Assalamualaikum. Good morning. Are you okay? Good.
Let's start. Today, we're going to continue
analyzing the litany to explore more the implications
and the ramifications of certain tropes. I know we
started the analysis last time, but it was more a
response than analysis. Today, we're going to dive
deeper to discuss the other parts of the poem, and
then, like, to discuss the form and to see its
relationship to the meaning. Hopefully, like, we
have five minutes to make you write a paragraph
about, you know, the rigidity of the lady. It's a
paragraph more just like, we'll see how it works.
Good. Now, before we start, let's listen to a
wonderful report. Good? Let's see.
Despite the hotness outside of the class, the last
lecture was amazing and cool, which made me
prepare a new report. Maybe I will read it in
front of my colleagues. The lecture talked about
courtly love, which is prohibited in our religion
and also in our culture. But we are adults and
aware about this kind of love. All in all, the
lecture and the lecturer were so amazing. That's
made time run quickly.
thinking positively of the class in this way.
Let's have another creative report, yes?
I think you read last time? Hey, you're lucky,
huh? Good. Sir Philip Sidney was the writer of the
poem Litany. He wrote a very famous essay called
An Apology for Poetry. He complained his beloved
lady because she is cocky. From the very
beginning, he described love as a dead person and
then he said sorry. In that lecture, the teacher
was so nice especially when he walked among us and
asked questions about Litany. I don't know, maybe
this poem is strange, but it has a special taste,
the taste of honey. I liked the item when he said,
love is that it seems to be too funny. The teacher
explained to us some difficult items and then he
said anyone can give me a summary. Some students
gave the poem an attitude of irony. In short, I
liked that poem because of having special sight of
beauty. Also, I admired the whole image, metaphors
and simile.
I was very pleased like you liked the poem, and I
know like many of you have, like many of us. But
yesterday when I was expounding the poem further,
you know, like one student thought that, you know,
love cannot die. Yes, I said like love, can die,
but there is a unique love which will never die.
Do you know which love we are talking about? Our
love for our creator, Allah. Our love for our
prophet. This is eternal love, you know? Okay, we
developed now this emotion, this love, and it will
remain with us forever, even after our death.
Good. So I think you had more time at home to read
the poem, more and more. And I think we discussed
the first stanza. Today, we're going to go to the
second stanza, in which he is appealing to people.
We, neighbors, we. So he's invoking people. Why do
you think he's invoking people? Weak, neighbors
weak, yes. He's calling weak neighbors weak. It's
a repetition. And again, because you know, the
whole atmosphere is a funeral atmosphere, so this,
you know, this says that, continues to suggest the
funeral atmosphere. And why do you think he chose
the funeral atmosphere? Or what does this add to
the poem? You have more seriousness? More sadness?
Because if you remember, when he declared in the
second line that love is dead, that was a very
funny thing, you know? Very ridiculous, yes. Yeah,
okay, and this is what he did when he declared
that all love is dead. However, here, we,
neighbors, we, he wanted like You know, to
complete this atmosphere of the funeral, and I
think the atmosphere of the funeral is Jahan. It
also makes the metaphor more visual and more...
It's complicated because love is dead and you
imagine a funeral, so if it's, as if it's, you
know, it's love... And I think this adds, you
know, this adds some dignity to the whole
situation.
A funeral scene, we're talking about somebody
who's dying, and this person seems to be a high
-ranking person because the monarch, the rich
ones, you know? It's a church, the place itself
gives some feeling of awe and pity, which makes
the poem more attractive, I think. Okay, we
neighbors, we do not hear it said that love is
dead. Again, he is reminding the audience of the
crisis of his ordeal. That love is dead, and the
personification runs. Now we reach this, you know,
stanza which is very rich in its figurative
language. Is death that peacock's folly? You know?
What is like the folly of, you know, of course
here we have a metaphor. What's the metaphor?
