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To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan

When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels.
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.

The whole idea of this poem, of growing up and moving on with life is rather sad. There is so much that seems so irrelevant when one is young, like a parent teaching their child to ride a bike, but that is later appreciated so much by both parent and child. Simply growing up is hard for many to deal with, the time can not be regained. It is sad to think of the mother, who as she lets her daughter ride her bike is already seeing her as grown up and leaving.

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She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways by William Wordsworth

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
-Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

This poem is extremely sad, but interesting. It makes one wonder why there was not a single person that "praised" and "loved" her. Wordsworth leaves so much out of the story about the way Lucy's life was that there is a mysterious quality to the poem. She is described as a "violet by a mossy stone". If she is so perfect next to such ugliness, why does no one love her?

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Her I Am by Roger McGough

Here I am
getting on for seventy
and never having gone to work in ladies' underwear

Never run naked at night in the rain
Made love to a girl I'd just met on a plane

At that awkward age now between birth and death
I think of all the outrages unperpetrated
opportunities missed

The dragons chased
The maidens kissed
The wines still untasted
The oceans uncrossed
The fantasies wasted
The mad urges lost

Here I am
as old as Methuselah
was when he was my age
and never having stepped outside for a fight

Crossed on red, pissed rose (or white)
Pretty dull for a poet, I suppose, eh? Quite.

McGough is obviously looking back on missed opportunities in life. He feels as if there is so much that he hasn't done, therefore making him "dull". The list of things he has not done allows for the reader to see that the author is actively thinking through life. That there was not as much contemplation towards the actual activities as there was about the entire meaning of the poem and the meaning of missed opportunities. What is missed does not matter as much as the fact that opportunities were wasted and time can not be replayed.

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Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas explains how every man, the wise, the good, the wild, and the grave, all have one thing in common. When they know that death is near, they look it in the face and keep on living. The author explains how there have always been great people no matter what their greatness is for and that they live fully. To be afraid of death would be absurd and to stop living before death has actually taken hold would not be living. Thomas believes that one should not be "gentle" in life, but rather should "rage". Life is not meant to be lived passively, one must take action into one's own hands if they are to truly appreciate all that life has to offer.

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What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why by Edna St. Vincent Millay

What lips my lips have kissed, and where and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

This poem is about remembering someone that the speaker has lost. The speaker explains how there have been many, but that "I have forgotten". Those who have come into her life have not made a large enough impact to even have a single memory of them. However, there is one person that "stirs a quiet pain", that made such an impact that when the speaker is simply lying awake at night, everything makes her think of the one she has lost.

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London, 1802 by William Wordsworth

Milton! though should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: alter, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

The poem is about grievance and mourning for someone or perhaps even for a way of life. With the death, only the unfortunate aspects of life were left in the world. The speaker describes how the one who has died brought every bit of perfection into the world and without them it is all gone. The one who has died is described as "Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart". The unique qualities, all of which are good, are missed by those left behind. The speaker admits that everyone left behind are simply "selfish men" who desire nothing more than for the old ways to be restored.

The use of a sonnet for the structure of the poem allows for the two ways of life to be emphasized. The rhyme scheme is abba abba cddece. The change in rhyme scheme changes when the ways of life change.