Questions for Annotation and Discussion
Hopkins – “Pied Beauty”
Structure
- a curtal sonnet (reduced version of a petrarchan/ Italianate sonnet)
Rhythm and Rhyme
-- scansion in poetry – terms iambic, metrical foot, others (trochees)
-- meter in this poem is irregular, but . . . some lines are quite conventionally iambic
-- rhythm instead created how?
Consider the effects of the alliteration and punctuation in many lines. Does this give the poem some sense of rhythm . . . propel it forward?
--the poem has a complex rhyme scheme (most sonnets do rhyme – think Shakespeare)
--Hopkins is a 19th century poet – the Victorians were really big on things being well ordered. The complexity of his rhyme scheme and the lack of consistent rhythm set him apart from his contemporaries
Content
Hopkins began study to become a priest the same year this poem was published.
-- Do you feel that the first and last lines of the poem are meant to give it the character of a prayer? Is it a prayer, or just a religiously-themed contemplation? Is the last line the equivalent of an “Amen”?
-- Consider the “invented” words: “couple-colour”, “fathers-forth” and “fresh-firecoal”. What do these add to the lines in terms of sensory information, or other information?
-- Hopkins is writing in absolutes, using terms such as “all”, and “whatever”. What is the effect of this? What theological/ religious ideas seem to be operating under the surface here? Why is he valuing the natural and man-made world equally?
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Whitman – from “Song of Myself”
Perhaps the “major” American poet – controversial in his time, but also well-respected and admired then and now by the American literary establishment
Leaves of Grass, from which this excerpts derives, was Whitman’s major work. It underwent years and years of revisions and different editions. He added and changed it during his lifetime.
He too, was a Victorian, but an outsider from the literary establishment.
His poetry is free verse (no recurrent metrical feet), which is different from blank verse (unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter approximating natural speech).
He achieves rhythm in an entirely different manner . . .
First and Second Stanzas:
1) dualism and pairing (body and soul, heaven and hell, man and woman) What is the effect of him speaking and setting out his points in terms of such clear, distinct division?
2) the religious undercurrent of the poem. Note both the typical Christian divisions in these pairs. What is a possible allusion/ reading of the last line of the 2nd stanza?
3) One unique feature of “Song of Myself” is the frequent use of the personal pronoun “I”.
Is the “I” the author (personal) or is it meant to be read as more transcendent (universal) “I”?
Consider the subject matter of the poem, and form an opinion.
Third and 4th Stanzas:
4) “I chant the chant of dilation or pride”
“ducking and deprecating” – Example of Whitman using iambic/ repetition/ alliteration to create a “musical” or rhythmic sense to the poem.
5) Use of rhetorical questions: “Are you the president”? What is the idea being communicated in the answer he gives in the final two lines (“and still pass on”)
6) “I am he who .. .” Again, consider whether this is a personal or universal “I” being used here. Look at what he is doing. ‘I call to the earth and sea half-held by night’
Fifth Stanza:
7) N alliteration and rhythm .
Personification of the “night”, “mad, naked”, “bare-bosom’d night”, “nourishing” (odd word choice – extrapolate).
Line 17 and 6th stanza:
8) Notice the rising tone of excitement through out this passage – starts with rational discussion in stanza 1, but has now shifted to exclamation (!) points and sentence fragments of ideas. Repetition of “Earth” and valuing of the natural world.
9) imagery – this whole idea of watery moonlight “pour of the moon” etc. (earlier link to idea of sea half-held by night, myth of the tide-moon connection).
7th stanza:
11) “prodigal” – allusion to the parable “Lost Son”?
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Thomas – “Rain”
Poetic device – weather mimicking emotion. Is this occurring in this poem? Find some evidence to support this conclusion, and write about its effect on the reader?
Does the knowledge that this poem was written during WW1 by a soldier, who died in battle, make it a more profound statement?
-- what is the poet’s state of mind? Depressed, resigned to his fate? Thankful? Does it shift depending on what he is writing about, or throughout the poem?
