Ode to Nightingale

The poem focuses on a speaker standing in a dark forest, listening to the beguiling and
beautiful song of the nightingale bird. This provokes a deep and meandering meditation by the
speaker on time, death, beauty, nature, and human suffering (something the speaker would
very much like to escape!).

Ode on a Grecian urn

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” examines the close relationship between art, beauty, and truth. For the
speaker, it is through beauty that humankind comes closest to truth—and through art that
human beings can attain this beauty (though it remains a bittersweet achievement).

To Autumn

The poem praises autumn, describing its abundance, harvest, and transition into winter, and
uses intense, sensuous imagery to elevate the fleeting beauty of the moment. "To Autumn" is
the last major work that Keats completed before his death in Rome, in 1821, where the 25-year
-old succumbed to tuberculosis.

Ode to the west wind

Ode to the west wind summary is a poem that shows us the power of the wind which brings a
change in the natural world. Similarly, the poet wishes for reform in society. Moreover, the
poem has underlying themes of optimism and hope for a better future.

To a skylark

'To a Skylark' by Percy Bysshe Shelley is an ode to the “blithe” essence of a singing skylark and
how human beings are unable to ever reach that same bliss. The poem begins with the speaker
spotting a skylark flying above him. He can hear the song clearly. The bird's song
“unpremeditated” is unplanned and beautiful.

Ulysses

Ulysses is a poem which gives us details about the unhappiness and monotony Ulysses is going
through in his old age. He is living at his home on the island of Ithaca. The summary of Ulysses
will take us through the monologue which he speaks in the poem. We learn that Ulysses is not
content with the way of his life.

Break Break Break

Break break break is an elegy written by Alfred Tennyson in memory of his best friend Arthur
Hallam. Through the poem the poet is emphasizing on the beautiful days he spent with his
friend and the agony he suffers from the loss of Arthur. Break, break, break, On thy cold gray
stones, O Sea!”
My last Duchess

This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who
lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining an
emissary who has come to negotiate the Duke's marriage (he has recently been widowed) to
the daughter of another powerful family.

Rabbi Ben Ezra

The poem is narrated by Rabbi Ben Ezra, a real 12th-century scholar. The piece does not have a
clearly identified audience or dramatic situation. The Rabbi begs his audience to "grow old
along with [him]" (line 1). He stresses that age is where the best of life is realized, whereas
"youth shows but half" (line 6). He acknowledges that youth lacks insight into life, since it is
characteristically so concerned with living in the moment that it is unable to consider the
deeper questions.

Patriot into traitor

The Poem Patriot Into Traitor

This poem is a monologue of a leader who is now out of power. The poem reveals the
frustration and disenchants of a leader who is now regarded a traitor. His life is hit by a
political turmoil and he is out of power. His collapse is painful. Now the people who threw rose
petals at him criticize and attack him. He is waiting for the judgment of God.

The poem describes many ups and falls in the life of the leader. In the very narrow span of one
year, the glory of the leader vanishes and he is left with nothing to give to the people. The
reader enjoys every word of the poem. Every word is a story itself. This poem is a satire on so-
called democratic systems of the world.

Dover Beach

The poet’s speaker, considered to be Matthew Arnold himself, begins by describing a calm and
quiet sea out in the English Channel. He stands on the Dover coast and looks across to France,
where a small light can be seen briefly and then vanishes. This light represents the diminishing
faith of the English people and the world around them. Throughout this poem, the
speaker/Arnold, crafts an image of the sea receding and returning to land with the world’s faith
as it changes throughout time. At this point in time, though, the sea is not returning. It is
receding farther out into the strait.

The poem concludes pessimistically as the speaker makes clear to the reader that all the
beauty and happiness that one may believe they are experiencing is not, in fact, real. The world
is actually without peace, joy, or help for those in need and the human race is too distracted by
its own ignorance to see where true assistance is needed anymore.

Crises of faith..Dover Beach theme

The poet explains the gradual loss of man's faith in a grand and suggestive similie. The poet
has compared faith in religion to a sea that surrounds the world - The sea has its full tide and
then ebbs away with the mournful music over the pebbles, it brings the eternal note of sadness
which makes the speaker depressed.

Sailing to Byzantium

The poem Sailing to Byzantium is written by an Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865-1939). It was
published in 1926 for the first time.

The poem is about an old man who leaves the country of the young ones and travels to the city
of Byzantium in order to get spiritual enlightenment.