67 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2024
    1. Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour; England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

      poet laments the moral and spiritual decline of England during the early 19th century

    1. Pitying, I dropped a tear: But I saw a glow-worm near,

      speaker feels sorrowful and empathetic for Tom’s suffering, the glow-worm near him represents a fleeting, almost imperceptible source of light in a world full of darkness and suffering.

    2. All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.

      their innocence and suffering, turn to faith and gratitude as a means of coping with their circumstances.

    3. And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark, And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

      are forced to wake up before dawn, likely to work long hours in the cold, dim light,

    4. There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved; so I said,

      highlight the innocence and vulnerability of child laborers during the Industrial Revolution.

  2. pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca
    1. When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,

      poet's lament over his blindness, focusing on the feeling of loss—both personal and existential.

    2. Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint, Purification in the old Law did save,

      religious and Biblical imagery to express the purity and sanctity of the love shared between himself and his wife

    3. ut my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,

      aging, the passage of time, and the tension between outward appearance and internal reality.

  3. pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca
    1. I, like an usurp’d town to another due, Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

      expressing frustration over the inability to fully engage in or allow love, despite effort and desire.

    2. Where we almost, nay more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;

      small creature, a metaphor for their connection, challenging conventional ideas about love, marriage, and intimacy.

    3. We said, and tell us what we love; We see by this it was not sex,

      searching for a deeper understanding of their connection, coming to the realization that their love is something more than just sex.

    4. Call us what you will, we are made such by love; Call her one, me another fly, We’re tapers too, and at our own cost die,

      love, while beautiful and all-consuming, also involves sacrifice and vulnerability.

    5. Or the king’s real, or his stampèd face Contemplate; what you will, approve, So you will let me love.

      the speaker contrasts the material and societal value represented by the king’s image (real or stamped on a coin) with the personal, emotional act of love.

  4. pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca
    1. I write of youth, of love, and have access By these to sing of cleanly wantonness.

      Cleanly wantonness" suggests a tension between innocence and passion, hinting at the idea that love and youthful energy

    2. Then while time serves, and we are but decaying; Come, my Corinna, come, let’s goe a Maying.

      a kind of celebration of life, urging readers to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of time

    3. Come, my Corinna, come; and comming, marke How each field turns a street; each street a Parke Made green, and trimm’d with trees: see how Devotion gives each House a Bough,

      urging Corinna to witness how nature and human life blend harmoniously to create unity

    4. Above an houre since; yet you not drest, Nay! not so much as out of bed?

      the urgency to rise and greet the morning, emphasizing that time is slipping away while the person isn't doin any work

    5. Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see That brave vibration each way free, O how that glittering taketh me!

      continues the admiration for Julia’s beauty, celebrating the elegance and sensuousness of her appearance

    6. careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility:

      "carelessness" here is not negative but rather indicative of a natural, effortless beauty order enhance charm

    7. That age is best which is the first,

      the earlier life is the best as you spend it with yourself and so what you choose to do before you get into the complexities of life

    1. Then the guardian of mankind,

      Over here, I change my perception and think it as it is referring to something eternal and powerful. They have the power to guard humankind. Guard something that is so great itself

  5. Oct 2024
  6. pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca
    1. And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying.

      The author is saying that the adulthood and youngness isn't always going to stay. Its here today but will be gone tomorrow. You have beauty today and everyone is attracted by your beauty today but they wont be anymore once your beauty is gone by tomorrow.

  7. Sep 2024
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