ENGL 3653: English Literature II

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 12: Hardy, Housman, Yeats, Eliot

Revised 4-8-10

 

Thomas Hardy

  1. What are the years of Hardy’s birth and death?  In what two historical and literary periods did he live and write?
  2. In what genre did Hardy write for the first half (or more) of his writing career?  During what historical period did he write most of his works in this genre?  When did he stop writing in this genre?  Why?  What was his last work in this genre?
  3. In what genre did Hardy write for the second half of his writing career?  In what historical period did he write most of his works in this genre?
  4. In Hardy’s fiction, what is Wessex?

 

 “On the Western Circuit”

  1. Extra-credit video: Watch and respond to “The Day after the Fair,” a dramatization of “On the Western Circuit” that is on reserve in the library.  Does this version differ from the story in any significant ways?  For additional extra credit, bring the video to class, cued to a scene to show to the class.
  2. Melchester is the fictional name Hardy uses for Salisbury.  Find Salisbury and London on the map in the front or back endpapers of your textbook.  What is the significance of the title “On the Western Circuit”?
  3. When was this story published?  When is it set?  How can you tell?
  4. Identify the specific passages in the story where the thoughts (as opposed to the actions or words) of each of the three main characters are revealed.  Which character’s thoughts are revealed MORE than any other’s?  Why?  What name is given to the point of view of this story?
  5. When Charles meets Anna in person, before he is bewitched by Edith=s letters, what about Anna appeals to Charles?  What idealized image does he have of her?
  6. If the central character or protagonist of a story is the character who is most in conflict, who is the central character in this story?  In what way is it ironic that this is the central character? Why does this character experience more conflict than the other two important characters?       
  7. Identify several different examples of situational irony in this story. 
  8. Identify several different examples of dramatic irony in this story.
  9. The crisis of a story is its turning point, the moment at which the plot changes direction.  What moment is the crisis of this story?
  10. The climax of a story is the moment of highest interest for the reader.  What moment is the climax of this story?
  11. At the end of the story, how are the lives of all three characters ruined?  At the end of the story, however, which character is still ignorant of the unhappiness ahead?   
  12. The following questions relate to the probability of the plot.
    1. Given the time of the story’s setting, is it believable that Anna is illiterate?
    2. Is it believable that Anna becomes pregnant so quickly? 
    3. Is it believable that Anna feels she must do whatever she can to press for marriage?
    4. Is it believable that Charles feels he must marry the mother of his child?  
    5. Is it believable that there is no suggestion whatsoever that Charles could divorce Anna and that Edith could divorce her husband so that Charles and Edith could marry?
    6. How might your answers to each of these questions be different if the story were set today rather than in the 19th century?
  13. Is it believable that Charles would not discover Anna’s functional illiteracy and relative simple-mindedness on his first acquaintance with her?
  14. How is Charles’s marriage to Anna similar to Edith’s marriage to her husband?

 

Hardy’s Poetry

Although most of Hardy’s poems were written in the 20th century, they seem to be preoccupied with late Victorian issues.  Find examples of each of the following late Victorian issues or philosophies in the assigned poems by Hardy:

  1. evolution
  2. crisis of faith (Hardy lost his Christian faith and became an agnostic.)
  3. an indifferent universe ruled by chance rather than a personal God
  4. pessimism (also found in Hardy’s fiction)
  5. stoicism in the face of a world without meaning and value (which Hardy nevertheless seeks)

 

Unlike most Victorian poets, however, Hardy writes in a “plain style.” 

  1. What is “plain” about Hardy’s style of writing poetry?

 

“Hap,” 1868, and “Convergence of the Twain,” 1878, present somewhat different philosophies of life. 

  1. According to “Hap,” what controls human destiny?  What does “hap” mean?
  2. According to “The Convergence of the Twain,” what controls human destiny? What is the Immanent Will?  What are the two things that converge or come together?
  3. How do the philosophies of these two poems differ? 
  4. What do the philosophies of these two poems have in common?

 

“The Darkling Thrush,” 1871, concerns loss of faith and hope.

  1. According to the footnote, on what day did Hardy write “The Darkling Thrush”?  How does the date of the poem’s composition help to explain the content of the poem?   
  2. What is a “darkling thrush”?  What is the thrush doing?  Why does this surprise the speaker?

 

“The Ruined Maid,” 1872, and “A Trampwoman’s Tragedy,” 1872, provide local color.

  1. What is “local color”?  In what part of England are these poems set?  To what social class do the characters belong?  What do these poems reveal about the lives of these people?
  2. In what sense is the maid “ruined”?  What is ironic about this term?
  3. To what character in a work we recently studied is the ruined maid similar?
  4. Describe the lifestyle of the characters in “A Trampwoman’s Tragedy.”
  5. What is a “fancy-man”?  What happens to each of the characters?  What causes their tragedy?

 

A. E. Housman

  1. Extra credit:  Find Shropshire on the map of England in the front endpapers of our textbook.  Where is it located?   
  2. What is A Shropshire Lad?  Who is Terence?
  3. What is the pastoral tradition?  How do Housman’s poems relate to it?
  4. Housman did not support himself by writing poetry.  What was Housman’s occupation?  Why are his achievements in this field surprising?
  5. In your own words, paraphrase what the speaker says in each of the five assigned poems by Housman.
  6. In  “Loveliest of Trees,” 1948, what do we know about the speaker?  What is his age? What epiphany does he experience?  What is carpe diem, and how does it relate to this poem?
  7. The white cherry blossoms can be interpreted as symbols because they mean more than what they literally are.  What might the cherry blossoms symbolize?
  8. What happens in “When I Was One-and-Twenty,” 1949?  In what sense is this poem about loss of innocence?
  9. In “To an Athlete Dying Young,” 1949, what does the speaker say is the advantage of dying young?
  10.  “Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff,” 1950, presents Housman’s philosophy of the value of poetry. 
    1. In the first verse paragraph, what complaint do Terence’s friends make about his poetry?
    2. In the second verse paragraph, what alternative to poetry does Terence discuss?
    3. Explain these famous lines: “And malt does more than Milton can / To justify God=s ways to man” (lines 21-22).  To what famous poem is Housman alluding? Extra credit: Identify the original context of this quotation in volume 1 of The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
    4. What does the speaker say is the disadvantage of this alternative to poetry?
    5. In the third verse paragraph, what does Terence say is the benefit of reading poetry?
    6. In the fourth verse paragraph, what happens in the story of King Mithridates?  What does this story have to do with reading poetry?

 

William Butler Yeats

  1. According to the textbook’s introduction to Yeats (pronounced “Yates”), what three environments influenced Yeats?  What influence did each have on him and his poetry?

 

“Down by the Salley Gardens,” 2024

  1. Summarize the speaker’s experiences.
  2. What mistake has the speaker made?

 

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” 2025

  1. What is Innisfree?  Where is it?
  2. To what important work of nineteenth-century American literature does this poem allude?  (See footnote.)  If you are familiar with this American work, what phrases in Yeats’s poem make the allusion clear?

 

“Easter 1916,” 2031

  1. Of the five main periods of Yeats’s poetry, to which period does this poem belong? Why?
  2. According to the footnote, what was the Easter Rebellion of 1916?  Who was rebelling against whom? What was Yeats’s personal connection with this uprising?
  3. Yeats himself is the speaker of the poem (“I”).  Whom does he refer to as “them” (line 1)?  According to the first verse paragraph, what is the nature of the speaker’s relationship with the rebels?
  4. What two lines are repeated (with some variations) as a refrain at the end of three of the four verse paragraphs?  What do these lines mean?  “Terrible beauty” is an oxymoron.  What beauty is born of the Easter Rebellion?  In what sense is this beauty “terrible”?
  5. The second verse paragraph describes how the lives of four particular rebels (see the footnotes) are transformed by their involvement with the rebellion.  How does each of the rebels change?

In the third verse paragraph, an immovable stone in the middle of a rapidly moving stream is a metaphor for the rebels’ single-minded dedication to the cause of Irish nationalism (independence from England) amid the changes of life.

  1. What verb (line 43) describes the rebels’ fixation on rebellion?
  2. What different activities go on while the stone remains constant?
  3. According to the fourth verse paragraph, what happens to the hearts of the rebels?  What happens to their bodies?
  4. What is the rebels’ “excess of love” (line 72)?
  5. When and how will the rebels be remembered?  For what is “green” a symbol (line 78)?
  6. Overall, how does the speaker seem to feel about the Easter Rebellion and rebels?

 

“The Second Coming,” 2036

  1. The Second Coming, as you know, is the return of Jesus Christ to earth.  In this poem, however, the Second Coming is a metaphor for the beginning of a new and terrible period of life on earth.  What world events in the years just before the composition of this poem in January 1919 would have led Yeats to be so pessimistic about the future?
  2. In this poem, the speaker reports visions he sees (as if in a crystal ball).  In lines 1-2, what situation does the speaker describe?  What is a “falconer”?  What has happened to the falcon?  What does this image symbolize about the world?
  3. According to a footnote, to what historical event does the speaker allude in lines 4-8?
  4. In lines 13b-17, what “vast image” does the speaker see?  What does this creature look like?  What reaction do you have to this creature’s appearance, countenance, and movement?
  5. In lines 16-17, why are “the indignant desert birds” circling above this creature?  This image of the birds recalls WHAT previous lines of the poem?
  6. What line indicates that the speaker’s vision is over?
  7. In lines 18b-20, the speaker says that “twenty centuries” (2000 years) of history came to an end with “a rocking cradle.”  Whose cradle is being referred to?
  8. Lines 21-22 are well known:  “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” (2037). This beast heralds the beginning of the next 2000-year cycle of history.  Why is this creature headed for Bethlehem?  How does the speaker want us to feel about this new period?
  9. Thought question (answers will vary):  Has this poem’s pessimism been fulfilled in the 85 years since its composition?  Has Yeats’s prophecy come true?

 

“Leda and the Swan,” 2039

  1. Ancient Greek mythology tells us that Zeus, in the form of a swan, raped Leda, a beautiful girl, and that twins were conceived in this union.  Extra-credit research: Do research about this myth, and explain how your findings relate to this poem.  Keep in mind, however, that different versions of this myth identify the twins differently.   
  2. Like “The Second Coming,” “Leda and the Swan” concerns Yeats’s belief that each new cycle of history is marked by a momentous event.  Just as the Christian era began with the birth of Jesus, so the previous 2000-year period, Yeats suggests, began with another instance of communication between the divine and the human: Zeus’s rape of Leda.  Lines 1-8 describe the rape.  What do these lines reveal about Zeus and about Leda?
  3. The last six lines of the poem explain the results of the rape.  Lines 9-11a describe the physical consummation of this act.  In Freudian psychology, whose role in the act would “broken wall” represent?  Whose role in the act would “the burning roof and tower” represent?
  4. May require extra-credit research: When we get to “And Agamemnon dead” (11a), we realize that lines 9-11a describe the effects of the rape not only on the two participants but also on the civilization of the ancient world.  In Greek mythology, who is Agamemnon?  In what war is he a general?  What city’s walls, roofs, and towers are left broken and burning at the end of this war?  When, how, and why does Agamemnon die?   
  5. The twins conceived in this union between Leda and Zeus are related to this war and the death of Agamemnon.   According to the version of the myth that Yeats uses, what two children are conceived?  (See footnote.)  How does one of these children cause war and destruction of a city?  How does the other child cause the death of Agamemnon?
  6. Lines 11b-14 concern another possible result of this act of intercourse between the divine and the human.  What question does the speaker pose?  How would you answer this question?  What bearing would the remarkable achievements of Greco-Roman culture in the 2000 years before the birth of Christ have on the answer to the question?        

 

“Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop,” 2045

  1. In the first stanza, what advice does the Bishop give Crazy Jane?
  2. In the second and third stanzas, what argument does Crazy Jane make about the flesh and the spirit? 
  3. “Fair and foul” (7) is an allusion to what Shakespearean play? 
  4. What does Crazy Jane mean when she says, “Love has pitched his mansion in / The place of excrement” (15-16)?
  5. Explain the multiple meanings of (or puns on) the words “sole,” “whole,” and “rent” (17-18).

 

T. S. Eliot

  1. Where was T. S. Eliot was born?  Where did he live most of his adult life?  What change did he make in his citizenship?
  2. A common theme of Eliot’s early poetry is the Waste Land, and he wrote an important poem with the title The Waste Land.  What does Eliot mean by the Waste Land?
  3. What innovative techniques make Eliot’s poetry difficult to read?

 

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” 2289

  1. How does the opening quotation from Dante’s Inferno relate to Eliot’s poem?
  2. This poem uses the point of view called stream of consciousness.  Extra-credit research or prior knowledge:  What is stream of consciousness, and how does the narration of this poem fit the definition?
  3. To whom do you think “you and I” refer (line 1)?  Critics have offered many possible answers.  A common interpretation is that “you” refers to Prufrock’s inner self or, in Freudian terminology, his id (his subconscious self, with emotions, passions, and longings) and that “I” refers to his ego (the self-conscious, anxious, timid self who meets the world).  Does this interpretation make sense in the context of the poem?  If not, what other theories can you suggest or find in extra-credit research?
  4. Through what kind of urban environment does Prufrock walk in the evening on his way to a tea party attended mostly by artsy women (“talking of Michelangelo”)?
  5. What are the weather and atmosphere in the city on this evening?
  6. What fears does Prufrock have about what will happen at the party?  In what ways is he insecure about his physical appearance?
  7. What does Prufrock mean when he asks, “Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” (lines 45-46)?  
  8. What does Prufrock mean when he says, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” (line 51)?
  9. What makes Prufrock feel like an insect “pinned and wriggling on the wall” (line 58)?
  10. What about the women’s bodies makes him feel anxious?
  11. What does Prufrock mean when he says, “I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (lines 73-74)?
  12. What details about the setting of the tea party does Prufrock mention?
  13. Where and in what way does Prufrock compare himself to John the Baptist? to Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha?  to Hamlet?
  14. What does Prufrock fear that someone will say to him at the party?  (He quotes this statement twice.)
  15. In what lines near the end of the poem does Prufrock fantasize about what he would LIKE to do?  What might “mermaids” symbolize?
  16. What does the end of the poem indicate about Prufrock’s prospects for happiness?
  17. How does this poem fit Eliot’s theme of the 20th-century Waste Land?

 

“Journey of the Magi,” 2312

  1. Who is the speaker of the poem?  According to the speaker, what difficulties do the Wise Men face on the journey?
  2. Extra credit and/or prior knowledge: How does the account of the Wise Men in this poem differ from that in Matthew 2 and in well-known traditions about the Wise Men?    
  3. How does the speaker of the poem respond to seeing the Christ Child?  What is it like for the speaker to go back home and live with his own people after this experience?
  4. What paradox about birth and death does the speaker state?
  5. Eliot wrote this poem at the time of his own conversion to Christianity.  How might this poem relate to his own experience?