AL-Qalam university

College of Education
English department
Subject: poetry

Romantics and Victorian poetry for 3th stage

Set by
Asst. lect. Hawar Sardar
The main features of Victorian poetry
1- It was an era of radical changes in British society as a result of industrialization and wealthy
landowners They became businesspersons.

2- It was the era of adventure, free creativity and individual initiative.

3 - It was the era of imperialism. The reasons for imperialism were mainly economic:

A - Search for raw materials.

b- Find markets for manufactured products.

4- The names of the great imperialists and politicians appeared in Victorian times: for example. Disraeli
and Gladstone.

5- It was a time of scientific progress in which great scientists and thinkers lived: for example. Darwin,
Huxley, Karl Marx
6. Belief in the reality of progress was the main feature of the early Victorian era. Doubt and doubt and
Questioning became an important feature of the late Victorian era.

7- The Victorian era was a time of agnosticism and skepticism. It was a time of happy religious beliefs.

8- These aspects have been reflected in one way or another in the poetry of Tennyson, Browning, and
Matthew Arnold.
The main features of romantic poetry.
1- Romantic poetry shows a new belief in man with all his feelings, senses and all aspects of his
experiences.
2- He rejected the rational mind as the sole source of poetry, emphasizing imagination and intuition as
both Poetry schools.

3- The romantic poet was a man who turned to men but had a special vision of them Nature of things.

4- Romantic poetry is an expression of feelings inspired by the feelings of the individual poet. The
romantic poet is endowed with "a strong organic sensibility".

5- Romantic literature is personal. It is an expression of the inner impulses of the artist's soul. That
reflects the poet's thoughts and feelings more than anything.
6- Nature is seen by romantics as something divine. It's something really alive, something that has an
extension. the soul and purpose can even share the joys and sorrows of the poet.
7- One of the common and recurring themes in romantic poetry is man in solitude or man with nature.
you think the best manifestation of man's nature is when he is alone or in communion with nature.

8- Romantic poetry is antiheroic in the sense that the subject of this poetry is the common man, not the
heroes. Or men of high standing. They also use common people's language.

9- Romance unusually pulsates with the wonders, mysteries and beauty of the universe. He feels There
are invisible forces in nature. The supernatural has a special charm for him; attracted to him Fairy tales,
ghosts and magic.

10- Romantic poetry is individual. Emphasizes the individuality of people. Usually, the person shows up
alone. Everyone The poet has an individual personality that is different from the others.

11- Another characteristic of romantic poetry is the feeling of nostalgia.

12-For a romantic poet, childhood was very important. The child is closer to nature than Man grows and
acquires wisdom from nature. As a result, he loses his natural wisdom. “A child is a father Man, ”says
Wordsworth.
13- The romantic poet sees the world through the eyes of a child. That is why romantic poetry is
described Like a wonder.
The main features of modern poetry.
1- Modern poetry is free from the traditional limitations of rhyme and rhythm.

2- It is heavily influenced by modern science and technology.

3- The modern poet is pessimistic about the future of modern man and his world.

4- Modern poetry is influenced by modern political, social and economic theories.

5- In modern poetry, words are used more figuratively than literally.

6- The language of modern poetry is the language of everyday speech. The modern poet speaks to his
reader in language Intimate tone of voice.

7- In modern poetry, man is described as a lonely exile in search of his home.

8- There is no logical argument in the modern poem. Instead, the poem is based on the free association of
ideas. The modern poem is "a mass of broken pictures"
 Romantic School
We have two generations of the Romantic poets:

1- William Blake, William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge.

2- John Keats, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.

Romantic school is characterized by some features:

1- Poetry is spontaneous. The poet doesn't write the poem; it is the poem which dictates itself on the poet.

2- The Romantic poets believed that poetry should be written for all people. Their language was characterized
by simplicity and lenience.

3- The Romantic poets found in the lyric the best means of expression, thus their poems deal with emotions and
feelings.

4-The Romantic poets hated the spirit of materialism and industrialism. As a additional, they resorted to nature
which was represented a beautiful setting and a spiritual power. It was a source of creativity and enlightenment.

5- The Romantic poets were lovers of freedom. They called for change and revolution.

6- The Romantic poets believed that imagination is more important than reason.

They believed that imagination is the source of human creativity. Blake and Coleridge are strong believers in
imagination.

7- The Romantics use what is called the supernatural elements, for they believe that everything about nature is a
kind of spirit.

8- Their concern was with the remoteness of places and ancient times. These created a sense of nostalgia
(Yearning for the past).
 Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

About the poet

He was one of the most learned poets of his time, yet he left very few odes and the elegy. In his youth, he was
very happy and active. He was educated at Cambridge. He got some sickness in the mind; he was mentally sick;
a sickness that made creative writing impossible; he got kind of ' inertia' which paralyzed his action and made
him unable to write and think well. He became thus in a melancholic gloomy. He liked to sit among the graves
and used to write there. The elegy was written in a country churchyard. The dark view of modern life can
appear in any literary of any authors.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

BY T H O M A S GR A Y
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r

The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Elegy: is a poem or a song that expresses sadness, especially for somebody who has died.
In the first stanza, the poet defines ' the time and the setting'. The words are used to announce the death of a
person, but Gray uses them to announce the death of the day. The poet was standing in the graveyard of the
church. He describes the common sights of the countryside: the mooing cattle move slowly in crooked way
through the meadow, as they are very tired. The farmers are also walking towards their homes after a long day.
Their way is very tired as people come and go all the day over it. All the others go home, except the poet.
The atmosphere at that moment is defined the open lands: all the fields disappear in the darkness, and
everything is quiet and silent. There are only flying insects that break the silence of the place, and fly in a
circular way like the wheels.
In the second stanza, Gray shows that there is another sound that breaks the silence of the place that is the faint
tinkling of the bells that comes from a distance. The sheep carry bells around their necks. In the evening, they
become drowsy; that is why the bells tinkle faintly as if they were tired to lull the fields to sleep.

In the third stanza, the poet shows that there is another noise that breaks the silence, that is the complaining of
the gloomy sad owl coming from the tower of the church which is covered by Ivy. It is complaining to the moon
(which is also alone) about some insects that come near its bower (living place). The passage of time is
indicated by the moon. Now it is night; it is completely dark. In the fourth stanza, now, we know exactly when
the poet is standing. He looks at the graves that surround him. The graves are under naked elm trees, sheltering
with trees. These are the graves of the poor villagers who could not afford for building graves for their dead.
Their graves are not naturally built by rising the ground when they buried the dead, and the heaps are covered
by the dead leaves falling from the trees; the forefathers of that simple village are imprisoned in their narrow
cells (graves).

The Imagery
It is an important part in making the elegy lively and effective. The Elegy is rich with different images:
1- the images of death: these images succeed in the first four stanzas. Death in all
its aspects appear as a dominant force in those stanzas.
a- Darkness in the first line is presented through the evening.
b- The emptiness of the place is another aspect of death.
c-Stillness is the third aspect.
d- Coldness is the fourth aspect of death.
Those aspects are presented though the four stanzas in different images. Death is also presented directly through
the graveyard, and lastly it is presented through minute details prevailing in the four stanzas. The owl is
connected with death because it lives in ruined place and it appears mainly at night. The trees (the elms and the
yews) also represent death. They die in the cold season, their leaves fall, and all signs of life in them stopped.
Thus, their appearance is connected with death.
 The lamb by William Blake
About the poet
From his early childhood, Blake used to live in his fantasy and imagination. He considered the
world mad because of destruction and ferocity. Blake sawpeople following the materialistic
things. So he escaped from this harsh world to a beautiful and dreamy world. He was a man of a
very sharp vision. His target was to call for peace, comfort, love and the end of the persecution.
He called for the liberation of human minds from old restrains. He escaped from a limited
reality to a world of vision, where people are free and happy.
ً
Blake has two significant books:
1- Songs of Innocence: the poet was famous as a poet of childhood and of innocence. This book
was full of joys, purity, pleasure and activities. Children are innocent, simple and angelic. They
are symbols of innocence. They are flowers and angels. The poet used the children to show the
bright side of the human soul. He was sympathetic with the children because of that time,
children worked in difficult, unhealthy and harsh conditions.
2- Songs of Experience: this book is full of guilt, misery and tyranny. All earth's vital and active
energies are frozen. Winter with darkness and death.
Blake's Style:
Blake' s language and style are characterized by simplicity and easiness. His words are very
common. His words are very day speech as if one is speaking prose. He uses the language of the
simple villagers and the poor to be understood.
The lamb by William Blake

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
 Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Blake addresses the little white lamb as if it were a person. The poet personifies the lamb and gives it a human
quality. The poet questions that little lamb one rhetorical question: '' Do you know who is the creator of your
body? '' then the poet tells the lamb that the creator donates you some presents and gifts such as: life, food,
clothing of delight and tender voice. What is the source of food? Of course, the food is by the river and over the
green grass. Clothing of delight has three features: it is soft, bright and wooly. Tender voice can fill all the vales
withjoy and pleasure.
The poet compares between a little lamb and Jesus Christ because both of them are innocent, mild and meek. The
poet as a shepherd, the lamb and the child serve as symbols of Jesus Christ. Blake writes: '' He is called by thy
name'' means that your creator, maker is known by your name because he calls himself a lamb. It is an agnostic
concept because God is without name and form. The Christ is meek and mild. Meekness and mildness are two
divine virtues andqualities of an innocent child.
Blake as a romantic poet reflected some romantic features in this poem such as He is interested in the beauty of
nature when the poet refers to some natural elements as the lamb, vales, stream and food. The poet pictures that
the little white lamb is alone as a child. The poet wants to show his great love for the world of innocence and
purity.
 The Tyger by William Blake
The Tyger
BY W ILLIAM BLA KE

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Blake addresses the tiger as if it were a person. Blake gives us a general depiction of the tiger that is
a symbol of power. God gives many things to the tiger as God granted to the lamb, such as: the
tiger has an immortal hand and strong eyes, a fearful symmetry ( his body is dreadful ), and he
lives in the forest. Later on, the poet uses the imaginary wings that are moving quickly.That is
why, Blake gives us two universal pictures: the body of the tiger and the imaginary wings). The
poet describes the hand and the shoulder of the blacksmith that are symbols of strength and they
can do the things as God does.
Shoulder is a symbol of power. So it is long, strong in forming the sinews of his heart, how dreadful
his hand and feet are. They are the organs of the tiger.Then the poet asked the tiger '' the
hammer, the chain, and the anvil were used in forming the tiger's symmetry. Which furnace can
create the brain? All these words are symbols of God's power of creation. What is that dread and
tremendous grasp which can catch him in all his deadly terror? The stars are symbols of material
powers. They are angels and throwing down their spears but the blacksmith escaped, run away,
express the triumph of innocence over experience.

The tiger is a symbol of restlessness and fierceness. The tiger symbolizes th fierce forces ( the natural energies
in the soul which are necessary to break the bonds of experience). The tiger burns in the forests of the night,
then the fire of his eyes burns in distant skies.
Christ is the symbol of both innocence and wrath. When the stars, representing the fallen angels were defeated
by the wrath of Christ, they threw down their spears and wept for their evil and its punishment.
Blake metaphorizes '' Burnt the fire of thine eyes'', personifies '' watered heaven with their tears'' , and
symbolizes '' the tiger as a symbol of power and ferocity''.
Blake used some romantic features in this poem such as: nature, imagination, nostalgia, loneliness and
simplicity.
 William Wordsworth (1770-1832)

Wordsworth was born in an area in the north England called '' lake District''.This area was and is still one of the
most beautiful areas in the country.

