O Level Poetry Anthology

Here is the link to the Poetry Anthology that we will be using in the class this week.

www.edexcel.com/migrationdocuments/GCE%20O%20level/122630_English_Literature_anthology.pdf
www.xtremepapers.net/CIE/Miscellaneous%20Documents/O%20Level%20Poetry%20Anthology.pdf

Sakib Shahriar, Nirjhor, and Argho has posted me analysis of some poems I mentioned in the class. I would love to share it with others.

Posts from Sakib

• "Fire and Ice": The writer is describing that some people say that the world will end with fire and some says in ice. And what he has tasted of desire he hold's the fire for other's favor. And if it is perish twice the hate will come in the world. But small and calm things could be very destructive. 
• "There is no frigate like a book": In this poem the poet is telling that the lands cannot be taken with just a frigate book and nor any courses. The traverse could be the poorest take. And what bears human being to be so cruel. [This interpretation has gone all messed up.] 
• "The Red Wheelbarrow": The poet describes about a wheelbarrow which is very useful for the people who lives in the world. It depends so much for the environment. And it glazed on the rain beside the chickens. [A very BRAVE attempt at explaining the poem.] 
• "In a Station of the Metro": The poet is saying that the crowded people were standing beside the underground rail station. As it is a metro station. They were wearing black coats and jackets with wet and it seems that they looks same as the black boughs on a tree and are wet with little droplets of water.

Here is the post from Nirjhor: 

• From what I think from reading Emily Dickinson's poem ''There is no Frigate like a Book'' is that she is emphasizing on the fact that there is nothing better than enjoy reading books. The books are the frigate which sails through the world of vast knowledge and wonders through pages and chapters. Unlike the discovery of the North American Continent or discovery of Australia which took years and months, a lot more can be explored by just reading a book in no time at all. 
• Carlos Williams' poem maybe a little one, but it certainly has a deep meaning in simple words which is so magnetizing about it. The wheelbarrow represents the life. So many work, responsibilities and decision that depends upon life and everyday all this is a small distance traveled toward better understandings which is glazing as if it is newly washed by rain water. 
• Basically, as I read comics I find that there is always two types of 'power' or 'element' that many superheroes posses -- fire and ice. These two is one of the most lethal and interesting that really attracting the readers of all ages for decades. After I read Robert Frost's ''Fire and Ice'' I think the poet thinks the same way too. Fire seem dangerous. As it has a fierce appearance, everlastingly burns in air and turns everything to matte black, smoking ashes in an instant. Even though ice is other way round -- the cold and crystalline, the dense vapor that freeze the time and its unique and oppressive qualities that savors everything slowly and painfully; they are both equally lethal and enough to erase any existence. Despite their repulsion in abilities and looks, yet Robert Frost find the one thing common which can really diminish everything. 
• As the title says, John Keat's ''To Autumn'' is surely about Autumn. He welcomes Autumn and its season of trees full of juicy fruits. It sweeps off the harsh condition that Summer left by with the rustling of golden brown leaves. He welcomes its sweet breeze and the singing of the bird. Of all peacefulness the poet suddenly reminisce Spring but lastly says that it will surely come when its time. Overall, every year Autumn do come and change everything in its usual way; but as it come after each passing year it miraculously changes every detail which is always new to the Keat's eyes because, after all, it only comes once in a year. 
• All I can think of from Ezra Pound's two-line poem ''In a Station of the Metro'' is that the faces of the crowd of people are heavy and dull with depression and fatigue of everyday's routine and robotic life. None of them are showing any sign of smile or happiness. Maybe they never wanted this sort of life. They were once shining with high hopes and all those shattered which now made them floating on black bough of busy, undesired and frustrating lives; now commuting through the metro.

Comments on Poetry by Argho

Fire And Ice

In this poem Robert Frost projects the picture of the world's end but mainly he tells us how and why. The poet here uses two of nature's most powerful elements, fire and ice and then he compares these two elements with the only two elements of men that holds the foundation of its emotions, desire and hatred. Robert Frost tells us that from all the desire and love he has seen he would prefer fire as the perishing element of the earth. But alongside all the love and desire he saw, he did not fail to observe the viscous and ugly animal like face of the men. So he again says that if the world would be destroyed twice then ice would be fine and fit for the destructive element.

Robert Frost compiled the entire history of men in seven short lines. With simple words he shows us how desire and hatred are intertwined in our society and shows its ever changing face to us. Through ages men have fought each other for power, for glory and for love even but at the end it got us nothing but deaths of thousands of people, innocent people. Through this poem he did-not only show the positive side of the human civilization but he also gave us the image of the hatred residing and multiplying in our society. 

The Red Wheelbarrow

In very simple and short words William Carlos Williams has projected a very complex but true picture of our society. A wheelbarrow is a one wheeled car used to carry light things such as pumpkins, watermelon, etc. The writer most probably have compared the bearer of a family as the wheelbarrow and the family as the white chickens beside it. A guardian of a family has numerous responsibilities. A family's safety, well-being, shelter all depends upon the guardian. The whole family depends on this guardian. So the writer says, "So much depends upon a red wheel barrow, glazed with rain water".

Chickens are dependent and weak. They are vulnerable to this hostile world. So the writer here compares the responsibilities of the guardian with these chickens. The rain water are the problems and hardships that this family is going through and all is dependent on the red wheel barrow. 

This poem is the story of every adult in our society struggling through the problems of life bearing his family all the way to give them a better life. But as the poet said too much is dependent on this wheelbarrow.

There Is No Frigate Like A Book

Emily Dickinson here shows the power of a book irrespective of its size and weight. A frigate is a ship which sails and transports people from places to places. The poet says us that there is no better frigate then a book as it takes away to the writer's world within seconds. Books can project images of unknown, undiscovered and impossible places. Its because our mind sails away on this frigate(book) to several places. A courser which is a swift and lively horse is made minor in its liveliness to the power of a prancing and rhythmic piece of fine poetry. The comparison between a horse and a poetry is a personification and has made the writers point in this poem even stronger and rigid. In the second stanza the writer  show us the books priceless quality. Without any price or toll a person slips into a world of traveling through the letters on a book being the lights guiding him. finally the writer compares the weight of our soul to that of a light book. But irrespective of this fact it is able to carry our heavy soul on its light shoulder to various places in the world of pure imagination.