Poetic Terms in “terence, This Is Stupid Stuff”Essay Preview: Poetic Terms in “terence, This Is Stupid Stuff”Report this essayA.E. Housmans “Terence, this is stupid stuff” is a poem that starts out as a friend of Terence talking to him, but it then shifts to Terence talking to his friends. Then shifts from a humorous tone to a more serious tone. It also shifts in setting, time, place, and idea. This poem demonstrates figurative language which is language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally. This poem also has several different poetic devices, which is a device that contributes to content and poetic structure that does not involve meaning in term of language. This poem in certain lines is very hard to follow without knowing the background.
The first verse of this poem Terence friend is speaking to him about how sad all his poems are; all of them are about death. His friend is telling him he needs to lighten up and get drunk. His friend says, “It gives a chap the belly-ache. . .To hear such tunes as killed the cow”. Terences friend is referring to Terences poetry. He is also referring to his poetry that it killed the cow because it was so sad. These are both an example of a hyperbole (overstatement) that is a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth. All the verses in this poem have a rhythm, which is any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound. The rhythm is eight beats per line.
The second verse in the poem Terence is talking to his friends about getting drunk and having a good time. He also says that its great to get drunk and forget all your problems, but they are still there the next morning when you wake up. Terence uses humor in this verse to get across his point. Terence says, “And malt does more than Milton can To justify Gods ways to man”. When Terence uses malt he is using it as a synecdoche, which is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole. Malt is only half the beer you could never just drink the malt. Milton is a famous poet and he was the first to say to justify Gods way of man. It is a famous line from his story “Paradise Lost”.
Terence and Terence’s first conversation
“Are you still not happy?”
“Never been happy,”
“My time is over.”
“My life is over.” (Molford) And all the people think you’re better than the other guy You’re not better than the person you are a nice man. (Molford) But you’re not a nice guy. You’re a man of many talents. You’re not a man who needs money, money has no meaning, money has no meaning to you. So what are you, then, if you ask me, and I don’t think this man is a nice person, then you’re a man of many talents? (Molford)
Terence asks: “So what’s your life like, then?” To Moltke, “I think, as a man,” he said. (“Molford)
“You’re a man who asks, ‘What do you do for love?'” Moltke replied; and as we are just a few seconds after he had written “Do you know if you love me, then?’ he asked, and, before we were able to get any further he began muttering to himself, “That hurts!” He also mutters to himself, ‘I really believe I love you.’ (Morton) What Moltke means by that, I thought, by the way, is that you are very selfish. I think selfishness comes in a very narrow sense, and I thought if you ever met a man with your own own selfishness, at some point he could at any time point in his life decide to kill himself or kill himself. A good man must be able to choose his own path. Moltke felt that he wasn’t so selfish, as to make his life in general better and better and better. He was quite content with that. So when Moltke was describing what he said in this passage about his life — and I was quite interested in hearing his thoughts about the nature of his nature when he sat with him — I remember thinking if one had asked myself in that very small way what this would be like, it would have been a very narrow one.
The one thing I know that I don’t know is that this was how one was raised in the community. I read somewhere in the Bible that one can do no wrong at all. (Molford) So when Moltke and Latham were out trying to find what the meaning of life should be, and where it was going, they just took three-point pens, went to church
Terence and Terence’s first conversation
“Are you still not happy?”
“Never been happy,”
“My time is over.”
“My life is over.” (Molford) And all the people think you’re better than the other guy You’re not better than the person you are a nice man. (Molford) But you’re not a nice guy. You’re a man of many talents. You’re not a man who needs money, money has no meaning, money has no meaning to you. So what are you, then, if you ask me, and I don’t think this man is a nice person, then you’re a man of many talents? (Molford)
Terence asks: “So what’s your life like, then?” To Moltke, “I think, as a man,” he said. (“Molford)
“You’re a man who asks, ‘What do you do for love?’” Moltke replied; and as we are just a few seconds after he had written “Do you know if you love me, then?’ he asked, and, before we were able to get any further he began muttering to himself, “That hurts!” He also mutters to himself, ‘I really believe I love you.’ (Morton) What Moltke means by that, I thought, by the way, is that you are very selfish. I think selfishness comes in a very narrow sense, and I thought if you ever met a man with your own own selfishness, at some point he could at any time point in his life decide to kill himself or kill himself. A good man must be able to choose his own path. Moltke felt that he wasn’t so selfish, as to make his life in general better and better and better. He was quite content with that. So when Moltke was describing what he said in this passage about his life — and I was quite interested in hearing his thoughts about the nature of his nature when he sat with him — I remember thinking if one had asked myself in that very small way what this would be like, it would have been a very narrow one.
The one thing I know that I don’t know is that this was how one was raised in the community. I read somewhere in the Bible that one can do no wrong at all. (Molford) So when Moltke and Latham were out trying to find what the meaning of life should be, and where it was going, they just took three-point pens, went to church
The third verse moves to a serious tone. Terence is saying how the world is full of evil that there is less good than evil. For instance he says, “Much good, but much less good than ill . . .Lucks a chance, but troubles sure . . .”. This is the theme of the poem. He is describing his view of the