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12/14/2018

Shelley's Lyricism in "Ode to West Wind".

In poetry as well as in art and music, lyricism means the expression of strong emotion accompanied by melody, lucidity and spontaneity in a personal or subjective mode. Albert says, “His ( Shelley’s) lyrical power is equal to the highest in any language. It is now recognized to be one of the supreme gifts in literature like the dramatic genius of Shakespeare.” This gift is shown at its best when it expresses the highest emotional ecstasy.

A lyric poem is usually fairly short, not often longer than fifty or sixty lines, and often only between a dozen and thirty lines.

Ode to the West Wind is a lyric poem. In respect of size it does not far exceed the usual length of a lyric poem, and in point of lyricism, it is regarded as one of he best of Shelley’s lyrics.

Strong emotion, the chief quality of a lyric poem, is evident throughout the poem, and it is Shelley’s personal. In depicting the power of the West Wind as a destroyer and preserver in autumn, Shelley’s feelings of admiration are at the highest pitch. It is marked in his apostrophe, the impassioned address to the Wind. “O Wild West Wind, though breath of Autumn’s being”, and in the metaphors and similes. His appeal to the Wind is equally passionate. At the end of the first three stanzas, he says, “Oh, hear!”, appealing to the West Wind. His intensest emotion is manifested in his passionate entreaty, “oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!/ I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!” The concluding line, “If Winter comes, Can Spring be far behind?”, though it sounds sober, is charged with suppressed emotion of his optimism.

As regards melody or musical quality, it is indeed difficult to realize it because the sentences are very long, as demanded by the requirements of the verse form that he has used: terza rima. But still the adept handling of the iambic pentameter lines, and the use of the devices like alliteration, assonance, consonance, and dissonance, produces enough melody for a lyric poem. We can mention just a few lines out of many supporting the observation. “Lulled by the coil of his crystalline stream” has alliteration in the repetition of “I” sounds, producing melody. “The sea-blooms and the oozy woods” has assonance in the repetition of the “I” and “u” sounds.

The quality of lucidity is equally evident throughout the poem. Desmond King-Hele, one of the famous critics of Shelley, remarks about this quality in the following words, “Shelley has made the heroic lines move swiftly so as to give the impression of the irresistible and fast movement of the wind… it is the most fully orchestrated of Shelley’s poems.” Albert says, “The stanzas have the elemental rush of the wind itself, and the conclusion…. is the most remarkable of all”. Moreover, the development of thought is very easy to understand, which highlights this essential quality of a lyric.

Considered from the point of lyricism, Ode to the West Wind is of the highest excellence.

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12/12/2018

"The Scholer Gypsy" as a pastoral elegy.

Literary Information Essays. , Matthew Arnold

Pastoral elegies has its origin in the classical poets of Ancient Greece , viz Theocritus, Bion and Moschus. It was lyric in character and dealt with the simple life of shepherds and their day to day occupations, such as singing with their oaten pipes in the flowery meadows, piping as though they would never be old, tending their flock of sheep. The essence of pastoral poetry is simplicity of thought and action in a rustic setting.

Perhaps Arnold's two best poems are “The Scholar Gipsy” and “Thyrsis”, which are generally labelled as pastoral elegies deeply steeping in classical lore. “The Scholar Gipsy”, ostensibly about a seventeenth century Oxford student who joined the gypsies to learn their lore is really about the poet himself and his generation. In the poem, the scholar gipsy becomes a symbol in the light of which Arnold can develop his own position and state his own problems. Drawing on his knowledge of rustic scenes around Oxford, he produced a meditative pastoral poem whose language owes something to Theocritus but whose tone and emotional colouring are very much Arnoldian.

Pastoral Setting

Arnold creates a pastoral or rural setting in “The Scholar Gipsy” . The local colour of the poem is a charm of the pastoral elegy. The poem is set in the Oxford countryside which is vividly brought home to us, and it is made more beautiful and enchanting by the modifying colours of imagination. Green muffled Cumner hills and sloping pastures bright with sunshine and flowers, Stripling Thames at Bablock, hithe, with pleasure boats, Wychwood bowers bright with flowers, the Fyfield elm where maidens dance in May, flooded fields, the causeway and the wooden bridge, Bagley Wood where gypsies pitch their tents, sparkling Thames and Godstow Bridge, abandoned lasher where rustics bathe, constitute a real landscape around Oxford, made lovely with the magic touch, of poet's imagination. It forms an ideal setting for the spiritual presence of the Scholar Gipsy.

