AN ANTHOLOGY OF POLITICAL POEMS THAT USE THE ELEMENT OF METAPHOR

I intend to present an anthology of political poems in which the various authors use

the poetic element of metaphor to explain the themes. The poems in this collection

have a relatively common theme. The poems offer patriotic commentary from the

protagonist's perspective on disfunctional governments or political entities or

realities. I will discuss this central theme as it relates to each of the poems and

then elaborate on how the use of metaphor helps to explain the themes in the various

poems.

The poems that are included in this anthology include: "England in 1819" by Percy

Bysshe Shelley; "London" by William Blake; "London, 1802" by William

Wordsworth; "Dirge (the glories of our blood and state)" by James Shirley; "Here

Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose" by A.E. Houseman; "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg,

and "The Rights of Woman" by Anna Laetitia Barbauld.

The poem "England in 1819" appears to relate the author's detest of the British

royal family, army and Senate of his time. This sentiment can be seen from the

following excerpt from the poem:

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn-mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow. 1.

The use of metaphor is evident when the author alludes to the eventual emergence of

liberty from the desperate situation the country is in. This can be seen from the

following excerpt:

Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless-a book sealed;
A Senate --Time's worst statute unrepealed--
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. 1.

"London" by William Blake describes the appalling condition of the city of London in

the 16th century. It describes a cycle of devastation, pollution, political crises,

health issues including those stemming from promiscuity. An excerpt explains this:

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls. 1.

The metaphor used in this poem points at the moral decay and infidelity that feeds a

cycle of the spread of disease through promiscuity. This use of metaphor can be seen

in lines 13-16:

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. 1.

"London, 1802" continues this theme with the author yearning for a "savior," the

protagonist named "Milton" to come and save England from degeneracy. The author

describes his sentiments in the following excerpt from the poem:

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. 1.

Milton is addressed wih the use of metaphor in the poem. He is chided for pursueing what the author relates as unimportant pursuits. The use of metaphor can be seen in the poem:

So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. 1.

I believe that the poem "Dirge" (the glories of our blood and state)," is a poem

that deals with the vanity of the pursuit of stately glory or royal glory. It

admonishes that only good deeds endure. An excerpt from the poem can illustrate this:

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade. 1.

Metaphor is used to illustrate the author's point in the following excerpt:

Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust. 1.

"Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose" is a poem that can have dual but

equally significant meanings. It appears to be a poem about patriotic young men who

have given their lives for their country. Or it can be understood as a poem about

patriotic young men who refused to surrender to serve a currupt government and were

slain for their non-complacancy. An excerpt from the poem can explain this:

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung. 1.

The importance of the protagonist's sacrifice is explained in the following use of

metaphor in the poem:

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young. 1.

"Chicago" is a poem in which the protagonist offers a patriotic depiction of the

socio-political problems of the city of Chicago in his era, with a rebuttal to

detractors. An excerpt will show this:

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of
women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this
my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to
be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. 1.

Metaphor is used here to explain the protagonist's patriotism towards the city:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic cursed amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a
tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft citeis;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunninig as a savage
pitted against the wilderness... 1.

"The Rights of Woman" is a political poem that speaks of female empowerment. It

encourages women to rise up and take the mantle of power and speaks negatively of

the status quo.From the poem:

Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, oppressed;
O born to rule in parial Law despite,
Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! 1.

Metaphor is used by the author as she admonishes women to take the mantle of power:

Go forth arrayed in panoply divine;
That angel pureness which admits no stain;
Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign,
And kiss the golden scepter of thy reign. 1.

The poem "England! Awake! Awake! Awake!" appears to admonish the British to pay

attention to the plight of the Jewish population. An exerpt from the poem explains:

England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy Sister calls!
Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death?
And close her from thy ancient walls. 1.

When apparently describing the relationship of the Jewish people to England the

author uses the following metaphor in lines 4-7:

Thy hills & valleys felt her feet
Gently upon their bosoms move:
Thy gates beheld sweet Zion's ways;
Then was a time of joy and love. 1.

The following is a collection of the poems in the anthology:


1. "England in 1819" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn-mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow;
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field-
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless-a book sealed;
A Senate-Time's worst statute unrepealed-
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

2. "London" by William Blake.

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues th Marriage hearse.

3. "London, 1802" by Percy Blysshe Shelley.
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfieted thier ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue. freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

4. "Dirge (the glories of our blood and state) by James Shirley.

