Great Regulars: Here the reader encounters the first

disadvantage of the concept of loose musing. The speaker has claimed to be alone, but if she was left home to baby-sit, she would be accompanied by the child with whom she is sitting.

The speaker then reports that she makes a concoction of "vanilla ice-cream," "grapejuice," and "ginger ale" and then listens to the "big-band sound" of "Glenn Miller."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Atwood's "In the Secular Night"

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But because of the wonderful birdsong, he could not quite shake the notion that even though he was unable to perceive it, he suspected, "there trembled through/His happy good-night air/Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew/And I was unaware."

Unlike Frost's speaker, for whom the crow's dust of snow saved from his bad mood, this speaker will, no doubt, remain ignorant of the joy that filled this thrush, and therefore, will retain his gloom and melancholy.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush"

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The speaker then denigrates her humanity by comparing herself to "a means, a stage, a cow in calf." She is just the medium through which a new life enters the world, and she feels no more advanced than any other gestating mammal; thus, she calls herself a cow.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Plath's "Metaphors"

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The mirror then reports what is does habitually: it reflects the "pink, with speckles" on the "opposite wall." It claims that it has stared at that wall for a long time, so much so that the wall "is part of my heart." Odd that the mirror, which is so objective and unfeeling, has a heart, but the reader will accept that a heart for a mirror functions somewhat differently from that of the subjective and feeling human being.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Plath's "Mirror"

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Did my great poems, which were destined to uplift your reputation, come from the decaying ideas that fertilized the barren soil of my mind until they were able to grow? Or was my soul given its talent to handle spirituality that caused me to die to all things physical?

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 86

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In the third quatrain, the speaker draws back a bit and notes that the Muse probably gave him a store of her inspiration not realizing her own worth at the time. Then when she finally realized her value, she decided to take it back. She judged it better to refrain from inspiring the speaker further.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 87

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The speaker rebukes the "lazy day" and commands it, "Forsake thy sleep/"O lazy day!" He tells the day to open itself to all possibilities that are given to it by its mere existence. He instructs the day to open just as fully as the rosebud has done; open "To chase my gathered gloom away!"

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's "'Tis All Unknown"

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