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Ans 2: "The Prelude is the greatest long poem in our language after Paradise Lost," says one
critic. Its comparison with the great seventeenth-century epic is in some respects a happy one
since Milton was (after Coleridge) Wordsworth's greatest idol.

The Prelude may be classed somewhat loosely as an epic; it does not satisfy all the traditional
qualifications of that genre. The epic is customarily defined as a long narrative poem which
recounts heroic actions, commonly legendary or historical, and usually of one principal hero
(from whence it derives its unity). The Prelude takes its unity from the fact that the central "hero"
is its author.

The poem is written in blank verse, unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter with certain
permissible substitutions of trochees and anapests to relieve the monotony of the iambic foot and
with total disregard for the stanza form. In the middle of the eighteenth century, there was an
eclipse of interest in the rhymed heroic couplet. A revival of interest in Milton led to the
establishment of Miltonic blank verse as the standard medium for lengthy philosophical or
didactic poetical works. The resulting form came to be called the "literary" epic as opposed to
heroic and folk epics. To this type, Wordsworth, with his unconventional ideas of diction,
brought a natural and conversational tone.

The general procedure in The Prelude is to record an experience from the poet's past and then to
examine its philosophical and psychological significance and relate it to nature and society at
large. Unfortunately, this results in a certain definite unevenness in the development of the
narrative. At times, particularly in the latter half of the work, the narrative dries up altogether,
and the reader must pick his way through a welter of disconnected disquisitions. Frequently
verbose, diffuse, and bathetic, the verse is carried by those rare moments when it flashes fire or
reaches a resounding note of rich poetic song. The unwavering strength and unity of purpose
which underlie it also help it to soar. Only a mere fraction of the whole poem may be said to be
great, but it is this fraction that has continued to secure it a place high in English literature.

Another drawback of the verse is its blatant repetition. Wordsworth will describe an intellectual
experience again and again with only minor variations. Much of this repetition may be due to the
poet's episodic efforts to show his shifting point of view in connection with certain basic ideas.

Most of the imagery, as well as the diction, reflects the natural environment, especially the
English countryside, and manages to capture much of the wildness and beauty of that terrain. The
influence of the English character may be traced in many of the ideas behind the poem. Just as
Wordsworth never got far or was long from his native regions physically, so they continued to
color his emotional reactions throughout his life. It is doubtful that he would have created an
inimitable philosophy of nature had he been reared in London's slums. In his lifetime, his mental
outlook swung from youthful radicalism to ultraconservatism. Politically, the fierce
independence of character the poet admired in the yeoman of the North Country came to be

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symbolized by the French patriot; later he felt that conservative British institutions were the
bulwark of true freedom. Artistically and religiously, he found youthful inspiration in the hills
and vales of the Lake District; he responded to them with his simple ballads and a joyous
mysticism. In maturity, it was the high Anglican Church tradition to which he turned, for a
personal faith and as a source for many of his later poetical ideas. Of course, we do not witness
the entire spectrum in The Prelude. That poem is basically democratic in spirit. Only at the very
end do we feel the impending onset of conservatism.

The work seems deceptively free of learned allusions, but the reader is sure to find many obscure
classical references. In addition, there are quite a few local place names which are difficult to
trace. The poem employs symbols in a somewhat unsophisticated way so that language and
feeling tend to be indistinguishable. When Wordsworth puts aside his tendency to pamphleteer,
mood and form tend to merge in highest harmony; the words perfectly evoke feeling. In the best
instances, there is such mastery of the medium that the true goal of poetry is achieved: There is
so perfect a communication of experience that the language as a vehicle is forgotten. From this
harmony, a great poetic power emerges; with the very simplest of words and images,
Wordsworth creates the impression of terrible intensity.

For many readers, the aesthetic problem may be solved by adopting the fragmentary approach of
picking favorite passages singular for their strength or beauty. But the reputation of The Prelude
does not stand or fall as measured against the canon of uninterrupted beauty alone. Fortunately, it
is the thematic framework behind the poem that holds the greatest lasting reward for the reader.
The outstanding virtue of The Prelude is its imaginative interpretation of nature. For
Wordsworth, nature forms a cosmic order of which the material world is one manifestation and
the moral world is another. Usually, in such a view, either mind or matter must have the upper
hand. From the fanciful, mechanistic interpretation of nature in his youth, he moved in maturity
to a vitalist view in which mind transcended the physical world and in which a universal spirit
provided the ultimate motivation for all things, as exemplified in universal, natural law. This is as
close as he comes to building a philosophical system. And it is just this long and painful
transition that is related in The Prelude. What Wordsworth offers is not a great philosophical
system. He presents an emancipatory attitude toward life and toward art. He forever examines
experience. Nothing in the world is so trivial or commonplace that it cannot be a stimulus for the
mind. No thought, no matter how pedestrian or contemptuous it may at first seem, is to be
excluded from the realm of poetry.

