Literary Masterpieces: Themes, Periods, and Insights

The Good Morrow by John Donne

• Type: Sonnet
• Period: 17th Century
• Themes: Nature and the completeness of the lovers
• This sonnet describes the state of perfect love in which the speaker and his lover exist.

Ann Hathaway by Carol Ann Duffy

• Type: Poem
• Period: 1999
• Themes: Passion, sensual erotic love, death, and remembrance
• The poet refers to the love between two genuine hearts, and also physical love (bed).

The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

• Type: Tale
• Period: Medieval Literature
• Themes: Love and sexual desire
• This tale is told to show what women most desire.

Sonnet 104 by William Shakespeare

• Type: Sonnet
• Period: Renaissance
• Themes: Friendship, the passing of time, and the beauty of a friend
• The writer of this poem expresses his fond memories of his first meeting with his best friend.

Sonnet 64 by William Shakespeare

• Type: Sonnet
• Period: Renaissance
• Themes: Fair youth, love, time, change
• These sonnets are devoted to a young, beautiful man whose identity remains unknown to this day. It speaks on the power of time to destroy the speaker’s love.

Macbeth Soliloquies by William Shakespeare

• Author: William Shakespeare
• Type: Tragedy
• Period: Renaissance

Act 1, Scene 5 Soliloquy

• Themes: Ambition, fate, nature, the unnatural, manhood
• In order to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth not only renounces her womanhood, she literally asks to be turned into an unnatural fiend.

Act 1, Scene 7 Soliloquy

• Themes: Ambition, fate, nature, the unnatural, manhood
• Macbeth declares that he no longer intends to kill Duncan.

Act 2, Scene 2 Soliloquy

• Themes: Guilt, regret, madness
• Lady Macbeth’s confession, as she sees blood on her hands.

Act 5, Scene 1 Soliloquy

• Themes: Ambition, fate, nature, the unnatural, manhood
• Lady Macbeth’s questions, blood, and the crimes against Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff.

London by William Blake

• Type: Poem
• Period: Romanticism
• Themes: Urban life, childhood, and corruption
• This poem criticizes the government, society, the church, prostitution, and soldiers.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

• Type: Book
• Period: Romanticism
• Themes: Feminism
• This treatise explores how women in her time are oppressed and denied their potential in society, leading to problems for their households and society as a whole.

The Sick Rose by William Blake

• Type: Poem
• Period: Romanticism
• Themes: Love, hatred, and destruction
• Describes the loss of a woman’s virginity through the metaphor of a rose and an invisible worm.

Chapter 8 from Great Expectations

• Author: Charles Dickens
• Type: Novel
• Period: Victorian Period
• Themes: Social class and ambition, guilt and redemption, and uncertainty and deceit
• This chapter introduces Miss Havisham and Estella.

Carnation by Katherine Mansfield

• Type: Short Story
• Period: Early 20th Century (1918)
• Themes: Boredom, sensuality, control, friendship, desire, and temptation
• The entire story takes place in a French classroom at a girls’ school on a hot summer’s day.

To the Warmongers by Siegfried Sassoon

• Type: War Poem
• Period: World War I
• Themes: The horrors of war, death
• This poem explores the devastating effects of war on people.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

• Type: War Poem
• Period: World War I
• Themes: Life, death, sacrifice, remembrance
• The poem conveys the desires of fallen soldiers who, though departed, remain spiritually attached to their lands.

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

• Type: Poem
• Period: Mid-20th Century (1962)
• Themes: Death, depression, pain, power, rebirth
• The poem alludes to multiple suicide attempts by the tormented speaker and highlights the role of power and oppression in one’s life.