00251--The Best 10 Quotes of Mark Twain

1. Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

2. A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

3. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

4. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

5. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

6. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

7. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

8. Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

9. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

10.        Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.

00250--RASA/Indian Aesthetics/Literary Term

Indian aesthetics has borrowed highly from the myths and legends related to Krishna.  Krishna is the archetypal rasika . Indian philosophers  emphasis on the importance of rasa in understanding and appreciating the arts in general, and the theatre arts in particular. 

1.      The rasa theory was originally formulated by BHARATHA in his treatise NATYASHASTRA.

2.      Rasa is not of one kind but of many, it is the total of many ingredients.  Guna or Value is one of the ingredients.

3.      From  BHARATHA  onwards the term signified the aesthetic pleasure or thrill, invariably accompanied with joy that the audience/spectator/reader, experience while witnessing/hearing the enactment or reading of a drama or poem.

4.      In Sanskrit aesthetics, the term employed initially in the context of drama and later poetry.

5.      For BHARATHA the main purpose of dramatic performance is to create and enact the rasas.  He clarifies his point by using an analogy: just as rasa (flavor) issues from the combination of many spices, herbs and other dravyas, so does rasa in drama, as it comes from the combination of many bhavas.

00249-- ugc-net objective type question answers links

I see that visitors find it difficult to get all the ugc-net posts due to the complex display.  Here I am giving you links to all the 8 posts on ugc-net.  Just click on each link below.  Good luck!

post one
post two
post three
post four
post five 
post six
post seven
post eight

00248--OF STUDIES/ESSAY/FRANCIS BACON [English literature free notes]

                      OF STUDIES

The word ‘essay’ was first used by the French writer Montaigne from whom Bacon adopted it. Bacons essays are in a class apart from those of the other essayists like Lamb, Macaulay and Addison.  He himself called them “pithy jottings, rather apt than curious’.  The description exactly fits his writings, especially earlier essays like “Of Studies”.

In “Of Studies”, the sentences are nearly all short; crisp and sententious.  There are few connectives.  Each sentence stands by itself, expressing briefly and precisely his weighty thought.  The epigrammatic terseness and the sharp antithesis and balance are seen as found in all his writings.  But in, “Of Truth”, Bacon imparts warmth and colour to his style.  Illustrations abound, metaphors and similies crop up.  In “Of Studies” each sentence is a concentrated expression of his idea, and most of them have acquired the universal currency of proverbs.

Bacon speaks at length of the value of study.  According to him, three purposes are served by studies. 

1.  They give delight.

2.  They are an ornament to man.

3.  They add to the ability of man.

In retirement and in aloofness reading gives pleasure.  As an ornament, one’s study adorns one’s conversation.  The ability of a learned man is seen in his judgment and in the way he carries out his business.  Even experienced men turn to learned people for advice and guidance.  Yet to spend too much time in studies is a sort of idleness, and to use one’s knowledge too much in conversation is nothing short of affectedness. To judge wholly by the rules one has studied is the tendency of a scholar.  Studies perfect the inborn talent of man, which is further completed by experience.  In this respect studies are like natural plants which require pruning.  Reading should not tempt one to contradict others.  Neither should one believe all that is stated in books.  What is absorbed from books should be weighed well before introducing them in one’s talk.

Bacon speaks of different types of books in his essay entitled “Of Studies”.

1.     Some books are to be tasted  [just enough to go through the book]

2.     Others to be swallowed  [read with great attention]

3.     Few to be chewed and digested  [each word must be meditated upon]

Condensed or abridged books are like distilled water, bright but tasteless.  Books on history add to the wisdom of man, for they are authentic account of the plots and plans made by the leaders of men who have gained tremendous success in life or failed miserably.  Reading of poetry makes man intelligent and imaginative, for poets present an imaginary world in their works.  The study of mathematics makes men clever and quick in grasping.  The study of natural science increases the depth of mind.  Morality makes men grave and the study of logic enables men to argue well. 

Reading, according to Bacon, makes a man well-informed while conversation makes him quick-witted, and writing makes him impeccable.  To write well he needs a good memory, for a writer should be careful not to repeat his ideas. 

