Survey in British Literature

SYLLABUS (2016 autumn) 2. Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead. 3. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. 4. Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity. training week and autumn break 5. He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. 6. The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure. 8/11 Nov Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, first 100 pages (up to: „there were 7. The most sublime act is to set another before you. some Wild Creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they 8. If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. were, I knew not.”) 9. Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion. 10. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. 15/18 Nov William Blake: from “Proverbs of Hell”;”Mock on, mock on, The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. Voltaire, Rousseau”; “Oh Sunflower”, “The Lamb”, “The Tyger” The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. first 12 chapters of Jane Eyre DUE The nakedness of woman is the work of God. 11. Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps. 22/25 Nov William Wordsworth: “Lines Composed A Few Miles Above 12. The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit, watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse, the Tintern Abbey” “It is a beauteous evening” elephant, watch the fruits. chapters 13-21 of Jane Eyre DUE 13. The cistern contains: the fountain overflows. 14. The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow. 29 Nov / 2 Dec Samuel Coleridge: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. 15. The fox provides for himself. but God provides for the lion. chapters 22-28 of Jane Eyre DUE 16. The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction. 6/9 Dec Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre 17. Expect poison from the standing water. 18. You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. chapters 29-38 of Jane Eyre DUE 19. The weak in courage is strong in cunning. 13/16. Dec John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” P. B. Shelley: 20. The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd. “Ozymandias”” 21. When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius. lift up thy head! 22. Damn braces: Bless relaxes. 23. Exuberance is Beauty. 24. If the lion was advised by the fox. he would be cunning. Required Reading (only 19th century literature, second half of term) 25. Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius. 26. Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires. William Blake: Proverbs of Hell” (selection);”Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau”; “Oh Sunflower”, “The Lamb”, “The Tyger” Questions William Wordsworth: “Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey “ “It is a 1. Collect proverbs which can be associated with the following four qualities, and in each case, beauteous evening” find the contraries/opposites of the four (those I have listed together are almost synonyms S. T. Coleridge: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. perhaps, and in each case you can find a group of other related qualities which are their P. B. Shelley: “Ozymandias” opposites or contraries). John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” a) energy, movement, life b) excess, exuberance (exaggeration) c). genius [wisdom?]; d). desire Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre 2. What other important themes have you found? 3. What may the different animals symbolize (how do they relate to the polarities above)? WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827) Songs of Innocence and Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1789-93, engraved 1794) (From The Marriage of Heaven and Hell) THE LAMB Proverbs of Hell (a selection) 1. Do not give importance to dead matter. Little lamb, who made thee? Does thou know who made thee, 1 Gave thee life, and bid thee feed Tiger, tiger, burning bright By the stream and o'er the mead; In the forests of the night, Gave thee clothing of delight, What immortal hand or eye Softest clothing, woolly, bright; Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Gave thee such a tender voice, Questions Making all the vales rejoice? 1. Establish the meter, the rhyme-scheme and the stanza form. Little lamb, who made thee? 2. What is the effect of the slow beat of the rhythm? Does thou know who made thee? 3. What other formal, metrical devices contribute to the overall effect of the poem? 4. What does the tyger symbolize? Why don’t we get an answer to any of the questions? Little lamb, I'll tell thee; Little lamb, I'll tell thee: He is called by thy name, For He calls Himself a Lamb. Ah! Sun-flower (from Songs of Experience) He is meek, and He is mild, He became a little child. Ah Sun-flower! weary of time, I a child, and thou a lamb, Who countest the steps of the Sun: We are called by His name. Seeking after that sweet golden clime Little lamb, God bless thee! Where the travellers journey is done. Little lamb, God bless thee! Where the Youth pined away with desire, Questions And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow: 1. Establish the meter, the rhyme-scheme and the stanza form. Arise from their graves and aspire, 2. What does the lamb symbolize? Where my Sun-flower wishes to go. 3. Who speaks in the poem? How is this underlined by its formal qualities? 1. What may the sunflower symbolize? THE TIGER 2. What does the poem tell us about our relationship with time? Tiger, tiger, burning bright 3. How do the seasons appear in the poem? (What might they symbolize?) In the forests of the night, 4. What is the object of the human search (stanza 1) and the human desire (stanza 2)? What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau; Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau; What the hand dare seize the fire? Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And what shoulder and what art And the wind blows it back again. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And every sand becomes a gem And, when thy heart began to beat, Reflected in the beams divine; What dread hand and what dread feet? Blown back they blind the mocking eye, What the hammer? what the chain? But still in Israel's paths they shine. In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp The Atoms of Democritus Dare its deadly terrors clasp? And Newton's Particles of Light When the stars threw down their spears, Are sands upon the Red Sea shore, And watered heaven with their tears, Where Israel's tents do shine so bright. Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee? 1. Look up the references (Voltaire and Rousseau; Israel and the Read Sea: which Old Testament story is referred to?) 2 2. What kind of worldview, vision of reality do Voltaire, Rousseau, Democritus, Newton represent, why is the speaker mocking them and what vision of reality is celebrated instead?

3 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) If thou appear untouched by solemn thought, Thy nature is not therefore less divine: READ the poem Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ( see separately) Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year; And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine, 1. Precisely what experience gave rise to the poem? Describe the situation in which the God being with thee when we know it not. poem was written. 2. Divide the poem into structural units. Questions 3. Lines 1-21: from what perspective is the landscape described? 1. Establish the verse form. 4. How figurative is Wordsworth’s language? Examine one passage of the poem, and 2. How is religious imagery used in this poem? List all religious motifs and discuss count how many metaphors, similes and other poetic devices does the poet use? how Wordsworth transforms them (Look up Abraham’s bosom and the „Temple’s (Metaphors, say, less conventional than, i. e. „wreaths of smoke”) inner shrine”). 5. What important (and typically Romantic) contrast dominates the atmosphere of the 3. How does childhood appear in the poem – what kind of experience does it poem? Point out passages in which it directly appears. represent? 6. In lines 65–110 the poet describes the history of his relationship with nature. Can you identify its three stages? 7. Describe the dialectic of the senses in these three stages. Which is the most important of the five senses and how does this change? 8. Is this a pantheistic vision? Quote evidence for your opinion from the poem. Make a list of the religious vocabulary of the poem. (What is the possible significance of the presence of the „abbey” in the title?) 9. Where, in which passage do you think the unity of mind and nature is most succintly expressed? 10. Compare Wordsworth’s vision of nature with Ode to the West Wind by Shelley (see an excerpt from this poem on the previous handout. Point out important similarities and differences. Focus especially on the role/function of nature in the poet’s life (see lines 106-110). 11. Why is dialogue with his sister important? How does the poet wish to bring back the past and thus to annihilate time? 12. Why do you think Wordsworth’s poetry personally touched many people in his time? Can you recount some parallel experience in your life to that described in Tintern Abbey?

It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility; The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea; Listen! the mighty Being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thunder—everlastingly. Dear child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here, 4 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772–1834) CHARLOTTE BRONTE: JANE EYRE

READ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ( see separately) Narration 1. Which popular verse form does Coleridge employ for his poem? What effect did the poet aim at achieving with the form of the poem, the archaic language, the glosses on the 1I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, margin and the long Latin epigraph (concerning the multitude of invisible creatures romping child--though equally dependent and friendless--Mrs. Reed would inhabiting the world)? have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have 2. Describe the frame of the poem (the initial situation and the ending) entertained for me more of the cordiality of fellow-feeling; the servants 3. Briefly summarize the main narrative of the poem. Indicate parallels to the would have been less prone to make me the scapegoat of the nursery. biblical story of fall, redemption and restoration. What is the motive behind the act of shooting? What does this tell us about I wiped my tears and the nature of sin and the Fall? 2 What are the effects of the killing? hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief might waken a Why do the fellow mariners suffer death? preternatural voice to comfort me, or elicit from the gloom some haloed Why is the transfiguration of the water-snakes a redemptive moment? face, bending over me with strange pity. This idea, consolatory in What are some of the other signs of the redeemed state? theory, I felt would be terrible if realised: with all my might I 4. What may the sun and the moon, the storm and the wind symbolize? Examine the endeavoured to stifle it--I endeavoured to be firm. Shaking my hair from context in which they appear: which is usually associated with good and which with evil my eyes, I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; forces? at this moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a 5. What may the two contrasted worlds symbolize in terms of Coleridge’s Romantic ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight philosophy? was still, and this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling 6. What „normal” human experience does the Mariner’s tale resemble? and quivered over my head. I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern carried by some Excerpts from Coleridge which may contribute to our understanding of the Ancient one across the lawn: but then, prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken Mariner: as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift darting beam was a A Fall of some sort or other – the creation, as it were, of the nonabsolute – is the herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my fundamental postulate of the moral history of Man. Without this hypothesis, Man head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of is unintelligible; with it every phenomenon is explicable. The mystery itself is wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance too profound for human insight. (Table Talk) broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effo symbolism During the first year that Mr Wordsworth and I were neighbours, our conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry: the 3I mounted into the window- power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm which accidents retirement. of light and shade, which moonlight or sunset diffused over a known Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the combining both. These are the poetry of nature. (From Biographia drear November day. Literaria, Ch. 14) 4The next thing I remember is, waking up with a feeling as if I had had a frightful nightmare, and seeing before me a terrible red glare, crossed 5 with thick black bars. attached fetters. "Bridewell!" exclaimed Colonel Dent, and the charade was solved. 5A child cannot quarrel with its elders, as I had done; cannot give its furious feelings uncontrolled play, as I had given mine, without Feminism experiencing afterwards the pang of remorse and the chill of reaction. A ridge of lighted heath, alive, glancing, devouring, would have been a (Jane’s relationship with Rochester) meet emblem of my mind when I accused and menaced Mrs. Reed: the same 9Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am ridge, black and blasted after the flames are dead, would have soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as represented as meetly my subsequent condition, when half-an-hour's you,--and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty silence and reflection had shown me the madness of my conduct, and the and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it dreariness of my hated and hating position is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;--it is my 6"What would Uncle Reed say to you, if he were alive?" was my scarcely spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the voluntary demand. I say scarcely voluntary, for it seemed as if my grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,--as we are!" tongue pronounced words without my will consenting to their utterance: something spoke out of me over which I had no control. 10"I will attire my Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will "What?" said Mrs. Reed under her breath: her usually cold composed grey cover the head I love best with a priceless veil." eye became troubled with a look like fear; she took her hand from my arm, "And then you won't know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any and gazed at me as if she really did not know whether I were child or longer, but an ape in a harlequin's jacket--a jay in borrowed plumes. I fiend. I was now in for it would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as myself clad in a court-lady's robe; and I don't call you handsome, sir, 7I could not forget your conduct to me, though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't Jane--the fury with which you once turned on me; the tone in which you flatter me." declared you abhorred me the worst of anybody in the world; the unchildlike look and voice with which you affirmed that the very thought Glad was I to get him out of the silk warehouse, and then out of a of me made you sick, and asserted that I had treated you with miserable 11 cruelty. I could not forget my own sensations when you thus started up jewellers shop: the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a and poured out the venom of your mind: I felt fear as if an animal that I sense of annoyance and degradation. … "It would, indeed, be a relief," I thought, "if I had had struck or pushed had looked up at me with human eyes and cursed me in ever so small an independency; I never can bear being dressed like a doll by Mr. a man's voice Rochester, or sitting like a second Danae with the golden shower falling daily round me. I will write to Madeira the moment I get home, and tell my uncle John I am going to be married, and to whom: if I had but a prospect of one day bringing Mr. Rochester an 8On its third rising only a portion of the drawing-room was disclosed; the accession of fortune, I could better endure to be kept by him now." And somewhat rest being concealed by a screen, hung with some sort of dark and coarse relieved by this idea (which I failed not to execute that day), I ventured once more to drapery. The marble basin was removed; in its place, stood a deal table meet my master's and lover's eye, which most pertinaciously sought mine, though I and a kitchen chair: these objects were visible by a very dim light averted both face and gaze. He smiled; and I thought his smile was such as a sultan proceeding from a horn lantern, the wax candles being all extinguished. might, in a blissful and fond moment, bestow on a slave his gold and gems had enriched: Amidst this sordid scene, sat a man with his clenched hands resting on I crushed his hand, which was ever hunting mine, vigorously, and thrust it back to him his knees, and his eyes bent on the ground. I knew Mr. Rochester; though red with the passionate pressure. the begrimed face, the disordered dress (his coat hanging loose from one "You need not look in that way," I said; "if you do, I'll wear nothing arm, as if it had been almost torn from his back in a scuffle), the but my old Lowood frocks to the end of the chapter. I'll be married in desperate and scowling countenance, the rough, bristling hair might well this lilac gingham: you may make a dressing-gown for yourself out of the have disguised him. As he moved, a chain clanked; to his wrists were pearl-grey silk, and an infinite series of waistcoats out of the black 6 satin." for a distant country. I climbed the thin wall with frantic perilous haste, eager to catch one glimpse of you