Tuesday, November 28: analysis of Romantic images: literary parallels

Coming up: vocabulary quiz on Wednesday, December 6 (copy below)

In class: connecting / analyzing visual and literary elements of Romanticism (class handout and images below)

Background information on Romanticism as opposed to the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.

Plato described humans as a careful balance of reason, passions and appetites, with reason as the guide.

Please copy the following in your notebooks

The Age of Reason or the Enlightenment elevated reason, but perhaps suppressed passions too much. For some, the emphasis on reason had gotten out of balance with the rest of human nature. 

Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.

“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,”

With this print, Goya is revealed as a transitional figure between the end of the Enlightenment and the emergence of Romanticism.n the image, an artist, asleep at his drawing table, is besieged by creatures associated in Spanish folk tradition with mystery and evil. The title of the print, emblazoned on the front of the desk, is often read as a proclamation of Goya’s adherence to the values of the Enlightenment—without Reason, evil and corruption prevail.

However, Goya wrote a caption for the print that complicates its message, “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders.”

 For Goya, art is the child of reason in combination with imagination.


Qualities of Romanticism

Love of Nature

Idealization of Rural Living
Faith in Common People
Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism
Spontaneity, intuition, feeling, imagination, wonder
Passionate individual religiosity
Life after death
Organic view of the World

 The Romantics were a group of writers, artists, and thinkers who rebelled against the rational thinking of the Enlightenment by championing intense emotion and feeling as the truest form of aesthetic experience. 

Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare

What qualities of Romanticism do you see in this image?

Look at the list on the graphic organizer and discuss with a neighbor for two minutes.

Qualities of Romanticism

Love of Nature
Idealization of Rural Living
Faith in Common People
Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism
Spontaneity, intuition, feeling, imagination, wonder
Passionate individual religiosity
Life after death
Organic view of the World

Using your graphic organizer, respond to each of the following as to what aspects of Romanticism are reflected in the painting. There is a copy below for anyone who is absent.
1.

Saturn Devouring His Children by Francisco Goya

2.

Wivenhoe Park by John Constable

3)

The Wanderer by Casper Friedrich

4)                      Liberty   by Eugene Delacroix

5)  Fur Traders  by Caleb Bingham

Name___________________________________

Elements of Romanticism: the eye reveals

Qualities of Romanticism

Love of Nature

Idealization of Rural Living

Faith in Common People

Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism

Spontaneity, intuition, feeling, imagination, wonder

Passionate individual religiosity

Life after death

Organic view of the World

Beside each of the following titles, write one observation concerning a character, setting, plot, tone. Next, look at the accompanying handout, and write one quality of Romanticism that you note is represented by the image.

Painting	Literary Element Observation	Romantic quality
1.    Saturn Devouring His Children- Francisco Goya
2.    Wivenhoe Park by John Constable
The Wanderer by Caspar Friedrich
Liberty   by Eugene Delacroix
Fur Traders on the Missouri John Caleb Bingham

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

Vocabulary quiz, Wednesday, December 6

    1.kin (noun)- one's family and relations.

 2.  kirk (noun)- church (most often used in Scotland)

  3.   tyrannous (adjective)- unjustly severe  (think of a tyrant)

   4.    prow (noun)- the portion of a ship's bow above water.

    5.shroud (noun)- a length of cloth in which a dead person is wrapped for burial;          a thing that envelops

         6. to aver (verb)- state or assert to be the case.

7       7. furrow (noun)- long narrow trench made in the ground by a plow or a rut or groove; note that you may have a furrow (noun) on your brow and you may furrow (verb) your brow

8        8.   agape (adjective) -     agog, wide open, especially with surprise or wonder; gobsmacked

         9.   gossamers (noun)- a fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs; used to refer to something very light, delicate. (think fairy wings)

1      10. spectre-bark (noun)    - ghost ship

         11. vespers (noun)- the sixth of the canonical hours (times one was required to pray)

 12. skiff (noun)- a flat bottomed boat.   

     

Monday, November 27, introduction to romanticism

 

Please check your grades in parent connect!