Bacon concludes his essay “Of Studies” by suggesting remedies for deficiencies in some of the mental faculties.  He believes that there is scarcely any frailty in human mind which cannot be dispelled by the study of a subject fit for such a mind.  Just as physical exercises can cure the diseases of the body, the imperfections of the mind can be expelled by study. 

Bowling is considered good for curing the stones in the kidney; shooting is good exercise for lungs and breast; gentle walking is good for the stomach and riding is prescribed for any illness associated with the head.  Similarly, if a man’s mind lacks concentration he should study mathematics in which if his mind wanders from the subject, he will have to start again from the beginning.  If one is unable to discover the fine distinctions, he should study the works of the medieval philosophers who were skilled in subtle debates, and in the case of men who cannot argue well, Bacon recommend the study of the lawyer’s cases.  Thus every defect of the mind can be cured by the study of the proper subject.

                                                         END

00247--The Best 10 Quotes of George Bernard Shaw [English literature free notes]

1.  England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

2.  Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

3.  A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.

4.  The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

5.  Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

6.  The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

7.  We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

8.  Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

9.  Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

10.  A happy family is but an earlier heaven.

00246-- Eliza Doolittle/Character Sketch/Pygmalion/Bernard Shaw [English literature free notes]

                                                     

                                             
                                             Eliza Doolittle

In the beginning Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl from the slums of London.  She is ignorant, dirty and full of terrible Cockney dialect which even the taxi driver can't understand.  After six months this same girl becomes a young beautiful Duchess who charms everyone at the Ambassador's garden party. 

Even in the first scene on the portico of St.Paul's church, on that rainy night we get the impression that Eliza is not just an ordinary flower girl.  She is bold, confident and even a little impudent.  There she confronts Freddy, the people standing there.  She calls Higgins a man stuffed with nails.  When Pickering and Higgins sing a song with various rhyming names she asks them not to be silly.  Prof.Higgins develops her this self confidence and transforms her into a lady.  But even then she can lose her temper and even throw his slippers at Higgins' face. 

The girl who walked into the Wimpole Street was a poor nervous girl, but at the same time one who had determined to become a lady or at least an assistant in a flower shop.  The fact that she was prepared to pay Higgins the fee for this work shows her individuality.  In a short time Eliza becomes so indispensable that when she threatens to leave, Higgins complains that he can't find anything and can't remember his appointments.  She becomes an efficient personal assistant to Higgins and Pickering. 

Higgins training turns out to be a bitter battle for Eliza.  Higgins was a severe master he bullied and hectored her.  He threatened to drag her around the room three times by her hair if she made a mistake twice.  Eliza was a keen intelligent student. She absorbed everything and was very sharp.  She learned easily and made rapid progress.  In fact for both Higgins and Eliza the process of teaching and learning was a hard task.  Later on she confesses that while Higgins taught her how to speak it was Pickering who unknowingly taught her good manners. At Mrs.Higgins' house both the gentlemen are lavish in their praise of Eliza.

Happiness is an elusive thing for Eliza.  as soon as she is big enough to earn her own living she is sent out of her home.  As a flower girl she struggles to make a living.  She lives in a dingy room in a dirty locality.  Even after she becomes a lady she is far from being happy.    She expected Higgins to like her and propose to her.  But for Higgins she was only an object of an experiment.  

Higgins' bullying reaches a point where Eliza in desperation hits back.  This happens only after she suffers enough.  Only Pickering's gentle attitude helps her to carry on.  Even after she marries Freddy she depends on Pickering's financial support.

Eliza's relationship with Higgins seems unnatural.  But Shaw made it intentionally so.  After she becomes Higgin's pupil she comes to know that her master is too strong to be involved emotionally with her as a woman,as he told Pickering a pupil was only a block of wood for him.  When she discovers that Higgins can never be a husband she is much chagrined.  But she becomes strong enough to find love in Freddy who needed her more than she needed him.  In the end Eliza earns the appreciation or even the admiration of Higgins himself.  He had made a flower girl a duchess and then changed a duchess into a real woman.

                                                               END

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.
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            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.
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            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.

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