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Emily Dickinson’s “All overgrown by cunning moss”
Emily Dickinson’s “All overgrown by cunning moss” muses on death and the nature of absence in art. The speaker expresses her little drama though images from nature employing the poetic devices of metaphor and paradox. She, however, retains a mystery linked to the ineffable soul
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "At the Fountain of Song"
The speaker/devotee in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "At the Fountain of Song" dramatizes his search for self-realization, elucidating the nature of light and sound.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Hon. Henry Bennett"
Henry Bennett is a pathetic character, who realizes too late that he has been played for fool by his wife.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Cup of Eternity"
The omniscient speaker Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Cup of Eternity" metaphorically compares a thirsty traveler to a spiritual seeker on the path to soul-realization.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "George Gray"
The boat with furled sail chiseled on his tombstone prompts George Gray to speculate about his stalled life.
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Ellen Kay's "Pathedy of Manners"
The woman's life in Ellen Kay's "Pathedy of Manners" is deemed by the speaker to be without value, even pitiable, even though the intelligent woman has a first class education and is from the upper class in social status. But can this speaker be trusted?
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thy Homecoming"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Thy Homecoming” is the result of a vision that the great guru/poet experienced, as he explains in the epigram that opens the poem.
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Walt Whitman’s "Cavalry Crossing a Ford” and "Song of the Banner at Daybreak"
Walt Whitman wrote many poems that showcased the poet's strong patriotism and love for his country. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" and "Song of the Banner at Daybreak" are from the Civil War era. Whitman served the wounded soldiers on the battlefield and in field hospitals.
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Emily Dickinson’s “The reticent volcano keeps”
The speaker in Emily Dickinson's "The reticent volcano keeps" is musing on the nature of silence and secrets, transforming metaphorically a volcano into a figure of thoughtful restraint. This idea creates a paradox that challenges the nature and purpose of human speech.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Great Lightland"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Great Lightland" is giving listeners a glimpse of what he sees and then demonstrates gratitude for his attainment.
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Original Poem: “Joy Approaches” with Prose Commentary
My original poem “Joy Approaches” is exploring the nature of joy, love, truth, and their necessity for the spiritual path. The spiritual journey is often expressed metaphorically as walking or traveling on a “spiritual path.”
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thou in Me"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thou in Me" celebrates the union of the individual soul with Divinity or the Over-Soul, as Ralph Waldo Emerson called it.
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Lyric Poetry: A Brief Introduction
The most common form of poetry is the lyric poem. While narrative poetry, including epics, convey a story, the lyric dramatizes an emotional effusion, customarily filled with colorful images, metaphors, and other poetic devices.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "My Mother's Eyes"
Paramahansa Yogananda's phrase, "two black eyes," became a symbol of love, prompted by the memory of his earthly mother's eyes as she cared for him, soothing his childhood trials and tribulations.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Herbert Marshall"
In this American-Innovative sonnet, “Herbert Marshall” is responding to the report delivered by “Louise Smith,” the speaker of the preceding epitaph.
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Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing"
In "I Hear America Singing," Walt Whitman’s speaker is offering a musical tribute to the laborers of America as they "sing," that is, work cheerfully. This 19th century hat-tip also recognizes the partiers who fill the night time with their good cheer.
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Malcolm M. Sedam’s “The Hill Maiden”
Malcolm M. Sedam's "The Hill Maiden" features a teacher dramatizing his thought of an good student who is inquisitive but who remains darkly melancholy. His purpose is to instill in the student the idea that she will ultimately be able to appreciate the life that she currently disdains.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Divine Love Sorrows"
The epigraphic inscription accompanying "Divine Love Sorrows" states, "The music of Fritz Kreisler’s ‘Liebesleid’ inspired Paramahansaji to write these words for it."
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Phillis Wheatley's "An Hymn to the Morning"
Phillis Wheatley was influenced by Greek and Roman classical literature, as well as by early 18th century British poets, who were also influenced by that same literature.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Too Near"
According to yogic teachings, the Blessèd Creator has become many souls that reside in many hearts and minds. Each heart's highest duty is to realize its own divine nature.
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Vachel Lindsay's “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight’’
One of Vachel Lindsay's most noted poems focuses on Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth American president. In this elegy, Lincoln strolls about “at Midnight” contemplating the tragedy of nations in on the brink of a world war. The American Civil War president wonders therefore about his own legacy.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "In Me"
The unity of all natural phenomena exists for the self-realized individual, who can then chant that all is "in me."
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Louise Smith"
In Edgar Lee Masters' American sonnet, “Louise Smith” is a woman, who was jilted after an eight-year engagement.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Samadhi"
Paramahansa Yogananda's poem, "Samadhi," describes the state of consciousness, to which the great guru's teachings lead those who follow those teachings.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "To the Aurora Borealis"
The speaker in "To the Aurora Borealis" compares the awe-inspiring northern lights to the inner vision experienced in divine perfect union of soul and Divinity.
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Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus"
Sylvia Plath's use of surreal distortion overlays her poems with a fun-house mirror veneer. "Lady Lazarus," which is one of her most anthologized pieces, exemplifies that technique of employing distortion for literary purposes.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "I Am He"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s "I Am He" is based on Swami Shankara's chant, "No Birth, No Death," which is often performed in the meditation services of Self-Realization Fellowship.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Nellie Clark"
Nellie Clark’s report focuses on the traumatic event she experienced at only eight years of age.
