The Erl-King Flashcards
What is the weather like and what month is it?
‘A cold day of late October’
How is the cold described, in the approach of what season?
‘The lancinating cold of the approach of winter’
How does she describe the time of year?
‘The saddest time of year’
What does she get a ‘haunting sense’ of?
‘A haunting sense of the imminent cessation of being’
What does the wood do?
‘The wood swallows you up’
What happens once you are in the woods?
‘Once you are inside it, you must stay there until it lets you out again’
The trees make the noise of who’s skirts?
‘Women who have lost themselves in the woods’
What is cawing and how?
‘Crows…raucously cawing’
What has happened to the water now it is winter?
‘The silent, blackish water thickens, now, to ice’
What will fall?
‘All will fall still, all lapse’
What fairytale character does she compare herself to and what will she be trapped in?
‘Red Riding Hood… she will be trapped in her own illusion’
What is easy to do in the woods?
‘It is easy to lose yourself in these woods’
How does she describe her loneliness?
‘My girlish and delicious loneliness’
How does she describe the fruit? Hint: Christina Rosetti.
‘Delicious as goblin or enchanted fruit’
How many people did she think we’re in the wood?
‘I thought nobody was in the wood but me’
Erl-King will do what?
‘Erl-King will do you grievous harm’
How does she describe the year as ‘failing’?
‘Melancholy of the failing year’
What does the Erl-King lay upon her?
‘Lays upon me his irrevocable hand’
What can some eyes do?
‘There are some eyes can eat you’
How does she describe his eye? Hint: Hoover.
‘The black vortex of his eye’
What does the Erl-King come alive from?
‘He came alive from the desire of the woods’
What does he keep his birds in?
‘Little cages in which he keeps his singing birds’
How many birds are there? What upon what?
‘Cage upon cage of singing birds’
How does she describe the trapped birds and what are her feelings about it?
‘A wall of trapped birds. How cruel it is, to keep wild birds in cages!’
