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The Castle of Otranto

“Every suggestion that horror could inspire rushed into her mind.”

Within the first chapter of The Castle of Otranto there is certainly an ominous presence. This line particularly stood out to me while reading, because of the conclusions it asks the reader to draw. This line also brings to light the role of dreams within the text. I believe this quote captures a great essence of this story.

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The Rape of the Lock

“The adventurous Baron the bright locks admired,

He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.”

These lines stood out to me due to the objectification of Belinda’s hair. This portion of Canto 2 within this text showed the Baron in a torn place of not realizing if he wanted her herself or the things that embellish her person. With Belinda’s hair being a common symbol throughout this text, the quote seems even more notable. 

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The Rape of the Lock

“...it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have a good sense and good humor enough to laugh not only at their sex’s is a little under garden follies, but at their own.”

The control in this line at the very start of this lettered addressed to Mrs. Arabella Fermor caught my attention right away. The sly mention that if you don’t find this humorous then you’re wrong because all these other women have enjoyed it seems quite manipulative and controlling upon first reading. Whilst diving deeper in the store I found myself going back to and questioning this specific beginning line and wondering if he was trying to alert of everything actually being in good humor. 

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The Rights of Women

“In Nature’s school, by her soft maxims taught, 

That separate rights are lost in mutual love”

These lines are my favorite amongst Anna Letitia Barbauld’s poem. After an extreme call of the rising of all women along with the shaming of men who have been the oppressors of these women, this shift happens. In the final lines of the poem the speaker backs off in a truce sort of way. The shift in emotions in this poem make for an even more meaningful reading. 

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Some Reflections upon Marriage

“A woman, indeed, can’t properly be said to choose; all that is allowed her, is to refuse or accept what is offered.” 

This line from Mary Astell’s work stuck out to me by its long going presence within most cultures. Her highlighting of the absence of choice and control for women hit the nail on the head, especially considering the place and time this response was written. Her reflections on marriage in her time were bold and humanized women as a whole.

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Some Reflections upon Marriage

“If she neglects those Methods which are necessary to keep her, not only from a Crime, but from the very Suspicion of one?”

This line from the text of Mary Astell’s Some Reflections upon Marriage was notable to me while reading. Just before this line Astell discussed all the desired traits that could be wanted out of a woman for marriage, but this quoted line suggests that no woman can ever be good enough in a man’s eyes for a woman to have no martial problems. This line also suggests that Astell is stating the more beautiful and put together a wife is, the less likely any person would ever suspect of something unsavory happening within that marriage. The realisticness and harshness of this work is captivating to me. 

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On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year

“Yet though I cannot be loved,

Still let me love!”

These two lines from Lord Byron’s poem feel as though they could stand on their own in message. The introduction of absence within this text is introduced well with these lines closing the first stanza. I personally enjoy the message of attempting even if there is little chance of success, which is promoted by this quote. While most of the poem consists mainly of the speaker seeing himself as unworthy, the last handful of lines provide motivation for him to live the second half of his life riotously. 

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Ode to a Nightingale

“Away! away! for I will fly to thee,  Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,  But on the viewless wings of Poesy”

In the fourth stanza of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale the speaker is sending the bird off saying that he will be able to join the bird through his writings. This part of the poem stood out to me by the speaker almost seeming to be saying they create the life in which they view. Quite a lovely thought when you sit down and think about it. Just after these lines the speaker is describing the view that they and the nightingale share in the forest. 

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The Immortality Ode

“Both of them speak of something that is gone:                                                         The Pansy at my feet                                                                                                    Doth the same tale repeat:                                                                                     Wither is fled the visionary gleam?”

This quote located on the first few pages of William Wordsworth’s The Immortality Ode stuck out to me because of the interjection it seems to be of the dreamlike presence of nature with this portion of the text. Wordsworth’s fantasized viewpoint up until this point is notable and these lines are his first thoughts that something must be missing. The sudden shift in emotion in these lines is what made this portion of The Immortality Ode stick out to myself. 

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Power

“But pain is always inflicted by a power in some way superior, because we never submit to pain willingly.”

Edmund Burke in On the Sublime and Beautiful addresses power and its relation to pain. With this line from part two section six you can see Burke’s strong thoughts on the power pain houses. This line stood out to me because of the summarization of this section being wrapped in such a blatant statement. While there are strong points made about terror, the connection between pain and power are solidified. 

