At a Solemn Music

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'n's joy,
Sphere-born harmonious Sisters, Voice and Verse,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ
Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to pierce,
And to our high-rais'd fantasy present
That undisturbed Song of pure concent,
Ay sung before that saphire-colour'd throne
To Him that sits thereon
With Saintly shout and solemn Jubilee,
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row
Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow,
And the Cherubic host in thousand choirs
Touch their immortal Harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that wear victorious Palms,
Hymns devout and holy Psalms
Singing everlastingly;
That we on Earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise;
As once we did, till disproportion'd sin
Jarr'd against Nature's chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd
In first obedience, and their state of good.
And keep in tune with Heav'n, till God ere long
To His celestial consort us unite,
To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light. 

John Milton

commentary of "Alone" by maya angelou

Maya Angelou used most of the figurative language I know of to write this poem. She used rhymes of a simple AB, AB pattern like when she said in the 3rd stanza with one of her end rimes was: "With money they can't use" (and continued with) "Their children sing the blues" She also used personification when she said in the first stanza: "Where water is not thirsty" She wrote repetition too when she kept saying "alone" and "nobody" in her poem. Finally it also had similes when she said "There are some millionaires" (next line) "With money they can't use" (next line) "Their wives run round like banshees" because here she was comparing wives of millionaires to banshees. And finally Maya used alliteration when she said "alone all alone." There is also some Biblical allusion in her statement where the water is not thirsty and the bread is not stone. Jesus to the women at the well says that he can give her water such that she will never thirst again, and in another section of the gospels, Jesus says that we should pray to receive the Holy Spirit, that God being our father gives good gifts. He goes on to say that what father when asked for bread gives his children a stone instead. I think there is more meaning than just saying that a person can't live alone, I think she means that we as a people can't live without the other people of this world...I think she means that even if you have a great life with a great wife and a great family you still need to exists in the company of humanity. That is why I think she mentions that the human race is suffering and she hears it moaning from the pain of racism and separation due to other prejudice. No race or culture or religious organization can live in isolation from the rest of humanity. The theme is that no one in the world can make it alone. Everybody needs a friend. 

Alone

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone. 

Maya Angelou

commentary of "light" by john milton

These passages from Book III make up part of Milton’s second and longest invocation, which is also his most autobiographical and symbolic. Milton refers to light simultaneously as divine wisdom and literal light. When he speaks about his blindness he refers to both his inward blindness, or lack of divine wisdom, and his literal blindness, or loss of eyesight. He begins by praising holy light as the essence of God. The idea that God is light was common before and during Milton’s time, and is a popular interpretation of certain biblical passages in Genesis. He then invokes his heavenly muse, the Holy Spirit, by reusing similar images and ideas from his first invocation; remember that Milton has asked for this heaven muse to illuminate “what in me is dark” (I.22). Symbolically, Milton asks for his muse to enter his body and fill him with divine knowledge. Milton discusses his physical, outward blindness when he compares himself to other famous blind “Prophets old” (III.36), such as Homer (Maimonides) and Tiresias, and asks that he be filled with even more wisdom than them. He does not seek pity for his blindness, explaining that he is still active and undeterred from his poetic purpose. He believes that his outward blindness is insignificant, and that he hopes he is not inwardly blind. He hopes to sing beautifully like the darkling bird, which sings at night, unable to see who or what she is singing to. He ends his invocation by asking for his inward blindness to be corrected so that he can properly tell the story of Adam and Eve.

Light

HAIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born,
Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam
May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream,
Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,
Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd
In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other notes then to th' Orphean Lyre
I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs,
Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt
Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath
That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget
Those other two equal'd with me in Fate,
So were I equal'd with them in renown.
Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides,
And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men
Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair
Presented with a Universal blanc
Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou Celestial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight. 

John Milton

commentary on Men by maya angelou

Men by Maya Angelou is a poem about a young girl coming of age and her first sexual experience. it is a poem that is divided in to three stanzas. It is also run to just49 lines. We are about to break the poem down stanzas by stanzas.  In the first stanza the female speaker took us back to her youth years or childhood. She recalls looking out her window at men that always pass by on the road outside her house. She was amazed at first, the different way these men appear. Older men, young men, wino men. Then she realizes that men are always going somewhere. At this point the point took a shift, where everything change  and we are informed that now the men have realize that they are being watched, and her look is surprisingly lustful, and she is now fifteen years old and she want them. We get to know that sex is something she has never had before.  Now at this point everything get real as she compare the men’s shoulders high and they look upon her to the breasts of a young girl, implying some mutual arousal between the girl watching and the men’s being watched. This is where the speaker get real with us the audience, by taking us through her sexual experience, which is very difficult to do, only few fifteen year old girls will do that. This poem unlike any other poem of this nature there is nothing sentimental, beautiful, or magical about this experience. Started by treating her gently as if she was was “the last raw egg in the world.” But as the sexual act progresses the fantasy disappear. As the male triggers in the speaker a moment of realization, followed by anger, then sadness. She had invested so much hope in men only to find out their need were so far removed from her own. The cravings of the “starving” fifteen year old will never be met, nor even understood, by anyone with such a basic, uncomplicated sexual compass. This realization deadens the woman inside, her libido not gone (for that in itself would now be a welcome release) but permanently, maddeningly locked away, the fifteen year old taunting and teasing the woman with the memories of the idolized desires of her youth. But “No keys exist.” While this would seem to indicate the end of the story (and indeed, many poems in a similar vein do conclude on this melancholy note) Angelou surprises us with an epilogue that turns the “innocence shattered” motif just a little bit askew.

on his blindness commentary

the poem "on his blindness by John Milton" is a short poem of only 14 lines. this poem is based on a religious believe that God knowledge to man kind is being use for other reason, and not to please him.due to the research i did i found out that the poem is an Italian sonnet. this poem can be divided into two part. the first part being an octave, and the second part being sestet. the poem is believe to have been written as early as 1652, most scholars believe is was compose sometime between June and October 1655,when Milton"s blindness was essentially complete. the poem rhyming scheme is abba, abba, cde, cde. this poem do not tell a story, instead it expresses the author feelings directly to the reader. this poem have some literary devices like rhetorical question, when it said "doth god exact day labor light denies? personification when it said "But patience to prevent that murmur soon replies." world and wide is alliteration. i decided to paraphrase the first part of the poem.when i think about how long i have no light left before my life is half over, and that this gift death can take away, it is useless to me  although it makes me better fit to serve God, and be truthful for the fear i have for him. do he expect a work day from me, while denying me light, i stupidly ask myself.But patience, uncomplaining, soon replies-"God doesn't need the work or talent of man. those who humbly submit to him are his best servants. he is the king.thousands serve him by tirelessly crossing land and sea.milton begins by questioning his blindness- how does God expect me to serve him when he has blinded me? but he corrects himself as the sonnet turn-we serve God best by accepting the burnden he give us, acting acording to our god-given strength and limitation.

• the sonnet turns - we serve God best by accepting the burdens he gives us,

• the sonnet turns - we serve God best by accepting the burdens he gives us,

•  patience, uncomplaining, soon replies - "God doesn't need the work or talents of
• patience, uncomplaining, soon replies - "God doesn't need the work or talents of

• patience, uncomplaining, soon replies - "God doesn't need the work or talents of