bbl 3217 poetry and drama in english dr. ida baizura bahar [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
What is poetry?
Poetry is important... It reaches inside people and heals their wounds like nothing else can. It is an escape from reality and a method of coping with reality. It's a certain feeling inside."
Anonymous
What does poetry do to you?
"Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is."
Samuel Johnson"original combination of words, distinctive sound, and emotional impact"
Anonymous
What is poetry really?
According to geocities.com, poetry is ..A form of expression written seeking approval from no onebut read and interpretedby anyone and everyoneIt reveals your most inner thoughtsthat may never be spokenforming a deep communication to othersand for you, a cherished tokenthat you will always remember.
What do the poets say?
Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"
Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry"
Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."
In brief, according to Mark Flanagan in About.com…
Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you.
One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page.
Defining poetry is like grasping at the wind - once you catch it, it's no longer wind.
What poetry is usually about? Love – central experience in life Death – taboo subject Religion – mortal vs immortal Nature – appreciate the beauty People – families, friends Domestic Matters
* Everyday topics = familiar themes
LOVEProof – That I did always love thee by Emily Dickinson
That I did always love,I bring thee proof:That till I lovedI did not love enough.
That I shall love alway,I offer theeThat love is life,And life hath immortality.
This, dost thou doubt, sweet?Then have INothing to showBut Calvary.
DEATHWake by Langston Hughes
Tell all my mournersTo mourn in red --Cause there ain't no senseIn my bein' dead.
RELIGIONA Child’s Thought of God by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
They say that God lives very high; But if you look above the pinesYou cannot see our God; and why?
And if you dig down in the mines, You never see Him in the gold,Though from Him all that’s glory shines.
God is so good, He wears a fold Of heaven and earth across His face,Like secrets kept, for love, untold.
But still I feel that His embrace Slides down by thrills, through all things made,Through sight and sound of every place;
As if my tender mother laid On my shut lids her kisses’ pressure,Half waking me at night, and said, “Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?”
How to Eat a PoemDon’t be polite.Bite in.Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice thatmay run down your chin.It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are
You do not need a knife or fork or spoonor plate or napkin or tablecloth
For there is no coreor stem or rindor pitor seedor skin To throw away.
Eve Merriam
A Good PoemI like a good poemone with lots of fightingin it. Blood, and theclanging of armour. Poems
against Scotland are good,and poems that defeatthe French with crossbows.I don’t like that
aren’t about anything.Sonnets are wet and a waste of time,Also poems that don’t
know how to rhyme.If I was a poemI’d play football andget picked for England.
Roger McGough
AN OVERVIEW OF THE DIFFERENT GENRES WHAT IS POETRY?
WHAT IS DRAMA?
Historical Development
English Poetry
Anglo-Saxon Period (0450-1066)
Middle Ages (1066-1500) The Renaissance (1500-1660) 17th century (1600-1700) 18th century (1700-1800) Romantics (1785-1830) 19th century (1800-1900)
English Drama
Middle Ages to 1642 (1660-1700) (1700-1750) (1750-1800) (1800-1850) (1850-1890)
The Anglo-Saxon Period (0450-1066)
No printing existed – handed down orally Various devices used to facilitate memory, for e.g.
alliteration and rhyme were used to make poetry easy to remember. Most work written in Latin.
Contained themes of battles and religion. Epic is the most famous form = a poem of historic scope.
Famous work: Beowulf (the longest as well as the richest of Old English poems). Found in a manuscript of the early eleventh century but composed 2 centuries earlier.
The Middle Ages (1066-1500)
Christian moral poems began to surface Not only in English and Latin but French as well. Epic and elegy gave way to Romance (tales of
adventure and honorable deeds) and lyric. First printed English book appeared in 1476,
language assumed its modern form except for spelling.
Popular poet during this period is Geoffrey Chaucer (narrative poem)
His masterpieces are Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde
The Renaissance (1500-1660)
Experienced a revival of intellectualism because of renewed interest in ancient Greek and Latin language and literature
Invention of printing press (William Caxton) This revolution encouraged the composition
of poetry by great poets such as Sidney (The Shepheardes Calender), Spencer (Fairie Queene), Shakespeare, Marlowe, Lyly and Nashe.
