ISOLATION TO MARGUERITE
Psychological isolation is a recurrent and common aspect in Arnold´s poetry, and in this one in particular is quite expressed. The voice speaks of his own feelings about a person which he has fell in love with so desperately and profoundly, that he has shut his heart from love feelings towards other people. However, he at first wanted this and tried hardly to accomplish it: “I bade my heart more constant be” “Grew a home for only thee”. The overall mood in the first stanza is very different from the mood in the stanzas that precede it. It is quite optimistic and hopeful. The voice enjoys feeling love for only one person and growing such great fondness for her. This is emphasized when he says that both people´s love grow “likewise, each day, more tried, more true”.
However the opening line of the second stanza ironically states that love isn´t a nice thing at all: “The fault was grave! I might have known”. The voice kinds of takes back or regrets what he said before. There is a drastic turning point in feelings, emphasizes with the repetition of exclamation marks. Now the narrator is angry, pitiful and pessimistic. The use of “grave” is a very deep metaphor with double meaning: Loving marguerite was a big mistake (grave), it gives an image of a cemetery grave, as their love has died and been “buried”.
Then the voice starts to explain how this love is unrequited and the relationship seems to have no future. This is frustrating and causes feelings of anger and depression, such to a certain degree that he wishes this person he fell in love with, an eternal loneliness: “How vain is mortal love” “Thou shalt be, hast been, and are alone”.
He compares his love not with one passionate and outlasting time, but with one notoriously unrequited. “Back with the conscious thrill of shame//When Luna felt, that summer night…When she forsook the starry heights//To hang over Endymion’s sleep” He feels ashamed for loving someone so obsessively and not getting anything back. The speaker has no real hope for his love to be returned to him. “Or, if not quite alone, yet they//Which touch thee are unmating things-//Ocean and clouds and night and day”.
In my opinion, this voice is extremely obsessed with this woman, and it gets to a point in which he wishes her an eternal loneliness because his love is not returned back. I think his thoughts and feelings are becoming way too desperate and seem sickly obsessive.
In the last stanzas, he realizes that love and faith in one another may often be unreturned and that love involves and emotion back and forth process that it isn't always the idealistic love we expect: “ebb and swell” “may oft´be unreturned”.
It is a world in which human feelings are in flux and where human hearts are separate and can only yearn for fusion. The self is alone, the lover announces in the middle of the poem. Indeed, solitude is proclaimed as though it were a judgment on human behavior: “Thou has been, shalt be, art, alone.” The finality of the phrasing is a crushing blow barely mitigated by the final stanzas, which acknowledge that not all people have found happiness and apparent communion with their lovers.
In 1847 Arnold met and fell in love with Mary Claude (in his poems he gives her the name Marguerite), who was holidaying near Arnold’s parents’ house, Fox How, in the Lake District. She was a writer herself and a lively and enterprising member of a family of girls brought up in a French community in Germany. Mary walked with Arnold in the moonlight, but their love did not prosper, as the Marguerite poems show.
“Isolation. To Marguerite” consists of 7 sextets in iambic tetrameter, rhyming ababcc.
I WISH I COULD REMEMBER THAT FIRST DAY
This poem is a romantic and dramatic one, dealing with the voice wanting to desperately retrieve the memory of her first meeting with who it seems to be the love of her life. I say the voice is a “she” because, usually the voice is related to the gender of the poet and because the manner in which she speaks, is much more softly, calmly desperate and feminine than usual male voices.
“I wish i could remember that first day” is a much structured and organized poem. It is an obvious Italian sonnet, as it has an abba abba cddc cd rhyming scheme, it is written in iambic pentameter with exactly ten syllables on each line and it is divided into an octet and a sestet by a change not only in the rhyming scheme, but also in the mood and tone of the poem. After the first eight lines the voice switches its mood and tone to much more desperate, desolated and less hopeful ones. In the octet it seemed that she was more hopeful, contemplative and spoke much more calmly about the need to retrieve that memory. But in the sestet there is an increased use of exclamation marks, and repetition which rises the desperation and emotions strength to a peak in the poem.
