Unit 1. Old English Literature. 1. Which is the most important poem in OE?

The greatest Old English poem is Beowulf, which belongs to the 7th century. It is a story about 3000 lines, and it is the first English epic story. The name of its author is unknown. Can you summarize its plot? Beowulf is not about England, but about Hrothgar, King of the Danes, and about a brave young man, Beowulf, from the southern Sweden, who goes to help him. Hrothgar is in trouble. His great hall, called heorot, is visited at night by a terrible monster, Grendel, which lives in the lake and comes to kill and eat Hrothgar's men. One night Beowulf waits secretly for this thing, attacks it and in a fierce fight pulls its arm off. The monster tries to go back to the lake, but dies there. Then, its mother comes to the hall in search of revenge, and the attack begins again. Beowulf follows her to the bottom of the lake and kills her there. In later days, Beowulf, now king of his people, has to defend his country against a fire-breathing creature. He kills the animal but he is badly wounded in the fight, and dies. The poem ends with a sorrowful description of Beowulf's funeral fire. 2. Which are the most important literary resources of OE literature? Each half line has two main beats. There is no rhyme. Instead, each half-line is joined to the other by alliteration. That is when two or more words begin with the same sound. Things are described indirectly and in combination of words. A ship is not only a ship: it is a sea-goer, a sea-boat, a wave-floater. A sailor is a sea-man, a sea-traveller. Often, several of these words are used at the same time. Then we can use all of these combinations of words all together. In Old English poetry, descriptions of sad events or cruel situations are very common, more than those of happiness. 3. Mention 2 important OE poets and the works of one of them. Caedmon. Almost nothing now remains from him. Cynewulf: Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles, Christ and Elene. Can you mention some other OE poems of unknown authors? Andreas Guthlac. This poem is in 2 parts, and may have been written by 2 men. Guthlac was a holy man who was tempted in the dessert. The Dream of the Rood (The rood is Christ's cross) The Battle of Maldom (a battle against the Danes) Which is the most important text in OE prose and who promoted it? The most interesting piece of prose is The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and early story of the country. King Alfred had a great influence on this work. He translated a number of Latin books into Old English, so that his people could read them. (Another important writer of prose was AELFRIC. His works, such as the Homilies and Lives of Saints were mainly religious. He wrote in Old English the first 11 books of the Bible. His prose style is the best in Old English, and he uses alliteration to join his sentences together) 4. Text analysis questions on Beowulf.

5. Read the following text, identify which text it is and explain its main literary characteristics with examples from the text. Unit 2. Middle English Literature. 6. Give a brief account of ME poetry As we should expect, the language had changed a lot in the 700 years since the time of Beowulf and it is much easier to read something written by Chaucer, the greatest Middle English poet, than to read anything written in old English. There are five main beats in each line, and the reader will notice that rhyme has taken the place of Old English alliteration. There are some more poems from Chaucer: Troylus and Cryesyde and The Legend of Good Women. William Langland wrote a poem called The Vision of Piers The Ploughman, which is written following this old alliterative line. This work looks older than Chaucer's rhymed verse, even though the two men lived at the same time. The alliterative metre was also used in several other poems, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is one of the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. It tells the adventures of one of the King Arthur's knights (Sir Gawain). 7. Give a brief account of ME prose. A good deal of Middle English prose is religious. An important work of this time is The Form of Perfect Living, which was written by Richard Rolle John Wycliffe, a priest, attacked many of the religious ideas of his time. He believed that anybody who wanted to read the Bible should be allowed to do it but there were uneducated people that did not know Latin. Wycliffe arranged the production of the whole Bible in English, and he himself translated part of it An important Middle English Prose work, Morte DArthur was written by Sir Thomas Malory. He wrote eight separate tales of King Arthur and his knights but after printing the book, it was joined into one long story. Malory's fine prose can tell a story well, but can also express deep feelings in musical sentences. 8. Give a brief account of ME plays The first English plays told religious stories and were performed in or near the churches. These early plays were called Miracles or Mystery plays. They are in four main groups according to the city they were acted: Chester, Coventry, York and Wakefield. The subjects of The Mistery Plays are various: The disobedience of Adam and Eve; Noah and the great flood; Abraham and Isaac ,Events in the life of Christ and so on. Although the Miracles were serious and religious intention, English comedy was born in them. There was a natural tendency for the characters in the play to become recognizable human in their behaviour. Other plays were the Morality Plays. The characters of this plays were not people, they were virtues (such as Truth) or bad qualities (such as Greed or Revenge), which walked and talked. One of the best-known Moralities is Everyman. It is the story of the end of Everyman's life, when Death calls him away from the world. Another kind of play, the Interlude, was common in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The origin of the name is uncertain; perhaps the Interludes were played between the acts of long Moralities, perhaps in the middle of meals. They are often funny, and they were performed away from churches, in colleges or rich man's houses or gardens. We have important works such as The Four Ps and The Play of the Weather written by John Hewywood.

