Gre Lit

Front 1

Abraham

Back 1

God tells him to kill son Isaac, then stops him at last moment.

Wife: Sarah

Sons: Ishmael and Isaac

Book: Genesis

Front 2

Isaac

Back 2

Son of Abraham

Front 3

Nimrod

Back 3

King of Shinar

Involved in building Tower of Babel

Book: Genesis

Front 4

Ham, Lot, Sodom, Gomorrah, Jacob, Joseph

Back 4

Book of Genesis

Front 5

Jochebed

Back 5

Mother of Moses

Escapes from Egypt to protect son

Book: Exodus

Front 6

Moses

Back 6

Herder

Talks to Burning Bush

Tells Pharaoh: "Let my people go"

Parts see to let Jews escape

Book: Exodus

Front 7

Aaron, Golden Calf, manna, Mount Sinai, Ram's Blood

"Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth."

Back 7

Book of Exodus

Front 8

David

Back 8

From David and Goliath

Rebels against father Saul. Then son Absalom rebels against him

Book: Samuel and the Kings

Front 9

Saul

Back 9

Father of David

Gpa of Absalom

Book: Samuel and the Kings

Front 10

Absalom

Back 10

Rebels against father David

Book: Samuel and the Kings

Lit Allusions:

Dryden: "Absalom and Architopel"

Faulkner: "Absalom, Absalom!"

Front 11

Job

Back 11

God tests his faith by stripping things away; he doesn't lose faith

Dialogue heavy story

Book: Samuel and the Kings

Front 12

Daniel

Back 12

Interprets dreams; predicts famine

"Daniel in the lion's den"

"Writing on the wall"

Book: Samuel and the Kings

Front 13

Jonah

Back 13

Tries to escape 'presence of lord' by sea; thrown overboard b/c he causes bad winds. Eaten by whale.

Book: Samuel and the Kings

Lit Allusion: Moby-Dick

Front 14

King Herod

Back 14

Tries to kill baby Jesus but fails

Front 15

Judas

Back 15

Betrays Jesus

Paid 30 Pieces of Silver

Front 16

Mary Magdalene

Back 16

Prostitute who's reformed by Jesus

Front 17

Salome

Back 17

Gets John the Baptist's head on a plate

Front 18

Bible Lit allusions

Back 18

Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon

Proust: Sodom and Gomorrah

Hemingway: Song Also Rises

Samuel Butler: The Way of the Flesh

Henrick Ibsen: The Master Builder

Jean Toomer: Cane

Front 19

Friar Lawrence

Back 19

From Romeo and Juliet

Front 20

Mercutio

Back 20

Romeo's homie

Delivers famous Queen Mab Speech

Front 21

Benvolio

Back 21

Romeo's Cousin

Front 22

Tybalt

Back 22

Juliet's Cousin

Front 23

"But soft, what light yonder window breaks?"

Back 23

From balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet

Front 24

Hamlet

Back 24

Prince of Denmark

Ghost of Father tells him to avenge his death

Puts on fake play to prove Claudius's guilt

Dies

Front 25

Claudius

Back 25

Hamlet's uncle

Kill's Hamlet's Father to become king. Marries his former wife (Hamlet's mom) Gertrude.

Front 26

Gertrude

Back 26

Hamlet's Mom. Marries Claudius.

Front 27

Ophelia

Back 27

Object of Hamlet's affection.

Goes insane and drowns

Lit allusion: Eliot's Wasteland

Front 28

Laertes

Back 28

Ophelia's brother.

Kills Hamlet and dies too.

Front 29

Polonius

Back 29

Father of Ophelia and Laertes (in Hamlet)

Front 30

Horatio

Back 30

Hamlet's BFF. Tells Hamlet's story after he dies.

Front 31

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Back 31

Dumb idiots from Hamlet

Front 32

Fortinbras

Back 32

Crowned king at the end of Hamlet

Front 33

Macbeth

Back 33

Kills a ton of people at behest of Lady Macbeth. Kills King Duncan; eventually killed by Macduff

Lady Macbeth kills self

Front 34

"Yet I do fear thy nature.

It is too full o'th' milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way."

Back 34

Macbeth

Front 35

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."

Back 35

Macbeth's famous speech

Lit allusion: Faulkner

Front 36

Othello

Back 36

Marries Dedemona. Promotes Cassio instead of Iago; Iago convinces Othello he's boning Dedemona. Strangles Dedemona and kills self.

Race-- Othello is a 'moor' in Venice

Front 37

Iago

Back 37

Othello's antagonist. Pure evil.

Harold Bloom in "Anxiety of Influence" compares to Milton's Satan.

Front 38

Dedemona

Back 38

Othello's Wife. Daughter of Duke of Venice

Front 39

Cassio

Back 39

Othello promots him instead of Iago

Front 40

"For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, ’tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at. I am not what I am."

Back 40

Iago in Othello

Front 41

"She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,

'Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful."

Back 41

Othello discussing Desdemona

Front 42

"I hate the moor."

"Men should be what they seem,

Or those that be not, would they might seem none!

Back 42

Iago in Othello

Front 43

"Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss

Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,

But, oh, what damnèd minutes tells he o'er

Who dotes, yet doubts— suspects, yet soundly loves!"

Back 43

Iago in Othello

Front 44

"I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this,

Killing myself, to die upon a kiss."

Back 44

Othello's final words

Front 45

Kate

Back 45

Protagonist of Taming of the Shrew

Taming of the Shrew and Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale first stories with proto-feminist.

Front 46

Baptista

Back 46

Kate's mother in Taming of the Shrew. Won't let hot daughter Bianco marry until shrew Kate does

Front 47

Bianco

Back 47

Kate's hot sister in Taming of the Shrew

Front 48

Shakespeare play with many "-io" names

Back 48

Taming of the Shrew

Front 49

Petruccio

Back 49

Macho-man who marries and tames Kate in Taming of the Shrew

Front 50

Shakespeare's most direct engagement with colonial expansion.

Back 50

The Tempest

Front 51

Alonso

Back 51

King of Naples in The Tempest. He and his crew get stuck on island after daughter's wedding.

Front 52

Prospero

Back 52

Duke of Milan who is with daughter Miranda (& book of magic) on island in the Tempest. Forced to island by brother Antonio.

Enslaves both Caliban and spirit Ariel

Front 53

Caliban

Back 53

Island inhabitant in The Tempest who is enslaved by Prospero.

Tries to organize rebellion with Alonso's crew but Ariel rats on him.

In "Caliban upon Setebos," Robert Browning champions him as a Rosseau-ian 'natural man.'

Very important to postcolonial studies

Front 54

Ferdinand

Back 54

Member of Alonso's crew in the Tempest. Marries Prospero's daughter Miranda.

Front 55

Ariel

Back 55

Spirit in the Tempest who is first freed by Prospero (from clutches of Caliban's mom Sycorax), then enslaved by him.

Rats on rebellion attempt.

Front 56

Sycorax

Back 56

Caliban's mother in The Tempest. Former head of island before whites arrive.

Front 57

"All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!"

Back 57

Mariners at the beginning of The Tempest

Front 58

"I, thus, neglecting wordly ends, all dedicated

To closeness and the bettering of my mind."

Back 58

Prospero in The Tempest

Front 59

"When thou camest first,

Thou strok’st me and made much of me, wouldst give me

Water with berries in ’t, and teach me how

To name the bigger light, and how the less,

That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee

And showed thee all the qualities o' th' isle,

The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place and fertile.

Cursed be I that did so! All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!

For I am all the subjects that you have,

Which first was mine own king. And here you sty me

In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

The rest o' th' island."

Back 59

Caliban in The Tempest

Front 60

"You taught me language, and my profit on ’t

Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you

For learning me your language!

Back 60

Caliban to Prospero in The Tempest

Front 61

"Oh, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,

That has such people in ’t!

Back 61

Miranda in The Tempest

Lit Allusion: Aldous Huxley

Front 62

Bassanio

Back 62

Protagonist of The Merchant of Venice. Wants to marry rich Portia-- asks money from Antonio, who gets it from the Jew Shylock.

Has to pick right casket out of 3-- succeeds.

Front 63

Antonio

Back 63

Friend of Bassanio in Merchant of Venice who gives Bassanio money via Shylock.

Agrees to deal with Shylock that if he can't repay debt, Shylock gets to extract pound of flesh from him.

Once Shylock found 'guilty' of attempted murder, he agrees Shylock his money back on condition he a) gives it to daughter Jessica and b) converts to Christianity

This play is f'd up.

Front 64

Portia

Back 64

Bassanio's soon-to-be wife in Merchant of Venice. To save Antonio from Shylock's 'debt collection,' dresses up as male lawyer and rules that shylock can have Antonio's flesh if he can extract it w/o drawing blood. When he can't do this, she finds him guilty of attempts murder and rules he has to give wealth to Antonio.

Front 65

Shylock

Back 65

Jewish stereotype in Merchant of Venice. Gives Antonio money for Bassanio with condition that if he can't repay debt, gets to extract a pound of flesh.

Front 66

"Yes—to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto? Who is he comes here?"

Back 66

Shylock in Merchant of Venice

Front 67

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

An evil soul producing holy witness

Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,

A goodly apple rotten at the heart.

Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!"

Back 67

Shylock in The Merchant of Venice

Front 68

"Here, catch this casket. It is worth the pains.

I am glad ’tis night, you do not look on me,

For I am much ashamed of my exchange.

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see

The pretty follies that themselves commit,

For if they could Cupid himself would blush

To see me thus transformèd to a boy."

Back 68

Jessica (Shylock's daughter) to Lorenzo in Merchant of Venice

Front 69

Richard III

Back 69

Duke of Glouscester who wants kingship from brother, King Edward III. Kills other brother George, then puts Edward's sons in Tower of London for 'protection'-- when Edward dies, becomes king and kills sons.

Wants daughter of Edward III, but Edward's wife Elizabeth flees.

Eventually killed in battle.

He and Iago are most evil Shakespearean characters, tho Richard is protagonist-- perspective forces reader to sympathize with his evil.

Front 70

King Edward III

Back 70

King before his evil brother Richard III. Wife is Elizabeth.

Front 71

"Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this son of York,

And all the clouds that loured upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,

Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments,

Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,

Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;

And now, instead of mounting barbèd steeds

To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking glass;

I, that am rudely stamped and want love’s majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them—

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to see my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity.

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determinèd to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,

By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,

To set my brother Clarence and the king

In deadly hate, the one against the other;

And if King Edward be as true and just

As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,

This day should Clarence closely be mewed up

About a prophecy which says that “G”

Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul. Here Clarence comes."

Back 71

First 40 lines of Richard III

Front 72

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Back 72

Shakespeare Sonnet 18

Front 73

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

Back 73

Shakespeare Sonnet 116

Front 74

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare."

Back 74

Shakespeare Sonnet 130

Front 75

Epic invocation

Back 75

Address to muse that begins an epic

Front 76

Medias res

Back 76

Epics begin 'in the middle' of things (frequently backtracking after that).

Front 77

epic catalog

Back 77

Background info and other items often cataloged in very long lists in epics

Front 78

epic similie

Back 78

comparison in an epic that's extremely long; often mocked in mock epics

Front 79

Priam

Back 79

Ruler of Troy in The Iliad. Father of Paris.

Front 80

Paris

Back 80

Son of Priam (King of Troy) in The Iliad. He steals Helen (wife of Menelaus, Agamemnon's BFF), causing Trojan War.

Front 81

Helen

Back 81

Wife of Menelaus in The Iliad. Stolen by Paris

Front 82

"This is the story of an angry man."

Back 82

First lines of The Iliad

Front 83

Menelaus

Back 83

Helen's Husband and Agamemnon's BFF in The Iliad

Front 84

Agamemnon

Back 84

Leader of the Spartan siege of Troy, which lasts 10 years.

In the Iliad, takes Achilles' girl Bryseis, so Achilles won't fight. Eventually apologizes.

In the Oresteia, can only sail by sacrificing daughter Iphigenia. After Trojan War, returns with mistress Cassandra (daughter of Prium, king of Troy). This angers wife Clytemnestra, so she kills em both (with lover Aegisthus).

Front 85

Bryseis

Back 85

Love interest in The Iliad-- originally Achilles', then Agamemnons', which causes strife.

