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

 

Verse That Lives

"'He's stark, - has turned quite lunatic upon / This modern
question of the poor -- the poor. / An excellent
subject when you're moderate''" (4.662-64).
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh (1856)

Points for Reflection

Aurora Leigh, Book Three

  1. Aurora initially describes her existence in London as a kind of martyrdom (3.6-11) and her life under the pressure of social expectations as a sort of crucifixion (3.16-24), though later she calls hard work a Divine gift (3.161-68).  Towards which opinion does she appear to swing most throughout the course of Book Three?
  2. does the Nature that Aurora so loved in Italy and the English countryside similarly inspire and soothe her once she is living in the Kensington district of London?
  3. what does Aurora make of the support she receives from literary critics and fans?
  4. does all of the writing created by Aurora benefit her?
  5. Aurora identifies Lady Waldemar as “So gentle, because verily so proud” (3.350).  At what points does Lady Waldemar’s pride manifest as an enforced gentleness?
  6. what do Lady Waldemar’s repeated references to Romney’s “madness” suggest about the importance of the socioeconomic class hierarchy to this upper-class woman? (3.442, 543, 560, etc.)
  7. what opinion does Aurora hold of her absent cousin, Romney, whose last words to her in person denigrated her poetic potential?
  8. Aurora Leigh tells us that she will translate Marian Erle’s life story  “with fuller utterance, / As coloured and confirmed in aftertimes / By others and herself too” (3.828-30), and will express Marian’s story with more passion than the meek Marian used when narrating her tale (3.847-50).  Putting aside the actual details/events relayed in this telling, what of Aurora Leigh’s language assures us that she is indeed speaking in her own voice, not Marian Erle’s?
  9. as the footnotes explain, Marian Erle’s physical description (3.810-26) is modeled after Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s own, and Aurora is born in an area near where Elizabeth herself grew up (3.830-31).  Why might Barrett Browning create these echoes, given that the much more obvious parallel is between herself and Aurora?
  10. how does Marian Earle learn about God?
  11. Marian Erle prefers death to what, exactly, that her mother has in mind for her (3.1040-1088)?
  12. does the hospital in which Marian finds herself prove a heaven or hell?
  13. discuss the limited validity (within this story) of Marian Erle’s observation, “‘How sick we must be, ere we make men just!’” (3.1120).
  14. how does Romney’s gaze (3.1170-72) compare to that of the squire (3.1050-52), from Marian’s perspective?
  15. what does Romney prescribe Marian as a cure for her despair?


Aurora Leigh, Book Four

  1. what purpose is served by EBB's choosing to have Marian Erle work on Lady Waldemar’s new dress (4.26-27) in the seamstress shop where Romney placed her a year earlier?
  2. what motivates Romney’s offer to Marian Erle?
  3. in Book IV, Aurora reiterates her decision to alter Marian Erle’s speech in the (4:136-37, 154-56.)  Locate a few more examples of this linguistic alteration.
  4. with what attitude does Marian Erle identify the faults of wealthy women (4.236-69)?
  5. at what points does Aurora appear to misconstrue Romney’s words, facial expressions, and silences after he reappears (4.270)?  Why do you think she so consistently misinterprets him?
  6. why does Aurora slide from support of Romney’s impending marriage into displeasure with the idea?
  7. Aurora is surprised by how animated her conversation with Romney proves as they walk together (4.408-421).  Does EBB provide, directly or subtly, any explanation for the energetic nature of their dialogue? 
  8. what does Aurora mean by the following assertion?  “Where we disavow / Being keeper to our brother we’re his Cain” (4.467-68).  How is Aurora redefining virtue, both here and in her following disquisition on “goodness” (4.474-506)?
  9. does Marian Erle manifest any fallible human qualities in her letter, or is she a paragon of virtue?
  10. does Marian Erle betray some important measure of self-knowledge in lines 4.378-84 or 417-19?
  11. does Aurora Leigh’s description of the impoverished individuals who crowd into St. James Church, Piccadilly in Book Four (4.542-601) earn the reader’s harsh judgment?  That is, do her words ring with hypocrisy given her earlier claim that “‘poets . . . are still whole democrats . . . loyal to the low’” (4.314-17)?  Does she lack the very compassion and sensitivity which she earlier stated must characterize the true poet? Consider too her description of the rich characters who also appear in the church for the big event (4.615-709, 710-92), and her later report of the poor participants' anger when Marian doesn’t appear for the ceremony (4.815-47).
  12. exactly why are the elite so opposed to Romney’s marrying Marian?
  13. what kinds of words and ideas (unheard by us) might Aurora be softly murmuring to the distressed Romney in lines 4.1088-08?
  14. what new observation does Romney make about Aurora’s poetry, and to what pastoral figure does he compare her (4.1109-1168)? How does she react to his observations?
  15. what change of strategy is Aurora suggesting to Romney in lines 4.1193-98?
  16. what change of perspective is Romney suggesting to Aurora in lines 4.1206-11?
  17. Romney engages in much self-deprecation towards the end of Book Four.  Is this self-flagellation warranted?


painting of grassy meadow dotted with trees. Clouds and mountains lie in the background.
Country Landscape (late 19th c.)
James Peel


Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu