We’ve been looking at the theme of isolation and identity in poetry. Thought you might want to review the poems we’ve been reading in class, so here they are (and a few we will get to), in no particular order:

• “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1913)¹
• “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
• “Not Waving But Drowning” by Stevie Smith (1957)
• “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1875)
• “If” by Rudyard Kipling
• “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay (2009)
• “I am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel (1965)²
• “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles (1966)
• “Self-Dependence” by Matthew Arnold (1852)
• “Warning to Children” by Robert Graves
• “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas (1952) (With audio!)

I asked you to read and journal over “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, which you can find here. It is a complicated poem, so don’t worry if you have more questions than answers at this point³—I don’t expect a dissertation, just a record of your initial reaction and questions, lots of questions.

If you come across (or know of) any other poems we should read, post a link in the comments or bring a copy to class.

1. Yep, he’s American, but these are important poems. [↩]
2. Can’t find a clean link—search if you’d like. [↩]
3. And here I use an emdash to set off a parenthetical elaboration… [↩]