Universidad de Sevilla
Facultad de Filología
English Literature: 19th and 20th centuries
June 1998
TEXT A
April 26. Mother is putting my new secondhand clothes in order. She prays now, she says, that I may learn in
my own life and away from home and friends what the heart is and what it feels. Amen. So be it. Welcome, O
life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the
uncreated conscience of my race.
April 27. Old father, old artificier, stand me now and ever in good stead.
TEXT B
I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?
London bridge is falling down falling down falling down
Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam uti chelidon −O swallow swallow
Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih. Shantih. Shantih.
QUESTIONS
• Identify the speaker or voice in Text A and who is meant by Old father. Then explain the basic difference
between the style in this text and the style in the rest of the novel.
• How can the notion of mythical method be related to Text A?
• Explain briefly any four allusions in Text B.
• How does Text B reflect the general method of composition of the poem?
• Explain with an example from the syllabus the concept of dramatic monologue.
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