1.

Analysis of William Collins Poem ‘Ode to

Evening’

Introduction:
“Ode to Evening,” is one among the most
enduring poems of William Collins. It is a
beautiful poem of fifty-two lines, addressed to a
goddess figure representing evening.
Collins’ Construction of Evening:
Collins slowly constructs Evening as an
allegorical figure with many attributes, and
many aural and visual characteristics. Collins
piles up epithets; Eve is
“chaste,”
“reserved,”
“composed,”
“calm,”
“meekest”;
her ear is “modest.”

Contrast of Evening with the Daytime:

According to the poet, Evening possesses
“solemn springs” and “dying gales” Daytime
activity gives way to calm as the wind literally
often dies down in the evening. Some activity
now supplements our picture of Eve. The gentle
movements of water and the air ensure that
her figure is not static.

The Journey of the Pilgrim into the world of

Evening:
After the sunset, at “twilight,” the world is not
yet attuned to Eve’s mood. The air is hushed,
except for some annoying sounds: the bat’s
“short shrill shrieks” and sound of the beetle’s
“small but sullen horn.” The bat’s weak eyes
and “leathern wing” are not pleasant, nor are
the many beetles as they are borne (by the a
breeze, I assume) up against the pilgrim on his
quasi-religious journey.
The Spirit of Evening:
Collins then asks Evening to lead on as she
progresses to this lovely day’s end. She moves
from the lowly heath, lighted now only by a
reflection of a totally calm lake. Moving upward
where Evening can be seen for the last time,
the lake’s light cheers an ancient building and
an upland field. Note that Eve is addressed a
“vot’ress”; presumably like the poet she
worships the spirit of Evening.

The Other side of Evening:

Collins’ Evening is not just beautiful. She also
includes “chill blustering winds” and “driving
rain.” When he cannot walk about, the poet
hopes to look out from a “hut” on a
mountainside, rather like the place from which
many Claude scenes are viewed. He will see
wild scenery and flooding rivers, as well as the
poem’s first traces of ordinary civilization
Evening as a State of Mind: Lessons from
Evening:
In short, Evening becomes, not only a time of
day, but a state of mind that develops in the
pilgrim/poet by contemplating and
experiencing and writing about the literal
evening. Literal evening is not just associated
with but actually helps cause this wonderful
calm, happy, contemplative, intelligent, happy,
open, creative, sympathetic state of mind, the
state that feeds Fancy (as in the writing of this
poem), Friendship, Science (that is knowledge
and learning), and for that matter physical, and
by extension mental, health.
Structure

There is not any specific rhyme scheme in

this text. It is in free verse. The rhythm
mostly depends on the rhyming of
neighboring words in a single line.
Therefore, the internal rhythm sustains the
flow.
It is composed in the iambic pentameter
and iambic trimeter alternatively. As the
structure imitates the poet’s state of mind,
so does its metrical scheme. The rising
rhythm depicts how he feels while talking
about the evening.
Literary Devices
In this poem, readers come across the use
of metonymy at first. The “oaten stop”
contains metonymy.
The poet uses personification for
infusing human-like qualities in the
evening. He compares it to the chaste
spirit in the second line. In the third
line, readers come across a simile.
The comparison is made between the
solemn sound during the evening to
the song of the poet.
In “dying gales,” there is a
personal metaphor. One can find the
use of an apostrophe in the line, “O
nymph reserved, while now the bright-
haired sun.” In the phrase, “short shrill
shriek,” there is an alliteration of the
“s” sound. This phrase also contains
an onomatopoeia.
Readers can find a metaphor in the
usage of the word “pilgrim”. The poet
compares the sun to a pilgrim. He also
uses oxymoron, and synecdoche in
this poem.
Conclusion:
This poem points ahead. He is enabled by this
state of mind and moves forward. Ode to
Evening is one of the masterpieces of Collins.
Collins’ odes, do not point morals. Rather they
dramatically define their subject by building up
a personified and vividly pictured allegorical
character. it is the best of the mid-century odes
and provides a good bridge to the great
Romantic poets.

2. John Milton LAllegro :

John Milton’s respective poems “L’Allegro”

and “Il Penseroso” explore the value and
the pleasures that people take in two
competing but complementary lifestyles and
the attractions of two competing sources of
originative inspiration. “L’Allegro” is a
triumph of the eyeful of rural nature and
urban vitality and glorifies mirth and “Il
Penseroso” is somewhat melancholic,
describing the value of solitude, epic poetry,
tragic drama, and wistful life overall. While it
can be argued that the two poems gloat
entirely variegated realms of human life,
they can be analyzed together considering
they complement one another. The
combination of the two poems as the
juxtaposition between light and darkness as
crucial components of life can prepare
future poets.

