The central issues are: 1. The rejection of the “master narrative” of Western imperialism, 2. Concern with the construction of the colonial and postcolonial subject, and, 3. Disestablishing the Eurocentric norms of literary and artistic values.
1. The colonial other is marginalized and subordinated in the master narrative where the central power is western imperialism. Traditionally, the Eurocentric notions regulated the art and literature. But here there is a revolution. The master narrative is replaced by a counter-narrative. By doing this the colonial cultures fight their way back into a world history manipulated by Europeans.
2. Postcolonial studies are also concerned with the categories of by means of which this subject conceives itself and perceives the world within which it lives and acts. The colonial subject=Subaltern. Subaltern is a British word stands for a low ranked military personnel. Sub=under. Alter=other. (Latin) Gayatri Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak is an important work in this field.
3. The main agenda of post colonialist thinkers is to destroy the centre that holds the power (here it is Eurocentric norms) so that both the colonial and postcolonial writers can come under one umbrella.
Mathew
Arnold's 'Dover Beach' is a beautiful lyric which describes the helpless
uncertainty and doubt of the Victorian period.
There was a gradual decline in man's faith in God and religion. The Victorian mind was dazzled by the
achievements of science and material progress.
Faced with this choice between the world of faith and the world of
materialism, the Victorian found himself in a sad Plight. In Dover Beach Mathew Arnold pictures this
inability of man to make the right choice.
The poet uses the sea as a symbol to bring home this idea.
The poem has a very beautiful setting. It is a very peaceful quiet moonlit night at
the Dover Beach.
The sea is calm and full. The Dover cliff stands out
glimmering and vast. The night air is
sweet. The tides coming to the shore
fling down pebbles on the stand with a clattering sound. The poet watches this ceaseless action of
the waves. He listens to the rhythmic
cadence of the waves and he detects the eternal note of sadness in it.
The sad note is not only the poet's own personal
feeling. It is the universal note of
sadness. The poet now takes us back
through history to the time of Sophocles.
He too listened to the sad music of the waves; it brought into his mind
the miserable plight of humanity, its turbid ebb and flow. Though the reference is to Sophocles, Arnold
bridges the present with the past.
From the real sea Arnold
now goes to the metaphorical sea. It is
the sea of faith. It was once full,
beautifully spread out and deep. This
sea of faith once encircled and protected the entire world's faith in God and
religion sustained humanity in those days of glory. The poet feels a sense of loss and utter despair
as he looks on the dimly lit scene before him.
The sea of faith is no longer full. It has receded with a long melancholy roar
like the sea in front of him has receded exposing the pebbles and leaving the
shore littered with shingles. Arnold has in mind a
society which has moved away from religious faith cherished in the past and is
now torn between faith and the glamour of materialism.
Arnold thinks that there is only one clear solution for
man to get out of this dilemma. It is
the power of true love. The last part of
the poem thus reveals Arnold's abiding faith in the power of true love to console
man when he is plunged in despair.
The world of science and technology seems to be a dream
world, so beautiful, so varied and so new.
The poet feels that there is no real joy and happiness in this
world. No joy, no light, no certitude,
it is only a beautiful mirage.
The poet is once again plunged in despair as he looks on
the dimly lit sea scape. The tide has
receded so low that the sea shore seems to expand in to a vast dark plain. The poet now visualizes ignorant armies
clashing on this battle field. They are
in utter confusion and fight without knowing friend from foe. Thus Arnold closes the poem giving us a
terrifying picture of anarchy and futility.
This is a poem in which Yeats prays for the happiness and
well-being of his daughter, who has just been born. The poet is slightly upset as he thinks with apprehension
about the collapse of modern civilization.
While the poet's mind is stormy with this fear the child is calmly
sleeping in the cradle. The thought
about the dangers awaiting the child frightens him. The poet listens to the ominous howling of
the storm in his mind as he thinks of the dangers his daughter may be exposed
to. The gloomy poet walks up and down
and prays for his daughter. As he
listens to the stormy wind he thinks the prophetic vision described in his poem
"The second Coming" is at hand.
Then there follows a skillful description of the kind of
beauty that is not desirable in a woman – beauty that makes a stranger crazy or
that makes a woman exult at her reflection in the mirror. The poet prays that his daughter may have
beauty, but not excessive beauty. He
knows that too much beauty in a woman will land her in danger. He knows that fabulous beauty goes with an
empty mind. The poet makes suggestive
allusions to Helen who had "much trouble from a fool" and Venus who
chose "a bandy-legged smith" as her husband. From both these stories the poet draws a
realistic and at the same time entertaining moral:
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.
