Pastoral poems are usually used to show the beauty and peace of nature. Some poets use the form ironically, such as Sir Walter Raliegh’s “The Nymph’s reply to the Shepherd,” in response to Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” I think Houseman’s “Loveliest of Trees” is a happy balance between traditional and ironic uses of the Pastoral content form. He makes use of the beauty of nature, but instead of juxtaposing it with life, he explores his own mortality. “Now my threescore years and ten, / Twenty will not come again, / And take from seventy springs a score, / It only leaves me fifty more” (5-8). He is saying that if he lives 80 years, he only has 50 left. The first 30 have gone so quickly that he knows that his final days will as well. He wishes to spend his remaining time to see as many beautiful things as possible. However, 50 years is not very long, so “About the woodlands I will go / To see the cherry hung with snow” (11-2). He is going to take his time, communing with nature and seeing the beauty of the cherry trees. He wants to being as soon as possible, because he knows that the time he has left will never be enough to experience all the world’s beauty. This focus on death is opposite the traditional focus on life and spring, yet it does not have the cynical feel that many pastorals focusing on death or the ruination of nature do. It is a happy medium.
William Carlos Williams “Spring and All”
The open form puzzles me. Today I was told that an open form poem creates its own form. However, how do you know what the form is if no other poem follows it? There is nothing to compare it against. Fortunately, many poems are made of stanzas, which allow for comparison in the midst of poems. William Carlos Williams’ “Spring and All” is an open form poem with eight stanzas. They have 6, 2, 5, 2, 4, 2, 2, and 4 lines respectively. While this may appear random, I believe the decreasing amount of lines in alternating stanzas have to do with the content of the poem. The number of lines decrease like an icicle melting in the spring. The whole poem is nature imagery for the first tentative days of spring, with new plants taking root, “grip down and begin to awaken.” All of the lines are relatively the same length, and none of them rhyme. Repeated words include tree, leaf, and cold. It is showing a transition from death to life. The lines are enjambed some of the time, lending a feeling of the world racing forward towards spring. All of these little things make up this open form poem’s form. The fantastic thing about open form poems is that they allow poets to use exactly the words they wish, rather than trying to force synonyms into rhythm, meter, and rhyme. Open form poems are a great example of how form is important to poetry, because even though they do not adhere to other forms, their individuality still lends to the overall meaning of the poem.
**Sorry about the inundation of posts…with all the content we missed in class, I was suddenly four blogs behind. **
Christina Rossetti “Song (when I am dead, my dearest)”
This melancholy little song only has two stanzas, but they still form a unique rhyme scheme. Each stanza has eight lines, and the rhyme scheme is: abcbbada abcbdefe. The rhyme gives it a very lyric feel, which makes this poem feel like it should be sung. There is a volta between the two stanzas. The first stanza focuses on the lover, and her instructions for him. She wants him to simply “Be the green grass above me, / With showers and dewdrops wet;” meaning she wants him to stand over her grave and shower her with tears. The second stanza switches to the things she will not be able to experience because she has passed away. I think it is interesting that the last two lines of each stanza closely mirror one another, so that it is almost a repetition: “And if thou wilt, remember, / And if thou wilt, forget” and “Haply may I remember, / And haply may forget.” This is indicative of the passage of time and the healing of grievances. They may or may not remember the love they shared once she is gone. She seems to have resigned herself to this fact. This shows that after time, people tend to move on. They continue their lives instead of dwelling on the past. That is just human nature. She does not seem to resent him for it. It is interesting how such a small poem as this can draw all of these thoughts from the reader.
From “Troilus and Criseyde” (Book one, lines 1-42) by Geoffrey Chaucer
It is men like Chaucer that I applaud. He wrote six “books” of poetry to tell one story. Each book was made of perfect stanzas, all with the same rhyme scheme and number of lines. Each stanza has seven lines, and follows the end rhyme scheme ababbcc– thousands of lines all working together to seamlessly tell the love story of Troilus and Criseyde. The effect that these stanzas have is tremendous. It not only shows discipline, but also adds character to the story. The reader feels as if they were listening to the classic story as told by the Greeks (although Troilus was not expanded to a story of lovers until the medieval period). It is dignified and has a feel of the oral tradition. The rhyme and rhythm leave a person reading out loud feeling as though they are reciting something intended to be shared in this way, as well as something more easily memorized or remembered. Also following in the footsteps of the Greek epics is the convention of calling upon a muse for inspiration. In Chaucer’s case, he calls upon Thesiphone: “Help me, that am the sorwful instrument / That helpeth lovers, as I kan, to pleyne; / For wel sit it, the sothe for to seyne, A woful wight to han a drery feere, / And, to a sorwful tale, a sory chere.” Chaucer wishes to help lovers see the truth of the disaster that is love, give caution to fearful men, and to cheer the sorrowful tale with a bittersweet ending. From following form and convention, Chaucer made a masterpiece.
