N & Q on Sir Hubert Von Herkomer's Painting Hard Times

        All introduction to literature textbooks outline five kinds of imagery -- those referring to the five senses -- while R&J add a sixth (kinesthetic or kinetic), and some add a seventh (organic: internal bodily sensations). The Hubert Von Herkomer painting Hard Times, reproduced in black and white, has many details in it which activate one or more of the six kinds of imagery outlined in Ch. 16 of R&J. The following details are all observable in the painting:
 

the winding road	the bag the wife has over her arm	tiny figures or objects at the far point of the road opposite to the family
tools	the wife's clothing	the hedges on the side of the road opposite to the family
the grass beside the road	the infant the wife holds
a gate in the hedge	the child leaning against the wife
the hedge on the family's side of the road	the sky (including the kind of sky)
the bag the husband carries	the trees, especially just to the diagonal background of the husband and at the right edge of the painting
the husband's items of clothing	two birds in the sky (why two and not one or five?)

(A) For each item in the table above, jot notes indicating  (1) the kind or kinds of imagery evoked, and (2) the thematic implications of the detail and imagery, relevant to the painting's ideas, generally suggested by the painting's title. Additionally, consider the placement of the item or items in the picture (foreground or background; left, center, or right; relative proportion or size in the painting). The following would be an example. The winding road is emphasized in the painting by its placement in the foreground and center, as well as its proportion, being one of the two items that takes the most space. It evokes the imagery of sight, since it can be seen; touch, since most of us have experience the feel of walking on a packed dirt road; and smell, since most of us know the dusty smell of a dirt road at various times of the year. The road suggests the hard times that the family is experiencing, since they have to travel it in search of a living, and its length and winding, convey how far the family has traveled and still needs to travel, with many twists and turns, before they may find amelioration of their circumstances.
 

N & Q on John Masefield's Poem "Cargoes"

1.   How does question 1 in R&J show that imagery and the ideas conveyed by the imagery divide the poem into the two parts of stanzas 1-2 (first part) versus stanza 2 (second part)?

2. As a follow-up to question 2 in R&J about John Masefield's poem "Cargoes," determine how all or nearly all six kinds of imagery are evoked in every stanza of the poem, though the poem is mainly meant to exemplify the kind of imagery in the section of the chapter in which it is placed.

3. Too often, some students remain unaware of the following items in the footnotes and questions on the poem provided by R&J: (a) the references (including the format of Arabic numerals and colons, as well as the meaning of the abbreviations) in Jonah 3:3; 1 Kings 10:22, 1 Chron. 29:4, 2 Chron. 9:21; (b) the abbreviation "ca."; (c) the abbreviation "B.C.E." How do your composition handbook and collegiate dictionary provide answers to these problems of meaning?

4. Vocabulary: "Palestine" (line 2); "galleon" (line 6); "Tropics" (line 7); "amethysts" (line 9); "topazes" (line 10); "cinnamon" (line 10); "coaster" (line 11); "the Channel" (line 12); "mad March days" (line 12); "road-rails" (line 14); "pig-lead" (line 14); "iron-ware" (line 15); "tin trays" (line 15).

5. As often the case in R&J, R&J ask an intriguing question in the study questions but do not answer it or answer it fully in their analysis of the literary work (either in immediate explanation or a demonstrative essay), leaving some things up to the readers of the book. (We have to do some of the work, after all.) Such a question is number 3 of the R&J study questions on Masefield's "Cargoes": (a) why no complete sentences; (b) why verbals (specifically present participles) rather than finite verbs? Note how easily finite verbs could be substituted in the first word of the second line of each of the three stanzas, creating complete sentences rather than sentence fragments: "Rows home" (line 2), "Dips through" (line 7), "Butts through" (line 12). Substitution of the finite verb would mean that each stanza would be a complete sentence rather than a sentence fragment. So, as asked by R&J, what's going on? How do the choices help convey what Masefield wants conveyed in the poem? As related to Ch. 11, how is grammar used expressively, significantly, or meaningfully in this instance?

6. (A) How do certain of the images (e.g., of mineral or mineral-like substances) help set up comparison and contrasts between the stanzas? (B) How do parallelism and repetition help set up comparison and contrasts between the stanzas? (C) How might the length of each stanza -- its number of lines -- be related in any way to the first sailing vessel noted in the poem?