—Study Questions:
- What is the first word of the first stanza, the first word of the second stanza, and the first two words of the third stanza? What is metaphysical about the organization of the poem? (See Helen Gardner.)
- What "Flood" is being referred to in line 8? How much time is there between "ten years before the Flood" and "the conversion of the Jews"? What's the point of this extravagant metaphor?
- The word "vegetable" refers to the traditional division of everything on earth into three large categories—animal, vegetable, and mineral (as in the guessing game of twenty questions). The animal is that which grows and has sentience, "the ability to feel, perceive, or be conscious, or to experience subjectivity"; the vegetable is that which grows; the mineral is that which merely exists. So, what kind of love is "vegetable love"? In your opinion, is "vegetable love" a real thing, something which can be experienced in the real world?
- What is the grotesque joke in lines 26-27? There are two meanings of the word "try." One is used in the sentence, "We'll try this before a jury"; the other is used in the sentence, "This is the pole-vaulter's second try at this height." How are both meanings appropriate in lines 26-27?
A Note on footnote #4: It's not true that "'glew' . . . could be correct." There was no meaning of "glew" which would make sense in the sentence. In the seventeenth century the only meaning of this rare word was "to gaze, to look about."
- What other "fine and private place" is line 32 supposed to make you think of? What does "I think" add to the impact of line 33?
- What is the contrast between the sense of time in the first stanza and the sense of time in the third stanza? How is that contrast emphasized?
- Footnote #7 on p. 1797 assumes that "iron gates of life" refers to a lady part, but what is another, equally appropriate meaning?
- How does making the sun "run" (line 46) solve the problem which is stated in the first two stanzas of the poem?