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field
And plant fresh laurels where they kill,
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still.
Early or late
They stoop to fate
And must give up their murmuring breath,
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
upon death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your geads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

5. "Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose" by A.E. Houseman.

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame te land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.

6. "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat'
Playeer with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulder.

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your
painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer; Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of
women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to theose who sneer at this
my city, and i give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be
alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a
tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage
pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white
teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man
laughs,
Lauhging even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a
battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under
his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half naked,
sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool maker, Stacker of
Wheat, Player with Railroes and Freight Handler to the Nation.

7. "The Rights of Woman" by Anna Laetitia Barbauld.

Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, oppressed;
O born to rule in partial Law's despite,
Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!

Go forth arrayed in panoply divine;
That angel pureness which admits no stain;
Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign,
And kiss the golden scepter of thy reign.

Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store
Of bright arillery glancing from afar;
Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's roar,
Blushes and fears thy magazine of war.

Thy rights are empire: urge no meaner claim,-
Felt, not defined, and if debated, lost;
Like sacred mysteries, which withheld from fame,
Shunning discussion, are revered the most.

Try all that wit and art suggest to bend
Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee;
Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend;
Thou mayst command, but never canst be free.

Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude;
Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow:
Be, more than princes' gifts, thy favors sued;
She hazards all, who will the least allow.
But hope not, courted idol of mankind,
On this proud eminince secure to stay;
Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find
Thy coldness soften, and thy pride give way.
Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought,
Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move,
In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught,
That separate rights are lost in mutual love.

8. "England! Awake! Awake! Awake!" by William Blake.

England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy Sister calls!
Why wilt thous sleep the sleep of feath?
And close her from thy ancient walls.


Thy hills & valleys felt her feet
Gently upon their bosoms move:
Thy gates beheld sweet Zion's ways;
Then was a time of joy and love.


And now the time returns again:
Our souls exult & London's towers,
Recieve the Lamb of God to dwell
In England's green & pleasant bowers.

Works Cited:

1. Percy Bysshe Shelley. "England in 1819". Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 871-872.

Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy, The Norton Anthology of Poetry. New York: Norton, 2005.

William Blake. "London." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 744-745.

William Wordsworth. "London, 1802." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 795.

James Shirley. "Dirge(the glories of our blood and state)." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 390-391.

A.E. Houseman. "Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 1180.

Carl Sandburg. "Chicago." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 1252-1253.

Ann Laetitia Barbauld. "The Rights of Woman." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 705-706.

William Blake. "England! Awake! Awake! Awake!." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 747.

THE USE OR AVOIDANCE OF SENTIMENTALITY IN POEMS

I will discuss the issue of sentimentality in two poems from the readings. The

poems that I will discuss include "The Truth the Dead know" by Anne Sexton

and "Momentos 1" by W.D. Snodgrass. It is my conclusion that Sexton's poem was

written with the author having the protagonist avoid sentimentality while the poem

written by Snodgrass describes a protagonist that expresses sentimentality.

The poem "The Truth The Dead know" by Anne Sexton apparently tells the story of a

person who has lost both parents in a short period of time in quick succession. The

protagonist is acknowledging the passing of the parents but apparently refuses to be

broken by grief, and avoid sentimentality. An excerpt from the poem can illustrate

this:

Gone, I say and walk from church,
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse,
It is June. I am tired of being brave.

The poem "Momentos 1" by W.D. Snodgrass, relates the story of a man who once

loved a woman through WWII when he went ot war and fought Japanese forces. He later

got married to this woman and eventually divorced. The author did not avoid

sentimentality and used sentimental language when writing the poem. An example of

this can be seen from the following excerpt:

Then through the war and those two long years
Overseas, the Japanese dead in their shacks
Among dishes, dolls, and lost shoes; I carried
This glimpse of you, there, to choke down my fear,
Prove it had been, that it might come back.
That was before we got married.

Sentimentality has been both used and avoided by these two poets.

COMPARISON OF POEMS FROM THE "BEATS" AND "NEW YORK" SCHOOLS.

I intend to compare two poems from the "Beats" and the "New York" schools. The poems that I will discuss are "Sometime

During Eternity" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti of the Beats and " Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams" by Kenneth

Koch of the New York school. My first impression when reading these poems was that both of these poems share the

similarity of being rather comedic in nature. They appear to differ in the way that the verses are constructed.