He spent his happy childhood and boyhood there, walking among the woods, skating, swimming, and hunting
birds. His childhood left strong impression on his mind. He loved the scenes of nature and his native country
too much. He was filled with zeal for the ideals of the French revolution. He is a father of Romantic movement.
He is an idealist and a lakist. He is a poet of lake.

Characteristics of Wordsworth's poetry:

1-His poetry is troubled with nature. For him, nature is a living entity (spirit). There are joy and universal love
in nature. The poet believes that there is a harmony between the mind of man and nature.

2-Poetic diction: Wordsworth's language and style are characterized by simplicity and lucidity. He insists that
poetry should be simple and clear in its language. The poet believes that poetry should be written for all people

especially for common people.

3-Childhood: the child is described by Wordsworth as the father of man, and he is even wiser than man. The
poet believes the child is near to the celestial light (the light ). The child is simple and innocent.

The Solitary Reaper

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?—

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang

As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending; —
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
1st stanza
The poet speaks of the girl who is reaping, singing and binding. She is a highland girl. The poet wrote this
poem when he was in tour in Scotland in 1803. The girl is reaping the harvest. She is a harvester. She is
singing and binding (tying) the sheaves. The girl has three qualities: - She is a harvester and a gleaner. She is a
good singer with a soft voice, and she is a binder ( to bind) the grain that is the source of the food in the field.

2nd stanza
The poet compared between the song of the girl that is more beautiful, sweeter to the poet than that of the
nightingale to the tired travelers who take rest in Arabian desert ( refers to green trees and beautiful flowers).
Her song is more thrilling than the cuckoo's song in spring time in the silent seas of the remotest Hebrides ( a
group of islands in Scotland).

3rd stanza
The language in which the girl is singing is incomprehensible to him. He can't understand the theme of the song,
or no one can interpret the song to the poet. The plaintive numbers (lines) are sad, melancholic, connected with
unhappy incidents, or battles of the past, or about misfortunes of everyday, life of sorrows which come out of
the natural course of things. 4th stanza
The girl was singing at her work. The poet remained motionless and still while the song was going on. The
music (melody of the song) remained enshrined on the heart of the poet after its stop.
Romantic features are used by the poet:
1- Solitude 2- Nature 3- Romantic imagination

The World Is Too Much With Us By: W. Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

The poet says that the people of his time were so busy in collecting money, wealth, and fortune,
spending their time of the day, they wasted their spiritual power. They weren't interested in
certain objects of nature. People sold their hearts to the god of wealth and have no feelings left
for enjoying the beauties of nature. They don't have any love for the sight of moonlight falling
on the surface of the sea or the picture of the winds which make noisiness ( howling)
throughout the day but sleep like flowers at night. The people of his time are not at all moved
by the beautiful objects of nature. The poet wants to be nurtured in the extinct creed of
paganism. As a pagan, the poet would have the opportunity of witnessing the sights of pagan
gods like Proteus and Triton.
 Wordsworth loved the scenes of nature, he gives two beautiful pictures of
nature. What are they?

1-The picture of the sea bathed in moonlight.

2-The picture of the winds that sleep like flowers at night. Wordsworth used two classical
allusions in his poem :
1-Greek God '' Proteus'' was a sea god that rising from the sea.
2-Roman God '' Triton'' could sooth the restless waves of the sea by blowing his wreathed horn.

We are always busy running after the material pleasure of life. '' Getting and Spending'': we waste
our spiritual power by devoting all our time to the pursuits of wealth. The speaker of this poem
wants to criticize modern civilization that lacks imagination, the stuffiness of its creeds, the rush
and push of its public life.
 S.T. Coleridge (1772-1834)

He was studied at Cambridge. He studied theology and philosophy. He is a poet,a critic, a

dramatist, a journalist, and a lecturer. He and Wordsworth propounded more functions of
poetry. He wrote '' The Biographia Literaria'' that is a narrative book, full of chapters. So he is
the co-founder of the romantic movement.

Structures
1-The Supernatural-
Coleridge is considered as the greatest poet of the supernatural in English literature. His aim
was to make the supernatural appear natural. He revived the supernatural as a literary force. He
goes directly to the supernatural and the fantastic and his imagination acquires true poetic
distinction. He has the faculty to make the mystery actual, real and obsessing. The supernatural
objects are representations of our own inward desires. The spectral objects are conditions of our
own mind.
2-Nature
He considers nature as a divine spirit and believes in the moral and educative influence of
nature upon man. That is why, he is a keen lover of nature. He believes if we are happy, nature
is happy. If we are sad, nature is sad.
3-Dream
He is the first and the finest dreamer in English poetry. He took a keen interest in illusions,
hallucinations, magic and dreams. A romantic poet creates his own world of dreams which is
far better than this world. He escapes from this world into the mystic world dreams.

Frost at Midnight
BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
'Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it dim sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,
Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
And makes a toy of Thought.

But O! how oft,

How oft, at school, with most believing mind,
Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars,
To watch that fluttering stranger ! and as oft
With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt
Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower,
Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang
From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day,
So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me
With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear
Most like articulate sounds of things to come!
So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt,
Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams!
And so I brooded all the following morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:
Save if the door half opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up,
For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play-mate when we both were clothed alike!

Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side,

Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm,
Fill up the intersperséd vacancies
And momentary pauses of the thought!
My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heart
With tender gladness, thus to look at thee,
And think that thou shalt learn far other lore,
And in far other scenes! For I was reared
In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim,
And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.
But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores
And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear
The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible
Of that eternal language, which thy God
Utters, who from eternity doth teach
Himself in all, and all things in himself.
 Great universal Teacher! he shall mould
Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask.

Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,

Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the night-thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.

Lines (1-24)
The Frost is secretly performing its work without being helped by the wind. All theinmates
inside the cottage are sleeping and the poet is left alone.( lonelinessis good in philosophical
thinking). His infant ( Hartley) is sleeping peacefully in the cradle by his side. All the natural
elements are silent ( sea, hill, wood) as dreams. The thin blue flame of fire is motionless. The
film is fluttering on the grate. This picture reflects a sense of sympathy between the poet and
this film because both of them are awake and active. The idle spirt of the poet explains the
irregular movements of the film according to his own moods and wishes.

Lines (24 -43)

Coleridge yearns for his past when he was a student at school. He used to believe that the
fluttering film was a prophetic symbol as someone will come. When he saw the fluttering film,
he became excited and dreamt of his sweet birth place, the old church- tower whose bells rang
from morning to evening (All the hot- fair day ). The sweet sound of the church bells which was
the only music for the poor people considered as a symbol of a prophecy of future events. He
looked at the film, thought of his home, then to fall asleep. Even in his dream, he dreamt of the
same things (ideas) in his mind. He was afraid of his strict teacher, so his mind was wandering
here and there when he looked at his book.

Lines (44-64)
The poet is calling his baby who is sleeping in the cradle in a quiet atmosphere. He wants to fill up the gaps of
his mind when he thinks one idea to the other. Coleridge shows that his child will grow up and educated in a
difference life than his own. The poet himself was brought up away from nature in London. So he didn't find
any beautiful sights of nature except the sky and the stars. Hewants his son to bring up in natural environment.
He will wander here and there like wind by lakes and sandy shores. His baby will see the beautiful shapes and
hear the lovely sounds of nature. God teaches humanity. Coleridge wants to say that God speaks to us through
the beautiful sights and the sounds of nature as representations of God.
Kubla Khan by S. T. Coleridge:

Kubla Khan was the great Emperor. He was a founder of the 20th Chinese dynasty. He was the
grandson of Chengiz-khan who founded the greatest empire, included a lot of countries,
encouraged agriculture, industry, and commerce. Kubla Khan ordered the workers to build a
beautiful pleasure palace for him in Xanadu ( a city in China). The palace was to be situated on
the bank of the sacred river (Alph) which flowing through vast deep caves, sank into a dark sea.
This place had planted on one side with beautiful gardens, winding streams, aromatic trees (full
of smelling flowers ), while on the other, forests as old as hills, enfolding in their midst sunny
spaces full of green spots. The poet saw an Abyssinian maid (damsel) singing a sweet song
about Mount Abora in Abyssinia. Her music is like his powerful poetry showing pleasure
palace. They can hear/ see that palace in the air, in their imagination. Her song is powerful, can
create a deep delight and a creative joy in the poet. According to her music, Coleridge will build
his unreal dome. The first dome is built by Kubla which is real while the second unreal is built
by the poet.

They thinks of the poet as a dreadful magician. His floating hair and flashing eyes full of fear
and awe. They go round him thrice to protect themselves from his magical powers. They will
think he is a superhuman to eat the honey-dew (Manna which is a heavenly food) and to drink
the milk of paradise. The meaning is that people would regard him as inspired by God.

T.S.C

1.Coleridge has three characters: a dreamer, a creator, and a magician

2.This poem is full of supernatural elements such as : the cave, chasm, sunless
sea, etc. they all create a world of wonder and enchantment. The atmosphere of this poem is
strange and mysterious.
3.Chasm has five features: it is deep, romantic, a savage place, holy and enchanted. It is
associated with the waning moon and the wailing woman.
 Kubla Khan
BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer

 In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’would win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
 Ode to The West Wind by Percy Bysshe. Shelley

Shelley was one of the most important romantic poets who represented the spirit of
Romanticism at its best. From his early childhood, he was well educated. Shelley always
believed that no healthy love can be established until the corrupted institutions are removed.
He believed in the freedom of humans and believed that people are equal to one another.
Shelley was an idealist, a dreamer, and a visionary.
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Features: -
1-Shelley's lyrical power
Shelley's lyrical power expresses the highest emotional ecstasy. Shelley's poetry divides into
two sides.
A/ The visionary or prophetic works in which the hero against tyranny.
B/ The shorter lyrics show the beauty of nature, spirituality, and splendor.

2-Shelley's descriptive power ‫ة‬

Shelley's descriptive power expresses imagination as a source of love and compassion. His poetry is a kind of
prophecy because a poet has the ability to change the world for the better (political, social, and spiritual
changes).

3-Themes
Shelley's thematic concerns are beauty, passion, nature, political liberty, creativity and the sanctity of
imagination. These are developed by Shelley's philosophical relationship to his subject-matter. The poet
shows his intense feelings to evoke his relationship to his art.

Introduction to the West Wind

Shelley takes the west wind with its great power as a symbol of the coming revolution that will change the
world and make a new life for people. It is a symbol of the revolution that will destroy the old and overcome
all the corruption and quicken a new world for mankind.
 Ode to the West Wind
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

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, oh 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 aëry 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: oh hear!

III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd 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 gray with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: oh 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 thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd 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 chain'd and bow'd

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 wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
1ST STANZA

Shelley addresses the west wind as a wild wind because the west wind is very strong and violent. It is wild, no one
can stop it, or control it. It is described as a breath of autumn because it blows in Autumn as if autumn is
breathing. The presence of the west wind is felt unseen! The west wind drives away all the dead leaves. The trees
are almost bare in Autumn.
When the west wind comes, all the dead leaves of the trees will be carried away from the trees. The dead leaves
are compared to the ghosts who run away from the enchanter because they fear him, so the dead leaves run
away exactly like ghosts do from the west wind. The colours of the leaves in Autumn are associated with
destruction. They are yellow, black, pale ( like sick man ) and scarlet red. The colours of those leaves will be like
dreadful disease
stricken and taken a lot of people to death.
The west wind is a wild spirit that blows everywhere. The west wind is presented in two aspects: As a
The west wind carries the seeds of some plants to their wintry beds where they will lie all winter. Those seeds
will lie there as cold as a corpse under the ground, they will wait until the wind of spring will come, the spring
will blow her clarion (music) as a source of food for them, the seeds will be green (full of hues and odours).
destroyer, it destroys the leaves of the trees, while as a preserver, it preserves the seeds in a safe place (under
the earth as a wintry bed).

2ND STANZA
ً
The west wind is addressed again. It carries the clouds (messengers or angels of rain and light) with it. It
causes changes in nature. The west wind as if shakes the boughs of the trees, it also shakes the boughs of
heaven and ocean. Angels ُ of rain and
ً lighting will spread on the sky. The west wind is surging (sound of the
storm). It causes much rain, violent storms and lighting. (sky's commotion means a tumult in the sky)
ً
Maenads are in Greek Mythology. They are female followers of Bacchus. They are wild girls who celebrate the
coming of God's wine (Bacchus). They are wild because their hair is always untidily uplifted. The west wind
uplifts the locks of the approaching storms, as if the storm is a girl and the west wind lifts her locks. The west
wind is like the dirge of the dying year in the sense that Autumn is the end of the year while spring is the
beginning. The night on which the west wind will blow will be the big grave of the year. As a result of the
strong wind caused by the west wind, heavy and black rain and the lighting and even hail will burst and
fall on human kind.
3th stanza
The west wind is addressed again. When the west wind comes, it awakens the Mediterranean from its
summer dreams. It is lying asleep lulled by the coil of streams (pure/ white waves). It is asleep, dreaming.
So, when the west wind blows, it wakes the sea and makes it violent, stormy and full of currents. This sea is
asleep lying beside a pumice (kind of rocks caused by volcano '' porous '' in an isle Baiae means a district in
Italy). In its dream, the sea saw all the palaces and towers quivering and shaking within the waves. He saw
all the moss and flowers of the Azure (the wind in spring). All his dreams are so beautiful in the sense that
no one can depict or picture them. Thus, the west wind effects not only Mediterranean but also the
Atlantic. While the surface of water and currents cleave themselves into chasms, the roots and other green
plants shiver with fear when they hear the coming of the west wind. They frightened of the west wind
because its power roots out all the old and decayed plants and thus the plants become pale when they hear
of its coming.

4TH Stanza
The poet wants some of the impulse of the strong west wind. He will then be free, less free from the west
wind. He will still remain less free than it because the west wind is the west wind is the most uncontrollable.
Even in his childhood, Shelley had felt a companionship with the west wind. But now, aware of his weakness,
he prays to the wind to lift him up like a leaf, a cloud or a wave, to carry him away from the thrones of life
(troubles) and miseries of life. He is bleeding because of the thorns of life. The poet wishes to be a child
because the child is free and unchained from the social and moral laws of society to be the comrade of the
west wind in its wanderings. The child looks upon life as a vision. The poet wants to be like thewest wind,
tameless, swift and proud. He is wild and free like the west wind.

5TH stanza
The poet wants to compare between the powerful voice of the west wind to the lyre. The powerful voice of
the west wind can be heard at its best in the forest where it becomes very loud, fearful, and frightening. The
poet wishes that the west wind would help him to get rid of all his dead leaves. He wants the west wind to b
his spirit or be himself (the union between the poet and the west wind). He wants it to take all his ideas and
thoughts and scatter them, spread them all over the universe (his revolutional ideas or spirits are so important
for the re- generation to save the world). He calls for change and revolution. He wants to expose the evils and
corruption of the decayed regimes.

The earth is still sleeping (the unawakening Earth). He wants to the west wind to be the prophecy of a better
future, a brighter or to be the carrier of his prophecy that the world would be happier in future. When the
west wind comes, the spring will be near. Spring is the symbol of revolution to topple, carry out all the
corruption and make the earth more suitable for living.
 John Keats (1795-1821)
Keats was a man who lived for a short time. He was a man of genius. His father was a stable
keeper, thus he didn't receive high education. He started writing poetry when he was a
teenager, but his first volume of poetry was subjected to a very severe criticism. He was
influenced by Greek mythology, Edmund Spenser and Shakespeare. The real reason for his
death was the same disease which had killed his father and his elder brother. He died in Italy
at the age of 26.

Features: -
1-Keats' s Sensuousness:
The term '' sensuousness'' means giving pleasure to the senses. Sensuous poetry presents
beautiful and colourful word-pictures by the sensuous poet. He uses his five senses in poetry."
sensuousness"

2-Keats' s Cult of Beauty:

Keats was a poet of beauty. He was always interested in beauty, mankind, nature and art.
Imagination is sweeter than reality. Keats says that art is superior to life. Life has two main
defects which art is free from. The first one is that things in life are transient, temporary, and
ephemeral because beauty, love and passion all die and pass away one day. The other defect is
that happy things usually change at the end into sadness, beauty into ugliness. Thus life
embodies death, whereas art is more permanent. Love is immortal, beauty is everlasting and
happiness is undying.

3-Keats' s treatment of Nature:

Keats is a lover of nature. Keats is quite different from the other romantic poets. He is content
to express her through the senses, the colour, the sound, the touch, the pulsating music. These
are the things that stir him to his depths. He deals with nature in an intense and passionate
simplicity.

4-Keats' s Philosophy:
Keats summarizes his philosophy about beauty in life and its relation to the truth. Keats is
famous for being a poet of beauty. He always looks for beauty everywhere, whether in art or
human beings. He looks upon beauty as the supreme ideal of life and of art. '' Beauty is truth,
truth beauty, that's all''
 Ode to a Nightingale

Ode: is a lyrical poem of some length, serious in tone, grand in language and
complicated in structure.

Ode to a Nightingale
BY JOHN KEATS
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
Stanza: 1st
When Keats listens to the song of the nightingale one day, his heart begins to ache with
the excess of joy. Keats wants to forget his suffering and pains through drinking hemlock
( a kind of drink ) or to take a dose of some opium ( opiate) or the river of forgetfulness (
Leeth- wards) only a minute past. The poet doesn't envy the happy lot of the nightingale
but he is too happy in her pleasure. He wishes to reach the melodious plot where, amidst
the beach trees, the light-winged fairy of the forest. The nightingale sings with full
throated ease the song of the summer. In short, the song of the nightingale made him
restless and he felt a sort of listless lethargy. He wants to forget himself when he crosses
the river.

Stanza 2nd
The poet has a strong desire for a draught of wine that has been cooled for a long time
under the earth. Flora is the Roman goddess of spring time. Flora has a shrine full of pink
roses and violets. In Flora, the country is green, full of vintages, dancing, songs of the
singers, he wants to get joy in summer. A glass of wine ( beaker ) will be full of warm-
south, true, blushful Hippocrates ( the spring of the Muses on the Mount Helicon ( the
poet wants to get the inspiration he desires). That kind of wine will inspire the poet
something in his mind. The poet describes the beaker full of the rich red wine. The wine
being as red as the blushes of the girl. The rising and breaking of the bubbles in the cup
remind the poet of the closing and opening of her eyes. Under the intoxication of such
wine, the poet wants to escape to the world of the nightingale
 L-ORD BYRON
On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year
‘On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year’ by Lord Byron is a ten stanza poem that is divided into sets of
four lines, or quatrains. The lines follow a consistent rhyme scheme. It conforms to the pattern of abab cdcd,
and so on, alternating end sounds as the poet saw fit.

In regards to the metrical pattern, the lines are also very well structured. The first three of each stanza are
written in iambic tetrameter. This means that the lines are made up of four sets of two beats. The final line is
in iambic dimeter, in which each line only has two sets of two beats. In both cases, the first beat is unstressed
and the second is stressed.

The most important images of this text are those which refer to themes of glory and heroism. The last five
stanzas in particular are filled with references to “manhood,” a “soldier’s grave,” dying an “honourable death”
and the elements of the battle. Byron uses these images to depict a change in his demeanour and a desire to end
his life as a man worthy of having lived at all.

Before beginning this piece, a reader should take note of the subtitle at the beginning of the text. It notes that the
poem was written on Byron’s birthday, the 22nd of January in Missolonghi, Greece. This also makes it clear
that the speaker of the text is in fact Byron himself, who is writing in a tone that is sometimes solemn,
sometimes inspired, about his future.

Summary of On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth

Year
‘On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year’ by Lord Byron describes the poet’s own opinion of the
youthful, passionate life he has lived.
The poem begins with the speaker stating that he is no longer loved. This lack in his life makes him feel as if he
is now unable to feel love himself. His main pleasure has been taken away from him, due to his age, and now he
is faced to contend with what he has left.

In the following lines, it becomes clear the speaker does not see himself as having much left at all. There are
worms, fungi, and grief, that’s all. He compares himself to a dying tree, which has lost its ability to produce
fruit or flowers. Now, in this depressed state, the love he used to nourish in his breast (the fire) is consuming
him. It is more like a funeral pyre than a source from which others can take.

The second half of the poem is different. The final five lines are more uplifting. They signal a change in the
speaker’s mindset. He decides he’s not going to complain about his loss any longer. He’s going to take a hard
look at himself and address how “Unworthy” he’s been up until this point. The speaker regrets his youth and
knows the only thing he can do to repent for how he’s lived is find a way to gloriously end his life, like a
soldier.
A great deal of “heroic” battlefield imagery is followed by the speaker asking his soul to find a grave for his
body. This is where he’s going to come to a final “Rest.”

Analysis of On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year

1st Stanza

‘T is time this heart should be unmoved,

Since others it hath ceased to move:
Yet, though I cannot be beloved,
Still let me love!
In the first stanza of ‘On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year’ the speaker begins by stating that it’s time
for his “heart” to be “unmoved.” He’s come to a time in his life, his thirty-sixth birthday, when he no longer
inspires love in others. This failure makes him feel as though he is unworthy of experiencing love himself. This
does not stop him from wanting true love though.

It is impossible to ignore the historical details of Byron’s life when considering these lines. He was notorious
for his everchanging relationships and the ease with which he would fall in and out of love with women. The
idea of willing to take away that freedom from himself would’ve been hard to accept. It is also interesting to
note the self-conscious place from which these lines emerge. Due to his age, he feels that he’s no longer the
same person he was in his youth. This image of Byron is quite different from the generalized, lustful image seen
through the majority of his poems.

2nd Stanza

My days are in the yellow leaf;

The flowers and fruits of Love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!
In the next quatrain, Byron goes on to refer to his days as “in the yellow leaf.” He feels as if his vibrancy is
fading, just like an autumn leaf. The seasons of youth are ending and the progression of age is represented
through the loss of “flowers and fruits,” as if he were a tree that no longer produces. This line also comes from a
well-known section of Act 5 in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In this verse, Macbeth speaks on the change in his way
of life and the loss of love, honour, and friendship.

