SPEN107

POSTGRADUATE COURSE
M.A. ENGLISH

FIRST YEAR
SECOND SEMESTER

PAPER - VI

POETRY - II
EIGHTEENTH TO NINETEENTH CENTURY

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
M.A. ENGLISH PAPER - VI
FIRST YEAR - SECOND SEMESTER POETRY - II
EIGHTEENTH TO
NINETEENTH CENTURY
WELCOME
Warm Greetings.

It is with a great pleasure to welcome you as a student of Institute of Distance

Education, University of Madras. It is a proud moment for the Institute of Distance education
as you are entering into a cafeteria system of learning process as envisaged by the University
Grants Commission. Yes, we have framed and introduced Choice Based Credit
System(CBCS) in Semester pattern from the academic year 2018-19. You are free to
choose courses, as per the Regulations, to attain the target of total number of credits set
for each course and also each degree programme. What is a credit? To earn one credit in
a semester you have to spend 30 hours of learning process. Each course has a weightage
in terms of credits. Credits are assigned by taking into account of its level of subject content.
For instance, if one particular course or paper has 4 credits then you have to spend 120
hours of self-learning in a semester. You are advised to plan the strategy to devote hours of
self-study in the learning process. You will be assessed periodically by means of tests,
assignments and quizzes either in class room or laboratory or field work. In the case of PG
(UG), Continuous Internal Assessment for 20(25) percentage and End Semester University
Examination for 80 (75) percentage of the maximum score for a course / paper. The theory
paper in the end semester examination will bring out your various skills: namely basic
knowledge about subject, memory recall, application, analysis, comprehension and
descriptive writing. We will always have in mind while training you in conducting experiments,
analyzing the performance during laboratory work, and observing the outcomes to bring
out the truth from the experiment, and we measure these skills in the end semester
examination. You will be guided by well experienced faculty.

I invite you to join the CBCS in Semester System to gain rich knowledge leisurely at
your will and wish. Choose the right courses at right times so as to erect your flag of
success. We always encourage and enlighten to excel and empower. We are the cross
bearers to make you a torch bearer to have a bright future.

With best wishes from mind and heart,

DIRECTOR

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M.A. ENGLISH PAPER - VI
FIRST YEAR - SECOND SEMESTER POETRY - II
EIGHTEENTH TO
NINETEENTH CENTURY

COURSE WRITER & EDITING

Dr. Supala Pandiarajan

Assistant Professor,
Department of English
University of Madras,
Chennai.

COORDINATION

Dr. V. Meena Kumari, M.A. (Eng.) M.A. (J.M.C.) M.Phil., Ph.D.,

Associate Professor,
Department of English
Anna Adarsh College for Women,
Anna Nagar,
Chennai - 600 040.

© UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS, CHENNAI 600 005.

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 M.A. DEGREE COURSE

ENGLISH

FIRST YEAR

SECOND SEMESTER

Paper - VI

POETRY - VI: EIGHTEENTH TO NINETEENTH CENTURY

SYLLABUS

Pre-requisites :
Minimum Entry requirements for the course / Eligibility

Objectives of the Course:

The objective of this course is to familiarize the students with English Poetry starting from
the Augustans to the beginnings of the Romantic Period in English Literature. In the process
it also attempts to sensitise the students to certain exclusive poetic qualities of these two
periods.

Course Outline:

UNIT I : Classicism and Augustan Ideals: Wit, Taste, Decorum, Propriety, Purity of
Genre and Poetic Diction; Heroic Couplet; Verse Satire and Urbanism; Romantic Revolt;
Pre-Raphaelites

UNIT 2 :
Augustan Satire
Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock,
Canto I (The Rape of the Lock ed. Geoffrey
Tillotson. Methun & Co Ltd. London. 1941).

UNIT 3 :
Transitionists
William Blake From Songs of Experience
The Echoing Green Night
From Songs of Innocence London
William Collins Ode to Evening
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UNIT 4
Romantics
William Wordsworth Ode on the Intimations of Immortality
S.T. Coleridge Dejection: An Ode
P.B. Shelley Ode to Skylark
John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn

UNIT 5
Victorians
Robert Browning Fra Lippo Lippi
Lord Alfred Tennyson Lotus Eaters
G.M. Hopkins The Windhover
Matthew Arnold Dover Beach

Recommended Texts:

1. 1973, The Oxford Anthology of English Literature Vol. II. , OUP, London.

2. Standard editions of text.

Reference Books:

1. Douglas Grant, 1965, New Oxford English Series, OUP, Delhi.

2. Shiv K. Kumar, 1968, British Romantic Poets: Recent Revaluations, University of

London Press Ltd., London.

3. A. E. Dyson, ed., 1971 Keats ODES, Case Book series, Macmillan Publication Ltd.,
London.

4. Malcolm Bradbury, David Palmer, eds., 1972, Stratford–upon–Avon Studies, Arnold-

Heinemann, New Delhi.

5. Graham Hough, 1978, The Romantic Poets, Hutchinson & Co., London.

6. David Daiches, 1981, A Critical History and English Literature Vols. II& III. Secker
&Warbarg, London.

Website, e-learning resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry

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 M.A. DEGREE COURSE

ENGLISH

FIRST YEAR - SECOND SEMESTER

Paper - VI

POETRY - VI: EIGHTEENTH TO NINETEENTH CENTURY

SCHEME OF LESSONS

Sl.No. Title Page

1 Introduction 1
2 The Rape of the Lock 14

3 The Echoing Green - William Blake 25

4 The Night - William Blake 32

5 London - William Blake 37

6 Ode to Evening - William Collins 45

7 Ode: Intimations of Immortality from

Recollections of Early Childhood - William Wordsworth 55

8 Dejection : An Ode - S.T. Coleridge 61

9 Ode to a Skylark - Percy Bysshe Shelley 67

10 Ode on a Grecian URN - John Keats 72

11 Fra Lippo Lippi - Robert Browning 78

12 The Lotos-Eaters - Lord Alfred Tennyson 84

13 The Windhover - G.M.Hopkins 89

14 Dover Beach - Mathew Arnold 94

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UNIT - 1
INTRODUCTION
This paper traces the poetic traditions in the Augustan Age, Romantic Age and the Victorian
Age in England. The Augustan Age in British literature (early 1700s to 1740s) was part of the
Neoclassical Age that lasted roughly from 1660 to 1798. The Neoclassical Age has been divided
into 3 sub-periods- the Restoration Period, the Augustan Period, and the Age of Johnson. The
Augustan Age in England was named so after the Augustan Age in Ancient Rome, specifically
Latin literature produced during the reign of the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus (27 BC
- 14 AD). It is considered to be part of the Golden Age of Latin literature, and similarly the
Augustan Age in England saw a great deal of growth and experimentation, making it a landmark
period

Every age is born in reaction to the preceding one, and this is true of the Romantic Age as
well. Stifled by the rigid framework and heavy reliance on classical Rome, poets began to feel
like they weren’t able to truly express their feelings in their poetry. A movement began towards
writing about, and appreciating, the simpler things in life, and giving emphasis to spontaneity
and emotion over erudite language. The language of the poems became simpler and more
accessible to the average reader, and the setting and theme gradually saw a shift from a yearning
for Ancient Rome to the more rural setting of England. People (especially the poets) began to
realise the virtues of a simple country life, and found an abundance of poetic inspiration there.
In the words of William Wordsworth, who is credited with having kick-started the Romantic
Movement, “Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential
passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under
restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our
elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, can be more
accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated;...”

The poets of the Romantic age were divided into 2 categories: the Older Romantics and
the Younger Romantics. The first generation Romantics are considered to be William Wordsworth
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, while the second generation Romantics are John Keats, PB
Shelley, and George Gordon, more popularly known by his title, ‘Lord Byron.’ Other major poets
of this age were William Blake, and the notable female poets were Felicia Dorothea Hemans,
Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Charlotte Turner Smith, Mary Robinson, Hannah More, and Joanna
Baillie. The Victorian Age was a long one, spanning the lifetime of Queen Victoria, the second-
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longest reigning monarch of Britain. This age saw a great deal of social change and upheaval-
experiments with modern technology, major colonies such as India revolting for freedom, and
so on.

It was also an age where, somewhat in contrast to the Romantics, social decorum and
family life were given a great deal of importance. Queen Victoria herself was seen as the ideal
‘family woman,’ with her emphasis on family life and morals, long period of mourning after her
husband’s death, and respectable public image. This also had an influence on the characteristics
of the age.

1.1 Classicism and Augustan Ideals

Augustan is an adjective derived from Augustus, the name of a Roman Emperor, during
whose reign - around the beginning of the Christian era - Latin literature achieved great heights.
It was the age of Roman Classicism. Virgil, the Latin epic poet, regarded the Greek epic poet,
Homer, as his master or source of inspiration and so he is termed a classicist. Oxford English
Dictionary describes ‘Augustan’ as a term ‘applied to the period of highest refinement of any
national literature.

The English literature of the Age of Dryden and Pope is known by this term, ‘Augustan’.
Classical ideals had emerged during the Renaissance. Bacon, Milton and Ben Jonson foreshadow
the neo classical tendency of Dryden, Pope and Johnson. The Renaissance English poets and
authors were inspired by the spirit and themes of classical literature. Marlowe, Sydney,
Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton were all classicists. They compared their society with that of
ancient Roman and hence paralleled history and allegory.

The Eighteenth Century was an age of understanding, an age of enlightenment, and a

Neo Classical age. The eighteenth century literature began as reaction against the Restoration
profligacy. Since the public manners in general were coarse, politics was corrupted and the
general tone of society was brutal in England, the very early 18th century saw an attempt to
raise elementary decency and moral conduct of life among people. Art became social and
communal instead of personal. Emotions were rejected and reason was accepted. Good sense
or common sense was admired and something that was extravagant mystical or sentimental
was rejected. Even the theological writing was characterized by wit, satire, intelligence, moral
tone and classical perfection.
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Eighteenth Century poetry can be divided into three convenient groups-

(i) The Age of Pope or Neo Classical Age (1700-1740)

(ii) The Age of Dr. Johnson or the Transition Age (1740-1770) and

(iii) The Age of Romantic Revival (1770-1798)

The Age of Pope is called the age of Queen Anne or the Augustan Age. It is also called
the golden age of English poetry because the poets of the age derived inspiration from the
classical literature during the time of great king Augustus. The age of Louis XVI is the classical
age of France and the age of Queen Anne became the classical age of England, and the age of
Dante is the classical age of Italian literature. The word ‘classic’ refers to a work of the highest
order. Hence the word ‘classic’ is used to designate writings that have won first rank in any
nation.

The age was “Classical” for the writers of the period who claimed the classical writers of
Ancient Greece and Rome as their models. They asserted to imitate the ancients. As Phelps
tells us, “the classical regarded the old English writers with contempt and indifference”. They
were guided by reason, good sense, and wit. They wanted order and balance and any excess
or irregularity was abhorrent to them. Wit and intelligence take precedence over imagination.

They insisted that poetry should follow rules “correctly”- the rules which had been laid
down by such classic masters as Horace, and Aristotle and which had been interpreted to them
by the French writers. The artificiality, the polish and the refinement of social life infected literature,
so the writers of the period lost individuality and became formal and artificial. They had great
regard for correctness and for the avoidance of extremes.

Classical poetry is the poetry of the town and the fashionable upper circles of the city of
London. The Poetry of Pope particularly, in “The Rape of the Lock” is a fine exhibition of social
and political life of eighteenth century England. Poetry naturally became the poetry of the town,
the coffee house and the artificial society. Another important characteristic of the age was the
belief that literature must follow “Nature”, but the nature they follow is “human nature” as revealed
by the fashionable circles of London. It deals with the vices, the frivolities and follies of aristocratic
society, the life of the coffee houses and clubs and the artificial manners and fashions of the
courtly circles.
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John Dryden (1631-1700) is the greatest and most representative poet of his age. His
poetry has all the characteristic features of pseudo classicism. He wrote his poetry in classical
spirit and form. He wrote political satires, doctrinal poems and the Fables. “Absalom and
Achitophel”, “Macflecknoe”, “Hind and the Panther”, “Religio Medici”, and “Annus Mirabilis” are
some of his better known poems. His “Absalom and Achitophel” is the greatest poem in political
satires. It was written to defend the King. His, “Medal” is a satire on Shaftesbury. “Macfleknoe”
is a personal satire.

Alexander Pope (1668-1774)

Like Robert Walpole in the sphere of Politics, Pope was the only predominant figure in the
poetry of the 18th century. Pope’s first and most important claim to greatness is the fact that he
is pre-eminently the poet of his age like Chaucer and Tennyson. The evolution of Pope’s poetic
career is generally classified into four periods. In the first period we wrote his “Pastorals”,
“Windsor Forest”, “Messiah”, “Essay on Criticism” and “The Rape of Lock”. In the second period
falls the translation of Homer. In the third which is best period of Pope’s life and which has been
called the Twickenham or Horation period we have the spectacle of the “Dunciad” as well as the
“Epistles” and in the fourth period the poet gave us the philosophical “Essay On Man” and “An
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot”.

From the early years of his life Pope took to the study of the Latin poets and it was the
great ambition of his life to shine out as another great classical poet of his country. The first
work of Pope which caught the eye of the public was the “Pastoral”, which were written in the
style of Virgil. His “Windsor Forest” was inspired by Denham’s “Cooper’s Hill”. “The Essay on
Criticism” shows Pope’s desire to model Boileau's “Art Poetique”. In 1712 Pope published the
first version of “The Rape of The Lock”, a poem so graceful delicate, cynical and witty that it
seems to embody not only the peculiar flavour of his genius, but the light tone and shifting
colours of his time. It is his masterpiece. It was founded on an incident which occurred in the
Roman Catholic society. A certain Lord Petre cut a lock of hair from the head of Arabella Fermer
(Belinda in the poem). This poetical joke led a quarrel between two families. The whole poem is
in mock heroic idiom. “The Dunciad” is a long and elaborate satire on the Dunces - the not-so-
good poets and the pretentious critics. “The Essay on Man” is a philosophical poem written in
detail of a moral system.

To sum up, Pope was above all things an artist, one of the most conscious, most preserving
and most well-finished his country has produced.
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Matthew Prior (1664-1721)

Matthew Prior was another poet of the classical age. Prior’s first work is “The Hind and
the Panther” which he wrote in collaboration with Charles Montague in 1687. Prior considered
the poem “Soloman” as his best work. The fact is that it is a dull poem in the heroic couplet. His
poetry is satirical and artificial. His well known poems in this direction are “The Merchant to
secure His Treasure” and “A better answer”. He also wrote two lengthier serious poems- “Alsm”
or “The Progress of the Mind” and “Soloman on the Vanity of the World”. His epigrams are
among the best of their kind.

John Gay (1685-1732)

John Gay was one of the most popular writers of the age. Gay belonged to a poor family,
yet he was gifted with poetic talent. His first poem “Wine” was written in blank verse. He made
for himself a sort of specialty of realistic poetry in six pastorals of his “The Shepherd’s Week”.
Gay won popularity with his “Foibles” written in couplets. “The Sings of Opera” made him
memorable. They are supposed to be a parody of the Italian operas then in vogue in London.
Gay’s other ballads include Black-ey'd Susan”, “The lady's lamentation”, “Molly Mog Ostep”
and most famous of all the song “O Ruddier than the Cherry”.

Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Ambrose Philips, Thomas Parnell, Allan Ramsay and
Grath are the minor poets of the age.

Poetry in the age of Dr. Poetry in the Age of Dr. Johnson (1740-1770) had no definite
tendencies as we find in the Age of Pope. The history of the age was the history of struggle
between the old and the new, and gradual victory of the new. Taken as a whole, poets in the first
group continued to show the influence of Dryden and Pope. Didactic and satirical inspiration
has a large part in it and the “couplet” still formed the normal type of poetry. Dr. Johnson,
Goldsmith and Churchil were the main poets belonging to the Augustan tradition. As a poet,
Dr. Johnson wrote two satires- “London” and “The Vanity of Human Wishes”. Dr. Johnson,
however, is remembered more for his essays and criticism than for his poetry.

Goldsmith gave new freshness and charm to the current poetry without any change of
form. In his “Travellers” he records his impressions as a traveller on foot across the continent of
France, Switzerland and Italy and reflects agreeably on the character of the various countries.
In 1770 he published “The deserted village”, an idealization of the Irish village of Lissoy- in
which his childhood was spent. Here he describes its natural beauties, the warm hearted manners
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of its inhabitants, the eccentricities of the village school master and the virtues of the village
persons. These two poems may be described as the last great works of the outgoing artificial
18th century school.

In the second group of Poets in the Age of Dr. Johnson were those who tried to find new
feelings and new modes of expression. The Popean couplet was rejected and interest in Milton
was revived. Blank-Verse was accepted as a mode of expression. James Thomson's “The
Seasons” marked a landmark change in the history of English literature/poetry. It was written in
‘blank-verse’. Thomson widens the scope of versification and style by taking Milton for his chief
model. Edward Young was another poet belonging to the ‘Age of Transition’. His “Night's Thought”
written in blank verse was made popular than “The Seasons”. He also wrote satirical poems
such as “On the Love of Fame”, The Universal Passion”, and “On Woman”. Robert Blair and
Warton were the other poets of this great age.

1.2 Poetry in the Romantic Period (1798- 1837)

The Romantic age is also known as The Age of Wordsworth. Romantic writers were
interested in the realm of the supernatural, ‘the so far’ and ‘the long-long-ago’. To Coleridge,
‘supernatural’ was the raw material for his poetry. Romantic writers were interested in the
unknown, unseen, wild and mystical. This naturally led them to be influenced by the medieval
art and literature, and by classical mythology. The poetry of Shelley and Keats abound in
references to Greek Gods and Goddesses. The romantic poets were known for their use of
symbolism. Wordsworth and Shelly believed poets to be prophets with a vision. They used
poetic symbols in which objects had a significance beyond their actual reality.

The neo-classicists felt that poetry must follow the classical conventions and rules. But to
the Romantics, poetry is that which comes naturally. In his “Preface” to Lyrical Ballads,
Wordsworth put forth the idea of poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”.
There was a sense of romance in the writings of theses poets which led to the looking back at
the glories of the past. Poets like Thomas Percy revived many old ballads in his book, Reliques
of Ancient Poetry Hence romanticism was at once a revolt against neo-classicism and revival of
the glorious heritage of the ancients.

The six important Romantic poets are: William Blake; William Wordsworth; S.T Coleridge;
Lord Byron; P.B Shelley; John Keats.
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The Romantic period rooted itself in the importance of imagination that was catalyzed by
Nature. William Blake, who believed in spontaneity and individual impulse was considered to
be the first of the Romantic poets. He did not believe in poets conforming to the fixed norms of
the society. Along with Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, usually considered
as the first generation of Romantic poets, set the tone for the Romantic Age. Their work “Lyrical
Ballads” (1798) is considered as the starting point of the English Romantic Tradition. Both the
natural and supernatural were dealt with in “Lyrical Ballads” with Wordsworth’s poems starting
from the natural and ending with the supernatural, and Coleridge’s poems doing the vice-versa.

The socio-political atmosphere that gave impetus to Romantic writing was that of the
French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The French Revolution influenced the Romantic
poets with its spirit of “liberty, fraternity and equality”. Theirs was the age of new beginnings and
infinite possibilities. The industrial revolution laid emphasis on the rights of the individual. All
Romantic literature is subjective. It is the expression of the inner feelings of the poet.

Lord Byron, P.B Shelley and John Keats form the second generation of the Romantic
poets. They wrote sonnets, odes and epics dealing with nature. Both the first and second
generations of romantic poets aimed at highlighting the frailty of human condition by emphasising
on the power of Nature.

The poems of the Romantics are characterized by: i) Love for Nature, ii) Simplicity iii)
Revolt against artificiality and conventions iv)spontaneity v) the inner self vi) elements of the
universe vii) passion for the past viii) imagination ix) new poetic styles by experimenting with the
past forms.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

William Wordsworth composed some of the finest poems during the Romantic Age. His
contribution to the English Romantic Movement was two-fold. “First, he formulated in his poems
and his essays a new attitude toward nature. This was more than a matter of introducing nature
imagery into his verse; it amounted to a fresh view of the organic relation between man and the
natural world, and it culminated in metaphors of a wedding between nature and the human
mind, and beyond that, in the sweeping metaphor of nature as emblematic of the mind of God,
a mind that ‘feeds upon infinity’ and ‘broods over the dark abyss.’ Second, Wordsworth probed
deeply into his own sensibility as he traced, in his finest poem, The Prelude, the ‘growth of a
poet’s mind.’ The Prelude was in fact the first long autobiographical poem. Writing it in a drawn-
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out process of self-exploration, Wordsworth worked his way toward a modern psychological
understanding of his own nature, and thus more broadly of human nature. Third, Wordsworth
placed poetry at the centre of human experience; in impassioned rhetoric he pronounced poetry
to be nothing less than “the first and last of all knowledge—it is as immortal as the heart of
man,” and he then went on to create some of the greatest English poetry of his century. It is
probably safe to say that by the late 20th century he stood in critical estimation where Coleridge
and Arnold had originally placed him, next to John Milton—who stands, of course, next to William
Shakespeare.” (Britannica.com)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

S.T Coleridge was born in Devonshire as the thirteenth child of the Vicar of Ottery St.
Mary. The French Revolution and its impact on Coleridge can be seen in many of his poems. He
collaborated with Wordsworth on Lyrical Ballads and his Biographia Literaria speaks for his
being acknowledged as one of the greatest literary critics.

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Lord Byron’s first collection of poetry was called Hours Of Idleness and was published in
1807. Byron wrote strong poems of subjectivity and individuality and his works were rooted in
contradicting emotions of melancholy and humour. He gave a new dimension to satire and
passion. Being a great letter-writer, Byron’s poems also had a conversational style like his
letters and hence were simple yet lyrical.

P.B Shelley (1792-1822)

Shelley had a failing health even from his childhood. Prometheus Unbound, a lyrical
drama, taps the energy of Shelley as a poet in his fullest capacity. Shelley was in constant
search of the unattainable through his poems, till he drowned at sea in 1822.

John Keats (1795-1821)

John Keats published his first volume of poetry in 1817 and in 1818 he published Endymion.
Even during his lifetime, Keats knew that his poetry would stand out after his death. The pictorial
imagery in his poems makes him a remarkable romantic poet. With Keats, the romantic age
attained its mature-heights. His Odes and sonnets remain unchallenged in the English language.
He was preoccupied in the search and description of beauty in his poems.
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1.3 Victorian Poetry (1832-1887)

The Victorian Age (1832-1887) is one of the most remarkable periods in the history of
England. It was an era of material affluence, political consciousness, democratic reforms,
industrial and mechanical progress, scientific advancement, local unrest, educational expansion,
empire building and religious uncertainty. It marked the growth of the English novel, and laid the
foundation of English prose on a surer footing.

The note of individuality was the hall mark of Victorian literature. The literary figures of
the Victorian age were endowed with marked originality in outlook, character and style. Victorian
literature in its varied aspects was marked by a deep moral note. The marked characteristic of
the age is that literature, both in prose and poetry, seems to depart from the purely artistic
standard of art for art’s sake and to be actuated by a definite moral purpose.

Tennyson, Browning, Ruskin were primarily interested in their message to their countrymen.
The literature of the Victorian age was co-related to the social and political life of the age. A few
literary artists of this age struck the note of revolt against the materialistic tendencies of the
age, and sought to seek refuge in the overcharged atmosphere of the Middle Ages. An escapist
note is also perceptible in Victorian literature and this is particularly noticed in the works of the
Pre-Raphaelite Poets.

