The Destructiveness of Passion
We all have
passion. We sometimes can’t control our lust, but we all have a logical mind. If
Cao Xueqin and Moliere had allowed Lin Daiyu and Tartuffe’s reasoning to
overcome their emotions, we wouldn’t have these two great works.
In Song of
the Burial Flowers, we see Lin Daiyu completely exposed. She is
sentimental, emotional, and passionate. She pities herself by burying flowers
and laments her loneliness. If we don’t watch the play Tartuffe and
carefully read every line of the confession that Tartuffe has to Elmire, who
can deny that Tartuffe’s passion is any less than Lin Daiyu's? Who can deny
that Tartuffe and Lin Daiyu are both victims of love? This essay will show that
although both protagonists' personal character are similar in that they have an
inferiority complex, they express it in different ways--- one through strong
self-respect and narcissism, and the other through arrogance and conceit. Both
of them are selfish and jealous. Both authors seem to suggest that passion
destroys their lives.
Lin Daiyu’s inferiority complex comes from
the fact that she is an outsider in the Jia’s family, a family which is
royalty. In Chinese culture, the married daughter has left the family forever,
as illustrated in the Chinese saying, “The married daughter is like spilled
water.” The son’s wife has more status than the married daughter in the family.
Daiyu’s mother, the married daughter to Jia’s family, had passed away before
Daiyu moved to live with the Jia family, which made her more of an outsider. We
can see Daiyu’s desperation when she laments herself in Song of the Burial
of Flowers:
"Elm-pods
and willow-floss are fragrant too;
Why care, Maid,
where the fallen flowers blew" (Cao 108)?
Elm-pods and willow-floss are metaphors for
the other members in the family who care about their own prosperity, but no one
takes into account Daiyu’s withering. We can also see how she pities herself
from these two lines:
"Three hundred and three-score the year’s full tale:
From swords of frost and from the slaughtering gale" (Cao 108)
Daiyu emphasizes that she lodges under Jia’s roof. Since she lives relying on Jia’s charity, she has to endure the other people’s sword-like criticism and frost-like treatment all year round.
Likewise, Tartuffe’s inferiority complex comes from the reality that he senses everyone in Orgon’s house knows very well that he was poor. Tartuffe knows exactly who he is. “I’m wicked through and through” (Moliere 3.6. 2). He is a subtle predator (Moliere 5.7. 59), and the baseness is "lurking in his coward’s heart” (Moliere 5.7. 63). He is a villain, a traitor, and a lecher (Moliere 5.7. 5). His inferiority complex comes from his poverty (Moliere 1.5. 47), comes from the fact that he is a beggar (Moliere 2.2. 34), and comes from even the maid, Dorine, in Orgen’s house looks down on him by saying:
"I could see you naked, head to toe---
Never be tempted once, and this I know" (Moliere 3.2. 15,16).
Both Daiyu and Tartuffe’s inferiority complexes have transformed them into ambivalent personalities. The difference is Daiyu becomes strong with self-respect and narcissism. We can see Daiyu’s ambivalence through her strong self-respecting personality. In chapter 23, after Daiyu read Western Chamber, Baoyu asked her if the book was good. Daiyu replied with a smile and nodded her head. Baoyu laughed and said,
"How can I, full of sickness and of woe,
Withstand that face which kingdoms could o’erthrow" (Cao 104)?
Daiyu was actually happy to hear that because these two lines come from Western Chamber. The man in the book is "full of sickness and of woe," and the woman has a "face which kingdoms could o’erthrow." Baoyu implied that he and Daiyu are a couple just like the man and the woman in the book. Even though Daiyu was happy, her answer was surprisingly opposite. "You’re hateful!" and you are "deliberately using that horrid play to take advantage of me (Cao 104)." Again, we see in chapter 27, when Baoyu tried to apologize to her, Daiyu "walked straight past him" not even looked at him (Cao 105). Daiyu rejected Baoyu against her true feeling, which shows her strong self-respect and is also the reflection of her inferiority complex.
On the contrary, Tartuffe’s ambivalent personality has become radically arrogant and conceited. Unlike Daiyu’s strong self-respect, Tartuffe tries to be as arrogant so he can to hide his inferiority complex. He told Organ that he "spurned the riches of this world" (Moliere 1.5. 47, 48). He lied that he was a noble, and he once had his own domain (Moliere 2.2 46, 47). He is so convinced by his own lies and arrogance that he boasts without shame to tell Elmire:
"My virtue stays intact and strong" (Moliere 3.3. 74), and
"Now I am bold, Encouraged by your presence, so I say,
With my true voice, will this be the day" (Moliere 3.3 114-116)
We can’t help but admire the way Tartuffe arrogantly deceives himself from his inferiority complex.
Subsequently, Daiyu’s inferiority complex becomes narcissism. In Song of the Burial of Flowers, Daiyu represents herself as a flower.
"Has rake in hand into the garden gone,
Before the fallen flowers are trampled on" (Cao 108).
We can see how much she loves herself that she could not even bear to go stepping on flowers.
In opposition to Daiyu’s narcissism is Tartuffe’s conceit which we spot in his confession to Elmire.
"I want to touch this lace--- don’t fret, I won’t,
It’s marvelous! I so admire the trade
Of making lace. Don’t tell me you’re afraid" (Moliere 3.3. 46-48).
He is so conceited that he thinks Elmire loves his touch. Meanwhile, the next two lines show us how truly conceited a person Tartuffe is, for he believes that Elmire and he are bound by God.
"The love that to eternal beauty binds us
Doesn’t stint when temporal beauty finds us" (Moliere 3.3. 59, 60).
How can we not admire Tartuffe's insolence?
Plus, they are both selfish. Daiyu’s self-absorption represents in these two lines:
"But better their remains in silk to lay
And bury underneath the wholesome clay" (Cao 108),
Flowers blooming and fading are all part of nature. They have different beauty in the beholder’s eyes. If I were the fading flower petals, I want to be free and beautify the ground but not be buried under the clay; yet, Daiyu thinks only herself ignoring the beauty of nature. Similarly, Tartuffe’s self-centeredness is the same. At the end of Tartuffe’s confession to Elmire, Tartuffe states:
"But men like me burn with a silent flame,
Our secrets safe, our love we never name" (Moliere 3.3. 131, 132), and
"So I can offer, free from scandal, love" (Moliere 3.3. 136),
When people in love, don't they always have the impulse to tell the whole world? Sigh! They both wrapped up in themselves without thinking other.
