The Sick Rose and Sonnet On the Sea because I fucked up Flashcards
1
Q
4
‘O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm that flies in the night’
A
- Visceral, loud, sets rose as topic, unpleasant, disease, secrecy, shame , unaware, ‘crawls’ under darkness
- Open vowels - weariness, rose’s beauty, grace
- Departs from typical relationship of worm and rose
- Worm associated with death and decay when living in ground with corpses, thi, cyclicised body - engimatic interpetation
2
Q
4
‘Has found out thy bed of crimson joy and his dark secret love does thy life destroy’
A
- Connotates sexual and apetite and vigour, incubus, phallus, preys - is the rose inherently joy destroyed, ongoing
- ‘l’, ‘d’ - harsh consonants and alliteration - thematic connection in poem, sounds forceful and imposing
- 3 harshed beats - dark secret love - extra stress - urgent, penetrative aworm action - rest of poem mixture of anapests and iambs
- Why does the worm have to hide from its activity - hurting nature so cruel?
3
Q
Secrecy context
A
Blake worldsvie - deeply critical of organised Christainty for the waythat it suppressed humankinds natural sexuality, such suppression made desire manifest in unhealthy, poinsonous ways
4
Q
2
Rose context
A
- Sickness may represent society’s own sickness created by its inability to embace sexuality and desire
- Sick and dying but not yet - allergory for society that cant emrbace sexuality in an open healthy way, will become a perpetual, ongoing poem
5
Q
3
Blake’s poetry
A
- Never explicity states what rose stands for - beauty, nature, love, life itself - worm presents a mortal threat to it. Worm might stand for the dark, corrupting forces in the world which seek to destroy things positive and good
- Blake’s poetry infamously divides the world into contrary states - rose and worm, goods and evil, conflict aspects in the world
- Believed in a spirit world - invisible ‘larvae’ similar to demons travelling in minds - discussed in the works of 4th century theologian St Augestine
6
Q
2
Themes
A
- Death, destruction, innocence - rose’s fate may represent corruption of innocence and harsh realtiies of world
- Sex and desire - advoate fro sexual liberation - worm’s desire is literally and figuratively forced undergound, gesting towards societal views about sex based on guilt, shame and sin
7
Q
2
Symbols
A
- The rose - feminine beauty, unspoilt
- Worm relates to serpent in biblical Book of Genesis - Adam and Eve, fall of mankind - also appears elsehwere - ‘Four Zoos’ where Blake states plainly ‘man is a worm’
8
Q
Context
A
Other poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience depict nature in a state of corruption, usually at the hands of mankind
9
Q
4
Class notes
A
- ‘An English Rose’ - known as complimentm steroretypically, british beauty
- Prostitution from women in poverty - Blake concerned with harmful nature - ‘fallen women’, physical harm to reputation
- Capital R - Rose could be a woman
- Invisible worm - industrialisation - meant to be seen as progress, but is invisibly doing HARM
10
Q
Sonnet on the Sea context
A
John Keats wrote “On the Sea” while he was taking a holiday on the Isle of Wight in 1817. His friend John Reynolds submitted it to a London newspaper, The Champion, on his behalf; the paper published the poem later that year. In this sonnet, a speaker advises that people who are worn out and irritated by the “uproar” of daily life should go and sit quietly beside the ocean for a while. The sea’s vastness, mystery, and power, the speaker suggests, can refresh even the noisiest mind—and open people up to a wider world of imagination.
11
Q
It keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores
A
- “On the Sea” begins mysteriously. Without the title there to guide them, readers might not even know that the speaker is describing the sea: the speaker merely introduces an enigmatic “it” that whispers around the “shores” of lonely, faraway lands.
- The personification here suggests that this “it” could be a spirit, or even an immortal god: its “whisperings” are “eternal,” and it can travel to “desolate” places that no human foot has ever touched.
- In other words: this poem sees the ocean as more than just a bunch of water. To this speaker, the sea is a conscious, living force. And it seems to have a message to communicate. Those “eternal whisperings” might contain secret wisdom.
- Right from the start, then, this poem immerses readers in the physical experience of being by the ocean and listening to the surf. But it also invites readers to see this as more than just a physical experience. To hear the “whisperings” of the ocean, the speaker suggests, is to come into contact with some mysterious spirit of nature. The rest of this poem will explore this sea-spirit’s personality and encourage readers to get to know it for themselves.
