Love Through the Ages
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LOVE THROUGH THE AGES
COURSEWORK
SECTION
Coursework Guidance from the Exam Board
LITA4 Extended Essay and Shakespeare Study
OVERVIEW
You will write a sustained (3000 word) comparative essay on three texts of your own choice linked by either the theme of ‘Love Through the Ages’ or by an alternative theme of your own choice.
One text will be a Shakespeare play, which encourages you to build upon their prior knowledge of Shakespeare from GCSE as well as on their work on the dramatic genre at AS. The other texts chosen for comparison also draw on the knowledge and understanding of the genres of poetry, prose and drama candidates acquired at AS.
You should not write about set texts previously studied closely at AS, but if you have encountered a text or texts as part of you wider reading for AS which you wish to study in much greater depth and detail at A2, this is perfectly acceptable.
In line with the spirit of this specification, the extended essay encourages you to engage fully with your texts and tasks and produce an independent response.
The exam board want this coursework to be your own and will not like us to be too prescriptive and force you to write on three taught texts. The only stipulation is that you write about ‘Othello’. The other two texts may be entirely of your own choosing. You must also negotiate the title with me.
In order to meet the assessment objectives you must:
• produce a creative, coherent and relevant response to your chosen texts using appropriate terminology and concepts (AO1: 6% of overall A-level mark)
• analyse the different ways in which your chosen writers use form, structure and language to present aspects of the common theme (love) (AO2: 6% of overall
A-level mark)
• compare and contrast your texts systematically, using other readers’ ideas to develop independent responses of their own (AO3: 6% of overall A-level mark)
• show an awareness of the ways in which relevant contexts can affect the ways in which texts are produced and received (AO4: 2% of overall A-level mark)
Selecting Appropriate Texts
The texts you select must allow opportunities for comparison. So you will need to:
• compare texts from different genres, balancing all three and moving fluently and relevantly between them
• compare texts in terms of form, structure and language
• compare texts which have been received very differently by other readers and consider why this may be so
• compare texts from different periods and think about the possible effects of various contextual factors
The negotiated title of your essay MUST contain the words: ‘Compare and Contrast’
You must communicate your ideas coherently, using appropriate terminology: AO1
You must analyse Language, Form and Structure. Do not forget ‘Form and Structure’ AO2.
In order to ensure coverage of AO3 you must ensure that you use the overarching thematic link between your three chosen texts as a way into your texts rather than the main focus of your work. To access the higher mark bands you must tackle issues of narrative, genre, critical debate and context. Thematic links are designed to provide a gateway into a sophisticated comparative study. You must try evaluate alternative opinions and offer relevant textual support to support your argument. You are trying to ‘debate’ and modal verbs help to convey an awareness of unfixed meanings, so sentences which include phrases such as ‘may be seen as’, ‘might be interpreted as’ or ‘could be represented as’ can help to suggest alertness to the potentialities in texts.
AO4 is relatively lightly weighted in this unit, but it is still present. You need to choose your contextual focus relevantly and thread these aspects through your essays with care; no one will mourn the loss of those chunky bolted-on gobbets which add nothing, but eat up the word count.
SAMPLE TASK 1(linked to the LITA3 topic area ‘Love through the Ages’)
Compare and contrast the writers’ presentation of the destructive nature of desire in any three of these texts. You must write about a play by Shakespeare.
Measure for Measure / Othello / Antony and Cleopatra
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Selected Poems Sylvia Plath
Birthday Letters Ted Hughes
A View from the Bridge / The Crucible Arthur Miller
Enduring Love Ian McEwan
Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
Jealousy Robbe-Grillet, Alain
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Before She Met Me, Julian Barnes
SAMPLE TASK 2 (linked to the LITA3 topic area ‘Love through the Ages’)
Compare and contrast the writers’ presentation of the darker side of love in any three of these texts. You must write about a play by Shakespeare.
The Winter’s Tale / Othello
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
Selected Dramatic Monologues Robert Browning
Selected Poems Sylvia Plath
Birthday Letters Ted Hughes
A View from the Bridge / The Crucible Arthur Miller
Enduring Love Ian McEwan
Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
Jealousy Robbe-Grillet, Alain
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Before She Met Me, Julian Barnes
SAMPLE TASK 3 (linked to the LITA3 topic area ‘Love through the Ages’)
Compare and contrast the writers’ presentation of maternal love in any three of these texts. You must write about a play by Shakespeare.
Coriolanus / The Winter’s Tale / Hamlet
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ruth / North and South Elizabeth Gaskell
Bleak House Charles Dickens
Daniel Deronda George Eliot
A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde
Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee
Poor Cow / Up the Junction Nell Dunn
The Fifth Child Doris Lessing
Waterland Graham Swift
Maps for Lost Lovers Nadeem Aslam
We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver
Digging to America Anne Tyler
SAMPLE TASK 4 (alternative theme)
Compare and contrast the writers’ presentation of women with psychological or mental health problems in any three of these texts.
Hamlet
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gillman
A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
The Trick is to Keep Breathing Janice Galloway
SAMPLE TASK 4 (alternative theme)
Compare and contrast the writers’ presentation of conflict between fathers and sons in any three of these texts.
King Lear
Oedipus the King Sophocles
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
Felix Holt / Romola George Eliot
All My Sons Arthur Miller
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams
White Teeth Zadie Smith
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
Waterland Graham Swift
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
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Love Through the Ages - How to Plan for your A2 Coursework
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|1. Choose 3/4 key sections from each text which focus on your main theme. |
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|2. The exploration stage |
|read closely |
|annotate |
|make notes on how form, structure and language are used to convey the theme |
|pull out key quotations (preferably short ones) and ‘unpack’ them |
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|3. Think about alternative readings/ interpretations. How might other readers interpret the quotations or ideas you have |
|unpacked? You can select some short quotations from critics if you wish, but you do not have to do this. You can talk about the|
|general alternative readers. Make notes. |
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|4. Find similarities and differences between your texts and list them. These comparisons might be to do with the theme and |
|ideas or the ways the writers present those ideas e.g. form, structure and language |
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|5. Plan your essay: |
|Remember that the key words in the question must drive your essay. If your focus is the ‘darker side of love’, then you are |
|presenting an argument about how the different writers present this theme. So… the darker side of love drives all your |
|comments. |
|For 3000 words you will need to write 11 – 12 well developed paragraphs and that means 3 – 4 well developed paragraphs on each |
|text… Give each paragraph a topic heading. Add a few well-chosen quotations. Write a few brief comments. |
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|6. Write your first draft: |
|The introduction: |
|Here you want an overview of your argument, so try to begin with a fundamental comparison between all three texts. |
|The body of your essay. Be prepared to stay with your first text to develop your ideas in sufficient detail. All your comments |
|and ideas must grow from a close analysis of the text and unpacking of quotations. Don’t forget to consider alternative |
|interpretations and build to a point of comparison at the end of the paragraph to lead into your second text and third |
|paragraph |
|The conclusion should grow from the arguments presented in your essay. Try to avoid simplistically restating what you have said|
|before. Look back to the fundamental point of comparison stated at the beginning of your essay. Has your argument changed in |
|the light of your close analysis? Has it been reinforced? Do you have something new to say? Is there a quotation that sums up |
|your view? |
Love Through the Ages
During the A2 ‘love through the ages’ course, we will look at the themes of the pursuit of love, unrequited love, the celebration of love, forbidden love, family, friendship, loss and betrayal as they are played out in literature in different historical times. It is vital that as we endeavour to research and analyse as a class, the emphasis and impetus of the learning must shift from the teacher to the student. Secondary reading takes on a new importance at A2, as does the need to look more closely at historical factors on literature and literary criticism. Perhaps the most challenging but most vital part of the A2 is understanding chronology and how individual movements in literature are created, come to prominence and wane in accordance to historical and literary needs.
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This booklet contains:
A suggested reading list
* Identify the authors or periods you are unfamiliar or unconfident with first and read these.
A list of terminology useful for the exam.
* Complete the table with definitions and examples and become comfortable with using them.
An overview table to summarise the major periods that we have covered on this course.
* Fill the rest of the table in chronologically to create a time line of periods.
A list of points to look for when analysing poetry.
* This will complement the terminology well if you revise from and become familiar with it.
A range of poems and extracts from prose and drama taken from the periods that we will cover.
* Use these extracts to practice your annotation and analysing skills and to help you become acquainted with progressions through literature.
* You should annotate at least one piece from each period
Examples of the type of questions that you will face in the exam along with a mark scheme. The mark scheme will show you what will be expected in the exam for you to achieve good grades.
* Attempt at least one of these questions
* Use the mark scheme to identify any areas where you may lack confidence and work on these.
(the bullet points are activities that you should be completing outside of lessons and during holidays)
|Word |Definition |Example |
|Alliteration | |Little liar |
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|Ambiguity |Something with more than one meaning | |
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|Atmosphere | | |
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|Blank Verse | | |
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|Caesura | | |
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|Couplet | | |
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|Courtly Love | | |
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|Chivalry | | |
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|Dialect | | |
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|Dramatic Monologue | | |
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|Elision |the omission of a vowel at the end of one word when the|‘Whiles crooning o'er an auld Scots |
| |next word begins with a vowel |sonnet’ |
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|Enjambment | | |
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|Farce | | |
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|Free Verse | | |
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|Genre | |Tragedy, Comedy |
| | |(Poetry, Prose, Drama) |
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|Hyperbole | | |
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|Iambic Pentameter | | |
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|Imagery | | |
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|Idiom | | |
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|Intertexuality | | |
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|Irony | | |
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|Lyric | | |
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|Metaphor |Saying something ‘is’ something else | |
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|Metre | | |
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|Monologue | | |
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|Narrative | | |
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|Onomatopoeia | | |
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|Parody | | |
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|Persona | | |
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|Personification | | |
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|Rhetoric | | |
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|Rhyme | | |
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|Rhythm | | |
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|Satire | | |
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|Simile | | |
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|Syntax | | |
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|Tone | | |
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Pointers For Analysing Poetry, Prose and Drama
• Identify the genre – poetry, prose, drama
• Can you identify the period?
o If so, what are the characteristics associated with the period? Does the extract exemplify them?
• Centre your analysis around the three main areas of Content, Structure and Language.
Content
• What is the extract about? Is there a story?
• Can you identify any major themes?
• Are there characters? What are their roles?
• Is there a historical, social or political context?
Structure
• Does the extract have a specific structure or is it random?
• Is there a specific style that the author has chosen which may affect the structure i.e. a Shakespearian sonnet will have 14 lines, a set pattern and it will be written in Iambic Pentameter
Language
• Are there any types of words which are used a lot? i.e adjective, adverb
• Are there any particular words or phrases that you find interesting or significant?
• Does the author employ any specific techniques when writing? E.g. metaphors, alliteration
• What atmosphere is created/ tone is put across?
Other Advice
• Don’t be afraid to include your own opinion
• Always link your points back to the text
• Make sure you refer to wider reading
Are there any more questions that you would add to this list that would make your annotating and analysing of the extract more affective?