Furthermore, they are both jealous. Jealousy has always been human beings greatest weakness. Sometimes it motivates us to become a better us, but most the time it causes a negative outcome. In Daiyu and Tartuffe’s case, jealousy is the last straw of their unbridled passion that destroyed their lives. These two lines are the reason Daiyu wrote the Song of the Burial Flowers.
"This spring the heartless swallow built his nest
Beneath the eaves of mud with flowers compressed" (Cao108 ).
In the springtime, Daiyu learned about the arranged marriage between Baoyu and Baochai. She was heartbroken for her life is all about Baoyu. The jealousy broke her apart. Now her passion to Baoyu, the only person she loves, has nowhere to express but to die. Alternatively, when Elmire told Tartuffe:
"What if, through me, my husband were to hear
About this love for me you now confess" (Moliere 3.3. 140,141)
These words not only caused Tartuffe fear, but also provoked him to seek revenge. As a result, he was jailed.
Although both authors seem to suggest that passion destroys Daiyu and Tartuffe's lives, their passions are different. Daiyu is pessimistic, and Tartuffe is optimistic. Cao Xueqin uses foreshadowing in chapter one in The Story of the Stone with the concept of reincarnation to hint that the reason Daiyu came down to the earth was to repay Baoyu's sweet dew that had kept her alive in her last life. The only way she can pay her debts is "with the tears shed during the whole of a mortal lifetime (--- 527)." Right here we know Daiyu was born sad, and the love between she and Baoyu would be hopeless just as Daiyu wrote the poem, Song of the Burial Flowers, using her tears and blood as ink.
"The solitary Maid sheds many a tear,
Which on the boughs as bloody drops appear" (Cao 108).
But, her passion was in vain. We can only sigh that she did not have the courage to pursue her happiness as these two lines describe her desire for the beautiful future.
"And then I wished that I had wings to fly
After the drifting flowers across the sky" (Cao 108)
In contrast, Moliere's Tartuffe is mocking "the foolishness of trusting reason to arrange human affairs" (Moliere 141). In other words, Moliere rebuts the optimism. Therefore, Tartuffe's lust for Elmire eludes his original plan. These two lines from his confession to Elmire are so well composed that not only shows his passion but also affects any woman's heart:
"Of the audacious truth that I love you,
That only you can make this wish come true" (Moliere 3.3. 77, 78)
Unfortunately, his uncontrolled passion towards Elmire destroyed him as he had predicted in his confession to Elmire:
"Had I been ambushed by some evil force" (Moliere 3.3. 68)?
All in all, it was Daiyu and Tartuffe’s selfishness and jealousy combined with their feelings of inferiority that led to the destruction of their lives. The word, Tartuffe, has become a synonym for hypocrite only because Tartuffe can’t control his passion toward Orgon’s wife, Elmire. If Tartuffe had been rational as he and Orgon had arranged, married Orgon’s daughter, and patiently waited to take over Orgon’s property, I believe Orgon’s wife, Elmire, eventually wouldn’t have been able to escape from him because Elmire spends money "like it grows on trees" (Moliere 1.1 29). Throughout history, so many people have become successful by destroying other people on their way to their destination. If Tartuffe had succeeded, no one would say he is a hypocrite. Meanwhile, we see Daiyu without hesitating giving up her life for her irrational passion that was extinguished by Baoyu's marriage. Both Daiyu and Tartuffe were vanquished by their indiscretion. Both Daiyu and Tartuffe were ruined by their destructive passions. Perhaps we can conclude Daiyu and Tartuffe's miserable passions with one of Cao Xueqin' poetry:
"Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real" (---528).
Alas! When it comes to love, how are human beings vulnerable from their passions!
(1844 words)
"Three hundred and three-score the year’s full tale:
From swords of frost and from the slaughtering gale" (Cao 108)
Daiyu emphasizes that she lodges under Jia’s roof. Since she lives relying on Jia’s charity, she has to endure the other people’s sword-like criticism and frost-like treatment all year round.
Likewise, Tartuffe’s inferiority complex comes from the reality that he senses everyone in Orgon’s house knows very well that he was poor. Tartuffe knows exactly who he is. “I’m wicked through and through” (Moliere 3.6. 2). He is a subtle predator (Moliere 5.7. 59), and the baseness is "lurking in his coward’s heart” (Moliere 5.7. 63). He is a villain, a traitor, and a lecher (Moliere 5.7. 5). His inferiority complex comes from his poverty (Moliere 1.5. 47), comes from the fact that he is a beggar (Moliere 2.2. 34), and comes from even the maid, Dorine, in Orgen’s house looks down on him by saying:
"I could see you naked, head to toe---
Never be tempted once, and this I know" (Moliere 3.2. 15,16).
Both Daiyu and Tartuffe’s inferiority complexes have transformed them into ambivalent personalities. The difference is Daiyu becomes strong with self-respect and narcissism. We can see Daiyu’s ambivalence through her strong self-respecting personality. In chapter 23, after Daiyu read Western Chamber, Baoyu asked her if the book was good. Daiyu replied with a smile and nodded her head. Baoyu laughed and said,
"How can I, full of sickness and of woe,
Withstand that face which kingdoms could o’erthrow" (Cao 104)?
Daiyu was actually happy to hear that because these two lines come from Western Chamber. The man in the book is "full of sickness and of woe," and the woman has a "face which kingdoms could o’erthrow." Baoyu implied that he and Daiyu are a couple just like the man and the woman in the book. Even though Daiyu was happy, her answer was surprisingly opposite. "You’re hateful!" and you are "deliberately using that horrid play to take advantage of me (Cao 104)." Again, we see in chapter 27, when Baoyu tried to apologize to her, Daiyu "walked straight past him" not even looked at him (Cao 105). Daiyu rejected Baoyu against her true feeling, which shows her strong self-respect and is also the reflection of her inferiority complex.
On the contrary, Tartuffe’s ambivalent personality has become radically arrogant and conceited. Unlike Daiyu’s strong self-respect, Tartuffe tries to be as arrogant so he can to hide his inferiority complex. He told Organ that he "spurned the riches of this world" (Moliere 1.5. 47, 48). He lied that he was a noble, and he once had his own domain (Moliere 2.2 46, 47). He is so convinced by his own lies and arrogance that he boasts without shame to tell Elmire:
"My virtue stays intact and strong" (Moliere 3.3. 74), and
"Now I am bold, Encouraged by your presence, so I say,
With my true voice, will this be the day" (Moliere 3.3 114-116)
We can’t help but admire the way Tartuffe arrogantly deceives himself from his inferiority complex.
