Blog Post #15: Linguistics and "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff"

2009B Poem: “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”
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.

                In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” A.E. Houseman asserts that the pleasurable escapes men seek ultimately make them more sinful, revealing the vicious cycle of such vices that lurk under the Victorian façade of purity and properness. Houseman reinforces this idea through the use of liquor to represent not only human vice but also the tainted undercurrent in Victorian life, conversational diction, alliteration, and repetition to add a satirical voice to his criticism, and an allusion to the myth of King Mithridates to underscore the corruption of those who develop an immunity to poison.

                Houseman’s dramatic monologue begins with a deceptively simple, mocking voice. He ridicules Terence for the rate at which he drinks. This comment is the root of a larger criticism of Victorian vices throughout the poem. It was the vices of this new time period that “killed the cow” (1.10). The growth of industrialization in the late Victorian era, Houseman argues, is what destroyed the old ways. Yet the drunken men do not seem to grasp this. The liquor is portrayed as a means of viewing a rapidly changing world through distorted yet pleasant lenses. Beyond this, drink is a terrible cycle that ensnares those who turn to it. Once you join this “game” (1.42), you are in for good. The only option is to “begin the game anew” (1.42). After this important turning point in the very succinct third stanza, Houseman explicitly critiques the state of his world as he sees it. It is perceived as having “much good” (4.44), which offers a corollary to the fact that people of the Victorian age put up masks of innocence and wholeness. Restraint was praised in both men and women. Men were to be gentlemanly and brave. Women were to be docile and submissive. However, there is sin lurking beneath the surface that many refuse to acknowledge, and it does overwhelm the good. There is “much less good than ill,” (4.44) Houseman adds, commenting that this imbalance of supposed good and perpetuated evil will only hail trouble.

                Houseman strengthens his negative commentary of the hypocrisy in Victorian values and the actual actions of Victorian era people by comparing the flawed liquor addicts to King Mithridates, a figure of Greek mythology. Mithridates is characterized as self-serving  “[getting his] fill before [he] think[s]” (5.61) – emphasizing his inherent selfishness. Just as many of Houseman’s contemporaries selfishly turned to drink as a means of escape, King Mithridates indulged in his “poisoned meat and poisoned drink” (5.62) for his own pleasure. Those who knew of Mithridates’ immunity were appalled by it, but Mithridates did not find it unusual at all. This creates another parallel between Mithridates and the drunk men. Both sought out potentially destructive things for their own pleasure. Even though Mithridates and the drunk men themselves were not aware of the repercussions, those around them were. Mithridates and the drunk men’s affinities for dangerous items only hurt those near them.

                Houseman’s bleak commentary of the late Victorian era is tempered with his use of casual diction, repetition, and alliteration to give his poem a jaunty flow. He describes Terence’s poetry as “stupid” (1.1) and the lads as “poor” (1.9) to add a teasing tone. Houseman uses repetition to lament the old ways in a humorous manner. He uses the cow to symbolize the long gone simpler life and cries, “The cow, the old cow, she is dead” (1.7). Later, he repeats, “Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink” (2.23). Repetition of simple words like cow and ale give Houseman’s poem a dark humor. The dark humor is furthered by his use of alliteration, which gives the poem a faster rhythm that would reflect well in the oral sharing of this work. For instance, near the end of the poem, Houseman uses many words starting with the letter s to quicken the pace.

Score: 6 (B)

1.    Structuralism

Structuralism, in a literary context, is the study of smaller parts of a text and how these smaller parts contribute to the meaning of the text as a whole. It focuses on the opposites in a literary work that further its significance.  Structuralism can be broken down into form, content, and use, with phronology, morphology, and syntax important in form, semantics important in content, and pragmatics important in use. A sign is constituted of the signified and the signifier. The signified is the denotation of the word; the signifier the connotations associated with the word.

2.       Binary Opposites in “Terence” 

Sun vs moon

Good vs ill

Luck vs trouble

Heart vs head

World vs world’s not

Faith vs mischief

Drunk vs sober

Stupid vs smart

3.       Binary Opposites Thesis

In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” A.E. Houseman asserts that sad poetry, in the long run, is a better outlet to express tragedy than the immediate pleasures of beer through the use of binary opposites to juxtapose Terence’s intelligence and logic with his friends’ vulgarity and stupidity.

4.       Sound Devices

“Terence, this is stupid stuff: You eat your victuals fast enough” (1.1-2)

“The cow, the old cow” (1.7)

“’Tis our turn now” (1.9)

“Moping melancholy mad” (1.13)

“Livelier liquor” (2.5)

“Malt does more than Milton can” (2.6)

“Heigho, the tale was all a lie” (2.23)

“If the smack is sour” (3.10)

“The better for the embittered hour” (3.11)

5.       Sound Devices Thesis

In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff," A.E. Houseman asserts that immunity to life's hardships comes through experience by gradually shifting the diction from smooth, euphonious sounds to harsher cacophonous sounds. This parallels Terence's growing immunity to tragedy as he continues to use sad poetry as an outlet to expose himself to all facets of strife.

