4/26 Notes from class

Walt Whitman’s

 "I Celebrate myself, and sing myself"

1 

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, 

And what I assume you shall assume, 

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. 

I loafe and invite my soul, 

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. 

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, 

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, 

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, 

Hoping to cease not till death. 

Creeds and schools in abeyance, 

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, 

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, 

Nature without check with original energy. 

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Themes, Motifs and Symbols

Themes

DEMOCRACY AS A WAY OF LIFE

Whitman envisioned democracy not just as a political system but as a way of experiencing the world. In the early nineteenth century, people still harbored many doubts about whether the United States could survive as a country and about whether democracy could thrive as a political system. To allay those fears and to praise democracy, Whitman tried to be democratic in both life and poetry. He imagined democracy as a way of interpersonal interaction and as a way for individuals to integrate their beliefs into their everyday lives. “Song of Myself” notes that democracy must include all individuals equally, or else it will fail.
※allay:
【Merriam→】 to subdue or reduce in intensity or severity
【Cambridge→】 if you allay a emotion felt by someone, such as fear or worry, you cause them to feel less or to feel calm again.
【Synonyms→】mollify(modify,mortify are three disparate words),relieve , alleviate, palliate
※modify: 
【Merriam→】
(1)to make less extreme(=moderate)
(2)to limit or restrict the meaning of especially in a grammar construction
(3)to make minor changes in
【Cambridge→】to change something such as a plan ,opinion , law ,or way of behavior slightly ,usually to improve it or make it acceptable 
Make a sentence→
Instead of simply punishing them, the system encourages offenders to modify their behavior.
※mortify: to make someone very embarrassed
In his poetry, Whitman widened the possibilities of poetic diction by including slang, colloquialisms, and regional dialects, rather than employing the stiff, erudite language so often found in nineteenth-century verse. Similarly, he broadened the possibilities of subject matter by describing myriad people and places. Like William Wordsworth, Whitman believed that everyday life and everyday people were fit subjects for poetry. Although much of Whitman’s work does not explicitly discuss politics, most of it implicitly deals with democracy: it describes communities of people coming together, and it imagines many voices pouring into a unified whole. For Whitman, democracy was an idea that could and should permeate the world beyond politics, making itself felt in the ways we think, speak, work, fight, and even make art.
※permeate: 
(1)to diffuse through or penetrate something
(2)to spread throughout 
※colloquialism: an informal word or expression that is more suitable for use in speech than in writing 
【Synonyms→】slang, lingo, oral
※erudite: 
【Cambridge→】having or containing a lot of knowledge that is known by very few people 
【Merriam→】having or displaying advanced knowledge or education
Make a sentence→an erudite lecture on the latest discoveries in astronomy
※myriad: a very large number of something
For example→a myriad of choices

THE CYCLE OF GROWTH AND DEATH

Whitman’s poetry reflects the vitality and growth of the early United States. During the nineteenth century, America expanded at a tremendous rate, and its growth and potential seemed limitless. But sectionalism and the violence of the Civil War threatened to break apart and destroy the boundless possibilities of the United States. As a way of dealing with both the population growth and the massive deaths during the Civil War, Whitman focused on the life cycles of individuals: people are born, they age and reproduce, and they die. Such poems as “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” imagine death as an integral part of life. The speaker of “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d” realizes that flowers die in the winter, but they rebloom in the springtime, and he vows to mourn his fallen friends every year just as new buds are appearing. Describing the life cycle of nature helped Whitman contextualize the severe injuries and trauma he witnessed during the Civil War—linking death to life helped give the deaths of so many soldiers meaning.
contextualize: to consider something in its context
※integral:
【Merriam→】 (adj.)essential to completeness
【Cambridge→】(adj.)necessary and important as a part of a whole
Make a sentence→He is a integral part of this team and we cannot do it without him.

THE BEAUTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Throughout his poetry, Whitman praised the individual. He imagined a democratic nation as a unified whole composed of unique but equal individuals. “Song of Myself” opens in a triumphant paean to the individual: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” (1). Elsewhere the speaker of that exuberant poem identifies himself as Walt Whitman and claims that, through him, the voices of many will speak. In this way, many individuals make up the individual democracy, a single entity composed of myriad parts. Every voice and every part will carry the same weight within the single democracy—and thus every voice and every individual is equally beautiful. Despite this pluralist view, Whitman still singled out specific individuals for praise in his poetry, particularly Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, Lincoln was assassinated, and Whitman began composing several elegies, including “O Captain! My Captain!” Although all individuals were beautiful and worthy of praise, some individuals merited their own poems because of their contributions to society and democracy.

Motifs【a central theme】

(a usually recurring salient thematic element (as in the arts); especially :  a dominant idea or central theme)

LISTS

Whitman filled his poetry with long lists. Often a sentence will be broken into many clauses, separated by commas, and each clause will describe some scene, person, or object. These lists create a sense of expansiveness in the poem, as they mirror the growth of the United States. Also, these lists layer images atop one another to reflect the diversity of American landscapes and people. In “Song of Myself,” for example, the speaker lists several adjectives to describe Walt Whitman in section 24. The speaker uses multiple adjectives to demonstrate the complexity of the individual: true individuals cannot be described using just one or two words. Later in this section, the speaker also lists the different types of voices who speak through Whitman. Lists are another way of demonstrating democracy in action: in lists, all items possess equal weight, and no item is more important than another item in the list. In a democracy, all individuals possess equal weight, and no individual is more important than another.

THE HUMAN BODY

Whitman’s poetry revels in its depictions of the human body and the body’s capacity for physical contact. The speaker of “Song of Myself” claims that “copulation is no more rank to me than death is”  to demonstrate the naturalness of taking pleasure in the body’s physical possibilities. With physical contact comes spiritual communion: two touching bodies form one individual unit of togetherness. Several poems praise the bodies of both women and men, describing them at work, at play, and interacting. The speaker of “I Sing the Body Electric” (1855) boldly praises the perfection of the human form and worships the body because the body houses the soul. This free expression of sexuality horrified some of Whitman’s early readers, and Whitman was fired from his job at the Indian Bureau in 1865 because the secretary of the interior found Leaves of Grass offensive. Whitman’s unabashed praise of the male form has led many critics to argue that he was homosexual or bisexual, but the repressive culture of the nineteenth century prevented him from truly expressing those feelings in his work.
※house: as a verb→  to provide with living quarters or shelter
※copulation: to engage in sexual intercourse 
※unabashed: 
【Merriam→】not abashed; undisguised, unapologetic
【Cambridge→】not worry about any possible criticism or embarrassment
【Related word→】shameless, unblushing m,unembarrassed, unashamed
Making a sentence→ She is to this day unabashed in her patriotism.

