I am looking for some help on four poems. I have to write critical responses to
Sonnet XX111, As an Unperfect Actor on Stage by William Shakespeare,
Languages by, Carl Sandburg,
A Noiseless Patient Spider by, Walt Whitman and
The Dream by, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Thankyou for your help, time and trouble.

Rick Dwan

The following site might help you with the Sandburg poem.

.[titan.iwu.edu]

Good link, but I am unsure of the request. Are they separate responses, or are they to be tied together, looking for similar themes?

I was told to find the dominant meter of anne bradstreets poem, "To my dear and loving husband". I was alos told to to describe each foot of line 5 of the poem. I was told to explain why i read the meter of the poem the way i did and if i think it is irregular.

1 If ever two were one, then surely we.
2 If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.
3 If ever wife was happy in a man,
4 Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

5 I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold

6 Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
7 My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
8 Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.
9 Thy love is such I can no way repay.
10 The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
11 Then while we live, in love let's so persever
12 That when we live no more, we may live ever.


Sounds like iambic pentameter to me. I would not quarrel with line five so much as with eight and eleven, though. Awkward stumbles on both of those.

I don't see a problem with 8, but 11 is definitely irregular.

Line 5

I prize | thy love | more than | whole Mines | of gold

seems like standard iambic pentameter to me as well. Is there something going on with the stresses that I'm not seeing? I wonder if the teacher has a particular point in mind, or if students were assigned different lines.

pam