The Seventeenth Century (1600-1700)
Two main groups of poets: lyrical poets and metaphysical poets
First group consists of Herrick, Lovelace and Suckling (wrote according to the conventions of Elizabethan lyricists)
Second group consists of Donne, Herbert and Vaughan who produced works by ‘intense feeling combined with ingenious thought; elaborate, witty images; an interest in mathematics, science and geography; an overriding interest in the soul; and direct, colloquial expression even sonnets and lyrics’
The Eighteenth Century (1700-1800)
The rise of the novel and consequently, the beginning of the end of epic poetry
Marked the disappearance of the patronage system
Poetry writing became a less lucrative endeavor.
Poets such as Blake and Pope became aware of the social problems
The emergence of sensibility - Gray
The Romantics (1785-1830)
Can be characterized by: A return to nature A shift of focus to the country side A return to a life of senses and feeling Not confined to logic and reason Its appeal to emotions and imagination
The Romantics (II)
Also a revival of interest in the Middle Ages, the medieval, and the supernatural
A common word associated with the Romantics is ‘the Sublime’ which refers to “religious awe, vastness, natural magnificence, and strong emotion”
Overwhelmingly a poetic one Poets of this era are: Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Byron, Shelley and Keats
The Nineteenth Century (1800-1900)
Known also as the Victorian Age (1880) Industrial Age and the modern age of science Middle class was brought into power,
reducing the powers of aristocracy Poetries often expressive, mournful,
descriptive, of nature and of domestic and urban life
Poets emerged during this period: Tennyson, Browning and Arnold.
NARRATIVE POETRY
GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERYBURY TALES (WRITTEN AT THE END OF THE 14TH CENTURY)
BY
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (C.1343-1400)
http://www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/zatta/prol.htmlMiddle English version of General Prologue
1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote 2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, 3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour 4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth 6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, 9: And smale foweles maken melodye, 10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye 11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages); 12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, 13: And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, 14: To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
Middle English version of General Prologue
15: And specially from every shires ende 16: Of engelond to caunterbury they wende, 17: The hooly blisful martir for to seke, 18: That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke. 19: Bifil that in that seson on a day, 20: In southwerk at the tabard as I lay 21: Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage 22: To caunterbury with ful devout corage, 23: At nyght was come into that hostelrye 24: Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye, 25: Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle 26: In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle, 27: That toward caunterbury wolden ryde. 28: The chambres and the stables weren wyde, 29: And wel we weren esed atte beste.
General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales Bifel that in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage To Caunterbury with ful devout corage, At nyght was come into that hostelrye Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle, That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde. GP I.20-27
General Prologue
The poem opens with a passage about spring, the season when people long to get out and about after the rigors of winter. Chaucer does not only give the essence of the season itself, but a vivid realization of its effect on human beings.
The company of pilgrims meeting together at the Tabard Inn in Southwark for the journey to Canterbury. The journey usually took three days, though it could be done in less. The shrine of St. Thomas, who had been murdered in 1170 and canonized three years later, was a major place of pilgrimage, must have been a splendid sight in Chaucer’s time, adorned as it was with great quantities of gold and jewels.
At the end of the General Prologue, Chaucer says that he has described the ‘estate’ of all the pilgrims and his prologue is not merely a collection of portraits, but something that goes much further.
General Prologue In the Middle Ages what is now known as ‘estates satire’ was
popular: literature that described the characteristics qualities and failings of the members of the various ‘estates’, the trades, professions and ways of life of fourteenth-century people.
Thus, in describing the pilgrims, Chaucer was not merely inventing a group of interesting characters, or portraying actual people that he knew, but drawing upon a well-established but rather stereotyped mode of writing and transforming it, to give us the highly individualized group of people who make up the company assembled at the Tabard Inn.
In order to give a more comprehensive view of his society, Chaucer presents a very large company of pilgrims, and selected representatives from high up on the social scale (the Knight and his son, the Squire), and from both religious and secular life.
He has women as well men, he has poor as well as rich, learned and ignorant, and simple countrymen as well as sophisticated, worldly pilgrims.