The following assignments are missing and have zeros in the grade book. FIX THIS!
        Commonly Misused Words (11/17)    Vocab Duchess (11/15) Vocab Room of One's Own (11/21)

3      Juan, Elizabeth, Jordan, Taylen                                                  Taylen,Caeline, Alex, Graham     

6      Mosisha, Abrianna, Aquan         Mosisha                                  Alexis, Mosisha, Miracle, Keyerra

9    Kiara                                            Kiara                                        Kiara, Carla

Missing lots of graphic organizers for "A Room of One's Own"!

Coming up: vocabulary quiz "Mariner" on Wednesday, December 6; class handout / copy below
In class: review of commonly misused words and semicolon usage; introduction to Romanticism: quick write in notebook
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 Learning Target: I can explain the difference between the Enlightenment and the transition to Romanticism. 

Corrections or Commonly Misused Words
Grading: each of the 35 was worth 2.5 points. No one received a perfect score; the errors ranged from 2-9, or 75-94.

Most folks had difficulty with the affect and effect. Remember that affect is a VERB and effect is a Noun. 

Review: 1. I will not try to let his words (affect, effect) me.
              2. Your experiences as a child (affect, effect) your adult behavior greatly.
               3. The horror movie did not (affect, effect) him at all.
               4. Crossing the wires produced an explosive (affect, effect).
               5. Unfortunately, the only (affect, effect) of the protest was a tightening of security.
               6. Your kindness will leave a lasting (affect, effect) on me.

Punctuate the following sentences.

1. There is a lot of financial aid available you just have to know where to look for it.
2. We will play tennis tomorrow then we will go out for dinner.
3. It is raining outside I will bring my umbrella with me.
4. They both went swimming while they were on vacation in Mexico.
5. All of the garden tools are kept in the garage they are cleaned every spring.
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On the handed-out,lined paper write copy the following philosophical sayings, and explain for each write 2-3 sentences, explaining what you think they mean. 
Begin with a correct MLA heading.

Age of Reason
1. Descartes: “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I exist)
Age of Romanticism
2. Rousseau: “Exister, pour nous, c’est sentir” (For us, to exist is to feel.)
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Turn your lined paper over, and take a look at this painting by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya.
Write three sentences about what you see and what is the meaning or symbolism behind the image?

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So whose philosophical camp does this painting belong in?

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

Vocabulary quiz, Wednesday, December 6

    1.kin (noun)- one's family and relations.

 2.  kirk (noun)- church (most often used in Scotland)

  3.   tyrannous (adjective)- unjustly severe  (think of a tyrant)

   4.    prow (noun)- the portion of a ship's bow above water.

    5.shroud (noun)- a length of cloth in which a dead person is wrapped for burial;          a thing that envelops

         6. to aver (verb)- state or assert to be the case.

7       7. furrow (noun)- long narrow trench made in the ground by a plow or a rut or groove; note that you may have a furrow (noun) on your brow and you may furrow (verb) your brow

8        8.   agape (adjective) -     agog, wide open, especially with surprise or wonder; gobsmacked

         9.   gossamers (noun)- a fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs; used to refer to something very light, delicate. (think fairy wings)

1      10. spectre-bark (noun)    - ghost ship

         11. vespers (noun)- the sixth of the canonical hours (times one was required to pray)

 12. skiff (noun)- a flat bottomed boat.   

     

Tuesday, November 21

Vocabulary review / quiz / turn in your completed graphic organizers for "A Room of One's Own" and have a treat.   ALL HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Friday, November 17 / Monday November 20 "A Room" graphic organizer

Coming up: vocabulary quiz on Wednesday, November 29 (class handout / copy below).....6th and 9th period have voted to have this quiz on Tuesday, November 21!
In class: Working on the graphic organizer for "A Room of One's Own"....this is due on Monday, November 20 at the end of class.

Take out your notebooks.  Write an MLA heading. Select one of the following quotes said by Virginia Woolf and write 3-4 sentences explaining their meaning. 

When you have finished, hand in your notebook and continue working on the graphic organizer.

