Things to Consider:

• Relation to Byron
• Figure of the Female/Artist
• Suicide and Honor
• History of Greece and Orientalism
• Images of the American Indian

• Which "young poet" does the editor mean is "fortunate" when describing Percy Shelley's frustrated attempt to begin a correspondence with Hemans? Explain.
• In what ways was Hemans' situation after her abandonment by her husband unique?

General Question:

• In her poetry, does Hemans subscribe to or critique/rebel against traditional gender roles/attitudes of her time? Explain.

• What does "Eudora" mean?  Why might this meaning be significant in the poem?
• Why does Eudora cry when she remembers her childhood?

• Explain:  "A changeful thing / Is the human heart, as a mountain spring" (77-78).

• How do the sentiments found in lines 125-32 compare with those found in Byron's  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto Three, stanza 21 (see p. 712)? Explain.
• Why have the pirates invaded the wedding celebration?

• Why has Eudora set the ship on fire?
• Why does she allow herself to die in the fire?

• Can any autobiographical connections be drawn to this work? Explain.
• Explain the epigraph.
• What exactly is this poem about?

• Explain the speaker's motivation in lines 9-13.

• Why has Rossi chosen Ariadne as the subject of her last piece?
• What parallels exist between her story and Rossi's?

• Explain lines 37-41.
• Explain:  "Yet all the vision that within me wrought, / I cannot make thee!" (61-62).

• Why does Rossi consider fame "worthless" (81)?  Does Hemans agree? Explain.

• How sympathetic is this portrayal of the woman's decision to commit suicide?

• How logical is her argument to take her daughter with her?
• Is this decision portrayed sympathetically? Explain.