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What is the purpose of the irregular movement of line 5?

Do you feel that this is the song of foresters or of court folk in the greenwood?

Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind. 2. unkind, unnatural. Cf. Hamlet, I, ii, 65.

In what respect may this and the preceding poem be called companion pieces?

How does this song differ in its spirit from Winter? Which is the more realistic?

Is there any similarity in the form of the two lyrics?

Which do you consider the more beautiful?

Intensity of feeling and perfection of form are in general characteristic of the lyric. Are they both present here?

Sigh no more, Ladies. It is noticeable that Shakespeare takes occasion to compliment himself upon its excellence in the words of Don Pedro that follow, 'By my troth, a good song.'

9. тое. An old form used often by Shakespeare, but usually altered by modern editors to 'more.'

10. dumps. Meaning?

12. leavy, the regular form of the word in Shakespeare.

O Mistress Mine. Compare the sentiment and spirit of this song with that of the other Shakespearian love lyrics, especially with the preceding song.

Take, O take those Lips Away. Is the singer a man or a woman? Study the combination of sounds, one of the most masterly in the language.

Cup us till the World goes Round. 2. eyne, an old plural. Cf. kine. Johnson defines pink eye as 'a small eye.' Here the allusion is to the half-shut eyes of sleepy intoxication.

3. fats. Meaning?

5. till the world goes round. Meaning?

Of what mood is the drinking song the expression?

For what poetic excellencies should we look in a good drinking song? Compare the spirit and movement of this song with that of Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut, by Burns.

Why are good convivial lyrics so rare in English as compared with German poetry?

Hark, Hark! the Lark! in this little morning song.

Note the richness and beauty of suggestion

In what line does the movement best suit the sentiment expressed? What famous composer has set this song to music?

Fear no more the Heat o' the Sun. This dirge is sung by two young princes over the body of Fidele, supposedly a page, but really their sister Imogen.

II. sceptre, learning, physic. For what does each of these three words stand? Are they arranged in a climax?

14. thunder-stone. Meaning?

19. exorciser. Meaning?

18. Consign, join thee in death. 21. unlaid, by prayers or charms.

23. consummation. What does this word suggest more than ending?

What means are employed for giving the poem unity?

Lines 5 and 6 have been considered among the best Shakespeare ever wrote. Why?

How is a change of spirit indicated in the last stanza?

Compare with the tranquil dignity of this dirge the conceits of the dirge in Romeo and Juliet, V, iii, 12 ff.

Select a title that will convey the spirit of the poem.

Where the Bee Sucks. What elements in Ariel's nature are emphasized in the last lines, and how?

A Sea Dirge. What words in this dirge best characterize its tone? Contrast the spirit of this dirge with that of the one from Cymbeline. How do these Elizabethan songs differ from those written to-day? Which of these lyrics would be most easily set to music?

Which of them rise to a climax?

Which do you consider the boldest or most daring figure in these songs?

THOMAS CAMPION

Fortunati Nimium, 'fortunate beyond measure.' The phrase is borrowed from Vergil, Georg. II, 458.

2. still, always.

8. silver penny. Silver pennies were in use till 1609.

9. nappy ale, strong ale, causing sleepiness.

12. crabs. Meaning?

32. silly, simple, happy. Cf. German saelig.

19. tutties, nosegays.

Point out the distinctively English coloring of this old lyric, e.g. in lines 16 and 23.

Observe the note of sincerity in the praise of country life.

Compare with this Marlowe's Come live with Me and be my Love (in Palgrave's Golden Treasury). Which is the more conventional?

BEN JONSON

To Celia. Point out the evidence here that Jonson's songs combine with sincerity and intensity of emotion the utmost simplicity and musical quality of expression.

Should you characterize the song as spontaneous?

Which is the more graceful stanza?

Which expresses the more beautiful 'conceit,' this poem or Apelles' Song?

Hymn to Diana. Explain the mythological allusions.

How does this use of mythology affect the apparent sincerity of the Hymn?

Indicate some of the most beautiful repetitions of vowel sounds in the poem.

