PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY (A Central University) DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION BRITISH POETRY (Paper Code: MAEG1001) MA (English) – I Year DDE – WHERE INNOVATION IS A WAY OF LIFE PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY (A Central University) DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION MASTER OF ARTS In ENGLISH First Year BRITISH POETRY DDE – WHERE INNOVATION IS A WAY OF LIFE PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY (A Central University) DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH MA-English – First Year Course Code:60 Paper Code: MAEG1001 BRITISH POETRY 1 British Poetry Author: Dr. H. Kalpana Associate Professor Dept. of English Pondicherry University Puducherry -605 014. All rights reserved. For Private Circulation only. 2 PAPER – I - BRITISH POETRY Unit - I 1. William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnets 29, 30 2. John Donne (1572-1631): The Good Morrow 3. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678): To His Coy Mistress 4. John Milton (1608-1674): Lycidas 5. John Dryden (1631-1700): Mac Flecknoe 6. Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Rape of the Lock Unit - II 7. William Blake (1757-1827): The Chimney Sweeper (Innocence); The Chimney Sweeper (Experience); 8. William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Resolution and Independence 9. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Kubla Khan 10. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Ode to the West wind. 11. John Keats (1795-1821) : Ode on a Grecian Urn Unit - III 12. Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892): Lotus Eaters 13. Robert Browning (1812-89): My Last Duchess 14. Mathew Arnold (1822-1888): Dover Beach 15. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889): God’s Grandeur 16. William Butler Yeats(1865-1939): The Second Coming 17. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965): The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Unit - IV 18. W.H. Auden (1907-1973): Musee des Beaux Arts 19. Thom Gunn (1929-) : On The Move 20. Ted Hughes(1930-2002) : Thought Fox 21. Dylan Thomas (1914-53): Fern Hill 22. Seamus Heaney(1939): Potato Digging Unit - V NON-DETAILED: 1. Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599): Prothalamion 2. William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnets 33 and 73 3. George Herbert (1593-1633): The Pulley & the Collar 4. Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. 5. D.G. Rossetti(1828-82): The Blessed Damozel 6. D. H.Lawrence (1885-1930): Snake 7. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918): Strange Meeting 8. Philip Larkin (1922-) : Whitsun Weddings Suggested Reading: Bush, Douglas. Oxford History of English Literature. Vol 1-VII Fish, Jeris (Ed) Pelican Guide to Literature Vol I-VII 3 Table of Contents Sl. Title Page No. No 1. Unit- I William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnets 29, 30 5 2. Unit-II William Blake (1757-1827): The Chimney 34 Sweeper (Innocence); The Chimney Sweeper (Experience 3. Unit-III Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892): Lotus Eaters 75 4. Unit-IV W.H. Auden (1907-1973): Musee des Beaux Arts 116 5. Unit-V Edmund Spenser (1552-1599): Prothalamion 158 4 UNIT -I LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION OUTLINE: Idea of Literature Idea of Poetry Poetical Techniques LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After reading this lesson you should be able to Understand the concept of literature Know the different genres in literature Figure out the components of poetry. Figure out some of the discussed features in poems. 1.0 What is Literature: Let us understand what literature is. If I ask you the question some of you may tell me that it is A reflection of life A slice of life An imaginary realm True literature is all this and also something more. Literature is also social and creative in its nature. Literature is part of a country’s cultural heritage which is available to everyone. It can enhance our lives in all kinds of ways. Once we understand and find pleasure in reading creative works we find that studying literature is no longer daunting. Literature then becomes entertaining, beautiful, funny, and maybe also sorrowful at times. Literature conveys the complexity of thought, richness of emotion, and an insight into characters of humans. Therefore literature is a part of humanities as it humanizes you the reader and also allows you to know the lives of other humans. Literature is also a journey into the past or to the future. When we read classics, they stir us intellectually and emotionally, and deepen our understanding of our history, our society, and our own individual lives. The reading of these works will also make us have a sense of continuity and change that has occurred over the ages. It thus helps to enhance our understanding of the modern world. 5 Literature comprises of different genres—poetry, fiction, prose and drama. Since we are dealing with the literature of the British we will as we go through some of the works realize the society and culture of British at various times. You may question why British literature. Since our programme is a course in English literature we will be acquainting you with not just British but also other writings that are written in English. Moreover since some other papers will be dealing with the other genres we will in this course concentrate on British Poetry from the Elizabethan age. 1.1 Poetry: We all know that poetry is different from prose. We can also differentiate poetry and prose because of the form in which it is written. We might now start with a question. Why do we study poetry? What is the use of poetry in our daily lives? It would help if you noted down before reading on what you regard as your views of taking the course. Very likely you have made one or the other of the following statements: You are taking the poetry course in order to complete a requirement. You love poetry. You write poetry and this would help you to learn poetical techniques better. We would be interested to know if any of these points you put down is different. Well, the course as we envisage it is not specially structured around these requirements but should go some way in fulfilling each of the requirements. The lessons will, for example not provide you with just readymade summaries but would try to establish the important and context of the poets and relate them to the social context. We hope that you would be able to go through the poems and understand your own realities and develop a thinking mind. Poetry has been amorphous in nature with no clear cut definition given to it. All of us know that poetry has a pattern of varying line and length and a rhythm that distinguishes it from prose. Poems are able to convey an experience more clearly than any others. Poetry has in all languages begun with simple rhymes. Thus the children’s text books begins with rhymes early such as ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ or ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill’. These rhymes could be translated /paraphrased into a normal story but then the power and meaning of the poem and the richness of rhythm and melody would be lost forever. Thus the poem is a creative piece of writing endowed with ornaments such as imagery, diction, melody and figures of speech. Besides this the poem may also contain elements such as tone, speaker, situation and setting, words and word order. 6 1.2 Subject, Sense, Theme and Tone: Most importantly, we would be happy if you could first find out what the subject of a poem is. The subject of a poem can be any human experience. It may express emotion, love, anger, sadness or happiness. It could also be philosophical in tone. The present example, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is that of a poet who was journeying on a train, and his motive was to capture his response to a view seen from a train: As if out on the end of an event Waving goodbye To something that survived it. Struck, I leant More promptly out next time, more curiously, And saw it all again in different terms: The fathers with broad belts under their suits And seamy foreheads; mothers loud and fat; An uncle shouting smut; and then the perms, One should also remember that subjects may change depending on the age. Thus what was considered appropriate in one age may not be so for another age. The idea of fathers in suits and broad belts may no longer be true. Now see if you could state the subject of the following lines/verses: My love is like a red, red rose. OR It is a beauteous evening calm and free The holy time is quiet as a morn. Sometimes subjects may be gauged from the title of a poem. A good example is Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ and Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’. The poet also through a good use of subject reflects the individual’s relations to society, to nature and to God. Many times it may be easier for us to locate the subject of a poem but it may be still difficult to understand the sense of the poem. The sense of the poem is generally its complete meaning. You may understand the poem by sentences and yet be unable to locate what its main idea is. When we read a narrative poem like Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’ it may be easy for us to follow. But on reading it again it may not sound as simplistic as there is deeper sense within the poem. It is also thought that lyrical poems are easier to understand or comprehend as they have a single 7 view of the subject. Once we search for the sense of a poem it is easier to know them. The theme is generally the idea or attitude suggested. Thus the poem To the Moon by Shelley may have the subject of a moon: Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth— And ever changing like a joyless eye That finds no object with its consistency.