The Knight Given the first place to represent the highest class. Though most of his other pilgrims are satirized, Chaucer’s
Knight is presented as an entirely admirable member of his class, a representative of chivalry.
He fights for a religious ideal rather than for personal aggrandizement and has participated in many campaigns in foreign countries.
His ‘array’, described at the end of the portrait, suggests an unworldly disregard of outward appearance combined with concern for professional competence.
He has participated in no less than fifteen of the great crusades of his era.
Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him.
As the pilgrimage begins and the tales are told, the Knight’s social superiority and moral authority are recognized by the rest of the company including the Host.
The Squire (the Knight’s son) - a country gentleman,
especially the chief landowner in a district Also a representative of chivalry, but he is above all a
young lover, as is natural for his age (20 years), and his devotion to his lady inspires him to perform deeds of courage.
Unlike his father, does not scorn elegant clothes or disregard his appearance: he is the embodiment of the romantic ideal of the young lover, with all the accomplishments that were considered appropriate.
He is accompanied by a Yeoman whose admirable professionalism and practical abilities qualifies him to be the servant of both Knight and Squire.
The Prioress (Madame Eglantine) – the female superior of a religious house or order/head of her convent
Chaucer describes in terms of a worldly beauty, as if she were the heroine of a romance rather than a woman dedicated to a life of religious devotion.
Chaucer makes his Prioress a beautiful and charming woman whose courtesy is her dominant characteristics.
Her table manners are dainty, she knows French (though not French of the court), she dresses well, and she is charitable and compassionate.
She wears a brooch which is inscribed “Love Conquers All Things’ but unsure whether the ‘love’ refers to love for God or earthly love.
She is the feminine counterpart of the Squire.
The Monk – a member of a community of men living apart from the world under the rules of a religious order.
Monks were often satirized, particularly for the gluttony and lack of spirituality traditionally attributed to the monastic orders.
Chaucer subtly suggests that his Monk his fond of good food, but does not explicitly state that he is greedy and he makes the monk appear physically attractive, rather than as gross and bloated.
He is fond of fine clothes and loves hunting.
The Friar – a member of certain Roman Catholic male religious orders and works among people in the outside world and not as enclosed orders.
In Chaucer’s time friars were often criticized for failing to live up to the ideals to which they were dedicated. Particularly criticized for their over-persuasive speech and flattery, often leading to the seduction of women.
Like the Monk, Chaucer’s Friar is an attractive figure, with his pleasant speech, healthy appearance and musical ability, but he has disagreeable characteristics too. He is greedy for money, extorting it from poor widows by his fair speech.
The Merchant (trades in fur and other cloths) – part of a powerful and wealthy class in Chaucer’s society
The Merchant belongs to the secular rather than to the ecclesiastical world.
Merchants were traditionally associated with fraud and dishonesty. Chaucer’s choice of words implies that his Merchant’s dealings were probably shady ones.
The very respectable and dignified appearance that the Merchant maintains probably both masks dishonest money-operations and enables him to conceal any losses that he may make, which might undermine the confidence of his clients
The Clerk (a scholar)
To be regarded as an admirable figure. Does not seem as attractive as many of the other
pilgrims, with his half-starved appearance, bony old horse and threadbare clothes.
He cares nothing for worldly success, and he spends no time trying to make money.
He does not waste words, though he finds time to pray for the souls of any who will enable him to further his studies.
His devotion to scholarship and his readiness to pass his learning conform to the contemporary ideal for the scholar.
The Wife of Bath (Bath is an English town on River Avon, not the name of the woman’s husband)
Misogynistic satire which discussed women’s faults and failings and the appropriate attitudes towards them that men should adopt.
Such writing often denounced women for pride and bad temper – here we can see that the Wife is infuriated if she is not allowed to make her offering in church before other women.
Chaucer also drew form earlier tradition which portrayed elderly woman as knowing all about love, and ready to instruct others, even when they themselves too old for it.
Chaucer shows his originality by making the Wife a very experience older woman but one who is still ready for love if anyone will give her a chance.
Though she is a seamstress by occupation, she seems to be a professional wife.
She has been married five times and had many other affairs in her youth, making her well-practiced in the art of love.
