A Grammarian's Funeral Edit 0 0 2 … First Published 1855, in Men and Women.

- About an early Renaissance scholar dedicated to Greek language- The grammarian removes himself from worldly pleasure. He excludes joy, aesthetic pleasure and love from his narrow world view. - Whilst the grammarian is respected and achieves a following in the students who carry his coffin up the mountain, none of them exactly want to copy his lifestyle.- The student, who is carrying his master’s corpse up the mountain defends the dead grammarian’s idealistic dedication to knowledge, and faith in a future life.]- The moments of the poem in brackets represent the present journey up the mountain. The rest of the poem is a reflection on the grammarian’s life and beliefs- There is a conflict between the grammarian’s devotion to his work and his religious faith. Equally, as it is unclear what his reward will be for his studious and austere outlook if there is not an afterlife.- Like the grammarian, Browning continued to find Christianity compelling throughout his life, though he did have doubts about his faith in his youth.- No model for this dramatic persona has been identified.- This is perhaps some of the harshest sounding and laborious verse ever written by Browning.- A grotesque combination of opposites: soaring idealism vs. harsh or petty realities.- In a letter to Tennyson in 1863, Browning said that he wanted the grammarian to have been working on ‘the biggest of littlenesses’.Points for consideration

- If the grammarian’s purpose is to be remembered in academic circles, does he achieve it?- What conflict of priorities does the dead grammarian embody?- What questions does his death make funeral goers ask themselves?- From what you know of Browning’s own attitudes and actions would he have sympathised with the grammarian’s decision “not to Live but Know” (l. 139)?- What is the problem with the grammarian’s intelligent arguments if there is no afterlife? - Can we be sure that the central character is a hero, or is he merely a fool?

Poems for comparison

- The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed’s Church – burial customs- Pictor Ignotus – being forgotten, producing insignificant work- Apparent Failure – the frailty of the human body- The Lost Leader – failure to live up to idealistic expectations

"A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL" describes the rendering of the last honours toone whose life has consumed itself in the pursuit of knowledge. Theknowledge pursued has been pedantic and minute, but for him itrepresented a mighty truth; and he has refused to live, in the world'ssense, till he had mastered that truth, co-extensive, as he believed it,with life everlasting. Like Sordello, though in a different way, hewould KNOW before he allowed himself to BE. He would realize the Whole;he would not discount it. His disciples are bearing him to amountain-top, that the loftiness of his endeavour may be symbolized byhis last resting-place. He is to lie

"where meteors shoot, clouds form, Lightnings are loosened." (vol. v. p. 159.)

where the new morning for which he waited will figuratively first breakupon him.

Introduction

Robert Browning’s A Grammarian’s Funeral is a dramatic monologue set in shortly after the renaissance in Europe. It is a mourning poem sung by a disciple of a noble grammarian, who passed away after spending whole of life in learning new things. The poem is about the life history of the grammarian as seen by the disciple. It is in the form of a movement from plains to the hilltop, where they plan to burry the grammarian. They walk in darkness towards the mountain and during the walk the grammarian’s disciple sketches (says) the biography and the achievements of his master.

Choice of Place/The Right Place

The grammarian’s disciples decide to bury their master’s corpse in the mountain. They feel that plains are meant for uncouth people. They wish their master should be buried in the mountain where there is culture and learning. They mountain here represents greatness and higher thoughts. It is a place where the sun shines first and later it passes down. The grammarian is not an ordinary man to be buried along with the ignorant, illiterates. Therefore, they decide to bury him in the mountain. As they walk, they find the rest of the village people fast asleep, in the darkness – under ignorance.

They say that the life of the ordinary people is like night and the grammarian’s life is like morning. As climb up they see many peaks and the disciple chooses one peak, which has some light at its top. The light is not a natural one but it comes from a place there. They decide to bury the grammarian there. As they walk, the disciple ask others, who carry the grammarian, to lift their heads and chest up, so that the dead grammarian gets due respect before the onlookers.

The Grammarian’s Young Age

The grammarian spent all his young age reading and gaining knowledge. He was interested in knowing the mystery of world and human life. During his young age, he kept reading voraciously so that soon he became old. On becoming old, he did not get lazy and unenergetic, but he kept reading his books and understanding life. If it had been other men, they would have said no to their studies, but the grammarian kept reading books. Even in his old age, he wanted to know the views of poets and other great scholars.

