Self-dependence. What is the effect of the change of meter in the last stanza? What poems What is the danger of the doctrine here advanced? by Hunt and Coleridge teach that man's greatest happiness comes from serving his fellow-men? With this poem compare Wordsworth's description of Milton in the sonnet London, 1802. Does the intellectual element in Arnold's verse ever overshadow the emotional? Show how these different poems by Arnold illustrate this belief, that 'The secret of life is joy, not peace.' What notable difference in spirit is apparent in these poems of Arnold as compared with those of Clough? GABRIEL CHARLES DANTE ROSSETTI The Blessed Damozel. This poem was written when Rossetti was in his nineteenth year. The first version appeared in 1847, in the Germ, a small magazine published by the band of which Rossetti was the leader. Mr. Hall Caine reports Rossetti as saying, 'I saw that Poe had done the utmost it was possible to do with the grief of the lover on earth, so I determined to reverse the conditions, and give utterance to the groanings of the loved one in heaven.' 1. Blessed, damozel. In what sense is each of these words employed? 19. What is the purpose of these interjected lines? Who is the speaker? 54. This line may have been suggested by that in Job xxxviii. 7, 'When the morning stars sang together.' 86. Tree. This is probably a symbol of immortal life. 126. citherns and citoles. Meaning? Compare this poem with Poe's Raven. Which expresses the deeper grief? Which is the more musical? Point out the mediæval elements in the poem. What details carry a symbolic meaning? What are the most daring conceptions in the poem ? What striking figures are here employed? How is the loneliness of the Blessed Damozel emphasized? My Sister's Sleep. This poem is in many respects most typical of the Pre-Raphaelite methods. What poem of Tennyson's published about the same time employed and made famous this meter? Where in this poem has Rossetti shown fine management of pauses? Do any lines move haltingly? Has the poem gained or lost by its simplicity and marked concreteness? Is there any apparent straining after effect? Silent Noon. 8. visible silence. What phrase does this suggest from My Sister's Sleep? Compare this phrase with Milton's darkness visi ble' in Paradise Lost, I, 63. How does this differ in form from the Shakespearian and from the Miltonic sonnet? Show how each detail introduced contributes to the effect Rossetti wished to produce. Does any phrase summarize the spirit of the description? Lost Days. Point out the resemblances and the differences in structure between this and the preceding sonnet. Which has the more rapid movement? Does the sonnet appeal to you as a genuine confession of the writer's feelings? Compare the remorse here expressed with that in Byron's On this Day I complete My Thirty-sixth Year. Which is the more sincerely impassioned? ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE Atalanta in Calydon. This is the first chorus in Atalanta in Calydon, a play written in the spirit of the old Greek dramas. honor of Artemis by a chorus of Greek virgins. 2. The mother of months. Which month is meant? It is sung in 6. Is half assuaged for Itylus. Cf. Il Penseroso, 11. 56-57. Retell the story of Philomela. 9. Come with bows bent, etc. Who was Artemis? 41. Pan by noon and Bacchus by night. Why are these mentioned? 44. The Manad and the Bassarid. Who are referred to? How is the poet's mastery of all the resources of verbal music here shown? Point out some of the most melodious lines. Is the music sensuous? What of the appeal to the sense of color? Point out the composite and intricate nature of the rhythm. Instance anapestic, dactylic, and iambic lines. Are there traces of the fatal fluency for which Matthew Arnold blamed Swinburne, affirming that Swinburne used a hundred words where one would have sufficed? The Salt of the Earth. This poem, offering a remarkable contrast in many ways to the Chorus from Atalanta, is typical of one great class of Swinburne's work. How does this lyric gain unity and force from the sentence structure? Compare the attitude towards childhood here expressed with that shown in some of the poems already studied. ALFRED TENNYSON Mariana. 8. grange. Meaning? 31. Cf. Lycidas, 1. 187. 74. Cf. Il Penseroso, 11. 