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?