9
votes
What did Walt Whitman mean by "a pennant universal"?
He is talking about a "spiritual" "flag" for all sailors.
Whitman starts by talking about the different flags of different nations.
But by line three he is talking about "one ...
- 579
6
votes
Accepted
Did Lord Byron fluff his Greek in his poem beginning 'Maid of Athens, ere we part'?
I am Greek and familiar with the poem, and I can say that Sumelic and Scott are right to interpret this as a misunderstanding of Byron. Ζωή μου means indeed My life, while Ζώη μου means nothing at all,...
- 76
3
votes
Accepted
Is "the Kozak in a stormy meadow" part of a traditional song?
The lines that you're referring to are, in the original Ukrainian poem "До Основ'яненка" ("To Osnovianenko"):
Блуджу в снігах та сам собі:
"Ой не шуми, луже!"
A direct ...
- 71.1k
2
votes
What does "The Shampoo" written by Elizabeth Bishop tell?
This is a love poem, written to Elizabeth Bishop's lover Lota de Macedo Soares.
I am going to give a very impressionistic interpretation of it. A more literal close reading may not yield the same ...
- 11.6k
2
votes
What does "The Shampoo" written by Elizabeth Bishop tell?
This is a poem about people's perception of, and response to, love and ageing and the passing of time. But it doesn't start that way. Rather, the first verse appears to be a poetic meditation on ...
- 21k
2
votes
What do ellipses mean in the context of this Taras Shevchenko poem?
Nothing; all it might do is tell the reader to make a slight pause between the two lines.
The original 1840 punctuation was:
Не вмре, не загыне:
Отъ де, люды, наша слава,
Слава Украины, —
But within ...
- 1,835
2
votes
Accepted
What does this line from an essay on T. S. Eliot mean?
Altieri is arguing that although Eliot tried to combat the dissociation of sensibility with a poetics that relied on impersonality, in his early poems this very impersonality led only to a further ...
- 22.1k
2
votes
Name for device in "Possessions" by Hart Crane?
A similar device is the basis of a traditional/anonymous British 17th century semi-nonsense poem, probably the one recalled by Peter Shor in comments:
I saw a Peacock with a fiery tail
I saw a ...
1
vote
What did Walt Whitman mean by "a pennant universal"?
Not a kind of pennant , but pennants in general.
Adjectival postposition (and strange syntax/anastrophe in general) is a classic poetic device, particularly in older texts. As A Poet's Glossary ...
- 1,835
1
vote
Did Lord Byron fluff his Greek in his poem beginning 'Maid of Athens, ere we part'?
I don't know Greek (ancient or modern). The accentuation of "Ζώη μοῦ, σάς ἀγαπῶ" seems to be wrong, but that isn't what the Daily JSTOR article "When Lord Byron Tried to Buy a Twelve-...
- 584
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