9. Who was Chaucer, which was his most important work and give a summary of that work The greatest poet of Middle English Literature was Geoffrey Chaucer. He is often called the father of English poetry, although, as we know, there were many English poets after him. Chaucer was a well-educated man who red Latin, and studied French and Italian poetry. He travelled and made good use of his eyes; and the people whom he describes are just like living people. His main work is The Canterbury Tales) rhyme has taken the place of Old English alliteration. There are some more poems from Chaucer: Troylus and Cryesyde and The Legend of Good Women. Shakespeare later wrote a play on the former of these, but his Cressida is less attractive than Chaucer's. The Canterbury Tales has 17.000 lines. A party of pilgrims agree to tell stories to pass the time on their journey from London to Canterbury (Thomas Becket). There are more than twenty of these stories, mostly in verse, and in the stories we get to know the pilgrims themselves. Most of them are ordinary people, but each of them can be recognized as a real person with his or her own character. 10. Text analysis questions on The Canterbury Tales' Prologue and The Miller's Tale 11. Read the following text: Who wrote it? To what literary piece does it belong? Identify its rhyme pattern Unit 3. Elizabethan poetry and prose. 12. How is a sonnet organized? They are organized in 14 lines, with a fixed form and a rhyme pattern. They are almost all constructed from three four-line stanzas (called quatrains) and a final couplet composed in iambic pentameter. Are there different types of sonnet? There are two different types: the Petrarchan in which the 14 lines rhyme ''abbaabba'' (8) + 2 or 3 rhymes in the last six lines, and the Shakespearian, which is a 14 lines rhyme like this: ''abab cdcd efef gg''. 13. Why are Wyatt and Surrey important for English Literature? Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey are often mentioned together, but there are many differences in their work. Both wrote sonnets, which they learn form the Italians, but it was Wyatt who first brought the sonnet to England. Surreys work is also important because he wrote the first blank verse in England. It is a verse without rhymes, usually in lines of 5 iambic feet. 14. Read the following poem, identify its author and its rhyme? What does the poem describe? 15. Why is Spenser relevant for English Literature? He introduced the Elizabethan age He was a poet who liked making experiments in metre and form. He also invented a new special metre for his ''Faerie Queene''. This metre is a verse with 9 lines; of these the last has 6 feet, the others five and her rhyme is ababbcbbc. It was called the Spenserian Stanza 16. Who are the lyric poets and the metaphysical poets? Lyric poets Spencer, Surrey, Shakespeare, Marlowe and Raleigh.

