Polina Bilous, 2AjRjB

British literature 2 - Study questions for distance learning 1

Deadline: 27 March 2020

Length: not important
Format: doc
Send your assignments to the following email: metafiction2020@gmail.com

Gerard Manley Hopkins: “Pied Beauty”

Robert Browning: “Porphyria’s Lover”
Matthew Arnold: “Dover Beach”
L.A.Tennyson: “The Lady of Shalott”

Students revise the terms:

 ballad
 sonnet
 rhythm (accentual verse, accentual-syllabic verse)
 scansion of poems (iamb, trochee, tetrameter, trimester, pentameter)

Questions:

“Dover Beach”

1) What is the mood of the poem and which words create the mood?
There is a using of diction and imagery reveal the overall pessimistic tone of the poem. The use of
diction brings the reader toward two separate tones, yet they uniquely contribute to general feeling of
pessimism that Matthew Arnold portrays. In the first stanza, the "calm" sea brings a feeling of
peacefulness. Since it is not turbulent, but rather serene and still, the calmness of the sea evokes feelings
of harmony. This tone is set to show the value and possibilities of a peaceful life, portrayed through a
silent sea. In addition, the reader also experiences a sense of stability in the "cliffs." Since they are solid
and unchanging, they create a reassuring sense of permanence as they stand against the calming sea.
Therefore, as the author experiences such feelings looking through the window, they create a sense of
understanding at what Matthew Arnold sees when he is able to see the earth as a calming, stable place.

2) What is Arnold’s opinion on faith? How does his opinion reflect the condition of religion or science in
mid-Victorian era?
In 'Dover Beach' , the speaker laments the loss of faith in his society. As a result, he believes, the society
has become overwhelmed by cruelty, uncertainty and violence; particularly during the Victorian age.
This theme is developed by the imagery of the sea, which is at high tide, and while on the beach, the
pebbles' roar reminds the speaker of the sadness of human life. Dover Beach is a poem that Arnold
supposedly wrote on his honeymoon, with his wife. Arnold uses a metaphor throughout the poem: "the
sea of faith" which represents the faith in humanity. Besides, this roar has interrupted the tranquillity of
night. Indeed, Matthew Arnold presents this gloomy image to suggest that the only solution that brings
tranquillity is to have strong faith.
There was a time when faith in God was strong and comforting. This faith wrapped itself around us,
protecting us from doubt and despair, as the sea wraps itself around the continents and islands of the
world. Now, however, the sea of faith has become a sea of doubt. Science challenges the precepts of
theology and religion; human misery makes people feel abandoned, lonely. People place their faith in
material things. Let us at least be true to each other in our marriage, in our moral standards, in the way
 we think; for the world will not be true to us. Although it presents itself to us as a dreamland, it is a
sham. It offers nothing to ease our journey through life.
“Lady of Shalott” (make sure you have 1842 version)

1) What do you know about King Arthur and his representation in medieval literature? (hint: revise Sir
Thomas Malory)
Damsels in distress. Doomed and forbidden love. Epic battles and quests in pursuit of strange creatures.
This is the world of Arthurian legend and, at the centre of it all, there is the ‘once and future king’ –
Arthur himself, who, according to the stories, pulled a sword from a stone to become the greatest king
that Britain has ever known.
2) What is your impression of the Lady of Shalott?
She lives a life imprisoned by a curse she knows no consequence for and so hesitates to live her life the
way she would have liked. If looked at closely I can see how her situation is like that of many
individuals who struggle to step out of their comfort zones to experience life to its fullest. We lose out
on seeing our dreams come to existence through the chances that they took without letting doubt and
fear get in the way.
3) What is her relationship to the outside world?
The Lady of Shalott spends her time weaving a 'magic web with colours gay.' She has heard a whisper
telling her that if she looks at Camelot, she will be cursed. She doesn't know what the curse will be, but
she takes care not to look. However, as she weaves, she looks into a clear mirror in front of her that
somehow reflects the comings and goings of Camelot. The mirror is her only link to the outside world.
But what she sees -- funerals, young lovers -- makes her discontent with the 'shadow' images in the
mirror. She longs for something that is real, saying, 'I am half-sick of shadows.'