1. The eyes of others are our prisons; their thoughts our cages. Virginia Woolf

2. If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. Virginia Woolf
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A Room of One’s Own  by Virginia Woolf   vocabulary    quiz on Wednesday, November 29

1.     heiress (noun)- a woman who inherits or will inherit considerable wealth

2.     escapade (noun)- a reckless adventure or wild prank

3.     patriarchy – (noun)a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

4.     agog (adjective)- highly excited by eagerness, curiosity, anticipation

5.     betrothed- (adjective)- engaged to be married

6.     to duck (verb)- plunged or dipped in water

7.     to dash (verb)- to strike or smash violently, especially to break into pieces

8.     Anon (noun)- anonymous

9.     rhetoric (noun) –techniques that writers and speakers use to create meaning, enhance a text or to persuade others to agree with a particular point of view

10.                      to guffaw (verb)- to laugh crudely

11.                      to thwart (verb)- prevent from accomplishing a purpose

12.                     morbid (adjective)- unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive in the extreme

Thursday, November 16 commonly misused words

In class today. As I am on a field trip, this is an opportunity to practice some words that are routinely confused. They are all familiar to you, but can use some fine tuning. DUE AT THE CLOSE OF CLASS, UNLESS YOU RECEIVE EXTENDED TIME.

remember: affect is a verb, but effect is a noun
                  to (preposition), too (adverb), two (noun-number!)
                  were (verb), we’re (contraction we are) where (adverb indicating location)
                 then (adverb indicating time); than (conjunction for comparisons)
                 there (pronoun indicating place) their (possessive pronoun), they’re (contraction for there are)
                 its (possessive pronoun), it's (contraction it is)

Name: _____________________________________   THIS WILL COUNT AS A HOMEWORK GRADE. DUE AT THE CLOSE OF CLASS; OTHERWISE, AT THE START OF CLASS ON THURSDAY FOR THOSE RECEIVING EXTENDED TIME.

Commonly misused words. Read each of the following sentences; then write the word that correctly fits.

1._____________________ Carl appears to be smarter (then, than) his brother.

2.____________________ Randolph (accepted, excepted) my invitation to dinner.

3. ____________________She usually bought (to, too, two) loaves of bread at a time.

4. ___________________The books (were, we’re, where) all lying face down on your desk earlier this morning.

5. _________________(It’s, Its) been three days since I have heard from Joe.

6. _________________I will try not to let his words (affect, effect) me.

7. ________________ If (were, we’re, where) not supposed to watch TV, then what are we supposed to do?

8. ________________ It is understood (then, than) that there will be no test on Friday.

9. ________________ You take (to, too, two) many chances when you dive from that cliff.

10. ________________Even though we complained to the manager, (there, their, they’re) has been no change.

11. ________________ With (it’s its) flat tire, the car could not move at all.

12. _________________We asked the movers to place the boxes (there, their, they’re).

13. _________________The horror movie did not (affect, effect) him at all.

14. _________________I wonder whether (there, their, they’re) going to the mall.

15. _________________Yes, I suppose that I would like to see that movie (to, too, two).

16. _________________Everyone (accept, except) Dr. Smithers agreed to take part in the procedure.

17. _________________Your experiences as a child (affect, effect) your adult behavior greatly.

18. _________________When (it’s its) late, many people go home.

19. _________________She is going (to, too, two) begin her swimming course in one week.

20. _________________Crossing the wires produced an explosive (affect, effect).

21. ____________________Later, they walked back to (there, their, they’re) hotel.

22._________________The three friends went (to, too, two) a lake in New Hampshire for their annual fishing trip.

23._________________Unfortunately, the only (affect, effect) of the protest was a tightening of security.

24. ________________George runs (to, too, two) much; consequently, he is always exhausted.

25. ________________She will leave on Saturday, and I will leave (then, than) too.

26. ________________Unfortunately, I don’t know (were, we’re, where) I am going.

27. ________________The chefs left (there, their, they’re) aprons hanging on the stove knobs.

28. ________________Marlene has always gotten higher grades (then, than) her brother George.

