Image the scene in the opening stanzas. What is the author's mood? Why does he call some one to look on the scene with him? What is the "eternal note of sadness"? Why connect it in thought with the sea? Why does this thought suggest Sophocles? What thought next presents itself to the author's mind? From[p.184]what source must one's help and comfort then be drawn? Why so? Why the irregular versification? State the theme of the poem.
"Philomela unites the sensibilities and intellectual experience of modern Englishmen with the luminousness and simplicity of Greek poetry."—SAINTSBURY.
The myth of the nightingale has long been a favorite with the poets, who have variously interpreted the bird's song. See Coleridge's, Keats's, and Wordsworth's poems on the subject. The most common version of the myth, the one followed by Arnold, is as follows:—
"Pandion (son of Erichthonius, special ward to Minerva) had two daughters, Procne and Philomela, of whom he gave the former in marriage to Tereus, king of Thrace (or of Daulis in Phocis). This ruler, after his wife had borne him a son, Itys (or Itylus), wearied of her, plucked out her tongue by the roots to insure her silence, and, pretending that she was dead, took in marriage the other sister, Philomela. Procne, by means of a web, into which she wove her story, informed Philomela of the horrible truth. In revenge upon Tereus, the sisters killed Itylus, and served up the child as food to the father; but the gods, in indignation, transformed Procne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, forever bemoaning the murdered Itylus, and Tereus into a hawk, forever pursuing the sisters."—GAYLEY'SClassic Myths.
4.Use the subjoined questions in studying the poem.
5.O wanderer from a Grecian shore.See note, l.27.
8.Note the aptness and beauty of the adjectives in this line, not one of which could be omitted without irreparable loss.
18.Thracian wild.Thrace was the name used by the early Greeks for the entire region north of Greece.
21.The too clear web, etc.[p.185]See introductory note to poem for explanation of this and the following lines.
27.Daulis.A city of Phocis, Greece, twelve miles northeast of Delphi; the scene of the myth of Philomela.Cephessian vale.The valley of the Cephissus, a small stream running through Doris, Phocis, and Boeotia, into the Euboean Gulf.
29.How thick the bursts, etc. Compare with the following lines from Coleridge:—
"'Tis the merry nightingaleThat crowds and hurries and precipitatesWith fast, thick warble his delicious notes,As he were fearful that an April nightWould be too short for him to utter forthHis love-chant, and disburthen his full soulOf all its music!"—The Nightingale.
Also
"O Nightingale! thou surely artA creature of a 'fiery heart':—These notes of thine—they pierce and pierce;Tumultuous harmony and fierce!Thou sing'st as if the god of wineHad helped thee to a Valentine."—WORDSWORTH.
31-32.Eternal passion!Eternal pain!Compare:—
"Thou warblest sad thy pity-pleading strains."—COLERIDGE,To a Nightingale.
and
"Sweet bird ...Most musical, most melancholy!"—MILTON,Il Penseroso.
Image the scene in the poem. How does the author secure the proper atmosphere for the theme of the poem? Account for the note of triumph in the nightingale's song; note of pain. What[p.186]is shown by the poet's question, ll. 10-15? What new qualities are added to the nightingale's song, l. 25? Account for them. Whyeternalpassion,eternalpain? Do you feel the form of verse used (Pindaric blank) to be adapted to the theme?
4.kept uninfringed my nature's law.That is, have lived a perfect life.
5.inly-written chart.The conscience.
8.incognisable.Not to be comprehended by finite mind.
23.prore.Poetical word forprow, the fore part of a ship.
27.stem.Consult dictionary.
What important incident in the destiny of the soul is alluded to in stanza 1? Interpret ll. 13-14, and apply to your own experience. Why cannot we live "chance's fool"? Is there any hint of fatalism in the poem, or are we held accountable for our own destiny?
This poem, the fifth in a loosely connected group of lyrics, under the general nameSwitzerland, is a continuation of the preceding poem,Isolation—to Marguerite, and is properly entitled,To Marguerite—Continued. When printed separately, the above title is used.
Jacopo Ortis was a pseudonym of the Italian poet, Ugo Foscolo. HisUltime Lettere di Ortiswas translated into the English in 1818.
1.Yes!Used in answer to the closing thought of[p.187]the preceding poem.
7.moon.Note the frequency with which reference to the moon, with its light effects, appears in Arnold's lines. Can you give any reason for this?