Reference to Shepherd

Arnold addresses the friend of the Scholar Gipsy after the pastoral convention. The poet asks his companion, a shepherd, to attend to the sheep and let loose them from the folds. Having discharged his duties, the shepherd is advised to come to him again in the evening. But Arnold has not identified himself with a shepherd like other pastoral poets. In the poem, his friend in quest, however, is a shepherd.

Pastoral in Structure

In the structure of the poem is no doubt pastoral; the fairly elaborate ten-line stanza helps to keep the movement of the poem slow and develop the note of introspection. The slow movement of the verse and the stately utterances of thought are in perfect keeping with the sad, philosophical mood of the poet. But, the tone of the poem has a modern touch; the spirit permeating the poem is typically Victorian the spirit of unrest seeking spiritual illumination.

Sense of Immortality

The elegy writer after lamenting the physical death of his friend would bring out the immortal qualities he possessed. The elegy always ends with a note of hope that the subject of lamentation is not really dead, but is alive. Arnold very aptly makes use of this conversation and establishes that the Scholar Gipsy will live forever. The Scholar Gipsy has one aim, one business, one desire-- the spiritual quest for truth. He has singleness of purpose. His singleness of purpose makes him immortal. “The Scholar Gipsy” in Arnold's modification of the pastoral elegy, not in a strict sense. The pastoral elements are found in the first half of the poem (stanzas 1-13) in the description of the Oxford countryside that is travelled by the scholer gypsy; the criticism of Victorian life in the second half where by a simple process of confrontation the scholar gipsy's happiness and singleness of mind are used to undermine what Arnold felt to be wrong in the own life and lives of his contemporaries.

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12/06/2018

Addison and Steele as the Pioneer of English Novel.

Literary Information History ,

A pioneer is someone who shows to something which was not before him. The term 'pioneer of novel’ is implied to someone who give the way way of writing novel when it is not introduced yet. Addison and Steele belonged at the age of Dryden and Pope when novel was not introduced. At that time they wrote some essays which bear almost all the features of a novel. That's why they are called to be the pioneer of English novel. If compare their essays with the features of a successful novel, we will get that their essays are almost like a novel.

(i) Length: Length is a key factor of a prose to be a novel. According to some critics, a novel must be 70,000 to 120,000 words long. Though Addison and Steele's essays are not so long as a novel, but if we combine their all essays with same topic like Sir Roger series, we will get a perfect length. They Write a novel and divided it into several parts and then published it. So, the first condition is fulfilled but not directly rather indirectly.

(ii) Fictious Prose: A novel must be a fictional prose. Fictional means something which is imaginative not real. And prose means not verse. So, to be a novel, a writing must be fictional prose. Addison and Steele wrote their essays from their imagination and in prose form. All the characters are Fictious not real. In this case, their essays fulfill the condition of be a novel.

(iii) Characters: Characters are must for a novel. Every novel must have some characters. The characters bear the different view of the plot and develop it. Addison and Steele use characters in their essays. Their major characters are-- Sir Roger, Templar, Sir Andrew Freeport, Captain Sentry and Will Honeycomb. All the characters, their deeds and creeds are imaginative. Another condition is fulfilled.

(iv) Others: Among other qualities of a novel-- representation of contemporary society, ending moral of the story and some definite purposes.

Addison and Steele aslo follow these conditions. Their essays represent 17th century English sociey. Their purpose of writing these essays is “to enliven morality with wit” and “To temper wit with morality”. Every story of their essays has a moral.

So, in conclusion, it can be said that, before novel came, they pave the way to write a novel by their essays. So, they can be called pioneer of English novel.

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12/05/2018

"Paradise Lost" prologue as a Grand Opening.

Literary Information Essays. , John Milton

Ans. The first twenty six lines, which form the Prologue to Paradise Lost, suggest the theme of the epic, introduce the major characters, give a taste of the style and point to the moral values, Milton intends to profess. Like a classical poet, Milton at the very beginning of his epic states is man’s first disobedience. The emphasis is upon Man not upon Satan who is not mentioned in the Prologue and not referred to until line 34. Milton follows his classical ancestors not only in the immediate introduction of his theme but also in the grammatical structure which is highly Latinized. The Prologue shows that the subject matter has been taken from the first chapter of Genesis : the disobedience of Man in eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and his fall as a consequence, bringing death into the world, and all the woes from which man has continued to suffer. But we should notice that although the story begins with the man who fell, it also mentions the greater Man (Christ) who will redeem mankind. The invocation to a Muse is a classical device. But we are to notice that Milton’s Muse is called “Heavenly Muse” or the Divine Spirit, who is localized not, as he might have been by Homer or Virgil, upon Mount Olympus or Mount Helicon, but on the secret top of Oreb or of Sinai, sacred in Hebraic belief, associated here particularly with Moses. Since a Muse was invoked by a classical poet to aid him in what he was attempting to write, Milton asks his Muse to lead him higher than the Aonian mount of the classical poets, since the subject of his epic is higher than theirs. The Prologue begins as a classical invocation but with one exception, it is in the form of Christian prayers to the Holy Spirit read by the Christians into the second verse of Genesis: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Milton says, “Thou from the first was present, and with mighty wings outspread. /Dove like satest brooding on the vast abyss /And madst it pregnant”. (Line 19-22) Milton is aware of his greatest limitation-- his blindness. So he says, “What in me is dark, illumine, That to the height of this great argument I may assert Eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to men.” Thus, in the first 26 lines we may trace the theme of the epic. We also know that the materials were drawn chiefly from Genesis, and that Milton is writing a classical epic but he intends with the help of heavenly Muse to transcend the classical. In a poem both Hebrew and Christian, he deals with the most profound of all problems, to justify the ways of God to man. Thus, in the first 26 lines, Milton has blended three great civilisations the main source of the Renaissance religious poetry: Classical, Hebrew, Christian. Milton follows the classical models not only in form and convention but also in respect of grammatical structure. The technique indicates a vast design in the reader's mind and there is wonderful congruity between syntax and versification. Again ambition and humility are mixed in the sense and movement of the verse. The poet shows his self-confidence in stating that he is attempting something as yet unattempted. At the same time he makes a humble appeal to the Heavenly Muse to raise and support him in his noble venture of writing an epic. There is also a poignant reference to his limitation as a poet-- his Blindness. It balances the tone between modesty and self confidence till the verse soars to the impressive conclusion of the prologue. “And justify the ways of God to man”

The first twenty six lines, which form the Prologue to Paradise Lost, suggest the theme of the epic, introduce the major characters, give a taste of the style and point to the moral values, Milton intends to profess. Like a classical poet, Milton at the very beginning of his epic states is man’s first disobedience. The emphasis is upon Man not upon Satan who is not mentioned in the Prologue and not referred to until line 34. Milton follows his classical ancestors not only in the immediate introduction of his theme but also in the grammatical structure which is highly Latinized.

The Prologue shows that the subject matter has been taken from the first chapter of Genesis : the disobedience of Man in eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and his fall as a consequence, bringing death into the world, and all the woes from which man has continued to suffer. But we should notice that although the story begins with the man who fell, it also mentions the greater Man (Christ) who will redeem mankind.

The invocation to a Muse is a classical device. But we are to notice that Milton’s Muse is called “Heavenly Muse” or the Divine Spirit, who is localized not, as he might have been by Homer or Virgil, upon Mount Olympus or Mount Helicon, but on the secret top of Oreb or of Sinai, sacred in Hebraic belief, associated here particularly with Moses.

Since a Muse was invoked by a classical poet to aid him in what he was attempting to write, Milton asks his Muse to lead him higher than the Aonian mount of the classical poets, since the subject of his epic is higher than theirs. The Prologue begins as a classical invocation but with one exception, it is in the form of Christian prayers to the Holy Spirit read by the Christians into the second verse of Genesis: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Milton says, “Thou from the first was present, and with mighty wings outspread. /Dove like satest brooding on the vast abyss /And madst it pregnant”. (Line 19-22)

Milton is aware of his greatest limitation-- his blindness. So he says,

“What in me is dark, illumine,

That to the height of this great argument

I may assert Eternal Providence

And justify the ways of God to men.”

Thus, in the first 26 lines we may trace the theme of the epic. We also know that the materials were drawn chiefly from Genesis, and that Milton is writing a classical epic but he intends with the help of heavenly Muse to transcend the classical. In a poem both Hebrew and Christian, he deals with the most profound of all problems, to justify the ways of God to man. Thus, in the first 26 lines, Milton has blended three great civilisations the main source of the Renaissance religious poetry: Classical, Hebrew, Christian.

