Poetry & Analysis
Selected Poems
Inspirational PoemsSonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth
When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor’d youth,
Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue;
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress’d.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.
Overview Short Summary
Shakespeare’s sonnet is a classic poem about truth and lies in love. Both lovers know the truth, but both accept flattering lies because honesty would expose age, fear, and weakness.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Truth and lies: The poem shows truth being knowingly suppressed.
- Love and self-deception: Both lovers protect themselves through mutual illusion.
- Trust and performance: The phrase “seeming trust” suggests that love sometimes depends on chosen appearances.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is witty, ironic, and self-aware. The mood is bittersweet because the speaker understands the lie but remains inside it.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
False-speaking tongue, seeming trust, and age concealed by love form the poem’s central symbolic tension.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The Shakespearean sonnet form allows the final couplet to twist the meaning of “lie” into both deception and intimacy.
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth ‘s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Overview Short Summary
This sonnet presents true love as steady, honest, and unchanging. It fits poems about truth and trust because the poem values constancy over appearance and passing feeling.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- True minds: The opening phrase makes truth central to love.
- Constancy: True love does not alter when circumstances change.
- Trust: The star image gives love the role of guidance.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is confident, elevated, and declarative. The mood is steady and reassuring.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
The ever-fixed mark, tempests, star, wandering bark, and Time’s sickle symbolize endurance against change.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The final couplet stakes the speaker’s authority on the truth of the argument.
The Lie
Go, soul, the body’s guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant.
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What’s good, and doth no good.
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.
Tell potentates, they live
Acting by others’ action;
Not loved unless they give,
Not strong but by a faction.
If potentates reply,
Give potentates the lie.
Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate,
Their purpose is ambition,
Their practice only hate.
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost,
Seek nothing but commending.
And if they make reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell zeal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it is but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust.
And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.
Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honor how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favor how it falters.
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.
Tell wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in overwiseness.
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.
Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is pretension;
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention.
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.
Tell fortune of her blindness;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay.
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming.
If arts and schools reply,
Give arts and schools the lie.
Tell faith it’s fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood shakes off pity;
Tell virtue least preferreth.
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.
So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing—
Although to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing—
Stab at thee he that will,
No stab the soul can kill.
Overview Short Summary
Raleigh’s poem is a bold truth-to-power poem. The speaker sends the soul to expose falsehood in the court, church, law, friendship, beauty, wisdom, and public life.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Speaking truth: The soul is told that truth is its warrant.
- Truth and lies: Nearly every social institution is accused of falsehood.
- Moral courage: The ending says the soul cannot be killed by punishment.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is fearless, satirical, and severe. The mood is confrontational because the poem openly challenges power and hypocrisy.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Rotten wood, dust, blindness, decay, and stabbing create images of corruption and danger.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The repeated command “give the lie” gives the poem a forceful refrain and a public-speaking rhythm.
Speak the Truth
Speak the truth!
Speak it boldly, never fear;
Speak it so that all may hear;
In the end it shall appear
Truth is best in age and youth.
Speak the truth.
Speak the truth!
Truth is beautiful and brave,
Strong to bless and strong to save
Falsehood is a coward knave;
From it turn thy steps in youth—
Follow truth!
Overview Short Summary
This short anonymous poem directly targets the “speak the truth poem” keyword. It encourages readers to tell the truth boldly and to turn away from falsehood.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Speaking truth: The poem repeats its command to speak the truth.
- Courage: Truth is described as beautiful and brave.
- Truthfulness in youth: The poem especially urges young readers to follow truth.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is direct, simple, and encouraging. The mood is moral and confident.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Falsehood is personified as a coward, while truth is given beauty and bravery.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The repeated refrain makes the poem easy to remember and suitable for students.
”Truth”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
“Often have I been to it,
“Even to its highest tower,
“From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
“A shadow, a phantom;
“Long have I pursued it,
“But never have I touched
“The hem of its garment.”
Overview Short Summary
Crane’s poem presents two opposite images of truth: a solid fortress and an untouchable phantom. It fits deep poems about truth because it shows how truth can feel both powerful and elusive.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Seeking truth: The traveller has pursued truth for a long time.
- Certainty and uncertainty: Truth is both a rock and a phantom.
- Perspective: From the tower of truth, the world appears black.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is spare, philosophical, and unsettling. The mood is searching because no single definition feels complete.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
The rock, fortress, tower, breath, wind, shadow, phantom, and garment create a chain of shifting truth-images.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses two compact speeches to create a debate inside a single voice.
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