24.Mr. Herbert W. Paul, commenting on this line, says: "Isolationwinds up with one of the great poetic phrases of the century—one of the 'jewels five (literally five) words long' of English verse—a phrase complete and final, with epithets in unerring cumulation."
Give the poem's theme. To what is each individual likened? Discuss l.2 as to meaning. In what sense do we live "alone," l.4? Why "endless bounds," l.6? How account for the feeling of despair, l.13? Answer the questions asked in the last stanza. In what frame of mind does the poem leave you?
Arnold's love for animals, especially his household pets, was most sincere. Despite the playful irony of his poem, there is in the minor key an undertone of genuine sorrow. "We have just lost our dear, dear mongrel, Kaiser," he wrote in a letter dated from his home in Cobham, Kent, April 7, 1887, "and we are very sad." The poem was written the following July, and was published in theFortnightly Reviewfor that month.
2.Cobham.See note above.
3.Farringford,in the Isle of Wight, was the home of Lord Tennyson.
5.Pen-bryn's bold bard.Sir Lewis Morris, author of theEpic of Hades, lived at Pen-bryn, in Caermarthanshire.
11-12.In Burns's poem,Poor Mailie's Elegy,[p.188]occur the following lines:—
"Come, join the melancholious croon O' Robin's reed."
20.Potsdam.The capital of the government district of Potsdam, in the province of Brandenburg, Prussia; hence the dog's name,Kaiser.
41.the Grand Old Man.Gladstone.
50.agog.In a state of eager excitement.
65.Geist.Also remembered in a poem entitledGeist's Grave, included in this volume.
76.chiel.A Scotch word meaning lad, fellow.
"Buirdlychielsan clever hizzies."—BURNS,The Twa Dogs.
Skye.The largest of the Inner Hebrides. See note, l.7,Saint Brandan.
In this poem Arnold describes the plight of one engaged in a hopeless struggle against an uncompromising, Philistine world too strong for him.
State the central thought in the poem. To whom is it addressed? What is thenarrow bed, l. 1? Why give up the struggle? With whom has it been waged? Explain fully l. 4. What is implied in l. 6? What is meant byringing shot, l. 11? Who are the victors, l. 14? What would they probably say on finding the body near the wall? Can you think of any historical characters of whom the poem might aptly have been written?
[p.189]
At the time of the Trojan war there was in the citadel of Troy a celebrated statue of Pallas Athene, called the Palladium. It was reputed to have fallen from heaven as the gift of Zeus, and the belief was that the city could not be taken so long as this statue remained within it. Ulysses and Diomedes, two of the Greek champions, succeeded in entering the city in disguise, stole the Palladium and carried it off to the besiegers' camp at Argos. It was some time, however, before the city fell.
1.Simois.A small river of the Troad which takes its rise in the rocky, wooded eminence which, according to Greek tradition, formed the acropolis of Troy. The Palladium was set up on its banks near its source, in a temple especially erected for it (l. 6), and from this lofty position was supposed to watch over the safety of the city and her defenders on the plains below.
3.Hector.Hector, son of Priam, king of Troy (Ilium), and his wife, Hecuba, was the leader and champion of the Trojan armies. He distinguished himself in numerous single combats with the ablest of the Greek heroes; and to him was principally due the stubborn defence of the Trojan capital. He was finally slain by Achilles, aided by Athene, and his body dragged thrice around the walls of Troy behind the chariot of his conqueror.
14.Xanthus.The Scamander, the largest and most celebrated river of the Troad, near which Troy was situated, was presided over by a deity known to the gods as Xanthus. His contest with Achilles, whom he so nearly overwhelmed, forms a notable incident of theIliad.
15.Ajax, or Aiax.One of the leading Greek heroes in the siege of Troy, famous for his size, physical strength, and beauty. In bravery and feats of valor he was second only to Achilles. Not being awarded the armor of Achilles after that hero's death, he[p.190]slew himself.
16.Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, was celebrated for her beauty, by reason of which frequent references are made to her by both classic and modern writers. Goethe introduces her in the second part ofFaust, and Faustus, in Marlowe's play of that name, addresses her thus:—
"Oh! thou art fairer than the evening airClad in the beauty of a thousand stars."
Her abduction by Paris, son of Priam (see note, l. 3), was the cause of the Trojan war, the most notable incident of Greek mythology, which forms the theme of Homer's greatest poem, theIliad.