The literature of the Victorian age could not completely cut off form the main springs of
Romanticism. The spirit of Romanticism continued to influence the innermost consciousness of
the age. It affected the works of Tennyson, Thackeray, Browning and Arnold. It has been said
that the Victorian literature was only a continuation of Romantic ideals in theme and in style and
rather than a fresh start. Besides, a note of pessimism doubt and despair runs though Victorian
literature and can be noticed especially in poetry of Matthew Arnold and A.H.Clough. Though a
note of pessimism runs through the literature of the age it cannot be considered as a literature
of bleakness as optimism is also struck by poets like Browning and Tennyson. ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’
brings out the courageous optimism of the age.

Victorian poetry is consider modified by the impact of scientific spirit, and all that the
scientific spirit implied, its certain doubt, its care for minuteness and truth of observation, its
growing interest in social processes, and conditions under which life is lived are the central fact
in Victorian literature. The questioning spirit in Clough, the pessimism of James Thomson, the
melancholy of Matthew Arnold the fatalism of Fitzgerald, are all the outcome of the sceptical
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tendencies evoked by scientific research. Tennyson's poetry is also considerably influenced by

the advancement of science in the age, and the undertones of scientific research can be heard
in “IN MEMORIAM”.

The most important poets of the Victorian Age are- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold,
Robert Browning, Arthur Hugh Clough, Mrs. Elizabeth Browning etc.

Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Alfred Tennyson was undoubtedly one of the greatest poets of the Victorian age. He is a
representative poet of the Victorian age of the 19th century, one who represents his age not in
fragments but completely in all its manifold variety and number of years in his life, and was
honoured with the high office of the Poet Laureate. During the long span of his career as a poet
he wrote every kind of poetry- the song, the idyll, the dramatic monologue, the dialect poem,
the descriptive, the ballad, the war ode, the epic, narrative and the drama. He wrote on classical,
romantic and modern subjects: on English history and legend, on the deepest problems of
philosophy and religion and the range of his method and style is scarcely less remarkable than
that of his matter.

The earliest collection of Tennyson's poems was published in 1827- “Poems by Two
Brother's”. The poems of this period are immature. Later he developed in poems like “The
Lotus Eaters”, and “The lady of Shallot”. In 1880 was published the second volume of poems-
“Poems chiefly Lyrical”. In 1842, Tennyson produced two volumes of poetry containing some of
the finest jewels of his poetic art such as “Ulysses” and “Locksley Hall”. In 1847, Tennyson
produces “The Princess A Medley”. Tennyson ridicules the very conception of woman’s equality
with man and her aspiration for higher education. Three years later in 1850, Tennyson brought
out the famous elegy “In Memoriam”, written to mourn the death of Arthur Hallam, Tennyson’s
college friend to whom his sister was betrothed. It is his masterpiece and most representative
of Victorian age. It consists of 131 lyrics. Here Tennyson deals with all the phases of personal
grief and sorrows and discusses the conflict between knowledge and science on one side and
faith/religion on the other. The poet marches triumphantly from the state of despair to a state of
hope and optimism. In 1855 was published “Maud and other poems”. “Maud” is a monodrama,
a rapid and feverish record, in a series of lyrics of a love affairs blasted by a tragic accident.
Besides these long poems, Tennyson has written a number of lyrics like- “Idylls of the Kings”,
“Morte D' Arthur”, “English Idylls”, “Enoch Arden”, “Ballads's” “Break, Break, Break”, “Crossing
the Bar”, “Harold” etc.
 11

Tennyson presented in his poetry all the essential feature of Victorian life, the ideas and
tastes, moderation in politics, refined culture religious liberalism a lively interest in the advance
of scientific discovery, increasing sympathy with poverty and distress- all these Victorian feelings
find expression in Tennyson’s poems. However, Tennyson lacks originality and depth as a thinker.
Today he is valued not as a thinker but a consummate literary artist.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Matthew Arnold was one of the greatest poets of the Victorian Age but he was considered
more a critic than a poet. Matthew Arnold belonged the group of the reflective, thoughtful and
intellectual poets of the Victorian age. His poetical works are not very bulky. As early as 1849 he
had published “The Strayed Reveller and other poems”. In 1852 he published “Empedocles on
Etna” and “other poems” by “A”. His next produce “Poems” in 1853 with a remarkable preface
which contained famous poems of Arnold such as “Sohrar and Rustam”, “The Scholar Gipsy”.
In 1867 “New Poems” was published. This volume contained “Thyrsis” , “Rugby Chapel”, “Dover
Beach”, “A Southern Night” etc.

The poems of Matthew Arnold can broadly be classified into narrative, dramatic, elegiac
and lyrical poems besides a few sonnets which he wrote form time to time.

Robert Browning (1812-89)

Robert Browning was another important poet of the Victorian era. Browning began his
poetic career under the inspiring example of P.B. Shelley. His earliest work in poetry is
“PAULINE”(1833). The poem is a monologue addressed by Pauline on the development of a
soul. In 1840 Browning produced “Sordello” representing the life of a little known Italian poet. In
1842, Browning produced “Dramatics Lyrics” followed by “Dramatic Romances and Lyrics” in
1845. In 1855, Browning brought out “Men and Women” which was dedicated to Elizabeth
Barret Browning. In “Dramatic Personae” (1864) Browning carried forward his study of human
beings and produced a number of dramatic monologues. In 1868-69, Browning produced “The
Ring and the Book”. Besides composing lyrics and dramatic monologues Browning also penned
a few dramas at intervals. He brought all his dramas in a collection known as “Bells and
Pomegranates”. Browning is the author of eight plays.
12

The most important characteristic of Browning’s poetry is his profound interest in

character. He is a great master of the art of presenting the inner side of human beings, their
mental and moral qualities. It is in his dramatic monologues that Browning is seen at his best.
He uses the dramatic monologues for the study of character, of particular mental states, and
moral crisis in the soul of the characters concerned. Browning’s optimism is best seen in his
treatment of love. Browning is one of the greatest of love poets in the English language. Browning
was a highly original genius right from the beginning.

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861)

Arthur Clough was another poet of Victorian Age. He was also a representative Victorian
poet expressing in his narratives, descriptive and lyric verses of doubts, the uncertain questioning
and criticism of the Victorian Age. He was the truest expression in verse of the moral and
intellectual tendencies. His entire work in poetry is intellectual in character and is marked with
introspective self analysis and self declination. Clough’s important works are- “The Bothic of
Tober- No Voubet”, “Amours De”, “Voyage”, “DipTychus” etc.

Elizabeth Barett Browning (1806-61)

She is the wife of Robert Browning was another important figure and occupies a place
of her own among the poets of Victorian Age. She was a few years older than her husband and
began composing poems, which were rather old fashioned in form and showed a curious mingling
of her influence of the Bible, the Greeks, Byron and Shelley. Her important works are- “The Coy
of Children”, “Lady Geraldine's Courtship”, “Sonnets from the Portugese”, “Aurora Leigh”,
“Cowper's Grave” etc. Mrs. Browning is the poetess of humanitarianism and deep pity. Her
poems evoke the chords of sympathy in our hearts and bring tears to our eyes. Her love poems
are rich in emotion and exhibit the intensity of her passion and love for Browning.

James Thomson (1834-1882)

James Thomson is one of the minor poets of the Victorian Era. His “The City of the
Dreadful Night” strikes a note of unrelieved pessimism, largely subjective. In the words of huge
walker, “His pessimism was founded on the conviction that there was no hope for humanity any
more than for him, and that the appearance of progress was a more illusion.” The gloom and
depression that envisage the poem are due largely to the many disappointments he had suffered,
intensified by his constitutional intemperance.
 13

Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1888)

Fitzgerald is remembered for his translation of the Persian work, the “Rubaiyat” of Omar
Khayyam. “Like Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’, the “Rubaiyat” is also a criticism explicit lifelessness,
less polemical in its form but nonetheless definite. In its outlook Tennyson’s poem stands between
Fitzgerald’s “Rubaiyat” and Browning’s “Easter Day”, blending the two characteristics of the
day- a wistful hesitancy and a religious optimism- in a way that proved by its very compromise
extremely welcome and soothing to many minds”. No English writer has expressed so beautifully
the Epicurean philosophy as Fitzgerald. The translation is remarkable for its artistic beauty and
its fine sincerity of utterance.

This unit takes you to the critical study of some notable poets and the poems of this
period. The analysis of the poems is rich in flavour and diction. You are asked to make use of
the study of certain exclusive poetic qualities because the very purpose of literature is to teach
and delight.

1.4 Sample Questions

1. Write a note on the Augustan poetry.

2. What is the Romantic Revival? Discuss with reference to any one romantic poet of
your choice.

1.5 Articles on Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English

Poetry
Fraser, Russell. “What Is Augustan Poetry?” The Sewanee Review, vol. 98, no. 4,
1990, pp.

620–645. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27546275.

Swingle, L. J. “Romantic Unity and English Romantic Poetry.” The Journal of English
and Germanic Philology, vol. 74, no. 3, 1975, pp. 361–374. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/
stable/27707926.

1.6 Online Reference

http://elibrary.bsu.az/books_400/N_253.pdf

https://www.britannica.com/
14

UNIT 1
AUGUSTAN SATIRE
LESSON - 2
“THE RAPE OF THE LOCK”
2.1 Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Alexander Pope was born on May 21, 1688, in London, England, to Alexander and Edith
Pope. His Roman Catholic father was running linen mercantile. His household relocated out of
London and lodged in Binfield in Windsor Forest in about 1700. Pope had little formal school
education. He educated himself through widespread reading, specifically poetry.

Though Pope was strong and enviable in his early stages, he became severely ill later in
his childhood, which resulted in a marginally blemished body—he never grew taller than 4 feet
6 inches. He suffered from a twist of the spine, which required him to wear a stiff canvas
support. He had relentless headaches. His physical appearance, frequently mocked by his
antagonists, unquestionably gave an edge to Pope’s satire (humor intended at human
feebleness), but he was unstintingly affectionate towards his many friends.

“The Rape of the Lock” (1712) straightaway made Pope famous as a poet. It is a long
humorous poem in the classical style (bearing likeness to ancient Greek and Roman writing).
Instead of treating a subject of heroic deeds, the poem centers on the attempt of a young man
to get a lock of hair from his beloved’s head. It was based on a true event that happened to
people he knew. Several other poems were published by 1717, the date of the first collected
edition of Pope’s works.

2.2 “The Rape of the Lock” – A Summary

Lord Petre (the Baron in the poem) snips-off a lock of the beautiful Arabella Fermor’s
(Belinda) hair. At the proposition of his friend and with Arabella Fermor’s endorsement, Alexander
Pope used imagination, hyperbole, wit, and gentle satire to blow up this, trivial social slip-up
into an earthshaking devastation of cosmic significance. The poem is generally described as
one of Pope’s most dazzling satires. The poem makes serious hassles upon the reader, not
only because of its length, but also because it requires a contextual knowledge of epic literature
and some understanding of the lifestyle of upper-class England.
 15

“The Rape of the Lock” constantly shifts between scornful, silly social conventions of the
nobility (such as extravagant wooing ceremonies), and ridiculing grave literary resolutions of
traditional epic literature (such as its haughty style, extensive descriptions of warriors preparing
for battle, and heavy measures of mythos). With many references to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,
Virgil’s Aeneid, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the speaker compares the loss of Belinda’s
hair to the great battles of classic epic literature. The speaker describes Belinda applying make-
up as if she is a warrior going to battle. While playing a game of cards, the Baron creeps-up
behind Belinda and performs the “tragic” snipping of the lock of hair. An army of gnomes and
nymphs attempt to protect Belinda to no avail. Belinda demands the reinstatement of her lock
and another “battle” arises. Finally, the lock soars skyward as a new star to embellish the
firmaments.

“The Rape of the Lock” is the finest illustration of a mock-epic in English. The poem’s 794
lines are divided into five cantos or sections. The word “canto” is derived from the Latin ‘cantus’
or song; it originally suggested a section of a narrative poem sung by an entertainer. “The Rape
of the Lock” is written in heroic couplets, lines of iambic pentameter, rhyming aa, bb, cc, and so
forth. The explanation “heroic” was first used in the seventeenth century because of the recurrent
use of such couplets in epic poems. This couplet style was first used in English by Geoffrey
Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. Pope was the greatest master of the metrical and rhetorical
prospects of the heroic couplet; he turned this succinct, constricting form into a vibrant world of
ideas and characters. Pope achieved range of style within the couplet by changing the position
of the caesura or line break. He skillfully balanced the two lines, often using a slight pause at
the end of the first line and a heavy stop at the end of the second line. Moreover, he recurrently
balanced a statement of a thesis and antithesis somewhere within each line, as in these lines
from his Essay on Criticism:

“Careless of censure nor too fond of fame; Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame;
Averse alike to flatter, or offend; Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.”

The caesura moves around within each line, sometimes coming after four syllables and
sometimes after seven. Moreover, Pope balances a main idea or thesis within each line with a
statement of its opposite or antithesis. He displays great cleverness and wit in his skillful
compression of ideas. The structure of “The Rape of the Lock” roughly resembles to that of
many epics: invocation to the Muse (Canto I), session of the protective Gods (Canto II), games
and epic feast (Canto III), the journey into the underworld (Canto IV), and heroic battle and the
16

climax (Canto V). Pope both mocks and credits the elevated style of epic poetry and many of its
concords such as a formal statement of theme, division into cantos, splendid speeches,
challenges, boasts, and description of warrior’s battle equipment, warfare, epic similes, and
supernatural elements. However, the poem ridicules the silly social manners of the aristocracy
and devalues the pre-eminent sense of importance in the affairs of wealthy ladies and gentlemen.
Yet, the poem also exhibits some fondness for the grace and beauty of that world. Pope enjoys
all the ivory and tortoiseshell, cosmetics and diamonds, expensive furniture, silver coffee service,
fancy china, and light conversation— this was the world in which he moved attempting to find
benefaction for his poetry.

Canto 1

“The Rape of the Lock” unbolts with a prayer for a Muse and launches the poem’s subject
matter, specifically a “dire offense from amorous causes” and the “mighty contests [rising] from
trivial things” (1-2). The speaker concludes his invocation by asking the Muse to explain first
why a well-bred Lord would attack a Lady and, secondly, why a Lady would reject such a Lord.

The action of the poem commences with the rising sun awakening the residents of a
wealthy household. Though everyone, including the lapdogs, has aroused from
sleep, Belinda remains asleep. She dreams of a handsome youth who informs her that she is
protected by a “thousand bright inhabitants of air:” spirits that were once human-women who
now protect virgins.

The youth says that after a woman dies; her spirit returns to elemental form; namely, to
fire, water, earth, and air. Each element is characterized by different types of women. Termagants
are rebukes who become fire spirits or Salamanders. Irresolute women become water spirits.
Prudes are women who delight in declining men and become Gnomes (earth spirits). Coquettes
become Sylphs (air spirits).

The dream is sent to Belinda by Ariel, “her guardian Sylph” (20). The Sylphs are Belinda’s
guardians because they understand her vanity and pride, having been coquettes when they
were humans. They are devoted to any woman who “rejects mankind” (68). Their role is to
guide young women through the “mystic mazes” of social interaction (92).

At the end of the dream, Ariel warns Belinda of an awaiting “dread event,” urging her to
“Beware of all, but most beware of Man” (109, 114). Belinda is then awoken by her lapdog,
 17

Shock. Upon rising, she sees that a billet-doux, or a love-letter, has arrived for her, causing her
to forget the details of the dream.

Now awake, Belinda begins her intricate toilette. Pope donates every object from combs
and pins to billet-doux and Bibles with significance in this ritual of dressing: “Each silver vase in
mystic order laid” (122). Belinda herself is described as a “goddess,” looking at her “heavenly
image” in the mirror (132, 125). The sophisticated language and importance of such objects
thus uplift the process of dressing to a sanctified rite.

The Sylphs assist in Belinda’s dressing routine, setting her hair and straightening her
gown. Fully arranged, Belinda arises from her chamber.

2.3 “The Rape of the Lock” – Critical Perspectives

“The Rape of the Lock” initially printed as “The Rape of the Lock: An Heroi-Comical Poem”
1712 is a mock-epic based upon an authentic incongruity between two upper-class English
families during the eighteenth century.

The opening of “The Rape of the Lock” establishes the poem’s mock-heroic tone. In the
tradition of epic poetry, Pope opens the poem by invoking a Muse, but rather than entreating
one of the mythic Greek Muses, Pope leaves the Muse anonymous and instead bestows the
poem to John Caryll, the man who commissioned him to write the poem. The first verse-paragraph
also introduces Pope’s epic subject matter: a war arising from “amorous causes” (1). Unlike
Menelaus’ fury at Paris’ abdution of Helen or Achilles’ quarrel with Agamemnon over Briseis
in The Iliad, this poem’s “mighty contests rise from trivial things” (2). Indeed, these “mighty
contests” are merely amours and card games rather than the great battles of the Greek epic
tradition.

The second verse-paragraph condenses Pope’s insurrection of the epic genre. In lines
11-12 Pope contrasts grand emotions with un-heroic character-types, specifically “little men”
and women: “In tasks so bold can little men engage, / And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty
rage.” The irony of pairing epic characteristics with lowly human characters contributes to Pope’s
mock-heroic style. Furthermore, the “mighty rage” of women induces the rage of Achilles at the
outset of The Iliad, forewarning the comic gender-reversal that characterizes the rest of the
poem. Rather than distinguishing the subjects of the poem as in a traditional epic, Pope uses
the mock-heroic genre to elevate and scorn his subjects simultaneously, creating a satire that
reprimands the society for its erroneous values and prominence given to trivial matters.
18

Belinda’s dream provides the mythic structure of the poem. In this segment, Pope
introduces the supernatural forces that affect the action of the poem, much the way that the
gods and goddesses of The Iliad would inspire the progress of the Trojan War. Just as Athena
protects Diomedes and Aphrodite supports Paris during the Trojan War, Ariel is the guardian of
Belinda. Unlike the Greek Gods, Ariel retains little power to protect his ward and preserve her
chastity. In this initial canto, Belinda forgets Ariel’s warnings of impending dangers upon receiving
a billet-doux. Though charged with protecting Belinda’s virtue, it seems that Ariel cannot fully
guard her from the perils of love, unable to distract her even from a relatively harmless love
letter. In the dream, Ariel indicates that all women have patron sprites, depending on their
personality type. Ariel explains that when women die, their spirits return “from earthly vehicles”
to “their first elements” (50, 58). Each personality type—women who scold, undecided women,
prudes, coquettes—becomes a Salamander, Nymph, Gnome, or Sylph, respectively. These
four types are associated with both the four humors and the four elements. Having been “light
coquettes” as human women, the Sylphs are most closely associated with Belinda. Belinda
herself is a coquette, and it is this aspect of femininity with which Pope is most concerned.

Pope describes the role of the coquette in this first canto. He validates that womanly
priorities are limited to personal pleasures and social aspirations. In his description of the Sylphs
during the dream sequence, Pope reckons at coquettish vanities. As humans these women
valued their “beauteous mold” and enjoyed frivolous diversions, which they continue to take
pleasure in as sprites (48). The “joy in gilded chariots” proposes a preference for superficial
grandeur and external signifiers of wealth (55). Similarly, their “love of ombre,” a popular card
game featuring elements of bridge and poker, indicates a desire for fashionable entertainment
(56). Through this love of finery and these trivial pastimes, Pope portrays a society that
emphasizes appearances rather than moral principles. This focus on appearance extends to
attitudes towards honor and virtue. Society dictates that women remain chaste while alluring
suitable husbands. Of course, if a woman seemed to compromise herself, society would scorn
her as though she had lost her virtue. This concern about female sexuality represents the
causal anxiety in ”The Rape of the Lock”: the theft of the lock (a metonymic substitution for
Belinda’s chastity) creates the appearance of lost virtue.

At this point in the poem, however, Pope represents Belinda not as a coquette but as a
powerful figure, similar to the (male) heroes of epic poetry. Pope re-imagines Belinda’s morning
routine as a hero’s ritualized preparation before battle. Her toilette commences as a religious
rite in praise of a goddess. Belinda’s reflection in the mirror becomes the image of the goddess
 19

while her maid is the “inferior priestess,” worshipping at the altar (127). These “sacred rites”
perform a secondary purpose: once the sacraments are performed, the goddess should protect
Belinda during her day’s adventures (128). Upon completion of the morning’s ceremony, Belinda
begins to array herself, a scene which Pope figures within the epic paradigm as the ritualized
arming of the hero. The combs, pins, “puffs, powders, patches” become the weapons and
armor of this hero as the “awful Beauty [puts] on all its arms” (138, 139). This portrayal of
Belinda as an epic hero establishes the mock-heroic motifs that occur throughout the poem.

The poet begins the mock epic poem in a manner as if it were some great event ready
to be unfolded but he himself simplifies that “slight is the subject”; therefore, no real tale of glory
is to be expected of it. The poet tells us that the poem is about a lady, Belinda, who rejects a
Lord; the Lord’s assaulting that “gentle belle” and the consequences of these actions. After this
introduction, the poet leads us to the room of Belinda where sun has of late been shining its
rays but “sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake”. So, she is sleeping with her “pillow preset”.
The guardian sylphs of Belinda have cast the dream of such a “beau” which has caused her
cheeks to shine. Belinda is bounded by a multitude of guardian angels: “Know then, unnumbered
Spirits round thee fly, The light Militia of the lower Sky” The poet ironically implies that the task
of these spirits is of varied kinds which include not only guarding the beauty and chastity of the
maids but also the tools of her beautification e.g. “Hang o’er the Box, and hover round the
Ring.” These sylphs were once women and after their deaths, they have transformed into sylphs.
The poet designates, in detail, the transition and formation of the sylphs that are entrusted with
the task of Belinda’s care. “For when the Fair in all their Pride expire, to their first Elements the
Souls retire” The poet describes four types of the airy militia which guards the chastity of maids.
The “fiery” sorts of women transform and assume the shape of “Salamander” and “Soft yielding”
ones turn into nymphs. While “the graver Prude sinks downward to a Gnome”, the “light
Coquettes” become sylphs and play about in the earth.

Gnomes are the spirits which were transformed of women that were too conscious of
their face. These spirits can assume any shape they please. The poet then directs his attack on
women claiming: “Know farther yet; whoever fair and chaste Rejects Mankind is by some Sylph
embrac’d.” He advances in the same theme and asserts that these light militia of air guard “the
Purity of melting Maids” when they are about to fall during midnight balls or masquerades and
treacherous friends. These are the causes for the women to reject a Lord’s love and these
sylphs not only guard but also teach numerous ways to attract men and how to blush. The poet
accuses women of having a “vacant brain”. Whenever a woman is away from her path, these
20

sylphs guide her to the correct path. Ariel introduces itself as the guardian of Belinda: “Of these
am I, who thy Protection claim, A watchful Sprite, and Ariel is my Name.” Ariel whispers in the air
of Belinda that it has seen some bad omen but does not know when and where it is likely to take
place: “I saw, alas! Some dread Event impend” and then it advises Belinda to be “most beware
of Man!” Then Belinda wakes when her dog, Shock, licks her. She unveils the toilet of wonderful
“Unnumber’d Treasures ope at once” that are meant to turn her beauty into a goddess of earth.
“Th’ inferior Priestess, at her Altar’s side, Trembling, begins the sacred Rites of Pride.