Ans 4: Hyperion is an epic poem. An epic has always an exalted theme which is treated in an
exalted style. Now the theme of Hyperion is the war between the Titans and the Olympians and
the outcome of that war. The characters in this poem are supernatural beings. They are the
displaced deities who had been governing the various forces of Nature, and the new deities who
have taken their places. However, we do not meet any of the new deities either in Book I or in
Book II, and the only new deity, namely Apollo, who is introduced to us, appears in Book III.

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Books I and II deal wholly with the displaced gods. In any case, the poem does have an exalted
theme. The manner in which Thea is described, for instance, shows that we are not dealing with
human beings but with superhuman beings. By comparison with the goddess Thea, even the tall
Amazon would have appeared to be a mere pigmy. Thea was such a huge and powerful deity that
she could have seized Achilles by his hair and twisted his neck; she could have stopped with one
finger the revolving wheel to which Ixion had been tied; her face was as large as that of the
Memphian Sphinx. Subsequently, Hyperion too is described in the same manner; he too is a god
of gigantic proportions. But, although the gods have been described on a grand scale, their
passions and feelings are similar to those of human beings. The style of the poem is exalted, too.
The poem has been admired widely for the sublimity of its style and the solemnity of its blank
verse.

Book I illustrates also Keatss descriptive powers. There is plenty of graphic description
here. The most striking passage in this respect is the one in which the palace of Hyperion has
been described. Hyperions bright palace is bastioned with pyramids of glowing gold, and
touched with shade of bronzed obelisks This palace has many courts, arches, domes, and fiery
galleries. The curtains in this palace are made of clouds supplied by Aurora, the goddess of the
dawn. Keats gives us, indeed, an elaborate and impressive description of this palace. Equally
graphic is the description of Hyperion rushing out of his palace to the eastern gates where he
breathed fierce breath against the sleepy portals, cleared them of heavy vapours, and burst them
wide suddenly on the oceans chilly streams. This description continues with a reference to the
planet of the sun, the orb of fire, spinning round m dark clouds and radiating its dazzling rays.
Apart from these elaborate descriptions, we have a large number of brief but vivid pictures in this
Book.
While Book I is in the nature of an exposition, Book II develops both the argument and
the action of the story, and is important in respect of characterization as well as ideas.

The epic strain of the poem continues in Book II. The gods and goddesses are still the characters
with whom we are concerned. These gods and goodesses are now given a concrete and visible
life, even though they are in a mood of despondency and are feeling lifeless. Most of the gods
present are individualized by means of brief pictures of their visible symbols or characteristics,
and some of them are further differentiated from one another by means of the speeches they
make. A reference is made also to the gods who are absent either because they have been put into
prisons or because they are wandering about aimlessly in the world at large. The description of
the various gods and goddesses is awe-inspiring despite the fact that they are in a state of deep
despair. It is noteworthy that, although the characters in the poem are supernatural beings, yet
their feelings and emotions are similar to those of human beings. Sadness and hopelessness are
the two dominant emotions which they all experience. But, besides these emotions, they also
experience rage, fear, anxiety, revenge, remorse, and even hope (the hope of regaining their
kingdoms). The style of Book II is as exalted as that of Book I.

Book III is apparently an abrupt deviation from the main narrative which is now kept in
abeyance, while Keats proceeds to develop a different theme The theme of Book [II is the

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process by which Apollo, a human being, is deified and transformed into a god. There is no
doubt that, if Keats had continued with the poem and completed it, he would have depicted the
conflict which would have inevitably taken place between Apollo and Hyperion, with Apollo
gaining a victory over Hyperion and dethroning the only god of the previous generation who had
not yet been displaced from his position. In that case Book III would have fallen into its proper
place, and the whole poem would have presented a unified structure. As it is. Book HI seems to
be a digression. The main narrative stands still, while Keats takes up a different subject
altogether.

Ans 6: "No Second Troy" by William Butler Yeats, a great Irish poet, is poem about the love
relationship between the poet and Maud Gonne, devastatingly beautiful Irish woman. It is one of
the great literary love stories of the 20th century. The poem hints that how an alluring dazzling
beauty can cause a devastating massive distraction with the reference to Helen of Troy, from the
Iliad and the Aeneid. Now we will critically look into the poem.

Before discussing the poem, let us have a look at the background of the poem. Yeats, in fact,
published the poem in 1916 in the collection Responsibilities and Other Poems, after he had
already proposed to Gonne; and been rejected on numerous occasions. Yeats was obsessed with
her and pursued her for over a decade and dedicated many of his poems to her. In this poem,
however, Yeats's attitude is somewhat harsh, as he compares Gonne with the infamously
beautiful and notoriously mischievous Helen of Troy.