All along the poem, the author places paradoxes to indicate how blinded is this memory to the voice. For example “If bright or dim the season it might be/ Summer or winter for aught i can say”: this indicates that she doesn't remember whether that meeting was happening at noonday or at night, on summer or on winter. This emphasizes how blinded and opaque this memory is in her mind. Then in the sestet there is a very deep and profound paradox: “It seemed to mean so little, meant so much”. This line not only summarizes the whole poem but also yields a great amount of background to it. It gives the reader the thought that in the past, this meeting was so unimportant to the voice, that she let it sleep away in her mind, such as when she says “I let it go/ As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow” This simile is very much connected to the line in question, as it gives it a broader and meaningful sense. The use of the word “seemed” is used to talk about the past and how actually wrong was the voice in letting the memory disappear in her mind, as then she says “meant so much”.
Inversion is also used repeatedly in the poem, mainly to put an emphasis on how desperate the voice is to retrieve the meeting in her mind and to describe how little she has left of it. In my opinion, the most important inversion is used to place the word “So” at the beginning of three consecutive lines in an enjambment in the octet: “So unrecorded/So blind…./So dull”. This marks the regret the voice has in not saving that memory and how idiotic she feels in letting herself be so blinded. Repetition of “So” also rises the emphasis.
Repetition as I've said before, is more commonly and repeatedly used in the sestet: “…to mean so, …. meant so” “day of days” “hand in hand”. This literature device along with the increased use of exclamation marks, is used by Rosetti to get the climax and desperation of the poem to the highest level, changing the mood and tone of the poem after the first eight lines causing the reader to feel that desperation too and to empathize with the voice of the poem.
Rosetti also uses many metaphors relating nature. She uses “summer”, “winter” “season” as literal images when mentions the setting of the meeting, but then she also uses “budding of my tree” to reflect the incredible growth of love to a person the voice has had, and “thaw of bygone snow” to give an image of cold-heartedness and unimportance in the past.
The person the voice is so desperate with may be influenced by one of the three suitors Rosetti was engaged with but could never marry because of religious reasons: James Collinson, Charles Cayley or John Brett.
In conclusion, “I wish i could remember that first day” is, in my opinion, one of the most structured and smartly written poems I've ever read, not only by its tight form and meter but also by the use of intelligent and passionate metaphors, similes, repetitions, paradoxes, enjambments, and comparisons of love and nature elements, giving the reader many images and symbols which rise the poetic effect and enjoyment of the poem.
LAUNDRETTE
“Laundrette” is a poem that deals with the dullness of everyday life. The object used as the main symbol for this theme are the washing machines located in the laundrette, which reflect how life revolves around and around a same, boring and depressing routine.
In the first stanza the voice of the poem makes reference to the group of people sitting in the launderette waiting for their clothes to be washed. The voice describes the atmosphere as being steamy and indirectly mentions the poor neighborhood in which the launderette is located and therefore where they live on: “We sit nebulous in steam” “Rippling the hinterland´s big houses to a blur of bedsits”.
In the second stanza, the voice keeps on describing the common actions that take place in a launderette, which contribute to the boredom of routines: putting the money on a jar, sitting and looking at the washing machine turning and spinning, just as how the cycle of our typical routine does. It just repeats over and over and nothing exciting happens: “We stuff the tub, jam money in the slot/ sit back on our tickle chairs”. Then there is, in my opinion, a meaningful line : “Our own colors whirl”, signifying that although there are different people, culture, behaviors, stereotypes, each of them have a different boring, dull routine which keeps repeating on and on, just as how clothes colors whirl in a washing machine.
In the third stanza, the idea of “dullness of routine” is again repeated: “the machine sobs through its cycle”. The word “sobs” contributes to the depressing mood as it gives an image of sadness. However, now the voice mentions that sometimes “The rhythm throbs and changes”, referring to how life´s routine can sometimes go out of the normal, out of the boredom, but this changes only happen a few times. After this, the voice speaks about how “our duds don't know which way to turn”. “duds” is scottish dialect for “clothes”, which could have another meaning as “people”, (“dudes” which is slang for people), referring to how people sometimes don't know what to do in their lives to get out of or are stuck in the ordinary and tiring routine. They cant escape from the dullness of life.