As he grew old, his eyes lost its power and his body became very weak. If it had been an ordinary man, then he would have stopped reading and started enjoying life but the grammarian did not enjoy life. He believed in enjoying life after death (the eternal life). He kept reading books, without a stop. After reading books, he wished to read the commentaries and criticism of some books. He wished to read until the last minute of his life.

The grammarian saw life not as parts but as a whole. He believed that life is of parts that give rise to whole. To explain this, the poet uses the image of constructing a building. He says that before building a house one has to draw its parts and then only they have to build. Similarly, the grammarian believed that to live a happy one must strive (work) hard at the early stage or young age. The grammarian before beginning to live his life planned for his life. The grammarian fully believed in God and thereby he planned for his happy life, after death. Ordinary men would say that time keeps moving and they would start enjoying their life but the grammarian believed in life after death and in the concept that soul has no end. He also says that human beings should prepare for their life after death. The present life and enjoyment of life is meant for lower animals and not for human beings. He says that only animals believe in present and enjoying life.

His belief in God and life after death made him study book after book, without getting tired. As he grew older and older, his eyes became dim like a lead. His physic became weaker and weaker. His disciples, along with the diseases, would advice him not to keep reading books. However, the grammarian kept reading with more enthusiasm and energy. One could not separate learning from the grammarian. Ordinary man drinks water when he is thirsty. The grammarian drinks knowledge, like a dragon. His thirst is said as a mighty thirst, a bigger thirst, a noble thirst.

Like ordinary human beings, the grammarian did not mind about cheap and petty ambitions. He was not narrow in his thoughts. He did have small ambitions. He did not draw a small circle around him. Only ordinary men would believe in short gains and profits and they would lose the bargain during the Judgment day. Ordinary people aim for a small profit and they achieve it in their life, but they are miserable failures in their eternal life. The grammarian looked for life beyond death. His ambitions are larger than life size. He aimed at a million. During his life on earth, he did not fulfill one percent of his ambition, but still he was happy and sure of a better life after death. For him, death is a preparation of life. He solely believed upon God.

The grammarian was interested in learning even in his deathbed. Though his voice was feeble and incoherent he explained his disciples the parts of speech and the correct usage of Greek words like hoti (because), oun (therefore) and right usage of the prefix ‘De-’. He explained the rules of Greek grammar, even when his body was partly paralyzed.

As they come and reach the hilltop, they choose a place filled with lots of birds like swallows and curfews. The disciple says that the grammarian flew in the sky like the birds. The disciple once again says that common people should live in the plains and this place is meant for the grammarian. He describes the qualities of the highest peak. He considers it as the place where the sun rises, the stars shoot into the sky, the lightning loosens itself, the clouds form and the birds haunt. It is a place of grandness that suits the grand man, the grammarian. Therefore, they all decide to stop (halt) and bury the grammarian there.

Conclusion

As the funeral procession proceeds, we could see the disciple giving instructions to the persons who come along with him. He gives them signals about the winding path and the way they should walk to avoid inconveniences. On the whole, the poem is yet another best dramatic monologue of Robert Browning, expressing his philosophy of life and skill of describing nature at its best.

Robert Browning is one of my most favorite poets in English literature. This is a touching poem reflecting Browning’s admiration for Renaissance spirit. I studied this poem in the third year in university and I was deeply moved with this poem. This is one of the poems that has become a part of my life. It’s not that I recite it a lot or even read it a lot but I think of the poem ‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ a lot. Today, out of curiosity, I searched about it in Google and found very little discussion about it. Well, it disappointed me some as I expected that there would be a lot of discussion about the poem in Internet.

The poem opens a grave note:

Let us begin and carry up this corpse,

Singing together.

Leave we the common crofts, the vulgar thorpes

Each in its tether

Sleeping safe on the bosom of the plain,

Cared-for till cock-crow:

The students of the Grammarian are carrying his dead body and they are going to bury him on the hill. Well, they are not students but they are the disciples of the Grammarian. They respected the Grammarian despite the fact that he was not rich. This is interesting to me. Teachers are respected in all the ages although they don’t have a lot of wealth. Their wealth is their knowledge and with their knowledge, they can teach their students new things.