Add them to the sheet
The Middle English Period (Medieval Period)
Years: 1066-1485 (roughly)
Content:
- plays that instruct the illiterate masses in morals and religion
- chivalric code of honour/romances
- religious devotion
Style/Genres:
- oral tradition continues
- folk ballads
- mystery and miracle plays
- morality plays
- stock epithets
- kennings
- frame stories
- moral tales
Effect:
- church instructs its people through the morality and miracle plays
- an illiterate population is able to hear and see the literature
Historical Context:
- Crusades bring the development of a money economy for the first time in Britain
- trading increases dramatically as a result of the Crusades
- William the Conqueror crowned king in 1066
- Henry III crowned king in 1154 brings a judicial system, royal courts, juries, and chivalry to Britain
A Sampling of Key Literature & Authors:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl
Domesday Book
L’Morte de Arthur
Geoffrey Chaucer
The Renaissance
Years: 1485-1660
The Elizabethan Period: the reign of Elizabeth I, 1586-1603
Jacobean Period: the reign of James I of England, 1603-1625
Content:
- world view shifts from religion and after life to one stressing the human life on earth
- popular theme: development of human potential
- popular theme: many aspects of love explored
- unrequited love
- constant love
- timeless love
- courtly love
- love subject to change
Style/Genres:
- poetry
- the sonnet
- metaphysical poetry
- elaborate and unexpected metaphors called conceits
- drama
- written in verse
- supported by royalty
- tragedies, comedies, histories
Effect:
- commoners welcomed at some play productions (like ones at the Globe) while conservatives try to close the theatres on grounds that they promote brazen behaviours
- not all middle-class embrace the metaphysical poets and their abstract conceits
Historical Context:
- War of Roses ends in 1485 and political stability arrives
- Printing press helps stabilize English as a language and allows more people to read a variety of literature
- Economy changes from farm-based to one of international trade
A Sampling of Key Literature & Authors:
The Neoclassical Period
Years: 1660-1798
The Restoration: the reign of Charles II, 1630 - 1660 (after his restoration to the thrown in 1630 following the English Civil War and Cromwell)
The Age of Enlightenment (the Eighteenth Century)
Content:
- emphasis on reason and logic
- stresses harmony, stability, wisdom
- Locke: a social contract exists between the government and the people. The government governs guaranteeing “natural rights” of life, liberty, and property
Style/Genres:
- satire
- poetry
- essays
- letters, diaries, biographies
- novels
Effect:
- emphasis on the individual
- belief that humanity is basically evil
- approach to life: “the world as it should be”
Historical Context:
- 50% of males are functionally literate (a dramatic rise)
- Fenced enclosures of land cause demise of traditional village life
- Factories begin to spring up as industrial revolution begins
- Impoverished masses begin to grow as farming life declines and factories build
- Coffee houses—where educated men spend evenings with literary and political associates
Key Authors:
Alexander Pope
Daniel Defoe
Jonathan Swift,
Samuel Johnson
John Bunyan
John Milton
The Romantic Period
Years: 1798 – 1832
Content:
- human knowledge consists of impressions and ideas formed in the individual’s mind
- introduction of Gothic elements and terror/horror stories and novels
- in nature one can find comfort and peace that the man-made urbanized towns and factory environments cannot offer
Style/Genres:
- poetry
- lyrical ballads
Effects:
- evil attributed to society not to human nature
- human beings are basically good
- movement of protest: a desire for personal freedom
- children seen as hapless victims of poverty and exploitation
Historical Context:
- Napoleon rises to power in France and opposes England militarily and economically
- Tory philosophy that government should NOT interfere with private enterprise
- middle class gains representation in the British parliament
- railroads begin to run
Key Authors:
Jane Austen
Mary Shelley
Robert Burns
William Blake
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Lord Byron
Percy Shelley
John Keats
The Victorian Period
Years: 1832-1900
Content:
- conflict between those in power and the common masses of labourers and the poor
- shocking life of workhouses and urban poor is highlighted in literature to insist on reform
- country versus city life
- sexual discretion (or lack of it)
- strained coincidences
- romantic triangles
- heroines in physical danger
- aristocratic villains
- misdirected letters
- bigamous marriages
Genres/Styles:
- novel becomes popular for first time; mass produced for the first time
- bildungsroman
- political novels
- detective novels (Sherlock Holmes)
- serialized novels (Charles Dickens)
- elegies
- poetry: easier to understand
- dramatic monologues
- drama: comedies of manners
- magazines offer stories to the masses
Effect:
- literature begins to reach the masses
Historical Context:
- paper becomes cheap; magazines and novels cheap to mass produce
- unprecedented growth of industry and business in Britain
unparalleled dominance of nations, economies and trade abroad
Key Authors:
Charles Dickens Thomas Hardy
Rudyard Kipling Robert Louis Stevenson
George Eliot Oscar Wilde
Alfred Lord Tennyson Charles Darwin
Charlotte Bronte Robert Browning
The Modern Period
Years: 1900-(subject to debate)
Content:
- Breakdown of social norms
- Realistic embodiment of social meanings
- Separation of meanings and senses from the context
- Despairing individual behaviours in the face of an unmanageable future
- Spiritual loneliness
- Alienation
- Frustration when reading the text
- Disillusionment
- Rejection of history
- Rejection of outdated social systems
- Objection to traditional thoughts and traditional moralities
- Objection to religious thoughts
- Substitution of a mythical past
- Two World Wars' effects on humanity
Genres/Styles:
- poetry: free verse
- epiphanies begin to appear in literature
- speeches
- memoirs
- novels
- stream of consciousness
Effect:
- Literature attempts to search for ‘truthes’ and discover the deep ideas and meanings behind
Historical Context:
- British Empire loses 1 million soldiers to World War I
- Winston Churchill leads Britain through WW II, and the Germans bomb England directly
- British colonies demand independence
Key Authors:
James Joyce Virginia Woolf
T. S. Eliot Joseph Conrad
D. H. Lawrence Graham Greene
Dylan Thomas George Orwell
William Butler Yeats Bernard Shaw
The Post Modern Period
Years: 1945(ish) – present
It is very difficult to determine the exact beginning or evolution of modernism into the realm of postmodernism. It is a general assumption that postmodernism started after WW2 in a time of great social, political and cultural upheaval. What is important is the term postmodernism is revealing in the sense that it is not a new movement, devoid of links with modernism but a reaction to it. Below is a list of characteristics displayed within post-modern literature, all of which are contrasted to modern literature.
1. Whereas Modernism places faith in the ideas, values, beliefs, culture, and norms of the West, Postmodernism rejects Western values and beliefs as only a small part of the human experience and often rejects such ideas, beliefs, culture, and norms.
2. Whereas Modernism attempts to reveal profound truths of experience and life, Postmodernism is suspicious of being "profound" because such ideas are based on one particular Western value systems.
3. Whereas Modernism attempts to find depth and interior meaning beneath the surface of objects and events, Postmodernism prefers to dwell on the exterior image and avoids drawing conclusions or suggesting underlying meanings associated with the interior of objects and events.
4. Whereas Modernism focused on central themes and a united vision in a particular piece of literature, Postmodernism sees human experience as unstable, internally contradictory, ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished, fragmented, discontinuous, "jagged," with no one specific reality possible. Therefore, it focuses on a vision of a contradictory, fragmented, ambiguous, indeterminate, unfinished, "jagged" world.
5. Whereas Modern authors guide and control the reader’s response to their work, the Postmodern writer creates an "open" work in which the reader must supply his own connections, work out alternative meanings, and provide his own (unguided) interpretation.
A Sampling of Key Authors:
Margaret Atwood Martin Amis
Jean Baudrillard Jorge Louis Borges
William S. Burroughs Albert Camus
Bret Easton Ellis Gabriel García Márquez
Jack Kerouac Vladimir Nabokov
George Orwell Sylvia Plath
Tom Stoppard Salman Rushdie
Kurt Vonnegut Jeanette Winterson
The following is a selection of very brief examples of the main literary figures from the different literary periods. It should serve as a jumping off point for some class discussion and for students to be proactive in investigating and researching the various authors/periods.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
An English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat, Chaucer was born in London during the 14th Century. He was a regular at court and was the patron of many of the noblemen and Kings of the period. He is best known for his unfinished frame narrative ‘The Canterbury Tales’ and his works of epic poetry.
Troilus and Criseyde (written between 1381-86)
(Song of Troilus from Chaucer’s epic poem. Troilus is tormented by love)
If no love is, O God, what fele I so?
And if love is, what thing and which is he?
If love be good, from whennes cometh my wo? (whennes, whence)
If it be wikke, a wonder thynketh me, (wikke evil)
Whan every torment and adversite
That cometh of him may to me savoury thinke, (savoury thinke seem)
Foe ay thurst I, the more that ich it drynke.
And if that at myn owen lust I brenne, (brenne burn)
From whennes cometh my waillynge and my pleynte? (pleynte
If harm agree me, whereto pleyne I thenne? complaint)
I noot, ne whi unwery that I feynte. (I noot I do not know)
O quikke deth, O swete harm so queynte,
How may of the in me swich quaintite,
But if that I consente that it be?
And if that I consente, I wrongfully
Compleyne, iwis. That possed to and fro (iwis indeed)
Al stereless within a boot am I (stereless rudderless; boot
Amydde the see, bitwixen wyndes two, boat)
That in contrarie stoned evere mo.
Allas, what is this wondre maladie?
For hete of cold, for cold of hete I die.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
An English lyrical poet, Wyatt is credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He held a position in the court of Henry VIII and was reportedly in love with Anne Boleyn. He fell in and out of favour with the King, being imprisoned in the Tower of London for a period. His poetry was not published until after his death.
They Flee From Me
They flee from me, that sometime did me seek,
With naked foot stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them, gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild, and do not remember
That sometime they put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.
Thanked be Fortune it hath been otherwise,
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array, after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small,
And therewith all sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, "Dear heart, how like you this?"
It was no dream, I lay broad waking.
But all is turned, thorough my gentleness,
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go, of her goodness,
And she also to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindely am served,
I fain sould know what she hath deserved
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
Sir Philip Sidney was a prominent figure during the Elizabethan period. He was a poet, courtier and soldier and something of a celebrity at the time. He died from battle wounds in the Netherlands and is buried in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Sidney is best known for his epic ‘Astrophil and Stella’ and ‘The Defence of Poetry’
From Astrophil and Stella (written 1581, published 1591)
With how sad steps, Oh Moon, thou chimb’st the skies,
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What may it be, that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrow tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel’st a lover’s case;
I read it in they looks, thy languished grace,
To me that feel the like, thy state descries.
That even of fellowship, Oh Moon, tell me,
Is constant love deemed there but want of wit?
Are beauties there as proud as here they be?
Do they above love to be loved, and yet
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess?
Do they call virtue there ungratefulness?
Edmund Spencer (1552-1599)
Spencer is perhaps best known for ‘The Faerie Queene’, an epic poem celebrating the Tudors, in particular Elizabeth I. Spencer was born in London, but lived in Ireland for much of his life in the service of the Queen.
The language of his poetry is purposely archaic, echoing that of Chaucer’s. Spencer’s influence can be found in many later writers, including Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and Tennyson.
My Love Is Like To Ice (published 1595)
My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden. ice,
And ice, which is congeal's with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shakespeare is possibly the most well known writers of English Literature. His work exemplifies the Renaissance period. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare moved to London where he became known as an actor, playwright and poet. His identity has been a controversial point for many years, some people believing that the name Shakespeare refers to a group rather than an individual.
Sonnet 130 (published 1609 as part of a collection of sonnets)
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Christopher (Kit) Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare, writing in London around the same time. Marlowe was a playwright, poet and translator (and alleged spy). Marlowe is known for his blank verse and overreaching protagonists. His death in shrouded in mystery, stabbed in a tavern brawl, some have claimed that his death was an assassination. He is perhaps best known for his tragedy ‘Dr Faustus’.
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love (published 1599)
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Romeo and Juliet (written between 1591-95, published 1597)
Act 1 Scene 5 - The Lovers Meet
ROMEO
[To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
JULIET
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
ROMEO
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
JULIET
You kiss by the book.
John Webster (1580-1634)
Webster was an early Jacobean Dramatist best known for his tragedies ‘The White Devil’ and ‘The Duchess of Malfi’. Webster was born in London although little is known about his early life. His work is characterised by the presence of macabre, horrific visions of mankind. T.S Eliot famously said that Webster saw “the skull beneath the skin.”
The Duchess of Malfi (1612-13)
Act 1 Scene 2 - Antonio speaks of his love for the Duchess.
DELIO: Then the law to him
Is like a foul black cobweb to a spider,
He makes it his dwelling and a prison
To entangle those shall feed him.
ANTONIO: Most true:
He never pays debts unless they be shrewd turns,
And those he will confess that he doth owe.
Last, for his brother there, the cardinal,
They that do flatter him most say oracles
Hang at his lips; and verily I believe them,
For the devil speaks in them.
But for their sister, the right noble duchess,
You never fix'd your eye on three fair medals
Cast in one figure, of so different temper.
For her discourse, it is so full of rapture,
You only will begin then to be sorry
When she doth end her speech, and wish, in wonder,
She held it less vain-glory to talk much
Than your penance to hear her: whilst she speaks,
She throws upon a man so sweet a look,
That it were able to raise one to a galliard
That lay in a dead palsy, and to dote
On that sweet countenance; but in that look
There speaketh so divine a continence,
As cuts off all lascivious and vain hope.
Her days are practic'd in such noble virtue,
That sure her nights, nay more, her very sleeps,
Are more in heaven, than other ladies' shrifts.
Let all sweet ladies break their flattering glasses,
And dress themselves in her.
The Bible: King James Version (1611)
This is the English translation of the Bible, authorised by James I. The translation began in 1604 and was completed in 1611 by the Church of England. This was the third such translation into English and is the version that is still used to this day. The translators were given specific instructions by the King to ensure that the translation would reflect the structure and beliefs of the Church of England.
