Poets from Poetry Foundation

Gerard Hopkins

• Spring and Fall

 In this poem the poet is talking to a child called Margaret, who is sad and crying. The poet indirectly talks how innocent children are as they can also cry and be sad when trees shed their leaves. This symbolizes the beginning of a new season "Fall", but for the child it's sad as she will miss the leaves .The poet further adds that eventually what comes in this world has to go and that is true with nature and humans.

• Pied Beauty

The poet in his poem asks his readers to worship God as he is the creator of this immortal world. In order to convince the reader he gives examples of the beautiful things around us such as: The sky, roses etc.The title of the poetry "Pied Beauty" means beauty that has different colors. Also the poet questions how things change frequently in the world or nature around us. But, at the end he asks his readers to Praise the God; who is the creator of this immortal world.

Robert Frost

• The Tuft of flowers

The Tuft of flowers by Robert Frost is a poem that talks about the Tuft of flowers. Initially, the poet creates a drama by not mentioning the butterfly and just giving hints. The lines like:
I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze. 
indicate to the reader about a small flying creature which is probably a butterfly. Frost, than talks about how the butterfly attracted his attention towards the tuft of flowers and how a message from the dawn made him hear the sound of birds. 

• After Apple-Picking

In this poem, Frost describes a scene of a farmer after he is done with picking the apples. He cleverly engages his readers into an imaginative world of farm and the countryside. The lines:
"My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough."
create a visual experience of a farm. The speaker of the poem also mentions that he is tired after the tedious task of apple picking, and further adds that he can not even taste his harvest that he deserves as a result of his hard work. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley

• Ozymandias

The speaker in this poem  talks about a traveler from an ancient land whom he once met. The traveler told the speaker about a stone standing in the dessert. From, the words like desert and sand it gives an idea that the poet is discussing about Egypt. Also, the sentence "legs of stone stand in a dessert" indicate that the traveler is talking about a statue in the midst of a desert. The poet also mentions that the pedestal indicates that this statue is of a King called "Ozymandias". But, than he ends the poem saying that the traveler could not find any works of the great King as he could only see sands far far away. 

• The Indian Serenade

This poem is a romantic love poem. The speaker of the poem is talking about her beloved, and how she dreams of being with him. She than compares her beloveds heart with wandering airs and champak odors. The speaker also asks her beloved to lift her from the grass as she shall  fail, faint and die, and let he shower his love upon her or her heart will break at last.