Byron continues on to say that the only things he has left to him are those that come with decay and age. His
company is made up of worms and grief, as well as “the canker,” a reference to a disease of fruit trees.
3th Stanza

The fire that on my bosom preys

Is lone as some Volcanic isle;
No torch is kindled at its blaze—
A funeral pile.
The third stanza is dedicated to making sure the reader knows how alone he is. In his chest, there is still the
“fire” though. This was the passion that previously filled his relationships. It’s still there, but now it is as “lone
as some Volcanic Isle.” It is nowhere for it to go and no torches for it to kindle. Instead, it burns within him,
more like a “funeral pile” than the force driving his passion.

4th Stanza

The hope, the fear, the jealous care,

The exalted portion of the pain
And power of love, I cannot share,
But wear the chain.
This stanza, especially the first lines are notable for the way Byron has listed them one after another without
conjunction. This is known as an asyndetic list. The technique is common in Byron’s poetry, as well as with
many other writers. It gives the text an added emphasis as if all of the listed items or emotions are building up
upon one another with an end in sight.

He is explaining the complexities of love in this stanza. There are equal parts pain and pleasure. Love brings
with it jealousy, hope, and fear. These were things he relished, but now “cannot share.” They hang around his
neck like a chain, weighing him down. His passion has become more of a burden than a joy.

5th Stanza

But ‘t is not thus—and ‘t is not here—

Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now
Where Glory decks the hero’s bier,
Or binds his brow.
The fifth stanza of ‘On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year’ takes a turn and leads the reader into the
second half of the poem. He seems to come to the decision that he isn’t going to mope around and feel sorry for
himself. It is not “here” that these “thoughts should shake” his soul.

Rather than become a sacrifice to his useless love, he is going to fight on. It isn’t time for him to be lifted onto
the “hero’s bier” or the platform on which a coffin is placed.
6th Stanza

The Sword, the Banner, and the Field,

Glory and Greece, around me see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield,
Was not more free.
The sixth stanza continues the militaristic imagery. Here he lists out some of the elements of battle that make up
his own mental image of the task at hand. There are swords, banners, the field, and all the glory one could want.
He also speaks of Greece as a location for this metaphorical battle for the recovery of his purpose. Greece was a
favourite amongst the Romantic poets and featured prominently in the works of Coleridge and Wordsworth. It
is through this metaphorical battle that the speaker hopes to free himself. He would like to be like the Spartans,
who he sees as being as free as is possible.

7th Stanza

Awake! (Not Greece—she is awake!)

Awake, my spirit! Think through whom
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home!
This stanza begins with a single exclamatory word. It is repeated in the second line, a technique known
as anaphora. It draws additional attention to the word, “Awake,” in this case, and what it means for the speaker.
Byron begins the lines by asking that someone, “not Greece,” wake up. It is to his soul that he’s speaking. It is
time for it to rise up out of its stupor, remember its “life-blood” or passionate past, and “strike home!”

8th Stanza

Tread those reviving passions down,

Unworthy manhood!—unto thee
Indifferent should the smile or frown
Of Beauty be.
This line is curious as it seems to degrade the speaker’s past decisions. He asks his soul to repress any “reviving
passions.” They should be kept down and away from his mind and heart. This makes it seem as if he regrets the
way he’s lived his life up until this point. Perhaps that is because it has led him to this desperate place.

He feels like he has lived an “Unworthy” life. The speaker continues to address his own soul. This time he tells
it that it should be strong enough to resist the “smile or frown / Of Beauty.” The capitalization of Beauty, just
like “Glory” and “Love” before it, give the force an additional agency in the world. It is depicted as an
autonomous actor influencing his life.
9th Stanza
If thou regret’s thy youth, why live?
The land of honourable death
Is here:—up to the Field, and give
Away thy breath!
In the second to last stanza, the speaker asks himself what it means to regret one’s youth. These lines are also
quite dramatic and allude to death as the only option for someone who has lived unworthily.

The only thing someone like the speaker can do is to fight and attempt to regain some glory for himself. He
directs his soul, and anyone reading who might feel the same, to go “up to the Field, and give / Away thy
breath!”

10th Stanza
Seek out—less often sought than found—
A soldier’s grave, for thee the best;
Then look around, and choose thy ground,
And take thy Rest.
In the final four lines, the speaker returns to the solemn tone with which he began the poem. Now that he has
decided death is the only option available to him, he asks himself to seek out “A solider’s grave.” Once there,
he needs to look around and “choose” his own “ground” to be buried in. This is his destiny, to finally find
“Rest” and repent for the way he’s lived up until now.
 Crossing the Bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Crossing the Bar’ is about the journey into death from life and was written by Tennyson in his advancing years
when he was starting to think about death (No surprises there!) The poem begins with the poet taking note of
the setting sun and Venus. It feels to him in these moments as though he’s been called on. He also considers the
sea and what will happen if he journeys there. He hopes it will refrain from sounding mournful and will instead
be full and unable to contain sound. The speaker is striving to find some kind of peace in the scene. Next, the
speaker pronounces the day done and his departure looming. This is, of course, an extended metaphor for death
itself. Despite his advancing doom, he doesn’t want anyone mourning him or worry about him. His mind is
fixed on what he’s going to find when he’s crossed the sand bar. It is ideally, his “Pilot,” meaning God.

Crossing the Bar

Alfred Lord Tennyson - 1809-1892

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Plac The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have cross’d the bar.

1st stanza
The very first line of this stanza of ‘Crossing the Bar’ puts the poem in a particular Tim day. The
evening star that it describes is another name for Venus, Venus is known as both the Evening Star and
the Morning star dependent on whether it is winter or summer which means this poem is based in the
winter. Whilst Venus represents the goddess of love this is certainly no love poem and its inclusion is
clearly just to point to what the “time” is. I’m not sure what the narrator is referencing when they
mention a “clear call” the poem is quite dated, but it doesn’t appear to be a nautical term. Perhaps this
line is meant to be taken literally. Maybe it is made to suggest that the narrator’s voice carries,
perhaps due to the weather or the location. Or, alternatively, he feels as though he’s being called to by
the heavens. The bar, which is physically a sand bar, represents the line between living and dying.
When the narrator says there is to be no moaning at the bar they are saying that there shouldn’t be
any sadness or complaining about their passing. Throughout this poem, the narrator makes
references to being at sea. Travelling at sea is used as a metaphor for the journey from life on into
death.

2nd stanza
This stanza of ‘Crossing the Bar’ is quaint sounding. It describes the current as very minimal, not very
powerful, and does so beautifully. Does this line denote that the narrator’s journey to the afterlife is a
peaceful one? Dying in their sleep perhaps? The idea of the full tide suggests that the metaphorical
ship being sailed is in deep water. The lack of sound and foam indicates that the vessel is in the deep
sea. This might lead one to think that it isn’t at the start of the journey but nearer the end. Note how
the narrator doesn’t say this but subtly hints, leaving clues for a reader like Hansel and Gretel leaving
a trail of breadcrumbs. The third line of this stanza is even more nuanced. It’s drawing from the
“boundless deep,” the sea. These lines aren’t entirely clear, but it likely the narrator is still referencing
the tide as this seems to be the theme for this stanza. It then continues to say it turns again home.
This suggests that the tide is turning; does this mean that it is becoming less calm? It’s doubtful, but it
certainly doesn’t suggest that the narrator isn’t going to cross over after all, the tide isn’t going to carry
them “back to shore”.

3th stanza

Events are once again taking place at twilight. This helps to create a visual picture of the
surroundings. The use of evening bell evokes images of the funeral toll often associated with death. The next
line would certainly lend credence to that idea as following the bell there is darkness. Is this a sign that the
narrator has finally passed on? One thing is clear and that is that the narrator doesn’t want people to make a big
deal out of their passing as they reiterate the sentiment from the first stanza of ‘Crossing the Bar’ by saying that
they don’t want sadness. Their passing to the other side is referred to as “embarking”. This fits in nicely with
the nautical theme. It almost sounds like the experience is an adventure, which holds its contrast with the
descriptions that have made the episode seem serene and peaceful.
 4th stanza

The themes of time and place are prominent throughout ‘Crossing the Bar’. You can see as they have been used
several times throughout the narrative. This stanza seems to act almost like a summary detailing a very much
abridged version of the journey that has taken the narrator from their birth up to their eventual demise. When
they talk of the flood I think this is another way of describing the “endless sea” that has carried them towards
their destination, their passing into death. When the narrator talks about the pilot they are effectively referring to
the person that has controlled their journey. This could be the grim reaper, or the ferryman! (These are
characters from mythology that help people transition to the afterlife) but it could also be a reference to god.
Perhaps the narrator wants to “meet their maker”. Crossing the bar is a phrase that essentially means crossing
over from life into death. It is also the name of the poem ending on this line gives it prominence.

Notes.
1- Venus is known as both the Evening Star and the Morning star. Venus represents the
goddess of love.
2- The bar, which is physically a sand bar, represents the line between living and dying.
3- The idea of the full tide suggests that the metaphorical ship being sailed is in deep water.
4-The use of evening bell evokes images of the funeral toll often associated with death.
5- the pilot refers to the person that has controlled his journey. This could be the grim reaper
or the ferryman! (These are characters from mythology that help people transition to the
afterlife)

Home: refers to the other world.

Twilight: evening bell the last stages of life, when the poet is old.
Dark: Death, the poet wants to die peacefully without pain
Pilot: God, the guide of the human soul.
-The poet was ill and sad, face to face with god
Poet + sea +bar+ fide +pilot are the characters of the poem.
Unset (old age) the stages of human life
The bar: life itself.
The poet wants to get cool, nice weather to die.
The poet wants to walk (visual journey) kind of life.
The poet wants to travel to another world (after death)
-Tide: refers to the sea waves.
Moving and sleep/ contrast.
-Tide: full of sound and foam from the ship
Sound: disturbances.
Foam: agitation.
-Deep: ocean.
 Themes
1-The Reconciliation of Religion and Science
Tennyson lived during a period of great scientific advancement, and he used his poetry to
work out the conflict between religious faith and scientific discoveries for most of his career,
Tennyson was deeply interested in and troubled by these discoveries.
His poem "Locksley Hal" (1842) expresses his ambivalence about technology and scientific
progress. There the Speaker feels tempted to abandon modem civilization and return to a
savage life in the jungle. In the end. he chooses to live a civilized, modern life and
enthusiastically endorses technology
2-The Virtues of Perseverance and Optimism. After the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, Tennyson
struggled through a period of deep despair, which he eventually overcame to begin writing again.
During his time of mourning.
Tennyson rarely wrote and, for many years, battled alcoholism. Many of his poems are about the
temptation to give up and fall prey to pessimism, but they also extol the virtues of optimism and discuss
the importance of struggling on with life.

Summary
‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson presents the indomitable courage and adventurous
zeal of old Ulysses.

This poem attempts to imagine life from the perspective of the title character, Ulysses. After ten years away
from home, the Greek is now faced with the prospect of one final voyage. But, after a decade of adventures, the
character dwells on whether he wants to remain with the mundanity and boredom of life at home, as well as
whether he is the same man who left all those years ago.

Put simply, Ulysses is a man of adventure. The poem focuses on whether he could ever tolerate a simple,
traditional home life. Instead, he imagines life on the open seas, the perils of his adventures, and the chances to
demonstrate his bravery. But he is growing old. Looking back over his life, as well as his present and potential
future, Ulysses considers how he feels about his mortality.