Milton follows the classical models not only in form and convention but also in respect of grammatical structure. The technique indicates a vast design in the reader's mind and there is wonderful congruity between syntax and versification. Again ambition and humility are mixed in the sense and movement of the verse. The poet shows his self-confidence in stating that he is attempting something as yet unattempted. At the same time he makes a humble appeal to the Heavenly Muse to raise and support him in his noble venture of writing an epic. There is also a poignant reference to his limitation as a poet-- his Blindness. It balances the tone between modesty and self confidence till the verse soars to the impressive conclusion of the prologue.

“And justify the ways of God to man”

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Critical appreciation of the poem "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence.

Literary Information D.H. Lawrence , Essays.

Critical Appreciation Ans. The poem Piano is written by D. H. Lawrence who is famous in modern English literature mainly for his novels. But he has also written short stories, poems and literary essays of criticism. He has written a good number of poems, and as a poet also he has exhibited great skill. Piano is one of his short poems, but nicely written. The subject matter of the poem is simple: the poet’s nostalgia of his childhood days under the influence of a song sung by a woman on a big piano in darkness. The song takes him down the past years to his childhood. It is a poem based on a psychological fact that a child lives in every adult, and that the child is aroused in circumstances proper for such arousal. In the poem, the poet, a grown-up man, goes back in time to his pleasant childhood days under the insidious but strong influence of a song sung by a woman. Another psychological law that the poem illustrates is the law of association of ideas. That is, one idea brings into memory or thinking, another idea of similar dimension or of more complexity. The poem vividly depicts the fact that the childhood experiences of the poet himself were revived when in his mature age he was under the circumstances similar to those of his childhood. He used to listen to song of his mother with a piano in the darkness of the evening, winter outside, in his childhood days. When he was under similar circumstance -- a woman singing with a piano in the darkness of the night -- the childhood memories were evoked. The images are quite effective in conveying the impressions. The image of a woman singing in darkness is very evocative, and it effectively seryes as a stimulus for reviving the memories of the past. The darkness, and winter outside, and cosy parlour are images which serve well the poet’s purpose of revivifying the memories of childhood. They bring before the mind’s eye of the reader a vision of the childhood days of the poet. The sound effects are also noticeable. Sometimes the poet has used cscophony, as in the beginning of the poem we see the juxtaposition of soft and hard sound in the following words: “Softly, in the dark, a woman is singing to me.” In the line the sound “S” and “F” in the word “softly” is a sharp contrast to the harsh sound created by “d” in the word “dark”. Again, the harshness of “dark” produces discordance with the soft music of the remainig half of the line, “a woman is singing to me”. Sometimes the poet uses alliteration as in the following line: “In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song.” The repetiton of “S” sound in most of the words of this line produces a pleasant sibilance which serves the poets purpose very well. The prosodic meter used in the poem is complicated; there is no regular metre; sometimes there is iambic meter, and sometimes trochaic, or anapaestic metre. But rhyme has been maintained throughout; couplets have been formed; the first line rhymes with the second line, and the third line with the fourth, and so on. The poetic diction is simple. There is hardly any word which even an ordinary reader cannot understand. And words are chosen with a good sense of precision. Considered from the viewpoint of good elements of poetry, the poem has been a successful one.

The poem Piano is written by D. H. Lawrence who is famous in modern English literature mainly for his novels. But he has also written short stories, poems and literary essays of criticism. He has written a good number of poems, and as a poet also he has exhibited great skill. Piano is one of his short poems, but nicely written.

The subject matter of the poem is simple: the poet’s nostalgia of his childhood days under the influence of a song sung by a woman on a big piano in darkness. The song takes him down the past years to his childhood.

It is a poem based on a psychological fact that a child lives in every adult, and that the child is aroused in circumstances proper for such arousal. In the poem, the poet, a grown-up man, goes back in time to his pleasant childhood days under the insidious but strong influence of a song sung by a woman. Another psychological law that the poem illustrates is the law of association of ideas. That is, one idea brings into memory or thinking, another idea of similar dimension or of more complexity. The poem vividly depicts the fact that the childhood experiences of the poet himself were revived when in his mature age he was under the circumstances similar to those of his childhood. He used to listen to song of his mother with a piano in the darkness of the evening, winter outside, in his childhood days. When he was under similar circumstance -- a woman singing with a piano in the darkness of the night -- the childhood memories were evoked.

The images are quite effective in conveying the impressions. The image of a woman singing in darkness is very evocative, and it effectively seryes as a stimulus for reviving the memories of the past.

