"Cheerfulness Taught by Reason" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

Cheerfulness Taught by Reason

I think we are too ready with complaint

In this fair world of God’s. Had we no hope

Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope

Of yon gray blank of sky, we might be faint

To muse upon eternity’s constraint

Round our aspirant souls. But since the scope

Must widen early, is it well to droop,

For a few days consumed in loss and taint?

O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted,—

And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road—

Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread

Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod

To meet the flints?—At least it may be said,

“Because the way is short, I thank thee, God!”

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem "Cheerfulness Taught by Reason"?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806 — June 29, 1861)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian era, famous in England and the U.S. during her lifetime. She was the eldest of 12 children and wrote poetry from 11. She was an avid reader and writer, and Shakespeare was her favorite. From 15, she suffered from frail health due to intense head and spinal pain and lung problems throughout her life. After her 1844 volume "Poems" had a great success, Robert Browning, an English poet and playwright, was inspired to write to her, praising her work. The two met in 1845, fell in love, and soon got married. Their special bond had an important influence on their respective subsequent writings. Her work also had a great influence on famous contemporary writers such as the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson.

"Cheerfulness Taught by Reason" explanation

The speaker in the poem advises us to be grateful for what we have instead of complaining about what we don’t. The universe doesn’t owe anything to us. We shouldn’t take anything for granted, for destiny can easily deprive us of whatever we may have, and things can always get worse.

"The Sun Has Long Been Set" by William Wordsworth

 

The Sun Has Long Been Set

The sun has long been set,

The stars are out by twos and threes,

The little birds are piping yet

Among the bushes and the trees;

There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes,

And a far-off wind that rushes,

And a sound of water that gushes,

And the cuckoo's sovereign cry

Fills all the hollow of the sky.

Who would go `parading'

In London, `and masquerading',

On such a night of June

With that beautiful soft half-moon,

And all these innocent blisses?

On such a night as this is!

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poem video👇 

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Who wrote the poem "The Sun Has Long Been Set"?

William Wordsworth  (April 7, 1770 – April 23, 1850)

William Wordsworth was an English poet who pioneered the Romantic Movement with his close friend and fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He famously defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Using the ordinary language “really used by men,” he wrote beautiful poetry with sweet imagery, often based around the natural world. He suffered from depression, which was reflected in somber undertones in his poems. He was the Poet Laureate for Queen Victoria from 1843 until his death from pleurisy in 1850.

"The Sun Has Long Been Set" explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes various sounds and scenic views in the clear night of June and cherishes serene beauty of nature.

"Always" by Pablo Neruda

 

Always

I am not jealous

of what came before me.

 

Come with a man

on your shoulders,

come with a hundred men in your hair,

come with a thousand men between your breasts and your feet,

come like a river

full of drowned men

which flows down to the wild sea,

to the eternal surf, to Time!

 

Bring them all

to where I am waiting for you;

we shall always be alone,

we shall always be you and I

alone on earth,

to start our life!

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem "Always"?

Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973)

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He wrote in various styles, including surrealist poems and passionate love poems. After Neruda experienced Spanish Civil War as a diplomat in Spain, he became a devoted Communist for the rest of his life. Neruda is often called one of the greatest poets of the 20^th century.

"Always" explanation

In the poem, the speaker expresses his genuine and unconditional love for his beloved, stating that he is not jealous of her experiences with her past lovers. 

"One Word Is Too Often Profaned" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

One Word Is Too Often Profaned

One word is too often profaned

For me to profane it;

One feeling too falsely disdained

For thee to disdain it;

One hope is too like despair

For prudence to smother;

And pity from thee more dear

Than that from another.

 

I can give not what men call love;

But wilt thou accept not

The worship the heart lifts above

And the heavens reject not,

The desire of the moth for the star,

Of the night for the morrow,

The devotion to something afar

From the sphere of our sorrow?

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poem video👇 

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Who wrote the poem "One Word Is Too Often Profaned"?

Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792 – July 8, 1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets. His literary reputation steadily grew after his death, and he greatly influenced subsequent poets such as Browing, Hardy, and Yeats. He had suffered from family crises, ill health, and a backlash against his atheism and radical political views. His second wife, Mary Shelley, was the author of "Frankenstein." He died at the age of 29 in a boating accident.