Meaning
The title of Tennyson’s blank verse poem refers to the Homeric hero Odysseus. Ulysses is the Latin variant of
his name. He is the epic hero of the epic, Odysseus, a legendary king of Ithaca. Tennyson talks about the hero
from a specific perspective. He does not dive deeper into the features of Ulysses’ younger self. Rather he refers
to the old self who is ready to leave Ithaca for the last voyage with his old mates. The main idea or the meaning
of the poem is that one should not stop even if the body is old. One’s mind should always be evergreen and
ready to leave the immobile state called “contentment”. Their desire for going beyond the limits should be kept
alive until bodily death.

Form
Tennyson’s poem contains an important poetic form. The text takes the form of a dramatic monologue,
delivered directly to the audience. There is not exactly an intended target – not the protagonist’s son or wife –
but more, the world at large. In fact, in the line, “Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old,” Ulysses does
make one indication of who his audience might be, suggesting that both “you and I are old,” indicating the aged
nature of the world around him, hoping to elicit some sympathy from the reader.
This form is slightly different from a soliloquy (such as the Soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays) in that it is not
spoken to a theatrical audience, but rather to the wider readership. Readers can think of it as one half of a
conversation. Such a narrative technique in poetry is referred to as dramatic monologue.

Meter
This poem uses a very specific meter. An incredibly talented poet, Tennyson knew exactly how to fit his words
into the exact structural templates he selected. In this instance, he chose iambic pentameter, a traditional meter
used in English poetry. This choice means that every line has ten syllables, split into five groups of two known
as iambs or iambic feet. Each one of these two-syllable features first an unstressed syllable, followed by a
stressed one. For example: “It little profits that an idle king”. Breaking this down, we can see the unstressed and
stressed syllables as:

It lit/tle pro/fits that/ an id/le king

The bold words are the stressed syllables, each one following the first, unstressed syllable of the iamb. Let’s
look at another line: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”. Becomes:

To strive,/ to seek,/ to find,/ and not/ to yield

Perhaps the most famous line in the poem, this closing line demonstrates how iambic pentameter most
obviously adds a pounding rhythm, formally imposed by the meter. Having resolved to turn his attentions back
to the adventure, Ulysses’ thoughts beat with the definitive pounding of a war drum and this is reflected in the
poet’s arrangement of the words.

But occasionally, Tennyson throws in a slight variation. In the line, “Made weak by time and fate, but strong in
will” for example, the words “made weak” are both stressed, implying the revulsion and disgust the speaker
feels about such a subject, almost as though he is spitting them out. When there are two stressed syllables in a
meter such as this, we refer to it as a spondee.

Another variation is a trochee, which refers to swapping around the stressed and unstressed parts of the
syllables. In the line, “Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d” for example, “Life to” places the stress very
much on the first word of the line, emphasizing its importance. Little variations such as these can help to add a
more natural feel to language, seeing as no one really speaks in iambic pentameter at all times.

Literary Devices
The poem ‘Ulysses’ contains significant literary devices that make the speaker’s voice forceful and appealing in
the poem. Likewise, the speaker of the poem uses “still hearth” and “barren crags” as metaphors. These two
metaphors refer to a single idea of immobility and idleness.

The line, “That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me”, is an anticlimax. Here, the ideas get arranged in
descending order of importance. It heightens the verbal effect of the speaker on the audience.

“I will drink Life to the lees.” Who does not know this line? It is a beautiful example of a metaphor. Here, life is
compared to water or wine. However, the idea is simple. The poet as well as his persona wants to dive deep into
the life and drink its essence to the end.

There is an antithesis in the phrases in juxtaposition, “enjoy’d greatly” and “suffer’d greatly”.
In the poem, there is a personal metaphor in the phrase “hungry heart”. Here, the poet associates desire with
spiritual hunger.

The poet makes use of sound effects by employing the device called onomatopoeia in the line, “Far on the
ringing plains of windy Troy.”

There are several epigrams in the poem like “To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!”, “Old age hath yet his
honour and his toil”, and “It is not too late to seek a newer world.”

There are other literary devices too in the poem that are important concerning the overall idea and essence of
the poem. The poet ends his poem with a climax and the line is also a famous one in English Literature. It is,
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” The poet, Tennyson never yielded to the circumstances like
Ulysses.

Detailed Analysis
Lines 1–15
It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d

Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when

Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;

Tennyson’s dramatic monologue presents the only speaker of the poem, Ulysses saying about his present state
of affairs. It also reflects his mental condition. He might be old but his spirit is still of his younger self.
Moreover, he does not want to pass his time in stately affairs, correcting the “savage race” of his nation. He has
a long way in front of him. To stop for a moment equals death for him. He badly wants to drink the wine of life
to the lees.

The speaker is an embodiment of indomitable courage. There is satisfaction for him while he struggles. For his
desire to seek beyond the capacity of men, he has become famous in other nations. He says, “Myself not least,
but honour’d of them all”.

Lines 16–32
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

As tho’ to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains: but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

In the second section of the first stanza, Ulysses puts light on his past. Previously, he along with his peers has
fought bravely and gathered experience. It seems to him that the more he knows the more his hunger for
knowledge grows. He can see the “Gleams” of the “untravell’d world” before him. It makes him remind of the
endless sea of knowledge he is fond of. It is dull to stop and end this voyage of life when the sea of knowledge
constantly calls him to start again.

He is well aware of the fact that he is old. Yet, in his heart, he knows being old is just a thought of mind. So, he
is like a “sinking star” that still has its light left in him. He wants to make use of the light of his soul to seek
knowledge that is “Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.” This old man has a long way to go!
Lines 33–43
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to fail

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

In the second stanza of the poem, Ulysses talks about his duty as a father. After reading this section, it becomes
clear, although he has a spiritual urge to undertake an adventure, he never forgets about the things left behind.
He has given his duties in the rightful hands. His son, Telemachus is “Most blameless” and does his “common
duties” decently. So, there is no way of judging him as a romantic hero. He had a “Greek zeal” burning inside
his “Victorian” embodiment.

Before leaving for the endless and the last voyage of his life, he in this way leaves everything in the right order.
He never wants to be an example of an irresponsible king in his nation. The poetic persona wants to be a name
that will be a source of courage to the world.

Lines 44–57
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me—

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.

In this section, the speaker directly addresses his comrades. He is about to leave his country with his friends. It
is clear from the speaker’s tone that his friends cannot overcome their fear of leaving the country at this
sensitive age. He does not want to go alone on the journey. Like before, he needs his friends. They were always
there whenever there was any difficulty.

Being a single unit with a common heart, they thought and fought the odds together. He reminds them of their
present situation and tells them that being old does not make everything look still. Movement is life, immobility
is death. No matter, they are young or old. If they choose to be ashore, they are dead already.

The poetic persona tells his companions, they have a long way in front of them. He is unaware of the future. But
his heart knows it is never “too late to seek a newer world”. This world is nothing but a metaphorical reference
to the vast sea of knowledge.

Lines 58–70
Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

This section begins with the words “Push off”. So, the mood of this part is not an idle one. The narrator rather
infuses the energy of his soul into his comrades. They have to overcome their manifold fears to continue this
journey of life.

The sea is in their blood. Ulysses knows they cannot live without it. He thinks the way in front of them can be
perilous. There can be a threat to their lives. But they had overcome all their fears in the past. In the old days,
their vigor has shaken every kingdom.

The repetition of the phrase “we are” in this line, “Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are” refers to
their indomitable courage and will force.

They are weak and old for the natural process of aging. But, they are “strong in will”. At last, the narrator says
they are starting their endless spiritual quest “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

The poem’s final lines are the most famous. The need “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” fits into the
Victorian urge to escape the tedious nature of day-to-day life, to achieve a level of mythical fame reached by the
classical heroes, to travel “beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars.” Tennyson doesn’t want to
conform, he wants to challenge himself, and he wants to break new ground before his inevitable death. Just like
Ulysses, Tennyson wants to go out adventuring rather than settle for regular life.

Themes
‘Ulysses’ encompasses many important themes. The first and foremost theme of the poem is optimism. The
poet presents the spirit of hope by using the character of Ulysses. He was old enough for continuing his lifelong
voyage. Still, he was persistent. For an optimistic attitude towards life, he started for the sea again.
Another important theme of the poem is brotherhood. Ulysses is the greatest example of brotherhood. He never
left his companions even if they were old and dropping. He injected the power inside his heart in theirs and
harked for a new beginning. Besides, he was never lonely on his voyage. He might have left his family behind,
but his true family was his companions. They were his soulmates who “toil’d”, “wrought”, and most
importantly “thought” with him.

Symbolism
Tennyson uses different symbols for referring to the greater structure. The poetic persona uses “still hearth” and
“barren crags” as a symbol of an idle life. There are two important symbols in the poem. The first one is “sea”.
In the poem, the sea has a different symbolic meaning. It refers to adventure, mystery, and mobility. Whereas
the poet uses the symbol of land to signify the opposites. It depicts love, care, relationship, immobility, and
idleness.

Such a symbolic use of the words in the poem is not appropriate concerning the modern scenario. In the poem,
Ulysses belonged to ancient Greece. The poet also belonged to an age when immobility was compared to death.
The sea and the land reflected a similar kind of symbolic meaning in Ulysses’ time as well as in the Victorian
era.

Character of Ulysses
This poem is about a heroic character named Ulysses. In his current state, he is a king and a soldier, a man
approaching retirement with one journey left to make. He’s an old man, one who has seen the world and battled
 My Last Duchess
BY ROBERT BROWNING

Against the worst of it. Most of the time, he won. Nowadays, he is ruling his kingdom of Ithaca, doling out
“unequal laws unto a savage race.”

But now, as he looks back over his life spent “always roaming with a hungry heart,” He begins to take stock of
what his adventuring has done to him. As he works through his memories and considers his current position, he
gets more and more agitated, more and more passionate. By the finale, he has convinced himself that he still has
enough fight left in him, that he is not yet ready to become just another “idle king.”

From the domestic memories of the opening, Ulysses convinces himself of the value of battle. Throughout the
piece, readers learn that his character will never be truly satisfied unless he is facing off against a foe. He hopes,
in earnest, “to strive” and never “to yield.” If he never gave up in battle, why should he give up and settle for a
simple home life now?

Historical Context
Tennyson makes use of literary works that came long before him. Both Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey are
used, as well as Dante’s Inferno, in which Ulysses makes an appearance. As we learn in Homer’s work, before
Ulysses can return home after his epic voyage, he will undertake one last voyage. While readers don’t know
exactly what Homer had in mind (it’s not been passed down) readers do know what Dante thought the voyage
might entail.

In Dante’s Inferno, Ulysses discovers that he has a strong urge to see the world after growing restless at home in
Ithaca. Dante paints him as a tragic figure, one who dies when sailing out too far, perishing while trying to
satiate his desire for adventure. Tennyson builds on this, picturing the character at home in Ithaca, having
become the “idle king” he loathes, yearning to return to the sea.

By taking the legend, Tennyson explores feelings from his own life. Just after the death of his friend, Arthur
Henry Hallam in 1833, Tennyson found himself thrust into the role of Ulysses. Confronted by the death of his
friend, Tennyson noticed a sudden urge to drive forwards in life and not settle for the commonplace. As stated
in the poem, “Death closes all,” enlightening the poet to the need to make the most of his life before it escapes
him.

