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WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

Rose Aylmer. With which of Wordsworth's poems may this be compared in its restraint? In which is the grief expressed the greater?

THOMAS CAMPBELL

Hohenlinden. During a visit to the Continent, Campbell witnessed, on Dec. 3, 1800, from a Bavarian monastery, the battle between the French and Austrians. This poem has been said to be 'the only representation of a modern battle that possesses either interest or sublimity.' 1. Linden, Hohenlinden.

4. Iser. The battle was fought on a plateau between the Iser and the Inn. 27. Munich. Why mentioned? 29-32. The Austrians lost 8000 men; the French, 5000.

Was Sir Walter Scott justified in calling this 'a glorious little lyric'? Point out the sudden changes of mood in the poem. Contrast it in this respect with Drayton's To the Cambro-Britons and their Harp, his Ballad of Agincourt.

In what way by the last line of each stanza is the whole poem bound together?

THOMAS MOORE

Oft in the Stilly Night. What is the reason for the popularity of this poem? Is it deservedly greater or less than that of 'Tis the last Rose of Summer by the same author?

What musical instrument does the melody of this poem suggest?
Does any comparison in the lyric seem affected or insincere?
Which of the two stanzas is the better?

Contrast the spirit of these graceful, sentimental lines with that of Lamb's The Old Familiar Faces. Which shows the deeper feeling?

LEIGH HUNT

Abou Ben Adhem. 14. Write me, etc. This line appropriately serves as Hunt's epitaph on the monument erected by popular subscription in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Why did Hunt choose an Oriental name for the hero of this parable? Why is the word 'angel' (1. 5) changed (ll. 7 and 8) ?

Compare the teaching of this parable with that of the parable recorded in Luke, xvi. 19 25.

GEORGE NOEL GORDON, LORD BYRON

Vision of Belshazzar. Point out how Byron has compressed the narrative contained in the fifth chapter of Daniel.

What details has he seized upon and what has he omitted?

What qualities other than conciseness are found in this poem ? What should you say of the diction? Are there many monosyllables? Why?

The Destruction of Sennacherib. This poem, among others, was written at the request of Byron's friend, Douglas Kinnaird, for a Selection of Hebrew Melodies published in 1815. The biblical account of the incident treated in the poem will be found in Isaiah xxxvii. 36 ff. 2. cohorts. What is the effect of using this word?

21. Ashur, Assyria.

22. Baal, the Phoenician sun-god, worshiped by the Assyrians under the name Bel or Belus.

Mark the energy and the compression of the style.

What is the meter of the poem?

Note its appropriateness to the bounding movement suggested by the first four lines.

Point out the beauty and fitness of the two similes in lines 5-8. May Byron have owed the suggestion for the second to Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 302-303?

In line 18 Byron first wrote

With the crow on his breast, and the rust on his mail.

Why did he change it?

Notice the words with which the different lines begin. Are they strong words?

Compare this poem with the preceding one in respect to beauty and strength of movement. What qualities have made this one of the best known of Byron's poems?

The Isles of Greece. Byron wrote this poem three years before his death, and two years before he sailed to aid the Greeks in their struggle for independence.

2. Who was Sappho ?

4. Delos rose.

See Spenser, Faerie Queen, II, XII, 13.

7. Scian and the Teian muse.

Homer and Anacreon.

12. Islands of the Blest, legendary islands in the far Atlantic, whither the souls of the blest went after death.

19. A king, Xerxes.

54. Bacchanal. Meaning?

55. Pyrrhic dance, a martial dance.

59. Cadmus. Said to have introduced the alphabet from Egypt. 78. Heracleidan, Greek.

80. a king, etc., Louis XVIII of France.

What emotion is expressed in this lyric? Does it sound sincere? Explain the historical allusions. Why are Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylæ mentioned ?

What are the elements in this lyric that contribute to the effect of splendid energy? Are the rhymes masculine or feminine?

What aspects of nature do you imagine appealed to Byron?

The Prisoner of Chillon. This poem was composed in two days. It was inspired by a visit that Byron, in company with Shelley, paid to the castle of Chillon on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Here one François Bonivard was kept as a political prisoner for six years. The hero of the poem, however, is wholly a creation of Byron's own imagination and not an historical figure.