Like Maud Gonne, Helen, a legendary character from Homer's Iliad, was considered to be one of
the most beautiful women of her age. She was also partly responsible for starting the Trojan War,
which eventually led to the burning of the great city of Troy.

With the comparison to Helen, Yeats is accusing Maud Gonne of being partially responsible for
the violence in revolutionary Ireland, just like Helen was partially responsible for the Trojan War.
According to "No Second Troy," she "taught to ignorant men most violent ways."

Gonne is a courageous and devastatingly beautiful woman. She is also a cruel lover and a
shamelessly irresponsible activist. She uses her beauty and her high ideals to convince people
less noble and intelligent to do what he considers some very unwise things, like oppose the might
of the British colonial powers.

Now we will critically look into the poem "No Second Troy" in our following discussion. The
poem plays out (develops) through four rhetorical questions.

First, the speaker wonders "why" he should blame "her" for his unhappiness and for her reckless
manipulation of the emotions of Irish commoners to rouse political violence. As the poet says:
WHY should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery ?
The speaker blames Maud Gonne for filling his life with unhappiness. We can only assume that
the reason for his "misery" is that she rejected him again and again.

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Yeats is talking about the role Maud Gonne played in encouraging violent, revolutionary
activities in Ireland during the independence movement especially Easter Rising of 1916, the
same year of publishing the poem.

she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways

The speaker accuses Maud Gonne of class warfare, trying to make poor, simple people, who live
in the "little streets", the native people, rebel against the more powerful people who live on the
"great" streets, the British.

Had they but courage equal to desire?

Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
It indicates that the common folk have the "desire" to overthrow British rule, but they don't have
the "courage" to carry out the deed. They are too impoverished and uneducated.

Secondly, he asks whether it would even have been possible for "her" to be a "peaceful" person.
He thinks her character and beauty have an old-school quality, more like a figure from Greek
tragedy than a contemporary woman. She belongs to another age.

With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind

That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?

Thirdly, the speaker is simultaneously thinking about some other reality in which Maud Gonne
was not such a firebrand or heartbreaker, even as he recognizes that it could never have been any
other way.
Why, what could she have done being what she is?

Lastly the speaker asks her:

Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Because there was no "second Troy" for her to destroy, she had to destroy other things like the
speaker's happiness, and the lives of Irish commoners. The first Troy, of course, was destroyed
because of a quarrel over Helen, another politically troublesome beauty from another "age",
ancient Greece.

Last of all we can say that, the poem No Second Troy is a strong call towards peace leaving the
violent way of war or destruction. The poem appeals that no beauty like Helen of Troy or to-
days Maud Gonne will cause the destruction of another beauty like Troy. There will remain
only peace and love in the world.

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Ans 1 b): These lines have been taken from Twickenham Garden by John Donne in these lines
the poet describes: Here you lovers come, with glass vessels (traditionally made for holding tears
of grief) and take my tears, which are loves wine, and you can then test your mistress tears at
home, since they are false tears unless they taste like mine; Alas, the true state of the heart is not
obvious and visible in the eyes, and you can no more judge a womans thoughts by her tears,
than you can judge her clothes from her shadow. O perverse sex, womankind, where none of
them are true but my mistress, who must be true because the proof of it is that her loyalty to
others is killing me. This is an extremely difficult poem to understand fully because of the lack
of context. It feels to me like a poem from the period 1600-1601, and that the woman referred to
is Ann More, but that may well not be the case.

Ans 1 f): The speaker has been sitting with Porphyria all night now, and he hasn't heard any
objections from anyone.

The speaker switches to the present tense in line 58 "we sit together now." So the whole poem
is what the speaker was thinking as he reclined on the couch, snuggled up to his murdered
girlfriend? Wow, just reading it makes us feel gross.

The final line of the poem sounds triumphant: was the speaker expecting divine intervention?
Was he expecting a thunderbolt from the sky to strike him down for murdering his lover? Or is
he teasing the reader, who was expecting some kind of retribution at the end of the poem? Or is it
Browning himself who's teasing the reader at this point?

Ans 1 g): Heres the zinger of this first stanza. Want to know why our speaker is so down on
"that country"? Well, here we have it. Folks there live in the moment.

Thats a good thing, right?

Well, sort of. Unfortunately, theyre so caught up in all that "begetting" and living and dying that
they completely forget to think about things that might outlast their own brief lives.

Yeats weaves a deliberate set of artistic references into this line.

He wants to compare living in the moment to thinking about something long-lasting (and even
immortal). To do so, he compares music to sculpture. Music sounds really greatfor about three
minutes. Maybe even five. Sculptures, however, are around for a looooong time.

Comparing life to "music" may sound sweet, but its actually a pretty damning critique. If youre
too absorbed in the here and now, youll never be able to think about things that might matter
more than your petty little problems. How can you fight for world peace if youre obsessed about
that date youre going on this weekend?

At least, thats what our speaker thinks.

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