875 And Rustum and his son were left alone. Out of the mist and hum of that low land, 880 Right for the polar star, past Orgunjě, Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin 890 His luminous home of waters opens, bright And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bath'd stars Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea. SOHRAB AND RUSTUM NOTES. Line 1. And: The poem begins with a conjunction in order to give the epic tone by suggesting that this story is only an episode in an action of larger scope. 2. The Oxus stream: The Oxus is for 680 miles the boundary between Afghanistan and Russia. It rises in the Pamir mountains and flows in a general northwesterly direction into the Aral Sea. It is "an imposing stream, rarely less than a thousand yards wide. and in some places fully a mile across." 11. Peran-Wisa is a famous figure in the Persian Epic: an aged sage, prime-minister to his monarch, filling something the place that Nestor fills in the Iliad. Throughout the poem, 12. Through the black Tartar tents: Arnold works up his local color carefully. half-civilized life of the tribes in Central Asia, where even today conditions are almost as primitive as in Homeric times. Some critics find, however, that the Greek tone of the poem does not quite harmonize with the Oriental setting. 25. Carpets: Rugs; one of the Persian touches. 40. Samarcand: For the numerous places mentioned in the poem consult the Century Atlas. 82. Zal, his father old: The father of Rustum was always called Zal the Aged, because he was born with white hair. The story of his wooing of Rustum's mother is familiar from many a fairy-tale. When a youth he came one day to the foot of a high tower, in which sat a maiden whom he loved as soon as he saw her. The tower appeared inaccessible, but the maiden let down to him her beautiful long black hair, and he used it as a ladder and climbed up to her. 111, etc. One of the most striking features of the poem is the frequency of long similes, employed by Arnold with deliberate intention of copying the method of Homer. It will be noted that with few exceptions they are drawn from the life and landscape of Central Asia. At first, they were apparently of a more general nature. Arnold writes to a critical friend: "What you say concerning the similes looks very just on paper. I can only say that I took a great deal of trouble to orientalize them (The Bahrein diver". see line 284-"was originally an ordinary fisher), because I thought they looked strange, and jarred, if Western." 129. The Jaxartes: This river is more commonly known as the Syr Daria. It, too, flows into the Aral Sea. 160. But as a troop: Notice how constantly Arnold puts the second member of the simile first. This is the Homeric custom, but here it becomes almost mechanical. He says Stopford Brooke does not like the similes in this poem. that Arnold, like Homer himself, seems to fetch them from other poems and fit them in unsuitably. And again: "They weaken the passion in the poem and retard the movement." The student would do well to consider whether or no he agrees with the critic. Mr. Brocke adds an excellent account of the function which a simile should serve some may think that Arnold meets his demands more nearly than he is willing to admit : "The just simile should only be introduced when the action or the emotion is heightened, when the moment is worthy, and when, as it were in a pause, men draw in their breath to think what may happen next, for the moment has reached intensity. The simile fills that pause and allows men to breathe." 216. He has the wild stag's foot, etc. Note the force of this recurrent descriptive phrase. So in the classic epic, one phrase or epithet is reserved for each hero. 257. But I will fight unknown: A favorite device with heroes alike of epic and romance. Sir Lancelot, in Malory's Morte d'Arthur, is especially addicted to it. 284. See Note, line 111. 302. As some rich woman: This is the first simile that is of a purely general character. The scene might be Oriental, but the lines suggest nothing but London. In themselves they are vivid and admirable: perhaps Arnold could not bear to sacrifice them when he "orientalized" his similes. 314. Like some young cypress: This, on the other hand, is in perfect keeping with the whole tone and atmosphere of the poem. 447. But oh, Let there be peace twixt thee and me: Notice that after the first, all the pleadings for peace come from Sohrab. 480. And you would say: In the following passage we gain an effect of supernatural awe with no real use of the supernatural. 556. As when some hunter: The longest of the similes. It surely meets Stopford Brooke's requirements in one respect: the moment is worthy and the suspense is keen. 634. Like some rich hyacinth: A figure from classical literature. 