ESSAY CEMETERY

Prologue At first she is reluctant to tell of the beginning of the creation of the commonwealth because she feels unworthy. But then she is inspired by Bartas and begins. She apologizes for her irreparably inferior skill. She objects to the convention against women writing and addresses the scorn with which women writers are regarded. She concedes that men do everything better, but asks men not to completely disregard women's smaller talents. She says her poetry is worthy of recognition. To My Dear and Loving Husband She loves her husband and is joyful to be with him. She loves him more than all the riches and though she cannot repay him she prays heaven will reward him. She asks him to persevere in love so that through this love they may live forever. Verses Upon the Burning of Our House When she went to sleep she did not expect disaster, but she is awakened with cries of "fire!" She prays to god for help, leaves her house and looks upon her burning dwel

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer The speaker is taken aback and inspired by the beautiful descriptions in Chapman's work Homer . Sleep and Poetry An appreciation of sleep as a wonderful inspirer, and of poetry as high form of art to which the speaker aspires. Endymion Nature is so beautiful as to alleviate depression. Just as nature is grand, so is the prospect of death. Bright Star, Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art The speaker wants to be like a star not in the sense that it hangs alone in the sky, forced to watch over everything constantly, but in the sense that it is immortal. He wants to spend eternity with his love or else die. La Belle Dame Sans Merci A knight is lonely and sad. He tells the narrator he met a maiden, and made love to her. She lulled him asleep and met many other men she bewitched. He woke up and discovered her gone. Ode to a Nightingale The speaker is numb, and seeks further numbness in liquor, so that he may forget

Mutability Like clouds, or music of a lyre, people and their experiences and emotions change. The only thing that can be counted on is mutability. England in 1819 England is falling apart, because of the reigning monarchs who are doing a horrid job governing it. Song- To the Men of England The speaker calls the attention of the lower classes to their toil for the benefit of the aristocracy and for which they are not adequately compensated. He calls them to beware, for they are good as digging their own grave, and to revolt, for they have power. Ode to the West Wind The power of the wind is great as it looses and shakes things. The poet wants to become one with the wind, and has the power to command it. The Cloud The cloud sees all and dominates nature. It constantly changes, and though can appear to be gone, it never is. Prometheus Unbound Prometheus, the bringer of fire to men and changed by Jupiter to a rock for eternity to be pecked at by vultures, is released. Percy

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud The poet wanders in the field and encounters a bunch of daffodils, which make him happy. My Heart Leaps Up Rainbows make the speaker happy today, as they did when he was a child The World is Too Much With Us City life corrupts the soul, moves us out of tune with nature. For the narrator, even paganism is better than city life. William Wordsworth

We Are Seven A little girl insists she has seven siblings, even though two are dead. Expostulation and Reply William is asked why he sits and stares at nature uselessly. He replies that there is value not only in activity but in reflection and observation. The Tables Turned The speaker implores his audience to turn from books to nature, and become immersed in the emotions it evokes. Lines, Composed Above Tintern Abbey The narrator returns to a place in nature where he had been five years previously. He reflects upon the location, and how his growth as a person is reflected in his changing attitude towards nature. William Wordsworth

Songs of Innocence Introduction A child, delighted by the songs of a piper, urges him to put them in writing. The Little Black Boy A mother teaches her black son that after long travail on earth, god awaits, as well as heaven, where everyone is equal. The Chimney Sweeper Little boy Tom has a dream that an angel releases all the chimney sweepers  to heaven, and is comforted. Infant Joy A two day old baby is joyful and wishes joy upon others. Songs of Experience The Chimney Sweep A chimney sweep, who is unhappy, blames his church-going parents and the church for his misery. The Sick Rose A worm destroys a rose The Tyger The speaker wonders at the power of a tiger, and wonders that it was created by the same entity as the lamb. The Garden of Love The garden of Eden turns into a graveyard after a church is built in it. Illustration by William Blake