PASSAGE 2 (QUESTIONS 13-28) This lecture breaks down De Quincey’s writing as excerpted on the 2001 AP English Language and
Composition Exam. Use these notes to identify the dichotomy in the passage (literature of knowledge
vs.​
literature of power); to trace each subsequent idea to its proper side of the classification; to
understand each qualifying part of the two definitions; to see the way parallel structures connect
ideas, to utilize parts of speech (e.g., the adverbs “[r]emotely” and “proximately”) to help anchor the
reading; and to describe, building on De Quincey’s argument, the two kinds of literature as ​
we
experience them.
The central skill here is the speedy parsing of complicated sentences to get to their core meanings.
To help, we’ll use some coding:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Clauses and phrases that clarify the idea of ​
literature of knowledge​
are bolded and in
red ink.
Clauses and phrases that clarify the idea of ​
literature of power​
are bolded and in blue
ink.
Language that connects or moves us between ideas (language of intra¶ arrangement) is
bolded in black ink.
The subject and predicate of some sentences are underlined for clarification.
My notes are bulleted, with the expectation that you use them to create the necessary
understanding. De Quincey’s prose is a slightly larger font.
The Poetry of Pope
by Thomas De Quincey
But ​
a far more important correction​
, applicable to the common vague idea of
literature, ​
is to be sought​
,​
not so much in a better definition of literature, ​
as in
a sharper distinction of the two functions which it fulfils.
▸ S= “correction”
▸ Modified into “a far more important correction”; modified further into “a far more
important correction [that applies] to the common vague idea of literature”
▸ “more important” gives a relationship; “not so much in” links it; together, they yield
that this is more important than seeking “a better definition of literature”
▸ V = “is to be sought”
▸ Modified into “is to be sought… in a sharper distinction of the two functions which
[literature] fulfils”
▸ I.e., ​
it is more important to understand the two functions of literature than to seek a
better definition
2001 AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM PASSAGE 2 (QUESTIONS 13-28) In that great social organ which, collectively, we call literature, there ​
may be
distinguished two separate ​
offices​
,​
that may blend and often ​
do so, ​
but capable,
severally, of a severe insulation, ​
and​
naturally fitted for reciprocal repulsion.
▸ S = “office,” or “two separate offices”
▸ V = “may be distinguished”
▸ Modified with ​
where (“in that great social organ… we call literature”); then modified
with descriptive phrases (“that may blend,” “[that are] capable… of a severe
insulation,” “[that are] naturally fitted for reciprocal repulsion”)
▸ Yields these ideas:
▸ We can distinguish two offices – a key term, as it implies function and authority
–within literature; they sometimes overlap, but they sometimes exclude each other.
There is​
,​
first​
, the literature of knowledge​
,​
and, ​
secondly, the literature of
power​
.
The function of ​
the first ​
is to ​
teach​
;​
the function of ​
the second ​
is to ​
move​
:​
the
first​
is​
a rudder​
;​
the second​
an oar or a sail​
​
.
The first speaks to the ​
mere discursive understanding​
;​
the second speaks
ultimately, ​
it may happen​
, to the higher understanding, or reason​
, ​
but
always ​
through​
affections of pleasure and sympathy​
.
▸ These three sentences are connected. Each links “the literature of knowledge” or
“the literature of power” to an idea. In the second sentence, the parallel clauses
define the two ideas via verbs, then via a ship-based metaphor; in the third, De
Quincey is more abstract, using “speaks to the mere discursive understanding” and
“speaks… to the higher understanding,” adding to the latter “through affections of
pleasure and sympathy. But breaking it down:
▸ The function of the literature of knowledge is to teach. It steers us like a rudder steers
a ship. It speaks to reason and argument – “discursive” can also mean “rambling,”
however – in understanding.
▸ The function of the literature of knowledge is to move us more deeply. It is like a sail
on a ship, or an oar – what allows us to travel. It speaks to higher understanding, and
it touches on our sympathy and pleasure.
Remotely ​
it may travel towards an object seated in what Lord Bacon calls
dry light​
; ​
but proximately ​
it does and must operate​
—else it ceases to be
literature of ​
power​
—​
on and through that ​
humid light ​
which clothes itself in
2001 AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM PASSAGE 2 (QUESTIONS 13-28) the mists and glittering ​
iris of human passions, desires, and genial
emotions​
.
▸ Contrasting “dry light” with “humid light,” the literature of power is clarified further.
Students should notice that “humid light” is given the adverb “proximately”; that is,
when literature of power moves us through “humid light,” or the light of “human
passions, desires, and genial emotions,” it does so ​
close​
to us, in our everyday life.
Men have ​
so little ​
reflected on the higher functions of literature ​
as to ​
find it a
paradox if one should describe it as a mean or subordinate purpose of
books to give information​
.
But ​
this is a paradox ​
only in the sense which makes it honorable to be
paradoxical.
▸ Here, the paradox is that “to give information” is “a mean or subordinate purpose”;
most people think learning things is good, and many would say that it is the real
purpose of reading. Use the next sentence to see how De Quincey clarifies his point:
Whenever we talk in ordinary language of seeking knowledge​
, ​
we
understand​
the words as connected with ​
something of absolute novelty​
.
▸ We don’t see the real purpose of books, because we have defined “seeking
knowledge” as always connected to “absolute novelty.” When we learn new things,
we think it’s great; therefore, knowledge is the best purpose of books.
