John Keats

“WHEN I HAVE FEARS”

When I have fears that I maycease to be

Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery,

Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;

When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I maynever live to trace

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,

That I shall never look upon thee more,

Never have relish in the faery power

Of unreflecting love;- then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till love and fame to nothingless do sink.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

"LONDON, 1802".

Milton! Thou should 'st be living at this hour;

England hath need of thee; she is a fen

Of stagnant waters; altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! Raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life 's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay

1. What aspects of English national life are suggested by the four examples of metonymy in the first stanza?

2. What lines elevate Milton to the exalted stature of one worthy of emulation?

3. What, judging by this sonnet, would you say is the kind of reform Wordsworth sees as possible?

4. Why does the sound of "dwelt apart " make these words better convey their meaning than would another phrase, for instance "lived alone", which would mean the same thing?

5. What sounds in line 10 aptly echo a "voice whose sound was like the sea"?

WILLIAM BLAKE

LONDON

I wander through each chartered street,

Near where the chartered Thames does flow,

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,

In every infant’s cry of fear,

In every voice, in every ban,

The mind-forged manacles I hear:

How the chimney-sweeper’s cry

Every black’ning church appalls,

And the hapless soldier’s sigh

Runs in blood down palace walls.

But most through midnight streets I hear

How the youthful harlot’s curse

Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,

And blights with plague the marriage hearse.

1. Where is the speaker in London walking?

2. What does he see?

3. What does he hear?

4. This mixing up of the senses, i.e., hearing sights or seeing sounds, etc. is common in Romantic poetry and helps to convey complicated mental states. The speaker of this poem hears many things, some are sounds and some are sights. What are they?

5. It is certainly possible for a city with its streets to be chartered, but not a river. What do rivers often symbolize? What might a chartered river symbolize?

6. What connection is there between the Chimney Sweeper's cry and the Church? See the poems about chimney­sweepers above.

7. What connection is there between an unfortunate solider and the palace where the king lives?

8. Why does Blake refer to the 'Marriage hearse'? What does this imply about weddings?

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