Britská literatura
Rosenberg, Isaac. "Break of Day in the Trenches".
Summary and Analysis
- the author was also a painter: a series of strikingly beautiful yet profoundly melancholic visual images ("Poppies whose roots are in man's veins", etc.)
- the speaker briefly...
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Rosenberg, Isaac. "Louse Hunting".
Summary and Analysis
- a condensed series of stark yet forceful images of the blackly grotesque struggle of the man against the louse
- the 1st stanza evokes the sound (the multiple curses and shouts of the...
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Rossetti, Christina. "Song - When I am dead".
Notes
- a simple yet moving love song/melodic poem
- the speaker addresses her "dearest" and asks not to be mourned after her death
- wishes for no sad songs and no flowers, but for green grass to cover her...
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Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "The Blessed Damozel".
Notes
- the title: "damozel" = a poetic expression for "damsel", a young unmarried lady
- the author claims to have meant the poem as a reversed version of Poe's "The Raven", expressing the grief and "yearning...
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Sassoon, Siegfried. "Attack".
Summary and Analysis
- a harshly melodic poem, the prevalence of sonorous sounds reinforces the theme
- an image of the morning: the bloody colour of the sun, the smoke, the tanks, etc.
- a forceful image of...
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Sassoon, Siegfried. "Base Details".
Summary and Analysis
- the speaker sarcastically attacks those leading the war without participating in the battles
- develops an image of himself how he would live if he were an elderly and weak man:...
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Sassoon, Siegfried. "Glory of Women".
Summary and Analysis
- a harshly sarcastic sonnet about the ignorance of non-combatants
- addresses the completely ignorant mothers and lovers who hypocritically love their soldiers when they are heroes,...
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Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night.
Introduction
(from Norton)
Twelfth Night: The title refers to the Feast of Epiphany, January 6, the culminating night of the traditional Christmas revels. The Epiphany marks the visit of the Three Kings to...
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Shaw, G. B. Saint Joan.
Summary
Scene I
(Lorraine in France, 1429)
The English king, married to the daughter of the French queen, controls half of France and Paris. The French queen denies the legitimacy of Dauphin, her son. The weak...
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Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs Warren's Profession.
Preface
The author professes that the play was written "to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing, and...
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Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.
Epistolary Introduction
Summary
Robert Walton, an explorer to the North Pole, describes his expedition in letters to his sister in England, Mrs Margaret Savill. The expedition takes on board a wretched man...
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Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The School for Scandal.
Summary
"Prologue"
Written by Mr Garrick. The short prologue consists of rhymed couples, in which the reciter wonders at the necessity of establishing a school for scandal. He believes that raising scandal is...
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Smith, Stevie. "Do Take Muriel Out".
Summary
- the speaker urges an unknown addressee to take the lonely Muriel out
- Muriel seeks in vain her friends, all gone to far away places, and sadly returns home to pray
- the last stanza reveals the...
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Smith, Stevie. "Not Waving but Drowning".
Summary
- a poetic snippet describing the death of a man from the different perspectives of the drowned one and of those discussing his death
- generally people think he drowned as a result of a heart attack...
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Smith, Zadie. White Teeth.
Summary
"Archie"
- after his divorce, Archie (45) attempts to commit suicide but is interrupted in the act and fails to finish it
- joins a commune of free thinkers and marries the toothless Caribbean...
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