"The Glove and the Lion" by Leigh Hunt

Leigh Hunt was an early 19^th century English critic, essayist and poet. He was the centre of the Hampstead-based group known as the "Hunt circle". The ‘Hunt Circle’ included Charles Lamb, Shelley, William Hazlitt, Benjamin Haydon, Keats

The Glove and the Lion

·         The poem consists of four stanzas. Each stanza made of 6 lines rhyming aa bb cc. Each line has 13 feet (?) The spatio-temporal setting of the poem harks back to time removed from Hunt’s own time. The poem is peopled by kings, noblemen and their ladies – giving the poem a pre-Renaissance flavor.

·        The experience Hunt offers in the poem is far removed from the common walks of life. We are presented with a royal court gathered to watch battle between two kings of beasts. Ensconced in their comfortable seats the courtiers watch the spectacle staged for the king’s benefit from a safe distance

·         Of course, in many of Hunts’ poems one may read a secondary level of meaning metaphorically presented – this could be a metaphor for a battle between two powerful people. In the midst of the spectacle the poet offers us a glimpse of another more personal battle – the battle of hearts between Count de Lorge and the lady whom he is attracted to. The poet goes through a list of words that offer the readers an idea of the values upheld by the people of his poem: pride, gallantry, valour and love

·         The second stanza presents a series of powerfully drawn visual images. The poet uses alliteration ("ramped and roared") and paradox ("horrid laughing jaws"). In addition the short verbs shows how quick the beasts were moving:  "They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams". The repetition of the airy /w/sound in “wind went with their paws” too highlights the speed of the beasts’ movements. The use of assonance in “wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled on one another” creates an auditory image - the roar of the lions in the pit. The direct quotation of the opinion of the king "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there" while adding a dramatic ballad like quality to the poem underscores the ferociousness of the battle between the beasts

·         In the next stanza the focus of the poem shifts from public to personal. The lady De Lorge was attracted to tries to score a point with the audience by making a display of the power she has over him. Hunt cleverly hides his opinion of the serpentine quality of the woman among the flattering words he uses to describe her: her “sharp bright eyes … always seemed the same”. She puts him on the spot by dropping her glove into the pit where the lions fought.She wants to massage her ego even at the risk of endangering her lover’s life and damaging his reputation. Not to retrieve the glove dropped by the woman into the pit would reflect badly on his manhood. De Lorge had no choice, so he does what he had to in order to save face – but he insults the lady who had set such a by throwing the glove at her face – practically slapping her. The king, while an aficionado of blood sports, has a sensitive soul. He denounces the lady’s action publicly as vain