INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE & ONLINE LEARNING

BACHELOR OF ARTS

ENGLISH LITERATURE - I BAQ105

Self Learning Material R101 BACHELOR OF ARTS ENGLISH LITERATURE - I

BAQ105

Dr. Manjushree Vikrant Sardeshpande CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY Institute of Distance and Online Learning Course Development Committee Chairman Prof. (Dr.) R.S. Bawa Vice Chancellor, Chandigarh University, Punjab Advisors Prof. (Dr.) Bharat Bhushan, Director, IGNOU Prof. (Dr.) Majulika Srivastava, Director, CIQA, IGNOU Programme Coordinators & Editing Team Master of Business Administration (MBA) Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Co-ordinator - Prof. Pragya Sharma Co-ordinator - Dr. Rupali Arora Master of Computer Applications (MCA) Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) Co-ordinator - Dr. Deepti Rani Sindhu Co-ordinator - Dr. Raju Kumar Master of Commerce (M.Com.) Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Co-ordinator - Dr. Shashi Singhal Co-ordinator - Dr. Minakshi Garg Master of Arts (Psychology) Bachelor of Science (Travel & Tourism Management) Co-ordinator - Ms. Nitya Mahajan Co-ordinator - Dr. Shikha Sharma Master of Arts (English) Bachelor of Arts (General) Co-ordinator - Dr. Ashita Chadha Co-ordinator - Ms. Neeraj Gohlan Master of Arts (Mass Communication and Bachelor of Arts (Mass Communication and Journalism) Journalism) Co-ordinator - Dr. Chanchal Sachdeva Suri Co-ordinator - Dr. Kamaljit Kaur Academic and Administrative Management Prof. (Dr.) Pranveer Singh Satvat Prof. (Dr.) S.S. Sehgal Pro VC (Academic) Registrar Prof. (Dr.) H. Nagaraja Udupa Prof. (Dr.) Shiv Kumar Tripathi Director – (IDOL) Executive Director – USB

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SLM SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR CU IDOL STUDENTS

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CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) English Literature - I Course Code: BAQ105 Credits: 3

Course Objectives:  To motivate and encourage the students to understand and appreciate short lyrical poems.  To study world famous poets such as Shakespeare, Blake, Tagore, etc.  To develop in the students communicative competence by encouraging them to learn to listen.

Syllabus Unit 1 – Marriage of True Minds – William Shakespeare

Unit 2 – The School Boy – William Blake

Unit 3 – The Education of Nature – William Wordsworth

Unit 4 – All Things will Die – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Unit 5 – Still I Rise – Maya Angelou

Unit 6 – Where the Mind is without Fear – Rabindranath Tagore

Unit 7 – Refugee Mother and Child – Chinua Achebe

Unit 8 – Stanza Forms: 1. The Heroic Couplet, 2. The Blank Verse, 3. The Spenserian Stanza

Unit 9 – Composition (Letter/Application Writing, Comprehension of Unseen Passage)

Reference Books: 1. Khanna, V.K. and Paul, F.M. (2014), As Elaborated in the Blossoming Mind, New Delhi: Laxmi Publications. 2. Wren & Martin (2017), English Grammar and Composition, New Delhi: S. Chand Publishing. 3. Abrams, M.H. and Harpham, G.G. (2015), A Glossary of Literary Terms,Mumbai: Macmillan Publishers Indian Ltd. 4. Murphy, R. (2013), Elementary Grammar (Intermediate Level), UK: Cambridge University Press. 5. Hewing, M. (2012), Advanced English Grammar, UK: Cambridge University Press. 6. John, E. (2012), Oxford Practice Grammar (Intermediate Level), New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) CONTENTS

Unit 1: The Marriage of True Minds 1 – 27

Unit 2: The School Boy 28 – 49

Unit 3: The Education of Nature 50 – 76

Unit 4: All Things will Die 77 – 97

Unit 5: Still I Rise 98 – 118

Unit 6: My Grandmother 119 – 132

Unit 7: Where the Mind is Without Fear 133 – 156

Unit 8: Refugee Mother and Child 157 – 183

Unit 9: Stanza Forms 184 – 202

Unit 10: Composition 203 – 228

Model Question Paper 229 – 230

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 1 THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Structure:

1.0 Learning Objectives

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Themes

1.3 Art vs. Time

1.4 Symbols

1.5 Form and Structure of the Sonnets

1.6 Summary

1.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

1.8 References

1.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, students will be able to understand:

The universal acceptance of Shakespeare, understanding why Shakespeare is not of a particular age but for all times and Shakespeare’s relevance in today’s modern world make him very important. He is considered a master in English Literature. Shakespeare’s plays have transcended even the category of brilliance and have had a profound impact on the course of Western literature and culture ever after.

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1. Illumination of the Human Experience: Shakespeare’s ability to summarize the range of human emotions in simple yet profoundly eloquent verse is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity. If you cannot find words to express how you feel about love or music or growing older, Shakespeare can speak for you. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages. Shakespeare’s work is the reason John Bartlett compiled the first major book of familiar quotations.

2. Great Stories: Marchette Chute, in the Introduction to her famous retelling of Shakespeare’s stories, summarizes one of the reasons for Shakespeare’s immeasurable fame:

William Shakespeare was the most remarkable storyteller that the world has ever known. Homer told of adventure and men at war, Sophocles and Tolstoy told of tragedies and of people in trouble. Terence and Mark Twain told comedic stories, Dickens told melodramatic ones, Plutarch told histories and Hand Christian Andersen told fairy tales. But Shakespeare told every kind of story – comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories and fairy tales – and each of them so well, that they have become immortal. In all the world of storytelling, he has become the greatest name. (Stories from Shakespeare, 11)

Shakespeare’s stories transcend time and culture. Modern storytellers continue to adapt Shakespeare’s tales to suit our modern world, whether it be the tale of Lear on a farm in Iowa, Romeo and Juliet on the mean streets of New York City, or Macbeth in feudal Japan.

3. Compelling Characters: Shakespeare invented his share of stock characters, but his truly great characters – particularly his tragic heroes – are unequalled in literature, dwarfing even the sublime creations of the Greek tragedians. Shakespeare’s great characters have remained popular because of their complexity; for example, we can see ourselves as gentle Hamlet, forced against his better nature to seek murderous revenge. For this reason Shakespeare is deeply admired by actors, and many consider playing a Shakespearean character to be the most difficult and most rewarding role possible.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 3

4. Ability to Turn a Phrase: Many of the common expressions, now thought to be cliches, were Shakespeare’s creations. Chances are you use Shakespeare’s expressions all the time even though you may not know it is the Bard you are quoting. You may think that fact is “neither here nor there”, but that is “the short and the long of it.” Bernard Levin said it best in the following quote about Shakespeare’s impact on our language:

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare “It’s Greek to me”, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;

1.1 Introduction

About the Poet

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, often called England’s national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery.

Who was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 4 English Literature - I

Known throughout the world, Shakespear’s writings capture the range of human emotions and conflicts and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery.

There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work — the plays, poems and sonnets — and the other is official documentation, such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

When was Shakespeare Born?

No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday.

Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare’s time, Stratford-upon- Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road.

Family

Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund.

Before Shakespeare’s birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.

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Being a public official’s child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work (and even about whether or not Shakespeare really existed).

Wife and Children

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant.

Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.

Shakespeare’s Lost Years

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the “lost years,” and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period.

One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire.

It is generally believed that he arrived in London in the mid-to-late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London’s finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.

The King’s Men

By the early 1590s, documents show Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career.

Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King’s Men following the crowning of King James I in 1603. From all accounts, the King’s Men

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 6 English Literature - I company was very popular. Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.

Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.

Actor and Playwright

By 1592, there is evidence that Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced.

The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers’ Register (a guild publication), includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare: “...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a Player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit, the only Shake-scene in a country,” Greene wrote of Shakespeare.

Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene’s way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594).

By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second-largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family.

It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, So it is believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting, and came home once a year during the 40- day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 7

Globe Theater

By 1599, Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater.

In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe that these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.

Shakespeare’s Writing Style

Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that did not always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters.

However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes, and creating a freer flow of words.

With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

William Shakespeare: Plays

While it is difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies.

Early Works: Histories and Comedies

With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II and III), Richard II and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 8 English Literature - I

Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing and the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V.

Works after 1600: Tragedies and Tragicomedies

It was in Shakespeare’s later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare’s characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal.

Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.

In Shakespeare’s final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Other plays written during this period include All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Pericles and Henry VIII.

When did Shakespeare die?

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe that this is a myth. Church records show that he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 9

The exact cause of Shakespeare’s death is unknown, though many believe that he died following a brief illness.

In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his “second-best bed.” This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was not close.

However, there is very little evidence that the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term “second-best bed” often refers to the bed belonging to the household’s master and mistress — the marital bed — and the “first-best bed” was reserved for guests.

Did Shakespeare write his Own Plays?

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon — men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration — as the true authors of the plays.

Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare’s life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of a Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him as being an actor or playwright.

Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare’s works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings, who married young and became successful in real estate.

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Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society (founded in 1957), put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of “William Shakespeare.”

The Oxfordians cite de Vere’s extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.

However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time, also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds.

They contend that Stratford’s New Grammar School curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare’s authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare’s life doesn’t mean his life didn’t exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.

Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as the author of plays, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and King John.

Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King’s Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare’s plays.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts, who, wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius was not recognized until the 19th century.

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Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and re-interpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

Shakespearean Sonnets

Shakespeare’s sonnets are poems that William Shakespeare wrote on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare’s sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609; however, there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost. There is a partial sonnet found in the play Edward III.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered a continuation of the sonnet tradition that swept through the Renaissance Era from Petrarch in 14th century Italy and was finally introduced in 16th century England by Thomas Wyatt and was given its rhyming meter and division into quatrains by Henry Howard. With few exceptions, Shakespeare’s sonnets observe the stylistic form of the English sonnet — the rhyme scheme, the 14 lines, and the meter. But Shakespeare’s sonnets introduce such significant departures of content that they seem to be rebelling against well-worn 200-year-old traditions.

Instead of expressing worshipful love for an almost goddess-like yet unobtainable female love-object, as Petrarch, Dante, and Philip Sidney had done, Shakespeare introduces a young man. He also introduces the Dark Lady, who is no goddess. Shakespeare explores themes such as lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony in ways that may challenge, but which also open new terrain for the sonnet form.

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The sonnets cover such themes as the passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 are either addressed to, or refer to a woman.

Sidney’s title may have inspired Shakespeare, particularly if the “W.H.” of Shakespeare’s dedication is Sidney’s nephew and heir, William Herbert. Henry Wriothesley (the Earl of Southampton), with initials reversed, has received a great deal of consideration as a likely possibility. He was the dedicatee of Shakespeare’s poems Venus & Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Southampton was also known for his good looks. The idea that the persona referred to as the speaker of the Shakespeare’s sonnets might be Shakespeare himself, is aggressively repudiated by scholars. However, the title of the quarto does seem to encourage that kind of speculation.

The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to the young man — urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets express the speaker’s love for the young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet’s name. The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the "little love-god" Cupid.

The publisher, Thomas Thorpe, entered the book in the Stationers' Register on 20 May 1609.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are very different from Shakespeare’s plays, but they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story. Each of these poems deals with a highly personal theme, and each can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel of autobiographical poems, but we do not know whether they deal with real events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeare’s life to say whether or not they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as “the speaker” — as though he were a dramatic creation like Hamlet or King Lear.

There are certainly a number of intriguing continuities throughout the poems. The first 126 of the sonnets seem to be addressed to an unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much; the rest of the poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 13 the rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates, and lusts for, simultaneously. The two addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as the “young man” and the “dark lady”; in summaries of individual poems, The speaker has also called the young man the “beloved” and the dark lady the “lover,” especially in cases where their identity can only be surmised. Within the two mini-sequences, there are a number of other discernible elements of “plot”: the speaker urges the young man to have children; he is forced to endure a separation from him; he competes with a rival poet for the young man’s patronage and affection. At two points in the sequence, it seems that the young man and the dark lady are actually lovers themselves — a state of affairs with which the speaker is none too happy. But while these continuities give the poems a narrative flow and a helpful frame of reference, they have been frustratingly hard for scholars and biographers to pin down. In Shakespeare’s life, who were the young man and the dark lady?

Historical Mysteries

Of all the questions surrounding Shakespeare’s life, the sonnets are perhaps the most intriguing. At the time of their publication in 1609 (after having been written most likely in the 1590s and shown only to a small circle of literary admirers), they were dedicated to a “Mr. W.H,” who is described as the “onlie begetter” of the poems. Like those of the young man and the dark lady, the identity of this Mr. W.H. remains an alluring mystery. Because he is described as “begetting” the sonnets, and because the young man seems to be the speaker’s financial patron, some people have speculated that the young man is Mr. W.H. If his initials were reversed, he might even be Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, who has often been linked to Shakespeare in theories of his history. But all of this is simply speculation. Ultimately, the circumstances surrounding the sonnets, their cast of characters and their relations to Shakespeare himself, are destined to remain a mystery.

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1.2 Themes

Different Types of Romantic Love

Modern readers associate the sonnet form with romantic love and with good reason: the first sonnets written in 13th and 14th century Italy celebrated the poets’ feelings for their beloveds and their patrons. These sonnets were addressed to stylized, lionized women and dedicated to wealthy noblemen, who supported poets with money and other gifts, usually in return for lofty praise in print. Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to “Mr. W. H.,” and the identity of this man remains unknown. He dedicated an earlier set of poems, Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece,toHenry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton, but it is not known what Wriothesly gave him for this honor. In contrast to tradition, Shakespeare addressed most of his sonnets to an unnamed young man, possibly Wriothesly. Addressing sonnets to a young man was unique in Elizabethan England. Furthermore, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different types of love between the young man and the speaker, the young man and the dark lady, and the dark lady and the speaker. In his sequence, the speaker expresses passionate concern for the young man, praises his beauty, and articulates what we would now call homosexual desire. The woman of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the so-called dark lady, is earthy, sexual, and faithless—characteristics in direct opposition to lovers described in other sonnet sequences, including Astrophil and Stella, by Sir Philip Sidney, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who were praised for their angelic demeanor, virginity, and steadfastness. Several sonnets also probe the nature of love, comparing the idealized love found in poems with the messy, complicated love found in real life.

The Dangers of Lust and Love

In Shakespeare’s sonnets, falling in love can have painful emotional and physical consequences. Sonnets 127–152, addressed to the so-called dark lady, express a more overtly erotic and physical love than the sonnets addressed to the young man. But many sonnets warn readers about the dangers of lust and love. According to some poems, lust causes us to mistake sexual desire for true love, and love itself causes us to lose our powers of perception. Several sonnets warn about the dangers of lust, claiming that it turns humans “savage, extreme, rude, cruel”, as seen in Sonnet 129. The final two sonnets of Shakespeare’s sequence obliquely imply

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 15 that lust leads to venereal disease. According to the conventions of romance, the sexual act, or “making love,” expresses the deep feeling between two people. In his sonnets, however, Shakespeare portrays making love, not as a romantic expression of sentiment but as a base physical need with the potential for horrible consequences.

Several sonnets equate being in love with being in a pitiful state; as demonstrated by the poems, love causes fear, alienation, despair, and physical discomfort, not the pleasant emotions or euphoria we usually associate with romantic feelings. The speaker alternates between professing great love and professing great worry as he speculates about the young man’s misbehavior and the dark lady’s multiple sexual partners. As the young man and the dark lady begin an affair, the speaker imagines himself caught in a love triangle, mourning the loss of his friendship with the man and love with the woman, and he laments having fallen in love with the woman in the first place. In Sonnet 137, the speaker personifies love, calls him a simpleton, and criticizes him for removing his powers of perception. It was love that caused the speaker to make mistakes and poor judgments. Elsewhere 3 the speaker calls love a disease as a way of demonstrating the physical pain of emotional wounds. Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare clearly implies that love hurts. Yet, despite the emotional and physical pain, like the speaker, we continue falling in love. Shakespeare shows that falling in love is an inescapable aspect of the human condition — indeed, expressing love is part of what makes us human.

Real Beauty vs. Clichéd Beauty

To express the depth of their feelings, poets frequently employ hyperbolic terms to describe the objects of their affections. Traditionally, sonnets transform women into the most glorious creatures to walk the earth, whereas patrons become the noblest and bravest men the world has ever known. Shakespeare makes fun of the convention by contrasting an idealized woman with a real woman. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare directly engages — and skewers — clichéd concepts of beauty. The speaker explains that his lover, the dark lady, has wires for hair, bad breath, dull cleavage, a heavy step, and pale lips. He concludes by saying that he loves her all the more precisely because he loves her and not some idealized, false version. Real love, the sonnet implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are, as well as what they are not. Other sonnets explain that because anyone can use artful means to make himself or herself more attractive, no

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 16 English Literature - I one is really beautiful anymore. Thus, since anyone can become beautiful, calling someone beautiful is no longer much of a compliment.

The Responsibilities of Being Beautiful

Shakespeare portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the sonnets addressed to the young man, in Sonnets 1-126. Here the speaker urges the young man to make his beauty immortal by having children, a theme that appears repeatedly throughout the poems. As an attractive person, the young man has a responsibility to procreate. Later sonnets demonstrate the speaker, angry at being cuckolded, lashing out at the young man and accusing him of using his beauty to hide immoral acts. Sonnet 95 compares the young man’s behavior to a “canker in the fragrant rose” or a rotten spot on an otherwise beautiful flower. In other words, the young man’s beauty allows him to get away with bad behavior, but this bad behavior will eventually distort his beauty, much like a rotten spot eventually spreads. Nature gave the young man a beautiful face, but it is the young man’s responsibility to make sure that his soul is worthy of such a visage.

1.3 Art vs. Time Shakespeare, like many sonneteers, portrays time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love because time causes beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. One common convention of sonnets in general is to flatter either a beloved or a patron by promising immortality through verse. As long as readers read the poem, the object of the poem’s love will remain alive. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, the speaker talks of being “in war with time”; time causes the young man’s beauty to fade, but the speaker’s verse shall entomb the young man and keep him beautiful. The speaker begins by pleading with time in another sonnet, yet he ends by taunting time, confidently asserting that his verse will counteract time’s ravages. From our contemporary vantage point, the speaker was correct, and art has beaten time;the young man remains young since we continue to read of his youth in Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Through art, nature and beauty overcome time. Several sonnets use the seasons to symbolize the passage of time and to show that everything in nature — from plants to people — is mortal. But nature creates beauty, which poets capture and render immortal in their verse. Sonnet 106

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 17 portrays the speaker reading poems from the past and recognizing his beloved’s beauty portrayed therein. The speaker then suggests that these earlier poets were prophesizing the future beauty of the young man by describing the beauty of their contemporaries. In other words, past poets described the beautiful people of their day and, like Shakespeare’s speaker, perhaps urged these beautiful people to procreate and so on, through the poetic ages, until the birth of the young man portrayed in Shakespeare’s sonnets. In this way — that is, as beautiful people of one generation produce more beautiful people in the subsequent generation, and as all this beauty is written about by poets — nature, art, and beauty triumph over time.

Stopping the March Toward Death

Growing older and dying are inescapable aspects of the human condition, but Shakespeare’s sonnets give suggestions for halting the progress toward death. Shakespeare’s speaker spends a lot of time trying to convince the young man to cheat death by having children. In Sonnets 1-17, the speaker argues that the young man is too beautiful to die without leaving behind his replica, and the idea that the young man has a duty to procreate becomes the dominant motif of the first several sonnets. In Sonnet 3, the speaker continues his urgent prodding and concludes, “Die single and thine image dies with thee”. The speaker’s words are not just the flirtatious ramblings of a smitten man: Elizabethan England was rife with disease, and early death was common. Producing children guaranteed the continuation of the species. Therefore, falling in love has a social benefit, a benefit indirectly stressed by Shakespeare’s sonnets. We might die, but our children—and the human race—shall live on.

The Significance of Sight

Shakespeare used images of eyes throughout the sonnets to emphasize other themes and motifs, including children as an antidote to death, art’s struggle to overcome time, and the pain of love. For instance, in several poems, the speaker urges the young man to admire himself in the mirror. Noticing and admiring his own beauty, the speaker argues, will encourage the young man to father a child. Other sonnets link writing and painting with sight: in Sonnet 24, the speaker’s eye becomes a pen or paintbrush that captures the young man’s beauty and imprints it on the blank page of the speaker’s heart. But our loving eyes can also distort our sight, causing us to

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 18 English Literature - I misperceive reality. In the sonnets addressed to the dark lady, the speaker criticizes his eyes for causing him to fall in love with a beautiful but duplicitous woman. Ultimately, Shakespeare uses eyes to act as a warning: while our eyes allow us to perceive beauty, they sometimes get so captivated by beauty that they cause us to misjudge character and other attributes not visible to the naked eye.

Readers’ eyes are as significant in the sonnets as the speaker’s eyes. Shakespeare encourages his readers to see by providing vivid visual descriptions. One sonnet compares the young man’s beauty to the glory of the rising sun, while another uses the image of clouds obscuring the sun as a metaphor for the young man’s faithlessness and still another contrasts the beauty of a rose with one rotten spot to warn the young man to cease his sinning ways. Other poems describe bare trees to symbolize aging. The sonnets devoted to the dark lady emphasize her coloring, noting in particular her black eyes and hair, and Sonnet 130 describes her by noting all the colors she does not possess. Stressing the visual helps Shakespeare to heighten our experience of the poems by giving us the precise tools with which to imagine the metaphors, similes, and descriptions contained therein.

1.4 Symbols

Flowers and Trees

Flowers and trees appear throughout the sonnets to illustrate the passage of time, the transience of life, the aging process, and beauty. Rich, lush foliage symbolizes youth, whereas barren trees symbolize old age and death, often in the same poem, as, seen in Sonnet 12. Traditionally, roses signify romantic love, a symbol Shakespeare employs in the sonnets, discussing their attractiveness and fragrance in relation to the young man. Sometimes Shakespeare compares flowers and weeds to contrast beauty and ugliness. In these comparisons, marred, rotten flowers are worse than weeds — that is, beauty that turns rotten from bad character is worse than initial ugliness. Giddy with love, elsewhere the speaker compares blooming flowers to the beauty of the young man, concluding in Sonnets 98 and 99 that flowers received their bloom and smell from him. The sheer ridiculousness of this statement — flowers smell sweet for

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 19 chemical and biological reasons — underscores the hyperbole and exaggeration that plague typical sonnets.

Stars

Shakespeare uses stars to stand in for fate, a common poetic Trope, but also to explore the nature of free will. Many sonneteers resort to employing fate, symbolized by the stars, to prove that their love is permanent and predestined. In contrast, Shakespeare’s speaker claims that he relies on his eyes, rather than on the hands of fate, to make decisions. Using his eyes, the speaker “reads” that the young man’s good fortune and beauty shall pass to his children, should he have them. During Shakespeare’s time, people generally believed in astrology, even as scholars were making great gains in astronomy and cosmology, a metaphysical system for ordering the universe. According to Elizabethan astrology, a cosmic order determined the place of everything in the universe, from planets and stars to people. Although humans had some free will, the heavenly spheres, with the help of God, predetermined fate. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 25, the speaker acknowledges that he has been unlucky in the stars but lucky in love, thereby removing his happiness from the heavenly bodies and transposing it onto the human body of his beloved.

Weather and the Seasons

Shakespeare employed the Pathetic Fallacy, or the attribution of human characteristics or emotions to elements in nature or inanimate objects, throughout his plays. In the sonnets, the speaker frequently employs the pathetic fallacy, associating his absence from the young man to the freezing days of December and the promise of their reunion to a pregnant spring. Weather and the seasons also stand in for human emotions: the speaker conveys his sense of foreboding about death by likening himself to autumn, a time in which nature’s objects begin to decay and ready themselves for winter, or death. Similarly, despite the arrival of “proud-pied April” in Sonnet 98, the speaker still feels as if it were winter because he and the young man are apart. The speaker in Sonnet 18, one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems, begins by rhetorically asking the young man, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” He spends the remainder of the poem explaining the multiple ways in which the young man is superior to a summer day, ultimately concluding that while summer ends, the young man’s beauty lives on in the permanence of poetry.

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1.5 Form and Structure of the Sonnets The sonnets are almost all constructed of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet. The sonnets are composed in iambic pentameter, the meter used in Shakespeare’s plays.

The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Sonnets using this scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets, or English sonnets, or Elizabethan sonnets. Often, at the beginning of the third quatrain occurs the volta (“turn”), where the mood of the poem shifts, and the poet expresses a turn of thought. There are a few exceptions: Sonnets 99, 126, and 145. Number 99 has fifteen lines. Number 126 consists of six couplets, and two blank lines marked with italic brackets; 145 is in iambic tetrameters, not pentameters. In one other variation on the standard structure, found for example in sonnet 29, the rhyme scheme is changed by repeating the second (B) rhyme of quatrain one as the second (F) rhyme of quatrain three.

Apart from rhyme, and considering only the arrangement of ideas, and the placement of the volta, a number of sonnets maintain the two-part organization of the Italian sonnet. In that case, the term “octave” and “sestet” are commonly used to refer to the sonnet’s first eight lines followed by the remaining six lines. There are other line-groupings as well, as Shakespeare finds inventive ways with the content of the fourteen line poems.

The Marriage of True Minds

Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand’ring bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

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Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d. Sonnet 116 Paraphrase Let me not to the marriage of true minds Let me not declare any reasons why two Admit impediments. Love is not love True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances, Or bends with the remover to remove. Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark Oh no! it is a lighthouse That looks on tempests and is never shaken; That sees storms but it never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be Whose value cannot be calculated, although its taken. altitude can be measured. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical cheeks beauty Within his bending sickle’s compass come: Comes within the compass of his sickle: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, Love does not alter with hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. But, rather, it endures until the last day of life. If this be error and upon me proved, If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.

Analysis

While this sonnet is clumped in with the other sonnets that are assumed to be dedicated to an unknown young man in Shakespeare’s life, this poem does not seem to directly address anyone. In fact, this poem seems to be the speaker’s — in this case, perhaps Shakespeare — ruminations

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 22 English Literature - I on love and what it is. The best way to analyse Shakespeare’s sonnets is to examine them line-by- line, which is what will follow.

In the first two lines, Shakespeare writes, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments.” These lines are perhaps the most famous in the history of poetry, regardless of whether or not one recognizes them as belonging to Shakespeare. Straight away, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of marriage to compare it to true, real love. He is saying that there is no reason why two people who truly love should not be together; nothing should stand in their way. Perhaps he is speaking about his feelings for the unknown young man for whom the sonnet is written. Shakespeare was unhappily married to Anne Hathaway, and so perhaps he was rationalising his feelings for the young man by stating there was no reason, even if one is already married, that two people who are truly in love should not be together. The second half of the second line begins a new thought, which is then carried on into the third and fourth lines. He writes, “Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds,/Or bends with the remover to remove.” Shakespeare is continuing with his thought that true love conquers all. In these lines, the speaker is telling the reader that if love changes, it is not truly love because if it changes, or if someone tries to “remove” it, nothing will change it. Love does not stop just because something is altered. As clichéd as it sounds, true love, real love, lasts forever.

The second quatrain begins with some vivid and beautiful imagery, and it continues with the final thought pondered in the first quatrain. Now that Shakespeare has established what love is not — fleeting and ever-changing — he can now tell us what love is. He writes, “O no, it is an ever fixed mark/That looks on tempests and is never shaken…” Here, Shakespeare tells his readers that love is something that does not shift, change, or move; it is constant and in the same place, and it can weather even the most harrowing of storms, or tempests and is never even shaken, let alone defeated. While weak, it can be argued here that Shakespeare decides to personify love, since it is something that is intangible and not something that can be defeated by something tangible, such as a storm. In the next line, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of the North Star to discuss love. He writes, “It is the star to every wand’ring bark,/Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” To Shakespeare, love is the star that guides every bark, or ship, on the water, and while it is priceless, it can be measured. These two lines are interesting and worth

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 23 noting. Shakespeare concedes that love’s worth is not known, but he says it can be measured. How, he neglects to tell his reader, but perhaps he is assuming the reader will understand the different ways in which one can measure love: through time and actions. With that thought, the second quatrain ends.

The third quatrain parallels the first, and Shakespeare returns to telling his readers what love is not. He writes, “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle’s compass come…” Notice the capitalization of the word “Time.” Shakespeare is personifying time as a person, specifically, Death. He says that love is not the fool of time. One’s rosy lips and cheeks will certainly pale with age, as “his bending sickle’s compass come.” Shakespeare’s diction is important here, particularly with his use of the word “sickle.” Who is the person with whom the sickle is most greatly associated? Death. We are assured here that Death will certainly come, but that will not stop love. It may kill the lover, but the love itself is eternal. This thought is continued in the lines eleven and twelve, the final two lines of the third quatrain. Shakespeare writes, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,/But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” He is simply stating here that love does not change over the course of time; instead, it continues on even after the world has ended (“the edge of doom”).

Shakespeare uses lines thirteen and fourteen, the final couplet of the poem, to assert just how truly he believes that love is everlasting and conquers all. He writes, “If this be error and upon me proved/I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” Shakespeare is telling his reader that if someone proves he is wrong about love, then he never wrote the following words and no man ever loved. He is conveying here that if his words are untrue, nothing else would exist. The words he just wrote would have never been written, and no man would have ever loved before. He is adamant about this, and his tough words are what strengthens the sonnet itself. The speaker and poet himself are convinced that love is real, true, and everlasting.

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1.6 Summary Sonnet 116

This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what it is and is not. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that love — “the marriage of true minds”— is perfect and unchanging; it does not “admit impediments,” and it does not change when it find changes in the loved one. In the second quatrain, the speaker tells what love is through a metaphor: a guiding star to lost ships (“wand’ring barks”) that is not susceptible to storms (it “looks on tempests and is never shaken”). In the third quatrain, the speaker again describes what love is not: it is not susceptible to time. Though beauty fades in time as rosy lips and cheeks come within “his bending sickle’s compass,” love does not change with hours and weeks; instead, it “bears it out even to the edge of doom.” In the couplet, the speaker attests to his certainty that love is as he says: if his statements can be proved to be error, he declares, he must never have written a word, and no man can ever have been in love.

1.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Shakespeare compare true love to a lighthouse in "Sonnet 116"?

2. How does true love correspond to the polar star in Sonnet 116?

3. "In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare considers time as the great adversary to love." Elucidate.

4. What is a volta?

5. What is a sonnet?

6. Explain Shakespearean Sonnet.

B. Long Answer Questions

1. What is true love according to Shakespeare in "Sonnet 116"?

2. A majority of the words ( more than 75 per cent) in the sonnet are monosyllabic. Do they produce any special effect?

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3. Scan the meter of verse 1 of "Sonnet 116" and comment on the rhythm.

4. What is the symbolism in Sonnet 116?

5. What is an analysis of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116?"

6. Describe the evolution of thought in "True Love," Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare.

7. Illuminate and extract the uses of rhyme scheme and figures of speech in "Sonnet 116."

8. What is the theme of William Shakespeare's poem "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"?

9. Discuss universal elements in Shakespeare's Sonnets.Give Examples

10. Why does Shakespeare choose to write about a (metaphorical) journey at sea? Think about the time Shakespeare lived in (the era was filled with great sea adventures), and how difficult sea travel was...

C. Multiple Choice Questions

1. The marriage of true minds refers to:

(a) Marriage of two people

(b) Faithful union of minds

(c) Marriage of intellectual persons

(d) Marriage of two people from the same community

2. The word ‘alter’ here means

(a) A place in the church where the priest marries a couple

(b) Change

(c) Improve

(d) Ends

3. In sonnet 116, Shakespeare does not compare love to:

(a) Star (b) Lighthouse

(c) Ever-fixed mark (d) Disease

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 26 English Literature - I

4. In this sonnet, Shakespeare

(a) Explains what true love is and explains what it is not

(b) Explains the problems with true love and how to fix it

(c) Explains the problem with not finding true love and explains how to find it

(d) Explains how he actually has never written anything and no one has ever really been in love

5. ‘Rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come’ means

(a) Rosy lips and cheeks are true ingredients of love

(b) Love will not change even if the beauty fades

(c) Love depends on rosy lips and cheeks

(d) Love bends in front of rosy lips and cheeks

Answers

1. (b), 2. (b), 3. (d), 4. (a), 5. (b)

1.8 References 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_sonnets

3. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/whystudyshakespeare.html >

4. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/116detail.html

5. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/topic/sonnet-116

6. https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets/section7

7. Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007), Shakespeare’s Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary, Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 978-0-8386-4163- 7, OCLC 86090499.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Marriage of True Minds 27

8. Booth, Stephen, ed. (2000) [1st ed. 1977], Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Rev. ed.), New Haven: Yale Nota Bene, ISBN , OCLC 2968040.

9. Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002), The Complete Sonnets and Poems, The Oxford Shakespeare, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0192819338, OCLC 48532938.

10. Duncan-Jones, Katherine, ed. (2010) [1st ed. 1997], Shakespeare’s Sonnets, The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Rev. ed.), London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-1-4080-1797- 5, OCLC 755065951.

11. Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. (1996), The Sonnets, The New Cambridge Shakespeare, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521294034, OCLC 32272082.

12. Kerrigan, John, ed. (1995) [1st ed. 1986], The Sonnets; and, A Lover’s Complaint, New Penguin Shakespeare (Rev. ed.), Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-070732-8, OCLC 15018446.

13. Mowat, Barbara A. and Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006), Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems, Folger Shakespeare Library, New York: Washington Square Press, ISBN 978- 0743273282, OCLC 64594469.

14. Orgel, Stephen, ed. (2001), The Sonnets, The Pelican Shakespeare (Rev. ed.), New York: Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0140714531, OCLC 46683809.

15. Vendler, Helen, ed. (1997), The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-63712-7, OCLC 36806589. .

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 2 THE SCHOOL BOY – WILLIAM BLAKE

Structure: 2.0 Learning Objectives

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The Poems of William Blake

2.3 Songs of Innocence and Experience

2.4 Themes

2.5 Analysis

2.6 The Schoolboy – Imagery, Symbolism and Themes

2.7 Summary

2.8 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

2.9 References

2.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to understand the significance of the poet William Blake.

William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is regarded today as an major, if iconoclastic figure, a religious visionary, whose art and poetry prefigured, and came to influence the Romantic movement.

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Blake valued imagination above reason, but unlike later Romantics, he deferred to inner visions and spiritual perception as surer denoters of the truth than sentiment or emotional response to nature. “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite,” Blake wrote in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. “For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Blake’s explorations of good and evil, heaven and hell, knowledge and innocence, and outer versus inner reality were unorthodox and perplexing to 18th century sensibilities. His well-known works, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), contrast benign perceptions of life from the perspective of innocent children with a mature person’s experience of pain, ignorance, and vulnerability. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who received a copy of Songs of Innocence and Experience, considered Blake a “man of Genius.”

Blake admired and studied the Renaissance masters, and he experimented by combining his own poetry and engravings on the same plate to produce a composite artistic statement. His illustrations often included fantastic, metaphorical creatures drawn from Greek and Roman mythology, with characters representing inspiration and creativity battling against arbitrary and unjust forces like law and religion.

Blake’s antagonism toward established religion, the authority of government, and social and sexual conventions have influenced liberal thought and attitudes to the present day. His openness to spiritual inspiration largely bypassed Romantic emotional preoccupations and can be seen as an early influence on the modern New Age movement. Though Blake lived in poverty and died largely unrecognized, his works present a unique and significant contribution to European art and literature.

2.1 Introduction

About the Poet William Blake was a 19th century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages, and he has been deemed both a major poet and an original thinker.

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Born in 1757 in London, England, William Blake began writing at an early age and claimed to have had his first vision, of a tree full of angels, at age 10. He studied engraving and grew to love Gothic art, which he incorporated into his own unique works. A misunderstood poet, artist and visionary throughout much of his life, Blake found admirers late in life and has been vastly influential since his death in 1827.

Early Years William Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in the Soho district of London, England. He only briefly attended school, being chiefly educated at home by his mother. The Bible had an early, profound influence on Blake, and it would remain a lifetime source of inspiration, coloring his life and works with intense spirituality.

At an early age, Blake began experiencing visions, and his friend and journalist Henry Crabb Robinson wrote that Blake saw God’s head appear in a window when Blake was 4 years old. He also allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of “a tree filled with angels.” Blake’s visions would have a lasting effect on the art and writings that he produced.

The Young Artist Blake’s artistic ability became evident in his youth, and by age 10, he was enrolled at Henry Pars’s drawing school, where he sketched the human figure by copying from plaster casts of ancient statues. At age 14, he apprenticed with an engraver. Blake’s master was the engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries, and Blake was sent to Westminster Abbey to make drawings of tombs and monuments, where his lifelong love of gothic art was seeded.

The Maturing Artist In 1779, at age 21, Blake completed his seven-year apprenticeship and became a journeyman copy engraver, working on projects for book and print publishers. Also preparing himself for a career as a painter, that same year, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art’s Schools of Design, where he began exhibiting his own works in 1780. Blake’s artistic energies branched out at this point, and he privately published his Poetical Sketches (1783), a collection of poems that he had written over the previous 14 years.

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In August 1782, Blake married Catherine Sophia Boucher, who was illiterate. Blake taught her how to read, write, draw and color (his designs and prints). He also helped her to experience visions, as he did. Catherine believed explicitly in her husband’s visions and his genius, and supported him in everything he did, right up to his death 45 years later.

One of the most traumatic events of William Blake’s life occurred in 1787, when his beloved brother, Robert, died from tuberculosis at age 24. At the moment of Robert’s death, Blake allegedly saw his spirit ascend through the ceiling, joyously; this moment, which entered into Blake’s psyche, greatly influenced his later poetry. The following year, Robert appeared to Blake in a vision and presented him with a new method of printing his works, which Blake called “illuminated printing.” Once incorporated, this method allowed Blake to control every aspect of the production of his art.

While Blake was an established engraver, he soon began receiving commissions to paint watercolors, and he painted scenes from the works of Milton, Dante, Shakespeare and the Bible.

