English Poems Pre 1914, CAD, SA NOTES

Pre 1914: Ben Jonson : On my first Sonne

• Jonson contrasts his feelings of sorrow with what he thinks he ought to feel - happiness that his son is in a better place.
• Jonson writes as if talking to his son - and as if he assumes that the boy can hear or read his words.
• Uses iambic pentameter
• arranges the lines in rhyming pairs, which we call couplets.

               :William Shakespeare: Sonnet 130

• Having acknowledged all of her imperfections or limitations, the poet swears that his beloved is, nonetheless, as special as any woman "belied" (misrepresented) by "false compare" (untrue or lying comparisons).
• it has a twelve line section (organized as three quatrains - groups of four lines - with an ABAB rhyme)
• concluding rhymed couplet

: Robert Browning: My Last Duchess

• Specifically he faults her for finding equal pleasure in four things - as if they are not at all of equal value.
• his "favour at her breast" - either a reference to their love-making or merely to the duke's approval of her appearance
• the sun setting
• a gift of fruit from an unnamed courtier
• the white mule she rode
• Dramatic monologue
• Iambic pentameter

        : Robert Browning: The Laboratory

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