The darkness, and winter outside, and cosy parlour are images which serve well the poet’s purpose of revivifying the memories of childhood. They bring before the mind’s eye of the reader a vision of the childhood days of the poet. The sound effects are also noticeable. Sometimes the poet has used cscophony, as in the beginning of the poem we see the juxtaposition of soft and hard sound in the following words:

“Softly, in the dark, a woman is singing to me.”

In the line the sound “S” and “F” in the word “softly” is a sharp contrast to the harsh sound created by “d” in the word “dark”. Again, the harshness of “dark” produces discordance with the soft music of the remainig half of the line, “a woman is singing to me”. Sometimes the poet uses alliteration as in the following line:

“In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song.”

The repetiton of “S” sound in most of the words of this line produces a pleasant sibilance which serves the poets purpose very well.

The prosodic meter used in the poem is complicated; there is no regular metre; sometimes there is iambic meter, and sometimes trochaic, or anapaestic metre. But rhyme has been maintained throughout; couplets have been formed; the first line rhymes with the second line, and the third line with the fourth, and so on.

The poetic diction is simple. There is hardly any word which even an ordinary reader cannot understand. And words are chosen with a good sense of precision.

Considered from the viewpoint of good elements of poetry, the poem has been a successful one.

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12/04/2018

David Herbert Lawrence as a Poet.

Literary Information D.H. Lawrence , Essays.

2. Evaluate D. H. Lawrence as a poet. Ans. D. H. Lawrence is a British man of letters of the pre-War and inter-War years. He is mainly known as a famous novelist in English literature, but if the poetic qualities of a good number of poems that he has written can be considered, he can be regarded as a great poet also. The collections of his poems include: Love Poems and Others published in 1913, Amores (1916), Look! We Have Come Through (1917), New Poems (1918), Tortoises (1921), Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923), Collected Poems (1928), Pansies (1929), and Last Poems posthumously published in 1933. It is important to note that though Lawrence is known widely as a famous novelist, it was as a poet that he first appeared in print with magazine contributions in 1910, and he continued to write poetry throughout his life. The most striking feature of his poetry is its fundamental similarity to prose. In the intensely personal poems of his early collections, we see parallel to the strong autobiographical elements of his novel Sons and Lovers. And though the urgency of personal problems is no longer so great in the later volumes, all his poetry has that vital urge and that dynamic power which are typical of his novels. As a poet D. H. Lawrence can be considered as a modern poet; the characteristics of modern poetry are found to a large measure in his poetry. Modernism in literature reveals a breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions, fresh ways of looking at man’s position and function in the universe and many experiments in form and style. It is particularly concerned with language and how to use it, and with writing itself. Lawrence is concerned with the basic problems of human existence, man’s relationships with his fellows and with universe beyond himself. He combines a violent hatred of values of modern mechanized civilisation with a love of the primitive and natural, and a passionate belief in the importance of the development of unique individuality. He scorned the mere intellectual faculties and placed his trust in the experiences of the value as they become more violent. Freudian psychology played an important role in his poems, and interest in the created things of the universe served as a great impetus in many of his poems, especially the poems of the Birds, Beasts, and Flowers. Piano manifests many of the tendencies of modern poetry. Its theme is psychological, following upon Freud’s discovery of layers of human mind. The poet listens to the song of a woman singing with a big piano in darkness. The situation evokes memories of his childhood, and he is so strongly affected by the song that he weeps like a child to go back to his childhood days. He does not write in particular metre, though he maintains rhyme-scheme of the couplet form. The images are highly suggestive, and vivid as the Rembrandtesque art. In a small poem like this one, so many elements of modern poetry are present. D. H. Lawrence can be undoubtedly called a modern poet, and one of the great.

D. H. Lawrence is a British man of letters of the pre-War and inter-War years. He is mainly known as a famous novelist in English literature, but if the poetic qualities of a good number of poems that he has written can be considered, he can be regarded as a great poet also. The collections of his poems include: Love Poems and Others published in 1913, Amores (1916), Look! We Have Come Through (1917), New Poems (1918), Tortoises (1921), Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923), Collected Poems (1928), Pansies (1929), and Last Poems posthumously published in 1933.

It is important to note that though Lawrence is known widely as a famous novelist, it was as a poet that he first appeared in print with magazine contributions in 1910, and he continued to write poetry throughout his life. The most striking feature of his poetry is its fundamental similarity to prose. In the intensely personal poems of his early collections, we see parallel to the strong autobiographical elements of his novel Sons and Lovers. And though the urgency of personal problems is no longer so great in the later volumes, all his poetry has that vital urge and that dynamic power which are typical of his novels.