1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient; love is kind
and envies no one.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.
There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love.
John Donne (1572-1631)
Donne was known as a poet, preacher and major figurehead of the Metaphysical Poets of the period. Despite his talent, Donne lived in poverty for several years before training as an Anglican Priest and eventually becoming the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Donne is known for the deep emotion, intellect and wit that feature in his work.
The Flea (first published 1633)
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be;
Thou knowest that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead.
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered, swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we are met
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and sayest that thou
Find'st not thyself, nor me, the weaker now.
'Tis true, then learn how false fears be;
Just so much honor, when thou yieldst to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Marvell was an English Metaphysical Poet and Parliamentarian. He was a close friend of John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. Marvell was never a Puritan despite being a Parliamentarian. He managed to avoid any political problems during the changes to Parliament over this period. His poetry, like Donne’s is characterised by its use of wit, intellect and extended metaphor.
The Definition of Love
My Love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high:
It was begotten by despair
Upon Impossibility.
Magnanimous Despair alone.
Could show me so divine a thing,
Where feeble Hope could ne'r have flown
But vainly flapt its Tinsel Wing.
And yet I quickly might arrive
Where my extended Soul is fixt,
But Fate does Iron wedges drive,
And alwaies crouds it self betwixt.
For Fate with jealous Eye does see.
Two perfect Loves; nor lets them close:
Their union would her ruine be,
And her Tyrannick pow'r depose.
And therefore her Decrees of Steel
Us as the distant Poles have plac'd,
(Though Loves whole World on us doth wheel)
Not by themselves to be embrac'd.
Unless the giddy Heaven fall,
And Earth some new Convulsion tear;
And, us to joyn, the World should all
Be cramp'd into a Planisphere.
As Lines so Loves Oblique may well
Themselves in every Angle greet:
But ours so truly Paralel,
Though infinite can never meet.
Therefore the Love which us doth bind,
But Fate so enviously debarrs,
Is the Conjunction of the Mind,
And Opposition of the Stars.
John Wilmot - Earl of Rochester (1647-1680)
A prominent figure during the Restoration, Rochester was a poet, playwright, friend of Charles II and English Libertine. His poetry was known for its satirical features and bawdiness. His life was reflected in his poetry. He was known for his drunkenness and liberal ways when at court, which resulted in his death at the young age of 33 from venereal diseases.
Absent From Thee
Absent from thee I languish still;
Then ask me not, when I return?
The straying fool 'twill plainly kill
To wish all day, all night to mourn.
Dear! from thine arms then let me fly,
That my fantastic mind may prove
The torments it deserves to try
That tears my fixed heart from my love.
When, wearied with a world of woe,
To thy safe bosom I retire
where love and peace and truth does flow,
May I contented there expire,
Lest, once more wandering from that heaven,
I fall on some base heart unblest,
Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven,
And lose my everlasting rest.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Pope was a famous poet in his own time, known for his satirical verses and translations. His work is famous for the use of the heroic couplet. Pope was born and lived in London to a Catholic family, a difficult thing to be at the time. He is best known for the satire ‘The Rape of the Lock’, the epic poem ‘Eloise to Abelard’ and his translations of Homer and Shakespeare.
Eloise to Abelard (written 1716, published 1717)
An extract from Eloise’s imagined letter to Abelard, her lover
Ah wretch! believ'd the spouse of God in vain,
Confess'd within the slave of love and man.
Assist me, Heav'n! but whence arose that pray'r?
Sprung it from piety, or from despair?
Ev'n here, where frozen chastity retires,
Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.
I ought to grieve, but cannot what I ought;
I mourn the lover, not lament the fault;
I view my crime, but kindle at the view,
Repent old pleasures, and solicit new;
Now turn'd to Heav'n, I weep my past offence,
Now think of thee, and curse my innocence.
Of all affliction taught a lover yet,
'Tis sure the hardest science to forget!
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense,
And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence?
How the dear object from the crime remove,
Or how distinguish penitence from love?
Unequal task! a passion to resign,
For hearts so touch'd, so pierc'd, so lost as mine.
Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state,
How often must it love, how often hate!
How often hope, despair, resent, regret,
Conceal, disdain—do all things but forget.
But let Heav'n seize it, all at once 'tis fir'd;
Not touch'd, but rapt; not waken'd, but inspir'd!
Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue,
Renounce my love, my life, myself—and you.
Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he
Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.
William Blake (1757-1827)
Blake is considered as one of the first of the Romantic Poets. He is also well known for his paintings and prints. Whilst Blake was largely unrecognised in his own lifetime, he is now considered as vitally important in the development of English Literature. He is known for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents of his work, perhaps the most well known being his ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’
The Clod and The Pebble from ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ (1789)
Love seeketh not Itself to please,
‘Nor for itself hath any care;
‘But for another gives its ease,
‘And builds a heaven in Hell's despair.’
So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet :
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet :
‘Love seeketh only Self to please,
‘To bind another to its delight ;
‘Joys in another's loss of ease,
‘And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.’
William Blake
The Sick Rose –
from ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ (1789)
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Like Blake, Wordsworth was one of the first Romantic Poets. Wordsworth became known as one of ‘the Lake Poets’ after his move to the Lake District where he lived most of his life. Wordsworth is probably best known for his semi-autobiographical work ‘The Prelude’ which was revised several times throughout his life. Wordsworth was England’s Poet Laureate from 1843 to his death in 1850.
Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known (1800)
Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the Lover's ear alone,
What once to me befell.
When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening-moon.
Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew nigh
Those paths so dear to me.
And now we reached the orchard-plot;
And, as we climbed the hill,
The sinking moon to Lucy's cot
Came near, and nearer still.
In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
Kind Nature's gentlest boon!
And all the while my eyes I kept
On the descending moon.
My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage roof,
At once, the bright moon dropped.
What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover's head! "O mercy!" to myself I cried,
"If Lucy should be dead!"
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Byron, like Shelley and Keats, is regarded as one of the Second Generation Romantic Poets. He is known for his brief poems and the narrative poems, ‘Don Juan’ and ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’. Byron is as well known for his private life as he is for his poetry. At the centre of many scandals, including an alleged affair with his half sister, Byron was somewhat of a celebrity in his time.
She Walks in Beauty (1814)
SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face,
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
— A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.
George Gordon, Lord Byron
So We’ll Go No More A-Roving (1817)
SO, we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Shelley is known as one of the Second Generation of the Romantic Poets. He is also known as a playwright, essayist and author of Gothic fiction. Shelley is regarded as one of the finest lyric poets, but like many others, was only recognised after his early death from drowning in Italy. Shelley is perhaps best known for his verse works including ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘The Masque of Anarchy’.
To…
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory;
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
John Keats (1795-1821)
Keats became one of the key figures in the Second Generation of Romantic Poets. Whilst he was unrecognised in his lifetime, he has become known as one of England’s best poets. Keats’ poetic style was characterised by elaborate word choice, sensual imagery and the creation of odes. Keats’ is also famous for his letter writing; many of these letters still survive and are a topic of great fascination. Keats died in Rome, Italy and is buried there.
Bright Star (written 1819, revised 1820)
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Austen is still to this day one of the most widely read female authors. Her work is characterised by its realism and social commentary. While comical, they highlight the dependency of women on marriage, something Austen never experienced herself. Austen chose to publish anonymously during her lifetime. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Pride and Prejudice (1813) - Mr Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet
After a silence of several minutes, he came towards her in an agitated manner, and thus began:-
‘ In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.’
Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all he felt and had long felt for her immediately followed. He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed, and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority, of its being a degradation, of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.
In spite of her deeply rooted dislike, she could not be insensible to the compliment of such a man’s affection, and though her intentions did not vary for a minute, she was at first sorry for the pain he was to receive; till, roused to resentment by his subsequent language, she lost all compassion in anger.
Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)
Bronte is one of the three Bronte sisters, all famous novelists and poets of their period. The sisters published under male names, Charlotte’s being Currer Bell. She is most famous for her novel ‘Jane Eyre’. After the deaths of her sisters, Charlotte was persuaded to reveal her identity and became friends with other authors of the time. She was married for only a year before her death in 1855.
Jane Eyre (1847)- Jane has been shown Mr. Rochester’s wife in the attic
‘Well, Jane! Not a word of reproach? Nothing bitter - nothing poignant? Nothing to cut a feeling or sting a passion? You sit quietly where I have placed you, and regard me with a weary, a passive look.
‘Jane, I never meant to wound you thus. If the man who had but one little ewe lamb that was dear to him as a daughter, that ate of his bread and drank of his cup, and lay in his bosom, had by some mistake slaughtered it at the shambles, he would not have rued his bloody blunder as much as I now rue mine. Will you ever forgive me?’
Reader, I forgave him at that moment and on the spot. There was such deep remorse in his eye, such true pity in his tone, such manly energy in his manner; and besides, there was such unchanged love in his whole look and mien - I forgave him all: yet not in words, not outwardly; only at my heart’s core.
‘You know I’m a scoundrel, Jane?’ ere long he inquired wistfully - wondering, I suppose, at my continued silence and tameness, the result rather of weakness than of will.
‘Yes, sir.’
Emily Bronte (1818-1848)
Emily Bronte, another of the famous Bronte sisters, was a poet and author, publishing under the name of Ellis Bell due to the social prejudices against female authors at the time. Emily is most famous for her only novel ‘Wuthering Heights’. Emily died at the age of 30 after contracting tuberculosis.
Wuthering Heights (1847) - Catherine speaks of her love for Linton and Heathcliff
I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don‘t talk of our separation again; it is impracticable;
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
Tennyson was Poet Laureate for much of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1850-1892. Behind Shakespeare, he is the second most quoted writer in the English language. Much of his verse is based on mythological themes and unlike most of his contemporaries he wrote in blank verse, rare for the time. His most famous works include, ‘In Memoriam’, ‘Idylls of the King’ and ‘Ulysses’.
Break, Break, Break (written 1835, published 1842)
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era, her work being popular in both the England and the United States. She was married to Robert Browning and the two lived in Italy after their marriage for much of the remainder of their lives. Barrett Browning is best known for ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and ‘Aurora Leigh’. Much of her work is centred on the theme of love.
Sonnets from the Portuguese (43) (written 1845)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Robert Browning was one of the foremost Victorian English poets and playwrights. Browning was married to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and together they lived in Italy for much of their marriage. Browning’s work is characterised by his use of dramatic verse, especially the dramatic monologue. He is perhaps best known for his short poems, such as the one featured below, ‘Meeting At Night’.
Meeting At Night (published 1845)
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Dickens is arguably the best known of the Victorian novelists. His work was originally published in serialised form in periodicals and magazines, a popular way of publishing at the time. Dickens is credited with creating some of the most interesting and best loved characters in literature. The theme of social reform is one that is evident throughout his work. He is perhaps best known for novels such as ‘Oliver Twist ‘and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Great Expectations (published as a serial from December 1860-August 1861) Description of Miss Havisham who still wears her wedding dress after being left at the altar many years before
She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on — the other was on the table near her hand — her veil was half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.
It was not in the first moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its luster, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly wax-work at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now wax-work and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Rossetti came from a family of famous siblings including the painter and poet, Dante Gabrielle Rossetti. She wrote a variety of romantic, devotional and children’s poetry, her most famous work being her long poem, Goblin Market and her love poem Remember. She was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and modelled for her brother.
A Birthday (published 1860’s)
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Dickinson was an American poet. Her poetry was unique to the time she was writing, it contain short lines and often use slant rhyme and unconventional capitalisation and punctuation. The erotic nature of many of her love poems is surprising as Dickinson was introverted and lived much of her life as a recluse, rarely leaving her room in later life. Of the almost eighteen hundred poems she wrote, few were published in her lifetime.
Wild Nights, Wild Nights! (1861)
Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port,
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.
Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Hardy was a novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although influences of the Romantic and enlightenment periods can be found in his work, for example his interest in the supernatural. Hardy regarded himself as a poet but is perhaps better known for his novels which were written mainly for financial gain. Hardy was first published until he was in his 50’s. Many of his novels feature tragic characters who struggle against society and their own desires.
Neutral Tones (published 1898)
We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
--They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro--
On which lost the more by our love.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing....
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author. He became known as one of the most successful of Victorian London and was somewhat of a celebrity in his day. He is known for his scathing wit, something apparent in much of his work. He led a controversial life, imprisoned for homosexuality for two years, on his release he left Britain for France and never returned. He is buried in Paris.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
GWENDOLEN
I adore you. But you haven't proposed to me yet. Nothing has been said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on.
JACK
Well . . . may I propose to you now?
GWENDOLEN
I think it would be an admirable opportunity. And to spare you any possible disappointment, Mr. Worthing, I think it only fair to tell you quite frankly before-hand that I am fully determined to accept you.
JACK
Gwendolen!
GWENDOLEN
Yes, Mr. Worthing, what have you got to say to me?
JACK
You know what I have got to say to you.
GWENDOLEN
Yes, but you don't say it.
JACK
Gwendolen, will you marry me? [Goes on his knees.]
GWENDOLEN
Of course I will, darling. How long you have been about it! I am afraid you have had very little experience in how to propose.
JACK
My own one, I have never loved any one in the world but you.
D.H Lawrence (1855-1930)
Lawrence was an author, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. Lawrence was often the victim of censorship and official prosecution when it came to his work. He is perhaps most famous for Lady Chatterley’s Lover which was banned when first published. Lawrence’s work often explores the effects of modernity on society confronting issues relating to emotional health and human sexuality.
Piano (1918)
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past
A E Housman (1859-1936)
Housman was a poet and English classical scholar. He is perhaps best known for A Shropshire Lad, a cycle of poems. His work is characterised by its spare language and distinctive imagery. During his career, Housman was employed as Professor of Latin at both University College London and Cambridge, his editions of Juvenal, Manilius and Lucan are still considered the most relevant.
Shake Hands (published in 1936, posthumously)
Shake hands, we shall never be friends, all's over;
I only vex you the more I try.
All's wrong that ever I've done or said,
And nought to help it in this dull head:
Shake hands, here's luck, good-bye.
But if you come to a road where danger
Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share,
Be good to the lad that loves you true
And the soul that was born to die for you,
And whistle and I'll be there.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, in his later years he served as an Irish senator for two terms. He founded the Abbey Theatre and in 1923 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Yeats was known for his highly artistic and considered form using allusive imagery and symbolic structures. Unlike many of the modernist of the period, Yeats was a master of traditional forms. He is still considered to be one of the best poets of English Literature.
When You Are Old (1893)
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
He Wishes For The Clothes of Heaven (1899)
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941)
Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, feminist and writer of short stories. She is one of the most recognised of the modernist writers, well known for her use of the stream of consciousness. She ended her life in 1941 by walking into a river with stones in her pockets. She is most famous for her novels ‘To the Lighthouse’ and ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and her feminist criticism ‘A Room of One’s Own’
Mrs. Dalloway (1925) - Mrs Dalloway remembers her youth.
But this question of love (she thought, putting her coat away), this falling in love with women. Take Sally Seton; her relation in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all, been love?
She sat in the floor – that was her first impression of Sally – she sat in the floor with her arms round her knees, smoking a cigarette. Where could it have been? The Mannings? The Kinloch-Joneses’? At some party (where, she could not be certain), for she had a distant recollection of saying to the man she was with, ‘Who is that?’ And he had told her, and said that Sally’s parents did not get on (how that shocked her – that one’s parents should quarrel!). But all that evening she could not take her eyes off Sally. It was an extraordinary beauty of the kind she most admired, dark, large-eyed, with a quality which, since she hadn’t got it herself, she always envied – a sort of abandonment, as if she could say anything, do anything; a quality much commoner in foreigners than in English-women. Sally always said she had French blood in her veins, an ancestor had been with Marie Antoinette, had his head cut off, left a ruby ring. Perhaps that Summer she came to stay at Bourton., walking in quite unexpectedly without a penny in her pocket, one night after dinner, and upsetting poor Aunt Helena to such an extent that she never forgave her. There had been some awful quarrel at home. She literally hadn’t a penny that night when she came to them – had pawned a brooch to come down. She had rushed off in a passion. They had sat up till all hours of the night talking. Sally it was who has made her feel, for the first time, how sheltered her life in Bournton was. She knew nothing about sex – nothing about social problems. She had once seen an old man who had dropped dead in a field – she had seen cows just after their calves were born. But Aunt Helena never liked discussion of anything (when Sally gave her William Morris, it had to be wrapped in brown paper). There they sat, hour after hour, talking in her bedroom at the top of the house, talking about life, how they were to reform the world.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
An American author of novels and short stories, Fitzgerald’s work is considered evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he created himself. His novels are known for the theme of youth and promise along with despair and age, many are considered a social comment on the age in which he was writing. Fitzgerald is best known for his novel, The Great Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby (1925) - Tom and Gatsby fight over Daisy’s love
She looked at him blindly. "Why – how could I ... love him – possibly?"
"You never loved him."
She hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing – and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late.
"I never loved him," she said, with perceptible reluctance.
"Not at Kapiolani?" demanded Tom suddenly.
"No."
The ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air.
"Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?" There was a husky tenderness in his tone "Daisy?"
"Please don’t." Her voice was cold, but the rancor was gone from it. She looked at Gatsby. "There, Jay," she said – but her hand as she tried to light a cigarette was trembling. Suddenly she threw the cigarette and the burning match on the carpet.
Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once – but I loved you too."
Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed.
"You loved me TOO?" he repeated.
"Even that’s a lie," said Tom savagely. "She didn’t know you were alive. Why – there’re things between Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
"I want to speak to Daisy alone," he insisted. "She’s all excited now –"
"Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom," she admitted in a pitiful voice. "It wouldn’t be true."
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)
Waugh, an English novelist, biographer and travel writer, is known for his darkly humorous and deeply satirical novels from the early period of his career which were followed by more serious novels with a Catholic undertone in his later career. His links with the upper class society of England inspired much of his writings, many of his characters being based on personalities of the day. Waugh is best known for his novel ‘Brideshead Revisited’
Brideshead Revisited (1945) - Julia chooses love of God over her love for Charles
Julia said: “Here in the shadow, in the corner of the stair - a minute to say good-bye.”
“So long to say so little.”
“You knew?”
“Since this morning. Since before this morning. All this year.”
“I didn’t know till today. Oh, my dear, if you could only understand, then I could bear to part - or bear it better. I’d say my heart were breaking, if I believed in broken hearts. I can’t marry you, Charles. I can’t be with you ever again.”
“I know.”
“How can you know?”
“What will you do?”
“Just go on. Alone. How can I tell what I shall do? You know the whole of me. You know I’m not one for a life of mourning. I’ve always been bad. Probably I’ll be bad again - punished again. But the worse I am, the more I need God. I can’t shut myself out from His mercy. That is what it would mean, starting a life with you - without Him. One can only see one step ahead. But I saw today there’s one thing unforgivable, like things in the school-room, so bad they’re unpunishable, that only Mummy could deal with. The bad thing I was on the point of doing that I’m not quite bad enough to do - to set up a rival God to God. It may be because of Mummy, Nanny, Sebastian, Cordelia, perhaps Bridey and Mrs Muspratt - keeping my name in their prayers. Or it may be a private bargain between me and God. That if I give up this one thing I want so much, however bad I am He won’t quite despair of me in the end. Now we shall both be alone. And I shall have no way of making you understand.”
“I don’t want to make it easy for you.’ I said; “I hope your heart may break. But I do understand.”
The avalanche was down, the hillside swept bare behind it; the last echoes died on the white slopes; the new mound glittered and lay still in the silent valley.
Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972)
Day Lewis is an Irish-born poet and was the Poet Laureate for Great Britain between 1968 and 1972. He also wrote as a mystery writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake. His younger career was much influenced by his friendship with Auden but over his career he distanced himself from Auden and developed a more traditional style of lyricism. He is the father of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis
Song
Come, live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
Of peace and plenty, bed and board,
That chance employment may afford.
I’ll handle dainties on the docks
And thou shalt read of summer frocks:
At evening by the sour canals
We’ll hope to hear some madrigals.
Care on thy maiden brow shall put
A wreath of wrinkles, and thy foot
Be shod with pain: not silken dress
But toil shall tire thy loveliness.
Hunger shall make thy modest zone
And cheat fond death of all but bone—
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
Graham Greene (1904-1991)
Greene was an author, playwright and literary critic. Much of his world aims to explore the moral and political issues of the period which at the time were considered ambivalent. Catholic religious themes are at the root of much his writing, although he objected to being known as a Catholic novelist. He is best known for his novels, The Power and the Glory and The End of the Affair.
The End of the Affair (1951)
I wrote at the start that this was a record of hate, and walking there beside Henry towards the evening glass of beer, I found the one prayer that seemed to serve the winter mood: O God, You've done enough, You've robbed me of enough, I'm too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone forever."
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
Neruda was a Chilean writer and politician. Neruda’s style ranges from erotically charged love poems to historical epics and political manifestos. When the communist party fell in Chile, Neruda fled and lived in exile in Argentina for a number of years. He is best known for his collection of poems ‘Twenty Poems of Love and A Song of Despair’. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair (1924)
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.
Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.
Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,
because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?
W H Auden (1907-1973)
Auden was born in England but later became an American citizen. He is known as a poet, literary critic, essayist and worked on documentary, plays and other forms of performance. His work is very highly regarded. He employs a variety of tone, form and content and often engages with moral and political issues, with his main themes being love, politics, citizenship, religion and morals. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.
Lullaby from Another Time (1940)
Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.
Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.
Philip Larkin (1922-1985)
Larkin is widely regarded as one of the best poets of the second half of the 20th Century. Although he is often painted as a pessimistic character, his love poetry contains poignant and affective imagery. Larkin was also a well known novelist and music critic, especially of jazz. He declined the offer of the Poet Laureate in 1984 and despite his success continued to work in Hull University Library for most of his life.
Broadcast – from Whitsun Weddings (1964)
Giant whispering and coughing from
Vast Sunday-full and organ-frowned-on spaces
Precede a sudden scuttle on the drum
'The Queen', and a huge resettling. Then begins
A snivel on the violins:
I think of your face among all those faces,
Beautiful and devout before
Cascades of monumental slithering,
One of your gloves unnoticed on the floor
Beside those new, slightly-outmoded shoes.
Here it goes quickly dark. I lose
All but the outline of the still and withering
Leaves on half-emptied trees. Behind
The glowing wavebands, rabid storms of chording
By being distant overpower my mine
All the more shamelessly, their cut-off shout
Leaving me desperate to pick out
Your hands, tiny in all that air, applauding.
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
Plath, an American Poet who lived in England, is a well regarded poet and novelist. She was married to poet Ted Hughes and after a long battle with depression, committed suicide in 1963. She is known for advancing the genre of confessional poetry, writing pieces that are highly emotive and personal.
Child from Ariel (1965)
Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.
I want to fill it with color and ducks,
The zoo of the new
Whose name you meditate --
April snowdrop, Indian pipe,
Little
Stalk without wrinkle,
Pool in which images
Should be grand and classical
Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star.
Tom Stoppard (1937 - )
Stoppard is arguably one of the best and highly regarded playwrights of his generation. He is known for his intellectual and insightful plays which offer a social commentary on life as we know it. Stoppard is perhaps best known for his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, imagining scenes from Hamlet that Shakespeare didn’t write. Many of Stoppard’s plays look at morals or the lack there of and question social presumption.
The Real Thing (first performed 1982)- Scene 6 - Henry explains Love and the loss of it.
Henry: Yes. Well, I remember, the first time I succumbed to the sensation that the universe was dispensable minus one lady -
Debbie: Don’t write it, Fa. Just say it. The first time you fell in love. What?
Henry: It’s to do with knowing and being known. I remember how it stopped seeming odd that in biblical Greek knowing was used for making love. Whosit knew so and so. Carnal knowledge. It’s what lovers trust each other with. Knowledge of each other, not of the flesh but through the flesh, knowledge of the self, the real him, the real her, in extremis, the mask slipped from the face. Every other vision of oneself is on offer to the public. We share our vivacity, grief, sulks, anger, joy… we hand it out to anybody who happens to be standing around, to friends and family with a momentary sense of indecency perhaps, to strangers without hesitation. Our lovers share us with the passing trade. But in pairs we insist that we give ourselves to each other. What selves? What’s left? What else is there that hasn’t been dealt out like a deck of cards? A sort of knowledge. Personal, final, uncompromised. Knowing, being known. I revere that. Having that is being rich, you can be generous about what’s shared - she walks, she talks, she laughs, she lends a sympathetic ear, she kicks off her shoes and dances on the tables, she’s everybody’s and it don’t mean a thing, let them eat cake; knowledge is something else, the undealt card, and while it’s held it makes you free-and-easy and nice to know, and when it’s gone everything is pain. Every single thing. Every object that meets the eye, a pencil, a tangerine, a travel poster. As if the physical world has been wired up to pass a current back to the part of your brain where imagination glows like a filament in a lobe no bigger than a torch bulb. Pain.