Later on, the voice describes the individuality of each person that enters the launderette, who reflect stereotypes of people, and how the seem to always play their unhappy role in their own routine. For example, one character is a wife, which personifies how the typical mother/wife life turns dull, uninteresting and tiring with time. Her unhappiness is described by the way in which she pours the clothes in the washing machine: “The woman is deadpan before the rinse and sluice” meaning the she has no expression, showing her sadness, boredom and indifference to her daily life. She has come to the launderette so many times that she is an expert on it: “She has a weather eye for what might shrink or run”. The line “she sees a kaleidoscope” indicates that she is a mother, and that this may get her tired and angry because of children disobedience.
All other characters are just as unhappy as the wife/mother, like the poor man who has few clothes to wash and watches them “Cast off random (…) like flotsam”, which is a simile reflecting how people get lost in the boredom of life, or a dark mysterious man, except for a newlywed which admires her wedding presents, how nice they are and is curious about how a washing machine works: “Are the dyes fast”, serves as a rhetorical question than indicates naiveness in her. This contributes to the depressing mood of the poem in the sense that it refers to how she doesn't know that soon she will be another of the people stuck in the daily launderette routine, and that her life wont be as exciting and cheerful as it seems now.
Throughout the poem the tone of the poem is hopeless, however in stanza five there is a small sense of hope that is created by the use of words like, “young”, “clean”, “christening” and “first” with the newlywed, but the hope is crushed by the wife/ mother who has been going in there for years and depressing and sad words start to appear again like “deadpan” “let them stew in their juice” which indicates indifference by the old wife.
“Laundrette” is a poem which uses many double meaning connotations, it brings up both literal and figurative images and symbols. Lochhead uses metaphors, similes and personification to create this double meanings, all related to washing clothes and the dullness of life: “Our own colors whirl” “We stuff the tub, jam money in the slot, sit back…” “The machine sobs through its cycle”. It has a fast pace of reading, in order for rhymes to sound like them, but it doesn't have a fixed meter. The poem is structured with the first 3 stanzas starting with ‘we’ bringing together all the users of the laundrette. Stanzas 4, 5, 6 and 8 show us different people. The language uses Scottish dialect words e.g. ‘rickle’ (a loosely piled heap or unsteady structure) and ‘fankle’ (entangled) to create the local area and voice. The language is dead and deadening: ‘stuff the tub’, jam money’, ’suds drool and slobber’ and the woman is ‘deadpan’. There is not much life in the characters or situation. Only the young wife has any energy and life. The laundrette machine turning and spinning is a metaphor for dullness, monotony and boredom in people’s lives as all they look at are the clothes turning behind the circular porthole glass.
POEM FOR MY SISTER
Deals with the old sister of two not wanting the little one to grow too quickly. There is a tone of remorse as she speaks about the consequences of trying to be an adult too fast, which seems to be what she has done in the past and doesn't want her sister to repeat. It is written in free verse as there is no fixed rhyme or meter pattern. Free verse reflects how life is not perfect, not structured, how it freely passes without us being able to control every single aspect of it. I think Lochhead didn't include a regular rhyming and rhythm pattern to teach readers this. Specially young ones. We cant expect to grow up and go through adolescence without any single mistake and with a controlled and perfect path. Enjambment is also a recurring device in the poem. Again i think this is because the poem is directed to herself and therefore so that the reader can think to themselves, make that inner monologue about making the right choices and actually experimenting things when trying to grow up but while trying to do it carefully and responsibly. Lochhead is just trying to get her ideas across and all along a stream of consciousness. This is why she uses so many enjambments and not so many full stops until the end when she wants to make clear points.
A very important and recurring symbol in this poem are “shoes”, referring to wanting to be somebody else, which is just what the little sister is trying to do. This serves as the main device to make the poem an extended metaphor comparing shoes and life. She is trying to look and act as a grown up. She tries to look confident, as she “struts in them”, but she can´t as they are “hard to balance”, meaning that it is hard and complicated to be an adult. Being an adult doesn't just bring independency but also many responsibilities and decisions to make with it.
The alliteration of “season´s styles” brings about the idea of time passing. The little sister is getting to adolescence and now she is starting to worry about how she looks, what clothes she wears, how she acts, etc. This is why there is this choice of words related to fashion. The little sister is just entering that phase but she wants to be an adult already. This is why she “wobbles” in her sister´s shoes.
Despite wanting this, the big sister acknowledges that the little is getting to an age where she has already been through playing and basically being a child, for enough time. She has perfected the children skills of playing, jumping, etc. She is ready for something else. As she says “I like to watch my little sister playing hopscotch” “admire the neat hops and skips of her”. Her phase as being a child has been completed. This is emphasized in “never missing the mark/ not overstepping the line”. Again lochhead uses scottish dialect: “ she is competent at peever” which means hopscotch. This line is a metaphor for saying that the girl is normal (competent) and is just like everyone else in trying to grow up. This gives the poem an universal meaning. This stanza can also have another meaning, which can be discovered when the voice says “not over-stepping the line”. This means that she is admitting that although her sister is trying to grow up and act like an adult, she is not going way too far, she is still enjoying being a children and the perks it brings with it, such as being able to enjoy a game of hopscotch.
In the last stanza, which is longer than the other ones, the older sister tells that she tries “to warn” her “little sister, about unsuitable shoes” and “point out” her “distorted feet, the callouses”. This is a very deep metaphor, which implies that the older sister, when she was the same age as her little sister, tried to grow up too fast, and that has brought consequences to her. It has left “wounds” in her and tries to get her little sister to learn from her mistakes so that she doesn't repeat them and therefore doesn't wear “unsuitable shoes”. Finally the older sister makes a full stop and says “I should not like to see her in my shoes/ I wish she could stay/ sure footed,/ sensibly shod.” This summarizes the whole motif of the poem of not wanting the little sister to grow up too quickly, but also means that the older sister would like it to be possible that her little sister didn't become an adult and face the many more problems, worries and responsibilities that can affect one in a negative way when growing up. She would like her little sister to always be safe and therefore “sensibly shod”. This repeated alliteration of the “s” and “sh” sound gives an emphasis on what the older sister wishes.
In conclusion, The older sister wants to keep the little one safe forever, in children shoes, with no worries of the world and just having to play all day, with no serious decisions to make that may affect her future.
FOOTBALL AFTER SCHOOL
Poem close to “Poem for my sister”, in the way that its main themes deal with protection of young people when growing up and the attempt to make them avoid difficult, and complicated situations. In this case is about a mother wanting to protect her son as he grows up.
It has an ABABCDC rhyming scheme with no regular rhythm. This is unusual but indicates structure, and certain control and influence the mother thinks she has over her son but still she knows that she can´t control everything, and thats why there is a loose line which doesn't rhyme and also there are slant/half rhymes which indicate that even though she tries as hard as possible to control the boy´s decisions and be close she actually cannot. This rhyming scheme is used to emphasize the idea that even while wanting to control every single aspect of growing up, the transition to being an adult won´t be completely perfect.
The poem is an extended metaphor of football being like life and the transition to adulthood. Football has many obstacles and challenges that one has to go through in order to reach the goal, such as how life has many challenges and hardships that one has to get through to reach our goals. The mother warns the son of the hardships of life, how he will develop, probably being more aggressive and rebellious as well as arrogant. (“warpaint” “you´ll be one of them” “premature swagger”) This is the typical image of a rebel teenager trying to find his way through life. Afterwards the mother starts telling that soon his decisions will start to have deep consequences that will leave permanent scars on him, that is negative effects than may endure through time: “soon you´ll be picking scabs of kisses”, but he will recover from those and he will learn from those mistakes. The idea of “kisses” relates to the typical sexual feelings awakening during adolescence and the falling in love that may sometimes be unrequited or go wrong so the mother is afraid of her son for love issues. “the unset homework/between margins of this makeshift pitch/teaching you more than a textbook”: This lines in the second stanza are quite important as they have a universal meaning, which is that probably one learns how to deal with life´s hardest challenges and obstacles not in school, but outside of it, in the open world, by facing them and making mistakes which cause us to understand our errors and avoid to repeat them. This causes one to grow more mature, so by this mistake-learning process the son will become more of an adult each time. He will have an inner and outer growth: “each kick (each mistake and consequence) makes you dwarf a tree” meaning that it will grow taller than a tree in the sense of maturity, and “stab a flower” which evokes again the image of rebellious teenager going against everything, even nature.