As a poet D. H. Lawrence can be considered as a modern poet; the characteristics of modern poetry are found to a large measure in his poetry. Modernism in literature reveals a breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions, fresh ways of looking at man’s position and function in the universe and many experiments in form and style. It is particularly concerned with language and how to use it, and with writing itself. Lawrence is concerned with the basic problems of human existence, man’s relationships with his fellows and with universe beyond himself. He combines a violent hatred of values of modern mechanized civilisation with a love of the primitive and natural, and a passionate belief in the importance of the development of unique individuality. He scorned the mere intellectual faculties and placed his trust in the experiences of the value as they become more violent. Freudian psychology played an important role in his poems, and interest in the created things of the universe served as a great impetus in many of his poems, especially the poems of the Birds, Beasts, and Flowers.

Piano manifests many of the tendencies of modern poetry. Its theme is psychological, following upon Freud’s discovery of layers of human mind.

The poet listens to the song of a woman singing with a big piano in darkness. The situation evokes memories of his childhood, and he is so strongly affected by the song that he weeps like a child to go back to his childhood days. He does not write in particular metre, though he maintains rhyme-scheme of the couplet form. The images are highly suggestive, and vivid as the Rembrandtesque art. In a small poem like this one, so many elements of modern poetry are present.

D. H. Lawrence can be undoubtedly called a modern poet, and one of the great.

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12/03/2018

Use of Symbols in "A Prayer for My Daughter"

MD. Kamrul Islam Essays. , Poetry

Yeats is regarded as a great symbolist in English literature. He was the symbolist from the very beginning of his career. His symbols are very varied. His symbols are often very obscure and almost unintelligible to the readers. The reason for the obscurity of his symbols is that Yeats was interested in occult studies. His study of occultism included his love of fairies, banshees, astrology, automatic writing and prophetic dreams. However, his symbols are also responsible for much of the effectiveness and excellence of his poetry.
A symbol is something which stands for something else. For example, a flag stands for the sovereignty of a country. Symbols can be of two types: (1)traditional symbols and (2) personal symbols. Traditional symbols are stock symbols which are in general use. That is they are used by different writers for the same purpose. But the personal symbols are devised by a poet himself, and are used for his personal objective, and as such he may be different from the others as regards the objective of the symbol. By the use of symbols a writer cam express much more than he can with the ordinary use of words, and symbols make his writing more vivid and evocative. Yeats made use of both kinds of symbol__ traditional and personal, and sometimes he used the same symbol with different purposes in different contexts.
A Prayer for My Daughter opens with a very effective symbol. His infant daughter sleeps on in the cradle-hood and coverlid, while a violent storm bred on the Atlantic rages outside. The poet's infant daughter sleeping peacefully represents or symbolizes all innocent humanity, and the storm raging outside symbolizes the time of violence and anarchy that will be loosed upon the world on the second coming, according to Yeat's belief as expressed in his poem “The Second Coming.”
The next symbol is contained within the lines, “It’s certain that fine women eat/A crazy salad with their meat/Whereby the Horn of plenty is undone.” ”Crazy salad” stands for extravagant style of living, and ”Horn of Plenty” symbolizes abundance and prosperity. By extravagant way of living, very beautiful women destroy gradually their abundance and prosperity.
Again, the lines “May she become flourishing hidden tree/That all her thoughts may like the linnet be” contain a beautiful symbol pregnant with a lot of meanings. Later on in the same stanza the poet mentions the laurel tree rooted in one dear perpetual place. These lines symbolize the wish of the poet that his daughter may be like a flourishing tree giving large benefits to mankind and the linnet symbolizes the thoughts, noble thoughts, that the poet wishes his daughter to have when she grows up. His daughter will thus be a great humanitarian, but she will remain in the same place.
“Assault and battery of the wind/Can never tear the linnet from the leaf” symbolizes the attacks verbal or otherwise, that hatred may breed will not work havoc if there is no hatred in one's mind.
An “old bellows full of angry wind” stands for the violent and fanatical outburst of Maud Gonne who was a very beautiful girl and a political activist of Irish nationalism.
All these symbols have made the poem. “A prayer for My Daughter” a very effective work of art