Wendy Cope (1945 - )
Cope is an award-winning contemporary English Poet, writer, television and literature critic and editor of several anthologies of comic verse. Cope’s poetry is comical with insightful views into human nature, much of her work being parodies of others. Her style is often compared to that of John Betjeman and Philip Larkin. She is widely admired by both critics and the general public.
Flowers
Some men never think of it.
You did. You'd come along
And say you'd nearly brought me flowers
But something had gone wrong.
The shop was closed. Or you had doubts -
The sort that minds like ours
Dream up incessantly. You thought
I might not want your flowers.
It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
But, Look, the flowers you nearly bought
Have lasted all this while.
Carol Ann Duffy (1955 - )
The current Poet Laureate, Duffy is a Glasgow born poet and playwright. She is the first woman and also first Scot to hold the post. She is the Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester University. She is known for using accessible language in her poetry, making her popular in schools. She covers themes such as oppression, gender and violence and is often thought of as a feminist poet.
Anne Hathaway from The World’s Wife (1999)
"Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed."
(from Shakespeare's will)
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where he would dive for pearls. My lover's words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses on these lips;
my body now a softer rhyme to his, now echo, now assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed
Jeanette Winterson (1959-)
Jeanette Winterson is an English novelist and journalist. She began writing in 1985 after leaving home at the age of 16 and financing herself through a degree at Oxford University. She is known for challenging gender stereotypes and sexual identities within her writing which often deals with the subjects of love and relationships. She is perhaps best known for her novel ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’.
Written on the Body (1992)
Love demands expression. It will not stay still, stay silent, be good, be modest, be seen and not heard, no. It will break out in tongues of praise, the high note that smashes the glass and spills the liquid. It is no conservationist love. It is a big game hunter and you are the game. A curse on this game. How can you stick at a game when the rules keep changing? I shall call myself Alice and play croquet with the flamingos. In Wonderland everyone cheats and love is Wonderland isn’t it? Love makes the world go round. Love is blind. All you need is love. Nobody ever died of a broken heart. You’ll get over it. It’ll be different when we’re married. Think of the children. Time’s a great healer. Still waiting for Mr Right? Miss Right? And maybe all the little Rights?
It’s the clichés that cause all the trouble. A precise emotion seeks a precise expression. If what I feel is not precise then should I call it love? It is so tarrying, love, that all I can do is shove it under a dump bin of pink cuddly toys and send myself a greetings card saying ‘Congratulations on your Engagement’. But I am not engaged I am deeply distracted. I am desperately looking the other way so that love won’t see me. I want the diluted version, the sloppy language, the insignificant gestures. The saggy armchair clichés. It’s all right, millions of bottoms have sat here before me. The springs are well worn, the fabric smelly and familiar. I don’t have to be frightened, look, my grandma and granddad did it, he in a stiff collar and club tie, she in white muslin straining a little at the life beneath. They did it, my parents did it, now I will do it won’t I, arms outstretched, not to hold you, just to keep my balance, sleepwalking to that armchair. How happy we will be. How happy everyone will be. And they all lived happily ever after.
MOCK PAPER 1
ENGLISH LITERATURE (SPECIFICATION A) LITA3
Unit 3 Reading for Meaning
2 hours 30 minutes
Please read this advice carefully before you turn to the material.
1. Reading.
- Here are the materials taken from the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. You will be using this material to answer the two questions on the page opposite.
- Read all four pieces (A, B, C and D) and their introductions several times in the light of the questions set. Your reading should be close and careful.
2. Wider Reading
The questions test your wider reading in the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. In your answers, you should take every opportunity to refer to your wider reading.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer both questions
1 Read the two poems (Extract A and B) carefully. They were written at different times by different writers.
Basing your answer on the poems and, where appropriate, your wider reading in the poetry of love, compare the ways the two poets have used poetic form, structure and language to express their thoughts and ideas.
(40 marks)
2 Write a comparison of the ways Woolf and Williams present unrequited love
You should consider:
- the ways the writers’ choices of form, structure and language shape your responses
to these extracts
- how your wider reading in the literature of love has contributed to your
understanding and interpretation of the extracts.
(40 marks)
The Reading
Extract A
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, a Ghanaian writer, is also a performer and has led workshops in
Africa, the Americas and Europe. He writes mainly in English, but occasionally in French and his native Ga. His first collection of poetry, Eyes of a Boy, Lips of a Man was published in 1999. Since then he has written jazz-inspired poems and short stories and was a 2005 associate writer-in-residence for BBC Radio 3.
Sometimes I like it to rain
Heavy, relentless and loud,
So you burrow into me like pain,
And inhale me slow and free.
I like the clouds to stretch
And darken, and shadow the world
As water mimics prison bars,
And we bond like inmates.
For at these times the sun
Restrains its prying eyes,
Neighbours melt in the gloom,
And we are alone in love
It is morning,
But neither day nor night;
You are neither you nor I
I am neither prisoner nor free.
Extract B
Thomas Carew (1594/5-1640) was influenced by John Donne, for whom he wrote an elegy, published with Donne’s poems in 1633. His own poems were published in 1640. He was favoured by Charles I and, along with his friend Sir John Suckling, became one of the major Cavalier poets.
Ask Me No More by Thomas Carew
Ask me no more where Jove bestows,
When June is past, the fading rose;
For in your beauty's orient deep
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.
Ask me no more whither do stray
The golden atoms of the day;
For in pure love heaven did prepare
Those powders to enrich your hair.
Ask me no more whither doth haste
The nightingale when May is past;
For in your sweet dividing throat
She winters and keeps warm her note.
Ask me no more where those stars 'light
That downwards fall in dead of night;
For in your eyes they sit, and there
Fixed become as in their sphere.
Ask me no more if east or west
The Phoenix builds her spicy nest;
For unto you at last she flies,
And in your fragrant bosom dies.
Extract C
This extract is from Virginia Woolf’s ‘The Waves’ (1931). Virginia Woolf was boldly
experimental in her writing, at the forefront of the Modernist movement. Conventional plotting and characterisation are replaced by impressionistic writing and subtly indirect narration. Woolf suffered bouts of severe depression during her lifetime, and in 1941 she drowned herself in the River Ouse.
In ‘The Waves’, Woolf tells the life stories of six different characters from childhood to maturity. Their inner lives are the focus of the novel, depicted through each person’s ‘stream of consciousness’, the outpouring of every thought, feeling and sensation as it occurs. Here, at the beginning of the novel, the six young children are playing outside. Susan sees Jinny kiss Louis.
“'I was running,' said Jinny, 'after breakfast. I saw leaves moving in a hole in the hedge. I thought "That is a bird on its nest." I parted them and looked; but there was no bird on a nest. The leaves went on moving. I was frightened. I ran past Susan, past Rhoda, and Neville and Bernard in the tool-house talking. I cried as I ran, faster and faster. What moved the leaves? What moves my heart, my legs? And I dashed in here, seeing you green as a bush, like a branch, very still, Louis, with your eyes fixed. "Is he dead?" I thought, and kissed you, with my heart jumping under my pink frock like the leaves, which go on moving, though there is nothing to move them. Now I smell geraniums; I smell earth mould. I dance. I ripple.
I am thrown over you like a net of light. I lie quivering flung over you.'
'Through the chink in the hedge,' said Susan, 'I saw her kiss him. I raised my head from my flower-pot and looked through a chink in the hedge. I saw her kiss him. I saw them, Jinny and Louis, kissing. Now I will wrap my agony inside my pocket-handkerchief. It shall be screwed tight into a ball. I will go to the beech wood alone, before lessons. I will not sit at a table, doing sums. I will not sit next Jinny and next Louis. I will take my anguish and lay it
upon the roots under the beech trees. I will examine it and take it between my fingers. They will not find me. I shall eat nuts and peer for eggs through the brambles and my hair will be matted and I shall sleep under hedges and drink water from ditches and die there.'
'Susan has passed us,' said Bernard. 'She has passed the tool-house door with her
handkerchief screwed into a ball. She was not crying, but her eyes, which are so beautiful, were narrow as cats' eyes before they spring. I shall follow her, Neville. I shall go gently behind her, to be at hand, with my curiosity, to comfort her when she bursts out in a rage and thinks, "I am alone."
'Now she walks across the field with a swing, nonchalantly, to deceive us. Then she comes to the dip; she thinks she is unseen; she begins to run with her fists clenched in front of her. Her nails meet in the ball of her pocket-handkerchief. She is making for the beech woods out of the light. She spreads her arms as she comes to them and takes to the shade like a swimmer. But she is blind after the light and trips and flings herself down on the roots under the trees, where the light seems to pant in and out, in and out. The branches heave up and down. There is agitation and trouble here. There is gloom. The light is fitful. There is anguish here. The roots make a skeleton on the ground, with dead leaves heaped in the angles.
Susan has spread her anguish out. Her pocket-handkerchief is laid on the roots of the beech trees and she sobs, sitting crumpled where she has fallen.'
'I saw her kiss him,' said Susan. 'I looked between the leaves and saw her. She danced in flecked with diamonds light as dust. And I am squat, Bernard, I am short. I have eyes that look close to the ground and see insects in the grass. The yellow warmth in my side turned to stone when I saw Jinny kiss Louis. I shall eat grass and die in a ditch in the brown water where dead leaves have rotted.'”
Extract D
This extract is from Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie’ (1941). In this extract Tom, instructed by his mother, brings a gentleman caller home for Laura. It is Jim, for whom Laura has nursed a quiet passion since their last years at school together. When the pair are left alone, Jim coaxes the gentle and reclusive Laura out of her shyness. She begins to blossom, but Jim is not a free man...
JIM It's right for you! -You're -pretty!
LAURA In what way am I pretty?
JIM In all respects--believe me! Your eyes--your hair--are pretty! Your hands are pretty!
He catches hold of her hand.
You think I'm making this up because I'm invited to dinner and have to be nice. Oh, I could do that! I could put on an act for you, Laura, and say lots of things without being very sincere. But this time I am. I'm talking to you sincerely. I happened to notice you had this inferiority complex that keeps you from feeling comfortable with
people. Somebody needs to build your confidence up and make you proud instead of shy and turning away and – blushing – Somebody - ought to - Ought to - kiss you, Laura!
His hand slips slowly up her arm to her shoulder. MUSIC SWELLS TUMULTUOUSLY. He suddenly turns her about and kisses her on the lips. When he releases her, LAURA sinks on the sofa with a bright, dazed look. JIM backs away and fishes in his pocket for a cigarette.
Stumble-john!
He lights the cigarette, avoiding her look. There is a peal of girlish laughter from AMANDA in the kitchen. LAURA slowly raises and opens her hand. It still contains the little broken glass animal. She looks at it with a tender, bewildered expression.
Stumble-john!
I shouldn't have done that-- That was way off the beam.
You don't smoke, do you?
She looks up, smiling, not hearing the question. He sits beside her a little gingerly. She looks at him speechlessly--waiting. He coughs decorously and moves a little farther aside as he considers the situation and senses her feelings, dimly, with perturbation. Gently.
Would you--care for a--mint?
She doesn't seem to hear him but her look grows brighter even.
Peppermint--Life-Saver? My pocket's a regular drug store--wherever I go . . .
He pops a mint in his mouth. Then gulps and decides to make a clean breast of it. He speaks slowly and gingerly.
Laura, you know, if I had a sister like you, I'd do the same thing as Tom. I'd bring out fellows and - introduce her to them. The right type of boys of a type to - appreciate her. Only – well - he made a mistake about me. Maybe I've got no call to be saying this. That may not have been the idea in having me over. But what if it was?
There's nothing wrong about that. The only trouble is that in my case - I'm not in a situation to - do the right thing. I can't take down your number and say I'll phone.
I can't call up next week and - ask for a date. I thought I had better explain the situation in case you - misunderstood it and - hurt your feelings. . . .
Pause. Slowly, very slowly, LAURA'S look changes, her eyes returning slowly from his to the ornament in her palm. AMANDA utters another gay laugh in the kitchen.
