The Awakening
PAGE [26]
Note that the last line of the first division of the poem rhymes with the first line of the second division. Have you noticed that many times the rhyming lines close one paragraph and open the next? The effect of this device is to keep the mind of the reader in strain for what is to follow.
What is a couplet? Is the poem written in couplets? How is the cæsura handled in this poem? Compare with Pope’s method in “Essay on Man.”
3. But some globose immensity of blue
Note epithets in this line. How comprehensive!
7. So one late plunged into the lethal sleep, etc.
The sensation of the awakening is likened to the possible experience of one in death. The author is much interested in such matters.
Define “lethal.” What literary associations with this word?
12. The quiet steep-arched splendor of the day.
At what time of day did Hugh awake?
PAGE [27]
2. But when he would obey, the hollow skies etc.
Note the suddenness of the loss of consciousness as expressed in the metaphor: “the hollow skies,” etc.
5. Remote unto his horizontal gaze
6. He saw the world’s end kindle to a blaze etc.
At what time did Hugh re-awaken?
What is the effect upon the reader of the expression “world’s end” rather than “east”?
9. Dawn found the darkling reaches of his mind, etc.
A figure from archæology. Explain.
13. Men school the dream to build the past anew
What part of speech is “school”?
17. Wherein men talked as ghosts above a grave.
This is the second suggestion that Hugh was vaguely conscious of what happened before his awakening.
Define: shards, torsos, rubble, sag.
PAGE [28]
5. Sickened with torture he lay huddled there.
Note the vividness of such words as, “sickened,” “torture,” “huddled,” which appeal both to muscular sense and to sight.
7. Proportioned to the might that felt the chain.
Explain.
10. That vacancy about him like a wall, etc.
The power of that which yields and yet restrains suggests the sense of helplessness that came to Hugh. This feeling is often brought out in the later portions of the poem.
20. Grimly amused, he raised his head, etc.
What was the effect of “the empty distance” and “the twitter of a lonely bird” on Hugh? Why question whether there was something wrong?
Define: collusive, bleak.
PAGE [29]
On this and the following page we have the stages by which Hugh learns that he has been deserted. Note the steps: (1) Major Henry is prompt, (2) many hoof prints of horses, (3) the grave known for a grave by its shape, (4) ash heap and litter of a camp, (5) the trail.
8. Of course the horse had bolted
That is, run away.
17. A grave—a grave, etc.
Does Hugh really wonder if he has been dead and has arisen?
For the third time it is stated that Hugh heard the talk of his comrades while he was prostrate from the bear’s attack.
25. Suspicion, like a little smoky lamp etc.
Note simile. Is it effective?
PAGE [30]
1. That daubs the murk but cannot fathom it,
Hugh’s suspicions are vague as yet.
6. The smoky glow flared wildly,
What “smoky glow”?
10. A gloom-devouring ecstasy of flame,
11. A dazing conflagration of belief!
Suspicion passes to certainty. Explain the whole figure from the beginning.
12. Plunged deeper than the seats of hate and grief, etc.
Does nature sometimes seem to mock our moods? The older literatures seem unconscious of this psychology. Note Bryant’s “Death of the Flowers.”
Define: daub, grotesque, ecstasy, apathetic, complacence, connivance.
PAGE [31]
2. His manifest betrayal by a friend
Why does the desertion of Jamie make that of others seem nothing?
13. Yet not as they for whom tears fall like dew etc.
Hugh’s tears are not shallow; they indicate a lasting sorrow.
Those who weep easily, easily forget.
18. He lay, a gray old ruin of a man, etc.
Both physically and emotionally, a remarkable metaphor.
20. And then at length, as from the long ago, etc.
His suffering makes the time of friendship seem long ago. A song may be both sweet and sad, as may also love.
25. ... as in a foggy night
PAGE [32]
1. The witchery of semilunar light, etc.
A fine comparison of the spiritual to the material.
Define: zany, retrospective.
6. As under snow the dæmon of the Spring.
“Dæmon,” spirit.
8. Nor might treachery recall, etc.
He had been loved, nothing could change that; he could go on loving and nothing could change that either. This is the high note in devotion. “If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye?”
16. Upon the vessel of a hope so great, etc.
The lover is only the vessel of the great passion.
21. Now, as before, collusive sky and plain etc.
Sky and plain have conspired to take Hugh’s life, so it seems to him. They represent distance that yields but still is unconquered. This idea haunts the “Crawl.”
PAGE [33]
1. For, after all, what thing do men desire, etc.
Food and shelter are necessary to any life; all values rest upon them. This idea is fundamental in modern thinking.
20. Jamie was a thief!
Why Jamie more than others?
Define “gage.”
PAGE [34]
5. And through his veins regenerating fire etc.
Anger made him strong, while grief made him weak. Is that not true to nature?
7. Now once again he scanned the yellow plain, etc.
Hugh projects his subjective condition on nature. This idea occurs often in the poem. Is it a true conception?
14. Alas for those who fondly place above, etc.
A continuation of the philosophy found on page [32]. Love is the supreme thing, not the person who is loved. The way is itself the goal.
19. A bitter-sweet narcotic to the will, etc.
Note how Hugh’s hate arouses his energies. For his purposes it is stronger than love.
Define: bellowsed, regenerating, lethargy, conspirant, merging, vulnerable, narcotic.
PAGE [35]
11. Leaning to the spring, etc.
The final horror, his face, fixes Hugh’s hate to a steady, burning purpose, seeming equal to his task.
PAGE [36]
5. That waste to be surmounted as a wall,
6. Sky-rims and yet more sky-rims steep to climb—
In gazing across a vast space to the horizon, one seems to be looking uphill. This is especially noticeable on the ocean.
7. That simulacrum of enduring Time—
One traveling long distances by his own power, and having no means of measurement, conceives space not in miles, but in duration of effort.
8. The hundred empty miles ‘twixt him and where
Why “empty” miles?
11. One hairsbreadth farther from the earth and sky
He was as remote from all things as it was possible to be, so why not try!
Define “simulacrum.”