La Belle Dame

Lucrezia de' Medici, by Bronzino,

generally believed to be My Last Duchess

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lst_Duchess 

"My Last Duchess" is a poem by Robert Browning, frequently anthologized as an example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's Dramatic Lyrics.The poem is written in 28 rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter. The poem is preceded by the word Ferrara:, indicating that the speaker is most likely Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598) who, at the age of 25, married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, 14-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo.

Lucrezia was not well educated, and the Medicis' status could be termed "nouveau riche" in comparison with that of the venerable and distinguished Este family. The Duke's remark regarding his gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name" clearly indicates that he considered his bride beneath him socially. She came, however, with a sizeable dowry. The couple married in 1558. He then abandoned her for two years before she died on April 21, 1561, at age 17. There was a strong suspicion of poisoning. The Duke then sought the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary and the sister of the Count of Tyrol, Ferdinand II.^[2] The count was in charge of arranging the marriage; the chief of his entourage, Nikolaus Madruz, a native of Innsbruck, was his courier. Madruz is presumably the silent listener in the poem. The other characters named in the poem, painter Frà Pandolf and sculptor Claus of Innsbruck, are fictional.

The poem is set during the late Italian Renaissance. The speaker (presumably the Duke of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of his prospective second wife a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he invites his guest to sit and look at the painting. As they look at the portrait of the late Duchess, the Duke describes her happy, cheerful and flirtatious nature, which had displeased him. He says, "She had a heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad..." He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that "'twas not her husband's presence only" that made her happy. Eventually, "I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together." He now keeps her painting hidden behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw back, meaning that now she only smiles for him. The Duke then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse. In an interview, Browning said, "I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death . . . Or he might have had her shut up in a convent."

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Dame_sans_Merci

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dancing songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonymous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock power ballad.

 

 

If

If

Rudyard Kipling

 

This famous didactic poem by Nobel-prize winning, British poet Rudyard Kipling offers a catalogue of advice from a father to a young male, probably his son.

 

The many qualities he believes are essential to becoming "a Man" include: self-belief, self-control, stoicism, modesty, humility and truthfulness.

 

The poem was published in a collection of short stories and poems called Rewards and Fairies in 1910. According to Kipling's autobiography Something of Myself, the poem was inspired by Dr. Jameson, who fought against the Boers in South Africa in the 1890's.

 

The poem is often voted Britain’s Favourite poem

 

The poem fulfils its own metaphorical advice: Fill the... minute/ With sixty seconds' worth of distance run. Note, the poem fills its own minute full of breathless advice.

 

A Didactic Poem

A work meant to give instruction.

 

Series of Opposites:

keep... lose

trust... doubt (and all the others!)

These build up throughout the poem, but we are only given the 'reward' in the closing line.

After the first 4 lines, you, you, you, too, the alternate rhyme scheme maintains the momentum of the counsel: ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH

 

Structure

4 stanzas of 8 lines. We can look at the stanzas individually, but the messages contained in each are overlapping.

 

Stanza 1: character traits including self-confidence, courage, patience and honesty. The person addresses is encouraged not to fall into the usual pitfalls awaiting us in life. He is encouraged not to be irrational (keep your head), not to doubt himself (trust yourself), not to be impatient (not be tired by waiting), and so on.

 

Stanza 2:  lists what you can do for your fellow man, as long as you are not seeking a personal reward. This stanza is about the hurdles that must be overcome using a solid work ethic.

 

Stanza 3:  This stanza opens with the suggestion that risk taking is part of life. We have to be ready to take risks and to fail. In this stanza, your 'heart and nerve and sinew' can keep you going once your 'winnings have gone' but, at the end of the day, it is your 'Will' (your own personal inner drive) that commands all 3: Hold on! Will is capitalised to emphasize the amount of determination it takes to 'hold on' when all is falling apart.

 

Stanza 4: There are 2 pieces of advice in this last stanza: do not be corrupted by power, and use your time to the full.

 

Punctuation

Note, this poem is one long sentence.. which emphasizes the idea that life is one long journey towards a final destination, a final reward.