LAURA Faintly. You - won't - call again?
JIM No, Laura, I can't.
He rises from the sofa.
As I was just explaining, I've - got strings on me. Laura, I've - been going steady!
I go out all of the time with a girl named Betty. She's a home-girl like you, and Catholic, and Irish, and in a great many ways we - get along fine. I met her last summer on a moonlight boat trip up the river to Alton, on the Majestic.
Well - right away from the start it was - love!
LAURA sways slightly forward and grips the arm of the sofa. He failsto notice, now enrapt in his own comfortable being.
Being in love has made a new man of me!
Leaning stiffly forward, clutching the arm of the sofa, LAURA struggles visibly with her storm. But JIM is oblivious, she is a long way off.
The power of love is really pretty tremendous! Love is something
that - changes the whole world, Laura!
The storm abates a little and LAURA leans back. He notices her again.
It happened that Betty's aunt took sick, she got a wire and had to go to Centralia. So Tom - when he asked me to dinner - I naturally just accepted the invitation, not knowing that you - that he - that I -
He stops awkwardly.
Huh--I'm a stumble-john!
He flops back on the sofa. The holy candles in the altar of LAURA'S face have been snuffed out. There is a look of almost infinite desolation. JIM glances at her uneasily.
I wish that you would--say something.
She bites her lip which was trembling and then bravely smiles. She opens her hand again on the broken glass ornament. Then she gently takes his hand and raises it level with her own. She carefully places the unicorn in the palm of his hand, then pushes his fingers closed upon it.
What are you--doing that for? You want me to have him?-- Laura?
She nods. What for?
LAURA A – souvenir...
Mock Paper 2
ENGLISH LITERATURE (SPECIFICATION A) LITA3
Unit 3 Reading for Meaning
2 hours 30 minutes
Please read this advice carefully before you turn to the material.
3. Reading.
- Here are the materials taken from the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. You will be using this material to answer the two questions on the page opposite.
- Read all four pieces (A, B, C and D) and their introductions several times in the light of the questions set. Your reading should be close and careful.
4. Wider Reading
The questions test your wider reading in the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. In your answers, you should take every opportunity to refer to your wider reading.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer both questions
1 Read the two poems (Extract A and B) carefully. They were written at different
times by different writers.
Basing your answer on the poems and, where appropriate, your wider reading in the
poetry of love, compare the ways the two poets have used poetic form, structure and language to express their thoughts and ideas.
(40 marks)
2 Write a comparison of the ways Henry James and Edward Albee present aspects of
married life and love. You should consider:
- the ways the writers’ choices of form, structure and language shape your responses to these extracts
- how your wider reading in the literature of love has contributed to your
understanding and interpretation of the extracts.
(40 marks)
The Reading
Extract A
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) lived for several years as an invalid.
She then mat and fell in love with Robert Browning, who was already married at the time of their meeting. They later married in secret and spent the rest of their married life in Italy. Rather than declining into an isolated death as an invalid, in this poem, the poet embraces the joys of married life on earth with her lover.
XXIII. "Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850)
Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-damps falling round my head?
I marvelled, my Belovèd, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine---
But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead
Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then love me, Love! look on me---breathe on me!
As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
For love, to give up acres and degree,
I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!
Extract B
Vicki Feaver was born in Nottingham in 1943 and has won many awards for her poetry. Her metaphors compel the reader; in particular, she employs classical myth in order to shed light on the female condition in dramatic monologues such as ‘Medusa’ and ‘Circe’. This poem appears to materialize out of nowhere like a crack in the wall.
‘The Crack’, Vicki Feaver
cut right through the house –
a thick wiggly line
you could poke a finger into,
a deep gash seeping
fine black dust.
It didn’t appear overnight.
For a long time
it was such a fine line
we went up and down stairs
oblivious of the stresses
that were splitting
our walls and ceilings apart.
And even when it thickened
and darkened, we went on
not seeing, or seeing
but believing the crack
would heal itself,
if dry earth was to blame,
a winter of rain
would seal its edges.
You didn’t tell me
That you heard at night
its faint stirrings
like something alive.
And I didn’t tell you –
until the crack
had opened so wide
that if we’d moved in our sleep
to reach for each other
we’d have fallen through.
Extract C
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
Henry James, (1843-1916) was an American writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. James spent the last 40 years of his life in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death. He is primarily known for the series of novels in which he portrays the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allows him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting. This extract marks the point in the novel where Isabel Archer sees clearly that her husband does not love her. It comes as a dark realisation.
It was as if he had had the evil eye; as if his presence were a blight and his favour a
misfortune. Was the fault in himself, or only in the deep mistrust she had conceived
for him? This mistrust was the clearest result of their short married life; a gulf had
opened between them over which they looked at each other with eyes that were on
either side a declaration of the deception suffered. It was a strange opposition, of the like of which she had never dreamed—an opposition in which the vital principle of the one was a thing of contempt to the other. It was not her fault—she had practised no deception; she had only admired and believed. She had taken all the first steps in the purest confidence, and then she had suddenly found the infinite vista of a multiplied life to be a dark, narrow alley, with a dead wall at the end. Instead of leading to the high places of happiness, from which the world would seem to lie below one, so that one could look down with a sense of exaltation and advantage, and judge and choose and pity, it led rather downward and earthward, into realms of restriction and depression, where the sound of other lives, easier and freer, was heard as from above, and served to deepen the feeling of failure. It was her deep distrust of her husband— this was what darkened the world. That is a sentiment easily indicated, but not so easily explained, and so composite in its character that much time and still more suffering had been needed to bring it to its actual perfection. Suffering, with Isabel, was an active condition; it was not a chill, a stupor, a despair; it was a passion of thought, of speculation, of response to every pressure. She flattered herself, however, that she had kept her failing faith to herself—that no one suspected it but Osmond. Oh, he knew it, and there were times when she thought that he enjoyed it. It had come gradually—it was not till the first year of her marriage had closed that she took the alarm. Then the shadows began to gather; it was as if Osmond deliberately, almost malignantly, had put the lights out one by one. The dusk at first was vague and thin, and she could still see her way in it. But it steadily increased, and if here and there it had occasionally lifted, there were certain corners of her life that were impenetrably black. These shadows were not an emanation from her own mind; she was very sure of that; she had done her best to be just and temperate, to see only the truth. They were a part of her husband’s very presence. They were not his misdeeds, his turpitudes; she accused him of nothing—that is, of but one thing, which was not a crime. She knew of no wrong that he had done; he was not violent, he was not cruel; she simply believed that he hated her. That was all she accused him of, and the miserable part of it was precisely that it was not a crime, for against a crime she might have found redress. He had discovered that she was so different, that she was not what he had believed she would prove to be.
Extract D
Edward Albee, from Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? (1962)
Edward Albee (born 1928) is an American playwright. His works are considered well-crafted, often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. This play, set in a small town American university campus, this play dissects two marriages. George and Martha are playing games with the younger couple, Nick and Honey. Here George takes centre stage, with Honey and Nick as his audience. Honey begins to grasp the full meaning of the tale he tells.
GEORGE: How They Got Married. Well, how they got married is this...the mouse got all puffed up one day and she went over to Blondie’s house, and she stuck out her puff and she said...look at me.
HONEY: (white...on her feet) I...don’t...like this.
NICK: (to George) Stop it!
GEORGE: Look at me...I’m all puffed up. Oh my goodness, said Blondie.
HONEY: (as from a distance)...and so they were married.
GEORGE: ...and so they were married...
HONEY: ...And then...
GEORGE: ...and then.
HONEY: (hysteria) WHAT? And then, WHAT?
NICK: NO! no!
GEORGE: (as if to a baby) and then the puff went away...Like
magic...pouf!
NICK: (almost sick) Jesus God.
HONEY: ...the puff went away...
GEORGE: ...pouf
NICK: Honey...I didn’t mean to...honestly, I didn’t mean to...
HONEY: You...you told them.
(Grabbing at her belly) Ohhhh nooooo.
NICK: Honey...baby...I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to.
GEORGE: (abruptly and with some disgust) And that’s how you play Get
the Guests.
MOCK PAPER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE (SPECIFICATION A) LITA3
Unit 3 Reading for Meaning
2 hours 30 minutes
Please read this advice carefully before you turn to the material.
5. Reading.
- Here are the materials taken from the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. You will be using this material to answer the two questions on the page opposite.
- Read all four pieces (A, B, C and D) and their introductions several times
in the light of the questions set. Your reading should be close and careful.
6. Wider Reading
The questions test your wider reading in the prescribed area for study, Love
Through the Ages. In your answers, you should take every opportunity to refer to your wider reading.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer both questions
1 Read the two drama extracts (Extract A and B) carefully. They were written at
different times by different writers.
Basing your answer on the drama extracts and, where appropriate, your wider reading in drama, compare the ways the two playwrights have used dramatic form, structure and language to express their thoughts and ideas.
(40 marks)
2 Write a comparison of the ways Christina Rossetti and Hanif Kureishi explore ideas
of love, loss and the relationship between love and memory.
You should consider:
- the ways the writers’ choices of form, structure and language shape
your responses to these extracts
- how your wider reading in the literature of love has contributed to your
understanding and interpretation of the extracts.
(40 marks)
The Reading
Extract A: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. In this extract from Twelfth Night Viola is dressed in male disguise, as Cesario. Orsino is in love with Olivia, but Olivia has mistakenly fallen in love with
Cesario (Viola in disguise as a male). Viola herself is in love with Orsino, but he thinks she is male and has employed her/him to woo Olivia for him. Viola attempts to communicate her love in code.
VIOLA: But if she cannot love you, sir?
DUKE ORSINO: I cannot be so answer'd.
VIOLA: Sooth, but you must.
Say that some lady, as perhaps there is,
Hath for your love a great a pang of heart
As you have for Olivia: you cannot love her;
You tell her so; must she not then be answer'd?
DUKE ORSINO: There is no woman's sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman's heart
So big, to hold so much; they lack retention
Alas, their love may be call'd appetite,
No motion of the liver, but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much: make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia.
VIOLA: Ay, but I know--
DUKE ORSINO: What dost thou know?
VIOLA: Too well what love women to men may owe:
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
My father had a daughter loved a man,
As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.
DUKE ORSINO: And what's her history?
VIOLA: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more: but indeed
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.
Extract B
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
(1895)
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) was an Irish writer, poet, and prominent aesthete. His parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and from an early age he was tutored at home, where he showed his intelligence, becoming fluent in French and German. Reading Greats, Wilde proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin,
then at Oxford. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde was one of the most well-known personalities of his day. It was his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray – still widely read – that brought him more lasting recognition. The Importance of Being Earnest follows two young women, Cecily and Gwendolen, as they aim to stage manage their own proposals.
Gwendolen. Married, Mr. Worthing?
Jack. [Astounded.] Well… surely. You know that I love you, and you led me to
believe, Miss Fairfax, that you were not absolutely indifferent to me.
Gwendolen. I adore you. But you haven’t proposed to me yet. Nothing has been said
at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on.
Jack. Well… may I propose to you now?
Gwendolen. I think it would be an admirable opportunity. And to spare you any
possible disappointment, Mr. Worthing, I think it only fair to tell you quite frankly
before-hand that I am fully determined to accept you.
Jack. Gwendolen!
Gwendolen. Yes, Mr. Worthing, what have you got to say to me?
Jack. You know what I have got to say to you.
Gwendolen. Yes, but you don’t say it.
Jack. Gwendolen, will you marry me? [Goes on his knees.]
Gwendolen. Of course I will, darling. How long you have been about it! I am afraid
you have had very little experience in how to propose.
Jack. My own one, I have never loved any one in the world but you.
Gwendolen. Yes, but men often propose for practice. I know my brother Gerald does.
All my girl-friends tell me so. What wonderfully blue eyes you have, Ernest! They are
quite, quite, blue. I hope you will always look at me just like that, especially when
there are other people present.
Extract C
Christina Rossetti, Remember (1862)
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894)
was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. When the sonnet “Remember” first appeared in “Goblin Market” and Other Poems in 1862, it was both warmly and sadly received by readers. A mixture of happiness and depression tends to run throughout many of Christina Rossetti’s poems, and this one, which begins “Remember me when I am gone away,” implies immediately a loving, yet sad, request.