Front 86

Achilles

Back 86

Protagonist of the Iliad. Refuses to fight because Agamemnon took his girl Bryseis. Goes to ships with crew (The Myrmidons).

Once Agamemnon apologizes, still refuses to fight, but allows BFF Patrocles fight with his awesome armor.

This saves Greek ships, but Patrocles dies and loses armor. Enraged, Achilles asks demi-god mom Thetis for armor-- she gets it crafted by god Hephaestus.

Kills Hector and drags his body in dirt with chariot.

Front 87

Hector

Back 87

Son of Priam and brother of Paris in The Iliad. Helps Trojans briefly take upperhand over Spartans.

Eventually killed by Achilles; body dragged around via chariot.

Front 88

Patrocles

Back 88

Achilles' BFF in The Iliad. Pushes Trojans back (with Achilles' armor), but dies in process-- Achilles mourns his death for the rest of play, and wrecks ish.

Front 89

Thetis

Back 89

demi-god mom of Achilles-- Gets god Hephaestus to fashion new armor for son

Front 90

Odysseus

Back 90

During the Iliad, fought in Agamemnon's army. Following the events of Iliad, Odysseus is trying to return to Ithaca. Cursed by sea god Poseidon when he blinds his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. His crew also angers god Zeus when they murder sacred cow of Helios.

Goes through many trials. Eventually returns home and, with help of son Telemachus and god Athena kills all suitors to his wife Penelope.

Front 91

Penelope

Back 91

Wife of Odysseus-- stays loyal to him while he is gone despite many suitors.

Front 92

Telemachus

Back 92

Son of Odysseus who is almost killed by his wife's suitors. Helps dad kill em all later.

Front 93

Circe

Back 93

Witch from the island of Aenea in The Odyssey who turns Odysseus's men into pigs and traps everyone for a year.

Front 94

Polyphemus

Back 94

The cyclops from The Odyssey. Son of Poseidon.

Front 95

Sacred cow of Helios

Back 95

Killed by crew in The Odyssey-- this enrages Zeus, and he kills everyone but Odysseus, leaving him to wash ashore Ogygia, home of goddess Calypso, who detains him for 7 years.

Front 96

Calypso

Back 96

Goddess who detains Odysseus for 7 years. This is where the epic begins.

Front 97

Scylla and Charybolis

Back 97

2 monsters Odysseus and his crew sail between

Front 98

Scheria

Back 98

Island Odysseus gets to after being with Circe for 7 years. They have heard of his journey and get him back to Ithaca.

Front 99

Virgil

Back 99

Author of the Aeneid-- wanted to write a Roman epic like Homer's. Possibly more influential than Homer in pre-18th century because Roman > Greek.

Leads Dante through hell in Dante's Inferno

Lit Allusions:

XII-Book structure of Aeneid copied in Milton's Paradise Lost.

George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and The Man" is an allusion to Aeneid's first line.

Front 100

"I sing of Arms and the man..."

Back 100

First lines of Virgil's Aeneid. Referenced in title of George Bernard Shaw's play "Arms and The Man."

Front 101

Aeneas

Back 101

Son of goddess Venus. Leads Trojan army after defeat to Greeks, looking for new home in Italy. Blown of course by Juno to Carthage, where he befrieds Queen Dido and recounts story.

Eventually reminds by Jupiter and Mercury of his mission and leaves, leaving Dido grief-stricken. Eventually teams up with Evander (King of Latins) to combat Turnus and Rutuli.

Front 102

Juno

Back 102

Blows Aeneas and Trojans of course at beginning of Aeneid. Hates Trojans. Hero in Greek.

Front 103

Laocoon

Back 103

Warns Trojans not to accept gifts from Spartans, but is randomly eaten by 2 sea snakes. This leads to Trojan Horse.

Subject of Schiller essay

Front 104

Anchises

Back 104

Aeneas's father. Aeneas carries him on back following Trojan Horse attack.

Front 105

Queen Dido

Back 105

Queen of Carthage in Aeneid. Has long love affair with Aeneas and he recounts tale to her. When he decides to leave, she's so grieve stricken she kills herself.

Often alluded to in lit:

Mercutio's Queen Mab speech

Dante's Inferno- in 2nd ring of hell for lust

Christopher Marlowe's "Dido, queen of Carthage"

TS Eliot's Wasteland- lil in Game of Chess is composite of loves, including Dido

Front 106

3 Parts of the Oresteia

Back 106

Agamemnon, Choeporoe, The Eumenides

Author: Aeschylus.

About cursed house of Atreus

Front 107

3 reasons for Trojan war

Back 107

1) Paris abducts Helen from Menelaus

2) Zeus, in the form of a swan, rapes mortal Leda. (Yeats's "Leda and the swan)

3) Cursed house of Atreus-- affects son Agamemnon

Front 108

Cassandra

Back 108

Daughter of Priam, King of Troy. In the Oresteia, taken as mistress by Agamemnon after war-- this angers his wife, so she kills them both.

Front 109

Clytemnestra

Back 109

Agmemnon's wife. In the Oresteia, she's angered that husband Agamemnon has taken a mistress (Cassandra, daughter of Priam). She with her own lover Aegisthus murder them both; use Agamemnon's killing of daughter Iphigenia as justification.

Front 110

Iphigenia

Back 110

Daughter of Agamemnon and Cassandra. In the Oresteia, killed by father so he can sail.

Front 111

Aegisthus

Back 111

Son of Thyestes (brother of Atreus).

Cassandra's lover. In the Oresteia, he helps her kill Agamemnon and Cassandra.

Front 112

Orestes

Back 112

Exiled son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.

In the Choephoroe, revenges father's death by killing mother and her lover Aegisthus. Driven partly mad by The Furies.

In The Eumenides, Athena presides over his trial. Found innocent due to split jury (angering the Furies). This ends the curse of Atreus.

Front 113

Laius

Back 113

Husband of Jocasta, father of Oedipus.

Killed by stranger (Oedipus) in woods

Front 114

Jocasta

Back 114

Husband of Laius; husband and mother of Oedipus. When Oedipal prophecy is revealed, she kills herself.

Front 115

Corinth

Back 115

Where Oedipus is taken in and raised by Queen. Leaves and returns to Thebes in attempt to avoid fate as prophesied by Oracle at Delphi.

Front 116

Eteocles

Back 116

Son of Oedipus. He and brother Polyneices refuse agree to rotate rule of Thebes yearly, but he refuses to bounce after a year. In Oedipus at Colonus, Polyneices attacks Thebes for this and both die.

Front 117

Polyneices

Back 117

Son of Oedipus. He and brother Eteocles refuse agree to rotate rule of Thebes yearly, but Eteocles refuses to bounce after a year. In Oedipus at Colonus, he attacks Thebes for this and both die.

In Antigone, he's refused a proper burial by Creon (bro of Jocosta).

Front 118

Creon

Back 118

Brother of Jocosta who takes over rule of Thebes after Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other. Because Polyneices attacked Thebes, he refuses to give him proper burial, so soul won't rest.

Antigone breaks rule and buries Polynieces; as punishment, Creon entombs her in a cave, where she commits suicide.

He son and Antigone's love Haemon kills self upon discovering Antigone's dead body.

Front 119

Haemon

Back 119

Son of Creon who kills self after discovering his love Antigone dead.

Front 120

Ismene

Back 120

Antigone's sister; daughter of Oedipus.

Front 121

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks 5

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies, 10

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty lambs we pull,

Fair linèd slippers for the cold, 15

With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds

With coral clasps and amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my Love. 20

Thy silver dishes for thy meat

As precious as the gods do eat,

Shall on an ivory table be

Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 25

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my Love.

Back 121

Christopher Marlowe - "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"

Lit Allusions:

Sir Walter Raleigh - "The Nymph's Reply to the Sheperd"

Also: Donne, Robert Herrick, C Day Lewis

Front 122

Christopher Marlowe

Back 122

17th century poet.

Author of:

"The Passionate Sheperd to His Love"

"Tamburlaine"

"Dr.Faustus

Front 123

TO draw no envy, Shakspeare, on thy name,

Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;

While I confess thy writings to be such,

As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much.

’Tis true, and all men’s suffrage. But these ways 5

Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;

For seeliest ignorance on these may light,

Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right;

Or blind affection, which doth ne’er advance

The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance; 10

Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,

And think to ruin where it seemed to raise.

These are, as some infámous bawd or whore

Should praise a matron; what could hurt her more?

But thou art proof against them and, indeed, 15

Above the ill fortune of them, or the need.

I therefore will begin: Soul of the age!

The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!

My SHAKSPEARE, rise! I will not lodge thee by

Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie 20

A little further, to make thee a room: 1

Thou art a monument without a tomb,

And art alive still while thy book doth live,

And we have wits to read, and praise to give.

That I not mix thee so my brain excuses,— 25

I mean with great, but disproportioned Muses;

For if I thought my judgment were of years,

I should commit thee surely with thy peers,

And tell how far thou didst our Lyly outshine,

Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe’s mighty line. 30

And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek,

From thence to honour thee, I would not seek

For names, but call forth thund’ring Æschylus,

Euripides, and Sophocles to us,

Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova 2 dead, 35

To life again, to hear thy buskin tread,

And shake a stage; or when thy socks were on,

Leave thee alone for a comparison

Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome

Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. 40

Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show,

To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.

He was not of an age, but for all time!

And all the Muses still were in their prime,

When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm 45

Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm!

Nature herself was proud of his designs,

And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines,

Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,

As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit. 50

The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes,

Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;

But antiquated and deserted lie,

As they were not of Nature’s family.

Yet must I not give Nature all; thy Art, 55

My gentle Shakspeare, must enjoy a part.

For though the poet’s matter nature be,

His art doth give the fashion; and that he 3

Who casts to write a living line, must sweat

(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat 60

Upon the Muses’ anvil, turn the same,

And himself with it, that he thinks to frame;

Or for the laurel he may gain to scorn;

For a good poet ’s made, as well as born.

And such wert thou! Look, how the father’s face 65

Lives in his issue, even so the race

Of Shakspeare’s mind and manners brightly shines

In his well turnèd and true filèd lines,

In each of which he seems to shake a lance,

As brandished at the eyes of ignorance. 70

Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were

To see thee in our waters yet appear,

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,

That so did take Eliza and our James!

But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere 75

Advanced, and made a constellation there!

Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage

Or influence chide or cheer the drooping stage,

Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,

And despairs day but for thy volume’s light. 80

Note 1. In allusion to W. Basse’s elegy on Shakspeare, beginning—

‘Renownèd Spenser, lie a thought more nigh

To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont, lie

A little nearer Spenser, to make room

For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb.’

Note 2. Seneca.

Note 3. That he = that man.

Back 123

Ben Johnson - "To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare"

Note all the lit allusions

Front 124

Ben Johnson

Back 124

17th century playwright and poet. Wrote Volpone and "To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare"

Front 125

The Julia Poems

Back 125

Trilogy of poems written by Robert Herrick to invented mistress.

Front 126

Display thy breasts, my Julia—there let me
Behold that circummortal purity,
Between whose glories there my lips I’ll lay,
Ravish’d in that fair via lactea.

Back 126

Robert Herrick - "Upon Julia’s Breasts"

Front 127

Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;
O how that glittering taketh me!

Back 127

Robert Herrick - "Upon Julia’s Clothes"

Front 128

Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee,
The shooting stars attend thee;
And the elves also,
Whose little eyes glow
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.

No Will-o’-th’-Wisp mislight thee,
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way,
Not making a stay,
Since ghost there’s none to affright thee.

Let not the dark thee cumber:
What though the moon does slumber?
The stars of the night
Will lend thee their light
Like tapers clear without number.

Then, Julia, let me woo thee,
Thus, thus to come unto me;
And when I shall meet
Thy silv’ry feet
My soul I’ll pour into thee.

Back 128

Robert Herrick - "The Night Piece, to Julia"

Front 129

Robert Herrick

Back 129

17th century poet. Author of the Julia Poems and "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"

Front 130

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

Back 130

Robert Herrick - "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"

(Similar to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress")

Front 131

Andrew Marvell

Back 131

17th century poet; author of "To His Coy Mistress"

Front 132

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires and more slow;

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long-preserved virginity,

And your quaint honour turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust;

The grave’s a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

Let us roll all our strength and all

Our sweetness up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Thorough the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Back 132

Andrew Marvell - "To His Coy Mistress"

(Summary: Lets get it on before we die.)