 

The exclamation marks at the end of the last two stanzas should be seen as a final signs of encouragement (a poetic slap on the back!).

 

In the third stanza, it is 'Will' (human determination) which is speaking to the 'heart and nerve and sinew'. In the fourth stanza the speaker is speaking to the young male, us.

 

Future Conditional Tense

The repeated use of future conditional tense underlines the sense that nothing is sure and that we each build our own future selves.

 

Each of the lines contains the first part of the future conditional construction "If ..." the second part of the construction comes at the end of stanza four: yours is... you'll be.

 

The situations mentioned are hypothetical and general. The speaker can only hypothesize about the listener's future. This is part of the charm of the poem, as any listener can layer the advice onto actual events in their own life (think about the charm of reading your horoscope).

 

Second Person Singular

The narrator holds our interest as he addresses us through pronoun 'you.'  Of course, 'you' can both be singular and plural, it can be used to refer to an individual you and sense of the wider male/reading population.

 

Imperatives

Don't do this, don't do that.... yet, the advice feels more kind hearted than commanding.

 

The speaker is advising us to avoid excesses, to maintain a 'stiff upper lip,' to stay on the straight and narrow: don't give way to hating.

 

Personification

Personification is used to emphasise the danger of falling captive to 'Triumph and Disaster.'

 

The Reward

"Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

 

Capitalisation of ‘Man’ emphasises the importance and finality of this state.

 

Very God-like reward, echoes of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Note, though, that being "a Man" is even more important than possessing "the earth."

 

The final contrasting coupling of 'Man' and 'my son' is a final reminder that the person addressed is still the 'son.' The road ahead will be long!

 

Rudyard Kipling

Websites

http://www.kipling.org.uk/kip_fra.htm - well organised biography of Kipling's life.

 

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Didactic_Poetry - Didactic Poetry

 

http://www.ool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/ELI-Sample-worksheet-1011.pdf

Online IGCSE worksheet!

 

Compare to other poems in the anthology:

Prayer Before Birth

Poem at 39

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Dark Night

Essay Plan: Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom

Essay Plan:

 

Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom by Marcia Douglas

 

How does the writer successfully create an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation in her poem, "Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom"

 

Essay Plan

Introduction: reformulate essay question and, if you have time, briefly introduce the poem.

Paragraph 1 - anticipation of children and natural world + sense of passing time

a) the children are really impatent about the event 

   - all the children 

   -camped on grass

   - watching sun changing colour

b) animals

   - kling- klings

   - fireflies 

    - congregated - like worshippers in a chrch

c) natural world's reaction

  - personification of natural world

  - bending bamboo, the grass bent forward

  - the wind

tension is created through verb choice - watching and waiting.

Paragraph 2 - sights and sounds

  a) contrast between sound and absence of sound

         -- fluttering of wings, gasp of crowd, swelling, swaying = onomatopoeia

  b) the pencil line across the sun

Paragraph 3 - fairy-tale like elements

   - starts in middle of story

   - free verse – dream like mood

   - cocoa bottom - bit of a silly name

   - Granny Patterson

   - something amazing is waiting to happen

 

Paragraph 4 - anticlimax

  - the sense of anticlimax - no one recorded event, children went back home

  - the world returned to normal, no need for electricity

 

Conclusion, the writer successfully creates an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation but then deflates the situation with a surprising anti-climax -  from that moment comes the understanding that human life is temporary - entertaining, yes - but only part of a much bigger picture.

“Some writers leave their creative handprints in dark caves where only later happenstance may, perhaps, discover them. Some writers stamp their entire selves upon the language, upon the culture, upon literature and upon our consciousness in so intimate, singular, well-illuminated and indelible a manner that there can be no mistaking their poems and prose for those of another. Such a writer is Marcia Douglas."

- June Owens/The Caribbean Writer

Marcia Douglas was born in England and grew up in Jamaica. She is the author of the novels, Madam Fate (Soho, 1999) and Notes from a Writer's Book of Cures and Spells (Peepal Tree Press, 2005) as well as a collection of poetry, Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom (Peepal Tree Press, 1999) which received a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in the U.K.

 

http://marciadouglas.com