Themes and Form

“The Rape of the Lock” is a humorous indictment of the vanities and idleness of 18th
century high society. Basing his poem on a real incident among families of his acquaintance,
Pope intended his verses to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own
folly.

The poem is perhaps the most outstanding example in the English language of the
genre of mock-epic. The strategy of Pope’s mock-epic is not to mock the form itself, but to
mock his society in its very failure to rise to epic standards, exposing its pettiness by casting it
against the grandeur of the traditional epic subjects and the bravery and fortitude of epic heroes:
Pope’s mock-heroic treatment in “The Rape of the Lock” underscores the ridiculousness of a
society in which values have lost all proportion, and the trivial is handled with the gravity and
solemnity that ought to be accorded to truly important issues.

Pope’s handling of the mock-epic genre is intricate and exhaustive. “The Rape of the
Lock” is a poem in which every element of the contemporary scene conjures up some image
from epic tradition or the classical world view, and the pieces are wrought together with a
cleverness and expertise that makes the poem surprising and delightful.

The verse form of “The Rape of the Lock” is the heroic couplet; Pope still reigns as the
uncontested master of this form. The heroic couplet consists of rhymed pairs of iambic pentameter
lines. Pope’s couplets do not fall into strict iambs, however, flowering instead with a rich rhythmic
variation that keeps the highly regular meter from becoming heavy or tedious. Pope distributes
his sentences, with their resolutely parallel grammar, across the lines and half-lines of the
poem in a way that enhances the judicious quality of his ideas. Moreover, the inherent balance
of the couplet form is strikingly well-suited to a subject matter that draws on comparisons and
contrasts: the form invites configurations in which two ideas or circumstances are balanced,
measured, or compared against one another.
 21

Character analysis

Belinda

Having a Cleopatra-like variety, Belinda is the one who is all persistent and the central
character in Alexander Pope’s mock heroic, “The Rape of the Lock”. Pope’s attitude to Belinda
is very mixed and intricate: scornful and yet gentle, appreciative and yet serious. The paradoxical
nature of Pope’s attitude is intimately related to the paradox of Belinda’s situation. She is as a
bundle of contradictions as much as the society she represents. She is a complex character
and is more than a mere type. It is impossible to find a parallel of Belinda in any other poem of
the 18th century.

Belinda is introduced as a paragon of female charm whose name is Latin for “Lovely to
behold “. Pope seems to be devoted to his own creation. He describes her in superlatives – the
brightest fair, the fairest of mortals. She is the center of attention during her pleasure ride on the
river Thames; her lively looks, her vivacious mind, her flashing eyes charm one and all: “Belinda
smiled, and the entire world was gay.”

Pope compares Belinda to the sun and suggests that it avows in Belinda a rival. Belinda
is like the sun, not only because of her bright eyes and not only because she dominates her
special world. She was as beautiful as every eye was fix’d on her alone. She is like the sun in
another regard: “Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,

And, like the sun, she shines on all alike”.

Belinda’s matchless beauty is enhanced by two curling side-locks of hair that captivatingly
set-off her ivory, white neck and which she has kept ‘to the destruction of mankind: “Love in
these labyrinths his slaves detains, And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.”

Belinda’s charms can work marvels and can make even non-believers kiss the cross.
She is an impersonation of grace and sweetness which cover up her flirtation and faults.

According to Alice Miller, a person who is great, who is admired everywhere, and needs
this admiration to survive, has one of the extreme forms of Narcissism, which is grandiosity.
Belinda is the goddess, but she puts on her divinity at her dressing table; and, such is the
paradox of beauty-worship, she can be both the divinity and the sincere devotee. Thus Belinda,
in worshiping at the shrine of beauty, quite naturally worships herself.
22

Reflection of the society of its time

The word ‘satire’ is traced from the Latin word ‘satira’ which is a literary attack on the
follies and vices of an individual or a society with a view to correct them through merriment and
burlesque written either in prose or verse. However, as Shakespeare is the poet of man, Alexander
Pope is a poet of society. “The Rape of the Lock” is a social document because it mirrors
contemporary society and contains a social satire, too. Pope paints a picture of England in 18th
century. The whole vista of “The Rape of the Lock” revolves around the false standard of 18th
century. Pope satirizes the young girls and boys, aristocratic women and men, their free time
activities, personality of husbands and wives, the professional judges and politicians of the day.

Pope clearly depicts the ludicrous follies and the levity of the fashionable circle of the 18th
century England. The world of Belinda – the world of fashion is a trivial world. The whole life of
Belinda is limited to sleeping, make-up, enjoyment and enticing the lords. There are no supreme
elements in her life. This life is marked by ill-nature, pedantry, wantonness, flirtation, yielding
and submissive nature, fierce and unruly nature, skepticism, demerit, paltriness, insignificance
and frivolities. Belinda represents all the fashion struck women, busy in such imbecility.

The valiant of the time have not been spared by Pope. Baron not only represents Peter
but also foreshows the aristocratic gallants of the age. Pope satirizes man’s nature that is
always weak at beauty. Men sacrifice everything at the altar of grace and even the most intelligent
man behaves foolishly when he is a victim to such grace.

With tender Billet-doux he lights the Pyre,

And breathes three am’rous Sighs to raise the Fire,
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent Eyes
Soon to obtain, and long possess the Prize:

In order to make his satire sharper and all the more effective, Pope introduces the aerial
machinery, which facilitates the satire. Through this weapon, the poet throws in contrast the
weaknesses of the fashionable women of that age. He satirizes women who are interested in a
fashionable life and its pursuits and who go on exercising their evil influence even after their
death. For the sake of worldly magnificence, they can bid farewell even to their abstinence and
honor. He satirizes women of fiery, coquettish mischievous and yielding nature and gives them
different names. It also provides the poet with an opportunity to reprimand the class
consciousness of women.
 23

2.4 Glossary
 Trivial: of little value or importance.

 Vouchsafe: give or grant something to someone in a gracious or condescending

manner.

 Timorous: showing or suffering from nervousness or a lack of confidence.

 Virgin: maiden.

 Wreath: arrangement of flowers.

 Transient: temporary.

2.5 Sample Analysis

1. “Know then, unnumbered Spirits round thee fly, The light Militia of the lower Sky”

The guardian sylphs of Belinda have dreamt the dream of such a “beau” which has
caused her cheeks to gloss. Belinda is bounded by a horde of sentinel angels.

2. “Know farther yet; Whoever fair and chaste Rejects Mankind, is by some Sylph
embrac’d”

The poet progresses in the same theme and proclaims that these light local militia
of air guard “the Purity of melting Maids” when they are about to fall during midnight
balls or subterfuges and traitorous friends. These are the reasons for the women to
discard a Lord’s love. The sylphs not only guard but also instill abundant ways to
make women appeal to men while the poet blames women of having a “vacant
brain”. Whenever a woman is astray, these sylphs monitor her way to the precise
pathway.

2.6 Articles on the poem

1. Hunt, John Dixon, ed. Pope: The Rape of the Lock: a Casebook. Macmillan, London,
1968.

2. Hunt, John Dixon, ed. Pope: The Rape of the Lock: a Casebook. Macmillan, London,
1968.
24

2.7 Web Sources

1. https://www.risenotes.com/rape/Rape-of-the-Lock-short-summary.php

2. https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Pope.html

2.8 Sample Questions

1. Where does Pope show us that he is ridiculing wealthy young people whose values
are misdirected?

2. Does the epic “The Rape of the Lock” apply in any way to society today?

3. What does this poem reveal about the 17th century England?

4. Explain the epic conventions in this poem?

5. What is the background behind Pope’s “”The Rape of the Lock”” Canto1?
 25

UNIT - 3
TRANSITIONISTS
LESSON - 3
“THE ECHOING GREEN”
- WILLIAM BLAKE
(FROM SONGS OF EXPERIENCE)

3.1 William Blake

William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 in London. He was a great artist and poet.
He was married in 1782 to Catherine Boucher. He went to school for a few years .He left school
when he was ten years old. His mother helped him in his studies. He was much interested in
drawing.

It was during this same period of time that Blake claimed to have had his first vision (a
tree full of angels), an experience which would become a recurring theme in his life.

William Blake then opened a print shop. He was a great poet but he was also very
famous for his work of illuminating painting. This was a work by which he could illuminate books
very quickly. His wife helped him in his work. She was a hardworking lady. William Blake’s most
important work was “Jerusalem”. He sold many of his poems to other poets also. Later he
joined the Royal Academy. He died on 12 August 1827 – the same day on which he made a
portrait of his wife and was in a happy mood.

3.2 “The Echoing Green” – A Summary

“The Echoing Green” by William Blake, taken from his Songs of Innocence, is a captivating
short poem. Blake portrays the joy and innocence of the children’s early experience of life. “The
Echoing Green” begins with a short description of a grassy field on a warm day in spring.

The sun shines bright. The sky looks beautiful. Pleasant sounds of bells come from the
nearby church. Song birds sing cheerfully. The sounds of bells and the songs of the birds
merge into a beautiful melody worthy of the season of spring. The old people of the village sit
under the trees while, on the green, young innocent children play their favourite games.
26

The children are happy and excited. They have not yet tasted the grief and disappointment
that life will bring them in later years. They are young and healthy. The beautiful village green,
the birds and the spring are all theirs.

The old people watch their children play happily on the green and think of the happy days
of their childhood. They, too, had played on the same green and had their share of joy and
excitement which only young children can experience. Then the evening comes. Children grow
tired and return home to rest in the laps of their sisters and mothers.

This poem describes a scene on a grassy field. During the day, it is filled with the noises
of children playing different sports and games. When the sun sets, it becomes dark and lonely.

The poet says that an old man, John, with grey hair is sitting under the oak tree along with
other old men and women. As they watch the children at play, they try to forget their sullen
worries by sharing the joys of the children. The joy of childhood is contrasted with the melancholy
old age in the form of sunset when the grassy field becomes the darkening green. The poet
says that the children continue to play on the grassy field till late in the evening.

The sun begins to set and the tired children return to their homes. They have enjoyed
themselves to their fill by playing different sports and games. At home they have rest and sleep
in the company of their brothers and sisters. They seem to be like birds who have returned to
their nests. The echoing green looks deserted and dejected in the darkness of the evening.

3.3 “The Echoing Green” – Critical Perspectives

“The Echoing Green” by William Blake is a three-stanza poem that aggregates an
AABBCCDDEE rhyme scheme throughout its course to present a theme that is as beautiful as
it is mournful. The beauty comes in the form of celebration of life and enjoyment that is showcased
through the children playing in the fields as a character, “Old John,” watches on. But the scornful
feeling is subtly dealt with in the guise of an undertone of how ephemeral youthful fervor can
be. Furthermore, Blake uses that simple vision of play—or lack thereof—that’s occurring on
“the Echoing Green” to symbolize the transient nature of life in general.
 27

First Stanza

The sun does arise,

And make happy the skies.
The merry bells ring
To welcome the Spring.
The sky-lark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,
To the bells’ cheerful sound.
While our sports shall be seen
On the Echoing Green.

This first stanza wastes no time in delivering the radiance that’s occurring on this ”Echoing
Green,” though no specific person is initially addressed as a part of the scenery. Rather, Blake
concentrates on the sounds and scenes that nature and inanimate objects bring to give a
background of merriment before people are added to the equation. Specifically, “the sun” is in
“happy…skies” while “merry bells ring” and “birds” offer their own “cheerful” sounds. Before we
ever come across a single person in this poem, we’re grounded in scenery that portrays
happiness.

With the final two lines though, we realize that the narrator is a part of some group playing
“sports” among the happy sounds on “Green” land. From the animals and inanimate objects to
the joy and plant life, this scenery is treated like a thing of beauty, and the concept is so childish—
playing in a field—that the reader can conclude that this group is made up of children.

Under the weight of this deduction, the whole stanza shifts in meaning to something
much deeper than just children playing. The lively qualities and felicity expressed are
representations of the alacrity of youth where life is still as early and fresh as a “sun” that’s high
in “happy…skies.” In this state of life, people can play, run, and enjoy what’s around them in an
excited way.

Second Stanza
Old John, with white hair
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak,
28

Among the old folk,

They laugh at our play,
And soon they all say.
‘Such, such were the joys.
When we all girls & boys,
In our youth-time were seen,
On the Echoing Green.’

In this stanza, we are introduced to the only character who is given a specific name; “Old
John” is to be noted because he is observing the hilarity occurring on “the Echoing Green” even
though he himself is not participating. This can be seen as stepping into a different stage of life
than the one in which the children exist as “Old John” likely cannot partake in those activities
due to his age. Instead of sharing in that heightened level of motion, he is “[s]itting under the
oak” in the company of “the old folk” as he watches the display.

The use of “the oak” in this stanza is of particular significance in two ways. One, we get a
visual of a series of older people fitfully mustered in the shade of a towering tree. This image is
both helpful in giving the reader an intellectual picture of the setting, and also reigniting that
elderly quality for this group. They are not running or even walking. They are not locomotive.

This leads into the second significance of “the oak” - the tree is a symbol of prudence and
indefatigableness due to the time required for it to grow large enough for a number of people to
loiter beneath. By providing such portraiture of older eminence and strength, Blake is commenting
on the wisdom and steadfastness in the elderly people who have endured decades of life
experiences.

Regardless of the elderly quality though, “Old John” still finds happiness in the children’s
pranks, and the young narrator is aware of this detail as he comments on things like how the
observers “laugh at [the] play.” But even in this child’s description of the elders candidly finding
enjoyment, there’s the first hint of cheerlessness showing itself in the latter lines of the stanza.
This sad twist arises through the perpetuating of the elder generation about the times when
they were all “girls and boys” who experienced similar joys as the children. Though the spectators
remember those days and can still enjoy the children’s happiness, they will never again be able
to experience that same freedom and energetic action as the children.
 29

It is worth noting that the phrase, “girls and boys,” manifests in favour of the idea that the
people playing at “the Echoing Green” are children. If not, the recollection would lose excitability
in that no “girls and boys” would be present to spark the comparative comment.

Third Stanza

Till the little ones weary

No more can be merry
The sun does descend,
And our sports have an end:
Round the laps of their mothers,
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest;
And sport no more seen,
On the darkening Green.

What was already a melancholy detail in the second stanza grows to apprehend the rest
of the poem. Now, there is no more playing as “the sun does descend,” creating a scene that is
much darker and less active than what was presented in the first stanza. At first glance, this
context could be explained as the children going home for the sake of sleep and such, but a
careful scrutiny of the wording reveals so much more.

For one thing, this is the first time the children are referred to by the narrator—who claims
to be a part of the group—as “the little ones.” This is not the vernacular often connected to a
child by another child, so it is fabricated to spark the question of why a child would suddenly be
referring to the youth in such a way. The most logical of explanations would be that the child is
no longer a child, but rather is growing or has grown into an adult.

From that viewpoint, the meaning of this final stanza alters to surround that idea. The fact
that their “sports have to end” becomes a statement of having to leave behind their childhood
so much so that “sport will no more be seen.” That last quote, too, affords this theory of passing
into adulthood since the narrator does not mention a time when the play will rejuvenate. By the
word choice, it is just over as age comes and death approaches. Much like a day has a sunrise
and a sunset, so does life, and this stanza clearly notes that the “descending” is taking place.
The vivacity of childhood is draining, and as life passes, the “Green” is no longer “Echoing.” It is
“darkening,” like the light of life slipping away.
30

This perspective does make the description of children being “round the laps of their
mothers/Many sisters and brothers” an odd thing. If the narrator is now talking about aging
adults, the visual of them gathered around “the laps of their mothers” feels out of place. However,
this statement is actually quite appropriate. Let us recall that those elderly fellows were watching
the children play by “the oak” in Stanza 2. Perhaps then “the oak” is being treated like the
“mothers” in this instance—or rather what “the oak” would represent. That steadfastness and
wisdom that was earlier addressed could be the explanation needed here, that these former
children who are now aging adults are gathered around wisdom and tenacity treasured from life
experience. In that, this concept adds beauty even to the most melancholic of stanzas in this
poem. Even though they are aging and death is approaching, they have grown solid and strong.

What begins then as a purely beautiful tale in the first stanza progressively delves into
melancholy until the beauty, in the end, has shifted from the primary focus to the underlying
theme. Still, Blake has effectively created a poem to showcase both the beauty and melancholy
of aging and life.

3.4 Glossary
 thrush: a small songbird

 weary: extreme tiredness

 felicity: joyfulness

 hilarity: extreme amusement

 portraiture: detailed description

 vivacity: liveliness

 tenacity: determination

3.5 Sample Analysis

1. The sky-lark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,

Blake focuses on the sounds and scenes that nature and lifeless objects bring to give a
context of cheerfulness before people are added to the scene. Specifically, “the sun” is in
“happy…skies” while “merry bells ring” and “birds” offer their own “cheerful” sounds.
 31

2. And sport no more seen,

On the darkening Green.

The fact that their “sports have to end” becomes a statement of having to leave behind
the derision of childhood so much so that “sport will no more be seen.” Much like a day has a
sunrise and a sunset, so does life, and this stanza clearly notes that the “descending” is taking
place.

3.6 Articles on the poem:

1. BLAKE’S PASTORAL: A GENESIS FOR “THE ECCHOING GREEN” (DAVID SIMPSON
Volume 13 · Issue 3, Winter 1979-1980)

3.7 Web Sources

1. http://bq.blakearchive.org/13.3.simpson

2. https://learnzillion.com/lesson_plans/1010-day-1-the-echoing-green

3.8 Sample Questions

1. Explain how the first stanza of the poem creates a cheerful mood?

2. What is echoing green in this poem?

3. Explicate the activities of children in the poem?

4. What does ‘the green’ echo within the poem?

5. Identify the figures of speech used in the poem?

6 What is the tone of the poem: happy or sad?

32

LESSON - 4
“THE NIGHT”
- WILLIAM BLAKE
(FROM SONGS OF INNOCENCE)

4.1 “The Night” – A Summary

The poem “Night”, published in 1789 by the English poet William Blake, was written with
the purpose of enlightening the audience about the existence of protective forces, and the
infallible evils of mankind. William Blake was an aberrant, though highly religious man. Nearly
all of his poems contain some insinuation to God, or allude to the Bible in some manner. In the
poem “Night” Blake astutely suggests the existence of guardian angels and demons of the
night. His poem is filled with descriptive language, extended metaphor, and allusions.

In stanza one, the speaker looks at the setting sun and sees the evening star. Like the
birds now quiet in their nest, he too must go to bed. He sees the moon as shining leniently on
the earth at sleep.

In stanza two, he bids farewell to the daytime scene of green fields and thickets where
sheep have grazed. Now, where the lambs’ grazed angels tread, blessing everything that is
growing and sleeping.

In the third and fourth stanza, the angels’ activities are given importance. They check
nests; they check on all the animals, keeping them from harm and give sleep to any in grief,
keeping watch by their bed. They bemoan when they find wolves and tigers howling for prey
and try to drive away their hunger. If these beasts nevertheless catch their prey, the angels take
the dead animals to a new life (heaven).

In the fifth and sixth stanza, the nature of this new place is discussed. It is a place of
universal peace in which ‘the lion will lie down with the lamb’. The lion declares that the gentle
diffidence and wholesome purity of Christ (the unnamed ‘him who bore thy name’ i.e. the Lamb
of God) has driven out anger and sickness from this new place of endless day. The lion is now
no longer the predator but the guard / shepherd. He can lie down beside the lamb and sleep, or
think about Jesus’ sufferings, full of tenderness towards the bleating, gentle lamb. Now the lion
is celestial (‘wash’d in life’s river), he will be a renowned protector of the flock.
 33

The poem draws on pastoral imagery, looking at harmony between nature and human
beings. The contrasts of day, followed by night, followed by everlasting day, stress only the
positive aspects of each passage (which could be seen as manifesting the disparity of innocence).
Blake also employs a mammon of Biblical allusions.

4.2 “A Night” – Critical Perspectives

The first stanza of the poem informs the reader that the day is coming to an end, and
night is approaching: “The sun descending in the west.The evening star does shine” (1). The
first stanza also personifies the moon and sun, by suggesting that the sun is seeking its bed,
and the moon “smiles on the night” (8). The first stanza also sets up the rest of the poems’
rhythm. “Night” is written with an AB-AB-AA-BB rhyme scheme. The systematic layout of the
stanzas, makes the poem flow more smoothly, and draws the circumspection of the audience.
The rhyme scheme also allows for easier reading, and the repetition of the rhymes gives the
poem an almost pleasant sounding rhythm.

In the second stanza the sun is saying goodbye to the earth as it sets over the horizon.
“Farewell green fields and happy groves” (9), and it is in this stanza that the custodian angels
that Blake is so famous for, appear first. They are described as preservers of luck and joy, who
visit all the sleeping creatures of the earth in order to protect them from harm. The “lambs”
symbolize the blameless minds of children, and could even be an allusion to deep sleep, when
one counts sheep jumping over a fence.

The third stanza is a continuation of the second. It goes into further debasement on the
duties of the angels. “They look in every thoughtless nest…to keep them all from harm” (17-
20). Blake’s guardian angels take on the role of docile parents, who sit at their children’s bedsides
as they sleep. The tone of the stanza is very soothing. Words such as “warm”, “sleep”, and
“bed” (17-25) convey feelings of atonement and safety, however, in the fourth stanza; the tone
of the poem takes a perfect turn.

Wolves and tigers are nocturnal ravenous creatures. Blake uses them to symbolize the
evils of mankind, perhaps murderers, thieves, and rapists. In the fourth stanza, the “wolves and
tygers howl for prey” (25), and seek out the innocent sleeping sheep. Although the guardian
angels are meant to protect those who are sleeping, they are powerless to stop the blood thirsty
predators. Blake uses the situation to represent the recklessness of life, and while some may
34

do their best to protect the minds of the young, at one point or another, all guiltlessness comes
to an end.

In the last two stanzas, the sun makes its reoccurrence. It is in these last two stanzas
that Blake attributes to the Bible, and finishes his description of the sun with an extended
metaphor. The lion whose eyes flow with tears of gold, symbolizes both the sun and Jesus
Christ who is the lion of Iscariot. Stanza five alludes to the qualities of Christ that make him the
ultimate guardian angel: “Wrath by his meekness and by his health, sickness is driven away”
(37-38). Jesus does not vindicate with violence. He protects his people through self-appeasement.
Jesus also cures the ills and ailments of his people. Blake alludes to Christ in order to show that
all men, women, and children are sheep of God’s great flock, and Jesus is the compassionate
shepherd.

In the final Stanza the lion reappears to symbolize the sun. The sun finally sets over the
horizon and “sleeps”. The sun’s final goodbye is a statement that is meant to tranquilize the
sleeping lambs that it will be back to protect them once again. The final stanza also alludes to
the river Styx: “For wash’d in lifes river”. The word river represents the heaven and the afterlife.
The sun/Jesus states, that even in death “My bright mane forever shall shine like the gold as I
guard o’er the fold” (46-48). This simply means that the sun /Jesus, will always be there to
watch over the creatures of the earth, and that not even death can break that promise.

In the light of Blake’s ideas, this poem can be read as showing the disproportion of
innocence when it is the only vision available to the human being. The perspective of the poem’s
speaker allows little assurance of the experience of ‘woe’. The incantation of the passing day is
indolent, stressing greenness and peacefulness. There is growth – ‘green fields and happy
groves’ and nothing is at risk as flocks ‘took delight’ and lambs ‘nibbled’. The picture of angels
scrutinizing, protecting and soothing troubled animals is attractive; it is a world of lullaby.

