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Brilliant analysis! Very detailed. I've analyzed 30-something poems on my channel for my own students (mainly Caribbean). This is one of the two or three poems (I believe) that we have both covered.

The best rendition i have heard of this Poem, is Michael Sheen by a country Mile. However what i find sad is that the Poem is telling his father to no go Gentle and to fight the dying of the light. Yet only a few years later he himself passes away way before his time barely reaching 40 years old, like the Universe spoke to Dylan

here before my exam im going to ace this for sure 😭

Frail deeds = pointless deeds = pointless lives = pointless actions?

I think of this poem as, Do not just live for the sake of it. Make something good out of it.

Literally , this is the best poem analysis.. The fact that there isn't many explanation and analysis of other poems makes me sad ...

These analyses are great.

This sounds like a Monthy Python farce

Oh man! What an explanation

Thank you. A few days ago I put away the volume of Yeat's collected poems because I could not make sense of them. This lecture has taught me so much. Thank you!

Love the explanation! I gave this Poem a go and enjoyed it very much!

Beautiful! Thank you!

Very well explained, its a beautiful sad poem!

I don't read that poem so heart broken for your family had the same nightmare

it's a pleasure to read poetry with you

There is no difference between smacking your mouth while eating and smacking your mouth while talking.

A great lecture. I love to read this poem with The Soldier- to taste the contrast.

Wonderful explanation, sir. You also digged the poem by spade and gone down and down. I like your method of delivering lectures on poetry. I enjoyed your Shakespeare sonnets, and i am waiting for your explanation of the sonnets of the master poets.

Such a talented teacher ❤

Beautiful voice! Thank you very much for the wonderful analysis. It certainly helps poem lovers and students who are preparing for exams.

he looks like Rupert Brooke himself. lol that is shocking

He is most strongly pushing Mankind to fight against destiny...no matter how you have lived your life do it

Oh my good God, I am a Mycroft & have onky known of this series for three minutes whilst aged 66. My father died when I was 15. I was coming off the pitch for tea playing for Warlingham Sunday Threes & said to Pete Hurn, "My father just died" a dozen miles away he did

A great class, thank you!

I disagree with your interpration of wise men. I view this as follows; wise men who are truly knowledgeable about self and have understanding of things, realise that whatever words, ideas we have created and shared - as generative as they may seem to be have still not changed anything truly. These words have not forked lighting, seemingly a simple enough thing to achieve if the right element is in the right place, but words will not achieve this. So I think Thomas is saying that these wise men, full of self knowledge realise that whatever has been said in the ultimate ledger is meaningless and hence they RAGE - not to hope to achieve the forking of lightning or to change the world but because of that. I think indeed of wizards who are mouthing spells to try and change events and yet in the final analysis leave things not worse or better as our cosmic comedy of a billion years whilrygig continuous to spin around a small star ….. Great poetry because of such ambiguity and ability to have multiple meanings - I recall a small coda that I repeat to myself in times of need. “One day the world of man will be at end, all my hopes and dreams as nought and the walls of my house laid bare - but not today, not today”. This owes much of course to the Henry IV like rallying call of Aragorn at the gates of Mordor - but powerful all the same.

Well explained ✅

The reason this is my personal favorite poem is that I relate to a broader, or alternate interpretation that the context is not exclusively death, but more broadly, old age. In that way, it can be read as a warning, or more inspirationally, a carpe diem rally, to maximize the time you have left. Live passionately. Use it or lose it. Being close to age 50, I think about this poem when I don’t feel up to going for a run.

Making difficult things seem easy for the learners is a fundamental tenet of teaching and you do that well here. Browning though significantly home-educated was a ferociously intelligent autodidact. All of his poetry is worth study not only for its depth but for his control of sound and form. His wife's poetry too.

Thank you mate 🍻

i love this poem and i love his interpretation or understanding of the poem and the writer.

"how much he loves this girl ... or claims to". he understands poetry and human nature. a poem like this is usually inspired by infatuation not "real" love. i believe that men are capable of true love but usually that kind of man is subtle - it's kind of beautiful really.

i just found this channel and have not been able to stop watching - he is amazing at explaining this and even better at presenting and speaking. i could listen to him read a phone book lol

how is it possible that hollywood has not found this man?!

I love the innocence of people who are not Italian lol. Anyone with an italian father and and irish mother wld understand this poem immediately lol. not all italian men are psychotic but they have crippling jealously. especially if their wife is beautiful. my mother looked like catherine denerve when she was young - she's stunning even now in her 70s. people still stare at her - my mom was always polite but i had never seen her act flirtatious - but my dad would go into a jealous rage anytime a man paid attention to her. his family was from northern italy - descendants of french "nobility" and he could not understand why an irish blue collar daughter was not impressed with him lol. i noticed this with other italian men - when they fall in love it infuriates them. like the other Italian men in his family my father became more gentle when he got older and was able to explain this to me❤

i love this guy!!! I have always thought that "showing not telling" is a lost art!

Sir can you explain the poem Tiger and the lamb of William Blake

As a Scot I challenge your use of 'British'. This is a very, very, very ENGLISH poem, using the word England 6 times. Yes Scots served but very few would relate to this. In fact I'd cite as an example of the myopia some people have in assuming English = British.

But Sir, You and Rupert Brook in the picture and video look alike

Man, I'm so very much impressed by you. Your way of teaching is just beautiful. Hope you're doing well.

Nicely done! It is a pleasure to hear a professor explain a poem without getting overly technical or philosophical and yet shed perfect light on the poem. The poem is quite powerful, sad, excellently depicting an unsatisfying life and as morbid as my own life.

I have sat in that sick-bay. As a boy, I rang that bell that rings out across the school and across the city of Derry. Strange days.

I interpreted that Thomas's relationship with his father was not very harmonious; I felt that they were not close to each other. From the first to the last stanza, Thomas seems to observe several types of men, such as wise man, good man, and grave man, but in the final stanza, Thomas does not seem to categorise the three types of men as his father. Because Thomas refers to his father only as "my father". Sorry if my opinion doesn't fit. But lately, I've been interested in poetry. And your explanation and interpretation really intrigued me in learning about literature in general. Thank you!!!

A-Level English Literature student here. Could the use of a full-stop rather than a question mark in 'What thou and I did, till we loved.' suggest the emptiness of the answer to what has been asked by the speaker? Effectively stating 'Neither of us truly lived until we fell in love. We didn't do anything.'

thank you for such an easy and clarifing way to the poem

The problem with nomenclature is… there was no group of metaphysical poets… they were so named afterwards… and thus is a falsification… what the poet means with the poem we will never know, for he is not present… hence another falsification

Thank you sir!!!

Sir, please make a video on " O Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman. American Literature.

Such a great explanation encompassing everything, the background, the analysis that too with such precision! Great reverence for the mentor.

Dear Dr Barker, Many thanks for such an enlightening exploration on ‘No Second Troy’ riddle, as it was to me, previous to your clearing walk-trough…

❤❤❤