12
Q
The Mystery and Beauty of the Ocean - Sonnet on the sea
A
- To the speaker of “On the Sea,” the ocean’s grandeur is an antidote to all the meaningless noise and nonsense of everyday life. With its strange rhythms, its vastness, and its myths, the ocean offers an alternative to the tiresome, petty “uproar” that people live in most of the time. Paying quiet attention to something so big and mysterious, the speaker suggests, offers people a strange kind of healing. To this speaker, the ocean helps people put life into perspective, helping them escape the constant noise of their own thoughts and troubles.
- In this speaker’s eyes, the ocean offers people a point of contact with eternity, mystery, and magic. Its “eternal whisperings” touch the shores of faraway lands that people have never visited, its vastness can fill “twice ten thousand caverns,” and its endless soft sounds suggest the singing of nymphs. At once “mighty” and “gentle,” the ocean is one great big mystery: a place that encourages people to open their minds both to the wide unknown and to tiny things they might often overlook, like the “very smallest shell” that lands at their feet.
- That kind of mind-opening mystery, the speaker goes on, is the perfect antidote to the pointless chaos that bedevils most lives. The speaker encourages anyone who has strained their eyes, ears, and hearts with the “uproar” of the day-to-day to simply go and sit beside the sea until they’re deeply lost in thought. In fact, the speaker encourages people to go so deep into their reveries that they “start” (or jump) as they come back to themselves. Merely coming near the mysteries of the ocean, the speaker suggests, is enough to expand, calm, and quiet the human mind—and to give people a little respite from the noise of their own thoughts.
13
Q
,—and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand caverns,—till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
A
- In these lines, the speaker evokes the sea’s character. It’s not just a gentle whisperer, but a “mighty” force whose tides can overflow thousands and thousands of sea-caves (or, to be precise, twenty-thousand sea-caves). It’s also in cahoots—or perhaps at war—with Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of darkness, mystery, and the moon, whose “spell” empties those caves out again.
- That allusion to ancient myth again suggests that there’s more to the sea than meets the eye. On the most literal level, these lines simply describe the action of the tides: the water rises up, fills those “caverns,” and recedes again, drawn out by the moon. But the speaker sees this natural behavior in terms of magic “spell[s]” and goddesses. The sea, in this poem, is not just vast, mighty, and awe-inspiring, but enchanted.
- There’s also something evocative going on in the caesurae here. By breaking this passage up with sharp mid-line dashes, the speaker evokes exactly what these lines describe. The dashes divide the first four lines into three “stages,” matching the movements of the ocean that the poem has so far followed: first the water gently whispers—then it rises up to fill the caverns—and finally it withdraws once more.
And yet, all that enchantment is grounded in tangible reality.
14
Q
Ye, that have your eye-balls vex’d and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
A
- In line 9, the speaker turns from describing the sea to inviting readers to come and see it for themselves. The speaker’s meter introduces this direct apostrophe with a flourish.
- These strong, upfront stresses make these lines sound like a magnificent invitation.
So does the speaker’s language. The old-fashioned “Ye” here sounds grand and serious, almost biblical. That fits right in with the speaker’s previous personification of the sea as a kind of spirit or god: by inviting readers to “feast” upon the sea, the speaker proposes an encounter with a vast, mysterious, powerful, and sometimes dangerous being. - But there’s also a touch of humor in this invitation. The word “eye-balls” feels a little out of step with the rest of these lines’ grand vocabulary. The speaker could just as easily have said something more pointedly poetic, like “your fair eyes.” But the connotation of “eye-balls” is more grounded, less elevated. In describing troubled “eye-balls,” the speaker suggests a down-to-earth kind of exhaustion: the physical weariness that comes from day-to-day life, not from some great poetic torment.
- What’s more, the suggestion that the reader’s eyes might be “vex’d” (or irritated) and “tired” hints that they’ve been doing too much reading. It’s as if the speaker is saying, “Put down this dumb poem and get yourself out to the ocean, already!” This advice also hints at the possibility that the ocean’s grand “wideness” might provide an antidote to the strains and vexations of normal life.
15
Q
Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be lightly moved, from where it sometime fell,
When last the winds of heaven were unbound.
A
- The first four lines of this poem have evoked the sea’s sounds, rhythms, and personality. These next four lines delve more deeply into its moods.
- Here, the speaker observes not the vastness and power of the sea, but its peculiar mildness. Personifying the ocean again, the speaker remarks that it’s occasionally in such a “gentle temper” that it will set a tiny shell down on the beach and then leave it totally undisturbed for days.
- But the ocean isn’t always gentle: it has a dangerous side, too. That “very smallest shell,” the speaker tells us, landed in its undisturbed spot the last time the “winds of heaven were unbound.” In other words, the ocean first flung that tiny shell to its current peaceful location in a terrible storm.
- All the images of the ocean the speaker has used so far have a double edge: the ocean is both “whispering[]” and “mighty,” “gentle” and storm-tossed, natural and supernatural. Part of the speaker’s appreciation of this place, it seems, is that it’s got a little bit of everything.
16
Q
Or are your hearts disturb’d with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody,—
A
- Having imagined the reader’s strained, “vex’d” eyeballs, the speaker goes on to suggest a few more reasons the reader might be feeling a little out of sorts. They might suffer from two different kinds of noise: “uproar rude” (chaotic clamor) or “cloying melody” (sugary-sweet music). Both, the speaker implies, can wear a person out.
- Both “uproar” and “melody” speak to different problems readers might encounter in everyday life. That “uproar” might evoke the bustle of a city, but also the noise inside people’s minds. And “cloying melody” could suggest an attempt to drown out that “uproar” with escapist indulgences—like, just for instance, too much sentimental poetry. Such nosies strike people right to their “hearts,” either upsetting them or making them feel vaguely sick, as if they’ve eaten too much sugar. (Perhaps these lines also hint that Keats is thinking of his own particular problems here: the “uproar” of London and the “cloying melody” of poetry that doesn’t meet his standards!)
- The “wideness of the Sea,” the speaker suggests, offers a respite from all of these day-to-day problems. This might have something to do with those gentle, quiet /s/ sounds that pulsed all through the poem’s onomatopoeic first section: the hiss of waves is a welcome break from both clamor and sentiment. But maybe the sea’s “wideness” is also refreshing because it forms a contrast with the pettiness of day-to-day life, putting all that “uproar” into perspective. Next to the vast and mysterious sea, in other words, every problem seems small.
17
Q
Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood
Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired.
A
- At the end of the poem, the speaker gives a prescription for those whose tired “eye-balls” and “disturb’d” hearts need a break from the everyday. Sit beside the ocean, the speaker encourages readers, and get so deeply lost in thought that when you startle back to consciousness, it’s as if you’d suddenly heard “sea-nymphs” singing.
- These last lines return to the scenery and sounds at the beginning of the poem. Once again, there’s a mysterious “cavern”; once again, there’s an allusion to classical mythology with those “sea-nymphs.” And that hushed sibilance returns, making it seem as if the waves have been persistently whooshing in the background all along:
- This return to earlier images and earlier sounds makes it seem as if the speaker has been doing exactly what the poem encourages readers to do: sitting by the sea, getting lost in thought, and then jolting awake to the scenery again.
- Perhaps there’s a little danger in this kind of deep thought, though. Those “sea-nymphs” aren’t just peaceful singers: nymphs were said to lure sailors to their deaths with their songs. By sitting down by the sea and getting lost in imagination, the speaker seems not just to be taking a break, but taking a risk.
- That sense of danger suggests that the sea the speaker’s talking about here isn’t just the literal sea. It’s also the symbolic sea of the imagination. In its hugeness, its association with myth and legend, its strange moods, and its hypnotic sounds, the sea invites people to look past the “uproar rude” of daily life and into the great unknown. An encounter with the spirit of the sea might be perilous, but it’s also deeply rewarding.
18
Q
The Sea
A
This poem is about the sea both literally and symbolically. In its symbolic role, the sea represents the mysterious depths of the imagination.
Encouraging people to get lost in thought beside the ocean, the speaker is also encouraging them to look beyond the chatter of their everyday minds and into the unknown. The vastness, strangeness, and magic of the sea here are all images of the scope and beauty of the irrational, dreaming parts of the mind. Sitting by this kind of “sea” is not only enchanting, but inspiring: an encounter with the imagination like the one the speaker describes here must have produced this very poem.
19
Q
Form
A
- “On the Sea” is a Petrarchan sonnet. This means that it’s built from two parts: an octave (or eight-line passage) that explores a theme, and a sestet (or six-line passage) that introduces a new idea. The beginning of the sestet is called the “volta” (or “turn”), and it marks a transition from one kind of thinking to another.