2-3. What is the effect of the variations from the regular rhythm in these lines and in 227-228, and 343?

57. pure elements of the earth. What is meant?

211. Notice the tragic pathos of this line. It is the emotional climax

of the poem.

Contrast the movement of this poem with that of Coleridge's France. Which is the more melodious? Which is the more vigorous?

Why is there so little imagery? Are the figures expanded or condensed? What purpose do they serve?

Do any lines impress you as prosaic?

Characterize the imagination here shown. Compare it with Shelley's. The poem aims to portray an emotional development. Trace the progress of Bonivard's emotional experience. Why are the two brothers introduced? How is Bonivard recalled from his despair to an interest in life? Compare with Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, 11. 272 ff. and 359. Does the psychology of the poem seem true?

Can you name any other of Byron's poems that exemplify his dominant characteristics, - his love for liberty, and his 'feeling for human suffer

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ing'? Do any passages seem declamatory?

In what different ways does his work produce the impression of strength? Sir Walter Scott thought this poem 'more powerful than pleasing.' What did he mean, and is the criticism a just one?

As compared with Scott, has Byron more or less passion, splendor, imagination?

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Ode to the West Wind. This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when the tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapors that pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain attended with that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions.'-Shelley's note.

2. Would anything be lost by changing the order of the last two words? 11. What is the effect of the parenthesis on the movement of the verse?

What line in stanza III moves most smoothly? Why?

43-45. How do these lines summarize the three preceding stanzas? What new element is here introduced?

56. Do you imagine this characterization of the poet's self a good one? 70. With what inflection of the voice should this line be read?

Study Shelley's wonderful variety in the use of the pause throughout the poem.

With what poems previously studied may we compare the Ode in emotional fervor?

To a Skylark. 15. unbodied. Some editions read embodied. Which is the better reading, and why?

21. Note all the different qualities of the bird's song expressed either directly, e.g. ‘keen', or indirectly by suggestion.

22. Does Shelley here mean the sun or the moon?

36 ff. Study carefully the four comparisons. Which is the most beautiful poetically? Why has the poet arranged them in just this order? 39-40. The regeneration of mankind was a favorite idea with Shelley. 86. What word should be accented in reading this line?

90. Poe says, 'Let me remind you that (how we know not) this certain taint of sadness is inseparably connected with all the highest manifestations of beauty.' Are Poe and Shelley right in their belief ? What does the skylark symbolize to Shelley?

What resemblance between the close of this poem and that of the Ode to the West Wind?

With this poem compare Wordsworth's strikingly different treatment of the same subject.

Adonais. Shelley here laments the death of Keats, which he, accept

ing the belief common at that time, ascribes to a cruel review by Gifford

in the Quarterly.

Why did Shelley select the name Adonais?

12. Urania. Who was she? For the significance of the name see Paradise Lost, VII, 1-20.

II. See Psalm xci. 6.

30. Milton, 'the sire of an immortal strain,' is here represented as third with Homer and Vergil among the 'sons of light.'

44. some, Byron and Shelley.

47. nursling of her widowhood. Possibly this means that Urania mourned for him as a widowed mother might such a child.

63. liquid. Meaning?

64-72. What adjective in this stanza is best chosen?

100. Splendor. Meaning?

116. How is the movement of this line retarded?

117. With this fine figure compare Paradise Lost, XII, 628-632.

155. Compare with Tennyson's In Memoriam, cxv.

169. With this idea compare Lowell's

Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.

172. Explain the line.

172-189. What is the relation between the two stanzas?

186. who lends, etc. Death lends the means of perpetuating life. 238. unpastured dragon, the critic who attacked Keats.

250. The Pythian of the age, Byron, who, in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, replied to the savage attacks of the Quarterly. 264. The Pilgrim of Eternity is Byron. The 'sweetest lyrist' of Ierne, or Ireland, is Moore.

281-306. Compare Shelley's characterization of himself here with that in the Skylark, and that in the Ode to the West Wind.

307 ff. Leigh Hunt, who was a friend of Keats in London.

343. The beginning of the second part of the poem. What is the effect in this line of the monosyllables?

370. Where is a similar idea expressed in Lycidas? Compare Shelley's conception of the Deity with that expressed by Wordsworth in the Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.

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