What's the metaphor? No, I mean, the deathbed,
deathbed itself is the peacock's folly. You know,
like death, or love which is dead, is lying on the
deathbed. But what is the deathbed? It is
arrogance. It is peacock's folly. So what is
peacock's folly? It is the arrogance, the conceit.
And do you think that conceit And arrogance is a
bad value? Yeah. Because here, in a very indirect
way, he's telling us the many terrible attributes
of the lady. Like she's well-reserved, that she's
changeable, well-reserved, that she is, you know,
like disdainful, scornful. And now he's telling
us, like, she's arrogant. And his deathbed
peacocks falling. His winding sheet is what?
Shame. You know? Like the shameful behavior. It's
like what? A winding sheet. And here, the winding
sheet is what? What does he mean by winding sheet?
Like when a, you know, somebody dies, they wrap
him, you know? And this is the winding sheet. It's
like, you know, the coffin itself. It's the coffin
itself. So the winding sheet is what? Shame. Like,
she's wrapped by shame. Shame why? Shame why?
Because of her shameful behavior. Because of not
considering him. Yes, she rejected him. And his
will falls seemingly early. Like, okay, when we
are talking about somebody who died, sometimes
like if, you know, some people leave a will. It
wasn't a will. Yeah, a will, something, take this,
take that, this is a will. So what kind of will
did love leave? What kind of love? It was full of
lies. Again, this is another offensive,
veterinarian-like attribute. Veterinarian-like,
it's a very offensive one. His warning, she in his
shame, his will falls even on him. And then his
sole executor in blame. So blame here, again, we
have another personification. The blame is seen
like what? A human being who executes. Who
executes. So yes, the executor, the one who by
Terminates the life of a suspect, the life of a
criminal, or execution here has double meaning. It
could be the judge. So blame itself is a
terminator of love. When lovers or friends keep
blaming each other, what happens? This noble
relationship between them comes to an end. Yes, so
blame, is being seen as a person, you know, who's
an executor, executes, kills, you know, or give a
terrible judgment. And then, you know, the refrain
is repeating itself, and we'll talk about the
refrain, the value of the refrain later. But the
refrain, it is like more supplication. You know,
what's mean supplication? He is supplicating, he's
praying God to protect men Against the madness of
women and the madness of women, you know their
pride, their shame, their arrogance. You know their
disdain and so on. Very disturbing, isn't it? Very
disturbing and I'm sorry. Yes,
let dirge be sung. What is a dirge?
Trentons, also this is taken from church
situation, like when somebody dies, they keep
singing songs, they are called Trentons for 30
days, in memory of the dead person. So Trentons is
like a sad religious song. Because the dead is of
high ranking, position, so there should be you know
a manifestation, which or a certain manifestation
that said well, you know the infected or the
deceased one. Let theirs be sung and printers write
the red for love is dead. Lit okay, um sarang, yes
sarang his tombs ordained. Again, what figure of
speech when we say Sir Rong? No, it's a personal
occasion because Sir Rong is portrayed like what?
Like a sculptor who is carving, digging on a
stone. You see? So, Serrang his tomb ordained. I
think Serrang, you know, it's a kind of, you know,
sarcastic. It's sarcastic. Yes, Serrang his tomb
ordained. Now we are talking about, you know, the
tomb itself, the grave. But what is the grave? You
know, here, what is the grave? My mistress' marble
heart. Wow. This is very bad, yeah. So, so the grave of
the dead love will be where, what, his mistress'
marble heart. What do you think of this image, you
know, marble heart, yeah, yeah. It's irony in what
sense, because he's saying he's calling your marble
heart, but at the same time he's attributing
something really bad. Yeah. Yeah. But you think
that marble has a positive? Is he praising her? Or
is he complaining? Yes. So, what is like known
about marble? Let's see. Let's together figure out
the connotations of the word marble. Yes, please.
Hard. Rigidness. Yeah.