Subsequently, Daiyu’s inferiority complex becomes narcissism. In Song of the Burial of Flowers, Daiyu represents herself as a flower.
"Has rake in hand into the garden gone,
Before the fallen flowers are trampled on" (Cao 108).
We can see how much she loves herself that she could not even bear to go stepping on flowers.
In opposition to Daiyu’s narcissism is Tartuffe’s conceit which we spot in his confession to Elmire.
"I want to touch this lace--- don’t fret, I won’t,
It’s marvelous! I so admire the trade
Of making lace. Don’t tell me you’re afraid" (Moliere 3.3. 46-48).
He is so conceited that he thinks Elmire loves his touch. Meanwhile, the next two lines show us how truly conceited a person Tartuffe is, for he believes that Elmire and he are bound by God.
"The love that to eternal beauty binds us
Doesn’t stint when temporal beauty finds us" (Moliere 3.3. 59, 60).
How can we not admire Tartuffe's insolence?
Plus, they are both selfish. Daiyu’s self-absorption represents in these two lines:
"But better their remains in silk to lay
And bury underneath the wholesome clay" (Cao 108),
Flowers blooming and fading are all part of nature. They have different beauty in the beholder’s eyes. If I were the fading flower petals, I want to be free and beautify the ground but not be buried under the clay; yet, Daiyu thinks only herself ignoring the beauty of nature. Similarly, Tartuffe’s self-centeredness is the same. At the end of Tartuffe’s confession to Elmire, Tartuffe states:
"But men like me burn with a silent flame,
Our secrets safe, our love we never name" (Moliere 3.3. 131, 132), and
"So I can offer, free from scandal, love" (Moliere 3.3. 136),
When people in love, don't they always have the impulse to tell the whole world? Sigh! They both wrapped up in themselves without thinking other.
Furthermore, they are both jealous. Jealousy has always been human beings greatest weakness. Sometimes it motivates us to become a better us, but most the time it causes a negative outcome. In Daiyu and Tartuffe’s case, jealousy is the last straw of their unbridled passion that destroyed their lives. These two lines are the reason Daiyu wrote the Song of the Burial Flowers.
"This spring the heartless swallow built his nest
Beneath the eaves of mud with flowers compressed" (Cao108 ).
In the springtime, Daiyu learned about the arranged marriage between Baoyu and Baochai. She was heartbroken for her life is all about Baoyu. The jealousy broke her apart. Now her passion to Baoyu, the only person she loves, has nowhere to express but to die. Alternatively, when Elmire told Tartuffe:
"What if, through me, my husband were to hear
About this love for me you now confess" (Moliere 3.3. 140,141)
These words not only caused Tartuffe fear, but also provoked him to seek revenge. As a result, he was jailed.
Although both authors seem to suggest that passion destroys Daiyu and Tartuffe's lives, their passions are different. Daiyu is pessimistic, and Tartuffe is optimistic. Cao Xueqin uses foreshadowing in chapter one in The Story of the Stone with the concept of reincarnation to hint that the reason Daiyu came down to the earth was to repay Baoyu's sweet dew that had kept her alive in her last life. The only way she can pay her debts is "with the tears shed during the whole of a mortal lifetime (--- 527)." Right here we know Daiyu was born sad, and the love between she and Baoyu would be hopeless just as Daiyu wrote the poem, Song of the Burial Flowers, using her tears and blood as ink.
"The solitary Maid sheds many a tear,
Which on the boughs as bloody drops appear" (Cao 108).
But, her passion was in vain. We can only sigh that she did not have the courage to pursue her happiness as these two lines describe her desire for the beautiful future.
"And then I wished that I had wings to fly
After the drifting flowers across the sky" (Cao 108)
In contrast, Moliere's Tartuffe is mocking "the foolishness of trusting reason to arrange human affairs" (Moliere 141). In other words, Moliere rebuts the optimism. Therefore, Tartuffe's lust for Elmire eludes his original plan. These two lines from his confession to Elmire are so well composed that not only shows his passion but also affects any woman's heart:
"Of the audacious truth that I love you,
That only you can make this wish come true" (Moliere 3.3. 77, 78)
Unfortunately, his uncontrolled passion towards Elmire destroyed him as he had predicted in his confession to Elmire:
"Had I been ambushed by some evil force" (Moliere 3.3. 68)?
All in all, it was Daiyu and Tartuffe’s selfishness and jealousy combined with their feelings of inferiority that led to the destruction of their lives. The word, Tartuffe, has become a synonym for hypocrite only because Tartuffe can’t control his passion toward Orgon’s wife, Elmire. If Tartuffe had been rational as he and Orgon had arranged, married Orgon’s daughter, and patiently waited to take over Orgon’s property, I believe Orgon’s wife, Elmire, eventually wouldn’t have been able to escape from him because Elmire spends money "like it grows on trees" (Moliere 1.1 29). Throughout history, so many people have become successful by destroying other people on their way to their destination. If Tartuffe had succeeded, no one would say he is a hypocrite. Meanwhile, we see Daiyu without hesitating giving up her life for her irrational passion that was extinguished by Baoyu's marriage. Both Daiyu and Tartuffe were vanquished by their indiscretion. Both Daiyu and Tartuffe were ruined by their destructive passions. Perhaps we can conclude Daiyu and Tartuffe's miserable passions with one of Cao Xueqin' poetry:
"Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real" (---528).
Alas! When it comes to love, how are human beings vulnerable from their passions!
(1844 words)
Works Cited
Cao, Xueqin. The Longman Anthology of World Literature.
Edited by David Damrosch, 2nd. ed., vol. D, Pearson Longman, 2009. Cao, Xueqin.
"The Story of the Stone" pp. 103-133
---. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Compiled by Martin
Puchner, 3rd. ed., vol. D, New York, London, W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, 2012. 6
vols. Cao, Xueqin. "The Story of the Stone" pp. 521-583
Moliere, Jean-Baptiste. The Norton Anthology World Literature.
