Ann Finch Flashcards
“To write, or read, or think…”
“To write, or read, or think, or to enquire would cloud our beauty”
“Shapeless sigh!… Every…”
Which poem is this taken from?
“Shapeless sigh!… Every Nymph may read thee - Here”
‘A sigh’
The aposiopesis is indicative of Finch trying to represent the body (the sigh) in language
- verbalising body as the reader pauses before reading ‘here’
“Ere yet daring to aspire”
Which poem is this taken from?
In what way does this illustrate the mutability of language?
‘A sigh’
Ere = meaning before but also has phonetic similarity to air
Aspire = meaning hope but also in Latin translates to ‘breathe upon’
- finch highlighting the ambiguity of language
There is a veiled secrecy surrounding the Etymology of language
Perhaps this is symbolic of the ambiguity of the sigh - it is difficult to comprehend the meaning behind a sigh and what message a person is trying to emit by sighing
“Sweet, oh! Sweet…”
Which poem is this taken from?
“Sweet, oh! Sweet, still sweeter yet”
To the Nightingale
Language has its limitations - eventually it will into meaningless repetition of it doesn’t carry the right meaning
“Canst thou…”
“Canst thou syllables refine”
“We poets that have speech…”
Which poem is this taken from?
“We poets that have speech, unlike what thy Forrest teach”
To the Nightingale
“What art thou, spleen…”
“What art thou, spleen, which everything dost ape?”
The spleen - which is associated with melancholy - sits outside of language
“Still varying thy perplexing form”
What is meant by this?
- link to form
The spleen is without form and sits outside of language
- the perplexing form of the spleen is reminiscent of the structure of the poem which is a Pindaric Ode - a form known for its irregularity and inconsistent rhyme scheme
“I feel thy force, while I against thee rail…”
Which poem is this taken from?
Comment on structure
“I feel thy force, while I against thee rail? I feel my verse decay, and my crampt numbers fail”
First person persona introduced - narrative continuity broken, effects of the spleen disrupting poetic form?
- irregularity of rhyming couplet + ‘numbers fail’ = form of the poem is failing, the spleen corrupting poems formal consistency
