Angel in the House, in the Living Room (part 2)

• Here are some scattered other quotes from The Angel in the House that I'm interested in but too lazy to talk about, roughly grouped by theme:

• Other kinds of knowledge. Her life, all honour, observed, with awe    Which cross experience could not mar, The fiction of the Christian law    That all men honourable are;
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 72  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 09:49 AM
  
  weirdly pious and cynical at once. is she wrong? is the role of the angel to promote helpful inspiring fictions? all victorian lit more ok with helpful fiction, deceit
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 72  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 09:50 AM
  
  or does she know the law is fiction. or is the idea that its fiction that its just men
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 71  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 09:51 AM
  
  or is the fiction just that only men are honorable
• The positive feedback loop of flattery. On wings of love uplifted free,    And by her gentleness made great, I'll teach how noble man should be    To match with such a lovely mate; And then in her may move the more    The woman's wish to be desired, (By praise increased), till both shall soar,    With blissful emulations fired. And, as geranium, pink, or rose    Is thrice itself through power of art,
  
  Her charms, perceived to prosper first    In his beloved advertencies, When in her glass they are rehearsed,    Prove his most powerful allies.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 684  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:30 PM
  
  this seems to be important. consciousness of their own beauty or of male gaze and admiration makes girls love guys more. how does this compare w other accounts.
  
  Why fly so fast? Her flatter'd breast    Thanks him who finds her fair and good; She loves her fears; veil'd joys arrest    The foolish terrors of her blood;
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 687  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:31 PM
  
  bella swan
  
  
  his praiseful words    The virtues they impute confer.
  
  Go on flattering, sir; A woman, like the Koh-i-noor,    Mounts to the price that's put on her.'
• related: weird mirror stuff
  At times, she cannot but confess Her other friends are somewhat blind;    Her parents' years excuse neglect, But all the rest are scarcely kind,    And brothers grossly want respect; And oft she views what he admires    Within her glass, and sight of this Makes all the sum of her desires    To be devotion unto his.
  
  III.—LAIS AND LUCRETIA. Did first his beauty wake her sighs?    That's Lais! Thus Lucretia's known: The beauty in her Lover's eyes    Was admiration of her own.
  
  Oh, how I wish I knew your fault,    For Love's tired gaze to rest upon! Your graces, which have made me great,    Will I so loftily admire, Yourself yourself shall emulate,    And be yourself your own desire. I'll nobly mirror you too fair,    And, when you're false to me your glass, What's wanting you'll by that repair,    So bring yourself through me to pass.
• Male friendship--a different doubling.
  Time was when either, in his friend,    His own deserts with joy admired; We took one side in school-debate,    Like hopes pursued with equal thirst, Were even-bracketed by Fate,    Twin-Wranglers, seventh from the First;
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 1210  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:41 PM
  
  doubling of male friends replaced w het mirroring. like het answer to in memoriam
• Separate spheres. That nuptial contrasts are the poles    On which the heavenly spheres revolve.
  The spheres are separate, but the whole world revolves around heterosexual marriage and domestic life! Whoa. The hand that rocks the cradle, man.
  Also, "The Comparison":
  Or, if his suit with Heaven prevails    To righteous life, his virtuous deeds Lack beauty, virtue's badge; she fails    More graciously than he succeeds.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Highlight Loc. 274-75  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 12:09 PM
  
  He's never young nor ripe; she grows    More infantine, auroral, mild, And still the more she lives and knows    The lovelier she's express'd a child.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Highlight Loc. 277-78  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 12:10 PM
  
  Or say she wants the patient brain    To track shy truth; her facile wit At that which he hunts down with pain    Flies straight, and does exactly hit.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Highlight Loc. 280-81  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 12:10 PM
  
  For love is substance, truth the form;    Truth without love were less than nought; But blindest love is sweet and warm,    And full of truth not shaped by thought,
  
  His words, which still instruct, but so    That this applause seems still implied, 'How wise in all she ought to know,    How ignorant of all beside!'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 828  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 06:18 PM
  
  gross
  
  What seems to say her rosy mouth?    'I'm not convinced by proofs but signs.'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 953  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 06:35 PM
  
  seeming important. the subjective. are signs seeming. whereas proof is?
  