Metaphysical poets Donne, Jonson, North, Hakluyt, Purchas, Lyly, Bacon. How are they different? They differ between them in that lyric poets focus their writings in feelings and in eye and heart while metaphysical ones focused in reason and mind issues. Lyric's style was more beautiful and more musical than metaphysical ones but metaphysical poets tried to catch more attention by means of unusual images and tricks of style. 17. Which are the different types of prose literary works in Elizabethan period? a) Translations: Plutarchs Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by Sir Thomas North. Shakespeare used quite expressions from it in Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. b) Voyages. Richard Hakluyt published The Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation. c) Elizabethan novels. John Lily was employed at court. Euphues has a thin love story, which is used for the purpose of giving Lilys ideas in various talks an letters. The style is filled with tricks and alliteration and the sentences are long and very complicated. Thomas Nash wrote a picaresque novel (a novel of adventure about men of bad character) called The Life of Jacke Wilton d)Essays. The prose of Francis Bacon is important. His Essays especially are popular still. Some of the best-known sayings in English come from Bacons books such as The remedy is worse than the disease. e)The Authorized Version of the Bible appeared in 1611. The history of English Bible is very important. In Old English several translations of parts of the Bible were made, but the first complete translation was Wycliffes 18. Which is the most important meter in English poetry and drama? Explain how it is organized with an appropiate example. The most frequently meter of English verse is the iambic pentameter, in which the metrical form is 5 iambic feet per line, though metrical substitution is common and rhythmic practically inexhaustible. An appropiate example could be that part of Hamlet when he says To be or not to be, that is the question 19. Which are the different themes in Shakespeares sonnets? His main theme when writing sonnets is love, a more complex and strong human love than in Petrarchan tradition. Moreover, issues like gender roles, human evils with nothing to do with love, political events, making fun of love, speaking openly about sex, parodying beauty and even a little pornography, are also used by Shakespeare in his writings. Unit 4. Elizabethan drama. 20. Why are these authors relevant in the Elizabethan period: Udall, Lyly, Norton and Sackville and Thomas Kyd? a)Niholas Udall: He wrote the first regular English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister .It is in rough verse and contains the sort of humor that may be found among country people. He was the Headmaster of Westminster School and he wrote it probably for his boys to act. b)Lylys prose comedy Campaspe and his allegorical play Edimion are an improvement on the first

work of Udall and they were performed in front of Queen Elizabeth. c) The first regular English tragedy was Gorboduc, in blank verse. The first 3 acts were written by Thomas Norton and the other 2 by Thomas Shackville. The blank verse is poor stuff, and nothing is done on the stage except some movements in silence. The story of the play is told. d) Thomas Kyd wrote The Spanish Tragedy an example of the tragedy of blood, popular at the time. In some ways The Spanish Tragedy is similar to Shakespeare's Hamlet. A ghost appears, demanding revenge; but it appears to the father of a murdered son, not to the son of a murdered father, as in Hamlet. 21. Which are Marlowes most important plays? Provide a brief account of one of them. Tamburlaine the Great The Jew of Malta Dr.Faustus. Edward the Second Dr. Faustus was probably acted in 1588. The play is based on the well-known story of a man (Faustus) who sold his soul to the devil so as to have power and riches in this life. Marlowes Faustus agrees to give his soul to the devil (Mephistopheles) in return for 24 years of splendid life. During these years the devil must serve him and give him what he wants. One of the things he orders first to the devil is to bring back from the dead the beautiful Helen of Troy, the cause of the Trojan war. The end of the play when death is near and Faustus is filled with fear, is a highlight of terrible description. 22. Mention 10 plays by Shakespeare and give a brief account of the plot of Hamlet. Richard the Third and Richard the Second Romeo and Juliet The two Gentlemen of Verona A Midsummer Nights Dream The Merchant of Venice As you like it Much Ado about nothing (Mucho ruido y pocas nueces) Twelfth Night King Henry the Fourth and King Henry the Fifth Julius Caesar Coriolanus Antony and Cleopatra

In Hamlet, the prince of that name suspects that his dead father, King of Denmark, has been murdered by his uncle, Claudius. Claudius has become king and has married Hamlets mother. The ghost of Hamlets dead father appears to him and tells him that he has been poisoned. Hamlets decides on revenge; but then he begins to think too much, and to hesitate. Was the ghost telling the truth? Hamlet must try to find proof of the murder. 23. Identify the author of the following text. What is the author trying to express with the monologue? (The to be or not to be monologue? The author is William Shakespeare (1564-1616), and the play is Hamlet. The soliloquy To be or not to be is considered one of the best monologues ever written. Hamlet is thinking about facing his problems or commiting suicide. It is a comparison between the pain of life, which he sees as inevitable and the fear of the uncertainty of death and of possible damnation of suicide. Hamlet's dilemma is that although he is dissatisfied with life and lists its many torments, he is unsure what