from the top: the stones rolled He chuckled; he rubbed his hands. "Oh, it is rich to see and hear her?" from under my feet, the ivy branches I grasped gave way, the child clung he exclaimed. "Is she original? Is she piquant? I would not exchange round my neck in terror, and almost strangled me; at last I gained the this one little English girl for the Grand Turk's whole seraglio, gazelle- summit. I saw you like a speck on a white track, lessening every moment. eyes, houri forms, and all!" The blast blew so strong I could not stand. I sat down on the narrow The Eastern allusion bit me again. "I'll not stand you an inch in the ledge; I hushed the scared infant in my lap: you turned an angle of the stead of a seraglio," I said; "so don't consider me an equivalent for road: I bent forward to take a last look; the wall crumbled; I was one. If you have a fancy for anything in that line, away with you, sir, shaken; the child rolled from my knee, I lost my balance, fell, and to the bazaars of Stamboul without delay, and lay out in extensive slave- woke." purchases some of that spare cash you seem at a loss to spend satisfactorily here." 15She was a big woman, in stature almost equalling her husband, and corpulent "And what will you do, Janet, while I am bargaining for so many tons of besides: she showed virile force in the contest--more than once she flesh and such an assortment of black eyes?" almost throttled him, athletic as he was. He could have settled her with "I'll be preparing myself to go out as a missionary to preach liberty to a well-planted blow; but he would not strike: he would only wrestle. At them that are enslaved--your harem inmates amongst the rest. I'll get last he mastered her arms; Grace Poole gave him a cord, and he pinioned admitted there, and I'll stir up mutiny; and you, three-tailed bashaw as them behind her: with more rope, which was at hand, he bound her to a you are, sir, shall in a trice find yourself fettered amongst our hands: chair. The operation was performed amidst the fiercest yells and the nor will I, for one, consent to cut your bonds till you have signed a most convulsive plunges. Mr. Rochester then turned to the spectators: he charter, the most liberal that despot ever yet conferred." looked at them with a smile both acrid and desolate. "That is _my wife_," said he. 12I stepped across the rug; he placed me square and straight before him. What a face he had, now that it was almost on a level with mine! what a Religion great nose! and what a mouth! and what large prominent teeth! 16To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and 13I saw he was of the material from which nature hews her heroes--Christian and Pagan cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow. It puzzles me now to —her lawgivers, her statesmen, her conquerors: a steadfast bulwark for great remember with what absurd sincerity I doated on this little toy, half fancying it alive and interests to rest upon; but, at the fireside, too often a cold cumbrous capable of column, gloomy and out of place. sensation. I could not sleep unless it was folded in my night-gown; and when it lay there safe and warm, I was comparatively happy, believing it to be happy likewise 14"I dreamt another dream, sir: that Thornfield Hall was a dreary ruin, the retreat of bats and owls. I thought that of all the stately front 17My future husband was becoming to me my whole nothing remained but a shell-like wall, very high and very world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood fragile-looking. I wandered, on a moonlight night, through the grass- between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes grown enclosure within: here I stumbled over a marble hearth, and there between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for over a fallen fragment of cornice. Wrapped up in a shawl, I still His creature: of whom I had made an idol. carried the unknown little child: I might not lay it down anywhere, however tired were my arms--however much its weight impeded my progress, I must 18"Jane! you think me, I daresay, an irreligious dog: but my heart swells retain it. I heard the gallop of a horse at a distance on the with gratitude to the beneficent God of this earth just now. He sees not road; I was sure it was you; and you were departing for many years and as man sees, but far clearer: judges not as man judges, but far more 7 wisely. I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower--breathed Is there a distance between Jane, the narrator and her earlier self? guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. I, in my stiff- 2. Jane Eyre is considered to be a Bildungsroman. It is also partly modelled after necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. the decree, I defied it. Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I a) In what way does Jane „develop”? At this stage simply try to summarise in was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. _His_ chastisements are one sentence the essence or result of this process. mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever. You know I was proud of my b) Trace Jane’s „progress” or development by examining the symbolical place strength: but what is it now, when I must give it over to foreign guidance, as a child does names which mark the successive stages of her spiritual journey. its weakness? Of late, Jane--only--only of late--I began to see and acknowledge the hand c) Lowood: Consider the symbolism of the names Miss „Temple” and Helen of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for „Burns”. reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but d) Thornfield: Consider other, possibly negative female role models for Jane. very sincere.

19"I see no enemy to a fortunate issue but in the brow; and that brow professes to say,--'I Symbolism can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my 3. In what way is the red-room scene symbolical of Jane’s whole plight? Look up later soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all recollections of the red-room experience and references to the colour red. Collect all the extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford references or motives which have to do with imprisonment. to give.' The forehead declares, 'Reason sits firm and holds the reins, 4. A significant extension of the colour-symbolism in the novel is the imagery of fire and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild (heath, energy etc.). Collect and analyse every possible reference to this imagery. chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they 5. At crucial points in the story Jane contemplates her mirror-image. What does this are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment recurring event suggest about Jane and her identity? shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision. Strong wind, earthquake-shock, and fire may pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the Rebellion, feminism dictates of conscience.' 6. The famous feminist literary critic, Susan Gubar writes that „Jane Eyre is the emblem of a passionate, barely disguised rebelliousness”. Do you agree? Why or why not? 7. What can the name Eyre possibly symbolize? 20All men of talent, whether they be men of feeling or not; 8. Collect and discuss all the symbols of „patriarchal authority”, i. e., male whether they be zealots, or aspirants, or despots--provided only they be characters who in one way or another abuse, oppress or threaten Jane. sincere--have their sublime moments, when they subdue and rule. I felt 9. In what ways is Jane’s desire for equality and justice expressed throughout the veneration for St. John--veneration so strong that its impetus thrust me novel? Find examples for the ways in which Jane’s equality with Rochester is at once to the point I had so long shunned. I was tempted to cease demonstrated. struggling with him--to rush down the torrent of his will into the gulf 10. From a psychological / psychoanalitical perspective what constitutes the main of his existence, and there lose my own. I was almost as hard beset by hindrance (within Jane, in the context of her struggle for identity) to marriage with him now as I had been once before, in a different way, by another. I was Rochester? a fool both times. To have yielded then would have been an error of What do the curious dreamlike paintings suggest? principle; to have yielded now would have been an error of judgment. What do her dreams about the phantom-child suggest? In terms of the symbolism previously discussed what can Bertha’s symbolical Questions significance in Jane’s life possibly be?

