Victorian Poetry Previous Years Brief

Brief -2012

a. What is ‘galingale’?

Ans: It is a sedge-like plant with aromatic roots.

b. What is the source of the poem “The Lotos Eaters”? 

Ans: The poem is based on the story in “The Odyssey” of Homer.

c. What is the name of Ulysses’s son?

Ans: The name of Ulysses’s son is Telemachus.

d. Who was the scholar Gypsy?

Ans: He is the scholar who took gipsy company and wandered with them in search of truth.

e. Why did Lucrezia’s lover hope to get money from Lucrezia?

Ans: Her lover is under gambling debts. So, he hopes to get money from Lucrezia to clear the debts.

f. Who caught Lippo at night?

Ans: Fra Lippo Lippi was caught by the watchman at night.

g. What is the law of the goblin fruit?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

h. What does Arnold lament in “Dover Beach”?

Ans: In “Dover Beach”, Arnold laments for the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.

i. Who is Thyrsis?

Ans: Thyrsis is the name of a shepherd in Theocritus. But in Arnold’s poem “Thyrsis”, he is the pastroral name standing for Arnold’s friend, Arthur Hugh Clough.

j. Who is Willie?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের 

k. What kind of joy did Hopkins feel when he prayed for the blacksmith?

Ans: When he prayed for the blacksmith, Hopkins felt the joy of Divine Power.

l. What did Felix Randal use to make?

Ans: Felix Randal used to make horseshoes.

Brief-2013

a. How did Browning divide people in “A Grammarian’s Funeral”?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

b. What type of poem is “Lockley Hall”?

Ans: Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall ” is a dramatic monologue cantering or unrequited love.

c. What kind of area did the scholar gipsy love?

Ans: The Scholar Gipsy loved solitary or isolated areas.

d. Who sang the choric song in “The Lotos Eaters”?

Ans: The choric song was sung by all the sailors who had tasted the lotos fruit and flowers.

e. What is Bab-lock hithe?

Ans: Bab-lock hithe is a ferry on the Thames, a few miles away from Oxford.

f. To what type of lily is Laura compared?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

g. How did the priest pray on behalf of Randal?

Ans: The priest prayed “Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended”.

h. What is “the eternal note of sadness”?

Ans: To Arnold, the sound made by the sea- waves is “the eternal note of sadness”.

i. Why is Margaret crying?

Ans: Margaret is crying seeing the leaves fall during Autumn.

J. How was Lucrezia?

Ans: Lucrezia was a greedy, faithless and soulless woman having serpentine beauty.

k. What is Arnold’s view about Truth?

Ans: According to Arnold, truth is not a commercial product. Nothing worldly can purchase it.

l. What is Victorian Compromise?

Ans: Victorian compromise is the compromise between religion and science, reason and faith, democracy and aristocracy and conjugal felicity and married life in the Victorian era.

Brief-2014

a. Why did the sailors decide not to return home? 

Ans: Under the influence of the lotos, the sailors decided not to return home. It seemed tiresome to them to be sailing on the restless sea, tiresome to be pulling on the oars of the ship.

b. How does the poem “Ulysses” end?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

c. Who are compared to rats in “Fra Lippo Lippi”?

Ans: In ” Fra Lippo Lippi” the monks who go out pleasure seeking and enter into the homes of prostitutes are compared to rats.

d. What does “Ithaca’ symbolize?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

e. Who is in the poem ” Dover Beach” addressed to?

Ans: Arnold’s wife is addressed in the poem ” Dover Beach”.

f. What is the theme of the poem ” An Apple Gathering”?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

g. Why is modern life called a strange disease?

Ans: Modern life is called a strange disease because of its materialism and skepticism.

h. Who was Andrea del Sarto?

Ans: Andrea del Sarto was a great painter of the Florentine School.

i. What does “The Sea of Faith” symbolize?

Ans: “The Sea of Faith” symbolizes religious belief.

j. What do you mean by ” Brute Beauty”?

Ans: ” Brute Beauty” means natural, untouched beauty.

k. What is the source of mankind’s sorrow?

Ans: The first disobedience or original sin is the source of mankind’s sorrow in Hopkin’s “Spring and Fall”.

l. What does Arnold lament in Dover Beach for?

Ans: In “Dover Beach”, Arnold laments for the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.

Brief -2015

a. What does the poem “Locksley Hall” represent?

Ans: According to Tennyson, the poem represents ‘young life, its good side, its deficiencies and its yearnings”.

b. What does Ulysses symbolize? 

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

c. How was the religious faith of the Victorians?

