Prompt: The following poem makes use of the story of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who developed an immunity to poison. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Housman employs literary devices in adapting the story to address concerns of the late Victorian period.
First Essay Draft; Score: 6 (B -):
In "Terence, This is Stupid," A.E. Houseman argues that Victorian upper class society is built off the backs of the poor through the pervasive metaphor of ale as an intoxicated society, the juxtaposition of images of corruption and beauty with rhyming couplets, and the ironic imagery of the poisoned meal Mithridates gleefully consumes. This ultimately asserts the paradox of Victorian society as one of extreme corrupt poverty and gluttonous privilege, highlighting the fatal nature of the wealth gap during the late Victorian period.
A.E. Houseman continuously compares society to "ale"(24) in order to show this intoxicated nature.The speaker declares that "ale's the stuff to drink" (24) and that looking "into the pewter pot/ to see the world as the world's not" (25-26) is more "pleasant" (27) than actual society is. The speaker's lewd consumption of ale is an act of a lower class man, but ironically makes him fell like a "sterling lad" (24) until he "Wake[s] again" (36). This displays Houseman's view that the act of a poor man ultimately makes another man feel powerful. Victorian Society's wealth gap allows the rich to feel like good "sterling lads" while the impoverished must "wake again" and continue getting exploited for their work. Society is thus an intoxicated "lie" (38) that the poor must endure for the rich to reap the benefits.
Houseman furthers society's paradox of wealth and poverty with his usage of rhyming couplets that juxtapose images of pure jubilence and corruption. The speaker introduces the drink of ale as "moping melancholy mad" (13)-- images of depressing, insane corruption-- but couples it immediately with the following line "come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad" (14). This joyful image of dancing and freedom is anything but sad and corrupt. Houseman is ultimately asserting that in order for part of society to "dance (14), the other part of society must "mope" in "melancholy".
As Mithridates is brought a poisoned, luxurious meal in the final verse of the poem, the ironic imagery of the meal fulfills Houseman's comment on the fatal nature of the wealth gap. Eating and sharing meals is an act of intimacy and communion so it should be vile that the king's subjects have given him "poisoned meat and poisoned drink" (1.63). However, it is understandable because of their position in society and suffering while the king eats from golden chalices. The images of the "arsenic in his meat" (1.69) shows something lux and extremely privileged corrupted with t he image of poison, again showing that for wealthy society to have such nice things, the poor must be poisoned at the expense of the rich. However, as the kings subjects "shook... and stared" (73)-- their fear emphasized with the alliteration of the hissing s-- the king still survived-- "dying old" (76). With King Mithridates's survival of his people's poison, Houseman is making his final statement-- the rich will always win out no matter how poisoned the rest of the impoverished society is. At the end of the day, it is the poor subjects that "their poison hurt" (74). The ironic nature of the king's subject's poisoning confirms that when the lower class is working so tirelessly for the upper class, they are actually further rooting their low status in society, leading to their own destruction.
Houseman's metaphor of ale to display society's intoxication with class struggles, rhyming couplets that emphasize the wealth gap, and final scenes of imagery of King Mithridates consuming a poisoned meal clearly shows that the comfort of the upper class is brought at the expense of the poor. Houseman asserts that society is an inevitable paradox of glamorous wealth and corrupt impoverishment. The rich will always win and the poor's hard work will only transform into self-destruction.
1. Structuralism:
Structuralism relates small parts into a whole, and is a theory of humankind in which all elements of human culture-- especially literature-- are thought to be parts of a system of signs made up of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Signs and symbols are representations of meanings, feelings, and intentions. The signifier is the denotation of the word (or actual dictionary meaning) and the signified is the connotation (or evoked meaning of the word). Likewise, with images the Iconic is the actual image, the indexical is the associated image, and the symbolic is the actual word. For example, a cat would be denoted as a feline creature but it could symbolize laziness. An indexical image could be a furball, an iconic image would be the actual cat and the symbolic would be C-A-T. In manners of form, phonology, morphology and syntax are extremely important. Phonology is the importance of sound and deals with phonemes or distinct units of sound in the English Language while morphology deals with the smallest parts of words in morphemes like roots, prefixes, suffixes and infixes (can I get a "fan-bloody-tastic"?). Syntax, as we know, is the arrangement of words and sentences. For example, for emphasis an author may use inversion as a form of syntax. As a part of Content, Semantics (what is said) and Pragmatics (what's meant) are extremely important as well. All of these items make small items make a bigger whole meaning.
2. Binary Opposites found in "Terence this is Stupid Stuff":
- sad and happy
- drunk and sober
- stupid and smart
- world and world's not
- present and past
- lovely and muck
- world and old world
- good and ill
- sun and moon
- luck and trouble
- chance and sure
- heart and head
- dark and day
- he and her
- little and more
- tell and heard
- amiss and clear
- friendship and solitude
In "Terence, this is stupid stuff", A.E. Houseman alludes to the myth of Mithridates to parallel Terence's argument for sad poetry that serves to build a similar numbness or immunity, as Mithridates developed to poison, in order to "train" for the inherent evil and sadness in the world. The frequent use of binary opposition including oxymoron and the reversal of man's idea of optimisim, placing "ill" before "good", reinforces Terence's argument for sad poetry.
4. Sound Device Words:
- "the cow, the old cow" (7)
- "moping melancholy" (13)
- "livelier liquor" (20)
- "smack is sour" (53)
- "embittered hour" (54)
- "arsenic" (69)
- "aghast" (70)
- "drink it up" (71)
- "shook.. stared" (73)
In "Terence this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman asserts that immunity to life's hardships through experience by gradually shifting the diction from smooth, euphonious sounds to harsher cacophonous sounds. This parallels Terence's growing immunity to tragedy as he continues to use sad poetry as an outlet to expose himself to all facets of strife.
6. Complete Thought:
"Oh many a peer of England brews/ Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man" (19-21).
This contributes the meaning of the work as a whole by saying that the alternative to intellectual thought or poetry is the alternative of intoxication and drunkenness offered by beer. This contributes to the overarching binary opposites of "smart and stupid".
7. Word ("Muse") and Meaning:
Definition: source of inspiration, 9 goddesses who preside over arts and sciences, deep thought, a poet (Merriam-Webster)
Root: Latin Musa and Greek Mousa--> mental power
The root of the word, Mousa, reinforces the smart vs. stupid binary opposition. The alternative to mental power is stupidity in beer. Terence is sarcastically stating that his friends believe that beer or "livelier liquor" (20) is more important than the mental facilities of "Muse" (20) or poetry. Again, this contributes to the theme that sad poetry is wise because it will expose you to the strife of life while beer is temporary pleasure and stupidity.
8.
Rhyme Scheme: Rhyming Couplets
Rhythm/meter: Iambic Tetrameter
Thesis Statements Concerning Rhyme Scheme and Meter:
In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” A.E. Houseman utilizes a traditional yet powerful iambic tetrameter to reflect the simple-minded hedonism of the pub with a form that defies the serious content of what is being said. This contradiction between humorous rhyme scheme and structure and the content of what he's saying ultimately asserts the paradoxical nature of Terence's retort as a simple beer story and the forewarning that the immediate pleasure of beer is short-sighted while the slow revelations of pain through sad poetry are intellectual and rewarding over time.
9.
Anaphora:
Defintion: Repetition of beginning clauses.
Effect: Gives prominence to ideas, adds rhythm, and for persuasion.
Parallelism:
Definition: When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length.
Effect: Allows speakers and writers to maintain a consistency within their work and create a balanced flow of ideas as well as persuasion.
Anastrophe:
Definition: Inverted word order from what one expects.
Effect: To emphasize a word or draw attention to its inverted phrasing.
Alliteration:
Definition: Repetition of a sound in multiple words
Effect: Creates a musical effect in the text that enhances the pleasure of reading a literary piece
Antithesis:
Definition: Contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence.
Effect: To emphasize the idea of contrast by parallel structures of the contrasted phrases or clauses.
10. Thesis Concerning these Literary Devices:
In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” A.E. Houseman utilizes literary devices such as anaphora and anastrophe to create a light-hearted, fast-paced and humorous tone that is read like a beer pub chant, contradicting the serious content of what Terence is saying. This contradiction between humorous rhyme scheme and structure and the content of what he's saying ultimately asserts the paradoxical nature of Terence's retort as a simple beer story and the forewarning that the immediate pleasure of beer is short-sighted while the slow revelations of pain through sad poetry are intellectual and rewarding over time.
11. Semantic and Pragmatic Meanings:
"The cow, the old cow, she is dead" (7).
The Semantic meaning is that the cow is literally dead. However, the dead cow is a metaphor and a mocking joke at the same time. The Pragmatic meaning for the dead cow is that the friends see sad poetry as pointless as a random cow dying. They are using this line to mock Terence's affinity for sad poetry and to state its pointlessness. This ultimately shows that a cow is only a cow for those who cannot see it for its complexity. However, for the less simple-minded (Terence), the pain of the dead cow will carry on in the future and make him more immune to the future pains of life.
12. The Argument of Terence's Friends:
The argument structured by Terence's friends is deductive. The friends identify sad poetry as "stupid stuff" when Terence"eat[s] [his] victuals fast enough...to see...[Terence] drink [his] beer"(2-4). Terence's friends associate the acts of eating and drinking with happiness and because Terence partakes in these activities, his friends conclude that he must be happy enough ( "you eat your victuals fast enough" (2).).
On the other hand, Terence's arguments are built primarily on pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos is evident because Terence's argument is structured around the views of his audience in a way he knows that they can understand, in this case his friends. Terence empathizes with his friends when he sympathetically concedes that beer can bring temporary bliss, but ultimately rejects this view point by rebutting that beer lacks longevity dealing with pain and melancholy. This concession and rebuttle allow Terence to construct his logos-based argument when he advises his friends to "train for ill and not for good" (48) with sad poetry instead of drinking beer to ultimately become immune to the strife of life. The audience, or Terence's friends, should find this argument credible since Terence exhibits Ethos. Terence is obviously well-educated; he is familiar with sad poetry and cites allusions like Mithridates displaying his vast knowledge of the world and history.
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