“My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue written by Victorian poet Robert Browning in 1842. In the poem,
the Duke of Ferrara uses a painting of his former wife as a conversation piece. The Duke speaks about his
former wife's perceived inadequacies to a representative of the family of his bride-to-be, revealing his obsession
with controlling others in the process. Browning uses this compelling psychological portrait of a despicable
character to critique the objectification of women and abuses of power.
The Full Text of “My Last Duchess”
FERRARA

1That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

2Looking as if she were alive. I call

3That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

4Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

5Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

6“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

7Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

8The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

9But to myself they turned (since none puts by

10The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

11And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

12How such a glance came there; so, not the first

13Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not

14Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

15Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps

16Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps

17Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint

18Must never hope to reproduce the faint

19Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff

20Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

21For calling up that spot of joy. She had

22A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

23Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

24She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

25Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

26The dropping of the daylight in the West,

27The bough of cherries some officious fool

28Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

29She rode with round the terrace—all and each

30Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

31Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked

32Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

33My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

34With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

35This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

36In speech—which I have not—to make your will

37Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

38Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

39Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

40Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

41Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

42E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

43Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

44Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

45Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

46Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

47As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

48The company below, then. I repeat,

49The Count your master’s known munificence

50Is ample warrant that no just pretense

51Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

52Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

53At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

54Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

55Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

56Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

• “My Last Duchess” Summary

o The speaker (the Duke of Ferrara) directs the attention of a guest to a painting of his former wife,

the Duchess of Ferrara, which hangs on the wall. The Duke praises the painting for looking so

lifelike and then remarks on how hard the painter, Fra Pandolf, worked hard on it. The duke asks

the guest to sit and look at the work. The duke then explains that he deliberately mentioned the

name of the painter, because strangers like the emissary always look at the duchess’s painted

face—with its deep, passionate, and earnest glance—and turn to the duke (and only the duke,

since only he pulls back the curtain that reveals the painting) and act as though they would ask, if

they dared, how an expression like that came into her face. The duke reiterates that the guest isn’t

the first person to ask this question.

The duke continues by saying that it wasn’t only his presence that brought that look into the

painted eyes of the duchess or the blush of happiness into her painted cheek; he suggests that

perhaps Fra Pandolf had happened to compliment her by saying "her shawl drapes over her wrist

too much" or "paint could never recreate the faint half-blush that’s fading on her throat." The duke

insists that the former duchess thought that polite comments like those were reason enough to

blush, and criticizes her, in a halting way, for being too easily made happy or impressed. He also

claims that she liked everything and everyone she saw, although his description suggests that she

was ogling everyone who crossed her path. The duke objects that, to his former duchess,

everything was the same and made her equally happy, whether it was a brooch or present from

him that she wore at her chest, the sun setting in the West, a branch of cherries which some

interfering person snapped off a tree in the orchard for her, or the white mule she rode on around

the terrace. He claims that she would say the same kind words or give the same blush in response

to all of them. The duke also objects to her manner of thanking men, although he struggles to

describe his concerns. Specifically, he complains that she values his pedigree and social position

(his 900-year-old name) as equally important to anyone else’s gifts to her.

The duke rhetorically asks whether anyone would actually lower themselves enough to argue

with someone about their behavior. The duke imagines a hypothetical situation in which he would

confront the former duchess: he says that even if he were good with words and were able to

clearly say, "This characteristic of yours disgusts me," or, "Here you did too little or too much"—

and if the former duchess had let herself be degraded by changing, instead of being stubborn and

making excuses— that even then the act of confronting her would be beneath him, and he refuses

to ever lower himself like that.

 The duke then returns to his earlier refrain about his former wife’s indiscriminate happiness and

complains to his guest that, while the duchess did smile at him whenever they passed, she gave

everyone else the same smile as well. The duke explains that she began smiling at others even

more, so he gave orders and all her smiles stopped forever, presumably because he had her killed.

Now she only lives on in the painting.

The duke then asks the guest to stand up and to go with him to meet the rest of the guests

downstairs. He also says that the Count, revealed here as the guest's master and the father of the

duke's prospective bride-to-be, is so known for his generosity in matters of money that no request

the duke could make for a dowry could be turned down. The duke also adds quickly that he has

always insisted since the beginning of their discussions that the Count’s beautiful daughter, and

not the dowry, is his primary objective.

The duke ends his speech by demanding that he and the Count's emissary go downstairs together,

and on their way, he directs the emissary’s attention to a statue of the God Neptune taming a

seahorse, which is a rare work of art that Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze specifically for him.

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is a well-known dramatic monologue. It suggests that the speaker has
killed his wife and will soon do the same to the next.

The poet’s inspiration for this poem came from the Duke and Duchess Ferarra. The Duchess died under very
suspicious circumstances. She was married at fourteen and dead by seventeen. Browning uses these suspicious
circumstances as inspiration for a poem that dives deep into the mind of a powerful Duke of Ferarra who wishes
to control his wife in every aspect of her life, including her feelings.

Browning, of the Victorian age, wrote real-life poetry that reflected upon some of the darkest aspects of
Victorian life. One of those aspects, of course, is the treatment of wives by their husbands. Everyone is familiar
with Henry the VIII and his many wives whom he accused and executed when he tired of him. Robert
Browning reveals that this mentality was widespread during this time. Wives were viewed as disposable, and
their husbands would often accuse them to do away with them when they desired to marry someone else. The
life of a Victorian wife was a perilous one.
LINES 1-5
In the opening lines of the poem, the speaker talks about “his last duchess”. It gives the idea that the
speaker is a Duke and he is addressing an unknown or silent listener. The Duke points towards the
painting of his Duchess on the wall who is dead now. The picture of the Duchess is so beautifully
painted that the speaker says it seems that she is standing alive in front of him.

The Duke praises the painting and calls it a masterpiece. He also tells the mysterious listener about the
artist or the painter who produced this amazing piece of wonder. He says that Fra Pandolf worked hard
and it took him an entire day to complete it and give it a realist effect. The Duke then says ” there she
stands” it gives the idea that the painting is not just a close up of the Duchess but her full body is visible
in it, so it seems as if the Duchess is alive and standing in front of the Duke.

The Duke then invites the listener to sit down and focus on the beauty of the painting. He asks him to
examine the painting and admire its art.

LINES 5-13
The Duke tells the listener that he told him the name of the painter deliberately because everyone who
looks at this painting, wants to know about the person who produced this piece of art. The people or the
strangers who see this painting, also want to question how the painter portrayed so much depth and
passion on the face of the Duchess and gave her the expressions that look absolutely real.

The Duke also tells the listener that only he is allowed to draw the curtain back that hangs over the
painting. It means that only Duke can see this painting or show it to anyone else if he wants. It also gives
the idea that the painting hangs on a wall in the Duke’s private gallery where no one can enter without
his permission.

He further tells the listener that he is not the first one who is surprised to see this beautiful art. Everyone
who looks at it, turns to Duke as if they want to ask him how the painting of the Duchess looks so real
but they never dare to ask it actually. As the Duke can read their face and he knows what they want to
ask so he replies to everyone before they ask.

LINES 13-21
The Duke keeps on addressing his silent listener and this time he calls him “Sir”. He explains the
expressions of the Duchess in the painting and tells the listener that the smile and the blush that he can
see on her cheeks was not because of her husband’s presence. The Duchess was not happy because the
Duke was around. It gives the idea that something else was the reason behind the Duchess’ joy and the
Duke seems jealous of this thing because he always wanted her to have these expressions of joy on her
face just for her husband.

In the next lines, the Duke starts guessing the reason behind the Duchess’ happiness or blush. He
suggests that maybe she smiled because Fra Pandolf praised her beauty or he told her that the mantle or
shawl is covering too much of her wrist or he complimented her by saying that he could never be able to
paint the beauty of her faint half_blush that fades on her throat.
The Duke criticizes his Duchess saying that she thought that the courtesy or the polite comments like
these are enough to make her happy. It shows that the Duke didn’t want her to be happy or blush on
trivial compliments of everyone. He only wanted her to be happy in her husband’s presence or on his
compliments.
LINES 21-24
The Duke further explains the nature of his late Duchess to the listener. He says that the Duchess had a
gentle heart that could easily be made happy anytime. The Duchess liked and praised everything that she
looked at. In short, it was very easy for everyone to make her happy or to impress her by anything.

In these lines, the Duke is not praising the Duchess but in reality, he is criticizing her. The above lines
give the idea that the Duchess was very kind and down to earth but she was not the kind of person that
the Duke wanted his wife to be.

LINES 25-31
In these lines, the Duke again calls his listener by saying “Sir” and tells him further about the behaviour
of his Duchess. He tells him that her behaviour was the same towards everyone and everything made her
equally happy. If he brought her any present, brooch or jewellery that she could wear on her chest, she
used to smile or thanked him for the present but she became equally happy on the trivial things like
watching the sun setting in the West, the branch of cherries that some random fool brings for her from
the orchard or the white mule on which she rode around the terrace.

He further tells him that she praised all these things equally or blushed in a similar way each time. It
shows that though the Duke expected special response from his wife yet the Duchess treated everything
equally. Now it is clear that the Duke wanted his Duchess to pay special attention to him but she treated
him equally and always responded to him just as she used to respond to any other common person or
thing.

LINES 31-35
The Duke then says that she used to thank men. The Duke admits that it is good to thank someone if
they present you any gift or do any favour to you. He had no problem with the Duchess thanking
everyone but he didn’t like her way to do that. The Duke gave her his nine hundred years old family
name and the prestige. He gave her a status by making her his Duchess that she never had before
marrying the Duke but she didn’t even value this gift of his superior to any other minor thing done for
her by any common person.

The Duke then asks his listener who would lower himself to ask her about this strange behaviour or to
have an argument with her over this matter? The Duke knows that the answer is “no one”. It also
suggests that there was a communication gap in the relationship between the Duke and the Duchess,
that is the reason he never told her anything about her behaviour.

LINES 35-43
Now the Duke explains the obstacles that stopped him from complaining about the behaviour of his
Duchess to her. He thinks she could make excuses or resist him, showing her stubbornness to change for
him.

He says that though he doesn’t have the skill in speech yet if he had and he tried to talk to her telling her
about “the behaviour that disgusted him or where she did little or too much for him”, there was a
possibility that she could have tried to change herself and made herself as he wanted but still the Duke
says he would never try to talk to her.

The Duke didn’t want to talk to her because talking to her and explaining what was wrong, he
considered it equivalent to stooping. As he is a Duke, so he considers it his insult to explain something
to anyone even to his own Duchess. He didn’t want to bend but he wanted his wife to understand what
he wanted, without saying anything.
LINES 43-47
The Duke tells the listener that he admits his Duchess was always nice to him. She treated him well and
she always did smile whenever she saw him or he passed by her. Then the Duke again asks the question
who passed her without receiving the same smile? There was nothing special in her smile for the Duke.

The Duke then tells the listener that “this grew”. He talks about her behaviour and her kindness towards
everyone. He tells him that her kindness and love for everyone became more intense and she didn’t stop.
The Duke admits that he couldn’t bear it more so he gave commands against his own Duchess and as a
result, all her smiles stopped. It gives the idea that he gave the commands to end her life so that she
could no longer be able to smile.

The Duke then ends his story and again points towards the beautiful portrait saying that now there she
stands and it looks like she is alive. The Duke then asks the listener in a gentle way to stand up.

LINES 47-53
Duke asks him to stand up and follow him so that they can go and meet other guests who are present
downstairs. The Duke then starts talking about the listener’s master “Count”. It gives the idea that the
silent listener is actually the servant of the Count.