What is the central thought of the poem? Of what is the Palladium typical? Explain the thought in stanza 3. What is the force of the references of stanza 4? Discuss the use of the words "rust" and "shine," l. 17. Just what is meant by "soul" as the word is used in the poem?
Self-Dependenceis a poem in every respect characteristic of its author. In it Arnold exhorts mankind to seek refuge from human troubles in the example of nature.
Picture the situation in the poem. What is the poet's mood as shown in the opening stanzas? From what source does he seek aid? Why? What answer does he receive? What is the source of nature's repose? Where and how must the human soul find its contentment?
[p.191]
This poem appeared in the January number of theFortnightly Reviewfor 1881.
12.homily.Sermon.
15.the Virgilian cry.Sunt lacrimæ rerum!These words are interpreted in the following line.
42.On lips that rarely form them now.Arnold wrote but little poetry after 1867.
55-56.thine absent master.Richard Penrose Arnold, the poet's only surviving son.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was a celebrated German dramatist and critic. For a time he studied theology at Leipsic, then turned his attention to the stage, and later to criticism. His greatest critical work (1766) is a treatise on Art, the famous Greek statuary group, the LAOCOON, which gives the work its name, forming the basis for a comparative discussion of Sculpture, Poetry, Painting, and Music.
1.Hyde Park.The largest park in London, and the principal recreation ground of that city.
15.Phœbus-guarded ground.Greece. Phœbus, a name often given Apollo, the sun god.
16.Pausanias.A noted Greek geographer and writer on art who lived in the second century. "His work,The Gazetteer of Hellas, is our best repertory of information for the topography, local history, religious observances, architecture, and sculpture of the different states of Greece."—K.O. MÜLLER,History of the Literature of Ancient Greece.
21-22.Dante(1265-1321),Petrarch(1304-1374),[p.192]Tasso(1544-1595),Ariosto(1475-1533). Celebrated Italian poets.
25.Raphael(1483-1520). The famous Italian painter.
29.Goethe(1749-1832). The greatest name in German literature. His works include poetry, dramas, and criticisms.Wordsworth(1770-1850). See the poem,Memorial Verses, of this volume.
35.Mozart(1766-1791),Beethoven(1770-1827),Mendelssohn(1809-1847). Noted musicians and composers.
42.south.Warm.
43-48.Cyclops Polyphemus, famous in the story of Ulysses, was a persistent and jealous suitor of Galatea, the fairest of sea divinities. So ardent was he in his wooings, that he would leave his flocks to wander at will, while he sang his uncouth lays from the hilltops to Galatea in the bay below. Her only answers were words of scorn and mockery. See Andrew Lang's translation of Theocritus, Idyl VI, for further account.
70-76.Abbey towers.That is, Westminster Abbey, a mile's distance to the south and east of Hyde Park. The abbey is built in the form of a cross, the body or lower part of which is termed the nave (l. 73). The upper portion is occupied by the choir, the anthems of which, with their organ accompaniments, are alluded to in ll. 74-77.
89-106.Miserere Domine!Lord, have mercy!These words are from the service of the Church of England. The meaning in these lines is that Beethoven, in his masterpieces, has transferred the thoughts and feelings, above inadequately expressed in words, into another and more emotional tongue; that is, music.
107.Ride.A famous driveway in Hyde Park, commonly called Rotten Row. (Possibly from 'Route du Roi')
119.vacant.Thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection.
"For oft, when on my couch I lieInvacantor in pensive mood."—WORDSWORTH'SLines to the Daffodils, ll. 19-20.
124.hies.Hastens (poetical).
[p.193]
130.painter and musician too!Arnold held poetry to be equal to painting and music combined.
140.movement.Activities. Explained in the following lines.
163-210.Note carefully the argument used to prove that poetry interprets life more accurately and effectively than any of the other arts.Homer, the most renowned of all Greek poets. The time in which he lived is not definitely known.Shakespeare(1504-1616).
Give the setting of the story. What was the topic of conversation? What stand did the poet's friend take regarding poetry? Why turn to Greece in considering the arts? What limitations of the painter's art are pointed out by the poet? What is his attitude toward music? What finally is "the poet's sphere," l. 127? Wherein then is poetry superior to the other arts? Does the author prove his point by his poem? Discuss the poem as to movement, diction, etc.
No poet, not even Wordsworth, was more passionately fond of nature than Arnold. Note his attitude in the poem.
1.One lesson.What lesson?
4.Discuss the use of the adjective "loud"; also "noisier," l. 7.