“Night” actually neutralizes the denials associated with the image of night. After all, night-
time is the time of human terrors and fears, when individuals are most assailable to attack and
when most predators are at work. Here, the only glancing reference to death is that the predators
‘rush dreadful’; frequenting an image of death and oblivion.

The reality of becoming a prey and nearing death is unavoidable, and the angels cannot
defend it. However, it is presented simply as a harbinger to entering a more seraphic existence,
in which all animosity is removed. The only values are those of modesty and benevolence. This
 35

vision of a world to come, or a world ‘beyond’, offers comfort but might also signal a repugnance
of the reality of engulfing forces within human life. It also presents a vision of life and an end of
energy and force: the angels become static in the face of danger, tears are the only protection
they can offer; lambs become merely ‘mild spirits’’; the lion lies down with the lamb as a subjugated
beast, abrading alongside the lamb. The distinctive qualities he brings to creation are channeled
merely into guard duties in this ideal, pastoral world.

4.3 Glossary
 Bower- a pleasant shady place under trees

 Grove- a small wood or group of trees

 Nibbled- eat frequently in small amounts

 Ruddy- having a healthy red color

 Repugnance- intense disgust

 Abrading- scrape or wear away by friction

4.4 Sample Analysis

1. The sun descending in the west,
The evening star does shine;
The birds are silent in their nest,
And I must seek for mine.

This first stanza begins by recounting a sunset and then alludes of the evening Star. This
is another name for the planet Venus. The narrator delights us with their portrayal of the scenery
which is made to sound gorgeous, almost enthralled. It is apparently a quiet night.

2. Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves

The feet of angels bright;

The speaker then bids goodbye to the day time during which flocks of sheep and cattle
scrape on green fields and groves, the lambs crumb on the grass and the angels visit the earth
to bequeath their blessings on every being, growing and sleeping, under the bright sun and
under the shining moonlight.
36

4.5 Articles on the poem

1. Blake’s “Introduction” to “Experience” by Northrop Frye Huntington Library Quarterly
Vol. 21, No. 1, Blake Bicentennial Issue (Nov., 1957), pp. 57-67

2. A _ C o m pa r a t i v e _ St u d y _ O f _ P o e t r y ’ s _ St r u c t u r e _ ’ N i g h t ’ _ B y _ B l a k e _
And_’She_Walks_In_ Beauty’_ By_ Byron

4.6 Web Sources

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322660453

2. https://www.academia.edu/15462813/Stylistic_Analysis_of_William_Blakes_Poem_
Night_

4.7 Sample Questions

1. Do you think this poem is ‘escapist’ in a negative sense, or offers a positive vision?

2. What is the vision represented in the poem?

3. What is the setting of the poem?

4. Give out a stylistic analysis of the poem.

5. List out the figures of speech used in the poem?

6. Discuss the symbols used by William Blake in this poem?

7. Enumerate on the different perspectives of the word “Night”?

8. Discuss the religious connotation used in the poem?

 37

LESSON - 5
“LONDON”
– WILLIAM BLAKE
FROM SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

5.1 William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) wrote many great poems which remain widely read and studied.
But “London” is, along with “The Tyger”, possibly the most famous of all his poems. “London”
was first published in 1794 in his volume Songs of Experience, which was written to offer the
other side of the positive, incomparable message present in Blake’s earlier volume Songs of
Innocence. Although the poem’s meaning is pretty clear and straightforward, it is our purpose in
this analysis to unveil some of the more abstruse aspects of its language.

5.2 “London” – A Summary

In the first stanza, the speaker is walking through the streets of London, and, everywhere
he turns, he sees the oppressed faces of the poor. They look weak, sullen, sad, and overthrown.

In the second stanza, as the speaker continues his travels, he hears the people’s voice
everywhere. He hears the same pain and suffering in the cry of a stripling to that of a grown
man. To him, the people and their minds are not free. They are curbed or “manacled” by their
various situations—mostly parsimonious.

In the third stanza, the speaker reflects on and emphasizes on how the wealthy or the
aristocracy take advantage of the poor. During Blake’s time, much money went into the Church
while children were dying from poverty. Forced to sweep chimneys, the filth from the children’s
efforts would blacken the walls of the white church. This image symbolizes not only the Church’s
profanity but the Christian religion, according to Blake.

Furthermore, during the time frame of the poem, the royals were considered accountable
for the wars that broke out, resulting in the death of many guiltless people and soldiers. Because
of this, many women were widowed, and, without someone to support them, many families
starved. (Remember that women were not in a position to gain many respectable jobs during
this era.) Thus, the unfortunate soldier’s blood is on the hands of the wealthy.
38

In the last stanza, midnight streets are a direct reference to perversion and the pleasure
of the district. Here, the speaker broods on the ‘curse’ of the young prostitute—referring to both
cynicism and her child out of illegal nuptials. Also, the oxymoron of “marriage” (to join) and
“hearse” (to depart) suggests the damnation of marriage. Here, men are using prostitutes (who
are more than likely children doing a dirty job out of necessity), impregnating them, and then
possibly spreading diseases to their wives—thus “marriage hearse.” This last stanza drives
home the theme of society’s moral decline.

Blake describes the things he sees when he wanders through the streets of London:
signs of misery and weakness can be discerned on everyone’s face, it seems. Every man’s
voice – even the cry of every infant, a child who has not even learnt to talk yet – conveys this
sense of oppression. It is as if everyone is being kept in slavery, but the shackles they wear are
not literal ones, but mental – ‘mind-forg’d’ – ones. Somehow, they are even more powerful,
since they mean the oppressed are unlikely ever to rise up and challenge that which domineers
over them.

The third stanza sees two institutions associated with wealth and stateliness– the Church
and the Palace – invaded by the corrupt realities of Blake’s London: a world in which
industrialization leads to small children being exploited and thwarted through their employment
as chimney-sweeps, and in which ‘hapless’ (i.e. unlucky) soldiers sent off to fight spill their
blood for uncaring kings. ‘Appalls’ in this stanza is an apt word: the Church has literally turned
black in colour - the colour of a pall - by the sooty breath of the chimney-sweep. But palls are
associated with funerals, summoning the premature deaths of so many children who died from
injury or ill-health while sweeping chimney. The word also, of course, carries its more familiar,
abstract meaning: ‘appalls’ as in shocks.

But the fourth and final stanza suggests that the most pandemic and frequently heard
sound on London streets is the sound of a young mother – who is also a prostitute – cursing her
newborn infant’s crying and ‘blight[ing] with plagues the Marriage hearse’. This last image cannot
easily be paraphrased, so the whole stanza requires a bit of unpicking:

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
 39

That final image – the oxymoron of the ‘Marriage hearse’ (hearses are for funerals, not
weddings) – appears to mean that the young unmarried mother’s unwanted child, and the
misery of both mother and infant alike, is the final nail in the coffin of the idea of marriage as a
sacred union which is associated not only with bliss but with blessing because it is, solely in
Blake’s time, a holy ceremony; but also because people talk of a marriage being ‘blessed’ with
a child. A ‘curse’, of course, can be merely a loud cry, but the word carries a ring of profanity at
all times. That final line is a masterstroke: first the near-alliteration of the ‘bl’ and ‘pl’ plosive
sounds in ‘blights’ and ‘plagues’, but then the oxymoron of ‘Marriage hearse’, with ‘hearse’ itself
being a horrific constricting of ‘Harlot’s curse’ - the line it rhymes with.

Some critics have analyzed the poem in its historical context. It has been suggested that
the ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ refer to London’s (and England’s) unwillingness to follow the lead of
France and revolt against their tyrannical oppressors: the French Revolution was five years old
when Blake published ‘London’, and Blake’s support of the French Revolution lends conviction
to this interpretation of the poem. Blake seems to bemoan Londoners’ reluctance to free
themselves, and their apparent willingness to remain slaves.

What is perhaps also worth noting about ‘London’ – by way of concluding this brief analysis
– is the fact that the final three stanzas are all concerned with attempts to vocalize something.
‘London’ is assuredly an oral poem, but it is concerned with ‘voicelessness’ rather than the
voice. Blake may mention ‘every voice’, but we never hear anyone’s voice utter anything specific.
The mouth is used to ‘cry’, ‘sigh’, and ‘curse’, but never to utter any meaningful objection or
opposition to the ‘manacles’ that keep Londoners in their psychological chains.

Though for our money the third stanza’s combination of the aural and the visual in the
images of the chimney-sweeper’s cry turning the walls of the church black, as if with his sooty
breath, and the soldier’s dying breath or ‘sigh’ running in blood down the Palace walls, is the
finest image Blake ever captured. Even the harlot’s baby is an ‘infant’ – literally, someone
unable to speak, from the Latin ‘infans’. But Blake, through writing a poem like “London”, could
give a voice to the voiceless – or rather, could lend his voice to their ‘voicelessness’, to suggest
that such despicable misery goes beyond words, at least for those suffering the hardships of
London-life.
40

5.3 “London” - Critical Perspectives

William Blake was born near London in the late 1700’s, which means that he lived in the
1800’s when the ideals of society were stringent and often overwhelming. He did not conform to
these patterns, but rather found himself among other radical thinkers. One biographer explains,
“Blake was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his
day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft.” These people, like Blake, believed in
free thinking and were not the kind to conform to society’s standards. This poem particularly
condemns the stringent rules of the society. Blake had some first-hand experience of these
rules. At one point in his life, he was accused of speaking against the King. The penalty for this
was severe, and Blake was distraught over the issue until he was finally acquitted. It is not
surprising that he should revile such a strict government. The words of this poem denounce
every kind of organized religion and government while it reveals the human heart’s yearning for
freedom.

This poem, London, reveals the author’s feelings towards the society that he lived in. To
endure 1800s England was to know the most restrictive of societies, where laws were broken
only on penalty of death, and people followed a marked societal protocol. This poem reveals
Blake’s true thoughts about the society in which he lived. Yet, it is still universal and timeless, as
every society has restrictions which it has placed on human lives. The speaker makes it very
clear that he believes the government to have too much control and society to be too restrictive.

Stanza 1

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,

Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In the first stanza, the speaker provides the setting and tone for his poem. The setting can
of course be derived from the title, but the first stanza also reveals that the speaker is walking
down a street. He says that he “wander[s] down each chartered street”. The term “wander”
gives some insight into the speaker as well. He appears to be not quite sure of himself, and a bit
misguided, if not entirely lost. The use of the term “chartered” also suggests that the streets he
walks through are controlled and rigid. He is not walking in a free, open field, but a confined,
rigid, mapped out area. The speaker will expound upon this idea later-on in the poem. As he
 41

walks, he notices something about the faces of the people walking by. There seems to be the
marks of fatigue in them all. He describes their faces as having “weakness” and “woe”. This
sets up the tone as melancholy. The gloom and the sadness seem to seep from the speaker’s
voice as he describes the passersby.

Stanza 2

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear

While the first stanza sets up the tone of the poem, the second stanza gives some insight
into the speaker’s melancholic feelings towards the people who pass by him as he watches-on.
The speaker reveals that from the cry of the newborn infant to the cry of the full grown man, he
hears the “mind forg’d manacles”. This gives insight into his despairing view of mankind. The
“manacles” are shackles or some kind of chain that keeps a person imprisoned. The fact that
these chains are “mind forg’d” reveals that they are metaphorical chains created by the people’s
own ideas. The use of the word “ban” reveals that these manacles are placed there by society.
A ban, of course, is a restriction given by law. The speaker’s use of words such as “Charterd”
“ban” and “manacles” reveal his belief that society emblematically imprisons people. Suddenly,
it becomes apparent that the thoughts, pressures, and principles of the society are under
discussion here.

Stanza 3

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

In this stanza, the speaker digs even deeper into the reasons for his feelings towards
humanity. He implies that the shackles worn by the people and imposed by society have some
inauspicious results. He begins with the Chimney sweeper. The Chimney sweeper was one of
the poorest people of society. His life expectancy was threatened because of his nature of
work. He was consistently dirty and sick. Those of the lowest class were forced into this kind of
work in order to provide the needs of their families. Then, the speaker criticizes the Church,
42

calling it “blackening” and claiming that even the church “appalls” at the Chimney sweeper.
Often, the chimney sweepers were just children. They were small enough to fit into the chimneys.
These children were often orphaned children, and the Church was responsible for them. This
explains why the author ties the chimney sweepers with the “blackening church”. The speaker
then turns his attentions to the “hapless soldier”. He has already criticized society, pointed out
the misfortunes of the poor and the hypocrisy of the Church, and now he also criticizes the
government by suggesting that the soldiers are the poor victims of a corrupt government. He
divulges his feelings toward war by describing the blood that runs down the palace walls. The
palace, of course, is where royalty would have lived. Thus, the speaker accuses the people of
higher strata in his society which spills the blood of the soldiers in order to keep their living place
a comfort zone.

Stanza 4

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse

In the final stanza, the speaker reveals how the corruption in the society attacks innocence.
He says that he hears the “youthful Harlot’s curse…” The idea of a youthful harlot suggests the
level of poverty and corruption, that a girl who was yet a youth would be involved in prostitution.
Then, things become even more interesting, as the speaker avows the object of the Harlot’s
cursing. She curses at the tears of a newborn baby. This is the ultimate attack upon innocence.
The speaker does not reveal whether the harlot is the mother of the baby or not, but he does
imply that rather than comforting a crying infant, she curses it. This reveals the hardened heart
of the harlot, which represents the hardened heart of society at large. While the innocent shed
tears, the perverted attack them.

The last line of this poem reveals the speaker’s thoughts on marriage as well. The Harlot,
apparently, has “blighted” the “marriage hearse”. She has distorted marriage by having sold her
body before even entering into the marriage union. Although the speaker believes that the
Harlot has somehow damaged marriage, he also reveals his beliefs about marriage in the first
place. The fact that he calls it a “marriage hearse” reveals that he views marriage as death.
Overall, the poem has criticized the society, the Church, prostitution, and even marriage. The
innocent baby shedding tears represents those who are innocent in the world. They are few and
 43

they are disdained at. They are also infants, and are not left to be innocent for long. Their
innocence is “blasted” by the cry of the perverted.

5.4 Glossary
 Appalls- greatly dismay or horrify

 Hapless- unfortunate

 Blight- a thing that spoils or damages something

 Shackles- a situation that restricts someone

 Hypocrisy- a practice of claiming to have higher standards

 Disdain- considered being of unworthy.

5.5 Sample Analysis

1. I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.

In the first stanza, the speaker explains the setting and his tone. The setting can of
course be derived from the title, but the first stanza also reveals that the speaker is walking
down a street. He says that he “wander[s] down each chartered street”. The term “wander”
gives some insight into the speaker as well. He appears to be not quite sure of himself, and a bit
injudicious, if not completely lost.

2. How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls,

The Chimney sweeper was one of the pitiable people of society. Their life expectancy
was vulnerable because of their nature of work. They were dependably dirty and sick. Those of
the lowest class were forced into this kind of work in order to provide the needs of their families.
Then, the speaker criticizes the church, calling it “blackening” and claiming that even the church
“appalls” at the Chimney sweeper. Often, the chimney sweepers were just children. They were
small enough to fit into the chimneys. These children were often orphaned children, and the
church was responsible for them.
44

5.6 Articles on the poem

1. Blake’s London: Diabolical reading and poetic place in organisational theorizing.
Janet Sayers and Nanette Monin

2. Rosenfeld, Alvin, ed. William Blake: Essays and Studies for S. Foster Damon. Brown
University Press, Providence, 1969.

5.7 Web sources

1. https://crossref-it.info/textguide/songs-of-innocence-and-experience/13/1606

2. https://interestingliterature.com/2016/12/29/a-short-analysis-of-william-blakes-
london/

5.8 Sample Questions

1. Why do you think the speaker never uses the word “London” in this poem?

2. Could this poem be about other cities?

3. Why the poet does use the word ‘every’ so often in this poem?

4. Which aspects of Romantic literature can be perceived in this poem?

5. Perform a stylistic analysis of this poem?

6. Describe the life of chimney sweepers?

7. Write a brief account on the images used in the poem?

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LESSON - 6
“ODE TO EVENING”
- WILLIAM COLLINS
6.1 William Collins
William Collins (1721-1759), English poet, was born on the 25th of December 1721. He
divides, with Gray, the glory of being the greatest English lyricist of the 18th century. In 1734 the
young poet published his first verses, in a sixpenny pamphlet on “The Royal Nuptials”, of which
however, no copy has come down to us; another poem, probably satiric, called “The Battle of
the Schoolbooks”, was written about this time, and has also been lost. He made the acquaintance
with Johnson and others, and was urged by those friends to undertake various important writings
- a History of the Revival of Learning, several tragedies, and a version of Aristotle’s Poetics,
among others - all of which he began but lacked force of will to continue. He soon hoarded his
means, doused, with most disastrous effects, into depraved excesses, and sowed the seed of
his untimely misfortune.

It was at this time, however, that he composed his matchless Odes - twelve in number -
which appeared on the 12th December 1746, dated 1747.”Ode to Evening,” is one among the
most enduring poems of William Collins. It is a beautiful poem of fifty-two lines, addressed to a
goddess figure representing evening. This nymph, or maid, who personifies dusk, is chaste,
reserved, and meek, in contrast to the bright-haired sun, a male figure who withdraws into his
tent, making way for night. Thus evening is presented as the transition between light and
darkness.

6.2 Characteristics of an Ode

There are many features of an ode, which extricate it from the other kinds of lyrics. The
author addresses a person or thing in the ode, which is usually a requisite quality of an ode.
Whenever we go through an ode, we feel that the poet is having a discussion with somebody or
maybe something. For example, in “Ode to Nightingale”, John Keats is addressing the
Nightingale. In “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the poet is speaking to a Grecian Urn. Hence, this
unique quality distinguishes it from other types of lyrical poetry.
46

Another fundamental characteristic of an ode is its earnest and stern tone. Each and
every ode is exceptionally a serious poem. There is absolutely no room for hilarity or trivial and
playful things. It is highly serious and solemn in its tone. For instance, every ode of John Keats
is an embodiment of earnestness in this regard. It does not have any component of frivolity.

In terms of style, the ode enjoys a remarkably awe-inspiring and grand style. Every ode is
composed in a remarkably grand style. No ode, in the history of English poetry, could possibly
be sketched out, which is not elevated in its style. Almost all odes of John Keats are best
examples in this particular aspect.

Another important feature of an ode is the fact that its theme is highly eminent. Its theme
is absolutely dignified, transcendent and eminent. Its theme bears wide-ranging implication. It
may not be limited simply to the personality of the poet, rather; it is widespread.

Catharsis of emotions is yet another essential characteristic of an ode. The poet wishes
to give vent to his emotions through his imagination in his ode. He really wants to leave the real
world and take shelter in the world of his imagination. Thus catharsis of emotion is an exclusive
feature of an ode.

Uniform metrical scheme is a salient feature of an ode. Poets really need to follow an
unfailing metrical scheme. Stanza in the ode has a hard and fast rhyme scheme, which the poet
pursues from start to the end of the ode. It must be kept in mind that the irregular odes do not
follow these rules.

6.3 “Ode to Evening” – A Summary

“Ode to Evening” is one of the finest poems of Collins in his collection Odes on Several
Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects. It is composed in a single stanza of fifty two lines with
unrhymed pattern. This beautiful poem is addressed to the evening that is regarded as the
goddess, nymph or maid. The personified evening is modest, bashful and gentle which is rightly
opposite to the characteristics of the bright sun.

This poem has three parts; the first one is the opening salutation to the evening; the
second one is the center where the poet requests for the guidance in receiving peace, and the
last one is his personal point of view to return to the general aspect.
 47

When the poem commences, the speaker affably requests to the spirit of Evening to
grant him the skill of singing so that he could please her. She is a charming part of nature that
sometimes looks like being in a pensive mood. She is also fond of the speaker’s song. The
bewitching nymphs in the evening that come from the buds of flowers bring redolence in the
uneventful evening environment. To make the environment more soothing, the speaker’s song
should be very soft like that of the murmur of the streams.

The only sound that the speaker listens to is that of the cry of the bat and the beetle. He
aspires to go to the ruined building in some lonely valley to watch the beauty of the evening, but
he is disturbed by the rain and the wind. So, he resolves to visit the mountainside to perceive
the diminishing evening. In the end, the speaker admits that the charm of the evening should
continue to bring peace and harmony and to inspire friendship and poetry among the lovers of
the peace.

The application of the femininity in describing the evening and identifying her is one of the
strengths of Collins. Words and phrases like ‘chaste Eve’, ‘fancy’, ‘rose-lipped’, ‘nymph reserved’,
and ‘maid composed’ are some of the exemplifications of the use of the femininity in the poem.
These traits to the evening add the concept of an eye-catching woman who is unsociable and
patient.

The poet has used the concept of the evening as a way to put his view on the woman as
an enigmatic figure, something obscure and also generous. The evening is the merging point
of the sunlight and the sunset, in a way, it is a transition from light to dark, day to night. Portraying
the negative side of the evening, the poet says, it figuratively hides all the faces of the daytime
whether good or bad. In its darkness, everything is the same and mysterious. It is the eve that
makes sure that the next day is certainly going to be bright and sunny. In that sense, evening is
the seed of the hope and life of the next day.

Collins personifies evening in this poem as ‘chaste Eve’ which is a Biblical allusion to Eve.
The comparison of the evening to the Biblical Eve is ambiguous. If the fallen and tarnished state
of Eve is associated to the evening, then the evening becomes something negative and cursed
state of the day when bright light of the sun is missed and set. But, if the innocence and purity
of Eve is taken into consideration, then that evening will mean a beautiful time of the day when
everything comes to the resting point with peace and harmony all around. The intention of the
poet is ambiguous in the poem.
48

This poem personifies the evening in rich, complex description. Compared to the Bible’s
‘Eve’ in line 2, we are given a wavering frame of reference for the subject – both as an object of
beauty and as something fallen and flawed. The poet dwells on evening’s ability to both reveal
and obscure, and sets up a contrast between its characterization as a pure, religious figure, and
a sensual, sexualized being. The final jubilant address extends this characterization of evening
to a reflection on women.

Evening is referred to as ‘chaste Eve’, bringing an immediate comparison with the Biblical
character. The ‘chasteness’ of Eve as a character is ambiguous, as Milton and others have
seen the Fall as a form of seduction, playing on Eve’s pride, something countered in the poem
by ‘modest’. We are therefore meant to see evening as ambivalent, whether the poet is trying
to cast off these prejudices or ironically enforce them. This allusion then informs our interpretation
of the personified sun, depicted here as male in the convention of describing Apollo the sun-
god. We could read this as Adam, Eve’s partner, who in the act of setting is being put aside,
separated off allowing us to place our focus solely on the evening or ‘Eve’.

Evening is also depicted as a Classical Muse, stimulating song in the poet which he
hopes will ‘suit’ her – both in the sense of reflecting evening’s peace and in the sense of being
pleasing to it. There is a pun in the epithet, ‘maid composed’, in that evening’s calm is described
as ‘composure’, but this figure also has been involved in ‘composing’ music as a muse. Perhaps
this figure is itself ‘made’ or ‘composed’, manufactured by the poet to stand in for something
else – the poem will go on to reveal that it is really reflecting on the nature of womankind and
not just the evening. Using ‘compose’ in its musical sense, the poet’s catchphrase to the Muse
proposes along with the poem’s title, a craving desire to praise or elevate the subject.

