Online Text/s Audio Texts, Readings and Recitations

• Online Text from www.janeausten.org

General Resources

• Wikipedia
• www.janeausten.org
• https://www.britannica.com/
• ThoughtCo

Movies

• Movie (on rent)

Documentaries

• Jane Austen Country: The Life & Times of Jane Austen
• BBC Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball
• Great Books: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (JANE AUSTEN)
• ‘Pride and Prejudice’ The Making of. . .

Audio/Video Lectures/Podcasts

• Podcasts from the University of Oxford 

Study Guides

• Study Guide 1
• Study Guide 2
• Study Guide 3
• Teachers’ Guide

Online Annotated Text

1. Online annotated text from genius.com
2. Online annotated text from owleyes.org

Audio / Video Text

1. Audio text from poetryfoundation.org
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMySF1nkN8o

Documentaries

• Ramses The Greatest
• The Romantic Spirit: The Romantic Hero
• Egypt Reawakens the 19th and 20th Centuries by Ismail Serageldin

Audio/Video Lectures

• The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Dr Ross Wilson, University of Cambridge
• B. Shelley : The Revolutionary Romantic by Dr. Richa Bajaj
• The Sonnet (In Our Time) by BBC Podcasts

Scholarly Articles:

• The Romantics and Classical Greece
• “Certain evidences of classical Greek influence on Shelley” George Robert Dietz University of the Pacific
• “The Timelessness of Art as Epitomized in Shelley’s “Ozymandias
• “Ozymandias,” or De Casibus Lord Byron: Literary Celebrity on the Rocks by Hadley J. Mozer

Online Text/s Audio Texts, Readings and Recitations

• Online Text

General Resources

• Wikipedia

Audio/Video Lectures

• an animated annotation with a commentary on John Keats’ poem Ode to a Nightingale.
• Poetry and Immortality: John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ – Professor Belinda Jack
• Prof. V. Prakasam
• Lecture by Allen Grossman

Movie

• “John Keats: His Life And Death”- Abridged, 1973

Study Guides

• Study Guide 1
• Study Guide 2
• Study Guide 3
• Study Guide by TTM

By TTM

1.        “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

        My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk…” Explain the occasion in which the poet experiences this kind of sensations.

ANS: As Keats listens to the song of the bird nightingale alone in the poem Ode to a Nightingale, he experiences euphoric ascent of joy to such an extreme degree that it ultimately leads to the feeling of pain at his heart. He compares his state of numbness to that being created by the administration of the legendary poison given to Socrates, Hemlock, which would set in rigor mortis in the human body.

1. *“Or emptied some dull …had sunk.” What is Lethe? Why does Keats invoke its image?

ANS: Lethe was the river of the lower world in the Greek mythology, which the dead had to cross in order to reach Hades or hell. Crossing this river would cause a complete loss of memory of what happened in the world. Keats invokes the image in order to convey the sense that the nightingale’s song made him oblivious of the real world.

3. “Tis not through envy…happiness…” Why does the poet say so?

ANS: In the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats says that feels the pain of joy and sense of numbness not because of the jealousy of the better fate of the bird, but because of being too happy in its singing.

4. “That thou light-winged Dryad…in full-throated ease.” What does ‘Dryad’ mean here? Explain the situation Keats describes.

ANS: According to  the Greek mythology, a Dryad was a wood nymph that inhabited a tree and kept watch over it. Just like a Dryad, the Nightingale is not visible and it is thought to be somewhere in some green grassy spot full of beach trees, the branches and leaves of which have created countless shadows. In this kind of natural setting the bird is singing the songs of summer spontaneously oblivious of the cares of the human world.

5. *“O for a draught…sunburnt mirth!” Explain the poet’s desires expressed in the lines.

OR, Explain the expressions “Provencal song” and “sunburnt mirth.”

ANS: in order to join the nightingale’s world of pure joy, Keats here in the poem Ode to a Nightingale fancies the help of the wine produced in Provence. The wine, stored in a cool place under the earth, would, the poet hopes, remind him of the flowers used in making it, and of the green countryside, the place of its production. He also fancies that in that he would be able to visualise the dance and the song of merry-making country people of Provence, whose skins become tanned working in the sun.

6. *“O for a beaker of wine…the world unseen.” What is referred to here as “the blushful Hippocrene”? why does the poet seeks the help of “a beaker full of warm South”?

ANS: In order to join the nightingale’s world of pure joy, Keats here in the poem Ode a Nightingale fancies the help of a large cup of wine produced in the warm southern region of France. He compares the red wine full of bubbles to the fountain of the Muses, created by the hoof of the winged horse, Pegasus on Mount Helicon, the dwelling-place of the Muses, and the round-shaped bubbles to the beads of a rosary. This also reminds him of the red mouth of the drinker coloured by red wine.

7. *Explain the expression “purple-stained mouth.”

ANS: In order to join the nightingale’s world of pure joy, Keats here in the poem Ode to a Nightingale fancies the help of a large cup of wine produced in the warm southern region. This reminds him of the mouth of the drinker, which becomes purple, that is, the colour of blue and red mixed together, by red wine.

8. **“Fade far away, dissolve…among the leaves hast never known.” What does the poet mean by “among the leaves”? What, according to the poet, are the things that the nightingale has never known?

ANS: In these lines from the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats expresses his wish to be transported to the ideal of Nature, where the nightingale lives, with the help of wine, because he thinks that human world is full of exhaustion, anxieties, ennui, diseases, sorrows, sufferings, impermanence and imperfections.

9. “The weariness, the fever…groan.” Where do these line occur? What does the poet want to mean by this?
10. *“Where palsy shakes …dies.” Where are these lines quoted from? Explain the significance of the lines.

ANS: In these lines from the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats expresses his wish to be transported to the ideal of Nature, where the nightingale lives, with the help of wine, because he thinks that in the human world everything is impermanent. Man soon in the course of time grows old and becomes afflicted with paralysis and with few grey hairs on their head creeps towards death. Again, some times young men, suffering from diseases like consumption, lose their health, become bloodless and thin as ghosts and die. (Keats might have written the line from his personal experience of the way his brother, Tom died of consumption.)

11. “Where but to think is…leaden-eyed despairs…” Explain.
12. ***“Where Beauty cannot…beyond tomorrow.” Where do these lines occur? Why does the poet despair of life so much?

OR, Explain the significance of the lines in the context of the nightingale’s song? Why are the words ‘Beauty’ and ‘Love’ capitalized at the beginning of the letters?

ANS: In these lines from the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats expresses his wish to be transported to the ideal of Nature, where the nightingale lives, with the help of wine, because he thinks that in the human world everything is impermanent and subject to decay and death. For instance, physical beauty does not last long and soon loses its brightness. In the same way love is also short-lived. As soon as the thirst for somebody is over, the person seeks some body else for new love. (The words are written in capital letters at the beginning of the words because the poet personified those.)

13. **“Away! Away! … viewless wings of Poesy.” Explain the expression “viewless wings of Poesy.

OR, What does the poet mean when he intends to “flee/ Not charioted by Bacchus…Poesy”?

ANS: In the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats suddenly rejects the idea of joining the nightingale’s world of pure joy with the help of wine or by riding the chariot of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, which, according to the Greek mythology, was driven by leopards. He intends to join the bird with the help of his poetic imagination, which is ‘wingless’ in the sense that it is invisible. (And he finds that he is already in the world of the nightingale.)

14. ***“…tender is the night…winding mossy ways.” Explain the natural atmosphere described by Keats.

ANS: As the poet John Keats listens to the song of the bird, he becomes conscious of the immediate environment. He finds the night calm, and he presupposes that the moon might be over the head and shining brightly surrounded by the fairy-like stars. As it is shaded by the branches and leaves of the trees, the moonlight cannot enter the place he is seated in, barring occasionally when the breeze moves the leaves of the trees, and it falls on the paths overgrown with moss.

15. *Explain the expression “embalmed darkness”.

ANS: The place, where the poet is listening to the song of the nightingale is dark, because it is shaded by the thick braches and leaves of the trees. That is why, he cannot see the flowers or blossoms, but he can feel their presence from the sweet smells emitting from around him. In this way, the darkness of the place has become “embalmed” or sweet smelling.

