Poetry Analysis

One resource I used.

Poems:
"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson
"O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden
"Democracy" by Langston Hughes
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Paraphrase: I was too busy with my life to focus on dying. So death granted me the pleasure instead. He, Immortality, and I were the only ones in the carriage. Everything that I had done before death, gone. The carriage takes us throughout the world, while I watch events transpire without my existence. It's been many years since this day, but I will always remember this day, and the fact the horses are taking me towards Eternity.
Purpose: Emily Dickinson was going through a troubled time, and as such relied on writing as a way of "venting" her feelings. In this poem, she has come to accept death, and views it only as an extra journey to Eternity.
Structure: For the most part it's xAyB "The carriage stopped for me... and Immortality." "A swelling of the ground... The cornice was but a mound." Of course, that all goes down the drain with "Feels shorter than the day... Were towards eternity." but for governmental purposes, we'll say it's xAyB.
Shift: There is no noticeable shift in tone or narration. Only occasional details that the narrator picked up along the way.
Speaker: The speaker is in narrative first person who is recounting what it was like on the day he/she died.
Spelling: Contains a lot of hyphens, meaning that there are continual breaks throughout the poem.
Tone: The tone is very somber. The narrator just died and is experiencing how the rest of the world is going about without him/her. Also, it's somewhat accepting. Not once do we hear from the narrator any complaint about death, nor fight against it. Rather, it's something inevitable. So why fight?
Theme: The theme seems to be the embracing of death, and the fact that death is simply one extra journey towards Eternity. For example, not once do we see the author make a fuss about dying, nor complain about him/her not being ready. It simply happens.
Title: "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"

Paraphrase: O Captain! My Captain! We have won the war, you have steered the ship in the right direction. I can hear the people cheering, I can hear them call your name. Yet you, the great and mighty captain, are dead.
Purpose: This poem is meant to lament the death of the great and mighty Lincoln.
Structure: The poem follows a rough ABAB cDeD scheme. However, unlike "Because I Could Not Stop for Death", there isn't a clear outlier in the poem.
Shift: The tone of the poem switches continually. During the ABAB stanza, the tone is happy, exulting, exhilarating  You feel like the you've just conquered the world. However, during the next cDeD stanza, the tone shifts to more something more somber, more melancholy. This is due to him juxtaposing the victory of the Civil War to the death of Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker: The speaker is in first person, and is mourning the death of his captain, Lincoln.
Spelling: The spelling is fairly simple. Then again, it comes as no surprise considering Whitman despised words derived from a thesaurus because he found them pompous, and not respecting of the average man.
Tone: The tone switches from something happy to something melancholy, because Whitman keeps switching from the victory of the Civil War to the death of Abraham Lincoln.
Theme: The theme of this poem is the death of Lincoln and how the country can move forward after the death of a great president. He is lamenting his death, while also praising the end of this great Civil War.
Title: "O Captain! My Captain!"

Paraphrase: Every day my father would do what it took to make our lives more comfortable, and yet I would never thank him. Despite his occasional anger, I would never show him appreciation. But how could I know when I was so young and naive?
Purpose: This sonnet is Robert Hayden's love letter to his dad. About how as a youth, he was so unappreciative of all his father did for him, and only later in life did he come to this realization. This is his way of atoning for his past mistakes.
Structure: This is a more contemporary sonnet, with fourteen lines but no rhyming scheme in sight (if there are rhymes, it is through pure coincidence alone).
Shift: The tone of the poem shifts from nostalgia and remembrance to fear (chronic angers of that house) and then to almost a sort of passiveness, attributing his ungratefulness to nothing more than a symptom of youthfulness.
Speaker: The speaker is in first-person remembering his past and how he never gave his father the love he deserved.
Spelling: Very colloquial language. Definitely should be something anybody can at least read, if not analyze.
Tone: Mostly a sort of reminisce of all his father did, with a sort of sadness that he never really thanked him for all he did.
Theme: How often in life have we gone about never appreciating what our parents do for us out of pure love? How often are we ungrateful for all our parents do?
Title: "Those Winter Sundays"

Paraphrase: I have every right to democracy as the next guy. But, the only way I can get it is through action, because change doesn't come by itself.
Purpose: Langston Hughes was continually subjugated to the Jim Crowe laws, and as such was calling out the injustice of the government and its "democracy" and how people need to do something to create change.
Structure: The poem goes aBcB abCdC AbACC aBcB AbA.
Shift: The tone nor the language change throughout the poem.
Speaker: The speaker is first person
Spelling: The language is very colloquial.
Tone: Hughes is very stern and very controlled because he is pointing out all the various hypocrisies of the people proclaiming "democracy" however, he has to control what he has to say because anything he uses can and will be used against him.
Theme: The theme is about hypocrisy and how Langston Hughes wants to experience democracy much like every other white person. It's also about change, and how you have to create change, because it won't happen on its own.
Title: "Democracy"

Paraphrase: While I would love to stop for nature, I cannot. There is some journey ahead that I must fulfill.
Purpose: To talk about the beauty of isolation and nature, two of the more unappreciated things in this world.
Structure: AAbA AAbA AAbA AAAA
Shift: No noticeable shift.
Speaker: First person
Spelling: Colloquial spelling
Tone: Serious and reflective
Theme: Some themes of this poem are isolation and nature. How people give themselves no time to appreciate nature, and its only upon isolation when man truly appreciates her beauty.
Title: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening