Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems Part 28

Why does he call some one to look on the scene with him? What is the "eternal note of sadness"? Why connect it in thought with the sea? Why does this thought suggest Sophocles? What thought next presents itself to the author's mind? From what source must one's help and comfort then be drawn? Why so? Why the irregular versification? State the theme of the poem. [184]

PHILOMELA

"Philomela unites the sensibilities and intellectual experience of modern Englishmen with the luminousness and simplicity of Greek poetry."--SAINTSBURY.

The myth of the nightingale has long been a favorite with the poets, who have variously interpreted the bird's song. See Coleridge's, Keats's, and Wordsworth's poems on the subject. The most common version of the myth, the one followed by Arnold, is as follows:--

"Pandion (son of Erichthonius, special ward to Minerva) had two daughters, Procne and Philomela, of whom he gave the former in marriage to Tereus, king of Thrace (or of Daulis in Phocis). This ruler, after his wife had borne him a son, Itys (or Itylus), wearied of her, plucked out her tongue by the roots to insure her silence, and, pretending that she was dead, took in marriage the other sister, Philomela. Procne, by means of a web, into which she wove her story, informed Philomela of the horrible truth. In revenge upon Tereus, the sisters killed Itylus, and served up the child as food to the father; but the G.o.ds, in indignation, transformed Procne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, forever bemoaning the murdered Itylus, and Tereus into a hawk, forever pursuing the sisters."--GAYLEY'S _Cla.s.sic Myths_.

=4.= Use the subjoined questions in studying the poem.

=5. O wanderer from a Grecian sh.o.r.e.= See note, l. 27.

=8.= Note the aptness and beauty of the adjectives in this line, not one of which could be omitted without irreparable loss.

=18. Thracian wild.= Thrace was the name used by the early Greeks for the entire region north of Greece.

[185]

=21. The too clear web=, etc. See introductory note to poem for explanation of this and the following lines.

=27. Daulis.= A city of Phocis, Greece, twelve miles northeast of Delphi; the scene of the myth of Philomela. =Cephessian vale.= The valley of the Cephissus, a small stream running through Doris, Phocis, and Boeotia, into the Euboean Gulf.

=29. How thick the bursts=, etc. Compare with the following lines from Coleridge:--

"'Tis the merry nightingale That crowds and hurries and precipitates With fast, thick warble his delicious notes, As he were fearful that an April night Would be too short for him to utter forth His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul Of all its music!"

--_The Nightingale_.

Also

"O Nightingale! thou surely art A creature of a 'fiery heart':-- These notes of thine--they pierce and pierce; Tumultuous harmony and fierce!

Thou sing'st as if the G.o.d of wine Had helped thee to a Valentine."

--WORDSWORTH.

=31-32. Eternal pa.s.sion!

Eternal pain!= Compare:--

"Thou warblest sad thy pity-pleading strains."

--COLERIDGE, _To a Nightingale_.

and

"Sweet bird ...

Most musical, most melancholy!"

--MILTON, _Il Penseroso_.

Image the scene in the poem. How does the author secure the proper atmosphere for the theme of the poem? Account for the note of triumph in the nightingale's song; note of pain. What is shown by the poet's question, ll. 10-15? What new qualities are added to the nightingale's song, l. 25? Account for them. Why _eternal_ pa.s.sion, _eternal_ pain?

Do you feel the form of verse used (Pindaric blank) to be adapted to the theme? [186]

HUMAN LIFE

=4. kept uninfringed my nature's law.= That is, have lived a perfect life.

=5. inly-written chart.= The conscience.

=8. incognisable.= Not to be comprehended by finite mind.

=23. prore.= Poetical word for _prow_, the fore part of a s.h.i.+p.

=27. stem.= Consult dictionary.

What important incident in the destiny of the soul is alluded to in stanza 1? Interpret ll. 13-14, and apply to your own experience. Why cannot we live "chance's fool"? Is there any hint of fatalism in the poem, or are we held accountable for our own destiny?

ISOLATION

TO MARGUERITE, ON RETURNING A VOLUME OF THE LETTERS OF ORTIS

This poem, the fifth in a loosely connected group of lyrics, under the general name _Switzerland_, is a continuation of the preceding poem, _Isolation--to Marguerite_, and is properly ent.i.tled, _To Marguerite--Continued_. When printed separately, the above t.i.tle is used.

Jacopo Ortis was a pseudonym of the Italian poet, Ugo Foscolo. His _Ultime Lettere di Ortis_ was translated into the English in 1818.

[187]

=1. Yes!= Used in answer to the closing thought of the preceding poem.

=7. moon.= Note the frequency with which reference to the moon, with its light effects, appears in Arnold's lines. Can you give any reason for this?

=24.= Mr. Herbert W. Paul, commenting on this line, says: "_Isolation_ winds up with one of the great poetic phrases of the century--one of the 'jewels five (literally five) words long' of English verse--a phrase complete and final, with epithets in unerring c.u.mulation."

Give the poem's theme. To what is each individual likened? Discuss l.2 as to meaning. In what sense do we live "alone," l.4? Why "endless bounds," l.6? How account for the feeling of despair, l.13? Answer the questions asked in the last stanza. In what frame of mind does the poem leave you?

KAISER DEAD

APRIL 6, 1887

Arnold's love for animals, especially his household pets, was most sincere. Despite the playful irony of his poem, there is in the minor key an undertone of genuine sorrow. "We have just lost our dear, dear mongrel, Kaiser," he wrote in a letter dated from his home in Cobham, Kent, April 7, 1887, "and we are very sad." The poem was written the following July, and was published in the _Fortnightly Review_ for that month.