Browning
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
Posted on February 18, 2013 by Bryan Scalici
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
I would like to comment on how Browning characterizes Roland’s past in “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”. As he travels the ridiculously bleak landscape leading to the Dark Tower, the only living thing he encounters is an emaciated demon horse. Roland, already downtrodden by the setting, sees this horse and feels simultaneous pity and hatred, and comes to point where he needs to take a step back and regain some perspective. Stanza 15 reads, “As a man calls for wine before he fights,/ I asked one draught of earlier, happier sights,/ Ere fitly I could hope to play my part” In the face of overwhelming darkness, Roland recalls his past as a distraction and a motivation. He remembers two friends, Cuthbert and Giles. He remembers Cuthbert first, almost until he becomes real, but then, “Alas, one night’s disgrace!/ Out went my heart’s new fire and left it cold.” He tries again to stir up the memory of his friend Giles, saying he was “the soul of honour” and “what honest man should dare (he said) he durst.” But again his reverie is destroyed, as, “the scene shifts-faugh!…/…/ Poor traitor, spit upon and cursed.” Both memories start off fondly, but we then learn that they ended tragically. This is, however, the strength Roland needs to carry on. He says, “Better this present than a past like that;/ Back therefore to my darkening path again!”
At the end of the poem we learn that Roland is the last knight of several that have quested for the Dark Tower. He alone is succeeding, but his lack of failure is the only thing that distinguishes him from the others. He seems to be guided by luck or fate; he isn’t characterized as particularly skillful or driven, he has merely stayed the course and not yet been derailed. At the end of the poem, with the Dark Tower in sight, all of his fallen comrades surround him. Here, Browning creates a combination of past
Posted on February 18, 2013 by Bryan Scalici
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
I would like to comment on how Browning characterizes Roland’s past in “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”. As he travels the ridiculously bleak landscape leading to the Dark Tower, the only living thing he encounters is an emaciated demon horse. Roland, already downtrodden by the setting, sees this horse and feels simultaneous pity and hatred, and comes to point where he needs to take a step back and regain some perspective. Stanza 15 reads, “As a man calls for wine before he fights,/ I asked one draught of earlier, happier sights,/ Ere fitly I could hope to play my part” In the face of overwhelming darkness, Roland recalls his past as a distraction and a motivation. He remembers two friends, Cuthbert and Giles. He remembers Cuthbert first, almost until he becomes real, but then, “Alas, one night’s disgrace!/ Out went my heart’s new fire and left it cold.” He tries again to stir up the memory of his friend Giles, saying he was “the soul of honour” and “what honest man should dare (he said) he durst.” But again his reverie is destroyed, as, “the scene shifts-faugh!…/…/ Poor traitor, spit upon and cursed.” Both memories start off fondly, but we then learn that they ended tragically. This is, however, the strength Roland needs to carry on. He says, “Better this present than a past like that;/ Back therefore to my darkening path again!”
At the end of the poem we learn that Roland is the last knight of several that have quested for the Dark Tower. He alone is succeeding, but his lack of failure is the only thing that distinguishes him from the others. He seems to be guided by luck or fate; he isn’t characterized as particularly skillful or driven, he has merely stayed the course and not yet been derailed. At the end of the poem, with the Dark Tower in sight, all of his fallen comrades surround him. Here, Browning creates a combination of past