Compiled by Martin Puchner, 3rd. ed., vol. D, New York, London, W.W. NORTON
& COMPANY, 2012. 6 vols. Moliere. "Tartuffe" pp. 144-197
絞盡腦汁寫了這篇essay,心想,我該拿個A+,心想這堂17世紀到現代的世界文學史其實蠻好混的,這老師還不錯,整學期只要求2篇essay,剛考完另兩科的期中,這個周末終於可以可以睡到自然醒了,終於可以整理一下暑假媽媽來時的相片了.沒想到,這篇文章只拿到84%,沒想到bonus是還拿到了一張midterm study guide, 附帶了一題樣本,老師還很好心地宣布他只考九題,基本分10分大放送.傻眼了!這叫什麼study guide!不就是所有這學期開始以來念的鬼東西嗎?看著桌上一堆書和筆記,嗚呼哀哉,又要開始無眠了
Midterm Study Guide
Works with which you should be familiar
“The Love Suicides of Amijima”
“Atsumori”
“Life of a Sensuous Woman”
“Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”
“The Story of the Stone”
“Tartuffe”
“Oroonoko”
“Candide”
“Essay on Man”
“Songs of Innocence of Experience”
“The Encyclopedie” (Diderot and D’Alembert)
Wordsworth Poems
Shelley Poems
Keats Poems
E.B. Browning Poems
Tennyson Poems
Robert Browning Poems
Rosetti Poems
Ghalib Poems
Dario Poems
De Castro
Poems
Baudelaire
Poems
Terms and Concepts
Haiku characteristics such as syllable
count, cut words, and seasonal allusion.
Noh, Kabuki, Bunraki similarities and
differences.
Buddhism basics—Amida Buddhism
Confucian basics--
European Enlightenment Basics
Dramatic Irony
Deism
Philosophical Optimism (as it relates to
Pope and Voltaire)
Heroic Couplets
Blake: Innocence and Experience
Romanticism Basics
Differences in Romantic focus of
Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats.
Victorian Basics
Poetic terms from “Poetry Primer” hand-out.
Ghazzal characteristics
Sample
The
speaker of this passage is Tahei. Explain who the speaker is and the
significance of the following passage:
Chan Chan Chan Chan Chan Chan
Ei Ei Ei Ei Ei
Jihei the paper dealer
Too much love for Koharu
Has made him a foolscap,
He wastepapers sheets of gold
Till his fortune’s shredded to confetti
And Jihei himself is like a scrap of paper
You can’t even blow your nose on!
Hail, Hail Amida Buddha!
Namaida Namaida Namaida.
這三個學分可真不好拿,嘆氣ing...
以下是我考前兩天臨時抱佛腳盯著電腦趕出來的考前猜題筆記,然後用最後一天做填鴨式的背誦,只求能70分低空過關,大部分的詩都是從網上這裡一點,那裏一點偷來的心得,在這裡自責一番,似乎心情有了一點出口.現在開始得乖乖為期末做準備了,這種猜題法讓我心忐忑不安...
以下是我考前兩天臨時抱佛腳盯著電腦趕出來的考前猜題筆記,然後用最後一天做填鴨式的背誦,只求能70分低空過關,大部分的詩都是從網上這裡一點,那裏一點偷來的心得,在這裡自責一番,似乎心情有了一點出口.現在開始得乖乖為期末做準備了,這種猜題法讓我心忐忑不安...
The speaker of this passage is Tahei. Explain who the speaker is and the significance of the following passage:
Chan Chan Chan Chan Chan Chan
Ei Ei Ei Ei Ei
Jihei the paper dealer
Too much love for Koharu
Has made him a foolscap,
He wastepapers sheets of gold
Till his fortune’s shredded to confetti
And Jihei himself is like a scrap of paper
You can’t even blow your nose on!
Hail, Hail Amida Buddha!
Namaida Namaida Namaida.
Tahei is a customer in the pleasure quarter where Koharu, a courtesan, works.
Tahei and Jihei both fall in love with Koharu, and both want to ransom Koharu, but Koharu loves Jihei and tries to avoid Tahei.
This passage is a song from the Love Suicides at Amijima that Tahei rewrote from a prayer singing in front of Koharu using the ashtray as his bell, and his pipe as the hammer to mock Jihei. Since Jihei is a paper merchant, Tahei teases Jihei a fool wasting all his fortune on Koharu as the paper business turns into confetti. Tahei also laughs at Jihei has become a scrap paper which Koharu can no longer depend on.
The significance of the passage suggests that Tahei believes in Pure Land Buddhism because it required no elaborate rituals or complicated philosophy, but only to repeat the nembutsu, “Namu Amida Butsu,” so at the end of the passage, Tahei hints that even Buddha agrees with him that Koharu should give up on Jihei and choose him, Tahei, instead.
Noh, Kabuki, and
Bunrako (from the teacher)
Noh
Noh: Is the high
art form of theater.
Characteristics:
Stage: a sparse
set with a walkway, a roofed stage, and a tree painted on the back wall.
Character roles:
All
performers in noh are male.
Shite
- the leading character (the question answerer). Depending on the play, the
shite may act as a holy old man, a deity, a demon, a spirit or a living man.
His movements express various moods.
Waki
- the supporting actor (the question asker). The waki plays roles such as a
priest, monk or samurai. In contrast to the shite, the waki always portrays
living people.
Hayashi - the
musicians. There are four types of musicians who play in Noh: the flute player,
the shoulder-drum player, the hip-drum player, and the stick-drum player.
Jiutai
- the chorus. The chorus sits to the left of the stage and assists the shite in
the narration of the story.
Within a Noh play,
however, anai-kyogen actor
("Kyogen actor who performs during the interval") appears after the shite of Act 1 has exited, and serves to
relate to the waki the story of the place, telling the
tale in great detail. Within a Kyogen play, the main role is called the shite, and the supporting
role is called the ado.
Koken
- stage attendants. Dressed in black, the stage attendants are not part of the
play but assist the performers in various ways, such as handing them props.
Kabuki
Kabuki
started in the pleasure districts of Japan and originally featured male and
female actors before females and boys were eventually banned. The themes of
Kabuki are wide open, and can involve both stories from myth and history or
from current events. Kabuki plots tend to be over the top and feature elaborate
staging, costumes, make-up, dance routines, and music. There is a certain
“anything goes” sort of feel to Kabuki.
Bunrako (Puppet plays)
Bunrako, like
Kabuki, is also a low art theater form. Plots are wide open ranging from
historical plots to modern day sensational events such as love suicides.
Bunrako uses
articulated puppets, about ¾ size of humans.
Elements of
Bunrako:
Puppets: The
puppets are handles by multiple puppeteers, the central puppeteer holding the
head.
