Victorian Era Rough Draft

Arden Jacobs

Ms. Wilson

British Literature B

May 16, 2013

Victorian Era

How is one supposed to deal with all the bad things in the world? Terence writes depressing poetry to prepare himself for the worst, Terence this is not stupid stuff! A. E. Housman's "Terence This is Stupid Stuff" defends the philosophy of preparing one’s self for the worst through the use of conceit, allusions, and apologia.

Houseman uses extended metaphors to compare the reality of drinking beer to how doing something other than drinking is perceived. Terence’s friends don’t understand why Terence writes and doesn't drink anymore. "The cow, the old cow, she is dead; / It sleeps well, the horned head: / We poor lads, 'tis our turn now / To hear such tunes as killed the cow," (ll. 7-10). His friends are mocking Terence about how he choose to write depressing poetry instead of drinking beer like a “normal” person. They poke fun at the repetition used in poetry and exaggerating the death of the cow; saying the death was due to poetry. Terence used to drink to have a more optimistic look on life, but the day after he would regret ever drinking in the first place. "Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink / For fellows whom it hurts to think: / Look into the pewter pot / To see the world as the world’s not. / And faith, ’tis pleasant till ’tis past: / The mischief is that ’twill not last. / Oh I have been to Ludlow fair / And left my necktie God knows where, / And carried half way home, or near, / Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer: / Then the world seemed none so bad, / And I myself a sterling lad; / And down in lovely muck I’ve lain, / Happy till I woke again. / Then I saw the morning sky: / Heigho, the tale was all a lie; / The world, it was the old world yet, / I was I, my things were wet," (11. 23-40). This is the beginning of the bathos, a switch from formal to informal. The colloquial language is to add a more personal effect to the dialogue. This was the view of the world everything is good, but it is a false sense and it is short-lived. His humorous anecdote is a synecdoche for how the world perceived life. Terence used to be like his friends and drink his cares away, but the experience at Ludlow made it really clear to him that drinking is not the answer.  At the time you are drunk you think everything is wonderful, but that is not actually what is going on, that wonderful feeling is a false sense of good and that feeling is short-lived. When Terence woke up the next morning from the fair he had no idea where his tie was and he passed out in the "lovely muck" which is an oxymoron.

Houseman uses allusions to the Muses and “Paradise Lost” to justify the use of alcohol. "Oh many a peer of England brews / Livelier liquor than the Muse, / And malt does more than Milton can / To justify God's ways to man." (ll. 20-22). Muses are used for inspiration, Terence used to use beer as his inspiration. Terence used to believe that alcohol was the answer to everything and it was justified by saying  that beer is better than the Muse and more than "Milton can / To justify God's way to man" from the epic "Paradise Lost".

An apologia is a formal defense of something you believe in strongly; Terence is defending the reason why he writes and reads sad poetry. "And while the sun and moon endure / Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure, / I’d face it as a wise man would, / And train for ill and not for good." (ll. 45-48). Terence explains to  his friends why he writes sad poetry. He does this by saying his philosophy on life:  prepare for the worst because it will probably happen. Terence’s way to prepare for the worst was to read and write sad poetry. To wrap up his defense he gives one final remark about preparing for the worst.  "—I tell the tale that I heard told. / Mithridates, he died old." (ll. 75-76). This is an allusion to Mithridates VI of Pontus, he was a ruler who lived during a time where kings were poisoned, who did indeed live the numerous attacks on his life through poison. However, he inoculated himself to prevent him from dying by the poisons;  and he lived till old age caught up with him. Terence uses the example of Mithridates to his friends to justify why he uses the poetry against all the bad things that could happen.

Though Terence’s friends thought writing sad poetry was “stupid stuff” it was allowing Terence to prepare for all the evil things in the world. In “Terence This is Stupid Stuff” Houseman uses conceit, allusions, and apologia to defend the philosophy of preparing one’s self.

Romantic Era Rough Draft

Arden Jacobs

Ms. Wilson

British Literature B

May 9, 2013

Romantic

Romantic poetry makes the reader test the limit of their imagination. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems are synonymous to imagination. In Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” uses allusions to human desire, a repetition, and irregular meter to parallel his altered state of mind. Though Coleridge was an opium addict he still understood the innermost human desires.

In dreams these human desires; pleasure, beauty, order, chaos, and war, can be expressed more vividly. “Kubla Khan” is considered to be a poem created within Coleridge’s dreams. Since Coleridge was interrupted in the middle of his dream; the poem takes a turn from dream, to hellish nightmare, then finally back the dream. This splits the poem up into three parts: the dream, the interruption, and the renewal. In the dream the allusions are toward the happier desires like pleasure, beauty, and order. “And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, / Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; / And here were forests ancient as the hills, / Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.” (ll. 8-12). This place described is very peaceful, bright, and full of plant life. After seeing this beautiful place he wakes up from the dream and is unable to fall back asleep due to a visitor. The visitor prevents Coleridge from going back to the place created, thus the poem drastically changes to a darker feel. Since Coleridge is not in the right state of mind he struggles to get back to his paradise. Chaos and anger take hold of his imagination, “Then reached the caverns measureless to man, / And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: / And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far / Ancestral voices prophesying war!” (ll. 27-30). His dream world is totally destroyed. The volcano erupts and makes the river explode. He strives to get back to the dream world and he tries to reimagine the paradise. “And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora / Could I revive within me / Her symphony and song, / To such a deep delight ‘twould win me, / That with music loud and long, / I would build that dome in air,” (ll. 40-46). The music created by the woman helps him slip back into the dream. To him it parallels the Garden of Eden, with the food of the gods ,“For he on honeydew hath fed, / And drunk the milk of Paradise.” (ll. 53-54). To most people eating the gods food would be very pleasurable, the idea of pleasure is repeated many times throughout the poem.

Coleridge uses alliteration and repetition to add a musical quality and auditory imagery. There are three main phrases that are repeated throughout. The “pleasure-dome” is a safe place where it is bright and sunny and has a cave of ice. “I would build that dome in air, / That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!” (ll. 46-47) Even people who have problems need a safe haven to fall back on, for Coleridge it was this dome in his dreams. Next, the “scared river” it is what leads to his paradise. “It flung up momently the sacred river. / Five miles meandering with a mazy motion / Through wood an dale the sacred river ran,” (ll. 24-26). The repetition of a consonant ,“M”, an alliteration, is an example of auditory imagery. The consonant mimics the snake like motion of the river through the land. Lastly, the “caverns measureless to man” the river runs through what seems to be endless caverns. In dreams, the imagination is limitless, they are especially limitless to someone of an altered state.

An altered state of mind would also contribute to the irregular rhyme scheme and meter of “Kubla Khan”. Most lines in the poem have a rhyming pair, but there is no particular scheme in which the pairs are arranged. However, there are also lines that do not have pairs that stand out because the ending word feels incomplete. For example, “As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted” (l. 15). Due to “haunted” not being rhymed with anything it seems to be more important because it is alone. Around line 15, the dream was interrupted by the visitor so the line serves as a transition. Also not having a specific rhyme scheme gives the poem more of a dream feeling; dreams are not always continuous, they can jump around. The irregular meter also parallels Coleridge’s state of mind.

Dreams are often do not make sense, however the imagination is limitless. Coleridge proved though he has an altered mind can still put his imagination to the test. He uses the deep human desires, repetition of certain phrases, and an irregular meter to convey his state of mind.

Neoclassical Rough Draft

Arden Jacobs

Ms. Wilson

Brit Lit B

May 7, 2013

Neoclassical

“Satire is a type of writing that ridicules human weakness, vice, or folly in order to bring social reform,” (Holt, 618). Voltaire satirized German philosopher’s, Gottfried Leibniz’s, theories of optimistic philosophy. In Voltaire's Candide he uses outrageous exaggeration, improbable situations, and warped logic to criticize the social norms of 18th century Europe for the purpose of change. 

Voltaire uses outrageous exaggeration to emphasize the absurdity of social norms. “Next day, when they left the table after dinner, Cunegonde and Candide found themselves behind a screen; Cunegonde dropped her handkerchief, Candide picked it up; she innocently held his hand; the young man innocently kissed the young lady’s hand with remarkable vivacity, tenderness, and grace; their lips met, their eyes sparkled, their knees trembled, their hands wandered.” (Voltaire, 620). Voltaire uses innocent and chaste diction to exaggerate the affair. “There were two thousand men in the regiment. That made four thousand strokes which laid bare the muscles and nerves from his neck to his backside.” (622). By exaggerating on how many people are in the regiment, and how many strokes Candide gets it emphasizes the societies need for unnecessary punishments. When Candide was first punished, he was thrown out of the castle and put into an improbable situation.

 

The improbable situations Candide is put into expand on how the society is flawed in how to think. “Ah, sir, come to table; we will not only pay your expenses, we will never allow a man like you to be short of money; men were only made to help each other.” (621). The chances of running into two charitable men, who do not expect anything in return is very unlikely. For Candide to then believe, “that is what Doctor Pangloss was always telling me, and I see that everything is for the best.” (620). The German philosophy that everything is for the best, is very optimistic, to the point where they believe that there is even a reason for evil.

 

To the society created in Candide, the optimistic philosophy is dressed up as common sense. The people have a warped sense of logic and the things that would normally be viewed as absurd are actually considered normal. “Pangloss taught metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology. He proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause and that in this best of all possible worlds,” (619). This warped theory of optimism was important enough to teach it to the children of the society.

 

Voltaire heavily criticized the social norms of 18th century Europe. Voltaire used outrageous exaggeration, warped logic, and improbable situations to ridicule his world. He wrote Candide to help enlighten the members of his society to change their ideology of cultural norms.