78-82. Notice that in both instances the slight sound serves to accentuate the stillness. Compare with this poem Mariana in the South, its sequel. Which, by portraying her surroundings colored by her own emotions, reveals more indirectly Mariana's feelings? Which is the more effective - the direct or the indirect method? Point out in detail how objects and sounds are selected and grouped so as to suggest and emphasize the single idea of loneliness. Compare the use of nature to reflect human moods with that in Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.' Which shows the closer observation? What kind of details does each poet select? Which are the most vivid details in the description? Break, Break, Break. The circumstances of the composition of this poem are described in Tennyson's Memoirs, I, 190. 14. Why not here repeat line 2? Which line shows the better combination of vowels? 15-16. Meaning? What are typified by the ‘fisherman's boy' and the 'sailor lad,' and by the stately ships'? Why have many critics regarded these lines as the profoundest expression of grief in English poetry? Bugle Song. Mark carefully the wealth of suggestion in the song. Why is splendor, in line 1, a better word than sunset would be? 2. What is the suggestion of old in story? 16. grow is the important word in this line; the thought being that the lives of the lovers will be reëchoed and will grow in those of the succeeding generation. Select the lines where the sound echoes the sense. What is gained by the use of the internal rhyme? What variations in the refrain have been introduced? Are they skillfully arranged? Tears, Idle Tears. 20. Death in Life. Explain. What emotion is Tennyson here attempting to portray? What different qualities are attributed to the emotion? What phrase is used as a refrain? What meter is here employed? Why do we scarcely notice the absence of rhyme ? What means are employed for securing unity? Study the fine balance of phrases, especially in lines 13-14. In Memoriam, XV. This series of poems was written between 1842 and 1850 in memory of Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson's beloved friend at Cambridge. Hallam was a young man of noble nature, and of exceptional promise. Read Sections XI, XII, and XIII, with which this is contrasted. 9-16. Explain. Characterize the mood of the poem. What is the most vivid detail in this description of nature? Would the selection be clearer if the one sentence of which it is composed were broken up? Into how many sentences should you divide it? Why did Tennyson use the single sentence? XXX. 8. mute Shadow. Does this refer to Death or to his dead friend? 13-16. What are the poet's reasons for the repetitions in this stanza? 21-24. Of what lines in Lycidas are these a reflection? Compare the mood with that in XV. Whence has sprung the hope? Point out the effective use of contrast in this section. Give in your own words Tennyson's conception, as here expressed, of the condition after death. CXXXI. 1. By 'Living will,' as Tennyson has explained, is meant 'free will in man,' which he regarded as our highest and most enduring part. We must remember, however, that Tennyson believed that the human will is the supreme revelation of God by Himself. 3. spiritual rock. See 1 Cor. x, 4. 10. With this compare line 4 of the introduction to In Memoriam. Stanza III summarizes well Tennyson's creed. Is the thought here expressed loftier than that in the other two sections studied? How? What is the stanzaic form here employed? Why is it especially good for such a series of poems? The Brook. Though Tennyson said this was an imaginary brook, it closely resembles the brook described in the Ode to Memory which is known to have been the one near Somersby, Tennyson's birthplace. The two descriptions should be compared. This poem, though complete in itself, is part of a longer one (The Brook), which should be read entire to understand the setting. 1. hern, heron. 7. thorps, villages. 19. fairy foreland, tiny cape. Note the melody, or tune of the verse, as affected by the vowels, the consonants (liquids and labials), the alliterations and assonances, the meter, the frequent double rhymes, the length of the stanza employed. Where has Tennyson most successfully suggested the sound of the brook? How has Tennyson given a human interest to the brook? Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. This ode first appeared in 1852, on the day of the Duke's funeral. It was twice revised for subsequent editions. The present text is that of the final revision of 1855. 42. World-victor's victor, conqueror of Napoleon. 49. the cross of gold. This is upon the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the crypt of which Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington are buried. 52. Among the wise and bold. Many military and naval heroes are buried in the cathedral. 59. Cf. Macbeth, V, viii, 50. 80-82. This thought is perhaps suggested by Is. lxiii. 1. 83. Mighty Seaman, Nelson. 99-101. What incidents in the life of Wellington are here referred to? 123. loud Sabbath, Waterloo, June 18, 1815. |