So the poet wishes and prays that his daughter may be
granted moderate beauty.
Yeats's next prayer is that his daughter should grow up
like a laurel tree with linnets singing on its branches. The laurel tree represents luxuriant growth
and peace and harmony. While the birds
stand for joy. She should bring joy to
those around her just as the birds provide joy to people. The poet wants her daughter to become free from
hatred. The poet knows that intellectual
hatred is great evil and can make the mind hollow. The soul is the fountain of joy and peace and
so if she can attune her will to the will of God, she need not have any fear
about anything. As the radical innocence
of the soul is the highest form of spiritual development, Yeasts asks his
daughter to recover it. It is a gift
from heaven and no earthly temptations can subdue her.
Yeats's next wish is that his daughter should not become
a political fanatic. Fanaticism will
create hatred and ill will and a woman with these vices will become incapable of
using the gifts conferred on her. No
doubt, the poet is referring to Maud Gonne, the talented and beautiful lady
whom Yeats loved. She rejected him and
married John Macbride, another political fanatic. According to the poet, she wrecked her life
and caused misery to her friends and relatives.
It was vanity and hatred that threw her life into confusion. It is Yeats's wish that his daughter should
not devote herself to any impersonal cause, sacrificing all other values in
life.
Yeats prays that her daughter be endowed with courtesy
which he considers as the queen of all virtues.
Courteous behaviour can win over hearts.
Ceremoniousness is another quality that the poet wishes her daughter to
possess. According to him ceremony alone
will engender innocence and beauty. The
poet makes references to Maud Gonne in several places in the poem. This shows the poet's inordinate love foe
her. She rejected his love and chose to
dedicate herself to the cause of Irish Independence. Later though she married another political
fanatic, John Macbride, she did not have a happy married life. It is the poet's prayer that his daughter
should not have similar experiences.
The poem contains many heart-warming lines expressive of
affection, humanity, generosity, optimism, good cheer, amiability etc. Besides, we find several examples of the
felicity of word and phrase: "the murderous innocence of the sea",
"an old bellows full of angry wind", "rooted in one dear
perpetual place" etc. are examples.
We also get a bit of moralizing which has its own appeal: "an intellectual hatred is the
worst."
"Ceremony's s the name for the rich horn
And custom for the spreading laurel
tree."
"A prayer for my Daughter" is a poem full of
practical wisdom, moral philosophy and beauty.
"The Road Not Taken" is one of Frost's most
characteristic meditative lyrics. Among
the major themes of Frost's poetry are his ambiguous relationship with nature, his
interest in the paradoxes of life and his faith in human fortitude. Some of these are touched upon in "The
Road Not Taken." The
"road" here is, of course, the career or occupation that a man might
choose to follow at a particular period of his life. Frost was a farmer, a teacher and a
journalist before he chose to become a professional poet. Perhaps it is this choosing of a new
"road" in his life that prompted the poem. Life always offers us roads of different
choices. Our decision determines our
future.
One day as the poet was walking through a small forest he
saw his road branching away into two directions. It was autumn, the roads were covered with yellow
leaves. As he had to make a choice, the poet stood
there for some time and took the road that was less used. This means that the other road was much traveled
by, meaning that it was a path of conventional career. But he took the road which was less
conventional, and therefore more adventurous. The poet thought
that he would travel along the other road some other day. But when he thought that the way he took must
lead to other ways, he knew that he could never come back to use the second
road. Years later he would tell his
friends about those roads and how his choice had made all the difference. But the poet does not clarify what the
difference has been, whether it has been good or bad. He leaves it in ambiguity.
Robert Frost
Superficially the poem describes a simple, common country
scene in simple language. But a closer
look will reveal the deeper meaning it has.
Many of the characteristic features of Frost's poetry can be seen
here. The speculation on the untrodden
path is natural to a poet like Frost who avoids the expression of romantic
excitement about the experiences of life.
Frost employs a simple language and no decorative imagery. But his interest in paradox and ambiguity
makes the poem deeper than it looks at the first reading.