But ​
it is the grandeur of all truth which ​
can occupy a very high place in human
interests that it is never absolutely novel to the meanest of minds: ​
it exists
eternally, by way of germ or latent principle, in the lowest as in the highest,
needing to be developed but never to be planted​
.
To be capable of transplantation ​
is the immediate ​
criterion of a truth
ranges on a lower scale​
.
Besides which​
,​
there is a rarer ​
thing than truth, ​
namely, ​
power​
, or deep
sympathy with truth​
.
2001 AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM PASSAGE 2 (QUESTIONS 13-28) ▸ De Quincey counters in three sentences with a series of assertions:
▸ First, truth ​
isn’t novel; it exists in every mind, no matter how “mean” (not cruel, but
base), and can be developed with the right book.
▸ Second, this higher idea of truth can be transplanted.
▸ Third, his real focus is on ​
power (back to the literature of power), which is deep
sympathy ​
with​
truth.
▸ After these three assertions, he’ll use a series of rhetorical questions to argue that the
best kind of book is one of this kind of power.
What is the effect​
,​
for instance,​
upon society, of children?
▸ The hypophora here – he answers his question about children at great length – is
built around an analogy: children affect society in a particular way, and the
literature of power affects society in the same way. It’s a syllogism, though:
▸ Children affect society in [this particular way].
▸ [This particular way] is one that all people cherish.
▸ The literature of power affects society in [this particular way], too.
▸ Therefore, people should cherish the literature of power.
By the pity, ​
by the tenderness, ​
and by the peculiar modes of admiration,
which connect themselves ​
with the helplessness, ​
with the innocence, ​
and
with the simplicity of children, ​
not only ​
are the primal ​
affections
strengthened and continually renewed​
,​
but ​
the qualities which are dearest
in the sight of heaven​
—​
the frailty, for instance, which appeals to
forbearance, the innocence which symbolizes the heavenly, and the
simplicity which is most alien from the worldly​
—​
are kept up in perpetual
remembrance​
,​
and​
their ​
​
ideals are continually refreshed​
.
▸ Before he gets to the last bit of the syllogism – the next sentence, about “the same
nature” linking literature of power and children – he gives us a compound-complex
sentence. The basic clauses, with no modifiers of any kind:
▸ affections are strengthened and renewed
▸ qualities are kept up in remembrance
▸ ideals are refreshed
▸ The modifiers are plentiful:
▸ The affections are “primal,” and the ways they are “continually” strengthened and
renewed form a long, long list:
▸ by the pity that connects itself with the helplessness, innocence, and
simplicity of children
2001 AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM PASSAGE 2 (QUESTIONS 13-28) ▸ by the tenderness that connects itself with the helplessness, innocence, and
simplicity of children
▸ by the “peculiar modes of admiration” that connect themselves… (same as
above)
▸ That gives us three adverbial phrases (“by the pity,” “by the tenderness,” “by the
peculiar modes”) and three ideas connected to children.
▸ Next, the qualities are modified as those “dearest in the sight of heaven,” an idea
further qualified with a set of three ​
more​
examples:
▸ “the frailty… which appeals to forebearance”
▸ “the innocence which symbolizes the heavenly”
▸ “the simplicity which is most alien to the worldly”
▸ In the end, this may have the most meaning of any sentence in the passage.
A ​
purpose of ​
the same nature ​
is answered by the higher literature, ​
viz​
., the
literature of power.
What do you learn​
from​
Paradise Lost​
? Nothing at all​
.
What do you learn from a cookery book? Something new, something that
you did not know before, in every paragraph.
But ​
would you ​
therefore ​
put ​
the wretched cookery-book on a higher level of
estimation ​
than​
the divine poem​
​
?
▸ More rhetorical questions. These are designed to offer examples, which have been
lacking from the preceding discussion (an abstract one, in many ways). The central
comparison: ​
Paradise Lost​
and a cookbook.
What you owe to Milton ​
is ​
not any ​
knowledge, of which a million separate
items are still but a million of advancing steps on the same earthly level​
;
what you owe is ​
power​
,​
that is​
,​
exercise and expansion to your own latent
capacity of sympathy with the infinite​
, ​
where every pulse and each
separate influx is a step upwards, a step ascending as upon a Jacob's ladder
from earth to mysterious altitudes above the earth​
.
▸ Here, we might focus on the inclusive, almost accusatory language (“What you owe
to Milton”) and the dismissive phrasing (“is ​
not any knowledge…”); there is also the
parallel structure (“What you owe” / “what you owe”) and the critical allusion (to
“Jacob’s ladder”).
2001 AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM PASSAGE 2 (QUESTIONS 13-28) All ​
the steps of knowledge, from first to last, ​
carry you further on the same
plane, ​
but could never raise you one foot above your ancient level of earth​
;
whereas ​
the very ​
first step in power ​
is a flight, ​
is an ascending movement
into another element where earth is forgotten​
.
▸ The last sentence has the same structure at the level of ideas: knowledge only does
this, while power does much more. The metaphor here is continued from the
allusion to Jacob’s ladder in the preceding sentence; literature of knowledge traps us
“on the same plane” or “ancient level of earth,” but literature of power grants us
“flight” and “an ascending movement,” so much so that we enter “another element”
(at the “mysterious altitudes” of the preceding sentence) and actually ​
forget that
ancient, limiting “earth” – the world of simplistic knowledge.
2001 AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM