"Love and Friendship" by Emily Bronte

 

Love and Friendship

Love is like the wild rose-briar,

Friendship like the holly-tree

The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms

But which will bloom most constantly?

 

The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring,

Its summer blossoms scent the air;

Yet wait till winter comes again

And who will call the wild-briar fair?

 

Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now

And deck thee with the holly's sheen,

That when December blights thy brow

He may still leave thy garland green.

 

 

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poem video👇 

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Who wrote the poem "Love and Friendship"?

Emily Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848)

Emily Jane Brontë was an English poet and novelist. She published poems under the pseudonym Ellis Bell with her sisters Emily and Charlotte, and by herself. She also wrote her only novel, Wuthering Heights, which is widely considered a classic of English literature. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 30.

"Love and Friendship" explanation

In the poem, the speaker likens romantic love and friendship to different plants and compares them. She argues that, in their peaks, romantic love may look sweet and splendid, but when the time gets harsh, love can be so fragile while friendship often lasts longer.

“All the world’s a stage” by William Shakespeare

 

“All the world’s a stage”

(from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques)

 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem “All the world’s a stage”?

William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616)

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor of the Renaissance era. He is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon." Few public records remain about his private life, causing speculations about his physical appearances, sexuality, religious beliefs and the authorship of some of his works. His works demonstrate a wide range of human emotions and conflicts, touching so many people's minds throughout the world for over 400 years.

“All the world’s a stage” explanation

‘All the world’s a stage’ is a monologue of Jaques from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, a five-act pastoral comedy (cherishing country life). The speaker talks about seven stages (from infancy to death) people go through as they age and different roles they play in each stage. This monologue echoes the motto of the Globe Theatre which was opened in 1599, the same year when the play was written. The motto was “Totus mundus agit histrionem,” which means “all the Globe’s a stage.”

"For You O Democracy" by Walt Whitman

 

For You O Democracy

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,

I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,

I will make divine magnetic lands,

With the love of comrades,

With the life-long love of comrades.

 

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,

I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,

By the love of comrades,

By the manly love of comrades.

 

For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!

For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

 

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poem video👇

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Who wrote the poem "For You O Democracy"?

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892)

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Whitman is one of the most important American poets, often called the father of free verse. His major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 at his own expense and became popular and controversial due to its overt sensuality. Whitman greatly admired Abraham Lincoln, and on Lincoln’s death, he wrote famous poems, “O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman “America’s poet… He is America.”

"For You O Democracy" explanation

In the poem, the speaker expresses his desire to build a strong, democratic state, based upon love, companionship, and patriotism of people. Whitman was known as a poet of democracy because of his exaltation of democracy, rooted deeply in his faith in the inherent dignity of the common man.

"Bed in Summer" by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Bed in Summer

In winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle-light.

In summer, quite the other way,

I have to go to bed by day.

 

I have to go to bed and see

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or hear the grown-up people's feet

Still going past me in the street.

 

And does it not seem hard to you,

When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

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poem video👇 

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Who wrote the poem "Bed in Summer"?

Robert Louis Stevenson 

(November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894)

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet, and travel writer. From an early age, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial illnesses. Despite his poor health, Stevenson continued to write prolifically and travelled widely. His best known works include “Treasure Island” and “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” He gained great literary fame based on his profound ideas and catchy writing style.

"Bed in Summer" explanation

In this short poem intended for children, the speaker (a child) doesn’t want to go to bed while there is still daylight in summer due to longer daytime and wants to play more.

"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."

Enjoy the  poem with beautiful music.

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.