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Extract D
Hanif Kureishi, The Body (2002)
This prose extract is taken from the conclusion of the short story ‘Remember This Moment, Remember Us’, from his collection of short stories, The Body (2002), by Hanif Kureishi. Anna and Rick decide to leave a tape message for their two-year-old son, Daniel, to be watched when he is Rick’s age – 45. Although they haven't decided what to say, they will go ahead with the filming certain that something will occur to them. This spontaneity may make their little dispatch to the future seem less portentous. Rick lugs the Christmas tree over towards the sofa where they will sit for the message and turns on the lights. He regards his wife through the camera. She has let down her hair.
‘How splendid you look!’
She asks, ‘Should I take my slippers off?’
‘Anna, your fluffies won’t be immortalised. I’ll frame it down to our waists.’
She gets up and looks at him through the eye piece, telling him he’s as fine as he’ll ever be. He switches on the camera and notices there is only about fifteen minutes of tape left. With the camera running, he hurries towards the sofa, being careful not to trip up. They will not be able to do this twice. Noticing a half-eaten sardine on the arm of the sofa, he drops it into his pocket. Rick sits down knowing this will be a sombre business, for he has been, in a sense, already dead for a while. The two of them will have fallen out on numerous occasions; Daniel might
love him bit will have disliked him, too, in the normal way. Daniel might love him but will have disliked him, too, in the normal way. Daniel could hardly have anything but a complicated idea of his past, but these words from eternity will serve as a simple reminder.
After all, it is the unloved who are the most dangerous people on earth.
The light on the top of the camera is flashing. As Anna and Rick turn their heads and look into the dark moon of the lens, neither of them speaks for what seems a long time. At last, Rick says, ‘Hello there,’ rather self-consciously, as though meeting a stranger for the first
time. On stage he is never anxious like this. Anna, also at a loss, copies him.
‘Hello, Daniel, my son,’ she says. ‘It’s your mummy.’
‘And daddy,’ Rick says.
‘Yes,’ she says. ‘Here we are!’
‘Your parents,’ he says. ‘Remember us? Do you remember this day?’ There is a silence; they wonder what to do.
Anna turns to Rick then, placing her hands on his face. She strokes his face as if painting it for the camera. She takes his hand and puts it to her fingers and cheeks. Rick leans over and takes her head between his hands and kisses her on the cheek and on the forehead and on the lips, and she caresses his hair and pulls him to her.
With their heads together, they begin to call out, ‘Hello, Dan, we hope you’re ok, we just wanted to say hello.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ chips in the other. ‘Hello!’
‘We hope you had a good forty-fifth birthday, Dan, with plenty of presents.’
‘Yes, and we hope you’re well, and your wife, or whoever it is you’re with.’
‘Yes, hello there...wife of Dan.’
‘And children of Dan,’ she adds.
‘Yes’, he says. ‘Children of Dan – however many of you there are, boys or girls or whatever – all the best! A good life to every single one of you!’
‘Yes, yes!’ she says. ‘All of that and more!’
‘More, more, more!’ Rick says.
After the kissing and stroking and cuddling and saying hello, and with a little time left, they are at a loss as to what to do, but right on cue, Dan has an idea. He clambers up from the floor and settles himself on both of them, and they kiss him and pass him between them and get him to wave at himself. When he has done this, he closes his eyes, his head falls into the crook of his mother’s arm, and he smacks his lips; and as the tape whirls towards its end, and the rain falls outside and time passes, they want him to be sure of at least this one thing, more than forty years from now, when he looks at these old-fashioned people in the past sitting on the sofa next to the Christmas tree, that on this night they loved him, and they loved each other.
‘Goodbye, Daniel,’ says Anna.
‘Goodbye,’ says Rick.
‘Goodbye, goodbye,’ they say together.
English Literature LITA3
(Specification A)
Unit 3 Reading for Meaning
Monday 25 January 2010 9.00 am to 11.30am
For this paper you must have:
! a 16-page answer book.
Time allowed
! 2 hours 30 minutes
Instructions
! Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
! Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Examining
Body for this paper is AQA. The Paper Reference is LITA3.
! Answer both questions.
! Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work that you do not want to be marked.
Information
! The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
! The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
! Material from your wider reading may not be taken into the examination room.
! You will be marked on your ability to:
. use good English
. organise information clearly
. use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
! This unit assesses your understanding of the relationships between different aspects of English Literature.
Please read this advice carefully before you turn to the material.
Reading
Here are the materials taken from the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. You will be using this material to answer the two questions on the page opposite. Read all four items (A, B, C and D) and their introductions several times in the light of the questions set. Your reading should be close and careful.
Wider Reading
Both questions test your wider reading in the prescribed area for study, Love Through the Ages. In your answers you should take every opportunity, where relevant, to refer to your wider reading.
Ensure that you write about a minimum of one wider reading text from each of the three genres of poetry, drama and prose.
Answer both questions.
1 Read the two poems (Item A and Item B) carefully, bearing in mind that they were written at different times by different writers and are open to different interpretations.
Write a comparison of these two poems.
In your answer you should consider the ways in which Shakespeare (in Item A) and MacNeice
(in Item B) use form, structure and language to present their thoughts and ideas; make relevant references to your wider reading in the poetry of love. (40 marks)
2 Read the two extracts (Item C and Item D) carefully, bearing in mind that they were written at different times by different writers and are open to different interpretations.
Write a comparison of the ways in which .forbidden love. is presented in these two extracts. In your answer you should consider the ways in which Stoppard (in Item C) and Hall (in Item D) use form, structure and language to express their thoughts and ideas; make relevant references to your wider reading. (40 marks)
THE READING
Item A
William Shakespeare wrote a sequence of 154 sonnets in the 1590s. In common with most other poems written in this form, Shakespeare.s major theme is love.
Sonnet XIX
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion.s paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger.s jaws,
And burn the long-liv.d phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet.st,
And do whate.er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets.
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O! carve not with thy hours my love.s fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty.s pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Item B
Louis MacNeice (1907.1963) was born in Belfast, and was one of a group of prominent writers who published in the 1930s. His work is celebrated for the delicacy and power of its descriptions as well as its use of everyday experiences.
Item B cannot be reproduced here due to third-party copyright constraints.
Item C
The Invention of Love (1997) by Tom Stoppard dramatises events in the life of poet and classical scholar A.E. Housman (1859.1936) by imagining his reminiscences from beyond the grave. A.E. Housman.s one great love was for the sportsman, Moses Jackson, whom he met at Oxford; his love was unrequited.
In the following extract the recently dead 77 year-old A.E. Housman (referred to as .AEH.) speaks to his younger self, now an Oxford undergraduate (referred to as .Housman.). They discuss aspects of the love that existed between men in ancient Greece.
AEH . If only an army should be made up of lovers and their loves! . that.s not me, that.s Plato, or rather Phaedrus in the Master of Balliol.s nimble translation: .although a mere handful, they would overcome the world, for each would rather die a thousand deaths than be seen by his beloved to abandon his post or throw away his arms, the veriest coward would be inspired by love.. Oh, one can sneer . the sophistry of dirty old men ogling beautiful young ones; then as now, ideals become debased. But there was such an army, a hundred and fifty pairs of lovers, the Sacred Band of Theban youths, and they were never beaten till Greek liberty died for good at the battle of Chaeronea. At the end of that day, says Plutarch, the victorious Philip of Macedon went forth to view the slain, and when he came to that place where the three hundred fought and lay dead together, he wondered, and understanding that it was the band of lovers, he shed tears and said, whoever suspects baseness in anything these men did, let him perish.
Housman I would be such a friend to someone.
AEH To dream of taking the sword in the breast, the bullet in the brain .
Housman I would.
AEH . and wake up to find the world goes wretchedly on and you will die of age and not of pain.
Housman (Well .)
AEH But lay down your life for your comrade . good lad! . lay it down like a doormat .
Housman (Oh . !)
AEH Lay it down like a card on a card-table for a kind word and a smile . lay it down like
a bottle of the best to drink when your damnfool life is all but done: any more layingdowns we can think of? . oh, above all . above all . lay down your life like a pack on the roadside though your days of march are numbered and end with the grave. Love will not be deflected from its mischief by being called comradeship or anything else.
Housman I don.t know what love is.
AEH Oh, but you do. In the Dark Ages, in Macedonia, in the last guttering light from
classical antiquity, a man copied out bits from old books for his young son, whose
name was Septimius; so we have one sentence from The Loves of Achilles. Love, said
Sophocles, is like the ice held in the hand by children. A piece of ice held fast in the
fist. I wish I could help you, but it.s not in my gift.
Housman Love it is, then, and I will make the best of it. I.m sorry that it made you unhappy, but it.s not my fault, and it can.t be made good by unhappiness in another. Will you shake hands?
AEH Gladly. (He shakes Housman.s offered hand.)
TOM STOPPARD
Item D
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (1880 .1943) was banned from its publication in 1928 until 1948. Named Stephen by her father who longed for a boy, the novel.s female protagonist grows up with a strong sense that she is .different to other girls.. Soon after the death of her father, and now a young adult, Stephen becomes attracted to Angela Crossby, a married woman. The following extract comprises the ending of Chapter Eighteen and the beginning of Chapter Nineteen.
Look,. said Stephen, and she pointed to the swan called Peter, who had come drifting past on his own white reflection. .Look,. she said, .this is Morton, all beauty and peace . it drifts like that swan does, on calm, deep water. And all this beauty and peace is for you, because now you’re a part of Morton.[1]
Angela said: .I.ve never known peace, it.s not in me . I don.t think I.d find it here, Stephen.. And as she spoke she released her hand, moving a little away from the girl.
But Stephen continued to talk on gently; her voice sounded almost like that of a dreamer: .Lovely, oh, lovely it is, our Morton. On evenings in winter these lakes are quite frozen, and the ice looks like slabs of gold in the sunset, when you and I come and stand here in the winter. And as we walk back we can smell the log fires long before we can see them, and we love that good smell because it means
home, and our home is Morton . and we’re happy, happy . we’re utterly contented and at peace, we’re filled with the peace of this place. Stephen . don.t!. We.re both filled with the old peace of Morton, because we love each other so deeply . and
because we.re perfect, a perfect thing, you and I . not two separate people but one. And our love has lit a great, comforting beacon, so that we need never be afraid of the dark any more . we can warm ourselves at our love, we can lie down together, and my arms will be round you .
1 Morton Hall is Stephen’s family’s large country house, which is set in its own parkland.
She broke off abruptly, and they stared at each other. Do you know what you.re saying?. Angela whispered. And Stephen answered: .I know that I love you, and that nothing else matters in the world. Then, perhaps because of that glamorous evening, with its spirit of queer, unearthly adventure, with its urge to strange, unendurable sweetness, Angela moved a step nearer to Stephen, then another, until their hands were touching. And all that she was, and all that she had been and would be again, perhaps even tomorrow, was fused at that moment into one mighty impulse, one imperative need, and that need was Stephen. Stephen.s need was now hers, by sheer force of its blind and uncomprehending will to appeasement. Then Stephen took Angela into her arms, and she kissed her full on the lips, as a lover.
Through the long years of life that followed after, bringing with them their dreams and disillusions, their joys and sorrows, their fulfilments and frustrations, Stephen was never to forget this summer when she fell quite simply and naturally in love, in accordance with the dictates of her nature. To her there seemed nothing strange or unholy in the love that she felt for Angela Crossby. To her it seemed an inevitable thing, as much a part of herself as her breathing; and yet it appeared transcendent of self, and she looked up and onwards towards her love . for the eyes of the young are drawn to the stars, and the spirit of youth is seldom earth-bound. She loved deeply, far more deeply than many a one who could fearlessly proclaim himself a lover. Since this is a hard and sad truth for the telling; those whom nature has sacrificed to her ends . her mysterious ends that often lie hidden . are sometimes endowed with a vast will to loving, with an endless capacity for suffering also, which must go hand in hand with their love. But at first Stephen.s eyes were drawn to the stars, and she saw only gleam upon gleam of glory.
Her physical passion for Angela Crossby had aroused a strange response in her spirit, so that side by side with every hot impulse that led her at times beyond her own understanding, there would come an impulse not of the body; a fine, selfless thing of great beauty and courage . she would gladly have given her body over to torment, have laid down her life if need be, for the sake of this woman whom she loved. And so blinded was she by those gleams of glory which the stars fling into the eyes of young lovers, that she saw perfection where none existed; saw a patient endurance that was purely fictitious, and conceived of a loyalty far beyond the limits of Angela.s nature.
