ENG354Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Cliffhanger, Yodeling, Baffin Island
ENG354 Jan 16
Wilderness Gothic Cont’d
-expanding scope in time
-expanding to give us transitory vision of the past
-a work of art or an artefact encodes a vision of the whole past
-sweeping panoramic gaze of the victorian past
-keeps shifting sense of space: move up, then down and out, and by stanza 4 move
progressively outwards in terms of time
-the workman’s precariousness
-conventions of the gothic thriller: suspense, building up to something happening
-floor creaks a little sense that something is about to happen
-horror conventions
-looks back to image of the church to tell us that we should consider it in the
European gothic church tradition
-build up and build up but ends on a cliffhanger
-can also be read as an anti-climax
-fall is suspended, suppositional event
-Purdy’s uneasiness about letting poems end easily—often ends without
punctuation
-what comes up in this poem often comes down
-ex. Way the 2nd stanza concludes
-rise and fall rhythm
-2nd stanza to 3rd: leaves behind spiritual ascent of workman to death
-further fall: slide down from the natural death to the unnatural death of the
young birds
-yodelling: not a hymn, more colloquial
-poetic endings are not always to be relied upon and bumpy endings are a
possibility
-Durer’s )carus picture:
-some parallels with the poem
-lake
-church in background
-birds disappearing in the subsurface
-fall of the bird in the wood cut give additional resonance to )carus’ fall, same as how
in the poem the death of the birds anticipates the workman’s fall
-mention of an ancestor: icarus’ father
-the workman is icarus’ like: willing to mount to dangerous heights
-the fall is the price of aspiration and upward movement
-the poem defines just how heroic these aspirations are
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Document Summary
Conventions of the gothic thriller: suspense, building up to something happening. Expanding to give us transitory vision of the past. A work of art or an artefact encodes a vision of the whole past. Keeps shifting sense of space: move up, then down and out, and by stanza 4 move progressively outwards in terms of time. (cid:498)floor creaks a little(cid:499) sense that something is about to happen. Looks back to image of the church to tell us that we should consider it in the. Build up and build up but ends on a cliffhanger. Purdy"s uneasiness about letting poems end easily often ends without. 2nd stanza to 3rd: leaves behind spiritual ascent of workman to death. Further fall: slide down from the natural death to the unnatural death of the punctuation. What comes up in this poem often comes down young birds. Poetic endings are not always to be relied upon and bumpy endings are a possibility.