JOHN DONNE

A Hymn to God the Father. This poem, Walton tells us in his life of Donne, the author wrote during an illness. He tells us further that Donne had it 'set to a most grand and solemn tune,' and that it was often sung to the organ by the choristers of St. Paul's Church. 8. door. What is the exact meaning as used here?

15-16. What do you think of the word play in these lines?

Does the rugged meter contribute to the effect of sincerity and earnestness?

How?

Point out how Donne's energy and fervor shine through even the obscurity and artificialities of the diction.

Indicate some of the most striking examples of the effective use of words.

Notice the firm structure of the poem, and show how the effect of compactness is secured.

What two differing tendencies in the poetry of the seventeenth century are represented by the poetry of Donne and that of Suckling respectively? See Saintsbury's History of Elizabethan Literature, or Masterman's The Age of Milton.

ROBERT HERRICK

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The Argument of the Hesperides. 3. hock-carts . wakes. Look up in the dictionary.

8. ambergris. Meaning?

With which of the two great political parties of the time do you imagine Herrick sympathized?

Which of the details introduced suggests most vividly to you England of the seventeenth century?

Which line should you select as the most beautifully phrased?

The Hesperides is a collection of nearly thirteen hundred poems almost without orderly arrangement. Into what groups should you conclude, judging from these lines, that they might be divided?

To Daffodils. 2. haste away so soon: The daffodil is one of the earliest spring flowers. Cf. Lycidas, I, 150, and Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 118.

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What qualities lend this poem its exquisite charm? Should you describe the poet's mood as that of sensuous reverie?

GEORGE HERBERT

Virtue. Herbert has been called 'the poet of a meditative and sober piety that is catholic alike in the wideness of its appeal and in its love of symbol and imagery.' How does this poem help to justify this

estimate?

Which do you consider the most graceful stanza?

Herbert's imagery shows much over-elaboration, after the manner of Donne, whose disciple he was. How does this fact appear evident from the last stanza of this poem?

EDMUND WALLER

Old Age. These are the closing lines of Waller's poem Divine Love, dictated, it is said, on his deathbed. No other English poets, except Raleigh and Tennyson, have taken leave of life in words of such dignified composure. The inscription upon his tomb describes him as inter poetas sui temporis facile princeps. This estimate of Waller as the

greatest poet of his generation represents the deliberate verdict of the age of the Restoration upon his work.

5. affection, prejudice.

Waller had an important share in the development of the heroic couplet in English verse. Compare his use of it, as regards strength and finish, with any dozen lines from Pope.

What do you think of the 'conceit ' in lines 7-8?

Does the adjective that Pope applies to Waller's verse seem particularly appropriate? See Pope's Essay on Criticism, 1. 161.

L'Allegro and

JOHN MILTON

They sim-
Taken to-

Penseroso were written at Horton, whither Milton went after leaving Cambridge. The two poems, which should be studied together, are not to be thought of as antithetical. ply represent different moods of, perhaps, the same man. gether, they form a comparison of the two kinds of enjoyment — that arising from innocent high spirits, and the deeper pleasure that results from meditation.

L'Allegro. 2. Who was Cerberus?

Here, as often, Milton makes his own mythology. According to classical mythology Erebus (Darkness) was the wife of Nox (Night). 3. Stygian. Meaning? 5. uncouth, unknown.

17. some sager, Milton himself. What follows is, again, Milton's own mythology.

29. Who was Hebe?

36. mountain-nymph. Why is Liberty so described? Cf. Wordsworth's Thoughts of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland.

38. crew. What change in meaning has this word undergone since Milton's day?

45. in spite of sorrow, to spite sorrow.

47-48. The sweet-briar and the eglantine are really the same plant. 55. hoar hill. Why 'hoar'?

67. tells his tale, counts his number (of sheep). What is a 'teller' in a bank?

71. lawns, open pastures.

80. cynosure.

Find the derivation.

83. These names and those found in lines 86-88 are conventional

pastoral names in the Classics.

87. bower. Exact meaning?

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