Doubt and Decadence study questions, Victorian Religious Experience
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Clough “Epi-Strauss-ium”
The poem’s strange title is a pun on the word “epithalamion” and the name of David Friedrich Strauss. Could you attempt to explain the meaning of the title?
The poem is built around the central image of a man standing in a church and observing the sun moving from east to west. The sunlight first pours through coloured glass windows, but later on starts to shine directly through clear glass. How does it correspond to the situation of the 19th c. educated Christians?
Clough “The Latest Decalogue”
In this poem Clough deconstructs the Ten Commandments. What is their actual application in Victorian society? What are the objects of Clough’s satire?
How long are the lines? Why is this metre particularly appropriate for the subject matter?
Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach”
1. What are the poem's stanza forms and rhythms? What forms of sound patterning does it use?
2. What seems to be the poem's subject? What are some features of its language and style? How does it differ from some of the poems we've read earlier?
3. What is the poem’s sequence of ideas? What is Arnold's view of the prospects for human happiness?
4. What are some implications of the opening metaphor of the sea by the French coast and cliffs of Dover? Why the reference to Sophocles? What metaphor does Arnold use to describe Victorian "Faith"? To what kinds of faith may he refer?
5. What images are used in the poem? Range of colour images? What range of classical references are used, and for what purposes?
6. To whom is the poem addressed? What does the speaker ask of himself and of (presumably) her? Do we need to know more?
7. What does the speaker advocate as a refuge in a chaotic world? What effect is created by introducting the "love" in stanza 3?
8. What is the speaker's assessment of the world? How do the sounds of the last stanza reinforce its meaning?
9. What effect is created by the classical metaphor "Where ignorant armies clash by night"? What is the poem's final tone?
10. Do you find the conclusion satisfactory? What remains the only hope in the world?
"Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse"llWhat is the significance of the initial landscape? llWhat is the "Grand Chartreuse"? Why do you think Arnold is attracted to the Carthusian way of life? On what grounds does he seem to respect the monastic ideal?llWhat seems to be his attitude towards the teachers of his youth? Why does he compare himself to a Greek on a northern shore, and is the comparison successful? llHow does Arnold define his own emotional and cultural situation? llAt what stage of culture does he believe his own culture, modern Europe, to be? llWhy are the "kings of modern thought" now silent? What group of people does he single out as particularly ineffective? llWhat does he seek from the Carthusians? llWhat are some important metaphors in this poem? llWhy does silence become an ideal for him? From what kinds of human emotion and action does he feel himself separated?llWhat is the poem's final conclusion/resolution? Does Arnold identify with the inhabitants of the monastery after all?llWhat seems to be his final attitude toward his age and self? ll
Ernest Dowson “The Carthusians”
1. What opposition is set up in the first stanza which is going to be employed also later in the poem?
2. Why is the Carthusians’ calling “a higher” one than Dominican or Franciscan?
3. Explain the paradox of the monks as “companionless” company.
4. In what ways is the speaker’s attitude similar to the one in Arnold’s poem on the Carthusians and in what way is it different? Which speaker would you call a more conservative one?
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