671. And showed a sign: In the old story, Sohrab wears a bracelet or a ring given to his mother by Rustum. The tattooed sign is far better, both because it is surer proof and because introduces us to the griffin, who according to the legend, was foster-nurse to Zal. 730. And Ruksh, the horse: Compare with this passage the tears wept by the horse of Herminius in The Battle of the Lake Regillus The prototypes of both are the horses of Achilles who weep over the body of Patroclus, in Homer. 742. Is this, then, Ruksh? The speeches of Sohrab after he is wounded make one feel his youth and boyish charm. 799-805. The repetition increases the gravity and majesty of the passage, making it round like a chant or dirge. The whole method throughout this scene between the father and the dying son is that of epic, not of dramatic, poetry: the movement is solemn and slow, and the emotion calm despite its depth. 827. Then, at the point of death: According to old legend, here followed, dying men are endowed with prophetic power. Firdusi places this episode about the middle of the career of Rustum. He has many other adventures. Among them he lives to fight with the son of Sohrab: but this time the identity of the two combatants is discovered, and they are reconciled. 865. And night came down over the solemn waste: "The poem closes in a lonely beauty. The son and the father lie alone on the plain as night falls, between the mourning hosts, none daring to intrude. The dark heaven alone is their tent and their sorrow their shroud and we hear the deep river flowing by, the image of the destiny of man that bears us on, helpless, on its breast, until with it we find the sea."-Stopford Brooke. Firdusi continues his poem with a fervid description of the wild grief of the mother of Sohrab. Arnold's severe taste excluded it. 875. But the majestic river floated on: "Below Kamish to its final disappearance in the Aral Sea, the great river rolls in silent majesty through a vast expanse of sand and desert."-Encyclopædia Britannica. Richard Holt Hutton says: "Arnold, after describing the tender farewell of Sohrab to his father, concludes with this most beautiful passage, in which the accomplished geographer turns the halfscientific, half-poetical pleasure which he always betrays in defining a geographical course to the purpose of providing a poetical anodyne for the pain which the tragic ending has given. Of course the intention may have been to make the flow of the Oxus a sort of parable of the unhappy Rustum's great career, and the peace of his passing away; but nothing of this is so much as hinted and we should rather say that, though the course of a great river may be selected for the vague analogy it presents to the chequered life of a great leader, the intention of the poet is simply to refresh his own mind after the spectacle of misspent heroism and clouded destiny, with the image of one of Nature's greater works in which there seems to be the same loss of pristine force and grandeur, and yet a recovery of all the majestic volume and triumphant strength of the earlier period at the end." . THE FORSAKEN MERMAN. NOTE. The legend of a dweller in the sea, luring a mortal mate, is as old as ancient days of myth. Arnold was always haunted by it. For a very different handling of the same theme, see Hans Christian Andersen's lovely story of The Little Mermaid. APPENDIX (Adapted, and enlarged, from the Manual for the Study of English Classics, by George L. Marsh) HELPS TO STUDY POPE'S RAPE OF THE LOCK In regard to Pope see Thackeray's English Humorists, and Macaulay's Essay on Addison (Lake Classics editions of both). What is the meaning of "correctness' as Pope applied the term to poetry (p. 15)? Find some of the best examples of it. (For example, in matters of form.) When was The Rape of the Lock written and what is its significance in Pope's career (pp. 17, 18)? Into what relations with Addison did this poem bring Pope (p. 20)? Who was right on the critical point involved (work out your own opinion)? Make a collection of some of the best examples of parody (or epic burlesque), anti-climax, antithesis (pp. 35, 41, 42, 45, etc.). The state of society depicted in The Rape of the Lock may be compared with that described by Addison and Steele. See the Lake editions of The de Coverley Papers, and selections from The Tatler and The Spectator. Comparison with the present may also be made. In spite of the compliments, would a young woman of the present be pleased and flattered to have such a poem dedicated to her in the manner of Pope's address (pp. 25, 26) ? · Find points of resemblance and points of difference between Pope and Goldsmith as poets. In what respects—if at all-is The Rape of the Lock a great poem (p. 24)? GRAY'S ELEGY Wherein, chiefly, was Gray different from his contemporaries in literature (pp. 62-3)? What romantic interest in foreign |