world literature questions
Class Preparation Assignment
June 12th
Summer 2017
Readings:
The Tempest Acts 2-4
“Poison Tree”: W. Blake
“Sonnet 130”: W. Shakespeare
Questions over longer reading:
Caliban experiences his own “brave new world” when Stephano gives him liquor. What does his decision to worship Stephano say about Caliban’s character?
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Gonzalo’s “commonwealth” on 63 sounds like what biblical garden? What does this imply about the potential success of his utopian commonwealth?
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Why are Cupid and Venus absent from the masque Prospero creates for Ferdinand and Miranda?
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Part 2) Poems) only identify the formal clues in the poems:
a. Enjambment
b. Ambiguity
c. Blank verse / meter
d. Rhyme (or lack thereof)
e. Repetition
A Poison Tree
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
— William Blake
Sonnet 130
My mistress’s 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.
— William Shakespeare