"One Word Is Too Often Profaned" explanation

 In the poem, the speaker describes his relationship with his beloved that is more than love, which is too often misused and vulgarized. He expresses his pure devotion of her, and even pity from her is better than love from another woman. This poem was written for Jane Williams. The poet and his wife Mary met Jane Williams and her lover Edward Ellerker Williams in Pisa in 1821. The two couples befriended each other, and the poet in particular developed a special “platonic” relationship with Jane Williams and wrote many poems for her. Shelley and Edward Williams drowned together in a sailing accident in 1822.

"Each Day A Life" by Robert William Service

 

Each Day A Life

I count each day a little life,

With birth and death complete;

I cloister it from care and strife

And keep it sane and sweet.

 

With eager eyes I greet the morn,

Exultant as a boy,

Knowing that I am newly born

To wonder and to joy.

 

And when the sunset splendours wane

And ripe for rest am I,

Knowing that I will live again,

Exultantly I die.

 

O that all Life were but a Day

Sunny and sweet and sane!

And that at Even I might say:

"I sleep to wake again."

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem "Each Day A Life"?

Robert W. Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958)

Robert William Service was a British-Canadian poet and writer. As a bank clerk, he had to travel widely in the Western U.S. and Canada. When his bank sent him to the Yukon, he wrote poems about the Klondike Gold Rush and achieved an immediate and great commercial success. His poems had often been criticized as literarily inferior by the critics, as in the case of Rudyard Kipling, and he was nicknamed “the Canadian Kipling.” This, however, didn’t bother Service, who classified his work as “verse, not poetry.”

"Each Day A Life" explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes his relationship with his beloved that is more than love, which is too often misused and vulgarized. He expresses his pure devotion of her, and even pity from her is better than love from another woman. This poem was written for Jane Williams. The poet and his wife Mary met Jane Williams and her lover Edward Ellerker Williams in Pisa in 1821. The two couples befriended each other, and the poet in particular developed a special “platonic” relationship with Jane Williams and wrote many poems for her. Shelley and Edward Williams drowned together in a sailing accident in 1822.

"I Look into My Glass" by Thomas Hardy

 

I look into my glass

I look into my glass,

And view my wasting skin,

And say, “Would God it came to pass

My heart had shrunk as thin!”

 

For then, I, undistrest

By hearts grown cold to me,

Could lonely wait my endless rest

With equanimity.

 

But Time, to make me grieve,

Part steals, lets part abide;

And shakes this fragile frame at eve

With throbbings of noontide.

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem "I look into my glass"?

Thomas Hardy (June 2, 1840 – January 11, 1928)

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet. His father was a stonemason and local builder, and he trained and worked as an architect for ten years before beginning his successful writing career as a novelist in 1871. Later he left fiction writing for poetry and considered himself mainly as a poet. He was a Victorian realist, influenced by Romanticism, and his poetry often deals with cynical observations upon desolation of human condition. He had a strong influence on later poets such as Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, and Philip Larkin.

"I look into my glass" explanation

In the poem, speaker looks into the mirror and realizes discordance between his physical symptoms of aging and his metal state of youth. Due to this discordance, his wait for “endless rest” (death) is lonely and painful.

"A Love Song for Lucinda" by Langston Hughes

 

A Love Song for Lucinda

Love

Is a ripe plum

Growing on a purple tree.

Taste it once

And the spell of its enchantment

Will never let you be.

Love

Is a bright star

Glowing in far Southern skies.

Look too hard

And its burning flame

Will always hurt your eyes.

Love

Is a high mountain

Stark in a windy sky.

If you

Would never lose your breath

Do not climb too high. 

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem "A Love Song for Lucinda"?

Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967)

 

Langston Hughes was an African-American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist who pioneered the literary art form called “jazz poetry.” He is also known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Self-admittedly influenced by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman, Hughes is known for insightful portrayals of black life and culture of his time.

"A Love Song for Lucinda" explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes love’s bitter-sweet and risky nature through the effective use of metaphors.