Another thing that attracts me of the poem ‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ is the fact that the Grammarian did not study anything that could make him rich. I mean he studied humanities not science or commerce. In our own age, studying humanities (or Arts) is not a cool thing in

many parts of the world. The money is in science and in commerce. So, most students and their parents tend to neglect the subjects of humanities.

Now, take a look at the next few lines of the poem:

Look out if yonder be not day again

Rimming the rock-row!

That's the appropriate country; there, man's thought,

Rarer, intenser,

Self-gathered for an outbreak, as it ought,

Chafes in the censer.

Here, we can see a distinction drawn between ordinary people and the grammarian. The grammarian was a man of noble sprit and virtue and his place is surely not with the ordinary people. He was higher than others because he dedicated his life for knowledge. In our age, acquiring knowledge is a good thing. You can become rich and famous and even powerful and respectable with knowledge but at that time, there was hardly anything to gain by dedicating a life for knowledge. There was no research grant, no publishing deal or scholarship or teaching position for people like the grammarian. He does not mind the limitations and obstacles in life. He just knows that he has a mission in life and that is acquiring and imparting knowledge. It is mission, passion and perhaps religion. There is a sense of fulfillment through knowledge.

i understand your point that the Grammarian feels a sense of accomplishment for his pain staking work, but surely Browning is not trying to admire this character but chastise his narrow-mindedness. We get the sense that the teacher had not infact achieved anything of importance when the pupil, despite trying to praise his teacher, accidently points out the flaws of the Grammarian's life saying, " ...youth was gone!" and similarly, "Oh, such a life as he resolved to live, when he had learned it, when he had gathered all books had to give!" In my opinion, the Grammarian was not so much a valiant and noble man as you perhaps suggested, but more someone who prepared for life without knowing how to live. Therefore, although the speaker talks in an admirable way of his teacher, i think Browning is subtly mocking his finicky ways.

‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’ was written shortly after the revival of learning in Europe. It is a description of the funeral procession of a great scholar who spent the later years of his life in the study of Greek grammar. It is in the form of a dramatic monologue-the speaker is a member of the funeral procession and in his speech, he gives high praise to his late master, the grammarian, for his great thirst for knowledge and his firm determination to complete his task in the midst of the infirmities of old age and the severe handicaps of illness.“Look out if yonder be not day again Rimming the rock-row. That’s the appropriate country; there man’s thought, Rarer, intenser, Self-gathered for an outbreak, as it ought, Chafes in the censer.” The highland ‘rock-row’ is a symbol of high purpose, because where there is purpose, because where there is purpose, man’s thoughts will struggle to break away from all restraints (‘chafes in the censer’) and to

ascend to higher levels (rarer, intenser)- just as the air becomes keener and rarer as one goes higher.We learn from the speaker that the grammarian was a gifted man but had wasted his youth. In the winter of old age, he suddenly woke up to the fact that he had accomplished nothing. He therefore made a strong resolution to devote the remaining years of his life to studies. He put on the gown of a scholar and resolved to master his subject-Greek grammar-without caring for the difficulties he would have to face. “How should spring take note Winter would follow? How can anyone in his youth ever think that old age will follow? “New measures, other feet anon; My dance is finished?” In his old age, the movement of life has slowed down and his question is, is his activity now over? “Theirs, who most studied man, bard and sage”; reference to the humanist, the poets and learned men of the Renaissance, whose study centered on man. The grammarian’s in Browning’s poem is thus a true embodiment of the Renaissance spirit with his unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and his eagerness and enthusiasm in the pursuit of it.“That before living he’d learn how to live”; through his books, he would understand the meaning and purpose of life. “What’s time? Leave Now for dogs and apes; Man has Forever”; unlike the beast’s life, man’s life is not limited to this world, because he is concerned with the greater goal of eternity. “Oh, if we draw a circle premature, Heedless of far gain, Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure, Bad is our bargain. Was it not great? Did not he throw on God, (He loves the burthen)-God’s task to make the Heavenly period Perfect the earthen?” It is not wise to be impatient to obtain an early reward in this life, but we should patiently work for the perfect reward which will be given by God in Heaven. “That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it: This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one, His hundred’s soon hit: This high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit”; a man with low ideals will quickly fulfill them, but for a man of very high ideals, like the grammarian, this life is too short for him to fulfill them; however, his high aim makes him infinitely greater than the low man. “Hoti-Oun-De”; the three Greek articles which present difficulty to students of Greek grammar. “Enclitic”; word dependent for its stress on the preceding word. The speaker then explains that it is not proper to bury their master in the plain, because the plain land is a symbol of the common man’s intellectual ignorance and backwardness, and of a lack of ambition. The chosen site, the mountain peak, on the other hand, is a symbol of the grammarian’s life, marked by lofty ideas, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a strong, unwavering spirit that overcame all obstacles.