In the third stanza all along until the last the mother starts questioning if her son will be able to stand all those difficulties, if he is strong enough to get through them. This ideas are repeated and emphasized in many lines: “to tackle fouls with somethings more than inkstand fists and feet” (to tackle contrary opinions or decisions by others with pacific methods and not just childish punches)“Perhaps you´ll be too vulnerable for living” “not hooligan enough”. She starts later on to exemplify some of the hardest situations that he will probably have to face. Metaphors are commonly employed for this reason. For example “to sample punches below the belt from one you know without flinching”, this means that maybe people who seem to be the most loyal and our greatest friends may betray us and we may have to face them. The mother wants the son to stay strong and expect those awful things to happen. But finally she ends up acknowledging that she can´t stop the son from making those mistakes, facing those difficult situations and learning from experience as then he will make himself a better and more mature man for that: “I can´t prevent/ crossbones on your knees/ turn bullies into cement/ or confiscate the sun”. The idea of “confiscate the sun” means “reaching your goals” just as “getting the ball” in football which is our comparison with life.
ONE FLESH
- Ironic title: one flesh has different meanings: united in marriage, but this is juxtaposed with the sexual connotation of “flesh”
- Three stanzas with irregular rhyming scheme (free verse), reflecting the strange relationship and the placing of a rhyming couplet on the first two stanzas but not on the last one, again emphasizing the true state of the relationship: separation
- Caesura reflects the separation and paradoxes the confusing and unreal situation the relationship is in: together as looked from the inside but strangers to each other on the inside.
- Both partners are looking for escapism: one pretending to read a book, the other looking fixedly at the shadows in the wall.
- They used to have passion but not now: “flotsam from a former passion”
- Alliteration reflects how they pretend to be together, like these words, but really are not, which is described in the lines.
- Voice is the daughter whose tone is reflexive sad and in the last stanza fearful for the parents to grow too old and time to pass so unnoticeably that they will die living in that awful state without facing the problems of the relationship
- The couple uses silence to avoid discussing their issues and there cold hearted relationship: “Silence like a thread to hold and not wind in”
- Rhetorical question used to express the desperation and fear of the daughter: “Do they know they are old”
- Similes, metaphors and paradoxes are used to make comparisons to the unrealistic situation: “She like a girl dreaming of childhood” when she should be an adult and face the husband “The book he holds unread”, paradoxic as books are supposed to be read.
INHERIT THE WIND Key Notes
CHARACTERS
RACHEL
Rachel’s romance with Cates runs parallel to her own personal development and highlights the primary conflict in the play—fundamentalism versus freedom of thought. Kind of highlights the change of thought of many Hillsboro people after the trial
Cates and Reverend Brown test Rachel´s loyalty throughout the play
CATES
Bertram Cates is not a criminal type. A quiet, unassuming twenty-four-year-old, Cates is innocent, naïve, and wondrous about the world—and he suffers emotionally as a result of the townspeople’s treatment of him
In several instances in the play, Cates displays the humanity of an open, forgiving mind, as do the other evolutionists and progressives. Ironically, forgiveness comes more readily to Cates than to his staunchly Christian neighbors—foremost among them Reverend Brown. he often needs Drummond’s encouragement to persevere with his cause. Cates doubts himself at times, especially when Rachel pleads him to admit his guilt and beg forgiveness.
BRADY
We learn that Brady ran for president in three consecutive elections but never succeeded. This failure plagues him throughout his life and manifests itself during the trial. When Brady falls ill following his floundering responses to Drummond’s line of questioning, he deliriously spews forth the speech he had prepared for a possible presidential victory.
Although he subscribes to a rather traditional brand of Christianity, he embraces more of the Bible than the Hillsboro preacher Reverend Brown does. When Brown harshly calls for eternal hellfire as punishment for Cates and all those who side with him—including even his own daughter—Brady interrupts Brown and reminds the crowd of the Christian doctrine of forgiveness
Brady exhibits hubris, or excessive pride, in failing to consider the prospect of his own humiliation. When Drummond undermines Brady´s authority, he breaks down for he lacks the inner strength and wit to reconsider his own beliefs and adjust to an unexpected change.
Drummond
The infamous criminal-defense attorney Henry Drummond arrives in Hillsboro vilified as an atheist but leaves, after losing the trial, as a hero. To the audience—and to many of the townspeople—Drummond makes a convincing case for the right of a human being to think.
He accomplishes this feat by exposing the contradictions underlying his witnesses’ inherited religious beliefs.
