From the rime of the ancient mariner

 

(Lines 83-138)

The Sun came up upon the right,

Out of the Sea came he;

And broad as a weft¹ upon the left

Went down into the Sea.

 

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet Bird did follow

Ne² any day for food or play

Came to the Mariner's hollo³!

 

And I had done an hellish thing to

And it would work 'em woe⁴:

For all averr'd⁵, I had kill'd the Bird

That made the Breeze to blow.

 

Ne dim ne red, like God's own head,

The glorious Sun uprisf:

Then all averr'd, I had kill'd the Bird

That brought the fog and mist.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay⁷

That bring the fog and mist.

 

The breezes blew, the white foam flew, so

The furrow⁸ follow'd free:

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent Sea.

 

Down dropt⁹ the breeze, the Sails dropt down,

'Twas sad as sad could be

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the Sea.

 

All in a hot and copper sky

The bloody sun at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the moon.

 

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, ne breath ne motion,

As idle as a painted Ship

Upon a painted Ocean.

 

Water, water, every where

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where

Ne any drop to drink.

 

The very deeps¹⁰ did rot¹¹: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy Sea.

About, about, in reel and rout¹²

The Death-fires danc'd at night;

The water, like a witch's oils,

Burnt green and blue and white.

 

And some in dreams assured were

Of the Spirit that plagued¹³ us so:

Nine fathom¹⁴ deep he had follow'd us

From the Land of Mist and Snow.

 

And every tongue thro' utter drouth¹⁵

Was wither'd¹⁶ at the root;

We could not speak no more than if

We had been choked with soot¹⁷.

 

Ah wel-a-day!¹⁸ what evil looks

Had I from old and young;

Instead of the Cross the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

1. weft: cross threads of a web

2. ne: nor.

3. hollo: call

4. work 'em woe: bring them misfortune

5. averr'd: claimed

6. uprist: rose up

7. slay: kill

8. furrow: movement of the water

9. dropt: dropped

10. deeps: bottom of the ocean

11. rot: become rotten

12. reel and rout: violent, tumultuous action.

13. plagued: haunted, followed incessantly.

14. fathom: a unit of measurement for the sea.

15. drouth: drought, lack of water.

16. wither'd: dried up.

17. soot: chimney dust.

18. wel-a-day: Alas! (an obsolete exclamation).

 

1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
2. Find at least two examples of each of the following:

• repetition …………………………………………..

• alliteration...............................................................

• internal rhyme.........................................................

• archaic language.....................................................

• simile......................................................................

1. Find examples in the text of supernatural phenomena. Describe the effect they have on you and comment on Coleridge's declared aims with regard to his task in the Lyrical Ballads.
2. In which direction was the ship going? How do you know this?
3. Describe in your own words what happens to the ship.
4. How does the mariner feel about having killed the albatross? How do his fellow mariners react? Are they consistent in their attitude? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
5. Why do you think the mariner killed the albatross? Was there any justification for his action?
6. Have you ever done something in a moment of folly which you later regretted? How, if at all, did you try to make up for this action?

 

George Gordon Byron

From DON JUAN

The following passage below is a description of the charming Donna Julia, a close acquaintance of Don Juan’s mother.

Her glossy¹ hair was clustered² o'er a brow

Bright with intelligence, and fair, and smooth;

Her eyebrow³'s shape was like the aerial⁴ bow,

Her cheek all purple with the beam⁵ of youth,

5 Mounting, at times, to a transparent glow,

As if her veins ran⁶ lightning; she, in sooth⁷,

Possessed an air and grace by no means common:

Her stature tall - I hate a dumpy⁸ woman.

 

Wedded⁹ she was some years, and to a man

Of fifty, and such husbands are in plenty;

And yet, I think, instead of such a ONE

Twere¹⁰ better to have TWO of five-and-twenty,

Especially in countries near the sun:

And now I think on't, "mi vien in mente",¹¹

Ladies even of the most uneasy virtue

Prefer a spouse¹² whose age is short of thirty.