--does he want the same for those he cares about? Does he welcome death?
Whitman’s and Hopkin’s poems both draw on religious themes and topics. To what extent is Thomas doing so here? The teachers’ notes for this poem state that it has some sort of general Christianity in its message and meaning. Consider in particular line 5 and 6. What is the allusion here? Links to the Beatitudes . . . .
This poem has a deeply personal, reflective sort of quality, perhaps not present in the other poems we’ve looked at so far. Agree or disagree.
For such a heavy poem, there is only one simile. Identify it, and try to make sense of it.
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Halligan – “The Cockroach”
Structure
On its surface, deceptively simple, but actually really “tightly structured”
Sonnet – identify the rhyme scheme.
The first 6 lines are the typical scheme of a sonnet, be it Shakespearian or Petrarchan.
Is the structure (the break from consistency to less consistent) marking a shift of some sort in the poem, be it tone, focus, subject matter, etc?
Rhythm. – Is it iambic pentameter? Where are there exceptions to this? Which lines are more consistent and which less?
Punctuation – enjambment – and the effect of the full stop in line 11. Why there?
Meaning/ Message:
Is the cockroach anthropomorphized? Or is it an extension of the author himself? Does the last line leave you wondering whether the focus was on the cockroach at all, or whether it is simply the author projecting himself elsewhere?
Previously we have been talking about generally (and sometimes more specific) Christian ideas pervading a poem. Does the question the speaker poses “Was this due payment . . .” allude to reincarnation?
Time seems to be an issue in the poem. Both in terms of the time of the events the speaker is describing, and the idea of “restlessness that worsened over time.” How is time treated in this poem?
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Monkhouse – “Any Soul to Any Body”
Victorian, again (contemporary of Hopkins, Whitman, etc.)
Not a professional poet, but a British diplomat, very religious, who died in 1901.
Structure
Rhyme
Stanzas – 8 lines each with a particular structure ABABABCC
This is known as an Ottava rima (from Italian) – brought from Italian poetry into English in the 16th century by Thomas Wyatt (who also brought in Petrarchan sonnet form)
Only Stanzas 2 and 3 work in this way perfectly. (though 1 and 4 are close)
Variation in the First Stanza – the third line may be intended to be a “partial rhyme or forced rhyme” (think Compan – I). Would make it fit then. Otherwise, the poem follows the rules of the Ottava rima.
Variation is Stanza 4 – first line, “were” possibly intended to be a forced rhyme with “care” etc.
Otherwise it too is a variation on the Ottava rima.
Variation in Stanza 5 – obviously different, and intended to be so. The couplet at the end is a continuation of the rhyme earlier, not new like in the other stanzas.
Rhythm
Take first stanza: and do scansion to figure it out:
Lines are generally iambic or trochaic/ anapestic pentameter (5 meterical feet, unstressed/ stressed)
But there are variations in this too.
Extra syllable in alternate lines . . . so it’s not entirely iambic then. There are possibly some anapests (unstressed X 2, then stressed) in there at the end/ beginning.
Or dactyls (the reverse of anapests)
These may even be more prominent in other lines.
-- figure out number of stresses in the line to decide.
Enjambment also occurring here . . .
Content
Serious poem about death, but with light, even humourous moments
The soul is addressing the body,
Christian theological idea of the body and soul equally trapt by one another.
Soul transcendent, body ages and decays (Soul lives on; Body of course will be resurrected, but there is still a material difference in the two).
Stanza 1
--sets up the soul as the dominant force “my body” (ownership) not the other way around, or is it merely affectionate referall, implied closeness of the relationship (e.g. the way you would refer to your partner – my husband, my wife).
-- it is a pairing again, perhaps even a juxtaposition (opposites paired together)
-- final couplet is quite serious, but the middle lines are a lighter treatment of the subject (“what’ere the weather” “wet or dry” – trival/ flippant comment on the closeness of the relationship)
Is there a conceit here, an extended metaphor, of the marriage vows?? (wet or dry, sickness and in health)?
