have in part been lost. All the
remains is ‘half as lovely’- conveying to us that the remaining memories are only a tiny reminder of
the fly’s life.

• These two lines are also the only that use exclamation marks. They are used to stress the relationship
between what goes with that which dies, and what is left behind, to live on. In this case memories are
what remains, albeit in abstract form.

• The praise for the fly is continued, with the line ‘pure relics of a blameless life’ that suggests it is
almost an angelic being. This is reinforced by the use of the word ‘shine’ ’that conveys purity.

• Line eight marks the idea change typical in sonnets. In this case it is a shift to a more morose and
pessimistic tone, shown by words such as ‘doom’, and ‘peril’.

• ‘Now thou art gone:’ suggests that the passing of the fly brought about the doom, perhaps the poet
seeks to form an allegory about the flies fate and humanity. Now that a less significant being is now
gone that our fate is near.

• The proximity of our doom is suggested when it is described as ‘ever near’ and that our peril is ‘beside
us day by day.

In line ten, the poet continues the comparison between humanity and the fly, in starting to describe
the circumstances of our doom.

• There is a new metaphor used by the poet- a book closing- the exact circumstance under which the
fly died.

• Also the timing of our doom, described as when we soar away, is also identical to that of the fly.

• In those two and a half lines, through the use of ‘soar’ and ‘summer-airs’ to convey a positive feeling,
that the time of our doom will come when humanity is in its prime.

• In the final couplet the poet presents a difference. When humanity needs its doom, we will leave no
‘lustre’- a reference back to the gleaming monument of the fly.

• There is also a continued reference to a book, with the ‘closing book’ and the our ‘page of death’,
helping to further strengthen the link between the fly’s fate and the that of humanity.

Rhyme, Rhythm and Structure

• The poem has a rhyme scheme of ABBA CDDC EFEF GG. This differs slightly from the usual
Shakespearean scheme.

• Iambic pentameter is adhered to on every line of the poem, is scheme of five 2 syllable feet, each
with the first syllable unstressed and the second stressed.

• The structure closely follows those of the Shakespearean poems, only differing in that the
predicament is introduced within the eighth line, not after it.

• Overall, these slight departures from standard form give the poem a stream of consciousness,

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as if the poet didn’t care that he didn’t use the proper form.

Request to a Year
The speaker of Judith Wright's "Request to a Year" recounts the story of her art-loving great-great-
grandmother, who looked on as her son got swept downriver toward a waterfall. Realizing that she
was too far away to help save the boy's life, the great-great-grandmother quickly sketched the scene
to create a record of what happened. The poem suggests that the artist's role in challenging times is
to bear witness to and record what's going on around them. It also speaks to the strength of
generations of women in the speaker's family, illustrating how women, in particular, are often the ones
to keep familial memories alive. The poem was published in the Australian poet's 1955 collection The
Two Fires.

The speaker says that if the year itself is trying to think of a worthy present to give her, she'd like her
great-great-grandmother's way of seeing the world. Her great-great-grandmother famously loved art.

But, seeing as she had eight kids, it was difficult for her to find time to paint. One day, she was perched
on top of a towering rock next to a river in Switzerland.

She looked down from that great height and saw her second-eldest son clinging to a small sheet of
free-floating ice. He was being swept by the current toward a waterfall, which fell 80 feet to the rocks
below.

Meanwhile, her second-eldest daughter, despite being hindered by voluminous underskirts that made
it difficult to move, held out a walking stick toward the boy in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save
him (and it thankfully did catch him before he went over the waterfall).

But it was clear to the speaker's great-great-grandmother that there was nothing she could do to help.
So, with the artist's ability to focus on one thing amidst everything that's going on, she quickly drew a
picture of the events unfolding in front of her. The drawing remains to this day as proof of what
happened.

Addressing the year ahead directly, the speaker says that if it hasn't already chosen a Mother's Day gift
for her, it should go back in time and retrieve her great-great-grandmother's steadiness and strength.

The Role of the Artist in Difficult Times

In "Request to a Year," the speaker recounts the story behind one of her great-great-grandmother's
drawings. She was sitting on top of a rock overlooking a river, when, far below, her son was swept away
by the current toward a waterfall. Knowing she couldn't reach him in time to help, she did the only
thing she could do: quickly sketch the scene in order to document what happened. The speaker knows
this story only because her ancestor had the "firmness of hand" to commit it to paper, and the poem
thus makes a case for the value of art in difficult times. Though it may sometimes seem as if artists do
nothing useful, the art they create serves an essential purpose: it "survives to prove the story by,"
helping people to remember and understand events even if they can't always alter them.

The speaker emphasizes that, in a terrible moment, her ancestor created art rather than becoming
distraught or making a futile attempt at heroism. When the speaker's great-great-grandmother saw
one of her sons floating downstream toward a waterfall, she realized that she could do "nothing" to
help him because she was too far away. The boy was, "luckily," saved by his sister, but the poem
narrates his survival in parentheses; it isn't really the focus of the story. The focus is on the great-great-

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grandmother's decision to "sketch[] the scene" as it unfolded, using her "artist's isolating eye" to
quickly get down the details despite not knowing how the story would end.

There's an old saying that artists must "turn their back on the world" in order to create. Here, the artist
is basically turning her back on her own motherly instincts in order to do the only thing she can do in
her position: bear witness to what's happening. And the fact the speaker knows this story at all is a
testament to her ancestor's successful portrayal of the "scene." The survival of this powerful drawing
suggests that memorializing life's events, no matter how tragic, is central to the artist's mission. Artists
may not be able to alter events, but they can depict them, preserve them, and prevent them from
being forgotten.

Some people might be disturbed by the great-great-grandmother's choice to draw what she was
seeing, wondering how a mother could remain so calm when her child is in peril. But the speaker
admires her ancestor's resolve and essentially asks the universe to grant her "the firmness of her
hand"—that is, to grant her the steadiness and control her great-great-grandmother exhibited under
the most trying of circumstances.

The speaker asks for this quality as a "Mother’s day present," suggesting that she doesn't yet believe
herself capable of doing what her great-great-grandmother did. Recording things as they happen while
they happen requires strength, the poem implies; not everyone can—or would want to—do what the
artist does.

Motherhood and Female Strength

"Request to a Year" illustrates how restrictive gender norms can hinder women's bodies, minds, and
creativity. It also praises the strength of women who manage to create and preserve their legacies
despite these obstacles.

The poem begins by acknowledging that motherhood and art can come into conflict. The speaker says
that, because her great-great-grandmother "had eight children," she had "little opportunity for
painting pictures." In other words, the expectations of motherhood meant she didn't have much time
or energy to pursue her art. That the speaker is longing for her ancestor's "firmness" of hand as a
Mother's Day gift might imply that she, too, is struggling to balance the demands of motherhood with
making art.

Yet the speaker finds courage in reflecting on the strength and perseverance of the women of her
family. Understanding that she couldn't help her son, her great-great-grandmother had the strength
of mind to sketch his brush with death. In order to preserve her son's story, the great-great-
grandmother thus had to defy gendered expectations about what a mother should do in such a
situation.

