ENG354Y1 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - City, Canadian Poetry, Poetry
ENG354Y1
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
ENG354 September 26th 2017
The City at the End of Things
-inhabitants of the city have become mechanical beings
-lost capacity for renewal
-fires extinguish: extinguishment of imaginative energy
-imagination lost through lost of nature/inspiration
-emphasis on inhuman elements emphasized the horror
-Lampman’s ideal is a group of people who encourage and cultivate each other’s individuality
-empty shell—suggests soullessness
-towers: linked to tower of babel, suggests industrialism
-in the romantic tradition, the tower represents human consciousness—a fortress and a
prison of one’s beliefs
-consciousness becoming a prison of one’s beliefs
-also suggest a divided self consciousness: split between body and soul
-the prodigious race refers to romantic poets
-as time progressed, we lost them and they were replaced with machines
-of that prodigious race, there are only three left
-the end of an era: an era of humanity based on the potential for inspiration
-what’s the rhetorical impact of having only three remaining?
-incentive to change
-apocalyptic discourse to encourage change
-inverts what is good and natural in the world and perverts it to reveal the hellishness of this
world
-ex. roaring furnaces instead of the sun
-ceaseless round of mechanical action replaces turning of the earth, the seasons
-inhuman music replaces birds, nature sound
-the split between mind and body is a problem: the mind gives us individuality, and loss of the
mind is the loss of self
-division of society into masters and slaves
-elite supported by an ignorant mass
-Lampman believed nature was a sublime vision that comforts and exults the spirit
-this version of nature is very different from what thematic critics like Northrop Frye
would have us believe is the Canadian interpretation of nature
-confederation poets in general did not view nature as malevolent
Among the Timothy
-timothy is meadow grass
-undergoes transition from bliss to renovation
-through immersion in nature his visionary powers are renewed
-process of renovation is a little bit complicated
-sadness from being in the city
-4th stanza: artistic powers start to be restored
-dramatization of artistic renewal
-showing us, not just telling us, the process of engaging with despondency and then being
reinvigorated by the natural world
-this poem acts as counterpoint to the city at the end of things, where renewal by nature is no
longer possible due to extensive industrialization
-the mower as a common symbol of death a la grim reaper
-speaker prefers to read mower as a different kind of symbol: rural labor
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-why is the mower cutting out a circle weird?
-mower introduces the theme of humanity’s relationship to nature
-the ground cleared by the mower becomes a kind of magic circle for the speaker
-mower has connected with nature and created a circle: kind of what the poet has done as well,
but instead of using a scythe he has used his imagination
-first tones of unease: stanza becomes less imaginative and more perceptual, perceiving the
world as it is around him
-and here among the centred swathes that gleam
-encourages us as readers to look at something he’s just seeing
-looking at something literally
-reinforced s alliteration sounds like hissing
-slowly loosening rhythm emphasized by trochaic substitution (dead daisies)
-speaker finds it sweet to lie mixed with dead daisies
-by the end of the poem, dead daisies are replaced with living daisies
-last line of stanza distinguishes differences between thinking and dreaming
-not think but only dream
-his problem is a little do much thinking and not enough dreaming
-not using his imagination enough
-stanza 2: poem has been retrospective and circumspective, but it now becomes introspective
-describing state of spiritual dryness, dejection—a main theme in romantic poetry
-dejection is the adverse of the cardinal romantic value, which is hope
-dejection breeds sterility
-to live in a state of dejection is to live in a state of death in life
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