Front 133

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;

Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,

Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page

Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;

Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,

And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast

The little tyrant of his fields withstood;

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Back 133

Portion of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

(Summary: Meditation on dying w/o one's gifts being recognized.)

Front 134

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth

A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.

Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,

And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,

Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:

He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,

He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

(There they alike in trembling hope repose)

The bosom of his Father and his God.

Back 134

Concluding Epitaph to Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

Written for friend Richard West

(Summary: Meditation on dying w/o one's gifts being recognized.)

Front 135

Thomas Grey

Back 135

18th century poet; author of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

Front 136

The Lucy Poems

Back 136

Series of poems written by Wordsworth examining the unrequited love for an idealized English girl who has died young. Tone is melancholic and elegiac.

Published in Lyrical Ballads (which he co-published with Coleridge).

Similar in themes to Thomas Grey's "Elegy in a country courtyard."

The Five Poems:

"Strange fits of passion have I known"

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways"

"I travelled among unknown men"

"Three years she grew in sun and shower"

"A slumber did my spirit seal".

Front 137

William Wordsworth

Back 137

18th/19th century Romantic poet. Co-published Lyrical Ballads with friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Poetry: Be familiar with the Lucy Poems, especially "She dwelt among the untrodden ways"

Non-fiction: Be familiar with his preface to Lyrical Ballads.

Valued non-academic language and rustic people/settings.

One of the 'lake poets;' had correspondence with witty urban essayist Charles Lamb.

Front 138

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

—Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

Back 138

William Wordworth - "She dwelt among the untrodden ways"

Most famous Lucy Poem.

Front 139

It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains: but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to fail

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Back 139

Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Ulysses

Summary: A bored Ulysses in Ithaca ponders sailing with crew again, mortality more generally.

Written in Blank Verse

(Note all the classical references)

Front 140

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Back 140

19th Century Victorian poet; author of "Ulysses" and "In Memoriam A.H.H"

Wrote of classical themes and often in blank verse.

Front 141

"Nature, red in tooth and claw"

Back 141

From Tennyson's "In Memoriam A.H.H."

Front 142

"'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all"

Back 142

From Tennyson's "In Memoriam A.H.H."

Front 143

In Memoriam A.H.H.

Back 143

Alfred, Lord Tennyson's long eulogy poem.

Written in 4-line stanzas.

Front 144

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Back 144

William Butler Yeats - "The Second Coming"

Uses biblical imagery and allusions to discuss post-WWI Europe.

(Know this poem!)

Front 145

W.B. Yeats

Back 145

20th century Irish Poet; author of "The Second Coming"

Moved away from transcendentalism and wrote more realism later in his life.

Associated with Symbolist movement

Front 146

Old English Verse

Back 146

Only accented syllables count.

Feature a central caesura.

Instead of rhyming, lines alliterate over caesura.

Front 147

Middle English Verse

Back 147

Alliterative but, unlike Old English verse, contains no caesura.

Front 148

Beowulf

Back 148

Swedish hero who, at request of King Hrothgar, slays Grendel and his mother.

Becomes king of his people (the Geats)

Later killed by Dragon; appoints Wiglaf as king.

Front 149

King Hrothgar

Back 149

King prior to Beowulf; asks Beowulf to kill Grendel

Front 150

Grendel

Back 150

Villain from Beowulf

Front 151

Wiglaf

Back 151

Appointed King by Beowulf before dying

Front 152

Heorot

Back 152

Beowulf's mead hall.

Front 153

"Piers Plowman"

Back 153

Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. Written in alliterative style.

Consists of 8 allegorical visions in which the character Will seeks Truth.

Front 154

William Langland

Back 154

14th century middle english alliterative poet; author of "Piers Plowman"

Front 155

The Knight (Canterbury Tales)

Back 155

Character: Typical knight

Tale: Two Friends (Arcite and Palamon) are prisoners who battle for woman (Emily). Arcite prays to Mars; Palamon Venus. Arcite wins battle but dies, so Palamon gets Emily.

Front 156

Arcite & Palamon

Back 156

Two characters from the Knight's Tale in the Canterbury Tales.

They battle over a girl (Emily). Arcite wins but dies, so Palamon gets girl.

Front 157

The Prioress

Back 157

Character: Dainty, loves dogs, wears a golden brooch with 'love conquers all' written on it.

Tale: Jews kill boy for singing hymn Alma Redemption. Boy keeps singing even after throat is split.

In rhyme royal (iambic pentameter; a-b-a-b-b-c-c)

Line: "Murder will out."

Front 158

Rhyme royal

Back 158

Rhyme scheme introduced by Chaucer.

Iambic pentameter and a-b-a-b-b-c-c.

Either a tercet and two couplets (aba bb cc) or a quatrain and tercet (abab bcc).

Front 159

Alma Redemption

Back 159

Christian hymn sung by boy in The Prioress's tale in Chaucer. Boy keeps singing even after throat is slit.

Front 160

The Nun's Priest

Back 160

Chaunticleer is a vain, singing rooster who has dream he's going to be eaten. Love interest Lady Pertelote tells him not to be a coward.

Sir Russell the fox comes along and flatters Chaunticleer into singing with eyes closed, then abducts him. Right before he's about to finish eating him, Sir Russell opens his mouth to brag, letting Chaunticleer escape.

Note: ETS loves this story. It's a mock-heroic.

Front 161

Chaunticleer

Back 161

Vain, singing rooster from the Nun's Priest's Tale in Chaucer.

Front 162

Lady Pertelote

Back 162

Hen from the Nun's Priest's Tale in Chaucer. Chaunticleer has the hots for her; she tells him to stop being a coward, which leads to him almost being eaten by Sir Russell the fox.

Front 163

Sir Russell

Back 163

Fox from the Nun's Priest's Tale in Chaucer. He nearly eats Chaunticleer the rooster, but allows him to escape when he opens his mouth to brag.

Front 164

The Merchant (Canterbury Tales)

Back 164

Character: Talks almost entirely about business matters, but is actually in debt. Wears a beaver hat.

Tale: January is an old knight who marries a young hottie (May), then goes blind soon after. January grows jealous and won't let may out of arm's reach. She cheats on him with lover Damian while in a tree-- January thinks she's the stump. While they get it on, Pluto restores January's sight. May convinces January she only cheated on him to cure his blindness.

Front 165

January

Back 165

Old knight from The Merchant's Tale in Chaucer. He goes blind after marrying young May, grows jealous, and then has his vision restored by Pluto when May is cheating on him.

Front 166

May

Back 166

January's wife in The Merchant's tale in Chaucer. She cheats on the blind January with Damian; when January's sight is restored, she convinces January she cheated on him only to cure his blindness.

Front 167

Wife of Bath

Back 167

Character: outsized version of womanhood (in Canterbury Tales). Plump, gap-toothed, scarlett stockings, married 5 times, talks openly about sex, love, etc.

(ETS loves her-- read her bit in the prologue as well as her own prologue before tale.)

Tale: A knight from King Arthur's court commits rape and can only escape death by answering question 'what do woman desire most?' He agrees to marry repulsive witch who claims to have answer, which turns out to be 'sovereignty.' Witch turns into beautiful maiden.

Front 168

'What do woman desire most?"

Back 168

Question a knight must answer in the Wife of Bath's tale from Chaucer.

A: sovereignty

Front 169

The Miller

Back 169

Character: huge, hard-drinking, rough-talking, coarse. Red beard & wart on nose. Tells very dirty tale while drunk.

Tale: A carpenter is convinced by wife (Alison) and boarder (Handy Nicholas) to spend night on roof in bathtub b/c threat of apocalypse. This allows them to have sexy time, but interrupted by another suitor, Absalom. Alison says she'll kiss him, then tricks him into kissing her ass. They try again with Handy Nicholas, but he brands Nicholas with poker. Nicholas screams 'water' and the carpenter comes down from roof thinking the 2nd flood has occurred.

Front 170

Alison (Chaucer)

Back 170

Cheating wife from The Miller's tale. She cheats on carpenter husband with boarder Handy Nicholas. Also rejects suitor Absalom.

Front 171

Handy Nicholas

Back 171

Boarder from The Miller's Tale in Chaucer; Alison cheats on her husband the carpenter with him. Gets butt branded with poker.

Front 172

The Pardoner

Back 172

Character: pretty boy, huckster, 'the love of money is the root of evil.'

Tale: 3 drunks look for Death, who has claimed friend, but find treasure instead. They murder each other over it. [Rancid!]

After tale, host threatens to sever Pardoner's testicles.

Front 173

The Franklin

Back 173

Chaucer character who is a wealthy landowner.

Tells romantic tale of lover (Aurelius), faithful wife (Dorigen), and husband (Arveragus)

Front 174

The Reeve

Back 174

Character: Overseer of group in Chaucer

Tale: Simkin, a greedy miller, has his wife and daughter enjoyed by pair of clerks (John and Alan) after swindling them.

Front 175

The Clerk (Canterbury Tales)

Back 175

Tale: Patient wife Griselda endures extreme jealously of husband Marquis Walter

Front 176

The Doctor (Canterbury Tales)

Back 176

Tale: Virginia has her father kill her to avoid the evil judge Apius

Front 177

Sir Gawain

Back 177

From "Sir Gawain & The Green Knight," a 14th century piece. Draws on Arthur & Court of Camelot.

Author: The Pearl Poet

Knight crashes NYE party w/ challenge: will allow anyone to behead him, but if he survives, gets to behead challenger in a year. Gawain accepts, and Knight picks up head and places it on head. Gawain travels to Green Chapel a year later, but Knight spares him for being noble.

Style: Written in distinctive verse stanza. Body of each stanza in long alliterative lines, but ends with 'bob & wheel.'

Bob: Single, very short line (1 foot)

Wheel: Short Quatrain of trimeter rhyming lines.

(Biggest way to differentiate b/t Gawain and Malory's 'D'Arthur.'

Front 178

Le Morte D'Arthur

Back 178

Late Middle English piece by Sir Thomas Malory. Written in prose

Front 179

Sir Thomas Malory

Back 179

Late Middle English author of 'Le Morte D'Arthur.' Written in prose.

Front 180

Edward Spencer

Back 180

Early 17th century poet; author of "The Faerie Queen"

Invented Spenserian stanza:

-9 lines, ababbcbbc

-1st 8 in iambic pentameter; last in iambic hexameter.

Wrote in intentionally archaic English syntax.

Front 181

Spenserian stanza

Back 181

Created by Edward Spencer. Most famously in "The Faerie Queen"

-9 lines, ababbcbbc

-1st 8 in iambic pentameter; last in iambic hexameter.

-Last line: Alexandrine

Front 182

The Faerie Queen

Back 182

By Edward Spencer.

Recognizable b/c of Spenserian stanza

Front 183

"Tamburlaine the Great"

Back 183

17th century poem by Christopher Marlowe.

Plot: Tamburlaine, a sheperd, becomes a ferocious conqueror in Asia Minor.

Main female character: Zerocrate

Front 184

Zerocrate

Back 184

Main female character in Christopher Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great"

Front 185

"Dr. Faustus"

Back 185

17th century poem by Christopher Marlowe.

Plot: a sorcerer (Faustus) sells his soul for power. Persecuted by Lucifer, Beelzebub, & Mephistopheles.

(Goethe's version: "Faust." Soul exchanged for knowledge; only Mephistopheles persecutes.)

Front 186

John Donne

Back 186

Extremely witty early 17th century poet.

Young Donne: Playboy

Old Donne: Religious

Front 187

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school-boys and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

Thy beams so reverend, and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long.
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
Whether both th’ Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou left’st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, “All here in one bed lay.”

She’s all states, and all princes I;
Nothing else is;
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world’s contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.

Back 187

"The Sun Rising," an early poem by John Donne

Front 188

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is;

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

Thou know’st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,

Yet this enjoys before it woo,

And pampered swells with one blood made of two,

And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, nay more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our mariage bed, and marriage temple is;

Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,

And cloistered in these living walls of jet.

Though use make you apt to kill me,

Let not to that, self-murder added be,

And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since

Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,

Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?

Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that thou

Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;

’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:

Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,

Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

Back 188

"The Flea," an early poem by John Donne

Front 189

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp'd town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,

But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Back 189

"Holy Sonnet 14," a late poem by John Donne

Front 190

Paradise Lost

Back 190

17th century poem by John Milton

Written in blank verse

Extremely long sentences

Front 191

Blank Verse

Back 191

Consistent meter (usually iambic pentameter), but no rhyme scheme.

Front 192

John Milton

Back 192

17th century poet.

Author:

Paradise Lost

"Areopagitica"

"Comus"

"Lycida"

Front 193

"Areopagitica"

Back 193

Prose piece by John Milton advocating for free speech.

Argument: censorship goes against god's will.

Front 194

"...as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book; who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, Gods Image; but hee who destroyes a good Booke, kills reason it selfe, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the Earth; but a good Booke is the pretious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalm'd and treasur'd up on purpose to a life beyond life."

Back 194

From Milton's "Areopagitica," a prose piece against censorship.

Front 195

"Comus"

Back 195

A 'masque' by John Milton-- incorporated music, singing, dancing, theater, etc.

Plot: Lost lady in woods falls asleep and is captured by the lecherous Comus + faces erotic harassment.

Front 196

Mortals that would follow me,

Love virtue, she alone is free,

She can teach ye how to climb

Higher than the Sphery chime;

Or if Virtue feeble were,

Heav'n itself would stoop to her

Back 196

Final lines of Milton's "Comus"

Front 197

"Lycidas"

Back 197

Pastoral elegy by John Milton for friend Edward King.

style: Irregular rhythms and rhymes, allusive. (200 lines-- worth reading to get sense of style)

Theme: nature combined with poetic fame (laurels)-- pastoral past, classic tradition, Christianity.

Front 198

"Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more"

Back 198

First lines of Milton's "Lycidas"

Front 199

He must not flote upon his watry bear

Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,

Without the meed of som melodious tear.

Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well, 15

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring,

Begin, and somwhat loudly sweep the string.

Back 199

From Milton's "Lycidas"

Front 200

But O the heavy change, now thou art gon,

Now thou art gon, and never must return!

Back 200

From Milton's "Lycidas"

Front 201

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise

(That last infirmity of Noble mind)

To scorn delights, and live laborious dayes;

Back 201

From Milton's "Lycidas"

Front 202

Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth.

And, O ye Dolphins, waft the haples youth.

Back 202

From Milton's "Lycidas"

Front 203

John Bunyan

Back 203

17th century poet; author of "The Pilgrim's Progress"

Front 204

"The Pilgrim's Progress"

Back 204

17th century poem by John Bunyan

Plot: Christian works towards redemption

Setting: Celestial City, Vanity Fair

(Easy to spot, so look over it)

Front 205

Celestial City, Vanity Fair

Back 205

Settings in "The Pilgrim's Progress," a 17th century poem by John Bunyan

Front 206

John Dryden

Back 206

17th century poet.

Author:
"Absalom & Achitophel"
"Mac Flecknoe"

Famous for Heroic Couplet usage

Front 207

"Absalom & Achitophel"

Back 207

17th century poem by John Drydon. Uses biblical characters to analogize political crises during reign of Charles II. (Charles got around a lot, but had no legit [ie protestant] heir, so christian brother James is heir.)

Absalom: Duke of Monmouth

Achitophel: Earl of Shaftesbury

King David: Charles II

Written in Heroic Couplets.

Front 208

Heroic Couplet

Back 208

Poetic form consisting of rhyming pairs of lines in iambic pentameter.

Most famous examples: Canterbury Tales, John Drydon

Front 209

Mac Flecknoe

Back 209

17th century satirical poem by John Drydon; a vicious attack on dramatist Thomas Shadwell (aka Mac Flecknoe), noting his ascension to the 'throne of dullness.'

Mock Epic.

[Worth reading-- many lit allusions]

Front 210

Restoration Comedy

Back 210

Typically centered on tension between social moral codes & human lust/social ambition, as well as 'war of the sexes.'

Witty, farce, innuendo-laden. Character names usually explain character.

Typically open with prologue in verse, but plays themselves not in verse.

[For ETS, need to know distinctive features and distinguish plays/authors.]

Front 211

William Wycherley

Back 211

17th century Restoration comic playwright; author of "The Country Wife."

Front 212

Mr. Horner, Mr. Pinchwife, Sir Jasper Fidget, Mrs. Squeamish, Mrs. Dainty Fidget

Back 212

Characters from "The Country Wife," 17th century Restoration comedy by William Wycherley.

Front 213

George Etherge

Back 213

17th century restoration comic playwright; author of "The Man of Mode."

Front 214

Mr. Dominant, Sir Fopling Flutter, Mrs. Loveit

Back 214

Characters from "The Man of Mode," 17th Century Restoration comedy by George Etherge

Front 215

William Congreve

Back 215

17th century restoration comic playwright; author of "The Way of the World."

Front 216

Millamant, Mirabell, Mr. Fainall, Lady Wishfort, Foible, Minering

Back 216

Characters from "The Way of the World," 17th Century Restoration comedy by William Congreve.

Front 217

Richard Sheridan

Back 217

18th Century restoration comedy playwright; author of "The School for Scandal"

Front 218

Sir Peter Teazle, Maria, Lady Sneerwell, Sir Benjamin Backbite, Charles Surface

Back 218

Characters from "The School for Scandal," an 18th century Restoration comedy by Richard Sheridan

Front 219

Lilliput

Back 219

From Swift's Gulliver Travels-- where everyone is 6 inches tall.

Front 220

Brobdingnag

Back 220

From Swift's Gulliver Travels-- Where everyone's enormous

Front 221

Laputa

Back 221

From Swift's Gulliver Travels- The Flying island

Front 222

The Struldburgs

Back 222

From Swift's Gulliver Travels-- Sad immortals who want to die.

Front 223

Houyhnhnms

Back 223

From Swift's Gulliver Travels- Intelligent horses

Front 224

Yahoos

Back 224

From Swift's Gulliver Travels- Violent idiots who turn out to be humans.

Front 225

Alexander Pope

Back 225

18th century poet; author of "The Rape of the Lock," and "the Dunciad."

Style: heroic couplets, ends lines with natural pauses

Front 226

The Rape of the Lock

Back 226

The most famous mock epic, written by Alexander Pope. About real life drama re: bad haircut Lord Petre have Arabella Fermor ('Belinda' in the poem, the central character)

Epic elements:

Epic Feast - coffee

Epic battle - on card table

interference of gods - spirits of dead demi-mondes

Front 227

The Dunciad

Back 227

Mock epic written by Alexander Pope; a critical attack on bad poets/poetry, esp. Colley Cibber.

Plot: goddess Dulness picks her chosen agents to bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to England. Bayes is crowned poet laureate of Dulness; everyone falls asleep during ceremony as Dulness prevails over art/science.

Front 228

Samuel Johnson

Back 228

Best literary mind of 18th century-- wrote in many forms.

Works:

- "The Vanity of Human Wishes" - Poem

- "The Lives of English Poets" - Biography

- Main contributor to the journal The Rambler

- 1st Modern English Dictionary

- Rassels - Novel (Sad tale about Prince of Abyssinia failing to live happy life.)

James Boswell wrote a gushing biography about him.

Front 229

Primary contributor to The Rambler

Back 229

Samuel Johnson

Front 230

James Boswell

Back 230

Wrote a gushing biography about Samuel Johnson.

Described Johnson as witty but irritable.

Showed Johnson 'in life'-- provided snippets of conversation

Front 231

William Blake

Back 231

18th and 19th century poet with 2 distinctive styles.

1) Childlike simplicity in meter/syntax found in Songs of Innocence and Experience. (ETS cares more about this phase.)

2) Visionary mystic with complex personal theology. Works: "Marriage of Heaven & Hell," "Visions of Daughters Albion."

Front 232

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp,

Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears:

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Back 232

"The Tyger," by William Blake, from Songs of Experience. His most famous piece.

Front 233

Horace Walpole

Back 233

Author of "The Castle of Otranto," the first gothic novel.

Front 234

The Castle of Otranto

Back 234

The first gothic novel, written by Horace Walpole.

Front 235

Anne Radcliffe

Back 235

Author of "The Mysteries of Udolpho," the most popular gothic novel.

Took supernatural elements of "Castle of Otranto" and gave them real-world plausibility. Her gothic explique was premised in reality.

Lit: Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is a spoof on Radcliffe's Udolpho and other gothic works.

Front 236

gothic explique

Back 236

terms of portion at end of gothic novel in which everything is 'explained.'

Front 237

The Mysteries of Udolpho

Back 237

The most popular gothic novel, written by Anne Radcliffe.

Big innovation: Relies on real-world elements (as opposed to supernatural elements) to create mystery.

Lit: Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is a spoof on Udolpho

Front 238

The Monk

Back 238

late gothic novel by MG 'Mong' Lewis.

Front 239

Jane Austen

Back 239

18th and 19th century novelist. Known for understated, ironic treatment of characters.

Novels:

Sense and Sensibility

Pride and Prejudice

Mansfield Park

Emma

Northanger Abbey

Persuasion

Front 240

Elinor & Marianne Dashwood, Lucy Steele, Edward Ferris, John Willoughby, Colonial Brandon

Back 240

Characters from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Front 241

Eliza Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darey, Charles Bingley, George Wickham

Back 241

Characters form Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Front 242

"IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

Back 242

The beginning of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Front 243

The Bertrams, Fanny Price, Mrs. Norris

Back 243

Characters from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Front 244

Emma Woodhouse, Miss Bates

Back 244

Characters from Emma by Jane Austen

Emma: handsome, clever, rich

Front 245

Catherine Morland, The Allens, Henry Tilney, John Thorpe

Back 245

Characters from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.

A spoof on Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho

Front 246

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Back 246

18th and 19th Century Romantic poet; along with Wordsworth and Robert Southey, one of the Lake Poets.

Co-wrote Lyrical Ballads w/ Wordswoth

Author of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and aesthetic-theory piece Biographia Literaria.

Aesthetic principles: Imagination is the supreme human faculty. It's cultivation is the prerequisite & aim of poetry. imagination takes WORK.

He and Wordsworth had correspondence with witty urban essayist Charles Lamb

Front 247

Aesthetic principles:

-Imagination is the supreme human faculty.

-It's cultivation is the prerequisite & aim of poetry.

-Imagination takes work. Isn't effortless.

Back 247

The aesthetic principles of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as outlines in Biographia Literaria.

Front 248

The Lake Poets

Back 248

Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey.

Romantic poets who had residency in Lake district of England; released Lyrical Ballads.

Had correspondence with witty urban essayist Charles Lamb

Front 249

Charles Lamb

Back 249

early 19th century witty urban essayist who had correspondence with the very not-urban Lake Poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey)

Front 250

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Back 250

Most famous long poem by Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Written in 4 line stanzas.

Plot: sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style.

Front 251

Thomas Carlyle

Back 251

Victorian Essayist who wrote in a berserk prose style. A funny, weird, ridiculous write heavily influenced by Kant.

Author of Sartor Resartus: philosophy in guise of fiction, discussing outward appearances v. inward essences.

Front 252

Professor Tefelsdrockh, The Everlasting Yes, The Everlasting No, The Wanderer, hometown of Weissnichtwo

Back 252

Characters from Sartor Resartus, a victorian essay by Thomas Caryle.

Philosophy in guise of fiction, written in berserk, witty style.

Front 253

Sartor Resartus

Back 253

philosophy in guise of fiction essay by Victorian essayist Thomas Carlyle.

Means 'tailor reclothed.' About outward appearances v inward essences, as well as Carlyle's spiritual growth Heavily influenced by Kant

Front 254

Cardinal John Henry Newman

Back 254

Victorian essayist who wrote on religion and the liberal arts. Dispassionate reformer

Style: extremely clear and logical; would break points down 1 by 1.

Works:

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

The Idea of the University

Front 255

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Back 255

Victorian essay by Cardinal John Henry Newman; discusses conversion from Anglican faith to Roman Catholicism.

Front 256

The Idea of the University

Back 256

Victorian essay by Cardinal John Henry Newman which advocates for the merits of a liberal arts education.

Front 257

John Stuart Mill

Back 257

Victorian essayist who wrote on democracy, art, politics, and the personal. Passionate Reformer

Works:

Autobiographia

On Liberty

What is Poetry

The Subjection of Woman

Front 258

Autobiographia

Back 258

personal Victorian essay by John Stuart Mill. Discusses his depression due to a logic-heavy, art-less education.

