Poetry · Chapter
On the Platform explained
The narrator attends a lecture by Dr.
What happens
The narrator attends a lecture by Dr. Bill Bartlett on intellectual life, but finds it so tedious that he falls asleep and dreams of Bartlett being hanged on a gibbet. In the dream, the narrator urges him to leave the platform, but Bartlett falls through the trap, and the narrator becomes fascinated by the thoughts expressed in his dying movements.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Corruption
The lecture on intellectual life is portrayed as empty and tedious, leading to a dream of the lecturer's execution, suggesting a critique of hollow intellectualism.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator attends the lecture, falls asleep, and dreams of the hanging.
- Bill Bartlett
The lecturer, who in the narrator's dream is hanged on a gibbet.
Key passages
“When Dr. Bill Bartlett stepped out of the hum Of Mammon’s distracting and wearisome strife To stand and deliver a lecture on “Some Conditions of Intellectual Life,” I cursed the offender who gave him the hall To lecture on any conditions at all!”
When Dr. Bill Bartlett left the noisy, money-driven world to give a lecture on intellectual life, I was angry at whoever provided the venue for such a pointless talk.
The narrator expresses frustration with the lecture before it even begins.
“But he rose with a fire divine in his eye, Haranguing with endless abundance of breath, Till I slept; and I dreamed of a gibbet reared high, And Dr. Bill Bartlett was dressing for death.”
He spoke passionately and at great length until I fell asleep and dreamed of a gallows where Dr. Bill Bartlett was preparing to be executed.
The narrator's boredom leads to a vivid dream of the lecturer's death.