RHYTHM AND INCANTATION

Many of Whitman’s poems rely on rhythm and repetition to create a captivating, spellbinding quality of incantation. Often, Whitman begins several lines in a row with the same word or phrase, a literary device called anaphora. For example, the first four lines of “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” (1865) each begin with the word when. The long lines of such poems as “Song of Myself” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” force readers to inhale several bits of text without pausing for breath, and this breathlessness contributes to the incantatory quality of the poems. Generally, the anaphora and the rhythm transform the poems into celebratory chants, and the joyous form and structure reflect the joyousness of the poetic content. Elsewhere, however, the repetition and rhythm contribute to an elegiac tone, as in “O Captain! My Captain!” This poem uses short lines and words, such as heart and father, to mournfully incant an elegy for the assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
※incantation: 
【Cambridge→】(the performance of ) words that are believed to have a magical effect when spoken or sung
【Merriam→】:
 a use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as a part of a ritual of magic;
 also:  a written or recited formula of words designed to produce a particular effect
【Related word→】enchantment, charm, cinjuration ,spell 
※out of sight : extremely expensive and more than you are able to spend
Making a sentence→The price of the house we like is out of sight.
※give (someone) away: to show someone's secret feelings
Making a sentence→She thinks no one knows how much she likes him, but her face when I said he'd be there really gave her away!

Symbols

PLANTS

Throughout Whitman’s poetry, plant life symbolizes both growth and multiplicity. Rapid, regular plant growth also stands in for the rapid, regular expansion of the population of the United States. In “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman uses flowers, bushes, wheat, trees, and other plant life to signify the possibilities of regeneration and re-growth after death. As the speaker mourns the loss of Lincoln, he drops a lilac spray onto the coffin; the act of laying a flower on the coffin not only honors the person who has died but lends death a measure of dignity and respect. The title Leaves of Grass highlights another of Whitman’s themes: the beauty of the individual. Each leaf or blade of grass possesses its own distinct beauty, and together the blades form a beautiful unified whole, an idea Whitman explores in the sixth section of “Song of Myself.” Multiple leaves of grass thus symbolize democracy, another instance of a beautiful whole composed of individual parts. In 1860, Whitman published an edition of Leaves of Grass that included a number of poems celebrating love between men. He titled this section “The Calamus Poems,” after the phallic calamus plant.

THE SELF

Whitman’s interest in the self ties into his praise of the individual. Whitman links the self to the conception of poetry throughout his work, envisioning the self as the birthplace of poetry. Most of his poems are spoken from the first person, using the pronoun I. The speaker of Whitman’s most famous poem, “Song of Myself,” even assumes the name Walt Whitman, but nevertheless the speaker remains a fictional creation employed by the poet Whitman. Although Whitman borrows from his own autobiography for some of the speaker’s experiences, he also borrows many experiences from popular works of art, music, and literature. Repeatedly the speaker of this poem exclaims that he contains everything and everyone, which is a way for Whitman to reimagine the boundary between the self and the world. By imaging a person capable of carrying the entire world within him, Whitman can create an elaborate analogy about the ideal democracy, which would, like the self, be capable of containing the whole world.
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The Carpe Diem poem: Andrew Marvell’s

"To His Coy Mistress"

Had we but world enough and time, 

This coyness, lady, were no crime. 

We would sit down, and think which way 

To walk, and pass our long love’s day. 

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side 

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide 

Of Humber would complain. I would 

Love you ten years before the flood, 

And you should, if you please, refuse 

Till the conversion of the Jews. 

My vegetable love should grow 

Vaster than empires and more slow; 

An hundred years should go to praise 

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; 

Two hundred to adore each breast, 

But thirty thousand to the rest; 

An age at least to every part, 

And the last age should show your heart. 

For, lady, you deserve this state, 

Nor would I love at lower rate. 

       But at my back I always hear 

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; 

And yonder all before us lie 

Deserts of vast eternity. 

Thy beauty shall no more be found; 

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound 

My echoing song; then worms shall try 

That long-preserved virginity, 

And your quaint honour turn to dust, 

And into ashes all my lust; 

The grave’s a fine and private place, 

But none, I think, do there embrace. 

       Now therefore, while the youthful hue 

Sits on thy skin like morning dew, 

And while thy willing soul transpires 

At every pore with instant fires, 

Now let us sport us while we may, 

And now, like amorous birds of prey, 

Rather at once our time devour 

Than languish in his slow-chapped power. 

Let us roll all our strength and all 

Our sweetness up into one ball, 

And tear our pleasures with rough strife 

Through the iron gates of life: 

Thus, though we cannot make our sun 

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

summary

To His Coy Mistress" is divided into three stanzas or poetic paragraphs. It’s spoken by a nameless man, who doesn’t reveal any physical or biographical details about himself, to a nameless woman, who is also biography-less.
During the first stanza, the speaker tells the mistress that if they had more time and space, her "coyness" (see our discussion on the word "coy" in "What’s Up With the Title?") wouldn’t be a "crime." He extends this discussion by describing how much he would compliment her and admire her, if only there was time. He would focus on "each part" of her body until he got to the heart (and "heart," here, is both a metaphor for sex, and a metaphor for love).
In the second stanza he says, "BUT," we don’t have the time, we are about to die! He tells her that life is short, but death is forever. In a shocking moment, he warns her that, when she’s in the coffin, worms will try to take her "virginity" if she doesn’t have sex with him before they die. If she refuses to have sex with him, there will be repercussions for him, too. All his sexual desire will burn up, "ashes" for all time.
In the third stanza he says, "NOW," I’ve told you what will happen when you die, so let’s have sex while we’re still young. Hey, look at those "birds of prey" mating. That’s how we should do it – but, before that, let’s have us a little wine and time (cheese is for sissies). Then, he wants to play a game – the turn ourselves into a "ball" game. (Hmmm.) He suggests, furthermore, that they release all their pent up frustrations into the sex act, and, in this way, be free.
In the final couplet, he calms down a little. He says that having sex can’t make the "sun" stop moving. In Marvell’s time, the movement of the sun around the earth (we now know the earth rotates around the sun) was thought to create time. Anyway, he says, we can’t make time stop, but we can change places with it. Whenever we have sex, we pursue time, instead of time pursuing us. This fellow has some confusing ideas about sex and time. Come to think of it, we probably do, too. "To His Coy Mistress" offers us a chance to explore some of those confusing thoughts.