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12/02/2018

Write a short note on Anti-hero

Literary Information Short Notes ,

Anti-hero is a central character or protagonist who lacks the characteristics of heroism as such idealism, courage, steadfastness. Anti-hero is a non hero or the antithesis of a hero of the old fashioned kind who was capable of heroic deeds, who was dashing, strong, brave and resourceful. Anti-hero may be comic, anti-social, inept, or even pathetic. Don Quixote, the romantic hero of the novel of same name by Carvantes is an anti-hero. He is entirely an impractical sort of person living in the world of imagination. In the novel he appears to be utterly ridiculous and absurd. Once he attacked the windmill in action thinking it to be a giant and congratulate himself on his daring adventure. In Shakespeare's tragic play “Hamlet” Claudius is an anti-hero. In “Arms and The Man” Bluntschli is an anti-hero because he lacks heroic qualities, though he gradually wins the heart of Raina. He is a soldier but fears death. It is his duty to live as long as he can. He values food more than ammunition. He is an anti-hero.

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11/30/2018

The Role of Sea in "Riders to The Sea" by J.M. Synge.

Literary Information Drama , Essays.

Synge uses nature as a background, character and symbol in his plays. Nature is the protagonist in many of his plays especially in “Riders to The Sea” where nature fills the minds of the characters and mounds their actions, even their moods and fate. The play is dominated by fate.

A Hungry Demon:

In “Riders to The Sea” the sea represents fate. The sea is a great factor in the life of me people of the Aran Islands. It is the source of their living, and at the same time devours the man-folk as they go out for earning their living. Moreover, the sea gives them passage to the markets at the mainland where they go to bye or sell things. There is no alternative for them but to ride the sea to maintain their family's existence. All the man-folk of Maurya were devoured by the sea when they ventured to the sea to earn their living. Thus the sea is a hungry demon devouring the humans that comes its way.

An Impressive Character:

The sea is indeed the most impressive character in the play. As the play begins the sea appears as a terrorising living personality. Cathleen can't believe that the shirt and stocking removed from a drowned man can be Michael's. But mysteries are the ways of the sea. It has taken the dead body of Michael to far off Donegal in the course of the wanton play of its waves and current.

A Supernatural Being:

The sea is also invested with supernatural suggestions. It is the archetypal symbol of fate. The rides are man who are engulfed by the dark, mysterious and inscrutable fate. The Sea and humanity are mysteriously Interlocked. It has taken a heavy toll of the eight lives of the poor peasant family of Maurya. When last son is drowned, she is relieved at the thought that---

“The sea can do no more harm to her”.

This is the heart rending sorrow of the bereaved mother.

As a Villain:

Some critics consider the sea as a Villain of Maurya's life causing the tragedy of her life. But it would be wrong to consider the sea as the villain because being a powerful element of nature is is governed by its own moods like anything else in nature. Besides, the sea provides livelihood to people as it does to the Maurya family too. We may therefore say that Maurya was fate to suffer at the hands of vagaries of the sea.

As a faultless natural element:

In “Riders to The Sea” Maurya’s family members fall victim to the fury of the sea. But it was their fate to be caught up in a tempest on the sea all of a sudden and be killed. Bartley's life could be safe if he had listen to his mother's advice and if he had not gone to the Galway fair. He decided to go to the fair to sell the horses because he thought that it was his duty to look after his family as there was no other male member alive in the family and there was no other boats to go to the fair for two weeks or more. So it is necessity of the family for which Bartley felt compelled to go to sea. So it is not the fault of the sea for which Bartley died.

Thus Nature in the drama is a background, a character and a symbol. The processes of nature have only worked for man's woe. It is the agent of the fate which is the most inevitable element and which affects the life of the Maurya’s family relentlessly. Nobody could do anything about it at all. They just had to accept their lot. If it were hot her destiny to suffer Bartley would have postponed his visit to the Galway fair. The ruthless and cruel hand of Maurya's fate forcibly led Bartley to his death to complete her tragedy. Thus it is the inevitability of fate which in the shape of Nature dominates the action of the play.