Shamisen: The
musician who plays during the performance.
Atsumori
Atsumori is a Japanese Noh play.
Atsumori and Naozene first met during a war. They were in a battle, and Atsumori’s side was defeated. When Naozene realizes that the soldier, Atsumori, is only a boy the age of his own son, he takes pity, but is in the end forced to kill the boy when Naozene’s fellow warriors approach the scene. Naozene found a flute under the dead boy. Atsumori was noted for carrying around with his flute, “Little Branch,” an evidence of his peaceful nature as well as his youth and naive. Tormented by remorse, Naozene soon becomes a monk named Rensho to pray for Atsumori’s salvation.
Rensho was wandering from Kyoto to the Suma shore, the site of the battle that Atsumori was killed. Rensho went there to help Atsumori’s spirit find peace. In the second act, the actor who played the youth in the first act has now changed costume and plays Atsumori. It is implied that the youth earlier was Atsumori's ghost in disguise. The play then ends with Rensho refusing to re-enact his role in Atsumori's death; the ghost declares that Rensho is not his enemy, and asks that the monk pray for his release.
A Brief History of Haiku (from the teacher)
By Kevin Kizer (Lit Kicks Website)
During the Heian period of Japanese culture
(700-1100), it was a social requirement to be able to instantly recognize,
appreciate and recite Japanese and Chinese poetry. It was around this period
that short forms of poetry (tanka) grew in popularity over long forms of poetry
(choka). The rigid lifestyles of the time carried over into art; every poem had
to have a specific form. The approved form was the 5-7-5 triplet followed by a
couplet of seven syllables (this was the Japanese equivalent to the iambic
pentameter of Shakespeare's England).
From this form developed the renga (linked
verse) and the kusari-no-renga (chains of linked verse). These forms were used
almost as parlor games for the elite. However, in the mid-sixteenth century
there began a rise in "peasant" poetry. It was then that Japanese
poetry underwent a rebirth in which the staid forms of the past were replaced
with a lighter, airier tone. This new form was called haikai and was later
named renku.
Haikai consisted of a beginning triplet
called a hokku. The hokku was considered the most important part of the poem.
It had two principal requirements: a seasonal word (kireji) and a "cutting
word" or exclamation.
The poet Basho infused a new sensibility
and sensitivity to this form in the late seventeenth century. He transformed
the poetics and turned the hokku into an independent poem, later to be known as
haiku. Basho's work focused around the concept of karumi (a feeling of
lightness) -- so much so that he abandoned the traditional syllabic limitations
to achieve it.
In "On Love and Barley: Haiku of
Basho", Lucien Stryk wrote:
"Basho's
mature haiku style, Shofu, is known not only for karumi, but also for two other
Zen-inspired aesthetic ideals: sabi and wabi. Sabi implies contented
solitariness, and in Zen is associated with early monastic experience, when a
high degree of detachment is cultivated. Wabi can be described as the spirit of
poverty, an appreciation of the commonplace, and is perhaps most fully achieved
in the tea ceremony, which, from the simple utensils used in the preparation of
the tea to the very structure of the tea hut, honours the humble."
Since the time of Basho, the history of
haiku mirrors the Zen ideal that it oftentimes relates. While it has gone
through many transformations, developments, and revisions, good haiku today is
surprisingly similar as to when Basho developed the form in the seventeenth
century.
Identify what kind of poem this is and 3 characteristics that make this example typical of this type of poem:
The first day of the year:
thoughts come-and there is loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.
This is a haiku, the shortest poetic form of world literature.
Haiku was named by the poet and critic Masaoka Shiki in the 1890s.
3 characteristics:
1. This is a poem with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.
2. Haiku contains a “seasonal word” which evokes a host of associations relating landscape to mood. In this poem, the first day of the year represents winter which makes us think of desolation.
3. Haiku has a “cutting word” which usually stands at the end of the first or second line and divides the haiku into two parts. In this poem, the cutting word is “thoughts come.” The poet’s loneliness continuous from the first day of the year to autumn, which implies his/hers all year loneliness.
An old pond-
A frog leaps in,
The sound of water
This is one of Basho’s famous haiku.
Haiku is the shortest poetic form of world literature which was named by the poet and critic Masaoka Shiki in the 1890s.
3 characteristics:
1. This is a poem with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern if we pronounce it in Japanese.
2. Haiku contains a “seasonal word” which evokes a host of associations relating landscape to mood. In this poem, Frogs appeared in spring, calling out to their mates with their voices.
3. Haiku has a “cutting word” which usually stands at the end of the first or second line and divides the haiku into two parts. In this poem, the cutting word is “A frog.” The frog is not singing in spring, not in love, but jumped in the pond. I interpret this poem as:
An old pond: my peaceful mind
A frog: a reckless thought
The sound of water: that thought disturbs my mind
Identify the speaker and who he is speaking of in the following passage. With reference to the passage, explain what kind of irony this is an example of.
You just don’t see him in the way I do
But if you did, you’d feel what I feel too.
Every day he came to church and knelt,
And from his groans, I knew just what he felt.
Those sounds he made from deep inside his soul,
Were fed by piety he could not control.
Of the congregation, who could ignore
The way he humbly bowed and kissed the floor?
And when they tried to turn away their eyes,
His fervent prayers to heaven and deep sighs
Made them witness his deep spiritual pain.
This passage is from Moliere’s Tartuffe, and it uses heroic couplets. A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. The heroic couplet is often identified with the English Baroque works of John Dryden and Alexander Pope,
The speaker is Orgon, and he is speaking to his brother-in-law, Cleante, about what a pietistic person Tartuffe is.
This is an example of dramatic irony because we, the audience or readers, all know Moliere invents Tartuffe as a religious hypocrite whose high-sounding pieties only to deceive Orgon by his grand gestures of mortification and charity. Our knowledge is better than the speaker, Orgon, who is a foolish and stubborn character.
The Exempt (to Orgon)
You may compose yourself now, sir, because
We’re fortunate in leadership and laws.
We have a king who sees into men’s hearts,
And cannot be deceived, so he imparts
Great wisdom, and a talent for discernment,
Thus frauds are guaranteed a quick internment.
This is a passage that an officer of the king speaks to Orgon.
