Robert Browning - Porphyria's Lover - Pg. 662 - Ln 1-3

"The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite"

These lines contain powerful imagery and also convey a frightening sense of the ruthlessness of nature. Bobby is attempting to seem meek by extending the word: tonight.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Browning - My Last Duchess - Pg. 665 - Ln 54-55

"Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity"

Bobby seems to be conveying his thoughts by converting them into examples of random things. The connection between his words and his ideas seem fleeting to me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Browning - Love Among Ruins- Pg. 670 - Ln 79

"Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!"

Bobby's use of apostrophe seems to express remorse. I find this poem to be lamenting the failure of men to sustain their civilization, and I like it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mathew Arnold - Dover Beach - Pg. 751 - ln 3-5

"...on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering ands vast"

The pro-British tone seems apparent to me. It also seems that the British, and Mathew Arnold, seem to associate success with God. I find it ironic that failure is everybody else's fault.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christina Rossetti - Goblin Market - Pg 762 - ln 126-127

"She clipped a precious golden lock,
She dropped a tear more rare than pearl"

Rossetti seems to be praising women's innocence here, however, she is not ignorant of the fact that women are losing their innocence as they begin to accept male roles in society. I believe that our culture loses something significant the more men and women become alike.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christina Rossetti - Goblin Market - Pg 763 - ln 184-186

"Golden head by golden head,
Like two pigeons in one nest
Folded in each other's wings,"

I read this as the two sisters being one entity. Thus, the consumption of the fruit by Laura and Lizzie saving her represent the fall and rise of the individual, or perhaps society. Rossetti may be saying that society has fallen, and its rise(Victorian Age) is superficial, just as the part of the poem when Lizzie saves her sister, and everythign thereafter, seem superficial.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christina Rossetti - No, Thank You, John - Pg 771 - ln 1-2

"I never said I loved you, John
Why will you teaze me day by day"

I enjoy reading a poem that discusses not returning someone’s love, instead of the opposite, which is more common. This is seems to be a big problem for woman, and Rossetti gives a good perspective while still seeming poetic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerard Manley Hopkins - Pied Beauty - pg 775 - ln 1-2

"Glory be to God for dappled things-
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow"

Not only do I not understand these two lines, but I feel as if Hopkins had no desire for his poetry to be understood. Perhaps it was intentional, but all I understand from his poetry is his devotion to God.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerard Manley Hopkins - God's Grandeur - pg 775 - ln 12

"Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs-"

The sun rises on the east, and Hopkins must be linking the rising and setting of the sun to God's will. This belief was also true of the Egyptians. Or perhaps, our knowledge of the rising and falling of the sun is also due to God

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerard Manley Hopkins - Felix Randal - pg 776 - ln 1

"Felix Randel the farrier, O he is dead then?"

I believe that Hopkins is criticizing the labels society places on the individual based on occupation. Hopkins may have been preferred to have people judged based on their devotion to God.