TO HIS COY MISTRESS INTRODUCTION

In A Nutshell
Andrew Marvell, an English poet, politician, and satirist, probably wrote "To His Coy Mistress" between 1650 and 1652. It was first published in 1681 (by his housekeeper!) several years after his death. Since then, it has become one of the most famous poems of its kind.
Marvell belongs to a group commonly known as the "Metaphysical Poets." The group includes some other poets we love: George Herbert, John Donne, and Richard Crashaw – all from the 1500s and 1600s. Their poems are famous for the surprising (and, at times, shocking and daring) use of language to explore BIG questions about love, sex, the earth, the universe, and the divine. Time holds a huge fascination for poets in Marvell’s era, and the phrase carpe diem (seize the day) has a special significance. "Life is short, so live it to the fullest," is one way to describe the carpe diem mindset.
The Metaphysical Poets celebrated imagination and wit. Wit often involves a lot of wordplay. Like "To His Coy Mistress," their poems often take the form of an argument or a line of reasoning (similar to what a lawyer might use in court). Such arguments are often parodies of actual arguments. The Metaphysical Poets also would frequently use their work to critique aspects of society, politics, and art that they see as flawed – kind of like the Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy. Satire. Parody. The Metaphysicals tend to poke fun at the super-serious way that other poets write about love and God, preferring a more light-hearted approach to weighty matters.
nutshell: something of small size ,amount ,or scope
in a nutshell(總而言之，簡單來說): using as few words as possible
sarcastic: having the character of sarcasm
=acidic= acidulous=pungent= satiric= snarky= tart(酸的，辛辣的)=caustic= incongruous(不協調的,不一致的)
mindset: a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to the situation

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Have you ever felt like you were racing against the clock? Between school and work and blogging and video games and keeping up with the news and checking out all the latest movies and managing money, inboxes, and personal lives, we sometimes wish we could stop time. We want fix all our problems and then turn time back on, with a special remote control, like the one Adam Sandler has in Click, but without the side effects.
The speaker of the poem expresses a similar experience in this angst-y poem, which might just make you feel a little better about things. It’s also really funny, when you start to look at it closely. See, here are a few lines we love:
It's a good thing 
that I have my library card.
Why?
Because I am totally checking you out!
Sorry. We couldn’t resist a little library card humor. But, the silly poem above shares something with "To His Coy Mistress." They are both pick-up lines. Marvell’s just happens to be a little longer. But, a word of caution: if you use Marvell’s lines you might expect that people will run away from you, not date you.
inbox:(收件箱) : a place on  a computer where emails that are sent to you   are kept
angst: strong worry and unhappiness,specially about personal problems
be in of tune somebody: If you are in tune with people or ideas ,you understand or agree with them 
to check someone out : to size someone out (打量我)
pick-up: to gather together
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Setting: Matthew Arnold 

 “Dover Beach”

The sea is calm tonight. 

The tide is full, the moon lies fair 

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light 

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, 

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. 

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! 

Only, from the long line of spray 

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, 

Listen! you hear the grating roar 

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, 

At their return, up the high strand, 

Begin, and cease, and then again begin, 

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring 

The eternal note of sadness in. 

Sophocles long ago 

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought 

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow 

Of human misery; we 

Find also in the sound a thought, 

Hearing it by this distant northern sea. 

The Sea of Faith 

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore 

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. 

But now I only hear 

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 

Retreating, to the breath 

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear 

And naked shingles of the world. 

Ah, love, let us be true 

To one another! for the world, which seems 

To lie before us like a land of dreams, 

So various, so beautiful, so new, 

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, 

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; 

And we are here as on a darkling plain 

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Summary

One night, the speaker of "Dover Beach" sits with a woman inside a house, looking out over the English Channel near the town of Dover. They see the lights on the coast of France just twenty miles away, and the sea is quiet and calm.
When the light over in France suddenly extinguishes, the speaker focuses on the English side, which remains tranquil. He trades visual imagery for aural imagery, describing the "grating roar" of the pebbles being pulled out by the waves. He finishes the first stanza by calling the music of the world an "eternal note of sadness."
The next stanza flashes back to ancient Greece, where Sophocles heard this same sound on the Aegean Sea, and was inspired by it to write his plays about human misery.
Stanza three introduces the poem's main metaphor, with: "The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore." The phrase suggests that faith is fading from society like the tide is from the shore. The speaker laments this decline of faith through melancholy diction.
In the final stanza, the speaker directly addresses his beloved who sits next to him, asking that they always be true to one another and to the world that is laid out before them. He warns, however, that the world's beauty is only an illusion, since it is in fact a battlefield full of people fighting in absolute darkness.

Analysis

Arguably Matthew Arnold's most famous poem, "Dover Beach" manages to comment on his most recurring themes despite its relatively short length. Its message - like that of many of his other poems - is that the world's mystery has declined in the face of modernity. However, that decline is here painted as particularly uncertain, dark, and volatile.
recurring:  happening many times, or happening again
What also makes the poem particularly powerful is that his romantic streak has almost no tinge of the religious. Instead, he speaks of the "Sea of Faith" without linking it to any deity or heaven. This "faith" has a definite humanist tinge - it seems to have once guided decisions and smoothed over the world's problems, tying everyone together in a meaningful way. It is no accident that the sight inspiring such reflection is that of untouched nature, almost entirely absent from any human involvement. In fact, the speaker's true reflection begins once the only sign of life - the light over in France - extinguishes. What Arnold is expressing is an innate quality, a natural drive towards beauty.
tying: present form of "tie"
He explores this contradiction through what is possibly the poem's most famous stanza, that which compares his experience to that of Sophocles. The comparison could be trite, if the point were merely that someone long before had appreciated the same type of beauty that he does. However, it is poignant because it reveals a darker potential in the beautiful. What natural beauty reminds us of is human misery. Because we can recognize the beauty in nature, but can never quite transcend our limited natures to reach it, we might be drawn to lament as well as celebrate it. The two responses are not mutually exclusive. This contradictory feeling is explored in many of Arnold's poems - "The Scholar-Gipsy" and "A Dream" are two examples - and he shows in other poems an instinct towards the tragic, the human inability to transcend our weakness (an example would be "Consolation," which presents time as a tragic force). Thus, the allusion to Socrates, a Greek playwright celebrated for his tragedies, is particularly apt.
poignant: 
=affecting, emotional , impressive, impactful, stirring, touching
for example: this movie isn't a soft-pedaled,poignant tale of addiction and recovery.
causing or having a very sharp feeling of sadness(嚴厲的)
having the power to affect the feelings or sympathies
apt: suitable or right to a particular situation(apt to :傾向於，易於)