Front 259

On Liberty

Back 259

Victorian essay by John Stuart Mill which discusses how, in democracy, the rights of the individual must be protected from the 'tyranny of the majority.'

Front 260

What is Poetry?

Back 260

Victorian essay by John Stuart Mill.

Poetry is the expression of the self to the self, whereas eloquence is the expression of the self to another.

Front 261

Matthew Arnold

Back 261

Victorian essayist and poet. Author of "Dover Beach."

Wrote frequently on culture. Used Ancient Greeks as ideal culture. He hates 'philistinism.' Uses the phrase 'sweetness & light' frequently in Culture and Anarchy (though phrase is originally from Swifts' Battle of the Books.)

Front 262

John Ruskin

Back 262

Victorian essayist who wrote Stones of Venice, an archeology/philosophy study which reads morality and culture in city structures.

Coined phrase 'pathetic fallacy-' author projects sentiment onto object

Front 263

Stones of Venice

Back 263

archeology study by Victorian essayist John Ruskin, in which he reads morality and culture in city structures.

Front 264

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Back 264

19th century American author.

Novels:

The Scarlett Letter

The Blithedale Romance

House of Seven Gables

Front 265

Roger Chillingworth, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, Pearl

Back 265

Characters from Hawthorne's Scarlett Letter

Roger Chillingworth - Husband

Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale - lover

Hester Prynne - bearer of Scarlett A

Pearl - illegit child of Hester and Dimmesdale

Front 266

Blithedale Farm

Back 266

setting of Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance. Based on real, utopian, transcendental community: Brook Farm

Front 267

Miles Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Zenobia, Priscilla

Back 267

Characters from Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance

Front 268

The Pyncheons, Hepzibah, Old Maule, Phoebe, Holgrave, Clifford

Back 268

characters from Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables

theme: sins of fathers visited upon later generations

Front 269

Ishmael

Back 269

narrator and sole survivor in Melville's Moby-Dick

Front 270

Ahab

Back 270

Captain from Melville's Moby-Dick; monologues written in biblical-Shakespearean style

Front 271

Tashtego

Back 271

Savage Harpooners from Melville's Moby-Dick

Front 272

Starbuck

Back 272

1st mate in Melville's Moby-Dick

Front 273

Piquod

Back 273

the ship from Melville's Moby-Dick

Front 274

Queequeg

Back 274

cannibal savage harpooner from Melville's Moby-Dick

Front 275

Billy Budd

Back 275

From Melville's story of the same name. He's a handsome, Christlike sailor who is undone by his own goodness and the evil of Claggart.

Front 276

Claggart

Back 276

Evil character who corrupts Billy Budd in Melville's short story.

Front 277

Walt Whitman

Back 277

19th century poet who wrote in free verse. Middle point between transcendentalism and realism.

Style: long, exuberant lines; uses repetition instead of rhyme for structure.

Leaves of Grass- Includes 'Song of Myself;' influenced by German metaphysics, hindu religious texts, and most of all Emerson's transcendentalism.

Bio: Grew up in Brookyln, wandered alone while doing newspaper work. Worked as volunteer nurse. Travels helped transform generic writing to unique, America style.

Front 278

Virginia Woolf

Back 278

early 20th century novelist and critic.

Style: Intense free indirect discourse (stream of consciousness), highlighting interiority of characters via minor details (as opposed to allusion-heavy FID of Joyce)

Works:

Mrs. Dalloway

To the Lighthouse

A Room of One's Own

Front 279

Clarrisa Dalloway

Back 279

Protagonist of Woolf' Mrs Dalloway.

Novel is a day in the life of Clarrisa Dalloway as she readies home for party, with a deep focus on her interiority (through free-indirect discourse/stream of consciousness)

Front 280

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

Back 280

First line from Woolf' Mrs. Dalloway.

Note focus on minor details to reveal major traits of characters.

Front 281

Septimus Smith, Sully Seton, Peter Walsh

Back 281

Characters from Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

Septimus Smith - shell-shocked veteran whose a major parallel (from Clarissa Dalloway) in story.

Also: Richard Dalloway

Front 282

To the Lighthouse

Back 282

Novel by Virginia Woolf

Plot: The Ramsay family visits a lighthouse twice.

Major focus on passage of time, accomplished through free-indirect discourse style. Additionally the 2nd part (of 3) is written in experimental elliptical prose, creating an 'H' structure for novel.

Front 283

"Nothing is merely one thing."

Back 283

First lines of Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

Note how it highlights novel's focus on time (and its plurality)

Front 284

Lily Briscoe, Charles Tansley, Augustus Carmichael, Paul Rayley, Minta Doyle

Back 284

Characters from Woolf's To The Lighthouse

Front 285

"ll I could do was to offer you an opinion upon one minor point — a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved. I have shirked the duty of coming to a conclusion upon these two questions — women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems. "

Back 285

From Woolf's a Room of One's Own

Front 286

Judith Shakespeare

Back 286

The invented sister of Shakespeare, created by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own to illustrate hindrances female writers have.

Front 287

"The Dead"

Back 287

The most famous story from Joyce's Dubliners

Gabriel Conroy attends party with wife Gretta. Series of events (including Gretta's response to a song) reveal she had former lover (Michael Furey) who died from illness.

Epiphany ruptures pastoral construction of story, ending with Conroy meditating on snow.

Front 288

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

Back 288

Final lines from Joyce's "The Dead." A meditation by Gabriel Conroy after he discovered his wife had a former lover.

Front 289

Gabriel Conroy

Back 289

Protagonist from Joyce's The Dead.

Front 290

Gretta

Back 290

Wife of Gabriel Conroy from Joyce's The Dead

Front 291

Michael Furey

Back 291

Former lover of Gretta in Joyce's The Dead

Front 292

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

Back 292

Novel by James Joyce; protagonist Stephen Daedalus

Uses free-indirect discourse to extreme-- novel starts with Stephen's baby-speak, and ends with pages from his journal as a young writer.

Front 293

“The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.”

Back 293

From Joyce's A Portrait of an Artist as Young Man

Said by protagonist Stephen Daedalus, but also often evoked as Joyce's aesthetic theory.

Front 294

Leopold Bloom

Back 294

The protagonist of Joyce's Ulysses.

He is the Odysseus to Stephen Daedalus's Telemachus, taking him in and mentoring him.

Each episode based on episode from Homer's Odyssey. General plot: following Leopold on an unremarkable day in Dublin.

Front 295

"yes I said yes I will Yes"

Back 295

From Molly Bloom's perspective during the 'Penelope' episode in Joyce's Ulysses. She is Leopold's wife.

Front 296

“Every telling has a taling and that’s the
he and she of it”

Back 296

Quote from Joyce's Finnigan's Wake

Front 297

William Faulkner

Back 297

20th century American novelist.

style: stream of consciousness with frequent italics to reflect internal thought

Important works:

Sound and The Fury

As I Lay Dying

Absalom, Absalom!

Front 298

Yoknapatawpha County

Back 298

Fictitious southern setting found in many Faulkner novels

Front 299

Benjy

Back 299

Narrator from the first section of Faulkner's Sound and The Fury. Mentally disabled-- extremely ambitious story telling.

Front 300

Quentin Compson

Back 300

Narrator from 2nd section of Faulkner's Sound and the Fury. His section is written in a modernist style.

Obsessed with downfall of South following Civil War as well as the (lack of) purity of his sister Caddy-- clearly incestuous. Commits suicide to escape thoughts.

He is also the primary narrator of Absalom, Absalom!. Tells the story of Thomas Sutpen to his college roommate (in fragments-- other narrators as well.)

Front 301

Caddy

Back 301

Quentin Compson's sister in Sound and the Fury-- Quentin's obsession with her and her (lack of) chastity drives him to suicide

Front 302

As I Lay Dying

Back 302

Faulkner novel with incredible perspective complexity-- 15 narrators.

Plot: Family of Addie Buntren try to honor her death by transporting her body to Jefferson.

Lit: Title is allusion to book XI of Homer's Odyssey

Front 303

The Bundrens, The Tulls, Rev. Whitfield

Back 303

Characters from Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

Front 304

Absalom, Abaslom!

Back 304

Faulkner novel about the life and death of Thomas Sutpen, a poor white who gets rich after moving South due to slavery, then loses glory following the Civil War.

Stupen's story is narrated by Quentin Compson to college roommate Shreve, though fragments told from other perspectives: father, grandfather, Rosa Coldfield

Lit: Allusion to bible

Front 305

Thomas Sutpen

Back 305

protagonist from Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!

Sutpen is a poor white who gets rich after moving South due to slavery, then loses glory following the Civil War.

Front 306

Gertrude Stein

Back 306

20th century American writer.

Style: A lot of repetition; all in present tense.

Works:

Autobiography of Alice B Toklas

Three Lives

"Scared Emily"

Front 307

"Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"

Back 307

quote from Gertrude Stein's poem "Scared Emily"

Front 308

Autobiography of Alice B Toklas

Back 308

A biography by Gertrude Stein from the perspective of her lover, Alice Toklas. Stein includes 3rd person references to herself.

Front 309

Three Lives

Back 309

Gertrude Stein's fictional publication, consisting of three stories ('The Good Anna,' 'The Gentle Lena,' 'Melanctha') that are connected by their setting, a fictional version of Baltimore called 'Bridgepointe.'

Front 310

Bridgepointe

Back 310

Fictional. setting of the stories in Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. Based on Baltimore.

Front 311

TS Eliot

Back 311

20th century American poet and critic.

Style:

-heavy allusions to biblical, classical, and lit sources.

-bleak sense of cultural emptiness

-mashup of prose and poetry

Late style, post religious conversion: more traditional melody/prosody

Front 312

"Let us go then, you and I"

Back 312

First line from TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

Front 313

"In the room the woman come and go

Talking of Michelangelo"

Back 313

From TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

Front 314

'Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

Back 314

From TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

Front 315

'I should have been a pair of ragged claws

scuttling across the floors of silent seas.'

Back 315

From TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

Front 316

'We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.'

Back 316

Final lines from TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

Front 317

The Wasteland

Back 317

TS Eliot's long, ambitious poem.

Look over, but easy to identify

Lit: 'Cruelty of April's weather' is a Chaucer reference

Front 318

The Hollow Man

Back 318

a poem by TS Eliot concerning the hollowness of post-WWI Europe.

Eliot's final early poem.

Front 319

'This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.'

Back 319

Concluding lines from TS Eliot's 'The Hollow Man'

Front 320

Ash Wednesday

Back 320

TS Eliot's first 'late' poem following her conversion to Anglicanism.

Style: more tradition melody/prosody

Front 321

'Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn'

Back 321

The first lines of TS Eliot's 'Ash Wednesday,' his first 'late' poem.

Front 322

Tradition and the Individual Talent

Back 322

TS Eliot's primary critical work.

Eliot argues for impersonal poetry: tradition is a 'simultaneous order' (not relic of past) that great artists attach themselves to, not break from.

Front 323

Hamlet and His Problem

Back 323

A Critical work by TS Eliot in which Eliot coins the phrase 'objective correlative'-- objects, characters, etc are translating mechanisms for greater, larger themes. Through repetition and surrounding dynamics in a work of art, these 'objects' become more than the sum of their parts, revealing to the reader the greater themes/ideas a writer aspires to.

Front 324

"The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in
other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked."

Back 324

From TS Eliot's Hamlet and His Problem

Front 325

Alexandrine

Back 325

Final line of a Spenserian stanza (9 lines, 8 in iambic pentameter, the last in iambic hexameter)

Front 326

Anthropomorphism

Back 326

assigning human attributes to non-humans; differs from personification in that it's for entirety of lit work.

Front 327

Apostrophe

Back 327

Speech addressed to someone not present or an abstraction; innate grandiosity lends itself to parody.

Front 328

Bildungsroman

Back 328

Coming of age story

Front 329

Decorum

Back 329

Relationship of style to content in speech of dramatic characters.

Front 330

Doggerel

Back 330

Poorly written poetry

Front 331

Epithalamium

Back 331

poem written to celebrate a wedding

Front 332

euphuism

Back 332

writing or dialogue that is self-consciously laden artificial, elaborate figures of speech

Front 333

Feminine Rhyme

Back 333

lines rhymed with final 2 syllables, with stress on 2nd-to-last syllable.

