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A/SHHS 12B English Literature > Absent From Thee > Flashcards

Flashcards in Absent From Thee Deck (19)
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1
Q

What is the overall ‘plot’ of the poem?

A

Men who leave their wives to pursue other women are exposed for returning to their wives to prevent punishment in the afterlife

2
Q

What was the Restoration attitude to sexual desire?

A

It had little to do with marriage and was satisfied elsewhere
In literature, sex was written about more freely
Sexual promiscuity was, if not socially acceptable, not punished either
Sexual virility an important aspect f masculinity

3
Q

What was the Restoration attitude to marriage?

A

Little respect for the sanctity of marriage in the king’s court

4
Q

What was the Restoration attitude to the individual?

A

Life was about the pursuit of happiness (enlightenment thinking)
Industrial revolution meant people were no longer subject to the governance of the Lord of the Manor
Communities broke down as people moved to cities
French Revolution focused on equal rights for all men

5
Q

Who was John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester?

A

Courtier of Charles II
Well known for rakish lifestyle
Abducted the woman he was later to marry
Libertine lifestyle- indulged in sensual pleasures without regard to moral principles
‘The best English satirist’- Andrew Marvell

6
Q

How is Rochester’s poetry a political statement?

A

Sexually explicit= thumb in the eye of Puritans

7
Q

How does Restoration literature include extremes?

A

It encompasses Paradise Lost, The Country Wife and The Pilgrim’s Progress

8
Q

How is the speaker self critical?

A

‘Absent’- neglecting his duty as husband

‘Straying fool’

9
Q

How does the speaker admit a courtly lover position?

A

‘I languish’- focus on his own pain
‘Ask me not, when I return?’
It ‘kill[s]’ him to know she’s mourning his absence
His is a victim of ‘torments’- other women. This ‘tears’ his heart from his wife

10
Q

What does the speaker need permission from his wife for?

A

He is restricted by her ‘Arms’ and wants to ‘flie’ from them

His ‘Fantastick mind’ needs to ‘try’ other women

11
Q

What does the wordplay of ‘mourn’ and morn suggest?

A

Sense of time passing and being wasted in sadness

12
Q

What does the dual meaning of languish suggest?

Growing weaker/forced to remain somewhere unpleasant

A

The speaker is forced; no responsibility as if he has no choice in his infidelity

13
Q

What does the repeated use of assonance and enjambment suggest?

A

Desire for freedom

14
Q

What are the two ways to read ‘expire’?

A

Positive as he wishes to grow old with her

Negative as he sees a life with her as one of decay; the death of his independent lifestyle

15
Q

What does the alliteration of ‘when wearied with a world of woe’ suggest?

A

Monotonous and repetitive lifestyle

16
Q

What is the significance of the form and structure of the poem?
Four stanzas with an ABAB rhyme scheme

A

Simple. Contrasts with the risqué themes

17
Q

What does the end of the speaker’s life promise?

A

Retirement to his wife’s ‘safe bosom’

18
Q

How does the speaker admit his motive of returning to his wife at death for retribution?

A

She is where ‘Love and Peace and Truth does flow’; ‘Heav’n’
He understands that if he falls on some ‘base heart’ from her that he will lose his ‘everlasting rest’. He fears eternal damnation and ‘fall’ing from grace so has to be faithful; a change of character (libertine vs retreat to the ‘countryside’ of old age)

19
Q

What is the effect of the use of religious imagery in the final stanza?

A

This is made a mockery of by his more sexual subject matter. Highlights the satirical and playful tone of the poem; universal acknowledgment of the lies that courtiers have to feed