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QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS

READING THE POEM

PROLOGUE

1. What is the setting of the Prologue?

2. How many examples can you find of "every clime and age jumbled together"? What is their connection with the story? 3. Name and describe the characters of the Prologue.

4. Study the three women characters of the Prologue as introductory to the Princess Ida and her two friends.

5. How does the discussion lead to the theme of the poem? 6. What is the symbolism of the silk-draped statue?

CANTO I

1. Study the character of the hero in relation to his father and mother; compare him with Florian and Cyril.

2. What conception of the Princess do you gain from the Prince; from her father; from the innkeeper?

3. Where does the action begin? What is its immediate motive?

4. What effect on the poem has the Prince's tendency to "weird seizures"?

5. What is the interpretation of the symbol of the entrancearch; of the inn-sign; of the Prince's seal?

6. How does King Gama's account of the Princess's undertaking color your expectation?

CANTO II

1. Charles Kingsley says the 66 songs serve to call back the reader's mind, at every pause in the tale of the Princess's folly, to that very healthy ideal of womanhood which she has spurned." How is that true of this opening song?

2. What effect has the description of the college buildings on your attitude toward the Princess's undertaking?

3. Do the speeches and description of the Princess enlarge or alter your conception of her?

4. Why is the chief exposition of the theory of the college given by Lady Psyche?

5. What traits of Lady Psyche's character are revealed by the motives which bind her to silence?

6. How does the passage, lines 428-455, contrast with the Princess's ideal?

CANTO III

1. Has the opening song any relation to the preceding section of the poem?

2. How does the discord between Lady Psyche and Lady Blanche affect the story?

3. How does Melissa's character bring out Cyril's; Florian's; the Prince's?

4. What motives persuade Lady Blanche to silence? Compare with Lady Psyche's motives.

5. How do the Princess's words in lines 185-258 compare with those in Canto II., 34-52?

6. Can you find any

hints of what the outcome will be?

CANTO IV

1. Can you interpret this opening song in accordance with Kingsley's dictum (see II., 1)?

2. How does the song, Tears, Idle Tears, differ from the preceding songs? How does it compare with O Swallow, Swallow? (Note lines 67-69.) How does each affect the Princess?

3. For what purpose is the incident of the rescue of the Princess introduced?

4. What phase of the Prince's enterprise is brought out in lines 180-194 and 239-251? How does it contrast with connecting passages?

5. What effect on the dignity of the poem has the Prince's speech, lines 399-448?

6. Does the Princess's speech, lines 504-527, exalt her?

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

133

CANTO V

1. What consolations do Florian and the Prince offer Psyche? What is the true cause of her grief?

2. Which is the nearer right in his conception of women, — the Prince's father or King Gama? How far does the Prince's view coincide with theirs? How far does Arac's?

3. What motives draw the Prince into the fight?

4. What admissions of weakness does the Princess Ida make in her letter?

5. How far does line 451 express Tennyson's attitude toward the Princess Ida?

6. Why does the sorcerer's curse affect the Prince at this crisis, lines 457-531?

CANTO VI

1. Show how the story of the introductory song, though containing the same elements of vanquished warrior, lady, and child, is yet unlike the story of the Princess.

2. What contrasting phases of character are shown in the Princess's song of triumph and in her following action?

3. Trace the motives that lead her to turn the college to a hospital. What changes her action toward Psyche?

4. Interpret the symbolism in lines 328-351.

5. Which have the more influence on the Princess in this part, the men or the women?

6. How does the passage, lines 57-74, heighten the action?

CANTO VII

1. Has the introductory song more or less direct connection with the following canto than had the other songs?

2. How does the surrounding action denoted in lines 40-75 affect the action of the two principal characters?

3. What is the contrast of the passage, lines 104-117, to the preceding and following passages?

4. Compare the methods by which the Prince succeeds with those his father would have had him use.

5. Why did the Princess read both poems? have been sufficient? Which one?

Would not one

6. Does the Prince's speech, lines 239–345, give Tennyson's solution of the problem?

CONCLUSION

1. Does the author here justify his use of mingled true and mock epic?

2. Why does Lilia turn to her aunt for knowledge?

3. Has the passage about England and France anything to do with the theme of the poem?

4. Why was the description of Sir Walter Vivian delayed till the end of the poem?

5. Does the reverie in which the hearers returned to the abbey imply that they considered the problem still unsettled?

6. Show how Lilia's last action is symbolic of the end of the story.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS

STUDYING THE POEM

PROLOGUE

1. Line 12. Why are the flowers lovelier than their names? 2. Describe a chronicle.

3. Retell in simple prose the story quoted from the chronicle, lines 35-48.

4. Explain lines 93, 117, 199, 218.

5. What is the allusion in lines 204 and 231?

6. Line 229. Why would Sir Ralph have burnt them all? Connect this line with line 6, Canto I.

CANTO I

1. Explain the connection of lines 3 and 4.

2. Is the simile, lines 57-59, true and appropriate?

3. Explain lines 106–107, 175.

4. Line 124. Why does the King make this allusion?

5. Describe masques and pageants, line 195.

6. Rewrite, in simple English, lines 197-200.

CANTO II

1. Explain lines 2-4, 93-95, 403–410.

2. Why has the Princess the leopards?

3. Does the simile in lines 87-88 denote admiration or scorn? Connect it with line 91, and with 150-152, Canto IV.

4. Show how lines 155-165 are a conclusion for the preceding speech.

5. Criticise the similes in lines 168-170, 305-307, 355–357.

6. Lines 415-416. What colors? What flowers would they recall? Compare lines 3, 303, 354, and 448.

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