One of the members acted as
leader. A brief essay reciting the history of the poem was read. The
entire poem was read aloud by one of the members of the class. Then
the topics given below were discussed as presented in turn by groups
of students who had given especial attention to one of the topics. In
the discussions the entire class joined, and at the close a very brief
summing up by the leader gathered up the threads of thought.
Topic: "Locksley Hall" and "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After."
Required Readings: "Locksley Hall"; "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After";
"Lady Clara Vere de Vere"; "Sir Galahad."
Suggested Readings: In connection with the earlier poem, "Ulysses" and
"The Two Voices"; in connection with the later poem, "Maud," "Memoir
of Tennyson," by Lord Hallam Tennyson.
Suggestions for Study: (A) The physical basis of the poem.
Study the metre. Why called Trochaic Octameter? In what way does this
metre resemble and in what way differ from Lowell's "Present Crisis,"
Swinburne's "Triumph of Time," Browning's "There 's a woman like a
dewdrop" (from "The Blot i' the Scutcheon"), and Mrs. Browning's
"Rhyme of the Duchess May"? Why is this metre peculiarly adapted to
the sentiment of "Locksley Hall"? How does the metre differ in effect
from that of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and
Bryant's "The Death of the Flowers" and Tennyson's "May Queen"? Is the
effect of the rhythm optimistic as opposed to the pessimism of the
"Triumph of Time," and why? Why are the lines of this poem so easily
carried in the memory? What is there in the use of the words which
gives such sweetness to the verses as one reads them aloud.
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