- Here, the volta begins with apostrophe: the speaker turns from a mysterious, meditative portrait of the sea to an invitation, encouraging anyone who feels worn out by life to come and lose themselves in the sea’s mysteries.
- The poem’s shape thus reflects its bigger philosophy. Switching from meditative description to broad apostrophe, the speaker seems to say that everyone (not just poets) can be refreshed and restored through an encounter with the grandeur of the sea—and, symbolically, an encounter with the depths of the imagination.
20
Q
Meter
A
Putting strong stresses right up front, the speaker introduces the poem’s sestet (or last six lines) with a flourish, emphatically inviting everyone into an encounter with the sea’s mysteries. These metrical variations also keep the language fresh and engaging, pulling readers from line to line with a pleasing kind of musicality.
21
Q
Rhyme Scheme
A
- This pattern of rhyme shapes the speaker’s thoughts. The ABBA section is descriptive, evoking the moods and movements of the ocean. Then, when the poem comes to its volta (or turning point) in line 9, the speaker addresses readers in a direct apostrophe, encouraging them to go soak up some of the sea’s grandeur for themselves.
- Keats might have chosen the Petrarchan sonnet form here precisely because its patterns of rhyme fit his subject. That back-and-forth ABBA is like the motion of waves, and the CDEDEC pattern—which returns to the same place it began after a more complicated journey—moves like the thoughts of the person who sits down to “brood” in a sea-cave, getting so deeply lost in thought that they have to suddenly “start” back to normal awareness.
22
Q
Speaker
A
- Judging by their careful attention to the ocean, their impulse to escape the clamor of daily life, and their love of myth and legend, this poem’s reflective speaker has a lot in common with Keats himself. But the poem doesn’t clearly identify the speaker: anything readers learn about the speaker, they learn through the observations that the speaker makes about the surrounding world.
- This all fits right into Keats’s ideas about poetry. According to Keats, poets should be like chameleons, transforming themselves into the things they write about rather than imposing their own egos on the world. By disappearing into a description of the sea, then, the speaker gets lost in contemplation—exactly what the poem advises its readers to do.
23
Q
Literary context
A
- John Keats wrote “On the Sea” on the Isle of Wight in April 1817, taking a much-needed holiday from his native London. He had published his first volume of poetry, Poems, just a month earlier. Keats’s early reviewers were often condescending and dismissive, snobbishly writing Keats off as a common “Cockney” with no business dabbling in lyric poetry. But Keats’s friends (including influential figures like the poet and journalist Leigh Hunt) believed in him deeply, and encouraged him to take a break, regroup, and keep on writing. This poem’s sense of the sea as a restorative answer to the “uproar rude” of daily life reflects Keats’s own troubles and hopes during this time.
- Keats’s thoughts on the sea in this poem were deeply influenced by a long tradition of poetic thought about the ocean. This poem owes a lot to Shakespeare, whose imaginative visions of the sea in King Lear and The Tempest were much on Keats’s mind during this period. And many of Keats’s English Romantic-era contemporaries also used the sea as a symbol of the imagination and the unknown, from Coleridge (in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”) to Shelley (in his elegy for Keats, “Adonais”).
- Only four years after his holiday to the Isle of Wight, Keats would die at the age of 25—but not before he’d written some of the most beloved and influential poetry in English literature. Generations of later poets have counted him as an inspiration, from the Victorian Tennyson to the contemporary Alice Oswald.
24
Q
Historical context
A
- Encouraging readers to escape to the sea, the poem draws on some very Romantic ideas about the restorative power of nature. The early 19th century was marked by a dramatic shift in old ways of life: the Industrial Revolution was getting into gear, and the British economy shifted from farming to factories, the countryside to the city. Keats was one of many artists and thinkers at this time who sought relief from the growing noise, smoke, and bustle of the cities in the beauty of the natural world.
- To the Romantics, nature wasn’t just a nice place to have a picnic: it was a source of wisdom, spiritual beauty, and imaginative inspiration. To get lost in the loveliness of a flower or a bird’s song, in their eyes, was a way to remember that there’s more to the world than the mechanical and the scientific.
- In this way, Romanticism rebelled against both earlier Enlightenment ideas of reason and order, and coming Victorian ideas about progress and propriety. Romanticism argued that the natural world wasn’t there either to be dissected or mastered, but experienced.
