Unpacking Poetry
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Sylvia Plath – Spinster
in PoetryThis final stanza is horribly defensive with its ‘barb and check’. Suddenly we’re in a war-zone, under attack, fighting for our lives.
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John Donne – The Canonization
in PoetryEver been in a relationship your parents / careers disapproved of? In this reading, John Donne privately vents all the things he -wished- he’d said to his disapproving father-in-law..
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Philip Larkin – Talking in Bed
in PoetryAs BB King might sing, ‘The thrill is gone’. But Larkin’s speaker – arguably Larkin himself – lacks the courage to end the relationship.
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RS Thomas – ‘Cynddylan On A Tractor’
in PoetryAn old Welsh hero on a modern steed, or a traitor to his culture, and a way of life which is struggling to survive the twentieth century? Analysis with clarity. Commentary with heart.
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Christina Rossetti – ‘No, Thank You, John.’
in PoetryRossetti employs commas like stun grenades, in the final line of this surprisingly modern poem about unwanted attention.
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson – ‘The Eagle’
in PoetryDon’t be fooled by this poem’s brevity. Tennyson ‘could polish a pebble until it became a gem’, and that’s what he does here.