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Life Sketch of Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath remains one of the most influential yet controversial literary figures in American letters. Unfortunately, a cadre of feminist critics, glomming onto Plath's mental health issues, have sullied her literary reputation, imputing to it an undeserved one-dimensional character.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "My Kinsmen"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "My Kinsmen" declares his unity with all of creation, celebrating the progression of stages through which he has evolved.
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Edgar Lees Masters’ "Deacon Taylor," "Sam Hookey," and "Cooney Potter"
These three very short epitaphs from Edgar Lee Masters’ American Classic Spoon River Anthology feature diverse characters making bizarre confessions.
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Original Poems: A Suite of Eight Villanelles
For most of my poetry writing career, I have created poems in free verse. But a few years ago, I tried sonnets, enjoyed it, and I have now discovered the joys of the villanelle, likely the most highly structured poetry form in the English language. Here are eight of my recent efforts.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Friendship"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda's poem, "Friendship," explores and dramatizes the unique bond that exists between friends and reveals its rôle in serving soul progress on the spiritual path.
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Life Sketch of Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman remains one of the most important poets in American history. He has influenced every generation of poets since he first began to publish. He is rightly credited for leading American poetry into modernity. His long-lined, sprawling style is always easily recognized.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Homer Clapp"
"Homer Clapp" is the third epitaph in the series which began with "Aner Clute." Homer is a pitiful character, who feels sorry for himself because of how he was treated by Aner Clute.
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Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d"
Walt Whitman's admiration for President Lincoln is dramatized in the poet's elegy "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d," mourning the death while celebrating the presidency of the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Luther Burbank"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s tribute to the great horticulturist, Luther Burbank, demonstrates that an Eastern yogi and a Western scientist have much in common in their pursuit of truth.
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s "A Psalm of Life"
The speaker in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s "A Psalm of Life" is offering sage advice regarding the notion that each individual must face life with determination to be successful and fulfill one’s life achievements. The alternative renders the soul dead or simply slumbering without purpose.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Lucius Atherton"
The "Lucius Atherton" epitaph reveals a truly depraved and delusional man who decries his aging body simply because it no longer attracts women.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Aner Clute"
Edgar Lee Masters’ speaker in "Aner Clute" compares her choosing "the life" to a boy stealing an apple from a grocery store.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Tattered Dress"
The metaphor of a dress works to describe the relationship of the physical body to the soul. Thus dying because of karma and reincarnation is simply changing one old tattered dress of a physical body for a fresh new one.
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Standard English and Non-Standard Dialects
While Standard English remains of vital importance for widespread communication, a rich tapestry of non-standard dialects offers a colorful variety of communications for the communities that employ them.
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Billy Collins' "The Blues"
The speaker in Billy Collins' "The Blues" reveals his impression of what that style of music is all about.
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Life Sketch of Edward Thomas, Plus Robert Frost’s "To E. T."
British poet, Edward Thomas, who was killed in the Battle of Arras during World War I, may be most famous for his friendship with American poet, Robert Frost, who penned his important poetic tribute—"To E. T."— to his friend after the second lieutenant’s becoming a war casualty.
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Billy Collins' "The Golden Years"
The retired speaker of Billy Collins' Shakespearean sonnet "The Golden Years" offers an amusing conversational cogitation about the names of retirement communities, whose names often do not correspond to their function.
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Rabindranath Tagore's "Light the Lamp of Thy Love"
Rabindranath Tagore’s poem "Light the Lamp of Thy Love" is a devotional lyric that expresses the speaker’s longing for self-realization. Through colorful imagery, the poem explores themes of transformation, redemption, and the transcendence of human limitation through spiritual awakening.
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Edgar Allan Poe's "The Sleeper"
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Sleeper" takes as its subject a beautiful woman in death, the subject that Poe claimed in his essay, "The Philosophy of Composition," to be the most poetic.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Little Eternity"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s poem, "The Little Eternity," reveals the problematic human condition while supplying the solution that assuages the terror of that condition.
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Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee"
Edgar Allan Poe opined, "the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." That is the poet's opinion, and it is interesting to observe how he goes about composing according to his notion.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "A Milk-White Sail"
Consisting of only six lines, Paramahansa Yogananda's "A Milk-White Sail, " a marvelously descriptive verse, features a speaker who is finding himself approaching a difficulty, when suddenly he discovers he can move swiftly past the problem.
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Life Sketch of Edgar Allan Poe
Ralph Waldo Emerson, finding Poe’s penchant for rime as bit much, labeled his contemporary, the "jingle man." But Poe’s literary chops have proven more valuable to the written word than a mere rimer.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "What Is Love?"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda's "What Is Love?" is offering a dramatic definition of the term, "love," which demonstrates love’s importance for success and advancement along the spiritual path as well as in daily earth life.
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William Butler Yeats’ "A Vision"
William Butler Yeats' reputation stands him as one of the towering figures of twentieth-century poetry, a master whose lyrical skill and evocative imagery earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Splinters of Thy Love"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Splinters of Thy Love" is metaphorically comparing God’s sparks of love that exist in all human hearts to small strips of wood lying about ready to be collected into one strong mass.
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Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
The speaker in Wilfred Owen's Italian sonnet "Anthem for Doomed Youth" dramatizes hatred of war by creating a deeply bitter irony, pitting religious ceremony against reality of the battlefield.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Breathe in Me"
In Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Breathe in Me," the speaker is addressing the Divine Reality, as he seeks the ability to increase his love for his Creator. In the second versagraph, the speaker employs a chant-like sequence to emphasize the nature of his Divine Belovèd.
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John Keats' "To Autumn"
The autumn season provides an essence of a delicately poetic season. Likely, more poems have been created about autumn than any other season. Beauty tinged with melancholy offers an enticing subject. Keats' "To Autumn" celebrated the season's beauty as well as its melancholy.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "My Cosmic Mother’s Face"
At age eleven, Paramahansa Yogananda grieved the loss of his mother, but his spiritual nature impelled his search for and ultimate success in realizing his Divine Mother.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Two Black Eyes"
The phrase "two black eyes" operates both as an image and also as a symbol of eternal, spiritual love in Paramahansa Yogananda's poems about his belovèd mother. For the guru as Mukunda, a child, those eyes symbolized unconditional love and unfailing protection.
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John Keats' "In drear-nighted December"
John Keats' poem, "In drear nighted December," dramatizes the constancy of things in nature—a tree and a brook—while showing how different the human heart behaves. The behavior of those natural elements becomes a Romantic symbol for human beings to cognize their inner divinity.
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Original Short Fiction: Graveyard Whistler Modernizes the Shakespeare Sonnets
Hello! Long time no see. I've been busy with a new avocation. I have fallen so deeply in love with the creative process that I have started to revisit the idea of actually doing some creative writing, and so I've started a new project: modernizing the Shakespeare sonnets.
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Sharon Olds' "The Victims"
In her customary fashion, poetaster Sharon Olds offers up this deeply flawed, dishonest hit-piece, "The Victims," which does little more for humanity than showcase a handful of stark images.
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Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry"
Billy Collins served as poet laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. As part of his laureate duties, he instituted the project titled, "Poetry 180 / A Poem a Day for American High Schools."
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Original Poems: "Forget the Past" - A Suite of 10 Sonnets
"Forget the Past" is my original 10-sonnet sequence. The sonnet forms include the Petrarchan, the Shakespearean, the Miltonic, and the American-Innovative.
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George Gordon, Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty"
The speaker in Lord Byron's poem, "She Walks in Beauty," fulfills the prototypical theme of the Romantic Movement's conception of idealized beauty.
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Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Renascence"
Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Renascence" dramatizes a mystical experience that results in the speaker's new birth, realizing the depth of love and the power of the soul.
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Emily Dickinson's "The Soul selects her own Society"
Emily Dickinson’s "The Soul selects her own Society" portrays the nature of individual self-sufficiency, spiritual power, and the deliberate choice of isolation over social engagement. The result is a positive statement that the strength of the soul remains ascendent, despite a world of chaos.
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Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"
Wilfred Owen's war poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est," dramatizes the misery of war by portraying a scene with a soldier killed by mustard gas.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "One Friend"
Paramahansa Yogananda's "One Friend" is an eight-line poem that gives the human heart and mind a balm for living in the knowledge that each individual is eternally blessed to have an omniscient, omnipresent true Friend, Who is also the Creator of all creation.
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An Ancient Egyptian Poem: "Your Love, Dear Man, is as Lovely to Me"
The name of the poet is unknown, but it was translated by John L. Foster; this poem offers a glimpse of an ancient culture. Because it is a translation, its accuracy cannot be affirmed.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Invisible Mother"
Paramahansa Yogananda's "Invisible Mother" offers a unique description of God in His aspect as the Mother of creation. The speaker also reveals his closeness with that aspect as he demands a personal visitation from the Cosmic Mother.
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Banjo Paterson's "Clancy of the Overflow"
A city-dweller, painting a picture of dirt, noise, and hustling about in the city, imagines what his life would be like if he could trade places with a drover (cowboy) in the outback, where life would be grounded in nature with many pleasurable sights and sounds.
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Henry Lawson's "Ballad of the Drover"
In Henry Lawson’s "Ballad of the Drover," the sound of camp gear clanging as the horses thunder along becomes a melancholy image and refrain.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Yogoda Dream Hermitage – A Dream Dropped from Heaven"
Paramahansa Yogananda describes his experience upon receiving a gift of the grounds of his Encinitas Hermitage and Meditation Gardens from his belovèd disciple, Mr. James J. Lynn, whose monastic name is Rajarsi Janakananda.
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Life Sketch of Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox remains one of those rare poets, who managed to sustain herself financially through their writing. Her positive outlook could be a useful corrective to the postmodern bent toward the dark and ugly side of life.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "On Coming to the New-Old Land—America"
The great guru/poet Paramahansa Yogananda was born on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India. He arrived in America in September 1920 and in 1925 established his international headquarters in Los Angeles for his organization Self-Realization Fellowship.