W.H. Auden in his poem "The Unknown Citizen"
tackles an immediate problem of contemporary life. In this satirical poem he laughs at the
attitude of an ordinary citizen in a totalitarian state. The decline of the status of the individual
has made him a cog in the machine. The
individual has no freedom of action or initiative. He seems to be happy in a superficial,
in a purely material sense, but he has
been deprived of his basic rights. It is
the cause of these modern citizens that Auden depicts in the poem.
The title of the poem "The Unknown Citizen" is
suggestive. It recalls the name 'the
Unknown warrior' which was used for a fallen soldier who was taken as the
representative of all those who had been killed in the Great War, and who lay
in nameless graves in foreign battlefields.
The Unknown Citizen is a representative of the citizens who have been virtually
buried in the modern scientific society and have lost all their
individuality. Auden laments the loss of
individuality and freedom of the citizen.
Auden's Unknown Citizen was one who satisfied the
standards set by his state. The Bureau
of statistics declared that he obeyed all the laws of the state and followed
all conventions of society and there was no complaint about him. Fudge Motors Inc where he was employed was
fully satisfied with his work. He paid
his dues to the local trade union.
Researchers in social psychology declared that he was social and gave
company to his co-workers by joining them for a drink occasionally. The evaluators of newspapers stated that he
bought a newspaper every day and was normal in his response to
advertisements. The agents of manufacturers
of modern machines on installment basis and he paid his installments and
insurance premium regularly and punctually.
He was in fact a 'saint' in the modern sense of the term.
Public opinion polls showed that he had the right
opinions for the right season, always conforming to the general opinion. Though he loved peace, he was quite willing
to fight in a war. He had the right
number of children and had no objection to the state's giving any kind of
education to them. All these prove that
he was not free to express his opinions or view in any matter. He strictly did abid by the laws and interests
of his state.
In the last lines of the poem Auden asks an important
question; was the unknown citizen free and happy? The poet says that the question is
absurd. What he implies is that the
citizen might say that he is free and happy for fear of social isolation or
harassment. In fact he is not free to express
any of his preferences. He has no
freedom of action and initiative. Where
there is no freedom, there cannot be any happiness. Though he seems to be happy, he is only
pretending to be happy in the midst of the modern materialistic comforts.
Auden ironically depicts the problems of an ordinary
citizen in a totalitarian state. He has
no identity. He is just a cog in the
machine.
John Donne addresses his poem “The Sun Rising” to the sun, but the theme
of the poem is the joy of true love. The poet derives infinite joy by
loving and by being loved. The poet’s wit and irony are here directed
against the sun for trying to interfere in the lover’s happiness.
In the opening stanza, the sun is addressed as “busy, old fool” flashing
his light into the lover’s bedroom, perhaps with the intention of
waking up and parting them. It is unfair on his part to expect the
lovers to act according to his movements. He may go about his trivial
errands like pulling up ‘late school boys’ and lazy apprentices who hate
to work. The country ants and courtiers may knuckle under his
authority but not so the lovers. Love is above time, which is regulated
by the sun. For lovers, seasons, hours and days have no meaning.
The argument against the sun is continued. The sun need not think that
his light is dazzling and worthy of respect. If the poet closes his
eyes, the sunlight is rendered dark. But he does not like to lose sight
of his beloved by closing his eyes. In hyperbolic language he asks the
sun if the eyes of his beloved are not brighter than sunlight. Gazing
into her eyes, the sun may feel dazzled. Roaming over the whole world,
the sun can inform him on the next day whether the lady is not worth
more than the East and the West Indies. The poet’s lady comprises in
her all the kingdoms. The poet, in the possession of his mistress is
thus richer than any king on earth.
The lovers in Donne’s poem are the archetypal ideas or the soul of the
world, of which the states and princes are imperfect perfections. The
poet declares that there is nothing else besides him and his beloved
which implies that they have become one, and together they constitute
the soul of the world. The lovers can look down upon the world from the
heights of perfection they have reached through the realization of
their true love. The pomp and majesty of a king is then a mere
imitation of the glory attained by lovers. Compared to their spiritual
wealth, all material wealth seems counterfeit. The sun, being old and
run down, will welcome the contraction of the world. Now that the
lovers are the world, the can fulfill his duty of lighting and warming
the world by merely shining on them. By circling round a single room,
he can circle round the whole world.
The tone of the poem is gently ironic besides being playful and
colloquial. Love is shown as having triumphed over time and space. The
poet’s sense of completeness in the possession of his mistress is an
illusion. The lovers mock at space and time as illusions without
realizing that they themselves are under an illusion. Those who accept
the reality of time and space may be poor deluded mortals, but the
lovers who pride themselves I having achieved a sense of completeness
are by no means better. Professor A. Stein points out, “What the
lovers represent majestically is not a distillation of all that is
precious and delightful on earth to the imagination of a lover, who does
not feel himself quite on earth…. The lovers possess in their bed what
does not seem to incommode them as idea and image, a composite token of
the material possession of that gross external world.”
The lovers look out on other illusions from an unexamined illusion. The
poet, with his beloved by his side, feels infinite bliss, which to him
appears perfect. He tries to force on us the conviction that the kings
and their kingdoms are all with the lovers. The lady comprises in her
all the kingdoms, and the poet comprises in him all the kings. A king
with all his indisputable power and majesty can only imitate the bliss
of the lovers. Even the sun is presented as being glad to move round
the lovers who represent the whole world. The sun’s duty of giving
light and warmth to the world is thus lightened.
All told, one is left wondering if Donne is not mocking at himself and
his lady, living in an illusory world of unadulterated joy. Donne is
here mocking at the conventional conceits found in the love poems of his
time, or he imply that the lovers represent the soul of the world or
the Platonic archetype of the world.
The poem Tintern Abbey ranks among the finest
and the most characteristic of Wordsworth’s works. It sums up Wordsworth’s development and
furnishes a sure criterion to evaluate his life and poetry. Moreover, it marks the birth of a new age in
the history of English poetry. It is
usual for Wordsworth to compose lyrics by recalling a scene observed weeks,
months, or even years earlier. In the
poem Tintern Abbey he describes a second visit to
the Wye valley after an interval of five years.
This provides the occasion for his statement that during all these years
he has been bearing in mind the sights and sounds there as a balm to his
troubled soul amid the fret and fever of life.
In seeking to explain how this can be, he gives us an autobiography in a
nutshell, outlining the three successive phases of his love of nature.
Wordsworth recalls how five years
earlier he had made his previous visit to the beauty-spot round Tintern Abbey. Now he sees again the familiar and lovely
spot recognizing the pleasing murmurs of the mountain streams, the Wye flowing
down the mountain side.
The poet sees the landscape
rendered solemn and impressive by the steep sides of lofty hills in one of the
most unfrequented and wild spot in Wales.
A holy inexplicable calm pervades the scene which seems to ascend to the
heavens themselves. From where he stands
in the shade of a sycamore tree, he gets a general view of distant cottages,
each standing in its own small plot of ground hidden amidst the green foliage
of trees, bushes and creepers trailing to the very doors of the houses. Wisps of smoke arise from the chimneys of the
cottages, but as the latter are hidden behind a curtain of leaves and branches,
the on-looker gets the impression of nomads or stray gypsies living in the open
and cooking their food. The poet even
wonders if there could be some hermit’s cave nearby from which the lonely
ascetic is preparing his simple food. Thus
amidst the profusion of nature, unbroken solitude and absence of human beings,
the poet derives an almost religious and inspiring tranquility.
Recognizing
the familiar features of the landscape seen earlier, the poet feels a sense of
joy, of release in the presence of congenial natural sights and sounds. He thinks of the uneasiness and confusions
generated by the cities. During the last
five years, memories of the abbey and the river have frequented him at times of
distress and gloom, and miraculously cheered up his drooping spirits. As often as his emotions were pained or his
spirits dejected, he had only to recall the lovely scenes of the country round
Tintern Abbey to feel refreshed and to be revived. These contacts with Nature delighted his mind
and strengthened his character. From this
the poet inferred that there must be some vital and secret connection between
the spirit of nature and the cultivation of human feelings in the right
direction.
Over and above the chastening and
strengthening of his moral and emotional aspects, the poet derived from the
nature the power of looking into the mystery of life and finding the principle
of unity and harmony underlying all creation.
By practicing a kind of yoga he attuned his mind and spirit to the
mysterious working of a supreme presence all around him, he got rid of the
frustrations and failures of life step by step, forgot the weight of the mortal
body and became exalted in spirit and sensation until he saw nothing but a
beneficent force brooding over all the universe of which he himself was a
part. Thus he came to unravel the
mystery or riddle of existence itself. It
was indeed the triumph of spirit over flesh. Thanks to this realization which enabled him
to escape from the fever and fret of life, from the restrictions and
artificialities of conventional society, into deep communication with the
spirit of Nature herself as he felt it when he was in Tintern Abbey.