Narration, structure Jane Eyre and religion 1. Establish the narrator type and think about the effects of this particular kind of narration. December, 1848, Quarterly Review: a damaging attack on the novel; reviewer Elizabeth Is it a retrospective narration? (Find moments of explicit retrospection.) Rigby: 8 Jane Eyre is throughout the personification of the unregenerate and undisciplined spirit, the more 1. What are some of the irregularities in this sonnet? dangerous to exhibit from that prestige of principle and self-control which is liable to dazzle the eye 2. What is the central image of this sonnet? too much for it to observe the inefficient and unsound foundation on which it rests. It is true Jane 3. Collect the phrases that describe this statue. What do we learn about this figure? does right, and exerts great moral strength, but it is the strength of a mere heathen mind which is a Can you describe what it might symbolize? law unto itself. No Christian grace is perceptible upon her. Altogether the autobiography of Jane Eyre is preeminently an anti-Christian composition. There is 4. In what way is this poem ironical? throughout it a murmuring against the comforts of the rich and against the privations of the poor, 5. How is time and space represented in the poem? What can possibly defeat time which, as far as each individual is concerned, is a murmuring against God's appointment--there is a according to the poet? proud and perpetual assertion of the rights of man, for which we find no authority either in God's 6. Characterize the narrative situation. How does this contribute to the distancing effect? word or in God's providence--there is that pervading tone of ungodly discontent which is at once the most prominent and the most subtle evil which the law and the pulpit, which all civilized JOHN KEATS 1795-1821 society in fact, has at the present day to contend with. We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and rebellion at home is the same which has also written Jane Eyre Ode on a Grecian Urn: ( see below) Questions 10. Do you agree with the contemporary reviewer about Jane Eyre being an „anti- Christian composition”? 1. What makes the opening and concluding stanza distinctive? Taking this as a starting 11. Throughout her pilgrimage Jane meets several different representatives of point, briefly characterize the structure of the poem. Christianity. What kind of challenge does each of these characters pose to Jane and how 2. What do you think the Urn symbolizes? How can we sum up the theme of the does she relate to their kind of religious option? poem? The central human wish expressed in it? 12. Collect and analyse instances when Jane prays / addresses God. Characterize her 3. Compare the first two and the second two lines of the first stanza. Compare also the Christian spirituality, and compare it with the religiousness of other characters. first two lines with the last two lines? Attempt to describe the paradoxes or tensions in the 13. Does the notion of Providence appear in the novel? (Take notes.) stanza. 14. Collect and analyse the references to idolatry. 3. Stanza II: What may the poet mean by the paradox of „unheard music”? Why is unheard music sweeter? 4. The first four lines speak of art. What are the other two areas in which the same PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822) paradox appears? 5. The maiden of the penultimate line has been anticipated in the previous stanza. How? OZYMANDIAS 6. Is the notion of deathless, time-defying beauty altogether positive? Find counter- I met a traveller from an antique land evidence in the stanza. Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 7. What is the structural significance of stanza III? Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, 8. Modern critics have detected (perhaps unconscious) irony in this poem. They have Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command based their arguments mainly on this stanza. Any idea why? Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 9. Describe the change of scene in stanza IV. Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 10. Last stanza: How does the phrase „Cold Pastoral” concludes the central paradox of The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. the poem? And on the pedestal these words appear: 11. What does the phrase „dost tease us out of thought” mean? `My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: 12. How is eternity and earthly life in time contrasted? Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' 13. We usually say that historians tell the truth, they tell us about facts. In contrast, what Nothing beside remains. Round the decay do you think this poem means by „truth”, that which the urn tells us? Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Questions

9 38And, little town, thy streets for evermore John Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn 39Will silent be; and not a soul to tell 40 Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. 1Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, 2 Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, 41O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede 3Sylvan historian, who canst thus express 42Of marble men and maidens overwrought, 4 A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: 43With forest branches and the trodden weed; 5What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape 44Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought 6 Of deities or mortals, or of both, 45As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! 7In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? 46When old age shall this generation waste, 8 What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? 47 Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe 9What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? 48Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, 10What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 49"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all 50 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." 11Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 12 Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; 13Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, 14 Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: 15Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 16 Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; 17Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, 18Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve; 19 She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For individual study: 20For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! Ode to a Nightingale: questions

21Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Read the poem and compare it with Ode on a Grecian Urn. Make a list of similar motifs, 22Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; preoccupations. 23And, happy melodist, unwearied, What can the nightingale by a symbol of? 24For ever piping songs for ever new; What does the poet want to escape from (in both poems)? 25More happy love! more happy, happy love! What is the ultimate means of escape and does this appear in some way in the other poem 26For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, as well? 27 For ever panting, and for ever young; 28All breathing human passion far above, 29That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, 30 A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

31Who are these coming to the sacrifice? 32To what green altar, O mysterious priest, 33Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, 34And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? 35What little town by river or sea shore, 36Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, 37 Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? 10