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Life Sketch of Walter de la Mare
Walter de la Mare is one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated poets in the Western world. His works yoke together the physical and spiritual levels of being in entertaining and enlightening ways.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Variety"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Variety" muses on the vast number of people and things in creation and the fact that there are never two individual persons or things that are exactly the same.
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Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
Thomas Gray's elegy describes a beautiful scene in the country landscape, as the speaker muses upon the life and death of rustic, simple folk in the pastoral setting.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Scenes Within"
After observing the Rocky Mountain area near Denver, Colorado, the great guru Paramahansa Yogananda employs the wondrous mountain scenery as a metaphor to examine and describe the inner beauty that he finds within the hearts, minds, and souls of his fellow human beings.
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Walt Whitman's "Passage to India"
The deathbed edition of Walt Whitman's "Passage to India" consists of nine parts, featuring his sprawling signature style, in which an omniscient speaker offers a colorful history of world civilization from earliest times to his own contemporary period.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "City Drum"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "City Drum" is dramatizing the glory of simply waking up in the morning to the sounds of a city as it begins an ordinary yet miraculous day.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Willard Fluke"
The character, Willard Fluke, is spared an ignominious confession but at a great price.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Ever New"
Each day offers the opportunity for new experiences. The nature of creation has established such a changing world that the "ever new" is always in the offering. No one has to strive for newness; one simply has to be open to it.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Justice Arnett"
Justice Arnett is featured in his own poem where he demonstrates weakness and confusion, commensurate with many other of his fellow citizens of Spoon River.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Flower Offering"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s speaker of "Flower Offering" is demonstrating the power of making a humble offering at the feet of the Belovèd Creator-Father.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Lois Spears"
The epitaph and character of "Lois Spears" will delight readers who have grown somewhat jaded with the jaded characters offered them in Masters’ Spoon River Anthology.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "What Use?"
Through a series of rhetorical questions, the speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda's "What Use?" dramatizes and emphasizes the connate use of each human faculty: eyes, hands, feet, ears, reason, will, feeling, and love.
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Howard Nemerov's "Writing"
The speaker of Nemerov's "Writing" celebrates his joy and fascination with the artifacts of chirography, concluding with a philosophical aside.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Tattered Garment"
In Paramahansa Yogananda's "Tattered Garment," the speaker creates a little drama that compares the human body's relationship to clothing to the soul's relationship to the body (physical encasement).
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Howard Nemerov's "Grace to Be Said at the Supermarket"
Howard Nemerov's "Grace to be Said at the Supermarket" might delight non-meat eaters, but it is not likely the poet had them in mind when he penned this poem.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "I Was Made for Thee"
Paramahansa Yogananda's poem "I Was Made for Thee" portrays the attitude of the spiritual aspirant who understands the spiritual goal of realizing the divine nature within each human being.
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Dana Gioia's "The Sunday News"
The speaker in Dana Gioia's "The Sunday News" gets a blast from the past after sighting a wedding notice in his Sunday newspaper.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Thou and I Are One"
The speaker is addressing the Divine Essence, offering a catalogue of all the ways the seemingly separate entities, in fact, make up a single unity.
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Brian Turner's "Here, Bullet"
The speaker in Brian Turner's modern classic, "Here, Bullet," dramatizes the transformation of fear that produces and distinguishes heroes.
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Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died"
Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died" dramatizes the speaker's act of dying, as well as Dickinson's mystical vision, which corresponds to yogic philosophical and religious teachings.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thy Divine Gypsy"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thy Divine Gypsy" is on a sacred journey; he is dramatizing his enjoyment of certain wholesome aspects of creation, as he experiences them during his trek to his goal, unity with his Belovèd Creator.
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Philip Larkin's "Here"
The speaker of Philip Larkin's "Here" remains a vague presence; however, the speaker's mood and character might be discerned by merely observing his choices of images for display.
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Life Sketch of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson, born in Boston, overcame early poverty, later becoming a major figure in the Transcendental Movement. His essays, such as "Self-Reliance," shaped American individualism; his lectures and activism left a lasting legacy bridging romanticism and pragmatism.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Make Us Thyself"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Make Us Thyself" is dramatizing his earthly sojourn as a dream, querying the Divine Belovèd about the nature of reality and dreams, while supplicating for the succor of understanding for all created beings.
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Philip Freneau’s "On the Religion of Nature"
Philip Freneau’s "On the Religion of Nature" celebrates a natural, inherent faith. The poem explores deistic themes, optimism, and rejection of dogma, a testament to Freneau’s vision of a universal, benevolent religion.
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Six Poems of Occasion: A Summary of American Inaugural Doggerel
The tradition of inaugural poetry in the United States, while relatively young, has become a significant cultural touchstone. However, a critical examination of these pieces reveals a troubling pattern of failure—with the notable exception of Robert Frost's "The Gift Outright."
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Undying Beauty"
The speaker is dramatizing the life and death of a rose, revealing that the rose’s soul of beauty outlives its physical vehicle. According to the great guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, it is a scientific as well as spiritual truth that the soul of every living entity exists eternally.