Robert Browning’s “A Grammarian’s Funeral,” subtitled “Shortly After the Revival of Learning in Europe,” is a funeral elegy in four stanzas. It is written in the first-person plural, suggesting either a group or a single person speaking for a group. It is important to bear in mind the distance between the speaking persona of the poem and the poet himself; throughout “A Grammarian’s Funeral,” Browning is careful to include elements that make the reader question the objectivity and accuracy of the speaker’s (or speakers’) observations.

Is it merely coincidence that three essays from the relatively small cluster of discussions dealing with "A Grammarian's Funeral" use questions in their titles? Or is there something about the poem that is subtly disturbing, tantalizingly dubious? Ever since Richard D. Altick

proposed that the poem might be a mock encomium, in the tradition of Erasmus' Praise of Folly, there has been a nagging sense that here too a straightforward reading misses Browning's characteristic irony. Most recently, A. D. Nuttall has taken, or rather mis-taken, those complexities as a confusing failure by the poet:

When Browning is in command of his antithesis the poem is strong; when he cannot decide what kind of knower we are to wonder at it is weak. An immediate consequence is that the reader is less moved than he or she would otherwise have been. I think that Browning knew that something was wrong. (p. 97)

While the judgment about the garbling of the tone and the message is valid, the blame should be placed on the fictional narrator, not on Browning. The mistake is easy to fall into if one begins with the assumption that the poem is an expression of Browning's unequivocal admiration for the heroic grammarian. At the root of Nuttall's misreading is an allegiance to the view that Browning spoke in his own voice to praise the grammarian-scholar.

Many critics have held similar opinions. In turn, such views have sought validation through identifying the historical model for the ideal grammarian. Various prototypes have been suggested: Thomas Linacre; Jacobus Milichius; Isaac Casaubon; Greek scholars such as Theodorus Gaza, Argyropoulos, Demetrius Chalcondyles, and Janus Lascarius; Philip Charles Buttmann; Didymus Chalcenteros; and even Socrates. Yet no one, to the best of my knowledge, has attempted to align Browning's grammarian with one of the most remarkable literary depictions of a grammarian, namely that of Brunetto Latini in Canto XV of Dante's Inferno. There is no need to review the evidence for Browning's undisputed familiarity with Dante's works. Browning had used the tactic of appropriating a character from Dante in the expansion of Sordello from the Purgatorio. "A Grammarian's Funeral" is dated to the mid 1850s and "was probably written after Browning's return to Florence" (DeVane, p. 270). It is quite plausible that a sojourn in Dante's home city had returned him to the forefront of Browning's concerns at the time.

The connection to Canto XV of the Inferno has important consequences for understanding Browning's intentions. As will become apparent, the grammarian is properly situated in Men and Women beside figures such as Fra Lippo Lippi and Andrea del Sarto, caught between the demands of the mind and the needs of the body. The allusion to Brunetto Latini entails consideration of the themes of love and gender that predominate throughout Men and Women but have been neglected in "A Grammarian's Funeral." What Roma King has said about those figures generally will apply to the grammarian as well:

Browning treats love as many things and from many points of view. Most of his lovers, however, are frustrated and unhappy, their vision of an ideal love a tantalizing dream which only intensifies the pain of their unfulfilled longings.

At the end, the tormented grammarian emerges as a tragic figure who deserves more pity than admiration.

In order to follow Browning's argument, it is first necessary to present the case of Brunetto Latini in some detail. Like Browning's grammarian, Brunetto is no longer alive when readers encounter him in Dante's text. And, like the grammarian, he is on the move despite being

dead. The Pilgrim-Poet and Virgil are passing through an especially desolate region when they encounter the sodomites running across the plain. One of...