Lamia

Question 1

‘when from this wreathed tomb shall I wake’

‘when move in a sweet body for life’

Answer 1

• repetition of when suggests desperation

Question 2

‘ah miserable me!’

Answer 2

plaintive wail reveals the snake’s maudlin egocentrism.
At the end of the soliloquy to the sensuous, heart beating and sinister nature of the snake she is at one ‘bright’ yet also antithetically lying coiled and partly hidden

Question 3

‘gordian shape’
‘ vermillion spotted, golden,green and blue’ triadic listing
‘

Answer 3

triadic listing - having three entities combines both brevity and rhythm with having the smallest amount of information to create a pattern.

Question 4

‘demon’s mistress’ or the ‘demon’s self’

Answer 4

contradictions abound in the description of a snake. Is she absolved of her sin or is she the devil’s incarnate

Question 5

‘her mouth foamed’
‘lava ravished’ - lustful language
‘Eclips’d her crescents, and lick’d up her stars’
‘nothing but pain and ugliness left’
‘undressed of all her sapphires, greens and amethyst’

Answer 5

The dramatic astronomical phenomenon of an eclipse and the personification of ‘lava’ obliterates the celestial patterns on her skin.

Question 6

How, ever, where she will’d, her spirit went;

Answer 6

Despite her physical imprisonment, Lamia’s spirit is, antithetically, free to travel to the paradise of the after-life reserved for Gods, demi-gods and heroes . The textual motif Greek mythology brings the reader to consider the human condition, dreams and the nature of the imagination.