Such a dual experience - between celebration of and lament for humanity - is particularly possible for Arnold, since mankind has traded faith for science following the publication of On the Origin of Species and the rise of Darwinism. Ironically, the tumult of nature - out on the ocean - is nothing compared to the tumult of this new way of life. It is this latter tumult that frightens the speaker, that has him beg his lover to stay true to him. He worries that the chaos of the modern world will be too great, and that she will be shocked to discover that even in the presence of great beauty like that outside their window, mankind is gearing up for destruction. Behind even the appearance of faith is the new order, and he hopes that they might use this moment to keep them together despite such uncertainty.
tumult: 
(1)a loud noise ,especially that produced by an exited crowd ,or a state of confusion , change, or uncertainty
(2)disorderly agitation or milling about of a crowd usually with uproar and confusion of voices
The poem epitomizes a certain type of poetic experience, in which the poet focuses on a single moment in order to discover profound depths. Here, the moment is the visceral serenity the speaker feels in studying the landscape, and the contradictory fear that that serenity then leads him to feel. To accomplish that end, the poem uses a lot of imagery and sensory information. It begins with mostly visual depictions, describing the calm sea, the fair moon, and the lights in France across the Channel. "The cliffs of England stand/Glimmering and vast" not only describes the scene, but establishes how small the two humans detailed in the poem are in the face of nature.
visceral(肺腑的): (literally)based on deep feeling and emotion reactions rather than on reason or thought
Perhaps most interestingly, the first stanza switches from visual to auditory descriptions, including "the grating roar" and "tremulous cadence slow." The evocation of several senses fills out the experience more, and creates the sense of an overwhelming and all-encompassing moment.
grating: 
a grating sound is unpleasant and annoying;
(as a noun) a structure made of metal bars that covers  a hole, especially in the ground over a drain The poem also employs a lot of enjambment (the poetic technique of leaving a sentence unfinished on one line, to continue and finish it on the next). The effect is to give the poem a faster pace: the information hits us in rapid succession, forming a clear picture in our minds little by little. It also suggests that Arnold does not wish to create a pretty picture meant for reflection. Instead, the beautiful sight is significant because of the fear and anxiety it inspires in the speaker. Because the poem so wonderfully straddles the line between poetic reflection and desperate uncertainty, it has remained a well-loved piece throughout the centuries.
enjambment: in poetry, the continuing of a sentence from one line of  a poem straddle (...between...)

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The Aubade: John Donne’s 

"The Good-Morrow" 

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I 

Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then? 

But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? 

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den? 

’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be. 

If ever any beauty I did see, 

Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee. 

And now good-morrow to our waking souls, 

Which watch not one another out of fear; 

For love, all love of other sights controls, 

And makes one little room an everywhere. 

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, 

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown, 

Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one. 

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, 

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest; 

Where can we find two better hemispheres, 

Without sharp north, without declining west? 

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally; 

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I 

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

summery

A dude wakes up next to his lover and starts dishing about love. What the freak did we do before we were, like, in a relationship? They were either too young or too obsessed with sex, way different than what they are now: truly, maturely in love. Any previous fooling around was clearly only a prelude to this, a weaker version of the real deal.

troth:a person's solemn declaration that he or she will or will not do something
=vow, pledge, promise, oath
prelude: something that comes before the more important event or actions that introduces or prepares for it.
=preamble, warm-up, prologue
slacken: to cause something become loose

The real deal means that this is not just about bodies; the souls are in on it too. This soulful love is so all-consuming that these lovebirds no longer need the rest of the world. They don't log on to TripAdvisor; they don't buy cheapo tickets on Kayak. Their bedroom contains the whole world.


Put another way, they are each a hemisphere and when combined in true love, they build the entire world. It's kind of like Legos. And since hemispheres are twins, or mirror-images of each other, that means that their love is so balanced and alike that it will never die. Looks like they won't be getting out of bed anytime soon!

Analysis

Marvell wrote this poem in the classical tradition of a Latin love elegy, in which the speaker praises his mistress or lover through the motif of carpe diem, or “seize the day.” The poem also reflects the tradition of the erotic blazon, in which a poet constructs elaborate images of his lover’s beauty by carving her body into parts. Its verse form consists of rhymed couplets in iambic tetrameter, proceeding as AA, BB, CC, and so forth.
blazon: 
(1)armorial bearing (coat of arms)
(2)he proper description and representation of  heraldic or armorial bearings
(3)to paint or depict (a coat of arms) with accurate detail. The speaker begins by constructing a thorough and elaborate conceit(image) of the many things he “would” do to honor the lady properly, if the two lovers indeed had enough time. He posits impossible stretches of time during which the two might play games of courtship. He claims he could love her from ten years before the Biblical flood narrated in the Book of Genesis, while the Lady could refuse his advances up until the “conversion of the Jews,” which refers to the day of Christian judgment prophesied for the end of times in the New Testament’s Book of Revelations.
conceit: 
As a noun→(1)a result of mental activity(2)individual opinion(thought)(3)favorable opinion (especially excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue… the landlord's conceit of his own superior knowledge … — Adam Smith)
(5) a fanciful idea
(6)  an elaborate or strained metaphor The poem abounds in metaphysical conceits.
(7)  use or presence of such conceits in poetry

(8) an organizing theme or concept
trifle :something of little value, substance, or importance
As an adjective→
posit: to suggest something as a basic fact or principle from which a further idea is formed or developed
Making a sentence If we posit that wage rises cause inflation, it follows that we should try to minimize them.
prophesy: a statement that says what is going to happen in the future, especially one that is based on what you believe about a particular matter rather than existing facts
The speaker then uses the metaphor of a “vegetable love” to suggest a slow and steady growth that might increase to vast proportions, perhaps encoding a phallic suggestion. This would allow him to praise his lady’s features – eyes, forehead, breasts, and heart – in increments of hundreds and even thousands of years, which he says that the lady clearly deserves due to her superior stature. He assures the Lady that he would never value her at a “lower rate” than she deserves, at least in an ideal world where time is unlimited.

Marvell praises the lady’s beauty by complimenting her individual features using a device called an erotic blazon, which also evokes the influential techniques of 15th and 16th century Petrarchan love poetry. Petrarchan poetry is based upon rarifying and distancing the female beloved, making her into an unattainable object. In this poem, though, the speaker only uses these devices to suggest that distancing himself from his lover is mindless, because they do not have the limitless time necessary for the speaker to praise the Lady sufficiently. He therefore constructs an erotic blazon only to assert its futility.

The poem’s mood shifts in line 21, when the speaker asserts that “Time's winged chariot” is always near. The speaker’s rhetoric changes from an acknowledgement of the Lady’s limitless virtue to insisting on the radical limitations of their time as embodied beings. Once dead, he assures the Lady, her virtues and her beauty will lie in the grave along with her body as it turns to dust. Likewise, the speaker imagines his lust being reduced to ashes, while the chance for the two lovers to join sexually will be lost forever.


The third and final section of the poem shifts into an all-out plea and display of poetic prowess in which the speaker attempts to win over the Lady. He compares the Lady’s skin to a vibrant layer of morning dew that is animated by the fires of her soul and encourages her to “sport” with him “while we may.” Time devours all things, the speaker acknowledges, but he nonetheless asserts that the two of them can, in fact, turn the tables on time. They can become “amorous birds of prey” that actively consume the time they have through passionate lovemaking.
※waiting for the time to pass by

What's "elegy"?

an elegy is a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who's dead.Although a speech at a funeral is "eulogy", you might later compose an elegy to someone you have loved and lost to the grave.

The purpose of this kind of poem is to express feelings rather than tell a story. Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem that reflects on the lives of common people buried in a church cemetery, and on the nature of human mortality. The noun elegy was borrowed in the 16th century from Middle French élégie, from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeia, from elegos "mournful poem or song."

hydrometer: an instrument for determining the specific gravity of  a liquid (as an battery acid or an alcohol solution )and hence its strength

thermometer:

an instrument for determining temperature, especially one consisting a glass bulb attached to a fine tube  of glass with a numbered scale and containing a liquid (such as mercury or colored alcohol) that is sealed in and rises and falls with changes of temperature

John Milton Paradise Lost

paradise lost

Plot Overview

Milton’s speaker begins Paradise Lost by stating that his subject will be Adam and Eve’s disobedience and fall from grace. He invokes a heavenly muse and asks for help in relating his ambitious story and God’s plan for humankind. The action begins with Satan and his fellow rebel angels who are found chained to a lake of fire in Hell. They quickly free themselves and fly to land, where they discover minerals and construct Pandemonium, which will be their meeting place. Inside Pandemonium, the rebel angels, who are now devils, debate whether they should begin another war with God. Beezelbub suggests that they attempt to corrupt God’s beloved new creation, humankind. Satan agrees, and volunteers to go himself. As he prepares to leave Hell, he is met at the gates by his children, Sin and Death, who follow him and build a bridge between Hell and Earth.

Pandemonium:(often initial capital letter,the abode of all the demons.

Pandemonium

In Heaven, God orders the angels together for a council of their own. He tells them of Satan’s intentions, and the Son volunteers himself to make the sacrifice for humankind. Meanwhile, Satan travels through Night and Chaos and finds Earth. He disguises himself as a cherub to get past the Archangel Uriel, who stands guard at the sun. He tells Uriel that he wishes to see and praise God’s glorious creation, and Uriel assents. Satan then lands on Earth and takes a moment to reflect. Seeing the splendor of Paradise brings him pain rather than pleasure. He reaffirms his decision to make evil his good, and continue to commit crimes against God. Satan leaps over Paradise’s wall, takes the form of a cormorant (a large bird), and perches himself atop the Tree of Life. Looking down at Satan from his post, Uriel notices the volatile emotions reflected in the face of this so-called cherub and warns the other angels that an impostor is in their midst. The other angels agree to search the Garden for intruders.

cormorant

Meanwhile, Adam and Eve tend the Garden, carefully obeying God’s supreme order not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. After a long day of work, they return to their bower and rest. There, Satan takes the form of a toad and whispers into Eve’s ear. Gabriel, the angel set to guard Paradise, finds Satan there and orders him to leave. Satan prepares to battle Gabriel, but God makes a sign appear in the sky—the golden scales of justice—and Satan scurries away. Eve awakes and tells Adam about a dream she had, in which an angel tempted her to eat from the forbidden tree. Worried about his creation, God sends Raphael down to Earth to teach Adam and Eve of the dangers they face with Satan.

bower: an attractive dwelling or retreat

Raphael arrives on Earth and eats a meal with Adam and Eve. Raphael relates the story of Satan’s envy over the Son’s appointment as God’s second-in-command. Satan gathered other angels together who were also angry to hear this news, and together they plotted a war against God. Abdiel decides not to join Satan’s army and returns to God. The angels then begin to fight, with Michael and Gabriel serving as co-leaders for Heaven’s army. The battle lasts two days, when God sends the Son to end the war and deliver Satan and his rebel angels to Hell. Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s evil motives to corrupt them, and warns Adam to watch out for Satan. Adam asks Raphael to tell him the story of creation. Raphael tells Adam that God sent the Son into Chaos to create the universe. He created the earth and stars and other planets. Curious, Adam asks Raphael about the movement of the stars and planets. Eve retires, allowing Raphael and Adam to speak alone. Raphael promptly warns Adam about his seemingly unquenchable search for knowledge. Raphael tells Adam that he will learn all he needs to know, and that any other knowledge is not meant for humans to comprehend. Adam tells Raphael about his first memories, of waking up and wondering who he was, what he was, and where he was. Adam says that God spoke to him and told him many things, including his order not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. After the story, Adam confesses to Raphael his intense physical attraction to Eve. Raphael reminds Adam that he must love Eve more purely and spiritually. With this final bit of advice, Raphael leaves Earth and returns to Heaven.
unquenchable: used for describing a feeling that is so strong that it cannot be satisified 
quench: 
(1)to drink liquid so that you will stop feeling thirsty
(2)to use water to put out a fire
(3)to satisfy a need or wish

Eight days after his banishment, Satan returns to Paradise. After closely studying the animals of Paradise, he chooses to take the form of the serpent. Meanwhile, Eve suggests to Adam that they work separately for awhile, so they can get more work done. Adam is hesitant but then assents. Satan searches for Eve and is delighted to find her alone. In the form of a serpent, he talks to Eve and compliments her on her beauty and godliness. She is amazed to find an animal that can speak. She asks how he learned to speak, and he tells her that it was by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. He tells Eve that God actually wants her and Adam to eat from the tree, and that his order is merely a test of their courage. She is hesitant at first but then reaches for a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and eats. She becomes distraught and searches for Adam. Adam has been busy making a wreath of flowers for Eve. When Eve finds Adam, he drops the wreath and is horrified to find that Eve has eaten from the forbidden tree. Knowing that she has fallen, he decides that he would rather be fallen with her than remain pure and lose her. So he eats from the fruit as well. Adam looks at Eve in a new way, and together they turn to lust.