Prologue
After Chaucer has introduce all the pilgrims, he excuses himself in advance for any displeasure that he may cause by attempting to report accurately the uncensored words of his companions, and he also apologizes for not introducing the pilgrims in exactly the correct order.
Then he introduces the Host, Harry Bailey, who unlike the other members of the party, was a real person.
The Host is both manly and jolly, and a very competent organizer.
His character is to emerge in the course of the pilgrimage, as he arranges the story-telling. At this point in the proceedings, he puts forward his plan: the teller who tells the most memorable and interesting stories will be rewarded with a free supper at the Tabard Inn on his return.
INTRODUCTION TO SONNET
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETS
What is a sonnet?
Lyric poem of 14 lines with a formal rhyme scheme, expressing different aspects of a single thought, mood, or feeling, resolved or summed up in the last lines of the poem.
Originally short poems accompanied by mandolin or lute music, sonnets are generally composed in the standard metre of the language in which they were written—iambic pentameter in English, the Alexandrine in French, for example.
The term The term sonnet is derived from the
provencal word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning little song. By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines following a strict rhyme scheme and logical structure. The conventions associated with the sonnet have changed during its history.
Form
The two main forms of the sonnet are the Petrarchan (Italian), and the English (Shakespearean).
The former probably developed from the stanza form of the canzone or from Italian folk song.
The form reached its peak with the Italian poet Petrarch, whose Canzoniere (c. 1327) includes 317 sonnets addressed to his beloved Laura.
The convention of a sonnet The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (8 line
stanza), and a sestet(6 line stanza). The octave has two quatrains, rhyming a b b a, a b b
a; the first quatrain presents the theme, the second develops it.
The sestet is built on two or three different rhymes, arranged either c d e c d e, or c d c d c d, or c d e d c e; the first three lines exemplify or reflect on the theme, and the last three lines bring the whole poem to a unified close.
Among great examples of the Petrarchan sonnet in the English language are Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella (1591), which established the form in England. There, in the Elizabethan age, it reached the peak of its popularity.
Petrarchan style
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, (a)Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! (b)My hasting days fly on with full career, (b)But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. (a)
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, (a)That I to manhood am arrived so near, (b)And inward ripeness doth much less appear, (b)That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. (a)
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, (c)It shall be still in strictest measure even (d)To that same lot, however mean or high, (e)Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. (d)All is, if I have grace to use it so, (c)As ever in my great Task-master's eye. (e)
English Sonnets
Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, are credited with introducing the sonnet into England with translations of Italian sonnets as well as with sonnets of their own.
Though English sonnet is always identified as Shakespeare sonnet, he is not the first to introduce this from. Nonetheless the poet is the famous practitioner.
Shakespeare Sonnets
The English sonnet, exemplified by the work of Shakespeare, developed as an adaptation to a language less rich in rhymes than Italian.
This form differs from the Petrarchan in being divided into three quatrains, each rhymed differently, with a final, independently rhymed couplet that makes an effective, unifying climax to the whole. The rhyme scheme is a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.
Life and Times of William Shakespeare
Likely the most influential writer in all of English literature and certainly the most important playwright of the English Renaissance, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The son of a successful middle-class glove-maker, Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582, he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical success quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603) and James I (ruled 1603-1625); he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment by endowing them with the status of king’s players. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeare’s death, such luminaries as Ben Jonson hailed him as the apogee of Renaissance theatre.
The Sonnets Shakespeare’s sonnets are very different from Shakespeare’s
plays, but they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story. Each of the poems deals with a highly personal theme, and each can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel of autobiographical poems, but we don’t know whether they deal with real events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeare’s life to say whether or not they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as “the speaker”—as though he were a dramatic creation like Hamlet or King Lear.
