babylon the great (final) Flashcards
(18 cards)
form
14 line allegorical sonnet
petrachan sonnet rhyme scheme(ironic)
first half is an octave second half is a sestet (typical of petrachan sonnet)
why is the use of the petrachan sonnet ironic
as usually used for love poems but this poem warns against the evils of love and temptation
title significance
refers to a ‘great prostitute’ named babylon the great from the book of revelation
in the bible babylon represents false identity and allure of indlugence in riches and worldly pleasures
what does city of babylon itself represent and where is it mentioned
the old testement depicts fall of babylon
babylon represents greed and arrogance of human kind
what is the repetitive use of red imagrey called
a lexical field
significance of imagrey of hair
‘WANTON HAIR’
symbol of promiscuity in victorian society (women must have their hair up)
depicted in pre raphelite movement by dante gabriel in images portraying sexuality: ‘lady lilith’ and ‘woman combing her hair’
why is rossettis experience at highgate relevant
would have worked with many protitutes and fallen women
LINK TO BABYLON WHO WAS A PROSTITUTE
what does ‘cup’ represent
The soul
‘foul is she and ill favoured’
visceral adjectives immedietally conveys the danger this woman potetially poses
‘set askew’
link to fallen woman?
‘GAZE NOT UPON HER’
her beauty is deceptive, not revealing of her true nature- speaker warns reader to not look upon her
repeated twice more in the sestet.
gaze- connotations of voyerism and has sexual implications
‘lest thee should mesh thee in her wanton hair’
‘mesh suggests those who succumb to temptation, represented by the ‘wanton hair’
‘ADEPT IN ARTS GROWN OLD YET NEVER NEW’
incicates this woman is intentionally a. temptress, using old arts of seduction and manipulation
(arts- witchcraft, false religion, immoral)
‘Her heart lusts nit for love, but thro and thro for blood, as a spotted panther lusts in lair’
connotes impurity to her heart and implies a certain animalistic ‘thirst’ for blood
similie of as a spotted panther lusts links sexual intention with animalistic and carnivourous desire ( hence link to how it was considered unnatural and grotesque for women to have sexual desire)
‘No wine is in her cup. but filth is there’
cup= soul / the luxury babylon is meant to be surrounded by
NO WINE (JOY) IN HER CUP, but filth showing how temptation completely decays the soul
‘blood’ ‘wine’ ‘scarlet’ ‘fire’
lexical feild of the colour red associated with sexua;ity and danger (links sexuality and danger becoming a moral message of sexual sin)
connotes the colour of hell and violence
‘for her dancing whirl, turns giddy the fixed gazer presently ‘
hypnosis through her beauty, onlooker unaware of the danger that she inhibits
her power coul make even the most moral human become ‘giddy’
‘her scarlet vest and gold and gem and pearl
And she amd her pomp are set on fire’
MESSAGE OF THE POEM- she will inevitably go to hell and all who give in will too