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”
A heroic couplet is a type of poem that has end rhyme aabbcc etc. This poem interested me because most of the lines are enjambed to fit this form. This must mean that Browning specifically wanted this form for this poem. MOP says that this form was usually used for a “higher” form of art, such as translating the Greek or Latin epics. This connects wonderfully to the allusion to Neptune (Poseidon) at the end of the poem: “Notice Neptune, though, / Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, / Which Clause of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!” Neptune is the king/god of the oceans as well as horses. This explains why the sea horse depicted in the statue is thought to be rare– it is directly related to Neptune. This sea horse represents the duchess, who is thought to be beautiful and rare. The speaker of the poem tries to tame her, and stop her looking at other men, but to no avail. He ends up killing her, and preserving her memory in the painting, much like the “tamed” sea horse was cast in bronze. He has a good representation of what she looked like, but not her. The allusion to Neptune as well as the subject matter make it an excellent topic for a heroic couplet.
Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”
In light of the penultimate scene between Laura and Lizzie described in Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” I would like to examine three quotes from the poem and ask what Rossetti was trying to do with this ballad. The scene I’m referring to is the one in which Laura licks the remainders of fruit and juice from her sister’s body. Since, in Victorian England, female homosexuality was not even a concept, I have to wonder just what kind of love Rossetti is trying to portray. My only conclusion is that of the strong bond between two sisters. “Tender Lizzie could not bear / To watch her sister’s cankerous care / Yet not to share” Lizzie loves her sister so much that she hates to see Laura suffer without the goblin fruit. However, she was scared to go see the goblins for help: “Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her, / But fear’d to pay too dear.” She does not want to succumb to the desires the fruit tempt. In the end, Lizzie decides that no price is to high to pay to save Laura. “Till Laura dwindling / Seem’d knocking at Death’s door: / Then Lizzie weigh’d no more / Better and worse; / But put a silver penny in her purse,” She looks and listens, and ends up being raped in context. Another interesting thing I found about this poem was a lack of talk about sin and God. The only real biblical reference is the connection between fruit and the fall in the Garden of Eden. During these times it would have been proper to talk about the virginal Mary and her sacrifices or the shame of sin or even separation from God in Hell. It strikes me that perhaps Rossetti is writing in a fictional world with goblins and magic, and does not want to include a religion that applies to the real world. That being said, the religious theme of temptation and fruit goes a long way to enhance the meaning of this poem. It seems that in this context, Lizzie would be scolding or condemning Laura for her sins. During this time period I would not have found it unusual for Lizzie to preach to Laura about the dangers of men and true love being from God the Father. Instead, Lizzie forgives her sister and makes a huge sacrifice to save her. In the end, Laura’s purity is restored. To me, this says a lot about Rossetti. She uses blatantly sexual imagery to describe an interaction between sisters, does not preach on the morality of eating the fruit of the goblin men, and has Lizzie go against her former standpoint to help her sister. I’m not sure what Rossetti is trying to get at with this poem, but it seems revolutionary in the way it looks at the sexuality of women.
“Ballad of Reading Gaol” Revised
*I wrote the original post before we had class, and noticed a pretty big mistake with my original blog post. Since I don’t know how to edit blog posts on here, I fixed the mistake and reposted.*
Ballads traditionally are formed in stanzas of four lines each. However, as described by our textbook, the more modern ballads break this tradition. Oscar Wilde deviates from this tradition in his “Ballad of Reading Gaol,” which has stanzas of six lines each. This may be attributed to Wilde’s flowery writing style and a desire to elaborate in each stanza, for he still follows the traditional rhyme scheme and meter. I would like to examine the final stanza, because I think it is significant:
Like two doomed ships that pass in storm a
We had crossed each other’s way: b
But we made no sign, we said no word, a
We had no word to say; b
For we did not meet in the holy night, c
But in the shameful day. b
This could be a reference to the speaker of the poem meeting a doomed man on his way to the gallows, and not speaking a word. The day when they met is “shameful” because it is the day he goes to die in shame. If we look at Oscar Wilde’s own life, this is confirmed. Wilde was incarcerated from 1895 to 1897 for homosexual acts. During his time in prison, Wilde witnessed the execution of a man named Charles Thomas Woolridge who was accused of murdering his wife. This ballad is supposedly a description of that event. However, if applied to Wilde’s personal life, this last stanza could express the regret that he felt for being known as a homosexual. He and his lover did not meet in “the holy night,” or in the privacy of a secret relationship, but “in the shameful day,” or in the public eye where same sex relationships were frowned upon. Because of this unfortunate decision, Wilde was imprisoned. If he had not been in favor as a poet, he might have even been killed.
Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”
Ballads traditionally are formed in stanzas of four lines each. However, as described by our textbook, the more modern ballads break this tradition. Oscar Wilde deviates from this tradition in his “Ballad of Reading Gaol,” which has stanzas of six lines each. This may be attributed to Wilde’s flowery writing style and a desire to elaborate in each stanza, for he still follows the traditional rhyme scheme and meter. Five of the six stanzas in this ballad follow the ababab rhyme scheme. However, the last stanza is ababcb. This change in rhyme scheme draws attention to the content of the final stanza:
Like two doomed ships that pass in storm a
We had crossed each other’s way: b
But we made no sign, we said no word, a
We had no word to say; b
For we did not meet in the holy night, c
But in the shameful day. b
This could be a reference to the speaker of the poem meeting a doomed man on his way to the gallows, and not speaking a word. The day when they met is “shameful” because it is the day he goes to die in shame. If we look at Oscar Wilde’s own life, this is confirmed. Wilde was incarcerated from 1895 to 1897 for homosexual acts. During his time in prison, Wilde witnessed the execution of a man named Charles Thomas Woolridge who was accused of murdering his wife. This ballad is supposedly a description of that event. However, if applied to Wilde’s personal life, this last stanza could express the regret that he felt for being known as a homosexual. He and his lover did not meet in “the holy night,” or in the privacy of a secret relationship, but “in the shameful day,” or in the public eye where same sex relationships were frowned upon. Because of this unfortunate decision, Wilde was imprisoned. If he had not been in favor as a poet, he might have even been killed.
Imagery and Volta in Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Looking” from “Gay Chaps at the Bar”
Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Looking” is a sonnet with an ambiguous volta, or dramatic shift in thought. It is a poem about young men in the trenches at the frontlines of a battle during WWII. They are about to go over the top, and do not know what to say to one another, since it might be the last thing they say to each other. They don’t want to say ‘goodbye’ or ‘be careful’ because those sayings are so final, and they don’t want to tempt fate. The volta comes into play at the start of the last six lines: “Looking is better. At the dissolution / Grab greatly with the eye, crush in a steel / Of study–Even that is vain” (6-8). These lines are the difference between speaking and looking. The soldiers decide that it is better not to say anything at all, but merely to look at one another. This shift in thought draws the reader’s attention from the spoken word to the images present in the poem. It has the effect of engaging the reader in what it might be like to fight in a battle. “Dissolution” can mean to dissolve into a solution or the termination of a relationship. This image shows the soldiers torn apart and dissolved by the monstrosity that is war. They are “crush[ed] in a steel of study” or smashed and broken by something much larger and more violent than they are. The final two lines of the poem, “The brawniest will not beat back the storm / Nor the heaviest haul your little boy from harm” (13-4) produce images of strong soldiers unable to save the young boys from death in war. This final image speaks to the hopelessness that war can bring. Many will die, even if they are strong or brave. The change in focus from words to images brought about by the volta helps bring this realization to the reader.
Rhyme Scheme in Cooper’s “After the Bomb Tests”
Rhyme is a traditionally critical part of the form of sonnets. Whether using the Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnet, a rhyme scheme is usually followed. Therefore, lines in a sonnet that do not rhyme according to either scheme draw attention. Jane Cooper’s “After the Bomb Tests,” begins with rhyme, then does not rhyme in the least, and finishes with slant rhymes. The four unrhymed lines emphasize a main idea of the poem: fear.
“This is the old Hebraic-featured fear / We nursed before humility began, / Our crown-on-crown or phallic parody / Begat by many on the original sea”
These lines invoke ideas of biblical plagues (“old Hebraic-featured fear”) in relation to the modern idea of nuclear warfare (image of a billowing mushroom cloud “crown-on-crown” atop its stem “phallic parody”). They show that a deep seated fear of an unknown and all powerful being can still be experienced in modern times.
Without this change in rhyme scheme, the idea of deep, historical, primal fear would not have been as apparent as Cooper made it with the change in rhyme.
apowers8 