The Sonnets
There are certainly a number of intriguing continuities throughout the poems. The first 126 of the sonnets seem to be addressed to an unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much; the rest of the poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to the rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates, and lusts for simultaneously. The two addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as the “young man” and the “dark lady”; in summaries of individual poems, I have also called the young man the “beloved” and the dark lady the “lover,” especially in cases where their identity can only be surmised. Within the two mini-sequences, there are a number of other discernible elements of “plot”: the speaker urges the young man to have children; he is forced to endure a separation from him; he competes with a rival poet for the young man’s patronage and affection. At two points in the sequence, it seems that the young man and the dark lady are actually lovers themselves—a state of affairs with which the speaker is none too happy. But while these continuities give the poems a narrative flow and a helpful frame of reference, they have been frustratingly hard for scholars and biographers to pin down. In Shakespeare’s life, who were the young man and the dark lady?
The Shakespearean Sonnet: Overview
William Shakespeare wrote one hundred fifty-four sonnets. A sonnet is a form of lyric poetry with fourteen lines and a specific rhyme scheme. (Lyric poetry presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or presents a witty observation.) .The topic of most sonnets written in Shakespeare's time is love–or a theme related to love.
The Shakespearean Sonnet: Overview Shakespeare addresses Sonnets 1 through
126 to an unidentified young man with outstanding physical and intellectual attributes. The first seventeen of these urge the young man to marry so that he can pass on his superior qualities to a child, thereby allowing future generations to enjoy and appreciate these qualities when the child becomes a man. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare alters his viewpoint, saying his own poetry may be all that is necessary to immortalize the young man and his qualities.
The Shakespearean Sonnet: Overview In Sonnets 127 through 154, Shakespeare devotes
most of his attention to addressing a mysterious "dark lady"–a sensuous, irresistible woman of questionable morals who captivates the poet. References to the dark lady also appear in previous sonnets (35, 40, 41, 42), in which Shakespeare reproaches the young man for an apparent liaison with the dark lady. The first two lines of Sonnet 41 chide the young man for "those petty wrongs that liberty commits / when I am sometime absent from thy heart," a reference to the young man's wrongful wooing of the dark lady. The last two lines, the rhyming couplet, further impugn the young man for using his good looks to attract the dark lady. In Sonnet 42, the poet charges, "thou dost love her, because thou knowst I love her."
The Shakespearean Sonnet: Overview
Shakespeare wrote his sonnets in London in the 1590's during an outbreak of plague that closed theaters and prevented playwrights from staging their dramas.
The Shakespearean Sonnet: Overview The Shakespearean sonnet (also called the
English sonnet) has three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and a two-line unit called a couplet. A couplet is always indented; both lines rhyme at the end. The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is iambic pentameter (except in Sonnet 145). The rhyming lines in each stanza are the first and third and the second and fourth. In the couplet ending the poem, both lines rhyme. All of Shakespeare's sonnets follow the same rhyming pattern.
Sonnet 1 (Addressed to the Unidentified Young
Man)
From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty’s rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed’st thy light’st flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.
Sonnet 1 Meaning
......We want beautiful people and things to reproduce themselves so that their good qualities will be passed on to their offspring (children, plants, etc.) It's true that an aging person or thing will eventually die, but the memory of that person or thing will continue to live if offspring are produced. But you, who are in love with yourself, seem to devote all of your attention to yourself. You're like the flame of a candle that burns only for itself instead of providing light for others.You are your own enemy. Right now, you are young and new to the world. But instead of procreating and sharing yourself by marrying, you keep your procreative seed inside yourself, unused (thine own bud buriest thy content). ......Thus, young miser, you waste your good qualities by refusing to spend them on others In the end, by thinking only of yourself and not mingling with others, you will consume your ability to procreate and go to your grave without any children or memories to immortalize you.
Sonnet 18
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 owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18 Meaning
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”
Sonnet 60 (Addressed to the Young Man)
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d, Crooked elipses ’gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow, Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow: And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
Sonnet 60 Meaning
.......This sonnet says time passes swiftly, just as swiftly as ocean waves rushing toward a shore. The word minutes in Line 2 and the number of the sonnet, 60, suggest that life passes like the 60 minutes in an hour. Although a young man stands for a while in the bright sunlight of youth, advancing age will all-too-soon appear as a cloud that hides the sun. Wrinkles will appear and infirmities will develop. Eventually, death–with its scythe–will come to reap its harvest. However, the poet’s verse will live on to extol the qualities of the man as he was in his youth.
