Maxine Kumin

Killing woodchucks with gas and then sadistically with a gun.

Adrienne Rich

Jennifer putting tigers in a tapestry. Clues to her spousal abuse, but her creations are proud and unafraid.

Robert Browning

Portrait of a man's wife whom he more than likely killed, just as he's about to get married to another duchess.

Collection of his artwork.

e.e. Cummings

Spring with the lame balloonman, whistles far and wee, with the little children.

e.e. Cummings

Lonliness as a leaf falls.

e.e. Cummings

Anyone and no one getting married, goes over their life story.

Li-Young Lee

Foreigner getting words confused with each other, such as fight and fright. Some conflict with a father figure.

W.H. Auden

Walking through a museum, seeing the artwork Icarus, discussion of how the human race ignores others in pain and suffering.

Andrew Marvell

"Love" poem arguing to his mistress that because they don't have all the time in the world, they should get it on as soon as possible.

Ann Lauinger

Story about a woman who isn't willing to take the rap for her man who committed a crime. He'll get 25 to life, and she promised to visit him once a year.

John Donne

All about debunking death and arrogantly proclaiming that Death has no power over mortals, and is in fact a slave to things such as war, poison, and Kings.

Emily Dickinson

Poem about being friends with death, if not even a date, as they drive around town and finally end at a grave.

John Donne

Another "love" poem, stating that a flea has already mixed the blood of the man, a woman, and itself, so how much different would that be from having a child?

John Donne

There should be no mourning when two lovers are appart, for their souls are one, yadda yadda yadda.

Gerare Manley Hopkins

Story about a hawk, and how it dives, as well as other properties.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

A discussion of how the flaws in nature are just as beautiful, much like spotted surfaces, freckles, etc.

Amy Clampitt

Fog rolling off the ocean and obscuring everything it blankets.

Emily Dickinson

About a snake that scares everyone, despite his very pleasant description.

Theodore Roethke

Potential child abuse story where the father is drunk, and they waltz off to bed after knocking over things in the kitchen.

William Wordsworth

A plea for John Milton to come to modern day London and see the state of disarray she's in, asking for his fine words to put order to things.

William Shakespeare

A very non-romantic poem that disregards all the usual poetic cliches, and states that even though his mistress is ugly, smelly, etc, he still loves her for all her flaws.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Reflects upon all the past lovers that the speaker has had, but can't remember anything about them. Thinks about the wild times she has had, but that she's settled down since then.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Discusses either poetry or a part of her love life, and how the chaos she struggles with will be put into a 14 line sonnet, where she can better understand it and gain a new perspective.

Dylan Thomas

Arguement with his father, stating that good men, grave men, etc. all struggle when their time comes to fight off death that claims them. Asks why his father is not struggling to hold on as well.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A poem passionately stating that the love the speaker has for the lover in question is boundless, and that the speaker's love would grow even greater in Death.

Elizabether Barrett Browning

Another sonnet that seems to plead with a lover for their love, wanting to just hear things, such as "say that thou dost love me".

Wilfred Owen

"It is sweet and proper to die for one's country", all about the hardships of war, and the different ways in which soldiers have fallen, whether gloriously or not, but always painfully.

Wilfred Owen

Poem about a soldier who's legs were taken from him from war, and how he is depressed that women do not view him in the same way that they look at men who are whole.

Derek Walcott

Discusses the topic of the american country and how it is influenced by immigration and empires, talking about the flag and the dirt beneath his feet.

Derek Walcott

Conflict between British rule and African tongues, discusses the massacre

Generally, a neurological condition or psychological process whereby one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another. For example, the sight of ants might make one itchy.

Other examples: Red Hot Coal

Frigid Tone

Heavy Silence

Consists of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and a sestet with the rhyme scheme cdecde

The octave often poses a question or dilemma that the sestet answers or resolves.

Something that, although it is of interest in its own right, stands for or suggests something larger and more complex.

An object or idea that radiates meaning.