  There's nothing left of what she was;    Back to the babe the woman dies, And all the wisdom that she has    Is to love him for being wise.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 1143  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:22 PM
  
  radical reformation of character. also innocence in marriage like freedom. kind of a paradox
  
  The indignity of taking gifts    Exhilarates her loving breast; A rapture of submission lifts    Her life into celestial rest;
  
  Perchance, when all her praise is said,    He tells the news, a battle won, On either side ten thousand dead.    'Alas!' she says; but, if 'twere known, She thinks, 'He's looking on my face!    I am his joy; whate'er I do, He sees such time-contenting grace    In that, he'd have me always so!'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 1147  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:24 PM
  
  see prins and jackson and aurora leigh on women and the general vs particular
  
  Her secret (privilege of the Bard,    Whose fancy is of either sex), Is mine; but let the darkness guard    Myst'ries that light would more perplex!
  
  'Be man's hard virtues highly wrought,    But let my gentle Mistress be, In every look, word, deed, and thought,    Nothing but sweet and womanly!
• But not a double standard: Who is the happy husband? He    Who, scanning his unwedded life, Thanks Heaven, with a conscience free,    'Twas faithful to his future wife.
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• Subjectivity of love. He meets, by heavenly chance express,    The destined maid; seine hidden hand Unveils to him that loveliness    Which others cannot understand.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 161  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 10:36 AM
  
  particular to this poem, victorians in general: the subjectivity & therefore the wide availability of love. we're not all competing for helen. there is a special girl for us all
  
  Say, how has thy Beloved surpass'd    So much all others?' 'She was mine.'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 1101  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:13 PM
  
  subjectivity and possession. but not uniqueness.
  
  'Tis that which all right women are,    But which I'll know in none but her.
• Love as a Virtue. Strong passions mean weak will, and he    Who truly knows the strength and bliss Which are in love, will own with me    No passion but a virtue 'tis.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 176  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 10:41 AM
  
  this is actually radical post c18. but wd any victorians disagree at this point.
• Honoria's cousin Frederick. The only real rival for Honoria's affections, but he's not much of a rival at all. She's pretty much not interested in him from the beginning. POV questions about this section:
  She was all mildness; yet 'twas writ    In all her grace, most legibly, 'He that's for heaven itself unfit,    Let him not hope to merit me.'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 199  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 10:48 AM
  
  do these messages come from her. or are they superimpositions or misreadings
• Professions Vs Poets. Saw many, and vanquish'd all I saw Of her unnumber'd cousin-kind,    In Navy, Army, Church, and Law;
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 209  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 10:49 AM
  
  medieval knight dream. also poet vs the professions. who is the best husband
• Purity/Milton. And still with favour singled out,    Marr'd less than man by mortal fall,
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 216  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 10:52 AM
  
  interesting. milton would not agree, right? very anti tradition, unless marred less mean there was less to mar
  
  And all, by this their power to give,    Proving her right to take, proclaim Her beauty's clear prerogative    To profit so by Eden's blame.
• Fallen women: Behold the worst! Light from above    On the blank ruin writes 'Forbear! Her first crime was unguarded love,    And all the rest, perhaps, despair.'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 608  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:13 PM
  
  classic victorian apology for sexual fall. are they more sympathetic than earlier periods bc theyve invented love. or is the sympathy a reaction to how harsh they are. probably just a symptom of sentimentality plus reform mindedness. woman question
  
  
  
     And doubt not but our God is just, Albeit unscathed thy traitor goes,    And thou art stricken to the dust. That penalty's the best to bear    Which follows soonest on the sin; And guilt's a game where losers fare    Better than those who seem to win.
• Tension between writing about humble human experience vs. not writing smut.
  How vilely 'twere to misdeserve    The poet's gift of perfect speech, In song to try, with trembling nerve,    The limit of its utmost reach, Only to sound the wretched praise    Of what to-morrow shall not be; So mocking with immortal bays    The cross-bones of mortality! I do not thus. My faith is fast    That all the loveliness I sing Is made to bear the mortal blast,    And blossom in a better Spring.
  
  How long shall men deny the flower    Because its roots are in the earth, And crave with tears from God the dower    They have, and have despised as dearth,
• Earthly vs heavenly love.
  That other doubt, which, like a ghost,    In the brain's darkness haunted me, Was thus resolved: Him loved I most,    But her I loved most sensibly.
  