The speaker celebrates her great-great-grandmother for having the strength to create art under such
difficult circumstances. The speaker also implicitly praises the quick-thinking of her ancestor's
daughter, who, despite being "impeded" by the restrictive women's garments "of the day" managed
to save her brother's life. This daughter, too, had to overcome gender-based restrictions (represented
by those petticoats) in order to save her family. The poem thus honors multiple generations of women
for their strength: the great-great-grandmother, her daughter, and the speaker herself, who upholds
her ancestors' legacy by writing this poem.

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0475 Literature in English

A Consumer’s Report
The speaker says that the product they tried out (as a consumer being surveyed) is life itself. The
speaker asserts that they've filled out the survey form they'd been provided with, and the speaker is
aware that their responses won't be shared with anyone else.

The speaker says that they received life for free. It left them somewhat numb; actually, they wish it
had been more thrilling. The speaker's body felt soft to the touch, but it generated awkward waste
material (i.e., excrement). Life didn't run efficiently, either; the speaker has used up more of it than
they realized (they guess their life is roughly half over, though it's hard to know for sure). It comes with
prominent rules, but the rules are so numerous and conflicting that the speaker can't tell which ones
to obey. The speaker also wonders whether life is safe for kids. It's hard to imagine what life is really
for. A friend claims that the "maker" created life only in order to be worshipped as God. Besides, life
costs way too much. Really, there's so much stuff going on, and Earth survived without life for eons, so
is it necessary at this point? (In an aside, the speaker asks to no longer be addressed as "the
respondent," because that term annoys them.) Life (or the body) comes with all sorts of confusing
vocabulary, the speaker continues; things like the sizes and shades of bodies ought to be standardized;
the body is burdensome; it can survive in water but not extreme heat. Life is perishable but extremely
hard to end on purpose. Whenever life is treated as cheap, it seems to become less fulfilling, and if
you try to reject life, you get more of it regardless. It's true, the speaker says, that lots of people enjoy
life; it's a part of our common vocabulary, with some people even claiming they're on its side. But to
the speaker, life is overrated, something trivial that makes people act foolish. The speaker doesn't
believe we should treat it as anything special. It doesn't matter whether life's analysts are labeled
"philosophers," "market researchers," or "historians"; those who actually use life (its average
"consumers") have the final say over it. Ultimately, the speaker concludes, they'd purchase life. But
they'd like to hold off on saying whether it's the best use of their money till they've gotten a chance to
try the alternative (i.e., death) that the company promised.

The Disappointments and Rewards of Life

A parody of a skeptical product review, "A Consumer's Report" evaluates "Life" itself. The consumer
who "tested" this "product" is largely unimpressed with life, despite their eventual admission that "I'd
buy it." Most of the poem consists of complaints about life as an experience, from the report that "I'd
have liked to be more excited [by it]" to the observation that "it doesn't keep / yet it's very difficult to
get rid of." (In other words, we all die eventually, but it's hard to die willingly.) Throughout, the poem
conveys existential angst, dread, disappointment, etc. in the language of a dissatisfied consumer,
implying that life isn't all it's advertised to be. At the same time, the poem implies that even a
disappointing life is better than the “alternative” (that is, death).

Through its jaded "Report," the poem depicts life as inherently flawed, confusing, and disappointing:
an experience one might tolerate as a "gift" but wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend. The speaker,
or "consumer," gives "Life" an unfavorable review almost from start to finish. For example, they claim
that they "didn't feel much while using it," that "the price is much too high," and that "the shape is
awkward." All these "consumer" complaints translate to deeper philosophical objections about life:
that it can leave you depressed and numb, that suffering and death are too steep a "price" to pay for
its benefits, and that it's unwieldy and burdensome in general.

The speaker also questions the "purpose" of this "product," worries that it might be unsuitable for
"children," and opines that it's ultimately "small" and overrated. Again, these complaints translate to
common philosophical objections about life's apparent meaninglessness, injustice, triviality, and so on.
Meanwhile, the speaker has little praise for life beyond the remark that it "seemed gentle" at first and

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that it's "popular" with others. Their own experience with life has clearly left them frustrated and
disenchanted.

The speaker does, however, seem to appreciate the power to judge their life, and to engage with it in
full (as if testing out a product) rather than staying detached from it. In making their "Report," the
"consumer" takes on the role of the critic, pointing out life's flaws in the apparent hope that these can
be corrected. (Or, at least, the hope that complaining will provide some form of catharsis.) The speaker
proudly declares, "We are the consumers and the last / law makers," elevating their own power above
the "expert[ise]" of "philosophers," "historians," and "market researchers" (like the one surveying
them). The implication is that life belongs to those who truly use it—"test[ing]" its strengths and
weaknesses and forming opinions about it in practice—rather than those who evaluate it in the
abstract or study how others live their lives.

In the end, the "consumer" reluctantly accepts life on its own terms but withholds their highest rating
until they've had a chance to test alternatives. Even when people come to grips with life's
disappointments, the poem suggests, they hold out hope for something better. Somewhat surprisingly,
the speaker decides that "[they'd] buy" the product in spite of all their reservations. In other words,
they accept life regardless of its flaws.

Still, they won't decide whether to award life a "best buy" rating "until [they] get / the competitive
product you said you'd send." Whether this other "product" represents some sort of afterlife or plain
old death, it's clear the consumer still hopes for greater satisfaction than ordinary life provides. The
poem implies that even reasonably satisfied "consumers" of life always wish life were different and
better than it is. Yet it's ultimately a bit silly to nitpick life when it’s all we've got.

Consumerism and Cynicism

By framing life as a "product" to be reviewed, "A Consumer's Report" satirizes the pervasive
consumerism of modern times. Today's capitalist society, the poem implies, commodifies everything,
to the point where existence itself is just another consumer item to be approved or rejected at whim.
Ordinary members of this society tend to become cynical, greedy, and disenchanted, the poem
suggests. As "consumer" culture endlessly stokes people's appetite for more and better, it distracts
them from appreciating the life they already have.

The poem's premise takes consumer culture to an absurd extreme, reviewing "Life" as if it were
something customers could take or leave. In principle, life isn't like a product at all: it's not supposed
to be for sale, it has no known "maker" (though the poem winks at the existence of God), and it
encompasses everything we know (there's no clear alternative).

But the satire playfully treats life as if it were a product. It notes that human life can be "cheap[]"—as
in disregarded by others and correspondingly diminished ("whenever they make it cheaper they seem
/ to put less in"). It suggests that life's purpose might be "to keep its maker in a job" (i.e., God might
have created humans solely in order to be worshipped). Finally, it toys with the idea of death (a
"competitive product") as an alternative to, and improvement on, life. All these ideas reflect a deep
philosophical pessimism, if not total cynicism.

Through its speaker's attitudes, the poem illustrates how consumer culture leaves people bored, jaded,
and dissatisfied, craving greater stimulation even where none is possible. The consumer's complaint
that they "didn't feel much while using" life suggests that consumer society, with its relentless
overstimulation, can desensitize people to any kind of pleasure or pain. The consumer is so jaded, in
fact, that they view life as completely "overdone"—something people should "take for granted."