 banish: to send somebody away , especially from their country, and not allow them to come back

banishment clip art

God immediately knows of their disobedience. He tells the angels in Heaven that Adam and Eve must be punished, but with a display of both justice and mercy. He sends the Son to give out the punishments. The Son first punishes the serpent whose body Satan took, and condemns it never to walk upright again. Then the Son tells Adam and Eve that they must now suffer pain and death. Eve and all women must suffer the pain of childbirth and must submit to their husbands, and Adam and all men must hunt and grow their own food on a depleted Earth. Meanwhile, Satan returns to Hell where he is greeted with cheers. He speaks to the devils in Pandemonium, and everyone believes that he has beaten God. Sin and Death travel the bridge they built on their way to Earth. Shortly thereafter, the devils unwillingly transform into snakes and try to reach fruit from imaginary trees that shrivel and turn to dust as they reach them.

God tells the angels to transform the Earth. After the fall, humankind must suffer hot and cold seasons instead of the consistent temperatures before the fall. On Earth, Adam and Eve fear their approaching doom. They blame each other for their disobedience and become increasingly angry at one another. In a fit of rage, Adam wonders why God ever created Eve. Eve begs Adam not to abandon her. She tells him that they can survive by loving each other. She accepts the blame because she has disobeyed both God and Adam. She ponders suicide. Adam, moved by her speech, forbids her from taking her own life. He remembers their punishment and believes that they can enact revenge on Satan by remaining obedient to God. Together they pray to God and repent.

repent: to be sorry for something bad you have done in the past and wish you had not done it.

God hears their prayers, and sends Michael down to Earth. Michael arrives on Earth, and tells them that they must leave Paradise. But before they leave, Michael puts Eve to sleep and takes Adam up onto the highest hill, where he shows him a vision of humankind’s future. Adam sees the sins of his children, and his children’s children, and his first vision of death. Horrified, he asks Michael if there is any alternative to death. Generations to follow continue to sin by lust, greed, envy, and pride. They kill each other selfishly and live only for pleasure. Then Michael shows him the vision of Enoch, who is saved by God as his warring peers attempt to kill him. Adam also sees the story of Noah and his family, whose virtue allows them to be chosen to survive the flood that kills all other humans. Adam feels remorse for death and happiness for humankind’s redemption. Next is the vision of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. This story explains the perversion(曲解;顛倒;誤用;墮落) of pure language into the many languages that are spoken on Earth today. Adam sees the triumph of Moses and the Israelites, and then glimpses the Son’s sacrifice to save humankind. After this vision, it is time for Adam and Eve to leave Paradise. Eve awakes and tells Adam that she had a very interesting and educating dream. Led by Michael, Adam and Eve slowly and woefully leave Paradise hand in hand into a new world.
woeful: full of woe(woe:used to express grieve, distress and regret  )grievous
blister水泡
perversion
(1)()sexual behavior that is considered strange and unpleasant by most people
(2)the action of perverting
lethargy: abnormal drowsiness

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Paradise Lost opens with Satan on the surface of a boiling lake of lava in Hell (ouch!); he has just fallen from Heaven, and wakes up to find himself in a seriously horrible place. He finds his first lieutenant (his right-hand man), and together they get off the lava lake and go to a nearby plain, where they rally the fallen angels. They have a meeting and decide to destroy Adam and Eve (God's children and precious science experiment) in order to spite God. Satan volunteers for the job and leaves Hell to go look for Adam and Eve.

＊spite: (as a verb) to deliberately annoy, upset , or hurt

The scene then shifts to Heaven (Book 3), where God talks about how he can see what Satan is planning. He knows everything all the time. He has a conversation with His Son, says he knows that Satan will tempt mankind and that Adam and Eve will eat the fruit of the Forbidden Tree. He needs to know if anyone will intervene on man's behalf. The Son volunteers, which makes God and all the angels in Heaven very happy.

The scene shifts again, this time to Eden. Satan has reached the Garden, and we see Eden and Adam and Eve for the first time through his eyes. We watch Adam and Eve hang out together for a while, before going into their hut to go to bed and make love. Meanwhile, God has sent out a search party to get Satan out of the Garden, which is easy as pie. The next day, God sends the angel Raphael to talk to Adam and Eve about Satan and whatever else they might want to know. About a week after Adam's chat with Raphael, Satan returns to the Garden, disguises himself as a serpent (snake), and convinces Eve to eat the Forbidden Fruit. She in turn convinces Adam to have a taste. After that, they have steamy, lustful sex for the first time.

As a result of Adam and Eve's sin (eating the Forbidden Fruit), the gates of Hell are now wide open for Sin and Death (who are actual characters in this poem) to build a bridge from Hell to earth. Satan returns to Hell triumphant, but he and his angels are eventually turned into serpents as punishment for Satan's evil deed. 

As for Adam and Eve's punishment, God makes them leave the Garden of Eden. He also introduces death, labor pains, and a bunch of other not-so-fun stuff into the world. Before they leave Paradise, however, God sends the angel Michael down to give Adam a vision of the future. After his history lesson, Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden in what is one of the saddest moments in English literature.

Alfred Lord Tennyson  Ulysses

It little profits that an idle king, 

By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole 

Unequal laws unto a savage race, 

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink 

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd 

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those 

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when 

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; 

For always roaming with a hungry heart 

Much have I seen and known; cities of men 

And manners, climates, councils, governments, 

Myself not least, but honour'd of them all; 

And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 

I am a part of all that I have met; 

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' 

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades 

For ever and forever when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! 

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life 

Were all too little, and of one to me 

Little remains: but every hour is saved 

From that eternal silence, something more, 

A bringer of new things; and vile it were 

For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 

And this gray spirit yearning in desire 

To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. 

         This is my son, mine own Telemachus, 

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,— 

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil 

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild 

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees 

Subdue them to the useful and the good. 

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere 

Of common duties, decent not to fail 

In offices of tenderness, and pay 

Meet adoration to my household gods, 

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. 

