XXXI What in the midst lay but the Tower itself? In the whole world. The tempest's mocking elf XXXII Not see? because of night perhaps? why, day Came back again for that! before it left, 190 The hills, like giants at a hunting lay, 195 XXXIII Not hear? when noise was everywhere! it tolled Lost! lost! one moment knelled the woe of years. 200 XXXIV There they stood, ranged along the hill-sides, met And blew "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came." (1-48) Observe that the simile of the dying man throws a light on the hero's mentality. (48) Explain "estray." (85-108) His past life does not contain happy reminiscences which enable him to throw off the sensuous waves that beat against his brain from the starved ignoble nature and the grotesque horse. In the presence of physical failure mental portraits of past successes in the lives of his friends do not sustain and soothe. (109–126) The wrathful river is filled with the bodies of those who have failed in reaching their ideals. (127-156) Note that the scenery by the hero's movement has become more horrible. Progression means the recognition on his part of an "Inferno" where annihilation is unshunnable. Retrogression would neither remove these "Tophet tools " of torture nor relieve the monotony of the situation. Browning is marvelously accurate in describing nature affected with physical foulness such as came upon Job when Satan touched him: in this respect analyse the portrayal of "the palsied oak." (157-174) It is evening, and this scenery beyond the river however sterile can produce life; as the previous landscape had its horse, so this possesses its bird. The redness of sunset has given way to the blackness of night; the devil's stallion has given birth to the bird of ill-omen. Note the change which now occurs in nature. The place of the stunted, impassable mountains is no worse than the plain of abortive fecundation. The hero has come to the end of progression and is in the presence of failure when he hears the click of its trap. (175204) All of our hero's former life had been ruined by man, and now the hostile attitude of nature is added to make the catastrophe complete. The "dying sunset" lends an artistic power. Childe Roland now hears the reveille of death and the roll-call of the failures who, as he, had sought the ideal; "lambent annihilation," "a sheet of flame," has come, and the ghosts of those who had failed are lined up to see him come, as they had come, in sight of that which materially is impossible to obtain in this part of the universe. This poem is thoroughly Browningesque in teaching that all must "Try the clod ere test the star " and that: "Life is probation and the earth no goal, But starting point of man: compel him strive, Which means, in man as good as reach the goal." Note the difference between pure and impure allegory. Name the three great allegories in English literature, and tell by whom these have been written. In each, what is x, the unknown quantity? Supply the missing in each of the following pieces: 66 'Where Lies The Land To Which The Ship Would Go?" — A. A. Clough. The Beleaguered City. — H. W. Longfellow. Compare the x in "Childe Roland" to that found in Longfellow's "Excelsior" and "Victor and Vanquished." Is "Childe Roland" an example of pure allegory? Fear death? PROSPICE to feel the fog in my throat, When the snows begin, and the blasts denote 5 The power of the night, the press of the storm, ΙΟ Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, For the journey is done and the summit attained, Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, I was ever a fighter, so one fight more, The best and the last! 15 I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore, And bade me creep past. 20 No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers Bear the brunt, in a minute pay life's glad arrears For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, 25 Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, Then a light, then thy breast, Cf. "Beowulf," 2814-16: ". . . ealle wyrd forsweop Mine magas tō metod-sceafte, Eorlas on elne; ic him aefter sceal." "Fate has swept all my kinsmen away into eternity, princes in chivalry; I must after them.". The Deeds of Beowulf, Earle. Beowulf to Wiglaf before meeting death in the flames of the firedrake. (27) Browning would clasp his wife's soul. Mrs. Browning's death caused this poem to be written. Has Tennyson written anything in a similar strain? What strong likeness exists between this poem and Longfellow's "Victor and Vanquished"? Read Matthew Arnold's “A Wish" in order to see how an agnostic poet faces death. 5 EPILOGUE (From Asolando) At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time, When you set your fancies free, Will they pass to where- by death, fools think, impris oned Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so, - Pity me? IO Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken! What had I on earth to do With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly? 15 20 One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake. No, at noon-day in the bustle of man's work-time Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, Strive and thrive !" cry "Speed, — fight on, fare ever (1-20) Compare the view of death presented in this poem of 1889 with the views of death of 1855 and 1864 in "Childe Roland” and "Prospice." One evening before his death illness, as Browning was correcting the proof of this poem, what did he say to his daughter-inlaw and sister concerning the third verse? The whole poem is an inspiration for young people by faith and activity to fight against feelings of depression, slothfulness, and cowardliness. What phase of nineteenth century thought does Browning represent? Cf. Tennyson. |