N & Q on Ben Jonson's Poem "Song: To Celia ['Drink to me only with thine eyes']"

1. Actually two poems by Ben Jonson have the title "To Celia," so specifying the first line of each helps differentiate them. How does this poem illustrate the strategy and maneuvering of seduction or courtship on the part of an unrequited suitor? (Based on your own experiences, is there, in real life, any strategy or maneuvering involved in seduction or courtship?)

2. (A) While several-stanza poems are not usually divided into as many parts as there are stanzas -- such multiplication would fragment the poem into too many pieces -- poems of only two or three stanzas may have each stanza constituting a main part. How does each of the two stanzas function as a structural unit? (B) What thematic and imagistic connections are there between the two stanzas? (C) Chronologically, stanza 2 should precede stanza 1; why does the speaker subordinate stanza 1, from the standpoint of strategy and maneuvering -- why is it advisable for the speaker to subordinate stanza 1 in pursuing his seduction or courtship? (D1) Of the five kinds of imagery connected, respectively, to the five senses, which ones does the speaker draw on in stanza 1, and which ones does he draw on in stanza 2? (See Ch. 16 of R&J about imagery.) (D2) How does he use these kinds of imagery in the service of seduction or courtship? (D3) Which one of the kinds of imagery, connected to the five senses, is conspicuously absent from both stanzas, and what thematic import does this absence have? (E1) How is hyperbole frequently used as a figure of speech in this poem? (See Ch. 17 of R&J about figurative language, particularly hyperbole.) (E2) Why might the figure of speech hyperbole frequently occur in amorous poetry?

3. How does Jonson use what is called in some English composition handbooks a "squinting modifier" (under the general subject of misplaced modifiers) to create multiple meanings by the placement of the word only in the poem's first line?

4. What connections can be made between this poem by Ben Jonson and one of the two hit songs by Jimmie Rodgers -- the one with "Kisses" as the first word of its title -- of the late 1950's, in the top ten of popular music and continually played on AM radio music stations? (What Internet or Web resources could help you find the answer to this question?)
 
 

N & Q on William Blake's Poem "London"

1. How does the general setting of this poem represent an opposite to the general setting of "Western Wind" and "Bonnie George Campbell"?

2. (A1) How does the poem naturally divide into the two parts of stanzas 1-2 and 3-4, respectively? (A2) How do stanzas 1-2 focus on something general, whereas stanzas 3-4 focus on the specific or particular? (A3) What one word, suggestive of generality, is repeated four times in stanzas 1-2? (A3) How is the generality of stanza 1 subdivided into two general categories in stanza 2? (A4) How are the two general categories of stanza 2 illustrated specifically in stanza 3?

3. (A1) Besides those meanings annotated in R&J, what other applicable meanings (relative to a map) might the word "charter'd" have in stanza 1? (A2) How are some of the meanings of the word "charter'd," through the property of words called "connotation" (see Ch. 15 of R&J, as well as the composition handbook), associated with the notion of constraint? (A3) How many times is this word repeated in stanza 1, and what, through connotation, is the speaker implying about city life? (A4) How many times is the word mark or marks repeated in stanza 1? What connotations, relating to the speaker's evaluation of city life, might the repeated word mark or marks have? (A5) What negative connotations might the word ban (line 7) have, besides its meaning annotated by R&J? How does the word manacles in stanza 2 help evoke the negative connotations of the word ban?

4. (A) How is the word appalls (line 10) as annotated by R&J a figure of speech called "pun" (see Ch. 17 of R&J)? (B) How do the buildings referred to in stanza 3 constitute the figure of speech "metonymy" (see Ch. 17 of R&J) -- that is, how does each building represent an important component of British society? (C) The buildings of London, as a result of industrialization, were, as early as Blake's time, literally turning black; how is there a pun on "blackning" in line 10, referring not only to this damage from smoke from coal fires, but also something else?

5. How might lines 14-15 ("How the . . . tear") have any or all of the following meanings: (a) a streetwalker's loud voice disturbing a child indoors in a "flat" or apartment; (b) the venereal disease of a streetwalker being transmitted to her own (illegitimate) newborn infant; (c) the venereal disease of a streetwalker being transmitted to the newborn infant of someone else's household?

6. With regard to setting, what feelings or ideas about city life are imparted by the time of day referred to in the poem's conclusion, particularly the first line of stanza 4?

7. What word does the reader expect rather than "hearse" in line 16? What ideas are conveyed by this unexpected substitution?
 
 

N & Q on Robert Browning's Poem "My Last Duchess"

1. Many students have difficulty in identifying the following basic elements of this poem: (a) who the speaker is; (b) who the listener is; (c) what the setting is; (d) what the matter of concern is between the speaker and the listener. Study of the following questions should make these points clear.

2. Who exactly is the speaker of this poem, based on the following details: (a) the poem's title; (b) the poem's epigraph (look up this word) which provides the general location of the setting (the name all in capital letters just above the body of the poem); (c) the speaker's identification of his wife, in line 1; (d) the era of the setting, as implied by what artist did a portrait painting of the speaker's wife (lines 3-4)?

3. Where specifically is the poem set, based on lines 6-10, 47-48, and 53-54?

4. Who is the other major participant -- "listener" -- in this poem, based on line 49, lines 53-54, as well as the fact that the speaker is holding a private conversation about a sensitive matter with this listener?

5. How does line 2 of this poem (repeated in lines 46-47) mean something shockingly different the second time this poem is read? What two meanings does line 2 have, with reference to the quality of the painting and the state of the painting's subject?

6. (A) The speaker doesn't really get down to the matter of concern with the listener of the poem until line 48; what is this business between the two, as shown in lines 48-54? (B1) While lines 1-47 appear to be a digression, off the subject of the matter of concern between speaker and listener, they really aren't; what implied application do lines 1-47 have to the matter of concern between speaker and listener? What message is the speaker obliquely conveying to the listener (and presumptively from the listener to two other persons)? (B2) Why doesn't the speaker convey his message explicitly or forthrightly, rather than implicitly or obliquely, given not only the nature of the message but also the message's intended recipients? (B3) How do 5A-B2 of this study question belie what the speaker claims about himself, "Even had you skill/ In speech -- (which I have not)" (lines 35-36)? (B4) Why is the language of international diplomacy frequently oblique rather than direct, even today?

7. (A1) Given the speaker's concerns in lines 1-47, what might be the implications of what artist the speaker chose to paint the portrait? (A2) How might the subject matter of the second work of art mentioned, the sculpture, have a bearing on the speaker's implied or oblique message in lines 1-47? (B) What is suggested about the speaker's values, given the sandwiching of the main matter of concern between speaker and listener (lines 48-54) between lines 1-47 and 54-56? (C1) What implied action has the listener taken, given lines 53-54? (C2) How is the speaker's attitude or demeanor in lines 53-54 ("Nay, we'll . . . ") belied by lines 43-43 ("--- E'en then would . . . ")?

8. How might the general setting -- the country -- of this poem be related in any way to the content of the famous film comedy Divorce -- Italian Style (1962)?