Later Years In 1804, Blake began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804-20), his most ambitious work to date. He also began showing more work at exhibitions (including Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims and Satan Calling Up His Legions), but these works were met with silence, and the one published review was absurdly negative; the reviewer called the exhibit a display of “nonsense, unintelligibleness and egregious vanity,” and referred to Blake as “an unfortunate lunatic.”

Blake was devastated by the review and lack of attention to his works, and subsequently, he withdrew more and more from any attempt at success. From 1809 to 1818, he engraved few plates (there is no record of Blake producing any commercial engravings from 1806 to 1813). He also sank deeper into poverty, obscurity and paranoia.

In 1819, however, Blake began sketching a series of “visionary heads,” claiming that the historical and imaginary figures that he depicted actually appeared and sat for him. By 1825, Blake had sketched more than 100 of them, including those of Solomon and Merlin the magician and those included in “The Man Who Built the Pyramids” and “Harold Killed at the Battle of

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Hastings”; along with the most famous visionary head, that included in Blake’s “The Ghost of a Flea.”

Remaining artistically busy, between 1823 and 1825, Blake engraved 21 designs for an illustrated Book of Job (from the Bible) and Dante’s Inferno. In 1824, he began a series of 102 watercolor illustrations of Dante — a project that would be cut short by Blake’s death in 1827.

In the final years of his life, William Blake suffered from recurring bouts of an undiagnosed disease that he called “that sickness to which there is no name.” He died on August 12, 1827, leaving unfinished watercolor illustrations to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and an illuminated manuscript of the Bible’s Book of Genesis. In death, as in life, Blake received short shrift from observers, and obituaries tended to underscore his personal idiosyncrasies at the expense of his artistic accomplishments. The Literary Chronicle, for example, described him as “one of those ingenious persons ... whose eccentricities were still more remarkable than their professional abilities.”

Unappreciated in life, William Blake has since become a giant in literary and artistic circles, and his visionary approach to art and writing have not only spawned countless, spellbound speculations about Blake, they have inspired a vast array of artists and writers.

2.2 The Poems of William Blake William Blake was a poet who was not very well recognized during his lifetime. It was not until his sixties, when his work began to receive credit as leading a new literary movement in England at the time that was really triggered by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who were both much younger than Blake and of a superior social class. In his younger years, William Blake’s poetry was written off as lunacy by most of his contemporaries, and although he is recognized now as the ‘grandfather’ or the ‘Romantic period’, he was in fact, much older and far removed from that time.

That being said, the reason Blake is associated with Romanticism is because of his ardent support of the French Revolution and all forms of anti-establishment radicalism. Blake was an untiring rebel, who verbally and poetically fought hard against all constrictions of his time

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The School Boy 33 religious, social, sexual, and literary. His poems transmute clearly all the burring issues and events of his day and touch on issues such as the American War for Independence, the French Revolution, Colonialism and the expansion of Empire, Slavery, and finally the Industrial Revolution. Through Blake’s work, the reader can deduce his passion and vision that social rebellion against these injustices would serve as an apocalyptic turning point in the history of humankind, destroying the old, decaying order of oppression and presaging the redemption of humanity.

The poems of William Blake reinterpret the spiritual history of the human race from the fall from Eden to the beginning of the French Revolution. Blake believed in the correspondence between the physical world and the spiritual world and used poetic metaphor to express these beliefs. In his poetry, we hear a man who look's for mankind to salvage his redemption from oppression through resurgence of imaginative life. The power of repression is a constant theme in Blake’s poems and he articulates his belief in the titanic forces of revolt, and the struggle for freedom against the guardians of tradition.

What is important to keep in mind when discussing or reading Blake’s poetry is that, a lot of his poems were accompanied with some sort of illustration, painting, or in the case of the prophecies and songs, copper plates. It is difficult to fully grasp the poet’s intentions without having access to the artwork married to the poem.

Additionally, his earliest work, “Poetical Sketches,” which is a collection that a lot of the poems discussed here are taken from, shows dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless quest for new literary forms and techniques. Eventually, Blake’s genius would blossom and his thinking began to be articulated in giant forms, leading to the creation of complete mythology and extremely symbolic epics.

2.3 Songs of Innocence and of Experience Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression; while such poems as “The Lamb” represent a meek virtue, poems like “The Tyger” exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus,

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 34 English Literature - I the collection as a whole, explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. Many of the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience. Blake does not identify himself wholly with either view; most of the poems are dramatic — that is, in the voice of a speaker other than the poet himself. Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both. In particular, he pits himself against despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalized religion; his great insight is into the way these separate modes of control work together to squelch what is most holy in human beings.

The Songs of Innocence dramatize the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and trace their transformation as the child grows into adulthood. Some of the poems are written from the perspective of children, while others are about children as seen from an adult, perspective. Many of the poems draw attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding prior to the corruption and distortion of experience. Others take a more critical stance toward innocent purity: for example, while Blake draws touching portraits of the emotional power of rudimentary Christian values, he also exposes — over the heads, as it were, of the innocent — Christianity’s capacity for promoting injustice and cruelty.

The Songs of Experience work via parallels and contrasts to lament the ways in which the harsh experiences of adult life destroy what is good in innocence, while also articulating the weaknesses of the innocent perspective (“The Tyger,” for example, attempts to account for real, negative forces in the universe, which innocence fails to confront). These latter poems treat sexual morality in terms of the repressive effects of jealousy, shame, and secrecy, all of which corrupt the ingenuousness of innocent love. With regard to religion, they are less concerned with the character of individual faith than with the institution of the Church, its role in politics, and its effect on society and the individual mind. Experience thus adds a layer to innocence that darkens its hopeful vision while compensating for some of its blindness.

The style of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience is simple and direct, but the language and the rhythms are painstakingly crafted, and the ideas they explore are often deceptively complex. Many of the poems are narrative in style; others, like “The Sick Rose” and “The Divine

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Image,” make their arguments through symbolism or by means of abstract concepts. Some of Blake’s favorite rhetorical techniques are personification and the reworking of Biblical symbolism and language. Blake frequently employs the familiar meters of ballads, nursery rhymes, and hymns, applying them to his own, often unorthodox conceptions. This combination of the traditional with the unfamiliar is consonant with Blake’s perpetual interest in re- considering and re-framing the assumptions of human thought and social behavior.

2.4 Themes

Opposition In the “Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” Blake wrote: “Opposition is true friendship.” Even the title of that poem points to his theory of a “marriage” between opposites. So, much of Blake’s work revolves around the theme that opposition represents balance in this world, and a focus on one side over its counter, leads to oppression and ignorance. Many people who study Blake argue that he is an extreme radical who was out to abolish any form of order that existed during his lifetime. A close reading of his work dealing with this theme will prove that this is not the case. William Blake was intelligent enough, and courageous enough, to recognize the Age of Reason’s over governing intentions and set out to challenge the notion that sensibility and order are exclusive partners. But Blake did not seek complete anarchy in the world contrary to a lot of interpretation of his work. What the poet did was illustrate that governing does not have to equal a loss of liberty, and he did so by presenting the opposition to the demanding institutions — church, state, law, monarchy — of his time. By examining ideas and objects in terms of opposites, and allowing access to both sides of the scale, man will reach a true state of enlightenment rather than a repressed state where few benefit and most are held in bondage.

The Cycle Cycle is very similar to the theme of opposition. Where Blake argues each object or abstract idea has an equal and valid opposite form, he also contends that nature of these objects and abstractions pass back and forth through one another. This is most obvious in “The Season” poems studied here, but also in many other works of Blake. The reader learns of his static belief that nature operates in cyclical terms. William Blake would use this theory as evidential support

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 36 English Literature - I for the changes of his time, especially the Revolutions that were happening in America and France. Frustrated with a long period of repression in Europe, Blake felt it was time for the people to rise and fight back, and that a political and philosophical cleansing was not only a positive part to the progression of mankind and evolution of societies, but that it was as natural as the rotation of the earth, the changing of the seasons, and the maturity of humans.

Oppression/Repression Blake lived in a period of aggressive British colonialism, slavery, social casting, Revolutionary change in America and Europe, as well as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Being a member of the lower class, an uneducated artist (in the formal sense of the term, although Blake was clearly quite intelligent), and considered by many to be an inferior poet bordering madness, Blake experienced firsthand the struggles of oppression. Using words and illustrations, Blake fought back against his countrymen, political leaders, and religious principals (ples). The theme of the repressed is the easiest to identify and extract from Blake’s poetry. Most of his work will feature a wearisome protagonist who is attempting to revolt against some greater being, whether it be political, religious, or even the shackles of love and marriage. Many times, this theme is represented in the form of mythology, literary allusion, and the personification of natural objects.

Sexuality A lot has been written on the hidden sexual references that are laden in Blake’s poetry. While some of the examples put forward by Blake scholars who seek sexual innuendo in all of Blake’s writings is debatable, there are some instances where sexual reference is prevalent without doubt. There has been some work on homosexuality and homoeroticism appearing in the poems as well, and this is a harder case to prove. Regardless of the directed gender of the metaphor, sexuality does play an important role in Blake’s canon. Due to Blake’s feeling that the human imagination and desire is oppressed in all forms, it makes complete sense that he would also draw upon the supposed dishonor and immoral act of copulation as just one more facet of persecution against nature’s intent. The most repeated reference made to this is the literary allusion repeatedly made to Milton and the fall of man from the Garden of Eden as a result of his sin for love.

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Innocence and Experience Similar to Blake’s focus on man’s fall from grace, Blake was constantly exploring the moment of lost innocence. This repeated theme in Blake’s poetry is almost like a paragon for a combination of all the other themes so far discussed. The theme of the separation, transition, and difference between innocence and experience highlights the theory of opposition, cycling, repression, and sexuality. Songs of Innocence and of Experience aside, Blake continues to explore and personify this transient moment and investigate its consequences. Recognizing that in a world of “reason” or “sensibility”, we risk forgetting all of our primitive desires and suppressing all of our natural intuitions. Blake attempts to invoke recognition for the imaginative spirit that lies in all of us, but since our moment of experience has been subjugated to the areas of our mind, we are called upon to ignore.

Religion It is unclear exactly where Blake stood in terms of his beliefs in God. Some contend that through his works it is clear he was an atheist; others argue he was more agnostic. While it is impossible to say for sure, it is not the opinion of this author that Blake had no belief in a super- being, God-like, creator. Blake makes many references to God and a supernatural, omniscient, and omnipresent being. That being said, it is very valid to assume that Blake had a distinct disdain for religion as an institution. The theme of religion appears in a lot of Blake’s work, and in his “opposition is true friendship” manner, he usually counter-balances this theme with references to nature, showing his belief in a natural superpower rather than mythological creator. Blake views religion as one of the paragons of tyranny. Inventing a mythology full of angels, demons, and Gods that mirror a lot of Milton’s writings, it becomes obvious that William Blake was fascinated with religion as literary allusion, and infuriated with it as a means to suppress man’s natural desires.

Poetry/Imagination By the time William Blake began writing poetry at the very young age of twelve, he was already frustrated with the stale situation English poetry was in at that time. Blake felt that poets needed to seek new ways to express their words and ideas, and sought to step away from the Classic traditions of English poetry that had not really changed since Spenser (so Blake thought

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 38 English Literature - I anyhow). As readers, we witness Blake play around with new forms and seek new methods to get across his message. In some of the poems, literary reference becomes the theme itself (“Memory, hither come” and “To the Muses” for example). William Blake was continuously finding new ways to express his philosophical beliefs and articulate his extraordinary imagination.

The School boy. From Songs of Experience I love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the skylark sings with me: O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, O it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. Ah then at times I drooping sit, And spend many an anxious hour; Nor in my book can I take delight, Nor sit in learning’s bower, Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away;

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And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and cares dismay.

How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear?

The School Boy, by William Blake ‘The School boy’ by William Blake is a short poem that is separated into six stanzas of five lines, called quintets. The first two stanza, rhyme is a scheme of ABABB, ACACC while the last four diverge, rhyming (with alternative endings) ABCBB or ABABB.

This piece was first published in the second half of Blake’s masterpiece, ‘Songs of Experience.’ The publication of this volume came approximately five years after the publication of ‘Songs of Innocence’ in 1789.

2.5 Analysis

First Stanza I love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the skylark sings with me: O what sweet company! In the first stanza of this piece, Blake introduces the reader to his main character and speaker. The poem is told from the perspective of a young school age boy who feels trapped in the monotony of the everyday attendance of his studies. He speaks with the conscience of an older man, projecting the emotions and beliefs common to the Romantic poets, of which Blake was one.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 40 English Literature - I

The young narrator speaks about the things he loves in this first stanza. He loves “to rise in a summer morn” and hear the birds singing “on every tree.” Further in the distance, he can hear the horn of the “huntsman” and the song of the “skylark” who seems to sing only for him.

These are the types of company he desires. This is when he is happiest, a sentiment that many a Romantic poet has expressed.

Second Stanza But to go to school in a summer morn, O it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. The second stanza presents the exact opposite — things that “drive all joy away!”

When he is forced to rise on a “summer morn” and go to school, unable to stay in his peaceful environment, he is unhappiest. He bemoans his, and his classmate’s fate; that they are stuck inside, “In sighing and dismay.”

Third Stanza Ah then at times I drooping sit, And spend many an anxious hour; Nor in my book can I take delight, Nor sit in learning’s bower, Worn through with the dreary shower. The young speaker continues on, telling the reader more about his miserable days at school. He sits “drooping,” hunched over in his seat. He takes no pleasure in school work and is anxiously waiting for the end of the day. He cannot even take “delight” in his book, or “sit in learning’s bower” as it has been all “Worn through” by rain.

It is clear from these lines that the child is not adverse to learning in general, he appreciates reading and understands the joys that can be gained from encompassing oneself within the “bower,” or sanctuary, of learning. It is only the structure of school that he cannot stand.

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The child expresses his weariness. He sits drooping out in the sea of tediousness. The child restrains the assault on him by the oppressive personality of the teacher and unnecessary lectures (shower of meaningless words). The finicky teacher gushes his words of erudition without even attempting to understand the child’s intention and his urge for unchecked freedom. The learning’s bower refers to a garden where the child can be taught in an interesting way, only if nature accompanies him instead of the school teacher.

Fourth Stanza How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring? In the fourth stanza of “The School boy” the speaker questions his reader, demanding an answer to a rhetorical question. He pleads with whoever is listening and asks how a “bird that is born for joy,” referring to himself or others that think like him, be asked to “Sit in a cage and sing?” He knows that he was made to learn, read, and write, but he cannot do so in school, a place he considers equal to a cage.

He now turns to begging on behalf of other children. He makes the case for all those trapped indoors. He professes to worry for their wellbeing and the fact that while they are inside, their “tender” wings drooping, they are forgetting the “spring” of their youth. These children, just like he is, are missing out on the joys of being a child.

A bird which is born cheerful and jovial can never sing sweet songs if caged. Similarly, a child if retained under the umbrella of annoying fear and tension, the skepticism of his teacher, can never enjoy the natural instincts of joy and playfulness. Indeed, a world full of rigid course of discipline will ruthlessly take away the beautiful springs (the childhood days) of a person’s life.

Fifth Stanza O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away;

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And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and cares dismay, In the fifth quintet of the poem, the speaker turns to address his parents as he sees them as the ones that could possibly change his situation. If only he can convince them to see things his way! In this stanza, he presents them with the reasons why they should not force him to go to school.

He speaks about his own childhood joys as being “buds” that are being “nipped” and “blossoms” that are blowing away. His happiness is delicate like the “tender plants” and he should not have to be subjected to “sorrow and cares dismay” at his young age. He need not feel so unhappy when he is only a child.

The boy complains to the highest authority, to his father and mother, of a budding child who is picked and swept off in the early stage of life in an ocean of sorrow, where there is no one to care for. If misery withers the tender plants, the beautiful buds and the new born buds, summer can never be joyful.

Sixth Stanza How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear? If all of the things stated in the fifth stanza happen, if he is indeed stripped of his joy and given sorrow in return, then how can his parents expect the appearance of fruit in the summer. They should, he states, worry that due to their choices he will never be the same. He will be unable to stand the “blasts of winter” when they appear.

While this poem did appear in “Songs of Experience”, this child has yet to reach an age in which he will truly feel sorrow or despair. His youthful melodramatic appeal will fall on deaf ears.

If care and concern rule over the plants, flowers and birds, such a summer will be dry and will bear no fruit. The child enquires his parents as to how they can win back what grief has

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The School Boy 43 destroyed. If the plants are withered due to the canker of grief, no fruit will be there in the season of autumn (mellowing year). This implies that if childhood pleasures and joys are censored and truncated, one has to be very sure that the adult life will be utterly dry and unproductive.

“Critical Appreciation of The School Boy by William Blake”: The School Boy, was originally published in “The Songs of Innocence”. Blake put this poem in The “Song of Experience” when the combined volume was published. This poem is appropriate in “Songs of Experience” as we find the elements of restriction imposed on the carefree life of the school boy.

The poem marks the freshness of summer morning Though the first few lines provide a fragrance of innocence, there is a spontaneous fill of restriction. The boy summons his liking to be one with the birds and be in the distant fields blowing the huntsman clarion. The moments of euphoria is curtained in the clouds of experience. The boy has to go with the bitter memories of attending his school and the tiring lectures. It drives all the vigor and vitality of summer that he has drunk making him droop in front of the cruel eyes of the teacher from the daylong thraldom.

Ah! Then at times I drooping sit. And spend many an anxious hour. “The School Boy” is a six-stanza poem of five lines each. Each stanza follows an ABABB rhyme scheme, with the first two stanzas using the same word “morn” to rhyme in the first lines. The repetition of the word “morn” as well as similarly low-sounding words such as “outworn,” “bower,” “dismay,” and “destroy” lend the poem a bleak tone, in keeping with the school boy’s attitude at being trapped inside at school rather than being allowed to move freely about the countryside on this fine summer day.

Blake suggests that the educational system of his day destroys the joyful innocence of youth Blake himself was largely self-educated and did not endure the drudgery of the classroom as a child. Again, the poet wishes his readers to see the difference between the freedom of imagination offered by close contact with nature, and the repression of the soul caused by Reason’s demands for a so-called education.

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Theme of the ‘The School Boy’ by William Blake The poem, ‘The School Boy’ discusses a boy’s repelling imprisonment at his school, from his company with the animate objects of the summer morning (birds, flowers etc) to the inanimate object of his school which is indeed a matter of concern and grief. School life is an ordeal for him.

The boy’s filling of summer festivity is countered by the terrifying eye of the teacher that robs from him all his childhood happiness. School is nothing but a prison that negates the playful activity of childhood. The restriction of an imposed school, forms a hurdle for the natural expression of creativity and forlorn the essence of geniusness.

2.6 The School Boy – Imagery, Symbolism and Themes

Imagery and Symbolism This poem depends upon three inter-related images, the school Boy, the bird and the plant. All three are dependent upon, or vulnerable to the way in which they are treated by human beings.

School Boy: The image of the child here focuses on his nature as free and unfettered. He is associated with the spring as a time for growth, freshness and playfulness. As such, the child represents the playful, free nature of the creative imagination. According to Blake, this was fettered by subjection to the demands of a system which denies the validity of imagination. In The School Boy, formal education involves subjection to a ‘cruel’ eye and cruelty in Blake is always linked with the denial of imaginative freedom and of the spiritual self.

Bird: The bird imagery allows for the comparison between the free child being imprisoned in school and the songbird being caged. The unity between bird and boy is emphasised in stanza one. The sky-lark ‘sings with me’. This inverts our expectations. We tend to think of the sky-lark as the primary singer, with whom people might sing along. Here, however, it is the child who is the first singer. It is as natural to him as to the lark, as though he were another bird.

Birds are also images of freedom. Their capacity for flight and for song, makes them appropriate images of creative imagination, since poet’s ‘song’ and imagination is often linked with the notion of flight. The school boy in school and the bird in the cage are, therefore, seen as

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The School Boy 45 equivalents not only at the natural level, under physical subjection, but at the spiritual level, too. Both represent the caging and entrapping of imaginative vision.

Plant: The image of the plant applies to the school boy’s present and future. The young plant, like the young child, is tender and vulnerable. The way it (and the child) is treated at this stage dictates its later capacity to bear fruit. Just as food gathered in autumn is necessary to ensure survival through the winter, so experiences of joy and the freedom of the imagination are necessary for a person’s capacity to live well and survive the inevitable ‘griefs’ of life.

Themes The Nature and Vulnerability of Innocence Innocence is presented here as freedom from constraint and self-consciousness. The child starts out taking pleasure in an uninhibited life, full of trust in his world, both natural and human. The fragility of this state is clear from images like ‘blossoms’ and ‘tender plants .. strip’d’. The child soon experiences the ‘woe’ in life and of learning the possibility of failure and betrayal.

Snares, Confinement Images of confinement abound in the Songs. Blake the revolutionary, opposed the coercive strictures of the ‘Establishment’ –– the state, organised religion etc. — which sought to quantify and rule all aspects of human behaviour. Here, education is formalised and restrictive, actually stunting the development of those it claimed to nurture. Prison imagery is seen in the ‘cruel eye’ of the overseer and the ‘cage’ of the bird.

The Perception of Children  Is the child born free and good, as Rousseau believed, or born sinful, as the Calvinist Christians believed?

 Or is this opposition the result of fallen human beings’ inability to recognise that the capacity for good and evil both belong to humanity?

Blake’s idea that a young child can clearly see God, echoes the Romantic sensibility articulated by Wordsworth, that children had an existence in heaven before the commencement of their earthly life. Blake saw the natural child as an image of the creative imagination which is

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 46 English Literature - I human being’s spiritual core. He was concerned about the way in which social institutions, such as the school system and parental authority, crushed the capacity for imaginative vision. The child’s capacity for happiness and play are expressions of this imagination.

Parental Care and Authority In Blake’s work, parents are often perceived as inhibiting and repressing their children. Their own fears and shame are communicated to the next generation through the parental desire to ‘protect’ children from their desires. According to Blake, parents misuse ‘care’ to repress children, rather than setting the children free by rejoicing in, and safeguarding their capacity for play and imagination. Here, parents are seen as colluding with a repressive system; it is as though they are entrapped by a way of seeing the world and transmit that entrapment to their offspring by perpetuating the system.

2.7 Summary “The School Boy” by William Blake is told from the perspective of a young boy who is espousing the cause of many children, that school is negatively impacting him.

The poem begins with the young narrator speaking on his ideal morning. He wakes and hears the birds and the “distant huntsman” blowing his “horn.” The second stanza jumps to the mornings he despairs of, in which he is forced to leave his peaceful sanctuary and go to school.

The next two stanzas are infused with melodrama and are meant to elicit sympathy with the reader. The boy describes his miserable days at school and how, like a trapped bird that cannot sing, he should not be required to learn in restraints.

The speaker turns to plead with his parents. He tells them that if this continues, his “buds” are going to be “nipped,” his joy ripped from him, and the loss of his childhood will result in an unpreparedness for life. He will not be able to last through the real trials of life, or winters as he describes them.

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2.8 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Who do you think is the speaker in the poem?

2. What does he love to do in the morning?

3. What drives away all his joy?

4. Why does he not take pleasure in his books?

5. Why is the school compared to a cage?

B. Long Answer Questions 1. What is the theme of the Poem ‘The School Boy’?

2. Give the analysis of the poem?

3. How do you think are the children repressed by their parents?

4. Describe the revolutionary attitude of Blake as revealed in the poem?

5. How does the child try to convince his parents?

6. Why will the child not be able to stand the blasts of winter?

C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Who is the ‘I’ in the poem?

(a) An old man (b) A school teacher

(c) A passerby (d) A school boy

2. He is unwilling to go to the school because ______.

(a) He will miss the joys of the summer mornings

(b) He will miss the delicious dishes prepared by his mother

(c) His classmates will tease him

(d) His teacher will beat him

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3. What is his impression about the teacher?

(a) He calls his teacher ill-mannered

(b) He thinks his teacher is not highly qualified

(c) He calls his teacher a cruel, weary old person

(d) He thinks his teacher is just like his mother

4. Which word in the stanza means ‘disappointment’?

(a) Drive (b) Outworn

(c) Sighing (d) Dismay

Answers 1. (d), 2. (a), 3. (c), 4. (d)

2.9 References 1. https://www.biography.com/writer/william-blake

2. https://poemanalysis.com/the-schoolboy-by-william-blake-poem-analysis/

3. https://beamingnotes.com/2013/06/24/the-school-boy-analysis-by-william-blake/

4. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/William_Blake

5. https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/blake/schoolboy.html

6. https://englishsummary.com/lesson/schoolboy-poem-summary/

7. Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi (eds.), “Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Object 20 (Bentley 53, Erdman 53, Keynes 53) ‘The School Boy’”, William Blake Archive, Retrieved April 28, 2015.

8. Eaves, Morris; Essick, Robert N. and Viscomi, Joseph, “Songs of Innocence”, The William Blake Archive, Retrieved 9 April 2015.

9. Blake, William (1908), The Poetical Works of William Blake, ed. by John Sampson, London: Oxford University Press, Retrieved 31 March 2015.

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10. Paul R.; Dobkin, David S. and Wheye, Darryl, “Bird Biology and the Arts”, Stanford University, Retrieved 9 April 2015.

11. Latham, Don (2008), “Empowering Adolescent Readers: Intertextuality in Three Novels by David Almond” (PDF), Children’s Literature in Education, 39: 213-226, doi: 10.1007/s10583-007-9052-6, Retrieved 7 April 2015.

12. Sahm, Danielle (2010), “Contrary to Expectations: Exploring Blake’s Contraries in David Almond’s Skellig”, Children’s Literature, 38: 116. .

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 3 THE EDUCATION OF NATURE – WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Structure: 3.0 Learning Objectives

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Main Ideas

3.3 Themes

3.4 Analysis

3.5 Poem Analysis

3.6 Summary

3.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

3.8 References

3.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of William Wordsworth.

Wordsworth’s monumental poetic legacy rests on a large number of important poems, varying in length and weight from the short, simple lyrics of the 1790s to the vast expanses of The Prelude, thirteen books long in its 1808 edition. But the themes that run through Wordsworth’s poetry, and the language and imagery he uses to embody those themes, remain remarkably consistent throughout the Wordsworth canon, adhering largely to the tenets Wordsworth set out for himself in the 1802 preface to Lyrical Ballads. Here, Wordsworth argues that poetry should be

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 51 written in the natural language of common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate dictions that were then considered “poetic.” He argues that poetry should offer access to the emotions contained in memory. And he argues that the first principle of poetry should be pleasure, that the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling — for all human sympathy, he claims, is based on a subtle pleasure principle that is “the naked and native dignity of man.”

Recovering “the naked and native dignity of man” makes up a significant part of Wordsworth’s poetic project, and he follows his own advice from the 1802 preface. Wordsworth’s style remains plain-spoken and easy-to-understand even today, though the rhythms and idioms of common English have changed from those of the early 19th century. Many of Wordsworth’s poems (including masterpieces such as “Tintern Abbey” and the “Intimations of Immortality” ode) deal with the subjects of childhood and the memory of childhood in the mind of the adult in particular, childhood’s lost connection with nature, which can be preserved only in memory. Wordsworth’s images and metaphors mix natural scenery, religious symbolism (as in the sonnet, “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,” in which the evening is described as being “quiet as a nun”), and the relics of the poet’s rustic childhood — cottages, hedgerows, orchards, and other places where humanity intersects gently and easily with nature.

Wordsworth’s poems initiated the Romantic era by emphasizing feeling, instinct, and pleasure above formality and mannerism. More than any poet before him, Wordsworth gave expression to inchoate human emotion; his lyric “Strange fits of passion have I known,” in which the speaker describes an inexplicable fantasy he once had that his lover was dead, could not have been written by any previous poet. Curiously, for a poet whose work points so directly toward the future, many of Wordsworth’s important works are preoccupied with the lost glory of the past — not only of the lost dreams of childhood, but also of the historical past, as in the powerful sonnet “London, 1802,” in which the speaker exhorts the spirit of the centuries-dead poet John Milton to teach the modern world a better way to live.

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3.1 Introduction William Wordsworth was an early leader of romanticism (a literary movement that celebrated nature and concentrated on human emotions) in English poetry, and ranks as one of the greatest lyric poets in the history of English literature.

His Early Years William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England, the second child of an attorney. Unlike the other major English romantic poets, he enjoyed a happy childhood under the loving care of his mother and was very close to his sister Dorothy. As a child he wandered happily through the lovely natural scenery of Cumberland. In grammar school, Wordsworth showed a keen interest in poetry. He was fascinated by the epic poet John Milton (1608-1674).

From 1787 to 1790, Wordsworth attended St. John’s College at Cambridge University. He always returned to his home and to nature during his summer vacations. Before graduating from Cambridge, he took a walking tour through France, Switzerland, and Italy in 1790. The Alps made an impression on him that he did not recognize until fourteen years later.

Stay in France Revolutionary passion in France made a powerful impact on Wordsworth, who returned there in November 1791. He wanted to improve his knowledge of the French language. His experience in France just after the French Revolution (1789; the French overthrew the ruling monarchy) reinforced his sympathy for common people and his belief in political freedom.

Wordsworth fell passionately in love with a French girl, Annette Vallon. She gave birth to their daughter in December 1792. However, Wordsworth had spent his limited funds and was forced to return home. The separation left him with a sense of guilt that deepened his poetic inspiration and resulted in an important theme in his work of abandoned women.

Publication of First Poems Wordsworth’s first poems, “Descriptive Sketches” and “An Evening Walk,” were printed in 1793. He wrote several pieces over the next several years. The year 1797 marked the beginning of

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Wordsworth’s long friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Together they published “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798. Wordsworth wanted to challenge “the gaudiness [unnecessarily flashy] and inane [foolish] phraseology [wording] of many modern writers.” Most of his poems in this collection centered on the simple yet deeply human feelings of ordinary people, phrased in their own language. His views on this new kind of poetry were more fully described in the important “Preface” that he wrote for the second edition (1800).

“Tintern Abbey” Wordsworth’s most memorable contribution to this volume was “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” which he wrote just in time to include it. This poem is the first major piece to illustrate his original talent at its best. It skillfully combines matter-of-factness in natural description with a genuinely mystical (magical) sense of infinity, joining self-exploration to philosophical speculation (questioning). The poem closes on a subdued but confident reassertion of nature’s healing power, even though mystical insight may be obtained from the poet.

In its successful blending of inner and outer experience, of sense perception, feeling, and thought, “Tintern Abbey” is a poem in which the writer becomes a symbol of mankind. The poem leads to imaginative thoughts about man and the universe. This cosmic outlook rooted in the self is a central feature of romanticism. Wordsworth's poetry is undoubtedly the most impressive example of this view in English literature.

Poems of the Middle Period Wordsworth, even while writing his contributions to the “Lyrical Ballads,” had been feeling his way toward more ambitious schemes. He had embarked on a long poem in unrhymed verse, “The Ruined Cottage,” later referred to as “The Peddlar.” It was intended to form part of a vast philosophical poem with the title, “The Recluse, or Views of Man, Nature and Society.” This grand project never materialized as originally planned.

Abstract, impersonal speculation was not comfortable for Wordsworth. He could handle experiences in the philosophical-lyrical manner only if they were closely related to himself and could arouse his creative feelings and imagination. During the winter months he spent in

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Germany, he started work on his magnum opus (greatest work), “The Prelude,” or “Growth of a Poet's Mind.” It was published after his death.

However, such a large achievement was still beyond Wordsworth's scope (area of capabilities) at this time. It was back to the shorter poetic forms that he turned during the most productive season of his long literary life, the spring of 1802. The output of these fertile (creative) months mostly came from his earlier inspirations: nature and the common people. During this time he wrote “To a Butterfly,” “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” “To the Cuckoo,” “The Rainbow,” and other poems.

Changes in Philosophy The crucial event of this period was Wordsworth's loss of the sense of mystical oneness, which had sustained (lasted throughout) his highest imaginative flights. Indeed, a mood of despondency (depression) descended over Wordsworth, who was then thirty-two years old.

In the summer of 1802, Wordsworth spent a few weeks in Calais, France, with his sister Dorothy. Wordsworth’s renewed contact with France only confirmed his disillusionment (disappointment) with the French Revolution and its aftermath.

During this period Wordsworth had become increasingly concerned with Coleridge, who by now was almost totally dependent upon opium (a highly addictive drug) for relief from his physical sufferings. Both friends came to believe that the realities of life were in stark contradiction (disagreement) to the visionary expectations of their youth. Wordsworth characteristically sought to redefine his own identity in ways that would allow him a measure of meaning. The new turn his life took in 1802 resulted in an inner change that set the new course his poetry followed from then on.

Poems about England and Scotland began pouring forth from Wordsworth's pen, while France and Napoleon (1769-1821) soon became Wordsworth's favorite symbols of cruelty and oppression. His nationalistic (intense pride in one’s own country) inspiration led him to produce the two “Memorials of a Tour in Scotland” (1803, 1814) and the group entitled “Poems Dedicated to National Independence and Liberty.”

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Poems of 1802 The best poems of 1802, however, deal with a deeper level of inner change. In Wordsworth's poem “Intimations of Immortality” (March-April), he plainly recognized that “The things which I have seen I now can see no more”; yet he emphasized that although the “visionary gleam” had fled, the memory remained, and although the “celestial light” had vanished, the “common sight” of “meadow, grove and stream” was still a potent (strong) source of delight and solace (comfort).

Thus Wordsworth shed his earlier tendency to idealize nature and turned to a more sedate (calm) doctrine (set of beliefs) of orthodox Christianity. Younger poets and critics soon blamed him for this “recantation” (renouncing), which they equated with his change of mind about the French Revolution. His “Ecclesiastical Sonnets” (1822) are clear evidence of the way in which love of freedom, nature, and the Church came to coincide (come together at the same time) in his mind.

The Prelude Nevertheless, it was the direction suggested in “Intimations of Immortality” that, in the view of later criticism, enabled Wordsworth to produce perhaps the most outstanding achievement of English romanticism: “The Prelude.” He worked on it, on and off, for several years and completed the first version in May 1805. “The Prelude” can claim to be the only true romantic epic (long, often heroic work) because it deals in narrative terms with the spiritual growth of the only true romantic hero, the poet. The inward odyssey (journey) of the poet was described, not for its own sake but as a sample and as an adequate image of man at his most sensitive.

Wordsworth shared the general romantic notion that personal experience is the only way to gain living knowledge. The purpose of “The Prelude” was to recapture and interpret, with detailed thoroughness, the whole range of experiences that had contributed to the shaping of his own mind. Wordsworth refrained from publishing the poem in his lifetime, revising it continuously. Most important and, perhaps, most to be regretted, the poet also tried to give a more orthodox tinge to his early mystical faith in nature.

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Later Years Wordsworth’s estrangement (growing apart) from Coleridge in 1810 deprived him of a powerful incentive to imaginative and intellectual alertness. Wordsworth's appointment to a government position in 1813 relieved him of financial care.

Wordsworth's undiminished love for nature made him view the emergent (just appearing) industrial society with undisguised reserve. He opposed the Reform Bill of 1832, which, in his view, merely transferred political power from the land owners to the manufacturing class, but he never stopped pleading in favor of the victims of the factory system.

In 1843 Wordsworth was appointed poet laureate (official poet of a country). He died on April 23, 1850.

Wordsworth’s Poetical Works William Wordsworth, along with Robert Southey and Samuel Coleridge, is one of the “Lakeland Poets,” a group that is widely credited with beginning the English Romantic Movement. The movement was characterized by a rejection of the Enlightenment, which focused on reason, logic, and structure. Romanticism, on the other hand, focuses on emotion and imagination. Often the poets are called “nature poets” because of their emphasis on man’s connection to nature. Wordsworth addressed this connection in poems such as “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” “Ode; Intimations of Immortality,” and “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” The stress placed on the importance of imagination and the sublime in the English Romantic Movement, subsequently inspired the American Romantic Movement, which was headed by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and followed up by Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others. The most famous poets of the English Romantic Movement are William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats.

Wordsworth’s poetry is distinguished by his straightforward use of language and meter and his natural and often colloquial themes and imagery. This is not to say, however, that Wordsworth’s ideas are simple. He weaves several ideas throughout his poetic works, including

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 57 the importance of the natural world, transcendentalism and interconnectedness, religion, morality, mortality, memory and the power of the human mind.

Wordsworth began publishing in 1793, at the age of 23, with a collection of poetry about a tour he took in the Swiss Alps – “Descriptive Sketches.” In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge published “Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems” anonymously. In 1800, the two published another edition of “Lyrical Ballads” that included Wordsworth's famous preface highlighting several of the key ideas of the Romantic Movement. Wordsworth published “Elegiac Stanzas and Poems in two volumes” in 1803 and 1805 respectively, followed by “The Excursion” in 1812, “Collected Poems” in 1815, and “Peter Bell” and “The Waggoner” in 1819. Wordsworth published “Ecclesiastical Sketches” in 1822. After Wordsworth’s death, his wife published “Preface,” which was previously known only as “Poem for Coleridge.” At the time of his death, Wordsworth was known in England as the best poet in the world.

3.2 Main Ideas

Wandering and Wanderers The speakers of Wordsworth’s poems are inveterate wanderers; they roam solitarily, they travel over the moors, they take private walks through the highlands of Scotland. Active wandering allows the characters to experience and participate in the vastness and beauty of the natural world. Moving from place to place also allows the wanderer to make discoveries about himself. In “I travelled among unknown men” (1807), the speaker discovers his patriotism only after he has traveled far from England. While wandering, speakers uncover the visionary powers of the mind and understand the influence of nature, as in “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (1807). The speaker of this poem takes comfort in a walk he once took after he had returned to the grit and desolation of city life. Recollecting his wanderings allows him to transcend his present circumstances. Wordsworth’s poetry itself often wanders, roaming from one subject or experience to another, as in “The Prelude.” In this long poem, the speaker moves from idea to idea through digressions and distractions that mimic the natural progression of thought within the mind.

