N & Q on William Wordsworth's Poem "London, 1802"

1. Pay particular attention to the first part of question 1 by R&J on the poem. Why, relative to the subject matter of the poem, is the use of apostrophe revealing about the speaker's social, psychological, and emotional states?

2. (A) Why would the Wordsworthian speaker appeal to Milton -- the John Milton who authored such moral, religious epics as Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained -- in the apostrophe, given what the speaker feels about English society in 1802? (B) Rising versus falling is an extended metaphor throughout Milton's Paradise Lost; how is this extended metaphor included -- with appropriate allusion -- throughout Wordsworth's sonnet? (C) How does the extended metaphor of rising and falling help to structure the poem as an Italian sonnet, with octave and sestet? How does the octave function as a thought unit, and how does the sestet function as a thought unit, respectively?

2. (A) R&J indicate what figures of speech are used in lines 3-4; what tenors are indicated by the vehicles (1) "altar," (2) "sword," (3) "pen," (4) "fireside," and (5) "[heroic wealth of] hall and bower"? (B) How are items (4) and (5) of the foregoing list opposites, and how do they help encompass all of British society? (C) More than one component or institution of British society might be indicated by item (3) of the list in lines 3-4; what possible components or institutions or groups of British society might be designated by "pen"?

3. While many of the figures of speech in the lines indicated by R&J in their study questions could be designated as hyperboles or metonymies, they also could be designated as other figures of speech. (A) What main figure of speech is used in "she is a fen/ Of stagnant waters" (lines 2-3)? (B) What figures of speech are used in "Have forfeited their ancient English dower/ Of inward happiness" (lines 5-6)? (C) What figure of speech is used in "Thy soul was like a star" (line 9) or in "Thy soul . . . dwelt apart" (line 9)? (D) What figure of speech is used in "hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea" (line 10) or "Pure as the naked heavens" (line 11)? (E) What figure of speech is used in "travel on life's common way" (line 12) or "heart/ The lowliest duties on herself did lay" (lines 13-14)?

4. Why is it important for the speaker to indicate that Milton would "travel on life's common way" (line 12), in contrast to the implications of Milton's soul being like a star (line 9)? That is, how does the speaker deal with a potential accusation by a reader of a possible moral shortcoming in Milton in the "star" figure of speech (line 9) by the implications of "common" in "life's common way" (line 12)?

N & Q on Thomas Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain"

1. How is the poem structured into two parts, stanzas 1-5 and stanzas 6-11? How is comparison and contrast used as a structuring or organizing device in the poem?

2. What are all the meanings of the word titanic that can be found in a collegiate dictionary? How do these meanings explain why the ship was named what it was; how do these meanings relate to the content and themes of the poem?

3. Going back to Ch. 14 (Words) in R&J, how should the all following words in the poem be collectively categorized by level of diction or level of usage: convergence (title); stilly (stanza 1); pyres, salamandrine, thrid, and lyres (stanza 2); opulent, grotesque (stanza 3); ravish, sensuous, bleared (stanza 4); gilded, vaingloriousness (stanza 5); immanent (stanza 6); sinister, dissociate (a participial adjective, rather than a verb) (stanza 7); coincident, anon, august [note the lowercase a] (stanza 10); consummation (stanza 11)? How is this level of diction or level of usage appropriate to the subject, theme, and content of the poem?

4. How do imagery and figurative language refer to, as well as compare and contrast (before and after the "convergence"), the ship's engine room in stanza 2?

5. How is glass used as part of an infinitive, rather than as a noun, in stanza 3; what does the expression "to glass" mean, exactly?

6. What pun might there be on two different meanings of the word smart -- with reference to a collegiate dictionary -- to describe the ship (stanza 8; line 22)? What ironic discrepancy is there between two main applicable meanings of the word smart in describing the ship?

7. What irony and ironic pun occurs in the use of the word welding in "the intimate welding of their later history" (stanza 9; line 27)? What ironic reference or allusion is made to claims made for the ship before it sailed?

8. Should be a comma rather than period at the end of stanza 9; should be three ellipses or suspension points at the end of stanza 5.

9. How is the figure of speech antonomasia used repeatedly in the poem? (Look up the term in your collegiate . . . )

10. (A) For what thematic purpose might triplets have been used as the rhyme form or rhyme scheme in the poem? (B) How might the distinctive lengthening of lines in each stanza, as well as the pictorial shape of the stanzas, express or convey any of the poem's themes or ideas?