Bronze Tablets

Quiz — Bronze Tablets by Amy Lowell

1. Recall – Form & Structure: Bronze Tablets features two distinct sections. What are the titles of these two parts, and where is each one set?

1. Recall – Speaker & Character: Who is the central character in the first section, and what is she doing when we first encounter her?

1. Recall – Key Image: What symbolic object does Jeanne carry into the street at the end of the first section, and what occurs to it when Napoleon's carriage passes?

1. Recall – Symbol: What recurring symbol appears at the beginning of both sections of the poem, and what does it signify according to the analysis?

1. Comprehension – The Fruit Shop: How does Monsieur Popain's storytelling about the currants uncover the broader historical violence surrounding everyday life in Napoleonic France?

1. Comprehension – Malmaison: How does the analysis portray Joséphine's behavior and speech during her reunion with Napoleon, and what does this reveal about the power dynamics between them?

1. Comprehension – Imagist Technique: Lowell was a key figure in the Imagist movement. Using evidence from the analysis of the first section, explain how she employs Imagist principles in Bronze Tablets.

1. Analysis – Symbol: The roses at Malmaison are present in two distinct moments in the second section. How does their symbolic meaning evolve across these two instances, and what do they ultimately imply about Joséphine's situation?

1. Analysis – Theme: The analysis asserts that history crushes small lives. Using details from both sections of the poem, explain how Lowell develops this idea without directly stating it.

1. Analysis – Tone: Compare the tone of "The Fruit Shop" with the tone of "Malmaison." How does each section's mood contribute to Lowell's broader commentary on war, ambition, and gender?

Answer Key

1. The two sections are "The Fruit Shop," set in a street market in Napoleonic France, and "Malmaison," set at Napoleon and Joséphine's famous estate.

1. Jeanne Tourmont is the central character; she is buying fruit from the vendor Monsieur Popain.

1. Jeanne carries a basket of fruit. Napoleon's speeding carriage crushes it, and the spilled fruit stains the cobblestones red, resembling blood.

1. Dust appears at the beginning of both sections. It represents the gritty pressure of everyday life — the grimy street Jeanne navigates and the chalky, powdered appearance of Joséphine on the road.

1. Popain reveals that the currants came from a chateau garden whose young Marquis was taken away by revolutionary citizens under unclear, likely fatal, circumstances. This backstory embeds revolutionary violence and aristocratic downfall directly into an ordinary commercial transaction, illustrating how war and upheaval permeate even mundane moments of daily life.

1. Joséphine uses flattery, appeals to prophecy, and manipulation, while also maintaining physical distance by citing the presence of servants. This suggests she is simultaneously trying to secure her position and exert some control, illustrating a complex, unequal power dynamic in which she must use indirect strategies to influence Napoleon.

1. Lowell employs precise, concrete visual details rather than abstract statements — for example, carefully rendering the quality of light filtering through leaves above the shop door and describing Jeanne's period-specific clothing in cinematic detail. This prioritization of clear imagery over editorializing is a hallmark of the Imagist approach.

1. The roses first appear behind a wall that Joséphine cannot cross, suggesting beauty and desire that remain unattainable. Later, roses are described as mirrored on her own body. This development implies that Joséphine embodies the longing and unattainability the roses represent, and that her desire — like the empire — is ultimately something radiant but remote and constrained.

1. In "The Fruit Shop," Jeanne's small dignity — carefully counting two coins and drawing on old friendship to afford fruit — is literally destroyed by Napoleon's carriage, an act that goes unacknowledged by those in power. In "Malmaison," Joséphine is similarly subject to Napoleon's ambitions, her fate tied to political calculations beyond her control. In both cases, Lowell conveys through image rather than statement that grand historical forces obliterate intimate human lives.

1. "The Fruit Shop" is warm and ironic, appreciating Popain's theatricality, but also contains reminders of war and poverty, ending on a bitter, abrupt note. "Malmaison" is more sensuous and unsettled, shifting from wistful longing to political tension to erotic unease. Together, the tones reinforce Lowell's central concern: that ambition and war corrupt beauty and intimacy, and that women in particular must navigate power they do not fully possess.