Rachel Baack

I have not read this entire collection, but the works I have read are listed and rated below:

• “Ave Atque Vale”: The speaker mourns the death of the poet Charles Baudelaire. This poem provides a more hopeless view of death than many other poems do. Rating: 3.5/5
• “A Forsaken Garden”: The speaker conveys the hopelessness presented by the ultimate death of all things through his description of a desolate oceanside. Rating: 3/5
• “Hertha”: A goddess, who describes herself to be the one true source of all things, preaches to humanity a kind of humanistic religion which is to bring the death of all other religions. Rating: 4.5/5

• “Hymn to Porserpine”: After the issuance of the edict of Millan, the speaker contemplates the replacement of the pagan religion with Christianity and the change that time brings. He does not submit to Christianity’s rule, but instead submits to the goddess of death. Rating: 2.5/5
• “The Lake of Gaube”: The speaker demonstrates the need for fear for the health of the soul and life using the image of a diver diving deep into a lake and feeling the possibility of death all around him. Rating: 3.5/5
• “Poeta Loquitur”: Swinburne presents a parody of his own writing, saying that his poetry is no good and is nothing but wind. Rating: 2/5
• “Sonnet for a Picture”: The speaker parody’s the human view of passion and romance as the ultimate end/good. Rating: 2/5

This collection of poetry explores the wonder of existence in every form from the intangible, to the cosmic, to the infinitesimal.

Summary: The narrator of this poem, Cap, tells the tale of his journey seeking gold in the frigid Yukon. Sam McGee, before seemingly freezing to death, asks Cap to cremate his body. Cap complies, to surprising results.

I have not read this entire collection, but the poems I have read are listed and rated below:

• “Ardour and Memory”: The speaker explains that beauty resurfaces amidst darkness through memory. Rating: 1/5
• “Autumn Idleness": The speaker describes the frosty end of November in which he wanders, unsure what he should do. Rating: 1/5
• “Barren Spring”: The speaker notes the coming of spring, but his mood does not match the weather’s cheerfulness. Rating: 0.5/5
• “Body’s Beauty” or “Lady Lilith” or “Lilith”: The speaker addresses Lilith, who, according to legend, was Adam’s first wife and who has the power to ensnare men with her golden hair. Rating: 0.5/5
• “The One Hope”: The speaker posits that hope is the one thing left after all else is gone. Rating: 3/5
• “A Superscription”: A speaker that refers to itself as “Might-Have-Been” talks to an audience of one about love that could have been. Rating: 1/5
• “Willowwood”: The speaker describes a dreamlike happening in which he is spoken to by Love personified and gets to kiss his deceased wife again. Rating: 2/5

I have not read this entire collection, but the poems I have read are listed and rated below:

• “Ardour and Memory”: The speaker explains that beauty resurfaces amidst darkness through memory. Rating: 1/5
• “Autumn Idleness": The speaker describes the frosty end of November in which he wanders, unsure what he should do. Rating: 1/5
• “Barren Spring”: The speaker notes the coming of spring, but his mood does not match the weather’s cheerfulness. Rating: 0.5/5
• “Body’s Beauty” or “Lady Lilith” or “Lilith”: The speaker addresses Lilith, who, according to legend, was Adam’s first wife and who has the power to ensnare men with her golden hair. Rating: 0.5/5
• “The One Hope”: The speaker posits that hope is the one thing left after all else is gone. Rating: 3/5
• “A Superscription”: A speaker that refers to itself as “Might-Have-Been” talks to an audience of one about love that could have been. Rating: 1/5
• “Willowwood”: The speaker describes a dreamlike happening in which he is spoken to by Love personified and gets to kiss his deceased wife again. Rating: 2/5

I have not read this entire anthology, but the works included in it that I have read are listed and rated below:

• “Autumn Idleness” (from “The House of Life: A Sonnet Sequence”): The speaker describes the frosty end of November in which he wanders, unsure what he should do. Rating: 1/5
• “The Blessed Damozel”: This poem tells of two lovers who have been separated by the death. The woman, the “blessed damozel,” has died and left her lover alive without her. In this poem, the lovers are able to communicate, as the young woman is conflicted about fully entering into the afterlife without her love and has not yet done so. Rating: 2/5
• "The Orchard Pit": The speaker describes a recurring dream in which he sees the sinister Belle Dame, who has "eyes of Death" watching some people in the orchard pit. Rating: 1/5
• “Sestina. Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni”: This poem is a personification of stones and comparison of them to a lady. It was originally written by Dante Alighieri and translated by Rossetti. Rating: 2/5

• “Sudden Light”: A short poem that expresses the feeling of having the same experiences once before. Rating: 2/5
• "The Woodspurge": The speaker recounts his experience of simple observation amidst grief. Rating: 3.5/5

I have only read the title story from this collection. The following is a summary of "Button, Button": A couple must decide what to do when presented with a button, the pressing of which with result in the couple receiving $50,000 while someone they don’t know dies.

I have read the following poems included in this collection (listed with ratings):

• “The Church of a Dream”: The speaker paints a picture of a desolate church that has been forgotten by all but one priest who faithfully ministers there. Rating: 4/5
• “Dark Angel”: The speaker speaks to a torturing spirit. He says that the Dark Angel sours everything that is beautiful, but he is determined to defeat this evil spirit. Rating: 4.5/5
• “To Morfydd”: This poem has been called a “disembodied love lyric.” Rating: 2.5/5

I have read the following poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (listed below with ratings):

• “Carrion Comfort”: The speaker describes his despair and wrestling with God. Rating: 4/5
• “God’s Grandeur”: The speaker lauds the inexhaustible glory with which God has endowed nature, which is not diminished by the actions of people. Rating: 2/5
• “Inversnaid”: The speaker expresses his desire that the wilderness remain present using the example of a river. Rating: 1.5/5
• “I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark”: The speaker laments the metaphorical darkness he finds himself in, a darkness which he believes is barely better than the darkness of hell. Rating: 2.5/5
• “No Worst, There is None”: The speaker expresses the agony of religious despair and the inward torture that humans can experience. Rating: 3/5
• “Pied Beauty”: The speaker praises the ever-beautiful God for the beauty of “dappled,” or spotted/patched things. Rating: 1.5/5
• “Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves”: In this poem, a seer reads some leaves to prophesy about the Apocalypse and the condition of humanity. Rating: 2/5
• “Spring”: The uses the beauty of spring to frame his plea to God to preserve young minds. Rating: 1/5
• “That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection”: The speaker says that everything is done away with by nature but takes comfort in the knowledge that humans will live again in the Resurrection of Christ. Rating: 3/5
• “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord”: The speaker asks God why he allows him to suffer and sinners to thrive, all while affirming that God is just. Rating: 3/5
• “To R. B.”: This is Hopkins’ poem about the poetic process. He explains that poetry begins with a spark of inspiration, is formed in the mind of the poet, and finally comes out in the form of a poem, which may or may not be any good. Rating: 1/5
• “The Windhover”: The speaker realizes the superior vastness of God’s glory in light of his observation of a hawk. Rating: 1/5

Summary: The speaker expresses his longing for a past love and says that he has been faithful to her in his own way, even though he has tried to drown the memory of her.