Prompt: The following poem makes use of the story of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who developed an immunity to poison. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Housman employs literary devices in adapting the story to address concerns of the late Victorian period.
Original Essay (Score: 5)
In his poem “Terence, this is Stupid Stuff”, A.E. Houseman alludes to British culture and literature as well as implements informal diction to assert that one should not seek solace in religion or literature when confronting late Victorian issues such as effects of industrialization. Rather, one should face such issues with the consumption of alcohol, as Mithridates eagerly downed poison.
In line 7, Houseman cries, “The cow, the old cow, she is dead.” The cow is a livestock animal and therefore a symbol of agriculture, an industry which Britain deviated from in the late Victorian era in favor of manufacturing. Thus, Houseman alludes to the ire of British society due to such abandonment of the “weary land” (l. 52) such as poor wages, derelict working and living conditions, and child labor. He then alludes to another cultural staple as the cure for such woes: the “Ludlow fair” (l. 29), a beer-tasting festival. Houseman argues that drink is a better antidote for worldly sufferings than poetry, for British brews are a “livelier liquor than the Muse” (l. 20). He also alludes to religion as an ineffective aid when confronting industrial problems, for one can only “look into the pewter pot,” as if seeking otherworldly omen or prophecy, “to see the world as it’s not” (ll. 25-26). Houseman refers back to alcohol as an alternative to literature when seeking solace as well: he discredits Milton’s claim in Paradise Lost that poetry will help readers understand God, asserting that “malt does more than Milton can / to justify God’s ways to man” (ll. 21-22). Houseman argues that one should not refer to religion or literature during industrialization, but rather, follow Mithridates’s lead and “get their fill” of alcohol, or even poison, “before they think” (l. 61). Houseman parallels Mithridates’s poison to modern malts, and claims that because he eagerly drank, “he died old” (l. 76). Thus, he believes late Victorians will find similar success if they follow suit.
Houseman supplements this argument by discrediting his own verse as a form of solace. In his opening line, he admits that a man’s poetry “is stupid stuff” (l. 1). He employs additional informal diction to damage his own ethos as both a writer and an upstanding man, relaying how at the Ludlow Fair he “left [his] necktie God knows where” and had to be carried home (ll. 30-31). Houseman selects slang to once again contend that alcohol, or Mithridates’s poison, is the best cure for industrial ire, for “if the smack is sour, the better for the embittered hour,” or modern struggle (ll. 53-54). These colloquialisms denigrate lofty abstractions such as literature and religion and revert the reader back to basic drink as the solution for struggle.
Mithridates “sampled all [the] killing store” and was satisfied. Houseman argues Victorians should do the same.
Definition of Structuralism:
Structuralism is a movement of literary theory that analyzes a work’s patterns and basic elements, viewing each piece as a cog in the overarching literary system. Practitioners of structuralism study from a work’s simplest roots, such as sounds (phonology), to its higher-level nuances (pragmatics), such as deeper meanings. They also examine global phenomena in terms of binary oppositions, or direct contrasts. Structuralism’s theorists detected underlying cultural values. They divided the elements of a work into signs (or symbols expressing meaning), which they in turn split into the signifiers, or the conveyors of concepts, and the signified, or the concepts being conveyed. This practice is also the basic tenet of semiotics. In summary, structuralism is interpreting literature by breaking it down into its most fundamental units.
"Terence, this is Stupid Stuff"
Binary Opposites:
lovely vs. muck
good vs. ill
sun vs. moon
luck vs. trouble
birth vs. killing
dancing vs. moping
happy vs. sad
anew vs. old
white (purity) vs. poison
heart vs. head
dead head of cow vs. head enlivened by poetry
ephemeral high of beer vs. long-term benefits of poetry
living fast vs. dying old
mind-numbing drink vs. mind-stimulating poetry
Milton vs. malt
lain vs. woke
age of cow vs. youth of lads
worldview while drunk vs. worldview while sober
stupid vs. smart
Thesis:
In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A. E. Houseman initially implements binary opposition to address the merits of Terence's friend's argument against somber poetry, then to refute them.
Sound Devices:
mad & lad
malt & Milton
stupid, chap, sleeps, poor, pretty, pipe
stupid & victuals
livelier liquor
faith, mischief, fair, left, halfway
lovely & lain, stem & scored, heart & head, pints & quarts
Thesis:
In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman employs melodious consonance and alliteration to both soften and strengthen Terence's assertion that reading melancholy poetry is the best strategy for confronting adversity.
Morphemes:
"You eat your victuals fast enough." (l. 2) is a significant line because it indicates that although Terence's poetry is sad, he is well enough that he hasn't lost his appetite. His poetry may be sad, but he appears satisfied. "Victuals" are supplies of food, from the Latin "victus" (nourishment) and "vivere" (to live). This adds the implication that Terence not only devours food but also life, confronting its bliss and struggle head-on. This is the basic tenet of Terence's argument to acknowledge rather than ignore adversity.
Rhyme & Rhythm:
The poem is composed of rhyming couplets in iambic tetrameter.
Thesis:
In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman implements soothing iambic tetrameter and rhyming couplets to unexpectedly strengthen Terence's argument for the relief poetry provides, and to soften the bitterness of the debate between him and his friend.
Literary Devices (Schemes):
Anastrophe: inverted word order, creates emphasis or cadence
Antithesis: contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence, parallelism emphasizing contrast
Parallelism: similar patterns of grammatical structure and length, adding balance and rhythm
Polysyndeton: use of many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect
Climax: arrangement of order in increasing importance, builds momentum or expectation
Thesis:
In "Terence, this is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman applies rhythmic devices such as parallelism and anastrophe as well as engaging devices such as climax and polysyndeton to craft Terence's argument for gloomy poetry into a melodious yet heated rallying cry.
Semantics & Pragmatics:
"And down in the lovely muck I've lain" (l. 35) has the semantic meaning of lying down in beautiful filth. The pragmatic meaning is that Terence admits to wallowing in his cheerful, idiotic drunken state.
Induction & Deduction:
Terence's friends structure their argument deductively because they draw a specific conclusion (that Terence's poetry is stupid) from specific examples (their belly aches and the death of the cow). Terence's argument is inductive because it draws a general conclusion (that poetry helps remedy sorrow) from limited observations (alcohol's failure to console him and the myth of Mithridates).
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