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Memory Memory allows Wordsworth’s speakers to overcome the harshness of the contemporary world. Recollecting their childhood gives adults a chance to reconnect with the visionary power and intense relationship they had with nature as children. In turn, these memories encourage adults to re-cultivate, as close a relationship with nature as possible as an antidote to sadness, loneliness, and despair. The act of remembering also allows the poet to write; Wordsworth argued in the 1802 preface to “Lyrical Ballads” that poetry sprang from the calm remembrance of passionate emotional experiences. Poems cannot be composed at the moment when emotion is first experienced. Instead, the initial emotion must be combined with other thoughts and feelings from the poet’s past experiences using memory and imagination. The poem produced by this time-consuming process will allow the poet to convey the essence of his emotional memory to his readers and will permit the readers to remember similar emotional experiences of their own.

Vision and Sight Throughout his poems, Wordsworth fixates on vision and sight as the vehicles through which individuals are transformed. As speakers move through the world, they see visions of great natural loveliness, which they capture in their memories. Later, in moments of darkness, the speakers recollect these visions, as in “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” Here, the speaker daydreams of former jaunts through nature, which “flash upon that inward eye/which is the bliss of solitude.” The power of sight captured by our mind’s eye enables us to find comfort even in our darkest, loneliest moments. Elsewhere, Wordsworth describes the connection between seeing and experiencing emotion, as in “My heart leaps up” (1807), in which the speaker feels joy as a result of spying a rainbow across the sky. Detailed images of natural beauty abound in Wordsworth’s poems, including descriptions of daffodils and clouds, which focus on what can be seen, rather than touched, heard, or felt. In Book Fourteenth of “The Prelude”, climbing to the top of a mountain in Wales, allows the speaker to have a prophetic vision of the workings of the mind as it thinks, reasons, and feels.

Light Light often symbolizes truth and knowledge. In “The Tables Turned” (1798), Wordsworth contrasts the barren light of reason available in books with the “sweet” and “freshening” light of

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 59 the knowledge nature brings. Sunlight literally helps people see, and sunlight also helps speakers, and characters begin to glimpse the wonders of the world. In “Expostulation and Reply” (1798), the presence of light, or knowledge, within an individual prevents dullness and helps the individual to see, or experience. Generally, the light in Wordsworth’s poems represents immortal truths that can’t be entirely grasped by human reason. In “Ode: Imitations of Immortality,” the speaker remembers looking at a meadow as a child and imagining it gleaming in “celestial light”. As the speaker grows and matures, the light of his youth fades into the “light of common day” of adulthood. But the speaker also imagines his remembrances of the past as a kind of light, which illuminate his soul and give him the strength to live.

The Leech Gatherer In “Resolution and Independence,” the ancient leech gatherer who spends his days wandering the moors looking for leeches, represents the strong-minded poet who perseveres in the face of poverty, obscurity, and solitude. As the poem begins, a wanderer travels along a moor, feeling elated and taking great pleasure in the sights of nature around him but also remembering that despair is the twin of happiness. Eventually he comes upon an old man looking for leeches, even though the work is dangerous and the leeches have become increasingly hard to find. As the speaker chats with the old man, he realizes the similarities between leech gathering and writing poetry. Like a leech gather, a poet continues to search his or her mind and the landscape of the natural world for poems, even though such intense emotions can damage one’s psyche, the work pays poorly and poverty is dangerous to one’s health, and inspiration sometimes seems increasingly hard to find. The speaker resolves to think of the leech gatherer whenever his enthusiasm for poetry or belief in himself begins to wane.

3.3 Themes

The Beneficial Influence of Nature Throughout Wordsworth’s work, nature provides the ultimate good influence on the human mind. All manifestations of the natural world — from the highest mountain to the simplest flower — elicit noble, elevated thoughts and passionate emotions in the people who observe these manifestations. Wordsworth repeatedly emphasizes the importance of nature to an individual’s

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 60 English Literature - I intellectual and spiritual development. A good relationship with nature helps individuals connect to both the spiritual and the social worlds. As Wordsworth explains in “The Prelude,” a love of nature can lead to a love of humankind. In such poems as “The World Is Too Much with Us” (1807) and “London, 1802” (1807), people become selfish and immoral when they distance themselves from nature by living in cities. Humanity’s innate empathy and nobility of spirit becomes corrupted by artificial social conventions as well as by the squalor of city life. In contrast, people who spend a lot of time in nature, such as laborers and farmers, retain the purity and nobility of their souls.

Nature “Come forth into the light of things/Let Nature be your Teacher.” No discussion on Wordsworth would be complete without mention of nature. Nature and its connection to humanity makes an appearance in the vast majority of Wordsworth's poetry, often holding a poem’s focus, and has become the cornerstone of the Romantic Movement primarily because of him. For Wordsworth, nature is a kind of religion in which he has the utmost faith. Nature fills two major roles in Wordsworth’s poetry:

1. Even though it is intensely beautiful and peaceful, nature often causes Wordsworth to feel melancholy or sad. This is usually because, even as he relishes in his connection with nature, he worries about the rest of humanity, most of who live in cites completely apart from nature. Wordsworth wonders how they could possibly revive their spirits. In the end, however, he often decides that it is wrong to be sad while in nature: “A poet could not but be gay/In such jocund company.”

2. Nature also gives Wordsworth hope for the future. From past experience Wordsworth knows that spending time in nature is a gift to his future self, because later, when he is alone, tired and frustrated in the busy, dirty city, he will be able to look back on a field of daffodils he once spent time in and be happy again.

The Power of the Human Mind Wordsworth praised the power of the human mind. Using memory and imagination, individuals could overcome difficulty and pain. For instance, the Speaker in “Lines Composed a

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Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” (1798) relieves his loneliness with memories of nature, while the leech gatherer in “Resolution and Independence” (1807) perseveres cheerfully in the face of poverty by the exertion of his own will. The transformative powers of the mind are available to all, regardless of an individual’s class or background. This democratic view emphasizes individuality and uniqueness. Throughout his work, Wordsworth showed strong support for the political, religious, and artistic rights of the individual, including the power of his or her mind. In the 1802 preface to “Lyrical Ballads,” Wordsworth explained the relationship between the mind and poetry. Poetry is “emotion recollected in tranquility” — that is, the mind transforms the raw emotion of experience into poetry capable of giving pleasure. Later poems, such as “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (1807), imagine nature as the source of the inspiring material that nourishes the active, creative mind.

The Splendor of Childhood In Wordsworth’s poetry, childhood is a magical, magnificent time of innocence. Children form an intense bond with nature, so much so that they appear to be a part of the natural world, rather than a part of the human, social world. Their relationship to nature is passionate and extreme; children feel joy at seeing a rainbow but great terror at seeing desolation or decay. In 1799, Wordsworth wrote several poems about a girl named Lucy who died at a young age. These poems, including “She dwelt among the untrodden ways” (1800) and “Strange fits of passion have I known” (1800), praise her beauty and lament her untimely death. In death, Lucy retains the innocence and splendor of childhood, unlike the children who grow up, lose their connection to nature, and lead unfulfilling lives. The speaker in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” believes that children delight in nature because they have access to a divine, immortal world. As children age and reach maturity, they lose this connection but gain an ability to feel emotions, both good and bad. Through the power of the human mind, particularly memory, adults can recollect the devoted connection to nature of their youth.

Memory For Wordsworth, the power of the human mind is extremely important. In several of his poems he begins in a negative or depressed mood, and then slowly becomes more positive. The most important use of memory, however, is to maintain connections. For instance, in poems like

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“Line Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and “I wandered lonely as a cloud” Wordsworth is in nature (his favorite place to be) and he is happy, but he becomes even happier when he realizes that he never actually has to leave his memories behind. Once he has returned to the daily gloom of the city, he will be able to remember the time he spent among nature and make himself happy again: “And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.”

As Wordsworth begins to consider his own mortality, memory is again a huge comfort, because he realizes that even after he has died he will be able to live on in the memory of his family and friends, just as those who have passed on before him are in his memory. Wordsworth is especially heartened to know that his sister Dorothy, with whom he spent countless hours, will remember him fondly, carrying him with her wherever she goes.

Mortality Wordsworth’s fascination with death frequently shows up in his poetry. The Lucy Poems, for instance, are a series of poems about a young girl who may or may not have been a figment of Wordsworth’s imagination, and who ultimately dies. Wordsworth looks at the event from several angles. In “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” he focuses on the unexpectedness of her death, and the unpredictability of life and death in general. In “Three years she grew,” Wordsworth creates a fanciful rationale for her death: Nature became entranced by her and promised to give her an incredible life, but once all of her promises were fulfilled, Lucy had to die. In “We are Seven,” Wordsworth looks at a young girl who had six siblings but now lives at home with only her mother, because two of her siblings have died and the others have moved away. The little girl seems not to understand death throughout the poem, but in the end the reader learns that she may have a clearer understanding than the speaker. In “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth is comforted by the thought that he will live on after his death, because his sister Dorothy will remember him lovingly.

Humanity One of Wordsworth’s greatest worries is the descent of humanity. As man moves further and further away from humanity he seems to be losing more and more of his soul. Often when Wordsworth is in nature, he is saddened because he is forced to think about the people trapped in

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 63 cities, unable or unwilling to commune with nature. In “London, 1802,” for instance, Wordsworth makes a plea to the poet John Milton to return and teach humanity how to regain the morality and virtue it once had. Similarly, in “The world is too much with us,” Wordsworth worries that the world is too full of people who have lost their connection to divinity, and more importantly, to nature: “Getting and spending we lay waste our powers/Little we see in Nature that is ours.”

Transcendence and Connectivity The idea of transcendence did not gain full speed until the Romantic Movement moved to America, but Wordsworth was certainly a fan of the idea long before then. “Transcendence” simply means “being without boundaries.” For Wordsworth, this means being able to connect with people and things outside of oneself, especially in terms of nature. It was Wordsworth's supreme aspiration to metaphorically transcend the limitations of his body and connect completely with nature. Mankind’s difficulty accepting the beauty that nature has to offer saddened Wordsworth; he found the loss of such a gift difficult to accept.

Morality In Wordsworth’s poems, morality doesn’t necessarily stem directly from religion, but rather from doing what is right by oneself, by humanity, and by nature. In “London, 1802”, Wordsworth complains that man’s morals are in a state of constant decline, but the morals he is talking about have more to do with following the natural process of life – being free and powerful, not tied down by city living or common thoughts. The most important lesson a person can learn, according to Wordsworth, is to be true to his own impulses and desires, but not greedy. A person should be available to help his fellow man, but should not be consumed by other peoples’ needs. He should be in communion with nature, with humanity, and with himself.

Religion Religion, while not as prevalent as in the poetry of the Enlightenment, does have a place in much of Wordsworth’s poetry. Often religion is included simply to help Wordsworth’s more pious readers understand the level of his commitment to and faith in nature. Wordsworth uses

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 64 English Literature - I religious imagery and language in his poems in order to convey his ideas about the power of nature, the human mind, and global interconnectivity.

CLXXIX. The Education of Nature W. Wordsworth THREE years she grew in sun and shower; Then Nature said, “A lovelier flower On earth was never sown: This Child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A Lady of my own.

“Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse; and with me The Girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power To kindle or restrain.

“She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; And hers shall be the breathing balm, And hers the silence and the calm Of mute insensate things.

“The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Ev’n in the motions of the storm Grace that shall mould the maiden’s form By silent sympathy.

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“The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place, Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face.

“And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give, While she and I together live Here in this happy dell.”

Thus Nature spake—the work was done— How soon my Lucy’s race was run! She died, and left to me This heath, this calm and quiet scene; The memory of what has been, And never more will be.

3.4 Analysis William Wordsworth’s Poems have long comforted the sorrowful soul. His tone is not that of the typical tortured soul poet, yet he was not without immense suffering. His ability to infuse comfort into his pain through his poetry has offered peace and understanding to people for generations. Wordsworth experienced some of the deepest pain any human being has ever known – the loss of a child. In this poem, ‘The Education of Nature’, he writes about Lucy, the character who represents his daughter, Catherine. She died at the age of three in the year of 1812. She was a child that was known for making those around her laugh. And as her condition was referred to as “convulsions,” it is assumed that she suffered and died from Polio (Thron). Wordsworth grieves, but not beyond hope. He writes this poem about Lucy. Perhaps it was too

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 66 English Literature - I painful to use Catherine’s name. But ‘The Education of Nature’ quickly reveals that it is Catherine whom Wordsworth thinks about while writing this piece.

3.5 Poem Analysis

Stanza 1 Three years she grew in sun and shower, Then nature said, “a lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This Child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A Lady of my own.

In the first stanza, the speaker let’s the reader identify with Lucy. It is not hard to imagine a lively young three year old, playing in the sun or in the rain. But she was too lovely for earth, or so Nature decided. The speaker suggests that Nature has taken the child for herself because she was too beautiful for the earth.

Stanza 2 Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse: and with me The girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power To kindle or restrain.

The speaker shifts to thoughts of himself. He can easily see how Nature wanted this little girl for herself, lovely as she was, but he himself would need to respond to this loss. When he says that he will be “both law and impulse,” he implies that he will react in the way he is expected to react, and do the things he is expected to do, but he would not react without impulse. He would give way to his feelings and allow grief to have its way in his heart. He implies that as he walks the earth, and as he looks into the heavens, he will feel her presence as “an overseeing power” and

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 67 he reveals that he will either kindle that feeling or restrain it, probably depending upon the time and circumstances in which this feeling arises.

Stanza 3 She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; And hers shall be the breathing balm, And hers the silence and the calm Of mute insensate things. The speaker shifts tones once again in order to focus on her – Lucy. He has explained what this loss means to Nature, and to himself, but what does it mean for Lucy? He finds his comfort in this. Lucy is symbolic of Wordsworth’s daughter, Catherine, who died of Polio. The speaker believes that Lucy will be “sportive as the fawn” and able to run “across the lawn” as she was “wild with glee.” He believes that contrary to her limited physical ability on earth, in her new place, she would be able to enjoy running wild as a fawn. She would also enjoy “the silence and the calm.” The speaker finds comfort in this idea.

Stanza 4 The floating clouds their state shall lend To her for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the storm Grace that shall mould the maiden’s form By silent sympathy.

In this stanza of ‘The Education of Nature,’ the speaker continues to imagine what Lucy is now doing. He imagines her floating on clouds, and watching those on earth. He imagines that she should never “fail to see” the “silent sympathy” he feels for her.

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Stanza 5 To stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place, Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound shall pass into her face, The speaker imagines that Lucy “shall be dear” even “to stars”. He imagines that she is enjoying her existence as she moves about in the night, being loved by the stars and all the heavenly beings.

Stanza 6 And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give, While she and I together live Here in this happy dell. In this stanza, the speaker reveals his belief that although Lucy is no longer alive in earthly terms, she will still experience “vital feelings of delight” as she grows up into her “stately height” and into maturity. The imagery of her rearing her form “to stately height,” and of “her virgin bosom swell[ing]” reveal his belief that wherever she is, wherever Nature has taken her, she will continue to grow up there, with all feelings of life and vitality. He vows to give these thoughts to Lucy daily, so that even though she exists in a different realm than he, they would still “together live here in this happy dell”.

Stanza 7 Thus Nature spake – the work was done – How soon my Lucy’s race was run! She died, and left to me This heath, this calm, and quiet scene;

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The memory of what has been, And never more will be. In this final stanza of ‘The Education of Nature,’ the speaker refers back to Nature. Nature is the authority in this situation, and she has said that “the work was done” and Lucy was no longer needed on earth. The speaker mourns over this, but he doesn’t resent it. He exclaims, “How soon my Lucy’s race was run!” and he is clearly grieving when he said, “she died and left to me this heath, this calm, and quiet scene”. This reveals that Lucy’s absence in his life is felt deeply. The absence of her laugh is painfully noticeable, and he is left only with memories of the past. Although the stanzas leading up to this final one speak of Lucy living a vital and fulfilling eternity, the speaker chooses to end ‘The Education of Nature’ with the grief that he feels in knowing that “what has been…never more will be”.

To end this poem in grief, even though all comforting words were spoken and acknowledged, is to be real and tangible to readers. Anyone who has experienced loss knows that all hope of an afterlife, and all words of comfort, cannot change the empty feeling and knowledge that what once was, is now changed forever.

3.6 Summary William Wordsworth’s poem Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower, is a lyrical elegy on the untimely demise of Lucy. This poem is also known as ‘The Education of Nature’, and is considered one of the Lucy poems. Lucy poems are written about an ideal female who is sometimes symbolized as nature, for whom the speaker feels great affection. It was written in the year of 1798 in collaboration with S.T. Coleridge and was published in 1800 in the Lyrical Ballads anthology.

In this poem Wordsworth personified Nature. He points out the education of nature, and the great influence nature can exercise on human life. Nature has the power to impart education better than all the sages can. The experiment of nature's education has to be tried on Lucy by Nature itself. Nature thinks that she is the most beautiful thing on earth. Nature takes her to make her ‘a lady of her own’. So, Lucy lived in close communion with the objects of nature, the rocks, the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 70 English Literature - I earth, the glades, the heaven, the mountains, the clouds, the trees and the storms. But, before she could be a perfect woman, she was snatched away by the cruel hands of death.

The personified nature speaks of Lucy in the first stanza. Nature says, ‘A lovelier flower on earth was never sown’ than Lucy, and decides to take the child and make her ‘A Lady of my own’. In the second stanza this idea is elaborated. Nature will be with the child both ‘law and impulse’ and have the power to ‘kindle or restrain’. The use of words like ‘rock’, ‘plain’, ‘earth’, ‘glade’, ‘bower’ all serve to emphasize Lucy’s closeness to nature.

The third stanza emphasizes her vital, spontaneous energy and also her equally spontaneous calm and peace. She will have closeness to all nature, ‘The floating clouds their state shall lend To her, and will respond to all the natural beauty around her, as stanza five makes clear: 'The stars of midnight shall be dear/To her.’ She will be filled by ‘vital’ feelings as she grows.

The final stanza is a contrast and shows, poignantly, the feelings of the lover on Lucy’s death — or total merging with nature. But the lover accepts the cyclical pattern of things; he is left with ‘This heath, this calm and quiet scene’ and the memory of Lucy.

The short poem profoundly teaches us the universal truth of the nature of the life, that is, we are from nature, we sustain by the nature, we have to return to nature and there is no loss of human life after death. It is a loss only to the living. This big but bitter truth must be accepted. Nature is personified in this poem. Lucy is not only a particular person, but also the representative of all organic living beings. Lucy was to be educated by nature as nature dreamt of making her the perfect lady. The poet believes that if a child is given freedom to play in the lap of nature, he or she will be a better person in life.

‘The Education of Nature’ is about the poet’s love to a pure young girl and the loss of the beloved one, as his beloved (Lucy) belongs to nature, her return to nature is her death. The separation made by death, though painful to the living one, it is rewarding to the dead one as he or she returns to where he/she really belongs. The poem is narrated by nature herself and compares Lucy to a beautiful flower. She claims the flower and wants to make her mature lady of nature upon whom she showers her greatest benefits of grace and beauty. Nature reveals the method of the process of the complex unity of living being while making her almost perfect lady. In the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 71 poem the process is one of opposing polarities, of a dialectic from which the living complexity arises.

The whole passage shows a pattern of antitheses, between ‘law and impulse’, ‘rock and plain’, ‘earth and heaven’, ‘glade and bower’ and ‘kindle’ and ‘restrain’. These opposing principles are the base of our life. Wordsworth articulates his sense of curiosity at the complex inter–relationships between the permanent and fluctuating laws of nature, and the magical intricacies which they produce, that not only the dancing rivulets, but also such phenomena as beautiful young women. Lucy is not passively molded by nature, but she is given all the necessary thoughts of growth.

The reversal of expectations of the nature and the sudden death of Lucy gives a heartbreaking ending to the poem. The beautiful and exciting life has its predictable result: the death. This is not only a lament over the death of Lucy but a truth of the condition of all human life. Though all the powers of nature combine in complex ways to create a human being, finally it is doomed by nature’s law to death. The last line is silent, which brings a rare clarity of perception where the lover without making any complaint states that there is nothing more than a memory.

This poem easily delivers a universal truth about human life, a very common truth of death that we live with since our birth but yet we fail to recognize.

This poem can be interpreted as the celebration as the marriage of nature and Lucy at the end. When the physical body of Lucy died, she merges with nature. Her worldly lover, the poet or the speaker, laments for the death and mourns knowing that she will never be back. She will be with nature forever and ever. So, in this sense, this poem is an elegiac for the human lover and epithalamic (a song sung in marriage) for the nature as she is united with Lucy for the lifelong. Nature is given an interesting role here. At first she seems beautiful and giving but, after a while she dictates the human conditions and takes back Lucy.

This poem has seven stanzas, each containing six lines having an AABCCB rhyme scheme. In these short poems, the language is simple, yet intense and moving. The most striking fact is that the speaker in the poem does not speak until the final stanza. Only at the end of the poetry, the speaker lets us know why he is writing the poem and what happened to Lucy. Most of the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 72 English Literature - I lines are difficult to interpret and language is ambiguous. In some line the diction is simple, but the ideas are difficult to cater.

To a modern audience, this poem can seem a little strange or even sick; it seems to accept and celebrate the death of a three-year-old girl. Therefore, it is important to understand that poems about dead children (which were to grow greatly in popularity during the Victorian period) were — in an era before psychological counseling and in which infant mortality rates were high — a comforting way to memorialize the departed and deal with grief.

Another way to analyze this poem is to evaluate Wordsworth in relation to his poetic project. He was badly disillusioned by the way the French Revolution turned into a bloodbath. He saw this firsthand, as he happened to be in France at the time. He had believed in the ideals of liberty and the brotherhood of men that were associated with the revolution and came back to England shattered; he describes his reaction to the event in his long autobiographical poem “The Prelude.” In this poem, he explains how and why he became a poet. As he coped with disillusionment, he recognized that his role was to record the lives of the simple, forgotten people, the people he had hoped the French Revolutions would set free, in ways that exalted or romanticized their lives. He does this with Lucy, who becomes the beautiful child of nature and not simply a poor cottager's child who dies too soon.

3.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. According to Wordsworth, where is Lucy after her death?

2. How will Lucy experience the vital feelings of delight?

3. How has Wordsworth expressed his grief in the last stanza?

4. What are the speaker’s thoughts for Lucy?

5. Why does Nature say that the work was done?

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B. Long Answer Questions 1. Critically analyse the poem ‘The Education of Nature’ by William Wordsworth

2. Discuss William Wordsworth as a Nature Poet?

3. Explain the rhyme scheme and poetic devices used in the poem ‘The Education of Nature’

4. How has Wordworth explained what this loss means to Nature, and to himself, but what does it mean for Lucy?

5. Give the significance of the title. ‘The Education of Nature’.

6. How is Nature personified in this poem?

7. How can this poem can be interpreted as the marriage of nature and Lucy?

8. What according to Wordsworth is the universal truth of the nature of the life?

C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. ‘A lovelier flower’ means

(a) Nature (b) Rose

(c) Lucy (d) Mother

2. ‘Myself will….be both law and impulse’ means

(a) react forcefully (b) law and order

(c) react meekly (d) take revenge

3. What must Lucy be doing amidst nature in heaven?

(a) Missing the speaker

(b) Feeling very deserted and lonely

(c) Running across happily across the lawn

(d) Preparing to return to earth

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4. What does Nature teach us?

(a) Never brood over the loss

(b) Nature is more powerful than human beings

(c) Nature teaches everyone a lesson

(d) We are from nature, we sustain by the nature, we have to return to nature

5. What is the grief of the poet?

(a) Any words of comfort cannot change the situation or repair the loss

(b) Lucy was not his daughter

(c) Lucy was with him only for three years

(d) Nature always takes away the best

Answers 1. (c), 2. (a), 3. (c), 4. (d), 5. (a)

3.8 References 1. https://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/Wordsworth-William.html

2. https://www.poems4free.com/THEEDUCATIONOFNATURE.,html

3. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-summary-william-wordsworths-poem- education-317787

4. Sharma, K.N. “Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower by William Wordsworth: Summary and Analysis. “BachelorandMaster, 25 July 2017.

5. bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/three-years-she-grew-in-sun-and- shower.html

6. https://www.bartleby.com/106/179.html

7. https://poemanalysis.com/three-years-she-grew-in-sun-and-shower-william-wordsworth- analysis/

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) The Education of Nature 75

8. Historic England. “Wordsworth House (1327088)”. National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 December 2009.

9. Appendix A (Past Governors) of Allport, D. H., & N. J. Friskney, A Short History of Wilson’s School, Wilso’s School Charitable Trust, 1986.

10. Wordsworth, William (WRDT787W)”. A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

11. Andrew Bennett (12 February 2015). William Wordsworth in Context. Cambridge University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-107-02841-8.

12. Everett, Glenn, “William Wordsworth: Biography” at The Victorian Web, accessed 7 January 2007.

13. Gill (1989) pp. 208, 299

14. “Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1245 to Present”. MeasuringWorth.com. Retrieved 28 May 2012.

15. “The Cornell Wordsworth Collection”. Cornell University. Retrieved 13 February 2009.

16. Lyricall Ballads: With a Few Other Poems (1 ed.). London: J. & A. Arch. 1798. Retrieved 13 November 2014. via archive.org

17. Wordsworth, William (1800). Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems. I (2 ed.). London: Printed for T.N. Longman and O. Rees. Retrieved 13 November 2014.; Wordsworth, William (1800). Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems. II (2 ed.). London: Printed for T.N. Longman and O. Rees. Retrieved 13 November 2014. via archive.org

18. Wordsworth, William (1802). Lyrical Ballads with Pastoral and other Poems. I (3 ed.). London: Printed for T.N. Longman and O. Rees. Retrieved 13 November 2014. via archive.org.

19. Wordsworth, William (1805). Lyrical Ballads with Pastoral and other Poems. I (4 ed.). London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, by R. Taylor. Retrieved 13 November2014. via archive.org.

20. Stephen Gill, William Wordsworth: A Life, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 132–133.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 76 English Literature - I

21. Recollections of the Lake Poets.

22. Kelly Grovier, “Dream Walker: A Wordsworth Mystery Solved”, Times Literary Supplement, 16 February 2007

23. Poetical Works. Oxford Standard Authors. London: Oxford U.P. 1936. p. 590.

24. Hartman, Geoffrey (1987). Wordsworth’s Poetry, 1787–1814. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 329–331. ISBN 9780674958210.

25. Already in 1891 James Kenneth Stephen wrote satirically of Wordsworth having “two voices”: one is “of the deep”, the other “of an old half-witted sheep/Which bleats articulate monotony”.

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CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 4 ALL THINGS WILL DIE – ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

Structure: 4.0 Learning Objectives

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Themes

4.3 Main Ideas

4.4 Setting of “All Things Will Die”

4.5 Analysis

4.6 Summary

4.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

4.8 References

4.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to understand the significance of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the leading poet of the Victorian Age in England and by the mid- 19th century had come to occupy a position similar to that of Alexander Pope in the 18th. Tennyson was a consummate poetic artist, consolidating and refining the traditions bequeathed to him by his predecessors in the Romantic movement — especially Wordsworth, Byron, and Keats. His poetry is remarkable for its metrical variety, rich descriptive imagery, and exquisite verbal

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 78 English Literature - I melodies. But Tennyson was also regarded as the pre-eminent spokesman for the educated middle-class Englishman, in moral and religious outlook and in political and social consciousness no less than in matters of taste and sentiment. His poetry dealt often with the doubts and difficulties of an age in which established Christian faith and traditional assumptions about man’s nature and destiny were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress. His poetry dealt with these misgivings, moreover, as the intimate personal problems of a sensitive and troubled individual inclined to melancholy. Yet through his poetic mastery — the spaciousness and nobility of his best verse, its classical aptness of phrase, its distinctive harmony — he conveyed to sympathetic readers a feeling of implicit reassurance, even serenity. Tennyson may be seen as the first great English poet to be fully aware of the new picture of man’s place in the universe revealed by modern science. While the contemplation of this unprecedented human situation sometimes evoked his fears and forebodings, it also gave him a larger imaginative range than most of the poets of his time and added a greater depth and resonance to his art.

Tennyson’s ascendancy among Victorian poets began to be questioned even during his lifetime, however, when Robert Browning and Algernon Charles Swinburne were serious rivals. And 20th-century criticism, influenced by the rise of a new school of poetry headed by T.S. Eliot (though Eliot himself was an admirer of Tennyson), proposed some drastic devaluations of his work. Undoubtedly, much in Tennyson that appealed to his contemporaries, has ceased to appeal to many readers today. He can be mawkish and banal, pompous and orotund, offering little more than the mellifluous versifying of shallow or confused thoughts. The rediscovery of such earlier poets as John Donne or Gerard Manley Hopkins (a poet of Tennyson’s own time who was then unknown to the public), together with the widespread acceptance of Eliot and W.B. Yeats as the leading modern poets, opened the ears of readers to a very different, and perhaps more varied, poetic music. A more balanced estimate of Tennyson has begun to prevail, however, with the recognition of the enduring greatness of “Ulysses,” the unique poignancy of Tennyson’s best lyric poems, and, above all, the stature of In Memoriam as the great representative poem of the Victorian Age. It is now also recognized that the realistic and comic aspects of Tennyson’s work are more important than they were thought to be during the period of the reaction against him. Finally, the perception of the poet’s awed sense of the mystery of life, which lies at the heart of

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 79 his greatness, as in “Crossing the Bar” or “Flower in the Crannied Wall,” unites his admirers in this century with those in the last. Though less of Tennyson’s work may survive than appeared likely during his Victorian heyday, what does remain — and it is by no means small in quantity — seems likely to be imperishable.

4.1 Introduction

About the Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the most renowned poet of the Victorian era. His work includes ‘In Memoriam,’ ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Idylls of the King.’

Who was Alfred Tennyson? Born in England in 1809, Alfred, Lord Tennyson began writing poetry as a boy. He was first published in 1827, but it was not until the 1840s that his work received regular public acclaim. His “In Memoriam” (1850), which contains the line “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” cemented his reputation. Tennyson was Queen Victoria’s poet laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892.

Early Years and Family Alfred Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England on August 6, 1809. He would be one of his family’s 11 surviving children (his parents’ firstborn died in infancy). Tennyson grew up with two older brothers, four younger brothers and four younger sisters.

Tennyson’s father was a church rector who earned a decent income, but the size of the family meant expenses had to be closely watched. Therefore, Tennyson only attended Louth Grammar School (where he was bullied) for a few years. The rest of his pre-university education was overseen by his well-read father. Tennyson and his siblings were raised with a love of books and writing; by the age of 8, Tennyson was penning his first poems.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 80 English Literature - I

However, Tennyson’s home wasn’t a happy one. His father was an elder son who had been disinherited in favor of a younger brother, which engendered resentment. Even worse, his father was an alcoholic and drug user who at times physically threatened members of the family.

In 1827, Tennyson had his first poetry published in Poems by Two Brothers (though actually three Tennyson brothers contributed to the volume). That same year, Tennyson began to study at Trinity College at Cambridge, where his two older brothers were also students.

It was at university that Tennyson met Arthur Hallam, who became a close friend, and joined a group of students who called themselves The Apostles. Tennyson also continued to write poetry, and in 1829, he won the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for the poem “Timbuctoo.” In 1830, Tennyson published his first solo collection: “Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.”

Tennyson’s father died in 1831. His death meant straitened circumstances for the family, and Tennyson did not complete his degree. As a younger son, Tennyson was encouraged to find a profession, such as entering the church like his father. However, the young man was determined to focus on poetry.

Struggles of a Poet At the end of 1832 (though it was dated 1833), he published another volume of poetry: “Poems by Alfred Tennyson.” It contained work that would become well known, such as “The Lady of Shalott,” but received unfavorable reviews. These greatly affected Tennyson, and he subsequently shied away from publication for a decade, though he continued to write during that time.

After leaving Cambridge, Tennyson had remained close to Arthur Hallam, who had fallen in love with Tennyson’s sister Emily. When Hallam died suddenly in 1833, likely from a stroke, it was a devastating loss for the poet and his family.

Tennyson developed feelings for Rosa Baring in the 1830s, but her wealth put her out of his league (the poem “Locksley Hall” shared his take on the situation: “Every door is barr’d with gold, and opens but to golden keys”). In 1836, Tennyson fell in love with Emily Sellwood, sister to his brother Charles’s wife; the two were soon engaged. However, due in part to concerns about

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 81 his finances and his health — there was a history of epilepsy in the Tennyson family, and the poet worried he had the disease — Tennyson ended the engagement in 1840.

Tennyson finally published more poetry in the two-volume Poems (1842). Highlights included a revised “The Lady of Shalott,” and also “Locksley Hall,” “Morte d’Arthur” and “Ulysses” (which ends with the well-known line, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”). This work was positively reviewed. Unfortunately, in 1842, Tennyson lost most of his money after investing in an unsuccessful wood-carving venture. (Tennyson would recover some of the funds in 1845, thanks to an insurance policy a friend had taken out for him.)

Poetic Success “The Princess” (1847), a long narrative poem, was Tennyson’s next notable work. But he hit a career high note with “In Memoriam” (1850). The elegiac creation, which contains the famous lines, “Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all,” incorporated Tennyson’s sorrow about his friend Arthur Hallam’s death. It greatly impressed readers and won Tennyson many admirers.

In addition to addressing his feelings about losing Hallam, “In Memoriam” also speaks to the uncertainty that many of Tennyson’s contemporaries were grappling with at the time. Geologists had shown that the planet was much older than stated in the Bible; the existence of fossils also contradicted the story of creation. Having read books such as Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (1830-33), Tennyson was well aware of these developments.

Tennyson, who had learned that he did not have epilepsy and was feeling more financially secure, had reconnected with Emily Sellwood (it was she who suggested the title “In Memoriam”). The two were married in June 1850. Later that year, Queen Victoria selected Tennyson to succeed William Wordsworth as England’s new poet laureate.

Fame and Fortune Tennyson’s poetry became more and more widely read, which gave him both an impressive income and an ever-increasing level of fame. The poet sported a long beard and often dressed in a cloak and broad-brimmed hat, which made it easy for fans to spot him. A move to the Isle of Wight in 1853 offered Tennyson an escape from his growing crowds of admirers, but Tennyson

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 82 English Literature - I wasn’t cut off from society there — he would welcome visitors such as Prince Albert, fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Hawaii’s Queen Emma.

An episode in the Crimean War led to Tennyson penning “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in 1854; the work was also included in “Maud, and Other Poems” (1855). The first four books of Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King,” an epic take on the Arthurian legend, appeared in 1859. In 1864, “Enoch Arden and Other Poems” sold 17,000 copies on its first day of publication.

Tennyson became friendly with Queen Victoria, who found comfort in reading “In Memoriam” following the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861. He also continued to experience the downside of fame. As the Isle of Wight became a more popular destination, people would sometimes peer through the windows of his home. In 1867, he bought land in Surrey, where he would build another home, Aldworth, that offered more privacy.

Later Years In 1874, Tennyson branched out to poetic dramas, starting with “Queen Mary” (1875). Some of his dramas would be successfully performed, but they never matched the impact of his poems.

Though he had turned down earlier offers of a baronetcy, in 1883 Tennyson accepted the offer of a peerage (a higher rank than baronet). He thus became Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater, better known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Tennyson and his wife had two sons, Hallam (b. 1852) and Lionel (b. 1854). Lionel predeceased his parents; he became ill on a visit to India, and died in 1886 onboard a ship heading back to England. Tennyson’s “Demeter and Other Poems” (1889) contained work that addressed this devastating loss.

Death and Legacy The poet suffered from gout, and experienced a recurrence that grew worse in the late summer of 1892. Later that year, on October 6, at the age of 83, Tennyson passed away at his Aldworth home in Surrey. He was buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner.

Tennyson was the leading poet of the Victorian age; as that era ended, his reputation began to fade. Though he will likely never again be as acclaimed as he was during his lifetime, today

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Tennyson is once more recognized as a gifted poet who delved into eternal human questions, and who offered both solace and inspiration to his audience.

Symbols King Arthur and Camelot To Tennyson, King Arthur symbolizes the ideal man, and Arthurian England was England in its best and purest form. Some of Tennyson’s earliest poems, such as “The Lady of Shalott,” were set in King Arthur’s time. Indeed, Tennyson rhymes Camelot, the name of King Arthur’s estate, with “Shalott” in eighteen of the poem’s twenty stanzas, thereby emphasizing the importance of the mythical place. Furthermore, our contemporary conception of Camelot as harmonious and magnificent, comes from Tennyson’s poem. “Idylls of the King,” about King Arthur’s rise and fall, was one of the major projects of Tennyson’s late career. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert envisioned themselves as latter-day descendents of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their praise helped popularize the long poem. But King Arthur also had a more personal representation to Tennyson: the mythic king represents a version of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, whose death at twenty-two profoundly affected Tennyson. Hallam’s death destroyed his potential and promise, which allowed Tennyson to idealize Hallam. This idealization allows Tennyson to imagine what might have been in the best possible light, much as he does when describing King Arthur and his court.

The Imprisoned Woman The imprisoned woman appears throughout Tennyson’s work. In “Mariana,” awoman abandoned by her lover, lives alone in her house in the middle of desolate country; her isolation imprisons her, as does the way she waits for her lover to return. Her waiting limits her ability and desire to do anything else. “The Lady of Shalott” is likewise about a woman imprisoned, this time in a tower. Should she leave her prison, a curse would fall upon her. Tennyson, like many other Victorian poets, used female characters to symbolize the artistic and sensitive aspects of the human condition. Imprisoned women, such as these Tennyson characters, act as Symbols for the isolation experienced by the artist and other sensitive, deep-feeling people. Although society might force creative, sensitive types to become outcasts, in Tennyson’s poems, the women

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 84 English Literature - I themselves create their own isolation and imprisonment. These women seem unable or unwilling to deal with the outside world.

4.2 Themes

The Reconciliation of Religion and Science Tennyson lived during a period of great scientific advancement, and he used his poetry to work out the conflict between religious faith and scientific discoveries. Notable scientific findings and theories of the Victorian period include stratigraphy, the geological study of rock layers used to date the earth, in 1811; the first sighting of an asteroid in 1801 and galaxies in the 1840s; and Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection in 1859. In the second half of the century, scientists, such as Fülöp Semmelweis, Joseph Lister, and Louis Pasteur, began the experiments and work that would eventually lead to germ theory and our modern understanding of microorganisms and diseases. These discoveries challenged traditional religious understandings of nature and natural history.