The name of the poem “L’Allegro” is

translated as a cheerful person, which
immediately gives a track well-nigh the
piece’s content, tone, and mood. The lyric
poem centers virtually the theme of
enjoying one’s life and the delights that
mother nature has to offer. It is set in the
mind of the speaker as he is in vaticination
of the pleasures he will enjoy when a warm
and heady spring day comes. The
excitement with the coming of spring is
illustrated in such lines as: “The frolic wind
that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with
Aurora playing, As he met her once a-
Mating, There on beds of violets blue, And
fresh-blown roses wash’d in dew” (Milton
“L’Allegro”). In his desire to live through the
days filled with joy and happiness, the
poem’s protagonist pushes Melancholy
yonder from his life, telling it to find a place
among the Cimmerians, those who live in
darkness and solitude. To replace
Melancholy, the speaker invites
Euphrosyne, the goddess of joy, who could
bring him “heart-easing Mirth” (Milton
“L’Allegro”). Spring comes and banishes
darkness, bringing smiles and cheerfulness
to people in idyllic small towns.
The snippets describing the joyful life in
springtime are significant for transferring
the mood and the tone of the poem. For
example, the speaker notices a group of
shepherds counting their sheep, imagining
that “every shepherd tells his tale under the
hawthorn in the dale” (Milton “L’Allegro”).
The nomination of language is illustrated in
the unravelment of meadows full of flowers,
mountains covered with clouds, and people
telling stories to one flipside over ale:
“Meadows trim with Daisies pide, Shallow
Brooks, and Rivers wide” (Milton
“L’Allegro”). Overall, the descriptions of
idyllic life in the countryside and the cities
show that spring is the time to move yonder
from sadness and Melancholy and start
enjoying one’s life to the fullest extent.
Light and darkness go hand-in-hand, and “Il
Penseroso,” stuff the companion poem to
“L’Allegro,” explores the theme that is
polarly opposite. The imagery of the poem
is reflected in the wording that expresses a
solemn tone: “And therefore to our weaker
view, Ore laid with woebegone staid
Wisdom hue” (Milton “Il Penseroso”). Also,
the speaker invokes the goddess
Melancholy: “Hail most divine Melancholy,”
and describes the value that one can get
from solitude, music, and other things that
are not joyful but rather sad and dramatic
(Milton “Il Penseroso”). In the poem, the
speaker starts by calling the “vain deluding
joys” to leave him, with Melancholy coming
along and bringing Peace, Quiet, Leisure,
Fast, and Contemplation. A nightingale
song that can interrupt the silence would be
welcome without the triumph and joy.
Therefore, the inside theme of the poem is
to embrace melancholy as a “sober,
steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of
darkest grain, Flowing with majestic train”
(Milton “Il Penseroso”). In the poem, the
speaker hails melancholy and invites it to
wilt a significant part of his life as it replaces
joy.

3. William Cowper :

William Cowper's mainly religiously inspired

poetry deals with Christian ideals and human
kindness. Considering that he was one of the
main read poets of his time, the themes and
topics covered in his poems are epitomes of
18th century weighing and worldview.

The Castaway
The story of the castaway starts with a storm in
unshut sea during the night. The main
protagonist is swept of his ship, left without
hope in the unshut ocean. He had sailed with
one of the weightier captains on the weightier
ship, but both were now lost to him. The poem
goes on describing his struggle, where he fights
the waves and calls out for his friends on the
ship to save him. However, no one comes to his
aid, as the storm blows them yonder and they
need to save themselves.

He is left vacated in the visionless ocean. He

does not finger hate or wrongness towards his
friends, as he knows that only their deportment
could save them as well, however death does
not come lightly. A strong swimmer, he
manages to alimony unsinkable for quite some
time, crying and searching for help. Although all
is for naught and he finally sinks underneath
the waves. He dies vacated and forgotten. The
poem ends in three stanzas describing that
poetry did not cry for him, nor for myriad other
victims. It ends in a circumspection that in the
end everyone dies alone.

