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1500 questions
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What is a beacon?
I'm reading George W. DaSent's 1861 translation of The Story of Burnt Njal (because it's available for free online). I have what some may consider a basic question, but given that I don't know anything about Iceland I thought I would ask it. What…
user111
9
votes
2 answers
Book about a boy blinded by a firecracker
I read this book when I was in elementary school in Ashland, KY, probably between 1990 and 1998. It was a paperback, with the cover primarily blue, maybe with the main character on the front in dark sunglasses. The protagonist was a young boy, I…
Sean Duggan
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9
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Was Shakespeare inspired by Olaus Magnus when writing Macbeth?
One important plot point in Macbeth is that the King feels invincible due to the prophecy that
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.
(Act 4, Scene 1)
This, of course,…
andejons
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9
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Difference between "conte" and "nouvelle" at the time of La Fontaine
One of the works of the French poet Jean de La Fontaine is a collection of stories that's usually known as Contes et nouvelles en vers. It seems to me that this title implies that there was a difference between the genres called "conte" and…
Charo
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What does it mean to take iron to a transfer station?
Chapter 4 of Sweet Darusya contains the following quote:
The children carry iron as if they were taking it to a transfer station.
I'm confused about what that actually means. What is a "transfer station" in this context, and why would you carry…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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9
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1 answer
Identification of play about fictionalizing an in-universe murder
During the 2010s I saw a 2-act play in Birmingham's Alexandra, with a three-character plot along these lines:
Two people in a house try to kill a third, and think they've succeeded. They wrap him up in a rug and bury him in the garden, which they…
J.G.
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How is the concept of cultural encounter treated in the short story “One Out of Many”?
In the story "One Out of Many" by V.S. Naipaul, how is the concept of cultural encounter treated? I have a few questions about that:
Is the author aware of the cultural encounter theme?
How does he manifest that awareness? Are the main…
user1360
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9
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2 answers
"sud more likker" - how to parse this?
I recently had a non-native English speaker ask me for help understanding this passage from Wuthering Heights:
'Have you found Heathcliff, you ass?' interrupted Catherine. 'Have you been looking for him, as I ordered?'
'I sud more likker look for…
Rand al'Thor
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Is the character of Randolph Henry Ash based on any particular Victorian poet?
The novel Possession contains some spot-on mimicry of several different writing styles, including lengthy poems by two fictional Victorian poets. The character of RH Ash in particular feels as if there is some model, or models, for him. He has a…
Joshua Engel
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9
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3 answers
Why is "Ode on Melancholy" an Ode?
What features of Keats's "Ode on Melancholy" make it an ode? This is a question that seems to be important in our English class, yet I don't have a comprehensive answer.
Merriam-Webster defines "ode" as
a lyric poem usually marked by exaltation of…
Airdish
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9
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2 answers
In Dickens' "The Chimes", why do bells have godparents and mugs?
Not long into The Chimes: A Goblin Story, one of Dickens' lesser-known Christmas stories, there's this paragraph about bells:
They were old Chimes, trust me. Centuries ago, these Bells had been baptized by bishops: so many centuries ago, that the…
Matt Thrower
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9
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What are the "dead Easter chicks" in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos?"
In J. D. Salinger's short story "Just Before the War with the Eskimos," a character reveals that:
A few years before it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her…
nuggethead
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9
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Why does Shakespeare write "is" instead of "are" in this passage from Richard II
Each substance of grief hath twenty shadows,
Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects:
Like perspectives which, rightly gaz'd upon,
Show nothing but…
Yeats
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9
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In "Love Among the Ruins", what is 'a carpet'?
The poem "Love Among the Ruins" by Robert Browning starts like this in its third verse:
And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass
Never was!
Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'er-spreads
And embeds
Every vestige of the city, guessed…
chikinn
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9
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1 answer
Do the poisons in "Ode on Melancholy" have deeper meaning?
In "Ode on Melancholy", Keats uses the images of three poisons in the first stanza: Wolf's bane, nightshade, and yew-berries. Are these poisons simply meant to connote death/suicide, or might they have a deeper purpose?
Airdish
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