There is however a darker element to this image; the idea of ‘measures, stealing through
thy darkening vale’ suggests the sneaking of a pillager. We see the image of a beetle with
a ‘sullen horn’ as well: the ominous side of falling night. This image is moderately concealed
from us, introducing disquieting pointers like the ‘heedless’ ‘pilgrim’, suggesting defenselessness
and the lack of cognizance. Here the poet demonstrates evening’s ability to both reveal, as it
casts things in a new light and conjures ‘elves’ and ‘nymphs’, and its ambiguousness, by
deepening detail and hiding faces. The lines in which evening’s ‘elves’ emerge are imitative of
the lassitude and gradual change of twilight itself, with long drawn out composition extending
the sentence.
 49

The poem is full of spiritual imagery, used to accentuate the earmarked purity of evening’s
actions. Evening is apostrophized as a ‘calm vot’ress’, suggesting the word ‘devotion’ and the
idea of prayerful candles – we have an image of a praying woman reinforced by the reference
to a ‘dusky veil’, standing for both the physical darkness, muddling faces and a symbol of nun-
like transparency. Contrasted with this clam, reserved nature, we see the opulent vivacity
implanted in evening by the seasons. The description is sexualized in ‘breathing tresses’ and ‘lap
of leaves’, suddenly giving ‘evening’ features of flesh. The ‘sport’ of summer and
winter’s ‘rend[ing] of robes’ also seem to have sexual undertones. The contrasted views of
evening available in the poem match with the uncertain allusion to Eve as a Biblical character:
femininity as both pure and inaccessible, and as earthly and bodily.

The final lines accredit ‘Fancy, Friendship, Science and rose-lipped health’ to evening,
and here we have a clue that the poem also has a treatise on womankind and femininity itself.
These things would seem strange to ascribe to ‘evening’, but might better be a reflection of
womankind, with the idea of ‘gentlest influence’ especially sounding like a description of women
typical of this time. One could see the well-formed classiness of the poem’s form – two pentameter
lines alternating with two trimester lines – as another manifestation of femininity in the poem.
This poem uses femininity as a way of embodying and beautifully representing evening. But
perhaps more suggestively, it uses the idea of evening as a means of expressing the poet’s
views or women as paradoxical, enigmatic and life giving.

6.4 “Ode to Evening” – Critical Perspectives

Romantic poets showed an unease for external nature, and Wordsworth the revolutionary
romantic; himself can be exemplified as a ‘Worshipper of Nature’ (Tintern Abbey). It is Collins
who first serves the link between poetry and the surrounding. The very apparent theme of ”Ode
to Evening” is nature - nature as seen and enjoyed in the twilight of the imagination. If in ”Ode
to Simplicity” he only ‘seeks to find the temperate vate’, in “Ode to Evening” he would implore
the ‘calm votaress’ to lead him to a ‘sheety lake’. Further his nature, like those of the romantics,
and particularly like that of Shelley’s ”Ode to the West Wind”, is not a tame and domesticated
nature but rather a nature which can be wild, almost volcanic in its power:

“- - - - - - - - be mine the hut

That from the mountains side
Views wild and swelling floods - - - - - - -”
50

‘I am certain of nothing but - - - -the truth of the imagination’, wrote Keats, and indeed the
most distinguishing feature of the romantics is their spiraling imagination. Like Wordsworth, he,
too invests nature with ‘the light that never was on land or sea’, with an untouched and
supernatural quality which is rarely apparent to the imagination. Instead of looking at the sun as
merely a star, an ordinary source of light, he looks upon it as living and almost divine.

Another aspect of Collins’ imagination is his love for the medieval, specifically of medieval
misconceptions. Whereas the neoclassicists were chiefly concerned with the present or
contemporary reality and the daily circumstances in life, Collins would concern himself with
medieval folklore and fairy tale, with the genii and the giants of the imagination. He conjures up
a romantic and almost supernatural atmosphere where in the twilight the ‘elves/who slept during
the day’ are stirred by the starlight paralleling from the sky.

If the poems of the Augustan, in Arnold’s ironic phrase, were the ‘classics of prose’,
Collins’ poems are certainly noteworthy for their differing quality – lyricism. He abandoned the
mannered heroic couplets of Dryden and Pope for musical harmonies never achieved before.
Such was the effect of this lyricism that even Swinburne, one of the most lyrical poets ever
born, commented there was but one man who had in him a pure lyric song, a pulse of innate
music alluring, unquestionable, and Collins was that man’. Such lyricism is also entangled with
the sweet melancholy that so permeates Gray’s Elegy, and which was to be a persistent feature
of Shellyan romanticism. The ‘darkening vale’, the ‘pensive pleasure sweetest’, and the sorrow
of the poet at the sight of the ‘shrinking train’ of the evening in winter are all oppressed with
melancholy.

Even Collins failed to be a full-fledged romantic, he is in many ways more important than
numerous minor romantic poets by benefit of his being a pioneer’s pioneer. The observation of
Phelps does nothing but justice to the poem: “— - - its composition is interesting as showing in
what direction the mind of Collins was working, and that Romantic tastes were being generally,
secretly, cultivated.”

Allegorical poem

Collins slowly paradigms Evening as an allegorical figure with many attributes, and many
aural and visual characteristics. Collins piles up epithets; Eve is “chaste,” “reserved,” “composed,”
“calm,” “meekest”;her ear is “modest.”
 51

The figure of Eve so far is only a sketch, but her qualities add up to the idea of an
attractive, calm woman who is not restless or vehemently active.

According to the poet, Evening possesses “solemn springs” and “dying gales”. Daytime
activity gives way to calm as the wind literally often dies down in the evening. Some activity now
complements our picture of Eve. The gentle movements of water and the air confirm that her
figure is not an inert one.

Eve’s contrast with the daytime world is even more obvious when Collins compares her to
the setting sun. The blatant “bright-haired sun” sits majestically in his marquee of clouds, the
“skirts” or edges of which seem to be made of many-colored intertwined cloth. This wrath-like-
cloth arouses a picture of a vivid sunset; the sun is descending to its “wavy bed,” behind an
ocean or lake. The day is almost done, and the sun not at the height of vigor (he is in his tent),
but the inference is that he rests only after an active day.

After the sunset, at “twilight,” the world is not yet attuned to Eve’s mood. The air is quiet,
except for some annoying sounds: the bat’s “short shrill shrieks” and sound of the beetle’s
“small but sullen horn.” The bat’s weak eyes and “leathern wing” are not pleasant, nor are the
many beetles as they are borne up against the pilgrim on his quasi-religious journey. The beetles’
horns together can be characterized making a humming noise; in any case they are oblivious of
the displeasure they cause.

Up until now, Collins has simply been addressing Evening. The structural unit of the
opening of the poem is not completed until Line 15: “Now teach me.” The temperament of this
verb is not imperative, but prayerful. In the drama of the poem, the speaker is at first uncertain
of himself but gradually gains buoyancy. Evening has finally arrived: obscuring, still, amiable,
soothing, energetic, and cherished. The poet prays for Eve to teach him to write a poem which
praises her.

Collins begins to build up, not a literal picture of Evening, but a picture of the metaphorical
figure of Evening, serene of details which evoke more of her attributes. A processional vehicle
is being prepared for Eve, in which she can progress through the evening bounded by her
entourages. The picture Collins gives us of a ritualistic car would have been more acquainted to
his audience than to us. Her attendants add to her characterization. Her car is prepared by ‘the
Hours’ (goddesses who order the seasons and are given to adorn things), and accompanied by
vigorous elves who sleep in flowers, river goddesses festooned and shedding freshening dew,
52

and brooding pleasures. These are active and by-and-large beautiful figures, without being
lively or too stunning. They all aggrandize the figure of Eve, dexterously harmonizing her qualities:

active yet calm,

beautiful and cheerful yet chaste and reserved.

Collins then asks Evening to lead on as she progresses to this lovely day’s end. She
moves from the lowly hill, lighted now only by a reflection of a totally calm lake. Moving upward
where Evening can be seen for the last time, the light cheers an ancient building and a highland
field. Note that Eve is addressed a “vot’ress”; apparently like the poet she worships the spirit of
Evening.

Collins now expands on his definition. So far, his portrayal of Evening has been calm and
beautiful. But Collins’ Evening is not just gorgeous. She also comprises “chill blustering winds”
and “driving rain.” When he cannot walk about, the poet hopes to look out from a “hut” on a
mountainside, rather like the place from which many Claude scenes are viewed. He will see
wild backdrop and overflowing rivers, as well as the poem’s first traces of ordinary civilization:
“hamlets brown and dim-discovered spires.” Now night falls as Eve’s “dewy fingers draw / The
gradual dusky veil.”

Collins then takes Evening through the year. As before, some of the associations are not
pleasant. Spring is nicely associated with both water and the movement of air (showers and
“breathing tresses”), Summer with amusement and half-light. Autumn is less lovely (sallow),
but is lavish with leaves. Winter is horrid, “yelling through the troublous air and attacking Eve’s
train and even ripping her robes. Evening can be attacked and is susceptible, but she is not
defeated. Collin’s characterization leads us from the beautiful picture of the poem’s first 32 lines
to a picture of Evening’s strength to tolerate through good and bad. All in all, Collins has proficient
what he obviously set out to do—catch lovely time of day in all its ephemeral aspects.

From the beginning Collins has asked Evening to lead him on, to suffuse his heart and
mind with the ability to see her and write about her. The progress in the poem has not just been
the gradual recounting of Evening, but the gradual erudition of the poet about what Evening
is—from the early visions of shadowy beauty to the qualities that endure through bad weather.
These qualities have obvious human equivalents. In short, Evening becomes, not only a time of
day, but a state of mind that develops in the pilgrim/poet by envisaging and experiencing and
lettering about the literal evening. Literal evening is not just associated with but actually helps to
 53

be a basis for this wonderful calm, happy, introspective, intellectual, contented, uncluttered,
imaginative, compassionate state of mind, the state that feeds fancy (as in the writing of this
poem), Friendship, Science (that is knowledge and learning), and for that matter physical, and
by extension mental health. It is no surprise that these qualities sing a chant of praise to Evening—
a chant that is a sharp contrast to the shrieking of winter a few lines before. [21]

This poem moves forward and empowered by this state of mind, the poet also moves
forward. “Ode to Evening” is one of the masterpieces of Collins. Collins’ odes, not only opine
morals. They define their subject dramatically by building up a personified and vibrantly pictured
allegorical character. It is the best of the mid-century odes and provides a good bridge to the
great Romantic poets.

6.5 Glossary
 Ethereal- extremely delicate and light

 Shrill- high- pitched and piercing sound

 Shriek- an expression of terror and pain

 Circlet- a small circular arrangement

 Blustering- blowing fiercely and noisily

 Spires- a long tapering object

 Affright- frighten someone

 Sylvan- pleasantly rural or pastoral

6.6 Sample Analysis

1. Whose numbers stealing through thy dark’ning vale

There is however a murkier component to this image; the idea of ‘stealing through thy
darkening vale’ proposes the slinking of a marauder. We see the image of a beetle with a
‘sullen horn’ as well: the worrying side of falling night. This image is moderately concealed from
us, introducing disquieting pointers like the ‘heedless’ ‘pilgrim’, suggesting defenselessness
and lack of consciousness. Here the poet establishes evening’s ability to both reveal, as it casts
things in a new light and invokes ‘elves’ and ‘nymph’s, and obscure, by obscuring detail and
hiding faces.
54

2. Then lead, calm votress, where some sheety lake

The poem is full of spiritual imagery, used to accentuate the earmarked purity of evening’s
actions. Evening is apostrophized as a ‘calm vot’ress’, suggesting the word ‘devotion’ and the
idea of supplicatory candles – we have an image of a praying woman reinforced by the allusion
to a ‘dusky veil’, standing for both the physical darkness disguising faces and a symbol of nun-
like purity. Juxtaposed with this clam, reserved nature we see the sensuous vivacity implanted
in evening by the seasons.

6.7 Articles on the poem

1. Collins’s “Ode to Evening” and the Critics, Henry Pettit, Studies in English Literature,
1500-1900 Vol. 4, No. 3, Restoration and Eighteenth Century (Summer, 1964), pp.
361-369

2. A Poetry Of Invocation: A Study Of The Poems Of William Collins And Their Tradition
by Philip D. Marion

6.8 Web sources

1. https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/ode-to-evening-
summary-analysis.html

2. http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?textsid=34213

6.9 Sample Questions

1. How does Collins personify evening in this poem?

2. What are all the different imageries attached with the evening?

3. Can this poem be viewed as a transitional poem? Give reasons.

4. Examine Collins as a pre-romantic poet?

5. Enumerate the characteristics of ode in this poem?

6. Identify the feminity used in this poem?

7. Elaborate on the allegories used in this poem?

 55

UNIT - 4
ROMANTICS
LESSON - 7
ODE: "INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY
FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD”
- WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
7.1 William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April, 1770 in Cumberland, England. He was the
second of the five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. After his mother’s
death in 1778, Wordsworth joined Hawkshead Grammar School in Lancashire. He became
popular as a writer when his sonnet was published in The European Magazine. Wordsworth’s
earliest poetry was published in the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches in
1793. In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Along with him, Wordsworth published the most
important work in the romantic period, The Lyrical Ballads in 1798. The Preface of the second
edition of the Lyrical Ballads was the one that was most debated and studied. Wordsworth
published his only play The Borderers, a verse tragedy, in 1795-97. In 1802 Wordsworth married
his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. “Simon Lee”, “We are Seven”, “Lines Composed a Few
Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “The Prelude” are some of the works of Wordsworth. Through
all his works he contributed for the introduction and the growth of Romantic Movement in which
Coleridge was also a part. Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850. His work “The Prelude” was
published posthumously.

7.2 “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early

Childhood” – A Summary
Wordsworth explains how the memories of the immortal life are erased from memory as
man grows over the years. The poem begins with the poet’s description of how he found nature
astonishing earlier in his life. As he grows old, he is unable to appreciate the beauty of the
nature which he used to admire earlier. The first stanza explains how the poet is no longer able
to find things around him in ‘celestial light’. Whether it is day or night, he is no longer able to see
things that he saw earlier.
56

The second stanza focuses on the beauty of nature. The rainbow, the rose, the moon,
water and sunshine all have the glory in them. The rose is lovely, the moon decorates the sky
when it looks empty, the water looks magnificent in a starry night and the sunshine is always
considered as a glorious birth. The greatness of these natural elements no longer is a glory to
the poet and all these have become a past admiration for him. All these things seem to be
different and have something missing in them.

The third stanza begins with the description of the joyous birds and lambs. The birds
sing happily and the lambs play joyfully. But in spite of all the joy around him, the poet is unable
to feel the happiness and instead experiences deep grief. A single utterance pushes the grief
aside and the poet is able to be strong again. The sound of the waterfalls nearby from the
steeps, the echoes from the mountains, the voice of the wind from the fields cheer up the poet.
The entire earth is happy. The land and the seas join themselves in the ecstasy. Every Beast
celebrates with the heart of May, that is, spring. The poet calls forth the ‘Child of Joy’, the
Shepherd Boy, to surround him and shout around him in happiness.

The fourth stanza explains how the poet is joyful along with the children, that is, the
shepherd boys in the earth. He calls the children ‘blessed creatures’. The shout at each other
with joy and the heaven is also happy and laughs along with the boys. The poet says he is also
very happy along with the boys, his heart and head celebrates along with them and he is able to
feel to the fullest this bliss along with the children. The poet feels it is very wrong to be sullen in
a wonderful day of the season when the Earth is adorning itself. The May-morning is sweet and
the children are happy on all sides of the earth. The poet is able to hear the happy fresh flowers
in the valley and the child leaping in its mother’s arms. He is able to hear everything that is
flourishing with joy all around him. But suddenly he sees a tree that speaks of something that is
missing. The Pansy flower near the poet’s feet also tells the same tale. They question the
absence of the glorious gleam that the poet also feels amiss.

The fifth stanza explains how human beings are from heaven and they forget their life in
heaven as they grow up. Wordsworth says that man’s birth is just his sleep in his immortal life,
that is, in heaven. When our Soul comes from heaven, we do not forget everything and also at
the same time we do not come as a soul but as a human body. We come from God which is our
true home. As man grows up on the earth, worldly affairs begin to close upon him and slowly he
forgets his immortal life. The life in heaven fades away into the light of a common day in this
world.
 57

The sixth stanza details the ‘motherly’ qualities of the earth. The poet says that Earth
welcomes everyone and does her best to make humans forget their past from their original
home, that is, heaven. She provides humans of pleasures of her own, provides things that men
yearn and so on. She has a mother’s mind and does not have an unworthy aim behind all this.
The human beings become her foster children and she nurses them so that they forget the
glorious place from where they came.

The seventh stanza explains the life of a six year old child. The Child is showered with
kisses from his mother and is always watched by his father. The child has learnt the art of
imitation of the mortal world – he participates in weddings, festivals and funerals. This is at his
heart at that present moment but as years pass by he will take up different roles that he will play
during his life. The child will become a better ‘actor’ as years pass by. Everything in life is just an
imitation which will be taken up by the child also as he grows up.

In the eighth stanza the poet addresses the Child as a Philosopher and a Prophet. He
questions the Child on who has found the truth that every human tries to find in their lifetime.
Men search for this truth in the darkness of the grave. The poet questions the Child on why he
gets caught in the worldly life when he has the Immortal life hanging over him always. The
‘earthly freight’, that the Child wishes for, will always be a burden as heavy as a frost.

The ninth stanza explains that every human has a child within. The poet is at joy on
remembering his childhood. His childhood memories give him strength and always serve as a
link to his immortal life in heaven. The poet is thankful for his memories of childhood. The poet
had lost all his connections to his immortal life as he grew up. He lived a worldly life that made
all ties with his immortal life vanish. But he is thankful for the old memories; those shadowy
recollections that make him realize life and its truth. This truth can never be destroyed or abolished
by any man or boy; neither by enmity nor joy. No matter how much we move into the worldly
mortal life we will always have a sight of the ‘immortal sea’.

In the final stanza the poet calls forth the birds to sing the songs of joy. The lambs will be
bound in joy and the human beings will join the joyous occasion and will feel the gladness of the
season. The poet says he is unable to find the brightness that was earlier present but still he
decides to cherish and celebrate what remains at the present. Then the poet calls upon the
natural elements - fountains, brooks, hills and meadows. He says his heart celebrates to live
among this beautiful nature. The clouds keep watch over the mortal life on this earth and the
poet thanks for the human heart that is full of innocence and tenderness.
58

7.3 “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of

Early Childhood” – Critical Perceptions
Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” is
a poem that deals with the idea that human beings have this life on the earth while they sleep in
their immortal life in heaven. This is the Platonic myth of pre-existence. The poem gives an
insight into visible and invisible childhood in the life of every human being. Children are considered
as heavenly beings and are considered innocent and harmless according to Wordsworth.
Industrialization was happening and people started moving towards technology and had only
little faith in God. This poem is an attempt by Wordsworth to bring man closer to God. The poet
has used personification by attributing human qualities to natural elements. The Earth is called
‘Mother’ and is made feminine by the poet. Every human has a child within. Human beings as
children remember their past life in heaven but forget it as they grow. As they become old they
become children once more and look forward to their life in heaven after their death. The tone
of the poem is melancholic and shifts to a tone of celebration in the middle and again into a
melancholic one in the end. The poet contradicts his own thoughts and feelings throughout the
poem. The poet uses irregular rhythm and the stanza forms are complicated. The entire poem
gives a visual image to the readers.

7.4 Glossary
1. Celestial – Belonging to heaven

2. Tabor – a small drum

3. Cataract – waterfall

4. Pansy – a variety of viola flowers

5. Equipage – a carriage

7.5 Sample Analysis

1. The Rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare,
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
 59

The sunshine is a glorious birth;

But yet I know, where’er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

The figure of speech used in the given passage is personification. Rainbow, Rose, Moon
and Water are given a higher importance than its original nature. The poet uses this figure of
speech in order to add more effect to the natural elements so as to glorify them. The poet
explains the glories of the natural elements such as rainbow, rose, moon and water. The rainbow
visits the earth often. The rose is lovely. The moon takes care of the sky when it becomes empty
and the water looks lovely in the starry night. In spite of all the wonders around him, the poet
feels that something is amiss. He feels that all the glories of the world had become past.

2. Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;

Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something of a Mother’s mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can
To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.

Human beings truly belong to heaven. They live along with God in heaven and lead an
immortal life there. The lifetime of man on Earth is the time that they sleep in heaven. In this
lifetime on Earth, Earth takes care of men and considers them its foster children and provides
them with everything similar to the way in which a parent takes care of his/her child. Since the
Earth takes care of men during their lifetime on it, they are called Earth’s ‘Foster-child’ by the
poet. Earth fills itself with pleasures that humans yearn for. She takes care of men just like a
parent and provides them with things that they need. She nurses them when needed and thus
she makes them forget all the glories of the immortal life in heaven.

7.6 Articles on the poem

Pulos, C.E. “The Unity of Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode”. Studies in Romanticism 13.3
(1974): 179-188. Jstor
60

Mathison, John K. “Wordsworth’s Ode: ‘Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of

Early Childhood.’” Studies in Philology 46.3(1949): 419-439. Jstor.

7.7 Web Sources

https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/wordsworth/section3/

https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/ode-intimations-of-

immortality.html#.XNLzTY4zbIV

7.8 Sample Questions

1. “Life in the earth is nothing but only a sleep in the immortal realm”. Discuss.

2. Explain in detail how a child forgets its memory of its life in heaven.

3. Explain the visual imagery used in the poem.

4. Analyze the poem “”Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early

Childhood” in the light of Platonic myth of pre-existence.

5. Trace the life of Wordsworth as a Romantic poet.

6. Explain the common themes used by Wordsworth in his poems in general.

 61

LESSON - 8
“DEJECTION: AN ODE”
- S.T. COLERIDGE

8.1 S.T. Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on 21 October 1771, in Devonshire, England. He was
the youngest of the ten children that his father, Reverend John Coleridge, had out of two
marriages. In 1781, after his father’s death, he went to Christ’s Hospital School in London and
he became friends with Charles Lamb. In 1791 Coleridge entered Jesus College, University of
Cambridge and looked forward for a future in the Church of England. A year later he became a
supporter of William Frend. As a result, he started following the Unitarian beliefs which made
him a controversial figure. In 1794, Coleridge met Robert Southey and together they wrote the
play The Fall of Robespierre in the year 1795. In the same year, he became friends with William
Wordsworth who had greatly influenced Coleridge’s works. The next year he published his first
volume of poetry titled Poems on Various Subjects. Coleridge, along with William Wordsworth,
published the most famous work Lyrical Ballad in the year 1798. This was considered as the
most celebrated work of the Romantic School of Poetry. He became an opium addict in his later
years. “Kubla Khan”, “Rime of Ancient Mariner”, “Dejection: An Ode” and “Frost at Midnight” are
some of his famous poems. In 1817 he published his famous literary criticism Biographia Literaria.
He continued to write till his death in 1834.

8.2 “Dejection: An Ode” – A Summary

The epigraph of the poem foretells a storm coming. The poem begins with a mention of
the work from where the epigraph is quoted. The poet says that if the person who made the
ballad of Sir Patrick Spence was true, the weather that was calm at the present will not be the
same. The calm weather will be disturbed and the winds will rise high and turn into a storm. The
poet then describes the new- moon from the epigraph. The new-moon is bright and it has light
all around it. The poet then feels the old-moon foretelling the storm which becomes true. The
wind rises and the rain arrives loud and fast. This sound that made the poet look upon the
greatness of nature with awe and that which lifted his spirits earlier might now invoke the pain
that is within him. He is positive that the sound of the storm will bring out the dull pain that is
within him and make it grow and live.
62

The second section of the poem explains how the poet is helpless on realizing that he
has lost his creativity. The grief that he is experiencing does not give him a pang but is stifled
and drowsy that stays within him. There is no sigh or a tear to let go of this grief and hence it
lives within the poet. The poet then says how he has been gazing at the western sky and
describes it. The evening is serene and the western sky has a peculiar tint of yellow green that
makes it very beautiful. In spite of the beautiful sky, the eyes of the poet remain blind and he is
unable to feel its beauty. He is able to see the thin clouds and its movements. The stars remain
behind the moving clouds and is sparkling once and becomes dull the next. The moon is so
magnificent in the starless and the cloudless sky. The poet is able to see all this beauty but is
sad that he is unable to feel it.

In the third section, the poet explains that he is unable to lift the weight in his heart that
was caused because of his never lifting spirit. Gazing continuously at the green light in the west
and working hard to bring his creativity back to form, he is in vain because there is no passion
within him and his heart is empty.

The fourth section explains how every human receives what he gives. In every person’s
life, Nature lives and the person become its heart and soul. Only if the inner soul of humans are
sweet and are filled with light, nature will reflect it. The world is inanimate and cold. The light
and joy that issues from one’s soul will envelop the earth and reflect the light and joy in it.

In the fifth section, the poet addresses his heart. He says the heart need not ask about
the music that is in one’s soul. The heart need not ask about the light and glory and the beauty
making power in the soul. The poet says there is joy which was never given. He wants to save
the joy in its purest hour because it will lead to the creation of a new earth and new heaven.
There will neither be pride nor any other form of negative feelings but only joy which is very
sweet. Human beings experience the joy that fills their eyes and ears. Everything is made into
a melody and everything is colourful because the joy that they experience is reflected in all the
things that they see. What is given is always received in the end.

In the sixth section, the poet explains how he had hopes even when he had misfortunes.
There was a time when the poet’s life had distresses but there was joy within him. He had
hopes that grew within him like vine and fruits. The hope seemed to be within him but it was
actually not his own. Fancy in his mind made dreams of happiness when in truth it was absent.
At present, the poet is bowed down with sadness and he does not care that his happiness is
robbed. With each visitation his creative knowledge is slipping away from him. His spirit of
 63

imagination, which he acquired by birth, is slowly leaving him. He has no option but to be patient
and wait for it to return. The imagination which was his only resource is now almost gone from
his soul.

In the seventh section, the poet calls reality’s dreams as viper thoughts that coil around
his mind. He says he will listen to the wind and its ‘scream of agony’. All this time, the scream of
the wind, which the poet considers as the music from a lute, was unnoticed. The mountain, the
tree and the lonely house are fitter subjects for the lutanist to play. The storm is very powerful in
such a way that men groan with wounds, pain and cold. Then there is complete silence and the
scream of the storm has stopped. The sound similar to a rushing crowd, the groans of men and
all the shuddering have stopped. The silence now tells another tale that has delight and that
which is tender. The tale is about a little child who has lost her way, not far from home. The child
moans in grief and fear and then screams loud with the hope that her mother will hear her.

The final section of the poem wishes everlasting joy to the poet’s Lady. It is midnight but
the poet does not have thoughts to sleep. He requests Sleep to visit his Lady with its wings of
healing. He wishes for the storm to be a mountain-berth and the stars to hang above the place
she lives in. He wishes for her to wake-up with a light heart, a happy fancy and cheerful eyes
the next day. He wishes joy to lift her spirit and to make all things alive. He wishes only joy for
his Lady forever more.

8.3 “Dejection an Ode” – Critical Perceptions

The poem “Dejection: An Ode” by S. T. Coleridge is partly autobiographical. It is addressed
to his lady love, Sara Hutchinson and is actually a verse letter. The poem expresses the poet’s
dejection on losing his lady love. It is a lengthy record of personal woes in connection to his
marriage life. The poet is also feeling sad and dejected as his imaginative power is declining.
As a result of this dejection, there is a storm within the poet. He portrays this inner storm as the
storm that is taking place outside. The storm here becomes a metaphor that is used effectively
by the poet in order to add effect of reality and pain to his experiences. He is able to give a form
and pace to the pain that he is experiencing because of the loss of his lady love and also his
poetic ability. The poem progresses through three Romantic metaphors - i) nature as lutanist; ii)
nature as actor; iii) nature as poet. The poet introduces these metaphors but does not use it to
the whole. He uses ‘lutanist’ and ‘actor’ and then skips them without any additional information
about them. Finally the poet uses the metaphor of nature and blends the other two metaphors
64

in it, resulting in the eddy metaphor. Eddy metaphor is a creative uniqueness of Coleridge, in
which he creates a blend of all the other metaphors that he has used. This eddy metaphor
makes the nature to act according to the poet’s thoughts in the poem.

8.4 Glossary
1. bard – poet

2. tranquil – calm

3. yonder – distant

4. inanimate – cloth that covers

5. luminous – bright

6. afflictions – grief

7. viper – venomous snake

8.5 Sample Analysis

1. But oh! each visitation
Suspends what nature gave me at my birth,
My shaping spirit of Imagination.
For not to think of what I needs must feel,
But to be still and patient, all I can;
And haply by abstruse research to steal
From my own nature all the natural man—
This was my sole resource, my only plan:
Till that which suits a part infects the whole,
And now is almost grown the habit of my soul.

The poet is sad that all his poetic ability, that was present in him by birth, is vanishing from
him. He is able to see everything around him and be happy but he is not able to feel anything.
Only feeling the beauty will give one his creative power and since he is unable to do that all his
imaginative powers are diminishing. He does not have any ways to regain it but to only wait in
patience so that it will come back to him. The imaginative power of the poet is his ‘sole resource’.
The poetic ability that the poet owns from the time of his birth is the only treasure he possesses.
This ‘sole resource’ is slowly diminishing from the poet and the only way to get it back is to wait
patiently. The poet is helpless and he has no option but to wait for his creative power to return.
 65

2. And may this storm be but a mountain-birth,

May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling,
Silent as though they watched the sleeping Earth!
With light heart may she rise,
Gay fancy, cheerful eyes,
Joy lift her spirit, joy attune her voice;
To her may all things live, from pole to pole,
Their life the eddying of her living soul!

The poet is unable to sleep. But he wishes for his lady love to sleep without any disturbance
so that she is happy. He wishes for Sleep to visit her so that her spirits are lifted the next day
and her spirit is filled with everlasting joy and happiness. The poet wishes his lady love to be
happy forever. He wishes for her to sleep and be blessed with joy. The next day when she rises
up he wants her to feel light and cheerful. He wants her spirits to be lifted and does not want her
to be gloomy. He wishes that his feeling of dejection should not be experienced by his lady love.

8.6 Articles on the poem

Benthall, R.A. “New Moons, Old Ballads and Prophetic Dialogues in Coleridge’s “Dejection:
An Ode.” Studies in Romanticism 37.4 (1998): 591-614. Jstor.

Broughton, Panthea Reid. “The Modifying Metaphor in Dejetion: An Ode”. The Wordsworth
Circle 4.4(1973):241-249. Jstor.

8.7 Web Sources

https://www.gradesaver.com/coleridges-poems/study-guide/summary-dejection-an-ode-
1802

https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/coleridge/section6/page/2/

8.8 Sample Questions

1. Explain the poet’s feelings that is expressed through the poem.

2. Explain the metaphors used in the poem.

3. Explain the autobiographical element in the poem “Dejection: An Ode” by Coleridge.

66

4. “Eddying is one of Coleridge’s greatest imaginative triumphs”. Discuss with reference

to the poem “Dejection: An Ode”.

5. Trace S. T. Coleridge’s role in the Romantic Movement.

6. What are the major themes found in Coleridge’s work? Explain with examples.
 67

LESSON - 9
“ODE TO A SKYLARK”
- PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

9.1 Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792, into a conservative family. A rebel
against social and moral institutions and customs, he was sent out from Oxford University for
trying to propagate atheism. He married Harriet Westbrook in 1811 from whom he soon became
estranged. He then eloped with Mary Godwin, whom he married in Italy after Harriet drowned
herself in 1816. He lived in Italy in mingled joy and agony for the rest of his short life. He was
drowned along with this friend Edward Williams in 1821, when their boat was caught up in a
sudden squall. His body was washed ashore ten days later.

One of Shelley’s greatest gifts as a poet was his ability to write songs and lyrics. Not all
poets are thus gifted, though most often poetry expresses the intense emotion of the poet. In
their ecstasy, Shelley’s lyrics exceed even the songs and sonnets of the Renaissance and
Elizabethan poets. The exaltation; that he reached depended almost wholly on the intensity of
his emotional experience. Among the ancient Greek writers was a poetess called Sappho, who
was famous for this type of poetry. Sappho’s poetry is the nearest to Shelley’s lyrical strains.
The Ode to a Skylark is a lyric of this type – an expression of the exaltation and happiness that
Shelley experienced in watching and hearing the song of the skylark.

9.2 “The Ode to a Skylark” - A Summary

Shelley begins his poem by postulating that the skylark is a blithe spirit, not just the
symbol of an idealized spirit. The poet thus seems to reject the material part of the bird, and
concentrate on its spirit. Because it is a spirit, it pours out its full heart in ecstatic song from
heaven itself, as evident from the ethereal quality of joy in its song. In the second stanza, the
movement of the bird (spirit) from earth to heaven is stressed – ‘from the earth thou springest/
like a cloud of fire.’ While earth and water are material elements, fire and air are ethereal
elements, and the flame leaping upward is again an image of aspiration. ‘Cloud of fire’ also has
biblical echoes, for God led the Israelites when they were wandering in Sinai by a pillar of cloud
by day, and a pillar of fire by night.
68

The last line, “And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest” gives us the relation
between the song of the skylark and its flight. The song raises it to ecstasy on the one hand and
because of the ecstasy it soars higher still. This reminds us of some of our Indian saints who by
their devotional songs were able to reach to ecstatic union with the divine.

Just as a star is invisible during the day, the bird cannot be seen under the radiance of the
sun, yet we know that it is there. In the seventh stanza, the poet feels that there is nothing like
the song of the bird. Even he drops of water which flow from the rainbow clouds are not so
lovely as the shower of sweet music that flows from the skylark. This section of the poem goes
on to probe what exactly is the effect of the bird’s song on the world. Shelly considers this effect
as a creative influence bringing solace and hope to mankind. The poet uses a number of
similes and metaphors, which will give the equivalent of the effect which the song of the bird
has on himself, and hence on the world.

Next, the skylark is compared to a princess confined in a lonely tower. Like the nightingale,
she too sings for her own comfort, but her song soothes not only herself but all around. The
poet does not use the hackneyed image of the lighthouse sending out light – Shelley’s tower
sends out soulful music. The next stanza reveals Shelley’s close observation of nature. The
bird is compared to a glow-worm. It is hidden by the flowers and the grass, but the light it
flashes casts a glow upon the surroundings and reveals its presence.

Having used music and light, Shelley now turns to scent – the scent of the rose hidden by
the leaves around, but making its presence felt through the perfumed air spreading from it. The
ultimate effect of the skylark’s song is to bring joy and hope to mankind. This section ends with
an appeal to the bird to teach mankind its sweet thoughts that can inspire such a flood of
rapture, as we find in its ecstatic song. The joy, hope and comfort which men may derive from
the bird’s song, depend on their being able to interpret the song aright.

He contrasts the inner life of the bird and the mind and heart of man. No earthly or human
music can match the rapture of the song of the skylark. He therefore declares that no marriage
song, or hymeneal chant or triumphal song sung after a victory in battle, can be matched with
the ecstasy of the skylark’s song. There is some hidden lack even in the purest of human joys.
In the next stanza, the poet speculates on the bird’s secret source of inspiration. The song of
the bird has known no pain at all. Perhaps it is singing about some lovely fields, or oceans, or
mountains, or about its own species. It must be remembered that Shelley suffered different
kinds of pain in his life – physical, mental and spiritual. That is why the ecstasy of the bird
 69

fascinated him.

He points out that human beings experience the joy of love as well as the sense of
sadness that follow mere infatuation or inordinate passion. But the skylark’s song expresses a
love that never satiates but only delights. He poet thinks that men being mortal, have no definite
knowledge of the mystery of death. But the bird must have surer knowledge of it. Otherwise, it
cannot sing so happily and continuously. The poet implies that the skylark is a spirit and hence
immortal.

In the next stanza he says that even if we get rid of our hatred, fear and pride which are
the causes of our misery, we cannot hope to experience the perfect happiness of the skylark.
The gift of unalloyed happiness is better that all the treasures of the material world. The skylark’s
skill in singing would be a better guide to poets than all the delightful rhythms of music and the
vast store of knowledge found in books. He therefore wants to learn the secret of its skill. He
believes that there is a wisdom that could be learnt from nature. If the poet could absorb and
express the happiness that is expressed in the song of the bird, the world would listen to him,
just as all nature is listening to the caroling of the skylark in the sky. He, therefore, requests the
bird to teach him its gift of the power to charm the world. He ends the poem with a note of
skylark as a symbol of the ‘ideal poet’.

9.3 “Ode To Skylark” - Critical Perspectives

Shelley compares the bird to a poet who is hidden in thoughts but whose influence is
universal. This concept is presented in Shelley’s Defence of Poetry also. He says, “A poet is a
nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his
auditors are men entranced by the melody of the unseen musician, who feel that they are
moved and softened, yet know not whence or why...” Shelley felt that music and poetry influenced
the hearers without their being conscious of being influenced. One of the reasons for his own
enchantment on hearing the song of the skylark is this similarity between himself and the bird.
The similarity of their function is striking and real to him. The use of the word, ‘hymns’, gives a
religious tinge to the function of both the poet and the bird.

The poet stresses on the point that we think of the past and the future and grieve for what
has been lost or long for what is yet to be achieved. Our most genuine laughter has a touch of
pain or sorrow and hence our happiness is never perfect.
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‘Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.’ This is the most famous line
in the poem. Even the sweetest of our songs express the sad story of our disillusionment. The
skylark’s skill in singing would be a better guide to poets than all the delightful rhythms of music
and the vast store of knowledge found in books. He therefore wants to learn the secret of its
skill. The romantic poets were sure that there was a wisdom that could be learnt from nature. If
the poet could absorb and express the happiness that is expressed in the song of the bird, the
world would listen to him, just as all nature is listening to the caroling of the skylark in the sky.
Shelly was disappointed with the reception given to his poems. On 12th July 1820 he wrote to
his friend Peacock, “I wonder why I write verses, for nobody reads them.” He, therefore, requests
the bird to teach him its gift of the power to charm the world. He has assigned two functions to
a poet – that of a bard and a prophet. He considers the skylark as a symbol of the ideal poet.

9.4 Glossary
Blithe: Cheerful

Silver sphere: Moon

Vernal showers: Spring rains

Triumphant chant: Song celebrating victory

Unpremeditated: Spontaneous

9.5 Sample Analysis

1. Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

The poet addresses the skylark with reverence. He hails the bird and calls it a blithe
spirit. It means a joyful or cheerful spirit. The bird becomes the symbol of the ideal poet and
asks him to teach. Initially the sound of the bird is praised by the poet. He calls the sound of the
bird as it pours from the heart of the bird which is like pouring from the heaven.
 71

2. Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.

The poet believes that there is a wisdom that could be learnt from nature. If the poet could
absorb and express the happiness that is expressed in the song of the bird, the world would
listen to him, just as all nature is listening to the caroling of the skylark in the sky. He, therefore,
requests the bird to teach him its gift of the power to charm the world. He ends the poem with
skylark as a symbol of the ‘ideal poet’.

9.6 Articles on the Poem

1. “Some Hidden Want: Aspiration in ‘To a Sky-Lark’” - William A. Ulmer (Studies in
Romanticism Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 1984), pp. 245-258)

2. “The Sources, Symbolism, and Unity of Shelley’s ‘Skylark’”- Stewart C. Wilcox

(Studies in Philology Vol. 46, No. 4 (Oct., 1949), pp. 560-576)

9.7 Web Sources

http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol20-issue3/Version-3/Q02033124137.pdf

9.8 Sample Questions

1. Trace the development of thought in the poem To a Skylark.

2. Why the bird is called the ideal poet?

3. Critically analyse the poem ‘To a Skylark’.

4. Write an essay on Shelley and his odes.

5. Explain the influence of romanticism and nature in Shelley.

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LESSON - 10
“ODE ON A GRECIAN URN”
- JOHN KEATS

10.1 Ode
Ode is a popular form of poetry and it is of Greek origin. The word “ode” is derived from
the Greek word ‘Oide”. It is a lyric poem of some length, serious in subject and dignified in style,
expressing an exalted or dignified emotion, especially one of complex or irregular metrical
form. It is usually more elaborate and longer than the pure lyric. There are three major types of
odes. They are the Dorian or Pindaric Ode, the Lesbian or Horatian Ode and the English Ode.
The English Ode is called the irregular ode because it doesn’t follow the structure either of
Pindaric or Horatian. The irregular ode became popular during the Romantic period. M. H.
Abrams says, “Romantic poets perfected the personal ode of description and passionate
meditation which is stimulated by an aspect of the outer scene and turns on the attempt to solve
either a private problem or generally human one such as Wordsworth’s Intimation Ode Coleridge’s
Dejection: An Ode, Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind.”

Characteristics of the Ode

1. It is exalted in subject matter and dignified in language, tone and style.

2. It is longer that the true epic. The emotion it embodies is of a kind that admits of
development.

3. The structure may be regular or irregular.

4. The ode may suggest its choral origin, or it may be personal and subjective.

5. The ode is often addressed directly to the being or the object it treats of.

10.2 JOHN KEATS

John Keats is considered to be the most typical representative of the romantic age. Son
of a stable keeper, he was born in 1795 in London. He was educated in school at Enfield, run by
John Clarks. Here Keats became friendly with the headmaster’s son, Charles Cowden Clarks,
the Shakespearean scholar. This acquaintance encouraged and deepened the literary tastes of
the young Keats. Though he completed a diploma course in medicine, his chief interest lay in
poetry.
 73

His first volume of poems appeared in 1817, followed by Endymion in 1818. Both were
not received with much enthusiasm. The early loss of his parents and his brother, a frustrated
love affair and failing health made Keats’ life miserable. He suffered from Tuberculosis, brought
on by a walking tour which he undertook in 1818. During the final stages of the dreaded disease,
he moved to Italy for a better climate. He died in 1821 having produced some of the best works
of the Romantic age. We have Endymion, “Isabella”, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, “Hyperion” and
the great odes, all produced within the short span of five years.

In the richness of imagination and beauty of thought, the poems of John Keats have
hardly been surpassed. In their sensuousness and richness of diction, his poems surprise us by
a fine excess. He has indeed loaded every word with maximum beauty and meaning. He drew
his inspiration from ancient Greek art and culture, and from medieval romance with its colour
and magic mystery. He is a poet of beauty and the senses. As Mathew Arnold said, “He is with
Shakespeare”. Though his output is considerably less than that of say, Wordsworth, what he
has left us is as immortal as the plays of Shakespeare.

10.3 “Ode On A Grecian Urn” - A Summary

The poet addresses the readers and opens the poem directly by calling the Urn as an
‘unravish’d bride of quietness’ waiting for appreciation and thereby for fulfillment. It remains
perpetually fresh and pure, unspoiled by the ravages of time. On the urn are figures of men and
women surrounded by trees and flowers. Hence the urn is a historian who has recorded a
glimpse of pastoral life with woodland scenes. A pattern of leaves forms a border of the urn so
leaf fringed. Keats wonders whether the figures on the urn represent mortals or deities, or both.
Tempe and Arcady are beautiful places in Greece, sacred to Apollo the God of poetry and
music. The men are engaged in a mad pursuit of maidens who are struggling to escape from
them. Another scene depicts music and dancing in ecstasy. The questions posed by the poet
and which are answered in the next stanza appear to be simple but are philosophical and
aesthetic.

The second stanza begins with a bold statement, ‘Heard melodies are sweet but those
unheard are sweeter’. The melodies that we hear in real life may be sweet. But the music
depicted on the urn is unheard, it can be heard only in our imagination. Hence it is sweeter. This
is the first message of the urn. Things in real life are transitory and short lived, art bestows
immortality on things. The fair youth playing on his pipe under the trees will be fair and young
74

forever the trees will never be bare. And the bold lover about to kiss his beloved, need not
grieve that he cannot kiss her for she will be young forever and he can lover her always. How
great art is! His own experience has taught him that love and beauty cannot last long in real life.

In the third stanza he delights in the ecstasy which he finds in art. Spring will never desert
the trees on the urn. The lovers too are very lucky because they can ne young forever. Human
love in this world, though it may be enjoyed in a physical sense, brings with it sorrow and satiety.
Worry and anxiety only lead to burning head and a parching tongue. The repetition of the word
‘happy’ stresses the unchanging continuity of the blissful state. The fourth stanza seems to look
before and after. He turns the urn and looks at another scene carved on the other side. This
scene takes him back to the beauty and piety of life in the golden age of the past. That life for
him was representative of a time when the experience of the spirit was not divorced from the
common experience of life, and pieties seemed to nourish human life with beauty and ritual. It
was therefore a more complete world that the modern one – a world in which men lived in the
spirit as well as in the flesh and beauty of thought and action bound both these planes of life into
a single unity.

He sees on the urn the picture of a procession taking a heifer for a woodland sacrifice,
like the one he had described in Endymion. You should notice that in the picture as he saw it,
there was no green altar. He visualized it as the destination of the procession, thereby looking
before and foreseeing a conclusion that is but implied. The second half of the stanza is a
corollary of the first. He imagines that some little town, from which the procession has left, will
remain desolate forever. He postulates that since the movement of the procession has been
frozen into the world of permanence the people moving will not reach their destination on the
one hand. Neither will they return to their town on the other hand. They have thus entered a
world of eternity. The peace and beauty and the rural piety of their life, is the message they
have left for posterity, and the truth they represent.

In the final stanza he moves on to what he deduces is the leaf fringed legend – the
ultimate message of the urn. By looking intensely at the urn, the poet has meditated on Time
and Eternity life and Art, Beauty and Truth and sought the relationship between them. The silent
urn has given him an insight into the mystery of life itself. The urn has brought to our spirits, an
awareness of dimensions other that those that prevail in our earthly life – dimensions of the
eternal world. Beauty and Truth are two of those dimension, which in the presence of the
eternal, partake of the same being and nature; that is in the eternal world, beauty and truth are
 75

one and the same reality. This is the urn’s message to future generations of men. What the
imagination sees as Beauty must be the truth. In the midst of all our sufferings the urn a thing
of beauty will remain our true friend.

10.4 “Ode on a Grecian Urn” – Critical Perspectives

The finest poetry that Keats has left us is to be found in the Odes, most of which were
written in the year 1819, when the shadow of death was already on him. We feel that if Keats
had left no other work these would have been enough to make him immortal and place him
beside Shakespeare. Ode on a Grecian Urn depicts the relationship between art and life. The
meaning of art in life is depicted. His acquaintance with the Elgin Marbles and familiarity with a
number of beautifully carved Grecian urns inspired this famous ode. The artistic excellence of
what he saw enraptured him and made him believe that art has an immortality not granted to life
itself.