29. ________________The dog caught (it,it's) tail in the door.

30.________________Your kindness will leave a lasting (affect, effect) on me.

Part 2: rewrite the following sentences, punctuating correctly, as needed.

Part 2: rewrite the following sentences, punctuating correctly, as needed.

31. There is a lot of financial aid available you just have to know where to look for it.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

32. We will play tennis tomorrow then we will go out for dinner.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

33. It is raining outside I will bring my umbrella with me.

_________________________________________________________________________________

34. They both went swimming while they were on vacation in Mexico.

_________________________________________________________________________________

35. All of the garden tools are kept in the garage they are cleaned every spring.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, November 14 "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf

Learning Targets: 

-I can identify and define any unfamiliar words by drawing on a range of strategies.

-I can read and annotate texts for comprehension. 
-I can identify and explain appropriate textual evidence.

Coming up: vocabulary quiz tomorrow (handed out November 1; another copy below)

In class: Note: you will find the correct responses to the "My Last Duchess" graphic organizer at the end of this blog. Yours need not be exact, but should be similar in demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of the poem. Today we are reading excerpt from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" 
               Tomorrow there will be a graphic organizer on this material.

Essential Question: How are gender roles reflected in the imagined life of Judith Shakespeare?

Please take out your notebooks and respond in approximately two well-written sentences: Why have there been fewer significant literary works written by women?


Who was Virginia Woolf?

Handout for “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf

As we read through the essay, please circle any unfamiliar words.

“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf

     Be that as it may, I could not help thinking, as I looked at the works of Shakespeare on the shelf, that the bishop was right at least in this; it would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare. Let me imagine, since facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say. Shakespeare himself went, very probably—his mother was an heiress—to the grammar school, where he may have learnt Latin—Ovid, Virgil and Horace—and the elements of grammar and logic. He was, it is well known, a wild boy who poached rabbits, perhaps shot a deer, and had, rather sooner than he should have done, to marry a woman in the neighbourhood, who bore him a child rather quicker than was right. That escapade sent him to seek his fortune in London. He had, it seemed, a taste for the theatre; he began by holding horses at the stage door. Very soon he got work in the theatre, became a successful actor, and lived at the hub of the universe, meeting everybody, knowing everybody, practising his art on the boards, exercising his wits in the streets, and even getting access to the palace of the queen. Meanwhile his extraordinarily gifted sister, let us suppose, remained at home. She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone of reading Horace and Virgil. She picked up a book now and then, one of her brother’s perhaps, and read a few pages. But then her parents came in and told her to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon about with books and papers. They would have spoken sharply but kindly, for they were substantial people who knew the conditions of life for a woman and loved their daughter—indeed, more likely than not she was the apple of her father’s eye. Perhaps she scribbled some pages up in an apple loft on the sly but was careful to hide them or set fire to them. Soon, however, before she was out of her teens, she was to be betrothed to the son of a neighbouring woolstapler. She cried out that marriage was hateful to her, and for that she was severely beaten by her father. Then he ceased to scold her. He begged her instead not to hurt him, not to shame him in this matter of her marriage. He would give her a chain of beads or a fine petticoat, he said; and there were tears in his eyes. How could she disobey him? How could she break his heart? The force of her own gift alone drove her to it. She made up a small parcel of her belongings, let herself down by a rope one summer’s night and took the road to London. She was not seventeen. The birds that sang in the hedge were not more musical than she was. She had the quickest fancy, a gift like her brother’s, for the tune of words. Like him, she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door; she wanted to act, she said. Men laughed in her face. The manager—a fat, loose-lipped man—guffawed. He bellowed something about poodles dancing and women acting—no woman, he said, could possibly be an actress. He hinted—you can imagine what. She could get no training in her craft. Could she even seek her dinner in a tavern or roam the streets at midnight? Yet her genius was for fiction and lusted to feed abundantly upon the lives of men and women and the study of their ways. At last—for she was very young, oddly like Shakespeare the poet in her face, with the same grey eyes and rounded brows—at last Nick Greene the actor-manager took pity on her; she found herself with child by that gentleman and so—who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?—killed herself one winter’s night and lies buried at some cross-roads where the omnibuses now stop outside the Elephant and Castle. This may be true or it may be false—who can say?—but what is true in it, so it seemed to me, reviewing the story of Shakespeare’s sister as I had made it, is that any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at. For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty. No girl could have walked to London and stood at a stage door and forced her way into the presence of actor-managers without doing herself a violence and suffering an anguish which may have been irrational—for chastity may be a fetish invented by certain societies for unknown reasons—but were none the less inevitable. Chastity had then, it has even now, a religious importance in a woman’s life, and has so wrapped itself round with nerves and instincts that to cut it free and bring it to the light of day demands courage of the rarest. To have lived a free life in London in the sixteenth century would have meant for a woman who was poet and playwright a nervous stress and dilemma which might well have killed her. Had she survived, whatever she had written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and morbid imagination. And undoubtedly, I thought, looking at the shelf where there are no plays by women, her work would have gone unsigned. That refuge she would have sought certainly. It was the relic of the sense of chastity that dictated anonymity to women even so late as the nineteenth century. Currer Bell, George Eliot, George Sand, all the victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man. Thus they did homage to the convention, which if not implanted by the other sex was liberally encouraged by them (the chief glory of a woman is not to be talked of, said Pericles, himself a much-talked-of man) that publicity in women is detestable. Anonymity runs in their blood.

