ENGLISH LITERATURE

POETRY REVISION ANALYSIS NOTES

(i)Stanzas written in dejection, near Naples by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poem:
The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
The purple noon's transparent might,
The breath of the moist earth is light,
Around its unexpanded buds;
Like many a voice of one delight,
The winds, the birds, the ocean floods,
The City's voice itself, is soft like Solitude's.

I see the Deep's untrampled floor

With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore,
Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown:
I sit upon the sands alone,—
The lightning of the noontide ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.

Alas! I have nor hope nor health,

Nor peace within nor calm around,
Nor that content surpassing wealth
The sage in meditation found,
And walked with inward glory crowned—
Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure.
Others I see whom these surround—
Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;
To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.

Yet now despair itself is mild,

Even as the winds and waters are;
I could lie down like a tired child, And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,
And I might feel in the warm air
My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea
Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.

Some might lament that I were cold,

As I, when this sweet day is gone,
Which my lost heart, too soon grown old,
Insults with this untimely moan;
They might lament—for I am one
Whom men love not,—and yet regret,
Unlike this day, which, when the sun
Shall on its stainless glory set,
Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet.
Structure:
‘Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a five stanza poem which

is separated into sets of nine lines. Shelley has chosen to utilize the verse structure made

popular by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queen.

The stanzas are known as “Spensarian stanzas,” and have been altered slightly for the poet’s

purpose. He chose not to use iambic pentameter as Spenser did, but instead use iambic

tetrameter. A reader should also take note of the final line of each stanza and the fact that it is

longer, containing twelve syllables and iambic hexameter. This is known as an “alexandrine.”

Rhyme Pattern:
ABABBCBCC
Iambic tetrameter with the final line of each stanza in hexameter; ababcdecde rhyme scheme.
Themes:
Emotions - Isolation, Depression
Alienation - The speaker abandons the city for the beach, where his only company is the sea. In
front of the ocean, the speaker feels the pain of alienation instead of solitude's delight. As he
imagines his death, he thinks that a few people would miss him but that, unloved by many, his
demise would be, on the whole, unremarkable. While the sight and sound of the waves provide
some comfort, the speaker ultimately is lost in his loneliness, unable to connect with the world
around him. At the same time, his pain has made him unable to connect with himself, as the
beach's solitude only emphasizes his misery.
Nature - Alongside the speaker's despondency, the theme of Nature drives the poem. The coast
of Naples provides the poem's setting and functions as a backdrop to the speaker's emotional
state. As the speaker looks on in wonder at the coast's beauty, he can recognize joy, even if he
can't feel it himself. Instead of precisely reflecting his interior state, nature acts like a broken
mirror, revealing the cracks between the speaker and the world around him. By the end of the
poem, Nature presents the possibility of hope: in spite of his depression, the speaker will have
this beautiful day to remember.
Literary Devices:
Metaphors: light dissolved, bright reflection of the ocean as lightning, a day's material as
stainless
Similes: lying down like a tired child, the sound of a city like the sound of solitude
Alliteration: seaweeds strown
Assonance: will linger
Personification: Mountains that "wear" light
Hyperbole: Hyperbole in the speaker's impending chance of death, especially surrounding the
phrase "this untimely moan."
Summary:
The day is warm, the sky is clear, the waves sparkle. Blue islands and snow-topped mountains
look purple in the midday light. Buds are ready to blossom. The sounds of the winds, the birds,
the waves, and of Naples itself blend in pleasant harmony. Shelley sees the seaweed on the
ocean bottom and watches the waves dissolve into light as they strike the shore. He sits alone
on the sand, observing the sparkling ocean and listening to the sound of the waves. How
pleasant all this would be if there were someone with whom he could share the emotion he
feels.

Unfortunately, Shelley lacks hope, health, peace, calmness, contentment, fame, power, love,
and leisure. He sees others who enjoy all these and find life a pleasure. It is otherwise with him.
He would like to lie down like a tired child and "weep away the life of care" which he has
endured and must continue to endure. Death would steal upon him quietly, turning his warm
cheeks cold while the waves continued their monotonous rhythm as consciousness grew fainter.
Some might mourn his death just as he will regret the departure of this beautiful day to which
his melancholy is in contrast. He is not popular, but nevertheless they might mourn his death
while disapproving of his life. The end of this day will not bring mixed feelings to him, however.
Since it has been enjoyed, it will live on in his memory.
Choice of words:
Monotony, Linger, Isles are all words the poet has chosen to create an impact of an endless
loneliness in surrounding and within oneself even amongst several people.
Analytical observations:
Shelley's state of dejection in "Stanzas" is artistically placed in a sharply contrasting setting that
effectively emphasizes the dejection. Shelley implies that no matter how much harmony there
may exist between nature and man, man must be in a condition to be able to find pleasure in
that harmony. Shelley was far from being in such a condition. Newman Ivey White, the author
of the definitive life of Shelley, writes that Shelley was so depressed while in Naples that it is
said that he tried to commit suicide (Shelley, Vol. II, p. 78).

Shelley was in Naples from November 29, 1818, to February 28, 1819. Naples in winter offers a
pleasantly warm climate. Naples is at its best, so far as weather is concerned, and Shelley and
his wife, Mary, should have been happy there. However, Shelley was in poor health and the
delightful winter climate of Naples did not help him. The major cause of his dejection was not
his health but his wife's estrangement from him following the death of their daughter Clara on
September 24, 1818. Mary seems to have felt that her husband was indirectly responsible for
the death of the child because he had insisted on making a hurried journey in hot weather to
Venice at a time when little Clara was sick. The child died shortly after the Shelley family
reached Venice.

Other causes undoubtedly contributed to Shelley's death-wish at Naples. His first wife, Harriet
Westbrook, and Mary Shelley's half sister, Fanny Inlay, had committed suicide; the courts had
taken from him the custody of his two children by Harriet; friends had turned against him; his
poetry was neglected by the public and condemned by the critics, and he was plagued by
financial and personal problems. Shelley experienced one of the lowest periods of his life while
he was in Naples. His desire to free himself by death from his troubles does not necessarily
reveal any moral or character weakness but an understandably profound discouragement at a
time when everything seemed to be going wrong. Nature, no matter how beautiful, was of little
help.
Possible Questions:
How does Shelley strategically use nature to help us understand the speaker's dejection?
Because Shelley devotes the first stanzas to a meticulous description of Naples' coast, we know
immediately that setting plays a crucial role in the poem. Shelley uses these descriptions of
nature to both mirror and express the speaker’s interior state. First, standing between a
mountain range, a vast ocean, and a bustling city, the speaker is dwarfed by the wonders
around him. Likewise, the speaker feels small and helpless at the center of his despair. The
motion of the waves echoes the turbulent, ceaseless pain of his depression. The image of the
speaker’s body lying like a sleepless child on the shore is terribly lonely, corresponding to the
speaker’s lack of love, hope, and health. Shelley's analogies and connections between the
speaker's emotions and features of the natural world give his intangible feelings a concrete,
visual counterpart, allowing readers to grasp the often-inexpressible character of intense pain.

What is the sublime, and what role does it play in the poem?
The sublime is a philosophical and aesthetic concept explored by Edmund Burke in A
Philosophical Enquiry (1757). To experience the sublime is to be faced with something whose
grandeur, power, or horror is beyond measure. For the Romantics, the sublime is most
associated with features of the natural world and intense emotional states. In "Stanzas in
Dejection," examples of the sublime would be the snow-peaked mountains in the distance and
the vast, turbulent sea at the speaker's feet. Likewise, his boundless, incalculable pain speaks
to the idea. Setting the speaker's expression of dejection in the midst of Naples' magnificent
coast, Shelley uses elements of the sublime to affirm and validate the speaker's despair. The
magnitude of his suffering is as great as the wonders around him. At the same time, the
speaker's emotions are so intense that they threaten to overwhelm him from within, driving
him to thoughts of death in stanza four.

(ii) A leave - taking by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Poem:
Let us go hence, my songs; she will not hear.
Let us go hence together without fear;
Keep silence now, for singing time is over,
And over all old things and all things dear.
She loves not you nor me as all we love her.
Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear,
She would not hear.

Let us rise up and part; she will not know.

Let us go seaward as the great winds go,
Full of blown sand and foam; what help is here?
There is no help, for all these things are so,
And all the world is bitter as a tear.
And how these things are, though ye strove to show,
She would not know.

Let us go home and hence; she will not weep.

We gave love many dreams and days to keep,
Flowers without scent, and fruits that would not grow,
Saying ‘If thou wilt, thrust in thy sickle and reap.’
All is reaped now; no grass is left to mow;
And we that sowed, though we all fell on sleep,
She would not weep.

Let us go hence and rest; she will not love.

She shall not hear us if we sing hereof,
Nor see love’s ways, how sore they are and steep.
Come hence, let be, lie still; it is enough.
Love is a barren sea, bitter and deep;
And though she saw all heaven in flower above,
She would not love.

Let us give up, go down; she will not care.

Though all the stars made gold of all the air,
And the sea moving saw before it move
One moon-flower making all the foam-flowers fair;
Though all those waves went over us, and drove
Deep down the stifling lips and drowning hair,
She would not care.
Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see.
Sing all once more together, surely she,
She too, remembering days and words that were,
Will turn a little toward us, sighing; but we,
We are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there.
Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me,
She would not see.
Structure:
There are a total of six stanzas consisting of seven lines each.
Rhyme Pattern:
The poem follows a regular rhyming pattern that presents the rhyme scheme of a closed
couplet. However, the last three lines of each stanza form a rhyming tercet. Apart from that, the
whole poem is composed of iambic pentameter with a few variations. As an example, the last
line of each stanza is in iambic dimeter.

Themes:
Sorrow, Rage, Heartbreak, Pain
Literary Devices:
Simile - And all the world is bitter as a tear
Metaphor - Love is a barren sea, bitter and deep
Repetition- ‘Let us…’ ‘She would not…’
Summary:
The love of his life rejected him and the poem is his expression of the pain and hurt and sadness
and anger he has towards that woman and her actions.
Choice of words:
Seeds sowing, reaping - Speaks of seeds of love that were planted in his heart for her which she
trampled upon, crushing his soul.
Analytical observations:
Throughout the stanzas, the poet speaks of how he wants to leave this woman who rejected
him. He starts off by stating that there is no need to wait anymore, just leave. He proceeds to
explain his pent up rage towards her and how this experience has shattered him and made him
lose hope for love. He even paints a picture of this woman as cruel and heartless by stating that
even in all this pain that this man is suffering and even if he goes now, the women wouldn’t
even notice, let alone care.
(iii) The Forsaken Wife by Elizabeth Thomas (‘Corinna’)
Poem:
Methinks, ’tis strange you can’t afford
One pitying look, one parting word;
Humanity claims this as due,
But what’s humanity to you?

Cruel man! I am not blind,

Your infidelity I find;
Your want of love my ruin shows,
My broken heart, your broken vows.
Yet maugre all your rigid hate,
I will be true in spite of fate;
And one preeminence I’ll claim,
To be for ever still the same.

Show me a man that dare be true,

That dares to suffer what I do;
That can for ever sigh unheard,
And ever love without regard:
I then will own your prior claim
To love, to honour, and to fame;
But till that time, my dear, adieu,
I yet superior am to you.

Structure:
Three stanzas, Tetra metre. The effect of this is to suggest stability and that she is in control.
Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB
Themes:
Instead the major theme here is gender inequality. We see a wife who has been abandoned
within a marriage, but is forced by society to accept her husband’s indiscretions in silence as she
has no rights inside of the marriage to complain. It reflects upon the accepted logic of the time
that presented men as superior in every way, by showing the strength of one woman in contrast
with the spineless and heartless actions of her husband.
Infidelity and its implications on marriage.

Literary Devices:
The Forsaken Wife’ by Elizabeth Thomas beautifully uses literary devices that make the poet’s

arguments more appealing and forceful to the readers. Likewise, in the first stanza, the poet

uses a metaphor in the first two lines. Here, the poet compares “pitying look” and “parting

word” to the items that can be bought by wealth. The metaphor rather presents another

literary device called irony in these lines. In using the word “humanity” the poet refers to

human beings. It is an example of synecdoche. The second stanza begins with an apostrophe.

Moreover, there is a personification in the third line. And, the following line presents an

antithesis.

In the third stanza, there is anaphora in the second and third lines. There is a climax in the line,

“To love, to honour, and to fame”. At last, the poet again uses irony to say she is superior to the

husband in every respect.

Summary:
The title tells us everything we need to know about the context of the feelings within the poem.
A wife has been abandoned by her husband. The reality of the time is that she would have had
to suffer her heartache and ruination in silence as women, and particularly wives, had little to
no voice, rights or power in eighteenth century England.
This poem serves as a way of venting her true feelings that she would not have been able to
share in polite society. I must point, however, that the voice of the poem is a construct used to
explore this inequality in society (although, I suppose, it could have been on someone Thomas
knew, it is more likely that she is using a hypothetical/created situation to highlight her
message).
The first stanza is a withering attack on the unfaithful husband. She is amazed that he doesn’t
feel any guilt or sympathy toward her as a result of his cheating. In the end she decides that it is
because he has no compassion.
She moves on to demonstrate the flaws in marriage rights. First, she reveals that she knows of
his unfaithfulness and perhaps suggests that although she doesn’t mention it, this is not as a
result of her being ignorant, stupid or blind. She points out that she is the one punished for his
failure to stand by the promises of his marriage. Although we may have some sympathy with
men at this time who could have to marry on the basis of property or financial need rather than
love (and thus maybe strayed to find the latter elsewhere), it is clear that wives were the biggest
sufferers.
Despite the hurt, she promises to remain true, partially because she has no other option, but in
the poem she claims the moral high ground by sticking to her promises. In the final stanza, the
poetic voice seems to have become emboldened by her anger and makes a wider declaration
about the worth of women in comparison to men. She questions whether men could be so
brave in the face of suffering as she has been. Only if she is shown a man who could endure this
is she willing to accept their superiority, the common logic of the day. Until then she sees
herself as superior.
Purpose - To prove to the husband that the wife knows what he is done, and to prove to other
women that one does not need to be devastated when the husband is unfaithful. Women can
rise above. The wife communicates how women can be angry, but they should not let the anger
destroy them and they should not pity themselves.

Choice of words:
Emotive title - To be ‘forsaken’ is to be forgotten or ignored and often has even more powerful
connotations that suggest something fundamentally wrong with whatever is forsaken. Thomas
uses it deliberately to represent this feeling of complete disregard and show that the wife now
feels alone and without hope of being… unforsaken (definitely not a word!).

Bitter tone - We start with the poetic voice bitterly pondering her husband’s actions. It is
‘strange’ to her that he cannot even give her ‘one pitying look, one parting word’ – in other
words, one sign of his sympathy for the pain she must be feeling – for a couple of different
reasons. First, she has loved him and as man and wife they must have been through a lot
together, thus she cannot understand how this relationship can be treated with such disregard.
Surely their relationship means that he should demonstrate that he feels sorry for her and at
least offer a word of apology? Note here the harsh repetition and the harsh consonance of the
‘p’s that make us almost spit out the words.

When she says ‘I am not blind’, in one sense we could imagine the husband not even owing her
enough respect to be careful to hide his affair/s. However, I think Thomas is making a broader
point here. In society, wives were expected to tolerate this sort of behaviour from their
husbands as they held no rights distinct from their husbands. Thus we would not expect a wife
to make her husband’s indiscretions public and cause a stir, instead she would be expected to
bear her pain/shame/embarrassment in silent dignity. This line shows us that although our
poetic voice may not mention the affair, it is not due to her ignorance or stupidity, but rather
the confines of societal expectation that makes her deal with the pain only internally.
You could also mention the heavy use of first person pronouns ‘I’ and ‘my’ that are used to
focus the reader on the personal suffering and are contrasted with the selfish and cruel ‘you’ to
clearly demonstrate the injustice between men and women.

Analytical observations:
Anyway, much of her poetry centred on women’s rights, particularly in relation to education.
This poem, however, focuses on the disparity of marriage. Although women had some rights in
eighteenth century England, these were forfeit upon marriage when legally they became
powerless due to the Coverture doctrine that left husbands with all the power. An interesting
little read here, if you want to know more.

More than this though, she questions how anyone could be so heartless, let alone a husband to
his wife. The rhetorical question in the last line of the opening stanza suggests he is without
‘humanity’, which paints his actions as not just those of a lousy husband, but as someone
without heart and without any care or consideration for his fellow humans.

In the third and fourth lines we have the greatest injustice of marriage rights, as she contrasts
his ‘broken vows’ with her ‘broken heart’ and ‘ruin’ showing that while men commit the crime it
is women who are punished. ‘Ruin’ is such a powerful word that implies that she has lost
everything and refers to the fact that his affairs would leave her shamed and unable to recover
her position or respect in society. She also confirms here that this is not merely a social
inconvenience within a loveless marriage, but his infidelity has actually caused her huge
emotional pain.

While she questions whether any man exists who could face the hardship of rejection,
heartbreak and broken promises, she highlights that women are able to and have to bear these
things. She uses highly emotive phrases such as ‘suffer as I do’, ‘sigh unheard’ and ‘love without
regard’ to show the pain that many wives have to endure. They have to be selfless and silent in
their pain (‘unheard’) to meet the expectations of society. After she has raised this challenge
(for a man who could endure as she has) she declares herself ‘yet superior’ to men and her
husband in particular in all aspects: ‘To love, to honour, and to fame’. This would have been
hugely controversial, but the pain and bitterness of the poem embolden the poetic voice and
allow Thomas to reveal the injustice of marriage contemporary to her.
(iv) Nearing Forty by Derek Walcott
Poem:
Insomniac since four, hearing this narrow,
rigidly metred, early-rising rain
recounting, as its coolness numbs the marrow,
that I am nearing forty, nearer the weak
vision thickening to a frosted pane,
nearer the day when I may judge my work
by the bleak modesty of middle age
as a false dawn, fireless and average,
which would be just, because your life bled for
the household truth, the style past metaphor
that finds its parallel however wretched
in simple, shining lines, in pages stretched
plain as a bleaching bed sheet under a guttering
rainspout; glad for the sputter
of occasional insight,
you who foresaw
ambition as a searing meteor
will fumble a damp match and, smiling, settle
for the dry wheezing of a dented kettle,
for vision narrower than a louvre’s gap,
then, watching your leaves thin, recall how deep
prodigious cynicism plants its seed,
gauges our seasons by this year’s end rain
which, as greenhorns at school, we’d
call conventional for convectional;
or you will rise and set your lines to work
with sadder joy but steadier elation,
until the night when you can really sleep,
measuring how imagination
ebbs, conventional as any water clerk
who weighs the force of lightly falling rain,
which, as the new moon moves it, does its work
even when it seems to weep.

Structure:
Use of free verse - the impression that the poet is inundated by an overflow of emotions,
thoughts and impressions from his memory and from his present surroundings —(as he lies
awake in the middle of the night listening to the rain.)

The poem does not have any stanza divisions. Only the last verse ends with a full-stop to mark
the end of the speaker's thought process-flows like a chain of thoughts without any breaks,
creating and imitating a stream of consciousness style that was first pioneered by modern
authors such as Virginia Woolf. (Mrs. Dalloway)

The stream-of-consciousness technique is an effective way for writers and poets to put the
unstructured, meditative, and uninterrupted flow of thought, especially as a creative process.
The reader is immersed in the poet's thoughts, creating a simultaneously vicarious reading and
thinking experience.

Rhyme Pattern:
No formal rhyme scheme.

Themes:
Sadness, Endless Change, Aging
Literary Devices:
Paradox - sadder joy
Simile - for vision narrower than a louvre’s gap
Alliteration - bleaching bed sheet
Imagery - false dawn
Rhymes - narrow and marrow
Summary:
Here, in this poem, Walcott as the speaker describes how old age changes both the poet and
Figueroa.

It seems as though the main inspiration for this poem came to the poet in the middle of the
night as he was lying awake with insomnia and listening to the rain pattering outside his
window.

"Nearing Forty" takes the form of a lyric poem, expressing his thoughts on aging and ambition.
Choice of words:
The poem opens with no discernible narrative voice, using continuous verbs (‘hearing’,
‘recounting’, ‘nearing’) to create a sense of observing everything happening .

The poem is also structured as a dramatic monologue. It opens with the noun ‘insomniac’, a
term that the speaker applies to himself, telling us that he has had trouble sleeping since he was
four years old, and now he is ‘nearing forty’.

This relates to the deeper theme of psychology, building a picture of the speaker as a man with
an inquisitive, restless mind and perhaps an overactive imagination.

The rolling ‘r’ sounds of the phrase ‘early-rising rain / recounting’ create a regular rhythm to the
line that imitates the sound of the rain drumming outside the speaker’s window.

Analytical observations:
His writing shows how perspectives change with age and maturity and he writes of things where
he can’t wait for the day he feels this and that happens to him as he gets older. Shows growth of
imagination as well as physical changes while aging.
(v) I Find No Peace by Sir Thomas Wyatt
Poem:
I find no peace, and all my war is done.
I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.
I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;
And nought I have, and all the world I seize on.

That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison

And holdeth me not—yet can I scape no wise—
Nor letteth me live nor die at my device,
And yet of death it giveth me occasion.

Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain.

I desire to perish, and yet I ask health.
I love another, and thus I hate myself.

I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain;

Likewise displeaseth me both life and death,
And my delight is causer of this strife.
Structure:
‘I Find no Peace’, is also an example of a Petrarchan sonnet in English. The poem is structured in
a “single stanza” where the ideas are arranged orderly following the Petrarchan structure. The
14 lines of the poem are divided into two parts: an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines).
Rhyme Pattern:
ABBA ABBA CDE CDE
Themes:
Love, Multiple Perceptions, Conflict
Literary Devices:
Paradox - Fear and hope, Burn and Freeze
Oxymoron - Peace and war
The author uses the simile to compare himself to ice, yet uses the opposites “burn and freeze”
to highlight the confusion of his love. He also uses metaphors such as “That loseth nor locketh
holdeth me in prison,” meaning that he is neither free nor held in prison. This comparison is
also a hyperbole used, for the poet exaggerates that nothing could bind him, except his love for
his beloved.
Summary:
The whole poem is a journey of contradicting emotions experienced by the poet through love.
However, he couldn’t find peace. Hints of unspoken conflict and wars to fight. He is free yet
feels imprisoned and is expressing himself through paradoxical language and hyperboles to
emphasize his dilemma about his romantic misery.
Choice of words:
Completely contrasting ideas to explain how confusing love can be and how love can be
perceived in several ways using different emotions.
Analytical observations:
Use of Paradoxes Illustrates the sorrow and conflict in the persona’s midlife.
Title is foreshadowing that the poet cannot be at peace while in love.
(vi) Now Let No Charitable Hope by Elinor Morton Wylie
Poem:
Now let no charitable hope

Confuse my mind with images

Of eagle and of antelope:

I am in nature none of these

I was, being human, born alone;

I am, being woman, hard beset;

I live by squeezing from a stone

The little nourishment I get

In masks outrageous and austere

The years go by in single file;

But none has merited my fear,

And none has quite escaped my smile.

Structure:
‘Now Let No Charitable Hope’ by Elinor Wylie is a three-stanza poem that is separated into sets
of four lines, known as quatrains. All of the lines contain eight syllables except for the first two
lines of the second stanza.
Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB

Themes:
Elinor Wylie engages with themes of women’s lives and women’s rights, as well as
oppression/freedom, sorrow/joy. Wylie’s speaker, who may very well be Wylie herself, describes
her life as one filled with a struggle for happiness. It doesn’t seem as though anything comes
easily to this speaker. She works to try to make a life for herself, but her gender impedes her as
men put up roadblocks to her happiness. She longs for the kind of freedom that wild animals
have but has to remind herself that this kind of life isn’t for her. It’s unclear at the end of the
poem whether or not the speaker ever found a way to be truly happy or if sorrow penetrated
every moment of her life.
Literary Devices:
The first of these, enjambment, is a common formal device that occurs when the poet cuts off a

sentence or phrase before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines

one and two of the first stanza as well as lines three and four of the second stanza.

Anaphora is a kind of repetition, one that’s concerned with the use and reuse of the same word

or words at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “I,” which starts the last line of the first

stanza and the first three lines of the second stanza. “I am” starts two of these as well.

There are also a couple of examples of caesura in ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope.’ For instance,

line two of the second stanza. It reads: “I am, being a woman, hard beset.” Caesura occurs when
the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. This might be indicated by the punctuation or

by a break in the meter.

Summary:
The woman is convincing herself to not get fooled by tiny little specks of hope that she has a

possibility of freedom. She starts off with reminding herself not to get tricked by some areas

that give her hope of freedom like an eagle or antelope. However, in reality, she is a human

encaged within herself and her being a woman has forced her to play several roles in life. She

has to fight and work to earn every shred of freedom she gets and even whilst stuck in this life,

somehow she has managed to make the most of it and find happiness and not let it diminish

her spirit.

Choice of words:
Austere, Nourishment, Beset

Comparison of freedom to animals such as an eagle or an antelope.

Analytical observations:
The third and fourth lines contain an interesting metaphor that helps the reader understand
how difficult the speaker’s life is on a day to day basis. She describes the process of acquiring
“nourishment” as so difficult it’s like squeezing something out of a stone. The “nourishment”
can be interpreted as happiness, satisfaction, or pleasure. It’s difficult for her to indulge in any
of these things.
(vii) I hear an army by James Joyce
Poem:
I hear an army charging upon the land,

And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:

Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,

 Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.

They cry unto the night their battle-name:

I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.

They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,

Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.

They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:

They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.

My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?

My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?

Structure:
Three quatrains
Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB
Themes:
Lost love, Betrayal, Unanswered Questions
Literary Devices:
Imagery-
‘I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,

Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers. ‘

Repetition - ‘My love, my love, my love’ and ‘ Clanging, clanging ‘

Onomatopoeia - Whip, clanging
Assonance- green, cleave, blinding
Summary:
In "I Hear An Army" by James Joyce, the poet is jarred awake by a nightmare in which an army
of black-clad charioteers rides full-tilt out of the sea towards him. He feels threatened. Is this a
nightmare of personal calamity, provoked by anxiety over the loss of a loved one ("my love, why
have you left me alone")?

Choice of words:
The Onomatopoeia "clanging, clanging" also imitates the incessant, nerve-wracking pounding in
the poet's brain and heart.

Joyce's words are well chosen, not only for their connotations, but for their etymological
meanings as well. "Wisdom" is derived from the Latin word videre meaning "to see", wisdom
being associated with insight. The poet wants the insight of wisdom so he won't be "blinded" by
the "blinding flame." It's interesting to note that "clanging" is a cognate of "laughter", both
derived from a Latin word meaning "(an animal's) loud cry".

Analytical observations:
‘I Hear An Army’ captures the feeling of lost love through intense imagery and the use of
musical patterns. In the poem, there is a description of a group of charioteers, riding out of the
sea and approaching the lyrical voice that culminates with the thought of yearned affection.

Biblical References

This vision of this army occurs to the dreamer like "a blinding flame". Flames are associated
with light, and light with truth. Therefore, a "blinding" flame, the brightest light of all, might be
God's Truth (almost too powerful for man to behold).

There is an implied contrast in the poem between tender human love and harsh, inhumane
militancy. Also, between wisdom and ignorance.

Some words with traditionally positive associations have negative associations in this poem. For
example, the fact that the horsemen come out of the sea is ironic. The sea usually has a positive
association since it is the cradle of life. In this poem, however, the sea, instead of giving life,
delivers the forces of death. "Anvil" too is ironic since anvils have a positive association with
"beating swords into plowshares" (Isaiah 2:4) - - changing the tools of war into those of peace
and fertility. Here, however, the anvil is associated with war, and the beating upon it with the
clock of doom ticking in the poet's frightened heart. "Green" too usually has a positive
association with water, vegetation, and thus life. But in this poem it seems evil. That the
charioteers' hair is green is bizarre and nightmarish: their hair is the colour of seaweed or
serpents. Joyce may have had in mind the horses of the Apocalypse whose tails were like
serpents (Rev. 9:19), and serpents, of course, are associated with Satan. The charioteers' "long
hair" is a symbol of strength (ex. Samson's long hair) but also suggests that these horsemen are
unkempt, uncivilized, obeying bestial instincts.

Many of the words in the poem are demonic or ominous, predicting death and destruction.
Horses are also associated with death. Death often appears on horseback.

(viii) Verses Written on Her Death-bed at Bath to Her Husband in

London by Mary Monck (‘Marinda’)
Poem:
Thou who dost all my worldly thoughts employ,
Thou pleasing source of all my earthly joy,
Thou tenderest husband and thou dearest friend,
To thee this first, this last adieu I send!
At length the conqueror death asserts his right,
And will for ever veil me from thy sight;
He wooes me to him with a cheerful grace,
And not one terror clouds his meagre face;
He promises a lasting rest from pain,
And shews that all life’s fleeting joys are vain;
Th’ eternal scenes of heaven he sets in view,
And tells me that no other joys are true.
But love, fond love, would yet resist his power,
Would fain awhile defer the parting hour;
He brings thy mourning image to my eyes,
And would obstruct my journey to the skies.
But say, thou dearest, thou unwearied friend!
Say, should’st thou grieve to see my sorrows end?
Thou know’st a painful pilgrimage I’ve past;
And should’st thou grieve that rest is come at last?
Rather rejoice to see me shake off life,
And die as I have liv’d, thy faithful wife.
Structure:
‘Verses Written on her Death-Bed at Bath’ by Mary Monck is 22 lines long. The poet doesn’t use
a stanza division in this poem. However, each section of the poem contains a four-line unit that
forms a rhyming quatrain.
Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB
The poet employs closed couplet form and regular rhyme scheme for expressing her love to her
husband through this verse. Moreover, the last two lines which contain the main idea of the
poem can be taken as a couplet that also has a regular rhyming pattern. However, the rhyme
scheme of the poem is AABB and it goes on like this. There is only one imperfect rhyme in the
poem that is in the third and fourth lines. Here, “friends” and “send” don’t rhyme.
Themes:
Death, Goodbyes, Sorrow, Love

Literary Devices:

Metaphor - Thou pleasing source of all my earthly joy

Symbolism- Heaven sky symbolism (And would obstruct my journey to the skies)

Hyperboles- Thou tenderest husband and thou dearest friend,

Personification - Gives death a living connotation (And not one terror clouds his meagre face; )

Antithesis - First and last goodbye (To thee this first, this last adieu I send! )

Summary:

‘Verses Written on her Death-Bed at Bath’ by Mary Monck, as the title says, is a poem that talks
about a wife’s last words to her dearest husband. The poem captures her fleeting emotions and
dying wishes that she unfolds in her versification. Though there is only a request not to mourn
her death in the end, the verse also presents her true love for the husband. The request comes
from a heart that loves. The wife can’t see the eyes that have been giving her inspiration for a
long time, reddened with grief. All she wants, a rejoicing epilogue of her life written in the book
of love.

Choice of words:
Choice of final words before parting can be used to create a memorable impact.
Analytical observations:
Hyperbolic expressions are used to emphasize her love for him and create more of an impact on
the sorrow she is facing as she knows she is leaving him.

The whole poem is dedicated to Mary’s husband, whom she is leaving. As this was written on
her deathbed, she wanted to leave him with a few loving words and consolations. She starts by
explaining how he fills her with all the joy in the world. The poem proceeds to capture the
power of love that can’t even be broken by something as permanent as death. She moves on to
consoling him that death is just a little visit and she shall still remain as faithful as ever to him.
She addresses a final farewell to her husband, the only person she cares about. After suffering
for a long time she welcomes death as a release from her pain. However, she is torn between
longing for this release and her love. She fears that her death could leave her husband
distraught and in deep mourning.

The poem ends with her gently persuading him that her death is for the best and that he should
not mourn, but rejoice in her death while he will still remember her as his faithful wife.

(xi)‘From An Essay on Criticism’ by Alexander Pope

Poem:

(x)’Waterfall’ by Lauris Edmond

Poem:
I do not ask for youth, nor for delay
in the rising of time’s irreversible river
that takes the jewelled arc of the waterfall
in which I glimpse, minute by glinting minute,
all that I have and all I am always losing
as sunlight lights each drop fast, fast falling.

I do not dream that you, young again,

Might come to me darkly in love’s green darkness
Where the dust of the bracken spices the air
Moss, crushed, gives out an astringent sweetness
and water holds our reflections
motionless, as if for ever.

It is enough now to come into a room

and find the kindness we have for each other
– calling it love – in eyes that are shrewd
but trustful still, face chastened by years
of careful judgement; to sit in the afternoons
in mild conversation, without nostalgia.

But when you leave me, with your jauntiness

sinewed by resolution more than strength
– suddenly then I love you with a quick
intensity, remembering that water,
however luminous and grand, falls fast
and only once to the dark pool below.

Structure:
Four sestets.

Rhyme Pattern:
No formal rhyme scheme.
Themes:
Love, Loss, Despair, Brevity of Time, Nostalgia.
Literary Devices:
Personification - The ‘irreversible river’ is personifying time as a river, that you can only go in
one direction and not turn around – much like a waterfall. It is also clear Lauris does not want to
go back in time from the first line ‘I do not ask for youth, nor for delay’.
Juxtaposition is created on the third line, ‘I glimpse, minute by glinting minute’. A glimpse is a

partial view of something contrasting against the fact she is looking for minutes. There is also

alliteration created from ‘glimpse’ and ‘glinting’.

The last line of the first stanza uses a very interesting technique of repeating words for extra

emphasis one after the other, ‘sunlight lights‘ and ‘fast, fast falling’. She is making clear how the

sun crystallizes the water falling. The sunlight could be regarded as happiness as both are
associated with being bright and positive. So, it is happiness and the joy moments in life that

make clear how ‘fast’ the water is falling from the waterfall – time flies by when you are having

fun. Alliteration is created from repeating words and also continues the theme of time.

Summary:

Choice of words:
Irreversible river
Motionless reflections
Green darkness
Analytical observations:
She starts off by suggesting the brevity of time and how it is an endless irreversible river. She
then proceeds to explain how she missed her memories when she was younger with her lover,
but she doesn’t need to revisit them as their love is frozen in time which is represented by the
motionless reflections. In the third stanza, she is pulled back into reality where she states if she
was in a room with him, they would just have to make small talk while their unspoken memories
and nostalgia captures them. She finally ends the poem by clarifying that she only realized how
much she loved him and needed him when he left her and that is something us readers can
connect to with her as we don’t often appreciate or stay grateful for the little things in life or the
people in the shadows and when we finally lose them, we realize how much they actually
meant to us and how we shouldn’t have taken them for granted like she took the love of her
life.
(xi)’Love in a Life’ by Robert Browning
Poem:
Structure:
Two stanzas - both octaves with two tersets and a couplet.

Rhyme Pattern:
Similarity in rhythm scheme and line arrangement.
ABCCCABC
Themes:
Constant Quest
Literary Devices:
Ceasura, Rhyme, Alliteration, Imagery, Rhyme, Alliteration, Imagery

Summary:
The poem's speaker addresses a woman who has seemingly just
mentioned the possibility that she might leave him (the first line is
"Escape me?"). He insists that such escape is impossible, since his
pursuit of her is "much like a fate, indeed!" Even if his pursuit is
interrupted by failure, he will "get up to begin again." His life is
devoted towards the "chase" of her, and no matter how little hope he
has, he will continue after her.
Choice of words:
Cornice- wreath: ceiling decoration
Yonder: at a distance
Anew: fresh
Importune
Analytical observations:
Looking for something, Hunt ( passionate yet frantic tone), Relationship between partners
shown, Comforting himself
Next time he finds her, he will look into herself, not her troubled past
Huge impact on him, the relationship’s effect has dawned on the reader.

