The first reading may be utilized to get a general idea of the poem, and to mark the thought divisions. Other readings will make the student familiar with the details of description, the allusions, the difficult words and constructions, the varieties of meter and rhyme. A comparison, point by point, between the two poems will be helpful. Such a one might be written in the notebooks after the plan suggested by Mr. Chubb in The Teaching of English, p. 298.
| Lines | L'Allegro | Lines | Il Penseroso |
| 1-10 | Dismissal--of Melancholy | 1-10 | of deluding joys |
| 1-46 | Invitation to Mirth | 11-54 | to Melancholy |
| 47-150 | Progress of day of social delights | 55-174 | of night of solitary joys |
| 42 | (a) Lark's Reveille | 56 | (a) Evening |
| 44 | (b) "Dappled Dawn," cock, hounds, etc. | 67 | (b) Nightingales even-song |
| 60 | (c) Sunrise | 74 | (c) Moonrise |
| (d) Sounds of labor | (d) Curfew |
III. Study of the Poem as a Whole
A comprehensive study will naturally follow the detailed study and may, to a certain extent, be a summary of the work already done.
Content.—Contrast the two speakers in respect to their choice of companions; descriptions of morning and evening; their attitude toward country life; their recreations and employments in the daytime and in the evening; and their tastes in music, worship, and the theater.
Must we suppose that these poems express conflicting views of different men, or may they represent views of the same man in different moods?
State in a single sentence the main idea of each poem.
Form.—Indicate the meter of the normal line, or rather of the two types of lines most frequently used. What is the difference in effect between these two types?
What are the principal variations in the position of accented syllables? in the number of syllables? in the kind of rhyme?
Do you like these poems because of their beauty of sentiment? beauty of figurative expression? beauty of description? some other form of beauty? or because of all of these? Quote what seems to you most beautiful.