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Again, it's implied that this attitude arises naturally from consumer culture: in a world where you can
buy anything and rate everything, even existence eventually feels overrated. The consumer won't even
award a "best buy" rating to life—which, in theory, contains all the best things—due to the fantasy that
there's still something better out there. They want to test the "competitive product," because who
knows what might lie on the other side of the grave?

Through these satirical distortions, the poem shows how consumerism breeds perpetual
disenchantment—making everything, even life itself, seem optional and for sale. In theory, consumer
culture might lead people to aspire to more, but at worst, it leads them to disdain every conceivable
satisfaction life has to offer.

The Telephone Call

A group identifying themselves as "Universal Lotteries" calls the speaker's phone and asks if they're
sitting down (i.e., ready to hear major news). The callers claim the speaker has won the "Special" grand
prize in their "Global" lottery. The callers ask how the speaker might spend the prize, which is a million
British pounds. They clarify that it's over a million pounds, noting with amusement that the distinction
doesn't matter much when the amount of money is so huge.

The callers ask if the speaker is feeling all right and if they're still on the phone. They urge the speaker
to share their emotions. The speaker stammers that they're in disbelief. The callers say that everyone
reacts that way and urges them to continue. The speaker says they're as lightheaded as if the crown
of their head has flown off through the window, spinning like a spaceship.

The callers note that this is a strange feeling and ask the speaker to continue. The speaker says that
they're getting choked up, that they have dry mouth, and that their nose itches as if they're about to
sneeze or burst into tears. The callers assure the speaker that they shouldn't be embarrassed to let
their feelings show; after all, it's rare to hear that you're about to become a millionaire.

The callers urge the speaker to let their tears flow for a minute. But the speaker tells them to wait,
objects that it's been years since they entered a lottery, and skeptically asks the callers to repeat the
name of their organization. Amused, the callers say it doesn't matter that the speaker hasn't entered
a lottery lately. Their organization's name is "Universal," and they use a retroactive system ("Module").

Most people have entered a lottery at some point, and they're all eligible for Universal's prize,
because Universal purchases all past lottery entries and uses a computer program to draw a winner
from them. The speaker expresses wonderment but says they won't fully believe their luck until they've
received their prize check.

The callers say they won't be sending any prize check. When the speaker asks about the monetary
award, the callers say their lottery doesn't actually hand out money: it hands out "Experiences." The
callers claim the phone call itself has been an incredible, thrilling, memorable experience; that's what
the speaker has won. The callers congratulate the speaker, add a pleasant goodbye, and hang up.

Hope and Disappointment

In "The Telephone Call," a group of mysterious callers claims that the speaker has won the lottery and
become a millionaire. The speaker is skeptical, since they haven't entered a lottery recently, but they
display some joy and hope even as they question the callers. Eventually, the callers admit it's all a hoax;
instead of "money," they explain, they provide "Experiences," and they've given the speaker a
memorable one. By this time, the speaker has fallen for the fantasy just enough to make the reality a

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bitter anticlimax. The poem illustrates, then, how easy it is to give into unrealistic hopes—and how
doing so can make inevitable disappointment all the more crushing.

Even though the speaker suspects their amazing luck is too good to be true, they get partly swept up
in hope—and correspondingly disappointed. On hearing that they've won "the top prize" in the lottery,
the speaker's first response is, "I just… I can’t believe it!" The stammering exclamation suggests they're
already feeling happy, even if skepticism prevents them from being overjoyed. When the callers urge
the speaker to "giv[e] way to your emotions," the speaker gets choked up and feels as if they might
"cry." Throughout the call, the speaker remains a little doubtful—"I'll believe it when I see the
cheque"—so when there turns out to be no cheque, they're at least partly prepared. Yet joy has started
to overtake their rational doubts. The fact that they indulge in some irrational hope shows that even
skeptics are liable to do so.

The poem casts this cycle of guarded hope and predictable disappointment as universal: part of the
"experience" all humans share. When the speaker's initial reaction is "I can't believe it!" the callers
reply, "That's what they all say." This might suggest that it's common to distrust amazing news, since
most people know firsthand that such news is often false. But "I can't believe it!" is also a joyous
exclamation that betrays some desire to believe—and this, too, is part of human nature.

Similarly, the hoaxers claim that the speaker must have entered a lottery sometime: "Nearly everyone’s
bought a ticket / In some lottery or another, / Once at least." Metaphorically, this claim implies that
we all indulge wild hopes at some point, and can feel stung by their failure to come true even when
we're no longer young and optimistic. The company's name, "Universal Lotteries," hints at this same
idea. The callers even say, "We're Universal," as if implying that everyone goes through the roller
coaster of hope at some point.

Joyous hope followed by a letdown may not be "Exciting," as the callers claim, but the poem suggests
that it is a kind of universal "prize." It's something we're all dealt as players in the game of life—even
if the circumstances are usually more boring than a prank call from a fake lottery.

Illusions vs. Experience

After revealing that the speaker hasn't won any money in the lottery, the callers in "The Telephone
Call" claim that the real "prize" was "a great experience." This phrase evokes an age-old literary theme:
the journey from ignorance, innocence, or illusion to experience, as in hard-won wisdom. In this case,
however, experience is such an obviously anticlimatic "prize" (compared to the riches originally
promised) that the poem ends up mocking its value. Experience, the poem implies, isn't inherently
"great"; some illusions are even preferable to harsh lessons and painful memories.

Although the speaker never quite falls for the illusory lottery news, even their cautious hope clearly
improves their mood. When asked to describe their emotions, the speaker feels as if their head has
flown off "like a flying saucer," and the callers reply, "That’s unusual." The news makes the speaker feel
something remarkable, even if it's not full-blown euphoria. The callers then encourage the speaker to
emote more, explaining: "It isn’t every day you hear / You’re going to get a million pounds." The
speaker won't be getting that money, but just "hear[ing]" they will—just the brief illusion—has the
power to produce an emotional high. In fact, while the speaker's better judgement continues to nag
at them, they start to feel some giddiness ("that's incredible [...] It's marvelous") mixed in with their
doubts.

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By contrast, the "experience" the speaker wins as a "prize" is sourly anticlimactic—and reminiscent of
more familiar forms of disappointment. After revealing their hoax, the callers ask: "You’ve had a great
experience, right? / Exciting? Something you’ll remember? / That’s your prize."

The irony is clear: whatever innocent "Excit[ement]" the speaker may have felt has now been ruined
by reality. And no one actually enjoys "remember[ing]" a major letdown! The "prize" of "experience"
is not only far worse than a million pounds, it's worse than the speaker's unassuming pre-phone-call
state. Rather than share their feelings about their supposed prize, the speaker says nothing to the
callers, then flatly reports, "the line went dead." Metaphorically, this detail may suggest that their
emotions have gone dead: whatever happiness they were feeling has evaporated. Experience hasn't
left them happier or wiser, just numb and silent (the poem ends here).

Cruel as the letdown is, it's also, in a sense, perfectly ordinary. The disappointed speaker is no worse
off financially than they were before the phone call and no worse off than millions of lottery losers.
For most people, not winning the lottery—literally or metaphorically—is an "every day" event, even if
they don't get the news via telephone! In that sense, the speaker's harsh "experience" is just a
heightened or allegorical version of normal human experience.