Repetitive motion : the author is determined to find her and keep their relationship going.
Suites, closets, alcoves could have a figurative meaning for the chambers in his heart.
Symbolism for love and holding on to something that is on the verge of breaking apart.
(xii)’Rhyme of the Dead Self’ by A R D Fairburn
Poem:

Tonight I have taken all that I was

and strangled him that pale lily-white lad

I have choked him with these my hands these claws

catching him as he lay a-dreaming in his bed.

Then chuckling I dragged out his foolish brains

that were full of pretty love-tales heighho the holly

and emptied them holus bolus to the drains

those dreams of love oh what ruinous folly.

He is dead pale youth and he shall not rise

on the third day or any other day

sloughed like a snakeskin there he lies

and he shall not trouble me again for aye.

Structure:
‘Rhyme of the Dead Self’ by A.R.D. Fairburn is a three-stanza poem that is

separated out into quatrains or sets of four lines. These lines follow a simple

rhyme scheme of ABAB, with several half-rhymes interspersed throughout.

For example, “lad” and “bed” in the first stanza and “day” and “aye” in the final

stanza. A half-rhyme is a rhyme in which only part of the two words align. This

is usually a specific consonant sound, like the “d” in the first example or a

vowel, or assonant, sound such as in the second example.

Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB
Themes:
Death
In ‘Rhyme of the Dead Self’ the most important themes the poet addresses
are transformation and perceptions of the self. These two themes are
combined in a violent outburst against the speaker’s perceived younger self.
He’s changed so much (he thinks for the better) that any bit of his lingering
“lily-white” daydreaming younger self is problematic. This transformation came
over time, likely so much time that he didn’t notice that it was happening. Now,
as he looks back over his life, he’s outraged and angered by who he used to
be. It is impossible to read this poem without wondering what could possibly
have offended him so intensely about his prior self to encourage this kind of
outburst. What happened in this speaker’s life that killed his purest dreams?
Literary Devices:
Fairburn makes use of several literary devices in ‘Rhyme of the Dead Self.’
These include but are not limited to enjambment, imagery, alliteration. The
latter is a type of repetition that’s concerned with the use and reuse of the
same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. For example,
“heighho” and “holly” in line two of the second stanza and “sloughed” and
“snakeskin” in line three of the third stanza.
Enjambment is a common formal device used in poetry when the poet cuts off

a sentence or phrase before it reaches its natural stopping point. For example,

the transition between line one of the first stanza and line two. The majority of

the lines in ‘Rhyme of the Dead Self’ are enjambed.

Imagery is another interesting literary device that’s incredibly important to

creating memorable and moving poetry. Without skillful imagery, readers won’t

be able to imagine the scene, event, or ideas at play in a poem. The following

lines from the second stanza are a good example “Then chuckling I dragged

out his foolish brains / that were full of pretty love-tales heighho the holly.”

Summary:
Talks about the poet’s transformation from childhood to adulthood.
Choice of words:
Pale lily white lad
Analytical observations:
In the first stanza of ‘Rhyme of the Dead Self,’ the speaker begins by using

imagery to craft a vision of him strangling his younger self. He depicts his

previous self as a “pale lily-white lad.” When he looks back on how he used to

view writing and the world, this is what he sees—someone who is innocent

and unknowledgeable about how the world works. The violence of

metaphorically “strangling” this past self is important. He isn’t setting this

person gently to the side in order to address the world through new eyes; he’s

murdering his old self as though he did something very wrong.

The image goes on depicting the two differently. The younger self is

daydreaming in bed while the present self is using his “claws” to choke the life

out of himself. The younger self is obviously quite wistful. He likely had an

unrealistic view of what the world was like, perhaps specifically in regards to

writing.

The violence continues in the second stanza when the speaker describes

dragging out his younger self’s “foolish brains.” They were full of “pretty

love-tales.” He had a vision of the world that was completely idealized, the

speaker is saying. But, something changed in him. Something killed the

version of the world he used to believe in. It was filled with “dreams of love,”

which he now calls “ruinous folly.” Either now, the speaker doesn’t believe in

love at all, or he has a new opinion of what is possible when it comes to love.
In this stanza, Fairburn uses some unusual words like “holus bolus.” This

refers to doing something all at once. So, he emptied the young mind’s mind

all at once of the dreams of love.

In the third and final stanza of the poem, the speaker adds that the youth
“shall no rise” like Christ did on the “third day.” Nor shall he rise on “any other
day.” The young man is as dead as it is possible to be. He’s been shed, as a
snake sheds its skin, and will not trouble the speaker for anything ever again.
Now, the speaker is supposedly liberated of this past self. But it is impossible
not to wonder if the speaker lost more than he gained in removing this part of
himself.

Readers who enjoyed Rhyme of the Dead Self’ should also consider reading
some related pieces like ‘Self-Interrogation’ by Emile Brontë, ‘Rembrandt’s
Late Self-Portraits’ by Elizabeth Jennings, and ‘Can Someone Bring Me My
Entire Self’ by Noshi Gillani. The latter is about fitting in and finding one’s
place in the world, while the first, ‘Self-Interrogation,’ contains the poet’s
musings before her death as she tries to see her life in full. ‘Rembrandt’s Late
Self-Portraits’ is a creative poem in which the speaker describes the way in
which Rembrandt, through all of his work, but especially his late self-portraits,
took an honest look at himself and others.

The author has used the first quatrain to suggest that his older self regrets his
younger self and that if he could, he would strangle and choke his past self to
death. He has displayed this vision through such violent imagery where his
hands are claws, that chokes his pale self as he lays peacefully, lied dreaming
in bed. This can give the audience the idea that the individual made a mistake
which is regretted and tries to stop himself.
(xiii)’After’ by Philip Bourke Marston
Poem:
A little time for laughter,
A little time to sing,
A little time to kiss and cling,
And no more kissing after.

A little while for scheming

Love's unperfected schemes;
A little time for golden dreams,
Then no more any dreaming.

A little while 'twas given

To me to have thy love;
Now, like a ghost, alone I move
About a ruined heaven.

A little time for speaking

Things sweet to say and hear;
A time to seek, and find thee near,
Then no more seeking.

A little time for saying

Words the heart breaks to say;
A short sharp time wherein to pray,
Then no more need of praying;

But long, long years to weep in,

And comprehend the whole
Great grief that desolates the soul,
And eternity to sleep in.
Structure:
‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston consists of six four-line stanzas. The poet

employs a regular rhyme scheme in the poem and he makes use of the

closed rhyming form. It means that the first and fourth lines of each stanza

rhyme together. Whereas, the second and third lines form a rhyming couplet.