In the ode where the subject is obviously classical, the poet does not hesitate to bring in
the magic of romance. The picture of the imaginary little town, the preparations for the sacrifice,
and the undying passion of the lover carved on the urn—all these suggest the world of medieval
romance rather that the classic beauty of Greek art. There was perfection and discipline in
Greek art and culture, but this alone could not satisfy Keats who was ever hungry for sensation
the world of medieval romance could transport him with joy. He skillfully fused together the
beauty of form and colour which constituted the chief charm of Greek art and the sensuousness
of medieval romance.

The poem has an amazing pictorial quality. The subject itself suggests a number of vivid
images. All the bustles and activities of a busy Greek town is brought to us in a few glowing
verbal pictures. We see young men making love, maidens trying to escape from them; we hear
pipes and timbrels played, altogether a picture of youth and joy. A priest gets ready for a sacrifice
and a heifer is being led to the altar. All these pictures serve to bring home to the poet the truth
that art confers immortality on beauty which is denied to it in real life.

The most amazing thing to be noticed about the pictorial quality of the poem is that he
achieved the desired effect with the fewest words possible. He never believed in elaborate
descriptions. He knew that a picture often suffered by the crowding in of hazy and irrelevant
details. It was his practice, therefore to use just a phrase or tow to light up an entire scene. We
should not forget however the all the colour and intricate details which we associate with great
76

masterpieces of art are to be found in his poems. Only they are achieved without a waste of
words.

10.5 Glossary
heifer: a young cow which has not had a calf

attic: a room or space in the top of a house

flanks: sides

woe: distress

ditty: song

10.6 Sample Analysis

1. Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme

The poet addresses praises the beauty of the urn to the readers. He personifies the urn
as a pure bride of quietness. His personification extends when he says that the urn is a foster
child of silence and time. He also calls the urn as a historian. Through the paintings and carvings
on the urn the urn tries to capture and records the history of some events happened in the past.

2. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

While depicting another scene in the urn the poet talks about a man who is playing pipe
under the tree. He is sitting in under a tree with a good atmosphere and plays the pipe. Here the
poet gives a daring statement by saying that the unheard melody from the pipe is sweeter that
the heard melodies.

10.7 Articles on the Poem

1. Keats’s Grecian Urn and the Singular “Ye” - Martin Halpern (College English Vol.
24, No. 4 (Jan., 1963), pp. 284-288)

2. The “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” or Content vs. Metagrammar - Leo Spitzer (Comparative
Literature Vol. 7, No. 3 (Summer, 1955), pp. 203-225)
 77

10.8 Web Sources

https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume15/3-John-Keatss-Sensuous-Imagery.pdf

10.9 Sample Questions

1. How does Keats combine his fascination for Greek art and medieval romance in his
Ode on a Grecian Urn?

2. Discuss Keats as a poet of the senses.

3. Critically analyse the Ode on a Grecian Urn.

4. ‘Keats’ poetry embodies and interprets the conflicts of mortality and desire.’ To what
extent do you agree with this view?

5. Write about the variety of ways that Keats’ poems allow his readers to experience
the world of nature.
78

UNIT - 5
VICTORIANS
LESSON - 11
“FRA LIPPO LIPPI”
- ROBERT BROWNING

11.1 Dramatic Monologue

A Dramatic Monologue is also called a persona poem. It is like a theatrical monologue.
There is an audience in the poem who is an active listener but never speaks, there is no
dialogue and the poet speaks through an assumed voice - may be a character, a fictional
character, or a persona. A dramatic monologue is one person’s speech and it is offered without
analysis, emphasis on subjective qualities that are left to the audience to interpret. In short, it is
a poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader.
Examples: Robert Browning’s ”My Last Duchess” and T.S. Eliot’s ”The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock”

11.2 Robert Browning

Robert Browning, (1812 - 1889), was born at Camberwell. He is an important English
poet of the Victorian age, noted for his mastery of the dramatic monologue form. He was a son
of a clerk in the Bank of England in London. He received only a slight formal education, although
his father gave him a grounding in Greek and Latin. In 1828 he attended classes at the University
of London but left after half a session. Apart from a journey to St. Petersburg in 1834 with
George de Benkhausen, the Russian Consul General, and two short visits to Italy in 1838 and
1844, he lived with his parents in London until 1846, first at Camberwell and after 1840 at
Hatcham. During this period (1832–46) he wrote his early long poems and most of his plays.

The volumes of verse by which Browning is best known are Bells and Pomegranates,
Men and Women and Dramatis Personae. The Ring and the Book is a long poem in four
volumes in which the story of a famous murder trial in Italy is retold from ten points of view. The
best known poems in the other volumes include: “Evelyn Hope” , “Porphyria’s Lover”, “My Last
Duchess”, “Lost Leader” and “The Bishop Orders His Tomb” in Bells and Pomegranates, “Fra
 79

Lippo Lippi”, “Andrea del Sarto”, “The Last Ride Together” and “One Word More in Men and
Women”, “Abt Vogler”, “Rabbi Ben Ezra” and “Prospice” in Dramatis Personae.

While staying in Venice in 1889, Browning caught cold, became seriously ill, and died on
December 12. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

11.3 “Fra Lippo Lippi” – A Summary

This poem is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker/persona justifies actions and
thereby his innocence. In the beginning of the poem the speaker, Fra Lippo Lippi, is caught by
a group of guards for wandering near a brothel area. He introduces himself as a monk. He
wants to prove his innocence and he stops the guards from arresting him. He also accuses the
guards that they are over ambitious in arresting a monk. He reveals his acquaintance with
“Cosimo of the Medici” and escapes from being arrested. He addresses the head of the band of
guards and insults them sarcastically. To an extent he calls the men who arrested him as ‘Judas’.

After such words from the monk, the police men cut a sorry figure but the monk says that
he is not angry with their action. This is understood by the words of the monk, “Just such a face!
Why, sir, you make amends. Lord, I’m not angry!” Now the monk also introduces himself as a
painter. This is identified when he tells a guard that his face is suitable to be a model for drawing
a portrait of John. But he also steps down by saying that there is no chalk to draw then. By
announcing himself as a painter he paves his own way to narrate his autobiography.

The monk elaborates his life and he feels it is right and comfortable for him to share it with
the guards. He says that he has been working in a closed atmosphere and painting portraits of
saints. He emphasizes on the word ‘saints’ again and again which shows the monotony of his
work. At one point of time, he listens to the sound of a group of people walking on the road in a
festive mode. Since he is bored by his monotonous work, he wants to join the group of men so
he gets down with the help of cloths as ladder. He walks with them till they reach the Saint
Lawrence Church, enjoys his ‘outing’ and returns. He wishes to reach home soon and take rest
as he wants to work on a painting of Jerome the next day. It is then he has been caught by the
guards.

One of the guards shakes his head expressing a sign of doubt for the monk’s story. The
monk does not mind it but he continues to tell his story. The guards are not entertained by the
story but they let the monk continue with the story. As the monk speaks, he goes back to his
80

childhood which is a bitter past. Both his mother and father had died when he was a small child
and he had starved for one or two years. He had fed on whatever he got. The cold wind had
punished him cruelly. Later the monk had been taken care of by his aunt Lappacia partially. One
fine day, he walks along the wall of the convent where he gets his first bread of that month. A
good fat father asks him whether he can renounce all the external wealth and world and take up
the monk-hood. The eight year old small boy accepts as he comes under the notion that he will
never starve if he takes up religious orders. He lives peacefully for a period of time but that does
not last forever.

The other monks try to bring out something from him, so they teach him Latin. He is not
much interested in that and is unable to cope up with Latin lessons except few words like “amo”.
Now his narration again turns back to the past. He tells the listener that life in the convent is
much better than being a boy on the road. The latter’s life is much miserable and insecure. One
cannot guess what is going to happen to him if he is on the road. Both dogs and humans can
equally cause problems. These miserable times serve as a learning period for the monk at a
very young age.

With the help of such experiences, he draws different pictures and it is liked by the majority
in general, but the seniors like the Prior do not like his painting. They intend to teach him
something else in painting and intend to exploit him in order to develop the church. Later on he
has mastered his skill in painting. He draws all types of monks in the church and also characters
from the stories said in the church. He hangs all his paintings on the walls and all the other
monks accept and appreciate his realistic painting. But the Prior does not favour the concept of
realism in his paintings. The Prior tries to find fault with the painting and comments on it, but he
is unable to explain his criticism. He generally puts forth that an artist must elevate the human
from the real to supernatural and not put him in the same state. He is also upset with the
painting of his niece whose breasts are exposed. He asks the monk to follow the footsteps of
Giotto, a saint and a painter who has drawn Godly paintings alone.

The monk is very much upset with the attitude of the Prior, who tries to destroy his painting
skills in particular and his realistic paintings in general. He argues with the Prior saying that he
took up the monk-hood at the age of eight when he had no choice so he had others as his
masters but now he has grown up, he has a friend nearby. No one can become his master than
himself. No one can curtail his freedom. He is free to live his life as he likes and draw whatever
he feels. Even though the monk has a friend nearby the other monks are not ready to leave
 81

him. They tempt him by highlighting the painters Brother Angelico and Brother Lorenzo who
should be his role models. The monk, caught between these two poles, draws two types of
paintings - one to please the Prior and others, and the other to please himself.

The monk urges for independence for his painting and his life. He compares his life with
an old horse which enjoys the grass after many years of eating chaff. He also says that the
world is a garden made by God for men and women to enjoy it. The monk puts himself down by
calling himself a beast. He also talks about a boy named Tom (Hulking Tom) who is similar to
his category in the convent. The monk wants to reproduce nature in his painting as it is and he
also wants to know whether the guards are thankful to God for the beautiful earth. The monk is
again against the thought of projecting things with add-ons. He wants things to be depicted as
it is.

The monk does not want to upset the guards anymore. He reverses and then he talks
about his upcoming painting. He says that he will also include his portrait in the painting but
detached from the main characters. This is because he says that he feels as the odd-one-out of
this religious world. He narrates the plan of his new painting which he believes will change the
ideas of the church and then, everything will be right. He says that it will take six months for him
to complete the painting. The monk bids goodbye to the guards and runs from the place stating
that he does not need a light or help. The street is very quiet and it is becoming grey (sun rise)
as the poem closes.

11.4 “Fra Lippo Lippi” - Critical Perspectives

“Fra Lippo Lippi” is one of the best dramatic monologues of Browning. It is a well composed
poem in blank verse. It is at two levels – one, the monk tries to justifies his innocence to the
guards, and the other, the problems faced by realism in painting. The poem has been composed
in the Victorian era and hence it has a tone of questioning the church and the authorities of the
church. This poem also highlights the influence of the church on art. It includes references from
history and painters from history.

The monk argues for the realism in painting. He stands with his argument with the
supporting points like it is the duty of art to present the beauty as it is as God has given. There
are some people who never notice the beauty and overlook it. Realistic art highlights the beauty
and serves its purpose. There are some people who really enjoy realistic art except the higher
82

authorities. For example he himself states that the common monks loved his paintings and
enjoyed recognizing their world in his depictions.

His ideas are opposed by the Prior and some other seniors who believe that an artist
must focus on the soul not on the body. They also say that it is a duty of the artist to elevate the
beauty of which is given by God not to show it as it is. The poet needs independence for himself
and his art. The artist is responsible for only one person that is himself. The monk plays a dual
role here. He paints to please his masters because he has to survive and he paints to please
the artist in him as his ‘self’ has to survive. At the end of the poem he says that he will create a
blended painting in which the ideas of his superiors and his own ideas will be included wherein
the latter will subvert the ideas of the superiors which will set everything right in the church. The
listeners and the readers are surprised to hear from the monk that he is going to include his
picture in the church’s painting. The last run of the monk exposes that the poet has to survive
and he has to be under the control of the church.

11.5 Glossary
Monk: a member of a religious community of men typically living under vows
of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

hangdog: having a dejected or guilty appearance

realism: the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared

to deal with it accordingly.

Giotto: an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle
Ages.

Saint Lucy: a virgin and martyr who died in Syracuse

11.6 Sample Analysis

1. Zooks, are we pilchards, that they sweep the streets
And count fair price what comes into their net?
He’s Judas to a tittle, that man is!

The monk is caught by the guards for wandering near the brothel area. He tries to
explain his innocence and announces himself as a monk. He is very upset and angry because
 83

of the action of the guards. He insults himself by stating that is he a pilchard (small fish) to be
caught. He accuses the guards as-over ambitious because they have caught him to boast that
they have caught a monk. As a final note he attacks the guards as behaving like Judas who had
betrayed Jesus Christ.

2. Give us no more of body than shows soul!

Here’s Giotto, with his Saint a-praising God,
That sets us praising—why not stop with him?

In this poem, the Prior who is the symbol of the supremacy of the church asks the monk
to focus on the soul and not on the body when he paints. He says that it is a duty of the painter
to elevate the subject of the painting to a heavenly level and not to project or reproduce art it is.
He refers to Giotto, an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages
who is known for his religious painting. He reinforces the monk to follow the footsteps of Giotto.

11.7 Articles on the Poem

1. Character and Philosophy in “Fra Lippo Lippi” - W. David Shaw

(Victorian Poetry Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1964), pp. 127-132)

2. Browning’s “Fra Lippo Lippi,” A Transcendentalist Monk - Glen Omans

(Victorian Poetry Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer, 1969), pp. 129-145)

11.8 Web Sources

1. h t t p s : / / w w w. r e s e a r c h g a t e . n e t / p u b l i c a t i o n / 2 5 0 2 1 2 1 9 2 _ F r a _ L i p p o
_Lippi_Browning’s_Reflections_on_Life_and_Art

11.9 Sample Questions

1. How are nature and imagination expressed (thematically) in “Fra Lippo Lippi”?

2. What is the function of art and the artist in ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’?

3. Critically analyse the poem ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’.

4. How do you think the opening scene affects the audience’s attitude towards Lippi?

5. How does Robert Browning use dramatic monologue to portray madness?

6. Write an essay on Realism in the Victorian Era.

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LESSON - 12
“THE LOTOS-EATERS”
- LORD ALFRED TENNYSON

12.1 Lord Alfred Tennyson

Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809 - 1892) was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father was
the rector of the place. He was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won the Chancellor’s
gold medal for the poem “Timbuctoo” in 1829. The charm of his personality attracted many
friends. Though he displayed a certain vigour and common sense, a strain of melancholy was
always present in him. By the year 1842, Tennyson had published three volumes of poetry, but
his supremacy as a poet was established only after the publication of his elegy, “In Memoriam”
in 1850. In the same year he became the Poet Laureate. In Memoriam was supposed to be an
elegy on the death of his friend Arthur Hallam whom he had known from his Cambridge days.
However, the poem is much more than an elegy; it deals with the universal questions of life,
death, and life after death.

Tennyson wrote narrative poems, lyrics, elegies and monologues. Two of his patriotic
poems are “The Revenge” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. His concern with the problems
of women is revealed in “The Princess”. Some of his charming narrative poems are “Enoch
Arden”, “Dora” and “The May Queen”. He achieved greater perfection and fame in his poems
relating to the ‘Arthurian legends’. The Idylls of the King, published in 1859, contained some of
his famous Arthurian poems including ‘Morte d’ Arthur’. “The Lady of Shalott” is a beautiful
poem in this group. The blank verse used here is finer and more expressive than any used by
earlier poets. Other successful attempts in the use of blank verse are his great poems such as
“Ulysses”, “The Lotos Eaters” and “Tithonus”.

He described nature as a background for reflecting human activity and emotion. As in

“The Lotos Eaters”, he glorified nature through his sensitive imagery and chose suitable scenic
accessories to capture the various moods of nature. The dreamy, languid atmosphere of the
poem is a example. He handled a variety of subjects, but everywhere he showed great restraint,
moderation, taste and technical skill in the use of language. T. S. Eliot said, “Tennyson is a
great master of the metric... I do not think any poet in English has ever had a finer ear for vowel
sounds as well as a subtler feeling for some moods of anguish.”
 85

12.2 “The Lotos Eaters” – A Summary

The story of the poem is based on a passage in the ninth book of Homer’s Odyssey. From
the scanty materials furnished by Homer, Tennyson has been able to produce this wonderful
poem. Working on the story, and filling it with details of landscape and with arguments suiting
the theme, the poet elaborates it into a very attractive statement of the philosophy of doing
nothing.

On the tenth day, after leaving Troy, the ship in which Ulysses and his men sailed arrived
at an island called Lotophagi. On this island it always seemed to be afternoon and it was a land
of streams. There were three mountain tops that were prominent on the island. “Three silent
pinnacles of aged snow stood sunset flush’d”. It was a land where all things always seemed the
same. When the ship reached the shore, a band of mild-eyed melancholic lotos-eaters came to
the ship, bearing in their hands, branches of the enchanted lotos-plant. Some of the mariners
took these gifts from the people and tasted the lotos fruit. Straightaway a change came over
them. The gushing of the waves nearby appeared to them to come from far away. The voices of
their companions seemed thin and sepulchral.

The mariners who had eaten the lotos, sat down on the yellow sands between the sun
which was setting in the west and the moon which had risen in the east. They dreamed pleasantly
of their motherland, their wives and children but it appeared to them that the sea was weary and
they had no desire to move about. Then, one of them said, ‘we \will return no more’. At this
suggestion, all the mariners burst into song, singing that they would not return to their distant
island homes.

The song of the mariners expressed their unwillingness to leave the lotos island. They
argued that every created being enjoyed rest. It was only men, the best of all created beings,
who toiled and passed from one sorrow to another. The leaf in the wood, the apple on the tree
or the flower on its stalk, did not toil but remained where it was for the time allotted to it. Death
was the end of life. Therefore, why should life be vexed with labour? There could be no pleasure
in fighting with evil. The lotos eaters would therefore have long-rest - death or dreamful ease.

It would be sweet for the lotos eaters to lead a restful life on the island, dreaming without
end. It would be sweet for them to lend their hearts and spirits wholly ‘to the influence of mild
minded melancholy’ and pass the time brooding over the friends of their infancy who are now
dead. There would be no wisdom in returning home, for things there would have changed. Their
86

sons would have succeeded to their estates, or the neighbouring princes would have eaten up
their substance and there would be confusion in their island home.

So the lotos eaters, who had had enough action and motion would take an oath to live on
the lotos island as how the gods lived on mount Olympus, caring little for the struggles and
sufferings of mankind.

12.3 “The Lotos Eaters” – Critical Perspectives

From the beginning of the world, mankind has been activated by two opposing systems
of philosophy. One of them assuming the utter futility of man’s effort and the seeming
purposelessness of life, is content to let things drift, watching the world go by with unconcern.
The other has motivated men who have realized their responsibilities, who have felt that life has
a purpose and aim, and that the mere effort towards it is in itself enabling. It is to this latter
attitude that we owe all the progress – material and moral- that our world has so far achieved.
This philosophy is exemplified by Tennyson himself in Ulysses.

“The Lotos-Eaters”, however, places the former ideal before us. The mariners, who have
eaten the lotos are not inclined to work, preferring to remain on the island leading an easy and
idle life. To them, it seems useless that man, the best of all created things, should toil and come
to grief. The lotos eaters have been idle and indifferent having come under the influence of
enchanted fruit which they have eaten. All thins on the island enjoy rest and comfort, why then
should man alone toil?

Death is the end of life. Ah, why should life all labour be? This is their question. We have
a contrasting picture in Ulysses:”Death closes all , but something ere the end some work of
noble note, may yet be done”.

The memory of their families, and of the parting caresses of their wives, is clear to the
mariners. But at this distance of time everything would certainly have changed. Their estates
would have passed into the hands of their sons, or into the hands of the island princes. The
Trojan War and the great deeds performed by them in that was, may be sung of in their islands,
as if they were a thing of the past. In all probability, there would be confusion in their island. A
return home, would only mean more and more trouble and pain. Surely, after all their toil, they
deserve rest and peace. Since everything is destined to perish, there is no achievement worthy
of pursuit. So, the mariners want ‘dreamful ease’. After all, the gods on Mount Olympus live
 87

happily, caring nothing for the troubles that vex mankind. Why not follow their example, ask the
mariners.

The philosophy of standing aside from all the cares and responsibilities of the world - a
negative one, undoubtedly – has nowhere been set forth more attractively than in Tennyson’s
poem “The Lotos Eaters”. The perfect blending of atmosphere and human sentiment, which
constitutes the chief merit of the poem, is indeed Tennyson’s great achievement.

12.4 Glossary
Ethical: morally correct
Scanty: limited
Pinnacles: peaks
Sepulchral: gloomy
Caress: fond touch

12.5 Sample Analysis

1. Grows green and broad, and takes no care,
Sun-steep’d at noon, and in the moon
Nightly dew-fed; and turning yellow
Falls, and floats adown the air.

There mariners feel very tired and weary after their long journey. They are supposed to
go back home. In the midst, they land on the lotos island and eat some lotos stem and become
intoxicated and melancholic. They have decided not to go back home. They refer to a leaf
which never toils its buds in a stem, grows wider, fed by the snow and later dries and falls down
in the same place. Why should man alone toil? With this argument they decide not to go back
home.

2. The charmed sunset linger’d low adown

In the red West: thro’ mountain clefts the dale
Was seen far inland, and the yellow down
Border’d with palm, and many a winding vale
88

The mariners after a hectic journey lands on an island called Lotophagi. Tennyson gives
a clear description of the landscape. The climate is pleasant. It is almost dawn. The sun’s rays
are yellow in colour. It is a land were afternoon prevails always. The land is decorated with palm
trees and valleys. After the tiresome travel, the mariners tries to take rest in the pleasant land
for a while in the beginning but their mindset changes.

12.6 Articles on the Poem

3. Tennyson’s Epicurean Lotos-Eaters - Malcolm MacLaren

The Classical Journal Vol. 56, No. 6 (Mar., 1961), pp. 259-267

12.7 Web Sources

“Coming like Ghosts to Trouble Joy: Alfred Tennyson’s ‘The Lotos Eaters.’” Labyrinths of
Deceit: Culture, Modernity and Identity in the Nineteenth Century, by Richard J. Walker, 1st ed.,
vol. 44, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2007, pp. 226–242. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/
j.ctt5vjbnd.16.

12.8 Sample Questions

1. How do the mariners wish to spend the rest of their lives, after eating the lotus fruit?

2. What are the arguments put forward by the sailors for remaining on the island?

3. Critically analyse the poem ‘The Lotos Eaters’.

4. Comment on Tennyson’s description of the lotos island.

5. How does Tennyson use images in his works?

 89

LESSON - 13
“THE WINDHOVER”
- G. M. HOPKINS

13.1 G.M. Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844, Essex, England. He was christened
at an Anglican church and was the eldest of the nine children in a family which had a literary
background through his grandfather and his father. His father, Manley Hopkins, was the author
of A Philosopher’s Stone and Other Poems (1843), Pietas Metrica (1849), and Spicelegium
Poeticum, A Gathering of Verses by Manley Hopkins (1892). This literary background of Hopkins
made him well-versed in classical languages. He had contributed a large vocabulary concerning
religion in literature. He was a great admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites. Hopkins joined Oxford
during the year 1863 and later was attracted by The Oxford movement. John Henry Newman
welcomed him into to the church as a result of which he converted from Anglicanism into Roman
Catholicism. He attacked the religious practices that were followed and questioned the ideologies
of the church subtly in all his works earlier. On entering the church Hopkins burnt all the poems
that he had written against it and did not write again till 1875. He began writing after the major
shipwreck that took away the lives of five Franciscan nuns. He introduced the technique of the
‘sprung rhythm’ in his poem “Wreck of the Deutschland”. Hopkins was also against the
conventional traditions and patterns followed in poetry. He was the first in the history of English
literature to break the conventions that was followed in poetry. Most of his poems broke all the
rules and conventions and gave rise to new syllabic patterns and meters. According to him
poetry did not belong within a definite set of words and meaning. He gave importance to the
rhythm and the stress in the lines of the poem which led to the introduction of sprung rhythm.
“God’s Grandeur”, “The Windhover”, “Pied Beauty” and “Carrion Comfort” are some poems of
Hopkins. In later part of his life Hopkins worked as Greek and Latin professor in University
College Dublin. After being ill for several years Hopkins died of typhoid fever in 1889. Most of
his works were published posthumously by his friend Robert Bridges. Hopkins is considered
one of the best poets in the Victorian era.

13.2 "The Windhover” – A Summary

In the poem, “The Windhover”, G.M. Hopkins praises Lord Jesus and compares the bird
to Him. Windhover is a type of falcon which has the ability to hover in the sky for long time. The
90

poem begins with the poet finding the bird hovering in the sky one morning and is astonished at
its ability to hover and its powerful flight. The poet explains the beauty of the bird and its flight.
The terms ‘morning’s minion’, meaning morning’s darling, and ‘daylight’s dauphin’, meaning
crown prince, shows how the poet attributes a powerful king like qualities to the bird. The poet
then explains the flight of the bird, the way it steadily pierces through the air. The bird is flying
high in the sky and its wings ripple in the act. The bird flies magnificently in its ecstasy.

The movement of the bird is compared to that of the movement of a skater. Just like the
heels of the skates that moves smoothly and swiftly the bird flies smoothly and swiftly in the sky
in spite of the strong wind. The bends and the turns are so excellent and the strong wind never
becomes a big deal to the bird and the poet is astonished at this ability of the bird. The poet’s
heart searches for the bird which is a ‘mastery of the thing’.

The next stanza portrays the bird as chevalier, that is, a warrior. The beauty and the
valour of the bird is explained. The beauty and the valour of the bird gives forth a fire that is very
great. This fire makes the bird lovelier and more dangerous. The fire in the bird makes it a
warrior and hence the poet calls it a ‘chevalier’. The fire can also be compared to the colour of
the bird.

The final stanza of the poem explains how the bird may not be a special one but an
everyday thing. But the true excellence of the bird will be found only when it is studied closely.
The act of ploughing is not a very special one but it adds to the true beauty of the land and its
richness. Similarly the dark dying embers cover up the real power of the fire inside it. Similarly
the true bold beauty, that is, the ‘gold-vermillion’, of the bird is present inside just like the fire
that is present in the dying embers.

13.3 Critical Perspectives

The poem is in the form of a sonnet. The octave and sestet appear to be talking about
two different things. The octave gives the description of the beauty and the power of the falcon.
The sestet explains who the poet is reminded of on seeing the bird, that is, Christ. The poem is
written in sprung rhythm where the importance is given more to the syllables. Hopkins also
brings in a contrast between human beings and the falcon. The bird is full of power and is
majestic in nature but it does not have any pride. Human beings lack this majestic power but
still are full of pride. The ‘brute beauty’ of the bird attacks the quality of ‘pride’ in human beings.
 91

The poem highlights the crucifixion of Christ. The bird is compared to Christ. Christ is
given the image of a knight, riding on a horse. The great flight of the bird is compared to the
greatness of Christ and His powers. The ‘fire’ is the fire that was produced because of the
crucifixion of Christ. This fire is very powerful and any attempt of human beings trying to
understand it is extremely dangerous. The final stanza of the poem gives the hardship faced by
Christ. Every hardship has a good result. Here the struggles and crucifixion of Christ becomes
the hardship and the salvation of mankind becomes the result of the sufferings. The result of
the crucifixion is the ‘gold- vermillion’ that is given to mankind after all the struggles of Christ.

There is a possibility for the poem to have a sexual imagery when considered in the
psychological light. The suppressed sexual feelings and pleasure of Hopkins might have been
expressed in the poem. The falcon is gendered in the poem. The phrase ‘my heart in hiding’
gives a ‘feminine’ image to the speaker, thus making the falcon masculine. This gendering of
the falcon and the speaker makes it a love poem. The terms ‘riding’ and ‘buckle’ might mean
the act. It can also be considered that the act of sex is being described through the smooth
movement of the skates. The phrase ‘Ah my dear’ can also be read in a sexual connotation. By
considering all these undertones in the poem it can be concluded that the poem has an erotic
sexual connotation in it. When questions regarding the erotic connotation arose Hopkins gave
the subtitle “to Christ Our Lord”, thus making it a pure religious poem.

Hopkins was unable to be skeptic of the church directly. The church was against anything
that gave pleasure. To Hopkins art and literature gave pleasure. Since experiencing pleasure
was a sin according to the church Hopkins was away from poetry and literature till the incident
of the shipwreck. He takes pleasure on witnessing the flight of the falcon. By expressing his
admiration for the falcon and praising it, Hopkins had put up a protest against the ideologies of
the church in the most subtle way possible. The falcon, now, can be considered as art. The
powers and the beauty of the bird become the power and beauty of art. Hopkins was very much
captured by the beauty of art but his religious ties stopped him from writing. The image of
‘ploughing’ gives the hardships that he faced by being caught in the conflict between art and
religion. The result of this conflict is poetry which becomes the ‘gold-vermillion’ in the end.

Inscape is the uniqueness that is found in everything. This is what makes every being and
thing different from each other. Inscape is what makes no two things similar. Instress is the
understanding of this inscape in its original sense. Hopkins was unable to attack the church
directly and hence he uses ‘inscape’. He gives a shape to his inner conflict through inscape. He
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violated all the conventions to capture his instress in his poetry. For him words were not enough
to capture his message and so he used sprung rhythm. He conveys his thoughts to the readers
by stressing on the syllables rather than the words themselves. This concept of inscape and
instress used by Hopkins makes all his poems a unique one. The usage of inscape and instress
makes the poem an autobiographical one. When read in this light it is understood that the entire
poem gives the experiences of Hopkins in his writing career. All the struggles and obstacles
that he faced are explained through the lines of the poem. The first eight lines bring forth all the
inspirations that Hopkins experienced as a result of which he began to write. The ‘gold-vermillion’
becomes the poetry produced by him after all the conflicts and struggles that he faced both in
the church and in his life. The breaking away from all conventions and traditions makes Hopkins
a modern poet.

13.4 Glossary
1. Chevalier – a knight

2. Dauphin – Crown Prince in French

3. Minion – Darling

4. Rebuffed – Reject

5. Sillion – Soil turned over by a plough

6. Wimpling – Rippling

13.5 Sample Analysis

1. “As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding

Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!”

The movement of the skate is compared to the movement of the bird. The skates move
smoothly and skillfully. Similarly the bird moves smoothly and skillfully through the strong wind.
This is the relation between the skates and the bird. The erotic connotation in the given lines is
that the movement of the skates denotes the act of sex. The feminine voice of the speaker
makes the poem a love poem and not a religious one.

2. Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
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The ‘fire’ in the given lines is the fire of the crucifixion of Christ. Any attempt to understand
it will either destroy or consume the person. Hence the fire is dangerous.

Through the given lines the poet is attacking the human quality of pride. The bird which
is stronger and greater than the human beings never takes pride in its magnificent qualities. But
human beings, even though they do not have anything great, take pride in their character and
beauty. Thus the poet attacks the pride in man.

13.6 Articles on the poem

Miller, Bruce E. “On “The Windhover”.” Victorian Poetry, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1964), pp.
115-119. West Virginia University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40001256.

Gleason, John B, et al. “The Sexual Underthought in Hopkins’ “The Windhover”.” Victorian
Poetry, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), pp. 201-208. West Virginia University Press.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40002344

13.7 Web Sources

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Windhover-by-Gerard-Manley-
Hopkins

https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/hopkins/section2/

h t t p s : / / w w w. b a c h e l o r a n d m a s t e r. c o m / b r i t i s h a n d a m e r i c a n p o e t r y / t h e -
windhover.html#.XMvpE-gzbIU

13.8 Sample Questions

1. Explain the Christ imagery in the poem.

2. Explain the autobiographical undertone in the poem “The Windhover”.

3. Explain the subtle resistance of Hopkins against the church in the light of the poem
“The Windhover”.

4. Do you think the poem “The Windhover” is a religious one? Justify your answer with
examples from the poem.

5. What are the characteristics that are found in Hopkins’ poetry?

6. ‘Hopkins was caught up in the conflict between religion and art’. Discuss.
94

LESSON - 14
DOVER BEACH
- MATHEW ARNOLD

14.1 Mathew Arnold

Matthew Arnold (1822-88) is best-reminisced as a poet, though very few of his poems are
known commonly. “Dover Beach” is the most renowned of these. He led a probing life and has
left us with some eternal bequests. Despite his own devout suspicions, a source of great
apprehension for him, in several essays Arnold trailed to launch the indispensable truth of
Christianity. Arnold died suddenly in 1888 of heart failure, while hastening to catch a tram. His
work has persisted being widespread and treasured since his demise.

14.2 “Dover Beach”- A Summary

“Dover Beach” is an intricate poem about theosophical, existential and ethical matters.
The first stanza starts with a candid portrayal of the sea and the paraphernalia of light, but there
is a change in stride as the syllabic content forces then relaxes with long and short vowels,
mimicking the sea as moving ridges shift the pebbles.

the moon lies fair

Upon the straits;
and again:
Gleams and is gone.....
Glimmering and vast.....

Then in lines 6 and 9 there is an overture - to come and fill your senses - for the reader or
for the speaker’s accomplice. The speaker, despite fleeting perturbation, deduces that the
moonstruck sea extracts sadness, perhaps because of the unaltered humdrum of the waves.

A certain somberness streams into the second stanza. There is an insinuation to Sophocles,
a Greek dramatist (496-406BC), which offers a historical viewpoint to the poem. So the influx
becomes a similitude for human wretchedness; it waves in, it moves out, bringing with it all the
debris, all the grace, charm and energy, contained in human life. Time and tide wait for no man,
says a proverb but the waves are callous, seductively following the cycle of the moon.
 95

Stanza three brings the idea of religion into the scene. Faith is at low tide, on its way out,
where once it had been full. Christianity can no longer wash away the impurities of humanity; it
is on the recession.

Matthew Arnold was well aware of the profound changes at work in western society. He
knew that the old institutions were beginning to dissolve - people were trailing their faith in God
as the developments in technology, science and evolution infringed.

This emptiness needed to be occupied and the speaker in stanza four recommends that
only resilient personal love between personalities can endure the adverse forces in the world.
Remaining faithful to each other can bring meaning to an otherwise disordered and mystifying
world.

It is as if the speaker is looking into the future, with respect for the bygone, affirming love
for a distinct cohort to be the way forward if the world is to be survived. Wars may fury on, the
evolutionary scuffle lingers, only the footing of truth within love can promise relief.

14.3 “Dover Beach” – Critical Perspectives

In “Dover Beach”, Matthew Arnold is recounting the slow and serious echoing sound
made by the sea waves as they slap to and fro on the gravelly seashore. One can evidently
hear this repetitive sound all the time. The retreating waves roll the pebbles back towards the
sea, and then after a hiatus, the returning waves spool them up to the shore.

There is a low bashful sound swaying backward and forward all the time. The poet infers
that this sound recommends the everlasting note of wretchedness in human life. Arnold in
“Dover Beach” records how the pebbles of the sea rolled by the sea-waves bring into the mind
the “eternal note of sadness.” Here he points out that in ancient times Sophocles heard the
same sound of the pebbles on the seashore, and it prompted him of the ebb and flow of human
desolation. Now Arnold hears the sound of this Dover Beach, and he discovers the same thought
in it.

The poet explains the steady degradation of man’s conviction in a majestic and indicative
simile. He associates faith in religion to a sea that environs the world. The sea has its full drift,
and then it recedes away with the grief-stricken music over the pebbles and the raucous of the
pebbles carries the “eternal note of sadness in”. The poet recaps the world in which there was
full of faith and men trusted in religion. But now that faith is increasingly passing away and
men’s minds are like pebbles on the shore. The transiency of faith causes the minds to be
96

secluded and it stood on the brim between trust and distrust. It is a sad miserable state. When
the poet hears the harsh roar of pebbles of the sea, he is reminded of the “melancholy, long,
withdrawing roar” of faith as it withdrawals from men’s minds. It is a frigid prospect, like the
breath of the night wind, and it brings into the mind a tedious feeling of feebleness, as though
the mind is left uncovered and naked on the vast and dreary edges of an unknown land.

The lines from “Dover Beach” give virulent expression of Arnold’s loss of faith, his growing
nihilism. The world seemed to be bizarrely illusory, without anything real to grip onto and clasp.
It has variation, splendor and brilliance in it. But it is all blind nullification: there is neither adoration
nor delight or light and harmony. There is nothing positive in it. Therefore he compares men
belligerent in the world with armies besieged on a plain area at night. There is a sound of
disorderly alarms and murmurs, but the soldiers are oblivious as to what they are fighting for
and why.

This poem expresses frequently the lack of faith and conviction which was the primary
disease of the Victorian age. The first stanza opens with a calm, bright moonlit sea which
reflects the tranquil, passive, sympathetic mood of the poet. He calls upon his companion to
share the pleasantness and peacefulness of the night air and even as he does so, he is cognizant
of ‘the grating roar’ a harsh sound which distracts the concord, the composed and the honeyed
music. The stanza ends on a note of unending sadness, that still had sad music of humanity
which interrupts the stillness of mind and spirit as much as the cool bay.

In the second stanza the poet meritoriously uses a metaphor where the ebb and flow of
human misery is equated to the tides of the sea. The affluences of Oedipus are like the ebb and
flow of the sea sand and the thinning tide is a symbol of the loss of faith.

The poem falls into two parts. In the first part, Arnold speaks of the reverberations of sea-
waves on the pebbly shore. In the second he speaks of armies struggling unknowingly at night.
There is possibly not a very strong connection between the earlier and the latter allusions. Yet
the poem reads well because it is detained together by a unity of romanticism. The two descriptive
analogies are drawn from traditional sources, but the coalescing sentiment is idealistic in its
poignant cynicism and lack of faith.

Arnold through “Dover Beach” describes the special effects of industrialization of the 19th
century England. Victorian world was changing very swiftly with the growth of science and
technology. This poem denounces the loss of faith, religion and the meaning of life subsequent
of the industrialization and development in science and technology.
 97

Arnold describes the difference between the exterior appearance and underlying truth of
the Victorian world. It looks new and beautiful like a land of dreams but in reality this world does
not really have joy, love, light, peace, certitude nor gives any helping hand for people who is
suffering. He describes the world as a dark plain which is becoming even darker as the time
passes. He compares the people struggling and running behind their ambitions to the armies
fighting at night, unfamiliar of the reason they are fighting for.

Although, this poem had shown the loss of faith, religion and love of 19th century it is
analogous in the perspective of the present century as well. People have lost their faith in God.
They are affianced in different business. They have become avaricious which has lessened
their consummation in life. They are more isolated and lonely. Now, they have forgotten the
unity and became more selfish. So, the poet wants to awake all the human being from this
catastrophe created by the miseries, distresses and melancholy. The only way out of this
catastrophe according to Arnold is to love and to have a faith in one another and do believe in
God and live in certainty rather than the land of dreams. Arnold’s dexterous use of extravagant
similes and energetic images has made the meaning of the poem even more emotional.

“Dover Beach” as a Victorian Poem

Nineteenth Century Hellenism, a romantic enthrallment for folk tales and legends, and a
penchant for unsociable contemplation in suggestive backgrounds solidify an idiosyncratic note
to Arnold’s poetry. “Dover Beach” is his attempt to ponder upon the emancipating elements in
the laps of generous Nature. The description of the moon-blanch’d landscape in the opening
lines suggest steadiness, stability and peacefulness that Arnold desired for himself:

“The sea is calm tonight,

The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits.”

These lines are, perchance, the finest manifestation of that figurative scene of night which
provided the setting and demonstrative background for Arnold’s elegiac deliberation. The entire
sentence ventures a sense of fruitfulness and sanctuary. However, a closer look at the following
lines reveals a negative extraction in the description of the waves:

“Listen! You hear the grating roar

Of pebbles that the waves draw back…”
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One can almost visualize the movement of the waves to perceive how the waves bring
“the eternal note of sadness in.”

Such association of positive confidence and negative depression runs throughout the
poem. Each stanza, except the second one, is clearly divided into alternating tones of optimism
and pessimism. The first part consists of visual imagery which radiates a sense of positivity
when abruptly auditory senses are provoked to vaccinate the negative tension. It was possibly
because Arnold felt that the sensation of sight leaves little room for resourcefulness and therefore,
incongruously, obscures truth about the real spiritual order of things. This view, much in line
with Plato’s philosophy was shared by eminent Romantic poets like Keats, Shelley and
Wordsworth.

The fundamental note of Arnold’s poetry is, therefore, wretchedness. It is essentially a

romantic miserable state, gaining harsher tones from the more certain apprehensions of his
times. Religion had been a daunting fabric of society up to mid-nineteenth century in England.
However, there was certain paleness in its foundation which the movement of scientific study
was soon to emasculate. The influence of Darwinism was distinctly felt. Moreover, the rapid
rate of industrialization, followed by an enormous migration towards the urban centers led to
the alienation of the English people from the beauty and benevolence of Nature. Above all,
poets and thinkers like Arnold suffered from an acute loss of merriment that one is obligated to
the possession of a satisfying faith. The vague Christianity of Arnold, the ethical pantheism
towards which all his theoretical replications inclined, seems to have left in him an annulled
position which finds utterance through his poetry. Subsequently, such an utterance brings with
it a romantic nostalgia:

“The sea of faith

Was once too, at the full
And round earth’s shore
retreating to the breath of the night wind.”

He lingers to speak about the defenseless unfortified state that the loss of faith has led
man to. It is a deep-rooted religious and metaphysical torment which renders an element of
articulateness to “Dover Beach”. The definitive withdrawal of a positive faith makes the poet
pursue shelter within the world of private affections. He feels that only through the spiritual
union of two souls can resolution be accomplished. However, in his very own style, he reminds
himself of the fret and fever of reality. He transits soon from the faultless “land of dreams” to “a
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darkling plain” where “ignorant armies clash by night.” The image is a reflection of the last battle
between the Athenians and Spartans, fought in darkness at Cicily, which brought disaster upon
the confused Athenian army. However, what is more important is the scornful way of security
that the line implies. Such a refuge was part of the Romantic Age in which the poets could draw
some sustenance at least from Nature even during the great commotion of the French revolution.

Arnold speaks with the voice of a true Victorian, annoyed by excruciating doubts and
solidified forlorn permanently. However, he is floodlit by blazes of vision from ancient Athens
and is consoled by the Wordsworthian conception of the relationship between man and the
spirit of the universe demonstrated in Nature. “Dover Beach”, essentially pessimistic in its calm
pathos, is characterized by a disciplined temperance despite the tinge of Romanticism. Indeed,
as J.D.Jump points out, “It is the one work by Arnold which ought to appear in even the briefest
anthology of great English poems.” It is, after all, not a superficial observation by an outsider,
but an unaffected vision of a tormented poet who was completely a part of his age.

14.4 Glossary
 straits - narrow passages of water

 moon-blanched - made white or pale by the moon

 tremulous - shaking, quivering

 cadence - rhythm

 Aegean - sea that lies between Greece and Turkey

 turbid - confused,cloudy,obscure

 shingle - tiny pebbles, stones on a beach

 hath - have (archaic)

 certitude - complete certainty,conviction

 darkling - growing dark

14.5 Sample Analysis

1. “Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,”

The sea is everywhere in “Dove r Beach.” It shows up in different places and in different
forms, but we feel its power all over the place. Sometimes it’s a physical location, and sometimes
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it morphs into a metaphor for the fate of humanity. This line refers to the time of the sea meeting
the land. It is important to notice how much time Arnold spends making us really see this vision
of the coast of England in the moonlight. The sea is going to turn into a huge metaphor in this
poem.

2. “And naked shingles of the world”

In this line “shingles” means the rocks that lie on the shore. So what Arnold is doing is
picking up the imagery of the coastline that he worked so hard to establish in the first stanza
and turning it into something evil-sounding and scary. The coast the speaker can see is calm
and comforting. The naked, empty metaphorical coast in his mind may be anything.

14.6 Articles on the poem

1. “Dover Beach” and the structure of meditation – John Racin
(Victorian Poetry, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring, 1970), pp. 49-54)

2. Arnold’s “Dover beach “ as a criticism of life – More

(www. Research scholar.co.in ISSN 2320- 6301)

14.7 Web sources

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Summary-and-Analysis-of-Poem-Dover-

Beach-by-Matthew-Arnold

14.8 Questions
1. What is meant by ‘The Sea of Faith’?

2. What do you understand by ‘a bright girdle furled’?

3. List out the figures of speech used in the poem.

4. With whom the man of today is compared in the poem?

5. How well the allusions help in achieving effectiveness in the poem?

6. What is the central message that Mathew Arnold is trying to convey in the poem?

7. How would you describe the mood of the poem?

8. What picture of life and human condition is painted in the poem?

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UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
MA ENGLISH - SEMESTER II

POETRY II: EIGHTEENTH TO NINETEENTH CENTURY

MODEL QUESTION PAPER

TIME: 3 hrs Marks: 80

I. Analyze any FOUR of the following in about 250 words each, without omitting
any section: (4 X5 =20 marks)

SECTION A

1. Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste

Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embrac’d:
For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease
Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.

2. For, washed in life’s river,

My bright mane for ever
Shall shine like the gold
As I guard o’er the fold.’

SECTION B

3. …And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

4. …Though I should gaze for ever

On that green light that lingers in the west:
I may not hope from outward forms to win
The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.
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SECTION C

5. If you get simple beauty and nought else,

You get about the best thing God invents:
That’s somewhat: and you’ll find the soul you have missed,
Within yourself, when you return him thanks.

6. But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

II. Write SHORT NOTES on any SIX of the following, in about 250 words each, without
omitting any section: (6X5= 30 marks)

SECTION A

 How is Belinda representative of eighteenth-century women?

 Comment on the themes of ‘childhood’ and adulthood in the poem, “The Echoing
Green”.

 How does the poet present the institution of marriage in “London”.

SECTION B

 Explain the feelings of pain and frustration in “Ode To Skylark”.

 Comment on the pictorial quality of Keats’ poetry.

 What are the metaphors used in Dejection: An Ode

SECTION C

 What is the attitude to life that is reflected in the poem “The Lotus Eaters”?

 Trace the autobiographical element in Hopkins’ “The Windhover”.

 Read “Fra Lippo Lippi” as a dramatic monologue.

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III. Write ESSAYS on any THREE of the following, in about 750 words each, without
omitting any section: (3x10= 30 marks)

SECTION A

1. Reread “Rape of the Lock” as a parody.

2. Trace the allegory in Collins’ “Ode To Evening”.

SECTION B

3. Comment on The Romantic Age of the English Literary Tradition.

4. What are the characteristics of The Ode. Explain with reference to any one ode you
have read.

SECTION C

5 List the significant features of Victorian poetry in the English Literary Tradition

6. Comment on the theme of religion in “The Windhover”.