The Negro's Complaint

The poem is written in first-person narration

from the view of an African slave. The slave
recounts his home he lost and how he was sold
by Englishmen, only to make someone else
richer. He goes on in explaining that a soul
might be owned, but never a mind, questioning
what right the white man has to own him. Both
white and woebegone man are the same on the
inside, plane if their skin and hair might differ.
The slave goes on to contemplate why plants
(of the plantations where they are forced to
work) are so nonflexible to grow that only
human tears and sweat seem to make them
bigger. He compels the nonflexible masters to
consider their sugared confections from
whence the sugar came.

Within the next part the slave urges the white

slave owners to consider God's will in all of this.
He asked rhetorical questions urging them to
reconsider their position and the position of the
woebegone man. Is the destruction and slavery
of woebegone men God's will? No. He laments
the pain and ousting he and his fellows have to
endure to survive. The poem ends with a plea
to reconsider the position of skin verisimilitude
in the world and to destroy the tarnish on the
white's consciousness by freeing slaves and
reconsidering the relationship.
4. Thomas Gray - Elegy written in the
Country Churchyard :

Gray started writing “Elegy Written in a Country

Churchyard” without the death of his closest
friend Richard West in 1742. Gray was tightly
self-critical and wrung of failure, so he shelved
the poem for years. Without his aunt died in
November 1749 and his diaper friend Horace
Walpole was nearly murdered by two
highwaymen that same month, Gray began
seriously contemplating his own mortality. He
turned when to the poem he began with West’s
death and built off those lines to create “Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard,” a poem that
enabled him to consider his interpretation of
the afterlife.
Gray moved to Stoke Poges near St Giles’ Parish
Church, England, on June 3, 1750. He attended
Sunday service there and visited his aunt’s
grave. His mother and Gray himself were
sooner veiled there. That small country
denomination is largely thought to be the
setting of “Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard.”

Gray finished “Elegy Written in a Country

Churchyard” on June 12 and sent it to Walpole,
who used his social position to circulate it
throughout London society. By early 1751, Gray
received word that it would be published in
William Owen’s Magazine of Magazines on
February 16 without Gray's permission.
Walpole helped Gray get his own version of the
poem printed on February 15. When Owen
printed his version of “Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard” the next day, it was full of
errors and other issues.

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was

ultimately printed twelve times and reproduced
in various periodicals until 1765. It was included
in Gray’s 1753 Six Poems collection, his 1757
Odes, and in Robert Dodsley’s 1755 collection.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

Summary :

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

reflects on the death of worldwide people who
live ordinary lives that largely go unnoticed. The
speaker in the poem is walking through a rural
cemetery at sunset, reflecting on his own
mortality and that of the people veiled there.
The graves are simple and lack the elaborate
tombs of the wealthy and powerful. The
speaker reflects on the simple lives these
people must have lived, tending to their farms
and loving their families. Plane though they did
not live lives of grandeur, the speaker asserts
that their lives had meaning and were full of
ambition. He wonders how their lives might
have been variegated had they been born into
privilege or largest circumstances. Could the
people veiled here have been the next
unconfined poet or politician if given the
chance?

He argues that plane those who are happy with

power and money die the same deaths as the
worldwide folk. No value of power in life or a
fancy tomb in death will bring them back.
Finally, he reflects on his own inevitable death
and imagines the epitaph he wishes to have on
his grave.

Major Themes in “Elegy Written in a

Country Churchyard”:
Death, the transience of life and memento mori
are the major themes of this poem. Surrounded
by death, the poem provides various images
pointing out the unrelatedness between life
and death, the mortality and the difference
between variegated classes without death.
Throughout the poem, he develops the idea
that every glitter becomes rusted on the
squatter of death. He intends to present that
the members of the lower matriculation are
worthy of praise as compared to the upper
matriculation plane in the post-death period.
Their simple, unreadable graves requite a track
to their miserable lives. The poet refrains from
glorifying the virtues of the wealthy and famous
considering they enjoyed fame while they were
alive. He prefers supporting the morality and
decency of those who led woeful yet satisfied
life.

5. She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver

Goldsmith | Summary & Analysis :

"She Stoops to Conquer" by Oliver

Goldsmith is a comedy of manners
published in 1771 and first performed in
London in 1773. It is a delightful five-act
play that explores the role of social class,
one's place in society both socially and
economically, in 18th century England and is
still being performed today.
Setting & Characters :
 Anthony ''Tony'' Lumpkin: brother of
Kate from her mother's first marriage
 Kate Hardcastle: a young woman
whose father wants her to find a suitable
husband
 Constance Neville: Kate Hardcastle's
cousin who is staying in her home
 Mr. Hardcastle: father of Kate
 Mrs. Hardcastle: mother of Anthony
and Kate
 Sir Charles Marlow: a friend of Mr.
Hardcastle and father of young Charles
Marlow
 Young Mr. Charles Marlow: the
would-be suitor
  Mr. Hastings: a friend of Mr. Marlow
and secret suitor of Constance

She Stoops to Conquer Summary :

Tony Lumpkin is spoiled by his mother and

belittled by his stepfather, Mr. Hardcastle.
His mother is unswayable that he and his
cousin Constance Neville be married and
that Tony has wangle to Constance's fortune
in jewels. However, Tony doesn't want his
cousin, and his cousin once has a secret
suitor in Mr. George Hastings. He and
Constance, however, make a pretense of
stuff in love. Mr. Hardcastle's friend, Charles
Marlow, has a son that Mr. Hardcastle
would like as a husband for his daughter,
Kate Hardcastle. Mr. Hardcastle wants
someone who is unobtrusive and shy, while
Kate wants someone spirited and impudent.
Can they both get what they want? With
Tony's machinations, they just might.

Tony is in a tavern when young Mr. Charles

Marlow arrives with his friend, Mr. George
Hastings. They're lost and trying to find the
Hardcastle's country home so that Mr.
Marlow and Kate Hardcastle might be
introduced. Tony, without telling them who
he is, gives them directions to the house but
tells them that where they're going is
unquestionably an inn and that the
innkeeper (in reality, his stepfather) deludes
himself into thinking he's a gentleman. This
leads to a series of mishaps,
misunderstandings, and outright charade as
the two men victorious at Hardcastle's
home.

Young Charles Marlow treats Mr. Hardcastle

as a servant, makes all kinds of demands, is
rude and imperious. Mr. Hardcastle doesn't
realize that Marlow thinks he's staying at an
inn and is tumbled by this behavior.
Meanwhile, Hastings finds out that
Constance Neville, his love interest, is there.
She tells him the truth that this is a house,
not an inn, but he decides not to enlighten
Marlow and instead plot an elopement with
Constance. Constance, however, wants her
inheritance of jewels surpassing they run off
to France so that they have something they
can sell. Tony arrives and agrees to get the
jewels, which his mother has subconscious
inside her bedroom bureau. The two lovers
seem all set to run off.

While all this is going on, Marlow meets

Kate Hardcastle but is too shy to squint her
in the face. He's uncomfortable virtually
proper ladies and would just as soon have
an serried marriage than to go through all
the work of courtship. He is, however, well-
appointed with women of lower classes and
questionable morals. After a maid
enlightens Kate as to Marlow's weighing
that he's at an inn, she later disguises
herself as a barmaid and uses the language
of someone working in a tavern to converse
with Marlow. Marlow hands engages with
her, complimenting her on her looks and
trying to tempt her into an illicit
rendezvous, which she rebuffs. However,
she enjoys his company.

6. THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL :

Summary
Act 1
Lady Sneerwell confers with her teammate
Mr. Snake. He reassures her he has copied
and then submitted all the scandalous
articles, or "paragraphs," to be published in
the latest periodicals. Sneerwell's group of
gossipmongers, or those who spread gossip,
soon gathers. The group includes Joseph
Surface, Mrs. Candour, Sir Benjamin
Backbite, and Crabtree. Exchanging nasty
news well-nigh prominent socialites is their
only occupation. They are particularly
severe on Joseph's spendthrift brother,
Charles Surface, with whom the white-
haired Lady Sneerwell is secretly in love.
Maria, who is the object of Charles's
romantic sustentation (as well as Joseph's),
sweeps out of the room, repelled by the
group's malice.

At Sir Peter Teazle's house, Sir Peter laments

the end of bachelorhood. His new wife, a
young woman from the country, is unthrifty
and stubborn, refusing to unclose his
authority. Rowley make-believe formerly as
a steward for Sir Peter's family. He informs
Sir Peter that Sir Oliver Surface has just
returned from a long sojourn in the East
Indies.
Act 2
At Sir Peter's house, the Teazles quarrel
well-nigh Lady Teazle's unthrifty taste for
plush luxuries. She tells her husband
expenses are inevitable if a lady is to remain
in fashion. She reminds him he has
promised to trailblaze her on a visit to Lady
Sneerwell.

