Rachel Baack

I have not read this entire anthology, but the works included in it that I have read are listed and rated below:

• “Autumn Idleness” (from “The House of Life: A Sonnet Sequence”): The speaker describes the frosty end of November in which he wanders, unsure what he should do. Rating: 1/5
• “The Blessed Damozel”: This poem tells of two lovers who have been separated by the death. The woman, the “blessed damozel,” has died and left her lover alive without her. In this poem, the lovers are able to communicate, as the young woman is conflicted about fully entering into the afterlife without her love and has not yet done so. Rating: 2/5
• "The Orchard Pit": The speaker describes a recurring dream in which he sees the sinister Belle Dame, who has "eyes of Death" watching some people in the orchard pit. Rating: 1/5
• “Sestina. Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni”: This poem is a personification of stones and comparison of them to a lady. It was originally written by Dante Alighieri and translated by Rossetti. Rating: 2/5

• “Sudden Light”: A short poem that expresses the feeling of having the same experiences once before. Rating: 2/5
• "The Woodspurge": The speaker recounts his experience of simple observation amidst grief. Rating: 3.5/5

I have only read the title story from this collection. The following is a summary of "Button, Button": A couple must decide what to do when presented with a button, the pressing of which with result in the couple receiving $50,000 while someone they don’t know dies.

I have read the following poems included in this collection (listed with ratings):

• “The Church of a Dream”: The speaker paints a picture of a desolate church that has been forgotten by all but one priest who faithfully ministers there. Rating: 4/5
• “Dark Angel”: The speaker speaks to a torturing spirit. He says that the Dark Angel sours everything that is beautiful, but he is determined to defeat this evil spirit. Rating: 4.5/5
• “To Morfydd”: This poem has been called a “disembodied love lyric.” Rating: 2.5/5

I have read the following poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (listed below with ratings):

• “Carrion Comfort”: The speaker describes his despair and wrestling with God. Rating: 4/5
• “God’s Grandeur”: The speaker lauds the inexhaustible glory with which God has endowed nature, which is not diminished by the actions of people. Rating: 2/5
• “Inversnaid”: The speaker expresses his desire that the wilderness remain present using the example of a river. Rating: 1.5/5
• “I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark”: The speaker laments the metaphorical darkness he finds himself in, a darkness which he believes is barely better than the darkness of hell. Rating: 2.5/5
• “No Worst, There is None”: The speaker expresses the agony of religious despair and the inward torture that humans can experience. Rating: 3/5
• “Pied Beauty”: The speaker praises the ever-beautiful God for the beauty of “dappled,” or spotted/patched things. Rating: 1.5/5
• “Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves”: In this poem, a seer reads some leaves to prophesy about the Apocalypse and the condition of humanity. Rating: 2/5
• “Spring”: The uses the beauty of spring to frame his plea to God to preserve young minds. Rating: 1/5
• “That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection”: The speaker says that everything is done away with by nature but takes comfort in the knowledge that humans will live again in the Resurrection of Christ. Rating: 3/5
• “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord”: The speaker asks God why he allows him to suffer and sinners to thrive, all while affirming that God is just. Rating: 3/5
• “To R. B.”: This is Hopkins’ poem about the poetic process. He explains that poetry begins with a spark of inspiration, is formed in the mind of the poet, and finally comes out in the form of a poem, which may or may not be any good. Rating: 1/5
• “The Windhover”: The speaker realizes the superior vastness of God’s glory in light of his observation of a hawk. Rating: 1/5

Summary: The speaker expresses his longing for a past love and says that he has been faithful to her in his own way, even though he has tried to drown the memory of her.

Summary: In this poem, an old sailor tells the story of how he killed an albatross and then suffered all kinds of bad luck and strange occurrences at sea.

Summary: This poem was the result of a dream that Samuel Taylor Coleridge had. It describes a place called Xanadu, where Kubla Khan lives. It goes on to describe a vision that the speaker had and then Kubla Khan himself.

Summary: This unfinished poem follows a young woman named Christabel. One night, she goes into the woods to pray and meets a woman named Geraldine who claims to have been the victim of a kidnapping. At first, Christabel believes her, but it soon becomes apparent that something is not quite right about Geraldine.

I have read the following poems included in this book (listed with ratings below):

• “The Latest Decalogue”: This poem is Cough’s observation of the perversion of the Ten Commandments that he saw during his time. Rating: 4/5
• “Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth”: Clough wrote this poem after the fighters in the European revolutions of 1848, which he had supported, were defeated. The poem charges its readers not to believe that their cause is lost and offers a hopeful outlook for the future. Rating: 4.5/5
• “Spirit’s Song” (from “Dispychus”): The speaker revels in his wealth and love of its effects. The poem draws attention to the corrupting factor of wealth. Rating: 3/5