Ram Sharma 24.9.2014.Pmd

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316450947 Themes and Techniques in Multicultural Literature in English Book · May 2015 CITATIONS READS 0 793 2 authors: Ram Sharma Gunjan Agarwal J.V.COLLEGE , BARAUT , BAGHPAT, U.P. Shobhit University 9 PUBLICATIONS 4 CITATIONS 4 PUBLICATIONS 2 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: indian English Literature View project AFRICAN AMERICAN View project All content following this page was uploaded by Ram Sharma on 25 April 2017. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. 1 111 Ideas of Philip Larkin Presented in Diverse Moods with Special Reference to His Poem “Here” Dr. Ram Sharma, Dr. Archana The Whitsun Weddings established the reputation of Larkin which he had earned with The Less Deceived, published in 1964. This collection brought one opinion forward that it may be that Larkin changed his themes, superficially yet his style did not develop. His style all through the years may be termed as static and consistent; as there is no radical development. In a conversation with Ian Hamilton, he defined the extent of his development as far as he could see it, as: “I suppose I’m less likely to write a really bad poem now, but possibly equally less like to write a really poem now, but possibly less likely to write a really good one. If you call that development, I’ve developed.”1 The poems of The Whitsun Weddings are more varied and subtle than Larkin’s previous poems. Larkin distills poetry from the mundane life, without falsification and sentimentality. Larkin embodies in his poems attitudes of mind and soul that seem peculiarly characteristic of time, boredom and aimlessness. Larkin evokes for the readers an environment of contemporary sensibility. Larkin depicted human emotions/ illusions in various dimensions, as stated by John Press: “If The Less Deceived can be called Tennysonian because of the notes of lyrical intensity, loneliness and longing that resound so plangently in its pages, The Whitsun Weddings reveals the other side of the Tennysonian medal on which the lineaments of Contemporary England are depicted”2. Larkin’s first poem “Here” surveys the urban scene and gives us an overview of the world of The Whitsun Weddings. But the poem itself presents a diverse scene altogether: Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows And traffic all night north; swerving through fields. Too thin and thistled to be called meadows, And now and then a harsh named halt that shields Workmen at dawn; swerving to solitude Of Skies and scarecrows, haystacks hares and pheasants, 2 And widening river’s show presence, The piled gold clouds, the shining gull marked mud, Gathers to the surprise of a large town; This is perfect piece of Larkinesque writing. The poem “Here” is somewhat breathless in tone and turns out to more than one place: Here domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster Beside grain scattered streets, barge crowded water, And residents from rawestates, brought down The dead straight miles by stealing flat-faced trolleys, Push through plate—glass swing doors to their desires- Cheap suits, red kitchen ware, sharp shoes, ived lollies. Electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers-… Here is an out of place chosen topic, it’s an ambiguous term, it can refer to anywhere. Though later on the vision of the poet edges towards the sea the repetition of the words – here and swerving are noteworthy. Larkin emphasized especially on isolated places, where he loved to live. He created a sort of private world of his own; his personal paradise: Here silence stands Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken, Hidden weeds flowers, neglected waters quicken, Luminously – peopled air ascends; And passed the poppies bluish neutral distance Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence: Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach. The very few people were allowed in Larkin’s personal paradise, but just like shadows. Here refers to a place both within and out of reach. Its only an imaginative attainment. There is a sort of an independence from time, people and distance. About the last passage/stanza of the poem another movement poet Donald Davie aptly remarked: “Here every non-urban thing comes along with a negating or canceling epithet—leaves are ‘unnoticed’ waters are ‘neglected’ distance is ‘neutral’. And if existence is ‘unfenced’ it is also out of reach; if it is ‘untalkative’, it is by that token non-committal unhelpful”3. 3 The final stanza of the poem actually deciphered the meaning of the title “Here”. Everything seems to be associated with life, growth and development. Whereas Larkin even brought out his popular and most favourite theme of loneliness and solitude. Personal life of Larkin is always reflected in each of his poems. In the final stanza a specific location; a geographical position is achieved. There are abstract elements used by the poet deliberately. But the language, rhyme scheme, manner of presentation of ideas, emotions, depth are admirable, beyond words of anyone of us and even the critics. References 1. “Four Conversations”, Philip Larkin in an interview with Ian Hamilton in London Magazine, 4, 6. November 1964, p. 77. 2. Press, John, “The Poetry of Philip Larkin”, Southern Review, 13 (1977), p.132. 3. Davie, Donald, Thomas Hardy and British Poetry (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1975) p. 81. 4 222 Voice to Voiceless: A Critical Study of Manju Kapur’s Home Dr. Mohd. Shamim, Bhavana Kapoor Talking about patriarchal world, the group of women is supposed to be marginalized that has no voice to express its hopes, expectation and desires. They are rendered voiceless by confining them into the four walls of home. They are snatched their voice by suppression and exploitation. Talking about the varieties that are found in the different parts of the world, the status of women is usually same despite the differences found in different parts of the world. They are supposed to be silent that is interpreted as the main characteristic of a woman of good character. If they try to voice their desires they are called ill-mannered and of bad character. The question is why they are not allowed to voice their feelings and desires. The answer is because they are woman, a form that is socially constructed by patriarchal society and has been attributed different characteristics that a woman supposed to have. Talking about this socially constructed form of a woman Simone De Beauvoir has pointed out that women are not born but made. This socially constructed forms of men and women are to create differences and show superiority of men over women. There is only man who has voice because it is he who decides what should be done and he keeps the woman silent. But, now women instead of being silent bearer of the exploitation raise their voice and effort to achieve proper place for them. In her book The Second Sex, Beauvoir refers a book Modern Woman: The Lost Sex by Dorothy Parker who wrote, “It cannot be fair about books that treat women as women. My idea is that all of us, men as well as women, whoever we are, should be considered as human beings.” Women have been marginalized since ancient time. In ancient Shiv Puran, the description of women is more disappointing especially in Uma Sanhita where women are picturized mean and fool. They are depicted as sinner. In the Quran, they are presented like the field where men are allowed to seed accordingly. But now women are awakened. They do not want to be voiceless for long. They want to prove themselves. They want to show that they can do what men do. Last ten-fifteen years have given them opportunity to come out from the four walls of the house and walk shoulder to 5 shoulder with men. This group of women is given voice in the works of many feminist writers in their works in which Manju Kapur is one. She gives voice to these voiceless group of women by voicing their desires and hopes without presenting them as rebels but as one who searches a new way of compromise and cooperation that determines to change the patriarchal world into a new world that has a balanced importance of man and woman without giving importance to one between the two. Beauvoir has written, “…the situation of woman is that being, like all humans, an autonomous freedom, she discovers and chooses herself in a world where men force her to assume herself as Other: an attempt is made to frieze her as an object and doom her to immanence, since her transcendence will be forever transcended by another essential and sovereign consciousness” (Beauvoir, 17). But, the time came when women instead of thinking it their fate started opposing it and claiming and asserting for their identities. Those who plunged in the movement for women to place them equal to men, is known as feminism and supporters as feminists. Feminism is divided into three waves. It is best to call the first wave of feminism as the Women’s Movement started in about 1830s in the Western countries especially in America. Women started struggling for suffrage. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) came out as magnum opus for these strugglers. After this long-lasting struggle, the right to vote had been given to women in many countries as in America in 1920, in Sweden in 1921, in England in 1928 and in India with its freedom in 1947.

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