death may bring. 24. Identify the author of this text, indicate the play it belongs to and explain why this scene is important in the play (The to be or not be or The Ghost scene). To be or not to be monologue: This soliloquy is included in the Act III, Scene I of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is important because this is the climax of the play, when he reflects on what is the best decision: to face the troubles or to be a coward and commit suicide. It is the point in which Hamlet thinks about his situation and his options. The Ghost Scene: This scene is included in the Act I, Scene V of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The importance of this scene lays on the fact that at this point the ghost tells Hamlet to revenge his father death, then Hamlet accepts to kill his father (The Ghost) murder (His uncle Cornelius). After this scene, Hamlet starts to doubt if what the Ghost has told him is true, and to elaborate a plan to find out the truth. This scene is the start of Hamlet's story, his doubts, thoughts, wonders, wishes, disgraces... From this scene is where the rest of the plot is developed. 25. One section of the following excerpt is in prose and another section in blank verse. Identify which is which and explain why the author wrote them differently. Who is the author? And the play? Why is this scene important in the play and why is it famous in English Literature? (The Brutus and M.Antonys speeches) The play is Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare. He uses prose with Brutus and Blank Verse with Mark Antony. The reason for this is to give beauty and power to Mark Antony's speech, and to remark the importance of his speech as he wants him to convince the crowd, which is different from the rational tone of Brutus's speech. This scene is important in the play because it is the point in which Mark Antony turns the crowd of Rome against the conspirators, he turns public opinion against the assassins by manipulating the emotions of the common people, in contrast to the rational tone of Brutus's speech. After this scene, Brutus and Cassius prepare a war against Antony and Octavian. This speech is famous in English Literature because of the power of the speech, it is a demonstration of Shakespeare's great domain of the language. It is indeed an excellent example of the use of emotionally charged rhetoric. It is amazing how Mark Antony controls the crowd, and how he plays with the meaning of the word honorable. Unit 5. John Milton and his time. 26. Who was Milton? Milton is considered the second English poet, obviously after Shakespeare. He was born in London and studied in Cambridge and in Horton. His life was really pure and wrote both poetry and prose. Which are his most important literary works in prose and poetry? We can divide Milton's work in three periods. The first one related with his life in Horton after University, when he just wrote his shorter poems. His most important writings were L'Allegro(the happy man) and Il Penseroso(the thoughtful man) both written in 1632, Comus(1634, which is a masque), Arcades(1633?- the part one) and Lycidas(1637, which talks about the death of Edward King. After that, comes his period of writing mainly prose. His writings were focused on church affairs, divorce and freedom. His best work is probably the Aeropagitica(1644) A speech for the Liberty on Unlicensed Printing. Well written, little violence, simple style. Moreover, this period is also known because he wrote is three greatest works. The first one, was called Paradise Lost(1667) and talked about the fall of the angels, the story of Adam and Eve, and their failure to keep God's

commands. The second one was Paradise Regained (1671), more severe but less splendid than the first one. And finally, Samson Agonistes(1671) which told the story of the last days of Samson, when he was a prisoner. Which were his political views in the context of this time? He lived in the period of The English Civil War (1642-1646) between Charles I and Parliament(ruled by Cromwell) and in the Second Civil War(1648-1651). He took part in Cromwell's side and became a minister of the government but after King Charles was made king, he started to become unpopular. 27. Who were the lyric poets in Milton's time? Richard Lovelace Robert Herrick Edmund Waller Why is Edmund Waller relevant in English literature? Because he wrote some of the earliest heroic couplets, a new form of verse which was widely used in the next hundred and fifty years. In this metre a couplet is a pair of lines, rhyming and of five iambic feet. He was honoured for inventing that but there are other poets like Shakespeare for whom the claim is made (Othello written) Unit 6. Restoration Drama and Prose. 28. Which are Dryden's most important plays? The Conquest of Granada (1670)- Good lyrics and usual loud language Aurengzebe. Contains one of the finest Dryden's speeches. Marriage--la-Mode. First comedy, bad blank verse. All for love in blank verse. Don Sebastian

In what poetical meter were they written? In heroic couplets. It is said that is was the perfect meter for him. Which play was a parody of his plays and other similar works? The Rehearsal (1672) by The Second Duke of Buckingham (with some help). 29. Which adjectives can be used to describe the Comedy of Manners or Restauration Comedy? Hard, bright, witty, heartless, coarse, clever and representative of upper classes and behavior. Who are the most relevant authors of this new type of Comedy? George Etherege (introductor). William Wycherley. William Congreve (the best writer). Sir John Vanbrugh Oliver Goldsmith Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

In terms of style, how were these plays written? In Prose. Can you mention a famous comedy representative of this type of plays?

 The Country Wife by William Wycherley. The Old Bachelor and The Way of the World by William Congreve. 30. Which is Wycherley most important play? The Country Wife (1675) Can you write a summary of this play? In this play there are three plots, linked but distinct. They are: Horner's impotence trick, the married life of Pinchwife and Margery, and the courtship of Harcourt and Alithea. In the first one Mr. Horner is the main character in which he pretends impotence in order to be allowed where no complete man may go. Horner's name serves to alert the audience to what is going on. He spreads a false rumour of his own impotence, in order to convince married men that he can safely be allowed to socialize with their wives. The rumour is also meant to assist his mass seduction campaign by helping him identify women who are secretly eager for extramarital sex. Horner's ruse of impotence is a great success, and he has sex with many ladies of virtuous reputation. The second one is the story of Pinchwife, a middle-aged man who has married an naive country girl in the hope that she will not know to cuckold him. However, Horner teaches her, and Margery cuts a swath through the complexities of London upper-class marriage and seduction without even And the third one: The courtship of Harcourt and Alithea is a comparatively uplifting love story in which the witty Harcourt wins the hand of Pinchwife's sister Alithea from the hands of the Upperclass town snob and dandy Sparkish whom she was engaged to until she discovered he only loves her for her money and nothing else, the foppish Sparkish ends up alone at the end of the play with only his riches and beauty for comfort How can one define the characters in this play? They are not realistic characters. Each character personality, history and inner motivation do not catch great attention. Moreover, we can say that some characters are exaggerated and caricatured. Who is the only character who really evolves in the play? Margery Pinchwife. 31. Who wrote the following text? (extract from The Country Wife)? William Wicherley. To what literary work does it belong? The Country Wife. How does the author manage to convey characters' thoughts to the audience/readership? By means of the asides (comments which just the audience can hear) How does the author manage to let everybody know the contents in each letter? In the first letter, the content is revealed because Pinchwife dictates to his wife what she must write and in the second one, the content is revealed because Mrs Pinchwife writes and repeats her writing aloud. Unit 7. English poets, 1660-1798 32. Which is Dryden's most important poetical literary work? Annus Mirabilis (1667).

And Pope's? Essay on Criticism (1771). And whose works did each of them translate into English? Dryden Satires of Juvenal, Virgil and parts of Horace and Ovid ( LATIN). Parts of Homer and Theocritus (GREEK). Pope The Iliad, the Odyssey of Homer and the Imitations of Horace. 33. Who was James Thompson and who were the Graveyard poets? Thompson was a poet who focused his work in nature with books like The Seasons. This book was composed by other four: Winter (1726), Summer (1727), Spring (1728) and Autumn (1730). All of them were in blank verse The Graveyard poets were Edward Young, Robert Blair and Thomas Gray What did they write about and why are they important? They were a group of poets who focused their works in death. Their importance lays on the fact that they broke with the prior poetical tradition and started to write about a new topic, death. 34. Who were Blake and Robert Burns? William Blake was an artist and a poet who illustrated the works from the Graveyard poets. Much of his poetry has hidden meanings that are hard to understand. He did not believe in the reality of matter, or in the power of earthly rulers, or in punishment after death. His best known works include Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Robert Burns was a Scottish farmer whose lyrics became famous. He wrote hundreds of songs and lyrics, and among them Mary Morrison, John Anderson and The Banks of Doon are famous What type of literature did they write? Poetry Unit 8. Eighteen Century Prose 35. What are Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon famous for? Samuel Johnson was famous because he was a kind of a literary ruler. He gave judgements on books and authors like a god and wrote the first Dictionary. His own writings are less important than what he said, and a record of his conversations has fortunately been preserved in The life of Johnson by his friend James Boswell. This is greatest biography in English. Edward Gibbon decided to write The Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire while he was doing a Tour of Italy. This is recognized as the greatest historical work in English. It is written in splendid prose and it covers the events of 12 centuries and relates the ancient to the modern world. It is clear and complete and usually correct. 36. Mention, at least, four important authors in the 18th century who contributed in the making of the English novel. Mention some of their most important novels and say how each one of them contributed to this new genre. a) Samuel Richardson Pamela. It was the first real novel. It is a novel written in the form of letters, and these appeared one after the other.