Note the essential elements of sonnet structure in metre, rhyme formula, and number of lines. See the introduction to Sharp'sSonnets of this Century.
Despite this tribute, Arnold considered Homer Shakespeare's equal, if not his superior. What do Shakespeare's smile and silence imply on his part?[p.194]Explain in full the figure used. Do you consider it apt? Why "Better so," l. 10? What is there in the poem that helps you to see wherein lay Shakespeare's power to interpret life? Select the lines which most impress you, and tell why.
This sonnet was written in 1852, when the poet was in his thirtieth year.
5.joy.Be glad.heats.Passions.
6.even clime.That is, in the less emotional years of maturity.
12.hurrying fever.See note, l. 6.
1.That son of Italy.Giacopone di Todi.
2.Dante(1265-1321). Best known as the author ofThe Divine Comedy.
3.In his light youth.Explain.
11.sackcloth.Symbolic of mourning or mortification of the flesh.
Tell the story of the poem and make the application. Explain Arnold's idea of poetry as set forth in ll. 12-14.
3.Marcus Aurelius(121-180 A.D.), commonly called "the philosopher." A celebrated Roman emperor, prominent among the ethical teachers of his time. Arnold himself has been aptly styled by Sharp an "impassioned Marcus Aurelius, wrought by[p.195]poetic vision and emotion to poetic music."
6.foolish.In the sense of unreasonable.ken.The Scotch word meaning sight.
7.rates.Berates, reproves.
Give the poem's theme. What is implied by the word "even," l. 1? Does the author agree with the implication? Why so? Discuss l. 5 as to its meaning. Interpret the expressions "ill-school'd spirit," l. 11, and "Some nobler, ampler stage of life," l. 12. Where finally are the aids to a nobler life to be found? Do you agree with this philosophy of life?
2.Bethnal Green.An eastern suburb of London.
4.Spitalfields.A part of northeast London, comprising the parishes of Bethnal Green and Christchurch.
Image the scene. What is the purpose of the first four lines? Discuss l. 6. What is the import of the preacher's response? What are the poet's conclusions drawn in ll. 9-14?
1.Belgrave Square.An important square in the western part of London.
Tell the situation and the story of the poem. Why did the woman solicit aid from the laboring men? Why not from the wealthy? Explain ll. 9-11. What is the poet's final conclusion?
[p.196]
Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount, in the Lake, District, April 23, 1850. These verses, dedicated to his memory, are among Arnold's best-known lines. For adequacy of meaning and charm of expression, they are almost unsurpassed; they also contain some of the poet's soundest poetical criticism. The poem was first published inFraser's Magazinefor June, 1850, and bore the date of April 27.
1.Goethe in Weimar sleeps.The tomb of Goethe, the celebrated German author (see note, l.29,Epilogue to Lessing's LAOCOON), is in Weimar, the capital of the Grand-duchy of Saxe-Weimar. Weimar is noted as the literary centre of Germany, and for this reason is styled the German Athens.
2.Byron.George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), a celebrated English poet of the French Revolutionary period, died at Missolonghi, Greece, where he had gone to help the Greeks in their struggle to throw off the Turkish yoke. He was preëminently a poet of passion, and, as such, exerted a marked influence on the literature of his day. His petulant, bitter rebellion against all law has become proverbial; hence the term "Byronic." TheTitans(l. 14) were a race of giants who warred against the gods. The aptness of the comparison made here is at once evident. In Arnold's sonnet,A Picture at Newstead, also occur these lines:—
"'Twas not the thought of Byron, of his cryStormily sweet, his Titan-agony."
17.iron age.In classic mythology, "The last of the four great ages of the world described by Hesiod. Ovid, etc. It was supposed to be characterized by abounding oppression, vice, and misery."—International Dictionary. The preceding ages, in order, were the[p.197]age of gold, the age of silver, and the age of brass.
34-39. Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, was stung to death by a serpent, and passed to the realm of the dead—Hades. Thither Orpheus descended, and, by the charm of his lyre and song, persuaded Pluto to restore her to life. This he consented to do on condition that she walk behind her husband, who was not to look at her until they had arrived in the upper world. Orpheus, however, looked back, thus violating the conditions, and Eurydice was caught back into the infernal regions.
"The ferry guardNow would not row him o'er the lake again."—LANDOR.
72.Rotha. A small stream of the English Lake Region, on which Rydal Mount, Wordsworth's burial-place, is situated.
