A Farewell

A last goodbye breathes promise of a merry meeting.

1858

Introduction

A dying parent gives one last piece of advice to a beloved daughter.

MY fairest child, I have no song to give you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and grey;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
For every day.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.

by Charles Kingsley 1819-75

Charles Kingsley (1819-75)

Précis

Kingsley writes in the person of a loving parent who, at the point of leaving the world, gives his daughter one last word of advice: to be good, not simply in wish but in deed. That will turn their parting’s brief sorrow into an eternal joy in reunion.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

A Farewell

Introduction

Précis

Questions for Critics

Tags

Read Next