King John demands the answers for three of his questions from the Abbot of Canterbury. The answers will decide the Abbot’s fate: he will either be killed or his life will be spared. Let us read this ballad titled King John and the Abbot of Canterbury and find out what happens to the Abbot of […]

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In this poem, The Solitary Reaper, William Wordsworth tells an imaginary story of a Highland girl who was singing a song. The poet, on one of his long solitary journeys, was enjoying the beauty of the voice of that girl and sharing the natural beauty. Let us read how the reaper’s song are incomprehensible to […]

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Shape poems, or pattern poems, are poems whose shape refers to their subject: a poem about an altar in the shape of an altar, a poem about an egg in the shape of one, a poem about an umbrella which outlines a raised umbrella. It is an old genre. The earliest shape poem we know […]

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You read the story of Pandora and her treasure box, didn’t you? In the story, you came to read how all the problems we see around us today burst out from the box. Until then, people had been innocent and had lived in paradise, but the time had come for them to get to know […]

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This is a wonderfully lyrical poem, even for Alfred Lord Tennyson – in places it verges on pure music. In fact, it is hardly necessary to understand it – just let the images and beautifully patterned rhythms flow past, evoking the babbling brook. As we read along, we are told of the brook’s journey and […]

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‘Throwing a Tree’ shows that nature plays victim to man and his ruthless pursuit of progress. Thomas Hardy wants to express his anger towards the harm caused to nature by man’s self-centered activities. Thomas Hardy is against any kind of activity that cause nature to suffer and it shows through the pessimism that he expresses […]

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