 

 

Tis a sad thing, I cannot choose but say,

And all the fault of that indecent sun,

Who cannot leave alone our helpless clay'³,

20 But will keep baking, broiling¹⁴, burning on,

That howsoever¹⁵ people fast¹⁶ and pray,

The flesh is frail¹⁷, and so the soul undone:

What men call gallantry¹⁸, and gods adultery,

Is much more common where the climate's sultry¹⁹

 

 

1. glossy: shiny.

2. clustered:grouped together.

3. eyebrow: line of hair above the eye.

4. aerial: light and delicate.

5. beam: radiance.

6. ran: contained.

7. sooth: truth.

8. dumpy: short and plump.

9. wedded: married.

10. 'Twere: it would be.

11. "mi vien in mente": (Italian) it comes to my mind.

12. spouse: marriage partner.

13. clay: body.

14. broiling: making hot.

15. howsoever: however.

16. fast: abstain from eating.

17. frail: weak.

18. gallantry: polite attentiveness to women

19. sultry: oppressively hot and humid.

 

1. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

2. How many syllables are there to the line? Is the number regular? And the number of strong stresses?

3. What do you think is the function of the final rhyming couplet? What does Byron attempt to do with this couplet?

4. Is Donna Julia an attractive woman? Make a list of the words used to describe her. Do you think the narrator of the poem likes her? Give reasons for your answer.

5. What is the narrator suggesting in lines 9-12? Where else in the poem does he reinforce this concept?

6. What is the attitude of the narrator towards heat and the sun? What is the effect of the sun on the human body? Do you think he is being serious?

7. What is your overall impression of the narrator from this passage?

8. Does the climate affect the way you feel? Do you think the climate can determine the character of a people?

9. What do you think about marriage between people widely differing ages? What are the possible advantages and disadvantages of marriages of this kind?

Percy Bysshe Shelly

Ode to the West Wind

I

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

 

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

 

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

 

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

 

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!

 

II

Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

 

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

 

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

 

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

 

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O hear!

 

III

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,

 

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay.

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them!

Thou For whose path the Atlantic's level powers

 

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

 

Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

IV

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

 

The impulse of thy strength, only less free

Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even

I were as in my boyhood, and could be

 

The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,

As then, when to outstrip the skyey speed

Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven

 

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

 

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

 

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

 

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth;

And, by the incantation of this verse,

 

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawakened earth

 

The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

 

 

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. This poem is an interesting and vital combination of Dante's terza rima and the sonnet form. Note how many lines there are to each stanza and work out the rhyme scheme. Are there any examples of imperfect rhyme? Is this sonnet different from the English Shakespearean sonnet in any way?

2. This is a highly musical poem. Find examples of how Shelley uses sound to reinforce meaning. Take into consideration the following: assonance, consonance and allitteration.

3. Much use is made of metaphor, simile and personification. Find at least two examples of each in the poem.

4. Shelley summons up the power and spirit of the wind through verbs of motion: make a list of the verbs he uses to create this sense of movement.

5. Each of the following headings corresponds to one of the five stanzas. Pair the headings with the stanzas:

• The effect of the wind on the sea

• The poet in relation to mankind

• The effect of the wind on the earth

• The relationship between the wind and the poet himself

• The effect of the wind on the sky

6. How would you describe the poet's state of mind in the fourth stanza? Why does he feel like this?

7. Does his state of mind change in the last stanza? If so, how?

8. What do you think the wind actually represents?

9. Bearing in mind Shelley's political and social ideas, what do you think the 'prophecy', referred to in line 69, might consist of?

10. The wind is described as both 'Destroyer' and 'Preserver'. Explain this apparent contradiction. Does the world we live in today require something similar to this creative/destructive force?

11. Do you draw the same kind of inspiration from nature that Shelley once did? Can you think of any moment in your life when nature actually inspired a radical change in your life or outlook?

SEMINAR #9

CHARLES DICKENS "GREAT EXPECTATIONS"

 

 

SUMMARY QUESTIONS

1. Dickens understood one of the basic principlesof ethical human behaviour, that a human being must be valued for himself and not only for what he was or for how useful he may be. The violation of this universal law of morality may be one key to the interpretation of "GREAT EXPECTATIONS ". Explain this violation on the relationship between Miss Havisham and Estella, between Pip and Joe, between Pip and Magwitch, between Wemmick and Mrs. Jaggers, between Pip and Herbert Pocket, between Pip and Estella.

