#1
Nationality:
Themes:
Emotions:
Topics:
Forms:
Genre:
support@poemanalysis.com
Poem Solutions Limited
Company no: 10883994
United Kingdom
Quatrain poems are a popular and versatile verse form, consisting of four-line stanzas. These poems can have various rhyme schemes, with common patterns being AABB, ABAB, or ABBA.
Quatrain poems give poets a concise structure to express their thoughts and emotions. They are well-suited for conveying a complete idea or capturing a specific moment.
Quatrains are used in various poetic styles and genres, from lighthearted and humorous verses to deeply introspective and philosophical themes. Their rhythmic and balanced structure makes them easy to read and memorize, and their brevity strongly impacts the reader.
‘The Wreck of the Hesperus’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a narrative poem about a shipwreck and human vanity.
It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr,
To bear him company.
‘Twas the old — road — through pain—’ by Emily Dickinson describes a woman’s path from life to death and her entrance into Heaven.
In Chambers bright —
Too out of sight — though —
For our hoarse Good Night —
To touch her Head!
‘After’ by Marston captures the eternal ache of loss, where brief joys transition to lasting sorrow, reflecting on grief’s permanence.
A LITTLE time for laughter,
— A little time to sing,
— A little time to kiss and cling,
And no more kissing after.
‘Because I could not stop for death,’ Dickinson’s best-known poem, is a depiction of one speaker’s journey into the afterlife with personified “Death” leading the way.
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
‘Long Distance II’ by Tony Harrison is an elegiac poem that describes a father’s way of grieving the death of his wife and his child’s reaction to his futile actions.
Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.
‘Loveliest of Trees’ by A. E. Housman is a joyful nature poem in which the speaker describes how powerful the image of cherry blossom trees is in his life. He takes a great deal of pleasure from looking at them.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
‘Indian Weavers’ explores the inevitability of death while celebrating the cycles of human existence and experience.
Weavers, weaving at break of day,
Why do you weave a garment so gay? . . .
Blue as the wing of a halcyon wild,
We weave the robes of a new-born child.
‘Funeral Blues,’ also known as ‘Stop all the Clocks,’ is arguably Auden’s most famous poem. It was first published in Poems of To-Day in 1938.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Gunn’s ‘The Man with Night Sweats’ contrasts past vitality with present fragility, capturing the intimate pain of AIDS.
I wake up cold, I who
Prospered through dreams of heat
Wake to their residue,
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.
‘Eden Rock’ evokes nostalgia, depicting a timeless picnic with his parents, blending memory with longing for familial unity.
They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:
My father, twenty-five, in the same suit
Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack
Still two years old and trembling at his feet.
Stevie Smith’s ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ is a tragic account of a dead man whose cry for help is mistakenly regarded as a mere greeting.
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
‘On Raglan Road’ is a superb rendering of the breakdown of a relationship that brilliantly examines the way regret works.
On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.
‘A Farewell’ challenges the reader to reflect upon the fleeting nature of human life, especially when compared to nature.
Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
‘Infant Sorrow’ by Blake contrasts ‘Infant Joy’ by depicting birth’s pain and the struggle of life’s beginning.
My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud;
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
‘Night Song at Amalfi’ by Sara Teasdale weaves celestial silence and sea mystery, exploring love’s ineffable nature and expressive challenges.
I asked the heaven of stars
What I should give my love —
It answered me with silence,
Silence above.
support@poemanalysis.com
Poem Solutions Limited
Company no: 10883994
United Kingdom
Access Poetry PDF Guides
for this Poem
Complete Poetry PDF Guide
Perfect Offline Resource
Covers Everything You Need to Know
One-pager 'snapshot' PDF
Great Offline Resource
Gateway to deeper understanding
870+ Reviews
