00245--The Best 10 Quotes of Samuel Johnson [English literature free notes]


1.      Man is a tool-making animal.
2.      As I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the tailor, so I take my religion from the priest.
3.      Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
4.      It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
5.      Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
6.      Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.
7.      The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
8.      Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
9.      Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
10.  If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.


00244--The Best 10 Quotes of Oscar Wilde [English literature free notes]





1.  The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
2.  The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
3.  Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
4.  I have nothing to declare except my genius.
5.  Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
6.  Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
7.  I am not young enough to know everything.
8.  Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
9.  Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
10.            I can resist anything but temptation.



00243--Discuss the satiric effect of the use of irony and mock heroism in the poem Mac Flecknoe by John Dryden.[English literature free notes]



            It was Neo-classical period in English literature and Dryden, along with another brilliant satirist Alexander Pope, was the poet who dominated the literary scene.  Satire was the most popular form of poetry and both Dryden and pope were great masters of this poetic genre.
            Mac Flecknoe is the product of a literary and personal rivalry.  The poem was Dryden's reply to Thomas Shadwell's poem The Medal of John Bayes which in turn was a criticism of Dryden's earlier poem  The Medal.  Shadwell's poem was an unfair and indecent attack.  This provoked Dryden and he brought out Mac Flecknoe that silenced his adversary.
            Dryden's satirical genius is fully revealed in the poem.  It is a satire on Thomas Shadwell who was once a friend of Dryden.
            Dryden uses allusions, parodies and quotations profusely to ridicule the great hero of the poem.
            Irony is the most potent weapon Dryden wields in his literary warfare.  Shadwell's enormous stupidity is highlighted throughout the poem.  The man's corpulence, his mountain belly and his addiction to opium are referred to.  Apart from this attack on his adversaries personal attributes, Dryden uses, most of the poem to criticise the 'poetic talents' of his rival.
            Mac Flecknoe is designed to be a mock heroic poem.  So the interest is always focussed on this aspect.
            Dryden begins the poem in a mock serious manner with a general platitude on the brevity of life.  Flecknoe is compared to Augustus Caesar.  Both began their reign when young, both ruled long.  This is a mock heroic jibe in which Flecknoe's is pictured as the Augustus of the vast empire of Dulness.
            Flecknoe calls himself John the Baptist.  His humble role is only to prepare the way to the great Shadwell, the Jesus who is to redeem nonsense from total extinction.
            Criticising the musical pretentions of Shadwell, Dryden calls him the new Arion the legendary musician of Lesbos whose music charms even dolphins.
            The coronation of Shadwell as the King of Dulness is graphically described in detail.  Here Dryden makes very effective use of the mock heroic.  Shdwaell sits like Ascanius the son of Aeneas, the 'second hope of Rome'.  A thick fog of Dulness played around his head instead of a halo.  He was made to swear like Hannibal.  In his  left hand he held a mug of a ale instead of the royal orb.  In his right was Love's kingdom as his sceptre or royal authority and power.  In ancient time Romulus saw twelve vultures and founded Rome.  Similarly twelve owls flew past Shadwell.  Father-Flecknoe makes a long speech advising the prince never to write good poetry but to take inspiration from his father alone and perpetuate the glory of the vast empire of Dullness.
            Dryden concludes his mock heroic poem with a Biblical allusion.  In the Bible Elijah the prophet is called up to Heaven in a whirl wind.  His mantle falls on Elisha who inherits the prophetic power.  Dryden makes Flecknoe falls down through a trap door cutting short his declamation.  A subterranean wind blows up carrying the drugged robe of the father upwards.  It falls on the shoulders of Shadwell who gets twice the portion of the father's poetic talents.
            Thus Dryden has used the Bible and the ancient history most effectively to make Mac Flecknoe a superb mock heroic satire.


00242-- 'Night of the Scorpion' by Nissim Ezekiel.[English literature free notes]



 "Night of the scorpion" is a brilliant narrative poem.  The protagonist might be  the poet himself or a narrator who is the creation of his imagination.  The mother is  stung by a scorpion on a rainy night.  The mother is the most prominent figure in  an Indian home.  So all the attention is focused on her.  They are simple and good and believe in the efficiency of prayer.  They believe that prayer can ward off the evil influence.  They are a set of superstitious people.  They search for the scorpion but in vain.  

They believe that if the scorpion moves, its poison in the victim will also move and spread all over.  The words they speak to console the woman are also related to their superstitious beliefs.  Her suffering is caused by the sins she committed in the previous birth.  Her endurance will reduce the effect of her sins in the previous birth and it will also make her life happy in the next birth. 

