Great Regulars: The speaker begins with a confession

that she is so lazy that she could qualify is as "laziest/girl in the world." Lest the reader think she exaggerates, she confides that she sleeps all day if she feels so inclined, "'til/my face is creased and swollen,/'til my lips are dry and hot." Furthermore, she eats whatever strikes her fancy, healthy or not: "cookies and milk/after lunch, butter and sour cream,//foods that/slothful people eat."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Alexander's "Blues"

~~~~~~~~~~~

The speaker is unyielding about keeping her "own Society," and even though she is aware of visitors arriving in "Chariots" and "pausing--/At her low Gate," she insists on remaining alone with her soul society and will not accept a visit from them. Even if "an Emperor" comes calling and "kneeling/Upon her Mat," she will remain aloof for the sake of her soul, and the grace that solitude brings her.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's "The Soul selects her own Society"

~~~~~~~~~~~

[Bret] Harte's two final couplets hold up a weak contrast to [John Greenleaf] Whittier's: "If, of all words of tongue and pen,/The saddest are, 'It might have been,'//More sad are these we daily see: 'It is, but hadn't ought to be'." Trying to out-clever Whittier, Harte says that if the human heart regrets the absence of what might have been, then it should regret even more what should not have been.

Unfortunately, there is no difference between these two statements.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Harte's "Mrs. Judge Jenkins"

~~~~~~~~~~~

One of his favorite subjects has been the aging process. Here he calls that theme "a satire to decay." By reminding himself and his readers that the aging and decomposing process of the physical body are serious matters, he performs a service while sustaining the beauty and truth inherent in his right thinking and his ability to create beauty in his sonnets.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 100

~~~~~~~~~~~

The speaker then asserts that beauty needs "no pencil" to tell its truth, but by telling it well, the speaker assumes his artistic talent will assure that truth will never be intermingled with anything less than beauty and truth. He intuits his correctness, elevating it to righteousness.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 101

~~~~~~~~~~~

And the importance of this poem is well-summarized in the two final couplets: "Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies/Deeply buried from human eyes//And, in the hereafter, angels may/Roll the stone from the grave away!"

Whittier understood that the unreality of this earthly existence causes human beings to fail to realize their true nature: the soul's goal is to find unity with its Creator, not to languish in useless dreams and regrets about whether it lives in city or country or as judge or farmer.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Whittier's "Maud Muller"

~~~~~~~~~~~

It is the poet/speaker who suffered loneliness in his life before the found his Divine Friend, but because he steadfastly sought unity with the Beloved, he found Him, but the success he now also lays at the feet of the Divine, who have him the ability to feel, work, and create. The hands that the Great One gave to the devotee are the hands that were used to create.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's "Consecration"

~~~~~~~~~~~