"There was very lately a lad in the University of Oxford who was by his poverty forced to leave his studies there and at last to join himself to a company of vagabond gipsies. Among these extravagant people, by the insinuating subtilty of his carriage, he quickly got so much of their love and esteem that they discovered to him their mystery. After he had been a pretty while exercised in the trade, there chanced to ride by a couple of scholars who had formerly been of his acquaintance. They quickly spied out their old friend among the gipsies, and he gave them an account of the necessity which drove him to that kind of life, and told them that the people he went with were not such impostors as they were taken for, but that they had a traditional kind of learning among them, and could do wonders by the power of imagination, their fancy binding that of others; that himself had learned much of their art, and when he had compassed the whole secret,[p.198]he intended, he said, to leave their company, and give the world an account of what he had learned."—GLANVIL'SVanity of Dogmatizing, 1661.
2.wattled cotes. Sheepfolds. Probably suggested by Milton'sComus, l. 344:—
"The folded flocks, penned in theirwattled cotes."
9.Cross and recross. Infinitives depending upon seen, l. 8.
13.cruse. Commonly associated in thought with the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, 1Kings, xvii: 8-16.
19.corn. See note, l.156,Sohrab and Rustum.
30.Oxford towers. "Oxford, the county town of Oxfordshire and the seat of one of the most ancient and celebrated universities in Europe, is situated amid picturesque environs at the confluence of the Cherwell and the Thames (often called in its upper course the Isis). It is surrounded by an amphitheatre of gentle hills, the tops of which command a fine view of the city with its domes and towers."—BAEDEKER'SGreat Britain, in hisHandbooks for Travellers. In writing of Oxford, Hawthorne says: "The world, surely, has not another place like Oxford; it is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it, for it would take a lifetime, and more than one, to comprehend and enjoy it satisfactorily." See also note, l.19,Thyrsis.
31.Glanvil's book. Seeintroductory noteto poem.
42.erst. Formerly. (Obsolete except in poetry.)
44-50. Seeintroductory noteto poem.
57.Hurst. Cumner (or Cumnor) Hurst, one of the Cumnor range of hills, some two or three miles south and west of Oxford, is crowned with a clump of cedars; hence the name "Hurst."
58.Berkshire moors. Berkshire is the county, or shire, on the south of Oxford County.
69.green-muffled. Explain the epithet.
[p.199]
74.Bablockhithe. A small town some four miles west and a little south of Oxford, on the Thames, which at that point is a mere stream crossed by a ferry. This and numerous other points of interest in the vicinity of Oxford are frequented by Oxford students; hence Arnold's familiarity with them and his reference to them in this poem andThyrsis. See any atlas.
79.Wychwood bowers. That is, Wychwood Forest, ten or twelve miles north and west of Oxford. See note, l. 74.
83.To dance around the Fyfield elm in May. Fyfield, a parish in Berkshire, about six miles southwest of Oxford. The reference here is to the "May-day" celebrations formerly widely observed in Europe, but now nearly disappeared. The chief features of the celebration in Great Britain are the gathering of hawthorn blossoms and other flowers, the crowning of the May-queen and dancing around the May-pole—here the Fyfield elm. See note, l. 74. Read Tennyson's poem,The Queen o' the May.
91.Godstow Bridge. Some two miles up the Thames from Oxford.
95.lasher pass. An English term corresponding to ourmill race. Thelasheris the dam, or weir.
98.outlandish. Analyze the word and determine meaning.
111.Bagley Wood. South and west of Oxford, beyond South Hinksey. See note, l.125; also note, l.74.
114.tagg'd. That is, marked; the leaves being colored by frost.
115.Thessaly. The northeastern district of ancient Greece, celebrated in mythology. Here a forest ground near Bagley Wood. See note, l. 111; also note, l.74.
125. Hinksey. North and South Hinksey are unimportant villages a short distance out from Oxford in the Cumnor Hills. See note, l.74.
129. Christ Church hall. The largest and most fashionable college in Oxford; founded by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525. The chapel[p.200]of Christ Church is also the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford.
130. grange. Consult dictionary.
133. Glanvil. Joseph Glanvil, 1636-1680. A noted English divine and philosopher; author of a defence of belief in witchcraft.
140. red-fruited yew tree. The yew tree is very common in English burial-grounds. It grows slowly, lives long, has a dark, thick foliage, and yields a red berry. See Wordsworth's celebrated poem,The Yew-Tree.
141-170. "This note of lassitude is struck often—perhaps too often—in Arnold's poems."—DU PONT SYLE. See alsoThe Stanzas in Memory of the Author of Obermann. For the author's less despondent mood, see hisRugby Chapel, included in this volume.
147.teen. Grief, sorrow; from the old Englishteona, meaning injury.
149.the just-pausing Genius. Does the author here allude to death?
151.Thou hast not lived(so). That is, as described in preceding stanza.
152.Thou hadst one aim, etc. What was the Scholar-Gipsy'sonemotive in life?
157-160.But thou possessest an immortal lot, etc. Explain.
165.Which much to have tried, etc. Which many attempts and many failures bring.
180.do not we ... await it too? That is, the spark from heaven. See l. 171.
182-190. Possibly Carlyle, although the author may have had in mind a type rather than an individual.
208-209.Averse, as Dido did, etc. Dido, the mythical queen of Carthage, being deserted by her lover Æneas, slew herself. She afterward met him on his journey through Hades, but turned from him in scorn.
"In vain he thus attempts her mind to move[p.201]With tears and prayers and late repenting love;Disdainfully she looked, then turning roundBut fixed her eyes unmoved upon the ground,And what he says and swears regards no moreThan the deaf rocks when the loud billows roar."—DRYDEN'STranslation.
For entire episode, seeÆneid, vi, 450-476.
212.inviolable shade. Holy, sacred, not susceptible to corruption. Perhaps no other of Arnold's lines is so much quoted as this and the preceding line.
214.Why "silver'd" branches?
220.dingles. Wooded dells.
231-250.Note the force of this elaborate and exquisitely sustained image; how the mind is carried back from these turbid days of sick unrest to the clear dawn of a fresh and healthy civilization. In the course of an essay on Arnold, the late Mr. Richard Holt Hutton says of this poem and this closing picture: "That most beautiful and graceful poem on theScholar-Gipsy(the Oxford student who is said to have forsaken academic study in order to learn, if it might be, those potent secrets of nature, the traditions of which the gypsies are supposed sedulously to guard) ends in a digression of the most vivid beauty.... Nothing could illustrate better than this [closing] passage Arnold's genius and his art.... His whole drift having been that care and effort and gain and pressure of the world are sapping human strength, he ends with a picture of the old-world pride and daring, which exhibits human strength in its freshness and vigor.... I could quote poem after poem which Arnold closes by some such buoyant digression: a buoyant digression intended to shake off the tone of melancholy, and to remind us that the world of imaginative life is still wide open to us.... This problem is insoluble, he seems to say, but insoluble or not, let us recall the pristine force of the[p.202]human spirit, and not forget that we have access to great resources still.... Arnold, exquisite as his poetry is, teaches us first to feel, and then to put by, the cloud of mortal destiny. But he does not teach us, as Wordsworth does, to bear it."
232.As some grave Tyrian trader, etc. Tyre, the second oldest and most important city of Phoenicia, was, in ancient times, a strong competitor for the commercial supremacy of the Mediterranean.
236.Ægean Isles. The Ægean Sea, that part of the Mediterranean lying between Greece on the west, European Turkey on the north, and Asia Minor on the east, is dotted with numerous small islands, many of which are famous in Greek mythology.
238.Chian wine. Chios, or Scio, an island in the Ægean Sea (see note above), was formerly celebrated for its wine and figs.
239.tunnies. A fish belonging to the mackerel family; found in the Mediterranean Sea.
244.Midland waters. The Mediterranean Sea.
245.Syrtes. The ancient name of Gulf of Sidra, off North Africa, the chief arm of the Mediterranean on the south,soft Sicily. Sicily is noted for its delightful climate; hence the term, "soft Sicily."
247.western straits. Strait of Gibraltar.
250.Iberians. Inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula, formed by Portugal and Spain.
What atmosphere is given the poem by the first stanza? What quest is to be begun, l. 10? What caused the "Scholar" to join himself to the gipsies? What were his original intentions? Why, then, did he continue with them till his death? Why would he avoid others than members of the gipsy crew? Why his pensive air? To what truth does the author suddenly awake? How does the Scholar-Gipsy yet live to him? Explain fully lines 180-200. Note carefully the author's contrast between the life led by the[p.203]Scholar-Gipsy and our modern life. Which is better? Why? Make an application of the figure of the Tyrian trader. Is it apt? Why used by the poet? Discuss the verse form used. Is it adapted to the theme of the poem?