--“Clove” – effect of word? Is he using deliberately archaic language?
--“the limit of your tether” – implicit metaphor (vehicle there, tenor not) . . . body is chained somehow to mortality (idea that it is a cage for the soul, though, in this case, not an unpleasant one, apparently).
Stanza 2
Parrelling/ contrasting what the soul thinks and what he’s been told he should think
--First line and 3rd lines – “They” (theologians?) Christian theology of the dangers of the body (its demands, its less than divine (fallen) nature) – “wicked to be sad” (wicked is a loaded word)
--Soul begs forgiveness of his body for repeating this sentiment, and says that he has not experienced this (not “all together bad” anyway)
-- “a clod, a prison” – the body again cast as a cage for the soul
-- lines 13 and 14 . . . completing the thought/ perspective, but asserting uncertainty about whether he will feel so.
-- final couplet – archaic language again, and also decision that he does grieve the loss (again, couplet seems more serious, less light hearted than the preceding lines (even though the deal with serious subject matter).
Stanza 3
Tone overall is quite serious – not really any light-hearted lines here
-- the content here, that the soul declares the body to be “more honest” and truthful than the soul contrasts deeply with the argument (that the soul did not accept) of Christian theology of the wickedness of the body – impulses, perhaps, but they also tell truth (e.g. blush – hard to fake – honest reaction to embarrassment).
-- soul reserves the power to “think” though/ body simply reacts
Stanza 4
Tone shifts, from quite humourous in the first line, to very dark in the last
--Soul taking responsibility for the state of the body (again, emphasizing the relationship, and also the locus of power for action – Soul dominant)
-- “not your fault, and partly mine” – time has a role too, but implication is that the soul (conciousness) can think, but perhaps made bad decisions that made the body age more quickly that it need to have done.
-- “first design” – obviously, birth, youth, but, more deeply an allusion to creation story (Adam’s creation . . . God’s design).
-- last line – “hungry legions of Decay” – personification created by the capitalization (always comment on such things!) -- unpacking the metaphor – Decay has legions (read armies/ soldiers/ workers) that do “his” bidding – e.g. the disintegration of the body post death. The body is “patient prey” – “friendless” in the “grave” (alone against a stronger personified force – again, denying the body action)
Stanza 5
Serious tone again, throughout.
--“My mother’s eyes overflow” – It is the soul who feels the connection to the mother/ but the body was the representation of it (and thus caused the mother’s tears)
--“a slave more willing or a friend more true” (again, the power dynamics here are interesting – body a “slave” to the soul but also a “friend” – juxtaposition of these two concepts that don’t seem to overlap well)
-- meaning of the last two lines: Religious theologians who decry the body as worthless, wicked, root of evil, etc. Also do not know what will happen after death (whether it truly is better in the afterlife, whether there is an afterlife once the soul leaves the body).
-- considering Monkhouse’s religious convictions, this seems a very profound statement.
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Harrison From “Long Distance”
General Stuff:
So, a modern poet, unlike Hopkins, Whitman, Monkhouse.
Had a difficult relationship with his father – Harrison was bright enough to win a scholarship to go to a school where he got a broad education (classics etc.) which distanced him from his working - class father.
Structure
Rhyme and rhythm
4 Stanzas of 4 lines – quatrains
First 3 fit the pattern of a “heroic quatrain” as far as rhyme scheme goes – ABAB
But are they also generally iambic pentameter (in which case the fit would be perfect)?
-- quite likely, but will work as a class to figure it out . . . (extra syllable every 2 lines)
Major Variant in the rhyme scheme is Stanza 4 – which splits with a rhyming couplet in the middle two lines
-- if they are in iambic pentameter, they are then “heroic couplets” – if not, simply a variant.
-- the last two lines have one more syllable (rather than the alternating of the earlier stanzas)
Content