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FINAL ASSESSMENT SESSION FOR STUDENTS
Since in this teaching unit students are supposed to acquire the mastery of the critical tools in order to analyse late Romantic poetry, the assessment to verify their linguistic and literary competence is not based on the extracts already examined but on new materials, that is new stanzas from Don Juan and Ode on a Grecian Urn, and a new poem by Shelley, England in 1819.
I. Lord BYRON
First read the following stanzas taken from Don Juan
CLXXXIV
Dire was the scuffle, and out went the light;
Antonia cried out “Rape!” and Julia “Fire!”
But not a servant omm’d to aid the fight.
Alfonso, ommel’d to his heart’s desire,
Swore lustily he’d be revenged this night;
And Juan, too, blasphemed an octave higher;
His blood was up: though young, he was a Tartar,
And not at all disposed to prove a martyr.
CLXXXV
Alfonso’s sword had dropp’d ere he could draw it,
And they continued battling hand to hand,
For Juan very luckily ne’er saw it;
His temper not being under great command,
If at that moment he had chanced to claw it,
Alfonso’s days had not been in the land
Much longer: - Think of husbands’, lovers’ lives!
And how ye may be doubly widows – wives!
CLXXXVI
Alfonso grappled to detain the foe,
And Juan throttled him to get away,
And blood (‘twas from the nose) began to flow;
At last, as they more faintly wrestling lay,
Juan contrived to give an awkward blow,
And then his only garment quite gave way;
He fled, like Joseph, leaving it; but there,
I doubt, all likeness ends between the pair.
ACTIVITIES
1. What poetic form does Byron use? Work out its features.
- Rhyme scheme
- Number of lines in each stanza
- Number of syllables in each line
- Stress pattern
2. Focus on the figure of the narrator.
- Who is he?
- Can the narrator be considered obtrusive? Underline examples in the text to support your answer. What function does this type of narrator have?
3. How would you define the tone of the poem? Choose from the list below and justify your answer.
- Cynical
- Amused
- Burlesque
- Annoyed
- Bitter
- Scornful
- Tolerant
- moralistic
Summarize the episode. The following questions will help you to focus on the main facts.
- How did Julia react to her husband’s sudden entry into her room?
- What did Don Alfonso do in his wife’s room?
- What did Juan do after being discovered?
Which of the following factors do you think contribute to the irony of the text? Choose from the list below and provide evidence for your answers.
- The characters are involved in a scurrilous situation
- A serious situation has an unexpectedly comic turn
- The characters’ speech is very natural and conversational
- Vulgar language is used
- The poet hides commonplace reality under dignified images
- The rhyming pattern, and especially the final couplet, is often used for comic effect
- The poet inserts witty remarks whenever he feels like it
Bearing in mind what you have gathered through the analysis of this text and also of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, draw a comparison between the two texts.
- Setting
- Protagonist
- Narrator
- Tone
- Language
- Style
- Themes
II. Percy B. SHELLEY
Bearing in mind the features of Shelley’s poetic universe you have drawn reading The mask of Anarchy, A Defense of Poetry and A Dirge, read and analyse this sonnet.
England in 1819
An old, mad, blind, despis'd, and dying king,
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn – mud from a muddy spring,
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,
A people starv'd and stabb'd in the untill'd field,
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edg'd sword to all who wield,
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay,
Religion Christless, Godless – a book seal'd,
A Senate – Time's worst statute unrepeal'd,
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.
ACTIVITIES
1. Read lines 1-12 and note down:
- Who the poet addresses.
- Who the old, mad, blind, despised king is.
- Why he is said to be “dying”.
- Who/what the poet refers to in lines 2-3.
- What Shelley’s target is in lines 4-6.
- Why the people of line 7 are pictured as “starved and stabbed”
- Why the army is both “liberticide” and “ prey”.
- What/who the poet criticises in lines 10-12.
2. Now concentrate on the couplet and say:
- Who/what the subject of the verb “are” in line 13 is.
- What the role of the “Phantom” in line 13 is.
- What it is opposed to.
3. Analyse the rhyme scheme and punctuation.
- Say how the sonnet is organised and where its turning point is.
- What the rhyme of the couplet highlights.
4. Shelley employs a highly figurative language to describe the targets of his criticism.
- Pick up all the linguistic images that refer to political exponents and institutions. Then write them down according to the grid below:
- King
- Princes
- Rulers
- Army
- Senate
- Laws
- Religion
- Which expressions does Shelley use for English people?
- Line 13 contains an important antithesis between a material element and an immaterial one:
underline it.
What does this linguistic image imply?
- What is the tone of the whole sonnet? Choose from among the following:
- Powerful
- Repressive
- Optimistic
- Pessimistic
- Intimidating
- Satirical
- Disappointed
- depressing
5. State the role of the poet in this sonnet
III. John KEATS
You have already read and analyzed the first two stanzas of Ode on a Grecian Urn. Here is the rest of the poem (III, IV, V stanza)
III
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
IV
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
V
O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
ACTIVITIES
1. Stanza III
- Before focusing on the meaning of the stanza, note how often “happy” and “ever/for ever” are repeated and mark what these words refer to.
- List the main reasons the poet gives for each case of happiness. Do they have positive or negative connotations?
- Do you think the poet’s attitude to the lover’s scene in the second and third stanza is consistent or do you detect some kind of contradiction?
2. Stanza IV
- The poet’s eye moves from individuals to a community.
What scene is described here?
What linguistic device does the poet use (perhaps slightly unusually) to describe it?
- Some elements described are really observed by the poet, others imagined. Circle the former and underline the latter. What do these sentences stress?
- What is the dominant atmosphere? Choose from these adjectives and then substantiate your choice.
- Solemn
- Eerie
- Magical
- Melancholic
- Enigmatic
3. Stanza V
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In this final stanza the poet addresses the urn in four ways. List them and say which definition/s:
- Emphasize/s the beauty of the urn
- Recall/s those of the first stanza
- Point/s out a function of art.
-
The paradox of stanza I is also repeated here. Can you identify it?
-
What is the final message of the urn to man?
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Which of the following statements is closest, in your opinion, to the meaning of the urn’s message?
- Art is beautiful only when it portrays true stories.
- Art should have an aesthetic aim but also a moral aim, that is, teaching the truth.
- Art is beautiful and true because it renders the essential elements of human experience.
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Define the term “ode” and see what elements in Keats’s poem respond to the definition.
14/15
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