For most of his career, Tennyson was deeply interested in and troubled by these discoveries. His poem “Locksley Hall” (1842), expresses his ambivalence about technology and scientific progress. There the Speaker feels tempted to abandon modern civilization and return to a savage life in the jungle. In the end, he chooses to live a civilized, modern life and enthusiastically endorses technology. “In Memoriam” connects the despair Tennyson felt over the loss of his friend Arthur Hallam and the despair he felt when contemplating a godless world. In the end, the poem affirms both religious faith and faith in human progress. Nevertheless, Tennyson continued to struggle with the reconciliation of science and religion, as illustrated by some of his later work. For example, “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After” (1886), takes as its protagonist the speaker from the original “Locksley Hall,” but now he is an old man, who looks back on his youthful optimism and faith in progress with scorn and skepticism.

The Virtues of Perseverance and Optimism After the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, Tennyson struggled through a period of deep despair, which he eventually overcame to begin writing again. During his time of mourning, Tennyson rarely wrote and, for many years, battled alcoholism. Many of his poems are about the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 85 temptation to give up and fall prey to pessimism, but they also extol the virtues of optimism and discuss the importance of struggling on with life. The need to persevere and continue is the central theme of “In Memoriam” and “Ulysses” (1833), both written after Hallam’s death. Perhaps because of Tennyson’s gloomy and tragic childhood, perseverance and optimism also appear in poetry written before Hallam’s death, such as “The Lotos-Eaters” (1832, 1842). Poems such as “The Lady of Shalott” (1832, 1842) and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854) also vary this theme: both poems glorify characters who embrace their destinies in life, even though those destinies end in tragic death. “The Lady of Shalott” leaves her seclusion to meet the outer world, determined to seek the love that is missing in her life. The cavalrymen in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” keep charging through the valley toward the Russian cannons; they persevere even as they realize that they will likely die.

The Glory of England Tennyson used his poetry to express his love for England. Although he expressed worry and concern about the corruption that so dominated the 19th century, he also wrote many poems that glorify 19th century England. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” praises the fortitude and courage of English soldiers during a battle of the Crimean War, in which roughly 200 men were killed. As poet laureate, Tennyson was required to write poems for specific state occasions and to dedicate verse to Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. Nevertheless, Tennyson praised England even when not specifically required to do so. In the “Idylls of the King,” Tennyson glorified England by encouraging a collective English cultural identity: all of England could take pride in Camelot, particularly the chivalrous and capable knights who lived there. Indeed, the modern conception of Camelot as the source of loyalty, chivalry, and romance comes, in part, from Tennyson’s descriptions of it in the “Idylls of the King,” and “The Lady of Shalott.”

4.3 Main Ideas

Tragic Death Early, tragic death and suicide appear throughout Tennyson’s poetry. Perhaps the most significant event of his life was the untimely death of his best friend Arthur Hallam at age twenty- two, which prompted Tennyson to write his greatest literary work, In Memoriam. This long poem

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 86 English Literature - I uses the so-called “In Memoriam” stanza, or a Quatrain that uses Iambic Tetrameter and has an ABBA rhyme scheme. The formal consistency expresses Tennyson’s grief and links the disparate stanzas together into an elegiac whole. The speaker of “Break, Break, Break” (1834) sees death even in sunsets, while the early “Mariana” (1830) features a woman who longs for death after her lover abandons her. Each of that poem’s seven stanzas ends with the line “I would that I were dead.” The lady in “The Lady of Shalott” brings about her own death by going out into an autumn storm dressed only in a thin white dress. Similarly, the cavalrymen in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” ride to their deaths by charging headlong into the Russian cannons. These poems lyrically mourn those who died tragically, often finding nobility in their characters or their deaths.

Scientific Language Tennyson took a great interest in the scientific discoveries of the 19th century, and his poetry manifests this interest in its reliance on scientific language. “The Kraken” (1830), which describes an ancient, slumbering sea beast, mentions a “cell” and “polypi”. Section 21 of “In Memoriam” alludes to the 1846 discovery of Neptune. There, a traveler tells the speaker not to grieve for his friend. Rather than grieve, the traveler says, the speaker should rejoice in the marvelous possibilities of science. Section 120, in contrast, features the speaker wondering what good science might do in a world full of religious doubt and despair. Other poems praise technological discoveries and inventions, including the steamships and railways discussed in “Locksley Hall,” or mention specific plants and flowers, as does “The Lotos-Eaters” (1832, 1842). Taking Metaphors and Poetic Diction from science, allowed Tennyson to connect to his age and to modernize his sometimes antiquarian language and archaic verse forms.

The Ancient World Like the romantic poets who preceded him, Tennyson found much inspiration in the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome. In poems such as “The Lotos-Eaters” and “Ulysses,” Tennyson retells the stories of Dante and Homer, which described the characters of Ulysses, Telemachus, and Penelope and their adventures in the ancient world. However, Tennyson slightly alters these mythic stories, shifting the time frame of some of the action and often adding more descriptive imagery to the plot. For instance, “Ulysses,” a dramatic monologue spoken by Homer’s hero,

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 87 urges readers to carry on and persevere rather than to give up and retire. Elsewhere, Tennyson channels the voice of Tithonus, a legendary prince from Troy, in the eponymous poem “Tithonus” (1833, 1859). He praises the ancient poet Virgil in his Ode “To Virgil” (1882), commenting on Virgil’s choice of subject matter and lauding his ability to chronicle human history in meter. Tennyson mined the ancient world to find stories that would simultaneously enthrall and inspire his readers.

All Things will Die Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing Under my eye; Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing Over the sky. One after another the white clouds are fleeting; Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating Full merrily; Yet all things must die. The stream will cease to flow; The wind will cease to blow; The clouds will cease to fleet; The heart will cease to beat; For all things must die. All things must die. Spring will come never more. O, vanity! Death waits at the door. See! our friends are all forsaking The wine and the merrymaking. We are call’d–we must go. Laid low, very low, In the dark we must lie. The merry glees are still; The voice of the bird

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Shall no more be heard, Nor the wind on the hill. O, misery! Hark! death is calling While I speak to ye, The jaw is falling, The red cheek paling, The strong limbs failing; Ice with the warm blood mixing; The eyeballs fixing. Nine times goes the passing bell: Ye merry souls, farewell. The old earth Had a birth, As all men know, Long ago. And the old earth must die. So let the warm winds range, And the blue wave beat the shore; For even and morn Ye will never see Thro’ eternity. All things were born. Ye will come never more, For all things must die.

4.4 Setting of “All Things Will Die” The poem is set amidst the morning of the month of May when the wind is blowing, the clouds are moving and the poet is happily enjoying all the positivity in nature. But as we move on, the poet brings forward many contrasting instances from positivity to negativity and how everything on this earth will surely come to an end. He perfectly describes how we would turn out

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 89 to be old fellows which is mentioned in expressions like ‘The jaw is falling’, ‘The red cheek paling’, ‘The strong limbs falling’ and would then bid farewell to this world. Just like us, all other things in the nature would also come to an end like ‘The voice of the bird Shall no more be heard, Nor the wind on the hill.’ The condition would bring only misery to lives of all. The poem is set to contrast the fact of immortality.

Poetic Devices in “All Things Will Die” Poetic Devices are essential components to any poetry as they help in a better understanding of the text.

A list of poetic devices used in the poem are:

Imagery, Consonant Rhymes and Assonance The first seven lines of the poem create an image of life

‘Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing

Under my eye;

Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing

Over the sky.

One after another the white clouds are fleeting;

Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating

Full merrily;’

Repetition It is used to make the theme clearer.

‘all things must die’

Simile Use of expressions “as” or “like”

‘As all men know’

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Rhyming (couplet) of “All Things Will Die”: Corresponding lines with the same rhyme scheme. Some of the examples are:

‘One after another the white clouds are fleeting;

Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating’

‘The stream will cease to flow;

The wind will cease to blow;’

‘The clouds will cease to fleet;

The heart will cease to beat;’

This poetic device has been used many times by the poet in almost every other line.

Style of “All Things Will Die” Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing (A)

Under my eye; (B)

Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing (A)

Over the sky. (B)

One after another the white clouds are fleeting; (C)

Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating (C)

The poem has alternates between ABAB and rhymed couplets to emphasise certain words and thematic points in the poem. The poet has selected this type of rhyme scheme because his primary consideration was more often rhythm and language than deviating meaning.

4.5 Analysis This poem of Alfred, Lord Tennyson is a perfect contrast to the poem “Nothing Will Die”. All the expressions are exact opposite to what has been said in the other poem. ‘All Things Will Die’ clearly states the fact that all the things, no matter how much we adore them will have to die

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 91 or come to an end. The poet believes that nothing is immortal. The poet has cleverly used expressions of serenity like ‘Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing’, ‘Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing’ and ‘One after another the white clouds are fleeting’ right in the beginning and then contrasting expressions like ‘The stream will cease to flow’, ‘The wind will cease to blow’, along with a few others to make the reader understand everything right in the flow. In the view of the poem, nature is considered to be an ending cycle which is moving towards its end, which is clear from ‘Spring will come never more.’ The truth of death with reference to nature has been perfectly blended. Here the earth that is created is to die for sure, it is not eternal. This whole world is full of misery, sadness and suffering, but there is happiness, passion and peace too as ‘Ye merry souls, farewell’. Words and phrases like ‘O, misery!’, ‘In the dark we must lie’ have been used to show that the life has to come to an end at some point of time. Lastly, the poet only wishes to convey that one must live life to the fullest. We must enjoy each and every moment of life for we never know which might turn out to be the last one. If we will live our lives cheerfully, only then we would be able to depart happily from this world.

The poem talks about the fact that everything, even the most beautiful and natural things, the river, the stream and the winds (to name a few), will die.

There are some words that have a connotation, which makes us understand the meaning of the poem. The word “Cease” implies a slow process, so the poem is not about the sudden death of everything, it describes it as a process that we are going to live, like everything else is. When it says, “The heart will cease to beat”, it refers to growing old, because the heart will be stopping to beat from the youth to the moment we die. Another word that has a connotation in this poem is “Must”, which implies an obligation, making an emphasis in the fact that we will die anyway. The words ending in ‘ING’ are used to make clear that every day, something or someone is dying because their “process” is over, referring to the cycle of life.

The speaker’s attitude changes through the poem. Although it is just one stanza, in the first seven lines the tone of the poem is hopeful, mentioning natural things, like the blue river, flowing normally and beautifully. But in the 8th verse, (“yet all things must die”), it changes to a more pessimist tone.

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The shifts in this poem are determined by the change of tone. In the first shift (from the beginning until the seventh verse), there is a hopeful environment, because the speaker describes some of nature’s elements, making it sound beautiful and calming. But in the second shift, the tone changes and the speaker starts talking about death, and how everything we know and love will die.

The title “All Things Must Die” is enough to make us realize that the dominant tone of the poem will not be hopeful. It does not try to hide something from us, it is very clear, and so is the entire poem.

The main theme of the poem is the cycle of life. When it talks about death, the speaker does not refer to it as a sudden event, It makes it look as a process, a slow process. That is the reason why it says that things will “cease” to live. That word means it will be something slow, so we can infer that the poem is not about war, where people die, it is about the normal development of the cycle. A smaller theme is about the rejection of vanity in our lives. This is implied in a “don’t worry about the future, just live” kind of way.

Central Idea of “All Things Will Die” The central idea of the poem is that of accepting the fact of mortality. The poet clearly expresses the fact that everything that exists in this world is temporarily available and that nothing remains forever or is permanent. So it is our responsibility to accept this bitter truth along with cherishing every single second of our life. Once we learn to accept things as they are, this world would definitely become a place free from any despair, unhappiness or sadness. It’s our duty to nourish the earth. Nature is bountiful. Every single thing in the nature is beautiful. All that we need is a pure heart to feel it. If we fail in doing so, all things tend to wither away and die even before they actually should. So live your life to the fullest.

Tone of “All Things Will Die” The tone of the complete poem is a gradual shift from optimism to pessimism. And this pessimism can be felt from the title of the poem itself. Use of the title as an expression through the entire poem makes it even more sad but he finds it important to make the reader understand the fact in a better manner. He feels that it is more important to face things rather than running

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) All Things will Die 93 away from them. The tone at the very beginning of the poem seems to please the reader which is followed by the bitter reality of life. The gradual shift of the tone makes the reader gloomy. The reader starts getting attacked by a number of questions.

Conclusion All his life, Tennyson used writing as a way of taking his mind from his troubles. Tennyson was considered a people’s poet too. So with this poem, he tries to makes an attempt to make people feel the pleasure of nature without ignoring the fact that the things one enjoys are mortal. He perfectly quoted that ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ This highlights the fact that we must not be afraid of the fact that things are going to end, they surely will. But it is more important to live in the present and appreciate what we have right now instead of complaining every time. Understanding this is important.

4.6 Summary

Summary of “All Things Will Die” On looking at the title itself, a sense of negativity flows in. The poem starts with a serene view of a river flowing through the mountains and the poet is equally enjoying watching it. The warm winds are blowing and the poet is lost admiring the beauty of nature. The white clouds are moving and the poet finds this entire view to be serene. He feels that every heart might be enjoying this view and that no heart would be lost in pain. Everyone would be busy in merrymaking only.

But then, there is a sudden shift from joyfulness to sorrow, carefree to seriousness and cheerfulness to sadness. The poet starts feeling depressed because he knows that all this joy will come to an end sooner or later. He feels that the flowing of rivers will stop. The winds will not blow anymore. The movement of white clouds will not be seen. And then, his heart would feel an immense pain so much so that it will stop beating. That would be the time when spring of one’s own life would never return. Death would be standing with open arms right at the door. Friends, he says, are only for the sake of being. The moments we spend and the memories we share will stay but since it is the call for us, we must leave now. Lying on the greenery will no longer be as peaceful as it used to be because, now the chirping of birds is missing, the fragrance of nature is

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 94 English Literature - I lost, the slow breeze on the mountains cannot be felt and all good things are slowing coming to an end. This surely is a pitiful condition for each one of us. And while we are discussing all of it, the death waiting at the door is coming nearer. Its presence is becoming stronger. It is coming to eat up all of us! And as it meets us, the body starts to become pale. The jaw is falling now. The strong limbs can no longer be felt. There is complete weakness in the body. The cheeks have started losing its color. The warm human blood is now becoming cooler and the eyes lack any movement now. The bell rings for complete nine times which shows there are just few minutes to go. And finally the soul says goodbye to every beautiful thing. The only best thing is the fact that the soul is still happy. Earth was born just like every other being on this earth and since there is an end to the latter ones, the former one will also come to an end. He strongly believes that all these things should come to an end. So we must let these winds blow, let the waves come to the shore for we might not be able to have a look at them ever again. And that, we must admire the beauty of nature in the best possible way, for we never know when would we get the next chance to do so. The poet has made every possible effort to make the reader understand the truth of life and that nothing is immortal in this world. All the things in this world surely have to cease, maybe today or tomorrow.

4.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Is there a gradual shift from optimism to pessimism in the poem? Explain. 2. What does the poem say about the rejection of vanity in our lives? 3. What can you say about the cycle of nature? 4. Give the central idea of the poem ‘All thing will die’. 5. How can we overcome despair?

B. Long Answer Questions 1. Tennyson was considered a people’s poet. Explain.

2. Explain the poetic devices in the poem ‘All thing will die’

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3. How does Tennyson emphasize on mortality of life through the poem ‘All things will die’?

4. Write the summary of the poem ‘All things will die’?

5. Explain the imagery in the poem.

C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. The central idea of the poem is (a) Do not cry over the things which are short-lived (b) Everything keeps coming again and again (c) Everything is short-lived and is going to come to an end (d) Nothing dies. Everything is immortal 2. How can we overcome despair? (a) By praying to God (b) By renouncing the world (c) By accepting the fact of mortality and living in the present (d) By being busy in our duties 3. Earth was born so ______. (a) it will flourish (b) there will be living things on it (c) it will die (d) was nature 4. What does the word ‘cease’ imply? (a) It implies a process towards death (b) It implies a sudden death (c) It implies to stop in between (d) It implies old age 5. ‘Ice with the warm blood mixing’ means (a) it indicates disease in blood (b) death is approaching (c) someone has put ice in the blood (d) coming of relations

Answers 1. (c), 2. (c), 3. (c), 4. (a), 5. (b)

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4.8 References 1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Lord-Tennyson/Major-literary-work

2. https://beamingnotes.com/2017/07/18/summary-analysis-things-will-die-tennyson/

3. https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/plot-analysis/

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson

5. “British Listed Buildings Aldworth House, Lurgashall”. British Listed Buildings Online. Retrieved 5 November 2012.

6. Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly’s Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 1091

7. “Ten of the greatest: British poets”. Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 6 November 2012

8. Stern, Keith (2007). Queers in History (2007 ed.). Quistory Publishers.

9. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. 1999.

10. Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography, Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English, the University of Tennessee at Martin

11. Savage-Armstrong, George Francis (1888). The Ancient and Noble Family of the Savages of the Ards, with Sketches of English and American Branches of the House of Savage: Comp. From Historical Documents and Family Papers. p. 50–52.

12. Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Eugene Parsons (Introduction). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1900.

13. “Tennyson, Alfred (TNY827A)”. A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

14. “Trinity College, University of Cambridge”. BBC Your Paintings. Archived from the original on 11 May 2014. Retrieved 12 February2018.

15. Friedlander, Ed. “Enjoying "Timbuktu" by Alfred Tennyson”

16. “Lincolnshire People – Famous Yellowbellies – Alfred, Lord Tennyson”. BBC. 31 August 2005. Archived from the original on 31 August 2005. Retrieved 26 March 2018.

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17. H. Tennyson (1897). Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, New York: MacMillan.

18. “History of Holy Innocents Church” Archived 20 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Highbeachchurch.org. Retrieved 27 April 2012

19. The Home of Tennyson Archived 24 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine Rebecca FitzGerald, Farringford: The Home of Tennyson Archived 4 December 2008 at the Wayback Machineofficial website .

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 5 STILL I RISE – MAYA ANGELOU

Structure: 5.0 Learning Objectives

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Themes

5.3 Still I Rise

5.4 Summary

5.5 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

5.6 References

5.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of Maya Angelou.

While Angelou is known primarily for her autobiographies, her poetry has life of its own. Her poetry was often considered “Anthems of African Americans”. What is interesting about her poetry is that it isn’t devoid of the public ethos in which it was conceived, and there is a prominent public aspect to her poetry. Her poetry is quite often considered representative of the social landscape from which she emerges. Angelou’s poems have important messages to convey, and they do so with striking force and clarity.

Angelou was most famously an activist for the rights of those suffering oppression, which she herself did in many forms during her lifetime, being an African-American woman who had been routinely sexually abused. Accordingly, many of her poems speak up for these oppressed

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Still IRise 99 people, and many do so with great clarity and vigor. Poems such as “On the Pulse of Morning” alert people to the oppression happening in the world, calling them to stop it: “You, created only a little lower than/The angels, have crouched too long in/The bruising darkness/Have lain too long/Face down in ignorance/Your mouths spilling words/Armed for slaughter.”

Some, like “Harlem Hopscotch” and “Awaking in New York,” give a brutally honest picture of the quality of life for African-American people living in the lower-end residences in the city. Others, such as “Phenomenal Woman,” celebrate the power of womanhood in the face of gender discrimination. “Caged Bird” is a stunning description of a life lived under oppressive constraints, and “Still I Rise” is a powerful declaration of strength and perseverance, a call for those who are oppressed to rise up and a proclamation of the inevitability of a brighter tomorrow.

Angelou’s poems may be under-appreciated, but they are certainly not without their merits, and they can be powerful tools for change in a world of injustice.

5.1 Introduction

About the Poet Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson: April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess,co- ordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the de-colonization of Africa. She was an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 100 English Literature - I in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993), at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

With the publication of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou’s most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family and travel.

Eventful Early Life Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. After her parents’ marriage ended, she and her brother, Bailey (who gave her the name "Maya"), were sent to rural Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother, who owned a general store. Although her grandmother helped her develop pride and self-confidence, Angelou was devastated when she was raped at the age of eight by her mother’s boyfriend while on a visit to St. Louis. After she testified against the man, several of her uncles beat him to death. Believing that she had caused the man’s death by speaking his name, Angelou refused to speak for approximately five years. She attended public schools in Arkansas and later California. While still in high school she became the first ever African American female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, California. She gave birth to a son at age sixteen. In 1950 she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor, but the marriage lasted only a few years.

Later, Angelou studied dance and drama and went on to a career in theater. She appeared in Porgy and Bess, which gave performances in twenty-two countries. She also acted in several plays on and off Broadway, including Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge. During the early 1960s Angelou lived in Cairo, Egypt, where she was the associate

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Still IRise 101 editor of The Arab Observer. During this time she also contributed articles to The Ghanaian Times and was featured on the Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation programming in Accra, Ghana. During the mid-1960s, She became Assistant Administrator of the School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana. She was the feature editor of the African Review in Accra from 1964 to 1966. After returning to the United States, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) requested she serve as northern co-ordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Success as an Author “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1970), the first in a series of Angelou’s autobiographical (telling the story of her own life) works, was a huge success. It describes Angelou’s life up to age of 17, providing a child’s point of view about the confusing world of adults. The book concludes with Angelou having regained her self-esteem and caring for her newborn son. In addition to being a sharp account of an African American girl’s coming of age, this work offers insights into the social and political climate of the 1930s.

Her next autobiographical work, “Gather Together in My Name” (1974), covers the period immediately after the birth of her son Guy and describes her struggle to care for him as a single parent. “Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas” (1976) describes Angelou’s experiences on the stage and concludes with her return from the international tour of Porgy and Bess. “The Heart of A Woman” (1981) shows the mature Angelou becoming more comfortable with her creativity and her success. “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes” (1986) recalls her four-year stay in Ghana. Angelou wrote about other subjects as well, including a children’s book entitled “Kofi and His Magic” (1996).

Other Works and Awards Angelou had been writing poetry since before her novels became popular. Her collections include: “Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie” (1971); “Oh Pray My Wings Are Going to Fit Me Well” (1975); “And Still I Rise” (1976), which was made into an Off-Broadway production in 1979; “Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing” (1983); “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me,” illustrated by celebrated New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat (1993); “Soul Looks Back in

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Wonder” (1994); and “I Shall Not Be Moved” (1997). Angelou’s poetry, with its short lyrics and jazzy rhythms, is especially popular among young people, but her heavy use of short lines and her simple vocabulary has turned off several critics. Other reviewers, however, praise Angelou’s poetry for discussing social and political issues that are important to African Americans. For example Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of the Morning,” which she recited at the 1993 swearing in of President Bill Clinton (1946), calls for a new national commitment to unity and social improvement.

Angelou has received many awards for her work, including a nomination for National Book Award, 1970; a Pulitzer Prize nomination, 1972; a Tony Award nomination from the League of New York Theatres and Producers, 1973, for her performance in Look Away; a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, 1977, for Roots; and the North Carolina Award in Literature, 1987. In the 1970s, she was appointed to the Bicentennial Commission by President Gerald Ford (1913) and the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year by President Jimmy Carter (1924). She was also named Woman of the Year in Communications by Ladies’ Home Journal, 1976, and one of the top one hundred most influential women by Ladies’ Home Journal, 1983. Angelou has also taught at several American colleges and universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Kansas, Wichita State University, and California State University at Sacramento.

Television and Movies Angelou also worked in television as a writer-producer for 20th Century-Fox, from which her full-length feature film “Sister, Sister” received critical praise. In addition “she wrote the screenplays” Georgia, Georgia and “All Day Long” along with television scripts for “Sister, Sister” and the series premiere of Brewster Place. She wrote, produced, and hosted the National Educational television series blacks! Blues! Black! She also co-starred in the motion picture “How to Make an American Quilt” in 1995. Angelou made her first attempt at film directing with the feature length movie “Down in the Delta” (1998). The film told the story of a seventy-year- old woman and her personal journey. Angelou found directing to be a much different experience from writing because with directing you have "ninety crew and the cast and the sets and lights and the sound.”

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Although Angelou is dedicated to the art of autobiography — a sixth volume, “A Song Flung Up to Heaven,” was published in 2002 — in her seventies she remains a force in several different fields. Since the early 1980s she has been Reynolds Professor and writer-in-residence at Wake Forest University. In the year 2000 she was honored by President Clinton with the National Medal of Arts, and in 2002 Hallmark introduced The Maya Angelou Life Mosaic Collection, a series of greeting cards containing her verse. She also has plans to write a cookbook and direct another feature film.

5.2 Themes Angelou explores many of the same themes throughout all her writings, in both her autobiographies and poetry. These themes include love, painful loss, music, discrimination and racism, and struggle. Her poetry cannot easily be placed in categories of themes or techniques. It has been compared with music and musical forms, especially the blues, and like the blues singer, Angelou uses laughter or ridicule instead of tears to cope with minor irritations, sadness, and great suffering. Many of her poems are about love, relationships, or overcoming hardships. The metaphors in her poetry serve as “coding”, or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks, but her themes and topics apply universally to all races. Angelou uses everyday language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and rhetorical techniques such as shocking language, the occasional use of profanity, and traditionally unacceptable subjects. As she does throughout her autobiographies, Angelou speaks not only for herself, but for her entire gender and race. Her poems continue the themes of mild protest and survival also found in her autobiographies, and inject hope through humor. Tied with Angelou’s theme of racism is her treatment of the struggle and hardships experienced by her race.

Understanding Slavery One of the central ideas that are explored in her poems is that of slavery. This is a recurrent theme and is a significant idea that is fostered in her works.

In all of her poetry, Maya Angelou relentlessly condemns the very idea of slavery and promotes egalitarianism. She becomes one of the harshest critics of slavery and her poetry documents the brutalities of the lives of slaves.

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Gender Inequality Another recurrent theme in the poetry of Maya Angelou is gender inequality. As mentioned before, in “Woman Work,” the life of a woman is seen akin to that of a slave. She writes about the quotidian struggles faced by a woman because of the discrimination that has been internalized in the society that makes the woman an inevitable victim of patriarchy.

Love A less polarizing and arguably more universal theme that permeates across the poetry of Maya Angelou is that of love. This love can be individual love or one for humanity. In the poem “When You Come To Me,” the poet talks about love in the most conventional sense. She talks about the themes of love and pain that often go hand in hand. In this poem, a lover has come back to ask for forgiveness. This poem shows a less political side of Maya Angelou’s poetry.

Racism and Segregation Maya confronts the insidious effects of racism and segregation in America at a very young age. She internalizes the idea that blond hair is beautiful and that she is a fat black girl trapped in a nightmare. Stamps, Arkansas, is so thoroughly segregated that as a child Maya does not quite believe that white people exist. As Maya gets older, she is confronted by more overt and personal incidents of racism, such as a white speaker’s condescending address at her eighth-grade graduation, her white boss’s insistence on calling her Mary, and a white dentist’s refusal to treat her. The importance of Joe Louis’s world championship boxing match to the black community reveals the dearth of publicly recognized African American heroes. It also demonstrates the desperate nature of the black community’s hope for vindication through the athletic triumph of one man. These unjust social realities confine and demean Maya and her relatives. She comes to learn how the pressures of living in a thoroughly racist society have profoundly shaped the character of her family members, and she strives to surmount them.

Debilitating Displacement Maya is shuttled around to seven different homes between the ages of three and sixteen: from California to Stamps to St. Louis to Stamps to Los Angeles to Oakland to San Francisco to Los Angeles to San Francisco. As expressed in the poem she tries to recite on Easter, the statement “I

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Still IRise 105 didn’t come to stay” becomes her shield against the cold reality of her rootlessness. Besieged by the “tripartite crossfire” of racism, sexism, and power, young Maya is belittled and degraded at every turn, making her unable to put down her shield and feel comfortable staying in one place. When she is thirteen and moves to San Francisco with her mother, Bailey, and Daddy Clidell, she feels that she belongs somewhere for the first time. Maya identifies with the city as a town full of displaced people.

Maya’s personal displacement echoes the larger societal forces that displaced blacks all across the country. She realizes that thousands of other terrified black children made the same journey as she and Bailey, traveling on their own to newly affluent parents in northern cities, or back to southern towns when the North failed to supply the economic prosperity it had promised. African Americans descended from slaves who were displaced from their homes and homelands in Africa, and following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, blacks continued to struggle to find their place in a country still hostile to their heritage.

Resistance to Racism Black peoples’ resistance to racism takes many forms in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Momma maintains her dignity by seeing things realistically and keeping to herself. Big Bailey buys flashy clothes and drives a fancy car to proclaim his worth and runs around with women to assert his masculinity in the face of dehumanizing and emasculating racism. Daddy Clidell’s friends learn to use white peoples’ prejudice against them in elaborate and lucrative cons. Vivian’s family cultivates toughness and establishes connections to underground forces that deter any harassment. Maya first experiments with resistance when she breaks her white employer’s heirloom china. Her bravest act of defiance happens when she becomes the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Blacks also used the church as a venue of subversive resistance. At the revival, the preacher gives a thinly veiled sermon criticizing whites’ charity, and the community revels in the idea of white people burning in hell for their actions.

Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

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Strong Black Women Though Maya struggles with insecurity and displacement throughout her childhood, she has a remarkable number of strong female role models in her family and community. Momma, Vivian, Grandmother Baxter, and Bertha Flowers have very different personalities and views on life, but they all chart their own paths and manage to maintain their dignity and self-respect. None of them ever capitulates to racist indignities.

Maya also charts her own path, fighting to become the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco, and she does so with the support and encouragement of her female predecessors. Maya notes at the end of Chapter 34 that the towering character of the black American woman should be seen as the predictable outcome of a hard-fought struggle. Many black women fall along the way. The ones who can weather the storm of sexism and racism obviously will shine with greatness. They have survived, and therefore by definition they are survivors.

Literature Maya’s first love is William Shakespeare. Throughout her life, literature plays a significant role in bolstering her confidence and providing a world of fantasy and escape. When feeling isolated in St. Louis, she takes refuge in the library. She describes Mrs. Bertha Flowers as being like women in English novels. Mrs. Flowers helps Maya rediscover her voice after her rape by encouraging her to use the words of other writers and poets. Maya continually quotes and refers to the literature she read throughout her childhood. For instance, at one point she simply gives San Francisco the title “Pride and Prejudice” without referring specifically to Jane Austen’s novel of the same name. Bailey appreciates Maya’s love of literature. He often presents her with gifts, such as the book of Edgar Allen Poe’s work that he and Maya read aloud while walking in their backyard in Stamps.

Naming Maya’s real name is Marguerite, and most of her family members call her Ritie. The fact that she chooses to go by Maya as an adult, a name given to her by her brother, Bailey, indicates the depth of love and admiration she holds for him. When Maya reunites with her mother and her mother’s family in St. Louis at age eight, one of her uncles tells her the story of how she got this

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Still IRise 107 name. Thus, finding her family is connected with finding her name and her identity. Indeed, for African Americans in general, Maya notes, naming is a sensitive issue because it provides a sense of identity in a hostile world that aims to stereotype blacks and erase their individuality and identity. Consequently, given the predominance of pejoratives like nigger so often used to cut down blacks, Maya notes the danger associated with calling a black person anything that could be loosely interpreted as insulting. Besides the obvious fact that Mrs. Cullinan does not take the time to get Maya’s name right in the first place, Mrs. Cullinan wishes to manipulate Maya’s name for her own convenience, shortening it to Mary, illustrating that she cares very little about Maya’s wishes or identity. Maya becomes enraged, and the incident inspires her to commit her first act of resistance.

The Store Momma’s store is a central gathering place in Stamps and the center of Maya’s childhood. There she witnesses the cycles of nature and labor, tending to workers in the cotton-picking season and canners during the killing season. Maya notes that until she left Arkansas for good at age thirteen, the Store was her favorite place to be. It symbolizes the rewards of hard work and loyalty and the importance of a strong and devout community.

Maya’s Easter Dress The lavender taffeta dress that Momma alters for Maya on Easter symbolizes Maya’s lack of love for herself and her wish for acceptance through transformation. She believes that beauty means white beauty. Hanging by the sewing machine, the dress looks magical. Maya imagines that the dress will reveal her true self to people who will then be shocked by her beauty. Harsh reality strikes on Easter morning, however, when she realizes that the dress is only a white woman’s throwaway that cannot wake her from her black nightmare. Maya learns that her transformation will have to take place from within.

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5.3 Still I Rise

By Maya Angelou You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

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Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame Irise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain Irise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear Irise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear Irise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. Irise Irise Irise.

Analysis ‘Still I Rise’ is a typical Maya Angelou poem in terms of its subject matter, but what really sets it apart is the kind of visual stimulation it provides to readers. We shall find evidence of this time and time again in our analysis of the poem.

The first seven stanzas of the poem show a simple ABCB rhyme scheme. However, the final, longer stanza has a slightly different rhyme scheme. We can divide it into three units. The first unit, consisting of lines one to six of the last stanza, have an ABABCC pattern. The second unit, consisting of lines seven to twelve, have a similar pattern, that is, DBDBEE. The third unit,

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 110 English Literature - I consisting of lines thirteen to fifteen of the last stanza, consist of BBB. B, in all three units, is “I rise.”

It is best to analyse “Still I Rise” in terms of clusters of images. The images of rising, for example, occur in the first, third, and sixth stanzas. Angelou says that hope is what motivates women like her to rise, and she alternately compares her kind of rising with that of dust, air, and the tides. In any of these three cases, the upward movement signals an upheaval in the environment. Similarly, says Angelou, if women stand up for themselves, they shall be able to bring about social upheaval, and thereby effect a positive change in the economic and political situation of black women in the American society of their times.

Exaggerated images of financial security occur in the second, fifth, and seventh stanzas (as explained in the summary). However, the only function of these images is not to contribute to a light tone within this poem that voices such grim concerns. Through these images, Angelou seems to be saying that the white male population is so materialistic and mercenary that the only way in which they view her confidence and pride is through imagining that she looks as if she were very rich. In their system of values, only the rich can afford to be defiant, and all others must remain silently downtrodden (as the images of drooping shoulders, bowed head, lowered eyes, teardrops, and weakened cries in the fourth stanza show). Among these images – of oil wells, gold mines, and diamonds between her thighs – the third one is especially interesting. By designating the location of the diamonds as being part of her body, Angelou is saying that even though black women have traditionally been taught to be ashamed of their bodies, they in fact value their bodies, and believe they are as beautiful as diamonds.

In defining herself as sassy, haughty, and sexy, Angelou outlines the kinds of behaviour that are not expected from black women, but that they manifest within themselves anyway. “Sassiness”, in particular, has the connotation of behaviour that is inappropriate. However, Angelou does not consider her, or other African American women’s behaviour as inappropriate, but rather celebrates the audacity with which they carry themselves in the majority-white and male-dominated world.

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“History” is evoked in both the first and the last stanzas, with Angelou affirming that she has not forgotten her heritage. In a sense, Angelou is saying that all African-American people need to remember that their slave ancestors wanted a better world for their offspring, and that is the responsibility of Angelou’s generation to make sure that dream comes true. The importance of this notion to Angelou becomes even more obvious when one considers that she had just given birth to a child before writing this poem. She wants to leave only happiness for her child, and no painful memories of all the experiences that she and her ancestors had gone through. So she is resolved to swallow up all those memories within her as if she were the ocean, or a black hole. This can only happen when African-American women stand up in unison for respect, and bring about positive changes in society by asserting their pride in themselves as a collective. This is Angelou’s mission — to inspire her fellow women, and give them a message of hope and empowerment.

“Still I Rise” is an empowering poem about the struggle to overcome prejudice and injustice. It is one of Maya Angelou’s most popular poems. When read by victims of wrongdoing, the poem becomes a kind of anthem, a beacon of hope for the oppressed and downtrodden.

It is a reminder of the abuse of power by those who sit in government, the judiciary, the military, and the police force. For members of the public, it sends out the clear, repeated message of hope. No matter the circumstances, there must always be hope to cling to.

This stirring poem is packed fully with figurative language. It functions as a sort of secular hymn to the oppressed and abused. The message is loud and clear — no matter the cruelty, regardless of method and circumstance, the victim will rise up, the slave will overcome adversity. (It is little wonder that Nelson Mandela read this poem at his inauguration in 1994, having spent 27 years in prison.

Although written with black slavery and civil rights issues in mind, “Still I Rise” is universal in its appeal. Any innocent individual, any minority, or any nation subject to oppression or abuse could understand the underlying theme — don’t give in to torture, bullying, humiliation, and injustice.

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This poem includes 43 lines in total, made up of seven quatrains and two end stanzas which help reinforce the theme of individual hope, with the phrase “I rise” being repeated in mantra fashion.

This is a poem aimed at the oppressor. Note the first “you” in the first line and the rhyme scheme ABCB, which tightly knits the stanzas together. It is worth going through the rhyme’s effect because the full rhymes such as eyes/cries, hard/backyard, surprise/thighs continue up to the last two stanzas when the scheme changes from ABCB to ABCC and AABB, giving an absolute solid ending to the piece.

If this poem were a sculpture, it would have a granite plinth to stand on. The natural imagery is far-reaching and the voice is loud. In this poem, there are moons and suns, tides and black oceans. There is a clear daybreak and ancestral gifts, all joining together in a crescendo of hope.

Similes and metaphors abound. Every stanza has at least one, from the first... “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” To the last... “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

There is a defiance in the poem as you read through, as if the speaker is trying to prick the conscience of the oppressor, by reminding them of past wrongs and present realities. The word “sassiness” suggests an arrogant self-confidence, backed up by the use of “haughtiness” and “sexiness.” The poet’s use of hyperbole with these three nouns, adds a kind of absurd beauty when she says,

Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as some surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Stanza six brings the oppressive issue to a climax, so to speak. Three lines begin with “You,” the speaker, choosing particularly active verbs — “shoot,” “cut,” and “kill” — to emphasize the aggression. But this aggression comes to no avail, for the oppressed will still rise, this time like air, an element which you cannot shoot, cut, or kill.

All in all, this is an inspirational poem with a powerful repetitive energy, a universal message, and a clear, positive pulse throughout.