6.       Complete Thought

“Terence, this is stupid stuff: You eat your victuals fast enough” (1.1-2)

This line immediately portrays Terence’s friends as intellectually limited and unaccepting of Terence’s desire to write sad poetry. His friends’ poorly made assertion further juxtaposes Terence’s intelligence against his friends’ stupidity.

7.       Word from Complete Thought

Victuals: food or provisions, typically as prepared for consumption

Comes from the Latin word victus, meaning nourishment, way of living

Also related to vivere, to live

8.       Rhyme scheme: end rhyme, rhyming couplets

Rhythm: iambic

Rhyme Scheme and Meter Thesis:   In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” A.E. Houseman utilizes a traditional yet powerful iambic tetrameter to reflect the simple-minded hedonism of the pub and rhyming couplets to create oxymorons which juxtapose Terence’s intelligence with his friends’ stupidity. This binary opposition ultimately asserts that the immediate pleasure of beer is short-sighted while the slow revelations of pain through sad poetry are intellectual and more rewarding over time.

9.       Schema

Anastrophe

Definition: inverted word order from what one expects

Effect: “Help writer achieve stylistic effects like laying an emphasis on a particular point…in poetry, regularly used to create rhythm”

Example from “Terence”: “And down in the lovely muck I’ve lain” (3.20)

Effect on the meaning of “Terence”: The inversion of this phrase emphasizes the muck rather than the person lying in it. The muck is a literal representation of the endless cycle of, to put it bluntly, crap that Terence’s friends have entered from turning to drink so often.

Antithesis

Definition: contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence

Effect: to convey ideas more vividly, to convey ideas in different ways from the common words and expressions of daily life

Examples from “Terence”:

“Therefore, since the world has still / Much good, but much less good than ill” (4.1-2)

“Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure” (4.4)

Effect on the meaning of “Terence”: The antitheses used present binary opposites that further juxtapose Terence against his friends in terms of intelligence. The antitheses also paint a negative outlook on the world to justify Terence’s decision to turn to writing sad poetry.

Chiasmus

Definition: taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out, creating a criss-cross pattern

Effect: create a special artistic effect in order to lay emphasis on what writers want to communicate

Example from “Terence”: “But much less good than ill…And train for ill and not for good.” (4.2, 4.6)

Effect on the meaning of “Terence”: Presenting the “darker” of the binary opposites first emphasizes the futility in believing that goodness will always prevail and the wisdom in the decision to find an outlet to express through.

Consonance

Definition: repetition of consonant sounds

Effect: creates a rhyming effect, reiterates the significance of an idea or theme

Examples from “Terence”:

“Terence, this is stupid stuff: You eat your victuals fast enough” (1.1-2)

“Moping melancholy mad” (1.13)

“Livelier liquor than the Muse” (2.5)

“And easy, smiling, seasoned sound” (5.9)

Effect on the meaning of “Terence”: The softer consonances in Terence’s “dialogue,” juxtaposed with the harsher consonances of Terence’s friend’s words, further polarize Terence’s intelligence and his friends’ stupidity. Terence speaks smoothly and eloquently, like a poet should, and his friends are rowdy and rough.

Parallelism

Definition: similar patterns of grammatical structure and length

Effect: adds balance and rhythm, gives ideas a smoother flow, persuasive

Example from “Terence”:

“And left my necktie God knows where, And carried halfway home, or near” (2.15-16)

“And I myself a sterling lad; And down in lovely muck I’ve lain” (2.19-20)

Effect on the meaning of “Terence”:  The parallelism quickens the pace of this section and lends a tone of passion and urgency to Terence’s response.

10.   Literary Devices Thesis

In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” A.E. Houseman argues that writing sad poetry is the best outlet to express inner strife through an eloquent argument from Terence that utilizes anaphora, chiasmus, consonance and parallelism. The gracefulness of these syntax structures lend a melodic quality to Terence’s argument that is conspicuously absent in that of his friends’.

11.   Semantics vs Pragmatics

“And down in lovely muck I’ve lain” (2.20)

The semantic meaning of this phrase would be that Terence, the speaker here, literally laid down in the muck. The pragmatic meaning of the phrase would better illuminate Terence’s argument as a whole. A pragmatist would argue that this line emphasizes that everyone, Terence included, has experienced tragedy (the lovely muck) at some point, but different people deal with tragedy in different ways.

12.   Structure of Argument

Terence’s friends structure their argument deductively because they reach the specific conclusion that Terence’s poetry is stupid through general observations of tragedy. On the contrary, Terence uses logos, ethos, and pathos to structure his argument. He effectively uses logos by speaking in a way that is scholarly and eloquent. Ethos is used when Terence admits that he, too, has lain in the lovely muck, and knew that nothing remained to do but to “begin the game anew” (3.3). Pathos is used when Terence reflects more nostalgically and darkly on the perpetual evil lurking in the world, and how there are better ways than others to deal with the evil and sadness.