In short, the poem's closing ironies show that "experience" has no inherent positive value. Though the
callers chirp, "Have a nice day!" it's clear that the speaker's day would have been better without this
"experience." If anything, the "Call" calls attention to the relative poverty of a life the speaker had been
basically content with. (They mention that they "[hadn't] bought a lottery ticket / for years and years.")
Even when experiences are memorable, they can be disappointing and deadening.

He Never Expected Much

He Never Expected Much was written during Thomas Hardy’s last years, having the alternative title of
A Consideration on my Eighty-Sixth Birthday, that date being 2 June 1926. It was published in The Daily
Telegraph on 19 March 1928, two months after his death, and was collected in the posthumous volume
Winter Words, which Hardy had planned to release in June of that year.

As might be expected from the title of the poem and its timing, it is retrospective in tone and takes on
board the fact that all lives contain a mixture of pleasure and pain, success and failure.

It takes the form of a dialogue between himself and the World, with the general conclusion being that
the latter has been reasonably fair in its dealings with him, given the sentiment expressed by the
poem’s title.

The poem comprises three stanzas, each of eight lines with the rhyme pattern AAABCCCB. The metrical
structure is interesting for its combination of iambic tetrameters in lines 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 of each stanza
and looser rhythms in lines 2, 4 and 8 which contain 4 or 6 syllables. The repetition of the final three
syllables of the first line of each stanza to form the bulk of the second line (four syllables in the first
stanza) gives the poem a chant- or hymn-like quality.

Stanza 1: This stanza explains the title, by making it clear that his life has turned out much as expected,
given that his expectations were not excessive. If, he is saying, you don’t expect everything to go your
way, you will not be overly disappointed when this turns out to be the case. One implication of lines 5
and 6 is that it is easy enough to lie in the sun and daydream about one’s future, but a mistake to
expect the dreams to come true. The World, as he was always aware, owes nobody a lifetime of
constant success.

Stanza 2:

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The World now gets its chance to reply, although there is no hint here of any conflict of views between
it and the poet. The repetition of “you said … have said … have said” in the first two lines, followed by
mention of the World’s “mysterious voice” emphasise the fact that there is always another side to the
demands that an individual can make and the expectation that he/she might have of life.

The second half of the stanza focuses on the attitudes of mankind in general, from which — based on
the first stanza — the reader can deduce that the poet will fit into neither category of person that is
destined to be deeply disappointed with their lot in life. Neither “smooth serenity” nor “contempt”
will prove to be the best way forward.

Stanza 3:

The World continues by stating that its promises are always limited and will be balanced against the
ability of mankind to deal with them. Its “haps” (happenings/events) will always be “neutral-tinted” —
maybe a reminder here of Hardy’s early interest in Impressionist art with its avoidance of strident
primary colours in its palette.

The poet acknowledges that he took heed of what the World told him, and that his ability to ride with
the punches has seen him through to a contented old age.

Funeral Blues
Lines 1-4

The title “Funeral Blues” sets the somber tone that Auden reinforces in the first stanza, where the
speaker prepares for a funeral. The speaker uses an imperative voice throughout the poem. John G.
Blair in The Poetic Art of W. H. Auden noted that “Auden frequently chooses the imperative to attract
attention.” This technique, according to Blair, brings the poem “closer to the dramatic immediacy of
dialogue, for the speaking voice is usually directed not to the reader but to an audience or another
character whose presence is implied by the framing of the poem.” The technique also helps the
speaker try to gain a sense of control that was lost when their loved one died. Using this imperative
voice, the speaker tries to encourage others to alter the landscape to more closely reflect the speaker’s
emotional state.

In the first two stanzas, the speaker demands that certain rituals be performed during the funeral
ceremony. In the first stanza, the speaker, expressing an overtly sensitive response to everyday sounds,
calls for a silence that is both respectful and representative of his internal state of mind. Clocks,
telephones, dogs, and pianos must not make a sound in honor of the one who has died. Clocks must
stop, since time, in essence, has stopped for the speaker after the loss of love. Telephones must be cut
off since no further communication is desired. Dogs, who often bark during play, must be quieted since
the speaker does not feel playful. Not even the music from a piano can be appreciated. The only sound
the speaker wants to hear is the somber beat of a “muffled” drum as the funeral procession begins.
Only after these careful preparations have been completed can the coffin be brought out and the
mourners allowed to arrive.

Lines 5-8

In these lines, the speaker insists that the surroundings reflect the somber occasion and the speaker’s
mood. The only sound called for besides the muffled drum is the “moaning” of airplanes overhead
that write “He Is Dead” in the sky for onlookers. These two sounds more closely reflect and perpetuate
the speaker’s mood. The processional path must be appropriately decorated with “crepe bows round
the white necks of the public doves” and black gloves must be worn by policemen.

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Lines 9-12

The focus shifts in these lines from the funeral procession to a description of the speaker’s relationship
with the deceased. All the images in this stanza illustrate the prodigious effect the loved one had on
the speaker. The first three lines describe the completeness of their relationship in images of distance
and time. The ninth line, “He was my North, my South, my East and West,” suggests that he gave the
speaker direction and a sense of constancy. The next line and a half, “my working week and my Sunday
rest, / My noon, my midnight” describes him as an integral part of every moment of the speaker’s daily
life. He influenced the speaker’s communication (“my talk”) and mood (“my song”). These lines suggest
that he was, in fact, the speaker’s life. The final line of this stanza expresses the genuine sorrow the
speaker experiences over his/her loss and points to a growing sense of disillusionment. The speaker
had previously believed “that love would last for ever” but now admits, “I was wrong.” Auden
reinforces this sense of disillusionment with a caesura (a break in rhythm) in the middle of this line,
separating the speaker’s previous romantic illusions from the harsh reality of the present.

Lines 13-16

The sense of disillusionment continues in the poem’s final stanza and becomes coupled with feelings
of bitterness. The ceremony so carefully constructed by the speaker in the first two stanzas does not
seem to be enough to express or reflect his/her intense grief. As a result, the speaker expresses a desire
to alter the universe. Auden employs a caesura in the middle of the thirteenth line to show the effects
of the speaker’s sorrow and his/her desire to recreate the universe in order to objectify that sorrow.
The beauty of nature cannot be appreciated anymore. Since the stars “are not wanted now,” the
landscape must change. The speaker’s “star” has been effectively “put out,” and so the moon, the sun,
the ocean, and the woods must be packed up, dismantled, poured away and swept up since they can
no longer offer comfort. As in stanza two, the speaker here calls for all to recognize and echo his
suffering. The world has changed after the death of his love, and as a result “nothing now can ever
come to any good.” There is no romantic sense in the finality of that statement of the transcendence
of love or the possibility of regaining that love after death.

Themes

Death

Death is the subject and main theme of “Funeral Blues.” Through the poem Auden makes a compelling
statement about the devastating effects that the death of a loved one has on those left behind. The
speaker has just lost someone for whom he/she had a deep love. During the course of the poem, the
speaker will plan a funeral procession, reveal details about their relationship, and consider the future.

Love

The speaker describes the love he/she felt for the deceased in the third stanza. The lines “He was my
North, my South, my East and West, / My working week and my Sunday rest, / My noon, my midnight,
my talk, my song;” express the impact the loved one had on the speaker’s life. The naming of
directional points suggests that the deceased provided direction and meaning for the speaker. The
time elements that encompass an entire week and a twelve-hour day point to a sense of constancy in
their relationship. Even as the speaker expressed him/herself through “talk” and “song,” the
deceased’s influence was felt. Auden’s modern view in this poem contradicts the romantic notion of
love lasting through eternity. The loss of love is final here, as expressed in the twelfth line: “I thought
that love would last forever: I was wrong.”

Order and Disorder

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When we lose a loved one who provided a sense of meaning and order, chaos can result. The speaker
feels a sense of disorder as a result of losing a relationship that was such an integral part of his/her
life. Their love provided the speaker with a sense of time and space and so helped delineate the
boundaries of his/her life. The loss of that order prompts the speaker to try to regain some semblance
of it through the planning of the funeral procession. First everyday objects are attended to as a somber
mood is set. The speaker’s use of the imperative voice helps regain a sense of control. The death has
caused a sensitivity to noise, and so the speaker instructs the listener to silence telephones, dogs, and
pianos. Telephones are silenced since communication is no longer possible in this chaotic state and
playful, barking dogs become an annoyance. Even art, in the form of music from a piano, cannot be
appreciated. Clocks must be stopped because time stands still now for the speaker who cannot see
any sense of meaning in the future.

From Long Distance

Style

• The poem comprises of 16 lines ordered into 4 quatrains

• Has an ABAB CDCD EFEF ABBA rhyme scheme

• Follows the outline of an elegy-we’ll focus on this particularly, later on.

The ‘Long Distance’ of the title suggests the poem’s theme; that of the sense of separation the poet
feels on the death of his parents and the way in which he copes with their death.

• The poem begins in a reminiscent tone portrayed by language such as “Though my mother was
already two years dead”

• The second line continues this mood and introduces the character of the poet’s Dad.

• The remainder of the first stanza provides several aspects of his father’s inability to take in his wife’s
death – he still warms her slippers by the fire, he puts hot water bottles in the bed for her, he renews
her transport pass.

• In the second stanza Harrison personally addresses the reader. The effect of the use of ‘You, I, he,
she’ is to create an intensely personal tone to the poem and emotionally connect the reader.

• Harrison also does this to present his own recollections of how his father would act out a charade-
‘He’d put you off an hour to give him time to clear away her things and look alone’.

Despite this seeming absurd at one level, the poet has the greatest sympathy for his father’s suffering,
‘as though his still raw love were such a crime’.

• It is important that the father pretends to his son that he has come to terms with his wife’s passing
and reveals a great deal about their relationship. Certainly there was a “long distance” between them
emotionally, in some respects, making personal grief something to hide away beneath the surface( “He
couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief”)

• This also means that the father’s charade was as much for himself as it was for Harrison. He couldn’t
risk letting Harrison comprehend just how much he was suffering as this would lead him to having to
face his feelings- something which he may not have had the courage to do.

• The rest of the third stanza deals with Harrison’s commentary on his father’s desperation and
frustration (“though sure that very soon he’d hear her key scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief”)

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The “knew” is in italics to emphasise this idea as it slows down the reader and allows the eye to
distinguish between that particular word and the rest of the poem.

• The last stanza, in which the poet describes his own attempts at moving on has a disrupted rhyme
scheme of ABBA. Incidentally, ABBA is the Jewish word for father, showing that the father’s death has
been preying on the poet's mind, even though he claims to believe "that life ends with death, and that
is all".

• This poem is a Elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a
lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized
dead and those grieving , and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some
extent in “From Long Distance”.

• First Stage: Harrison follows the general outline of an elegy in the first stanza as it represents the first
stage of loss. It portrays the father’s grief and sorrow by giving examples of meaningless tasks he
performs in order to keep her memory alive. By doing this he creates a mask behind which he can hide
so that he does not have to face his true feelings.

Second Stage: Harrison mirrors the second stage of loss (i.e. praise and admiration) in the second and
third stanzas. Harrison conveys his admiration of the “raw love” which his parents shared and is almost
ashamed at the same time as his relationship with his father which was very “long distance”.

• The third and final stage of loss which intern is the final stage of an elegy should be consolation and
solace, some sort of comfort for the reader. However, Harrison instead uses irony in the sense that he
explains how he himself is unable to comprehend his father’s death (and his mother’s) (e.g. “the
disconnected number I still call”) something which he criticized his father for earlier on in the poem.

• He does this to emphasise to the reader the consequences of the broken relationship with his father,
something which he cannot mend as his father has passed on, and instead he is left with guilt.

• Harrison in a sense wastes precious words describing his “new black leather phone book” in the last
stanza which in my opinion echoes the time he wasted in his lifetime instead of developing his
relationship with his father ,and is a message for the reader to not do the same.

The Spirit is Too Blunt an Instrument

Interpretation

‘The spirit is too blunt an instrument’ talks quietly and lovingly of the amazement felt by a parent
looking at her child. She wonders how could any clumsy human passion have led to the creation of
such intricate perfection. To almost everybody except the parents involved, a birth is an everyday event
of little interest, but the thoughts aroused by the birth in the poem are extremely interesting. The last
three lines, in some sense, almost out of place, make a powerful and striking suggestion about our
minds and emotions. And it is strange that the final word of the poem, after its marvelling at the beauty
and perfection of creation, should simply be “pain”.

1-2: This is saying that the sprit that humans possess, does not have the ability to create something
as intricate and beautiful as a new born baby.

3-5: This explain/shows human passions are unskillful and almost unreliable. It says that the passions
of humans could not have made a being with such exact and particular specifications.

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5-9: These lines describe the complicated nature of the baby’s body. She describes the baby in great
detail, using interesting and almost out of place adjectives such as manipulating, and resilient. The
interesting language she uses paints a complex picture of the baby, and reinforces the idea that human
passion could not have created a being with such intricate detail.

10-14: These lines focus on describing the parts of the body, that you can see on its exterior. The
language gives a sense that the narrator is in awe of the complexity of the baby. She observes the
“distinct eyelashes” and compares the complexity of the ear, to that of a shell.

14-18: In contrast to the previous phrase, these lines focus on describing the internal structure of the
baby. Instead of observing, the narrator tells you to imagine, giving the idea that the parts of the baby,
such as the capillaries are to “infinitesimal” and intricate to been seen with the human eye. The
“flawless connections” and “completed body that already answers to the brain” tells how the baby is
already completed and functioning perfectly, before the human spirit has manipulated it. Thus giving
the idea that the human spirit is not needed to create a perfectly formed baby

19-20: This simply means name any passion or sentiment in the simplest terms.

21-24: These lines explain that no human affection could have created the baby as accurately as it has
been by habit of nature. It says that nature can create such beauty and perfection, with no effort at all
because it has “practiced” and works through habit, rather than the lack of precision the spirit
possesses.