(Masculine rhyme is typical rhyme-- stress on last syllable)

Front 334

feet

Back 334

metrical unit of poetry (2 or 3 syllables)

Front 335

iamb

Back 335

metrical foot of poetry: unstressed/stressed

Front 336

Trochee

Back 336

metrical foot of poetry: stressed/unstressed

Front 337

Dactyl

Back 337

metrical foot of poetry: stressed/unstressed/unstressed

Front 338

Anapaest

Back 338

metrical foot of poetry: unstressed/unstressed/stressed

Front 339

Flat and Round Characters

Back 339

term coined by EM Forster

Flat: characters w/ single dominant trait

Round: characters w/ psychological complexity

Front 340

Georgic

Back 340

poems about labor in countryside (as opposed to pastoral poems, which idealize country life)

Front 341

Hamartia

Back 341

Aristotle's term from Poetics for tragic flaw that is premised in fate (as opposed to psychology-- oedipus vs achilles).

Front 342

Homeric Epithet

Back 342

repeated descriptive phrase, often about a character. Used in epics (and mock-epics).

Front 343

Hudibrastic

Back 343

Couplets of rhymed tetrameter lines that are intentionally bad.

From Samuel Butler's Hudibras

Front 344

Tetrameter

Back 344

line with 4 metrical feet

Front 345

Pentameter

Back 345

line with 5 metrical feet.

Front 346

Hexameter

Back 346

line with 6 metrical feet.

Front 347

Litotes

Back 347

Understatement created through double negative.

eg: Saying something is "not unattractive" to mean it's very attractive.

Front 348

Metonymy

Back 348

the substitution of the name of an attribute for that of the thing meant.

eg: suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

Front 349

Neoclassical Unities

Back 349

Rules of lit structure to ensure dramatic unity. From Aristotle's Poetics, esp. popular in 17th and 18th century writing.

Essential unities: time, place, action.

Time: 1 day

Place: 1 locale

Action: 1 dramatic plot, no subplot

Front 350

Pastoral Elegy

Back 350

poem in the form of elegy sung by sheperd-- sheperd is stand-in for author, and elegy is for another author.

lit eg: Milton's 'Lycidas' and Shelley's 'Adonais' (for John Keats)

Front 351

Pathetic Fallacy

Back 351

ascribing emotion/agency to inanimate objects.

coined by John Ruskin. "The cruel crawling foam."

Front 352

Picaresque

Back 352

Novel whose protagonist is a rogue whose primary concern is filling belly and staying out of jail.

eg: Huck Finn, Moll Flanders.

Front 353

Skeltonics

Back 353

Form of humorous poetry consisting of very short, rhymed lines and a pronounced rhythm.

Made famous by John Skelton

(Different from doggerel-- higher quality of thought expressed. Not as bad.)

Front 354

Sprung Rhythm

Back 354

Used by 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Like Old English poetry, number of syllables per line vary, as only stressed syllables count.

Front 355

Synaesthesia

Back 355

descriptions that evoke interplay of senses

Front 356

Synedoche

Back 356

phrase that uses part to represent whole.

Front 357

Ballad (stanza type)

Back 357

stanza type for fold ballads-- like sprung rhythm, only stressed syllables are counted in meter.

Rhyme: abcb

eg: Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Front 358

In Memoriam (stanza type)

Back 358

stanza type used in Tennyson's In Memoriam AHH.

Rhyme: abba.

Meter: 4 line stanzas, iambic tetrameter

Front 359

Ottava Rima

Back 359

Eight-line stanza (usually iambic pentameter).

Rhyme: abababcc

eg: Lord Byron's Don Juan

Front 360

Rhyme Royal

Back 360

Seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter

Rhyme: ababbcc

eg: Sir Thomas Wyatt's 'They Flee From Me That Sometime Did Me Seek'

Front 361

Terza Rima

Back 361

3-line stanzas with interlocking rhyme scheme

rhyme: aba bcb cdc ded, etc.

lit eg: Dante's Inferno

Front 362

Blank Verse

Back 362

unrhymed iambic pentameter verse

lit eg: Tennyson's Ulysses

Front 363

Free Verse

Back 363

unrhymed with no strict meter

lit eg: Whitman's Song of Myself

Front 364

Sonnet

Back 364

14-line form composed of iambic pentameter lines.

Front 365

Italian/Petrarchan

Back 365

Sonnet type consisting of an 8-line octave and 6-line sestet

rhyme: abbaabba cdecde

lit eg: Milton's 'When I Consider How My Light Is Spent'

0 Couplets

Front 366

English/Shakespearean

Back 366

Sonnet type, 14 lines.

rhyme: abab cdcd efef gg

1 Concluding Couplet

Front 367

Spenserian sonnet

Back 367

Sonnet type, 14 lines. Rhyme is interlocking, unlike Shakespearean sonnet.

rhyme: abab bcbc cdcd ee

1 Concluding Couplet, plus 2 in body

Front 368

Villanelle

Back 368

19-line form, rhyming: aba aba aba aba aba abaa

Easy to spot: first and third lines repeat throughout.

lit eg: Dylan Thomas 'Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night'

Front 369

Sestina

Back 369

39-line poem, 6 stanzas of 6-lines each + concluding 3-line stanza (called a envoi).

No set rhyme-- pattern of repeating final word of stanzas.

Front 370

Auxiliary

Back 370

helping verb

Front 371

indicative

Back 371

verb in present tense

Front 372

participle

Back 372

'ed' form of verb

Front 373

predicate

Back 373

grammar term for that which provides info on subject

Front 374

subjunctive

Back 374

verb used for conditional statements. eg: 'if i were a rich man...'

Front 375

subordinate conjunction

Back 375

word that introduces subordinate clause

Front 376

substantive

Back 376

group of words acting as noun, eg: 'playing the banjo...'

Front 377

vocative

Back 377

expression of direct address, eg: 'Sit, dan, sit!'

Front 378

Zeus

Back 378

God of the sky

Roman: Jupiter

Siblings: Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Hera

Children:

(w/ sister Hera) - Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus

(w/ Metis) - Athena

(w/ sister Demeter) - Persephone

(w/ Leto) - Apollo, Artemis

(w/ Maia) - Hermes

(w/ Dione) - Aphrodite

(w/ Eurynome) - The Graces

(w/ Mnemosyne) - The Muses

Front 379

Poseidon

Back 379

Lord of the sea

Roman: Neptune

Siblings: Zeus, Hades, Demeter, Hestia, Hera

Son: Polyphemus (Odyssey)

Front 380

Hades

Back 380

Lord of the dead/the underworld

Roman: Pluto

Siblings: Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Hera

Front 381

Hestia

Back 381

Goddess of Hearth

Roman: Vesta

Siblings: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hera

Front 382

Hera

Back 382

Protector of Marriage

Roman: Juno

Sister and wife of Zeus

Kids: Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus

Front 383

Ares

Back 383

Goes of War

Roman: Mars

Son of Zeus (and Hera);

siblings - Hephaestus, Hebe

Front 384

Athena

Back 384

Goddess of Wisdom

Roman: Minerva

Daughter of Zeus (and Metis)

Front 385

Aphrodite

Back 385

Goddess of love and beauty

Roman: Venus

Daughter of Zeus (and Dione)

Front 386

Hermes

Back 386

Messenger God (leads dead to underworld; invented music)

Roman: Mercury

Son of Zeus (and Maia)

Front 387

Artemis

Back 387

Goddess of Hunt

Roman: Diana

Daughter of Zeus (and Leto); twin of Apollo

Front 388

Apollo

Back 388

God of healing, intellect/art, sun/light

Roman: Phoebus

Son of Zeus (and Leto); twin of Artemis

Front 389

Hephaestus

Back 389

God of Smith and weavers

Roman: Vulcan

Son of Zeus and Hero

Siblings: Ares, Hebe

Front 390

Demeter

Back 390

Goddess of the Harvest

Roman: Ceres

Wife and sister of Zeus

other siblings: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia

Daughter: Persephone

Front 391

Persephone

Back 391

Goddess of the Underworld

Roman: Proserpine

Daughter of Zeus and Demeter

Front 392

Dionysus

Back 392

God of wine

Roman: Baccus

Front 393

Eros

Back 393

God of love

Roman: Cupid

Front 394

The Graces

Back 394

Daughters of Zeus and Eurynome

Aglaia - splender

Euphrosyne - mirth

Thalia - good cheer

Front 395

The Muses

Back 395

Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne; music brings joy.

Clio - history

Urania - astronomy

Melpomene - tragedy

Thalia - comedy

Terpsichore - dance

Calliope - epic poetry

Erato - love poetry

Polyhymnia - songs to the Gods

Euterpe - lyric poetry

Front 396

Titans

Back 396

Ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them

Front 397

Chronos

Back 397

Rule of the Titans

Roman: Saturn

Front 398

Stanza type: Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Back 398

Ballad (Quatrains - abcb)

Front 399

Stanza type: Tennyson's In Memoriam, AHH

Back 399

In Memoriam (Quatrains - abba - iambic tetrameter)

Front 400

Stanza type: Lord Byron's "Don Juan"

Back 400

Ottava Rima (Octaves - abababcc - iambic pentameter)

Front 401

Stanza type: Sir Thomas Wyatt's "They Flee from Me"

Back 401

Rhyme Royal (septet - ababbcc - iambic pentameter)

Front 402

Stanza type: Dante's Inferno

Back 402

Terza Rimas (interlocking tercets - aba bcb cdc, etc)

Front 403

Poetic form: Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night"

Back 403

Villanelle (19-line tercets, 1st and 3rd line repeat throughout)

Front 404

Poetic form: Milton's "Lycidas," and Shelley's "Adonias" (for Keats)

Back 404

Pastoral Elegy

Front 405

Poetic form invented by John Skelton

Back 405

Skeltonics (humorous: short/rhymed, pronouned rhythm)

Front 406

Poetic device associated with Samuel Butler

Back 406

Hudibrastic - couplets of intentionally bad rhymed tetrameter

Front 407

Poetic device associated with Gerard Manley Hopkins

Back 407

Sprung Rhythm - only stresses syllables count

Front 408

Poetic device associated with John Lyly

Back 408

Euphuism (writing or dialogue that is self-consciously laden w/ artificial, elaborate figures of speech)

Front 409

"Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest."

Back 409

From Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Court Yard."

Front 410

"A sadder and a wiser man,

He rose the morrow morn."

Back 410

Final lines of Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Front 411

"I weep for Adonais-- he is dead!"

Back 411

First lines of Shelley's "Adonais," a tribute to Keats

Front 412

"Datta. Dayahvam. Damyataya.

Shantih shantih shantih"

Back 412

Final lines of TS Eliot's "The Waste Land"

Front 413

"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,'-- that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Back 413

Final lines of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

Front 414

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The Falcon cannot hear the falconer."

Back 414

Final lines from Keats's "The Second Coming."

Front 415

Poet most associated with symbolist movement

Back 415

Yeats

Front 416

Wrote most frequently on Culture

Back 416

Matthew Arnold

Front 417

Wrote most on Imagination

Back 417

Coleridge

Front 418

Prometheus

Back 418

Titan who sided with man and gave em fire

Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound" - Punished by zeus. Bounds him and vultures eat live over and over (cause he's immortal)

Front 419

Poetic Inversion

Back 419

Switching customary order of words

Front 420

Pontellier, Lebrun

Back 420

Characters from Kate Chopin's Awakening.

Front 421

Bumpbo

Back 421

Righteous protagonist from James Fenimore Cooper's "Leather Stocking Tales."

Front 422

David Copperfield

Back 422

Dickens novel. Partly autobiographical.

Other Characters: Mr/Mrs Micawber, Uriah Heep

Front 423

Bram Stoker

Back 423

author of Dracula. Protagonist: Jonathan Harker

Front 424

Jane Eyre

Back 424

Novel by Charlotte Bronte.

Jane Eyre loves Mr. Rochester, master of Thornfield Hall.

Intense focus on interiority. Bildungsroman

Front 425

Mr. Rochester

Back 425

Love interest in Bronte's Jane Eyre

Front 426

Female author with style similar to henry james

Back 426

Edith Wharton

Front 427

Lily Bart

Back 427

Main character in Edith Wharton's House of Mirth.

