course guidelines path one calendar class discussion path two calendar essay prompts reference pages


ornamental line

Faith and the Ineffable

"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full . . ." (ll.21-22)
"Dover Beach" (1867)

Points for Reflection

E. B. Browning's "The Soul's Expression" (1844)

  1. which sonnet form has EBB employed here? The Shakespearean/English sonnet (three quatrains & concluding couplet), Petrarchan/Italian sonnet (octave & sestet), or the Spenserian sonnet (rhyming ababbcbccdcdee)?
  2. what is that "music" of the narrator's "nature" which she struggles to express?
  3. what would happen to this narrator, were s/he successful in expressing her/his innermost soul?

E. B. Browning's "Exaggeration" (1844)

  1. according to the narrator, why was humanity given imaginative powers?
  2. what abuses of the imagination preoccupy our narrator?
  3. what romantic poets also tapped the nightingale as a likely symbol of the poetic imagination?
  4. which of the various metaphors employed by the narrator most powerfully convey the narrator's thesis (ll.4-10)?
  5. upon what type of grief should humans presumably focus, and what forms of grief should we eschew?


M. Arnold's "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" (c.1852; 1855)

  1. why is the narrator of this poem (who speaks with Arnold's own voice) surprised to find himself at this Carthusian monastery in the Alps (l.66)?
  2. why is the narrator crying (ll.85-90)?
  3. explain the irony threaded into lines 91-108.
  4. does the narrator value the “mood of sadness” (l.153) spun by the Romantic poets Byron and Shelley?
  5. to what purpose does Arnold put the two epic similes found in lines 80-84 and 169-92?


E. Dickinson's "207" [214]

  1. what extended conceit does Dickinson deploy to transform enjoyment of Nature into something scandalous?
  2. does the tone one identifies in stanza four of this poem depend on the seriousness with which one takes religion? Do you read this poem as playful or satiric, gently indecorous or blatantly defiant?


E. Dickinson's "236" [324]

  1. does this poem constitute an act of apostasy? Is Dickinson rejecting institutionalized religion, and/or celebrating God's presence in Nature?
  2. does this poem reify or destabilize the Christian concept of an afterlife?


 G. M. Hopkins's "Pied Beauty" (1877; 1918)

  1. does Hopkins limit his praise of spots to those found in Nature?
  2. how does stanza two constitute an elaboration of the simple principle proposed in stanza one?
  3. applying the concept of sprung rhythm to this poem, how many metrical feet can you identify in each line? Remember that the length of each foot may vary: you're looking for the number of stressed syllables. (One stressed syllable = one metrical foot, regardless of the number of total syllables.)
  4. does Hopkins' use of alliteration draw attention to itself, or does it add subtle, aural effects to the images he describes?
  5. why might lines 6-7 lack the alliteration and assonance that characterize the other lines of the poem?
  6. to what end does Hopkins generate this celebration of Nature's beauty? What is his goal?


G. M. Hopkins's "Carrion Comfort" (1885; 1918)

  1. how does Hopkins create a sense of spiritual struggle through non-standard language? What about the poem "Carrion Comfort" appears extremely odd?
  2. the narrator of Hopkins's poem rejects Despair in the first line: is this a successful rejection?
  3. to what might "rod" in line 10 refer?
  4. how has Hopkins elaborated on and altered Genesis 32:22-23?


sktech of a mill near a canyon next to the Grande Chartreuse monastery
Mill Near the Grand Chartreuse
(composition study, c.1807-19)
J. M. W. Turner


Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu