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1.
In me/ thou seest/ the glowing/ of such/ fi-re – inversion – dramatic/rhythm //fire – extended metaphor
That on the ashes of his
youth doth lie, - personified
As the deathbed whereon it must expire - rhythm –
conversational /rhyme – sonnet convention
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
The quotation is taken from “Sonnet 73” by the
Renaissance poet William Shakespeare. This section comes in the third quatrain
of the sonnet just before the volta/ the rhyming couplet. In this section
the poetic persona – an older man who is close to death – is addressing these
lines to a friend who remained loyal while others had abandoned him. Looking at the thematic relevance,
the poet deals with the idea of impermanence in this section. Overall, the poem
deals with impermanence of life and fickleness of many people as opposed to the
fidelity of the poetic persona’s friend who remains steadfast despite the fact
that there is very little time left in the poetic persona’s life. In order to
convey the theme of impermanence, the poet employs an extended metaphor of a
dying fire. The material that fed the fire has turned into ashes and the ashes
are choking out the fire similar to the way the use of energy in the act of
living generates waste that kills us. The poetic persona’s life is at a stage
that is just about to be snuffed out by ashes. The tone the poet employs with regard to the
reader – the friend – is one of fellowship, gratitude and admiration, while the
tone he employs towards the subject matter is that of resignation. In the first line of the
quote, the poet employs inversion, giving the section a dramatic effect as well
as helping to maintain the iambic pentameter. The employment of the iambic
pentameter gives the section a meditative yet conversational tone. Following
the Elizabethan sonnet convention Shakespeare uses the rhyming pattern efef in this section, making it highly
musical. Looking at the language used, the poet mainly makes use of monosyllabic
Anglo-Saxon words which are economical and quick in delivery. Also they help to
maintain a conversational tone.
2.
Thou[M1] ,
when thou retutn’st, wilt tell me[M2]
All
strange wonders that befell thee,
Nowhere[M3]
Lives
a woman true, and fair[M4] .
The
poem
The
poet
Location
The extract is taken from “Go and Catch a Falling Star”, one of
the so-called songs composed by the pioneering Metaphysical poet John Donne.
This section appears in the second stanza in a poem with three stanzas. The
poem being a lyric, the reader is encouraged to assume that it conveys the
poet’s innermost feelings.
Who
to whom why
Poetic
persona’s reader – immature unsophisticated male
Poet’s reader – friend
The poetic persona in the poem appears to be a man who believes
that beautiful women are incapable of
being faithful which points to the fact that he may have had some unpleasant
experiences with beautiful women. It appears that the poetic persona values
fidelity to be the most important quality in a woman. Hence, the poetic persona
is bearing his grievances to another man who seems to have a point of view that
is different to his. Hence, the poetic persona, in logical lawyer-like fashion,
is trying to convince the addressee of the poem the truth of his conviction. On
the other hand, John Donne, the poet, may have written this poem to be shared
with his friends in his courtly circle who would have needed very little
tutoring on such matters.
Theme
of the text and the theme of the section – the relationship
The overall theme of the text is moral laxity of beautiful
women. In the extract, the poetic persona drives that theme home by saying with
such conviction that the addressee of the poem would tell him that he did not
find a beautiful woman who was capable of fidelity even after travelling
throughout the world in his quest to find such a woman.
Tone
– reader of the text and the subject matter
When considering the tone employed by the poetic persona in
addressing the recipient of his advice, he employs world-weary tone of a jaded
older man who had experienced much betrayal at the hand of the women in his
life. He seems to pity the other man for his faith in women which he seems to
see as lack of sophistication. However, it is not advisable to assume that the
poetic persona and the poet are one and the same person as John Donne himself
had not expressed such negative thoughts on women in any of his other poetry. The tone the poetic persona
employs in dealing with the subject matter is quite serious to the point of
being bitter. However, there are clues in the latter part of the poem which
hints at the fact that the poet may not share the thoughts of the poetic
persona as he allows the reader to see the loopholes in the poetic persona’s
argument and his extremism.
Techniques
– how do they contribute to build the theme, tone
The content of the poem – immorality of beautiful women – and
its musicality which is evident in this section, too, are at odds with each
other and hint at the fact that the poet does not take the poetic persona
seriously. The section employs aabbb
rhyming scheme. The internal rhythm of the first, second and the fifth lines
are the same while the third and the fourth lines are dramatically short adding
emphasis to the misogynistic point of view of the poetic persona. The poetic
persona addresses the other man directly, “Thou, …”, creating a sense of
immediacy as well as intimacy. The reader gets the idea that he is privy to
intimate conversation and is compelled to sympathize with the trials and
tribulations of the fellow injured male. Further the poet also makes use of
inversion in the first line in order to maintain the internal rhythm and add a
dramatic quality to the text.
[M1]Direct address
[M2]inversion – helps to maintain
the rhythm and the rhyme
[M3]line length – dramatic
[M4]Rhyming aabbb
Thy generous fruits, though gather’d their prime (?)