There are three stages in the
evolution of his attitude to Nature. The
first stage is called the infant stage. In
this period he looked upon nature much as the rose looks upon its new-begun
course of life. This stage is of mere
sensation, of the gratification of instincts and feelings without any attempt
to analyze or sort them out.
The second stage is that of
adolescence. Love is the most turbulent and ecstatic manifestation of
youth. The poet’s attitude towards
nature becomes that of a lover’s attitude to his mistress. Just as in the presence of his beloved, or
even at the mere thought of her, the lover’s entire body, feelings and mind
become roused as with extreme rapture, so did the poet feel in the presence of “the
sounding cataract”. This is only
symbolical, for the “sounding cataract” is but one manifestation of
nature.
The final and third phase of Wordsworth’s
attitude happened when both the unreasoned and unanalyzed attitudes give place
to the philosophic interpretation of the influence and essential attributes of
Nature. Wordsworth was able to find in
the all pervading spirit of nature a full recognition of the sadness or pathos
of human life with its countless trials and tribulations; this sadness was necessary
for a proper integration of the higher faculties and active expression of a
sublime and supreme spirit in nature.
This spirit was to be recognized in his own heart as well as in remote
planets and worlds other than ours. To this all-pervading power of Nature
Wordsworth owes the stimulation of his creative faculties as well as his power
of enjoying the beauties of the manifested world. He believes that all his good qualities are
the results of his adoration of Nature.
Ultimately the poet connects his
sister with this spiritual development. The
human element of the poem is strengthened by these references to his sister. He sees in her what he was a few years
ago. He wishes that she may continue to
be so for few more years and then follow
his path of evolution.
A ballad is a narrative song of love and adventure
usually using a dramatic form of questions and answers. Keats's famous poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", has
been written in the style of a ballad.
It tells the story of a knight who was enchanted by a beautiful lady who
finally destroyed him. In his poem Keats
has followed the ballad style. He uses
archaic words and the metre of the poem conforms to the ballad style. The subject matter of the poem is also
a characteristic of a ballad. The theme of
most of the early ballads is a knight's love for a fairy, the deception and the
consequent sad plight of the knight.
This poem is one of the few successful ballads written in English
poetry.
Like most traditional ballads the poem begins with a
question. The poet finds a knight
equipped with his weapons loitering about alone in the woods. He looks
sad and pale. It is the autumn season and even the weeds of
the lake are dried up and no bird sings.
The poet asks the knight why he is roaming about alone in the dull
season
of the year when the corn has been reaped and even the squirrels are not
found
moving about the fields as they are stored enough grain for the winter.
He further tells the knight that his face is
as white as a lily and his forehead is covered with drops of
perspiration
resulting from some inward pain. His
cheeks are bloodless and dry like a rose which is losing its colour and
withering quickly.
The knight tells the poet his touching story. While roaming about in
the meadows he met an
extremely beautiful lady. She looked a
fairy child. She had long hair and
walked nimbly. There was wildness in her
eyes. The knight was so much enchanted
by her beauty that he plucked flowers and made a garland for her head
and
bracelets and sweet smelling belt. The
beautiful lady did not speak a word. From her look and sweet melancholic
manner the knight thought that she
loved him dearly. He took her on his
horse and they rode the whole day. In
his extreme love for the lady, he did not notice anything around him.
While riding, the lady bent sideways and sang
some fairy song. At last they reached a
strange place. The lady offered him
delicious food. She spoke in a strange language. The knight thought
that she was expressing
her love for him. She then took him to
her fairy home and there she lulled him to sleep. In his sleep he saw a
nightmare. He felt that he was lying on the side of a
cold hill and there he saw a number of princes, kings and warriors.
They looked very pale. They told him that they had been deceived by
the beautiful lady. They were her early
Victims. When he woke up he found that
he was lying alone on the cold hill. The
lady had deserted him. In his sad plight
he is roaming about the dreary hill in that dull season of the year.
Browning's poems are studies of the
character. They are studies of the other
men. The poet stands apart and gives his
characters a platform and lets them speak to us, and as they speak they unfold
their character. It was for this purpose
that Browning invented a new genre of poetry known as dramatic monologue or
dramatic lyric. It has a few
well-defined characteristics. It is a
compromise between the drama, the soliloquy and the lyric. The author keeps himself entirely in the
background and so it is essentially dramatic.
As only one character speaks it is a monologue. The monologue is essentially a lyrical outpouring
or a subjective self-examination.
"My Last Duchess" is one of Browning's finest
dramatic monologues. The poem proves
that Browning is a matchless master of this kind of poetry. The poem also reveals the poet's deep
understanding of human character and capacity to present it in the most
dramatic and impressive manner. As in
the other monologues here also the chief character is the speaker of the
monologue. Here there is only one
listener, who does not speak anything at all.
The central character of our poem is an Italian nobleman who intends to
marry the daughter of a rich count, whose agent is the silent listener. As his speech goes on we come to understand
the character and outlook of the man. As
he narrates his relationship with his wife point by point our understanding of
him gets widened. Browning is a master
of delineating the complex inner life of men.
Here we find the Duke talking about his last Duchess, but in fact he
speaks more about himself.
listen to : Short summary of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Usually what Browning does in his dramatic monologue is
to bring the speaker before us at a crucial moment when he is most likely to
reveal his character. In 'My Last
Duchess' the apt moment is when the Count's agent has come to conclude the
negotiations regarding the proposal of a union between the count's daughter and
the Duke. It is quite natural that the
Duke would look back into the past and think about his first wife and his relationship
with her. The snobbish Duke must have
taken the agent around the house and on reaching the art gallery he must have
shown the portrait of his last Duchess.
Explaining to the agent the reason behind the depth of the passion and
earnest glance on the face of the portrait, the Duke briefly reveals the
character of his former wife, wand in the process lays bare his own egotism,
possessiveness and cruelty.
The dramatic situation and the presence of a listener is
very subtly and cleverly suggested by the occasional direct address made by the
Duke to the count's agent. Indirectly we
see his curiosity to take a look at the curtained portrait and then his desire
to know how such an expression of intense joy happened on the face of the
portrait. This gives occasion to the
Duke to describe his former wife's character and the way in which he treated
her. His cruelty, his egotism, his
jealousy minus love are all revealed to us.
Finally there is a suggestion that the agent stood back as they began to
descend the steps so that the Duke may proceed.
However the Duke invites the agent to walk abreast and as they step down
he points to a bronze statue of Neptune, remarking that it is a rare piece.
The poem is thus a very good
example of a dramatic monologue. It is full of action, notmerely
a long soliloquy delivered by a character. It is dramatic, however small
the compass may be, and it projects before us a vivid picture of all the
emotion natural to a character.
listen to : Detailed Analysis of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Milton’s ‘Lycidas’ is one of the greatest pastoral elegies in English
literature. Pastoralism in literature is an attitude in which the
writer looks at life from the view point of a shepherd. In classical
literature this has been successfully handled by Theocritus of Sicily,
and after him by Virgil and Bion. In English literature it was
popularised by Sir Philip Sydney and Edmund Spenser, but the
scintillating star in the firmament of pastoralism is certainly John
Milton.
Pastoral elegy has its own conventions handed down from generation to
generation. Let us see how far Milton has observed them in ‘Lycidas’.
The pastoral poet begins by invoking the Muses and goes on referring to
other figures from classical mythology. In ‘Lycidas’ we find an
invocation to the Muses from line 15 to 22. Milton concludes by
expecting a similar service from some other poet when he is dead.
Secondly, the mourning in pastoral poetry is almost universal. Nature
joins in mourning the shepherd’s death in ‘Lycidas’, private sorrow
giving place to public sorrow. Lines 37-49 in Lycidas describes the
mourning. Woods and caves once haunted by Lycidas now mourn for him.
The inquest over the death is another tradition found in Pastoral poems.
In lines 50-63, Milton charges the nymphs with negligence. But the
next moment it dawns on him that they would have been helpless. Triton,
the herald of the sea questions every wind and is assured that the air
was calm when Lycidas set sail. The conclusion drawn is that the fatal
ship that sank Lycidas was built during the eclipse and fitted out in
the midst of curses.
Then comes a description of the procession of mourners as found in all
pastoral elegies. Camus, representing Cambridge university and
leadership, leads the procession. The last among the mourners is
St.Peter mourning the loss to the church incurred by the death of
Lycidas. With a denunciation of the corrupt clergyman, St.Peter
disappears. Lines 88-111 are occupied with this description.
Post-Renaissance elegies often included an elaborate passage in which
the poet mentions appropriate flowers of various hues and significance
brought to deck the hearse. Lines 133 to 151 carry such a description.