 The good and evil in the world has to be balanced and therefore her endurance of pain will reduce the amount of evil.  This also reminds us of the peasants' belief in rebirth. They are illiterate, ignorant and superstitious and they do not know anything other than turn into ritualistic practices and incantations.

The narrator's father presents before us a striking contrast.  He tries modern scientific treatments.  He applies powder, herbs and hybrids.   He does not interfere with what the peasants do.  He does not object to the curses and blessings.  He is quite perturbed and tries every possible remedies.  Finally he pours some paraffin in the affected area and applies a match to it expecting the poison to burn off.  Even when he does this a holy man goes on performing his rites to remove the effect of poison with an incantation.  The scientific remedies tried by the father become as ineffective as the rituals and the incantations of the peasants and that of the holy man.  After twenty hours the pain subsides and the woman speaks.


 

The last part of the poem upholds the dignity of the Indian motherhood.   The mother's comment:  "Thank God the scorpion picked on me  and spread my children" is typical of an Indian mother.  She is relieved to find 
that the scorpion let her children alone and thanks God for it.  The entire poem may be taken as a tribute to the incomparable love of a mother.  The mother's malady  causes considerable disturbance not only to the members of the family but to the whole neighbourhood.  All are anxious to alleviate her pain.  Different attempts are made by different people.  All these go to prove that the poem is woven around the theme of reverence to the mother.

           
"Night of the scorpion" is typically an Indian poem by a typical Indian poet whose interest in the Indian soil and its ordinary human events of day-to-day Indian life is superb.  A good many Indians are illiterate and are blindly superstitious.  But they are simple, loving and lovable.  They attempt to save the victim by doing whatever they can.  But they do not succeed.  The father who is not superstitious and is educated tries his own scientific ways; he too, does not succeed.  There is the holy man who performs his rites with incantation.  He also fails to find a cure.  Finally the cue comes by itself.  This can be taken as a proof for the belief in 'fate'; everything in a man's life is pre-destined and man has no role in changing it.
           
The poem is interpreted as a symbolic juxtaposition of darkness and light. The night, the scorpion, the poison and the suffering represent darkness.   The incessant rain stands for hope and regeneration.  Candles, lanterns,  neighbours and ultimately the recovery of the mother represent light.   The poem can also be thought of as symbolic of Good and Evil too.









00241--“Mac Flecknoe”: the Historical Background of the poem [John Dryden]. [English literature free notes]



          When Dryden wrote the poem the political scene of England was dominated by two political parties: The Tories and the Whigs.  The Whigs were led by the Earl of Shaftsbury who in 1979 introduced the Exclusion Bill in the Parliament following the revelation of a Popish plot to kill Charles II and put James, the Duke of York, on the throne and also to bring the French army into England.  The object of the Bill was to press the claims of the Duke of Monmouth an illegitimate son of Charles, to the throne.  The Bill was passed in the Common but defeated in the Lord's.  The country was on the verge of a Civil War.  The king arrested Shaftsbury and banished the Duke of Monmouth.  But the Jury of Middle sex rejected the treason charges against Shaftsbury and released him immediately.  To celebrate the success the Whigs struck a medal bearing the head and name of their hero.  Dryden published his satire.  The Medal criticising the Whigs.  There were several replies from the Tories.  Thomas Shadwell wrote The Medal of John Bayes which was actually an indecent and unfair attack of Dryden's personal life Mac Flecknoe was  Dryden's reply to Shadwell.
            Dryen's poem is a satire.  It’s tone is mock heroic and the poet uses irony with telling effect.
            Richard Flecknoe is ready to vacate his title as the world's worst poet.  A worthy successor has to be chosen.  The choice falls on Shadwell.  He is to be crowned the king of the realm of dullness.  The venue for the coronation is in Barbican; a suburb notorious for its low and vulgar life.  The Ceremony is performed with the usual rites now shown in a new, ludicrous light. 
            The full title of the book was Mac Flecknoe or a Satire on the True Blue Protestant Poet T.S. Mac Flecknoe.  True Blue means an extreme Whig Blue which was the colour of the Tories.

00240--Comment on “Alexander’s Feast” as a poem that fuses the musical and poetic qualities of Dryden. [English literature free notes]




The theme of Dryden’s “Alexander’s Feast” is a lofty one which shows the power of music to modify the thoughts and feelings of man.  The poem is an ode which in the ancient days was intended to be sung, but now means a rhymed lyric in the form of an address, generally dignified or exalted in subject, feeling and style.  The poem is not a creation with regularity in the metre and arrangement of lines.  The poem can, therefore, be classified as an irregular ode.