Still show’d a quickness; and maturing time
But mellows what we write to the dull
sweets of rhyme.
This extract is taken from the poem “To the Memory of Mr.
Oldham” by the Augustan poet John Dryden. These three lines which forms a
triplet comes towards the latter part of the poem. Dryden/poetic persona
addresses the deceased poet John Oldham, a budding satirist – an example of the
use of apostrophe – directly as “[t]hy” at the beginning of the triplet. In the
poem poet aims to praise the younger poet while illustrating qualities that
would make a good satirist. In this section, Dryden says, the younger poet had
the skills but lacked the experience that would have made him an excellent poet
which could be achieved only with aging. Looking at the tone employed by the
poet towards the receiver, he seems to admire the younger poet on the surface;
however, there is a note of implied criticism, too. Regarding the subject
matter of the poem, the poet is quite serious in tone. The overall themes of
the poem are the role of the satirist as well as the ideas of poiesis and techne. In the three lines, the poet says Oldham’s lines showed the
composer’s talents as a born poet – he has the poiesis. However, he had not yet mastered the techne of his craft due to lack of experience. This showed in the
lack of smoothness in rhyme in Oldham’s work according to the poet. He tries to
downplay the criticism by calling rhyme “dull sweetness”; however, the three
lines Dryden has produced here can be taken as examples of excellence in
craftsmanship (techne). The poet employs unvoiced alliteration in “what we write”, internal rhythm and end rhyme with such ease borne
of years of experience as well as natural skill. Hence, through
these lines Dryden expresses a note of unvoiced superiority bordering on
smugness – he is supremely aware of his skill as a poet and he is being
expansive in his praise of the younger deceased poet as an older established
poet who is certain he had no immediate rival to his position as the top dog of
his craft. The poet uses an extended metaphor from horticulture to illustrate
his point when he compares Oldham’s poetry to immature fruit that is tart in
taste. According to him more mature fruits – poems produced by more experienced
poets - are sweeter as opposed to tarter younger fruits.
Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav’n are
cast,
When husbands or when lap-dogs breathe
their last,
Or when rich China vessels, fall’n from
high,
In glitt’ring dust and painted fragments
lie!
This section is
taken from the mock-epic “Rape of the Lock” by the late neoclassical poet
Alexander Pope. The two rhyming couplets appear towards the end of the
prescribed section. The poetic persona addresses an unnamed reader and relates
an incident that had led to an upheaval in his society. The theme of the
extract is the superfluity of poetic persona’s social milieu and the need for
practicing the Golden Mean in all matters of life. In the four lines quoted,
the poet highlights how ridiculously inappropriate Belinda’s reaction had been
to an equally un-heroic and indecorous act committed by the Baron, the “hero”
of the poem. The poet invites the reader to evaluate Belinda’s reaction to the
loss of a lock hair by comparing it with three other losses: death of a
husband, death of a pet lap dog and shattering of a “rich China vessel”. The
comparison is an example of the use of bathos which highlights the superfluity
of the 18th century English society which gave the same weight to
the death of one’s husband to the death of a pet or the breakage of a China
vessel. The tone the poet employs towards the reader is that of two people who
understand each other. The tone he employs towards his subject matter is quite
serious as befits a mock epic; however, it is that note of seriousness that
invites humour. The poet makes use of parallelism when he begins sentences with
“when” creating a piling up of evidence. Also, he employs visual imagery,
especially in the description of the shattered China vessel.
Though at next door we might meet;
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you
write your letter
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two
or three.
These lines appear in the third
stanza of the poem, “Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star” by the pioneer metaphysical
poet, John Donne. In this section, the poetic persona who can also be the poet
himself, offers us a humorous critique of the ideal Madonna-like women
idealized and idolized in Courtly Love Poems which were still popular among
Donne’s contemporaries. The poetic persona’s strong conviction that beautiful
women are inclined to be unfaithful is one of the themes in the poem. The
short-liveliness of the fidelity of women is powerfully depicted through the
short distance in the poetic persona’s visit to his next door where he would
meet the “ true and fair” woman the listener should have found. It is quite
interesting that in the lines before this excerpt, the quest to find a woman
who is “true and fair” has been sanctified as a “ pilgrimage”. However, both
quests finally ends up discovering the woman’s infidelity - her extra-marital
relationships with two to three men. The poet has used inversion in the first
two lines in order to emphasize the argument he conveys throughout the poem. It
is at this point that his argument culminates. The juxtaposition of the two
binary opposites “true” and “ false” illustrates the stark contradiction of the
appearance and the reality of women. The emotional intensity of the cynical
poetic persona whose argument is quite comic, is highlighted through the
variety of line length: the shortest lines “ [y}et she/ [w]ill be” are pregnant
with argumentative expression. These lines are one single sentence presented
with enjambment and in a way it allegorizes “quest” which is a recurrent theme
of the poem. The punctuation of the poem has been effective in making the poem as a dramatic monologue. Use
of the preposition “to” instead of “with” proves that even though act of being
unfaithful is a joint venture of men and women, women are chiefly responsible
for that.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should