25-27: These last few lines say that after the baby has been born, perfect in some ways, and ignorant
of feelings and emotions, it is up to the unpredictability of the human mind to create feelings such as
love, despair, anxiety and pain.

Language

• The poem is made up of three stanzas, each holding a different idea.

• The poem does not contain any rhyme scheme, it is more a freely written poem, that puts more
emphasis on the adjectives and description of ideas to create effect.

• Ann Stevenson often used precise and perhaps unfamiliar scientific terms, combined with what may
appear to be unemotional and even quite cold language, but nonetheless create a sense of real wonder
and joy by still holding a feeling of excitement and amazement in the Language.

• The last three lines of the poem seem almost out of place, as the rest of the poem is marveling at
the beauty of the baby, and the last three lines create a dark image of the human mind, and end simply
with the word “pain”.

Rain by Edward Thomas

Speaker’s words:

There's nothing here but stormy midnight rain, falling on my drab hut; and loneliness; and me realizing
once more that I will someday die. When I die, I won't be able to hear the rain or thank it for rinsing
me cleaner than I've felt since I was born into this lonely life. Dead people under the rain are
fortunate—but I'm praying that no one I used to love is dying right now, or lying sleepless and alone
as they listen to the rainfall. I hope they're not in pain as they listen, or feeling the same kind of helpless
sympathy I do amid the living and the dead—feeling like cold water flowing among stiff, broken,
motionless stalks. Or feeling, like me, that the stormy rain has washed away all love besides the love

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of death—if love is the right word for what you feel toward something perfect and (as the storm
reminds me) unavoidable.

The Inevitability and Relief of Death

The speaker of "Rain," listening to rainfall while lying inside a "bleak hut," thinks about their own
eventual death with matter-of-fact acceptance. The relentless rain reminds the speaker that they "shall
die" but also that, once they are dead, the rain will "wash" away everything that felt impure or
disappointing about their solitary life. The speaker considers the dead "Blessed" (implicitly, it seems,
for having escaped the hardships of life) and claims to "love" only death. As the speaker reconciles
themselves to death's inevitability, the poem suggests that the end of life can feel like a relief from
pain and solitude.

As the rain falls, the speaker immediately begins "Remembering again that I shall die." That "shall"
emphasizes the fact that death is something unavoidable. Indeed, the speaker says later that death
"Cannot [...] disappoint"—that it will come no matter what.

This association between rain and death seems prompted both by the gloominess of rain and by the
way rain confines the speaker to "solitude" (in that the speaker is stuck sheltering inside a "hut"), just
as death will someday. The relentless rain might also suggest the relentlessness of death, and of the
speaker's thoughts of death.

Yet the speaker doesn't portray death as something negative. Instead, they present it as a relief from
the sorrows of life—even a kind of perfection. With no apparent irony, the speaker says that "the dead
that the rain rains upon" are "Blessed," and they expect to be "wash[ed] clean" by the rain once they're
in the grave themselves. Basically, the speaker views death as purifying, a way of escaping life's
loneliness and misery. Despite their feelings of "sympathy" toward other people, they claim to "have
no love [...] except the love of death." They say the rain has "dissolved" their other loves, suggesting
that the rain has isolated and depressed them to the point where they desire only death.

The poem does end with a qualification, suggesting that because death, unlike human love, is "perfect"
and "Cannot [...] disappoint," love might not be the right word for their feeling toward it. Still, this
statement implies that their feeling is more like acceptance or peace. (It also hints that the speaker
may have been too disappointed by human love to retain any attachment to it.)

Overall, the speaker seems to welcome their eventual death as a relief from the "solitude" that they
were "born into" and that they feel acutely on this rainy day.

Solitude, Sympathy, and Alienation

Written during Edward Thomas's World War I service, "Rain" expresses a mix of sympathy for and
alienation from the world's suffering people. Lying in a "bleak hut" during a persistent "midnight rain,"
the speaker feels profoundly cut off from others. In this lonely state, the speaker thinks of everyone
else the rain is falling on—both "the living and the dead." The speaker prays that none of their own
(former) loved ones is dying, in pain, or feeling the same "Helpless" kind of "sympathy" they do. Yet
they insist that they no longer love anyone; they only love "death." Through these statements, the
poem shows how great "solitude" can produce a mix of empathy and alienation. A lonely person can
keenly feel their distance from the rest of humanity, and even feel for the rest of humanity, while losing
all belief in their ability to help or connect with others.

The speaker voices "sympathy" for other suffering people, but carefully distinguishes this sympathy
from "love." The speaker "pray[s]" for the well-being of others, hoping that "none whom once I loved

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/ Is dying tonight or lying still awake / Solitary." The speaker also hopes that none of these others are
"in pain or thus in sympathy / Helpless among the living and the dead." Indirectly, this indicates that
the speaker feels sympathy, but also feels "Helpless" to act on that sympathy. They feel sorry for others
but can't help them—and can only hope that others aren't going through the same frustration.

In fact, the speaker claims not to love anyone anymore and suggests that their current solitude is a
preparation for the total solitude of death. The phrase "none whom once I loved" suggests that love is
in the past: inwardly, at least, the speaker has cut ties with everyone they cared about. The speaker
insists that they feel "cold" among the "broken" people and things of earth and that they "have no
love [...] except the love of death." Meanwhile, part of the appeal of "the love of death" seems to be
that death, unlike other human beings, "Cannot [...] disappoint" the speaker.

Overall, then, this lonely speaker's feelings toward other people are conflicted, even paradoxical. Their
loneliness makes them think of and even "pray" for others, yet reject any closer connection as they
look ahead toward death. The poem illustrates the way deep "solitude" can generate such inner
conflict, leaving its sufferers alienated, perhaps hurt, yet still capable of "sympathy."

Night Sweat
Creative Anxiety and Self-Doubt

Robert Lowell’s “Night Sweat” demonstrates the toll of creative anxiety and self-doubt. The poem’s
speaker keeps waking up drenched in sweat, a condition implied to be the result of deep anxiety tied
to his writer’s block. On one level, the poem simply illustrates the terrifying, overwhelming anxiety
that bubbles up at night, when people’s unconscious minds take over. But more specifically, it speaks
to the pain and anxiety of feeling creatively stuck—to the terror that creeps in when one can’t seem
to do what they feel it’s their life’s purpose to do.

The poem immediately establishes the invasive, horrifying nature of the speaker’s night sweats. It
begins in the relatively normal setting of a “tidied room,” which is quickly invaded by the “creeping
damp”—seemingly the product of some continual, looming fear.

The speaker soon feels “embalm[ed]” by his own sweat-drenched clothes, which wrap him tightly like
a mummy’s casings. This claustrophobic image illustrates the frightening, overwhelming feeling of
these sweats, which the poem goes on to imply are caused by the speaker’s anxiety over his writer’s
block. He’s unable to quench his burning desire to create—his “life’s fever”— because he’s grappling
with “stalled equipment” (i.e., his writerly brain isn’t working how he thinks he should). As such, this
“fever” creates the sweat that surrounds and overwhelms the speaker, turning him into a “heap of wet
clothes.”

While the speaker never says what exactly is causing this writer’s block, he feels that simply existing
“wrings us dry.” Merely getting through the day seems to leech the speaker’s body of its artistic
energies and ideas. The speaker is so dismayed by this, the poem implies, because his whole identity
hinges upon his ability to create. He has just “one life” and “one writing,” in “one body” in “one
universe”—phrasing that suggests writer’s block poses a real existential threat to the speaker. He feels
compelled to create “one writing” that will define his “one life,” before time runs out—before he
succumbs to the “downward glide” of life.

And at the end of the poem, the speaker worries that he may not be able to escape the “these troubled
waters here.” This might suggest that self-doubt is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: that it leads to a
spiral of anxiety that threatens to pull the speaker under. Figuratively speaking, the “night sweat” is
just a tiny part of a larger, significantly more ominous body of water. The speaker fears that someday,

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instead of being able to dry off his “night sweat” and shake off his creative anxiety, he could remain
submerged beneath his self-doubt.

Ultimately, then, this poem deals with the common fear that intense creative anxiety can submerge or
even destroy an artist’s potential.

The Power and Pain of Relationships

“Night Sweat” speaks not only to the nature of creative anxiety, but also the push and pull of
relationships and how one partner’s comfort can sometimes become the other’s burden. While the
poem’s speaker initially seems isolated from the rest of the world, his wife is able to help temper both
his creative and existential anxiety. This relationship represents a vital way out of the speaker’s misery,
but this aid does not come without costs to his wife. The speaker seems to acknowledge the way in
which his own comfort takes a toll upon his partner and, potentially, upon their relationship.

When the speaker feels trapped beneath the overwhelming weight of his writer’s block, his wife has
the unique ability to “[alter] everything,” to lift some of his anxiety with her own “lightness.” When
the speaker’s wife relieves the speaker’s “night sweat,” she “tears the black web from the spider’s
sack.” Given that spider webs are traditionally linked with darkness and fear, her destruction of the
“spider’s sack” represents her destruction of the speaker’s spiral of self-doubt and dread.

Although the speaker’s wife supports the speaker, her assistance requires great sacrifice on her part:
she cannot help her partner without taking on his burdens. Referencing Aesop’s famous fable of the
tortoise and the hare as well as a popular religious myth in which the earth rests upon a giant tortoise’s
shell, the speaker compares his wife to both a leaping hare and a plodding tortoise.

While her heart may be light in a way that the speaker’s own heart is not, she emotionally supports
him and therefore—like the mythological tortoise carrying the world on its back—bears the burden of
his suffering. Thus, while their relationship is powerful enough to offer the speaker a unique comfort,
her sacrifice makes it painful at the same time.

The Man with Night Sweats

Illness, Vulnerability, and Mortality

"The Man with Night Sweats" portrays a man coping with a severe illness, implied to be HIV/AIDS. (This
is the title poem of a collection that reckons with the AIDS crisis, and night sweats are a common
symptom of AIDS.) As the speaker laments his current vulnerability, he mourns the lost strength and
daring of his youth, when his body seemed to be a self-healing "shield" against the "risk[s]" he took.
"Hugging" his body protectively, he anticipates the metaphorical "avalanche" of death—something he
knows he can't "hold off." The poem thus laments human mortality in general, as well as an irony
familiar to many AIDS patients: risky experiences that feel empowering and thrilling in youth can cause
great vulnerability and suffering as we age.

The speaker wakes to "cold," "Sweat," and a "clinging" sheet, having suffered night sweats. It's implied
(especially in the broader context of Gunn's 1992 collection) that these sweats are a symptom of AIDS,
which at the time was generally a terminal condition.

As the speaker now feels ill and vulnerable, he looks back wistfully to a time when he felt healthy and
resilient. Nostalgically, he recalls that "My flesh was [once] its own shield: / Where it was gashed, it
healed." In other words, even when his body went through intense or dangerous experiences, it
seemed able to heal itself and protect him from lasting consequences.

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These lines seemingly allude to the sexual penetration and drug injections through which HIV is often
transmitted, and the implication is that the speaker contracted his illness through sex or drug use that
he didn't expect to cause him lasting harm.

Rather than expressing regrets, however, the speaker acknowledges that "risk[s]"—including risks that
may have led to his illness—were part of what made youth wonderful. He says that he "adored / The
risk that made robust"—meaning that his risky behavior was thrilling and even empowering. In fact,
he found "A world of wonders in / Each challenge to the skin." His risk-taking seemed to open up a
whole liberating "world" before it made him ill.

Though the speaker doesn't regret specific experiences, he does grieve that youth and health had to
end this way. The poem laments the suffering that youthful thrills can lead to, and the fact that death
comes for our bodies no matter how much we "trust" and enjoy them. He can't help feeling "sorry"
that the "shield" of his body "cracked" (failed to protect him), "reduc[ing]" him to mental anxiety and
physical deterioration.

Again, this phrasing expresses sorrow more than regret: a life he clearly enjoyed has fallen apart too
soon, but he doesn't express a desire to undo any of his past. Instead, he "hugs" his own body "As if
to shield it from / The pains that will go through me." Since his body couldn't shield him, he's trying to
shield it—but he knows that he can't actually protect it from internal deterioration and suffering. He
acknowledges that his own "hands" won't be "enough / To hold an avalanche off."

At the time, AIDS was fatal in most cases, so this is a metaphorical acknowledgment of his own
approaching death. But it also implies that the "avalanche" of death eventually comes for everyone,
despite all human efforts. In the end, then, the poem broadens beyond the speaker's situation,
mourning all victims of the AIDS epidemic and lamenting mortality as something that no human body
can protect against.

The Planners
The Cost of Modernity

“The Planners” presents a bleak view of modernization. The “Planners” of the poem’s title ceaselessly
build up an unnamed country (likely inspired by Boey’s native Singapore) with mathematical precision,
eliminating all marks of human imperfection in the process. Though these designs are technically
“perfect,” the speaker finds such rigid conformity disturbing; in the process of making everything
sleeker and more efficient, these planners have effectively erased the country’s past and, with it, the
inhabitants’ sense of who they are. The cost of all these gleaming skyscrapers and hanging bridges,
the poem implies, is the country’s very soul.

On the surface, it would seem that technological improvements are a good thing and that the country
is being enriched by all this planning. The speaker says that “all spaces are [...] filled with permutations
of possibilities,” implying that the people in charge of updating the “buildings” and “roads” have
considered every conceivable option and have chosen the one with the most potential. The speaker
also says that “buildings are in alignment with the roads,” and that the “roads [...] meet at desired
points.” In other words, everything is designed impeccably; not a single thing is out of place.

But there’s something about all this modernization that’s making the speaker uneasy; it’s all too
seamless and controlled, ruthlessly stripped of humanity. The speaker says that this new world comes
together “in the grace of mathematics.” In other words, the country’s progress is a result of coldly
precise calculations rather than organic growth. And while the “Planners” have “erase[d] the flaws”

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and “blemishes of the past,” without these the country feels artificial, like a sculpted “row” of
“perfect[ly]” glimmering “teeth.”