As the theme of the poem is developed in a lyric way, the development is not essentially logical.  But a poem is different from a mathematical problem, for the latter appeals to reasoning while the former appeals to imagination and emotions.  Judged in this way, “Alexander’s Feast” is one of the biggest feathers in Dryden’s cap.  He has skillfully dramatized a situation, namely a banquet, in Alexander’s life, presented his pride, his infatuation and finally his impetuous deed of setting fire to Persepolis.Audio Books

The poem begins with a description of Alexander the Great sitting on his throne flanked by his peers as brave as himself.  Seated by his side is Thais an Athenian woman dowered with marvelous beauty.  The opening stanza is concluded with the poet’s comment that only the brave deserves the fair.

The next stanza of the poem introduces Timotheus, the court singer, who is the main character of the ode.  Though the title refers to Alexander, he cannot be rightly considered the hero of the poem.  Dryden himself calls Timotheus the Master, for with his music he is capable of dominating even the powerful emperor.  He sings of Alexander’s supposed divine descent and instills pride in the conqueror.  In his songs he refers to Jove, who disguised as a dragon descended to earth and made love to Olympia, the result of which was Alexander.  Alexander immediately puts on the airs of a god and condescends to receive the applause of his courtiers.  When the wine is circulated, Timotheus sings in praise of Bacchus, the god of wine.  He extols in his song the pleasure of drink after pain in the battlefield.  The king and his courtiers are thus tempted to drink until their brains get fuddled.

Finding Alexander puffed with pride, Timotheus changes the tone of his song.  He sings of fallen Darius, deserted by his men.  This makes Alexander reflects upon the vicissitudes of human life on earth.  He feels pity on Darius, his vanquished foe.  A pall of gloom descends on the scene until Timotheus switches over to the emotion of love.  Life is worth enjoying: and love is a means of enjoyment.  Smitten by love, Alexander falls upon the breast of the false Thais.  The conqueror of Persia lies vanquished, not by love, but by music.

Timotheus now strikes a thunderous note evoking the feeling of revenge in Alexander.  He sings of the Greek warriors slain in the battle, and their ghosts seems to urge Alexander to avenge their death.  Led by Thais, Alexander seizes a torch and sets fire to the city of Persepolis.

The concluding stanza of the poem emphasizes the powerful role of Timotheus.  Timotheus has controlled the soul of Alexander by merely striking on his lyre.  He lived even before St.Cecilia who is regarded as the patroness of Music.  Yet we cannot reckon to miss with her role in the field of music.  It was she who enlarged the scope of music and gave it a wider meaning.  While Timotheus raised a mortal—Alexander—to heaven with music, she bought an angel down with her song.Audio Books

Newman criticized this poem for lacking the “right moral feeling” while exalting revelry.  But he is unjust to Dryden because we find that the theme of the is the power of the music.  With a lavish use of imagery, the poet has intensified the lyrical quality of the ode.  The description of the conqueror of Persia, his valiant peers, of his paramour Thais, and his fallen foe Darius are all eloquent examples of the poet’s deft use of imagery.  The subtle suggestions in the poem also add to its charm.  For instance, nowhere does the poet say openly that Thais was a woman of dubious reputation.  But we are told that she “caused him care” and that he was not able to conceal his pain.

The poem when read aloud is musical.  The theme—the power of music—is intensified by its musical tone.  Small wonder Cazamian calls it “a still somewhat too clever masterpiece in imitative harmony”.





00239--Comment on 'Ozymandias' as a critique of power [Shelley]. [English Literature free notes]




            Shelley's Ozymandias is an Italian sonnet that describes the contrast between the past glory and the present decayed condition of a mighty king of ancient Egypt.  The sonnet is a poem of 14 lines divided into a octave of the first eight lines and sestet (the next six lines) usually a sonnet is subjective in tone, but in Ozymandias Shelley treats the theme in an objective manner.  It is in the form of a report of a traveler from an ancient land.  The poet met his and he tells about a gigantic statue of Ozymandias.  Trunkless it had only two huge legs which stood in the desert.  Nearby lay a broken head with a frown on its face.  The lips were wrinkled showing contempt.  The sculptor had captured the violent passions of the king on his face most vividly.  The king in his lifetime had challenged everyone, even gods.  He was so proud.  But now nothing remains.  All his glory and power are reduced to dust only the vast desolate desert remains.Audio Books
            Shelley's sonnet Ozymandias is a bitter commentary on the human vanity and the transitory nature of wealth, power and pomp.  Te puny nature of man is contrasted with the immensity of Nature.  The King Ozymandias was so proud of his power that he challenged even gods.  His statue was huge.  The sculptor who made it had captured the frown on his face so vividly.  The lips were twisted expressing contempt to all others.  The king had asked the sculptor to write on the pedestal of the statue these words.
            My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings.  Look on my works Ye Mighty, and despair!  It was evident that Ozymandias believed that no one could equal his power and glory.  The poet now suddenly brings in a terrible contrast 'Nothing beside remains'.  Even such a mighty king couldn't survive the ravages of time.  He is forgotten.  Even the huge statue is ruined only the vast desert lies stretching to the great distance mocking human vanity, glory and pomp. Audio Books



00238--Show how Keats succeeds in this Ode in giving concrete poetic expression to a theme that is abstract and profound. / Write an appreciation of 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'. / Comment on the evolution of thought in 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'. [English Literature free notes]



            'Ode on a Grecian urn' is one of the most remarkable poems by the great romantic poet, John Keats.  The poem reveals Keats great interest in Hellenic life and art.  In it the poet has also given expression to his philosophy of art.Audio Books
            The poem is said to have been inspired by the Elgin Marbles, a part of the sculpture of the temple of Athena in Greece which was brought to England and later sold to the British Museum.  Keats was however not inspired by one particular urn but by many of these sculptures.  The poet combines all these into one work of supreme beauty.  In the poem the urn becomes a symbol of art and permanence.  He compares art with real life and concluded Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.
            In the first stanza Keats stresses the superiority of art.  Through a series of rhetorical questions he brings to life the engravings on the urn.  These pictures are taken up in the subsequent stanzas, adding details which make them immortal.
            The wild ecstasy of the musicians at the end of the first stanza inspires the poet to say that heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.  In his imagination Keats listens to the sweeter unheard melodies which do not end and which are ever fresh and eternal.
            Keats then addresses a young lover pictured on the urn.  The lover is about to kiss his beloved.  The artist has arrested his further movement and so the lover does not even fulfill his desire.  The poet however consoles the lover.  Fulfillment takes away the expectation and thrill.  The lover will ever love and his beloved with always be young and beautiful.
            Here we have Keats philosophy of art.  Art is superior to life because it is not subject to growth and decay.  Trees on the urn never shed leaves, they are always in full bloom for the artist had pictured them in spring.  The piper never gets tired.  For each generation the piper sings fresh songs.  His music passes from the real to the eternal.  It becomes the everlasting music of the soul which one listens with the inner ear.
            There are other figures carved on the urn, all frozen in time.  There is a crowd of worshipers on its way to a sacrifice, there is a mysterious priest leading a fat sleek garlanded heifer to the leaf-decked alter.  Looking on the scene Keats lets his imagination fly beyond the visible into the little town which has been evacuated.  The streets are deserted and silent for all the people have gone for the sacrifice.  They will never return and the streets of the town will always be desolate.Audio Books
            The last stanza of the ode contains Keats testament of Beauty.  Keats has written that a thing of beauty is a joy for ever'.  The beauty of the urn and the joy it gives to the viewer are a joy for ever.  Time does not destroy this beauty, it is there for all age to give joy, and it is everlasting.  So Keats writes Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.  It is not only the urn's message to man but also the philosophy of Keats on Beauty and Art.


00237--‘If the lamb is the aspect of God visible to innocence, the tiger is the face of God visible to experience’—Explain. [The Little Lamb / The Tiger /William Blake] [English Literature free notes]


     