So, it is elusive, you know. It seems nice, but it
is like hard. Okay. Yes? It seems soft,
but inside, it's cold. It seems, yeah, it
seems like, you know, soft, but it is cold. And I 189 00:1
text. Allusion. It is different or reference to
another text or another, you know, something
outside the text, illusion. It's not
intertextuality here, but rather it is allusion
because he's like, he's not referring to a, you
know, a text, but he's referring to a myth,
something outside the text, to a Greek myth of
Cupid. Like, who's a cubit? Like in Greek
mythology, Cupid is an archer. You know what I'm
saying? An archer, a man carrying darts and
shooting. So if the dart hits and this man, Cupid
is blind, you know, is blind. So this is the Greek
mythology. And like, His daily activities are like
shooting and hitting people blindly. So this is
how the idea of love is blind comes from this
myth.
Her eyes were once his dart. So the two meanings,
the two possible meanings, what do you understand
from this line? You see? Yes?
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Like how, you know, how could eyes like
kill? Yeah, but if you go back to the poem, when
we are talking about disdain, when we are talking
about, so if like the eyes are full of disdain,
disparagement, so yes, then the eyes would be like
the murderer of love. You see what I mean? So
there are two meanings. Either You know, her eyes
were, you know, fascinating or he was attracted by
her eyes and this, you know, she's beautiful. Or,
as we say, like, you know, her eyes were full of
scorn and this, you know, put an end or, you know,
terminated the life of love. Then suddenly, you
know, now believing this, this is a funeral
atmosphere and suddenly, We have the poet come and
say, Alas, I'm sorry, you know, I lie. I lie.
Don't believe me. Don't trust me. Come on. What
are you doing, you know? Are you playing with us?
Okay.
Yeah, to retreat, to compliment. So you think it
is like, you know, he said what he wanted to say
and now he wants like to excuse himself by saying,
no, I'm sorry, like, you know, but he did. He sent
the message about the lady. Yes.
Yeah, but like here as you see it is the mind the
reason which dominates at the end, dominates the
passion of anger, the passion of revenge. So man
might get angry, but at the end of the day, the
reason should control and discipline this man.
Again here, he is reflecting a cultural value in
the Elizabethan age. Because, as we said, the
Elizabethan believed in the idea of order. Man
should be ordered. Man should not let any passion,
there should be balance in you. And reason should
control everything. So here, as you see, we have
conflict between passion and reason. And it is the
reason which dominates at the end, which controls
the whole situation and the whole behavior. So
love is not dead. It's backing up, backing up.
Love is not dead, but sleeps in her unmatched
mind. So he started now to praise. Is he placating
her? You know what it means to placate? hit a
child, the child would cry, and then you placate,
ah, don't do that, you know, this placation. Is he
placating her? You know, telling her, like, I'm
sorry, I didn't mean that, no, you know? It's a
possibility, but like, you see here, this is a
reversal of the whole, you know, the whole poem.
And it seems like he's praising, he's praising
her. Yes? that it's ironic at the end because you
can you can grasp like how really how honest his
entire poem was and then at the end he goes and
reverses everything so it might seem a bit
sarcastic. Yeah so in this in this sense Jihan you
want like to suggest this is like only a stylistic
shift, but it is not a thematic shift. The theme
is the same. He's still criticizing the woman, and
he's criticizing her by using ironic. He's
sarcastic in her unmatched mind, and he means like
she doesn't have. See what I mean? It's another
possibility. But if we look at Spencer, I think
Spencer, sorry, Sidney. Sidney was a noble man.
And I think his vision and idea of the woman was
not like, you know, the other courtly lovers. He
returned, you know, her dignity. He respected her.
And as we said, you know, because, you know, the
queen of that time was, you know, a woman. So he
should behave himself. But this is what we observe
in all his poems. Like, he is not like other
court— he writes about courtly love, but he's not
frustrated to the end. He keeps hope, you know? He
keeps hope. And, like, he thinks that women is not
that, like, that bad. Women, like, has dignity,
you know, and so on. But I don't know. You are
still cynical. You don't believe him. Are you
cynical? I mean, like, you don't trust the poet.