Rather than being unique and individual, that is, these changes have an unnatural and unsettling
uniformity—one that bears no marks of the human beings who have long lived there. Indeed, it’s not
just that the country looks different; these rapid, coldly mechanical changes are obliterating the
country’s history. The planners drill “right through / the fossils of the last century,” the speaker says,
carelessly destroying the past and with it the foundations of residents’ identity.

This process should be painful: the planners’ “dental dexterity” evokes not only the surgical precision
of a dentist removing an unsightly tooth, but also the sterility and discomfort linked with dentist visits.
Yet the speaker implies that the planners have “the means”—money, propaganda, and so forth—to
hypnotize residents into thinking that is all just inevitable progress. The country is like a smile in which
“[a]ll gaps are plugged / with gleaming gold,” implying that the promise of luxury and comfort work
like an anesthetic, numbing people to their pain. In erasing the past, the planners have also effectively
rewritten history, creating a collective “amnesia” so that people don’t even feel the loss of their old
ways of life.

And while the speaker remains skeptical about these “blueprints” for never-ending modernization,
they, too, are ultimately unable to fully grieve the loss of their country’s “past”—everything is changing
far too quickly. The speaker says their “heart would not bleed / poetry. Not a single drop.” This implies
that the cost of all this rapid, profit-driven “improvement” is the loss of human feeling. Eventually, such
“progress” will dull humanity’s ability to feel and make meaning out of its existence, causing its very
“heart” to wither.

Human Progress vs. Nature

In addition to illustrating the human cost of urbanization, “The Planners” also portrays the toll that
this process takes on the earth itself. In their endless, unchecked quest for perfection, profit, and
efficiency, the poem's "planners" are destroying the natural world.

The poem shows the way human beings are at odds with their environment, trying to control and
“perfect” it rather than letting it be. Instead of allowing natural spaces to just exist as they have
throughout most of history, humans “grid[]” them and “fill[]” them with “permutations of
possibilities.” People feel the need to exert control over every inch of land in order to make it into
something useful and/or profitable.

What’s more, the speaker emphasizes that there’s no end to this ceaseless planning: human beings
“build and will not stop." In the face of such relentless urbanization, nature itself seems to simply give
up: the ocean “draws back” and “the skies surrender.” Literally, this likely refers to the way that people
push back shorelines for new construction, erect skyscrapers, fly in airplanes, create pollution, etc. But
in personifying nature, the poem emphasizes that all this so-called progress is in direct confrontation
with the earth.

And as nature seems to disappear in every direction, “[t]he drilling goes right through / the fossils of
last century.” On the one hand, this refers to the way that modernization erases humanity’s past. But
this also might subtly allude to humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, which has directly contributed to
climate change. In any case, the poem links human progress with destruction on a personal and global
scale.

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The City Planners

Order, Control, and Madness

“The City Planners” critiques humanity’s obsession with controlling its environment. The poem's
speaker finds suburbia's monotonous perfection—its orderly houses, manicured lawns, and eerie
silence—stifling and strange. At the same time, the speaker suggests that these markers of human
"sanit[y]" are just an illusion; people may strive to make their world appear neat and rational, but the
world isn't always neat and rational—and this stiff veneer of order is thus liable to crack. The need for
such strict control, the poem ultimately implies, is itself a kind of "panic."

While driving through suburban streets, the speaker is “offend[ed]” by the rigid regularity they see.
Houses are in precise rows alongside “sanitary trees” that people have deliberately “planted,” and the
only sound is the “rational whine of a power mower” that keeps grass “straight” and tidy. In other
words, everything is scrupulously controlled; nothing is overgrown, surprising, or out of place.

While the people living in the suburbs may think the lack of “shouting” and the absence of “shatter[ing
...] glass” is a mark of stability, the speaker finds such silence and sterility alarming. To the speaker,
such order is an implicit "rebuke" of any signs of imperfection or difference—such as “the dent in our
car door,” a mark that makes the speaker stand out. Even the “grass” seems “discouraged” as it's cut
“straight” rather than being allowed to grow however it pleases, suggesting that society’s need for
“sanit[y]” stifles expression, joy, and personal development.

The speaker suggests that this rigidity and control is in fact a sign of "panic": people are so terrified of
disorder that they try to "trac[e]" meaning into the "madness" of nature. Yet this effort, the speaker
implies, will fail; chaos will inevitably break through humanity’s attempts to contain it.

To that end, the speaker describes “the smell of spilled oil” as “a faint / sickness lingering in the
garages,” suggesting that while everything looks perfect in this suburb, there’s something rotten
beneath the surface. There’s also a “landscape behind or under / the future cracks in the plaster” just
waiting to make itself known, and eventually all those tidy houses “will slide” into the "seas," gobbled
up by the natural world that humanity tried to tame. However much people try to “sidestep hysteria”
with their perfect “driveways” and yards, hysteria will find a way through.

The poem thus argues that human desire to impose order on the environment is itself a kind of
insanity—a doomed attempt to regulate an irrational world. The speaker imagines the “city planners”
thinking they can avoid chaos by dividing wild “territories” into suburbs. But the speaker describes
their faces as “insane”; their attempts to control everything, the poem argues, is sheer “madness.”

Humanity's Destruction of the Environment

In addition to critiquing the human need for rigid order and conformity, "The City Planners" can also
be read as a poem about humanity's increasing distance from and destruction of the environment. For
one thing, the poem implies that suburbia’s neat and tidy surface shields people from the true cost of
their cushy lives. And it also suggests that these housing developments aren’t just a distraction, but
are in fact part of the problem: the poem's city planners, driven by profit and pride, expect to continue
developing wild territories into ever-expanding suburbs, using up more of the earth’s natural resources
in the process. The poem suggests that such short-sighted greed will eventually result in an unstable
and inhospitable planet.

The speaker implies that perfectly "sane" residential streets shelter people from the realities around
them, pointing out that “the driveways neatly / sidestep hysteria,” for example, while their homes

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shield them from “the hot sky.” Indeed, the speaker says that sometimes “the smell of spilled oil” or
“a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise” will “give momentary access to / the landscape behind
or under / the future cracks in the plaster.” The perfect surface is thus just an illusion; beneath it, the
reality of environmental destruction (and specifically, perhaps, the use of fossil fuels) is still there,
waiting to be addressed.

These perfect “residential streets” are actively contributing to this destruction as well. When this set
of houses falls into disrepair, the poem suggests, the “City Planners” will just build more. They’ll even
continue to make the same mistakes, “concealed from each other, / each in his own private blizzard, /
guessing directions.” In other words, these “political conspirators” won’t communicate with each other
and make a plan that is best for the people and the environment, but will rather continue making
decisions alone (ostensibly out of pride and a desire for more personal profit).

The poem suggests such continued exploitation of the earth, its resources, and its inhabitants can only
end in ruin. The speaker envisions the future of these houses as they “slide / obliquely into the clay
seas, gradual as glaciers / that right now nobody notices.” Basically, as long as people continue to
ignore the reality of environmental destruction and waste the earth’s resources, the future looks pretty
bleak. The houses will “capsize[]” (or tip over, like a boat) into a sea of rubble.

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