Prospice

PROSPICE

by: Robert Browning (1812-1889)

EAR death? -- to feel the fog in my throat,

The mist in my face,

When the snows begin, and the blasts denote

I am nearing the place,

The power of the night, the press of the storm,

The post of the foe;

Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,

Yet the strong man must go:

For the journey is done and the summit attained,

And the barriers fall,

Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,

The reward of it all.

I was ever a fighter, so -- one fight more,

The best and the last!

I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,

And bade me creep past.

No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers

The heroes of old,

Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears

Of pain, darkness and cold.

For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,

The black minute's at end,

And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave,

Shall dwindle, shall blend,

Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,

Then a light, then thy breast,

O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,

And with God be the rest!

Notes

Devices:  These terms will help you understand “Prospice”.  We will define them, discuss them, and explore how Browning used them to create this poem.  

Rhyme Scheme:

Rhythm (Foot) and Meter:

Quatrains:

Universal Metaphor of the Seasons:

Epithet:

Elegy:

Rhetorical Question:

Inversion (Anastrophe):

Enjambment:

Repetition (anaphora):

Paradox:

Anthropomorphism (personification):

Syncopation:

Poetic Style and Genre:  There are many different types of poems Prospice happens to work as an ELEGY.  Some forms of poetry have stylistic rules that poets follow strictly to show they have control over their art.  We will learn many of these styles and their characteristics in order to help us understand some of the added meaning that comes from style and genre.

Soliloquy:

            Setting:

            Characters:

                        Speaker:

            Plot:

            Point of View:

Interpretation/Meaning: This perhaps is the most interesting and challenging part of reading literature because we all bring our own experiences to a poem, yes the reader is a big part of relationship a poem creates.  At first we will read formally using traditional methods that will help us understand a poem; as we become more mature readers, we will explore broader interpretations because we will have the experience of other readings.

Poet:

Literary Era/Period: 

Exploratory questions:

1.      The initial question shows some strength of the speaker.  What details in the poem support that the speaker is choosing to not fear death?

2.      Although the setting in lines 1-6 is ambiguous, what does the imagery suggests that the setting is?

3.      In line 3, what does the mention of snow as the speaker nears the place of battle suggest?

4.      Metaphorically, what does the “The power of night” in line 5 explain about death?

5.      In line 6, what is death called that adds to the effect of a fighter battling death?

6.      In line 7-8, what does the inverted sentence say “the strong man” must face?

7.      In lines 9-10, what is meant by the idea that “the journey is done”?

8.      What do lines 11-12 say is left to be done before the “reward” is attained?  What is the reward?

9.      What kind of death does the speaker say he would hate to be given by death in lines 15-16?

10.  What metaphor does the word “taste” in line 17 create? How does this create a pun on the word “fare”?

11.  What is the payment (“life’s arrears”) owed by everyone at the end of life (line 20)?

12.  The end that begins in line 21expresses what paradox about death for the brave fighter?

13.  What transformation do the phrases in lines 24-25 explain will happen to the rage and raving voices of battle? 

14.  What does the word “light” in line 26 reveal has happened to the fighter?

15.  Where does the speaker believe he will be that allows him to “clasp” the “soul of [his] soul” again?

 

Two in the Campagna

Two in the Campagna

 

I wonder how you feel to-day
As I have felt since, hand in hand,
We sat down on the grass, to stray
In spirit better through the land,
This morn of Rome and May?                   5

For me, I touched a thought, I know,
Has tantalized me many times,
(Like turns of thread the spiders throw
Mocking across our path) for rhymes
To catch at and let go.                                 10

Help me to hold it! First it left
The yellow fennel, run to seed
There, branching from the brickwork’s cleft,
Some old tomb’s ruin: yonder weed
Took up the floating weft,                            15

Where one small orange cup amassed
Five beetles, -blind and green they grope
Among the honey meal: and last,
Everywhere on the grassy slope
O traced it. Hold it fast!                                20

The champaign with its endless fleece
Of feathery grasses everywhere!
Silence and passion, joy and peace,
An everlasting wash of air-
Rome’s ghost since her decease.            25                                            

Such life here, through such lengths of hours,
Such miracles performed in play,
Such primal naked forms of flowers,
Such letting nature have her way
While heaven looks from its towers!          30

How say you? Let us, O my dove,
Let us be unashamed of soul,
As earth lies bare to heaven above!
How is it under our control
To love or not to love?                                 35

I would that you were all to me,
You that are just so much, no more.
Nor yours nor mine, nor slave nor free!
Where does the fault lie? What the core
O’ the wound, since wound must be?       40

I would I could adopt your will,
See with your eyes, and set my heart
Beating by yours, and drink my fill
At your soul’s springs, - your part my part
In life, for good and ill.                                 45

No. I yearn upward, touch you close,
Then stand away. I kiss your cheek,
Catch your soul’s warmth, - I pluck the rose
And love it more than tongue can speak-
Then the good minute goes.                      50

Already how am I so far
Out of that minute? Must I go
Still like the thistle-ball, no bar,
Onward, whenever light winds blow,
Fixed by no friendly star?                            55

Just when I seemed about to learn!
Where is the thread now? Off again!
The Old trick! Only I discern-
Infinite passion, and the pain
Of finite hearts that yearn.                           60

Notes

Devices:  These terms will help you understand “Two in the Campagna”.  We will define them, discuss them, and explore how Browning used them to create this poem about love, time, and space.  

Rhyme Scheme:

            Feminine:

Masculine:

            Eye Rhyme: (check stanza 10 and 12)

Rhythm (Foot) and Meter:  Iambic tetrameter/trimeter

Elision: (Stanza 5 and 7)

Paradox:

Setting:

Rhetorical Question:

Inversion (Anastrophe):

Enjambment:

Pastoral:

Simile:

Personification:

Repetend:

Syncope:

Hyperbole:

Anacoluthon: (stanza 4)

Stream of Consciousness:

Poetic Style and Genre:  There are many different types of poems, this one works as a soliloquy.  Some forms of poetry have stylistic rules that poets follow strictly to show they have control over their art.  We will learn many of these styles and their characteristics in order to help us understand some of the added meaning that comes from style and genre.

Soliloquy:

            Setting:

            Characters:

                        Speaker:

            Plot:

            Point of View:

Stanzas:

Interpretation/Meaning: This perhaps is the most interesting and challenging part of reading literature because we all bring our own experiences to a poem, yes the reader is a big part of relationship a poem creates.  At first we will read formally using traditional methods that will help us understand a poem; as we become more mature readers, we will explore broader interpretations because we will have the experience of other readings.

Poet:

Literary Era/Period: 

Exploratory questions:

1.      The poem is a soliloquy spoken by a man who wishes he could be one with the woman he loves.  What does he wonder about the woman in the first stanza?

2.      To what does the speaker compare the thought that tantalized him many times before?

3.      Metaphorically, what does the speaker compare the thought he wants to hold on to in stanzas 3 and 4?

4.      The setting of the poem is a grassland area of Italy.  What clues aer given about this in the poem?

5.      Consider the 5^th line in each stanza.  What makes it feel awkward compared to the first 4 lines?

6.      Why might it be that the 5^th line in stanza 6 is not clipped?

7.      The poem uses terse phrasing.  How does the meaning get cleared up if you add the word “that” to the beginning of line 7?

8.      What comparison does the simile in stanza 7 make between the woman and the speaker and the earth and sky?

9.      In stanzas 8-9, what causes the speaker to feel wounded?

10.  In stanza 9, the metaphor about the woman being a spring would mean the speaker would do what to become one with her?

11.  What is involved in the hyperbole expressed in stanza 10?

12.  What does stanza 10 suggest about how long the feelings of oneness last for the speaker and the woman?

13.  Stanza 10 shifts from loving and oneness on earth to a bigger idea.  How does the simile about a thistle-ball show that the speaker feels love could be heavenly, but his is not?

14.  What is the metaphorical meaning of the “thread” in the final stanza?

15.  In the final stanza, what does the speaker say only he feels and not the woman?

Home Thoughts from Abroad

HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD

Oh, to be in England,
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf                                 5
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows -
Hark! where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge                               10
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray’s edge -
That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!                                                            15
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower,
- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Notes:
Devices:

Rhyme Scheme:

            Wrenched rhyme:

            Feminine rhyme:

            Identical Rhyme:

Rhythm (Foot) and Meter:

Imagery:

Romanticism:

Poetic Style and Genre:

Lyric Poetry:

Speaker:

Stanza:

Interpretation/Meaning:

1.       In lines 1-2, the speaker express the wish to be back in England.  What season is making him wish to return?

2.      The visual imagery in lines 3-7 concentrates on plant life.  What do the branches of the trees look like?

3.      In the first stanza, the speaker does not attempt to remember England himself; instead he imagines someone else waking up to see the England of the moment.  Why does this type of description demonstrate envy in the speaker?

4.      In the second stanza the spring advances.  What do lines 8-9 suggest the birds are doing?

5.      In lines 10-12 the imagery describes pear tree blossoms covering the clover.  How does the enjambment affect the meaning between lines 11-12?

6.      The thrush’s song is special.  Why does it sing each song “twice over?”

7.      Lines 16-18 concede that in the early morning things look grayish, wet and “rough.”  What will take care of this ugliness?

8.      The enjambment between lines 18 and 19 suggests that besides noon waking up, what else will awaken?

9.      In line 19, to what does the speaker compare the gaudy melon flower? 

10.  After seeing the images of these two things?  What does the comparison say about England and the real difference between where the speaker is currently living?

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

Gr-r-r — there go, my heart’s abhorrence!
   Water your damned flower-pots, do!
If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,
   God’s blood, would not mine kill you!
What? your myrtle-bush wants trimming?      5
   Oh, that rose has prior claims —
Needs its leaden vase filled brimming?
   Hell dry you up with its flames!

At the meal we sit together;
   Salve tibi! I must hear                                        10
Wise talk of the kind of weather,
   Sort of season, time of year:
Not a plenteous cork-crop: scarcely
   Dare we hope oak-galls, I doubt;
What’s the Latin name for “parsley?”                 15
   What’s the Greek name for Swine’s Snout?

Whew! We’ll have our platter burnished,
   Laid with care on our own shelf!
With a fire-new spoon we’re furnished,
   And a goblet for ourself,                                     20
Rinsed like something sacrificial
   Ere ’tis fit to touch our chaps —
Marked with L. for our initial!
   (He-he! There his lily snaps!)

Saint, forsooth! While brown Dolores                 25
   Squats outside the Convent bank
With Sanchicha, telling stories,
   Steeping tresses in the tank,
Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs,
   — Can’t I see his dead eye glow,                      30
Bright as ’twere a Barbary corsair’s?
   (That is, if he’d let it show!)

When he finishes refection,
   Knife and fork he never lays
Cross-wise, to my recollection,                            35
   As do I, in Jesu’s praise.
I the Trinity illustrate,
   Drinking watered orange-pulp —
In three sips the Arian frustrate;
   While he drains his at one gulp.                      40

Oh, those melons? If he’s able
   We’re to have a feast! so nice!
One goes to the Abbot’s table,
   All of us get each a slice.
How go on your flowers? None double?             45
   Not one fruit-sort can you spy?
Strange! — And I, too, at such trouble,
   Keep them close-nipped on the sly!

There’s a great text in Galatians,
   Once you trip on it, entails                                                50
Twenty-nine distinct damnations,
   One sure, if another fails:
If I trip him just a-dying,
   Sure of heaven as sure as can be,
Spin him round and send him flying                                   55
   Off to hell, a Manichee?

Or, my scrofulous French novel
   On grey paper with blunt type!
Simply glance at it, you grovel
   Hand and foot in Belial’s gripe:                         60
If I double down its pages
   At the woeful sixteenth print,
When he gathers his greengages,
   Ope a sieve and slip it in ’t?

Or, there’s Satan! — one might venture             65
   Pledge one’s soul to him, yet leave
Such a flaw in the indenture
   As he’d miss till, past retrieve,
Blasted lay that rose-acacia
   We’re so proud of! Hy, Zy, Hine ...                                    70
“St, there’s Vespers! Plena gratiâ
   Ave, Virgo! Gr-r-r — you swine!

Notes

Devices:  These terms will help you understand “Soliloquy of the Spanish Closter”.  We will define them, discuss them, and explore how Browning used them to create this poem.  

Rhyme Scheme:

            Feminine:

Masculine:

            Triple Rhyme:

Rhythm (Foot) and Meter:

Interjection:

Verbal Irony:

Setting:

Rhetorical Question:

Inversion (Anastrophe):

Enjambment:

Anathema/Imprecation/Malediction:

Simile:

Personification:

Hypotyposis:

Syncopation:

Poetic Style and Genre:  There are many different types of poems such as sonnets, odes, haikus.  Some forms of poetry have stylistic rules that poets follow strictly to show they have control over their art.  We will learn many of these styles and their characteristics in order to help us understand some of the added meaning that comes from style and genre.

Soliloquy:

            Setting:

            Characters:

                        Speaker:

            Plot:

            Point of View:

Quatrains and Octets:

Interpretation/Meaning: This perhaps is the most interesting and challenging part of reading literature because we all bring our own experiences to a poem, yes the reader is a big part of relationship a poem creates.  At first we will read formally using traditional methods that will help us understand a poem; as we become more mature readers, we will explore broader interpretations because we will have the experience of other readings.

Poet:

Literary Era/Period: 

Exploratory questions:

1.      In line 2, why would the speaker wish Brother Lawrence to continue focusing on his gardening chores?

2.      How deep does the speaker’s hate go according to lines 3-4?

3.      What contrast to the watering imagery in line7 is presented in line 8?

4.      Figuratively what would being dried up suggest (line 8)?

5.      In line 7, what do the sounds found in the alliteration seem to imitate?

6.      What alternate setting does the speaker take the reader to in lines 9-23 and later in lines 33-44?

7.      What doe s the verbal irony in lines 17-23 makes fun of about Brother Lawrence? What does the sarcasm tell us about the speaker?

8.      Although parentheses are meant for less important ideas, in line 24, what does the idea in parenthesis remind the reader about?

9.      What does the simile in lines 25-31 accuse Brother Lawrence of doing?

10.  Consider the parenthesis in line 32.  Does the speaker have any actual proof of the lustful behavior?  What might the irony and hypocrisy suggest about the speaker?

11.  In what way does the speaker feel himself superior to Brother Lawrence concerning eating habits?  Lines 33-40.

12.  Why don’t Brother Lawrence’s flowers or fruit trees grow plentiful? 

13.  Why does the speaker envision tripping Brother Lawrence up just at the moment of death?

14.  Who is the owner of the “scrofulous French novel”?

15.  What do the speaker’s hopes for Brother Lawrence ironically suggest about his own character?