Essay Questions

What is the main idea transmitted in the poem "The Village: Book I’’?

In the poem mentioned above, the narrator looks at the harsh life many peasants had and the efforts they had to make to make sure they had enough food to sustain themselves and their families. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator implies that the situation was not always so dire and that in the past, the peasants had enough time to enjoy life and to cultivate themselves to an extent. However, at one point in history, everything changes and the life of the peasants took a turn for the worse, the land itself turning against the people who took care of it. The main idea transmitted in the poem is that the life of the peasants is an extremely harsh one, filled with endless work and with little to not rewards. Everything seems to work against the peasants while the rest of the world remains oblivious to their suffering. While their problems are acknowledged, the narrator also recognizes that there little anyone can do to help the peasants and to ease their burden.

What is the tempest mentioned in the poem "The Library’’?

The term is associated with sailors and the narrator claims that the sailors which are on a boat in the middle of the sea fear the tempest above everything else. The term was used and continues to be used to this day to suggest a violent storm which more than often came quickly and thus the sailors had no time to prepare for it in a proper manner. For the sailors of the time, a quick and violent storm could mean death for every person on the ship and since they had no way of predicting the weather or controlling it, it represented a real danger for them. The tempest could have been used also in a symbolic way, his meaning being linked with the soul described in the beginning of the poem. In this were the case, the tempest could symbolize a sudden event which causes a lot of emotional pain to a person.

What is the only way presented in the poem "The Library’’ through which a person can heal their souls?

The poems begins with the narrator listing all the manners through which someone may try to heal their soul, namely hope, travel and trying to forget, and how those things seem to have no effect on a person and their capability to recover. The only way through which a person can recover is described as being through literature and books. The reason why books are presented as the main way of healing one’s soul is because though books, we can read about people who experienced the same problems as us and the way they got over them. Books offer thus both solutions and consolation to those needing it.