Rachel Baack

Summary: The speaker describes a brief moment in which Lucifer “tired of his dark dominion.”

Summary: The speaker simultaneously describes the woman with whom he is in love and the nature that surrounds her.

Summary: The speaker has an encounter with the personified forms of Death and Life.

I have not read this entire work, but I have read the following pieces included in the work (each summarized with ratings):

• “The Courtship of the Youghy-Bonghy-Bò”: This poem tells the story of Youghy-Bonghy-Bò’s failed proposal to Lady Jingly. Despite its melancholy subject, the poem has a rather lighthearted tone, yet it perhaps touches on more serious questions regarding love and the reasons for marriage. Rating: 3.5/5
• “Incidents in the Life of my Uncle Arly”: The speaker tells the goofy story of his vagabond uncle who lived in the hills with a cricket on his nose. Rating: 2.5/5
• “The New Vestments”: This silly poem tells of a man who made and wore clothing made mostly of food. Rating: 1.5/5

Summary: The speaker conveys a sense of release and peace in their description of the way that the small kindnesses of strangers can lift the weight from one’s shoulders.

Summary: In this two-stanza poem, the speaker urges the reader to hold tightly to their dreams.

I have read the following poems included in this collection (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 affiring 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

I have read the following poems included in this collection (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 affiring 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 insists on his own unworthiness; God--referred to as Love in this poem--responds with an invitation to dine.

Summary: The speaker ponders the freeing, sanctifying nature of extreme unction, which is a Catholic sacrament in which someone who is sick to the point of being in danger of death is anointed by a priest, and he wonders what his experience of being on death’s door will be like.

Summary: The speaker of this poem, a poor clerk, philosophizes about his place in society and how his nature and will led him to that place. The poem raises questions of free will, social responsibility, and the quality of the inner life.

Summary: Ronald Reagan addresses the explosion of the Challenger, praising the bravery of its crew and offering comfort to their families and the nation.

Summary: After surviving a civil war in Sierra Leone in which he lost his family and was subsequently forced to fight as a child soldier, Ishmael Beah was adopted and moved to New York City at seventeen. In this short story, he recounts what it was like to adjust to his new life with peers whose childhoods were vastly different from his.

Summary: Dickie Jordan goes to take an intelligence test—one that all citizens must take upon turning twelve—and his parents worry about how he will fare.

Summary: This poem is told from the viewpoint of a prisoner. The man’s father was executed for his faith, and the man and his two living brothers were imprisoned for the same thing. The man recounts his many years spent in prison and the suffering he has endured.