Ans: Victorian age was an interesting time when old religious beliefs started getting questioned due to progress made in science and technology.

d. “My pipe is lost” – what is meant by “pipe”?

Ans: Pipe here means poetic inspiration.

e. Who does Corydon stand for Arnold’s “Thyrsis”?

Ans: In “Thyrsis”, Corydon stands for Arnold himself.

f. What happened to the men who ate the lotos at the land of the “Lotos Eaters’ ‘?

Ans: The men who ate the lotos of the land “Lotos Eaters” felt drowsy and heard music.

g. What is “gipsy lore”?

Ans: The gipsy lore is the secret knowledge of the gypsies regarding how to read the thoughts of others.

h. Who was Margaret?

Ans: The name Margaret refers to any child.

i. Who carries the dead body of the Grammarian?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

J. How was the hair of Laura?

Ans: আগের সিলেবাসের।

k. “I am become a name”-who said this?

Ans: Ulysses.

l. What is the source of the poem “The Lotos Eaters”?

Ans: The poem is based on the story in “The Odyssey” of Homer.

Brief-2016

a. Who was Oenone?

Ans: Oenone was the first wife of Paris of Troy. He abandoned her for Helen of Sparta.

b. Who was Andrea’s wife?

Ans: Lucrezia was Andrea’s wife.

c. What type of poem is ‘Thyrsis”?

Ans: The poem “Thyrsis” is a pastoral elegy.

d. Which bird is called the windhover?

Ans: The bird falcon is called the windhover.

e. Who are the lotos eaters?

Ans: Lotos eaters are the inhabitants of lotos Island. They eat lotos fruits.

f. Who was called ‘the faultless painter’?

Ans: Andrea del Sarto was called ‘the faultless painter’.

g. What is Dover famous for?

Ans: Dover, a principal cross-channel port in Britain, is most famous for its white chalk cliffs and its beach.

h. What is a dramatic monologue?

Ans: A dramatic monologue is a kind of lyric poem in which a single speaker expresses his thoughts and feelings to a silent listener or listeners.

i. What kind of poem is “The Scholar Gipsy”?

Ans: It is a pastoral elegy.

j. Who is the speaker in the poem “The Last Ride Together”?

Ans: The speaker in the poem “The Last Ride Together” is a rejected lover who is exploring the end of a love affair.

k. How did Tithonus become immortal?

Ans: Tithonus became immortal by asking Aurora, the goddess of dawn, to grant him the gift of immortality.

l. Who wrote the poem “Pied Beauty”?

Ans: G.M. Hopkins wrote the poem “Pied Beauty”.

Brief-2017

a. Who is Amy?

Ans: Amy is the speaker’s cousin who rejected him to marry a boorish man of suitable financial means.

b. What gift does Tithonus urge to take back?

Ans: Tithonus urges Aurora, his lover, to take back the gift of immortality.

c. Where do Andrea and Lucrezia live?

Ans: Andrea and Lucrezia live in Florence.

d. Who is Neptune?

Ans: Neptune is the god of the sea in Roman mythology.

e. What is the source of the poem “The Scholar Gipsy”? 

Ans: “The Scholar Gipsy” is based on Joseph Glanville’s book entitled “The Vanity of Dogmatizing” (1661).

f. What is a monody?

Ans: Monody is a poem in which a single person laments another’s death.

g. What do you understand by ‘Brute Beauty’?

Ans: ” Brute Beauty” means natural, untouched beauty.

h. What is the meaning of Felix?

Ans: In Latin, Felix means happy.

i. What type of poem is “Andrea del Sarto”?

Ans: “Andrea del Sarto” is a dramatic monologue.

j. How old was Fra Lippo Lippi when he renounced the worldly pleasures?

Ans: Fra Lippo Lippi was eight years old when he renounced the worldly pleasures.

k. Who is the speaker of the poem “My Last Duchess”?

Ans: The Duke of Ferrara is the speaker of the poem “My Last Duchess”.

l. Who was Sophocles?

Ans: Sophocles was one of the most famous and celebrated writers of tragedies in ancient Greece.

Brief-2018

a. How did Aurora grant immortality to Tithonus?

Ans: Tithonus asked for immortality to Aurora, the goddess of dawn. At his request, she brought for him the gift of immortality from Zeus.

b. Who is the listener in “My Last Duchess”?

Ans: The listener is an emissary of the Duke’s prospective second wife.

c. With what the fallen leaves are compared?

Ans: The Biblical assertion in Isiah suggests that leaves like the things of man”.

d. What is Victorian compromise?

Ans: Victorian compromise is the compromise between religion and science, reason and faith, democracy and aristocracy and conjugal felicity and married life in the Victorian era.

e. What are Tennyson’s opinions about knowledge and wisdom?

Ans: Tennyson’s opinion about knowledge and wisdom is that a person can acquire knowledge more rapidly than wisdom.

f. How is Andrea inferior to other painters?

Ans: Andrea is inferior to other painters because they have divine visions while Andrea himself lacks such visions

g. What is meant by ‘shepherd’s holiday”?

Ans: Shepherd’s holiday means Matthew Arnold’s unproductive period from 1857 to 1866.

h. What does’ Spring ‘suggest in the title?

Ans: Spring suggests both the season of growth and the Garden of Eden.

i. Who sang the choric song in “The Lotos Eaters”?

Ans: The choric song was sung by all the sailors who had tasted the lotos fruit and flowers.

j. What is a dramatic monologue?

Ans: A dramatic monologue is a kind of lyric poem in which a single speaker expresses his thoughts and feelings to a silent listener or listeners.

k. What is the eternal note of sadness”?

Ans: To Arnold, the sound made by the sea- waves is ‘the eternal note of sadness’.

l. Who was Felix Randal?

Ans: Felix Randal was a farrier.

Brief-2019

a. “Comrades leave me here a little” Why does the speaker asks his friends to leave him there a little?

Ans: The speaker asks his friends to leave him there a little because he wants to take rest there.

b. Who was called the faultless painter?

Ans: Andrea del Sarto was called ‘the faultless painter’.

c. Why is Clough compared to the cuckoo?

Ans: Clough is compared to cuckoo because as the cuckoo leaves England when the storm begins to blow, Clough also left the world when the religious storm was raging in fury at Oxford.

d. What is expressed through the words “Brute Beauty”?

Ans: Here, “Brute Beauty” means natural, untouched beauty.

e. Who was Oenone?

Ans: Oenone was the first wife of Paris of Troy. He abandoned her for Helen of Sparta.

f. Who are compared to rats in “Fra Lippo Lippi”?

Ans: In ” Fra Lippo Lippi” the monks who go out pleasure seeking and enter into the homes of prostitutes are compared to rats.

g. “And we are here as on a darkling plain”-What is referred to here?

Ans: Human existence is compared to a dark battlefield where friends and enemies fight each other in total confusion.

h. Why is the poet’s heart scared in the poem “The Windhover”?

Ans: The poet’s heart is scared because of the mastery of the bird’s performance.

i. How was the river flowing in the land of Lotos’ Eaters?

Ans: In the land of lotos Eaters the river was flowing outward to the sea from the interior of the island.

j. What is Westminister Abbey?

Ans: Westminister Abbey is a Gothic monastery church in London.

k. What was the cause of the spiritual crisis in the poem “The Scholar Gipsy”?

Ans: The death of the spiritual values of the society was the cause of the spiritual crisis in the poem “The Scholar Gipsy”.

l. Who wrote the poem ‘Pied Beauty’?

Ans: Gerard Manley Hopkins (G.M. Hopkins) wrote the poem ‘Pied Beauty”.

Brief – 2020

a. What is Locksley Hall?

Ans: Locksley Hall is an imaginary place or mansion. The scenery and the scenes around suggest Lincolnshire Coast.

b. Who is the speaker in the poem “The Last Ride Together”?

Ans: The speaker in the poem “The Last Ride Together” is a rejected lover who is exploring the end of a love affair.

c. What is “gipsy lore”?

Ans: The gipsy lore is the secret knowledge of the gypsies regarding how to read the thoughts of others.

d. Why is Margaret crying?

Ans: Margaret is crying seeing the leaves fall during Autumn.

e. What type of poem is “Oenone”?

Ans: The poem “Oenone” is a dramatic monologue.

f. How does the Duke treat his wife?

Ans: The Duke treats his wife as his personal property.

g. What is Dover?

Ans: Dover is a port on the English Channel where the sea is at its narrowest form.

h. What did Felix Randal used to make?

Ans: Felix Randal used to make horseshoes.

i. Who, according to Tithonus, is a happy man?

Ans: According to Tithonus, a man is happy if he has the power to die.

j. What does the phrase “Andrea del Sarto” mean?

Ans: The phrase “Andrea del Sarto” means the son of a tailor.

k. “I know the Fyfield tree” what is the Fyfield tree?

Ans: The Fyfield tree refers to the elm tree in the village of Fyfield where girls came to welcome the advent of spring by dancing and singing near the elm tree on the first of May.

I. Why was Lippo arrested by a group of watchmen?

Ans: Lippo was arrested by a group of watchmen as he was wandering at mid of night in a lane of ill-repute frequented by prostitutes.