I'm so sorry...

Epitaph on a Tyrant
W. H. Auden

http://poetry.rapgenius.com/W-h-auden-epitaph-on-a-tyrant-annotated

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Auden was a 20th century poet. His style was that of a modernist, but he wasn't known for his conforming to labels. His life was interrupted by WW2 and his writings were split before and after the war on either side of the Atlantic. 

This poem centralizes around the idea of how the tyrant interacts with the world around him which is a common subject of modernist poems. The process of tyranny appears to be mechanized. It isn't a series of human choices, but rather an equation that is followed.

In my analysis of this poem I feel that Auden, who survived WW2, is more than likely refer to Adolf Hitler. Hitler a very prevalent tyrant at the time. This is evident from the descriptions of the tyrant's actions. When things were good those clinging to power (senators) laughed along with him, but when Hitler's empire began to crumble the innocent felt the weight of his actions. The discussion of armed forces would also be a likely allusion to Hitler. The poetry of the Tyrant is the artful propaganda that allowed the tyrant presumably Hitler to rise to power on the backs of plebeians enjoying pretty pictures.

Dearest Whitman...

Celia http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/celia-2/



Celia, we know, is sixty-five,
Yet Celia's face is seventeen;
Thus winter in her breast must live,
While summer in her face is seen.

How cruel Celia's fate, who hence
Our heart's devotion cannot try;
Too pretty for our reverence,
Too ancient for our gallantry!

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an Augustan poet and this poem follows the patterns one would expect of an Augustan poem. He was known for his work with classical translations and bore the nickname"The Wicked Wasp of Twickenham" for his literary satires that were noted to be rather "stinging".  He employs paradox in the youth and age of Celia. This is a humorous approach to the subject matter. His description of her age also seems to be an implication of her life's frailty because of her ability to be young and old all at once, implying a short existence. 

Celia is known to be elderly, but she has a young face which would imply a sense of innocence. This is contrasted with the winter in her breast which would signify a hardening of her heart. This hardening would convey an experienced life of pain and struggles, but she doesn't show that she's been hurt because summer is seen in he face. Her fate is cruel because we can't appreciate her struggles; they are unseen to the speaker. In contrast, she has still had all those experiences despite their hidden nature making her inaccessible to the youths that surround her.

The Agony of Christ

In the Catholic church, the Agony of Christ refers to his time in the Garden of Gethsemani, just before Judas came leading the priests and elders of the temple. After telling the disciples to wait behind and not to fall into temptation, Jesus began to pray and had a vision from an angel. He "experienced an agony," presumably in his soul, and sweat began to fall to the ground in the form of drops of blood. (This is considered to be a literal process, as opposed to figurative, in the Catholic church.)

And now, for the agony of Henry Clay High School!
The hallways. Of course. Everyone who has ever set foot in this school would agree that the hallways of this school are the worst part of Henry Clay. Traveling to classes, particularly in that one intersection in the downstairs orange hallway (the Mr. Pope side, not the Mrs. Cabble side), is a claustrophobic experience and should not be repeated at any other point in one's life.
The other things that have bothered me the most throughout high school have been more typical high school things and less specifically Henry Clay things. For instance, I don't like having such petty rules like being required to have a pass to go to the library--it's always seemed to silly to me, because if someone were going to skip school, they would have left school or gone to a different class, not gone to the library. Perhaps this bothers me the most now because I know that next year I will have an immense amount of freedom, but currently I still have to ask if I'm allowed to use the restroom. It feels petty and restricting, and I'm greatly looking forward to having so much more freedom next year.