He says to the servant that everyone knows about the generosity of his master so the Duke expects him
to give the dowry of her daughter as much as he demands. It suggests that the Duke is now getting
married again to the daughter of the Count and he talks to the servant to him about the matter of dowry.
Here the greed of Duke is also shown.

Moreover, he tells the servant that he is not worried about the dowry knowing the generous nature of the
Count but instead of money, the fair nature of the Count’s daughter will be his utmost priority as he
mentioned earlier at the beginning of their discussion.

LINES 53-56
The Duke ends his discussion and they start going down. While on their way, the Duke draws the
attention of the servant towards another beautiful piece of art in his gallery. He points towards the statue
of God Neptune who is shown taming his sea-horse. The Duke also tells the servant about the artist who
made it. He tells him that Claus of Innsbruck made this statue with bronze especially for him.
 Matthew Arnold ‘’ Dover Beach ‘’

Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools.
He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to
both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial
administrator.
"Dover Beach" is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in
1867 in the collection New Poems; however, surviving notes indicate its composition may have
begun as early as 1849. The most likely. date is 1851.
Originally published: 1867.

Dover Beach
Matthew Arnold - 1822-1888

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast, the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Matthew Arnold: Poems Summary and Analysis of "Dover Beach" (1867)

Summary One night, the speaker of "Dover Beach" sits with a woman inside a house, looking out over the
English Channel near the town of Dover. They see the lights on the coast of France just twenty miles away, and
the sea is quiet and calm.

When the light over in France suddenly extinguishes, the speaker focuses on the English side, which remains
tranquil. He trades visual imagery for aural imagery, describing the "grating roar" of the pebbles being pulled out
by the waves. He finishes the first stanza by calling the music of the world an "eternal note of sadness."

The next stanza flashes back to ancient Greece, where Sophocles heard this same sound on the Aegean Sea, and
was inspired by it to write his plays about human misery.

Stanza three introduces the poem's main metaphor, with: "The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and
round earth's shore." The phrase suggests that faith is fading from society like the tide is from the shore. The
speaker laments this decline of faith through melancholy diction.

In the final stanza, the speaker directly addresses his beloved who sits next to him, asking that they always be
true to one another and to the world that is laid out before them. He warns, however, that the world's beauty is
only an illusion, since it is in fact a battlefield full of people fighting in absolute darkness.

Analysis

Arguably Matthew Arnold's most famous poem, "Dover Beach" manages to comment on his most
recurring themes despite its relatively short length. Its message - like that of many of his other poems -
is that the world's mystery has declined in the face of modernity. However, that decline is here painted
as particularly uncertain, dark, and volatile. What also makes the poem particularly powerful is that his
romantic streak has almost no tinge of the religious. Instead, he speaks of the "Sea of Faith" without
linking it to any deity or heaven. This "faith" has a definite humanist tinge - it seems to have once
guided decisions and smoothed over the world's problems, tying everyone together in a meaningful
way. It is no accident that the sight inspiring such reflection is that of untouched nature, almost
entirely absent from any human involvement. In fact, the speaker's true reflection begins once the only
sign of life - the light over in France - extinguishes. What Arnold is expressing is an innate quality, a
natural drive towards beauty. He explores this contradiction through what is possibly the poem's most
famous stanza, that which compares his experience to that of Sophocles. The comparison could be
trite, if the point were merely that someone long before had appreciated the same type of beauty that
he does. However, it is poignant because it reveals a darker potential in the beautiful. What natural
beauty reminds us of is human misery. Because we can recognize the beauty in nature, but can never
quite transcend our limited natures to reach it, we might be drawn to lament as well as celebrate it.
The two responses are not mutually exclusive. This contradictory feeling is explored in many of
Arnold's poems - "The Scholar-Gipsy" and "A Dream" are two examples - and he shows in other poems
an instinct towards the tragic, the human inability to transcend our weakness (an example would be
"Consolation," which presents time as a tragic force). Thus, the allusion to Socrates, a Greek playwright
celebrated for his tragedies, is particularly apt. Such a dual experience - between celebration of and
lament for humanity - is particularly possible for Arnold, since mankind has traded faith for science
following the publication of On the Origin of Species and the rise of Darwinism. Ironically, the tumult of
nature - out on the ocean - is nothing compared to the tumult of this new way of life. It is this latter
tumult that frightens the speaker, that has him beg his lover to stay true to him. He worries that the
chaos of the modern world will be too great, and that she will be shocked to discover that even in the
presence of great beauty like that outside their window, mankind is gearing up for destruction. Behind
even the appearance of faith is the new order, and he hopes that they might use this moment to keep
them together despite such uncertainty. The poem epitomizes a certain type of poetic experience, in
which the poet focuses on a single moment in order to discover profound depths. Here, the moment is
the visceral serenity the speaker feels in studying the landscape, and the contradictory fear that that
serenity then leads him to feel. To accomplish that end, the poem uses a lot of imagery and sensory
information. It begins with mostly visual depictions, describing the calm sea, the fair moon, and the
lights in France across the Channel. "The cliffs of England stand/Glimmering and vast" not only
describes the scene, but establishes how small the two humans detailed in the poem are in the face of
nature. Perhaps most interestingly, the first stanza switches from visual to auditory descriptions,
including "the grating roar" and "tremulous cadence slow." The evocation of several senses fills out the
experience more, and creates the sense of an overwhelming and all-encompassing moment. The poem
also employs a lot of enjambment (the poetic technique of leaving a sentence unfinished on one line,
to continue and finish it on the next). The effect is to give the poem a faster pace: the information hits
us in rapid succession, forming a clear picture in our minds little by little. It also suggests that Arnold
does not wish to create a pretty picture meant for reflection. Instead, the beautiful sight is significant
because of the fear and anxiety it inspires in the speaker. Because the poem so wonderfully straddles
the line between poetic reflection and desperate uncertainty, it has remained a well-loved piece
throughout the centuries.
 E.B. Browning. From (the cry of the children)
Biography

Poet (1806–1861)
Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning is perhaps best known for her 'Sonnets From the Portuguese' and
'Aurora Leigh' as well as the love story between her and fellow poet Robert Browning.

Outline
Born in 1806, Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning published her first major collection, The Seraphim and
Other Poems, in 1838. Her collection Poems (1844) caught the attention of fellow poet Robert Browning,
whose admiring letter to her led to a lifelong romance and marriage. The couple moved to Italy, where
Elizabeth became interested in Italian politics and released her monumental work, Sonnets From the Portuguese
in 1850.

Early Life
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806, at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. She was the oldest
of 12 children, and her family made their fortune from Jamaican sugar plantations. Educated at home, Barrett
was a precocious reader and writer. Having delved into classics such as the works of John Milton and William
Shakespeare before her teen years, she also wrote her first book of poetry by age 12. Deeply religious, Barrett’s
writing often explored Christian themes, a trait that would remain throughout her life’s works.

Developing of the Writer

At age 14, Barrett developed a lung illness that required her to take morphine for the rest of her life, and the
following year, she suffered a spinal injury that would serve as another setback. Despite her health issues,
Barrett lived the literary life to the fullest, teaching herself Hebrew, studying Greek culture and publishing her
first book in 1820, The Battle of Marathon, which her father bound and released privately.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Cry of the Children by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

‘The Cry of the Children’ was published in August 1843 in Blackwood’s Magazine. In it, Browning explores
the horrors of children’s manual labor. Browning was inspired to write the poem after a report on
the subject came out by the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Children’s Employment as well as a lifetime of
writing about topics of her day and age. She is remembered today for advocating, within her poetry and outside
of it, for liberal causes. When it was published, the poem was an immediate success, although it is today
sometimes critiqued for its sentimentality.

Readers should also take note of the epigraph that comes before the first line of the poem. It reads: “Pheu pheu,
ti prosderkesthe omasum, Tekna”. Meaning, “Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.”

These lines come from Medea by Euripides, a story about a woman who murders her children. The line
implicates the reader, and all those not reading, in the children’s deaths and suffering in the poem.
Summary

‘The Cry of the Children’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a moving poem that explores the terrors of
child labor and those who suffer it.

The poem alternates between the voice of a narrator and the voice of the children. The speaker introduces the children,
their plight while at the same time asking that the listener and all fellow human beings pay attention to what she’s saying.
Then, the children raise their voices. They express their sorrow as well as their desire to meet their deaths as soon as
possible. Unfortunately, they add, it’s not so easy. The wheels of the factories and mines continue to turn, and they’re
young, so they have a long way to go before they can rest. Throughout the poem’s conclusion, the speaker tries to drive
home her point by guilting readers into realizing that they, too, are part of the problem.

Themes
The themes in ‘The Cry of the Children’ include pain/suffering and God. Throughout the poem, Browning uses very direct
language in order to address the overwhelming problem of children’s labor during her lifetime. This was something that
she often spoke out against, something that was quite unusual for the time. This can be interpreted simply from the way
that the speaker addresses the listeners. They, she says, are part of the problem. They walk past the crying, suffering
children, and do nothing. These same kids get a chance to speak in the poem as well. They express their utter despair over
the life they lead day in and out. The children also try to understand what role God plays in their lives, or, as it is, doesn’t
play.

Structure and Form

‘The Cry of the Children’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a thirteen stanza poem that is divided into sets of twelve lines.
These follow the rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEF, with a few moments of divergence throughout. For example, the
first stanza rhymes ABABCDCDAEAE. Additionally, readers should note how some of the end sounds are repeated in
other lines. For instance, “brothers” and “mothers” rhymes with “brothers” and “others” later on in the poem. The stanzas
can be divided up into sets of four lines, as noted by the rhyme scheme. The structure, like the content, is straightforward.
There is no way to read this poem and not understand what Browning was hoping to convey.

Literary Devices
Browning makes use of several literary devices in ‘The Cry of the Children.’ These include but are not limited to
examples of anaphora, metaphor, caesurae, and enjambment. The latter is a common formal device that is concerned with
where the poet chooses to end a line. If the line ends before the end of a sentence or phrase, then it is likely enjambed. For
example, the transition between lines three and four of the second stanza as well as lines one and two of the fourth stanza.

Anaphora is an interesting device that is connected more broadly to repetition. It involves the use and reuse of the same
words at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “The young…” in lines five, six, seven, and eight of the first
stanza. This kind of repetition appears again in the second stanza with “The old” in lines three, five, six, and seven.

There are also a few metaphors in ‘The Cry of the Children.’ This is a type of comparison in which the poet does not use
“like” or “as” in the sentence. With a metaphor, the poet or speaker is saying that one thing is another, not that it’s “like”
another.
Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
Stanza One

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,

Ere the sorrow comes with years ?

They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, —

And that cannot stop their tears.

The young lambs are bleating in the meadows ;

The young birds are chirping in the nest ;

The young fawns are playing with the shadows ;

The young flowers are blowing toward the west—

But the young, young children, O my brothers,

They are weeping bitterly !

They are weeping in the playtime of the others,

In the country of the free.

The first stanza of ‘The Cry of the Children’ is quite direct (as are all the following stanzas). Browning immediately jumps
into the main point of the poem, condemning and exposing the horrors of child labor in England and around the world.
She asks her brothers or her fellow countrymen if they can hear the “children weeping.” These young boys and girls are
too young to know the sorrow they’re experiencing, she adds, making it all the more important that someone listens.