16. “The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine…on summer eves.” Explain.
17. “Darkling I listen…” Where do you find the expression? What does the poet mean by that?
18. **“…for many a time…become a sod.” Explain. (Any question from these lines.)

ANS. While listening to the song of the nightingale Keats becomes intoxicated with pure joy, and his agony of life gets transformed into ecstasy. At this moment he recalls that many a time he has longed for death and given to it many names in his poems. If he were to die at all, he thinks that it is the most appropriate moment for that. But even after his death when his body will be one with the earth, the bird will continue its song, which will be a funeral song for his death.

19. *“Thou wast not born for death…emperor and clown.” Explain the context in which the poet utters these lines.

ANS: While listening to the song of the nightingale, Keats becomes conscious not only of the sorrows and sufferings of the human world, but also of his own death. This leads him to contrast this world with that of the bird, which or whose song has remained the same from the ancient down to the modern times and appealed in the same way to all, irrespective of classes, from the beggar to the emperor.

20. ***“Perhaps the self same song…sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home.” Who was Ruth? Why does the poet refer to her in the poem?

ANS:  In the Old Testament Ruth has been described as a Moabite married to a Jew, whose death forced her to migrate to Bethelhem with her mother-in-law. She had to work there as a gleaner in the fields of a wealthy person, Boaz, whom she married later on. Keats imagines that the bird might have sung in the way to Ruth and soothed her soul when she was suffering from homesickness as it is singing now to him.

21. ***“Charm’d magic casements…in fairy lands forlorn.” Explain the situation imagined by the poet. What does the poet mean by the expression “Charmed magic casements”?

Or, Explain the grammatical structure of the lines.

ANS: As an immortal bird, Keats thinks in the poem Ode to a Nightingale, the nightingale must have sung and soothed the soul of the beautiful maidens, who have been made captive by some wizard or monster in the castle just on the cliff overlooking a dangerous sea in a far-off fairy land.The word ‘Charm’d’ is a verb here and its object is ‘magic casements’, which stands for the beautiful maidens standing in front of the ‘casements’ or windows and listening to the song of the nightingale.

22. **” Forlorn! The word is like a bell…sole self.” Where do the lines occur? What is the context of the exclamations?

ANS: Towards the end of the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats suddenly comes to realize that the bird’s song aroused his imagination and transported to its world of pure joy and made him forget about the harsh realities of the world. Now he wakes up from his daydreaming and sadly finds himself alone in the world full of “weariness, fever and fret.”

23. **”Adieu! The fancy cannot cheat…deceiving elf.” Why is fancy called “deceiving elf”?

ANS: Towards the end of the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats suddenly comes to realize that it was his imagination that transported him to the nightingale’s world of pure joy. But soon its power gets over and the poet is forced to come back to the world of harsh realities. This is why he compares imagination to a fairy, who transforms the world only for a short while.

24. **” Was it a vision…sleep?” Explain the significance of the lines here.

Or, How does Keats close the poem?

ANS: Towards the end of the poem Ode to a Nightingale Keats suddenly comes to realize that the bird’s song aroused his imagination and transported him to its world of pure joy and made him forget about the harsh realities of the world. Now he wakes up from his daydreaming and sadly finds himself alone in the world full of “weariness, fever and fret.” That is why he wonders whether all this was happening in his sleep or in conscious state of mind.

 

 

By TTM

Q1. Discuss Christabel as ‘tale of terror’.

OR (2), Discuss Coleridge’s treatment of the supernatural elements in Christabel.

OR (3), Discuss how Coleridge’s treatment of medievalism within the Romantic framework.

OR (4), Christabel  has been called an allegory of Good and Evil. Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

OR (5), Crtical Appreciation.