Set in NYC

Front 428

Transitive vs intransitive vers

Back 428

Transitive verse require direct object.

Front 429

Aristophories

Back 429

Greek comic playwright.

Lysistrata: females w/o sex to cause peace; causes greater tension

Clouds: attacks socrates

Frogs: pokes fun at greek tragedians

Front 430

Medea

Back 430

Greek play by Euripides. Medea outraged by being abandoned by Jason, so kills a ton.

Front 431

Racine

Back 431

French playwright. Master of neoclassical theater. Author of Phaedra.

Front 432

George Chapman

Back 432

Main translator of Homer.

Keats wrote about him.

Front 433

Margary Kempe

Back 433

Medieval figure: wandered europe for religious purposes, wrote autobio about it.

Front 434

Mary Rowlandson

Back 434

Puritan abducted by NA, recorded experience.

Front 435

Sarah Orne Jewett

Back 435

Author of County of the Pointed Firs

Front 436

Mary Wollstonecraft

Back 436

"A Vindication of the Rights of Women"

Front 437

Most famous 17th century diarist

Back 437

Samuel Pepys

Front 438

Thomas Carlyle

Back 438

Funny, idiosyncratic 19th century writer; conversed with Charles Lamb

Front 439

Proust's Remembrance of Things Past

Back 439

Autobio of childhood memories (1st person)

Front 440

Samuel Bulter (17th century)

Back 440

Poet who wrote Hudibras.

Plot: Knight (Hudibras) and squire (Sir Ralpho). Pokes fun at English conflict

Front 441

Buddenbrooks

Back 441

By Thomas Mann. About decay of family

Front 442

Lost Illusions

Back 442

By Balzac.

young, talented Lucian De Rubempre travels to Paris to make literary name-- fails, loses wife/fam, and dies after unlikely comeback (due to help from criminal Vautrin.)

Front 443

Vautrin

Back 443

Balzac's criminal

Front 444

Lucian De Rubempre

Back 444

protagonist from Balzac's lost illusions.

Front 445

Sentimental Education

Back 445

By Flaubert. A reworking of Balzac's Lost Illusions.

Protagonis: Frederic Moreau

Front 446

Flaubert's style

Back 446

All characters exposed as vain, commercial, unable to live up to ideals

Front 447

Thomas Kyd

Back 447

16th century dramtist. wrote violent plays, including The Spanish Tragedy (characters after shakespeare-y names)

Front 448

Hotspur

Back 448

rival in Henry IV-- each have respect for each other. Falstaff takes credit for his death.

Front 449

Strung & Drang

Back 449

Type of story in which youth goes against society's arbitrary rules and pays price. Most Associated with Goerthe and Schiller.

Front 450

Cardide

Back 450

Satirical work by Voltaire

Front 451

"Veni, Vidi, Vici"

Back 451

I came, I saw, I conquered

Front 452

"Ars longa vita brevis"

Back 452

Art is long, life short

Front 453

"Cogito ergo sum"

Back 453

I think, therefor I am

Front 454

Author who wrote and is associated with Utopia

Back 454

Thomas More. In Latin. Beheaded for not supporting King (vs Pope)

(19th centural Samuel Butler wrote parody-- Erewhon)

Front 455

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.[7]

Back 455

Jacques's "The seven Ages of Man" speech from As You Like It

Front 456

Playwright known for sparseness and disability in plays

Back 456

Samuel Beckett

Front 457

Vladamir, Estragon (Dido & Gogo), Lucky, Ponzo

Back 457

From Waiting for Godot

Front 458

Irish-American Playwright whose meloncholic plays are known for enormous (if at times overwrought) emotional power

Back 458

Eugune ONeall. Often paralleled greek tragedy. Fam life sucked.

Front 459

Famous playwright who set plays in upper-middle class family homes. Master at interiority.

Back 459

Chekov

Front 460

American writer (not Hemingway) known for hard-headed realist/sociological style

Back 460

John Dos Passos

Front 461

Neal Cassidy, trains, jazz

Back 461

Jack Kerouac

Front 462

DH Lawrence

Back 462

early 20th century author of Sons and Lovers. Wrote about sexuality; considered a pornographer until post-death

Front 463

Female writers w/ traditional american style

Back 463

Willa Cather, Sarah Orne Jewett

Front 464

George Eliot

Back 464

19th century english writer. style: realist (though not blunt), wrote about small town peeps and their political plight

Middlemarch: Dorothea Brooke, Midlands

Adam Bede: "This rector of Braxton"

Front 465

20th century American poet who wrote about "Henry" and "Mr. Bones"

Back 465

John Berryman

Front 466

Tom and Daisy

Back 466

Main characters from Great Gatsby

Front 467

Jack Barnes

Back 467

Main character in Sun Also Rises

Front 468

Snopes and Compsons

Back 468

Faulkner's two families

Front 469

Tom Joad

Back 469

From steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath

Front 470

Oscar Wilde had an affair w/ this dude, caused imprisonment

Back 470

Lord Alfred Dougles (Bosie)

Front 471

Miles & Flora haunted by Peter Quint and Miss Jessel

Back 471

Turn of the screw

sexual ambiguity

Front 472

19th century English Playwright known for realism

Back 472

Henrik Ibsen. Author of Doll's House

Plot: woman (Nora) choses freedom over husband (Torvald Helmer) and daughter

Front 473

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Back 473

From Coleridge's Kubla Khan

Front 474

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

Back 474

From Coleridge's Kubla Khan

Front 475

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Back 475

From Coleridge's Kubla Khan

Front 476

First Voice

'But tell me, tell me! speak again,

Thy soft response renewing—

What makes that ship drive on so fast?

What is the ocean doing?'

Second Voice

Still as a slave before his lord,

The ocean hath no blast;

His great bright eye most silently

Up to the Moon is cast—

If he may know which way to go;

For she guides him smooth or grim.

See, brother, see! how graciously

She looketh down on him.'

First Voice

'But why drives on that ship so fast,

Without or wave or wind?'

Second Voice

'The air is cut away before,

And closes from behind.

Back 476

From Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Front 477

He went like one that hath been stunned,

And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man,

He rose the morrow morn.

Back 477

From Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Front 478

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing — This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If She inspire, and He approve my lays.

Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred Lord t' assault a gentle Belle?
O say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd,
Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?
In tasks so bold, can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty Rage?

Back 478

1st lines- Rape of the Lock

Front 479

This the Beau monde shall from the Mall survey,
And hail with music its propitious ray.
This the blest Lover shall for Venus take,
And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake.
This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies,
When next he looks thro' Galileo's eyes;
And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom
The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome.
Then cease, bright Nymph! to mourn thy ravish'd hair,
Which adds new glory to the shining sphere!
Not all the tresses that fair head can boast,
Shall draw such envy as the Lock you lost.
For, after all the murders of your eye,
When, after millions slain, yourself shall die:
When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,
This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,
And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name.

Back 479

End of Rape of the Lock

Front 480

'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence
To tire our patience, than mislead our sense.
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verse makes many more in prose.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In Poets as true genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critic's share;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to write.
Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
But are not Critics to their judgment too?

Back 480

1st lines - Pope's Essay on Criticism

Front 481

Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good,
With manners gen'rous as his noble blood;
To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known,
And ev'ry author's merit, but his own.
Such late was Walsh — the Muse's judge and friend,
Who justly knew to blame or to commend;
To failings mild, but zealous for desert;
The clearest head, and the sincerest heart.
This humble praise, lamented shade! receive,
This praise at least a grateful Muse may give:
The Muse, whose early voice you taught to sing,
Prescrib'd her heights, and prun'd her tender wing,
(Her guide now lost) no more attempts to rise,
But in low numbers short excursions tries:
Content, if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view,
The learn'd reflect on what before they knew:
Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame;
Still pleas'd to praise, yet not afraid to blame,
Averse alike to flatter, or offend;
Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

Back 481

last lines - Pope's essay on Criticism

Front 482

THE MIGHTY MOTHER, and her son who brings

The Smithfield Muses to the ear of Kings,

I sing. Say you, her instruments the great!

Call’d to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate;

You by whose care, in vain decried and curst, 5

Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first;

Say how the Goddess bade Britannia sleep,

And pour’d her Spirit, o’er the land and deep.

In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read,

Ere Pallas issued from the Thund’rer’s head, 10

Dulness o’er all possess’d her ancient right,

Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:

Fate in their dotage this fair idiot gave,

Gross as her sire, and as her mother grave;

Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind, 15

She ruled, in native anarchy, the mind.

Back 482

1st lines - Dunciad

Front 483

‘Oh! when shall rise a monarch all our own,

And I, a nursing mother, rock the throne;

’Twixt Prince and People close the curtain draw,

Shade him from light, and cover him from law;

Fatten the Courtier, starve the learned band, 315

And suckle Armies, and dry-nurse the land;

Till Senates nod to lullabies divine,

And all be sleep, as at an Ode of thine?’

She ceas’d. Then swells the Chapel-royal throat;

‘God save King Cibber!’ mounts in every note. 320

Familiar White’s, ‘God save King Colley!’ cries,

‘God save King Colley!’ Drury-lane replies.

To Needham’s quick the voice triumphant rode,

But pious Needham dropt the name of God;

Back to the Devil the last echoes roll, 325

And ‘Coll!’ each butcher roars at Hockley-hole.

So when Jove’s block descended from on high

(As sings thy great forefather Ogilby),

Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog,

And the hoarse nation croak’d, ‘God save King Log!’

Back 483

last lines - Dunciad

Front 484

All human things are subject to decay,

And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey:

This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young

Was call'd to empire, and had govern'd long:

In prose and verse, was own'd, without dispute

Through all the realms of Non-sense, absolute.

This aged prince now flourishing in peace,

And blest with issue of a large increase,

Worn out with business, did at length debate

To settle the succession of the State:

And pond'ring which of all his sons was fit

To reign, and wage immortal war with wit;

Cry'd, 'tis resolv'd; for nature pleads that he

Should only rule, who most resembles me:

Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,

Mature in dullness from his tender years.

Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he

Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity.

The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,

But Shadwell never deviates into sense.

Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,

Strike through and make a lucid interval;

But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,

His rising fogs prevail upon the day:

Besides his goodly fabric fills the eye,

And seems design'd for thoughtless majesty:

Thoughtless as monarch oaks, that shade the plain,

And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign.

Heywood and Shirley were but types of thee,

Thou last great prophet of tautology:

Even I, a dunce of more renown than they,

Was sent before but to prepare thy way;

And coarsely clad in Norwich drugget came

To teach the nations in thy greater name.

Back 484

1st lines - Mac Flecknoe

Front 485

A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ,

But sure thou 'rt but a kilderkin of wit.

Like mine thy gentle numbers feebly creep,

Thy Tragic Muse gives smiles, thy Comic sleep.

With whate'er gall thou sett'st thy self to write,

Thy inoffensive satires never bite.

In thy felonious heart, though venom lies,

It does but touch thy Irish pen, and dies.

Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame

In keen iambics, but mild anagram:

Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command

Some peaceful province in acrostic land.

There thou may'st wings display and altars raise,

And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.

Or if thou would'st thy diff'rent talents suit,

Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.

He said, but his last words were scarcely heard,

For Bruce and Longvil had a trap prepar'd,

And down they sent the yet declaiming bard.

Sinking he left his drugget robe behind,

Born upwards by a subterranean wind.

The mantle fell to the young prophet's part,

With double portion of his father's art.

Back 485

last lines - mac flecknoe

Front 486

In pious times, ere priest-craft did begin,

Before polygamy was made a sin;

When man, on many, multipli'd his kind,

Ere one to one was cursedly confin'd:

When Nature prompted, and no Law deni'd

Promiscuous use of concubine and bride;

Then, Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart,

His vigorous warmth did variously impart

To wives and slaves: and, wide as his command,

Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.

Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear;

A soil ungrateful to the tiller's care:

Not so the rest; for several mothers bore

To god-like David, several sons before.

But since like slaves his bed they did ascend,

No true succession could their seed attend.

Of all this numerous progeny was none

So beautiful, so brave, as Absalom:

Whether, inspir'd by some diviner lust,

His father got him with a greater gust;

Or that his conscious destiny made way,

By manly beauty to imperial sway.

Back 486

1st lines - Absalom and Architophel

Front 487

Nor doubt th'event: for factious crowds engage

In their first onset, all their brutal rage;

Then, let 'em take an unresisted course:

Retire and traverse, and delude their force:

But when they stand all breathless, urge the fight,

And rise upon 'em with redoubled might:

For lawful pow'r is still superior found,

When long driv'n back, at length it stands the ground.

He said. Th' Almighty, nodding, gave consent;

And peals of thunder shook the firmament.

Henceforth a series of new time began,

The mighty years in long procession ran:

Once more the god-like David was restor'd,

And willing nations knew their lawful lord.

Back 487

last lines - absalom and architophel

Front 488

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires and more slow;

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

Back 488

1st lines - coy mistress

Front 489

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

Let us roll all our strength and all

Our sweetness up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Through the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Back 489

last lines - coy mistress

Front 490

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:

What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape 5

Of deities or mortals, or of both,

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 10

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

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

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 15

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Back 490

1st lines - Ode to a grecian urn

Front 491

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought

As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! 45

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

Back 491

last lines - ode to a grecian urn

Front 492

Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poetry, and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Back 492

By Philip Sidney

Front 493

A GENTLE Knight° was pricking on the plaine,

Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,

Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,

The cruel markes of many'a bloudy fielde;

5

Yet armes till that time did he never wield:

His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,

As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:

Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,

As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

II

10

And on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,

The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,

For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,

And dead as living ever him ador'd:

Upon his shield the like was also scor'd,

15

For soveraine hope,° which in his helpe he had:

Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,

But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;

Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.

Back 493

1st lines Faerie Queene

Front 494

Now strike your sailes ye jolly Mariners,

For we be come unto a quiet rode,

Where we must land some of our passengers,

And light this wearie vessell of her lode.

Here she a while may make her safe abode,

375

Till she repaired have her tackles spent,°

And wants supplide. And then againe abroad

On the long voyage whereto she is bent:

Well may she speede and fairely finish her intent.

Back 494

last lines Faeire Queen

Front 495

Only the poet, disdaining to be tied to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow, in effect, into another nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, cyclops, chimeras, furies, and such like; so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging within the zodiac of his own wit. Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done; neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too-much-loved earth more lovely; her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.

Back 495

Sidney's Defense of Posey

Front 496

The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; -on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.Come to the window, sweet is the night air!...

Back 496

Arnold's Dover Beach: First lines

The most poignant image is the sea. The sea includes the visual imagery, used to express illusion, as well as the auditory imagery, used to express reality. A vivid description of the calm sea in the first eight lines allows a picture of the sea to unfold. However, the next six lines call upon auditory qualities, especially the words "Listen," "grating roar," and "eternal note of sadness." The distinction between the sight and sound imagery continues into the third stanza. Sophocles can hear the Aegean Sea, but cannot see it. He hears the purposelessness "of human misery," but cannot see it because of the "turbid ebb and flow" of the sea. The allusion of Sophocles and the past disappears abruptly, replaced by the auditory image, "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" (Lines 24-28). The image is intensely drawn by Arnold to vividly see the faith disappearing from the speaker's world. The image of darkness pervades the speaker's life just like the night wind pushes the clouds in to change a bright, calm sea into dark, "naked shingles."

Front 497

Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light..

Back 497

Arnold's Dover Beach. Last lines.

In the final stanza, the speaker makes his last attempt to hold on to illusion, yet is forced to face reality. John Ciardi affirms, "Love, on the other hand, tries to imagine a land of dreams and certitude" (196). Humanitarian sympathy becomes distinct in the spiritual image of love, even though the love which the speaker refers to is the unseen second person to which he communes.

Front 498

Wrote a poem memorializing Yeats

Back 498

Auden

Front 499

Wrote a poem memorialzing Keats

Back 499

Shelley

Front 500

He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Back 500

In Memory of WB Yeats by Auden

Front 501

Female prose write during Restoration; hated Dryden

Back 501

Aphra Behn

Front 502

English poet, noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue. Browning was long unsuccesful as a poet and financially depenent upon his family until he was well into adulthood. He became a great Victorian poet. In his best works people from the past reveal their thoughts and lives as if speaking or thinking aloud.

Back 502

Robert Browning

Front 503

A man can have but one life and one
death,
One heaven, one hell.

Back 503

Lines from Browning

Front 504

I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave!
You need not clap your torches to my face.
Zooks, what's to blame? you think you see a monk!
What, 'tis past midnight, and you go the rounds,
And here you catch me at an alley's end
Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar? [...]
Your hand, sir, and good-bye: no lights, no lights!
The street's hushed, and I know my own way back,
Don't fear me! There's the grey beginning. Zooks!

Back 504

Fra Lippo Lippi (First and Last) by robert browning

Front 505

THE rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm [...]

Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!

Back 505

Porphria's Lover (First and Last) by Robert Browning

Front 506

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will `t please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
[']Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innshruck cast in bronze for me!

Back 506

My Last Duchess (first and last) by Robert Browning

Front 507

LADY WISHFORT has a daughter MRS FAINALL, a niece MILLAMANT and a nephew SIR WILFULL WITWOUD. Millamant has two admirers, WITWOUD and PETULANT. Millamant's money is held in trust by her aunt, and if she marries without Lady Wishfort's consent half of it passes to Mrs Fainall. MIRABELL has previously had an affair with Mrs Fainall but is now in love with Millamant. When Mrs Fainall was thought to be pregnant Mirabell arranged for her to marry his penniless friend FAINALL. Mirabell has angered Mrs Marwood by rejecting her advances and Lady Wishfort by flirting with her to gain entry to her house where Millamant and her maid MINCING also live. Mirabell plans to get both Millamant and her fortune by dressing his servant WAITWELL as his uncle Sir Rowland and have him seduce Lady Wishfort ~ she will agree to marry him to disinherit Mirabell, and be publicly embarrassed when he is revealed to be only a servant. Mirabell will then be able to step in to release her from the contract, on condition that he may have Millamant and all her fortune. He has married Waitwell to Lady Wishfort's servant FOIBLE as security that morning. When they discover his plan, Fainall and Mrs Marwood try to turn the tables by revealing Mrs Fainall's affair with Mirabell, on condition that Lady Wishfort turn over all her estate to Fainall.

Back 507

William Congreve, The Way of the World

Front 508

American poet whose tumultuous life ended when he committed suicide by jumping from a boat.' Writes about New York a lot in his collection of poems called The Bridge. Always talks about ships and technology.

Back 508

Hart Crane

Front 509

All humane things are subject to decay,And, when Fate summons, Monarchs must obey:This Fleckno found, who, like Augustus, youngWas call'd to Empire, and had govern'd long:In Prose and Verse, was own'd, without dispute Through all the Realms of Non-sense, absolute.

Back 509

MacFlecknoe-- mimics Aeniad.

Front 510

LET us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherised upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question

Oh, do not ask, What is it?

Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

Back 510

Love Song of J Alfred Pufrock

Front 511

Two interwoven plots:
Dorimant rids himself of his mistress Mrs. Loveitt with the aid of Bellinda (whom he seduces in the process). In doing this he meets the wiseHarriet Woodvil, whom he appears to fall in love with but she is having none of his games. Even when he proposes marriage she makes him follow her into the country to hear her answer.
Young Bellair has been ordered by his father to marry Harriet, but he loves Emilia. With the help of lady Townely, he outwits his father who has also fallen for Emilia. In the end, the man blesses his sons choice.
Dorimant is said to be drawn from John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester.

Back 511

George Etheridge, The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter

Front 512

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Back 512

Elegy in a country court yard-- 1st and last (gray)

Front 513

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying;
And the same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

Back 513

To the Virgins, to make much of time-- Herrick 1st/last

Front 514

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Back 514

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall

* Poem in couplets, one line longer than a sonnet. Fall of mankind, Margaret is a pearl, blah blah, catholic, blah blah.

* To a young child

Front 515

Romanian born, educated in France. Wishing to acquire English as his third language, Ionesco purchased a set of records produced by the Assimil conversation method and began to transcribe the short, simple-minded exercises they contained. Amazed by the strangeness of these nonsensical sentences, Ionesco made them the basis of his first play, The Bald Soprano.He went on to write more than twenty plays including Rhinoceros, The Chairs, Jack or The Submission, The Lesson, The Killer, Exit the King, Macbett, and Journeys Among the Dead.
Characters from The Bald Soprano: Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Mr. And Mrs. Martin, Mary the Maid, The First Chief

Back 515

Eugene Ionesco

Front 516

Set during the turn of the century between Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora. He treats her as if she was an animal, constantly calling her my little lark and any number of difference animals. He treats her as a doll or a small child. What he does not realize is that she has struck a bargain with Nils Krogstad for money when Torvald was sick. She must pay Krogstad back or he will reveal her deception. Her friend, Mrs. Linde, attempts to intervene, but to no avail. At the end of the play, Nora realizes that she has been living like a doll and leaves Torvald.
Is that my little lark twittering out there?
Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Papa's doll child; and here the children have been my dolls. [...] that is what our marriage has been.

Back 516

Henrick Isben: A Doll's House

Front 517

Ben Johnson's Volpone

Back 517

In Volpone, Ben Jonson celebrates the joy of a good trick. He emphasizes the fun and the humor of deceit, but he does not overlook its nastiness, and in the end he punishes the deceivers. The play centers around the wealthy Volpone, who, having no wife or children, pretends to be dying and, with the help of his wily servant Mosca, eggs on several greedy characters, each of whom hopes to be made Volpone's sole heir. Jonson's ardent love of language reveals itself throughout the play, but especially in the words of Mosca and Volpone, who relish the deceptive powers of language. Volpone himself pursues his schemes partly out of greed, but partly out of his passionate love of getting the best of people. He cannot resist the temptation to outsmart those around him, particularly when fate delivers him such perfect gulls as the lawyer Voltore, the merchant Corvino, the doddering old Corbaccio, and the foolish English travelers Sir Politic and Lady Would-Be. Mosca too revels in his ability to beguile others, remarking "I fear I shall begin to grow in love / With my dear self," so thrilled is he with his own manipulations. His self-love, however, proves his undoing, as it does for Volpone. Both characters become so entranced by their own elaborate fictions that they cannot bring themselves to stop their scheming before they betray themselves.

Front 518

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,--
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

Back 518

Keats Ode to a Nightengale

Front 519

ome live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hill and valley, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Back 519

Marlowe's Passionate Sheperd to His Love

Front 520

Form of Marlowe's Faustus

Back 520

Blank Verse

Front 521

America's first major playwright. His play, Morning Becomes Electra, is based on the Oresteia cycle of the classical Greek playwright Aeschylus. He situated this story of family murder and divine retribution in Civil War America. He also wrote The Iceman Cometh (shattering the pipe dreams of the denizens of Harry Hope's bar) and Desire Under the Elms.

Back 521

Eugene O'Neill (also wrote Long Day's Journey Into Night-- largely autobio)

Front 522

* O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wing'd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Back 522

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind

* Actually in terza rima (interlocking rhyme).
* Wind as the bringer of life.

Front 523

The breath whose might I have invoked in song
Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given;
The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.

Back 523

Shelley's Adonis (to Keats)

Front 524

Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

Back 524

* Laurence Sterne's great comic novel, Tristram Shandy, was originally published between 1759 and 1767 in nine small separate volumes, the last appearing shortly before Sterne's death. As the title suggests, the novel sets out to tell the life story of Tristram Shandy, its narrator, beginning with his conception. However, he has so much to relate about his eccentric family that he does not manage to get born until the 4th volume. Realizing, finally, that his task is hopeless - it taking him more time to tell the story than to live his life - the novel ends by concluding that its readers have been taken in by a cock and bull story.
* Each text page is characterised by an intricate system of hyphens, dashes, asterisks, and occasional crosses; remarkable use is particularly made of the dash - varying in length, these are often treated as though they were words, while the small type area and generous spacing and margins of the original volumes emphasise their visibility. Regarded as a complex masterpiece today, Dr Johnson famously asserted that its popularity had not lasted because 'Nothing odd will do long'.

Front 525

Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead,
Winding across wide water, without sound.
The day is like wide water, without sound.
Stilled for the passing of her dreaming feet
Over the seas, to silent Palestine,
Dominion of the blood and sepulcher...

Back 525

Beginning of steven's Sunday Morning