Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 [Eng2c05]

TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE UP TO 1940 [ENG2C05] STUDY MATERIAL II SEMESTER CORE COURSE MA ENGLISH (2019 Admission onwards) UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION CALICUT UNIVERSITY- P.O MALAPPURAM- 673635, KERALA 190005 ENG2C05-TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE UP TO 1940 SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT STUDY MATERIAL SECOND SEMESTER MA ENGLISH (2019 ADMISSION ONWARDS) CORE COURSE: ENG2C05 : TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE UP TO 1940 Prepared by: Dr.Muralikrishnan T.R. Associate Professor and Head, Department of English M.E.S Asmabi College, P. Vemballur, Kodungallur, Thrissur District, Kerala Scrutinized by: Dr. Aparna Ashok Assistant Professor on Contract Department of English University of Calicut ENG2C05-TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE UP TO 1940 School of Distance Education SYLLABUS ENG2C05 : Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 (5 credits) Section A G.M. Hopkins - : “The Windhover” W.B. Yeats - : The Second Coming, Byzantium TS Eliot - : The Waste Land W.H.Auden - : Funeral Blues Wilfred Owen : A Strange Meeting Section B : Drama GB Shaw : Caesar and Cleopatra TS Eliot : Murder in the Cathedral Sean O Casey : Juno and The Paycock Section C: Prose and Fiction Virginia Woolf - : “Modern Fiction” Joseph Conrad - : Heart of Darkness D.H. Lawrence - : Sons and Lovers James Joyce - : A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ENG2C05-Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 School of Distance Education SECTION A G.M. Hopkins - : “The Windhover” W.B. Yeats - : The Second Coming, Byzantium TS Eliot - : The Waste Land W.H.Auden - : Funeral Blues Wilfred Owen : A Strange Meeting ENG2C05-Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 School of Distance Education THE WINDHOVER GERALD MANLEY HOPKINS I caught this morning morning's minion, king- dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion. A brief critical appreciation Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote "The Windhover" in May, 1877. He had been a student at St Bueno's Theological College for three years, and this was a productive period in his life. He considered this short poem worth reading, and, sending a revised copy to his friend Robert Bridges, declared that this was the best poem he'd ever written. It was published in 1918, almost 30 years after his death. He loved painting and writing poems. As a Jesuit priest he left all artistic activities for years. But his chosen austere life gave him no satisfaction. He used to write music for church programme. Through the choice of words and usages he paints a lively picture of the flight of the falcon in the poem ‘The Windhover’. The Windhover is a bird that soars high up and encircles and glide to catch its prey like kite or hawk or falcon. It may be taken as the symbol of the soul/spirit or it may be the symbol of ENG2C05-Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 School of Distance Education Jesus Christ whom the poem is dedicated. The poet being a depressed man turned to spirituality and turned to Jesus Christ for solace. In this attempt he links the spiritual world with the material world He writes in this poem, “Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle”. The male figure of Christ allows him to safely express strength, valour and unstinted enthusiasm. The poet caught sight of the bird falcon hovering high in search of prey. Jesus too search for souls on earth. Poet’s soul is one such that was caught by him. The poet tells us that he is much attracted by the sight of the smooth flight of the bird. The bird ”In his ecstasy! Then off, off forth on swing, as a skate’s heel sweeps smooth o a bow bend:” This is a photographic expression. In the use of words and phrases , he exposes his sharpness. The phrase “brute beauty” that tells us of the adventurous flight of the bird, and the use of the word “buckle” which implies the link between the spiritual and physical life are very apt and attractive. His last words “I am happy, I am so happy. I loved my life” tell his psyche. He uses simple imagery, with metaphysical overtones and delicate but intricate prosody. Divinity reflects itself through all of the poems. He used archaic and dialect words or even coined words. One such word is twindles, (twines and dwindles combined), and an adjective use is “dapple- dawn-drawn falcon” (The Windhover). As Dennis Ward (1965) points out “The mortal beauty of the falcon, the energy and valour and pride will be a billion times told lovelier when apprehended as the outward and visible sign of the creative force, God, which under the world’s splendour and wonder.” (https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/schools/resources-for-trainee-teachers- and-nqts/Hopkins%201%2060.2.pdf) Hopkins extensively uses alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and both end rhyme and internal rhyme. In the first stanza we find the use of “ing” to end the lines. Eg. king, riding, striding, wing swing, gliding, hiding, and thing. The use of morning’s minion” and “kingdoms of daylight” dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon etc contains different artistic ornaments mentioned above. In the framework of a sonnet of Octave and Sestet pattern with sprung rhythm Hopkins symbolically connects(buckles) this world and the other world. Jesus Christ gives him consolation in life. With this word painting of the flight of a bird, Hopkins tells us that the ENG2C05-Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 School of Distance Education Nature can give us happiness as the bird which was caught sight of unexpectedly gave him pleasure. The discussion on this sonnet was first started by the distinguished critic I. A. Richards. Yet in no critique, down to the most recent interpretations does any commentator ever seem to have studied as a watcher of the subject of the poem. Most commentators seem to have studied the wing-beating, hovering, gliding, swooping and recovering of the kestrel or windhover, a study which cannot be conducted inside a dictionary, a Cambridge College, or a religious seminary. We should notice that a buzzing rhyme runs through the first eight lines, its own report, its own excellence, God's fame, God's excellence. It also tells of the tense ringing vibration of the kestrel's typical movement. It speaks and spells itself, as Hopkins affirmed of each corporeal thing in the sonnet—"As kingfishers catch fire." Nevertheless, the kestrel was a portion of that dull glory given to God. It was, though dangerous, heaven's sweet gift. As in the sheer plod of ploughing, the steel mould-board or beast of the plough becomes shiny from the turned earth down the long strips of land (sillions) and as embers that have become blue-bleak reveal, when their dull surface drops away the heat and colour inside them. He thinks, addressing Christ, of the sheer plod of his own nine years, as it would soon be, of long preparation; of his own natural avocation since he had chosen to enter the Jesuit Order. The sheer plod puts a shine upon the plough which is himself; his bitter asceticism and exhaustion of mind reduces him to bleak embers which nevertheless gall and gash themselves to gold Vermillion—which are, in fact, the ashes of his other poem. Of such a kind is the interweaving of subtleties, complexities and force and fire which Hopkins can convey through "inscapes”, of his passionate science. His poetry can, of course, be read at different levels—for its delight in natural phenomena so ecstatically and so exactly caught in the net of language—structures of superb energy which so refreshingly draw forth one's response. Critical Comments “Aquinas says that of all things only God is totally in act, and this poem about a bird imagined to be totally in act is directed "To Christ our Lord." "The Windhover," thus, may be read as Hopkins' symbolic anticipation of the beatific vision, the state in which man enjoys an ENG2C05-Twentieth Century British Literature up to 1940 School of Distance Education open view of God's being. If the poem is read in this way, one supposes these steps in Hopkins' identification of the windhover with Christ: first Hopkins sees the bird and admires its energy; this vision of energy so works upon his imagination as to suggest that the windhover is completely in act; he projects onto the windhover all his feelings about the divine nature, especially about Christ, who shares all the divine nature and who of the three persons seems to men the most attainable.” BRUCE E. MILLER Victorian Poetry, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1964), pp. 115-119 West Virginia University Press “I have already said that I do not think the Windhover is merely a symbol of energy. Certainly it is a bird of prey and was quite possibly circling over a victim when Hopkins saw it.

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