Need to write a short critical anaylysis of the above by Friday 12th November - degree level - if anyone gets something back to me before Thursday 13th I will be amazed - and very very grateful!!

Sure, piece of pie, michelle. First of all, what is the stanza form? It rhymes ababcc, which I usually think of as the Venus and Adonis stanza, but V&A; was written by Shakespeare, so either Lodge pinched it from Will, vice versa, or they were both the same person. Sure, could be they both lifted it from a third party. That's another matter, though, so let it go.


The earth, late chok'd with showers,
Is now array'd in green,
Her bosom springs with flowers,
The air dissolves her teen;
The heavens laugh at her glory,
Yet bide I sad and sorry.

(Well, it's gonna be a nature poem, it seems. What does 'teen' mean in this context? Yeah, I looked it up - misery or grief. The apostrophes are used to differentiate choked from chokèd - see clothèd below. This old poem was written some 400 years ago, so the language will have to be overcome. Personally, I think he could have written, 'I bide' instead of
'bide I, but no real quarrel. Note that all poets both then and now believe 'heaven' has only has one syllable, for some strange reason. The meter will be iambic tetrameter it would appear.)

The woods are deck'd with leaves,
And trees are clothèd gay,

(To me, this is cheating. Either the 'ed' at the end of a word is pronounced, or it is not. No fair having it both ways. Nobody else agrees with me, so I keep quiet about it normally.)

And Flora crown'd with sheaves,
With oaken boughs doth play;

(Here is another cheat - why add the word 'doth' in here? It reads perfect without it, I mean. Doth is simply put in to get the required meter.)

Where I am clad in black,
The token of my wrack.

The birds upon the trees
Do sing with pleasant voices,

(Another extra 'Do' - grrr!)

And chant in their degrees
Their loves and lucky choices;
When I, whilst they are singing,
With sighs mine arms am wringing.

(Ouch! Another rhyme-driven inversion - should be, am wringing my arms.)

The thrushes seek the shade,
And I my fatal grave;
Their flight to heaven is made,
My walk on earth I have;
They freely, I thrall; they jolly,
I sad and pensive wholly.

(This dude didn't mind making some weird rhymes, huh? Well, maybe jolly and wholly really did rhyme back then, who knows? I'm pretty sure that grave and have didn't. Anyway, nature is having a good old time and poor Thomas is unhappy - is that about the gist of it?)

>if anyone gets something back to me before Thursday 13th

Thursday the 13th isn't until January 2005, so that gives us plenty of time.


Les

You're right of course, my mistake, that would be Thursday, 11th! Something I forgot to mention, we are studying this as part of the comic mode, I see nothing but irony in the poem - anyone else see comedy in this? Also, I am rubbish at metre/feet can you help with form?

I thought I had answered about the form earlier. Unclear?

Nope, not funny to me.

Yes you did (thanks) - but you didn't mention it's a lyric - does that enhance the comic element? It seems too easy, there must be a catch? Can't find anything on the web either!

It's a lyric?


"Lyric, short poem that conveys intense feeling or profound thought. In ancient Greece, lyrics were sung or recited to the accompaniment of the lyre. In medieval times French lyricists were troubadours and trouvères, and in Germany they were the minnesingers. Most medieval lyrics were written anonymously.

In the 16th century, sung lyrics are found in songs of English musicians Thomas Campion and John Dowland, as well as in songs in plays by English playwright William Shakespeare. By the Renaissance the term lyric also applied to verse that was not sung. Italian poets such as Petrarch developed the sonnet, a lyric form that became popular in late Renaissance and early 17th-century Europe."


Well, mebbe so.

Or, lyrical poetry as opposed to dramatic, or narrative, poetry?

Yeah, I guess it is that also, but neither suggests a comic element, at least not to me.