Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Lamb is a poem by William Blake that he published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and again in the combined edition Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are companion poetic collections expressing the contrast between the two aspects of creation, divinity and human nature. The full title of the collection is Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Blake etched twenty-seven printing plates for Songs of Innocence in 1789, completing those for the Songs of Experience in 1794. He then printed and hand-colored copies of the combined sets over succeeding decades.Thus, each Songs of Innocence poem has a companion poem in Songs of Experience. The companion poem of The Lamb is The Tyger in Songs of Experience. In these companion yet contrasting poems, Blake presents innocence and experience not just as stages of life but as coexisting, conflicting states of the soul.
In the Songs of Innocence, the poetic voice is often that of a child, whose emotions range from delight to fear, with darker feelings usually resolved in the earlier Songs of Innocence by adult intervention. Innocence represents childhood, purity, trust, joy, and divine love, while Experience represents Corruption, oppression, disillusionment, and societal restraints.
In The Lamb, Blake uses Christian Imagery (Christ as the lamb), while in The Tyger, he uses imagery of God as a blacksmith. Their stark differences highlight Blake’s belief in the necessary balance between innocence and experience, gentleness and ferocity, and faith and doubt. In The Lamb, God is presented as a loving, gentle creator while in The Tyger God isa fearsome, mysterious blacksmith ("Did he who made the Lamb make thee?").
The tone of The Lamb is soft, trusting, and childlike. The Lamb follows a pastoral, soothing setting with a gentle diction and simple, repetitive, nursery rhyme-like structure. It is a didactic poem intended to convey a moral or a message, rather than solely for entertainment or emotional expression.
Structure of The Lamb:
The Lamb has a simple structure consisting of two ten-line stanzas. The poem is a child’s song in the form of a question and answer. The first stanza is rural and descriptive, while the second focuses on abstract spiritual matters and contains explanation and analogy. The child’s question is both naive and profound. The question (“who made thee?”) is a simple one, and yet the child is also tapping into the deep and timeless questions that all human beings have about their own origins and the nature of creation. The two stanzas are symmetrical; lines 1,2, 9, 10, 19, and 20 are all similar addresses directly to the lamb, functioning as the start and end of each stanza. This symmetry highlights the beauty and purposefulness of God’s creation. The poem follows a regular trochaic meter. Each stanza follows a simple rhyming scheme of AABBCCDDEE.
Blake has used apostrophe, anaphora, alliteration, assonance, imagery, symbolism, metaphor repetition, refrain, and rhetorical questions in the poem.
Summary of The Lamb:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-10
“Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee ”
The speaker is a child who addresses a lamb with wonder, asking about its creator. Blake begins the poem with Apostrophe, directly addressing the lamb as if it can respond. The tone is gentle, innocent, and reverent. The lamb is a delicate and vulnerable figure, which is expressed by using alliteration in ‘little lamb.’ The child is personifying the lamb by questioning it as if it can answer. The speaker is the child of Innocence who lives by intuition enjoying a spontaneous communion with nature and sees the divine in all things.” The child repeats the same question in the second line, emphasizing the lamb’s ignorance (or purity). It appears as if the child already knows the answer, and hence, it is a rhetorical question. The child mentions that the lamb has been blessed with life and with the capacity to feed by the stream and over the meadow; it has been endowed with bright and soft wool which serves as its clothing; it has a tender voice that fills the valley with joy. The poet used Hyperbole, suggesting nature itself celebrates the lamb. Wool is a metaphor, a divine gift for protection and beauty.
The child continues to ask questions and wonders who made him and wants to ascertain whether he knows who made him. The child wants to know who fed him while living along the river on the other side of the meadow. The pastoral imagery appears impressive. He also wants to know from the Lamb who supplied him with a pleasant body cover (clothing) that is softest, full of wool, and shining, who offered the lamb his bleating (sound) which is gentle and sweet.
In the last two lines, Repetition and Refrain have been used to reinforce the central question and the child’s awe.
Stanza 2 Lines 11-20
“Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.”
Stanza 2 reveals the lamb’s creator is God, who became a "Little Child" (Christ). The same innocent child now answers the lamb while revealing the true creator.
In Lines 11-12, the child answers his own question from Stanza 1, adopting a teaching tone, he is informing the lamb and the readers. Repetition has been used in these lines, which emphasizes the child’s excitement to share divine knowledge. The poet uses Allusion, suggesting that the Creator shares the lamb’s name—"Lamb."The Biblical allusion is to John 1:29 ("Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world").Here is a paradox: the Almighty humbles Himself as a vulnerable animal.
The child mentions that Christ calls himself the Lamb of God, and Jesus identifies with the lamb’s innocence and sacrifice. The child describes Christ’s gentle, meek, and mild nature (Alliteration has been used). The child mentions that God not only became the innocent meek lamb but also incarnated to take a human form as Jesus (a child, like the speaker). Thus, the poet links divine innocence (Lamb) to human innocence (child).
In Lines 17 and 18, the child offers unity and suggests that he and the lamb are united under God’s love. In these lines, Blake offered his own theological idea that all living things reflect the divine ("His name").
In the last two lines (19-20), the child offers a benediction to the lamb, which mirrors the refrain from Stanza 1.
The poem highlights innocence as sacred; the child and lamb embody Christ-like purity while suggesting a unity of creation; humans, animals, and God share a spiritual bond. In The Tyger, Blake also suggests the unity between meek and fierce. The Tyger’s fiery, fearsome Creator is the same, suggesting that divinity encompasses both tenderness and power.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Allen Tate (1899–1979) was an American poet, essayist, and social commentator, a key member of the Fugitives, a group of poets who promoted traditionalism in literature and culture. He was a significant literary critic whose work was deeply rooted in the principles of the New Criticism, though his approach also incorporated historical, cultural, and philosophical perspectives. His criticism was marked by a defense of tradition, formalism, and a reaction against modernist fragmentation and industrial materialism. Tate was an influential New Critic, emphasizing the close reading of texts. His critical works include Reactionary Essays on Poetry and Ideas (1936) and The Forlorn Demon (1953).
Allen Tate is best known for his two important essays, “The Man of Letters in the Modern World” (1952) and “Tension in Poetry” (1938).
Tension in Poetry:
Allen Tate’s essay “Tension in Poetry” (1938) is a foundational text in New Criticism, offering a formalist approach to analyzing poetry by focusing on the interplay of meaning within a poem’s structure. Tate introduces the concept of “tension” (from the Latin tensio, meaning "stretching") as the dynamic balance between different layers of meaning in a poem.
Tate coins the term “tension” (a portmanteau of extension and intension) to describe the ideal poetic state where Extension means the denotative, literal meaning of words. At the same time, Intension is the connotative, metaphorical associations of the words. Thus, Tension is the unified whole where both layers work together without contradiction. Tension, according to Tate, is the proper balance between the literal meaning and the metaphorical meaning of the words in a poem. He argues that great poetry balances extension (literal meaning) and intension (metaphorical meaning) to create a unified whole.
For example, in John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, the literal farewell (extension) and the metaphysical conceit of the compass (intension) create a richer, unified meaning. On a literal level, the poem is a farewell speech from a man to his lover as he departs on a journey. He urges her not to mourn his absence, arguing that their love is so refined that it transcends physical separation. Donne elevates the poem beyond mere parting words through metaphysical conceits (unexpected, intellectual comparisons). He uses the compass conceit; a drawing compass has two legs—one fixed, one moving. He suggests that the two lovers are like a compass. The woman is the fixed foot, rooted in love, while the man is the moving foot, who roams but always leans toward her. The compass makes a circle, which signifies that their love is eternal and unbroken.
In this poem, the Tension is the contrast between scientific, geometric imagery (cold, precise) and the emotional, spiritual bond (warm, infinite), which creates a stretched unity, or similarity.
In the same poem, Donne also contrasts ‘earthquakes’ with the movement of celestial bodies. "Dull sublunary lovers’ love" (ordinary couples) suffer from separation like earthquakes, which are violent and unstable. Their love, however, is like the movement of celestial spheres (invisible, harmonious, eternal). The contrast between chaotic earthly love and divine, orderly love heightens the poem’s intellectual-emotional impact.
Thus, the tension in a poem is used to increase its worth or its intellectual-emotional impact; it deepens the meaning and worth of the words.
Tate distinguishes Good Poetry from Bad Poetry based on the tension inherent in the poems. Good poetry maintains maximum tension, harmonizing abstract thought and concrete imagery. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the monologue (“Life’s but a walking shadow…”) balances philosophical depth with vivid metaphor.
On the other hand, Bad poetry lacks tension or the balance between ‘Intension’ and ‘Extension.’. It is either too abstract, using pure extension, which makes it vague and didactic. Or, a poem can be too concrete, using pure intension and thus making the poem too obscure and sentimental. Tate criticizes Shelley’s “To a Skylark” for excessive emotionalism without intellectual rigor. Tate attacks “Platonic poetry” (poetry that prioritizes abstract ideas over concrete experience), calling it “angelic fallacy”—a flight from reality. He says that True poetry, or Good Poetry, must “stay on the ground”, rooted in human experience while reaching toward meaning.
Tate argues that irony (the coexistence of opposing meanings) and paradox (apparent contradictions that reveal deeper truth) are essential for poetic tension. For example, in Donne’s “The Canonization”, the line “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love” blends irreverence and sacred devotion, creating tension.
While analyzing a poem, Tate suggests that an observer must look for three imminent questions: Where does the poem balance literal and metaphorical meaning?, Does it avoid excessive abstraction or sentimentality?; How does irony or paradox deepen its effect?
Tate’s method elevates close reading and helps explain why some poems feel richer than others. His ideas shaped New Criticism and remain useful for analyzing metaphysical poetry, modernism, and formalism. In an era of confessional poetry, political sloganeering, and Instagram verse, Tate’s demand for balanced tension challenges poets to marry thought and feeling, clarity and depth.A great example of Allen Tate's "tension" theory in action can be seen in his analysis of John Donne’s "The Canonization"—a poem that perfectly balances extension (literal meaning) and intension (metaphorical associations) to create a unified, richly layered work. On a literal level, "The Canonization" is a dramatic monologue where the speaker tells an interfering critic to stop judging his love and instead "canonize" (saint) him and his beloved for their devotion.
Donne compares secular love to sainthood, using terms like "reverend love," "legend," and "canonization," offering religious or sacred imagery. He creates Paradox; the lovers are "saints of love," though their passion is earthly, not divine. The speaker mocks societal norms while elevating his love to a sacred plane and thus creating Irony. The poem’s greatness (or Tension) comes from the stretched balance between the Literal plea ("For God’s sake hold your tongue") and the Metaphysical conceit (love as a holy vocation), which offers the Irony (mocking society’s judgment while demanding reverence). In the line "Call us what you will, we are made such by love", Extension is the defiant response to the critics of earthly love. The Intension is that Love is an alchemical force ("made such")—transforming the ordinary into the sacred. The line creates tension or a balance, merging defiance and transcendence.
Edgar Allan Poe’s "Annabel Lee" for leaning too heavily on intension (emotional excess) without enough extension (intellectual rigor). Lines like "the moon never beams without bringing me dreams / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee" rely on sentimentality without layered meaning. The poem’s tension collapses because it doesn’t stretch between opposing forces—it’s all feeling, no thought, thus making it one-dimensional.
The Man of Letters in the Modern World
Allen Tate’s "The Man of Letters in the Modern World" (1952) is a key essay in his later critical work, reflecting his concerns about the decline of tradition, the role of the intellectual, and the moral responsibility of literature in an increasingly secular and fragmented society. Tate argues that the "man of letters" (the serious writer or critic) faces a crisis in modernity because society no longer values tradition, hierarchy, or spiritual depth. Unlike past eras (e.g., the Renaissance or the Christian Middle Ages), modern culture is dominated by scientific materialism, mass democracy, and moral relativism, leaving the intellectual isolated. The true man of letters must resist specialization (becoming a mere technician of words) and instead engage with universal human questions. Tate critiques the idea that literature should serve social utility or political agendas (whether Marxism or liberal progressivism). He warns against journalistic writing and propaganda, which flatten language into mere instrumental communication rather than an exploration of truth. The man of letters must preserve the integrity of language against the distortions of ideology and mass culture. Tate suggests that the poet’s role is to preserve meaning in an age of spiritual emptiness.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the theories of literary criticism. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
Hello and welcome to the Discourse. "Lady Lazarus" is one of Sylvia Plath's most famous and intense confessional poems, published posthumously in Ariel (1965). The poem is a dramatic monologue that explores themes of death, rebirth, suffering, and female identity, framed through the biblical figure of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus. However, Plath’s speaker is a defiant, self-destructive "Lady Lazarus," who repeatedly attempts suicide and returns, only to be objectified by spectators. Because the speaker is a woman and identifies different male authority figures as her "enemies," it can be assumed that the speaker is suffering from gender oppression, which seems likely, in turn, to be one of the main reasons she wants to die.
The poem raises the themes of death and rebirth. The speaker presents herself as a performer of resurrection, having "done it again" (likely referring to a suicide attempt). She compares herself to Lazarus, the Holocaust victims ("A sort of walking miracle, my skin / Bright as a Nazi lampshade"), and a phoenix rising from ashes. The cyclical nature of death and revival reflects Plath’s own struggles with suicide and mental illness. The poem critiques society’s voyeuristic fascination with suffering, especially female pain. Plath wrote "Lady Lazarus" in the months before her death in 1963, during intense creativity and despair. Like many of her Ariel poems, it blends personal anguish with mythic grandeur, turning private suffering into universal art.
Structure of Lady Lazarus:
The poem consists of 84 lines divided into 28 tercets (three-line stanzas), a form that lends itself to tight, episodic bursts of imagery and emotion. "Lady Lazarus" employs a highly controlled yet flexible free verse form, with irregular line lengths, sporadic rhyme, and a mix of rhythmic patterns that mirror the speaker’s volatile emotional state. Though the poem lacks a strict meter, Plath uses repetition, enjambment, and abrupt shifts in tone to create an incantatory, almost performative effect—fitting for a poem about staged resurrections and public suffering. The poem is primarily unrhymed, but Plath inserts slant rhymes and internal rhymes for emphasis. Though there is no fixed metrical pattern, Plath mixed iambic ("I have done it a-gain") with trochaic ("Dying / Is an art") and spondaic ("Big strip tease") rhythms, creating a jarring, unpredictable cadence.
The poet has used refrain and repetition, enjambment, caesura, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, irony, and symbolism in the poem.
Summary of Lady Lazarus:
Lines 1-3
“I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——”
The poem begins on a mysterious note. The speaker confirms that she has ‘done it again.’ But what has she done? What is this mysterious "it"? One thing is clear: the speaker is engaged in a kind of cycle (she keeps doing "it again"), and this cycle has endured across decades. ‘It’ is something that the speaker wants to do. It's not something she does accidentally. Once every ten years, she "manages" to accomplish it.
Lines 4-9
“A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.”
In the second tercet, the speaker brings upon the allusion to the Holocaust imagery and she compares her skin to a “Nazi lampshade”. It is known that the Nazi people used the skin of the Jews to make lampshades. Plath uses this horrifying metaphor to compare her own suffering to those in Nazi concentration camps. It should be noted that Sylvia Plath’s father was a German immigrant to the US. As a child Plath was proud of her German heritage, but this began to shift during World War II, when she began feeling shame about her ethnicity due to the atrocities of Nazis against the Jews.
She uses metaphor to express the heaviness of grievance by comparing her foot to a “paperweight.” It suggests that her emotional pain was so real that it felt like a physical weight. The imagery of a ‘featureless face’ suggests the lack of identity and self-worth. She then alludes to the Biblical figure of Lazarus. Jew linens were used to wrap the body of Lazarus before he was laid in the tomb.
She is a living version—a "walking miracle"—of a lampshade made out of the bodies of murdered human beings. The things for which her body is being used are so mundane that it's insulting—lampshades, paperweights. Her body is dead, torn apart to furnish someone else's living room or office.
Lines 10-15
“Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?——
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.”
In the fourth tercet, the speaker uses Apostrophe and directly addresses the audience as ‘enemy.’ She challenges the audience to look at her for who she really is. She doesn’t believe that anyone would want to really know her, to peer into her soul, and really know how she is. She thinks so because she feels she terrifies the audience. After all, although she is alive in the flesh, her soul is dead. She describes what she looks like, and even this simple act takes on a grotesque tone. She figures herself as a kind of living corpse, with "eye pits" instead of eyeballs, and "sour breath" that will disappear once she's actually dead—in a day.
Lines 16-21
“Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me
And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.”
The speaker continues to explain the effects of death, or what she did and kept doing every ten years. As soon as her breath vanishes, she will be laid in the grave, which will devour her flesh. She describes the rotting of dead flesh to convey the way she feels that her soul is decomposing. Then she reveals that she is a woman in her thirties, and despite her near-death experience, she is smiling. However, the tone of ‘Lady Lazarus’ reveals that she is disappointed at being alive. Then she uses a simile and says that she is like the cat with nine lives, however, she has nine deaths, and she has to die nine times.
Lines 22-27
“This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.
What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see”
She already declared that she keeps repeating it once every ten years. In her thirties, it must be the third attempt to die; she has six more. The mystery unfolds; the ‘it’ in the first tercet is death, or attempt to die, suicide. The speaker offers more details about her third time dying and compares it to annihilation. She feels as if she's been destroyed once a decade. At the same time, she declares that her life is nothing but trash, justifies her attempts to die, and wonders why not annihilate something worth destroying. She compares her life to a ‘million filaments’ of trash. Then, she describes the unwanted attention she has been offered by people because she just couldn’t die despite her attempt. She calls them the “peanut crunching crowd,” suggesting that they are only in her life to scoff at her and make a spectacle of her.
Lines 28-33
“Them unwrap me hand and foot——
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies
These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,”
In this stanza, the speaker suggests that despite her emotional pain, suffering, and physical deterioration, she is just a joke and entertainment for the crowd, who show no sympathy to her. However, they do show great attention towards her decadence as it is an entertaining show. She imagines that she's in front of a "peanut-crunching crowd," as if it is a circus or a carnival and she's the main event. Folks are so excited, they're shoving their way in to see her. The crowd unwraps her clothing, and she's forced into an imaginary striptease. They can see her body parts—her hands, her knees, her skin and bone. She has been objectified to a piece of spectacle for a hungry crowd.
Lines 34-39
“Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.
The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut”
The speaker says that though she has been turned into a piece of spectacle, she is the "same, identical woman." She's the same naked as she was clothed; this experience hasn't changed her. The speaker is stressing that though she's come back from the dead, she hasn't changed. There has been no metamorphosis, no change in her ordeal, which may not end until her ninth and final attempt. She then explains her previous attempts at death (suicide attempts). The first happened when she was 10 years old, and it was an accident. Her second attempt at death was on purpose, though. She "meant" to "not come back at all." But she was found and brought back to life. As a matter of fact, Sylvia Plath tried to commit suicide during her college years. She took a whole bunch of sleeping pills and then hid in the crawl space of her mother's house.
Lines 40-45
“As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.”
The speaker mentions another simile and mentions herself as a seashell. She attempted suicide for the second time but was rescued by people. She was almost dead, and the rescuers had to call her again and again, trying to rescue her. She compares worms to ‘sticky pearls’. Even though she was saved, she actually died a bit, becoming food for the worms. She then uses metaphor to suggest that suicide or attempt to death is an art, and she excels in it.
Lines 46-51
“I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
It’s the theatrical”
Like an artist who tries throughout her life to create an everlasting masterpiece, Plath is trying to complete her magnum opus in this art form. Here, the poet uses anaphora as lines 46, 47, and 48 begin with ‘I’ also, lines 46 and 47 repeats ‘I do it so it feels.’ She says that the thoughts of dying are always rampaging in her head, and it turns her mind into hell. She claims that hell is real. It exists, not in an imaginary place but in her mind. She claims death is her call; she feels no purpose in life other than to die. But every time she gets a taste of death, she ends up surviving, only to resume her former suffering. She feels it should be easy enough to end her life in an isolated cell and stay put. Each time she attempts suicide, she is rescued by the rescuers.
Lines 52-57
“Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’
That knocks me out.
There is a charge”
The speaker brings back the imagery of the circus where she is being presented as a piece of spectacle for the ‘peanut-crunching’ crowd. She says that she's making a theatrical comeback. She represents her resurrection—her coming back to life—as a circus act. She's quite the spectacle. Someone—a brute—shouts that she's a "miracle." The shout ‘knocks her out’ is a metaphor to express surprise or amazement, but it may also suggest that she gets knocked down in a hand-to-hand battle. She then mentions that there is a charge for her spectacle; it’s not free.
Lines 58-63
“For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart——
It really goes.
And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood”
The comparison to a circus is figurative; the speaker suggests that despite her pain and suffering, she is just a piece of entertainment, and their excitement in her bewilderment appears so strong that she may charge for her performance as she masters the art of dying. People may gather around her and study the artist in her. They can find her scars. To hear the beating of her heart, there is a charge, too. Her heart is still beating, that is she is alive, though a part of her is already dead. They may also take a bit of her ‘blood’ to study or to test. As a bipolar patient, she is a matter of study for observers. However, her blood also symbolizes her anguish, her anger.
Lines 64-69
“Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.
I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby”
In these lines, the poet again alludes to Nazi atrocities and holocaust imagery. She mentions her doctor as her enemy and addresses the doctor as ‘Herr Doktor.’ In German, Herr means Mister. In a way, the poet compares Nazism and Patriarchy while also comparing oppressed Jews and women, victims of Nazism and patriarchy respectively. Nazi doctors performed a ton of cruel and lethal experiments on Jewish people. They often brought the Jewish victims back to health, only to resume their suffering and experiments.
The speaker then reveals why she thinks men are enemies. She says she is valuable to men only as an object, beautiful but hard and lifeless. She does not deny that she is valuable to some people, particularly men, but only as a cold, hard object of beauty, not as a human being. As an object of beauty, she is valuable but she doesn’t charge, the doctors, the Nazis, the men charge for her spectacle, her performance. She, like Jews, remains a victim.
Lines 70-75
“That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——”
The speaker suggests that it is a man’s world and she is valuable for men, as valuable as gold. They keep experimenting on her, and she melts with a shriek because though they do not consider her a living being, she is. She says that she doesn’t underestimate their concerns about her; she realizes that she is valuable to them but only as an object for their pleasure. She imagines as if she has been burned alive in a concentration camp crematorium. The Nazis still continue to check the victims, the things of experiment, they poke and stir but find no remaining flesh or bones but ash.
Lines 76-81
“A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.”
As the Nazi doctors stir up the ashes, they find no bones or flesh. But they were not looking for that. The Nazis were known to use the remains of the burned Jewish bodies to make soap. They also rummaged around heaps of human ashes to find jewelry and gold fillings.
In the next tercet, the speaker changes her tone to revenge. She continues to blame patriarchy, men, God, and Evil, while addressing them as Herr, alluding to Nazism and warns them.
Lines 82-84
“Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.”
In the last tercet, the speaker alludes to the mythical bird, the Phoenix, that rises from the ashes. She imagines that she's been burnt to death by the Nazis, but here she resurrects. She stays true to her name. But unlike the Lazarus in the Bible, she doesn't need Jesus (or anyone) to make her resurrection happen. She does it all on her own. And once she resurrects, she gains the power to end the evil, oppressive patriarchy.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
Hello and welcome to the Discourse. "The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem" is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 as part of the Lyrical Ballads, a collection he co-authored with William Wordsworth. Unlike traditional poems that idealize the nightingale as a symbol of melancholy or poetic inspiration, Coleridge's work challenges these conventions and presents a more naturalistic and personal perspective.
It is a Conversation poem. A conversation poem is a genre of poetry that emerged during the Romantic period, particularly associated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These poems are characterized by their informal, reflective, and conversational tone, often addressing a specific listener (usually a friend or loved one) while exploring themes of nature, emotion, and the human experience. Coleridge's conversation poems are considered some of the finest examples of this form. Such poems are written in an intimate tone, as if the poet speaks directly to someone, creating a sense of intimacy and immediacy. Conversation poems are deeply introspective, exploring the poet's thoughts, emotions, and observations about nature, life, and the self.
In this poem, Coleridge is the speaker, and the two people he addresses, who are the poem's silent listeners, are William Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth. Dorothy was William’s sister, but in the poem, Coleridge also refers to Dorothy as his sister. Coleridge, William, and Dorothy have gone to sit by a stream on a mossy bridge at nighttime. The three are simply observing the beauty of nature at night and Coleridge brings their attention to the singing of a nightingale.
Structure of The Nightingale:
The poem consists of 112 lines. The poem is written in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) and is divided into five main sections, each exploring different themes and ideas. The first stanza is 39 lines long lines while the second stanza consists of 10 lines. The third stanza has 21 lines while the fourth stanza consists of 18 lines. The last stanza has 24 lines. In the first section, Coleridge rejects the traditional association of the nightingale with melancholy, particularly the myth of Philomela. He argues that this interpretation is a human projection, not an inherent quality of the bird. In the second stanza, the poet shifts to a celebration of the nightingale's song as a joyful expression of nature. He describes a scene where nightingales sing together, emphasizing harmony and community. In the third stanza, the poem concludes with a personal reflection on the poet's infant son and a hopeful vision of his future. Coleridge imagines his son growing up with a deep appreciation for nature, free from the melancholy associations imposed by tradition.
The poem is written in blank verse. The blank verse consists of unrhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. This form is characterized by its natural, flowing rhythm, which mimics the cadence of spoken English. Each line is made up of five poetic feet and each foot consists of two syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable—and this is true for most of the lines in “The Nightingale.” However, Coleridge has used some variations too. Spondee and Trochee have been used in the poem. Coleridge has used Allusion, Imagery, Symbolism, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Repetition, Enjambment, and Irony in the poem.
Summary of The Nightingale:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-10
“No cloud, no relique of the sunken day
Distinguishes the West, no long thin slip
Of sullen light, no obscure trembling hues.
Come, we will rest on this old mossy bridge!
You see the glimmer of the stream beneath,
But hear no murmuring: it flows silently,
O’er its soft bed of verdure. All is still,
A balmy night! and though the stars be dim,
Yet let us think upon the vernal showers
That gladden the green earth, and we shall find”
In these lines, the speaker establishes the setting of the poem. He addresses his companions who are accompanying him on a walk. He uses imagery to describe the beauty of the landscape.
The Nightingale opens with Coleridge painting a picture of a nighttime scene with friends. They sit on a "mossy bridge," where they will think about nature. The description is focused on depicting the natural features of the landscape sensibly and beautifully. In this conversation poem, Coleridge is the speaker, and the two people he addresses, who are the poem's silent listeners, are William Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth. Dorothy was William’s sister, but in the poem, Coleridge refers to Dorothy as his sister as well. It should be noted that Coleridge doesn’t address them by their name. He actually uses Apostrophes to address people who may not be present there. The entire poem is directed at an audience, whether it be the reader, a friend, or even nature itself.
Lines 11-20
“A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.
And hark! the Nightingale begins its song,
“Most musical, most melancholy” bird!
A melancholy bird! Oh! idle thought!
In nature there is nothing melancholy.
But some night-wandering man whose heart was pierced
With the remembrance of a grievous wrong,
Or slow distemper, or neglected love,
(And so, poor wretch! filled all things with himself,
And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale”
The speaker describes the scene as pleasurable in the dark night as they observe the stars. The absence of sound and light sets up the scene in which the human observers can focus on the nightingale’s song all the more clearly.
In the 12th line, Coleridge directly references Milton's description of the nightingale in The Nightingale, but he does so to challenge and subvert the traditional interpretation. He alludes to Milton by using his phrase "most musical, most melancholy" from Il Penseroso but immediately rejects the idea that the nightingale is inherently sorrowful. He argues that this interpretation is a human projection, not a true reflection of the bird's nature. In Il Penseroso, the nightingale is a symbol of solitude, melancholy, and poetic inspiration. It represents a contemplative and introspective state of mind. In The Nightingale, Coleridge reimagines the bird as a symbol of joy, community, and the vitality of nature. He emphasizes the nightingale's song as a source of happiness and connection, rather than sorrow. Coleridge stresses that ‘In nature, there is nothing melancholy.’ He supposes that a broken-hearted man wandered through the woods one night and upon hearing the bird’s song, the man projected his own emotions upon Nature and the nightingale and “made all gentle sounds tell back the tale/ Of his own sorrow.”
Lines 21-30
“Of his own sorrow) he, and such as he,
First named these notes a melancholy strain.
And many a poet echoes the conceit;
Poet who hath been building up the rhyme
When he had better far have stretched his limbs
Beside a brook in mossy forest-dell,
By sun or moon-light, to the influxes
Of shapes and sounds and shifting elements
Surrendering his whole spirit, of his song
And of his fame forgetful! so his fame”
The speaker blames the man for imposing his own sad feelings on the nightingale and complains against the poets who continue to follow the conceit. He expresses his disdain for how “many a poet echoes the conceit” of making nature representative of dark human emotions in poetry. Coleridge claims that if such poets took the time to observe and absorb the beauty of their natural surroundings, then they would create poems that reflect nature’s loveliness.
Lines 31-39
“Should share in Nature's immortality,
A venerable thing! and so his song
Should make all Nature lovelier, and itself
Be loved like Nature! But 'twill not be so;
And youths and maidens most poetical,
Who lose the deepening twilights of the spring
In ball-rooms and hot theatres, they still
Full of meek sympathy must heave their sighs
O’er Philomela’s pity-pleading strains.”
Coleridge claims that if such poets took the time to observe and absorb the beauty of their natural surroundings, then they would create poems that reflect nature’s loveliness. However, Coleridge doubts that most poets will ever have such an experience since most young men and women entertain themselves indoors on the most beautiful nights. They have no connection with nature. In line 39, Coleridge alludes to Philomela, a figure from Greek mythology, often associated with the nightingale. In classical mythology, Philomela was a princess who was transformed into a nightingale after enduring a traumatic experience. Her story is one of suffering, silence, and eventual transformation into a bird whose song is often interpreted as melancholic or sorrowful.
Stanza 2 Lines 40-49
“My Friend, and thou, our Sister! we have learnt
A different lore; we may not thus profane
Nature's sweet voices, always full of love
And joyance! '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!”
Coleridge addresses William Wordsworth and sister Dorothy and says that they are different from those young people who often spend their time in ballrooms and theaters. They rather enjoy the closeness of nature. In contrast to the majority of young people, Coleridge tells William and Dorothy that they three have a true appreciation for nature and they “may not thus profane/ Nature’s sweet voices, always full of love/ And joyance!” Likewise, Coleridge and his companions can interpret Nightingale’s song as joyous and not as melancholy. He challenges the conventional poetic trope that portrays the nightingale as a symbol of grief or lamentation. Instead, Coleridge argues that the nightingale's song is naturally joyful and that its association with sadness is a human projection.
Stanza 3 Lines 50-60
“And I know a grove
Of large extent, hard by a castle huge,
Which the great lord inhabits not; and so
This grove is wild with tangling underwood,
And the trim walks are broken up, and grass,
Thin grass and king-cups grow within the paths.
But never elsewhere in one place I knew
So many nightingales; and far and near,
In wood and thicket, over the wide grove,
They answer and provoke each other's song,
With skirmish and capricious passagings,”
The speaker talks about a neglected grove that is near an enormous castle. This abandoned place is characterized as forgotten, with “Thin grass and king-cups grow within the paths”, and wilderness has encroached on the area. However, the speaker says that he has witnessed many nightingales living there. The place is full of nightingales that sing frequently. They encourage each other to continually produce sweet melodies.
Stanza 3 Lines 61-70
“And murmurs musical and swift jug jug,
And one low piping sound more sweet than all—
Stirring the air with such a harmony,
That should you close your eyes, you might almost
Forget it was not day! On moon-lit bushes,
Whose dewy leaflets are but half disclosed,
You may perchance behold them on the twigs,
Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full,
Glistening, while many a glow-worm in the shade
Lights up her love-torch.”
The speaker describes to his two companions a grove by an abandoned castle in which a large number of nightingales flock at night. He vividly describes the joyous sounds of the birds’ songs, such as “murmurs musical” and an onomatopoeic “swift jug jug” that resembles the actual sounds the birds make. According to Coleridge, the sounds of the nightingales in this grove are so beautiful that if a person were to close his eyes, he would feel that he is dreaming. He will feel as if he is dreaming in moon-lit bushes. He describes how the bright eyes of nightingales appear lighting in the dark and how the glow-worms appear like their love-torch, sparkling in the moon-lit night. The imagery of the description of the place is very distant from the description of the song of the nightingales, producing an oxymoron.
Stanza 4 Lines 71-88
“A most gentle Maid,
Who dwelleth in her hospitable home
Hard by the castle, and at latest eve
(Even like a Lady vowed and dedicate
To something more than Nature in the grove
Glides through the pathways; she knows all their notes,
That gentle Maid! and oft, a moment's space,
What time the moon was lost behind a cloud,
Hath heard a pause of silence; till the moon
Emerging, hath awakened earth and sky
With one sensation, and these wakeful birds
Have all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,
As if some sudden gale had swept at once
A hundred airy harps!
And she hath watched
Many a nightingale perched giddily
On blossomy twig still swinging from the breeze,
And to that motion tune his wanton song
Like tipsy joy that reels with tossing head.”
The speaker says that he is not the only one who has seen that forgotten grove. He describes a most gentle beautiful maid, an unmarried young girl, who listens to the beauty of these nightingales’ songs. He has seen a young woman who lives near the castle come to the grove to watch and listen to the birds as well. The maid is described as a girl who frequents the place and hears the nightingales often. The girl seems to be another careful observer of nature. Nature, also, is once again involved in a description of joy and is depicted by a fairytale-like narration.
Stanza 5 Lines 89-100
“Farewell, O Warbler! till to-morrow eve,
And you, my friends! farewell, a short farewell!
We have been loitering long and pleasantly,
And now for our dear homes.—That strain again!
Full fain it would delay me! My dear babe,
Who, capable of no articulate sound,
Mars all things with his imitative lisp,
How he would place his hand beside his ear,
His little hand, the small forefinger up,
And bid us listen! And I deem it wise
To make him Nature's play-mate. He knows well
The evening-star! and once, when he awoke”
In this stanza, the speaker addresses the nightingale as ‘Warbler’ and bids her farewell. The speaker tells his friends that they “have been loitering long and pleasantly” and that it is time to head home and say farewell to each other and the nightingale. Before the companions part, Coleridge remarks how much his infant son would love the nightingale’s song. Coleridge explains how he has instilled a love for nature in his son and that he “[deems] it wise/ To make him Nature’s play-mate.”
Stanza 5 Lines 101-112
“In most distressful mood (some inward pain
Had made up that strange thing, an infant's dream—)
I hurried with him to our orchard-plot,
And he beheld the moon, and, hushed at once,
Suspends his sobs, and laughs most silently,
While his fair eyes, that swam with undropped tears,
Did glitter in the yellow moon-beam! Well!—
It is a father's tale: But if that Heaven
Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up
Familiar with these songs, that with the night
He may associate joy.—Once more, farewell,
Sweet Nightingale! Once more, my friends! farewell.”
The speaker tells his companions about an incident when his infant baby felt some ‘inward pain’ and began crying. When his son had trouble sleeping, he took him to his orchard-plot and the child became calm after seeing the beautiful moonlit night and began smiling calmly. Coleridge wishes for his son to grow to love the nightingale’s song, so “that with the night/ He may associate joy” and not believe the common association between nature and melancholy. In the final lines, the speaker bids farewell to the nightingale and his friends again.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