         There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: 

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, 

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me— 

That ever with a frolic welcome took 

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; 

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 

Death closes all: but something ere the end, 

Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 

'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 

Of all the western stars, until I die. 

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' 

We are not now that strength which in old days 

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Summary

Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home “by this still hearth” with his old wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the unnamed masses who live in his kingdom.

Still speaking to himself he proclaims that he “cannot rest from travel” but feels compelled to live to the fullest and swallow every last drop of life. He has enjoyed all his experiences as a sailor who travels the seas, and he considers himself a symbol for everyone who wanders and roams the earth. His travels have exposed him to many different types of people and ways of living. They have also exposed him to the “delight of battle” while fighting the Trojan War with his men. Ulysses declares that his travels and encounters have shaped who he is: “I am a part of all that I have met,” he asserts. And it is only when he is traveling that the “margin” of the globe that he has not yet traversed shrink and fade, and cease to goad him.

Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain stationary is to rust rather than to shine; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple act of breathing, whereas he knows that in fact life contains much novelty, and he longs to encounter this. His spirit yearns constantly for new experiences that will broaden his horizons; he wishes “to follow knowledge like a sinking star” and forever grow in wisdom and in learning.

stationary: not moving, or not changing

Ulysses now speaks to an unidentified audience concerning his son Telemachus, who will act as his successor while the great hero resumes his travels: he says, “This is my son, mine own Telemachus, to whom I leave the scepter and the isle.” He speaks highly but also patronizingly of his son’s capabilities as a ruler, praising his prudence, dedication, and devotion to the gods. Telemachus will do his work of governing the island while Ulysses will do his work of traveling the seas: “He works his work, I mine.”

scepter: a decorated stick that is carried by a queen or king as a symbol of authority, esp. at official ceremonies

In the final stanza, Ulysses addresses the mariners with whom he has worked, traveled, and weathered life’s storms over many years. He declares that although he and they are old, they still have the potential to do something noble and honorable before “the long day wanes.” He encourages them to make use of their old age because “ ’tis not too late to seek a newer world.” He declares that his goal is to sail onward “beyond the sunset” until his death. Perhaps, he suggests, they may even reach the “Happy Isles,” or the paradise of perpetual summer described in Greek mythology where great heroes like the warrior Achilles were believed to have been taken after their deaths. Although Ulysses and his mariners are not as strong as they were in youth, they are “strong in will” and are sustained by their resolve to push onward relentlessly: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

This poem is written as a dramatic monologue: the entire poem is spoken by a single character, whose identity is revealed by his own words. The lines are in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, which serves to impart a fluid and natural quality to Ulysses’s speech. Many of the lines are enjambed, which means that a thought does not end with the line-break; the sentences often end in the middle, rather than the end, of the lines. The use of enjambment is appropriate in a poem about pushing forward “beyond the utmost bound of human thought.” Finally, the poem is divided into four paragraph-like sections, each of which comprises a distinct thematic unit of the poem.

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Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven & Helen

The raven could be seen as a symbol of death or mortality, and the narrator's character is drawn for us through his responses to the raven and what it represents. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator is mourning his lost love, Lenore, and this is when he hears the phantom knock at the door followed by the raven's tapping at his window. The narrator asks the raven to tell him its name, what it is called "on the Night's Plutonian shore" (in the underworld—"Pluto" is another name for Hades), linking the bird to death right away (line 47). Because the narrator has been so caught up in considering his dead beloved, he seems to link the bird to death. Such a link shows us how depressed his state of mind really is.

※be (so) caught up: so involved in an activity that you do not notice other things 

Further, he is grieving, and he begins to think that the raven is simply repeating a word—nevermore—that he must have learned from his "unhappy master" . The narrator is so sad over his loss of Lenore that he projects this sense of loss and tragedy onto others.

Next, he begins to see the bird as "ominous" as death certainly seems to be for him (as it is mysterious and took his love) . Then, as he was initially trying to forget his grief by distracting himself with his books, he wonders if perhaps the bird was a gift, sent by God as a way to prompt "nepenthe" or forgetfulness . Again, we see his emotions reflected in his response to and interpretation of the bird's meaning and origins.

nepenthe: a potion used by the ancients to induse forgetfulness of pain and sorrow(忘憂藥)
potion: a liquid that is believed to have a magical effect on someone  who drinks it

The narrator hopes that the bird is from God but considers the fact that he might be a "prophet" sent by the devil (85). He desires to know if he will ever be reunited with Lenore in the "distant Aidenn," or heaven (95). When the bird says, "'Nevermore,'" the narrator becomes enraged and orders the bird away; however, the bird does not leave... Ever.

Now that the narrator has been forced to come face to face with mortality—both Lenore's and, by extension, his own—he can never escape this knowledge, and he grieves it, gets angry about it, tries to forget it, and tries to accept it. We get a sense of his nature, of his character, from these responses.

※be drawn to sb.: In this context, "to be drawn to a person" means "to be attracted to a person". This does not necessarily mean sexually or romantically, but it is often used that way.

Gaugain Nevermore

※doctrine: 
a belief or set of beliefs ,especially poetical or religious ,taught and accepted by a particular group

※be caught up: deeply involved in something
Making a sentence→ You get caught up in the excitement of the moment and don't think a a lot about what happens next.

W.B. Yeates



William Butler Yeats (/ˈjeɪts/; 13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.

pillar

＊pillar:
(1) a strong column made of stone , metal , or wood that supports part of a building
(2)a supporting integral or upstanding member or part 
＊integral:  necessary and important as a part of a whole
He was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display Yeats's debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sandymount, Ireland