2. Dickens' writing was greatly influenced by public demand. The Victorian public for which he wrote believed that goodness was desirable and should he rewarded and that evil would ultimately lead to punishment. Show how this attitude is reflected in "GREAT EXPECTATIONS ".

3. What does the change in Pip as he becomes a fashionable gentleman tell the reader about the social structure of 19th century Engand? What was the idea of a "gentleman"?

4. Analyse one of the following themes of the novel:

a) The prison (real, self chose, psychological). Imprisonment as a metaphor.

I. The prison in regard to Magwitch's experience with it.

II The self-created prison of themind

III Real prisons.

b) Revenge

I. Miss Havisham's revenge against men.

II. Magwitch's revenge against Compeyson.

III. Orlick’s revenge.

c) Respectability

I. Victorian admiration for respectability.

II Uncle Pumblechook and Pip.

III. Pip's passion to become a gentleman.

IV. The strange household of the Pockets.

d) The double life

I. Pip as a blacksmith and a gentleman.

II. Wemmick’s home and business.

III. Mr. Jaggers.

IV. Estella.

V. Magwitch as criminal and benefactor.

e) The power of imagination to control behavior

I Pip’s imagination about Miss Havisham.

II Miss Havisham’s imagination about her past.

III Many characters imaginations about Jaggers.

IV Magwitch’s imagination about gentlemen, Pip, and gratitude.

5. How does Dickens explore ideas of guilt and shame?

6. How does this novel explore themes of justice, crime and punishment?

7. Dickens has been called the “novelist of childhood”. How well does he describe a child’s mind and imagination in the figure of Pip?

8. What is the value of education? Does it improve people or corrupt them?

9. One of the oldest thematic traditions in literature is the conflict between city and country. Usually, the city is the scene of corruption, confusion, and problems, while the country hosts innocence and resolution. What about the city and country in “Great Expectations”? How do they function? (Cite the examples).

10. Analyze Pip’s reaction to the criminal in the cemetery. Discuss what you would do if you were in Pip’s situation. Would you report the criminal to the proper authorities or would you do the same thing Pip did? Why?

11. Discuss the role Miss Havisham plays in the novel. Some have said she represents an imprisoned state of mind. What does this mean, and do you agree that this is an apt description of Miss Havisham?

12. In Great Expectations, Pip’s foster father, Joe, comes to visit Pip in the city. They are distant and Pip is embarrassed by Joe even though he realizes all that he has done for him. Analyze a time in your own life when you were embarrassed by a family member. How did it make you feel before, during, and after the incident? Do you think Pip was justified in feeling this way?

13. The last chapters of the novel solve many of the novel’s mysteries. Give examples.

(Chapters 20-31)

14. In Chapter 20 through 31, Pip finds himself with new people in a variety of new settings. Dickens uses carefully chosen details to characterize Pip’s new surroundings. In the chart below, describe each setting. Then explain the atmosphere, or mood, that the details create.

Place	Details	Atmosphere
London
Jagger’s office
Bernard’s Inn
Pocket household
Wemmick’s home
Jagger’s home

 

15. How does the novel create a picture of the social structure and what are the problems that an individual faces in a stratified society built upon rather strict class distinctions?

16. What are the differences among the attitudes that various characters have toward the moral values of the society and its institutions?

 

TECHNIQUES AND LANGUAGE

Dickens uses many techniques to create additional interest in the story and its characters.

1. Ceremonial distancing. Which of thecharacters distance themselves from reality?

2. Characters’ struggle to cut off or separate part of their lives:

From their past – who?

From their personal life –

From their emotions –

From their future -

3. Find examples of Dramatic Symmetry. (The motif of doubles runs throught the book)

4. Images of inanimate objects to describe the physical appearance of characters (particularly minor characters)

(e.g. The inscrutable features of Wemmick are repeatedly compared to a letter-box). Find more examples and explain why the author uses these comparisons.