The poem "Sometime During Eternity" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a poem that discusses the legacy and death of Jesus

Christ and casts doubt on the authenticity of the scrolls discovered in the Dead Sea in 1947. It displays the use of "cool" or

"hip" language and this is one of the first things that I noticed. I also noticed that the versification was rather different in its

layout from the structures that we have been dealing with in the class till this point. An example can be seen in an excerpt

from the poem:

Sometime during eternity
some guys show up
and one of them
who shows up real late
is a kind of carpenter

In the poem "Variantions on a Theme by William Carlos Williams" by Kenneth Koch, the antagonist is comically relaying to

the protagonist several devious things that he has done to her. The versification scheme in this poem is different from the

type I observed in the poem by Ferlinghetti. The number of lines per stanza alternated between four and three lines. An

example of the hilarity that I found in this poem that is similar to the comedic nature of the poem by Ferlinghetti can be

seen in the following excerpt:

Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy, and
I wanted you here in the ward, where I am the doctor.

VERSIFICATION AND A COMPARISON OF POEMS

Versification can be described as the way a poet decides to arrange the structure of a poem as relates to the formation of

verses. Versification can involve fixed verse and rhyme forms or Free Verse. Free Verse poems are poems that are written

with verses that do not follow a set format for sentence length or rhyme scheme. The poems that are currently being studied

mostly follow the Free Verse format, but also share some characteristics that are similar to poems that the class has studied

in the past.

The poems I will discuss are both written by Randall Jarrellr and are entitled "The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner," and "Next

Day." These poems are as poetic as those written in previous eras because they not only use Free Verse as can be seen in

other poems but they also employ the use of poetic elements such as figures of speech, such as metaphor.

The poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" discusses the experience of an airman who is stationed on a Bomber

aircraft and is ordered to operate the machine guns in the "ball turret" of the aircraft. Metaphor is very apparent in the poem

as can be seen from an excerpt:

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loossed from its dream of life,

In the poem "Next Day" the use of metaphor is also used extensively. The protagonist is an old lady who relates that she is

doing shopping and wishes that a boy that is helping her would "notice" her. She explains that as a younger woman she was

"noticed" all the time by the world but does not experience this as much at her current age. This can be compared to her not

paying much attention to the individuality of the poultry she had just purchase. An example of this can be seen from and

excerpt from the poem:

... Now that I'm old, my wish
Is womanish:
That the boy putting groceries in my car
See me. It bewilders me he doesn't see me.

The use of figures of speech like metaphor is common in these essays and those written in previous eras and I believe that

the poetic nature of these poems can easily be observed

USE OF METAPHOR IN THE POEM "HARLEM" BY LANGSTON HUGHES

I intend to discuss the use of metaphor in the poem entitled "Harlem" by Langston Hughes. I believe that Hughes used this

figure of speech extensively in the poem and that it is used to better express meaning in the poem. I would like to believe

that the poem is making reference to the community of Harlem in New York. Apparently it is discussing what I would assume

is the dreamed or hoped for advancement of Harlem. It asks questions about what happens to a dream deffered or

postponed, to be realized at another time. I intend to show how metaphor is used in the poem by explaining the meaning

that I have drawn from the poem, line by line.

In the first five lines of the poem the author asks the question "what happens to a dream deferred?." He continues:

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or feser like a sore--
And then run?

In the first three lines I believe the metaphor refers to if the dream would simply fall apart and become mute, ineffective or

something that is no longer pursued. In lines four and five the author seems to ask if accomplishment of the dream would be

hoped for but action not taken and the dream simply die-away.

In lines six to eight it appears that the author uses metaphor to ask the question whether a dream deferred could be

likened to is pondered on by people with no action taken until it becomes an irritant and begins to seem like it is nothing

more than wishful thinking. This can be seen in the excerpt of these lines from the poem:

Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over ---
like a syrupy sweet.

In lines nine and ten the author appears to use metaphor to ask whether a dream deferred could become like a huge

burden born by the persons "bearing" these dreams. According to the poem:

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

In line eleven the author apparenly uses metaphore to question whether the stress of the dream deferred is so much that

people who share the dream do anything to make the dream become a reality. This question is asked in the final line of the

poem:

Or does it explode?.

It is my contention that Hughes uses metaphore in the poem extensively to better impart meaning to almost every line in

the poem.

POETIC INFLUENCES OF TWO POETS

I will discuss two poets who I believe have been influenced by two other poets in the writing of their poems both thematically and as concerns other style similarities that can be observed in the poems. The poets and poems that I will discuss are Edna St. Vincent Millay and her poem entitled "[ I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed]," which I believe was influenced by the poet John Keats and his poem " This living hand;" and the poet Carl Stranburg and his poem "Grass," which I believe was influenced by the poet Archibald MacLeish and his poem "Snowflake." It is my contension that Millay was possibly inspired to write a poem that thematically was the opposite of the poem written by Keats, while maintaining a similarity in use of figures of speech such as metaphore and language use. I also maintain the position that Stranburg was influenced by MacLeish to write a poem that I believe is thematically similar to the poem written by MacLeish while also maintaining similarity in the use of figures of speech in his poem.
I feel that Millay was influenced to write her poem "I Being Born Woman and Distressed" from the poem written by Keats. Both poems were written as dialogues between the protagonists directed at an antagonist. In Keats' poem it described a situation in which the lead character had escaped or survived a murder, manslaughter or accident. He was describing the possible guilt that would or coud have been visited on the antagonist if the protagonist had died. At the end of the poem however it appears that the protagonist is extending the "hand" of friendship to the antagonist as described in the poem:
And thou be conscience-calmed--see here it is--
I hold it towards you.
In the poem written by Millay, she describes a protagonist who is also speaking directly to an antagonist. In this poem, the protagonist (who obviously had some sort of falling-out with a former lover (the antagonist), is telling him that even though she is pysically attracted to him she will be logical and does not consider that fact as a sufficient reason to continue to be friendly with him:
Think not for this, however, the poor treason
Of my sout blood against my saggering brain,
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity,--let me make it plain:
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
for conversation when we meet again.
Even though Millay may have written a similar poem where the protagonist is speaking directly to the protagonist, the protagonist in Keats poem attempts to reconcile with the antagonist while the protagonist in Millay's poem does not.
Other similarities include the use of metaphore in both poems, and language used is readily understandable.
In tracing the influence of MacLeish's poem on Stranburg's one can note the thematic similarities. Both poems appear to espouse the notion that life itself can be seen as vain as people, places, things and events that once may have been regarded as important can dissappear and fade-away, forgotten by society with the passage of time. An example of this thematic similarity can be seen from excerpts of both poems:
In MacLeish's poem:
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and le me work--
I am the grass; I cover all.
From Millay's poem:
Will it last? he says.
Is it a masterpiece?
Will generation after generation
Turn with reverence to the page?
Both poems make use of metaphore and language in a similar way.
I believe that it can thus be seen how Millay and Stranburg were possibly influenced in their writing of these poems by MacLeish and Keats.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM "PIANO" BY D.H.LAWRENCE EXAMINING POETIC ELEMENTS USED BY THE POET

I make an analysis of the poem entilted "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence examining the poetic elements used in the poem. I will examine the use of Language and Figures of Speech in the poem.
The poem "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence appears to tell the story of a protagonist who is being serenaded by a woman. The woman's singing triggers a state of yearning and nostalgia in the protagonist that makes him recollect fondly memories of his childhood and a wish to return to the uphoria of his past. The language used in the poem is relatively casual and direct. The author begins the story relating how a woman is singing to the protagonist and it causes him to begin to remember the musical enjoyment he used to enjoy as a youth. In casual language this can be seen in an excerpt from the poem:
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
I believe that the poem has been written in the midst of emotion. The protagonist is depicted as going through a serious yearning for the uphoric existence he experienced as a child and really wants to return to that innocent time in his life. An excerpt from the poem depicts this:
The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in he flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
Figures of speech used in the poem include metaphores and paradoxes. I believe that explicit metaphore is used when the protagonist is depicted as yearning for the time of his childhood in lines 11 and 12:
The glamour of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in he flood of remembrance.
The metaphore does contribute to the meaning observed in the poem.
I can see a paradox used when the author describes the protagonist expressing what I believe to be the notion that at a certain point it would not matter how well the singer sang with a piano accompaniment it would not improve his situation or satisfy his yearning. This can be seen from an excerpt from the poem in lines 9 and 10
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
Wih the great black piano appassionato.
I believe that poetic elements were effectively used in the poem.