defend,
But is captiv’d and
proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I
love you, and would be love’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
These lines have been extracted from the “Holy Sonnet 14: Batter My Heart Three-person’d God” by the metaphysical poet John Donne. The poetic persona is addressing God and pleads for reassurance from God, being unable to defeat God’s enemy even with reason, the God-given faculty to the poetic persona. If the poet and the poetic persona are considered to be the same, the God’s enemy can be either Donne’s affiliations to Roman Catholic Church or the Devil - Catholics were considered heretics in his sociopolitical context. This section of the poem consists of two lines from the octave and the other two from the sestet following the Petrarchan tradition. Therefore, the problem he deals with and the resolution (volta) to which he comes by the end is bridged by the lines in the excerpt. The poet has dealt with the theme, heart vs. Reason, personifying reason as a viceroy of God. In an age of colonialism and imperialism , the poet seems to have used a familiar allusion to the colonial masters, who, here, represents the Almighty God - like the colonizers civilizing the colonized nations, God is taking the responsibility of purifying man’s soul. The God’s viceroy, reason has become either weak due to the poetic persona’s internal conflicts- as if many colonized nations rebelled against the power of their colonial agents - or unfaithful to his Lord, God. So, Donne has finally concluded that it is only faith that can make his comfort. Along with that metaphor, the poet has used another metaphor describing the poetic persona as a bride betrothed to God’s enemy. He expects God’s intervention to divorce him from God’s enemy as a more assertive God. This portrays one aspect of God which is also a theme of the poem. The reiterated first person singular pronoun “I” emphasizes the intimacy of the poetic persona to his God. This intimacy is extensively elaborated by the use of monologue in the sonnet form. The conversational tone employed by the poet and the truncation of words which maintains the internal rhythm of the poem are also crucial in making the poetic expression more vigorous.
7.
In faith I do not love thee with
mine eyes
For they in thee a
thousand errors note;
But’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is
pleased to dote.
This excerpt has been taken from
the “Sonnet 141” by the Elizabethan poet, William Shakespeare. This section
appears as the first quatrain of the sonnet. The poem is dedicated to the Dark
Lady. The poetic persona is perplexed by his perception that he is governed by
his emotion instead of reason by desiring a woman who is not suited to be his
mistress - who is non-aristocratic neither beautiful nor chaste. Highlighting
the theme emotion vs. reason, Shakespeare has depicted the conflicting mindset
of the poetic persona. However, in this war between reason and emotion, emotion
becomes the victor. Therefore, he allows himself to continue desiring the
woman. The symbolic use of the two words: eyes - referring to reason; heart - referring to
emotion - has been effectively used in
the conveyance of the poetic persona’s masochistic character in his
relationship with her. Beginning with this part, throughout the poem we an
observe a carnal allure in the Dark Lady which cannot be avoided by the poetic
persona. As the interest the poetic persona has towards the Dark Lady is based
on sexual drives, it is obvious that it is only an infatuation that he has; it
is also a theme the poem deals with. As I believe, it is not only physical
imperfections the poetic persona sees in her, but also moral faults if we are
to consider that his eyes observes her with sociocultural lenses. Keeping the
normal rhyming scheme -abab of the Shakespearean sonnet, the poem has
been written in iambic pentameter. It keeps the poem very much English. Apart
from that, it should be mentioned that by privileging emotion over reason the
poetic persona is in contradiction with the ideal “renaissance man” who should
overcome emotion by reason. By giving in emotion to control him, he makes
himself less than a man.
In me thou see’st the glowing of
such fire
That on the ashes of his
youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must
expire,
Consumed with that which it was
nourished by.
9.
And
have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
These lines appear in the Act iii of Othello by William Shakespeare. The lines are spoken by Emilia, one of the main female characters in the drama, to Desdemona who’s one of the protagonists in the drama as a response to Desdemona’s query whether she would dare to consider being unfaithful to her husband. Emilia’s reply highlights ideological and sociopolitical differences between the mistress and herself. Desdemona belongs to the upper strata of the Venetian society has led a sheltered life and therefore has very limited experience on male- female relations. Emilia who belongs to a lower stratum of the same society and has being married to the antagonist of the play Iago for a considerable period of time has a more cynical view of marriage and male female relations which comes out in these lines. Consequently these lines underscore the themes of loyalty and women as essentially fallen creatures. Emilia rejects the dominant idea that women should be held responsible should they be unfaithful to their husbands as they are just mimicking their husband’s behaviour towards them: “Then let them use us well: else let them know/ The ills we do, their ills instruct us so”. She finds it unfair that women should be considered fallen or sinful creatures for committing the same acts which men are not held responsible for. She conveys her resentment of unfair treatment of women through a series of rhetorical questions and parallel structures. The tone she employs towards her subject matter is quite charged with supressed anger resulting from a feeling of being unfairly treated. Consequently, the reader feels empathy and pathos for Emilia.
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