 

It has been suggested, for instance, by Charles Tomlinson that Christabel belongs to the genre of “tale of terror”, a convention most renounced in the 18^th century novels of Horace Walpole and others. The genre was a European phenomenon, in which a story on the plane of fantasy was handled to study mind’s reactions to profound social changes, and these changes were represented through symbols and figures that evoked the sensation of terror. The terror was often dealt with philosophical significance. But in Christabel the pattern of ideas embodied especially in the conflict between Good and Evil is not traditional and the conclusion of the poem is typically Coleridgian. That is to say, the Coleridge’s treatment of supernaturalism is not simply for the sake of terror and mystery: he has employed his subtle sense of psychology and morality of Christian theology within the medieval framework of the story to take the poem to a life-like conclusion so as to arouse “willing suspension of disbelief”. (In fact, in Coleridge’s hands medievalism reaches its new height. For Q no.3 only)

From the very beginning the reader is transported to the world of Gothic castles, barons, knights, enchantress, distressed damsels and the medieval rituals, ordeals and superstitions. In the first symbolical passage of the poem we have the sense of ominous detail, an anticipation of the evil that is to come:

“The thin grey cloud is spread on high

It covers but not hides the sky.”

Again,

“The moon is behind and at the full

Yet it looks both small and dull.”

In this type of condition every thing hangs in a state of precarious uncertainty and of incipient disease. The cloud has threatened the sky, but the sky still shows through and to counterpart this, the moon has reached its most fruitful phase, yet remains without the bright appearance of a full moon. Even before Geraldine’s appearance, it is forecast that in this type of world the evil will prevail over good,

“ ’Tis the month before the month of May

And the Spring comes slowly up this way.”

Similarly the night is cold, and the moonbeam, where it falls, illuminates a further sense of death and decay, “the toothless mastiff bitch.”

In this type of a strange medieval world Christabel is seen alone under a huge oak tree to pray for her betrothed night. It is important for Coleridge to establish the loneliness and vulnerability of Christabel, as she is defenceless with a mother dead, with a father sick and with a lover far away. Her state is intensified by its juxtaposition with the fine image of “the one red leaf, the last of its clan.” In this condition Christabel finds the lady Geraldine, who, according to her own story was abducted and then abandoned. Her appearance – white neck, blue-veined unsandled feet, robe of silken white, the dazzling jewels in her hair—betrays the impression that the lady is not of this world. Christabel takes her to castle, but as if in a nightmare their feet “strove to be and were not fast.”

Coleridge conveys Geraldine’s character of a fatal woman with an accumulation of startling touches. She cannot cross the iron-gate unassisted, nor join Christabel’s prayer. With Christabel the first disquiet occurs when Geraldine and she entered the castle and passed the mastiff bitch. The bitch “did not awake/ Yet angry moan she did make.” The next stroke is more direct—as they pass the half extinguished fire, there issues from it a sudden tongue of fire. On seeing the lady’s eyes Christabel becomes mesmerised:

“And nothing else saw she thereby.”

Slowly and surely when Christabel is going to be captured, her inmost soul anticipates the necessity of protection from evil. She wishes,

“Oh! Mother dear! Thou wert near!”

It is Geraldine’s real strife at the sudden appearance of Christabel’s mother’s spirit. Geraldine burst out in tirade against its presence:

“Off, woman off! this hour is mine.”

Coleridge gives the situation an added uncertainty by withdrawing from the reader Geraldine’s exact intention, but he makes it clear that she is possessed by some evil target. When she bows under the lamp, rolls her eyes, produces a hissing sound and unrobes herself revealing her bosom and half her side, the poet exclaims,

“O shield her! shield sweet Christabel.”

Surely Christabel sees something horrible there as it was in the original version:

“Hideous, deformed and pale of hue.”

When Geraldine takes her in her arm, there is a frightening piece of thought control. In close contact with the demon woman Christabel dreams awful dreams. What she dreams of is not told, but the effects of the dreams are seen in the expression of her face.

“The Conclusion to Part I” describes the state of Christabel during and after the trance imposed upon her by Geraldine. During the trance she has been removed from all reassuring experiences, to a point, where the movement of her blood has almost ceased. But the final account is of a reassurance subsequently:

“…the blood so free

Comes back and tingles in her feet.”

The final conjecture, the “vision sweet”, suggests that final link with the Good is assertive in itself in the depth of our consciousness. The section ends with the declaration of faith that,

“The saints will aid if men call

For the blue sky bends over all.”

The fact that human beings naturally see the blue sky bending over them, despite the fact that it does nothing of the sort—was for Coleridge a supreme example of the benevolent operations of the divine power of Nature. And finally with this understanding Coleridge concludes the part one of Christabel.