As an example, in the first stanza, “laughter” and “after” rhyme and “sing”
rhyme with “cling”. The repetition of “A little” throughout the poem except in

the last stanza, refers to the main idea of the poem. It is no doubt about the

little things that make one cheerful.However, the metrical composition of the

poem is interesting enough. In each stanza, the first and fourth lines contain 7

syllables each. Whereas, the second line and third line contain 6 and 8

syllables respectively. In this poem, the lines having 6 and 7 syllables contain

the iambic trimeter. But, the first and fourth lines have hypermetrical endings.

Moreover, the third line of each stanza is in iambic tetrameter. However, it can

be said that the poem is composed of iambic trimeter as the majority of the

lines contain this meter.

Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB
Themes:
Loss, Love, Brevity of Time
Negation : melancholy, denial, sadness, pessimissm, loss
- Affects mood and tone, ‘no more’ of good things, emotional connotation
Brevity of time : shortness of life, making the most out of memories

Author : blind, extraordinarily gifted, can look at different aspects of nature, victorian times in
britain, end of enlightenment, start of realism
Victorianism - industrialism, different classes, utilinarism, women’s rights, science vs religion,
progress from past
Literary Devices:
‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston is a poem that has some important literary

devices to discuss. The epigrammatic sense present in each section of the

poem is also very interesting. However, in the first stanza, the first three lines

contain anaphora. The last line of this stanza is somehow paradoxical in

sense. In the second stanza, the second line contains a personification. Here

the poet also uses a metaphor for referring to himself. However, in “golden

dreams” there is a metonymy. Here, the poet refers to the dreams that one

values the most. In the third stanza, there is a simile in the third line and here

the poet compares himself to a ghost. Whereas, in the last stanza, the poet

uses hyperbole and a metaphor as well.In the fifth stanza, the poet uses

synecdoche in the second line. Here, by referring to “heart” the poet

associates himself. There is an alliteration in the third line of this stanza. Here,

the “s” sound in “short sharp” gets repeated for the sake of emphasis.

Moreover, in the last stanza, there is a palilogy in the use of the word “long”

twice. It is no doubt a hyperbolic expression. In the third line, “Great grief” is

an example of consonance. The poet also personifies “grief” in this line and

invests it with the idea of desolating the soul. At last, the poet uses a

periphrasis or circumlocution for pointing to “death”.

The idea of poet being blind, more tactile and auditory imagery than visual, his

eyesight really was deteriorating

Unheard words implied heavy messages - “ no more kisses often”

Volta - turn of thought, but, yet or and yet

Pain - final stanza ( “ great grief that desolates the soul” )

Anaphora (“ a little time”) : although life seems long, it is short and we can die

anytime so we have to seize every moment for as long as we have it.

Simile (“ Now, like a ghost, alone I move”) : The voice became a memory of

the past and is used to signify that when he dies, he would live alone, like a

ghost. This shows that with no one to love, a sense of loss is implied and the

person is saying without that person, there’s no purpose of life.

Repetition (“little’): The time with the lover was very little and not enough, Idea

of time slipping away, Maybe the life was so memorable that it went by too fast

and it got over quickly.

Sibilance (“sweet to say, desolates the soul”) : The ‘s’ sound represents

silence to show that after the author’s death, there was never any noise or

fun.

Oxymoron/ Paradox (“ And eternity to sleep in”): Referring to the phrase

‘eternal rest’ or ‘eternal sleep’ which is a connotation for death.

Summary:
‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston talks about the poetic persona’s little wishes.
He doesn’t want anything bigger from life except for pleasant things that cheer
the heart. Likewise, in the first three stanzas, the poet talks about the lady
whom he loved. Now, she is not with the poet. For this reason, he desires
those things that once made him feel happy. In the following two stanzas, the
poet says what he really wants to say to his beloved. There is still something
left in his heart that he wants to tell her about. Moreover, in the last stanza, the
poet sighs for the “long, long” years that he has to live alone with a sad heart.
What is left in him, is the endless heartache. It will only end in eternal sleep.
Choice of words:
A little time
Analytical observations:
‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston presents how the poet longs for his lady love.
The love story has ended abruptly and there is still feeling left in the poet’s
heart. The poet can imagine how they laughed and sang together. The
sensation of kissing her and clinging her closer to his heart, reminds the poet
about the brevity of his relationship. He is sad because he can’t find any other
person just like her. For this reason, the poet reiterates there is “no more
kissing” after she has left.
‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston presents the foolish schemes that one thinks

of to please his beloved. The poet doesn’t have enough time for scheming too

as she was there in his life for a short time. In the second line, the poet refers

to the schemes of love as “unperfected”. It is true that no matter how one tries

to perfect the plans to please his beloved, it appears as imperfect at the end.

It is ironic but true.

In the last two lines, the poet refers to his dreams of the future with the lady.

According to the poet, the dreams are golden because the dreams revolve

around the lady whom the poet adores the most. The last line again reiterates

the negation for the sake of emphasizing the poet’s mental state.
In the third stanza of ‘After’, the poet refers to the transience of the lady’s love.
He implicitly compares love with life and refers to the transience of both. In the
last two lines, there is a reference to the poet’s loneliness. He feels like a
formless ghost as the lady’s departure has devastated his spirit. Now, he
roams in the heaven that he created in his mind. The heaven, created with
love and care, is now in ruins. And, the poet is the guardian spirit of that
broken heaven.

In the fourth stanza of ‘After’, Marston expresses how much he longs to speak
with her. He wants to hear her words that linger in his mind and soothes his
soul. The stanza reflects how badly the poet misses the lady. However, in the
last two lines, the poet seeks her again and finds her near like before. But,
sadly he can’t. In the last line, the poet says, “Then no more any seeking.” It
means that the poet just needs a brief encounter with the lady again and
nothing more.

In the fifth stanza of ‘After’, the poet presents what he really wants to say to

his beloved. His heart is breaking as it can’t hold those words anymore there.

He has to say it anyhow. For this reason, he prays to God to make her return.

Thus the poet can unfold his heart and say what he badly wants to. He seeks

nothing else. Apart from that, there is another thing to note here that the poet

has no other desires except for talking with her.

‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston talks about the poet’s grief-stricken condition

in the last stanza. For emphasizing how sad the poet is he uses the word

“long” in the first line of this section. The poet doesn’t even get enough time to

comprehend what has gone wrong in the relationship. That’s why he says he

needs to think about his flaws and the relationship as a whole in the upcoming

years. In the last two lines, the poet refers to his desolation and says that only

eternal sleep or death can end his heartache.

Like ‘After’ by Philip Bourke Marston the following poems also talk about the

theme of loss and the transience of love in one’s life.

(xiv)’Rooms’ by Charlotte Mew

Poem:
I remember rooms that have had their part

In the steady slowing down of the heart.

The room in Paris, the room at Geneva,

The little damp room with the seaweed smell,

And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide –

Rooms where for good or for ill – things died.

But there is the room where we (two) lie dead,

Though every morning we seem to wake and might just as well seem to sleep again

As we shall somewhere in the other quieter, dustier bed

Out there in the sun – in the rain.

Structure:
‘Rooms’ by Charlotte Mew is a ten-line poem that is contained within a single

stanza of text. Upon an initial glance at the text, it’s clear that many of the

lines are around the same length, around ten syllables long. But, there are
two, lines seven and eight, that are noticeably longer than the rest. Line seven

is exactly twice the length of the majority of other lines.