Drummond’s point becomes clear: freedom of thought becomes the freedom to be wrong or to change our minds. The world, viewed in this light, is full of possibilities.
His cross-examination of Matthew Harrison Brady causes humiliation and hysteria. Brady self-destructs. Drummond’s attack of Brady is not mean-spirited, it is devastating. At the same time, the power of Drummond’s attack stems not so much from Drummond’s wit as from the weight of Brady’s egotism, stubbornness, and arrogance as they collapse in his ranting testimony.
Hornbeck
Functions as a traditional dramatic device, the chorus, to underscore the main themes of Inherit the Wind. The chorus, which has its origins in ancient Greek theater, is a character who delivers lines—typically sung in verse—that comment on the action of the play and predict the future. In Inherit the Wind, the playwrights consolidate this traditional chorus into a single chorus character, theBaltimore Herald reporter E. K. Hornbeck. Hornbeck’s lines appear in poetic form, and his musings, which originally seem extreme, eventually prove accurate and insightful. His presence also highlights the differences between North and South as well as between urban and rural environments
THEMES
Conservatism vs Freedom Of Thought
Conservatism is rooted in fear. The most adamant creationists, Brady and Reverend Brown, occupy positions of authority at the top of the social order, and their primary motivation is to maintain this control over that social order. Like Darwinism, which questions the religious foundation of that social order, new, progressive ideas present a threat to the creationists’ status as leaders.
Drummond, Hornbeck, and Cates, though they maintain respectable positions within society—attorney, journalist, and teacher, respectively—are more interested in the truth than in maintaining their own social status.
The obedience Brown demands of the community is the opposite of freedom. In contrast, the questioning that Cates practices—and encourages—promotes free thinking, which opens new paths to progress.
CITY VS THE COUNTRY
In the early twentieth century, rapid urbanization, immigration, and technological improvements exposed American city dwellers to a wide range of new ideas. Although advances in transportation and communication enabled these ideas to spread throughout the United States, many rural areas were slow to accept these new ways of thinking.
Hillsboro’s largely static townspeople are seldom exposed to new faces, let alone new ideas. Many are illiterate or have received education solely from a single, conservative perspective—fundamentalist Christianity.
Brady and Brown, meanwhile, cast Drummond as the devil, an agnostic crawling from the city gutters to defile the purity of Hillsboro’s citizens. The gruff manners of Drummond and Hornbeck do little to endear them to their new small-town acquaintances. In contrast, Brady, though a figure of national prominence, showboats his humble Nebraska origins in order to win the locals’ support.
The town’s conservative politics allows neither for debate nor doubt. Throughout the play, Cates and Drummond encourage Rachel to keep her mind open, while Brown and Brady coax her to abide by their views as they vilify her friend. In the end she ends up going to the city in the side of Cates and freedom of thought.
MAN VS SOCIETY
In Inherit the Wind, Cates challenges the law and, with it, the norms of Hillsboro society. Facing disfavor from the townspeople, he nonetheless decides to persevere in his cause. Describing his feelings of isolation.
Both Cates and Drummond experience a struggle against mainstream society. The older and more experienced Drummond comforts Cates with his knowledge that individuals make progress for all of society when they courageously pursue the truth regardless of others’ opinion, individuals throughout history have challenged societal norms by forcing society to rethink its assumptions. Historical movements appropriate the energy of these individuals to revolutionize society.
Although Brady and Reverend Brown are charismatic public figures, they fail to present themselves as individuals. Rather, they hide behind the Bible and hold themselves up as symbols of society itself. They are anti-individualistic. They maintain order in Hillsboro by scaring people out of having their own opinions and ideas.
PLAY STRUCTURE
Play structure
RISING ACTION · Cates teaches evolution to his science classes; Cates is arrested for violating the law that bars the teaching of evolution; Matthew Harrison Brady and Henry Drummond represent, respectively, the prosecution and the defense, drawing national attention to the trial.
CLIMAX · When Brady flounders under Drummond’s line of questioning, the courtroom spectators shift their support to Cates.
FALLING ACTION · Cates and Drummond consider their trial a popular and societal victory and decide to prepare an appeal; Brady becomes flustered and humiliated and, shortly after, dies of a “busted belly”; Rachel leaves her father and learns the power of individual thought.
