Mamuns English Class

Summary of Some Poems

1. All people dream, but not equally.

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,

Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people,

For they dream their dreams with open eyes,

And make them come true.

Summary: Here in these lines, the poet expresses that the dreams of all people are not the same. Some people dream impractically at night. On the other hand, there are some people who dream with open eyes. The dreamers of the day are dangerous people. They dream to make their goal successful.

2. Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

Summary: Here in these lines, the poet expresses that everybody must hold his dream up. Without dream his life will be that of a broken winged bird which cannot fly. We cannot let our dreams die. It is because without dreams, our lives will be frozen with snow.

 

3. I love to rise in a summer morn,

When the birds sing on every tree;

The distant huntsman winds his horn,

And the skylark sings with me:

O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn,-

O it drives all joy away!

Under a cruel eye outworn,

The little ones spend the day

In sighing and dismay.

Ah! then at times I drooping sit,

And spend many an anxious hour;

Nor sit in learning’s bower,

Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy

Sit in a cage and sing?

How can a child, when fears annoy,

But droop his tender wing,

And forget his youthful spring!

Summary: Here in this poem, a young boy expresses his unhappiness with his school life. He aspires to enjoy summer’s days instead of going to school. But his all joys fade away as he has to go to school where he spends weary hours. He finds no attraction for his study. He considers himself a bird that can’t be caged, a bud that should not be nipped, a joy that should not be dismayed. So, he pleads his parents to rescue him from the drudgery of school.

4. O father and mother if buds are nipped,

And blossoms blown away;

And if the tender plants are stripped

Of their joy in the springing day,

By sorrow and care’s dismay,-

How shall the summer arise in joy,

Or the summer fruits appear?

Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,

Or bless the mellowing year,

When the blasts of winter appear?

Summary: Here in this poem, a child tells his parents that if the buds get spoilt, tender plants are stripped, the summer cannot reveal itself. He also tells that strong wind destroys everything. Similarly, childhood is the period when children grow up physically and mentally. So they should be allowed to grow in a pleasant and healthy atmosphere.

5. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man’s ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen

Because thou art not seen

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly;

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot;

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly.......

Summary: Here in this poem, the hypocrisy of human relationship is expressed. According to the poet, human nature is far crueler than nature itself. He is uttering a lamentation for true love. Most of the friendship and love are false. The virtue of nature and the purity are everlasting or evergreen. The sting of winter blow causes less pain than a friend who does not remember. Nature does not betray but human does.

6. I will rise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee

And live alone in the bee loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings.

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Summary: Here in this poem, the poet longs for peace and serenity. Even though he lives in an urban place with paved roads, deep down to the rural sounds. So, the theme of the poem is the poet’s desire to escape from his present life to natural life.

7. I died for beauty, but was scarce

Adjusted in the tomb,

When one who died for truth was lain

In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?

“For beauty,” I replied.

“And for truth- the two are one;

We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a – night,

We talked between the rooms,

Until the moss had reached our lips,

And covered up our names.

Summary: The poem deals with the theme of beauty and truth. Here the poet means to say that truth and beauty are identical. They are portrayed as parallel in various ways. The poet  also implies that even such great principles as beauty and truth are subjects to the ravages of time.

8. Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me,

And turn his merry note

Unto the sweet bird’s throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,

And loves to live in the sun,

Seeking the food he eats,

And pleased with what he gets,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

Summary: The poem deals with the happiness and beauty of the pastoral life. The pastoral life is free from problems and difficulties except the displeasure of weather. It is also free from all enmity and petty rivalries. So, the theme of the poem is the supremacy of nature over courtly and artificial city life.

9. I sit on one of the dives

On fifty second street-

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire,

Of a low dishonest decade

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth.

Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odour of death

Offends the September night.

Summary: The theme of the poem is the destruction caused by the war and the present condition of the modern world. The poet here highlights the decline of humanity and the feelings of uncertainty and fear. Through a historical event, he points out that war brings nothing but death and sufferings.

10. I wondered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the starts that shine

And twinkle on the milky way

Along the margin of a bay.

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

Summary: The theme of the poem is the spiritual power of nature which can soothe the mind and remove loneliness. The poet here beautifully depicts nature at its best form and projects his extraordinary delight in exploring ordinary things.

11. Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Summary: The main theme of the poem is parental sacrifice and love. The poem deals with the sacrifices a father makes for his children. He bears all the pain to fulfill his responsibilities as a father. The speaker now appreciates his father’s selflessness while feeling a sense of regret for not ever thanking him.