 Clarissa Harlowe. This novel is about 8 times as long as an ordinary novel, but it was widely read in England and abroad in Richardsons time. b) Henry Fielding. Joseph Andrews. This novel a kind of satire on Pamela. Fielding wrote the novel directly, as a straight story, without the trick of letters. Tom Jones. It is Fieldings greatest novel and appeared in 18 books, each of which had an essay before it. It is a picaresque novel. The history of Jonathan Wild the Great. Other satire. c) Tobias Smollet. His novels often give us interesting information about life and society in his time. Roderick Random. The novel is powerful and unpleasant. It describes bitterly the life of those who sail in the seas. Peregrin Pickle Humphrey Clinker. It is in the form of letters, and it is less violent and in better taste than the other 2. d) Laurence Sterne. His astonishing books are as confusing as life itself. Tristram Shandy. This book made him famous. He adds a few blank pages and rows of stars here and there to confuse his readers as much as possible. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. It is not so confusing and is in better prose 37. What are the novels of terror about? About ghosts, the devil, unusual scenes and sights like moving walls, secret passages... Who are the main representatives of this type of novel and which are their most famous novel? Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto(1764). Mrs Ann Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho(1794). 38. Who wrote the following text and to which novel does it belong? Henry Fielding Tom Jones. Why is this novel important in English literature? It is important because it was one of the first novels in English and marked the way for future writers. Can you give a summary of its content? The book tells the story of Tom. Tom is a boy found in Mr. Allworthys house, and he is brought up there with kindness. Then he falls in love with the beautiful Sophia, daughter of Squire Western. He does several other things that Allworthy does not like and he is moved out from the house. In London he has many adventures, but in the end he finds Sophia and all ends happily. Does it contain exophoric references? Yes it does. An exophoric reference is when a writer makes a reference to somebody outside the text, not to a character in the text. There is one when he says: Reader, I think proper, before we proceed (Page 172 at the end) Does the author give his opinions on the subject matter of his novel or does he remain distant and neutral? Sometimes he uses these exophoric references to criticize the critics or to give his own opinion.

Unit 9. Early nineteenth century poets 39. Who are the two poets that open Romantic period William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Which are their most important poems? Wordsworth Coleridge main work is The Lyrical Ballads. Coleridge's poem, The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, appeared in the first edition of The Lyrical Ballads. 40. Who wrote The Rime of The Ancient Mariner? Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Can you give a summary of the plot of this poem? An old sailor describes some strange misfortunes that happened to his ship. It was in the ice of the South Pole when he shot a great bird, for this crime a curse fell on the ship. The wind failed, the water-supply ended and all the other sailor died. At last the Mariner, seeing Gods creatures in the moonlight, blesses them. This breaks the curse and he is able to return home. Do all the lines in this poem rhyme? No, they don't. 41. Which are the major works of Lord Byron, Percy B. Shelley and John Keats? Lord Byron: "Childe Harold", "Don Juan" and "The Bride of Abydos" Percy B. Shelley: "Ozymandias", "Adonais" and "The Spirit of Solitude" John Keats: "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Endymion" and "Hyperion" 42. Who wrote this poem? Which is its rhyme pattern? What's the poem about? The Rime of The Ancient Mariner COLERIDGE: 4 lines -a, -a 6 lines: free. Childe Harold LORD BYRON :Spenserian Stanza (rhyme pattern ababbcbbc). It talks about gladiators Ozymandias PERCY B. SHELLEY ababacdc edef ef. It talks about uselessness and shortness of earthly power. London WORDSWORTH abba abba cdd ece. It is a cry for help in the troubles of the world Ode on a Grecian Urn JOHN KEATS ababcdedce. It's about beauty, which is considered one of the most important things.