The following lines suggest that nothing in the children’s worlds can make them feel better, not even something as
comforting as a mother. She uses the next few lines to create a comparison between young human children and the
children of sheep, birds, and deer. These latter three are living as young creatures should, “playing with the shadows” and
“bleating in the meadows.” But in England, the children are young and “weeping bitterly.” This is meant to drive home
her point about how unnatural and terrible child labor is.
Stanza Two
Do you question the young children in the sorrow,

Why their tears are falling so ?

The old man may weep for his to-morrow

Which is lost in Long Ago —

The old tree is leafless in the forest —

The old year is ending in the frost —

The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest —

The old hope is hardest to be lost :

But the young, young children, O my brothers,

Do you ask them why they stand

Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers,

In our happy Fatherland ?

The next stanza also begins with a question. She asks the listeners, her “brothers,” if they have even thought to ask the
children why they’re crying. This suggests that men and women of the upper classes usually do not take the time to think
about what the children are going through. There are some griefs, the speaker says, which can be expected. This includes
the old weeping for their youths and the loss of long-held dreams. These are normal griefs, ones that come with age. But,
when a child is young, they shouldn’t suffer so. They should take comfort from their bother’s breasts and feel safe in the
supposedly “happy Fatherland” in which they all live. By repeatedly bringing up the country, Browning is condemning
the governmental systems that allowed these practices to flourish.
Stanza Three
They look up with their pale and sunken faces,

And their looks are sad to see,

For the man’s grief abhorrent, draws and presses

Down the cheeks of infancy —

“Your old earth,” they say, “is very dreary;”

“Our young feet,” they say, “are very weak !”

Few paces have we taken, yet are weary—

Our grave-rest is very far to seek !

Ask the old why they weep, and not the children,

For the outside earth is cold —

And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering,

And the graves are for the old !”

The third stanza of ‘The Cry of the Children’ is dedicated to what the children look like. It also brings in the first bits
of dialogue. The speaker describes them as having “pale and sunken faces” that are filled with grief. They are burdened as
if they’re old men. The children speak in the next lines, expressing how tired they are and how gloomy they find the earth.
They’ve barely had time be able alive, and already they’re seeking rest in their grave. Unfortunately, they say, they have a
long way to go before that time.
Stanza Four
“True,” say the children, “it may happen

That we die before our time !

Little Alice died last year her grave is shapen

Like a snowball, in the rime.

We looked into the pit prepared to take her —

Was no room for any work in the close clay :

From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake her,

Crying, ‘Get up, little Alice ! it is day.’

If you listen by that grave, in sun and shower,

With your ear down, little Alice never cries ;

Could we see her face, be sure we should not know her,

For the smile has time for growing in her eyes ,—

And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in

The shroud, by the kirk-chime !

It is good when it happens,” say the children,

“That we die before our time !”

The fourth stanza is the longest so far, breaking the pattern and stretching to sixteen lines. There is more dialogue in this
passage as the children talk about “Little Alice” who “died last year.” She gave a pit, something they compare to a
snowball.

Alice has moved away from the suffering of their everyday lives. In fact, the children say that if they could see her now,
they wouldn’t recognize her. She has a smile that is totally unknown to these suffering kids. They all agree that it’s best if
they die before their time.
Stanza Five
Alas, the wretched children ! they are seeking

Death in life, as best to have !

They are binding up their hearts away from breaking,

With a cerement from the grave.

Go out, children, from the mine and from the city —

Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do —

Pluck you handfuls of the meadow-cowslips pretty

Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through !

But they answer, ” Are your cowslips of the meadows

Like our weeds anear the mine ?

Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows,

From your pleasures fair and fine!

The speaker comes back into ‘The Cry of the Children’ in the fifth line. She picks back up by exclaiming over the
children’s desire for death. She finds it outrageous, as everyone should, that these kids are forced to live such painful
lives. There is an interesting metaphor in the first part of this stanza where the poet says that the children are binding their
hearts as one would wrap a corpse with the wax cloth. This is a disturbing image, one that she tries to counteract by
encouraging the children to “Go out…from the mine and from the city”. She would like them to run free outside “as the
little thrushes do” and feel nature as young kids are meant to. She’d like them to laugh and sing and take pleasure n simple
things. Despite her encouragement, the children are unable to do so. They answer that they don’t want to hear this
person’s words. They have to go back into the mine. The only flowers they see are weeds growing near to where they
work. These “pleasures” the speaker describes are of a different world.
Stanza Six
“For oh,” say the children, “we are weary,

And we cannot run or leap —

If we cared for any meadows, it were merely

To drop down in them and sleep.

Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping —

We fall upon our faces, trying to go ;

And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping,

The reddest flower would look as pale as snow.

For, all day, we drag our burden tiring,

Through the coal-dark, underground —

Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron

In the factories, round and round.

The children continue to respond to the speaker in the next stanza. They tell her that they’re unable to do the things she’s
asking of them. They’re too “weary” to leap, and if they saw a meadow, they’d use it as a place to sleep rather than to
play. There is a good example of alliteration in these lines with “meadows” and “merely.” There is no way for them to
take pleasure in the things that she’d like them to. They are too changed by the work they do day in and day out.
Stanza Seven
“For all day, the wheels are droning, turning, —

Their wind comes in our faces, —

Till our hearts turn, — our heads, with pulses burning,

And the walls turn in their places

Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling —

Turns the long light that droppeth down the wall, —

Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling —

All are turning, all the day, and we with all ! —

And all day, the iron wheels are droning ;

And sometimes we could pray,

‘O ye wheels,’ (breaking out in a mad moaning)

‘Stop ! be silent for to-day ! ‘ “

The seventh stanza continues in the same way as the sixth. In a hauntingly melodic passage, the children describe the way
the wheels in the mines and factories turn around and around all day long. The walls even start to look like they’re
spinning. It’s a haunting movement and a haunting sound, one that follows them throughout the hours of their days and
nights. They beg, at the end of this stanza, for the wheels to be silent “for today.”
Stanza Eight
Ay ! be silent ! Let them hear each other breathing

For a moment, mouth to mouth —

Let them touch each other’s hands, in a fresh wreathing

Of their tender human youth !

Let them feel that this cold metallic motion

Is not all the life God fashions or reveals —

Let them prove their inward souls against the notion

That they live in you, or under you, O wheels ! —

Still, all day, the iron wheels go onward,

As if Fate in each were stark ;

And the children’s souls, which God is calling sunward,

Spin on blindly in the dark.

There are some good examples of anaphora in the eighth stanza as the speaker begs that the children be allowed to be
children for a time. If the wheels stop, they might be able to hold one another and know that there is more to earth than
that which they’ve experienced thus far. No matter how much the speaker might want this to happen, the “iron wheels go
onward” as if driven by Fate.
Stanza Nine
Now tell the poor young children, O my brothers,

To look up to Him and pray —

So the blessed One, who blesseth all the others,

Will bless them another day.

They answer, ” Who is God that He should hear us,

While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred ?

When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us

Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word !

And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)

Strangers speaking at the door :

Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him,

Hears our weeping any more ?

Although the speaker believes in God and thinks that he will help the children who pray to him, the children have a
different lived experience. They wonder why God would ever help them and if it’s possible for him to even hear them
with the “rushing of the iron wheels.” Not even human beings passing them on the street could hear them weeping. These
lines accurately convey the children’s desperation.
Stanza Ten

” Two words, indeed, of praying we remember ;

And at midnight’s hour of harm, —

‘Our Father,’ looking upward in the chamber,

We say softly for a charm.

We know no other words, except ‘Our Father,’

And we think that, in some pause of angels’ song,

God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather,

And hold both within His right hand which is strong.

‘Our Father !’ If He heard us, He would surely

(For they call Him good and mild)

Answer, smiling down the steep world very purely,

‘Come and rest with me, my child.’

The tenth stanza of ‘The Cry of the Children’ continues from the children’s perceptive. They know the words “Our
Father,” but that’s all. They whisper them at night, hoping that something would change but so far, it doesn’t seem like
God is listening. If he heard them, the children say, then surely he would do something. Surely he could call them to his
side to rest.
Stanza Eleven
“But, no !” say the children, weeping faster,

” He is speechless as a stone ;

And they tell us, of His image is the master

Who commands us to work on.

Go to ! ” say the children,—”up in Heaven,

Dark, wheel-like, turning clouds are all we find !

Do not mock us ; grief has made us unbelieving —

We look up for God, but tears have made us blind.”

Do ye hear the children weeping and disproving,

O my brothers, what ye preach ?

For God’s possible is taught by His world’s loving —

And the children doubt of each.

The children’s desperation grows as the stanzas go on. They are weeping faster, declaring that God is as “speechless as a
stone.” This is not helped by the fact that their masters tell them that they’re working in God’s name. Still, the children
say they want nothing but death to take them. There is no God that they can see through the tears in their eyes.
Stanza Twelve
And well may the children weep before you ;

They are weary ere they run ;

They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory

Which is brighter than the sun :

They know the grief of man, without its wisdom ;

They sink in the despair, without its calm —

Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom, —

Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm, —

Are worn, as if with age, yet unretrievingly

No dear remembrance keep,—

Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly :

Let them weep ! let them weep !

In the second to last stanza of ‘The Cry of the Children,’ the speaker tells any listener that the children are right to weep.
They’ve known grief that few others have. They are filled with despair and are “slaves, without the liberty of Chirstdom.”
Stanza Thirteen
They look up, with their pale and sunken faces,

And their look is dread to see,

For they think you see their angels in their places,

With eyes meant for Deity ;—

“How long,” they say, “how long, O cruel nation,

Will you stand, to move the world, on a child’s heart, —

Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,

And tread onward to your throne amid the mart ?

Our blood splashes upward, O our tyrants,

And your purple shews your path ;

But the child’s sob curseth deeper in the silence

Than the strong man in his wrath !”

The final stanza reiterates much of what was already discussed in the previous twelve stanzas. No matter where
the children look, they see darkness and dread. They ask their world how long they’re going to be forced to
labor in this way. The speaker, through the voices of the children, ask how long this is going to go on for before
something changes. The last line describes the sob of a child as far more powerful than a “strong man in his
wrath.”
 William Morris ‘’ the Day is Coming ‘’

William Morris
ENGLISH PAINTER, DESIGNER AND WRITER
Born: March 24, 1834 - Walthamstow, England
Died: October 3, 1896 - Hammersmith, England
Movements and Styles:
Arts and Crafts Movement
, The Pre-Raphaelites
, Aesthetic Art

Few artists left such a wide and fast mark on the art, culture, and politics of their era as William Morris did on
the second half of the nineteenth century. Training first as a priest and then as an architect before abandoning
both to realize his visions of medieval arcadia in the company of the Pre-Raphaelites, he moved between artistic
and literary media throughout his life. Initially producing paintings in the sweet Quattrocento style of his Pre-
Raphaelite contemporaries, most notably Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he soon branched out into architecture and
interior design, creating some of the most commercially successful and enduringly admired textile patterns and
furnishings in British art history. Towards the end of his life, Morris focused with increasing singularity on the
radical political ambitions which had always underpinned his practice, publishing utopian socialist fantasy
literature, and consolidating his lifelong work as a poet. When he died in 1896, he had not only left a deep
imprint on the century he had lived through, but also laid the groundwork for many of the artistic, architectural
and political projects which defined the next.