We know that the idea “Great Chain of Being,” a vast hierarchical structure is widely shared with many Enlightenment philosophers. The chain starts from God and progresses downward to angels, demons, stars, moon, kings, princes, nobles, commoners, and so on. We might think the arbitrary intervention of the king leaves a disturbing emotional residue. The play, however forces us to recognize the constant threats to rationality and the precariousness with which reason finally triumphs. On the other hand, we know Moliere might trouble religious authorities that he might have to pray to the great king at the end, so his works can be presented on stage.
Enlightenment (From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/) (from the teacher)
The
Enlightenment is the period in the history of western thought and culture,
stretching roughly from the mid-decades of the seventeenth century through the
eighteenth century, characterized by dramatic revolutions in science,
philosophy, society and politics; these revolutions swept away the medieval
world-view and ushered in our modern western world. Enlightenment thought
culminates historically in the political upheaval of the French Revolution, in
which the traditional hierarchical political and social orders (the French
monarchy, the privileges of the French nobility, the political power and
authority of the Catholic Church) were violently destroyed and replaced by a
political and social order informed by the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and
equality for all, founded, ostensibly, upon principles of human reason. The
Enlightenment begins with the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. The rise of the new science progressively undermines not
only the ancient geocentric conception of the cosmos, but, with it, the entire
set of presuppositions that had served to constrain and guide philosophical
inquiry. The dramatic success of the new science in explaining the natural
world, in accounting for a wide variety of phenomena by appeal to a relatively
small number of elegant mathematical formulae, promotes philosophy (in the
broad sense of the time, which includes natural science) from a handmaiden of
theology, constrained by its purposes and methods, to an independent force with
the power and authority to challenge the old and construct the new, in the
realms both of theory and practice, on the basis of its own principles.
D'Alembert, a leading figure of the French Enlightenment, characterizes his
eighteenth century, in the midst of it, as “the century of philosophy par
excellence”, because of the tremendous intellectual progress of the age, the
advance of the sciences, and the enthusiasm for that progress, but also because
of the characteristic expectation of the age that philosophy (in this broad
sense) would dramatically improve human life.
The task of
characterizing philosophy in (or of) the Enlightenment confronts the obstacle
of the wide diversity of Enlightenment thought. The Enlightenment is associated
with the French thinkers of the mid-decades of the eighteenth century, the
so-called “philosophes”, (Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Montesquieu, et
cetera). The philosophes constitute an informal society of men of letters who
collaborate on a loosely defined project of Enlightenment centered around the
project of the Encyclopedia. But the Enlightenment has broader boundaries, both
geographical and temporal, than this suggests. In addition to the French, there
was a very significant Scottish Enlightenment (key figures were Francis Hutcheson,
David Hume, Adam Smith, and Thomas Reid) and a very significant German
Enlightenment (die Aufklärung, key figures of which include Christian Wolff,
Moses Mendelssohn, G.E. Lessing and Immanuel Kant). But all these
Enlightenments were but particular nodes or centers in a far-flung and varied
intellectual development. Given the variety, Enlightenment philosophy is
characterized here in terms of general tendencies of thought, not in terms of
specific doctrines or theories.
Only late
in the development of the German Enlightenment, when the Enlightenment was near
its end, does the movement become self-reflective; the question of “What is
Enlightenment?” is debated in pamphlets and journals. In his famous definition
of “enlightenment” in his essay “An Answer to the Question: What is
Enlightenment?” (1784), which is his contribution to this debate, Immanuel Kant
expresses many of the tendencies shared among Enlightenment philosophies of
divergent doctrines. Kant defines “enlightenment” as humankind's release from
its self-incurred immaturity; “immaturity is the inability to use one's own
understanding without the guidance of another.” Enlightenment is the process of
undertaking to think for oneself, to employ and rely on one's own intellectual
capacities in determining what to believe and how to act. Enlightenment
philosophers from across the geographical and temporal spectrum tend to have a
great deal of confidence in humanity's intellectual powers, both to achieve
systematic knowledge of nature and to serve as an authoritative guide in
practical life. This confidence is generally paired with suspicion or hostility
toward other forms or carriers of authority (such as tradition, superstition,
prejudice, myth and miracles), insofar as these are seen to compete with the
authority of reason. Enlightenment philosophy tends to stand in tension with
established religion, insofar as the release from self-incurred immaturity in
this age, daring to think for oneself, awakening one's intellectual powers,
generally requires opposing the role of established religion in directing
thought and action. The faith of the Enlightenment – if one may call it that –
is that the process of enlightenment, of becoming progressively self-directed
in thought and action through the awakening of one's intellectual powers, leads
ultimately to a better, more fulfilled human existence.
The
Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther in 1517 in what is now Germany
and spread throughout Europe. It was a movement in protest against corruption
in the Catholic Church and stressed personal salvation. Most Protestant
religious movements seek to let individual worshippers have a direct, personal
relationship with God through a direct experience with the Bible (as opposed to
a mediated experience via a priest who explains the Bible).
The period
of the Reformation was a particularly bloody period the Catholic Church and
sympathetic rulers tried to regain control (the Counter-Reformation) and as
various religious factions fought each other over often minor differences of
interpretation. In many instances
religious disputes were used as a pretext for other forms of political
struggles as when Catholic properties were seized in Germany and England on the
pretext of Protestant reform.
Protestant
reformers tended to succeed in Northern Europe: Lutherans in northern German
states, Calvinists in Switzerland, Anglicans in England, Huguenots in northern
France. Catholicism tended to retain Southern Europe: Spain, France, the
Italian city states.
The
Enlightenment should, in part, be seen as a reaction to the religious strife
that preceded it, while at the same time adopting some of its
rationalist/humanist aspects (e.g., the focus on the individual as being
capable of directly understanding the truth of scripture seems to echo the
reliance on reason as the source of truth for most Enlightenment thinkers).
Candide
Chapter Summaries/Themes: (from the teacher)
Chap. 1:
Setting the theme: “The Best Possible
World”—Candide expelled for crossing class lines.
Chap. 2:
Conscription (Freedom vs. Determinism/Servitude)
Chap. 3:
War (“Heroism”)/Religious Hypocrisy and Intolerance [Protestantism vs.
Anabaptism]
Chap. 4:
Disease—Venereal Disease—Sexual Impropriety
Chap. 5:
Weather and Natural Disaster—Tempests and Earthquake.
Chap. 6:
Religious Intolerance—the Inquisition [Catholicism]
Chap. 7: Candide
Saved by Old Woman
Chap 8: The
Oppression of Women: Rape, Sexual Slavery/Religious Hypocrisy [Judaism and
Catholics]
Chap. 9:
Murder—Passion
Chap. 10:
Robbery—The New World as the Best Possible World?