Sonnet 97
How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December’s bareness every where! And yet this time removed was summer’s time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease: Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit; For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, And, thou away, the very birds are mute; Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.
Sonnet 97 Meaning
The speaker has been forced to endure a separation from the beloved, and in this poem he compares that absence to the desolation of winter. In the first quatrain, the speaker simply exclaims the comparison, painting a picture of the winter: “How like a winter hath my absence been / From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! / What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! / What old December’s bareness everywhere!” In the second quatrain, however, he says that, in reality, the season was that of late summer or early autumn, when all of nature was bearing the fruits of summer’s blooming. In the third quatrain, he dismisses the “wanton burthen of the prime”—that is, the bounty of the summer—as unreal, as the “hope of orphans.” It could not have been fathered by summer, because “summer and his pleasures” wait on the beloved, and when he is gone, even the birds are silent. In the couplet, the speaker says that the birds may sing when the beloved is gone, but it is with “so dull a cheer” that the leaves, listening, become fearful that winter is upon them.
Sonnet 146
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, [...] these rebel powers that thee array; Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge? is this thy body’s end? Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more: So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
Sonnet 146 Meaning
The speaker addresses this poem to his soul, asking it in the first stanza why it, the center of his “sinful earth” (that is, his body), endures misery within his body while he is so concerned with maintaining its “paint[ed]” outward appearance—that is, why his soul allows his exterior vanity to wound its interior life. He asks his soul why, since it will not spend long in the body (“having so short a lease” in the “fading mansion”), it spends “so large cost” to decorate it, and he asks whether worms shall be allowed to eat the soul’s “charge” after the body is dead. In the third quatrain, the speaker exhorts his soul to concentrate on its own inward well-being at the expense of the body’s outward walls (“Let that [i.e., the body] pine to aggravate [i.e., increase] thy store”). He says that the body’s hours of “dross” will buy the soul “terms divine”; and admonishes the soul to be fed within, and not to be rich without. In the couplet, the speaker tells the soul that by following his advice, it will feed on death, which feeds on men and their bodies; and once it has fed on death, it will enjoy eternal life: “And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.”
INTRODUCTION TO ELEGY
“ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD”
BY THOMAS GRAY
THE ELEGY :
Elegy means “a lament” in Greek .
In classical Literature an Elegy was any poem composed of couplets of dactylic hexameters and pentameters.
The subjects were various death, war, love and similar things. The elegy was also used for epitaphs. Many touching poems of personal loss have been written in English
though the formal elegy demands a dignity and solemnity without a sense of strained effort or artificiality.
Of such personal elegies of note are Shelley’s “Adonais” mourning the death of Keats.
THE PASTRORAL ELEGY:
The major elegies belong to a sub – species known as Pastoral elegy , the origin of which are traceable to the pastoral laments of Theocritus of Sicily and his successors Moschus and Bion.
It was Theocritus who set an example for Milton’s Lycidas, Shelley’s Adoais and Arnold’s Thyrsis.
Features:
1. The scene is pastoral. 2. The poem begins with an invocation. 3. Diverse mythological characters are referred to. 4. Nature is involved in mourning – Nature feels the wound. 5. There is a procession of mourners.6. There is a flower passage. 7. The elegy ends on a note of hope and joy.
Biographical Information .......Thomas Gray was born in London on December 26, 1716. He was the only one of twelve children who survived into adulthood. His father, Philip, a scrivener (a person who copies text) was a
cruel, violent man, but his mother, Dorothy, believed in her son and operated a millinery business to educate him at Eton school in his childhood and Peterhouse College, Cambridge, as a young man. .......He left the college in 1738 without a degree to tour Europe with his friend, Horace Walpole, the son of the first prime minister of England, Robert Walpole (1676-1745).
However, Gray did earn a degree in law although he never practised in that profession.
After achieving recognition as a poet, he refused to give public lectures because he was extremely shy.
Nevertheless, he gained such widespread acclaim and respect that England offered him the post of poet laureate, which would make him official poet of the realm.
However, he rejected the honor. Gray was that rare kind of person who cared little for fame and
adulation.