Style

Yeats is generally considered one of the twentieth century key English language poets. He was a Symbolist poet, using allusive imagery and symbolic structures throughout his career. He chose words and assembled them so that, in addition to a particular meaning, they suggest abstract thoughts that may seem more significant and resonant. His use of symbols is usually something physical that is both itself and a suggestion of other, perhaps immaterial, timeless qualities.
＊allusive 
:an implied or indirect reference especially in literature
:containing a lot of allusions (allusion: something that is said or written that is intended to make you think of a particular thing or person)
＊resonate:to produce ,increase or fill with sound by vibrating (shaking) objects that are near
＊diction: the manner in which words are produced 
＊ be in favor of: (1)to support or approve of something
＊austere:
 (1)stern and cold in appearance or manner(very simple and without comfort or unnecessary things, especially because of sever limits and on money or goods )
(2)somber ; grave  →an austere critic(somber: gloomy, melancholy ,dismal)
(3)morally strict: ascetic(very severe and unfriendly in manner)
(4)markedly simple or unadorned
＃For example: an austere office; an austere style of writing 
＊vein: a distinctive mode of expression(= style)
＃For example→stories in a romantic vein
＊cyclical(週期的, 輪轉的):
cyclical events happen in a particular ,one following  the other ,and are often repeated  
Unlike other modernists who experimented with free verse, Yeats was a master of the traditional forms. The impact of modernism on his work can be seen in the increasing abandonment of the more conventionally poetic diction of his early work in favor of the more austere language and more direct approach to his themes that increasingly characterizes the poetry and plays of his middle period, comprising the volumes In the Seven Woods, Responsibilities and The Green Helmet. His later poetry and plays are written in a more personal vein, and the works written in the last twenty years of his life include mention of his son and daughter, as well as meditations on the experience of growing old. In his poem, "The Circus Animals' Desertion", he describes the inspiration for these late works:
Now that my ladder's gone
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
＊It's a metaphor. Life provides inspiration for his poetry but it is not always the beautiful things that are at the root of his creativity.
＊rag and bone shop  :a dealership selling cheap ,unwanted second-hand goods,or bric-a-brac, that have been collected for nothing as disposable items
＊bric-a-brac(小古玩;小古董): small decorative objects and of various types and having no great value

antique, bric-a-brac, and collections

This is from a late poem by W.B. Yeats entitled "The Circus Animals' Desertion." Yeats, who was constantly reshaping his poetry in a new direction, recounts the earlier stages of his poetry, which came from dream, fable, and folklore, and which he compares to gaudy circus animals. But he says he must now turn to a new and bitter realism.
All ladders (ideals if you will) start in the foul (or brutal) emotions of the heart, which he compares to a rag and bone shop, where all the debris of living is gathered, perhaps by an old man. All ideals need a frankly realistic foundation. If you read the poem (find an edition with notes) you will see other aspects of the question.
＊gaudy: bright ans showy ,but lacking in a good-taste; cheaply brilliant and ornate
During 1929, he stayed at Thoor Ballylee near Gort in County Galway (where Yeats had his summer home since 1919) for the last time. Much of the remainder of his life was lived outside Ireland, although he did lease Riversdale house in the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham in 1932. He wrote prolifically through his final years, and published poetry, plays, and prose. In 1938, he attended the Abbey for the final time to see the premiere of his play Purgatory. His Autobiographies of William Butler Yeats was published that same year. In 1913, Yeats wrote the preface for the English translation of Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali (Song Offering) for which Tagore received Nobel Prize in literature.
＊prolific(prolifically as an adverb): producing young or fruit especially freely(=fruitful)

A Coat on a wall in Leiden

While Yeats's early poetry drew heavily on Irish myth and folklore, his later work was engaged with more contemporary issues, and his style underwent a dramatic transformation. His work can be divided into three general periods. The early poems are lushly pre-Raphaelite in tone, self-consciously ornate, and, at times, according to unsympathetic critics, stilted. Yeats began by writing epic poems such as The Isle of Statues and The Wanderings of Oisin. His other early poems are lyrics on the themes of love or mystical and esoteric subjects. Yeats's middle period saw him abandon the pre-Raphaelite character of his early work and attempt to turn himself into a Landor-style social ironist.

ornate: having a lot of complicated decoration
＃for example→a room with an ornate ceiling and gold mirrors
stilted: pompous ,lofty
overbearing:
too confident and too determined to tell other people what to do, in a way that is unpleasant(專橫)
(=attitude) *assumptive,* haughty, arrogant, *presuming, *imperious,* presumptuous
 self-assertive(自作主張) :giving you opinion in a powerful way so that other people will not notice
imperious: 
self-assertive: unpleasantly proud and expected to be obeyed
lofty:
(1) high; elevated in character and spirit(=noble→lofty ideal)
(2)elevated in status→(=superiror→the less lofty customers of the bar)
pompous: excessively elevated or ornate
elevated : high or important
esoteric:
(1) very unusual and understood or liked by only a small number of people,especially those with special knowledge
(2)designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone
＊(3)requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to small group 
Critics who admire his middle work might characterize it as supple and muscular in its rhythms and sometimes harshly modernist, while others find these poems barren and weak in imaginative power. Yeats's later work found new imaginative inspiration in the mystical system he began to work out for himself under the influence of spiritualism. In many ways, this poetry is a return to the vision of his earlier work. The opposition between the worldly minded man of the sword and the spiritually minded man of God, the theme of The Wanderings of Oisin, is reproduced in A Dialogue Between Self and Soul.
supple: 
(1)bending or able to be bent easily , not stiff
(2)compliant often to the point obsequiousness ;
(3)readily adaptable or responsive to a new situation
obsequiousness: too eager to praise or obey someone
fawn: to court favor by cringing or flattering manner

Some critics claim that Yeats spanned the transition from the nineteenth century into twentieth-century modernism in poetry much as Pablo Picasso did in painting    while others question whether late Yeats has much in common with modernists of the Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot variety.

Modernists read the well-known poem "The Second Coming" as a dirge for the decline of European civilisation, but it also expresses Yeats's apocalyptic mystical theories, and is shaped by the 1890s. His most important collections of poetry started with The Green Helmet (1910) and Responsibilities (1914). In imagery, Yeats's poetry became sparer and more powerful as he grew older. The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair (1933), and New Poems (1938) contained some of the most potent images in twentieth-century poetry.
inclination: 
★obsolete→natural dispositions(=character)
a tendency to a particular aspect, state, character ,or action
spare(as a adj): not liberal or profuse
liberal: respecting and allowing many different types or beliefs or behavior
spare =copious(in large amounts or more than enough )
profuse: produced or given in large amounts
Yeats's mystical inclinations, informed by Hindu Theosophical beliefs and the occult, provided much of the basis of his late poetry,[101] which some critics have judged as lacking in intellectual credibility. The metaphysics of Yeats's late works must be read in relation to his system of esoteric fundamentals in A Vision (1925).
theosophical: any of various forms philosophical or religious thought based on a mystical insight into the divine natureoccult: cryptic, impenetrable, inscrutable, mystic, mysterious, uncanny,unfathomable, recondite, baffling, esoteric(:not known by many people and difficult to understand )
baffling: extremely difficult or difficult to understand(for example→found the directions utterly baffling)
baffle: to cause someone unable to understand or explain something

For us today, being independent of the Body is being independent to God                  --from Living to Him Website-- 

sprightly =glee=gay