Among the primrose, the crowetoe, the pink and the woodbine, the
amaranth alone signifies immortality with its unfading nature.
In orthodox pastoral elegies there is a closing consolation. The poet
accordingly asks the shepherds to weep no more, for Lycidas is not dead,
but has merely passed from one earth to heaven. Lines 165 to 185 offer
consolation. In Christian elegies, the reversal from grief to joy
occurs when the writer realizes that death on earth is entry into a
higher life. But Milton adds that Lycidas has become a genius of the
shore to play the guardian angel to those who wander in the dangerous
flood.
Milton has followed the conventions in pastoral poetry, but he has
mingled in it Greek mythology and Christian theology. In addition there
are two digressions from pastoral strain: a) a discussion on the true
values of life, and, b) a bitter criticism of the clergyman of the day.
He introduces St.Peter into the list of mourners which shows the
deepening puritanical fervour of the poet. In the other parts of the
poem he has merely used the images handed down from classical ages. But
when questions about the religious state of England rose in his mind,
he could not restrain himself. He puts into the mouth of St.Peter a
trade against the corrupt clergymen of his day. He prophesies that the
domination of the corrupting leaders is doomed. The note of keen
personal regret is conspicuous by its absence. Milton here laments the
loss of the church, for Edward king was intended for the church. He
would have certainly set an example of purity and devotion to the other
priests. In addition, the poet is bewailing the loss of another poet, who also knew “to build the lofty rhyme”.
‘Lycidas’ is unquestionably a pagan poem. But Milton, the austere
puritan could not help introducing Christian elements into it. Thus
with its curious mixture of pagan loveliness and Christian austerity, it
becomes the offspring of Milton’s unparalleled genius. The poem starts
with an apology for breaking the poet’s resolve not to write any poetry
until his poetic talent has matured fully. The concluding eight lines
from a sort of epilogue in which Milton speaks directly, having stepped
out of the character of the shephered. Having passed through many moods
and sung in different strains, the shepherd draws his clock around him
and leaves the spot.
"Punishment in Kindergarten" is a little autobiographical
poem by the famous Indo-Anglian poet Kamala Das. She recalls one of her childhood
experiences. When she was in the
kindergarten, one day the children were taken for a picnic. All the children
except her were playing and making merry.
But she alone kept away from the company of the children. Their teacher, a blue-frocked woman, scolded
her saying.
"Why don't you join the others, what
A peculiar child you are!"
This heard, all the other children who were sipping sugar
cane turned and laughed. The child felt
it very much. She became sad at the
words of the teacher. But the laughter
by the children made her sadder. She
thought that they should have consoled her rather than laughing and insulting
her. Filled with sorrow and shame she
did her face in a hedge and wept. This
was indeed a painful experience to a little child in the nursery school.
Now after many years she has grown into an adult. She has only a faint memory of the
blue-frocked woman and the laughing faces of the children. Now she has learned to have an 'adult peace'
and happiness in her present state as a grown-up person. Now there is no need for her to be perturbed
about that bitter kindergarten experience.
With her long experience in life she has learned that life is a mixture
of joy and sorrow. She remembers how she
has experienced both the joy and sorrow of life. The long passage of time has taught her many
things. She is no more a lonely
individual as she used to feel when she was a child. The poet comes to a conclusion that there is
no need for her to remember that picnic day, when she hid her face in the
hedge, watching the steel-white sun, that was standing lonely in the sky.
The poem is written in three stanzas, each having
different number of lines – the first with seven lines, the second with six and
the third with nine. The poem does not
follow any regular rhyme scheme. The
subject matter of the poem has two parts, the first of which being the
description of the painful experience of the kindergarten days and the second,
the adult's attitude to the incident at present when she is no more a child.
The poet seems to be nostalgic about her childhood
days. There are certain expressions in
the poem that are worth remembering. The
poet says that the child buried its face in the hedge and "smelt the
flowers and the pain". "Smelt
the flowers can be taken as an ordinary expression, but "smelt the
pain" is something very evocative and expressive. In the first stanza of the poem, the poet
describes the pain caused to the child, "throwing words like pots and
pans". This again is
beautiful. The phrase used by the poet
to describe the child's teacher, namely, "blue-frocked woman" can be
justified from the child's point of view.
But to the poet who is an adult the use of the phrase looks a little too
awkward. On the whole, the poem can be
taken as the poet's interest in remembering her childhood days.
