Despair poems

Question 1

Loaded Gun- form

Answer 1

Lyric poem in 6 stanzas
Lyrical ballad as it tells a story
Common metre

Question 2

Loaded Gun- stanzas 1-5

Question 3

Loaded Gun- stanza 6

Question 4

Loaded Gun- what statement

Answer 4

In Passage, the speaker sources superficial agency through an unconventional relationship with a patriarchal figure.

Question 5

Loaded Gun- D’s intentions

Answer 5

Dickinson characterizes female identity as immanently powerful; exposing the futility of seeking self-actualization through subservience while urging women to resist subjugation by patriarchal forces.

Question 6

Loaded Gun- conceit

Answer 6

Female speaker as a weapon of destruction + t/f tool of patriarchy

Question 7

Hope- form and metre

Answer 7

Lyric poem in 3 stanzas
‘Definition poem’
Hymnal qualities of common metre to make the poem sound melodic like birdsong itself

Question 8

Hope- conceit

Answer 8

Hope as a bird perched in the soul which provides comfort during life’s darker moments

Question 9

Hope- Stanza 1

Answer 9

Defines hope, also obliquely about despair
Hope is everpresent even if we can’t discern it in life’s darker moments

Question 10

Hope- Stanza 2

Answer 10

Not only is hope present in despair, it is in fact strongest in despair

Question 11

Hope- stanza 3

Answer 11

Hope has remained with the speaker themselves in the most extreme circumstances, and as asked nothing in return

Question 12

Hope= Dickinson’s intentions

Answer 12

Hope is a uniting force which provides a source of light in the darkest of times
Sp. has experienced this themselves.

Question 13

Slant- metre

Answer 13

Regular hymn mater belies + intensifies sp’s despair as in ‘Frost’, ‘Funeral’ and ‘Blank’

Question 14

Slant- what statement

Answer 14

Dickinson explores the incapacity of religion and external paradigms to provide solace in the face ineludible mortality.

Question 15

3 purposes ‘Slant’

Answer 15

1. Despair is inherently linked to mortality, nature is also linked to mortality
2. The structures that transcendentalists + Christians find binding do not necessarily provide comfort/ solace
3. Discourse on shared humanity/ agony is isolating yet universal

Question 16

Blank- metre

Answer 16

• Works self-consciously against the common metre.
• Severed tetrameter in Line 1 defers expectations and creates a literal blank space/ mimics the vacancies of a maze.

Question 17

Blank- form

Answer 17

A lyric poem in 2 stanzas

Question 18

Blank- 2 interpretations of the ending

Answer 18

1. Sp. turns away from the abyss of despair, and closes their eyes to continue occupying the suffocating, liminal space.
2. Romantic resolution to trust their intuition/ tactile feel rather than eyesight, to guide them out of the labyrinth

Question 19

Funeral- Form

Answer 19

A lyric poem in 5 stanzas
Each stanza follows the stage of a funeral
Told entirely in the first person
1. The wake
2. The service
3.The procession
4. The funeral toll
5. The burial

Question 20

Funeral- conceit

Answer 20

The speaker experiencing a funeral in their brain, as they descend into insanity

Question 21

Funeral- Stanzas 1-4

Answer 21

Concrete voice to an experience of despair
Excruciating + annihilating pain
Proto-modern portrayal of despair

Question 22

Funeral- stanza 5 (Dickinsonian turn)

Answer 22

1. Sp descends into insanity as they enter the grave
2. Epiphanic revelation/ discovery of new worlds> break through rather than break-down

Question 23

Funeral- metre

Answer 23

Regular common meter + uncharacteristic full rhymes belie/ intensify the sp.’s psychical despair (Link to B/c and Frost)

Question 24

Funeral- What statement

Answer 24

Dickinson presents an introspective reflection of disassociation, alienation and sorrow through the conceit of a funeral procession occurring in the speaker’s conscience.

Question 25

Funeral- Why statement

Answer 25

Ultimately, Dickinson utilizes the haunting imagery of Passage to divulge the pain of disassociation, while potentially suggesting that suffering may engender psychical epiphanies.

Question 26

Blank- what statement

Answer 26

Dickinson explores the maddening tedium of disassociation through the conceit of the speaker’s mind as a labyrinth of blanks, in which an amorphous monster of meaninglessness lurks.

Question 27

Blank- why statement

Answer 27

Ultimately, while Dickinson may be suggesting that prolonged mental suffering may engender epiphanic reform, the proto-Modernist poet does not forgo a genuine depiction of psychical torment.