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11/28/2018

W. B. Yeats as Last Romantic.

Literary Information Essays. , Poetry

Yeats declared himself as one of the last romantics in his poem Coole Park and Ballylee. His poetry is regarded as being in the thinned-out romantic tradition of the 19th century. But that is partially true. Yeats is decidedly a modern poet, only that many elements of romanticism are discernible in many of his poems, of his early stage and of his late stage.
Yeats began by echoing Shelley and Spenser and the Pre-Raphaelites, and Blake remained a permanent influence for him. Even Keatsean sensuousness is found in many of his poems, and influences of Rossetti and Morris are also traceable.
The romance of mythology and folklore is another romantic characteristic. He used the Irish mythology, the mythologies of Greece and Rome, and the traditional Irish folklore. The Wanderings of Oisin is full of echoes of Shelley, Coleridge, and Keats and Morris; that is it is based on Greek mythology. He uses the popular lrish myth of a fairy world of ideal happiness in The Happy Town Land. The Stolen Child and The Man who Dreamed of Fairyland are also of romantic trend.
Yeats’s mysticism is also a romantic trait. Yeats believed that a poet was very close to a mystic, and the world created by a mystic poet is a spiritual world. A Vision touches upon the supernatural realities.
Occultism is a prominent trait in Yeats. His religiosity is closely related to his occultism.
Self-revelation is yet another romantic trait in Yeats. It means that the poet is deeply personal, revealing his temperament, mood and inmost thoughts and feelings, The romantic poets all were prone to self-revelation. A great amount of Yeats's poetry relates to his own personality, his inner conflicts and friendships. A Prayer for My Daughter, the Byzantium poems. Among School Children, The Tower, A Dialogue of Self and Soul, are all poems in which we get much of the poet himself. But by his poetic art they have been raised to impersonal or universal level.
Romantic love of Yeats himself has been given vent to in many of his poems. He has actually written a large number of love poems. The Song of Wandering Angus is dream of successful love. In many of his poems his emotions of love for Maud Gonne have been expressed. He Tells of the Perfect Beauty, He Tells of a Valley full of Lovers, The Lover Asks are some of his love poems.
But even out of his romantic effusions he sought to formulate general philosophy of life and history from personal problems and conflicts. He tried to give his philosophy a broader and universal significance.
There are romantic elements to a great extent in Yeats's poetry. But he was not a romantic in exclusive terms. He was a very fastidious artist, and through repeated revisions and corrections of his poems, through his superb craftsmanship he raised them to standard of the classics. He is a modern poet of great excellence, though romantic elements are also discernible in many of his poems.

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11/27/2018

John Donne as a Religious poet.

Literary Information Essays. , John Donne

In religious poetry, especially in the “Holy Sonnets”, Donne explores his feelings towards God just as, in the secular poetry, he explored his feelings towards his beloved. He defines the intricate balance of his attitude with similar subtlety, although, as already in the mature love poetry, delight in paradox has given place to the perception of interrelation. In the religious poetry, as in secular, profound emotion works upon Donne's intellect not as a narcotic but as a stimulant.

In the “Holy Sonnets” the desire for intellectual rest is interwoven with a need for the emotional serenity he had tasted in marriage. He cries out to God in the tone of love:

“Take me to you, imprison me, for I

Except you enthral me, never shall be free,

Not ever chaste, except you ravish me”.

He expresses his love for God in terms of that if a lover, for his mistress or as here, a woman for her lover, he trusts and mistrusts God's pity as the lover wavers between the sure sense of being loved and the recurrent fear that love may be withdrawn.

Thus, the image of a soul in meditation which the “Holy Sonnets” present in an image of a soul working out of its salvation in fear and trembling. The two poles between which it oscillates are faith in the mercy of God and in Christ, and a sense of personal unworthiness that is very near to despair.

The element of conflict and doubt constitutes a remarkable feature of his “Holy Sonnets”. This element of conflict and tension grew in him, possibly because of his consciousness of sin. He did not look to religion for an ecstasy of the spirit which would efface the memory, of the ecstasy of the flesh, but for an even Ness of piety which would preserve him from despair.

Donne is neither didactic in his religious poetry is the frailty and decay of the world. Other important themes are the insignificance of man himself, the antithesis between the world and the spirit, the transitoriness and untransitoriness of all earthly enjoyments that the pangs suffered by the soul in the imprisoning body. Donne is actually concern not with the subtitles of doctrines, but with the infinite subtitles of temptation from which he asks to be delivered, the religion which gives passion to his poems is the religion in its most primary and fundamental sense. What Donne hankered after is purgative, purification and illumination -- a directing of heart.

Donne's divine poems are the product of conflict between his will and his temperament. In his love poetry, he is not concerned with what he ought or ought not feel, but with the expression of feeling itself. In his divine poetry, feeling and thought are judged by the standard of what a Christian should feel or think. The truths of Donne's love poetry are truths of the imagination, which freely transmits personal experience. They are his own discoveries. The truths of revelation are the accepted basis of his religious poetry and imagination has here another task. It is to some extent fettered and limited.

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W. B. Yeats as Last Romantic.

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John Donne as a Religious poet.

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