Rhyme Pattern:
The lines follow a loose rhyme scheme of AABCDDEFEG.

Themes:
Pain Agony Death
Literary Devices:
Part-heart rhyme alliteration: steady, slowing room - physical room/ space - polysemy

Summary:
In the first part of ‘Rooms,’ the speaker begins by recalling some rooms she’s
been in throughout her life. One in Paris, one in Geneva, and possibly another
that smelled of seaweed. It’s in the latter that she lies with someone else
(perhaps a reference to her sister who she cared for while dying of cancer).
The room is a symbol for the broader restrictions that were placed on Mew
throughout her life and the dark periods of her life that eventually lead to the
end of the poem, and a wish for the only freedom she can think of—death.
Choice of words:
Room - trauma stress trapped stifled congested suffocation walls closing in, tied her down by
incidents of the past
Analytical observations:
Rooms could also be suggesting the experiences in rooms
Slowing down of a heart : rooms she slept in , death, where the person died
Purpose of room - death
Room in Paris and Geneva- different rooms : asyndeton
Seaweed smell- ( oceanic vibe) memory not only by sight, but smell - stench of possible dead
bodies
Tide - time and tide waits for no one , inevitable idea of aging and death, maddening awaiting
for death
Rooms - memory palace for death
(Two) lie dead - idea of love and death, lying together in a morgue
Just as well seem to sleep again: emphasizes the idea of wanting to continue sleeping again with
her partner, extent of love, idea of how repetitive the days are., the monotony
(xv)The Character of a Happy Life’ by Henry Wotton
Poem:
How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are;

Whose soul is still prepared for death,

Untied unto the world by care

Of public fame or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise,

Nor vice; who never understood

How deepest wounds are given by praise;

Nor rules of state, but rules of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruin make oppressors great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend;

—This man is freed from servile bands

Of hope to rise or fear to fall:

Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath all.

Structure:
The Character of a Happy Life’ by Sir Henry Wotton is a six stanza poem that

is divided into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a

simple rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD, and so on, changing end sounds as

the poet saw fit. Wotton also makes use of half-rhyme. Also known as slant or

partial rhyme, half-rhyme is seen through the repetition of assonance or

consonance. This means that either a vowel or consonant sound is reused

within one line or multiple lines of verse. For example, “happy” and “he” in line

one and “early” and “feed” and “freed” in stanzas three and four.

Rhyme Pattern:
ABAB
Themes:
Happiness, Simplicity, Devotion
Literary Devices:
Wotton utilizes several poetic techniques in ‘The Character of a Happy Life’.
These include alliteration, repetition and anaphora. The first, alliteration,
occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together,
and begin with the same letter. For example, “flatterers feed” in the third line of
the fourth stanza and “fear” and “fall” in line two of the sixth stanza.
Wotton also makes use of repetition or the use and reuse of a specific
technique, word, tone or phrase within a poem. In this particular piece, words
such as “rules” are repeated. Additionally, there is anaphora. This is another
kind of repetition. This time of a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple
lines, usually in succession. For example, “Whose” in stanza two and stanza
four.
Summary:
The poem takes the reader through the different attributes of a good and
beneficial life. The speaker also addresses the things that one should avoid if
they’re seeking to maintain happiness beyond the immediate. Some of the
things to avoid include servitude, passion, and flatterers. In the end, it is only
God and one’s own self that is needed to live purely and blissfully.
The poem speaks of the minimal necessities of a happy life and how one may
draw closer to God.
Choice of words:
Simple Truth
Servile Bands
Analytical observations:
In the first stanza of ‘The Character of a Happy Life,’ the speaker begins with
a simple statement. The old-fashioned, poetic diction confuses the line
slightly, but overall it is clear. He states that “he” who is born and learns
immediately not to serve another human being is very happy. The theme of
servitude reoccurs within the poem a number of times.
If “he” is going to be happy, he must have an “armour” of “honest thought”. His

mind must be pure and the man must have a willingness to pursue truth at all

costs. It is this basic, simple truth that is at the root of this generalized man’s

life

Continuing on into the second stanza of ‘The Character of a Happy Life’,

Wotton rearranges the syntax of the next lines in order to more poetically

describes how “he” should regard his passions. They shouldn’t be his

masters. Then, the speaker tells the listener that one needs to remove
themselves from the world of “public fame” if they want to really be prepared

for death.

A good and happy man will not envy those who by luck have had their statue

raised. Nor will they indulge in vice. He believes that “rules” of good rather

than rules of state should control one’s life. There is also a warning in these

lines against praise and how it can corrupt one’s good intentions.

Similar principles are reiterated in the next lines of ‘The Character of a Happy

Life’. The speaker says that a happy man will free himself from rumors and

turn to his conscience when in doubt. The same man’s ego will not be

corrupted by flatterers who come with praise. He also shouldn’t, and won’t,

give in to oppressors who seek to “ruin” his soul.

It does not take great skill or talent, the speaker adds in these lines of ‘The

Character of a Happy Life,’ to live a happy life. It is only God’s grace that one

needs, not his gifts, that will bring pleasure. A truly happy man can entertain

himself with a friend or a “religious book”.

In the last stanza of ‘The Character of a Happy Life,’ the speaker returns to

the themes of servitude and freedom. Because this man is free he does not

have to worry about the disappearance or reemergence of fear or hope.

These things do not bother him. All he needs is God and his own life to make
him happy. He is “Lord of himself” and in control of all that he feels. The man

has nothing, “yet hath all,” or everything. .

The poet talks about how happy a person who doesn’t serve anyone else and

whose brutal honesty is his strength.

Armour : Protection from all negative thoughts

Celebration of self liberation

Possible Questions:
1. What does the poet want to say in the poem?

Ans. In this poem, the poet wants to say about the virtues which enable a person

to lead a happy life. These virtues are honesty, righteousness, self-satisfaction

and devotion to God.

2. Write a note on the central idea of the poem.

Ans. The central idea of this poem is that a happy man is nobody’s slave. He is

honest, truthful and God-fearing. He has faith in God. He is free from envy and

vices. He enjoys the company of books and friends. He has no fear of death and

he is his own master.

3. Explain the lines. ‘‘Whose armour is his honest thought and simple truth his

utmost skill!”
Ans. The happy man is sincere and truthful. He never deceives anyone, and he

never tells a lie. He does not need any armour to defend himself. Honesty is his

means of self-defence, and truth is his best skill to do his work in this world.

5. How does a man become really happy?

Ans. A man can be really happy if he decides to be free from passion, no matter

what. He should be honest, truthful, sincere, hard-working and free from jealousy

and fear. He’s supposed to be his own master. This is the secret of happiness.

6. How does ‘a religious book or a friend’ give happiness?

Ans. A religious book teaches a lot of useful lessons. The book teaches us to

avoid evil and follow the path of good. It keeps us on the right track. The same is

true of a friend’s company. You get the same peace of mind and happiness from

the company of a true friend that a religious book gives you. They give us the

purest kind of happiness.

7. How does a contented man have all without having anything?

Ans. A contented man does not desire more than what he has got. He is not very

ambitious. He is free from jealousy. He is not scared of anything. It is

self-sufficient. So, he has everything.