EN227: RVP
Felicia Hemans
terms: REGULARITY
AND interruption
Note: our interest in these terms is as things that indicate particular
emphasis, which we may in turn read.
• Elision: “A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field”—
generally marked when deliberate (but note also “laboratory”)
• End-stopped: opposite of enjambed—when a line is clearly
bounded, and doesn’t run over—often marked by punctuation
• Stress: an emphasized syllable—may, also, be marked
(punishéd, would be pronounced PUN-i-SHED)
Recall…
• See Booth, Rhetoric of Fiction (1961)
• Not useful for all poems, and you do not have to use this
vocabulary; nevertheless, something to notice when present,
but not to always look for
• Implied addressee
• Is the speaker talking to someone?
• Is that person present? Absent?
• How is that person reacting? Are they talking back, doing
something to the surface of the poem; or are they silent?
• Ideal recipient
• The poem may be addressed to one person but intended for
another
• An ideal recipient “gets” the poem’s references, and may
even share its aesthetic/ethical philosophy
Dramatic
monologue
• Comparison: “Now, what news on the Rialto?” (MoV, I.i.1)
• Particularly characteristic of C19
• “Drama” in implication of speech taking place within larger
world, which poem contains
• What to read for:
• Details of surrounding world
• Implied audience of poem
• Potential ironies (difference of knowledge between speaker and
audience, reader and speaker, reader and audience)
• “The dramatic m. gains additional force from the fact that a silent
auditor often constrains or controls the speaker's words, contributing
to complex levels of irony within the poem.” (“Dramatic
Monologue,” Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics)
“Performative”
• Word can be used in multiple ways; this definition via Austin,
How to Do Things with Words (1962)
• Language that is not only descriptive, but also attempts to change a
situation
• Examples: marriage ceremony (“now pronounce you man and
wife,”) shouting “fire” in a theater
• Performatives are either felicitous (they work) or infelicitous
(they don’t change situation in desired way—they fail)
“Casabianca”
• Much-recited poem of later nineteenth century
• Ways in to other Hemans poetry
• Importance of speech and overhearing
• A heroism unable to manifest itself in the world
• Retreat into the ideal
“Corinne at the
Capitol”
• Female accomplishments and anti-feminism
“A Spirit’s Return” and
“Arabella Stuart”
• Assignment:
• What are the poem’s formal characteristics?
• Indicate how the dramatic monologue works: who is the speaker,
who is the addressee? Where, and when, does the monologue
occur?
• Indicate two moments where the poem implies a response from
the addressee
• Take us through the development of the poem—show how its
ideas change, develop, or show some sort of forward motion
• Describe an implied performative effect: a description of what
speech makes, or made, someone do