[Also spelt The Tyger]
William Blake wrote two companion poems The Little Lamb and The Tiger, in which poems he gives expression to his awe and wonder at the creations of Nature.  The Lamb belongs to Songs of Innocence and The Tiger comes from The Songs of Experience. The two poems highlight the two different paradoxical aspects of creation.
Audio Books
            In the hands of the poet, both the lamb and the tiger become powerful symbols.  The Lamb is a symbol of the innocence, simplicity and gentle beauty of creation.  The Tiger on the other hand, is seen as a symbol of the cruelty, ferocity, terrible beauty and beastical power and energy of Nature.
            Looking at the terrible form of the tiger burning bright in the forests of darkness, the poet is filled with wonder and awe.  He asks who made this fearful symmetry of the creature.
            From the creation, he goes to the creator.  Form where did the creator get the fire that burns in the eyes of the Tier.  From the unfathomable depths of the universe or in the far reaches of space?  The poet has no answer.  He is bewildered.
            How was the beast's heart formed?  Who breathed life into him?  The poet pictures the creator as a great smith at work in his smithy.  What kind of a hammer and chain did he use and what anvil did he forget the terrible form of the Tiger.  When the work is finished and the stars look down did the creator smile at his own stupendous achievement.  The poet evokes cosmic pity and wonder again.  Can the creator who made the gentle meek lamb make the terrible tiger?  He feels baffled at the mysterious paradox of the creator and his art.
Audio Books
            The dual nature of God and his creation is brought out here.  The lamb stands for the benevolent aspect of Nature.  It is small, gentle, meek innocent and helpless.  The child naturally loves it because it is like him closer to Nature and God.  There is no sense of awe here. 
            The tiger stands for the terrible strength and cruel aspect of nature.  It symbolises the malevolent forces of the universe, always ferocious, cruel, and hostile and destructive why should the creator labour hard to create such a beast.  The poet is baffled pondering the process of creation.  It is the face of experience that is shown here.  No matter how hard you try to understand it eludes your grasp.  Questions are asked one after the other but there is ot answer.  At the end the poet stands awe struck and baffled.

00236--Do you agree with Alice Meynell’s views on William Blake’s The Tiger[The Tyger]. [English Literature free notes]



            
William Blake's The Tiger is often hailed as one of the finest mystic poems ever written in English language.  The poet uses the symbol of the tiger to probe into the mystery of creation.  Question after question arises from his truth-seeking mind but no answer he gets.  The mystery 'the sublime beauty of creation is nevertheless felt along the heart but it leaves the poet in utter awe and bafflement. Audio Books
            Shoving aside the symbolism and the mystic overtones the poem can be considered as a piece written for nursery children. Such a poem should necessarily be picturesque.  It should also have come moral to convey to child's mind.
            Viewed thus, The Tiger becomes a picture poem, it gives the child the striking picture of a ferocious tiger.
            The terrible beast is lurking in the bush in darkness.  The fierce glittering eyes capture the fancy of the child and it is filled with wonder.
            Curiosity makes the child ask question after question in its unconscious effort to know the truth.  His intuition helps him to realise the truth.  Just like the meek little lamb, this ferocious creature also is the work of the creator.  It is also part of the dualistic nature.  It is beautiful because all nature's creations are beautiful.  The child comes to know or rather feel all these things. Audio Books
            A small child is not likely to ask the type of questions posed in the poem.  Nevertheless questions of a different type do arise in its mind.  For these questions he wouldn't get the answers.
            The Tiger is not as good a Sunday school poem as The Little Lamb.  This is certainly because the former is a song of experience and the latter a song of innocence.  Innocence any child has in abundance, experience is something which all children lack.
            The Tiger could well be a Sunday school poem for children though not entirely.


00235--“To His Coy Mistress” a poem about love and time[Andrew Marwell]. [English Literature free notes]




            Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress is a poem on erotic love written in the true tradition of Carpe Diem.
            Carpe Diem is a Latin phrase meaning enjoy the present day.  The poet dwells upon the inexorable passage of Time, the transitoriness of youth and beauty and finally makes a strong plea to his beloved to join him and enjoy life before it is too late.  The expression Carpe Diem came to exemplify this idea, the spirit of eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Audio Books
            If the lover had all the time in the world, he says he would have loved his lady leisurely.  They would sit down and decide which way they should walk and pass the day.  They would talk to love the whole day.  She would wander on the banks of the river Ganges and find rubies.  He would sit by the shores of Humber and sing plaintive songs expressing his yearning for her.  He would love her till the end of the world.  She would turn down his live till the Jews are converted to Christianity.  His love would grow exuberantly like a plant and become caster than empires.  The love would use a hundred years praising the beauty of the beloved's eyes and forehead, two hundred years to adore each breast and thirty thousand years to the rest.  It will take ages to praise each part.  She deserves all such praise.  The lover wouldn't love her in any other way.
            The poet adopts the classical pattern of logically sound arguments to portray erotic love.   The poem is in the true Carpe Diem mode.  The lover says that Time passes quickly.  Physical beauty fades quickly and dies.  They have to seize the moment and make the best use of it.  Now she is beautiful and youth.  He is full of love.  The lover invites the mistress to respond to the call of live.  If she does not come to his embrace now, perhaps it will be too late because Time and Death pursue them relentlessly and there is no escape.  With these infallible arguments the lover convinces his beloved of the urgency of physical love.Audio Books
            The lover seeks the help of logic to convince his beloved of the urgency of their physical love.  The stress is on sexual love the yearning of the body.  The lover uses infallible logic and almost frightens the lady by drawing the terrible picture of Time devouring them body like a voracious bid of prey and her lovely body rotting inside the dark marble vault and works feasting on it.  They have to seize the moment and get whatever they could before it is too late.  The emphasis is on logic and reason to facilitate the realization of physical love.



00234--“Let Me Not To The Marriage” by William Shakespeare [Sonnet] [English Literature free notes]


 Shakespeare’s sonnets are marvels of poetic art.  There are 154 sonnets of which 
125 are addressed to a young man, the remaining to a dark lady; probably the poet's mistress.  
The sonnets in general explore the complex relationship between a dark lady, a handsome
 young nobleman and a rival poet. They also deal with the action of Time on living and
 non living things.  Shakespeare's poetic genius is revealed through these sonnets.
            Sonnet 116 is a meditative attempt to define perfect live.  The poet glorified the quality 
of true love.  Shakespeare uses a modified form of the Italian sonnet pattern.  
Here the sonnet is divided into three quatrains with a concluding couplet.
            In the first quatrain of the sonnet Shakespeare defines love negatively.  
He states what love is not.  Love is not true if it succumbs to temptations or other 
changes in circumstances.  Love is not true if it agrees with the one who wants 
to dissolve the lover's union.
            Next Shakespeare tells us what love is.  True love is always stable and constant.  
To stress this point the poet uses two metaphors.  Love is an ever fixed mark, a beacon, 
a light house which looks on tempests but is unshaken.  True love is again compared to 
the polestar.  It is fixed and it guides the wandering ships.
            In this sonnet also the poet shows his concern about the action of Time 
on human beings.  Rosy lips and cheeks fade with the passage of Time.  Physical beauty 
is obviously transient.  Time destroys it.  But true love resists the passage of Time.  
True love is permanent and lasts till the end of the world.
            The sonnet has a concluding couplet in which the poet reaffirms the belief 

 that his love is stable and permanent.  He declares that if his belief is proved wrong,
 he never wrote poetry or no man ever loved.
            The sonnet has a rhyme scheme ab, ab, cd, cd, ef ef and gg.
            Thus the poem is a perfect illustration of Shakespeare's poetic art of  
blending matter and manner.

00233--The Qualities of the Dramatic Monologue as seen in “My Last Duchess”. [Robert Browning] [English Literature free notes]



The Dramatic Monologue is a compromise between the drama, the soliloquy and the lyric.  Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is an excellent example of this form.  The poet has kept himself in the background, and the speaker is an Italian noble man, the Duke of Ferrara.  The poem is therefore, dramatic.  The Duke is about to marry and we are conscious, all the time, of the presence of the listener, who is an emissary come down on behalf of a count with a daughter whom the Duke intents to marry.  But the envoy never speaks, and, therefore, the poem is monologue.  The speaker in a dramatic monologue speaks at a critical moment in his life, and reveals his soul through his speech.  Thus in Browning’s poem the Duke’s artistic taste, his arrogance, his brutality and his cold aloof nature are all brought out through his speech.  Above all Browning mixes in actions with the monologue, thus imparting variety, life and roundness to the situation.  The actions are implicit in the Duke’s words as when he suggests to the visitor that they should go downstairs.  As C.H. Hereford remarks Browning’s dramatic monologues are dramatic in two senses of the word, the speakers reveal thoughts and feelings which are not the poet’s but they are plucked, as it were, from the living organism of the drama.

00232--Evolution of thought in the poem 'Ode to the West Wind' [P.B.Shelley] [English Literature free notes]




          Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind' is a perfect lyric which combines in itself lofty thoughts and strong passion.  In this poem, 'Shelley's ardent desire for the regeneration of mankind and the establishment of a new world order is vehemently expressed.  The West Wind which is a destroyer and preserver sweeps away the old and useless ideas and fosters fresh and modern ones.  The West Wind for the poet is not merely a natural phenomenon.   It is for him a tempestuous spirit destroying what has to die and preserving the seeds of a new life.  The West Wind symbolizes the free spirit of man – "tameless, and swift, and proud".  It also symbolizes poetic inspiration and becomes 'the trumpet of a prophecy' ushering in a grand and glorious regeneration of mankind.  The West Wind is the very symbol of the Law of Life itself, containing within it the power to destroy and the power to preserve.  The poem harmonises and fuses these images to a remarkable degree.  Shelley has also been successful in charging his ode with speed, force and energy like the tempestuous wind itself.
            The first three stanzas are in the form of a prayer and describe the activities of the West Wind on land, in the sky and in the ocean.  The West Wind, which is 'the breath of autumn's being, scatters the dead and sickly leaves ('pestilence-stricken multitudes') like a magician driving away ghosts.  The West Wind is not only Destroyer but is also a Preserver.  The Wind also carries and scatters the seeds and buries them under the soil, where they lie dormant all through winter.  When the warm spring breeze blows, the seeds will sprout, filling the whole earth with a new life.
 The powerful West Wind shakes and pushes the thin clouds, which are like leaves of 'the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean'.  The fast moving dark clouds herald the approach of a rain-storm.  The sky looks fierce like a mad and intoxicated Maenad and the clouds appear to be her streaming hair.  The West Wind gathers black clouds and are transformed into the dark solid dome of a tomb from which fire and hail will burst.  The lines carry the suggestion of birth and growth along with death.  The leaf image is maintained throughout.
            The West Wind wakes up the beautiful, blue and clam Mediterranean who is pictured as sleeping, lying by the side a pumice isle in Baiae's bay and dreaming of moss-grown palaces, ruined towers and gardens.  The smooth waves of the Atlantic cleave themselves into deep furrows.  The plants sense the approach of the West Wind and become pale and shed their leaves.

            A strong personal note is struck in the fourth stanza of the poem.  He is in dire need of the West Wind as he no more retains his carefree innocence and tamelessness of his boyhood.  He has fallen 'on the thorns of life' and he bleeds.  He is fettered by the claims and responsibilities and is full of the cares of life.  "A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed.  One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud" he laments.  The poet is in a mood of impotent dejection and appeals to the wind to lift him 'as a wave, a leaf, a cloud to escape from this burden of life.  Fortunately, the poem does not end here.  The poet in the next stanza recovers his balance and goes beyond his personal sorrows.  He wants to identify himself with the fierce spirit of the Wind.  He calls upon the Wind to 'drive my dead thoughts over the universe, like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!'  He appeals to the Wind to scatter his poems, which are like sparks from a smouldering fire, to kindle a new fire in the hearts and minds of men.  He also appeals to the West Wind to inspire him so that his poems, which have been born out of sorrow and hope, will prove to be the bringer of joy of humanity – the new spring time for mankind.  The poem closes on a note of ardent hope.  He wants the West Wind to blow through his lips the prophecy that a brave new world – a world of love, beauty and goodness – will soon emerge in place of the existing world of misery and suffering.  "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" the poem ends with this optimistic question.



00231--Examine 'Ulysses' as a dramatic monologue.[Alfred Lord Tennyson] [English Literature free notes]


            The character of Ulysses is vividly revealed through his words addressed to his mariners exhorting them to prepare for a final, desperate voyage.  The first five lines give us an insight into Ulysses' character by telling us what he despises.  His scorn for his people and his contempt for his wife are revealed both in words and in the very tone.  He calls his country 'barren crags' and his wife 'aged' and his people 'a savage race'.  He is disgusted with the animal-like existence of his people and loaths to remain there.  He instead longs for a life of adventure and new experiences.  He reveals himself a hard, self-contained individual, scornful of his people and a stranger to softer affections.  The next twenty seven lines serve the same purpose by telling us of his enthusiasms.  He yearns for a life of adventure.  He passionately longs for newer experiences and knowledge.  He wants to 'drink life to the lees' before death intervenes.  He has seen different countries, people and governments and have absorbed in himself all he has seen.  The more the experiences, the more he thirsts for them.  He wants to devote every hour saved from death for fresh experiences.  We find him rhetorical and a little proud of himself.
            The dramatic monologue also reveals the character of Telemachus, Ulysses' son.  Ulysses speaks of his son in glowing terms.  He is prudent and without blemish.  He knows how to civilize the 'rugged people' by slow prudence.  He is efficient and more fitted than his father to perform common duties.  He has tenderness and is fond of worshiping his household gods.  But we cannot ignore the underlying irony.  Ulysses in fact praises Telemachus for the very same qualities he himself despises in the first part of the poem.
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We also get a glimpse of the nature of his comrades.  He has full of love and admiration for his old mariners.  They have shared joys sorrows with him readily.  They have fought with him valiantly.  They have given him implicit obedience.  True, they have all become old.  But they still have the heroic spirit in them.  He, therefore, exhorts them to accompany him in his last voyage to the unknown.  There is no certainty as to what is in store for them,  perhaps they may all drown in the seas.   Perhaps they may be able to meet their departed leader Achilles in Elysium.    At any rate, it is the seeking that matters.  The poem ends with the exalted lines that though they are made weak by time and fate, still they have the will and determination "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
  
