Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter
John Crowe Ransom
5 10 15 20 |
There was such speed in her little body, And such lightness in her footfall, It is no wonder that her brown study° Astonishes us all. Her wars were bruited in our high window. We looked among orchard trees and beyond. Where she took arms against her shadow Or harried unto the pond The lazy geese, like a snow cloud Dripping their snow on the green grass, Tricking and stopping, sleepy and proud, Who cried in goose, Alas, For the tireless heart within the little Lady with rod that made them rise From their noon apple-dreams, and scuttle Goose-fashion under the skies! But now go the bells, and we are ready; In one house we are sternly stopped To say we are vexed° at her brown study, Lying so primly propped. |
Making Meanings
Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter
1. How does the speaker feel about the little girl who died? How did the poet make you feel about the Whitesides’ daughter and about death itself?
2. What characteristics of the girl make the speaker astonished at her “brown study”?
3. What action of the little girl caused the geese to cry “Alas”? What additional overtones does this cry take on, given the poem’s subject?
4. What details in the last stanza make it clear what the speaker is looking at?
5. What do you associate with the verb vexed in the next to last line of the poem? What verb would you expect the speaker to use to describe his reaction to the dead child?
6. The critic Babette Deutsch once said of Ransom:
[W]hatever his subject . . . his tone is right. The glint of irony is there, deepened as well as softened by a sensitiveness without a grain of sentimentality.
—Babette Deutsch
Do you think Ransom’s tone is appropriate, given the highly emotional nature of the subject? Do you think he should also have covered other aspects of the girl’s life? Explain.