RADCLYFFE HALL
General Certificate of Education
Advanced Level Examination
ENGLISH LITERATURE (SPECIFICATION A) LITA3
Unit 3 Reading for Meaning
Specimen paper for examinations in June 2010 onwards
This question paper uses the new numbering system and new AQA answer book
For this paper you must have:
Answer both questions.
Question 1
Read the two poems (Extract A and B) carefully. They were written at different times
by different writers. Basing your answer on the poems and, where appropriate, your wider reading in the poetry of love, compare the ways the two poets have used poetic form, structure and language to express their thoughts and ideas.
(40 marks)
Question 2
Write a comparison of the ways Shakespeare and Hardy present the partings of
people who love each other.
You should consider:
- the ways the writers’ choices of form, structure and language shape your
responses to these extracts
- how your wider reading in the literature of love has contributed to your
understanding and interpretation of the extracts.
(40 marks)
THE READING
Extract A
The poet, Michael Drayton (1563 – 1631), became a page to Sir Henry Goodeere of
Polesworth who ensured that he was educated. He fell in love with Sir Henry’s daughter who provided the inspiration for Idea, a sonnet sequence written in 1619. The following poem is taken from that sequence.
Idea in Sixtie Three Sonnets [61]
Since ther’s no helpe, Come let us kisse and part,
Nay, I have done: You get no more of Me,
And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I my Selfe can free:
Shake hands for ever, Cancell all our Vowes,
And when We meet at any time againe,
Be it not seene in either of our Browes,
That We one jot of former Love reteyne:
Now at the last gaspe of Love’s latest Breath,
When his Pulse fayling, Passion speechlesse lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of Death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now if thou would’st, when all have given him over,
From Death to Life thou might’st him yet recover.
MICHAEL DRAYTON
Extract B
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950) was an American lyrical poet and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She was also known for her unconventional bohemian lifestyle and for her many love affairs with both men and women. She had a significant relationship with the poet, George Dillon, for whom this and many other sonnets were written.
If I should learn, in some quite casual way
IF I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you were gone, not to return again –
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man - who happened to be you -
At noon today had happened to be killed,
I could not cry aloud – I could not cry
Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place –
I should but watch the station lights rush by
With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
Extract C
This extract is taken from the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616). Unknown to their feuding families, Juliet and Romeo have married and spent the night together, but Romeo has been banished from Verona because he killed a member of Juliet’s family. So they must part.
JULIET Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
ROMEO It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
JULIET Yon light is not daylight; I know it, I.
It is some meteor that the sun exhales
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua.
Therefore stay yet. Thou need’st not to be gone.
ROMEO Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye,
’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow;
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
I have more care to stay than will to go.
Come, death, and welcome; Juliet wills it so.
How is’t, my soul? Let’s talk; It is not day.
JULIET It is, it is! Hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us.
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes;
O now I would they had changed voices too,
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.
O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.
ROMEO More light and light; more dark and dark our woes.
Extract D
This extract is taken from The Woodlanders (1887) written by Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928). Melbury had promised his daughter Grace to Giles Winterborne, but she rejects him and marries the new doctor. A poor villager, Marty South, had always loved Giles but he did not reciprocate her feelings, although he was kind to her. When the doctor was unfaithful, Grace turned to Giles who let her sleep in his house during stormy weather. He slept outside, fell ill and died. In this extract, which is the end of the novel, Grace’s father has discovered that she has returned to her husband.
Melbury now returned to the room, and the men having declared themselves refreshed they all started on the homeward journey, which was by no means cheerless under the rays of the high moon. Having to walk the whole distance they came by a footpath rather shorter than the highway, though difficult except to those who knew the country well. This brought them by way of the church: and passing the graveyard they observed as they talked a motionless figure standing by the gate.
‘I think it was Marty South,’ said the hollow-tuner parenthetically.
‘I think ‘twas; ‘a was always a lonely maid,’ said Upjohn. And they passed on homeward, and thought of the matter no more. It was Marty, as they had supposed. That evening had been the particular one of the week upon which Grace and herself had been accustomed to privately deposit flowers on Giles’s grave, and this was the first occasion since his death eight months earlier on which Grace had failed to keep her appointment. Marty had waited in the road just outside Melbury’s, where her fellow-pilgrim had been wont to join her, till she was weary; and at last, thinking that
Grace had missed her, and gone on alone, she followed the way to the church, but saw no Grace in front of her. It got later, and Marty continued her walk till she reached the churchyard gate; but still no Grace. Yet her sense of comradeship would not allow her to go on to the grave alone, and still thinking the delay had been unavoidable she stood there with her little basket of flowers in her clasped hands, and her feet chilled by the damp ground, till more than two hours had passed. She then heard the footsteps of Melbury’s men, who presently passed on their return from the search. In the silence of the night Marty could not help hearing fragments of their conversation, from which she acquired a general idea of what had occurred, and that Mrs Fitzpiers was by that time in the arms of another man than Giles.
Immediately they had dropped down the hill she entered the churchyard, going to a
secluded corner behind the bushes where rose the unadorned stone that marked the last bed of Giles Winterborne. As this solitary and silent girl stood there in the moonlight, a straight slim figure, clothed in a plaitless gown, the contours of womanhood so undeveloped as to be scarcely perceptible in her, the marks of poverty and toil effaced by the misty hour, she touched sublimity at points, and looked almost like a being who had rejected with indifference the attribute of sex for the loftier quality of abstract humanism. She stooped down and cleared away the withered flowers that Grace and herself had laid there the previous week, and put her fresh ones in their place.
‘Now, my own, own love,’ she whispered, ‘you are mine, and only mine; for she has
forgot ’ee at last, although for her you died! But I – whenever I get up I’ll think of ’ee, and whenever I lie down I’ll think of ’ee again. Whenever I plant the young larches I’ll think that none can plant as you planted; and whenever I split a gad, and whenever I turn the cider wring, I’ll say none could do it like you. If ever I forget your name let me forget home and heaven!......But no, no, my love, I never can forget ’ee; for you was a good man, and did good
things!’
-----------------------
Metaphysical Poets
John Donne
Christopher Marlowe
Andrew Marvell
Robert Herrick
Katherine Phillips
William Shakespeare
Thomas Wyatt
Ben Jonson
Cavalier Poets
Medieval Period – 5th – 15th Century
Can be further broken down – Anglo-Saxon Period – 5th-11th Century
- Middle Ages – 11th-15th Century (1066-1485)
[pic]
1066 Battle of Hastings (Norman Conquest)
1485 Henry Tudor defeats and kills Richard III ending the War of the Roses (1455-1485)
1476 William Caxton opens the first printing press in Westminster
The Renaissance – 1485 – 1660 (dates differ, for example, ending in 1650)
Tudor Period – 1485 – 1603 (Henry VIII reigning from 1508-1547)
[pic]
Dissolution of the Monasteries – 1536-1541
The Act of Supremacy confirmed Henry VIII’s as Supreme Governor of the Church of England 1534.
The Renaissance – 1485-1660
Elizabethan Period – 1558-1603
[pic]
Anglo-Spanish War – 1585-1604
Defeat of the Spanish Armada - 1588
Renaissance Period – 1485-1660
Elizabethan Period – 1558-1603
[pic]
Renaissance Period – 1485-1660
Elizabethan Period – 1558-1603
[pic]
At the time there was a great rise in Elizabethan Theatre/ English Renaissance Theatre. The period was known at the ‘Golden Age’ and is considered to be the height of the English Renaissances
Renaissance Period – 1485-1660
Elizabethan Period – 1558-1603
[pic]
Renaissance Period – 1485-1603
Jacobean Period – 1603-1625
Stuart Period – 1603-1714
1603-1625 – Reign of King James I (James VI of Scotland) uniting England and Scotland under one ruler.
The play was inspired by The Palace of Pleasure by William Painters based on true events between 1508-13
Jacobean Period – 1603-1625
[pic]
Jacobean Period – 1603-1625
Caroline Period – 1625-1649
Metaphysical – first half of the 17th Century (dates vary but usually considered 1600-1670)
[pic]
Caroline Period – 1625-1649
Metaphysical – first half of the 17th Century (dates vary but usually considered 1600-1670)
[pic]
1641-1651 English Civil War
1649 – The beheading of Charles I
1653 – Installation of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector following the short lived Commonwealth of England
Stuart Period – 1603-1714
Restoration – 1660-1700
Neo-Classical Period – 1660-1785 (although can vary to 1798)
[pic]
1660 – Restoration of the monarchy – Charles II
1665 – Great Plague
1666 – Great Fire of London
Neo-Classical Period- 1660-1785 (although can vary to 1798)
Augustan Age – 1770-1745
[pic]
Inspired by the 12th Century story of Heloise and Pierre Abelard who fell in love and married secretly when Abelard was Heloise’s teacher.
Romantic Period – 1785-1830
[pic]
1775-1783 – American Revolution
1789-1799 – French Revolution
1807 – The Abolition of the Slave Trade
Romantic Period – 1785-1830
[pic]
18th-19th Century (1700-1900) – Industrial Revolution
Romantic Period – 1785-1830
[pic]
Romantic Period – 1785-1830
[pic]
Romantic Period - 1785 - 1830
[pic]
1803 – 1815 – Napoleonic Wars
Romantic Period – 1785-1830
Regency Period – 1812-1820
[pic]
Whilst Austen was writing when many literary movements were occurring in England, she does not really conform to any of them. There are elements of the Romantic within her work and of Realism (although she predates this particular period)
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
[pic]
1837 – Queen Victoria crowned Queen of England. She becomes the longest reigning monarch in British history, dying in 1901 after 63 years on the throne.
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
[pic]
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
Crimea War – 1853-1856 – the war fought between Great Britain and Turkey against Russia. Florence Nightingale found her fame through nursing during this war.
Key events include The Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
1851 – The year of the Great Exhibition in organised by Prince Albert, gathering together thousands of great scientists, inventors and artists from around the world.
1887 – Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
Dickens is most associated with the Realism movement which sought to give an honest portrayal of ordinary, contemporary life.
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a movement of artists and poets (1848-1870).
The movement sought to return to the styles that were practised before Raphael (1483-1520) Their art and poetry is characterised by detail, colour and complex composition.
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Realism – 1830-1900
Naturalism – 1865-1900
[pic]
1897 – Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee
1899-1902 – The Boer War – the war between British forces and the descendents of Dutch Settlers in what later became known as South Africa
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Aestheticism – 1835-1910
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
[pic]
Aestheticism is the belief in ‘art for art’s sake’. People like Wilde did not believe that art had to have a higher moral or political value.
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
[pic]
1914-1918 – World War One
1916 – Battle of the Somme
1916 – Easter Rising in Dublin
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
[pic]
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
[pic]
1929- late 1930’s – The Great Depression – a severe worldwide depression that originated with the stock market crash in the USA in 1929 resulting in reduced trade and widespread unemployment and poverty.
Victorian Period – 1830-1901
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s (High Modernism – 1920’s)
[pic]
The Bloomsbury Group (1906-1930’s) – a group of writer who lived in the Bloomsbury area of London and had a considerable influence on British culture at the time.
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
[pic]
The Lost Generation (1918-1930’s) – A term that has been used to describe many of the generation of writers who came to maturity during World War One. They are often characeterised by their sense of disillusionment
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
[pic]
1939-1945 – World War Two
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
Post-modernism – 1945- present
[pic]
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
Post-modernism – 1945- present
[pic]
[pic]
1950-1953 – Korean War
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
Post-modernism – 1945- present
Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
1953 - Elizabeth II is crowned Queen
Modernism – 1890’s – 1940’s
Post-modernism – 1945- present
[pic]
1959 – 1975 - The Vietnam War
Post-modernism – 1945- present
Post- Colonialism – 1950’s - present
[pic]
1969 – America puts the first man on the moon.
Post-modernism – 1945- present
Post-colonialism – 1950’s - present
[pic]
Post-modernism – 1945- present
Post-colonialism – 1950s - present
[pic]
Feminist Criticism (1960’s – present) seeks to separate the human experience from the male experience and counter the viewpoints of gender and society which are traditionally associated with the patriarchal society which dictates our views.
Post-modernism – 1945- present
Post- Colonialism – 1950’s - present
[pic]
Queer Theory – 1980’s – present – seeks to show that traditional gender roles and sexual identity are socially constructs rather than fact.
Post-modernism – 1945- present
Magical Realism – 1935 - present Post- Colonialism – 1950’s - present
[pic]
Magical Realism combines realism with dream-like fantasy to create situations that are imagined but have their base in reality. Authors such as Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson are known for this.
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