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Emily Dickinson’s "Two Butterflies went out at Noon"
Emily Dickinson possessed the gift of mystic vision, and that vision is displayed brilliantly in this enchanting poem that dramatizes two butterflies embarking on a mystical flight. The poem offers a glimpse into Dickinson's ability to blend nature with transcendental themes.
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Miller Williams’ "Of History and Hope"
Like the other inaugural monstrosities that have gone one before and after, this effort by Miller Williams lacks the vision and skill required to rise to the level of a heartfelt, mind-challenging piece of art.
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Maya Angelou’s "On the Pulse of Morning"
Maya Angelou read her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, January 20, 1993. It was the first time a poem had been included in this ceremony since 1961, when aging poet Robert Frost plied his wares to celebrate John F. Kennedy's swearing-in.
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Richard Blanco's "One Today"
Celebrating the second inauguration of Barack Obama, Richard Blanco read his inaugural contribution, "One Today," which now takes its place among the other inaugural poetic mediocrities, which began with Robert Frost in 1961 at the swearing-in of John F. Kennedy.
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Robert Frost: The First American Inaugural Poet
Frost had intended to preface his recitation of "The Gift Outright" with a recently created "Dedication," but the sun rendered Frost’s reading impossible, so he dropped "Dedication" but continued on to recite "The Gift Outright" from memory.
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Countée Cullen's "Simon the Cyrenian Speaks"
Virtually nothing is known about Simon of Cyrene. He is mentioned in three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke yet omitted by John.
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Emily Dickinson's "The Brain – is wider than the Sky"
Emily Dickinson's poem, "The Brain – is wider than the Sky," compares and contrasts the human brain/mind with the sky, the sea, and God.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Blood of the Rose"
The speaker in the great guru’s "The Blood of the Rose" is revealing his connection to the soul of the rose, won through his remorse after picking the flower.
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Original Poem: "The Politics of Crickets" with Prose Commentary
The theme of "The Politics of Crickets" is influenced by Ronald Reagan’s assertion that "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction" ; it employs the use of metaphor and allegory to examine the fragile nature of liberty and the forces that threaten its endurance.
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William Butler Yeats’ "Sailing to Byzantium"
William Butler Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" is a profound meditation on aging, art, and the quest for spiritual transcendence, despite his failure to clearly grasp the Eastern religious/philosophical concepts he strived to portray.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Protecting Thorns"
The speaker in "Protecting Thorns" is dramatizing the contrast between the attainment of beauty and the struggle for possession.
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Life Sketch of Countée Cullen
Countée Cullen (1903–1946) was a prominent American poet and one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Original Poem: "In the Tops of the Trees" with Prose Commentary
The poem "In the Tops of the Trees" intertwines biblical references with contemporary vernacular, creating a striking juxtaposition that challenges the reader's perceptions of authorship and the nature of inspiration.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "'Tis All Unknown"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "'Tis All Unknown" metaphorically likens the dawning of day and the unfolding of rosebud petals to the beauty of the opening of human consciousness.
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Life Sketch of William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats possessed a lifelong dedication to the cultural and political rebirth of Ireland. He experienced life as a poet, playwright, and senator as he lived during turbulent shifts in Irish politics. He had a lifelong unquenchable thirst for artistic and spiritual truth.
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Amanda Gorman’s "The Hill We Climb"
Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," delivered in 2021 at the Biden presidential inauguration, has been widely praised as a powerful piece of poetry. However, upon closer examination, this doggerel reveals itself to be more akin to political propaganda than genuine verse.
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Original Short Fiction: "A Fall"
Betty Jackson began her freshman year at Ball State Teachers College with hopes of becoming an English teacher like her favorite high school teacher Mrs. Daisy Slone, an avid Shakespeare fan and scholar.
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Common's "A Letter to the Law"
Hip-Hop artist Lonnie Rashid Lynn, a.k.a. Common, has concocted a "conscious art" drama, calling for peace in a colorful style, employing the Rap/Hip-Hop form, turning upside down actual events to his advantage and propagandistic legend into theatre.
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Life Sketch of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was a poet of exceptional originality, with an innovative approach to language. He remains one of English literature's most enigmatic figures—a poet-priest whose work combines Victorian sensibilities with modernist experimentation.
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Carolyn Kizer's "Night Sounds"
The speaker in Carolyn Kizer's "Night Sounds" is a woman facing the "terror and nostalgia" of living alone. She focuses on the sounds of the night that keep her awake.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "For Thee and Thine"
In Paramahansa Yogananda’s poem, "For Thee and Thine," the speaker dramatizes his spiritual journey, which includes the enjoyment of all wholesome earthly things.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thy Call"
In Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Thy Call," the speaker is dramatizing the inner sanctuary which he can summon even in the midst of the day’s din of activity by merely focusing on the presence of his Creator. As he describes his own experience, he teaches others how to emulate his abilities.
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Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus"
Emma Lazarus’ Petrarchan sonnet, "The New Colossus," became a symbol for great opportunities of freedom.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Paupack’s Peak"
As Paramahansa Yogananda’s speaker in "Paupack’s Peak” describes a journey through a forest, he reveals the heart of beauty and how that beauty signals the presence of the Divine Creator.
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Rita Dove's "Adolescence I, II, III"
In her "Adolescence" series of poems, former poet laureate Rita Dove creates a character, who is offering a unique three-pronged expression of the mind and vision of an adolescent girl.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Human Mind"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Human Mind" is composed of five quatrains, each contributing to the overarching narrative of spiritual progression. The varying rime schemes employed throughout the poem reflect the dynamic nature of the mind itself, with its fluctuating thoughts and moods.
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Emily Dickinson's "I robbed the Woods"
In "I robbed the Woods," Emily Dickinson creates a speaker who confesses to a crime: she has robbed the "trusting" woods and "unsuspecting" trees, and she later wonders what those natural beings will say about her brazen act.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "Fountain of Smiles"
Admonishing against dull, ego-inflated grins, the speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda's "Fountain of Smiles" offers a lesson on the efficacy of colorful, friendly smiles. Smiles are more than grinning teeth and laughing eyes, for they offer inspiration to those who receive them.
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Oscar Wilde's "To My Wife" and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"
Wilde is more noted for his plays and his novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," than for his poems. He was a proponent of "art for art's sake," presaging the fragmentation of modernism. His "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" was inspired by the poet's own experience as a prisoner in London’s Reading Gaol.
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Emily Dickinson's "When I count the seeds"
In "When I count the seeds," Emily Dickinson’s speaker is contemplating her spiritual garden, wherein she plants and grows the metaphorical seeds for her poems. She introduced this garden in the poem, "There is another sky."
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Emily Dickinson's "Adrift! A little boat adrift!"
In Emily Dickinson’s skilled employment of paradox and metaphor in her poem"Adrift! A little boat adrift!,” the speaker offers a complex drama played out seemingly on an earthly ocean but actually performed on the mystical sea, where life remains immortal and eternal.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "After This"
The speaker of Paramahansa Yogananda’s “After This” reveals that an advanced yogi’s relationship with his devotees is eternal and unchanging—the great avatar continues to guide and guard the practicing spiritual aspirants until those devotees reach their goal of God-realization.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Dr. Siegfried Iseman"
Dr. Siegfried Iseman is the typical Spoon River speaker who blames others for his own destructive path.
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Life Sketch of Paramahansa Yogananda: Father of Yoga in the West
Paramahansa Yogananda is the monastic name of Mukunda Lal Ghosh. The sources for this brief life sketch of Paramahansa Yogananda are his "Autobiography of a Yogi" and the official Self-Realization Fellowship website.
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Emily Dickinson’s "Before the ice is in the pools"
Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems suggest that the poet experienced a number of mystical awakenings—events that, no doubt, informed and directed her skill in speaking about ineffable subjects. This poem is one of her most profound in elucidating her situation after such an experience.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Freedom"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Freedom" declares his spiritual freedom, insisting that his soul is free regardless of the status or condition of his physical body or mind.
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Original Short Fiction: "Joyce Ann"
Given the choice of continuing to suffer beatings from a brutal husband and being held safely behind some unemotional bars, which would you choose?
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Wake, Wake, My Sleeping Hunger, Wake!"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Wake, Wake, My Sleeping Hunger, Wake!" is creating a little drama, exploring the nature of spiritual hunger.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "George Trimble"
George Trimble deems himself the victim of his wife’s ruinous goading and now he lies unmourned in his Spoon River grave. But because his wife’s side of the story is never reported, the issue about her blame may raise doubts about Trimble’s accusation.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Noble New"
The theme of "The Noble New" is individualism; the speaker is urging the devotee not to be dragged down by a herd-mentality in journeying toward self-realization.
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Emily Dickinson’s "Snow flakes"
Emily Dickinson’s speaker in this jaunty little poem dramatizes an effusion of emotion after becoming enthralled by watching the many machinations of snowflakes as they dance their way through the air before landing on their targets of earthly entities.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Silence"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Silence" dramatizes the importance and power of silence in allowing the meditating devotee to connect with the inner Divine Glory.
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Emily Dickinson's "It sifts from Leaden Sieves" and "I like to see it lap the Miles"
Emily Dickinson composed several poems that are just pure fun; they work as riddles do, not mentioning their subject that can only be determined by a correct interpretation of the poetic devices.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "In Stillness Dark"
The speaker in Paramahansa Yogananda’s "In Stillness Dark" is dramatizing the results of calming the body and mind and thus allowing the spiritual eye to come into full view on the screen of the mind, the same location experienced in dreams.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Jacob Goodpasture"
The speaker in the epitaph "Jacob Goodpasture" is lamenting the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-8165). He considers the war unjustified, and he has lost his son, who served as a soldier in the war.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Where I Am"
The great yogi/poet and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship dramatizes the spiritual journey in his poems. They uplift the mind and direct it toward the Divine Reality or God. This poem offers that same upliftment with the answer to a common question regarding the Divine Reality.
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Emily Dickinson’s "So has a Daisy vanished"
The speaker in Emily Dickinson's "So has a Daisy vanished" wonders if the dead Daisy and other departing plant creatures of the field have gone off to be "with God."
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "One That’s Everywhere"
The speaker in "Paramahansa Yogananda’s "One That’s Everywhere" reveals that Divine Omnipresence strives to reveal Itself through all creatures, even the inanimate.