  I saw three Cupids (so I dream'd),    Who made three kites, on which were drawn, In letters that like roses gleam'd,    'Plato,' 'Anacreon,' and 'Vaughan.' The
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 769  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 05:56 PM
  
  weird
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 773  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 06:02 PM
  
  vaughan is the perfect love poet. i guess this is a pretty typically victorian understanding of material vs ideal balance. they're materialists who think the material leads into or embodies the ideal. you can only achieve the ideal thru the material, the local, the specific? see mrs jellyby. but if you are interested in the material only for itself you are bad
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  heaven will still allow memory of marriage. importance of worldly things asserted;
  
  And, if the world's not built of lies,    Nor all a cheat the Gospel tells, If that which from the dead shall rise    Be I indeed, not something else, There's no position more secure    In reason or in faith than this, That those conditions must endure,    Which, wanting, I myself should miss.
  
  
• Clouds. lots of stuff about clouds. explaining and justifying womens irrational side?
•  The everyday/the trivial. She led me; and we laugh'd and talk'd,    And praised the Flower-show and the Ball; And Mildred's pinks had gain'd the Prize;    And, stepping like the light-foot fawn, She brought me 'Wiltshire Butterflies,'    The Prize-book; then we paced the lawn,
  
  Not in the crises of events,    Of compass'd hopes, or fears fulfill'd, Or acts of gravest consequence,    Are life's delight and depth reveal'd. The day of days was not the day;    That went before, or was postponed; The night Death took our lamp away    Was not the night on which we groan'd. I drew my bride, beneath the moon,    Across my threshold; happy hour! But, ah, the walk that afternoon    We saw the water-flags in flower!
  
  Is nature in thee too spiritless,    Ignoble, impotent, and dead, To prize her love and loveliness    The more for being thy daily bread? [also this is about marriage not courtship]
• The Petrarch he gives her. It's really valuable but he doesn't care.
• Guy's class location. And with the accustom'd compliment    Of talk, and beef, and frothing beer, I, my own steward, took my rent,    Three hundred pounds for half the year; Our witnesses the Cook and Groom,    We sign'd the lease for seven years more,
• Life-in-life. She sees, and yet she scarcely sees,    For, life-in-life not yet begun, Too many are its mysteries    For thought to fix on any one.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 667  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:27 PM
  
  what is life in life. sex. motherhood
• Feminizing of male lover.
  Ah, grief that almost crushes life,    To lie upon his lonely bed, And fancy her another's wife!
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 699  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:35 PM
  
  lots of boys lying on beds feeling frustrated. ha ha
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Highlight Loc. 701-2  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:35 PM
  
  He wakes renew'd for all the smart.    His only Love, and she is wed! His fondness comes about his heart,    As milk comes, when the babe is dead.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 702  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:37 PM
  
  whoa. so this feminizing of the male lover is explicit!! also he is like the mom of the girl bc he nurtures her, devlops her personality. crazy nursing boyfriend
• weird vulnerability of girl once she's accepted lover. Earlier he talked about her being fleeing prey; now when she's accepted him:
  My queen was crouching at my side,    By love unsceptred and brought low, Her awful garb of maiden pride    All melted into tears like snow;
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 728  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:42 PM
  
  abjection kinda
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Highlight Loc. 730-31  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:43 PM
  
  Her soul, which late I loved to invest    With pity for my poor desert, Buried its face within my breast,    Like a pet fawn by hunters hurt.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 731  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 03:43 PM
  
  this section has some intense stuff. lovers consciousness of his power
• Marriage and property. Nay, could eternal life afford    That tyranny should thus deduct From this fair land, which call'd me lord,    A year of the sweet usufruct?
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 887  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 06:26 PM
  
  legal real estate terms. living off income of love. body. is it usufruct to marry someone
• Women's voices embedded in text. The sister's poems. Honoria's letters.
  'I found your note. How very kind    To leave it there! I cannot tell How pleased I was, or how you find    Words to express your thoughts so well. The Girls are going to the Ball    At Wilton. If you can, DO come; And any day this week you call    Papa and I shall be at home.
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 1082  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:09 PM
  
  girls letters are chattier. see amours de voyage
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Highlight Loc. 1088-90  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:10 PM
  
  Adieu! I am not well. Last night    My dreams were wild: I often woke, The summer-lightning was so bright;    And when it flash'd I thought you spoke.'
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  Angel in the House (Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore)
  - Note Loc. 1090  | Added on Monday, July 11, 2011, 07:11 PM
  
  but though chattier it's more vivid and so more poetical! remember versifying sister. think about women's writing embedded in text
• Cynicism in epigrams: 'I saw you take his kiss!' ''Tis true.'    'O, modesty!' ''Twas strictly kept: He thought me asleep; at least, I knew    He thought I thought he thought I slept.'