Yeah, look at him. And like, it's not sorry. Like
he is saying love is not dead, but asleep. in her
unmatched mind and I think you know whether this
is irony but if we are looking about this yeah it
is good you know when people use their mind you
know so she's using her unmatched mind excellent
she's brilliant where she his counsel keep you
know till due dessert till the right person comes.
And then she would go ahead. So she's not a lady
who's swayed by her passion, by her emotions. But
she's a lady who employs her mind to control her
behavior. And he's a poet also who uses his mind
to control his behavior. And perhaps we admire him
for this. Right, as you see, like, the poem is,
you know, funny, lovely, you know. It made us sad
and we laughed, you know. It made us like, you
know, or attracted us by its concrete
personifications, by metaphors, you know, and even
by music. I don't know like it seems like Amal is
having something to say about music rhyme and
rhythm okay so Amal is always like helping us look
here how she filled this with you know At first,
the poem consists of four stanzas, ten lines each.
And at the end of each stanza, there's a four-line
refrain or a choral that is some sort of musical,
you know, fancy, frenzy, thus, and us. As for the
rhyme scheme, it is complicated to some extent and
a bit tricky. Yeah, excuse me. I noticed that,
like, the rhyme, sometimes it is masculine,
sometimes it's feminine. And even I rhyme there is
these spreads that Infected and rejected so you
want the rhyme is not consistent sometimes it is
like feminine like you know Rejected like this
game, but it is game is like masculine Thus is
masculine us is masculine. So it is one syllable.
So we are dealing with you know A rhyme which is
not like very systematic, go ahead. Which goes of
course with the atmosphere of the poem and his
state of mind. The rhyme goes A, A, B, C, B, C, D,
D, and E, E. As for the rhythm, the rhythm was
also complicated. It is I am, it goes unstressed,
stressed, unstressed, stressed. But as for the
bass meter, whether to decide whether it's a
diameter or a pentameter, Because of the line
length, it was also hard to decide. So the numbers
here I have enlisted are the numbers of the
overall syllables, whether stressed or unstressed.
But when you want to decide what kind of base
meter, monomer, diameter, you have to only count
the stressed syllables. So we have here- So I
think in the first line we have ten syllables?
Yes. You know? And this is I am in. Pentameter
because it goes five it goes bring out your guns
the morning should be spread for love is dead You
know, it's very systematic iambic pentameter Okay,
and then you have the diameter You know, which is
it consists of two feet. It means to stress
syllables unstressed stressed unstressed
unstressed And then we have triameter I think. I
was going to ask them actually that I want someone
of you to come and to divide the line and to
choose with and to decide whether it's a triameter
or any kind of them who wants to come and give it
a shot. Yes. Come on. It's not hard. Yeah, all of
them are infected with plague or disease they were
stopped or rejected. I think all of them are
having Yeah, the same rhythm. Would you like to
come and do this, please? Yeah, yeah. Try it out.
It is easy. It doesn't rise.
Allah. Allah. Allah.
because they never color okay so
yeah you can just say Allah is dead and second
dead so like six syllables Allah Allah look we
don't say all Allah Allah
unstressed stressed unstressed stressed is that is
that unstressed test you know stressed and then
infected you know infected by two syllables you
know you're
right you're right
Okay.
No, like here, excuse me, you know, all done. And
then infected.
Infected, you know. Infected, unstressed,
stressed, you know. So, this is like five meters.