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Emily Dickinson's "If those I loved were lost"
The speaker in Emily Dickinson's "If those I loved were lost" is emphasizing the value she places on her loved ones. She likens their importance to significant events from the community level to the world stage, where bells ring to announce important happenings.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Shadows"
Although a "shadow" takes on the form that is standing between it and a light source, it has no reality of its own; it is only the illusion of a form, an airy nothingness, making it a perfect metaphor for the delusion of Maya, variously called "Satan" and the "Devil" in the West.
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Emily Dickinson's "Morns like these – we parted"
Emily Dickinson loved nature, and birds appear often in her poems, her spiritual garden. She also was quite fond of mystery and riddles. This poem offers an accumulation of evidence that she has observed a bird and then poof! one human act and the bird takes wing!
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Screen of Life"
Paramahansa Yogananda’s "The Screen of Life" dramatizes the mayic dance of life with all its many activities and myriad natural objects that continually come and go.
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Emily Dickinson's "She slept beneath a tree" and "It's all I have to bring today"
These two Dickinson poems seem to grow out of a singular event on a certain day, likely in early spring, when nature is waking up bringing its flowered beauty to the eyes and ears. No one is better prepared to report on that beauty than Emily Dickinson.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Vanishing Bubbles"
Worldly things are like bubbles in the sea that mysteriously appear, prance around for a brief moment, and are gone. This speaker dramatizes the bubbles’ brief sojourn but also reveals the solution for the minds and hearts left grieving for natural phenomena that have vanished like those bubbles.
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Emily Dickinson's "There is a morn by men unseen"
The speaker in Emily Dickinson's "There is a morn by men unseen" is looking at a scene behind the mystic curtain that divides the ordinary world from the extraordinary world, where spirits dwell and have their being.
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "When Will He Come?"
How to stay motivated in pursuing the spiritual path remains a challenge. Paramahansa Yogananda’s "When Will He Come?" dramatizes the key to meeting this spiritual challenge.
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Emily Dickinson's "Baffled for just a day or two"
This poem, "Baffled for just a day or two," is one of Emily Dickinson's most puzzling riddles, and like many of her poems, it begs multiple level interpretations from a flower in her garden to the eruption in a garden mind of a new type of poem.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "My Soul Is Marching On"
This inspirational poem,"My Soul Is Marching On," offers a refrain which devotees can chant and feel uplifted in times of lagging interest or the dreaded spiritual dryness.
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Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night"
The speaker in Robert Frost's American-Innovative sonnet reveals his rebellious nature, proclaiming his individual prerogative to venture into the city at night.
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Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Garden of the New Year"
In "The Garden of the New Year," the speaker celebrates the prospect of looking forward with enthusiastic preparation to live "life ideally!"
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Robert Frost's "The Oven Bird"
The speaker in Robert Frost's "The Oven Bird" muses on the mystery not unlike the same mystery explored in his eight-line poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay."
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Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Consecration"
In the poem titled "Consecration," which opens Paramahansa Yogananda’s collection of spiritual poetry "Songs of the Soul," the speaker humbly consecrates his works to God as the Divine Creator. The renowned spiritual leader-poet also lovingly dedicates the collection to his earthly father.
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Three Notes on Christianity
Christianity is the most widely practiced religion of Western culture, while Hinduism holds that position in Eastern culture. Judaism and Islam are the major religions of the Middle East.
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Emily Dickinson’s "We lose – because we win"
Emily Dickinson’s "We lose – because we win," exemplifies a short, quirky observation, which makes a statement about human behavior that has become compulsive.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Albert Schirding" and "Jonas Keene"
The two epitaphs, "Albert Schirding" and "Jonas Keene," are companionate pieces, with each mentioning the other to contrast their lot in life.
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Emily Dickinson's "A sepal, petal, and a thorn"
Emily Dickinson's short poem, "A sepal, petal, and a thorn," consists of only one cinquain, but its five lines pack a prayerful punch into its deceptive shortness.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Ida Chicken"
The speaker in Edgar Lee Masters' "Ida Chicken" complains about corruption and blames the U.S. Constitution as she blurts out a rather treasonous remark about her nation's governing document.
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Emily Dickinson’s "The Gentian weaves her fringes"
In Emily Dickinson’s "The Gentian weaves her fringes," the speaker metaphorically likens the end of summer to the departure of the soul of a loved one, creating a little funeral drama in a church with a final prayer offering.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Thomas Rhodes"
Thomas Rhodes' ego caused him to crave power and lord it over his fellow citizens, carving out for himself a widely hated persona.
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Emily Dickinson's "I would distal a cup"
Emily Dickinson's "I would distal a cup" mimics a toast to a departing friend. It appears in a letter to newspaper editor Samuel Bowles, a family friend.
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Michael Marks' "A Soldier's Christmas"
Michael Marks' "A Soldier's Christmas" echoes the form of the famous Christmas poem, "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," by Major Henry Livingston, Jr.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Tennessee Claflin Shope"
Tennessee Claflin Shope expounds on the successes he felt he achieved that seemed to escape the villagers who deemed him only a laughable clown.
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John Greenleaf Whittier's "The Mystic's Christmas"
The speaker of John Greenleaf Whittier's "The Mystic's Christmas" understands fully the meaning of Christmas and the soul-significance of Christ Consciousness.
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Christina Rossetti's "The Thread of Life”
Christina Rossetti's "The Thread of Life" features three Petrarchan sonnets, each contributing to the finely constructed dramatization of the theme of soul realization.
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Charlotte Brontë's "On the Death of Anne Brontë"
In Charlotte Brontë's poem, "On the Death of Anne Brontë," the speaker dramatizes her reaction to the death of her sister, who was so important to her life that she would have died to save her if she could.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Robert Southey Burke"
Robert Southey Burke has a huge axe to grind with A. D. Blood. After having once admired Blood greatly, Burke came to hate the man and everything that reminded him of him.
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R. S. Gwynn's "Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins"
This piece portrays a dysfunctional marriage by conflating several sources: the Snow White story, the seven deadly sins, biblical allusion, along with the secularist hatred of Catholicism. The undercurrent of disdain for Catholicism reveals the arrogance of postmodern view of religion.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "A. D. Blood"
Edgar Lee Masters’ character A. D. Blood, who led a crusade to eliminate sin in Spoon River, is now suffering the agony of having a couple use his grave for trysting.
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Karen Connelly's "The Story"
Karen Connelly's "The Story" exemplifies the godless horror experienced by the individual that has no inkling of his/her true self.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Rev. Abner Peet"
In Edgar Lee Masters' "Rev. Abner Peet," the good reverend is miffed that his lifetime of sermons, contained in an old trunk and purchased at auction by a bar-keeper, were burned like a pile of waste paper.
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Emily Dickinson's "Joy to have merited the Pain"
Emily Dickinson's speaker declares then elucidates her declaration that having seriously earned, or "merited" pain, is a marvelous, soul-enriching experience, leading to ultimate liberation into Spirit.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Petit, the Poet"
"Petit, the Poet" muses on missing out on the life around him, as he fashions a poem that presages the postmoderns while it ticks.
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "Margaret Fuller Slack"
Named for America’s first feminist writer Margaret Fuller, Mrs. Slack laments marriage and motherhood that crushed her dreams of greatness in becoming a famous writer or the next George Eliot.
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Life Sketch of Abdul Wahab al-Bayati
Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, modernized Arabic poetry; he was one of the first Arab poets to use free verse. He rebelled against political tyranny, suffering many years of exile from his native Iraq. He lived the sentiment stated in, "The Arab leaders are the enemies of their peoples."
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Edgar Lee Masters’ "John Horace Burleson"
The character John Horace Burleson is a failed writer, whose ambitions did not match his abilities.
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Emily Dickinson's "Could live – did live"
Emily Dickinson’s speaker in "Could live – did live" is speculating about the possible inner motivation that urged on the heart of an individual acquaintance who has now died. He did live, she insists, but what drove him?—This man, who seems to have maintained such an evenminded temperament.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Adam Weirauch"
This epitaph engages a number of historical references as the speaker, as the fictional character, Adam Weirauch, reports on his life’s failures. Masters has often successfully engaged this strategy for creating his characters in his American classic, featuring the speaking dead.
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Emily Dickinson's "A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!"
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s "A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!" dramatizes the intensity with which an individual may view the simple act of the opening of a day. She concludes by revealing the superior power of the soul in overcoming all adversity.
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Edgar Lee Masters' "Jim Brown"
"Jim Brown" has decided that all of humanity can be divided into two groups, and he identifies those groups by what they stand "for."
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 14 "If thou must love me, let it be for nought"
In sonnet 14 "If thou must love me, let it be for nought," Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker is insisting that her suitor love her only for the sake of love, not for her physical qualities such as her smiling lips or the soft manner in which she speaks.
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Emily Dickinson's "I measure every Grief I meet"
In "I measure every Grief I meet," the speaker examines the nature of suffering. The poem is long by Dickinson standards—ten quatrains. Its theme relates squarely to the Dickinson voice that has become so beloved by her fans.
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Emily Dickinson's "Distrustful of the Gentian"
In Emily Dickinson's "Distrustful of the Gentian," the speaker creates a fascinating little drama to explore the melancholy the erupts in her heart at the closing of summer.
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Emily Dickinson’s "By such and such an offering"
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s "By such and such an offering" is exploring the nature of duplicity by those who feign elevated status through appropriating experience that they have not in fact endured.
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John Betjeman’s "Westgate-On-Sea"
John Betjeman's "Westgate-On-Sea" reveals an interest in architecture as the speaker fumbles to add substance to his observations of line and curve. The result is a conglomeration of images that reveal the vacuity of the speaker’s message.
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Life Sketch of Edward Taylor: Physician, Pastor, Poet
Edward Taylor immigrated to the United States of America on April 26, 1668, from England. Thomas H. Johnson discovered Taylor's poetry manuscripts at the Yale University library in 1939.
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Emily Dickinson’s "I gave myself to Him"
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s "I gave myself to Him" is musing on the imbalance that remains even after one has surrendered one’s life to God the Creator.
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Seamus Heaney's "Storm on the Island"
Seamus Heaney's speaker in "Storm on the Island" philosophizes about the quality of his island's homes and the quality of the residents' inner lives.