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What’s the Poem’s Theme? “Still I Rise” is primarily about self-respect and confidence. In the poem, Angelou reveals how she will overcome anything through her self-esteem. She shows how nothing can get her down. She will rise to any occasion, and nothing, not even her skin color, will hold her back.

Although slavery had been long abolished, Angelou saw its effects on society and the African American people. This poem is her declaration that she, for one, would not allow the hatefulness of society to determine her own success. This poem is not only a proclamation of her own determination to rise above society, but was also a call to others to live above the society in which they were brought up. It is still one of the most widely read poems in America.

5.4 Summary

Stanza 1 In this stanza, Maya Angelou gives her heart and soul to declare that nothing and no one could oppress her or keep her down. She doesn’t care what the history books saw, for she knows they are full of “twisted lies”. She will not let it bother her that others “trod” her “in the very dirt”. She proclaims that if she is trodden in the dirt, that she will rise like dust.

Stanza 2 In the second stanza, she asks a question. This is an interesting question, as she refers to her own tone as “sassiness” and asks the hearer if her sassy tone is upsetting. She notices that the people around her in her society are “beset with gloom” when she succeeds. She questions this. She knows that she is succeeded in life, in her writing, and as a woman. The “oil wells pumping in [her] living room” symbolize her success.

Stanza 3 In this stanza, she compares herself to the moons and the suns as they are affected by the tides. This gives the reader the understanding that the speaker has no other choice but to rise up out of her affliction. Try as society might to keep her oppressed, it is in her nature to rise up and stand against oppression just as it is the nature of the tides to respond to the moon.

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Stanza 4 The speaker’s questions in this stanza are direct, pertinent, and appropriately accusing. She knows that her own success is received with bitterness by the racist people in her society. So she directs these questions at the society that has long tried to keep her oppressed. She asks them if they want to see her broken, oppressed, depressed and bitter. She asks these questions knowing that this indeed is what many in society wanted. They did not want to see a black woman rise up out of the oppression of her society and succeed. The speaker knows this and she draws attention to it with this revealing, yet cutting questions.

Stanza 5 She continues with the questions directed at a racist society when she asks whether her “haughtiness” is offensive. She knows that society resents seeing a black woman full of pride. This question has an air of sarcasm which serves to point out the hypocrisy of society as it is embittered by the success of one that it has tried to oppress. The speaker continues in a sarcastic tone as she pretends to comfort the hearer. She says, “don’t you take it awful hard”. This is her sarcastic way of pretending to care for those who resent her success. She continues, however, in a sense, to “flaunt” her success before the society that has always oppressed her. She claims that she has “gold mines” and that she laughs at the success she has found.

Stanza 6 In this stanza, she lets society know that no matter what it does to oppress her, it will not succeed. She lets society know that it cannot prevail against her with words or looks. She proclaims that society cannot prevail against her even if it managed to have her killed because of its hatefulness. She claims that she will still, “like air,” rise.

Stanza 7 The speaker continues her questioning of society. By this time in the poem, it becomes apparent that the speaker has placed society on trial and is now in the process of cross- examination. She knows the answers to these questions, but to ask them is to incriminate the offender. While she asks incriminating questions, she simultaneously reveals incredible self- confidence despite the oppression of society.

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Stanza 8 In this stanza, the speaker finally refers to the past – the reason that she is oppressed and resented to this day. She calls slavery “history’s shame” and she proclaims that she will not be held down by the past, even if it is “rooted in pain”.

Stanza 9 In the final stanza, the speaker reveals that she intends to leave behind all the effects of slavery and the history of oppression with intent to rise above it. She claims that she will leave behind the “terror and fear” and that she will rise above the pain and the oppression “into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear”. The speaker does not intend to allow the hatefulness of society or the pain of the past to stop her from becoming all that she has ever dreamed of being. For this reason, she repeats three times, “I rise”.

5.5 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Maya Angelou makes use of questions as a device. What is the impact of these questions in the poem, “Still I Rise”?

2. What do you think Maya Angelou implies in the line “Out of the huts of history’s shame” in her poem “Still I Rise?”

3. Why are the last two stanzas of “Still I Rise” different from the rest?

4. Who is speaking the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou?

5. What is the theme of the poem “Still I Rise”?

6. What does “I dance like I’ve got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs” mean?

7. In the poem “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou compares herself to “moons” and “suns.” What do you think she wants to convey through these similes?

8. “I’ve got oil wells,” “I’ve got gold mines” and “I’ve got diamonds.” What is the effect of repetition here and of the particular images used?

9. Discuss the way you personally connect with this poem.

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10. What does “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,/Welling and swelling I bear in the tide” mean?

11. Who will be made to trod the dirt in “Still I Rise”?

12. Whom do you think the narrator is “speaking to” in the first seven stanzas of “Still I Rise”?

13. In the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the phrase “I rise” is repeated several times. What do these words convey?

14. What is the tone of the poem—sad or strong? Why?

15. What does Angelou compare her hope to in “Still I Rise”?

16. What does Maya Angelou mean when she says, “You may shoot me with your words” in “Still I Rise”?

B. Long Answer Questions 1. What types of figurative language are used in the poem “Still I Rise”?

2. How is the tenacity of the poet showcased throughout the poem “Still I Rise”?

3. What are all the poetic devices in “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou?

4. How is irony employed in “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou?

5. Analyze how language features are used to create a powerful emotional response in the reader.

6. Does the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou give any indication of feminism or equality?

7. Analyze how literary devices from “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou contribute to the depth of the poem.

8. Why does the poet ask questions in “Still I Rise”?

9. How does the structure of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” affect the meaning?

10. What are the inherited gifts that the poet brings with her? Answer with reference to Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.”

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11. What is Maya Angelou's poem “Still I Rise” about? Why is it important?

12. What elements of the poem “Still I Rise” make it inspiring and timeless?

C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Who is the protagonist of the poem?

(a) A Black Woman (b) A White Woman

(c) A Black Man (d) A White Man

2. Which of the following is not used as a symbol of wealth in the poem?

(a) Diamonds (b) Pearls

(c) Oil wells (d) Gold Mines

3. What does the speaker mean by the ‘gifts’ that her ancestors gave?

(a) Her children (b) Money

(c) Her determination and strength (c) Artifacts

4. Which of the following does the speaker not compare herself to when rising?

(a) Temperature (b) Hopes

(c) Air (d) Dust

5. What is the overall message that Angelou delivers through her poem?

(a) Resist your oppressor and fight for change

(b) Be violent towards your oppressor

(c) Ignore your oppressor

(d) Resist your oppressor but stop if they really harm you

Answers 1. (a), 2. (b), 3. (c), 4. (a), 5. (a)

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5.6 References

Web Resources 1. https://beamingnotes.com/2014/08/26/still-rise-analysis-maya-angelou/

2. https://poemanalysis.com/still-i-rise-maya-angelou-poem-analysis/

3. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise

4. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-Of-Still-I-Rise-By-Maya-Angelou

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou

Reference Books 1. Angelou wrote about Vivian Baxter’s life and their relationship in Mom & Me & Mom(2013), her final installment in her series of seven autobiographies.

2. According to Angelou, Annie Henderson built her business with food stalls catering to black workers, which eventually developed into a store.

3. The correct Greek spelling of Angelou’s husband name is probably “Anastasios Angelopoulos”.

4. Reviewer John M. Miller calls Angelou’s performance of her song “All That Happens in the Marketplace” the “most genuine musical moment in the film”.

5. In Angelou’s third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2009), she credits Cuban artist Celia Cruz as one of the greatest influences of her singing career, and later, credits Cruz for the effectiveness and impact of Angelou’s poetry performances and readings.

6. Guy Johnson, who as a result of this accident in Accra and one in the late 1960s, underwent a series of spinal surgeries. He, like his mother, became a writer and poet.

7. Angelou called her friendship with Malcolm X “a brother/sister relationship”.

8. Angelou did not celebrate her birthday for many years, choosing instead to send flowers to King’s widow Coretta Scott King. .

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 6 MY GRANDMOTHER – ELIZABETH JENNINGS

Structure: 6.0 Learning Objectives

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Analysis of ‘My Grandmother’

6.3 Themes

6.4 Language and Imagery

6.5 Summary

6.6 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

6.7 References

6.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of Maya Angelou.

Elizabeth Jennings is an English Catholic poet and scholar who established her literary reputation as a member of “The Movement,” a group of writers which included Kingsley Amis, Thom Gunn, and Philip Larkin. The dignity and composure that characterized the early work of “The Movement” writers is evident in all of Miss Jennings’ poetry.

In declining to use rhetorical gestures, startling images and metaphors, or to render the physical world with any vividness, Miss Jennings severely limits her range. She asks to be read as a poet of the mind, to be read for her insights and the play of ideas. And she selects topics about

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 120 English Literature - I which one might write a prose essay. She likes such subjects as the nature of symbols, myth, kingship — all of which call for intellectual reach and subtlety.

Elizabeth Jennings’s poetry inhabits a moral world, and that is a rare thing these days when the pat phrases of ideological indignation are as far as many of our poets get in exploring the universe ethically considered. Didactic poetry, like didactic judgment, can appear harsh and off- putting; but her poems are saved from this by her vulnerability to the fact of pain and her fund of sympathy. She is also a wise, as well as compassionate poet and knows that self-pity is ‘death to the human heart’; which is one reason why she tells us ‘Never blame/Anyone but yourself.’

Her most frequent themes are hurt, sorrow and aloneness (whether of herself or others), but she does not seek to hug these states, rather to understand and transcend them. So she sees the roots of so many of our moral and spiritual dilemmas in an egoism turning inward.

In 1967, Elizabeth Jennings’ Collected Poems appeared. Edmund Blunden described her poetry as uniting “the deepest sensibility with a poetry of restraint and yet of great candour”. [Here is] … a formal restraint rather than a tentativeness of statement. Her prose poems are her most successful deviations from strict form, while the free-verse or aformal poems at the end of the Collected are the least successful. Miss Jennings requires traditional form, and she uses it with authority. Her temperament is not innovative in this sense. With her, form helps to discover order or disorder, rather than … order or disorder discovering form. Form is a primary poetic necessity rather than a device in Miss Jennings’ poetry. Early on, she saw it, rather as Donne did, controlling the otherwise inarticulable.

Her central preoccupation is not, then, with technique — something she takes for granted and uses skilfully. Nor does she worry much about “what poetry is” — she recognises that it is essential to her, and it would be solipsistic in her to tease out the reasons for this urgent necessity. If anything, poetry is a mode — perhaps the only mode — she has of reaching beyond her individual isolation and discovering relationship. When her poems are aesthetic in preoccupation, she is usually exploring the applicability of art to experience, or its vital relationship with experience. Most often her preoccupation is with suffering of various sorts, with loss, and occasionally fine celebrations of love. She is a poet who is still developing, within her chosen

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) My Grandmother 121 formal confines, towards a new clarity. She began as a love poet and has developed into the poet of complex relationships. Her best poems are not descriptive but exploratory of relationships.

6.1 Introduction

About the Poet Elizabeth Jennings, in full Elizabeth Joan Jennings, (born July 18, 1926, Boston, Lincolnshire, England — died October 26, 2001, Bampton, Oxfordshire), English poet whose works relate intensely personal matters in a plainspoken, traditional, and objective style and whose verse frequently reflects her devout Roman Catholicism and her love of Italy.

Jennings was educated at Oxford High School and St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Her first pamphlet, “Poems,” appeared in 1953, followed by “A Way of Looking” (1955), which won her a Somerset Maugham Award and enabled her to visit Italy. “Song for a Birth or a Death” (1961) marked a new development, with its confessional tone and more savage view of love. Some of the best of her later poems concern her nervous breakdown and its aftermath, such as those collected in “Recoveries” (1964) and “The Mind Has Mountains” (1966). Other works include “The Animals’ Arrival” (1969), “Lucidities” (1970), “Relationships” (1972), “Extending the Territory” (1985), and “Familiar Spirits” (1994). A translation, “The Sonnets of Michelangelo” (1961), was revised in 1969. She also published poetry for children. In 1992 Jennings was made a Commander of the British Empire.

Poetry Influences Style and Themes ‘A poet is not an isolated person. He is not isolated because he is part of a tradition. Behind him are all the great and the minor poets of the past, influencing him, encouraging him, urging him to do better.’

Echoing T.S. Eliot in ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’, Jennings found community in fostering connections with poets, both living and dead. In her volume “Tributes,” she dedicates her work to other poets (and painters) and intertextual resonances emanate from, and occasionally clutter, much of her writing. Her anthology, “A Poet’s Choice” (1996) self-confessedly indicates some of the poems that shaped her. Whereas American-born Eliot sought literary innovation,

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Jennings places herself in the line of English poets whose formalism and sense of tradition she preserved with her search for order and belonging. One strand of her writing vitalizes English mystical verse in which she was steeped. In idiom, she joins the stream that starts with the anglo- saxon alliterative poets, and then flows through ballads, the Romantics, the anti-elitist Thirties poets and the postwar anti-heroic Movement. Jennings gradually broke from the zeitgeist of intellectualism that surrounded “The Movement,” and the New Critics before them, to more freely develop her “what we might term” an intelligence of feeling that would engage her readers. For her, this also involved breaking ‘the tight cases of stanzaic form that was an obvious feature in New Lines’ (Poetry Today, 1961). Poetry Today registers her principles of clarity and order from which she did not deviate over the next forty years of her writing career. It is also a useful document about poetry from a contemporaneous perspective and Jennings is at her best in her integration of the macro and micro, providing an overview, comparisons and close reading.

Jennings preserves the traditional property of the lyric, offering aesthetic compensation for the subject’s expressed suffering. While ‘identity politics’, that characterizes literary theory and practice since the 1970s, seems to pass her by, arguably Jennings’ sense of personal and literary marginality formulated the voice of the solitary individual that connects the fragmentary psyche across the specific outsiderdom of gender, race or place. Her best poems provoke a moment of astonishment, akin to an epiphany, in the pain or pedestrian pace of living.

Poet Elizabeth Jennings (1926 – 2001) led an extraordinary life: the only woman to join The Movement (an English group of poets dedicated to an anti-romantic aesthetic); publisher of twenty-six books of poetry in her lifetime; colloquially known in her later life as the bag-lady of poetry due to her immense poverty; and a dedicated Roman Catholic. Much of her work touched on the periods of her life when she was interned at a psychiatric hospital, though she maintained that she was not a writer of autobiographical poetry.

If it were not for the large amount of correspondence and personal notebooks Jennings left behind, it would be difficult to piece all of these aspects of her life together. As a writer, she exalted formalism, striving to maintain a sense of tradition through regular meter and order. In the context of her tumultuous personal life, and her desires brings this depth of pain into her work. She both respected the Confessional label and shied away from it (as it had become a pejorative term).

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Her desire to be in communion with others and her need for isolation was a constant topic of discussion in her letters, as well as a theme in her poetry. She maintained lifelong friendships over correspondence. Rugena Stanley, a Czech refugee, whom Jennings met when at the Warneford hospital, helped her recover from and survive later bouts with mental illness. Other friends, like Dame Veronica Wedgwood, were a source of literary support, and even went as far as typing and editing Jennings’ poems.

While Jennings’ work stands on its own as an expression of a fragmented psyche struggling to live simply, when read in context with her biographical accounts, her poetry can be understood as an almost obsessive quest to fully understand herself. Dana Greene, author of the first Jennings biography, The Inward War (which shares its title with Jennings’ unpublished autobiography), spoke with the Modern Literature Collection about Jennings’ work. “She almost never revised but would rather write another poem, perhaps on the same theme. This does not allow for a comparison of revised poems, but it gives evidence of the themes which preoccupied her — love, nature, faith, death, friendship, the seasons, childhood — over her lifetime.” Dana Greene, author of the first Jennings biography, The Inward War (which shares its title with Jennings’ unpublished autobiography), spoke with the Modern Literature Collection about Jennings’ work.

Greene researched the Elizabeth Jennings Papers in the Modern Literature Collection (MLC) for her biography of Jennings, because the only original, handwritten copies of her unpublished autobiography are here. Greene said: “There were two other iterations of this work, but they were “cleaned up.” The MLC version was more direct in its language, and its title – ‘The Inward War’ – was revelatory. The later iterations were titled ‘Autobiography’ and ‘As I Am.’ Although none of these autobiographies was ever published, Jennings used the title ‘The Inward War’ for her subsequent and unpublished biography of her favorite poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins.”

At the end of her life, Jennings struggled with poverty and ill-health. As the Elizabeth Jennings Project states: “The downtrodden appearance of her later years (cardigan, skirt, ankle socks, plastic carrier bags) became something of an anecdote, culminating in her refusal to deviate from this costume for a dinner at Rules Restaurant to celebrate her CBE Honour or her appearance at Buckingham Palace.” Her legacy has perhaps suffered from her decline in

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 124 English Literature - I popularity in her later years, but her poetry remains potent for those wanting to read about estrangement, loss, the ordinary, and the sacred.

My Grandmother She kept an antique shop – or it kept her. Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glass, The faded silks, the heavy furniture, She watched her own reflection in the brass Salvers and silver bowls, as if to prove Polish was all, there was no need of love.

And I remember how I once refused To go out with her, since I was afraid. It was perhaps a wish not to be used Like antique objects. Though she never said That she was hurt, I still could feel the guilt Of that refusal, guessing how she felt.

Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put All her best things in one long, narrow room. The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut, The smell of absences where shadows come That can’t be polished. There was nothing then To give her own reflection back again.

And when she died I felt no grief at all, Only the guilt of what I once refused. I walked into her room among the tall Sideboards and cupboards – things she never used But needed: and no finger-marks were there, Only the new dust falling through the air.

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6.2 Analysis of ‘My Grandmother’ In this poem, Jennings displays and explores the relationship between the speaker and his/her grandmother. The speaker of this poem is anonymous; it is unknown whether is a male or female, but surely mature. The speaker’s remorse is depicted through the course of the poem, as he/she refused a request by the grandmother. This twenty-four lines poem is divided into four stanzas. The first stanza is written in the third point of view, and shows the speaker’s grandmother owned an antique shop. In the first line, the persona portrays the grandmother’s strong attachment to the shop via personifying the shop and giving it the ability to keep her: “She kept an antique shop – or it kept her.” This may give two possible interpretations; it shows to what extent the shop was important to the grandmother, or it is possible to say due to the grandmother’s strong attachment to the shop she herself turned to an antique that is no more new or fading away from the “new” world. Usually, as social creatures, human being, need the feel of love and being loved, and the way to feel this love is through the reflection of love form others, or to say, to see one’s self and reflection thorough the eyes and love of others. But, the three last lines show exactly the contrary of the aforementioned notion, since the grandmother saw her reflection only through objects she possessed in the shop as if she was not in need of love anymore “Polish was all, there was no need of love.”

The second stanza is written in the first point of view. The speaker recounts and recalls the occasion of refusing the grandmother’s request for going with her to the antique shop and how she felt after the refusal of the speaker. In the third line, the speaker gives the reason of the refusal as it was for nothing, but only of being afraid that grandmother would take her/him as an antique to keep in the shop: “It was perhaps a wish not to be us/Like antique objects”.

Later on, the speaker depicts how the grandmother was hurt but uttered nothing. In the three last lines, the speaker shifts to the present time to express the remorse and guilt of refusing the grandmother’s request: “I still could feel the guilt/Of that refusal, guessing how she felt.”

In the third stanza, the speaker demonstrates the retirement of the grandmother after becoming frail and unable to take care of the shop, and being unable to polish the objects. She kept everything in a small narrow room. As a result, “There was nothing then/To give her own

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 126 English Literature - I reflection back again.” Through this stanza, the speaker wants to give the idea how the grandmother was unable anymore to polish the objects, to see the reality, in other words as if saying the grandmother regretted of taking care more about objects than her family or people around her, and when the “shadows” of death came, she lost both the objects and people, and nothing gave the reflection of reality and love anymore. (Carmen, 2007)

In the fourth stanza, the speaker recalls his/her feelings of not being sad after the death of the grandmother, but only the feeling of guilt for not responding positively to the request of the grandmother.

From the third line to the last of this stanza, the speaker indirectly shows the grandmother’s unfulfilling desires and the sense of loneliness and alienation she was suffering from; since the speaker sees many collected objects as stepping to the grandmother’s room, but these objects are “things she never used/But needed”, and this indicate to the unpleasant feeling and complexes which the grandmother suffered from, since it is the nature of human when feeling alone, or aimless in life to do things which are unimportant or when feeling alone to fill this sense of loneliness by any mean, whether to spend money for buying new things, to add something new to fulfill the emptiness the one is suffering from, or by doing different aimless things.

6.3 Themes Many of Elizabeth Jennings poems explore themes of family, relationships, suffering and loneliness. In this poem, she explores a very personal memory of the guilt she still feels about the way she behaved towards her grandmother on a particular occasion.

The poet explores her own feelings of inadequacy in dealing with the memories of Her relationship with Her grandmother.

In a broader sense, the poet seems to explore the difficulties in relationships and with people’s feelings, as opposed to the inanimate objects her grandmother collected around herself.

Language and Form: This is a narrative or half-elegy poem. The language used in this poem is quiet easy since it tackles some issues from the everyday life and is written for ordinary people, not the elite. It has a regular rhyme scheme (ABABCC DDEDFF GHGHMM NDNDOO).

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However, in this poem the use of half rhymes could be seen in different positions such as in the first line and third from the first stanza. Moreover, in the second line of the second stanza, the poet repeated the same rhyme of the previous line as DDEDFF. The meter of the poem is iambic pentameter. (www.bbc.co.uk)

Structure The poem is divided into four stanzas, each of which develops the idea further:

 Stanza 1: describes her grandmother

 Stanza 2: describes the incident which causes her guilt

 Stanza 3: shows her grandmother in retirement

 Stanza 4: after her grandmother has died, the poet reflects on her grandmother’s life and her own memories.

The poem comprises four six-lined stanzas, There is a structured rhyme scheme throughout; ABABCC. In the first three stanzas, she uses consonant rhyme; ‘her’ and ‘furniture’; ‘guilt’ and ‘felt’; ‘put and shut’ etc. It is only in the last stanza that the rhyme is perfect. This creates a sense of flexibility, so the reader is subtly caught up in the flow of the poem.

Figures of Speech and Imagery: The poet deliberately and profusely used images to portray the physical appearance of the shop and to make the audiences share the same feelings the speaker or the poet conveyed. In the following stanza the readers see how the different types of images used in the poem contribute into the imagination of the readers, to create an image for the shop and the reactions of the speaker.

Moreover, talking about figures of speech, in the first line of the first stanza, personification is used to personify the shop “it kept her”. Also, in the third stanza the poet uses a metaphorical language to construct an idea in her readers, minds of how the place was old, “the place smelt old,” and “the smell of absence” to show the solitude and loneliness atmosphere.

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6.4 Language and Imagery The old woman is defined in terms of the antique shop and the objects she kept and apparently loved. Jennings therefore enumerates these in stanza one, a seemingly random list of disparate items. They were essential to her, though unused. Atmosphere is built up through references to ‘shadows’ and ‘dust’ with their connotations of death. The old lady’s inability to keep her antiques polished is a metaphor for her growing frailty and loss of identity.

The Title and Persona: The persona in this poem is anonymous, the reader cannot infer wheather is a male or female it since the idea is applicable to all, but perhaps the persona is mature, since he/she is recalling the occasion which happened in the past. The title of the poem is very direct, as the reader can induce, the subject matter is about a person without knowing the nature of it.

Themes: It is one of the characteristics of the modern poetry, to be written for ordinary people and about the modern life.

Thus, in this poem, Jennings explores the theme of family and the modern relationships among the members of one family, as well as she portrays how family values have been changed; As she wants to show how the nature of the love of the family is changed; since the grandmother only cares about antiques and shop on one hand, and on the other, how the speaker distrust the grandmother and later the regression of that.

6.5 Summary In this poem Jennings evokes the sense of loss we often — but not always — experience when someone close to us dies. The pain may be exacerbated by feelings of guilt and inadequacy. In Jennings' poem there is a sense that she did too little while her grandmother was alive. She is aware that she was powerless or at least failed to close the gap in understanding between herself and her grandmother.

The speaker associates her grandmother with the antique shop she kept, in which everything was clean and highly polished. When the old woman closed the shop she kept the antiques in one crowded room at home, but was too frail to keep them polished. After her grandmother’s death,

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) My Grandmother 129 the speaker feels guilt more than grief, because of her neglect and particularly deeply regrets the occasion she refused to go out with her.

It is a poem about reacting to death, but also about relationships between family members and the nature of love.

6.6 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Identify the speaker in the poem ‘Grandmother’.

2. Identify and briefly explain the use of any two images in the poem.

3. What do the following lines mean in the poem?

‘too frail to keep a shop’

‘only the new dust failing through the air’

4. Describe the tone of the poem.

5. Explain the paradox in the line:

Things she never used

But needed

B. Long Answer Questions 1. Give the summary of the poem?

2. Explain the speaker’s sense of guilt.

3. How does Elizabeth Jennings explore the difficulties in relationships?

4. Comment on the form and structure of the poem,

5. How does Jennings explore the theme of family and the modern relationships?

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C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Who is the persona in the poem?

(a) A daughter (b) A grandmother

(c) A grandchild (d) A son

2. How is the speaker’s attitude towards her grandmother in the poem?

(a) Of love (b) Of indifference

(c) Of respect (d) Of friendship

3. What does ‘too frail to keep a shop’ mean?

(a) Too poor to own a shop

(b) Too old to look after the shop

(c) Did not have time to look after the shop

(d) Too lazy to look after the shop

4. How did the granddaughter feel after the death of her grandmother?

(a) Grief (b) Lonely

(c) Relieved (d) Guilty

5. What is not the meaning of ‘it kept her’?

(a) She reaped a huge profit from the shop

(b) She was too occupied in the shop

(c) It was a means of her survival

(d) She was tied to it

Answers 1. (c), 2. (b), 3. (b), 4. (d), 5. (a)

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6.7 References 1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Jenning

2. http://archon.wulib.wustl.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=911&q=el izabeth+ jennings

3. https://genius.com/Elizabeth-jennings-my-grandmother-annotated

4. https://revisionworld.com/gcse-revision/english/poetry-gcse/studying-poetry/modern- poetry

5. https://www.academia.edu/13054393/Elizabeth_Jennings_and_the_poetry_of_the_ movement._An_analysis_of_five_poems_by_her?auto=download

6. https://www.enotes.com/topics/elizabeth-jennings/critical-essays/jennings-elizabeth- 1926

7. Grevel Lindop (31 October 2001). “Elizabeth Jennings Obituary”. The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2012.

8. Couzyn, Jeni (1985) Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, pp. 98-100.

9. “Elizabeth Jennings - poetryarchive.org”. www.poetryarchive.org.

10. “A Bird in the House" at the Poetry archive”. Archived from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2012.

11. “Clarify Me, Please, God of the Galaxies - Dana Gioia”. .

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 7 WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR – RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Structure: 7.0 Learning Objectives

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Main Themes in Rabindranath Tagore’s Poems

7.3 Where the Mind is Without Fear – Rabindranth Tagore

7.4 Theme

7.5 Analysis

7.6 Summary

7.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

7.8 References

7.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of Rabindranth Tagore as a poet.

Rabindranath Tagore’s spiritual presence was awesome. His words evoked great beauty. Nobody had ever read anything like it. A glimpse of the mysticism and sentimental beauty of Indian culture were revealed to the West for the first time. Less than a year later, in 1913, Rabindranath received the Nobel Prize for literature. He was the first non-westerner to be so honored. Overnight he was famous and began world lecture tours promoting inter-cultural harmony and understanding. In 1915, he was knighted by the British King George V. When not

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Where the Mind is Without Fear 133 traveling, he remained at his family home outside of Calcutta, where he remained very active as a literary, spiritual and social-political force.

In 1919, following the Amritsar massacre of 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops, Sir Tagore renounced his Knighthood. Although a good friend of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, most of the time Tagore stayed out of politics. He was opposed to nationalism and miltiarism as a matter of principle, and instead promoted spiritual values and the creation of a new world culture founded in multi-culturalism, diversity and tolerance. He served as a spiritual and creative beacon to his countrymen, and indeed, the whole world. He used the funds from his writing and lecturing to expand upon the school he had founded in 1901 now known as Visva Bharati. The alternative to the poor system of education imposed by the British, combined the best of traditional Hindu education with Western ideals.

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 in Bengali style. He composed more than two thousand songs, both the 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 also a great man and friend to many. For instance, he was also a good friend from childhood to the great Indian Physicist, 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 – physics, and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly 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.

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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. He exemplifies the ideals important to us of Goodness, Meaningful Work, and World Culture.

7.1 Introduction

About the Poet Rabindranath Tagore, 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur (Bhonita), and also known by his sobriquets Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse” of “Gitanjali,” he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore’s poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal”.

A Brahmo from Calcutta with ancestral gentry roots in Jessore, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At the age of sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusimha (“Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. By 1877, he graduated to his first short stories and dramas, published under his real name. As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and ardent anti-nationalist, he denounced the British Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics of political and personal nature. “Gitanjali (Song Offerings),” “Gora” (Fair-Faced) and “Ghare-Baire” (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Where the Mind is Without Fear 135 acclaimed — or panned — for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India’s Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh’s Amar Shonar Bangla. The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.

Rabindranath Tagore, who composed the National Anthem of India and won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was a multi-talented personality in every sense. He was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, painter and a composer. He was also a cultural reformer who modified Bengali art by rebuffing the strictures that confined it within the sphere of classical Indian forms. Though he was a polymath, his literary works alone are enough to place him in the elite list of all-time greats. Even today, Rabindranath Tagore is often remembered for his poetic songs, which are both spiritual and mercurial. He was one of those great minds, ahead of his time, and that is exactly why his meeting with Albert Einstein is considered as a clash between science and spirituality. Tagore was keen in spreading his ideologies to the rest of the world and hence embarked on a world tour, lecturing in countries like Japan and the United States. Soon, his works were admired by people of various countries and he eventually became the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize. Apart from “Jana Gana Mana” (the National Anthem of India), his composition “Amar Shonar Bangla” was adopted as the National Anthem of Bangladesh and the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was inspired by one of his works.

Childhood and Early Life Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in the Jorasanko mansion (the ancestral home of the Tagore family) in Calcutta. He was the youngest son among thirteen children. Though the Tagore family had many members, he was mostly raised by servants and maids, as he lost his mother while he was still very young and with his father being an extensive traveler. At a very young age, Rabindranath Tagore was part of the Bengal renaissance, which his family took active participation in. He was also a child prodigy as he started penning down poems at the age of 8. He also started composing art works at a tender age and by the age of sixteen, he had started publishing poems under the pseudonym Bhanusimha.

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He also wrote the short story, ‘Bhikharini’ in 1877 and the poem collection, ‘Sandhya Sangit’ in 1882.

He drew inspiration by reading the classical poetry of Kalidasa and started coming up with classical poems of his own. Some of his other influences and inspirations came from his brothers and sisters. While Dwijendranath, his elder brother, was a poet and philosopher, Satyendranath, another brother of his, was in a highly respectable position. His sister Swarnakumari was a well- known novelist. Tagore was largely home-schooled and was trained by his siblings in the field of gymnastics, martial arts, art, anatomy, literature, history and mathematics among various other subjects. In 1873, he accompanied his father and toured the country for many months. During this journey, he accumulated knowledge on several subjects. His stay at Amritsar paved the way for him to learn about Sikhism, an experience which he would later on use to pen down as many as six poems and many articles on the religion.

Education Rabindranath Tagore’s traditional education began in Brighton, East Sussex, England, at a public school. He was sent to England in the year 1878 as his father wanted him to become a barrister. He was later joined by some of his relatives like his nephew, niece and sister-in-law in order to support him during his stay in England. Rabindranath had always despised formal education and thus showed no interest in learning from his school. He was later on enrolled at the University College in London, where he was asked to learn law. But he once again dropped out and learned several works of Shakespeare on his own. After learning the essence of English, Irish and Scottish literature and music, he returned to India and married Mrinalini Devi when she was just 10 years old.

Establishment of Santiniketan Rabindranath’s father had bought a huge stretch of land in Santiniketan. With an idea of establishing an experimental school in his father’s property, he shifted base to Santiniketan in 1901 and founded an ashram there. It was a prayer hall with marble flooring and was named ‘The Mandir.’ The classes there were held under trees and followed the traditional Guru-Shishya method of teaching. Rabindranath Tagore hoped that the revival of this ancient method of

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Where the Mind is Without Fear 137 teaching would prove beneficial when compared to the modernized method. Unfortunately, his wife and two of his children died during their stay in Santiniketan and this left Rabindranath distraught. In the meantime, his works started growing more and more popular amongst the Bengali as well as the foreign readers. This eventually gained him recognition all over the world and in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming Asia’s first Nobel laureate.

The World Tour Since Rabindranath Tagore believed in the concept of one world, he set out on a world tour, in an attempt to spread his ideologies. He also took along with him his translated works, which caught the attention of many legendary poets. He also lectured in countries like the United States and Japan. Soon after, Tagore found himself visiting places like Mexico, Singapore and Rome, where he met national leaders and important personalities including the likes of Einstein and Mussolini. In 1927, he embarked on a Southeast Asian tour and inspired many with his wisdom and literary works. Tagore also used this opportunity to discuss with many world leaders, the issues between Indians and the English. Though his initial aim was to put an end to nationalism, Rabindranath over a period of time realized that nationalism was mightier than his ideology, and hence developed further hatred towards it. By the end of it all, he had visited as many as thirty countries spread over five continents.

Literary Works During his lifetime, Rabindranath Tagore wrote several poems, novels and short stories. Though he started writing at a very young age, his desire to produce more number of literary works only enhanced post the death of his wife and children. Some of his literary works are mentioned below:

 Short stories: Tagore began to write short stories when he was only a teen. He started his writing career with “Bhikharini”. During the initial stage of his career, his stories reflected the surroundings in which he grew. He also made sure to incorporate social issues and problems of the poor man in his stories. He also wrote about the downside of Hindu marriages and several other customs that were part of the country’s tradition back

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then. Some of his famous short stories include “Kabuliwala”, “Kshudita Pashan”, “Atottju”, “Haimanti” and “Musalmanir Golpo” among many other stories.

 Novels: It is said that among his works, his novels are mostly under-appreciated. One of the reasons for this could be his unique style of narrating a story, which is still difficult to comprehend by contemporary readers, let alone the readers of his time. His works spoke about the impending dangers of nationalism among other relevant social evils. His novel “Shesher Kobita” narrated its story through poems and rhythmic passages of the main protagonist. He also gave a satirical element to it by making his characters take jibes at an outdated poet named Rabindranath Tagore! Other famous novels of his include “Noukadubi”, ‘Gora’, “Chaturanga”, “Ghare Baire” and “Jogajog”.

 Poems: Rabindranath drew inspiration from ancient poets like Kabir and Ramprasad Sen and thus his poetry is often compared to the 15th and 16th Century works of classical poets. By infusing his own style of writing, he made people to take note of not only his works but also the works of ancient Indian poets. Interestingly, he penned down a poem in 1893 and addressed a future poet through his work. He urged the yet-to-be born poet to remember Tagore and his works while reading the poem. Some of his best works include “Balaka”, “Purobi”, “Sonar Tori” and “Gitanjali”.

Tagore’s Stint as an Actor Tagore wrote many dramas, based on Indian mythology and contemporary social issues. He began his drama works along with his brother when he was only a teen. When he was 20 years old, he not only did pen the drama “Valmiki Pratibha”, but also played the titular character. The drama was based on the legendary dacoit Valmiki, who later reforms and pens down one of the two Indian epics – Ramayana.

Tagore, the Artist Rabindranath Tagore took up drawing and painting when he was around sixty years old. His paintings were displayed at exhibitions organized throughout Europe. The style of Tagore had certain peculiarities in aesthetics and coloring schemes, which distinguished it from those of other artists. He was also influenced by the craftwork of the Malanggan people, belonging to the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Where the Mind is Without Fear 139 northern New Ireland. He was also influenced by Haida carvings from the west coast of Canada and woodcuts by Max Pechstein. The National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi houses as many as 102 art works of Tagore.

Political Views Though Tagore denounced nationalism, he also vouched for the Indian independence through some of his politically charged songs. He also supported Indian nationalists and publicly criticized European imperialism. He also criticized the education system that was forced upon India by the English. In 1915, he received knighthood from the British Crown, which he later renounced citing the massacre held at Jallianwala Bagh. He said that the knighthood meant nothing to him when the British failed to even consider his fellow Indians as humans.

Adaptations of Tagore’s Works Many of his novels and short stories were made into films by the renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Other filmmakers too, over the years, have drawn inspiration from his works and have incorporated his stories into their movies. As many as 39 stories of his were made into films by various directors and a few other stories were made into TV series. Some of the recent movie adaptations include “Detective”, “Postmaster”, “Jogajog”, “Shesher Kabita” and “Tasher Desh.”

Last Days and Death Rabindranath Tagore spent the last four years of his life in constant pain and was bogged down by two long bouts of illness. In 1937, he went into a comatose condition, which relapsed after a period of three years. After an extended period of suffering, Tagore died on August 7, 1941 in the same Jorasanko mansion in which he was brought up.

Legacy Since Rabindranath Tagore changed the way Bengali literature was viewed, he left an everlasting impression on many. Apart from many of his busts and statues that have been erected in many countries, many yearly events pay tribute to the legendary writer. Many of his works were made international, thanks to a host of translations by many famous international writers. There are five museums dedicated to Tagore. While three of them are situated in India, the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 140 English Literature - I remaining two are in Bangladesh. The museums house his famous works, and are visited by millions every year.

Through his writings, Tagore fiercely criticizes the practices that derogate people with a tag of nationalism. His characters are depicted compactly and come across deftly to manifest the constraints and imperfections within the context of its set up. His works majorly explores the sense of humanity and empowers the ostracized sections and their rights in family and society.

What Should Nationalism Do? Tagore opined that nationalism should fetch good to people. It is always possible when patriotism drives along with the national economy and spreading humanity for fellow person in society. Tagore strongly held an opinion that half of the social problems of India, could it be sectarianism, violence, hatred, religious issues, has resulted from lack of education. The impact of hegemony of nationalism and nationalistic ideology was widespread and overpowering in contemporary period when Tagore evolved as a writer. The established practice of nationalism affected Tagore intensely in a span of time. The prevailing tendency compelled him to pen down his thoughts and spread out the message of humanity over any other man made social-political institutions. The mercurial nature of Tagore visiting the several places and meeting people shaped his outlook of nationalism. Exploring to many cultures during his visits made him a fierce critic of nationalism and jingoism that polarize people and keep them in a restricted shell.

Personal to Political, Political to Personal

Tagore changed the trends in selecting subjects ranging from personal to political in his compositions. These changed patterns are frequently evident in his novels, stories, songs, dance- dramas, and essays. Tagore, known for his songs, had written eight novels and four novellas and many essays. His writings are reflective and forceful. Treatment of literature to empower the marginalized sections of the society is an evident characteristic of his writings. Tagore traveled numerous places across the world and his thoughts are fascinated by the world he explored. His works majorly advocate the sense of humanity and explores and empowers the ostracized sections and their rights in family and society. Being brought up in an affluent educated family, Tagore was socialized with the elite lifestyle. His early education and ambiences fundamentally

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Where the Mind is Without Fear 141 stimulated him. Tagore’s less priority to the formal classroom education, unfastened him the new horizon. His education was highly accomplished by traveling, acquaintances, and private tutors. His exposures to the different cultures, religions and classes had been immense. His recurrent visit to the different places, inside or outside India, broadened his views and made him a world citizen. He preached and practiced humanity. Though he associated himself with different cultures, it did not cease him from loving and embracing ‘others’ ideas and ideologies. Amartya Sen, emphasizing acceptance of Tagore by people of other region and religion, writes

“Muslim citizens of Bangladesh (had) a deep sense of identity with Tagore and his ideas. Nor from choosing one of Tagore’s songs …Tagore’s own description of his Bengali family as the product of “a confluence of three cultures: Hindu, Mohammedan, and British”. (“Tagore and His India” 2001.) “Pacifism”

Tagore, who promulgated compassion, held the outlook in inconsistency of nationalism. His traveling to the different places including UK, the US, Iraq and Iran not just brought the vicissitudes in his beliefs, it also brought him to the contacts of Romain Roland and other pacifists. In an interview with Einstein, Tagore relates human emotions and science. He while relating the human tendency of dominating others and the same phenomenon in science, he states

‘Our passions and desires are unruly…And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?’ (Tagore, The Religion of Man, Appendix II 222-225)

Binding Cultures Tagore heralded the new thinking in literature of binding cultures, communities, celebrating ideas and gulfing countries and communities. Though he denounced nationalism, he believed in the strength of the country. Just like any other common citizen of a country, he too coveted the progress and prosperity of a country. He, while on a visit to Iran in 1932, wrote

“... Asia will solve its own historical problems…but the lamp they will each carry on their path to progress will converge to illuminate the common ray of knowledge.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932)

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It is baffling in the kind of world where people are reserved by different illusions like religion, religion, caste, creed, race and communities. Amidst this Tagore was accepted by people with different practices. Deep understanding of Sanskrit and Persian helped to strengthen the root of his philosophy. This also helped to fuse the different ideas of binary opposition and learn and propagate the message of humanity.

Nationalism: Gandhi vs Tagore When it comes to Nationalism, two renowned personalities, Mahatma Gandhi and Tagore,’s ideas and ideologies were compared and contrasted profoundly in India. It was Tagore who popularized the title ‘Mahatma’ that describes Gandhi, still both of them were acutely critical of many things. In one of the efforts to do so, Amartya Sen throws light upon the major belief of Tagore that can also be reflected as one of the differences that Tagore had with Gandhi pertaining to a few issues. Tagore had a broader outlook of life. Rather being a person of constrained attitude, he believed in life of reasoning. Amartya Sen, claiming the same writes,

“Tagore greatly admired Gandhi but he had many disagreements …including nationalism, the role of rationality and of science, and the nature of economic and social development. These differences … with Tagore pressing for more room for reasoning, and for a less traditionalist view. (“Tagore and His India” 2001).

Tagore was disenchanted about the developments in India during the Independence movement. He resented the political inefficiency to eradicate the problems of poverty and hunger in India. It exacerbated when the social conditions were fueled by different religious matters. This was perceptible during the Partition of India where hundreds of people belonging to the two major communities Hindu and Muslim were being harassed and killed. In a letter he wrote to Leonard Elmhirst in 1939, Tagore noticed the communal and sectarian violence that builds the wall between people. Tagore writes in the letter,

“It does not need a defeatist to feel deeply anxious about the future of millions who…are being simultaneously subjected... To the seething discontents of communalism.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore 1932, p. 515)

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On Religion Tagore’s beliefs on religion are enthralling and mystique. His thoughts were not fanatical, but he believed in god and had striking contemplations about birth and death. The essence of religiosity can be abundantly seen in his writings. Gitanjali could be an epitome of his religious beliefs where he fuses direct connections with god and freedom to attain it with pure love and joyousness. Exposure to varied sets of practices and religion could be a swaying factor that not just moulded his thoughts, but also facilitated in his writings. His beliefs are simple just like his writings where there was focus on charity, comradeship and human love,

“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship …?! He is there where the tiller is tilling …He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust”. (Tagore, Gitanjali, 2013).

Being one of the highly invited recourse persons in the world, there had been many instances where Tagore not just disheartened the audience but many of them were resentful. Due to his straightforwardness and plain explanation of the ideas and things around common lifestyle, many were dismayed. Amartya Sen writes, “Some of the ideas he tried to present were directly political…People came to his public lectures …., expecting ruminations on grand, transcendental themes; when they heard instead his views on the way public leaders should behave, there was some resentment...” (Tagore and His India, 2001).

Freedom Tagore had firm belief in freedom. His thoughts and his ideas wherewith were based on proper reasoning. “Gitanjali” is the best known work for demonstrating Tagore’s idea on how freedom brings light to life and empowers life, he also urges the nation to be a heaven for freedom. His reserved views on patriotism and cultures also stemmed out from the same belief. Tagore’s propagation of same view is clearly expressed in Gitanjali’s verse,

‘‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high….; ……Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” (“Tagore, Gitanjali,” 2013)

Due to his steadfast view on freedom, Tagore disallowed all types of violence that would mortify civilization. He resented any of the fanatic view or irrational thinking that could

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 144 English Literature - I deliberately bring mutilation to fellow citizen. Nationalism too was not an exception. His stances against nationalism or sectarian violence in the name of religion were crystal clear. This could be possibly resulted from association of country’s past. According to Tagore blind, association of any country with its past is meaningless and treacherous. Handing over power to a person could it be higher caste person, or Brits, could welcome bad consequences. Isaiah Berlin writes,

“but against cosmopolitanism …. English stood on their own feet, and so must Indians. …he denounced the danger of ‘leaving everything to the unalterable will of the Master,’ be he brahmin or Englishman.” (Berlin, 265)

A Universal Citizen Many a time, it is proven that Tagore was a universal citizen. His countrymen rather live in a constrained wall of narrow-mindedness, he desired them to explore the different ways of life. Familiarization of different cultures, according to Tagore, not just benefits people to bridge a gap but also admits varied cultures and celebrate it. In Tagore’s letter to his son-in-law Nagendranath Gangulee, who went to the U.S. for further studies in 1907, he stresses the blending of cultures and tradition,

“…you must know America too..., one begins to lose one’s identity and falls into the trap of becoming an Americanised person contemptuous of everything Indian.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932)

In spite of the fact that Tagore was against viciousness in the name of nationalism and sectarian violence, he always loved his country. In an interview with Einstein, he hoped that country like India needs its own time and course for attaining growth, thus he stood by the opulence of the nation. The incident of Amritsar in April 13, 1919 where about 379 people were brutally massacred by British, Tagore openly writes a letter to C.F. Andrews to express his resentment. He even relieved the Knighthood to protest against 1919 incident. (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932)

Tagore’s Patriotism and Nationalism Tagore had dissimilar beliefs on nationalism compared to Gandhi. Gandhi propagated Swarajya, thus influencing people to be part of Indian freedom movement. The rejection of the

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West was the core of Gandhi’s ideology, whereas Tagore had the different stance. Tagore though was against British administration, he kept a safe distance from the idea of rejection of the West. This, he believed might build a wall of denunciation and abhorrence. Focusing on Indigenous could narrow down the ideas and the people in their rationale. He was afraid that rebuff of the West or grandeur of one’s own past, could result in detestation towards other religions like Christianity, Parsi, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. In 1908,in a letter replying to Abala Bose, the wife of a great Indian scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Tagore writes,

“Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. …and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932)

Tagore stood by the patriotism that becomes ladder to the subjugated and he considers patriotism should enable the marginalized in society to progress along with the nation. Whenever Tagore pondered over such issues, he admired the great efforts of Japan, a country once admired for its true spirit for its land which decreed people of Japan to grow. The outlook of Japanese also sculpted the nation as the strongest economy. But the same admiration vanished when Tagore witnessed Japanese spirit turning into ominous for its citizens as well as for the rest of the world. Japan, a country once Tagore considered as an epitome for true patriotism, became the thing of rejection due to its blind sentiments.

In a reply to a letter written to Japan domiciled Indian revolutionary, Rash Behari Bose, Tagore writes,

“…that Japan’s new strength would be consecrated in safeguarding the culture of the East against alien interests. But Japan has ... has now become itself a worse menace to the defenseless peoples of the East.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932)

Tagore opined that nationalism should fetch good to people. It is always possible when patriotism drives along with the national economy and spreading humanity for fellow persons in society. But Japan’s nationalism was questioned by Tagore when it demonstrated the vigorous role in the wars with China and its participation in World Wars. Tagore intensely believed that the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 146 English Literature - I intolerance for others has instigated violence in Japan. On the other hand, he admired Russia for its growth and development.

It is the rapid growth of education that Tagore believed is the true sign of a country’s growth. Though he opposed the terror against freedom in Russia, that the spread of education eventually led to freedom of mind fascinated him. Tagore strongly held an opinion that half of the social problems of India could it be sectarianism, violence, hatred, religious issues, which resulted from lack of education. Education results in freedom of mind, a strong idea that Tagore had been propagating in his works. Santiniketan, a school that Tagore started, led an example on this. Having being different from the traditional school setup, Santiniketan was a fresh breeze of the time. Tagore, breaking the traditional education system, introduced a complete new setup creating new waves in the field of education. Different topics that uncover a pupil to the world were taught. It included the cultures, practices of other nations like Russia, China, Japan and other Western ideas, which could open anew a window to the other world and life, thus spreading love.

As it has already been noted, the proliferation of Tagore’s freedom of Mind through his deeds and words, it is evident that Tagore allied the same freedom with education in India. The narrow constrained thoughts due to the lack of education might lead to sectarian and other forms of intolerance in society. Tagore even was disappointed to see a large number of people, especially women in India, failed to attain education. The laxity of British Raj, and societal obligations in the name of tradition destined women to domestic purposes. This also had led to the cultural separatism in India. It was witnessed that fundamentalists are not just seen only in India, but in many countries across the world. He believed India as a nest for different cultures and religions. It is also true when the number of Muslims is considered. India is the second or third largest Muslim populated nation. It can also be seen as a sign of celebrating diversity.In response to the cultural nationalism, which believes in ostracizing the other nations as danger to their own existence, Tagore writes,

“Whatever we understand and enjoy in ….becomes ours… it hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamor that Western education can only injure us.”(R.T. Kumar 113).

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Tagore believed that India does not need to be insecure, and that it doesn’t have to protect itself against any force from outside. He was not blind to accept and believe only in the nation’s heritage and past. He reciprocated the western culture as he believed that it would also be helpful in India’s growth.

7.2 Main Themes in Rabindranath Tagore’s Poems The main theme of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry is the essential unity (or continuity) of all creation, which is also the main theme of the ancient Hindu Upanishads. Indeed, a brief summary of Hindu belief provides a useful introduction to Tagore’s work. According to Hindu thought, the only absolute, unchanging, eternal thing is Brahman, the supreme being or world soul who forms the essence of everything. In living things, the essence of Brahman is known as Atman, or soul. Brahman operates through three aspects: Brahma, the Creator; Siva, the Destroyer; and Vishnu, the Preserver or Renewer. Brahma’s work is finished, but Siva and Vishnu are necessary for change, and change is necessary so that living things may grow toward union with Brahman, a perfect, changeless state, nirvana. Few, if any, achieve nirvana in one lifetime, so reincarnation is necessary. In each successive incarnation, one improves one’s status in the next through good karma or deeds (broadly interpreted as actions, thoughts, or faith).

The questions raised by Hindu belief may be ignored here (for example, why would Brahman create something imperfect in the first place?); so also may certain negative social implications (such as the potential for in-action, the caste system, and un-concern for the individual human life). Instead, what should be noticed is the positive emphasis of Hinduism, in contrast to Western thought as characterized by the old Germanic notion that everything is moving toward Götterdämmerung; the Christian emphasis on Original Sin, evil, and Hell; the masked versions of human sacrifice. It is the positive implications of Hindu belief that Tagore develops in his poetry. For example, his imagery — dwelling on sunrises and sunsets, flowers and their scents, songs and musical instruments, the beautiful deodar tree (deodár meaning “divine wood”), the majestic Himalayas — is a constant reminder that creation is charged with divinity: Beauty and majesty are concrete manifestations of Brahman. Change, natural disasters, and death are necessary for renewal, which will come. All people have divine souls, so they should tolerate,

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 148 English Literature - I respect, and love one another. The advantaged should help the disadvantaged; thereby, they both rise toward Brahman. The individual should strive to live in such a way as to throw off impurities and achieve the essence of divinity within the self. The development of these and related themes can be traced throughout Tagore’s oeuvre.

Gitanjali Song Offerings Published in 1910, Gitanjali Song Offerings is Tagore’s most popular work. The English edition, published in 1912, includes translations not only from the original Gitanjali but also from other collections, particularly Naivedya (offerings). As light work to keep his mind occupied, Tagore did the translations himself while he was convalescing from an illness at Shelidah and on board a ship for Great Britain. He showed them to British friends who wanted to read his work. They in turn, showed the translations to William Butler Yeats, and the result was English publication followed by the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Aware of the undistinguished quality of his translations, Tagore himself could never understand why he was rash enough to do them or why they created such a sensation.

Sometimes compared to the Book of Psalms, Gitanjali Song Offerings explores the personal relationship between the poet and divinity. This divinity he calls Jivandevata, which he often translates as “Lord of my life” or “life of my life” but also refers to as “my God,” “King,” “Father,” “Mother,” “lover,” “friend,” and “innermost one.” The range of terms here suggests the varied associations of Jivandevata and also the conventional metaphors Tagore generally uses to develop his relationship with Jivandevata.

7.3 Where the Mind is Without Fear – Rabindranth Tagore

 Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

 Where knowledge is free;

 Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

 Where words come out from the depth of truth;

 Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

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 Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

 Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action;

 Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Background Rabindranath Tagore is one of the greatest poets of India. He has composed various poems, stories, essays, novels, dramas and songs. The poem “Where the mind is without fear” was written during the period when India was struggling for freedom from the British rule. It was a part of ‘Gitanjali’, a compilation of all his poems which was published in English in 1912. In this poem, Rabindranath Tagore expresses his love for his country and prays to the Almighty for its well being. In his prayer, the poet says that his countrymen should not live in fear anymore and must do away with the evils of society. They must live with respect, dignity, honesty and perfection. He prays to God for the freedom of his beloved nation.

Structure The poem has been written in one single sentence. There or no rhymes or a regular rhythm as the poem is written in free verse.

The language is simplified; metaphor and personification has been used in various parts of the poem.

7.4 Theme The poem was composed in the early 1900s when India was struggling for independence from the British rule. It is the poet’s prayer to the Almighty, seeking his guidance and support to help the countrymen attain freedom. The poem is patriotic in nature. The poet expresses his love for his country and speaks about the vision he has for India and its people. Through his poem, he gives us an idea about the kind of life people were living during the British rule. The stringent rules, policies, economical and political uncertainty were some of the factors that caused fear in the minds of Indians. They could not live a dignified and respectful life in their own country. Obtaining a proper education was restricted for various classes of the society, causing illiteracy

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 150 English Literature - I among people and making them believe in superstitions. The British used the ‘divide and rule policy’ against the Indians to make them fight among themselves. There was discrimination based on caste, creed, race and religion.

It was during this struggle for independence, the poet says that he envisions a country where there is no fear in the minds of people and education is attained by all. The people are enlightened and do not create walls of discrimination. He wants his countrymen to be honest and thoughtful. He prays to God, seeking his guidance for attaining independence and awakening his countrymen into that beautiful heaven of freedom.

7.5 Analysis Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

The poem begins with these two short lines which are the basis of the hopes that Tagore has for his country. These partial sentences, along with the following six are finished by the last line of the poem in which Tagore explains, these are places into which he wishes India would wake up. That a change will come over the country and it will be able to move to a more culturally and politically free period. Specifically in which, “the mind is without fear.” This being the title line of the poem, its importance cannot be ignored. It is one of the most important tenants of Tagore’s dream India. One must be able to live without fear of the repercussions of their thoughts, as well as living without fear of physical harm coming to them as they live their lives. The second half of this first line adds on to the importance of the first half, not only must one be able to live without fear of physical repercussions of what they believe, they must also be able to be proud of their beliefs, be able to express them freely in open society.

The first line of the poem, a part of which is the title itself, holds a very significant meaning. “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,” ‘fear’ in this line refers to the fear inculcated in the minds of Indians under the British rule. Here the poet is speaking about the miserable life led by people dominated by the British. The poet envisions India as a country where the people’s minds are free from fear and they live a dignified life. He also wants to

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Where the Mind is Without Fear 151 convey that freedom can be attained only when the mind is fearless and the head is held high with respect and dignity.

In this line “Where knowledge is free,” the poet says that gaining independence would also give them the freedom to acquire knowledge and be self-reliant which was restricted during the British rule.

The second line of the poem turns to knowledge, in this perfect India, all knowledge must be free. There cannot be barriers, keeping the middle and lower classes from seeking out new information and bettering their lives.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls

The third statement describing this ideal world refers to home and societal life and the way in which women and men are separated, and how narrow their differences are. This idea of walls can also be expanded to once again include different classes of people, a problem faced by the Indian people for decades. Because of the way in which one class is separated from another in all the facts of life, from where and how they live, to where they work and who they work for, the world has become fragmented into small groups that do not interact or touch in any way.

Here the poet speaks about the various evils that crept into the society at that time. The British used the ‘divide and rule’ policy by creating rivalries among different sections of the society. ‘Narrow domestic walls’ refers to the walls of religion, race, caste and creed created by the people. It may also refer to the various superstitious beliefs that prevailed in the society during that time.

Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

The next line of the poem references a more philosophical factor in Tagore’s utopian India. The words that are spoken, no matter who by, must come from the very depth of truth. This is a way of living that is very controversial, and of which many might say would have the adverse effect.

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But in Tagore’s world, absolute truth is a necessity. The sixth line of the poem presents an idea that many would agree with, without much criticism, that if one works hard, or strives tirelessly, one will eventually reach perfection. Perfection, or whatever goal one has in mind. Hard work “Where words come out from the depth of truth”, implies that the poet envisioned his countrymen to live their lives with honesty and utmost truth.

“Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection,” here personification has been used for ‘tireless striving’. The poet says that one’s goal should be to attain perfection i.e. to be an ideal country and all those years of struggle would finally reach its goal of attaining freedom and perfection would always pay off, another addition to Tagore’s goal for India.

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

The next two lines are more complex. In this scenario that Tagore has set up in these lines, he is referring to the trouble that one will run into when they start on a path reasonably and with a goal in mind, but then fall into a habit and are unable to reach what they were striving for. Tagore uses a “clear stream” as a metaphor for reason, it flows easily and cleanly. It is good for everyone. This stream of reason has “not” in Tagore’s world, “lost its way,” by venturing into habit. To balance this metaphor, he compares a dreary desert to “dead habit.” One must be willing to change, to try new things in his utopian India.

The poet uses metaphor for reason and habit. He refers to reason as a ‘clear stream’ that is pure and not contaminated. Here, he is speaking about the thoughts of people which he says should be clear, noble, honest and free from all sorts of corruption. “Dreary desert sand of dead habit” also refers to the evils in the society like the superstitious practices that lack logic and reason.

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

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The last three lines of the poem make clear reference to Tagore’s desire to blend Western and Indian poetry together. He states one final element of his society, one which can be interpreted in multiple ways. The mind of the people must be led forward by “thee.” In this line he could be referring to God, as he does in the next line, or perhaps he references his previous statements as a whole. He is, in a way, adding on to the previous lines, stating that this stream of reason must be “led forward…” The last two lines conclude all of the partial sentences that make up the bulk of the poem. The mind must be led forward into “ever-widening thought and action.” The mind must not be culled in any sense of the word, it must be allowed to expand without limits, and act on the notions it believes to be best. This world that he has crafted, he now refers to as “that heaven of freedom.” He asks “my Father”, presumably God, to let his country wake into this heaven.

In the last three lines, the poet prays to the Almighty for his guidance and support to attain independence. The poet wishes his countrymen to be led forward by their noble thoughts and actions. He refers to freedom as a heavenly place and addresses God as Father, asking him to awaken his people and help them reach that glorious place.

7.6 Summary Rabindranath Tagore was saddened by the miserable lives of his countrymen under the British rule and the state of his country in their struggle for independence. In this poem, he shows his love for his country and prays to God to help them attain freedom.

The poet envisions India as a country where the people live without any kind of fear or oppression and hold their head high with pride, dignity and self reliance. He also says that knowledge should be attained without any restriction. There should be no discrimination based on caste, creed, race or religion. India must reach towards its goal of attaining freedom and being an ideal nation. The countrymen must possess noble thoughts and do away with all the superstitious beliefs that defy logic and reason.

The poet prays to God, seeking his support and guidance for his countrymen to have noble thoughts and actions. He asks God to awaken them into this heaven like place of an independent nation.

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7.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Explain the ‘narrow’ domestic walls in Rabindranath Tagore’s “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.

2. What does the poet pray to the Almighty for?

3. Explain “the head is held high” in Tagore’s poem.

4. Is the poem a prayer for India alone?

5. Why Tagore called ‘Where the mind is without fear’ a prayer song?

6. From what darkness of night should our nation wake?

7. Why should words come out ‘from the depth of truth’?

8. What is the metaphor used for reason and habit? Why?

9. What kind of heaven does Rabindranath Tagore desire?

B. Long Answer Questions 1. What is the theme of Tagore’s poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear”?

2. Write a critical appreciation of the poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear” by Rabindranath Tagore?

3. Explain the imagery in Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.

4. Which part of the poem contains the main idea?

5. Comment on the form and style of “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.

6. Do you like the poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear”? Why?

7. Bring out the significance of the title of poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.

8. What attributes of Rabindranath Tagore does the poem reflect?

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C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. The expression,‘knowledge is free’ indicates

(a) Easily available to everyone (b) Free from scientific temper

(c) Free from superstitions (d) Free from corruption

2. The expression, ‘the head is held high’ indicates

(a) People will be on high positions

(b) People will enjoy all political rights

(c) People will think too much of themselves

(d) People will have self-respect

3. The narrow domestic wall means

(a) The country is divided into different States

(b) Discrimination of caste, creed and religion

(c) Difference between rich and poor

(d) Difference between the Northern States ans Southern States

4. ‘Tireless striving’ tell us about

(a) Continuous efforts (b) Enthusiastic efforts

(c) Blind faith (d) Strike hard

5. Where the mind is led forward by thee means

(a) Heaven (b) Nation

(c) God (d) People

Answers 1. (a), 2. (d), 3. (b), 4. (a), 5. (c)

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7.8 References 1. Tagore, Rabindranath. Gitanjali. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, St.Martin’s Street, 1913.

2. Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

3. The Religion of Man, Appendix II. London: George, Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1931. Print.

4. Tagore and His India Nobel prize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 25 Sep 2017.http:// www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/tagore

5. Tagore, Rabindranath. The Home and the World. India: hardback & paperback, 1916.

6. Tagore, Rabindranath. Nationalism. India: Rupa Publications India, 2004.

7. Kumar, Ranjit. Research Methodology. London: SAGE, 1999.

8. https://schoolofwisdom.com/about/rabindranath-tagore-one-of-the-school-of-wisdoms- most-notable-teachers/

9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

10. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45668/gitanjali-35

11. https://poetandpoem.com/analysis-mind-without-fear-rabindranath-tagore

12. https://poemanalysis.com/where-the-mind-is-without-fear-by-rabindranath-tagore-poem- analysis/

13. https://www.enotes.com/topics/rabindranath-tagore/critical-essays/analysis-1

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CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 8 REFUGEE MOTHER AND CHILD – CHINUA ACHEBE

Structure: 8.0 Learning Objectives

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Refugee Mother and Child

8.3 Summary

8.4 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

8.5 References

8.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to understand the significance of Chinua Achebe as a poet and writer.

The Nigerian writer’s redefinition of colonialism gave his people the sense that they were no longer alone in their predicament.

To Nelson Mandela, he was the writer “in whose company the prison walls fell down”. To Nadine Gordimer, a fellow Nobel laureate, he was simply “the father of African literature”.

Chinua Achebe marks a significant moment in the evolution of literature in the English language, possibly the point at which it has begun to leave behind the bitterness of empire.

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Achebe was a great African, but his life and work, from Things Fall Apart (1958) to Anthills of the Savannah (1987), was a long struggle to define himself as an Igbo writer from eastern Nigeria, who could somehow find self-expression in the language and culture of a colonial power.

From the seeds of his example hundreds of African literary flowers have bloomed. To a writer such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Achebe’s vigorous redefinition of colonialism is less a battle plan than a legacy.

It is perhaps the measure of the change that Achebe helped to bring in his lifetime, that much of his career reads like history: born in a British colony; educated as a Christian; recruited by the Nigerian Broadcasting Service; published by William Heinemann; acclaimed by the British literary establishment; caused a storm by denouncing Joseph Conrad for racism in Heart of Darkness. The Nobel prize many expected, and thought his due, did not arrive in time.

Achebe was the leader of a generation, one that includes Wole Soyinka\ and VS Naipaul, that grew up in the dying days of the British Empire. For such writers, the inevitable engagement with the English language was fraught with difficulty.

Yet, despite his refusal to reject English, Achebe emerged as the essential literary champion of Africa to the wider world.

To millions of readers, he conveyed what colonial oppression meant – in the language of the oppressor. It was a medium that Achebe’s unique style, spare, simple and straightforward, made his own.

Through many vicissitudes, including the Biafran civil war of 1967-70, Achebe sustained an enviable artistic serenity. He once said: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels did no more than teach [African] readers that their past was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans, acting on God’s behalf, delivered them.”

Today, with much of Africa, north and south, a dynamic part of global society, that struggle and those ambitions are like something from another age. But Achebe’s unique achievement is timeless and inspiring: he found his voice in his own way and used it to bring his world to the attention of the wider world. At the same time, in Nigeria, he gave his people the hope of broader

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Refugee Mother and Child 159 recognition, the special sense peculiar to the written word that they were no longer alone in their predicament.

To many readers, he was a beacon; to writers everywhere a rare example. He once said – in words that should be nailed in letters of fire over the doors of creative writing classes – that “everything is grist to the mill of the artist.”

To the end of his life, he was content with his oeuvre: five volumes of fiction, plus essays, poetry and some stories for children. Achebe’s wisdom and modesty were a nice antidote to the antics of literary society in some of the richer parts of the English speaking world.

8.1 Introduction

About the Poet Chinua Achebe born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe, 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel “Things Fall Apart” (1958), often considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his studies to English literature at University College (now the University of Ibadan). He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for his novel “Things Fall Apart” in the late 1950s; his later novels include “No Longer at Ease” (1960), “Arrow of God” (1964), “A Man of the People” (1966), and “Anthills of the Savannah” (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a “language of colonisers”, in African literature. In 1975, his lecture “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” featured a criticism of Joseph Conrad as “a thoroughgoing racist”; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid some controversy.

When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a supporter of Biafran independence and acted as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The civil war

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 160 English Literature - I that took place over the territory, commonly known as the Nigerian Civil War, ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990, after a car crash left him partially disabled.

A titled Igbo Chief himself, Achebe’s novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a large number of short stories, children’s books, and essay collections.

Upon Achebe’s return to the United States in 1990, he began an eighteen-year tenure at Bard College as the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature. From 2009 until his death, he served as David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Style Oral Tradition The style of Achebe’s fiction draws heavily on the oral tradition of the Igbo people. He weaves folk tales into the fabric of his stories, illuminating community values in both the content and the form of the storytelling. The tale about the Earth and Sky in “Things Fall Apart,” for example, emphasises the interdependency of the masculine and the feminine. Although Nwoye enjoys hearing his mother tell the tale, Okonkwo’s dislike for it is evidence of his imbalance. Later, Nwoye avoids beatings from his father by pretending to dislike such “women’s stories”.

Another hallmark of Achebe’s style is the use of proverbs, which often illustrate the values of the rural Igbo tradition. He sprinkles them throughout the narratives, repeating points made in conversation. Critic Anjali Gera notes that the use of proverbs in “Arrow of God”“servesto create through an echo effect, the judgement of a community upon an individual violation.” The

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Refugee Mother and Child 161 use of such repetition in Achebe’s urban novels, “No Longer at Ease” and “A Man of the People,” is less pronounced.

For Achebe, however, proverbs and folk stories are not the sum total of the oral Igbo tradition. In combining philosophical thought and public performance into the use of oratory (“Okwu Oka” — “speech artistry” — in the Igbo phrase), his characters exhibit what he called “a matter of individual excellence ... part of Igbo culture. “In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s friend Obierika voices the most impassioned oratory, crystallising the events and their significance for the village. Nwaka in “Arrow of God” also exhibits a mastery of oratory, albeit for malicious ends.

Achebe frequently includes folk songs and descriptions of dancing in his work. Obi, the protagonist of “No Longer At Ease,” is at one point met by women singing a “Song of the Heart”, which Achebe gives in both Igbo and English: “Is everyone here? / (Hele ee he ee he)” In “Things Fall Apart,” ceremonial dancing and the singing of folk songs reflect the realities of Igbo tradition. The elderly Uchendu, attempting to shake Okonkwo out of his self-pity, refers to a song sung after the death of a woman: “For whom is it well, for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well.” This song contrasts with the “gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism” sung later by the white missionaries.

Achebe’s short stories are not as widely studied as his novels, and Achebe himself does not consider them a major part of his work. In the preface for “Girls at War and Other Stories,” he writes: “A dozen pieces in twenty years must be accounted a pretty lean harvest by any reckoning.” Like his novels, the short stories are heavily influenced by the oral tradition. And like the folktales they follow, the stories often have morals emphasising the importance of cultural traditions.

Use of English As the decolonization process unfolded in the 1950s, a debate about choice of language erupted and pursued authors around the world; Achebe was no exception. Indeed, because of his subject matter and insistence on a non-colonial narrative, he found his novels and decisions interrogated with extreme scrutiny — particularly with regard to his use of English. One school of

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 162 English Literature - I thought, championed by Kenyan writer Ngữgĩ wa Thiong’o, urged the use of indigenous African languages. English and other European languages, he said in 1986, were “part of the neo-colonial structures that repress progressive ideas”.

Achebe chose to write in English. In his essay “The African Writer and the English Language”, he discusses how the process of colonialism — for all its ills — provided colonised people from varying linguistic backgrounds “a language with which to talk to one another”. As his purpose is to communicate with readers across Nigeria, he uses “the one central language enjoying nationwide currency”. Using English also allowed his books to be read in the colonial ruling nations.

Still, Achebe recognises the shortcomings of what Audre Lorde called “the master’s tools”. In another essay he notes:

“For an African writing in English is not without its serious setbacks. He often finds himself describing situations or modes of thought which have no direct equivalent in the English way of life. Caught in that situation he can do one of two things. He can try and contain what he wants to say within the limits of conventional English or he can try to push back those limits to accommodate his ideas ... I submit that those who can do the work of extending the frontiers of English so as to accommodate African thought-patterns must do it through their mastery of English and not out of innocence.”

In another essay, he refers to James Baldwin’s struggle to use the English language to accurately represent his experience, and his realization that he needed to take control of the language and expand it. Nigerian poet and novelist Gabriel Okara likens the process of language- expansion to the evolution of jazz music in the United States.

Achebe’s novels laid a formidable groundwork for this process. By altering syntax, usage, and idiom, he transforms the language into a distinctly African style. In some spots this takes the form of repetition of an Igbo idea in standard English parlance; elsewhere it appears as narrative asides integrated into descriptive sentences.

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TheThematicConcern The thematic concern of Chinua Achebe’s life and writing is to articulate the meaning of what it is to be African from the perspective of one who is authentically African. Critic Nahem Yousaf has said that Achebe’s intent as a writer is to “challenge the insidious stories in which the colonized and dispossessed are rendered inhuman and inept in order to make heroes of the ‘hunter’ colonialists, and to shore up the memoirs of colonial apologists.” Achebe expresses his love for and critique of Africa, specifically Nigeria, in all of his writings. Achebe’s political and social critique of his country comes out of his love for the people and the place that he identifies as home.

About Collected Poems “The father of African literature in the English language and undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century.”

– Caryl Phillips, The Observer Chinua Achebe’s award-winning poems are marked by a subtle richness and the political acuity and moral vision that are a signature of all of his work. Focused and powerful, and suffused with wisdom and compassion, Collected Poems is further evidence of this great writer’s sublime gifts and it is an essential part of the oeuvre of a giant of world literature.

The Major Themes of Chinua’s Literary Works The story lines in most of his novels revolve around Nigeria’s colonial period and political unrests in the post-independence country. In most occasions, Chinua Achebe uses his ingenuity to clearly bring out the intended meaning of his writings, by illustrating the impacts of European culture and imperialism on African traditions. This approach is the defining characteristic of his debut novel, “Things Fall Apart”. However, Achebe’s novels touch on a wide range of themes, for instance, the description and illustration of the Nigerian Igbo culture, effects of colonization on African traditions, the relationships between femininity and masculinity, etc.

The Theme of Culture and Tradition In most of his literary works, Chinua Achebe makes several attempts to illustrate the interactions of African culture, in this case the Nigerian Igbo and modernity, as an effect of

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British colonization of Nigeria. In his first novel, “Things Fall Apart,” the introduction of Christian culture in Umuofia village as a result of the arrival of European missionaries, is met by sharp resistance and opposition by the locals who strive to defend their local heritage at all costs (Emenyonu, 1991). In “Things Fall Apart,” the newly created roles of the District Commissioner and magistrate courts are interpreted by the locals as a way of locking them out in major decision making processes of issues directly affecting the community. This, in effect, acts as a springboard for their opposition to European invasion (Emenyonu, 1991). The interference of local traditions by European culture is further depicted in the novel, “Anthills of the Savannah” by the character, Sam Okoli, a typical example of a Western educated individual who despises his native traditions. This makes it difficult for him to effectively play the role assigned to him by the author, i.e. the president of Kangan (Gera, 2001).

The Theme of Gender (Femininity and Masculinity) The manner in which Chinua Achebe assigns roles to characters in his novels and other writings, puts into consideration the individual roles of both men and women, in regard to the norms and expectations of the society. Tracing his origins back to the patriarchal Igbo community, where important family decisions are made by the paterfamilias, Chinua tries to incorporate these societal elements in his writings. Looking at it from the traditional angle, Igbo men were polygamous in nature and were allowed to beat up their wives in case of any domestic misunderstanding (Mezu, 2006). This is probably why he depicts Okonkwo in “Things Fall Apart” as a man with three wives, and with a chauvinistic attitude that his masculinity allegedly overshadows anything feminine around him (Achebe, 1994).

On the other hand, he portrays women in his writings as cowards and submissive wives, not allowed to take part in either traditional or modern leadership roles. To minimize the chances of being branded as a sexist chauvinistic author, Chinua Achebe at one point tries to appreciate the role played by women in the society. This is seen in Chapter fourteen of “Things Fall Apart” in the characterization of Ani and subsequent discussions of Nneka, translated to mean, the supreme mother. In addition, arguments may be put across that the problems and tribulations faced by Okonkwo may be attributed to his attitude toward women through regular mistreatment and offenses made against the feminine gender (Thomson, 2008).

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In his other novel, “Anthills of the Savannah,” Chinua Achebe treats women with respect as seen when he portrays Beatrice as an independent city woman fighting for her identity and position in the society. She is presented as a principled iron lady with both feminine and masculine character traits and does not rely on men for survival and security in marriage (Bicknell, 1996).

African Writing in English Truthful and fruitful human experience forms the basis for written expression in any branch of literature. Conveyed through a language of international exchange, it can reach a wider audience for whom it becomes a useful reference in times of need. The English language attained international prominence due to several reasons; one of the most important being colonization. As in other countries of the Commonwealth, English was imposed on Anglophone Africa as a means of easy communication and administrative convenience. It is a historical irony that the same language serves the African writer in voicing his thoughts and feelings to the world at large. While discussing the future of English, Simeon Porter observes,

“It will adopt to meet new needs and in that incessant reshaping and adaptation, every speaker and writer consciously or unconsciously will play some part.”

Today, the prediction of Porter came true of African writing in English. It brought strength and appeal to the English language by adding a large range of new vocabulary and usage. Writing on the problems faced by the African English writers, Chinua Achebe, the famous Nigerian writer says,

“The African writer should aim to use English that brings out his message without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at fashioning out an English, which is at once unusual and able to carry his peculiar experience.”

It is applaudable that the writers of Africa succeeded in accomplishing the above task set by Achebe, which is by any means not an easy one. Their successful integration of native experience and expression in an alien tongue received worldwide acclaim. Their success proved, as critics like Srinivasa Iyengar pointed out,

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“A shot in the arm of modern English Literature has had to come from West Africans like Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Gabriel Okara.”

The role of poetry, in African literature, has been highly effective in providing the people with the needful inspiration and the necessary insight. The language of poetry, for the African people, is a source of learning and becoming aware of their destiny that necessitates the knowledge of their past, present and the possible future. These and several other ideas fuelled African poetry in English. For the African poets, poetry became a powerful medium through which they conveyed to the world audience, not only their “despairs and hopes, the enthusiasm and empathy, the thrill of joy and the stab of pain...,” but also a nation’s history as it moved from “freedom to slavery, from slavery to revolution, from revolution to independence and from independence to tasks of reconstruction which further involve situations of failure and disillusion”. (Iyengar, 15)

When we read African Literature, we should, by obligation remember that, colonization was at its harshest in Africa. As history stands proof, it was highly exploited and savaged by the ambitious ‘white man’. This experience is on the minds of all thinking poets. Despite getting ‘uhuru’ or independence, the bitterness returns again and again. The unforgettable colonial past comes angrily alive in a poem by Kenya’s poet Joseph Kareyaku thus,

It is not as you suppose, your lands, your cars, your money, or your cities I covet... ‘It is what gores me most, that in my own house and in my very own home you should eye me and all that’s mine with that practiced, long-drawn, insulting sneer. (quoted in Iyengar, 30)

In a poem entitled “If you want to know me,” Noemia De Sousa writes ruefully of Africa, by effectively using the literary device of personification thus:

This is what I am empty sockets despairing of possessing of life

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a mouth torn open in an anguished wound... a body tattooed with wounds seen and unseen from the harsh whipstrokes of slavery tortured and magnificent proud and mysterious Africa from head to foot This is what I am. (Narasimhaiah, 137)

The much-brutalized Dark Continent is tellingly depicted in the following lines of a poem named “The Shapes of Fear,” by Richard Ntiru.

Like an arrested breath when breathing makes silence imperfect and the ear cannot differentiate between the conspiratorial whispers and the winds singing. ... a twig in the courtyard snaps and report of a gun is understood. (Narasimhaiah, 137)

Nigerian poet, the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka’s masterful irony skillfully conceals anger at the racist attitude in his famous poem, “Telephone Converstion.” After negotiating for a house on rent on telephone, he tells the landlady of his being a black African. He was rudely shocked when he was ‘caught...foully’ by the lady’s query regarding his darkness thus:

“HOW DARK...?” I had not misheard... “Are you light OR VERY DARK...” (Narasimhaiah, 149)

The “ill-mannered silence” between the two is filled with images such as ‘stench of rancid breath of public- hide-and-speak, Red booth, Red- Pillar-box, Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar’ that subsume the age-old and still hopeless and violent colour- conflict.

The theme of English superiority glares through David Rubadiri’s poem “A Negro Labourer in Liverpool”:

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Here his hope is the shovel And his fulfillment resignation. (Narasimhaiah, 134)

One of the most important phases in African poetry is Negritude, a powerful literary movement founded by Aimé Césaire of Senegal. Among other things, the Negritude poets favoured the theme of glorification of Africa. They worshipped anything African in scintillating rhymes. Anger at injustice meted out to the colonized Africa is also one of the oft-repeated themes of their poetry. Here is an example from David Diop’s poem “Africa.”

Africa, my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs.... Is this you, this back that is bent This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation This back trembling with red scars

And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun..... That is Africa your Africa That grows again patiently obstinately And its fruit gradually acquires The bitter taste of liberty. (Narasimhaiah, 153)

Dennis Brutus, a South African poet, was subjected to torture by a cruel regime. His writing is full of images of love contrasted with images of death thus,

Desolate Your face gleams up Beneath me in the dusk Abandoned A wounded dove Helpless Beneath the knife of love. (Quoted in Theroux, 2)

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Great feelings for Africa is felt in Abioseh Nicol’s poem “The Meaning of Africa” thus:

Africa, you were once just a name to me ...So I came back sailing down the Guinea coast ....You are not a country Africa, You are a concept ...I know now that is what you are Africa Happiness, contentment and fulfillment. (Quoted in Povey, 39) A poet’s affirmation of his love for Africa shines radiantly through the following verses.

Dark Africa! My dawn is here; Behold! I see A rich warm glow in the East, And my day will soon be here. (Iyengar, 30)

Deification of Africa is a fit topic for many African poets. Perhaps this is their reaction to the self glorification and the civilizing zeal of the imperial powers of Europe. Bernard Dadie’s poem attains special significance viewed in that light. He says in a poem entitled “I Thank God”:

I thank you God for creating me black. White is the colour for special occasions Black the colour for every day And I have carried the World since the dawn of time And my laugh over the World, through the night creates The Day. (Narasimhaiah, 122)

In Africa, the advent of the white man’s civilizing mission displaced scores of native societies from their own cultural roots. The impact of the spread of Christianity combined with material benefits such as classroom education and well-paid jobs forced many Africans to abandon their own faith and adapt the religion of the pale-faced aliens. This situation is responsible for the natives to suffer from culture shock. Nevertheless, the native is expected to

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 170 English Literature - I owe allegiance to his own tribal culture and embrace Christianity for material benefits. This cultural confusion is well articulated by Mabel Segun in a poem thus:

Here we stand Infants overblown Poised between two civilizations Finding the balance irksome. (Quoted in Povey, 39)

Gabriel Okara expresses the same sentiments in a lyric thus:

When at break of day at a riverside I hear jungle drums... Then I hear a wailing piano Solo speaking of complex ways. (Quoted in Gleason, 143)

However, there are poets like Kofi Awoonor Williams of Ghana whose passion for past is expressed in his rediscovery themes with the help of extended rhythms as in the following lines:

“Sew the old days for us our fathers that we wear them under our old garments after we have washed ourselves.....” (The Anvil and the Hammer) again, “Sew the old days for me my father Sew them so that I may wear them For the feast that is coming.” (Quoted in Theroux, 4) He accomplishes the same excellence of evolving extended rhythms in poems like “The Long Journey” and “My Song.” Poetic excellence and rare innovative creative ability are seen in Christopher Okigbo poems such as “The Stars Have Departed.” He says,

The stars have departed The sky in a monocle

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Surveys the world under The stars have departed

And I- Where am I? ? Stretch, stretch O antennae, To clutch at this hour, Fulfilling each movement in a Broken monody. (Quoted in Walsh, 48) Images that can evoke a situation beyond hope which are reminiscent of Eliot’s war poetry are visible in the following verses from K. Brew’s poem “The Search.”

The past is but the cinders Of the present The future The smoke That escaped Into the cloud- bound sky. (Quoted in Walsh, 50) Some of the poets have realized the futility of fighting over issues such as race, respect and national identity. What more can be more illuminating than the enlightened poet’s words such as:

You must leave the sifting sands of self- seeking and deceit and erect far mightier mansions on the rock of healthy soil. (Iyengar, 36)

Lenrie Peter’s poems are short on the print but deep on one’s mind like the one cited below

Open the gates To East and West Bring in all That’s good and best.

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The memorable lines of Peter’s poem “On a wet September Morning” with their sheer beauty of imagery and the underlying thought of universal brotherhood celebrate the oneness of the human family. To cite a few verses:

The echo burst in me Like a great harmonic chord- Violins of love and happy voices The pagan trumpet blast Swamping the lamentation of the horn Then the heraldic drums In slow crescendo rising Crashed though my senses Into a new present Which is the future. After this brief glance at African poetry, we realize that it is not simply an offshoot of British literary tradition. Despite the many disadvantages such as a scarred past, colonial trauma, expression in a foreign medium, inability to travel abroad, unstable economic and political state of affairs in their respective nations, lack of educational opportunities, the African poet has effortless creative capacity. It is an enriching combination of rich oral literature, native experience and imported tradition of writing in English that made African poetry a tremendous success both at home and abroad. The ‘Black Orpheus’ (African Poets) is no longer an unknown or an unwanted quantity but a fascinating and often enviable and beneficent literary marvel from what was ignorantly termed as the ‘dark continent’.

8.2 Refugee Mother and Child No Madonna and Child could touch that picture of a mother’s tenderness for a son she soon would have to forget. The air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea of unwashed children with washed-out ribs and dried-up

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bottoms struggling in laboured steps behind blown empty bellies. Most mothers there had long ceased to care but not this one; she held a ghost smile between her teeth and in her eyes the ghost of a mother’s pride as she combed the rust-coloured hair left on his skull and then - singing in her eyes - began carefully to part it… In another life this would have been a little daily act of no consequence before his breakfast and school; now she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave.

Historical Context to Refugee Mother and Child Chinua Achebe was born to the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria in 1930, putting him in Nigeria at the exact right time for British colonialism to begin dictating the lives of the Igbo in the form of the Royal Niger Company. A number of events that took place during his colonial education were later recorded in his works; there are a number of parallels, for instance, between things he observed as a child and events that take place in “Things Fall Apart,” his first novel.

Achebe’s style was often to write about what he saw in the world around him, and given the strength of the language, it is more than likely that this is the case for “Refugee Mother and Child.” It was written during the Nigerian Civil War, an unfortunate aftermath of the colonialism that had influenced the area. During this time, Achebe mostly wrote poetry, finding it an easier task to manage during the intense period of war. It is difficult to imagine it — a young Chinua Achebe walking around his hometown, breathing in foul air and watching the hearts of mothers harden towards their children. Colonialism, poverty, and war had all taken immense tolls on the Nigerian people, and they were in suffering. Achebe’s poem here serves as a written analysis of that time period, a reflection based on what he saw that draws its strength from the imagery and

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A significant part of the strength of this poem is the realization of how real it is. So many poems rely on metaphor and distant imagery that when a poem this grounded in reality is read, it almost feels like a shock — how many famous poems talk about the diarrhetic odours of dying children with such blunt language? But this is its strength — the realization, the certain knowledge just by reading the poem, that what “Refugee Mother and Child” describes is very, very real.

Refugee Mother and Child Introduction “Refugee Mother and Child” is a poem composed by Chinua Achebe depicting the destitution and starvation of displaced people. The poem is about a displaced person, mother and her child who endure in the arms of neediness. In the long run, her child perishes and as a mother she feels despondency, upset and vulnerable. In the poem, Achebe joined love, lament, religion, confidence, enduring, recollections, agony and change into the lives of the outcasts’ mom and tyke. Chinua Achebe expressed “Refugee Mother and Child” as a reaction to his experienced childhood in neediness, with unprivileged kids and enduring, and felt propelled by their psychological quality. All through the poem, Achebe drives us to a comprehension of mother`s delicate love.

In 1967, common war broke out in Nigeria when the Catholic ruled region of Biafra endeavored autonomy from the Moslem overwhelmed focal state. Amid those pivotal years, Achebe filled in as a minister for the Biafran government.

The war went severely for the Biafrans who endured hugely, and starvation was overflowing. The writer’s firsthand involvement of the hardship and battle propelled him to state “Displaced person Mother and Kid”.

Refugee Mother and Child Themes Motherly Love The main theme of this poem is motherly love. One proverb in particular that relates to the poem is “Love never gets lost, it’s only kept.” This proverb means love is a feeling you can never

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Refugee Mother and Child 175 get rid of. This proverb relates to the poem with the mother’s relationship with her child. Even when the child has passed away, the mother still will always love her child regardless. A mother’s love is the strongest love no matter what the situation is. This proverb can also relate to another proverb that is written “Love is a pain killer.” A mother will go through hell and back for their loved ones no matter what.

Struggle Struggle is another theme of this poem. A proverb that relates to Achebe’s poem is “A united family eats from the same plate.” This proverb means regardless of the situation,family should always be taken care of: even if the family is struggling, not knowing when the next meal will come. The fact of the matter is family is family, nobody should be left behind. This proverb is related to the poem with the idea of struggle. For instance, in the poem it talks about how hungry the children were when it said “struggling in labored steps behind blown empty bellies.” This relates because if one person starved they all starved, even though they tried their best to survive in their situation, it was hard because they were in a refugee camp.

8.3 Summary Chinua Achebe is a great Nigerian novelist poet and short story writer. His first novel “Things Fall Apart” has been translated into 45 languages. His poem “Refugee Mother and Child” is a celebration of motherhood. It is a refugee camp somewhere in Africa. The poet gives us a realistic picture of a mother and her child. Hundreds of poor people are thrown out of their homes due to political disturbances or natural calamities. The refugees are in a miserable condition. There are innumerable mothers and children in the same miserable condition in the refugee camp. Their children are slowly dying of poverty and diseases.

But the poet draws our attention to a particular mother and her child. They are compared with St. Mary holding infant Jesus in her arms. Madonna loves her child because Jesus is the saviour of mankind and the son of God. The world worships her and her child. Juxtaposed with this, the poet introduces a poor ordinary, unknown mother and child. The mother knows her child is slowly dying. It is of no use caring for him. Other mothers in the camp know this truth about their children and so they are careless about their dying children. They don’t want to further waste

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 176 English Literature - I their time and energy and love for the dying children. It is futile for them. So they are passive. The air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea of unwashed children.

But this mother is very different. She is the epitome of motherhood. She loves her child. Her love for him is infinite and divine. She does not want anything in return for her love and sacrifice. She combs his dirty hair left on the skull of his head. She carefully parts the hair as if she were preparing him to his school in the morning. She is doing a lot of work including kissing his forehead. It was an act of putting flowers in his small coffin – the last love of a mother to her son. The poet uses the words ‘ghost’ and ‘rust’ as metaphors of death. The mother keeps smiling while combing his hair, because she knows that very soon the child will die. While carrying infant Jesus in her arms, St. Mary too knows well that her son will be nailed to the cross for the benefit of humanity. Therefore he would become the Saviour of mankind. But the refugee mother cannot be proud of any such achievement of her poor son. His death is not a matter for the world. Yet her maternal love for her child surpasses even the love of Madonna for her infant Jesus. The refugee mother cannot expect anything in return for her sacrifice and maternal love for her poor sick child. Still her love and care continues for him till his last breath. The comparison with Madonna and Infant Jesus serves to heighten the emotional appeal of the poem.

Simple and direct, the poem “Refugee Mother and Child” touches our hearts with love and compassion and enhances the dignity of motherhood.

Refugee Mother and Child Analysis In the poem “Refugee Mother and Child” by Chinua Achebe, the sadness of death is shown by creating a tragic atmosphere by introducing shocking images and strong words.

At the beginning, in the first stanza, the author strikes us by telling us that the child will soon die; “for a son she soon will have to forget.” This strong image of a mother and her son is more touching than the “Madonna and Child.” The use of alliteration in “a son she soon” reinforces the idea of proximity of death.

The author uses simple and strong vocabulary, giving more emphasis to what is actually said than to the way it is said. This also helps in creating the tragic atmosphere by the use of words

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Refugee Mother and Child 177 such a “diarrhoea” or “dried up ribs” or “washed out bottoms.” we can clearly see that the child is suffering from starvation.

When the poet mentions the “ghost smile”, she tries to express that there once was a “smile between her teeth”, but now it is slowly disappearing, referring to a ghost, but something still remains, she still remembers or longs for “her mothers pride”.

The fact that “Most mothers there had long ceased to care but not this one” reinforces the idea that she still wants to share time with her son.

A very shocking image used in the poem is the one where the mother combs her son, “as putting flowers in a tiny grave”, preparing him for his funeral.

The author expresses the sadness of death by showing the way a mother says goodbye to her son.

The Mother has always held a supreme position in all religions. In Islam, she holds the first and second places. In Hinduism, the Mother and Motherland are deemed greater than heaven. In Christianity, the privilege of “giving birth divinely” was also handed over to a woman. The image of Madonna with her child is supposed to be the highest paradigm of motherhood one can envisage. Here, Chinua Achebe states that even that image could not surpass the picture of a mother expressing tenderness for a son, she would soon have to forget. It is the most poignant picture one’s imagination and memory can ever record.

Chinua Achebe’s poem is titled “Refugee Mother and Child”. The adjective ‘refugee’ has different meanings in this context. One, the mother in question may be a refugee. Besides, one who flees from danger, and is in a secure and protective circle is also called a ‘refugee’. In this regard, the baby is a refugee, and his refuge is his mother’s womb till he comes out to this cruel world. Another interpretation would be the mother finding refuge from the reality of the death of her son in a make-believe world.

The air held a nausea of unwashed children with traces of diarrhea, and the stench of the emanations post–delivery. The rawness of the struggle to attain motherhood is depicted as the poet states:

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The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea of unwashed children with washed-out ribs and dried-up bottoms struggling in labored steps behind blown empty bellies. Mothers there had long ceased to care, as the poignancy of the situation of the refugees had reached their saturation point. But this one still held her own. She donned a ghost smile. The situation is scary because the new-born is dead and the smile seems ghastly. The term ‘ghost smile’ may also imply that the lady held a ‘ghost’ of a smile that once was real. Now that the genuine reason for the smile is lost, it may be termed as a ‘ghost of a smile.’ Her eyes also looked super-focussed as it held the ghost of a mother’s pride. She combs, with maternal affection, the hair on his ‘skull’. Note that it is ‘skull’ and not ‘head’ as the baby is impoverished, and dead. Her eyes appeared to sing a lullaby, as she parts the son’s hair. In an otherwise situation, this act would be of little consequence; another everyday affair before breakfast or school. Here, however, it happens to stand for the last display of maternal affection and is therefore equivalent to “putting flowers on a tiny grave.”

Imagery  The poem outlines the undying affection and confidence one mother emphatically hold with her child. The artist demonstrates to us the pictures of starvation and destitution that displaced people are compelled to confront.

 The title of the poem emits the underlying impression that the poem centers on displaced people: one who escapes to look for shelter. The lives of evacuee youngsters, their folks, their sentiments, their feelings and their agony. ‘For a son she soon would have to forget’. This hints her child is kicking the bucket, and she would need to overlook him to adjust to her grievous misfortune.

 The illustration in the first stanza, ‘No Madonna and Child could touch that picture….’ identifies with the possibility of Mary and her tyke, Jesus. The photo consummate picture – the perfect picture of parenthood. The photo of a delightful, quiet mother with her heavenly new conceived tyke.

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 The artist utilizes the reiteration and the differentiating thoughts of the word ‘washed’ in portraying the withered condition of the evacuee kids. ‘Unwashed…’ – the clean state, and ‘Washed-out…’ the physical condition of the kids because of the absence of nourishment.

 ‘Blown empty bellies, the physical appearance of the youngsters’ stomachs on account of the restricted nourishment supply of just sugars. From this unfortunate eating regimen the mix of acids and gases gain victory of the stomach of the youngsters. This distinctive portrayal could likewise be a play on words to the blowflies in Africa.

 ‘A ghost smile’, this analogy could be two thoughts: The mother is upbeat since she is with her child, you can tell she is glad yet her grin is blacked out, hard to take note. Her joy can not without much of a stretch be seen, her grin has not appeared in a physical appearance, and it holds joy that radiates its feeling in an inclination which can not exactly be clarified, yet can be felt by others. This similitude indicates how the mother keeps a phony, or ‘ghost’’ grin on her lips for her kid’s purpose – so her child doesn’t have any apprehensions or stresses.

 The use of the word ‘skull’ is a typical image for death and hints or speaks to the passing of her child.

 In the poem Achebe demonstrates the numerous parts of human disaster and physical enduring. For instance of human enduring, he portrays the evacuees in “struggling labored steps” and “washed-out ribs and dried-up bottoms”.

 The Madonna is Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, and the Kid is her child, Jesus. A statue of the Madonna holding the Baby Jesus is regular in the Catholic Church. Keep in mind that Achebe composed this sonnet in the Catholic area of Biafra, where statues of the Madonna and Tyke would have been normal.

 No reason is offered with respect to why the general population are in a displaced person camp. Maybe there had been a war, or some kind of common catastrophe.

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8.4 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Explain the theme of struggle in the poem.

2. Why does the mother have a ghost smile?

3. What does the act of combing the rust coloured hair suggest?

4. What is the comparison between Madonna and the mother in this poem?

5. Describe the scene at the refugee camp.

B. Long Answer Questions 1. How does Achebe drive us to a comprehension of mother`s delicate love?

2. How does Achebe’s poem ‘Refugee Mother and Child’ serve as a written analysis of that time period?

3. Write the summary of the poem ‘Refugee Mother and the Child’

4. Explain the themes of motherly love and struggle in the poem ‘Refugee Mother and the Child’

5. Why is the mother in the poem an epitome of motherhood?

6. Give the significance of the title ‘Refugee Mother and the Child’

7. Write a note on the imagery of the poem.

8. Comment on the line ‘No Madonna and Child could touch that picture….’

9. How does Achebe demonstrate the numerous parts of human disaster and physical enduring in the poem ‘Refugee Mother and the Child’

10. Explain the poetic devices in the poem ‘Refugee Mother and the Child’.

11. How does the comparison with Madonna and Infant Jesus serve to heighten the emotional appeal of the poem?

12. The poem “Refugee Mother and Child” touches our hearts with love and compassion and enhances the dignity of motherhood. Comment.

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C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. What is the scene described in the poem of?

(a) A war (b) A flood

(c) A refugee camp (d) A prison

2. Why were the ribs washed-out and bottoms dried-up?

(a) Due to the hot climate (b) Due to diarrhea

(c) Due to famine (d) Due to starvation

3. What does ‘struggling in labored steps behind blown empty bellies’ mean?

(a) The refugees were starving

(b) The refugee children were fat with big bellies

(c) Horns were blown to call for lunch

(d) Refugee people were struggling to get jobs

4. What is glorified in this poem?

(a) Love of a child for his mother (b) Love of a mother for her child

(c) Mother Mary’s love for Jesus (d) God’s love for his children

5. Why has the mother to forget the child soon?

(a) because he is going to school

(b) because he will be going to another country

(c) because he is soon going to die

(d) because she will get busy in her daily chores

Answers 1. (a), 2. (d), 3. (b), 4. (a), 5. (c)

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8.5 References 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe

2. https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/mar/26/chinua-achebe-leader-of-ge

3. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/refugee-mother-and-child/

4. https://poemanalysis.com/refugee-mother-and-child-by-chinua-achebe-poem-analysis/

5. http://kjtenglishnotes.blogspot.com/2014/05/refugee-mother-and-child-chinua- achebe.html

6. http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2006/5/29/191917/309/#gsc.tab=0

7. https://rukhaya.com/poetry-analysis-chinua-achebes-refugee-mother-and-child/

8. https://www.litpriest.com/browse/poetry/refugee-mother-and-child-summary/

9. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/literature-works-of-chinua-achebes- english-literature-essay.php

10. Franklin, Ruth. “After Empire: Chinua Achebe and the Great African Novel”. The New Yorker, 26 May 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2010.

11. Ogbaa, p. xv.

12. Carl Brucker (1992). “Chinua Achebe 1930–”. faculty.atu.edu. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.

13. Nnamdi Ken Amobi (13 April 2013). “Chinua Achebe: Ogidi man first, Ogidi man last”. Vanguard. Lagos. Retrieved 18 January 2014.

14. Chinua Achebe of Bard College”. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 33 (33): 28–29. Autumn 2001. doi:10.2307/2678893. JSTOR 2678893.

15. July, Robert W. (1987). An African Voice. Durham (NC): Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-0769-3.

16. Killam, G. D. (1977). The Writings of Chinua Achebe. London: Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 978-0-435-91665-7.

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17. Laurence, Margaret (2001). Long Drums and Cannons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists, 1952–1966. Alberta: University of Alberta Press. ISBN 978-0-88864-332-2.

18. Lawtoo, Nidesh (2013). “A Picture of Africa: Frenzy, Counternarrative, Mimesis.” Modern Fictions Studies 59.1 (2013):26–52.

19. Lindfors, Bernth (1982). Early Nigerian Literature. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-8419-0740-9.

20. Mezu, Rose Ure (2006). Chinua Achebe: The Man and His Works. London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905068-21-0.

21. Naydenova, Natalia, Salihou Camara (2013). Littérature africaine et identité: un hommage à Chinua Achebe. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-343-01253-7. .

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 9 STANZA FORMS

Structure: 9.0 Learning Objectives

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Types of Stanza Forms

9.3 Definition of a Heroic Couplet

9.4 Examples of Heroic Couplets

9.5 Blank Verse

9.6 Spensarian Stanza

9.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

9.8 References

9.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit you will understand the significance of stanza forms.

Poets have been using stanzas in their works for thousands of years. Many religious texts and works such as the Old English epic Beowulf are written with stanzas. The purpose of stanzas, whether in longer works or short poems, is to break the images and information into shorter pieces. Stanzas are also important in formal poems in which there is a strict meter and rhyme scheme. In the time of troubadours and oral literature, stanzas had even greater importance because they were helpful tools for the speaker to memorize long works.

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9.1 Introduction In poetry, a stanza (/'stænzə/; from Italian stanza ['stantsa], “room”) is a grouped set of lines within a poem, usually set off from other stanzas by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, though stanzas are not strictly required to have either. There are many unique forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains. Other forms are more complex, such as the Spenserian stanza. Fixed verse poems, such as sestinas, can be defined by the number and form of their stanzas. The term stanza is similar to strophe, though strophe sometimes refers to irregular set of lines, as opposed to regular, rhymed stanzas.

The stanza in poetry is analogous with the paragraph that is seen in prose; related thoughts are grouped into units. The stanza has also been known by terms such as batch, fit,andstave. Even though the term "stanza" is taken from Italian, in the Italian language the word "strofa" is more commonly used. In music, groups of lines are typically referred to as verses.

9.2 Types of Stanza Forms Poets all over the world compose different types of stanzas all the time with some being unnamed as yet. Stanza forms have acquired a name because of the number of lines per stanza. However, other variations of stanza forms have cropped up because of how widely they have been used or the fame of the poet who is believed to have introduced the form to the world. Continue reading the following list of the most common stanza forms in the world of poetry based on line count.

The Monostich A monostich is a one line stanza. It also refers to a one line poem. It expresses a complete thought.

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Example of a monostich stanza/poem.

Winter Echo by Yvor Winters Thin air! My mind is gone.

...

Yvor Winters

The Couplet This stanza form is made up of two lines. Since it has only two lines, they must rhyme. Also, classical couplets have the same meter and rhythm. William Shakespeare’s sonnets often end with a couplet, to summarize the theme of the specific poems.

Check out this poem that uses the couplet stanza form.

Beasts and Men Poem by Centfie

Animal is what you should be To spend your life wildly sin-free

Multiple sexual mates is fornication To the beasts it is just procreation

By stealing you can’t be blameless Beasts steal and remain sinless

For food they murder their own Sin is to kill even a baby unborn

There exist men worse than beasts Yet they are not in the wanted lists ... Centfie

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The Tercet The tercet has 3 lines. You can use the tercet as a whole poem. The Haiku is an example of a tercet poem. When a three line stanza rhymes, it is called a triplet. The Villanelle poem is a good example of a type of poem with tercets. It has five tercets and a quatrain.

Check out this example of a tercet.

Finality by Centfie Final time to trust Final time to see light Cats live to eat ... Centfie

The Quatrain Quatrain is the official term for a stanza of four lines. There is no limit to this stanza form -it can rhyme or not, it can have a regular meter or not. In fact, it is a very common stanza form since it is found in many cultures.

I can not help giving an example of one of my own poems which uses the quatrain. Note that I used a couplet stanza as the intro of this poem.

Her Life was a Blessing Poem by Centfie As we mourn today, we will mourn tomorrow, but then we hope for an end to our sorrow.

Thank God for giving her The chance to enjoy breathing She learnt new languages She helped others to fight on.

She had happy and hard times She fought cancer to the end

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In her great pain she cried But also found time to smile.

As we mourn for the loss For her life was a blessing With time we will be healed Taking our time to grieve. ... Centfie The Quintain The quintain or quintet stanza has five lines. The cinquain is a type of quintain consisting of five lines with a fixed syllable scheme per line. Limerick and tanks poems use the quintain stanza.

The following excerpt from a poem called The World written by George Herbert applies the quintet stanza form.

The World by George Herbert Love built a stately house, where Fortune came, And spinning fancies, she was heard to say That her fine cobwebs did support the frame, Whereas they were supported by the same; But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.

The Pleasure came, who, liking not the fashion, Began to make balconies, terraces, Till she had weakened all by alteration; But reverend laws, and many a proclamation Reforméd all at length with menaces. ... George Herbert.

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The Sestet/Sestain The sestet stanza form has six lines. There is no limit, you may rhyme or not. The Sestina type of poem applies this effectively. Although the last stanza of a sestina is a tercet.

This is an example of a poem which has sestet stanzas. The following is not the complete poem, it is an excerpt of the first two stanzas of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem known as Sestina.

Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop September rain falls on the house. In the failing light, the old grandmother sits in the kitchen with the child beside the Little Marvel Stove, reading the jokes from the almanac, laughing and talking to hide her tears. She thinks that her equinoctial tears and the rain that beats on the roof of the house were both foretold by the almanac, but only known to a grandmother. The iron kettle sings on the stove. She cuts some bread and says to the child, ... Elizabeth Bishop

The Septet The septet stanza form has seven lines. As long as the stanza has seven lines it is a septet. Whether it has a rhyme scheme, regular meter or not. The seven line stanza is often used in long poems. The septet can also stand alone as a whole poem.

This septet example is the fifth stanza excerpted from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem called Annabel Lee. The other stanzas in this poem have six or eight lines each giving it a disticntive rhythm.

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Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: ..... Edgar Allan Poe The Octave/Octet The octave stanza form has eight lines in any meter and rhyme scheme. It can stand as a whole poem. The Ottava Rima is a type of octet stanza form often found in Italian literature and used to praise heroic deeds.

This is the first stanza excerpted from Among School Children by William Butler Yeats.

Among School Children by William Butler Yeats I walk through the long schoolroom questioning; A kind old nun in a white hood replies; The children learn to cipher and to sing, To study reading-books and history, To cut and sew, be neat in everything In the best modern way—the children’s eyes In momentary wonder stare upon A sixty-year-old smiling public man. .... William Butler Yeats The Spenserian Stanza The Spenserian stanza form was actively used by a famous classical poet known as Edmund Spenser. It has nine lines with a rhyme scheme of ABABBCBCC. Eight lines follow the iambic pentameter while the ninth line has six iambic feet.

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The following nine line stanza is excerpted from Spenser’s poem known as The Fairie Queen.

TheFaerieQueenebyEdmundSpenser But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead as living ever him ador’d: Upon his shield the like was also scor’d, For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had: Right faithfull true he was in deede and word, But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad; Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad. ... Edmund Spenser The Dizain Stanza The dizain derives its name from French literature. Dix-pronounced "diz" means "ten" in French. Thus, the dizain stanza form has 10 lines. As other stanza forms, it can stand alone as a complete poem.

Check out the following excerpt of a ten line stanza from a long poem by John Keats entitled Ode on a Grecian Urn. This is Stanza 2 of the poem.

Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

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Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair! ... John Keats Now that you have examples of basic stanza forms and their names, why don’t you create some poetry? Or analyze the stanza forms of your favorite poems. The beauty of poetry is that you can have fun creating them. Or, invent your own stanza form and give it a name.

Heroic Couplet Heroic Couplets are paired, rhyming lines of poetry (usually iambic pentameter) found in epic or long narrative English poetry and translations. As you will see, there are a variety of qualities that distinguish heroic couplets from regular couplets.

Definition of a Couplet A couplet is two lines of poetry that are right next to each other. And, more important, they are related and together make up a complete thought or sentence. Their thematic or syntactical connection is more significant than their physical closeness.

This quote is a great example of a couplet:

Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

These lines from Phillis Wheatley’s "On Virtue," however, are not a couplet:

But, O my soul, sink not into despair, Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand… So while all couplets are two consecutive lines, not all pairs of consecutive lines are couplets. To be a couplet, the lines have to be a unit, generally self-contained, and complete. The lines can either be part of a larger stanza or a closed stanza by themselves.

9.3 Definition of a Heroic Couplet Several characteristics distinguish a heroic couplet from a regular couplet. A heroic couplet is always rhymed and is usually in iambic pentameter (although there is some variation of the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Stanza Forms 193 meter). The heroic couplet is also usually closed, meaning that both lines are end-stopped (by some type of punctuation), and the lines are a self-contained grammatical unit.

This quote from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” is a great example of a rhymed, closed, iambic pentameter couplet. It is not, however, a heroic couplet.

If this be error and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d. This brings us to the final qualification: context. For a couplet to be heroic, it needs a heroic setting. This is obviously a bit subjective, but in most cases, determining if a poem is "heroic" is fairly easy.

9.4 Examples of Heroic Couplets Some good examples of heroic couplets from poems you may be familiar with include:

From John Dryden’s translation of Virgil’s "The Aeneid":

Soon had their hosts in bloody battle join’d; But westward to the sea the sun declin’d. Intrench’d before the town both armies lie, While Night with sable wings involves the sky.

So let’s go through our checklist:

1. Couplets? Yes. The passage consists of two pairs of lines that are closed grammatical units.

2. Rhyme/meter? Check and check. These lines are tight iambic pentameter and rhymed (with a near rhyme between “join’d” and “declin’d”).

3. Heroic? Absolutely. Few writings are more heroic than “The Aeneid.”

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Another Example:

And he bigan with right a myrie cheere

His tale anon, and seyde as ye may heere:

1. Couplet? Yes. This is a pair of closed lines.

2. Rhyme/meter? Yes. The rhymed lines are in iambic pentameter.

3. Heroic? These lines are from the General Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” an epic, heroic tale.

A Final Example:

Thus conduct won the prize, when courage fail’d,

And eloquence o’er brutal force prevail’d.

1. Couplet? Yes.

2. Rhyme/meter? Definitely.

3. Heroic? Yes. This example is drawn from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” translated by Sir Samuel Garth and John Dryden.

So the next time you are wondering if the lines you are reading are heroic couplets, just check for these three things and you will have your answer.

The Mock-Heroic and Alexander Pope

As with all influential and important literary movements and concepts, the heroic couplet has its own parody—the mock-heroic, most commonly associated with Alexander Pope.

Mock-heroic poems are thought to have been a response to the deluge of epic, pastoral, heroic poems that were being written in the 17th century. As with any cultural trend or movement, people were looking for something new, something that would subvert the established aesthetic norms (think Dada or Weird Al Yankovic). So writers and poets took the form and context of the heroic or epic poem and played around with it.

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One of Pope’s best-known poems “The Rape of the Lock” is a quintessential mock-heroic on both the macro and micro levels. Pope takes a minor transgression — the cutting of a young woman’s hair by a suitor who wants a lock of her hair as a keepsake — and creates a narrative of epic proportions, complete with myth and magic. Pope mocks the heroic poem in two ways: by elevating a trivial moment into a kind of grand tale and by subverting formal elements, namely the heroic couplet.

From the Third Canto, we get this oft-quoted couplet:

Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey, Dost sometimes Counsel take—and sometimes Tea. This is, in essence, a heroic couplet (closed lines, rhymed iambic pentameter, epic setting), but there’s something symbolic happening in the second line as well. Pope is juxtaposing the high language and voice of the epic poem with everyday occurrences. He sets up a moment that feels as if it belongs in Roman or Greek mythology and then undercuts it with “and sometimes tea.” By using “take” to pivot between the “high” and “low” worlds — one can “take counsel” and one can “take tea” — Pope uses the conventions of the heroic couplet and bends them to his own comedic design.

Closing Thoughts In both its original and parodic forms, the heroic couplet is an important part of Western poetry’s evolution. With its driving rhythm, tight rhyme, and syntactical independence, it mirrors the subject matter it portrays—tales of adventure, war, magic, true love, and yes, even a stolen lock of hair. Because of its structure and its history and tradition, the heroic couplet is usually quite recognizable, allowing us to bring additional context to the poems we read.

Being able to identify heroic couplets in a poem allows us to see how they might influence and shape our reading and interpreting experiences.

9.5 Blank Verse Blank verse is poetry with a consistent meter but no formal rhyme scheme. Unlike free verse, blank verse has a measured beat. In English, the beat is usually iambic pentameter, but other

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 196 English Literature - I metrical patterns can be used. From William Shakespeare to Robert Frost, many of the greatest writers in the English language embraced the blank verse form:

 Blank Verse: Poetry that has a consistent meter but no formal rhyme scheme.

 Meter: The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.

 Free Verse: Poetry that does not have a rhyme or a consistent metrical pattern.

How to Identify a Blank Verse Poem The basic building block for a blank verse poem is a two-syllable unit called an iamb. Like the ba-BUM of a heartbeat, the syllables alternate between short (“unstressed”) and long (“stressed”). Most blank verse in English is iambic pentameter: five iambs (ten syllables) per line. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) used iambic pentameter in his classic poem, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.” Notice the rhythm created by the pattern of stressed/unstressed syllables in this selection:

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs

However, Wordsworth did not write the poem entirely in iambics. Poets sometimes slip in different meters like spondees or dactyls to soften the beat and add a sense of surprise. These variations can make a blank verse poem hard to recognize. To add to the challenge, word pronunciations change with local dialects: Not all readers hear exactly the same beat.

To distinguish blank verse from free verse, begin by reading the poem aloud. Count the syllables in each line and mark the syllables that have a stronger emphasis. Look for an overall pattern in the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. Blank verse will show some evidence that the poet has measured the lines to achieve a more or less consistent beat throughout the poem.

Origins of Blank Verse English didn’t always sound iambic, and the earliest literature from England did not use orderly patterns of accented syllables. Beowulf (ca. 1000) and other works written in Old English relied on alliteration rather than meter for dramatic effect.

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Systematic metrical patterns entered the literary scene during the age of Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), who wrote in Middle English. Iambic rhythms echo through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. However, in keeping with the convention of the day, many of the tales are composed of rhyming couplets. Every two lines rhyme.

The idea of writing metered verse without a formal rhyme scheme, did not emerge until the Renaissance. Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550), Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1475-1525), and other Italian writers began to imitate unrhymed poetry from ancient Greece and Rome. The Italians called their works versi sciolti. The French also wrote unrhymed verse, which they called vers blanc.

Nobleman and poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, pioneered English blank verse in the 1550s when he translated the second and fourth books of Virgil's The Aeneid from Latin. A few years later, Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville produced The Tragedie of Gorboduc (1561), a play composed of very little rhyme and strong iambic pentameter:

Such causeless wrong and so unjust despite

May have redress,orat the least revenge.

Meter was an important tool for dramatizing memorable stories during a time when most people could not read. But there was a tedious sameness to the iambic beat in The Tragedie of Gorboduc and other early blank verse. Playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) energized the form by using dialog, enjambment, and other rhetorical devices. His play The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus combined colloquial speech with lyrical language, rich assonance, alliteration, and references to Classical literature. Published in 1604, the play contains Marlowe's often-quoted lines:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss Her lips sucks forth my soul, see where it flies! Marlowe’s contemporary William Shakespeare (1564-1616) developed a range of techniques to disguise the tick-tock rhythm of iambic pentameter. In his famous soliloquy from Hamlet,

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 198 English Literature - I some lines contain eleven syllables instead of ten. Many lines end with a softer ("feminine") unstressed syllable. Colons, question marks, and other sentence endings create rhythmical pauses (known as caesura) midway through lines. Try to identify the stressed syllables in these lines from Hamlet’s soliloquy:

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep…

The Rise of Blank Verse Poetry During the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe, English blank verse belonged mainly to the realm of the theater. Shakespeare's sonnets followed conventional rhyme schemes. In the mid- 1600s, however, John Milton (1608-1674) rejected rhyme as "but the invention of a barbarous age" and promoted the use of blank verse for non-dramatic works. His epic poem Paradise Lost contains 10,000 lines in iambic pentameter. To preserve the rhythm, Milton shortened words, eliminating syllables. Notice the abbreviation of "wandering" in his description of Adam and Eve leaving paradise:

The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and providence their guide: They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.

Blank verse fell from favor after Milton died, but in the late 1700s a new generation of poets explored ways to integrate natural speech with musicality. Blank verse offered more possibilities than verse with formal rhyme schemes. Poets could write stanzas in any length, some long, some short. Poets could follow the flow of ideas and use no stanza breaks at all. Flexible and adaptable, blank verse became the standard for poetry written in the English language.

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Other masterpieces of blank verse poetry include "Frost at Midnight” (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Hyperion” (1820) by John Keats, and "The Second Coming” (1919) by W.B. Yeats.

Modern Examples of Blank Verse Modernism brought revolutionary approaches to writing. Most 20th century poets turned to free verse. Formalists who still wrote in blank verse experimented with new rhythms, fragmented lines, enjambment, and colloquial vocabulary.

“Home Burial” by Robert Frost (1874-1963) is a narrative with dialog, interruptions, and outcries. Although most of the lines are iambic, Frost shattered the meter midway through the poem. The indented words "Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t” are equally stressed.

There are three stones of slate and one of marble, Broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlight On the sidehill. We haven’t to mind those But I understand: it is not the stones, But the child’s mound ---’ ‘Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,’ she cried. She withdrew shrinking from beneath his arm That rested on the banister, and slid downstairs….. Robert Graves (1895-1985) used similar strategies for Welsh Incident. The whimsical poem is a dialog between two speakers. With casual language and ragged lines, the poem resembles free verse. Yet the lines lilt with iambic meter:

‘But that was nothing to what things came out From the sea-caves of Criccieth yonder.’ ‘What were they? Mermaids dragons? Ghosts?’ ‘Nothing at all of any things like that’ ‘What were they then?’ ‘All sorts of queer things….

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Blank Verse and Hip-Hop Rap music by hip-hop artists draws from African folk songs, jazz, and blues. The lyrics are filled with rhyme and near-rhyme. There are no set rules for line lengths or metrical patterns. In contrast, blank verse emerged from European literary traditions. While the meter can vary, there’s an overall regularity to the beat. Moreover, blank verse poems rarely use end rhymes.

Nevertheless, blank verse and rap music share the same iambic rhythms. The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Group performs rap versions of Shakespeare plays. Hip-hop musician Jay-Z celebrates the poetic qualities of rap music in his memoir and lyric collection, Decoded (view on Amazon).

Compare the line by Wordsworth quoted at the top of this page with this line from Jay-Z’s rap song, "Coming of Age”:

I see his hunger pains,Iknow his blood boils

Rap music is not written exclusively in blank verse, but teachers often include hip-hop in the curriculum to illustrate the continued relevance of Shakespeare and other writers from the blank verse tradition.

9.6 Spensarian Stanza Spenserian stanza, verse form that consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by a ninth line of six iambic feet (an alexandrine); the rhyme scheme is ABABBCBCC. The first eight lines produce an effect of formal unity, while the hexameter completes the thought of the stanza. Invented by Edmund Spenser for his poem The Faerie Queene (1590-1609), the Spenserian stanza has origins in the Old French ballade (eight-line stanzas, rhyming ABABBCBC), the Italian ottava rima (eight iambic pentameter lines with a rhyme scheme of ABABABCC), and the stanza form used by Chaucer in his “Monk’s Tale” (eight lines rhyming ABABBCBC). A revolutionary innovation in its day, the Spenserian stanza fell into general disuse during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was revived in the 19th century by the Romantic poets — e.g., Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Keats in ‘The Eve of St. Agnes,’ and Shelley in ‘Adonais.’

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The following example is the first stanza from Spenser’s Faerie Queene. The formatting, wherein all lines but the first and last are indented, is the same as in contemporary printed editions.

Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds, Am now enforst a far unfitter taske, For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds, And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds; Whose prayses having slept in silence long, Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds To blazon broad emongst her learned throng: Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.

9.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive)

A. Short Answer Questions 1. Write a note on heroic couplet.

2. Write a note on spensarian stanza.

3. What is a dizain stanza?

4. What is a Blank Verse?

5. Write a note on Ottava Rima.

B. Long Answer Questions 1. What are stanza forms?

2. Explain heroic couplet in detail.

C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. How many lines does a Spensarian stanza have?

(a) Seven (b) Eight

(c) Nine (d) Ten

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2. Blank Verse has______which the free verse doesn’t.

(a) meter (b) rhyme scheme

(c) fixed number of lines (d) meaning

3. What makes the difference between a couplet and a heroic couplet?

(a) Meter (b) Two lines

(c) Rhyme (d) Found in epic or long narrative poetry

4. What is a Dizian stanza?

(a) With five lines (b) With six lines

(c) With ten lines (d) With seven lines

5. Quintain is ______lines stanza.

(a) four (b) five

(c) two (d) no fixed number of lines

Answers 1. (c), 2. (a), 3. (d), 4. (c), 5. (b)

9.8 References 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanza

2. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Stanza-forms-in-poetry

3. https://www.thoughtco.com/heroic-couplet-definition-4140168

4. https://www.thoughtco.com/blank-verse-poetry-4171243

5. https://www.britannica.com/art/Spenserian-stanza

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenserian_stanza

7. http://www.literarydevices.com/stanza/

.

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) UNIT 10 COMPOSITION

Structure: 10.0 Learning Objectives

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Formal Letter Format

10.3 Informal Letter

10.4 Letter to the Editor Format

10.5 Letter to the Editor

10.6 Application Writing

10.7 Difference between Letter Writing and Application Writing

10.8 References

10.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to understand how to write formal and informal letters. You will also understand how an application needs to be written.

The purpose of an application formal writing is dependent on the subject. Writing a university application letter, for example, is intended for you to get into a school to pursue your education as a step to reach your dreams.

In any target that you aim for your application letter, the common ground purpose of why you are doing it is to get in. The fact that you are applying means you are expressing your will and intention to get a position or a slot. That is why you cannot just write a half-baked product. You need to give it with your best shot.

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10.1 Introduction

Letter Writing A letter is a written message that can be handwritten or printed on paper. It is usually sent to the recipient via mail or post in an envelope, although this is not a requirement as such. Any such message that is transferred via post is a letter, a written conversation between two parties.

Now that E-mails (Advantages and disadvantages) and texts and other such forms have become the norm for communication, the art of letter writing has taken a backseat. However, even today a lot of our communication, especially the formal kind, is done via letters. Whether it is a cover letter for a job, or the bank sending you a reminder or a college acceptance letter, letters are still an important mode of communication, which is why it is important that we know the intricacies of letter writing.

Types of Letters Let us first understand that there are broadly two types of letter, namely Formal Letters, and Informal Letters. But then there are also a few types of letters based on their contents, formalities, the purpose of letter writing etc. Let us have a look at the few types of letters.

 Formal Letter: These letters follow a certain pattern and formality. They are strictly kept professional in nature, and directly address the issues concerned. Any type of business letter or letter to authorities falls within this given category.

 Informal Letter: These are personal letters. They need not follow any set pattern or adhere to any formalities. They contain personal information or are a written conversation. Informal letters are generally written to friends, acquaintances, relatives etc.

 Business Letter: This letter is written among business correspondents, and generally contains commercial information such as quotations, orders, complaints, claims, letters for collections etc. Such letters are always strictly formal and follow a structure and pattern of formalities.

 Official Letter: This type of letter is written to inform offices, branches, subordinates of official information. It usually relays official information like rules, regulations,

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procedures, events, or any other such information. Official letters are also formal in nature and follow certain structure and decorum.

 Social Letter: A personal letter written on the occasion of a special event is known as a social letter. Congratulatory letter, condolence letter, invitation letter etc are all social letters.

 Circular Letter: A letter that announces information to a large number of people is a circular letter. The same letter is circulated to a large group of people to correspond some important information like a change of address, change in management, the retirement of a partner etc.

 Employment Letter: Any letter with respect to the employment process, like joining letter, promotion letter, application letter etc. Fall under this category.

Letter Writing Tips Now that we have learned the basics of communicating via letters and the types of letters as well, let us focus on some tips for the actual letter writing.

1. Identify the type of letter: This obviously is the first step of the letter writing process. You must be able to identify the type of letter you are to write. This will be dictated by the person the letter is addressed to and the information that will be conveyed through the letter. Suppose you were writing to the principal of your college to ask for leave, this would be a formal letter (Types of formal letters with samples). But say you were writing to your old college professor catching up after a long time. Then this would be a personal (informal) letter.

2. Make sure you open and close the letter correctly: Opening a letter in the correct manner is of utmost importance. Formal letters open with a particular structure and greeting that is formal in nature. Informal letters can be addressed to the person’s name or any informal greeting as the writer wishes.

Even when closing the letter, it must be kept in mind what type of letter is being written. Formal letters end respectfully and impersonally, whereas informal letters may end with a more personal touch.

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3. Establish the main intent of the letter: Once you start writing, make sure to get to the point as soon as possible. Especially in formal letters, it is important to immediately make clear the purpose of the letter.

4. Be careful of the language: A letter is always supposed to be polite and considerate. Even if it is a complaint letter, the point must be made in a careful and courteous manner. So it is necessary to use polite expressions and civil language in all types of letters.

5. Length of the letter: The other important factor to be considered is the length of the letter you are writing. It should be kept in mind that formal letters are generally to the point, precise and short. Lengthy formal letters tend to not have the desired effect on the reader. The length of an informal letter is determined by the message in the letter and the relation to the recipient.

A letter is one person’s written message to another pertaining to some matter of common concern. Letters are of two types –

1. Formal Letter

2. Informal Letter

Formal Letter A letter written for a formal purpose is called a Formal Letter. It addresses a serious issue. Let us discuss the types of formal letter -

Types of Formal Letter 1. Letter to the editor

2. Letter to the Government

3. Letter to the police

4. Letter to the principal

5. Order letter

6. Complaint letter

7. Inquiry letter

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8. Business letter

9. Application letter

10.2 Formal Letter Format Format of a Formal Letter includes:

The following points need to be taken into consideration while writing a Formal letter-

(a) A Formal Letter strictly follows the prescribed Format for writing a Formal Letter.

(b) Use of colloquial words, abbreviations and slang language should be restricted while writing a Formal letter.

(c) A Formal Letter must be precise and to the point.

(d) The Subject line is very important in a Formal Letter.

The Format of a Formal Letter is as follows –

1. Sender’s address: The address and contact details of the sender are written here. Include email and phone number, if required or if mentioned in the question.

2. Date: The date is written below the sender’s address after leaving one space or line.

3. Receiver’s address: The address of the recipient of the mail (the officer/principal/editor) is written here.

4. Subject of the letter: The main purpose of the letter forms the subject. It must be written in one line. It must convey the matter for which the letter is written.

5. Salutation (Sir/Respected Sir/Madam).

6. Body: The matter of the letter is written here. It is divided into 3 paragraphs as follows -

Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself and the purpose of writing the letter in brief.

Paragraph 2: Give a detail of the matter.

Paragraph 3: Conclude by mentioning what you expect. (For example, a solution to your problem, to highlight an issue in the newspaper, etc).

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7. Complimentary Closing

8. Sender’s name, signature and designation (if any).

Sender’s address

Date

Receiver’s Address

Subject

Salutation

Body of the letter

Complimentary closing

Sender’s Name, signature and designation

10.3 Informal Letter A letter written for an informal purpose is called an Informal Letter. It is written for a casual purpose.

Let us discuss the types of Informal Letter -

Types of Informal Letter:

1. Letter to parents

2. Letter to siblings

3. Letter to friends

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4. Letter to classmates

5. Letter to neighbours

For complete details please see: Informal Letter Format, Examples, Topics. What is Informal Letter?

Format of an Informal Letter The following points need to be followed while writing an Informal Letter-

(a) An Informal Letter does not strictly follow the prescribed format.

(b) The language of an Informal Letter must be friendly and casual.

(c) An Informal Letter can have extra information.

(d) The Subject line is not required in an Informal Letter.

The format of an Informal Letter is as follows –

1. Address: The address of the sender is followed by that of the receiver.

2. Date: The date is written below the address after leaving one line.

3. Salutation/Greeting (Dear/Hi/Hello)

4. Body: The matter of the letter is written here. It is divided into 3 paragraphs as follows -

(a) Paragraph 1: Beginning

(b) Paragraph 2: Main content.

(c) Paragraph 3: Ending.

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5. Sender’s name and signature.

Address

Date

Salutation

Body of the letter

Sender’s name and signature

Sample Letters 1. Write a letter to the Mayor of your city seeking a solution to the problem of water logging in your area. You are Raj/Rani of Dharma Colony, Ramgarh.

14/8, Dharma Colony Ramgarh.

Date: 23 August 2018

The Mayor, Ramgarh

Subject: Complaint regarding the problem of water logging in Dharma Colony.

Sir/Madam,

I am Raj, a resident of Dharma Colony. The residents of the area are facing a lot of problems due to water logging. Every year in the monsoon season, the area gets filled with water as the drainage system

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gets choked. We have requested the area committee many times, but the situation is still the same. The residents’ lives have become miserable as many water - borne diseases have spread. All the houses are submerged, and we are facing a tough time. Please consider the issue as serious and find a solution at the earliest.

Yours Sincerely,

Raj 2. You are Garima/Gaurav. Write a letter to your friend Sanjana/Sanjay, inviting her/him to your birthday party. Give details regarding the day, time, venue, etc. Add interesting details like theme, dress code, etc.

45, Jan Marg Delhi. 33, Khan Gali Delhi.

Date: 21 August 2018

Dear Sanjay,

Hi! You are invited to my birthday party on 25th August. The party will be at Archie’s Place, Nehru Park from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. As the party is based on ‘Spiderman’ theme, please wear a dress in red/black colour combination. It will be fun as I have arranged a Mask game, a ‘Spidey’ web game and a never – seen – before neon light and music show. I am very excited as I will wear the special Spidey costume designed by my sister. Please come as it will be good to have your company. Also, bring your brother Saurav. Waiting for your confirmation.

Gaurav

10.4 Letter to the Editor Format The format of a letter to the editor of a Newspaper is as follows –

1. Sender’s address: The address and contact details of the sender are written here. Include email and phone number, if required or if mentioned in the question.

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2. Date: The date is written below the sender’s address after leaving one space or line.

3. Receiving Editor’s address: The address of the recipient of the mail i.e., the editor is written here.

4. Subject of the letter: The main purpose of the letter forms the subject. It must be written in one line. It must convey the matter for which the letter is written.

5. Salutation (Sir/Respected Sir/Madam).

6. Body: The matter of the letter is written here. It is divided into 3 paragraphs as follows -

Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself and the purpose of writing the letter in brief.

Paragraph 2: Give a detail of the matter.

Paragraph 3: Conclude by mentioning what you expect from the editor. (For example, you may want him to highlight the issue in his newspaper/magazine).

7. Complimentary Closing.

8. Sender’s name, signature and designation (if any).

10.5 Letter to the Editor Q.1. You are Radha G, member of NGO AWAAZ. Write a letter to the editor of a national daily for a public movement to clean the Yamuna river. (You must introduce yourself, describe how the people are to be blamed for polluting the river, and suggest the need for installing water treatment plant to clean the river).

A. 33, Jal Vihar Wazirabad, New Delhi - 33 Dated: 17 July 2017

The Editor Hindustan Times New Delhi.

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Subject: Need for people’s movement for a clean Yamuna.

Dear Editor,

I am Radha G, member of NGO AWAAZ. I am writing to you in order to highlight the deteriorating condition of river Yamuna.

The city of Delhi is getting contaminated water from river Yamuna. The residents are to be blamed for this. They pollute the river with garbage, sewage and filth. The river water is full of bacteria, plastic, chemicals and other waste materials. It is unfit for consumption.

The people have been demanding a Water Treatment plant. The authorities have not yet responded to the repeated requests.

I request you to highlight the problem in your newspaper and arouse public interest. We all need to get together in order to get the plant set up in the area.

Thank You. Yours sincerely,

Radha G Member AWAAZ

10.6 Application Writing

What is Application Writing? Application Writing is the process or the act of writing documents in relation to an application. It can be for a job, an internship, or a university application. It is an important writing skills to be familiar of, because it could one day win you that spot that you have long dreamed of.

Writing an application letter requires a mix of talent and skills. Take for example, a job application. You need to know what are the things that you need to write. You cannot just say whatever comes into your mind. You need coherence and logical reasoning as you write.

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10.7 Difference between Letter Writing and Application Writing These are two of the common writing procedures that most of you are probably familiar with. However, what is really their difference? They actually differ in their purpose.

Letter writing could be anything that falls within narrative writing, description, and explanation, while an application writing is a mix of explanation as well as conviction.

When you are applying, you need to convince the reader that you are most qualified among the rest of the applicants. You need to explain as well why they have to choose you. You also need to provide them with sufficient data and factual reason for your claim.

Importance of Application Writing One of the many reasons why most job applicants fail is that, their application writing is not good enough to impress the employer. Even if you have a good resume writing use and you have the scholastic records to show how good you are, but if it does not reflect on the simplest thing to do, which is application writing, you will not get through.

The application letter will reflect how good you are with your interpersonal writing skills and how persistent and determined you are in getting that job.

Writing the Letter of Application

 Write a compelling first paragraph. Write something that draws the interest of your reader, in this case, the hiring manager. Most application letter examples end up in the dust bin because they are devoid of appeal. To avoid this, treat your first paragraph like a breaking news article by opening with a declarative statement.

 Inform the reader about your enthusiasm for applying for a position in the company. Demonstrate to the hiring manager about your familiarity with the company’s work and how you would perfectly fit for the position applied for.

 Mention where you discovered the information about the position you are applying. Make some calls and research to find out if you have an acquaintance in the company. It is always great to have a reference on the inside. Do not hesitate to name drop, especially if the person granted you permission to do so.

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 Elaborate why hiring you will benefit the employer. A job vacancy usually opens when the company has an issue which needs solving. As an applicant, it is your job to solve this issue among other things.

 You can refer to your resume where you have enumerated your accomplishments, experiences, and skills. From this, you can use an example or two and elaborate on them. These show that you are very much qualified for the role.

 Provide a brief summary of your strengths, experience, and qualifications. The second paragraph of your letter should provide a summarized description of your experiences and abilities to demonstrate why you are the perfect choice for the job.

 Highlight the most significant parts of your professional career. Although your most recent accomplishments would be a good place for you to start, you might have a past experience which perfectly fits the required qualifications of the job. If you need to dig deeper to prove your worth, then do so.

 Create an image of yourself which is not on your resume. Resumes typically depict what you have done during your last assignments or jobs. As an applicant, you would also want the hiring manager to see the person behind these accomplishments.

 In maybe two or three sentences, express your thoughts on how your previous company has personally made an impact on you and how this dream job application will, in one way, shape your future. Showing this human side of your proves that you are more than the facts printed on paper.

Finish up your Application Letter  Create a brief summary explaining why you are the best candidate for the position in just one sentence. It is best to end your letter with a polite reminder to your prospective employer why you are the best applicant for the job and this gesture may earn you an interview. But do this succinctly in just one meaningful sentence.

 Provide a gentle invitation to reach out to you. Make an invitation to your reader about wanting the chance to speak more about the vacant position. It is not redundant to give your contact information again just for emphasis.

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 Also, do not forget to thank the hiring manager about any consideration that he will make, then end the letter with a courteous statement like “looking forward to hearing from you at the earliest convenience” or something equally pleasant.

 Sign off. This step can, at times, be very frustrating, especially if you do not know what’s considered appropriate. Using a tone that is too formal may have a tinge of insincerity and it might not fit the overall style of the letter itself. Just be sincere without sounding offensive, period.

 Finally, after signing off, write your complete name and affix your signature. If your word processor has been set up for a signature, you may insert this underneath your name. Or you can print out the final version of your letter then affix your signature. For a letter of application sample, a signature is optional.

Leave Application Format Which things to mention while writing a Leave Application?

 Salutation

 Subject

 Reason for your leave

 Period (Number of days) of your leave

 Contact information

Let us see some formats for leave applications one by one:

Leave Application for Office Asking for a casual leave from your boss is really a hard nut to crack. But, a good leave application can make things smooth between you and your boss. While writing a leave application for office, it is important to mention the subject and proper reason for leave. Below is a sample format for writing a leave application to your office:

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Sender’s name and address:

Date:

Receiver’s name and address:

Subject: Application for leave from [start date] to [end date].

Respected Mr./Mrs. [Name of the recipient] (or Sir/Madam),

I am writing this application to request for leave from office. Actually, I have to attend a family function at [name of the place]. For attending the same, I want leave from [start date] to [end date].

It is really important for me to attend this function, being a responsible member of the family. After attending the function, I will be joining back the office on [date]. I have cleared all the priority tasks for the upcoming week and have delegated my colleague, [Name of the colleague] for any urgent matters.

As for attending the function, I have to go to Mumbai, therefore, I will have to leave early on the evening of [date] to be in time at the airport and avoid further delays.

Please consider my leave application and approve the same for the aforementioned period. I shall be really grateful to you.

Yours Sincerely,

[Name]

[Signature]

Sick Leave Application for Office We all are humans and can fall sick on any particular day and this state of not going to the office for work usually comes without any prior notice. Usually, it is advised to write a sick leave application letter to inform your boss. In some circumstances, a medical certificate from a certified doctor may also be required.

Sender’s name and address:

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Date:

Receiver’s name and address:

Subject: Sick Leave application.

Respected Mr./Mrs. [Name of the recipient] (or Sir/Madam),

I am writing this application to notify you that I am suffering from severe viral infection and therefore, I need sick leave from work. I caught this infection last night and I will not be able to come to the office for at least [number of days]. As notified by my doctor, it is best that I take rest and recover properly before resuming work. The letter from the doctor is also attached for your reference. Kindly grant me a leave for [number of days] days. I will be available on phone in case of any priority or urgent cases. Please contact me as per your convenience. For urgent matters, I have informed [Name of the colleague] to handle them to ensure that all deadlines are met.

I hope you will understand and grant me a leave for aforementioned period. Waiting for your approval.

Yours Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Signature]

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Sample Application for a Job

214 Park Street Cupertino, California Phone: Email:

March 01, 2012

Dear James Carter, HR Manager Pearl INC. 685 Beaumount Street

Dear Mr. Carter:

I am writing to you in response to an advertisement for a mechanical engineer which appeared in the Times of India on Tuesday, Feb 21st . As you can see from my enclosed resume, I have the experience and academic qualifications necessary to meet the position’s requirements.

I especially would like to point out that I did my BE in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai. Immediately upon graduation I was hired by a leading printing company.

During the two years that I worked with them, I further improved my knowledge and skills in the printing and packaging industry and gained exposure in the installation machines. My employer also thought highly of my abilities that he promoted me to the position of chief mechanical engineer after my first year of employment.

I am certain that in addition to my qualifications and experience I will be able to bring excellent work habits and judgment to this position. What is more, I will be able to carry out my responsibilities with minimal supervision.

I look forward to meeting you in person so that we can further discuss the requirements of the position.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

(Handwritten signature) James Mathews

Comprehension Passage The word comprehension means the ability to understand what you listen or what you read. It is an exercise which aims at improving or testing one’s ability to understand a language. Try to remember your English class at your school. Each day you were taught new lessons.

The stories, the poem, the questions, and answers were unseen to you before you read them. Similarly, in a comprehension test, you are given a passage or a paragraph or two. These

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 220 English Literature - I paragraphs show the idea or mood, concerning issues, their solutions that the author provides. Your main task is to answer the questions asked from the passage.

Misconception Regarding Comprehension Test There are some misconceptions related to the way of answering the comprehension test. These misconceptions are:

 It is possible to understand the key idea of the paragraph by just reading the first and the last sentence. But this is not always correct.

 Reading the questions first will help to understand the paragraph better. This is also not always true because:

It is not possible for a person to remember all the questions. Also, the questions are sometimes indirect in nature. The order of the questions is not always in accordance with the progression of the paragraph.

It is advisable to avoid these misconceptions in order to get better insights about the passage.

Requisite Skills To develop a better level of comprehension, one requires certain skills:

 Logical ability

 The ability to infer

 Analytical ability

 Reasoning ability

 Ability to understand the main motive or the idea of the author

 Reading speed

 Vocabulary power

 Remembering some important information from the paragraph otherwise, we need to refer the paragraph again and again which will consume more time.

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Important Strategy to Solve Comprehension Passages  Read the passage as fast as possible.

 Get involved with the paragraph to understand it.

 Underline important lines or parts of the passage to answer the questions. It will also help to understand the main idea of the passage or the tone or mood of the author.

 Try to translate a complex line in an easy one in your own words and your own language. This will help you in analyzing the main idea of the paragraph and in seeking the cause and effects of the passage.

 Underline or mark the keywords. These will help you to discover the logical connections in the passage and help in understanding it better.

 Try to understand some certain unfamiliar words by reading the line thoroughly. The theme of the line will make you understand the meaning of the words.

 Determine the main idea, tone or mood, inferential reasoning, and other details from the paragraph.

 Do not assume anything based on your personal belief.

 Look back at the paragraph when in doubt.

 Read the questions and all the alternatives provided and choose the most appropriate one.

Example Read the passage and answer the questions that follow :

Mike and Morris lived in the same village. While Morris owned the largest jewelry shop in the village, Mike was a poor farmer. Both had large families with many sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. One fine day, Mike, tired of not being able to feed his family, decided to leave the village and move to the city where he was certain to earn enough to feed everyone. Along with his family, he left the village for the city. At night, they stopped under a large tree. There was a stream running nearby where they could freshen up themselves. He told his sons to clear the area below the tree, he told his wife to fetch water and he instructed his daughters-in-law to make up the fire and started cutting wood from the tree himself. They did not know that in the

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 222 English Literature - I branches of the tree, there was a thief hiding. He watched as Mike’s family worked together and also noticed that they had nothing to cook. Mike’s wife also thought the same and asked her husband, “Everything is ready but what shall we eat?” Mike raised his hands to heaven and said ” Don’t worry. He is watching all this from above. He will help us.”

The thief got worried as he had seen that the family was large and worked well together. Taking advantage of the fact that they did not know he was hiding in the branches, he decided to make a quick escape. He climbed down safely when they were not looking and ran for his life. But, he left behind the bundle of stolen jewels and money which dropped into Mike’s lap. Mike opened it and jumped with joy when he saw the contents. The family gathered all their belongings and returned to the village. There was great excitement when they told everyone how they got rich.

Morris thought that the tree was miraculous and this was a nice and quick way to earn some money. He ordered his family to pack some clothes and they set off as if on a journey. They also stopped under the same tree and Morris started commanding everyone as Mike had done. But no one in his family was willing to obey his orders. Being a rich family, they were used to having servants all around. So, the one who went to the river to fetch water enjoyed a nice bath. The one who went to get wood for fire went off to sleep. Morris’s wife said,” Everything is ready but what shall we eat?” Morris raised his hands and said,” Don’t worry. He is watching all this from above. He will help us.”

As soon as he finished saying, the thief jumped down from the tree with a knife in hand. Seeing him, everyone started running here and there to save their lives. The thief stole everything they had and Morris and his family had to return to the village empty handed, having lost all their valuables that they had taken with them.

Question 1: Why did Mike and his family decide to rest under the thief’s tree ?

(a) Being a large family, they knew that they could easily defeat the thief.

(b) It was a convenient spot for taking a halt at night.

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(c) There was a stream nearby and enough wood to build a house.

(d) That was the only large tree that could shelter their large family.

Solution: (b) It was a convenient spot for taking a halt at night.

(a) is incorrect as they did not know that a thief was hiding in the tree.

(c) is incorrect as nothing has been mentioned in the passage about the amount of wood

(d) is incorrect as nothing has been mentioned about the number of trees.

Question 2: Which of the following best describes Morris ?

(a) He was a rich businessman.

(b) He bullied his wife.

(c) He paid his servants well.

(d) He was greedy and imitated Mike.

Solution: (d) He was greedy and imitated Mike.

Question 3: What did Mike mean when he said “He is watching all this from above”?

(a) He had spotted the thief and wanted to scare him.

(b) He was telling his wife to have faith in god.

(c) It was just a warning for his family members to stick together.

(d) He was begging the thief to help his family.

Solution: (b) He was telling his wife to have faith in god.

Question 4: Why did the thief return to the tree?

(a) To wait for Mike to return.

(b) To set up a trap.

(c) To wait for Morris’s family.

(d) Not mentioned in the passage.

Solution: (d) Not mentioned in the passage.

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Question 5: How did the fellow villagers react to Mike getting rich overnight?

(a) They were jealous of him.

(b) They were very excited.

(c) They followed his example.

(d) They envied him.

Solution: (b) They were very excited.

Passage: The economic transformation of India is one of the great business stories of our time. As stifling government regulations have been lifted, entrepreneurship has flourished, and the country has become a high-powered centre for information technology and pharmaceuticals. Indian companies like Infosys and Wipro are powerful global players, while Western firms like G.E. and I.B.M. now have major research facilities in India employing thousands. India’s seemingly endless flow of young, motivated engineers, scientists, and managers offering developed-world skills at developing-world wages is held to be putting American jobs at risk, and the country is frequently heralded as “the next economic superpower.”

But India has run into a surprising hitch on its way to superpower status: its inexhaustible supply of workers is becoming exhausted. Although India has one of the youngest workforces on the planet, the head of Infosys said recently that there was an “acute shortage of skilled manpower,” and a study by Hewitt Associates projects says that this year salaries for skilled workers will rise fourteen and a half per cent, a sure sign that demand for skilled labor is outstripping supply.

How is this possible in a country that every year produces two and a half million college graduates and four hundred thousand engineers? Start with the fact that just ten per cent of Indians get any kind of post-secondary education, compared with some fifty per cent who do in the U.S. Moreover, of that ten per cent, the vast majority go to one of India’s seventeen thousand colleges, many of which are closer to community colleges than to four-year institutions. India does have more than three hundred universities, but a recent survey by the London Times Higher Education Supplement put only two of them among the top hundred in the world. Many Indian

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) Composition 225 graduates, therefore, enter the workforce with a low level of skills. A current study led by Vivek Wadhwa, of Duke University, has found that if you define “engineer” by U.S. standards, India produces just a hundred and seventy thousand engineers a year, not four hundred thousand. Infosys says that, of 1.3 million applicants for jobs last year, it found only two per cent acceptable.

Questions: 1. Which of these could you infer according to the passage?

(a) Wages in the developing countries are less as compared to wages in the developed countries.

(b) Wages in the developing countries are more as compared to wages in the developed countries.

(c) Wages in the developing countries are same as wages in the developed countries.

(d) None of these.

2. What does “American jobs” in the last line of the first paragraph of the passage imply?

(a) Jobs provided by American companies.

(b) Jobs held (or to be held) by American people.

(c) Jobs open to only American citizens.

(d) Jobs provided by the American government.

3. According to the passage, why India does not have enough skilled labour?

(a) The total amount of the young population is low.

(b) The total number of colleges are insufficient.

(c) Students do not want to study.

(d) Maximum universities and colleges do not match global standards.

4. What can you infer as the meaning of ‘stifling‘ from the passage?

(a) Democratic. (b) Liberal.

(c) Impeding. (d) Undemocratic.

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5. What is an appropriate title to the passage?

(a) Growing Indian Economy. (b) Higher education in India. (c) India’s Skill Shortage. (d) Entrepreneurship in India. 6. In the third sentence of the third paragraph of the passage, the phrase “closer to community colleges ” is used. What does it imply? (a) Near to community colleges. (b) Like community colleges. (c) Close association with community colleges. (d) None of these. 7. According to the passage, what is the paradox of the Indian economy today? (a) The economic progress is impressive, but the poor (earning one dollar per day) are not benefited. (b) The economic progress is impressive disallowing the government to take tough decisions. (c) There is not enough skilled workforce and the government does not realize this.

(d) Government is not ready to invest in setting up new universities.

8. Why are salaries for skilled workers rising?

(a) Companies are paying high to lure skilled people to jobs.

(b) American companies are ready to pay higher to skilled workers.

(c) Entrepreneurship is growing in India.

(d) There are not enough skilled workers, while the demand for them is high.

Passage: The Kingdom of Spain was created in 1492 with the unification of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon. For the next three centuries, Spain was the most important colonial power in the world. It was the most powerful state in Europe and the foremost global power during the 16th century and the greater part of the 17th century. Spain established a vast empire in the Americas, stretching from California to Patagonia, and colonies in the western Pacific.

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Spain’s European wars, however, led to economic damage, and the latter part of the 17th century saw a gradual decline of power under an increasingly neglectful and inept Habsburg regime. The decline culminated in the War of the Spanish Succession, where Spain’s decline from the position of a leading Western power to that of a secondary one, was confirmed, although it remained the leading colonial power.

The eighteenth century saw a new dynasty, the Bourbons, which directed considerable effort towards the institutional renewal of the state, with some success, peaking in a successful involvement in the American War of Independence.

The end of the 18th and the start of the 19th centuries saw turmoil unleashed throughout Europe by the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, which finally led to a French occupation of much of the continent, including Spain. This triggered a successful but devastating war of independence that shattered the country and created an opening for what would ultimately be the successful independence of Spain’s mainland American colonies.

Following a period of growing political instability in the early 20th century, in 1936, Spain was plunged into a bloody civil war. The war ended in a nationalist dictatorship, led by Francisco Franco which controlled the Spanish government until 1975.

Questions: 1. What was the result of Napoleonic wars?

(a) A small part of the continent was occupied by French people.

(b) Spain was occupied by the French.

(c) War of independence was unable to yield any positive result.

(d) American colonies were destroyed after the war.

2. What is the meaning of the term ‘culminated’?

(a) Follow a particular path. (b) Guide or transform.

(c) Reach the highest point. (d) Introduce on a grand scale.

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3. What is the summary of the passage?

(a) The rise and fall of a national empire.

(b) The downfall of successive regimes in Spain.

(c) The history of Spain.

(d) Spain in eighteenth century.

4. What occurred in the latter part of 17th century?

(a) War of succession confirmed the leading position of Spain.

(b) Spain was no longer regarded as the ruling colonial power.

(c) A vast empire was established in Europe.

(d) Power steadily declined under Habsburg regime.

10.8 References 1. https://www.toppr.com/guides/english/writing/letter-writing/

2. https://www.examples.com/education/application-writing.html

3. https://www.successcds.net/learn-english/writing-skills/letter-writing-format-formal- letter-informal-letter-samples-topics.html

4. http://templatelab.com/letter-of-application/#Letter_Of_Application_Samples

5. https://www.toppr.com/guides/business-correspondence-and-reporting/comprehension- passages/introduction-points-ponder/

6. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/comprehension-passages/

7. https://www.successcds.net/learn-english/writing-skills/leave-application.html

8. http://www.perfectyourenglish.com/businessenglish/application-letter-sample.htm

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CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) MODEL QUESTION PAPER B.A English Literature - I Time: 3 Hrs Marks:100 Q.1. Answer any three of the following questions in about 150 words (30 marks) (i) Why Shakespeare is not of a particular age but for all times.

(ii) Explain William Wordsworth as a nature poet.

(iii) Give an estimate of Tennyson as a poet.

(iv) Why is Maya Angelou’s poetry considered as “anthems of African Americans”?

(v) Why are Elizabeth Jennings best poems not descriptive but exploratory of relationships?

Q.2. Answer any four of the following questions in about 150 words. (40 Marks) (i) Give the significance of the title. ‘The Education of Nature’

(ii) Explain the imagery in the poem ‘All things will die’?

(iii) What is Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" about? Why is it important?

(iv) Explain the speaker’s sense of guilt in the poem ‘Grandmother’?

(v) Write a critical appreciation of the poem "Where the Mind Is Without Fear" by Rabindranath Tagore?

(vi) The poem “Refugee Mother and Child” touches our hearts with love and compassion and enhances the dignity of motherhood. Comment.

Q.3. Answer any four of the following questions in about 75 words: (20 Marks) (i) Explain the ‘narrow’ domestic walls in Rabindranath Tagore’s “Where The Mind Is Without Fear,”

(ii) Describe the scene at the refugee camp in the poem ‘Refugee Mother and the Child’

(iii) What is a heroic couplet?

(iv) Write a note on Shakespearean sonnet?

CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) 230 English Literature - I

(v) Why is the speaker reluctant to go to school in the poem ‘The School Boy’?

(vi) How will Lucy experience the vital feelings of delight, according to Wordsworth?

Q.4(A). (5 marks) (i) Write a letter to your friend inviting him for a week end trip to a nearby forest sanctuary.

OR (ii) Write a letter to the Principal of your college requesting him to start a canteen in the college.

Q. 4.(B). (5 marks) You are a mechanical engineer. You are interested in the post of the engineer advertised by Valco Industries. Write an application for the post of engineer to Valco Industries Limited, Plot No 184, Industrial Area Phase I, Chandigarh, 160102.

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CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM) www.cuidol.in 1800-1213-88800 INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE & ONLINE LEARNING NH-95 , Chandigarh-Ludhiana Highway , Gharuan , Mohali (Punjab) Phone:- 7527009635 | Email: [email protected]

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