Edited By: Dr. Digvijay Pandya Elective English - I DENG104 Edited By: Dr. Digvijay Pandya ELECTIVE ENGLISH - I Edited By: Dr. Digvijay Pandya Printed by LAXMI PUBLICATIONS (P) LTD. 113, Golden House, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002 for Lovely Professional University Phagwara SYLLABUS Elective English -I Objectives: To improve understanding of literature among students. To enhance writing skills of students. To develop skills of critical analysis in students. Sr. No. Content 1 The Post Office by R N Tagore 2 A Free Man's Worship by Bertrand Russell 3 Dream Children by Charles Lamb 4 The Spark Neglected Burns the House by Leo Tolstoy 5 Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel. The World Is Too Much With Us By William Wordsworth 6 After Twenty Years by O. Henry 7 If by Rudyard Kipling, Where the Mind is Without Fear By Rabindranath Tagore 8 Eveline by James Joyce 9 The Monkey’s Paw by W.W.Jacobs 10 Luck by Mark Twain CONTENT Unit 1: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore 1 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 2: A Free Man’s Worship by Bertrand Russell 12 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 3: Charles Lamb-Dream Children: A Reverie—A Detailed Study 28 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 4: Charles Lamb-Dream Children: A Reverie—A Critical Analysis 37 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 5: The Spark Neglected Burns the House by Leo Tolstoy 46 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 6: After Twenty Years by O. Henry 69 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 7: The World is Too Much with us by William Wordsworth—An 79 Introduction Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 8: The World is Too Much with us by William Wordsworth—Detailed 83 Study Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 9: If by Rudyard Kipling 94 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 10: Weavers by Sarojini Naidu 104 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 11: Where the Mind is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore 110 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 12: My Vision for India by APJ Abdul Kalam 117 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 13: Ode to the West Wind by PB Shelly 126 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 14: John Stuart Mill Representative Government 137 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 1: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore Unit 1: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore Notes CONTENTS Objectives Introduction 1.1 Traditional Arts and Methods of India 1.2 The Post Office 1.3 Analysis 1.4 Central Metaphors of the Play 1.5 Symbolism in Tagore’s Play, The Post Office 1.6 Characters 1.7 Summary 1.8 Keywords 1.9 Review Questions 1.10 Further Readings Objectives After reading this unit, you will be able to: • Know about Rabindranath Tagore; • Discuss the story The Post Office; • Explain the symbolism of the play The Post Office; • Make analysis of the play The Post Office. Introduction Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 1 Elective English–I Notes the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution. Rabindranath Tagore is widely considered to be India’s greatest playwright. He is highly revered by millions of people all across the sub-continent and, of course, by many recent immigrants to Canada. His work, however, is practically unknown to mainstream Canadian audiences. He was born in Calcutta, now Kolkata, India into a wealthy Brahmin family in 1861. After a brief stay in England (1878) to attempt to study law, he returned to India, and instead pursued a career as a writer, playwright, songwriter, poet, philosopher and educator. During the first 51 years of his life he achieved some success in the Calcutta area of India where he was born and raised with his many stories, songs and plays. His short stories were published monthly in a friend’s magazine and he even played the lead role in a few of the public performances of his plays. Otherwise, he was little known outside of the Calcutta area, and not known at all outside of India. This all suddenly changed in 1912. He then returned to England for the first time since his failed attempt at law school as a teenager. Now a man of 51, his was accompanied by his son. On the way over to England he began translating, for the first time, his latest selections of poems, Gitanjali, into English. Almost all of his work prior to that time had been written in his native tongue of Bengali. He decided to do this just to have something to do, with no expectation at all that his first time translation efforts would be any good. He made the handwritten translations in a little notebook he carried around with him and worked on during the long sea voyage from India. Upon arrival, his son left his father’s brief case with this notebook in the London subway. Fortunately, an honest person turned in the briefcase and it was recovered the next day. Tagore’s friend in England, a famous artist he had met in India, Rothenstein, learned of the translation, and asked to see it. Reluctantly, with much persuasion, Tagore let him have the poor system of education imposed by the British, combined the best of traditional Hindu education with Western ideals. Tagore’s multi-cultural educational efforts were an inspiration to many, including his friend, Count Hermann Keyserling of Estonia. Count Keyserling founded his own school in 1920 patterned upon Tagore’s school, and the ancient universities which existed in Northern India under Buddhist rule over 2,000 years ago under the name School of Wisdom. Rabindranath Tagore led the opening program of the School of Wisdom in 1920, and participated in several of its programs thereafter. 1.1 Traditional Arts and Methods of India Rabindranath Tagore’s creative output tells you a lot about this renaissance man. The variety, quality and quantity are unbelievable. As a writer, Tagore primarily worked in Bengali, but after his success with Gitanjali, he translated many of his other works into English. He wrote over one thousand poems; eight volumes of short stories; almost two dozen plays and play-lets; eight novels; and many books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social topics. Aside from words and drama, his other great love was music, Bengali style. He composed more than two thousand songs, both music and lyrics. Two of them became the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh. In 1929 he even began painting. Many of his paintings can be found in museums today, especially in India, where he is considered the greatest literary figure of India of all times. Tagore was not only a creative genius, he was a great man and friend to many. For instance, he was also a good friend from childhood to the great Indian scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose. He was educated and quite knowledgeable of Western culture, especially western poetry and science. This made him a remarkable person, one of the first of our planet to combine East and West, and ancient and modern knowledge. Tagore had a good grasp of modern-post-Newtonian- 2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY Unit 1: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore physics, and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly Notes emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos. His meetings and tape recorded conversations with his contemporaries such as Albert Einstein and H.G. Wells, stand as cultural landmarks, and show the brilliance of this great man. Although Tagore is a superb representative of his country - India - the man who wrote its National Anthem - his life and works go far beyond his country. He is truly a man of the whole Earth, a product of the best of both traditional Indian, and modern Western cultures. The School of Wisdom is proud to have him as part of its heritage. He exemplifies the ideals important to us of Goodness, Meaningful Work and World Culture. Did u know? Tagore was a close friend of Gandhi, to whom he gave the sobriquet “Mahatma,” meaning “great soul,” while Gandhi dubbed Tagore, “The Great Sentinel,” out of his abiding respect for Tagore’s unswerving commitment to open-mindedness, inclusiveness and diversity in the envisioning of India that was soon to be born.