Six feet. Now. Yes, six feet. But the feet is only
the chest, so they're free. Okay. Okay. So it is
trimeter. So like here in the poem, we have
pentameter, we have trimeter, we have diameter. I
don't know why. Why do you think, you know, like 407 00:30:0
Write a paragraph commenting on, like, the marble
heart issue, you see? I lie, you know, what is
that? It is here. Let the, you know, surround his
tomb to ordain my merciless marble heart which
epitaph contained. Her eyes were, you know, his
dart. I need you to comment on this. You know, you
can do it in like groups of two or three, so you
have 10 minutes for this exercise. Of course, this
is an idea which shows, you know, the angle of
rigidity. Like how she's rigid, you know? Talk
about this and try to link it with the other
themes, with the overall theme of the poet, because
we are talking about courtly love or unrequited
love. And here, as you see, the poet is
complaining. Isn't he? Is he complaining? Again,
there is a possibility that he was acclaiming. So
you can talk about two possibilities, you can talk
about one possibility, but okay, go ahead, And I
want you to write like what we did in Sir Thomas
Wyatt. I need a nice paragraph, okay? Go ahead.
Just write it, huh? Write it. Okay,
I think now you're done. It's only a small
paragraph. So let's see those who succeeded in
writing a small paragraph. Yes, Ola, I think. You
come here and read what you have, okay? Read. It's
a paragraph, it's a part of the whole commentary,
but we are concentrating on the image of the
marble heart and, you know, the gold standard.
Yes, what do you want to say? Like since everybody
is deceived by the delicacy of the females
apparent claiming that passion dominates their
decisions. Could you like slow down and raise your
voice a little bit? Since everybody is deceived by
the delicacy of the females apparent claiming that
passion dominates their decisions and behaviors.
So it's the time for everyone to know that women
are rigid and hard as much as they seem delicate.
This is what the poet thinks, you know? Yeah.
Yeah. So there is elusive, you know. Apparent or
elusive like appearance. Appearance about her.
Also, how the poet complained from the killing eyes
since she cannot do anything to make them less
attractive or even less arrogant or disdainful.
Okay, good. Thank you. But it's still like you
didn't talk about the mythical myth itself. Good.
Let's see another paragraph. Yes, Jinan?
Okay, good. Because I didn't have time. Okay, Sir
Philip Sidney's litany sure does portray his
love in the most rigid fashion a lady can be.
Though he tempered his wrath with some reason
towards the end, his third stanza pictures the
grape of his love lying in his mistress' marble
heart, i.e., stone-tough heart. The poet seems
quite offended for being rejected, which is
suggested by his wrath and the courtly love theme
that is dominating his discourse. Wow, it's a
critique. Yes, please. Have we done all of this in
ten minutes? It's good, you know. You see here, as
we see, we reach this point of connecting the
specialized language with the public language.
Yes. The poet tried to gain the reader's sympathy.
Could you raise? The poet tries to gain the
reader's sympathy. He describes his beloved's
heart as marble in its hardness and crudely. He
continued that her eyes killed him and his love.
He tried to convey a bad picture about all women
to make the readers share him in his suffering. So
I think you are more general. You are very general
because we need here like when you're talking
about her eyes were like a dart, you have to talk
about like how deadly and fatal, you know, like
her eyes were to that to love itself. So you
escaped from that and you started to talk about
general things. Try to be more specific. Good.
Yes.
The last one before we leave. Next time we're
doing Spencer. I wrote her name upon this thread,
which is like a very important Elizabethan theme.
The poet is starting the stanza with a calling of
the breeze to say his terms because of the death
of his lover, who describes her as a marvel. I
think he meant the dark side in the marvel, that
she is tough and doesn't complain with others,
because when a marvel comes close to another one,
it pushes him away. That's exactly what the lover
did to the poet. The other metaphor is in the
heart. He symbolizes her to the deal that can't be
easily touched. At the end, the poem, the poet...
So I think when he portrays her... hard like a
marble stone like it's very offensive you know so
there is no chance even, you know, for any passion
to survive. Yes, good. Yes, at the end, he mentioned
her eyes as the dart who makes him fall in love
and at the same time those are the one who killed
him and rejected him. Good. Thank you very much.
Thank you for listening, and next time, we hope you
come with a new poem and a new poet, you know. But
remember, try to jot down all, I mean, the points
we discussed. You can look at the class again, and
hopefully you'll be okay. Thank you.