Chap. 11:
More Oppression of Women: Beauty and Destructiveness: Murder, Pirates, Slavery,
Violence, [Africa] [Catholicism--Islam]
Chap. 13:
Stories of Suffering; Practical Attitude to Marriage (South America)
Chap. 14:
Religion as a Method of Subjugation (Jesuits)
Chap. 15:
Snobbery/Class Warfare, Murder
Chap. 16:
Bestiality, Cannibalism, Humans in a State of Nature
Candide is written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment.
Candide’s tutor, Dr. Pangloss, teaches him that their world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything that transpires in this world is for the best. Candide accepts Dr. Pangloss’s teachings as absolute truth.
Cunégonde’s father sees the young lovers kiss and immediately banishes Candide from his home. This incident begins a miraculous series of misfortunes for all of the novel’s characters.
Candide and Cacambo travel for several months and ultimately end up in the utopian land of El Dorado. At this point, anything would look great in comparison to where they’ve been, but Candide insists on leaving to find his beloved. With the help of scientists, the two men leave the country loaded with jewels.
At the end, Candide marries Cunégonde, but she is now unattractive and everyone is unhappy, especially since the only reason he liked Cunégonde in the first place was because of her looks. Life is terrible until they buy a small farm on which they can spend their days doing hard work, which somehow makes them happy.
Voltaire believed in Deism that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason, but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind. Pangloss represents a pre-Enlightenment philosopher "Leibniz", who preached about the importance of "Optimism", which Voltaire sought to attack though Candide. Candide’s journey rebuts the belief in optimism, and led us to realism which encourages us to understand our situation and try to deal the problems in a practical way.
Enlightenment
The word "Enlightenment" is intended to "light up" which means the use of rational thinking to dispel all human ignorance and turbid thoughts. The Enlightenment is the period in the history of western thought and culture, stretching from the mid seventeenth century through the eighteenth century. People were full of passion in the outside world and human knowledge, which included scientific principle, extensive discussion of religion and politics, law, society, economy, music, painting and other issues in the field of knowledge. People were full of optimism, curiosity and confidence with reflections on the past and to study and look forward to the future. This line of thought started from the mid-fifteenth Century Renaissance, through the sixteenth century religious reform movement, continued to grow and thrive and finally in the Enlightenment to flourish. As far as religious attitudes were concerned, the Enlightenment was largely influenced by the concept of Deism that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason, but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind. For example, Moliere’s Tartuffe is mocking the foolishness of trusting reason to arrange our lives, and Voltaire’s Candide is opposed to religious superstition and the church's suppression of people. Theoretic belief that we can only through the rational understanding of the concept of God and religion, against supernatural and religion of revelation. Therefore, the Enlightenment period, also known as the Age of Reason. As the motto of Enlightenment, “Dare to know,” encourages people to use our own reasoning. The Enlightenment ended with the French Revolution in 1789. The French Revolution slogan was proposed in the age of enlightenment which were the pursuit of freedom, equality and fraternity.
Romantic Age
The major poets in British Romantic Age are Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. It was a very short period of time from about 1789 to 1832. The achievement is not only great but also affects the modern literature.
The Romantic Age was during the England Industrial Revolution. The Age of Machines makes poets feel objectified. In addition, the French revolution had challenged the poets revolutionary sentiment. Therefore, they care for the people living in the lower classes and children who were never the important object in the Age of Enlightenment. Also, the poet's pursuit of immersing in the nature. The notion that certain freedoms are given by nature alone and cannot be taken away by any government.
Song of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
In Songs of Innocence, Blake explores in simple language what it would be like to perceive the world through the eyes of a child. His later Songs of Experience offers a set of companion pieces that return to the same subject matter from a more knowing perspective. Blake juxtaposes the two sets of poems, inviting us to think about the different ways that an innocent child and an experienced adult might understand God, love, and justice.
Song of Innocence:
The Little Black Boy
The poem is in heroic quatrains, which are stanzas of iambic pentameter lines rhyming ABAB. The form is a variation on the ballad stanza.
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav’d of light.….
Thus did my mother say and kissed me,
And thus I say to little English boy;
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:
A black boy compares himself to a white English boy, and at first finds himself wanting. He claims his soul is as white as the English boy’s, but also sees himself as “black as if bereav’d of light.” He then remembers that his loving mother taught him that his black skin is a result of constant exposure to the sun. The mother explains the sun as God’s gift to mankind, sharing both His light and his heat, both of which are forms of His love. His color, she explains, is a temporary “cloud” to be borne until he can fully learn to dwell in the presence of God’s love. The speaker ends by saying he will tell the English boy this truth and look forward to the day when both of them have put off this cloud and can love one another truly.
Songs of Experience
London
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
Iambic tetrameter
In each stanza, every other line rhymes (which gives us a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GDGD).
London was a bad place back in the 1790s. Just ask the speaker of this poem, who takes a walk around an area near the Thames. He can hear all kinds of cries, from adults and kids alike. He sees people who look just awful, a church that's getting blacker all the time, and a palace that appears to have blood on its walls. Eesh. While walking at midnight, he hears something really bad: a harlot (prostitute) cursing her infant for crying. All in all? Bad times, y'all.
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798 by William Wordsworth
Blank Verse, Ballad
Wordsworth didn't want his verse to be too obvious, so he decided to use blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter.Wordsworth probably chose to use blank verse because he wanted "Tintern Abbey" to sound natural and conversational.
"Tintern Abbey" is also a “Ballad." A ballad is a narrative poem, which means it tells a story. The ballad is typically arranged in quatrains with the rhyme scheme ABAB. In English Romantic poetry they usually follow a tetrameter to trimeter lines. Ballads began as folk songs and continue to be used today in modern music.
The setting is so important to this poem that Wordsworth gives us exact directions and even the precise date in the title. The poem takes place on the banks of the Wye River, We also know exactly when the poem takes place: July 13, 1798. The speaker sits underneath a "dark sycamore" tree (10) and thinks about his previous visit, which took place five years earlier. By sifting through his memories, the speaker moves back and forth in time and imaginatively goes back to "towns and cities" (26). So even though the poem takes place entirely on the banks of the Wye on July 13, 1798, his earlier visit (probably in 1793, five years earlier) and his memories of living in "towns and cities" are also important to the setting. Now, though, he's learned how to look at nature with a broader perspective on life. In other words, he used to enjoy nature, but he didn't fully understand it. Now he looks and is able to sense a deeper, wider meaning to the beauty in nature. He sees that everything in nature is interconnected.
