(1) Analyze Ransom’s consternation in “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter” or “Dead Boy” alongside that of Dylan Thomas’s “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London.” Determine which poet makes the more universal statement about premature death.
(2) Apply the dramatic situations in Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to the perpetual separation of lovers in Ransom’s “The Equilibrists,” “Piazza Piece,” and “Winter Remembered.”
(3) Account for Ransom’s use of antique syntax, pronouns (ye, thy), and diction and his penchant for metaphysical conceits or farfetched comparisons. Contrast poses in art works by the Pre-Raphaelite painters William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti to Ransom’s traditional male/female encounters set in stylized verse.
(4) Trace the theme of evanescence through Ransom’s poems in Chills and Fever and Two Gentlemen in Bonds. Account for his persistent lament for endangered art and beauty in the rapidly changing South. Determine whether such preservation of Western tradition is a worthy endeavor or a symptom of a retreat from reality.
(5) Discuss the speaker’s tone in “Here Lies a Lady.” Does the speaker come to terms with the woman’s death? Does the poem end on a tragic or accepting tone? How does the poet evoke this tone?
