October 2016 – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Fire Sermon’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Fire Sermon’ is the third section of T. S. Eliot’s ground-breaking 1922 poem The Waste Land. Its title is chiefly a reference to the Buddhist Fire Sermon, which encourages the individual to liberate himself (or herself) from suffering through detachment from the five senses and the conscious mind. You can read ‘The Fire Sermon’ here; below we offer a short summary of this section of Eliot’s poem, along with an analysis of its meaning.

A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘That it will never come again’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.’ This statement has become almost proverbial, and the sentiment is centuries old, but it was Emily Dickinson (1830-86) who gave the thought this particular wording. ‘That it will never come again’ is poem 1741 in Emily Dickinson’s wonderful (and very thick!) volume of Complete Poems; we include the poem below, along with a few words of analysis.

That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
Believing what we don’t believe
Does not exhilarate.

That if it be, it be at best
An ablative estate —
This instigates an appetite
Precisely opposite.

10 of the Best Gothic Poems for Halloween

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

What are the best poems about Halloween, the best poems for Halloween? In this post, we’ve gathered up a mixture of the two: some of the following ten poems are specifically about Halloween, while others are suitably Gothic poems to enjoy on or around Halloween.

So, if you have your pumpkin at the ready, you can discover more about each poem by clicking on the title of each poem to take you through to a treat rather than a trick …

A Short Analysis of Christina Rossetti’s ‘Shut Out’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Shut Out’ was published in Christina Rossetti’s first collection of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems, in 1862. Below we offer some notes towards a summary and analysis of Rossetti’s ‘Shut Out’ in terms of its language and meaning.

A Short Analysis of Philip Larkin’s ‘A Study of Reading Habits’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Written in August 1960 and published in Larkin’s 1964 volume The Whitsun Weddings, ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ touches upon one of Philip Larkin’s favourite themes in a more explicitly humorous way than many of his most famous poems, and is great fun to analyse. You can read ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ here.