Vocabulary for quiz on Wednesday, November 15

1.    countenance (noun)- a person’s face or facial expression

2.    mantle (noun)- a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl, worn especially by women.

3.    bough (noun)- a main branch of a tree.

4.    trifling (noun or adjective)- unimportant or trivial.

5.    officious (adjective)- assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or trivial matters.

6.    munificence (noun)- the quality or action of being lavishly generous; great generosity.

7.    dowry (noun)- the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage

8.    to avow (verb)- to declare or state (something) in an open and public way

9.    dramatic monologue- (noun) -a literary work (as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person

10.         earnest-(adjective)- a serious and intent mental state

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responses to "My Last Duchess"

My Last Duchess  by Robert Browning

 Duchess (n.) – the wife or widow of a duke (the male ruler of a duchy; the sovereign of a small

state)

 Frà (n.) – a title given to an Italian monk or friar (a Catholic man who has withdrawn from the

world for religious reasons)

THAT’S my last Duchess painted on the wall,       Looking as if she were alive. I call              That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands.         Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said                    5 “Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance,    The depth and passion of its earnest glance,       But to myself they turned (since none puts by   The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)         10 And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,             How such a glance came there; so, not the first Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not          Her husband’s presence only, called that spot    Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps                       15 Frà Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps      Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint             Must never hope to reproduce the faint               Half-flush that dies along her throat:” such stuff                Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough          20 For calling up that spot of joy. She had   A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad.               Too easily impressed: she liked whate’er              She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.              Sir, ’twas all one! My favor at her breast,                      25 The dropping of the daylight in the West,             The bough of cherries some officious fool            Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule      She rode with round the terrace—all and each  Would draw from her alike the approving speech,     30          Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked   My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name          With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame         This sort of trifling? Even had you skill             35 In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will            Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this     Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,           Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let           Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set           40 Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,  —E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose         Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,     Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without              Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;   45                        Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands         As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet       The company below, then. I repeat,       The Count your master’s known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretense          50 Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;     Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed         At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go    Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,    Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,              55 Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