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The Sorrows of Young Werther

Wether is addressing his friend and letting him know of his love that he has discovered, in a letter dated June 16th.

“I am a happy and contented mortal, but a poor historian.”

In this line Werther is remarking on how this woman is able to blind him of his past mistakes and hurdles. I chose this line because I like how it shows his knowing choice to love her despite what his previous knowledge is telling him to do. Werther including his friend in this knowledge feels like an almost transfer of blame or fault if things go sour. 

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The Sorrows of Young Werther

Werther addresses his friend, Wilhelm, in a letter dated July 18th. 

“Wilhelm, what is the world to our hearts without love? What is a magic-latern without light?”

Besides the obvious connection of love being equal to light, brighting and warming, there can be an alternate thought to this quote. In a later light is one single fleeting flame. The flame is not constant and can often times feel as though it is fleeing or hiding from you. This light can create phantom objects as well with the shadows that are created, constructing an almost imaginary word.

I chose this quote because of how it showed what the presence of love means to Werther. The inappropriateness of his choice of woman to fall in love with is extinguished when these are Werther’s thoughts. It is as he would be empty if it were not for something he could love, or at least inappropriately yearning for and pursuing. 

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Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writes in her letter to Lady Adrianople on 1 April 1717,

“I believe, upon the whole, there were two hundred women, and yet none of those disdainful smiles or satirical whispers that never fail in our assemblies when anybody appears that is not dressed exactly in fashion” (631).

This portion of this letter was the one that stuck out the most to me. In this letter she is in a woman only clothes-less environment. Montagu is discussing the relaxed and encouraging environment that she had experienced when observing. The underlying benefits of gender grouping women is brought to the light in the remarks within this letter. Comparing these community groupings to the typical English gatherings is atypical to say the least. 

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Don Juan

In Don Juan, Lord Byron writes, 

“’Twas nature gnaw’d them to do this resolution,

By Which none were permitted to be neuter-

And the lot feel on Juan’s backless tutor” (704).

This excerpt from Cantos II was one of the most jarring I read within this poem. The scene being described is a boat full of shipwreck survivors drawing names (pieces of paper courtesy of Don Juan’s letter from Julia) to see who will be killed and eaten. This part of the book seem notable because of its graphic nature, but there is also a possibility we are being shown that Don Juan is above what the others in the same situation are doing. I feel as though there is something hidden in this scene that Byron wants us to note and apply in the upcoming poetry. 

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Don Juan

In Don Juan, Lord Byron writes,

“...and, sobbing often, he

Reflected on his present situation,

And seriously resolved on reformation” (701).

In these lines Don Juan is traveling towards the Spanish town of Cadiz to get on a boat and leave Spain behind. Don Juan cries continuously at seeing Spain fade into the distance from the boat. It's all very sad for him and a tad dramatic. These lines back up my theories on how Don Juan had been raised as a child has affected him in his endeavors as an adult. Don Juan’s want and desires in life are narrowed with what his life consist of: his home, mother, and dearest Julia. These lines of him sobbing as he leaves Spain seem to be here to remind the reader of this character’s differences to those of the men who now surround him. 

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Don Juan

In Don Juan, Lord Byron writes, 

“That Donna Julia knew the reason why, 

But as for Juan, he had no more notion 

Than he who never saw the sea of ocean” (679).

In this portion of Cantos I Donna Julia, friend of Don Juan’s mother, is becoming enamored with a young Don Juan who is growing up into a handsome young man in both her and the speaker’s eyes. Just before this quote the physical contact between these two became notable. The speaker talks of her caressing him often in an innocence manner. I believe this quote further validates the control Donna Julia is exhibiting over Don Juan. His innocence is noted many times through just this first cantos and deepens even more by the careful watch of his mother. Looking into these lines from page 679 in the Norton Romantic Period text Don Juan’s innocence is certain made prevelent in the continuation of this piece. The words, “he who had never saw the sea of the ocean” indicates the blindness Don Juan is shielded by in this text. 

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The well-taught philosophic mind To all compassion gives; Casts round the world an equal eye, And feels for all that lives.

Anna Letitia Barbauld