http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/english-poetry Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Thu, 14 May 2026 03:40:17 -0400 Thu, 14 May 2026 03:40:17 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1881/death-in-john-keats-ode-to-a-nightingale-and-the-eve-of-st-agnes By Anne R. Hill - This paper explores Keats’ depiction of death in “Ode to a Nightingale” and “The Eve of St. Agnes.” “Ode to a Nightingale” juxtaposes two types of death. The first kind of death is a drowsy union with nature which allows the speaker to merge with the world around him. The speaker embraces this metaphorical death because he is terrified of literal death and its ugliness. Literal death is not a unifying force, but an isolating reality that wrecks the speaker’s unity with the nightingale and imprisons him in his “sole self.” While readers... Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:55 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1881/death-in-john-keats-ode-to-a-nightingale-and-the-eve-of-st-agnes http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1527/tyrant-or-temptress-deciphering-meaning-from-stellas-sole-reply-in-sir-philip-sidneys-fourth-song By Emily Gray - First published in 1591 but thought to be composed sometime during the previous decade, Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella recounts the evolution of the relationship between the fictional, titular characters primarily from young Astrophil’s point of view. Consisting of 110 sonnets and 11 songs, the English poet’s sonnet sequence begins with a love-struck Astrophil narrating both his motivations for writing the various pieces and his initial struggle to begin translating his internal sentiments into poetic verse. The work goes on to document the transition of Astrophil&rsquo... Mon, 06 Feb 2017 06:04 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1527/tyrant-or-temptress-deciphering-meaning-from-stellas-sole-reply-in-sir-philip-sidneys-fourth-song http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1457/poetic-sovereignty-in-the-work-of-the-romantic-poets-self-determiniation-and-revolutionary-thought By Hayley E. Tartell - This essay first explores how Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley invoke the medium of language, specifically poetic language, to opine on the relationship between the reader’s sense experience and freedom. Subsequently, this piece delves into Romantic thinker Walter Benjamin’s analysis of Holderlin’s poetic language in order to reveal the power dynamics between poetry and the readership. Furthermore, by probing and fleshing out the work of Shelley, one can gain a deeper understanding of the nature of poetic sovereignty and its rootedness in themes of possession... Mon, 10 Oct 2016 08:45 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1457/poetic-sovereignty-in-the-work-of-the-romantic-poets-self-determiniation-and-revolutionary-thought http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/938/the-sexual-and-the-spiritual-in-john-donnes-poetry-exploring-the-extasie-and-its-analogues By Basil Thommen - This paper looks at the poet John Donne’s method of incorporating sexual imagery into religious and spiritual contexts. The main features of Donne’s technique arise from his notion of ecstasy. Donne’s ecstasy describes how the souls of two lovers leave their bodies during their physical union and mix together before returning to their original bodies. This experience purifies each of the lovers and grants them spiritual fulfillment. Writers such as Marsilio Ficino, St. Teresa of Avila, and others have proposed similar ideas regarding the transformative experience that sex has... Mon, 10 Nov 2014 10:14 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/938/the-sexual-and-the-spiritual-in-john-donnes-poetry-exploring-the-extasie-and-its-analogues http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/161/the-balance-of-power-between-men-and-women-in-robert-brownings-poems By Alina Saminsky - The first observation that supports this point is that originally the men do not have power. One way that this is demonstrated to the reader is the author’s choice to make the men insane. In “Porphyria’s Lover,” the man is paranoid. He describes the storm that is going on around him in the same manner that one describes a person, “The sullen wind was soon awake,/It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/And did its worst to vex the lake” (57), which makes him seem suspicious. The reader also realizes that while there is this storm going on, the man is sitting alone... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:49 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/161/the-balance-of-power-between-men-and-women-in-robert-brownings-poems