1.       List the specific words that are used to describe the Duchess and what this suggests about the relationship with the narrator. Some words that are used to describe the Duchess are “a piece of wonder”, which suggests she is an object “painted on the wall” and her image is more important than that of being his wife. 2.       What does the Duke mean by “that piece” (line 3) The piece is the both the painting and the Duchess.    3.       What words indicate Frà Pandolf’s career? His “hands / Worked busily a day” 4.       To whom is the Duke speaking? He is speaking to the emissary, the representative to the Count his master. 5.       Reread the first 8 lines. Who else is speaking? No one 6.       To what is the Duke referring when he says ‘that pictured countenance” in line 7? He is referring to the Duchess’s face. 7.       Explain what the stranger “read[s]” in lines 6–7, “for never read / Strangers like you that pictured countenance.” What might read mean here? The Duke is insulting the emissary, saying that he does not have the intelligence or connections to understand the Duchess’s face. 8.       What are some words that the Duke uses to describe the “glance” in line 8? Depth, passion, earnest 9.       Reread the poem independently   If you did this, you should have a deeper understanding of the poem 10.   This is a dramatic monologue. Drama means story; hence contains literary elements. a.       Who are the characters in the poem?        Duke, Duchess, emissary, Fra Pandolf, the Count b.      Write a summary of the plot?     The Duke of Ferrara’s “last Duchess” has died and he wished for another wife. He is speaking with an emissary for a Count about what the expectations are for his new Duchess, and that she should be respectful of him and never challenge his authority, but look upon him as a god to whom she owes allegiance; otherwise, she will have a similar fate to her predecessor   11.   Paraphrase the lines “Strangers like you always ask me, if they dare, how the Duchess came to look that way in the portrait.” What the Duke is telling the emissary is that people who do not know him well, if they have the courage, they might inquire about the Duchess’ beauty within the portrait. 12.   Give two reasons that the the Duke might mention Frà Pandolf twice in the first six lines of the poem? He is boasting about his wealth, power and superiority. 13.   In line 11, what do the words “if they durst” suggest about the Duke’s view of himself? The Duke is throwing down a challenge to assert his superiority. 14.   What does the Duke imply when he uses the word “only” in line 14? He is trying to insinuate that he Duchess was unfaithful. 15.   What does the phrase “that spot of joy” suggest about the Duchess? What does the Duke imply in lines 15–19 might have caused such an expression?  The spot of joy is blushing, but the Duke is implying she committed something immoral. 16.   What does the Duke imply when he remarks that, “such stuff / Was courtesy she thought, and cause enough / For calling up that spot of joy” (lines 19–21)?  Again, there is an implication of immorality 17.   Reread lines 21–22: “She had a heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad / Too easily impressed…” What is the effect of the repetition in these lines? Respond in a complete sentence. The repetition emphasizes the Duke’s feelings and that he wants to convey to the emissary that this is something he needs to note and share with the future Duchess. 18.   What does the Duke mean by “the dropping of daylight in the West” (line 26)? He is referring to the sunset. 19.   What does the Duke mean when he claims the Duchess’s “looks went everywhere”? 19. Once more he is expressing his frustration at her not making him her sole focus and perhaps there was another relationship going on. 20.   What does the Duke mean by the “gift of a nine-hundred years old name” (line 32)? And 20. From the Duke’s perspective, how does the Duchess value this gift? The Duke considers his family name to be extremely prestigious; however, the Duchess values this equally with other of life’s pleasures. 21.   What might the Duke mean when he states, “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together” in lines 45–46? 21. He has ordered someone to dispose of the Duchess. 22.   How does the repetition of the phrase “as if alive” in lines 2 and 47 impact the poem? This reinforces that she is dead. 23.   The word object: a.       What does the word object mean in line 53?                  goal b.      What other meaning does the word object have? An inanimate thing c.       What is the impact of Browning’s choice to use the word object in this line? c. This implies that his Duchess was another one of his collector’s items. 24.   What does the Duke ask the listener to “notice” as they go downstairs? 24. He asks the listener to look at Neptune taming a seahorse, which represents how he expects the new Duchess to understand.

1.    countenance (noun)- a person’s face or facial expression

2.    mantle (noun)- a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl, worn especially by women.

3.    bough (noun)- a main branch of a tree.

4.    trifling (noun or adjective)- unimportant or trivial.

5.    officious (adjective)- assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or trivial matters.

6.    munificence (noun)- the quality or action of being lavishly generous; great generosity.

7.    dowry (noun)- the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage

8.    to avow (verb)- to declare or state (something) in an open and public way

9.    dramatic monologue- (noun) -a literary work (as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person

10.         earnest-(adjective)- a serious and intent mental state