Ulysses also talks of the setting vividly.  He gives a beautiful picture of darkness falling on the waters of the sea.  The long day comes to a close and the moon climbs slowly.  The sea is getting dark and it makes manful sounds.  It is against this melancholy twilight that Ulysses appropriately sets out his last, desperate voyage.


00230--Consider Tennyson's Ulysses as a hero of unending adventure. OR Bring out the character of Ulysses. OR Tennyson and his hero. [English Literature free notes]



     Tennyson's Ulysses is quite Homer's hero, who is wise, variant and compassionate and is perfectly content to spend the rest of his life with his devoted wife and son and for whom the first duty is to govern his country.  Tennyson to some extent is indebted to Dante for his portrait of Ulysses.  Dante, however, does not approve of his hero's neglect of social and family responsibilities and in fact, condemns him for his perpetual longing for new experiences at the expense of social realities.

            Tennyson's hero is neither Homer's Odysseus with his quite magnificence nor even Dante's Ulysses, who is condemned for his selfish escapism.  Tennyson through his character reflects the complex tendencies of his age and his own temperament.  In one way, the poet expresses his admiration for the active life and the courage and strong determination of his hero.  He is fascinated by the defiant strength and stoic assertion of life displayed by Ulysses.  The voyage may be symbolic of Tennyson's reusing himself from impotent melancholy.  To the poet, Ulysses represents the romantic figure of a man for whom the purpose and joy of life lie in variety and fullness of experience.  He has the unquenchable thirst for new knowledge and experience.  He has always been a man of action and has 'drunk the delight of battle with his peers'.  He is a part of all that he has experienced and still feels that 'all experience is an arch where through / Gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever' when he moves.  He cannot be tied down to the narrow confines of his little island kingdom Ithaca.  The sea for him has an irresistible fascination and he urges his mariners to set out for the last, desperate voyage towards the 'utmost bound of human thought'.  Though time and fate have diminished their physical prowess, they still have the heroic spirit and strong will 'to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield'.  Thus, in one way Ulysses is expressive of a character endowed with a restless spirit – an eternal seeker of knowledge.  This is in a way reflective of the Victorian age with its scientific spirit and colonial expansion.
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            But there is the other side of the picture too.  The first five lines of the poem give us some insight into the character of Ulysses by telling us what he hates.  His scorn for his people and his contempt for his wife are revealed both in words and, more importantly, in the very tone.  He calls his country "barren crags" and his wife 'aged' and his people 'a savage race'.  The line 'That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me' consists of hard monosyllables and reveals his utter disgust with the animal-like existence of his people.  Curiously enough, he pretends to admire his son Telemachus for possessing the very qualities which he himself despises.  Though he had contempt for his country people and his wife he admires Telemachus for his 'slow prudence to make mild a rugged people'.  He boasts of striving with gods and yet talks of Telemachus paying 'meet adoration to gods.'  It appears that he does not believe in immortality (which, incidentally is the central doctrine of IN MEMORIAM) as he talks of 'the eternal silence' and that 'death closes all'.  He is not certain whether they will all be drowned in the high seas or they will be able to reach Elysium and meet Achilles.  At any rate, he appears to be proud and boastful and neglects his duty and social responsibilities.   Some critics have gone to the extent of saying that the poem is a repudiation of life and responsibilities.  For them "it is a brilliant failure in which the details are inconsistent, the reasoning specious" and it deals with life without faith, which can only lead to personal and social disintegration.  The last lines, no doubt, are exalted; but the rhetoric in "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield' should be viewed in the light of all that preceded them.  We find them devoid of purpose or significance.
         
Tennyson's Ulysses is a bundle of contradictions.  Scornful of his people, and contemptuous of his own son and wife, skeptical of gods and immortality, Ulysses talks rhetorically of the life of infinite search and yearning for new knowledge and experience.  The poet thus depicts some of the contradictions apparent both in himself and in his age through his character.






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