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Why is "waistcoat" modified by "leering" in the poem “A German Requiem"?
In the fifth line from the third stanza of "A German Requiem", the word waistcoat is modified by leering. I can understand waistcoat is personified as a person here. Is this person the priest? And why is this person leering? I cannot get any clue…
Emilie
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Source of the 1953 revisions to "The Great Gatsby"
The 1953 Scribner’s edition of The Great Gatsby has many minor differences in wording from the first (1925) edition by the same publisher. I’ve collected some of the differences from the first fifty pages or so in the table below, to give you a…
Gareth Rees
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Why did the Seed-Merchant thank God?
"The Seed-Merchant's Son" is a poem by Agnes Grozier Herbertson, often included in collections of WWI poetry. It doesn't go into the details of the war, like some other WWI poems; in fact, the war is only mentioned once in the poem, which mainly…
Rand al'Thor
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8
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Why is there a focus on the atmosphere in The Fall of the House of Usher?
In The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe has several spots where he talks about the gloomy, cloudy, atmosphere:
As I looked at the house, it seemed to me that it was being wrapped in a strange vaporous cloud. A mystic fog seemed to rise…
Mithical
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Pheasant hunting and manual transmission driving
I am looking for a book that I read when I was very young, probably early elementary school in the 90s. I recall it had something to do with pheasant hunting. I think there was an emergency, or the adult got lost, and a young boy mustered the…
Tiger12506
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Identify this American novel set in the Great Depression era, perhaps set in Chicago and focused on meat packing?
In school circa mid 1970's I'd read a then-classic novel which I would like to read again if I can identify it.
I believe it was set around the time of the US Great Depression but I don't think it was Steinbeck's 1939 The Grapes of Wrath (though I…
uhoh
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Meaning of 'pelted clover' and 'gorged pastures' in Louise Glück poem?
What do 'pelted clover' and 'gorged pastures' mean in the following poem by Louise Glück? Clover leaves that are being thrown? A pasture land with a pathway in the middle?
Labor Day
Requiring something lovely on his arm
Took me to Stamford,…
ajfbiw.s
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Who is “our greatest living phonetic expert” in “Ulysses”?
In chapter 12 of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the narrator describes an “exhibition of cynanthropy” which
comprises, among other achievements, the recitation of verse. Our greatest living phonetic expert (wild horses shall not drag it from us!) has left…
Kevin Troy
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What is meant by "I'm going to push my stuff in" in Dorothy Sayers's "Strong Poison"?
At the beginning of Chapter III of Dorothy Sayers' Strong Poison, Waffles Newton says
"Look here, old man, I'm going to push my stuff in. Will you let me know what happens?"
What is meant by "push my stuff in" here?
Daniel McLaury
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1 answer
Rhymes in William Blake's 'The Tyger'
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
'Eye' and 'symmetry' don't rhyme in modern standard English. But pronunciation can shift over 200+ years. How would those two…
Pete
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Who translated the 1995 Penguin Popular Classics version of "The Phantom of the Opera"?
I recently started reading the 1995 Penguin Popular Classics version of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. While reading it, however, I noticed that there is no attribution printed in the book as to who translated it. The book was originally…
Mithical
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What does 'diope' mean in the poem 'Pediatric Reflection' by Ogden Nash?
"Pediatric Reflection" by Ogden Nash
Many an infant that screams like a calliope
Could be soothed by a little attention to its diope.
What does "diope" mean here?
Pumpkin_Star
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What parallels can be drawn between Don Reba and Beria?
From the afterword of Hard to be a God:
On the advice of I. A. Efremov, we renamed the Minister of the Defense of the Crown Don Reba (he had previously been Don Rebia—an overly simple anagram, in the opinion of Ivan Antonovich.)
-- 2015…
Rand al'Thor
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8
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2 answers
Why would a Ukrainian police officer speak broken Ukrainian?
From Stalking the Atomic City,
The police might be lying in wait, ready to ambush you, or they might not. I might notice the glow of a cigarette or the silhouette of their car. I might hear them speaking quietly in broken Ukrainian in the dark and…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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Do native speakers face difficulty understanding Charles Dickens?
I am not a native speaker of English. Though I have learned the language well enough to comprehend modern English novels fairly well, when it comes to Charles Dickens I am completely defeated. It is rather difficult to get through his uses of words,…
anjan
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