Stanza
1. The poet addresses the Urn.
Looking at the urn the poets imagination conjures up the ancient life and
worship suggested by the sculptured images and he speculates on the abstract
relation of art and life. These figures
are unpolluted by the hand of man and not destroyed by time. Time which destroys everything has preserved
it like a foster child. Scenes from
rustic life are depicted on the urn. It
is also if some historian had recorded ancient Greek life. The engraver has succeeded in giving it permanence. A poet could not do this better. The scene is pictured with an ornamental
border of leaves. It tells the tales of
gods and men in Tempe or the valleys of Arcadia in Greece. The poet now asks a few questions. We are these men or gods? Who are these women feigning coyness? Why do the men or gods pursue them
madly? The poet wonders how they elude
their pursuers. Pipes and timbrels are
playing and the whole scene is filled with exquisite rapture.
Stanza
2. In the second stanza the poet
emphasizes the permanence of a moment captured by art.
Songs heard in reality are sweet,
but those unheard, those which dwell in the realm of the ideal are sweeter
still. From the real world the poet
takes us through the world of art into the pure realm of imagination. So the pipes he seems on the urn play on not
to the physical ear but to the ears of the soul and we hear the harmonies of
eternity. The poet addresses the
sculptured figure of the young man who cannot stop singing. The trees under which he is standing will be
ever green, Both the youth and the trees have passed into the realm of eternity
through art. The lover is about to kiss
his beloved. The consoles the
lover. His beloved is always young
because as in real life the lover and the girl do not grow old and lose their
beauty.
Stanza
3. On the urn the trees are even
green. They cannot shed their leaves
because it is always spring for them.
The piper standing under the tree will keep on signing fresh songs. The lovers on the urn keep on loving. They are always happy. The fleeting passions of real life do not
affect them. They are never
surfeited. They do not suffer from the
agonies of thwarted love.
Stanza
4. The poets curiosity is aroused
watching the figures coming to the sacrifice.
Who are these men and women? Who
is this mysterious priest who leads the young sacrificial cow to the grassy
alter. The poet hears the pitiful crying
of the cow. Looking beyond what he seems
before this eyes the poet visualizes the empty stress of the little town. All the people have gone to the sacrifice. They will never return and the streets of the
city will ever be silent and desolate.
Stanza
5. The beautiful shape
of the Grecian Urn raises in the mind of the poet the ideal of Beauty which he
equates with Truth. The sculptured
figures of men and women and the pastoral scene raise thoughts which baffle the
poet. They are as mysterious as eternity. When men of this age are crippled by old age
the urn would whisper words of comfort Oman of succeeding
generations. Beauty is truth, truth
beauty. Beauty and truth becomes one and
the same thing.
John Dryden's MacFlecknoe is
one of the finest satires in the English language. It was Neo-classical period in English literature and
Dryden, along with another brilliant satirist Alexander Pope, was the power 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.
Mac Flecknoe is ready to vacate his tile as the world's
worst poet. A worthy successor has to be
chosen. The choice falls on Shadwell. The
coronation takes place in Barbican, London
suburb notorious for its low and vulgar life.
The events are presented in an absurd ridiculous manner.
Dryden uses allusions, paradies and quotations profusely
to ridicule the great hero of the poem.
The gross stupidity of Shadwell is highlighted from the
beginning of all the sons of Flecknoe, he Shadwell is dullest and therefore by
nature the fittest to succeed his father.
His stupidity is of such comprehensive nature that the rest to some
faint meaning make pretense. But
Shadwell never deviates into sense.
Shadwell is described as a giant of a man, but a pygmy intellectually. Thus Nature designed him to be the great
monarch of dullness. Flecknoe himself
was the king of the kingdom of dullness.
He says he was only a John the Baptist preparing the way to the great
Jesus Christ.
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 focused on this aspect.
Mock-heroic poetry employs a satirical devise in which
the great ad the silly are brought together and compared. This way the absurd nonsensical effect is
largely increased. For this purpose
Dryden has chosen events and characters from the Bible and ancient
history. Shadwell is selected and put n
the throne of stupidity in a coronation which is described in detail. It is as if the audience is witnessing the
coronation of a great king who is destined to rule a vast empire. The poem ends drawing a parallel to the
Biblical story of the mantle of Elijah falling on the shoulders of Elisha
giving him a double portion of his sire's prophetic spirit.