NOTES on “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” First published, anonymously, 1751, under the title "An Elegy wrote in a
Country Churchyard." The date of composition of the Elegy, apart from the concluding
stanzas, cannot be exactly determined. The sole authority for the frequently repeated statement that Gray
began the poem in 1742 is Mason's conjecture in the memoir prefixed to his edition of The Poems of Mr. Gray, 1775.
The Elegy was concluded at Stoke Poges in June, 1750. (See letter to Walpole, June 12, 1750.)
The churchyard as described by Gray is typical rather than particular; of the five disputed "originals" Stoke Poges bears the least resemblance to the graveyard in the Elegy. Five candidate churchyards for Gray's setting include Stoke Poges (unlikely), Upton (near Slough), Grantchester and Madingley (near Cambridge), and Thanington (near Canterbury), but the features might as readily be non-specific. curfew: originally rung at eight o'clock as a signal for extinguishing fires; after this practice had ceased, the word was applied to an evening bell.
Type of Work
......."Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is—as the title indicates—an elegy.
Such a poem centers on the death of a person or persons and is, therefore, somber in tone.
An elegy is lyrical rather than narrative—that is, its primary purpose is to express feelings and insights about its subject rather than to tell a story.
Typically, an elegy expresses feelings of loss and sorrow while also praising the deceased and commenting on the meaning of the deceased's time on earth.
Gray's poem reflects on the lives of humble and unheralded people buried in the cemetery of a church.
Setting
.......The time is the mid 1700s, about a decade before the Industrial Revolution began in England.
The place is the cemetery of a church. Evidence indicates that the church is St. Giles, in
the small town of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in southern England.
Gray himself is buried in that cemetery. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, once maintained a manor house at Stoge Poges.
Years of Composition and Publication
.......Gray began writing the elegy in 1742, put it aside for a while, and finished it in 1750.
Robert Dodsley published the poem in London in 1751.
Revised or altered versions of the poem appeared in 1753, 1758, 1768, and 1775.
Copies of the various versions are on file in the Thomas Gray Archive at Oxford University.
Meter and Rhyme Scheme
.......Gray wrote the poem in four-line stanzas (quatrains). Each line is in iambic pentameter, meaning the following:
1..Each line has five pairs of syllables for a total of ten syllables. 2..In each pair, the first syllable is unstressed (or unaccented), and the second is stressed (or accented), as in the two lines that open the poem: .......The CUR few TOLLS the KNELL of PART ing DAY .......The LOW ing HERD wind SLOW ly O'ER the LEA
.......In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second line rhymes with the fourth (abab), as follows:
a.....The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, b.....The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, a.....The plowman homeward plods his weary way, b.....And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Stanza Form: Heroic Quatrain
.......A stanza with the above-mentioned characteristics—four lines, iambic pentameter, and an abab rhyme scheme—is often referred to as a heroic quatrain.
(Quatrain is derived from the Latin word quattuor, meaning four.)
William Shakespeare and John Dryden had earlier used this stanza form.
After Gray's poem became famous, writers and critics also began referring to the heroic quatrain as an elegiac stanza.
Themes
Death: the Great Equalizer .......Even the proud and the mighty must one day lie
beneath the earth, like the humble men and women now buried in the churchyard, as line 36 notes:
The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Lines 41-44 further point out that no grandiose
memorials and no flattering words about the deceased can bring him or her back from death.
Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Themes
Missed Opportunities .......Because of poverty or other handicaps, many talented people
never receive the opportunities they deserve. The following lines elucidate this theme through metaphors: 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. Here, the gem at the bottom of the ocean may represent an undiscovered musician, poet, scientist or philosopher. The flower may likewise stand for a person of great and noble qualities that are "wasted on the desert air." Of course, on another level, the gem and the flower can stand for anything in life that goes unappreciated.
Themes
Virtue .......In their rural setting, far from the temptations
of the cities and the courts of kings, the villagers led virtuous lives, as lines 73-76 point out:
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Assessment of the Poem
.......Scholars regard "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" as one of the greatest poems in the English language.
It weaves structure, rhyme scheme, imagery and message into a brilliant tapestry that confers on Gray everlasting fame.
The quality of its poetry and insights reach Shakespearean and Miltonian heights.