At Lady Sneerwell's the group of gossips

discuss women's excessive and
inappropriate use of cosmetics. Lady Teazle
joins in enthusiastically, while Sir Peter
comments on the conversation. Joseph tries
to printing his courtship of Maria, but he is
found in a compromising position by Lady
Teazle.
Sir Oliver Surface arrives at Sir Peter's house
and teases his old friend well-nigh the
latter's recent marriage. When the talk
turns to the weft and reputation of Sir
Oliver's two nephews, Joseph and Charles,
Sir Oliver declares he intends to test both
young men to find out their true nature.

Act 3
Sir Peter and Sir Oliver protract to discuss
how the latter's nephews should be tested.
With the help of Moses, a moneylender,
they decide that Sir Oliver will impersonate
a financier named Mr. Premium. He will
stipulate to provide the unthrifty Charles
with funds at an exorbitant rate of interest.
Lady Teazle enters. She and Sir Peter mart
pointed quips in flipside quarrel.

The disguised Sir Oliver makes his way with

Moses to Charles Surface's house, where
they are told by a taunting servant named
Trip that they must wait. Eventually Charles
agrees to receive them. Charles, who is
devoted to wine, women, and gambling, is
surrounded by friends, including Careless,
Sir Harry Bumper, and two gentlemen. After
a preliminary conversation, Charles agrees
to sell portraits of his siblings and relations
to "Premium" to raise the money he needs.

Act 4
In the picture room, Charles places his
family portraits on auction, with Careless
playing the role of auctioneer. Charles
refuses to sell only one picture: a portrait of
Sir Oliver! Touched, Sir Oliver remarks in an
whispered that he forgives Charles for all his
dissipation. Once the money has been
handed over, Charles generously dispatches
Rowley to requite 100 pounds to a needy
relative named Stanley.

Joseph Surface prepares for an assignation,

or romantic meeting, with Lady Teazle at
the library of his house—ostensibly to
evaluate Joseph's typesetting collection.
When she appears, she complains of Sir
Peter's suspicions of her. Joseph replies that
if she will requite him grounds for suspicion,
he will deserve his own distress. Before the
two can finish their talk, however, the
servant announces the inrush of Sir Peter
himself. Improvising quickly, Lady Teazle
hides overdue a screen. In a conversation,
Sir Peter confides to Joseph that he harbors
suspicions well-nigh his wife's policies with
Joseph's brother Charles. Joseph is the soul
of rectitude, but he panics when Charles is
spoken as a visitor and Sir Peter wants to
hibernate overdue the screen. He glimpses
a petticoat, but Joseph makes up an excuse,
saying that a "little French milliner" has
come to visit, and Sir Peter hides in a closet
instead.

The scene's ravages is compounded when

Lady Sneerwell's inrush is announced. This
is too much for Joseph, who races off to
deal with the latest crisis. Charles throws
lanugo the screen to reveal Lady Teazle.
Joseph reenters and lamely excuses himself,
but Lady Teazle disavows his explanations
and Sir Peter denounces him as a villain.

Act 5
It remains for Sir Oliver, this time disguised
as the poor relation Stanley, to test Joseph's
true character. In an witty scene, Joseph is
shown to be a dissembler, or a person
pretending to be something he is not, as
well as a hypocrite. He refuses to be
charitable to Stanley and speaks maliciously
of his uncle Oliver as well.
Lady Sneerwell's gossip whirligig
energetically debate what unquestionably
happened in Joseph's library. Some
requirement it was Charles who behaved
improperly, and some vituperation Joseph.
Some of the gossips predicate that a duel
was fought, but they disagree over the
weapons—swords or pistols. Sir Peter
himself soon appears, unwounded but
indignant. He demands that the
gossipmongers leave his house. On Rowley's
recommendation, he agrees to a
reconciliation with Lady Teazle.

In the play's final scene, set at Joseph

Surface's library, Lady Sneerwell and Joseph
glumly discuss their machinations regarding
Sir Peter, Charles, and Maria. In an witty
jumble of mistaken identities, Charles and
Joseph wrongly identify their own uncle as
Premium and as Stanley. Charles apologizes
to Sir Oliver for his disrespectful treatment
of the family portraits. Snake is unmasked
as a liar and a forger. Charles becomes
engaged to Maria, and the play ends on a
happy note.