"The World is too Much with Us" takes place near the ocean somewhere.
The world is too much with us; late and soon, A
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; B
Little we see in Nature that is ours; B
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! A
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, A
The winds that will be howling at all hours, B
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, B
For this, for everything, we are out of tune; A
It moves us not. – Great God! I'd rather be C
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; D
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, C
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; D
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; C
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. D
William Wordsworth, the biggest nature-lover of all the Romantic poets, lived most of his life in a rural part of northern England called the Lake District, a land of beautiful hills, vales, and lakes.
"The World is too Much With Us" is obsessed with nature; in fact, the central complaint of the poem is that people are so consumed by consumerism that they are no longer moved by nature.According to this poem, mankind's alienation from nature is also the sign of a much deeper problem, the loss or destruction of something as important as our hearts. The speaker says he would rather be a pagan, because then he would at least see and hear something a little more inspiring.
Wordsworth's sonnet is of the Petrarchan variety; its rhyme scheme is ABBA ABBA CDCDCD. In the Petrarchan sonnet there is a noticeable shift in the ninth line (the turn). In the ninth line of Wordsworth's poem, the speaker starts to express his wish to be a pagan because he's sick of the way things are; it's getting him down.
For the most part, the poem is in iambic pentameter,
Petrarchan sonnets
The sonnet is split in two groups: the "octave" (of 8 lines) and the "sestet" (of 6 lines), for a total of 14 lines.
The octave (the first 8 lines), state a problem, ask a question, or express an emotional tension using a rhyme scheme of abba abba.
The break from the octave to the sestet in known as the turn.
The sestet (the last 6 lines), resolve the problem, answer the question, or relieve the tension. The rhyme scheme varies; it is usually cdecde or cdccdc.
ENGLAND IN 1819
An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,--
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring,--
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,--
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,--
An army which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,--
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless, a book sealed,--
A Senate—Time's worst statute unrepealed,--
Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst to illumine our tempestuous day.
"England in 1819" is a political sonnet by the English Romantic poet Percy Shelley, and reflects his liberal ideals. Composed in 1819. Like all sonnets, "England in 1819" has fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter; however, its rhyming scheme (a-b-a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, c-c-d-d) differs from that of the traditional English sonnet (a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g).
Shelly referred to King George III as old, mad, blind and dying, also he mentioned the leech-like “nobility” sucks the blood from the people who are hungry and hopeless. Meanwhile, the army is corrupt and dangerous, the laws are useless, and religion had lost its spirit. The poem makes you depressed although the last two lines express the hope that a "glorious Phantom" may spring forth from this decay and "illumine our tempestuous day". On the other hand, I googled King George III, I don’t think he was such a terrible king.
Ode to a Nightingale by Keats
The stanza forms of the poem is a combination of elements from Petrarchan sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets.
Petrarchan sonnets
The sonnet is split in two groups: the "octave" (of 8 lines) and the "sestet" (of 6 lines), for a total of 14 lines.
The octave (the first 8 lines), state a problem, ask a question, or express an emotional tension using a rhyme scheme of abba abba.
The break from the octave to the sestet in known as the turn.
The sestet (the last 6 lines), resolve the problem, answer the question, or relieve the tension. The rhyme scheme varies; it is usually cdecde or cdccdc.
Shakespearean sonnets
The sonnets are almost all constructed from three quatrains, which are four-line stanzas, and a final couplet composed in iambic pentameter. The final couplet must summarize the impact of the preceding quatrains with the compressed force of a Greek epigram. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.
Ode
An English ode is a lyrical stanza in praise of, or dedicated to someone or something that captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration for the ode. The lyrics can be on various themes. Ode typically address of a person, an animal, emotion, or idea that is not present or capable of truly hearing the address.
Like most of the other odes, “Ode to a Nightingale” is written in ten-line stanzas. The first seven and last two lines of each stanza are written in iambic pentameter; the eighth line of each stanza is written in iambic trimeter, Nightingale’s rhyme scheme is the same in every stanza. Each stanza in “Nightingale” is rhymed ABABCDECDE.
This poem highlights the blissful music of the nightingale, but it also has a bleak side. The speaker is desperate to escape the world because it is full of people getting old and dying. Life is just a long parade of miseries, and he thinks it would be better to just go out quietly in the middle of the night. The nightingale's world seems so enchanting that it makes our own world seem like a real drag.
"Ode to a Nightingale" is notable for being the longest of Keats's six "Great Odes." It is also often considered the most personal, with its reflections on death and the stresses of life.
"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning uses iambic pentameter and heroic couplets.
Iambic means that the rhythm is based on two-syllable units in which the second syllable is stressed. Pentameter means that there are five of those in a line.
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. The heroic couplet is often identified with the English Baroque works of John Dryden and Alexander Pope.
Robert Browning published "My Last Duchess" during the Victorian era which was from 1837-1901. Those are the years when Victoria was Queen of England. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, "refined sensibilities" and national self-confidence for Britain. However, It was the age of the novel. Poets in this period got sandwiched between two great movements which are Romanticism and Modernism that majorly influenced Western Culture. Most Victorian poets were highly experimental and not so highly popular.
Poets have written many kinds of poetry. There are two main types, lyric and narrative. Some people regard dramatic poetry as a third main type. Dramatic poems resemble narrative poems because they tell a story and are fairly long. But the poet tells the story through the speech of one or more of the characters in the story. "My Last Duchess,"a dramatic monologue
by Robert Browning is a famous example. Through what the duke says in his monologue, while supposedly speaking to a visitor, Browning shows the duck’s character and reveals much about the duchess.
Robert Browning alarmed his Victorian readers with psychological – and sometimes psychopathic – realism, wild formal experiments, and harsh-sounding language.
The Duke’s overreaction to the Duchess’s genial nature pretty much makes him a textbook example of a controlling, abusive husband who demands absolute subservience from his wife. The only difference is that he’s crazy enough to think that even ordering her not to be nice to people is beneath him. In his mind, killing her is the only way to deal with the fact that she smiled at the sunset. This poem has several different attractions: a "true crime" feel (the real-life Duchess of Ferrara did die under suspicious circumstances) and a chilling depiction of the psychology of a man obsessed with power. .
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