4) Why do you think she says in line 71 that she is "half sick of shadows"?
She is ‘half-sick’ of shadows, because she realizes unconsciously that she can never be loved or wed by
a shadow. The rumour has too little substance to spoil her enjoyment of her weaving. That she inhabits a
world of ‘shadows’ disturbs the reader, but not, as yet, the lady.
5) How would you describe her actions after the mirror cracks? Do you think she could have responded
differently?
Her irresistible urge to see Lancelot in the flesh immediately destroys her mirror and her loom. The
curse, she realizes too late, is true. Yet the curse had been, perhaps, for her own protection, since she
cannot survive exposure to the real world. To commit herself to the river of time and change is, for her,
to die. By the time her boat reaches Camelot she is no more than a frozen ‘shape’.

“Pied Beauty”

1) What is the structure of the poem? (how are stanzas different in terms of the quality of words?)
Which of the senses does the poem appeal to in particular?
Pied Beauty is a reduced form of the sonnet, known as a curtal sonnet. It consists of a sestet and
quintain, the last line of which is shortened. Sestet: Sestet is the part of the sonnet that is made
up of six lines. Here, the first stanza is the sestet. Quintain: A quintain is five-line stanza.
Imagery is used to make readers feel things with their five senses. Hopkins has used images
appealing to the sense of sight such as, “For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow”,
“Landscape plotted and pieced” and “Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings”.
2) Does Hopkins use predominantly polysyllabic words of Latin origin or monosyllabic words of Anglo-
Saxon origin? Why? What effect does it create?
 n the first sentence of 'Pied Beauty', 37 of the 45 words are Anglo-Saxon in origin; in the second
sentence, 22 of the 29 words are Anglo-Saxon.
3) Notice the lack of articles, and abundance of compound nouns (hyphenated) or spondees. Does this help
you scan the poem, and explain why Hopkins differs from all of the great poets of his age (Tennyson,
Browning) of previous eras (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton)?
The language of Hopkins's contemporary Swinburne serves to show how language had become radically
unstable and tended to degenerate into sound; as Pound said, 'He neglected the value of words as words
and was intent on their value as sound' .Hopkins clearly recognized this problem and believed that other
nineteenth century writers had dissolved the link between language and the world of objects, which are
for him fixed and vital in themselves, and for which words are substitutes or equivalents.

4) The rhythm of the first line is pretty much clear: it is trochee (STRESSED followed by
UNSTRESSED)
GLOry
There are 5 feet – so it is TROCHAIC PENTAMETER. The last word “things” is not followed by an
unstressed syllable, so it is called catalectic line.
Second line: iamb (UNSTRESSED followed by STRESSED) - for SKIES
How about LINE 5? Scan the line 5. Line 5 is TROCHEE.
Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

“Porphyria’s Lover”

1) What contradictions do you recognise?

It is a poetry of confusion. There are contradictions of human nature, to preserve her in a moment of
pure happiness and contentment and sits with her corpse the whole night.
2) Do you think the speaker feels guilty about what he has done? Explain.
Then they sit there all through the night. All the while, he feels no guilt for killing her, noting, “And yet
God has not said a word." The reader is left with the impression that the narrator is a psychopath. I think
the only feeling the narrator really registers is that they feel "Happy and proud" to know that Porphyria
loves him. It is, after all, her love that the narrator seeks to sustain, and that is why the narrator strangles
her. The narrator does not seem to feel guilty; rather, they feel satisfied that they've found a way to
possess and keep Porphyria forever.
3) Does the speaker's tone match the action? Explain.

NOTE: An inference is a logical guess based on evidence. You often need to make inferences to figure out what
is unstated yet implied in a literary work. You might, for example, use clues provided by a writer to infer—
simply from the way a character acts—that the character is jealous of another character.

Terms to be discussed at the seminar: curtal sonnet, cynghanedd, sprung rhythm, cross-alliteration,
dramatic monologue, inscape, instress