Poetry & Analysis
Selected Poems
Inspirational PoemsWhen I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Overview Short Summary
Whitman contrasts formal learning with direct wonder. It fits poems about school life for teenagers because it shows that knowledge can be meaningful, but lived experience also matters.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Education and wonder: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Individual response to learning: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Silence and personal discovery: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is reflective and quietly rebellious. The mood is spacious and peaceful.
Craft Literary Devices
Anaphora, contrast, visual imagery, and movement from lecture-room to night sky shape the poem.
I Remember, I Remember
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day;
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!
I remember, I remember,
The roses, red and white,
The violets, and the lily-cups,
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday,—
The tree is living yet!
I remember, I remember,
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;
My spirit flew in feathers then,
That is so heavy now,
And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow!
I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now ’tis little joy
To know I’m farther off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.
Overview Short Summary
Hood looks back on childhood with both affection and sorrow. For poems about growing up as a teenager, it captures the moment when memory becomes complicated and innocence feels distant.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Memory and growing up: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Loss of innocence: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Childhood imagination: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is nostalgic and mournful. The mood is tender and melancholy.
Craft Literary Devices
Repetition, garden imagery, contrast between past and present, and symbolic height create emotional depth.
The Arrow and the Song
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
Overview Short Summary
Longfellow shows that words and actions may travel farther than we know. It fits teenage friendship poems because it suggests that kindness, expression, and friendship can return unexpectedly.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Friendship: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Lasting effect of words: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Connection over time: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is simple and warm. The mood is gentle and reassuring.
Craft Literary Devices
Parallel structure, arrow and song symbolism, and delayed discovery give the poem its meaning.
The Builders
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
For the structure that we raise
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.
Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.
Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.
Overview Short Summary
Longfellow imagines life as a building shaped by daily choices. For teenage life poems, it turns small habits, study, honesty, and effort into meaningful parts of a larger future.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Daily choices and character: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Building the future: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Integrity in unseen actions: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is instructive and steady. The mood is constructive and hopeful.
Craft Literary Devices
Extended architectural metaphor, repetition of building imagery, and moral diction organize the poem.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Overview Short Summary
Yeats speaks with vulnerability, offering dreams instead of riches. For poems about teenage feelings and identity, it captures the fragile courage of sharing hopes with someone else.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Dreams and vulnerability: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Love and trust: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
- Emotional tenderness: The poem develops this idea through its speaker, images, or central situation.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is delicate and sincere. The mood is intimate and dreamlike.
Craft Literary Devices
Color imagery, repetition, metaphor of dreams as cloths, and direct address shape the poem.
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