Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday, February 20

Today in class we read and discussed the poems "Richard Cory" and "Miniver Cheevy". Your assignment is to write a paragraph that discusses how the author uses poetry devices in "Miniver Cheevy" to help convey a specific Realist theme. Follow the information provided in the previous post. This follows the same pattern as the Whitman paragraph, so see the previous post if you have questions. Here's the poem in case you don't have your book.

Miniver Cheevy



Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,

Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;

He wept that he was ever born,

And he had reasons.



Miniver loved the days of old

When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;

The vision of a warrior bold

Would set him dancing.



Miniver sighed for what was not,

And dreamed, and rested from his labors;

He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,

And Priam's neighbors.



Minever mourned the ripe renown

That made so many a name so fragrant;

He mourned Romance, now on the town,

And Art, a vagrant.



Minever loved the Medici,

Albeit he had never seen one;

He would have sinned incessantly

Could he have been one.



Miniver cursed the commonplace

And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;

He missed the mediƦval grace

Of iron clothing.



Miniver scorned the gold he sought,

But sore annoyed was he without it;

Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,

And thought about it.



Miniver Cheevy, born too late,

Scratched his head and kept on thinking;

Miniver coughed, and called it fate,

And kept on drinking.



E.A. Robinson