"Because," "Dulce et Decorum," "The Second Coming," ":The Hollow Men"

"The Second Coming"


Themes:
Disorder in Society ("The falcon cannot hear the falconer" Line 2)
Religion ("Surely the Second Coming is at hand" Line 10)
Corruption ("Things fall apart" Line 3)
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Religious undertone (allusions)
Overall tone is angry, frustrated, eager for change
Literary Devices
Allusion: "Surely the Second Coming is at hand." (Line 10) & "Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born." (Line 22)
Irony: The Second Coming should bring peace


"The Hollow Men"

Theme: unfulfillment, death

Quotes:
“In the last of meeting places/ We grope together/ And avoid speech/ Gathered on this beach of the tumid river” (lines 58-60)
“Shape without form, shade without colour;/ Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;” (lines 11-12) (Oxymoron) (Shapes without form are incapable of movement)
“Those who have crossed/ With direct eyes, to death’s other kingdom/ Remember us - of at all - not as lost/ Violent souls, but only/ As the hollow men”
“Between the idea/ And the reality/ Between the motion/ And the act/ Falls the Shadow”
“This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms” (line 56) (Allusion to Cain striking Abel with a donkey’s broken jaw bone, being cast out of the kingdom)

Notes:
Modern poetry was usually dark, with people having a pessimistic outlook on life due to the war and its effect on the world
This led people to turn away from God (how could God let this happen?) and this is shown in the multiple mentions of the afterlife being referred to as “death’s kingdom” as opposed to “God’s kingdom”
Mentions eyes a lot, in a negative connotation
Apathy a significant emotion
Allusions to Dante’s Paradiso/Inferno, Heart of Darkness, Guy Fawkes, The Lord’s Prayer, & Julius Caesar
Shadow men are in a barren landscape, possibly Fields of Asphodel
People who contrast the Hollow Men died committed and following their purpose, even if that purpose was wrong
“For Thine is the Kingdom” is part of the Bible, separate from the other parts of the poem

Literary Devices
Simile: “Are quiet and meaningless” (line 7)
Oxymoron: “Shape without form, shade without colour;” (line 11)
Cacophony: “Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves” (line 32)
Epigraph: “Mistah Kurtz--he head./ A penny for the Old Guy”
Alliteration: “Prickly pear prickly pear” (line 70)
Allusion: “With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom” (line 14) (Dante’s Inferno)


Because I Could Not Stop For Death

A Victorian Poem


Themes


Death

Time

Afterlife


Literary Devices


Caesura (“at recess – in the Ring -”[10])

alliteration (“gazing grain”[11])

personification (“gazing grain”[11])

meter (8 beats, 6 beats, 8 beats, 6 beats. Iamb) (Stanza four is different)


Distinguishing Characteristics


Death isn't scary, he's charming. Persona accepts death without question.


The speaker pauses before a “house,” as if death is the beginning of a new life with a new home.


Very subdued, disconnected, sombre – Victorian qualities


"Dulce et Decorum Est"